32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Welcome To Our Holiday Party

Episode Date: December 24, 2020

As 2020 comes to a close (thank goodness), Jeff and Elliotte host their first 31 Thoughts holiday party with friends from the Sportsnet hockey department. David Amber on his 15-year-old skates, an update on hunting season from Louie DeBrusk, Tara Slone reminisces about a sauna experience in Thunder Bay, Christine Simpson shares a story about […]

Elliot, it was Jen Barr from CBC Sports who first told me about it. Did you get it? Has it arrived yet? Oh, don't worry. It's still early. Don't worry. It'll come. Trust me. It'll show up. He'll do it. Don't worry. You know what I'm talking about for each i do not the elliot friedman merry christmas text that is for all your colleagues the indication that you have arrived and mine came december 25th 2007 i think i want to say it was around 10 30 maybe 10. Not sure where I was on your pecking order that season, but it's come at various times every year and you have never

crossed over to 12 o'clock. You've always got it done first thing in the morning. Welcome to the 31 Thoughts Holiday Party. Elliot, I'm guessing this is sort of an audio version of your annual Christmas text to your friends? Yes and no. I'm still going to do those this year. But this year I wanted to do something a little bit different, and we talked about it with the podcast. And that is kind of a Christmas holiday party with some of our NHL and Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada coworkers.

And initially our list, Jeff, had 52 people on it. Oh, yes, it did. It was everybody. So basically, it was everybody you see on Sportsnet's hockey coverage. It was some of the people behind the scenes. And it was also most of the writers who cover hockey for Sportsnet.ca. And our outstanding producer, Amal Delich, pulled a wildcat strike.

I'm not convinced it was a completely legal maneuver. Like if we had gone to the Ontario government and said, this is not a legal job action. I think, Jeff, we had a good case. But he looked at the timing. He said, that will be an eight hour podcast. We cannot do that.

So between us, we made the very difficult decision. I think it ends up being 24 guests. It's something like that. The podcast is three hours. It's the longest one we've ever put. And it was tough. Like there,

there's some people who ended up on the cutting room floor who i know are going to be reaching out to me and saying what what do i have to do what did i do to you friedman that i got cut from this list and i know that behind the scenes there will be complaints of not enough behind the camera representation which is legit i do not like to say that the people behind the camera are any less important than on-air people but you have to make the decisions that you make but at the end of the day we wanted something fun it's been a hard year a difficult challenge and we think that you will enjoy some fun conversations with some of the people you know from our show

and our station and a bit of a relaxation and just a bit of a journey through their lives and the year we enjoy doing the interviews jeff so we hope you enjoy listening to them we know we've been self-indulgent before and submitted to you on a weekly basis really long podcasts uh this one as elliot mentions may take the cake but nonetheless it's christmas time it's a holiday season if you have an extra three hours give it a listen have some fun but you don't have to listen to it all at once i mean you can no that's not true you have to listen to it all at once quarantine yourselves from your family go into a remote place in your home and just listen to this podcast screaming children nagging spouses doesn't matter ignore all of it and just listen i like that our holiday special that is your order order this holiday season, Frej.

Now, one of the things we do is Christmas cheer, and we ask everybody at the beginning, you know, what can we fill your cup with? And Jeff, you and I are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. I like to imbibe, you do not. So we want everyone to know whether you do like a sip of alcohol or not, you are welcome. And what will we put in your glass you know whenever i go out it's either just a soda and lime or a ginger ale i have become

as my wife likes to say born to be mild how about you fridge which one do you feel like today i'll take ginger ale feeling frisky ginger ale with a lime oh i'm crazy all right a ginger ale with a lime for my partner and for me uh in moments like this i like a real peaty scotch not only do i want to enjoy a good whiff of a good scotch i want everyone out to enjoy it around me so i'm gonna take um a lagavulin with one ice cube. And the reason I like Lagavulin is one time after a night at HNIC, I enjoyed a glass of it with Adam Oates and Kelly Rudy. And they're both like, man, that stuff stinks. I love it.

So I'll take one of those. And Amel, you know, I know you have to edit these while you're doing this so there's a limit to how much you're allowed to have but while you put it together what are you going to sip? Lots of coffee so I can get through this editing session Alright a coffee maybe a little bit

of something for Amal so Jeff do you want to welcome in our first guest? Yeah and I'd also like to mention as well that considering this is a three-hour podcast and Elliot's already drinking single malt scotch, we're getting him off this pod probably with a soup ladle by the end. As we open the doors, welcome to the 31 Thoughts Holiday Party. All right, David Amber is here, host of Hockey Night in Canada. David, what is your drink of choice at a party like this? Well, fellas, I guess I'm in the mood for a little tequila.

Why don't we do a little tequila on the rocks? Christmas tequila. Are you one of those people that sip tequila, or are you a shooter? Because I know plenty of my friends, like the high-quality tequila they sip, like single malt scotch. Yeah, yeah, let's sip it. We're a bit more refined here. I'm not going to be doing shooter

after shooter with you guys. So, yeah, just a nice Patronal work. This is the first of 20-something guests. This is going to be doing shooter after shooter with you guys. So, yeah, just a nice Patronal work. This is the first of 20-something guests. This is going to be a really short podcast if it's the answer for everybody. It's holiday time. It's unfortunately a very strange year. What's the holiday going to be like for you and your family? It's going to be quiet.

It's going to be remarkably quiet, but it'll be some family time. My wife and two kids, I have two teenage kids and we'll be chilling out. We usually have my family, I have my mom and a couple of sisters and some nieces and nephews usually come by for dinner and to spend the whole day, but that's not going to happen this year, unfortunately. And my wife, her family's across the Atlantic and South Africa and in Scotland, so they're not coming either. So it'll be a little bit quiet, but I plan to actually get out and get on the rink and do a little bit of skating with my wife and kids. So I think it'll be a lot of fun. So you have an outdoor rink? You got an outdoor rink? No, we't uh i you guys have these palatial

estates with big rinks i'm a city dweller with uh limited space but uh you know i'm hoping that we could get to one of the public rinks uh i was out a few nights ago and i know some of them are open and i'm hoping on christmas day we'll get a chance to do a little bit of skating and just spend some family time true or false uh santa may bring you a new pair of blades this year yeah i'm working on that i might have to be my own santa and take care of that but to spend some family time. True or false, Santa may bring you a new pair of blades this year. Yeah, I'm working on that. I might have to be my own Santa and take care of that. But I know, Jeff, we were talking about that.

That's definitely something I think I'm ready for. I've had the same pair of skates for literally like 15, 16 years, and they've been great. And I hate the feel of putting on a new pair because I know how much pain that could cause the feet. But I think it's time for it since the ankle's getting worn out on my blades. When you bought your last pair of skates, did you get them baked? Yeah, I did. Honestly, that is one of the great delights for me

because it forces you to sit down and not do anything, and your feet are warm for 15 minutes. Yeah, I think I slept on them. It's so good, man. It's such a great moment. When you go and get new skates, that feeling of, it's almost like, like my friends that smoke cigars tell me the same thing. It's like, it's forced stillness.

That you're forced to sit down and enjoy something. And I get that same feeling by sitting in big skates. Same with taping a stick. I still tape my son's sticks. I ask him if I can do it because I enjoy doing it. There's a certain pattern I like to do, and I still do it. Hang on, hang on. Elliot's like, okay, here comes Merrick with the tape

BS again, but here we go. What's your technique? I was always taught heel-to-toe gathers no snow. What's yours? I've never heard that, but that's pretty good. I always start heel-to-toe. Does anyone start toe-to-heel? I don't know. I mean, no sane, but that's pretty good. Yeah, I always start heel to toe. I mean, does anyone start toe to heel? I don't know. I mean, no sane, right-thinking person would.

Yeah, I also do that one layer under. You know, I do the layer under at the bottom. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, old school. That way you don't have to do as many tape jobs. Well, you know what's funny? One of my favorite Christmas memories, so my dad's Jewish,

so he wasn't around at Christmas very often. He actually would go in and work on Christmas Day as a non-Christian. But I remember one time, one of my favorite Christmas memories, hockey related, was I was a little guy, probably about six or seven, and I came down the stairs and there were stockings there, which was rare because usually we would kind of push Christmas to Boxing Day. there, which was rare because usually we would kind of push Christmas to Boxing Day. But there was a stocking there and there was a stick. It was like a long leotard. I was probably like six years old. And I was so excited. I remember, I think it was one of those like Sherwood 5030s or something like that. PMPs, baby. Yeah. And you know, it's funny, we didn't get a chance to do this very often because my dad was at work. But we taped up the stick and we went out to our local rink, just an outdoor rink. It was at a park called John Sibelius Park. And people who are in downtown Toronto listening to this podcast will know this one in the annex. And we skated around for a

couple hours. That was one of my fondest Christmas memories, just hanging out for a couple hours outside, soaking in the beautiful weather and taking in the game. So maybe I'll try and recapture that now that here we are in a pandemic. It'll be a good time to try and relive that with my family this wintertime. That's awesome, man. And what are you most looking forward to? It's been a brutal year, as we said, for everybody. What are you most looking forward to 2021 for you and your family? You know what, Elliot?

We talked a lot this year. Just some normalcy. It's funny. If there's one unintended consequence of this horrible pandemic, maybe we won't take for granted collectively all the things that maybe we took for granted all those years before. Just spending time with family and friends and being able to run around. I can't wait to see live sports in person. I can't wait to go to a concert in person.

Yes. Restaurants, bars, et cetera. Get on a plane. Remember, you and I travel a lot, Elliot, and all of us do, and Jeff. And it would be begrudging. Oh, here, we got to go to blank next week. And now I'd be like, hey, hey, let's go.

So I just think maybe this, we can all set the reset button and just have a greater level of appreciation for all the smaller things in life that maybe we took for granted. And I'm really excited for 2021. Enough of 2020. Let's flip the page and move over. You know, I just have to say, Jeff, before we say goodbye to David, that one of the things about the GM meetings that David would come and he would host it is, you know, he'd bring

like the extra small shirt so the GMs could David would come and he would host it is, you know, he'd bring like the extra small shirt so the GMs could see how ripped he was. I'm really looking forward to that next year. I miss that this year. We call that the Marc Bergevin collection. Let me end on this one then. What is the one thing, you know, to that little conversation we had a second ago

about, you know, wanting to go to a concert and wanting to get on a plane again. What's the one thing you think you'll never complain about again, DA? Oh, man. Oh, boy. The one thing I won't complain about again. You know when you're in the airport

and there's chaos and your flight's delayed and I was one of those, ah, here we go, flight's delayed. I won't complain about that because I miss the ability to just go and get on a plane and three hours later, you're sitting on a beach somewhere. So that's behind me, at least in the short term future. I have another one.

Amber always is the first guy in line. And you know what? I learned this. You know what the gate agents call that? Gate lice. So Amber would always be the first guy in line. We're like, oh, gate lice Amber. amber would always be the first guy in line we like oh gate lice amber he's in his spot i like to sit down i like to get my position what can i say ellie it's the last guy in line oh yes no surprise there all right man thanks for joining us at our uh at our holiday party here

man glad to have you david continued great work, guys, I look forward to being back in the studio with both of you and happiness and health in 2021 for all of you guys. Awesome. Same to you, DA. Be well. Thank you. He's one of the best in the biz. He's Dan Murphy, who joins us now at the 31 Thoughts Christmas Party. Murph, what's your drink of choice? If I'm going beer, it'sinness uh almost always but usually red wine or like vodka on the rocks with a little fresh lime juice so those are kind of the three go-tos for me but i'm not uh i'm not against anything except for maybe rum can't drink rum for some reason so vodka rocks red wine or guinness those are the three nice we'll serve you all three of them and make sure you have a taxi chit for the way home or an Uber chit.

So the thing about Dan Murphy that I don't know if anybody knows this, but nobody in British Columbia had their Christmas lights up earlier this year than Dan Murphy. Not only that, I think I don't know if it was Instagram, but our Halloween decorations were up before the start of October. And so I saw Elliot got a kick out of that text me. And literally before the Halloween decorations were down, the Christmas lights were already up. And it's my wife's like to get this person to do what we have to do it now. So I'm like, okay. And my wife's like, to get this person to do it, we have to do it now. So I'm like, okay.

And at least they didn't get turned on until, I wouldn't let her turn them on until we got close to December. And then, to top it all off, well, the Christmas tree was up early. We always take the Christmas tree down on the 26th, so it's gone quick too. But I came out one morning and my daughter and my wife thought it was so funny, they put the antlers and the red nose on my car. At what point do you start playing Christmas music around your house? They were making wreaths one day. It would have been in November. So they were playing it a little bit, but luckily we'll play it for a little bit and it can't go on a continuous loop. My daughter's only eight, so she likes a lot of that music, but it certainly can't go longer than you know an hour the reason i asked that murph is i can listen to charlie brown christmas the music by the great

vince geraldie great jazz pianist i can honestly it can be the middle of july and i'll put that on no problem my wife and kids look at me sideways but seriously any month of the year i can listen to to vince geraldi and the Charlie Brown Christmas. Sounds like we need to swap families. It sounds like it, eh? So Murph, obviously all of our plans are a bit different this year. What's a Murphy family Christmas normally look like? Usually we'll have my wife's stepmom over on Christmas Eve,

and so she'll stay overnight and then wake up and do presents in the morning. And Chrissy's mom will come later on Christmas Day. And then usually sometime like the 26th or 27th, we go over to the island. My sister and her family are in Comox, and that's where my dad is as well. So that's usually what it looks like. We visit all parts of the family in a few days four or five days but obviously different this year we're going to have her stepmom over on the 24th and her mom over on the 25th because they live on their own so they're allowed to come for a dinner but

that's about all the all the visitors we'll have this year because of coping now favorite christmas hockey memory or holiday hockey memory for you well i was I was thinking about this. And so I went back to my earliest memory of getting a hockey themed gift. And I think it was a Ken Dryden jersey when I was about 10, because I was obsessed with goaltenders. And of course, a hockey night, even in BC, it was the Habs or the Leafs is what you got. But I thought that'd be a little boring. And I thought, here's the perfect Christmas hockey story. In the 20 years I've done the job, we've had one flight that's been canceled. One. Total. That's it. And it was a back-to-back situation. Canucks playing at home, flying to Calgary and playing the next day against

the Flames. And that night we got to the airport and it was snowing so much in Calgary that we couldn't take off because we wouldn't be able to land. So they said, everybody back to go back home, come back to the airport in the morning and we'll fly day of game. Now where it gets interesting is that that night, Yannick Hansen's wife went into early labor and gave birth twins. So it was the only time a flight has ever been canceled. And it happened to be that night, and so he was home for the birth and got to play the game the next night. And I thought, this is a Christmas miracle, right? Only I stepped out, I wanted to go back and check

the date, and it happened in March. It snowed in March in Calgary and we couldn't land, so that didn't work. So I guess my only childish one these days is when the World Juniors come on and Ferraro's doing a stand-up, I always sit on the couch, open beer, take a picture of the beer in front of the TV

as he's working, and I'll say it's good. That's awesome. And whatever he was doing, that's what I do, and I'll quickly get a text back telling me to F off. So that's kind of my holiday tradition these days. It's a challenge. I can't believe Ray would react that way. It's very surprising. It's quick challenge. I can't believe Ray would react that way. It's very surprising.

It's quick. Well, we look forward to seeing you on the Canucks broadcast in January, man. Thanks for joining us. All right, guys, and have great holidays and be safe, and I look forward to seeing you guys and talk to you soon. All right, he is the star of headlines,

sorry, Elliot, on Hockey Night in Canada. He is Chris Johnston, who joins us now. CJ, what is your Christmas drink of choice? Depends the time of day, but I like to have a lot of them on Christmas, usually, at least in adulthood nowadays. But probably if we're sitting down at the table together, I might have some red wine with you. But a big thing in our house, even back to when I was a kid, obviously, when I was young, I wasn't doing it. My parents would always have champagne and orange juice in the morning on Christmas morning. and that's something now that i'm old enough to indulge in that i also do that too oh bologna and coburg they start them early that's

what i've heard yeah the drinking age is about 14 there yeah but it's rum and becker's eggnog though were you ever an eggnog kid back in the day not really eggn Eggnog is something I have like once every four years or something just to be polite somewhere. And you're just reminded of how gross it is and then you move on? It doesn't work for me. I mean, look, I'm not judging anyone who loves it, but even in alcohol, whatever, I'm just, I'm a hard no on eggnog if I've got a say in the matter. Now, CJ, this year, you have put this year as to good use as anybody I know. You picked up a big running regimen, and you look terrific. Tell us what you did because I think it's very impressive.

Oh, well, you're not supposed to talk about things you do for your physical improvement. But I think for me, it was pretty simple, Elliot. Back somewhere in April, I was pretty miserable, if I'm being honest. I'm an upbeat, optimistic person, but, and I don't tend to worry too much, but just when the pandemic first hit and having life stop on a, you know, a moment's notice, and obviously you're worried about the health of your friends and family, you know, what could happen to our industry, our jobs, all those types of things. I sort of found myself in a bad place. And, you know what could happen to our industry our jobs all those types of things I sort of found myself in a bad place and and you know about 10 years ago I used to actually be an avid runner I

ran some marathons and things like that and so I started running again and I actually started April 30th and I have run every single day since so I'm up over 200 days now and it's really honestly helped my mental health as much as my physical health. And I'm really glad I got back into it because it wasn't something I ever stopped on purpose. It's just one of those habits. I kind of a good habit that I lost along the way, especially with the amount of travel I do. Probably been one of the saving graces of my year, to be honest, because I feel a lot better now than I did back in April. That's amazing and inspiring. Great on you. That's it is. It's fantastic.

And listen, as someone who runs as well, not as often or as long as you do, that's fantastic news. I remember the first time we met, you were still doing marathons. Where's your favorite place to run? You travel and you strike me as a kind of guy that, okay, I'm off the plane.

I want to stretch my legs. I'm going to get my run in right away. Where's your favorite place that you've been running? I like the waterfronts, you know, like I like Chicago. They've got a great long uninterrupted trail along the waterfront downtown there that that's gorgeous. You know, honestly, I might be a bit biased. I live downtown in Toronto and basically every day you can find me out on the waterfront trail here. Anywhere where you can go where you're not dealing with lights too much, where you can kind of just get lost in it, for me, is good. I think everyone's a little different with what they do when they run.

For me, it's almost meditative. My brain barely functions. I just go and fall into a state and just try to enjoy myself. Hills? What about hills, CJ? I like hills, especially now that i've been running for 200 days because back in april i could i didn't like them too much when i was woefully out of shape but um i i do find a rolling hill is nice i remember way back when i covered the world hockey championships

in switzerland and i was staying somewhere in the hills and i just ran in the hills for three straight weeks and it was amazing honestly it was it was so great but there's there's not a ton of hills down here where I live, but I am not adverse to that because it's kind of a nice rhythm, having a brief hard part and then the nice downhill. Last running question, Elliot, I swear. It's all good. Hate or love the treadmill?

Hate. Hard hate on that one. I mean, we're talking right now on a day, guys, that's minus 16 wind chill here and I'm still going outside. I would rather. Did you run today? I did, yeah're talking right now on a day, guys, that's minus 16 wind chill here, and I'm still going outside. I would rather – Did you run today? I did, yeah. You are awesome.

I mean, I would tell you, I would roll over in bed and say, see you in April. You're not a good listener. I just told you I've ran every day since April 30th, and somehow you're still amazed to hear that includes today. I'm just making sure. I'm not a good listener, but I'm just making sure. That's awesome. I CJ, I, I have incredible admiration for this. And I, I, the reason I asked is I do think that this year has been challenging for all of us. And for you to find a lining like that, I think it's a hugely important message in 2020 for a lot of people.

I think it deserves incredible credit. Well, I'm not out here preaching. Let's be clear on that because I know some other people, their instincts were to go the opposite way, was to sit inside the house and not do anything. And they've probably put on weight. I mean, I think this has been a year where you just had to do whatever felt natural to you. And honestly, for me, this was more survival. I mean, I live in a condo. It was a chance to get out and get fresh air and just clear my mind. And so it's definitely been my highlight of the year so far. Now, normally with you and Krista, who's also a member of the Rogers family, what would Christmas normally be like for you guys and how will you adapt to it this year? year well normally we'd be at

either my parents place or her parents place we kind of move it around from year to year you know obviously this year we're not going to do that we'll just be alone uh at our at our condo here in toronto we've been pretty conservative uh with making sure to follow the rules not see anyone we haven't been going to restaurants since march or anything like that. So it'll just be a little bit more low key. We'll do some FaceTimes and that with some family members that are around the country and hopefully look forward to getting back to our old traditions, I guess, in 2021. Christmas in Coburg, CJ. Finish this equation. Coburg plus hockey plus christmas equals blank heaven i mean you know i i'm i'm pretty proud to be from my hometown as people like to josh me about because i bring it up so much but um you know for me it's funny when you know amal contacted me your producer and he's like think

of a christmas story and it's like when i think of christmas all i can think of is hockey like every childhood gift i can still remember now as an adult approaching middle age was around hockey like my favorite things i always got you know it was a time obviously you know with my family we watched the world juniors you know starting boxing yeah usually we'd go out and skate too quite often not necessarily on Christmas day but somewhere between the 23rd 24th 25th 26th somewhere in there we'd usually do a big family out out in skating so it's all tied together for me you know that the place I grew up that I have fond memories for that time that specific time in my life with my family and then you know a sport that I I love so much that it's become you know my job and a huge part of who I am. So it's hard for me to kind of separate all that. I mean, to me, it all goes together.

And it's still, again, my favorite memories are all tied around sort of Christmas morning opening, you know, like the time I got an Easton aluminum hockey stick, the one that Wayne Gretzky started having, like the silver, the gold and uh you know that was probably my favorite gift uh i got a doug gilmore jersey somewhere in the early 90s and and wore that thing threadbare got blades of steel for my nintendo at one point as a pretty cherished gift but i mean quite literally all the favorite gifts i can remember i apologize to my aunts who probably knitted me nice sweaters and things i've long since forgotten. But if you gave me a hockey gift, chances are I still remember it. Well, Bud, I can't tell you how excited I am to start doing headlines again with you

sometime next year. It's going to be soon. I wish you guys a great holidays with your families and to all the listeners out there the same. Louis, I'm slowly sipping on this ginger ale. What is Mr. DeBrusque drinking for this Christmas party? You know what? We have a tradition in our family, you know, since the kids were young,

we have an apple cider, a sparkling apple cider that kind of resembles champagne, and we always have a couple bottles of that on the go. My wife stocked up on it already, and I think she's got six of them to go for the holiday season, so we're ready in that regard. Have you been able to hunt? We talked about this with you the last time you were on. Yeah, you know what? I actually hunted a lot this year, guys. I'm still kind of recovering from it, to be honest with you. I spent a lot of time in the tree stand, chased after some moose,

chased after elk, chased after whitetail. Not having this much time off at this time of year was kind of an anomaly for me, obviously, and you guys as well. I took full advantage of it. I went after him and was successful with my moose and whitetail and grinded it out right to the end. What's the coldest you've ever been doing that? I mean, I was just, before we recorded this out

in the backyard on the rink with my wife and I lasted about maybe 10 minutes until I whisked out and had to come back inside. What's the coldest you've been out there hunting, Lou? It's been pretty cold. I remember my first full year in Edmonton. Well, sorry, my second year in Edmonton. We went ice fishing way up northern Alberta on Lesser Slave Lake and with the wind chill in our ice chalets that day, I believe it was in the minus 60s, 50s or 60s. Yeah, it was ridiculous. Like literally it was one of those situations

where if you would have taken a cup of hot water and thrown it in the air, there's no way it would have touched the ground. It would have just poof into ice immediately. But when you were in the chalet, believe it or not, you were down to a t-shirt because you were so hot in there. It was just a really weird environment and it was new for me in that regard but for bull hunting for me the thing with bull hunting is you have to sit still you're in a tree typically i've been out

there in minus 35 minus 40 with the wind chill it's been really chilly now as i get a little bit older guys i'm not gonna lie to you i might avoid that day even though it's some of the best hunting that's the best hunting you're gonna have i might wait until it's minus 25 or minus 20 where it's very uh comfortable for me to sit in a stand for hours in that temperature so you are used to a schedule at this time of year your son Jake is is used to a schedule at this time of year how's it been for you guys and the people around you have you both around uh much more than normal how's it been for them you're gonna have to ask them elliot i'm not sure but i think my wife's probably going to be happy to kick me out the door when when i start working again um no you

know what to be honest with you i mean in all this craziness in our globe right now that's probably been the one positive after the whole situation is the amount of time you can spend at home it's been great having Jake home for months you know he went off and did the bubble played hockey but he's been home and to have him around for the length of time that we've been able to have him around we just haven't had that you know for a long time so it's been really special we've taken advantage of that you know my daughter's you know still in the house with us and working from home right now and doing her school from home. And you know, it just, it's been great. But I think now everybody's looking at it saying, okay, it might be nice to kind of go and get back

to work now. I think we've had enough time off. I know my son's feeling that way. He told me that the other day, he said, listen, he's actually going to head to Boston early. And, uh, you know, he just thinks it's time to start dialing it up and getting ready. And he just doesn't want to get caught in a situation where he might have to quarantine for a certain amount of time. He wants to get in there and start working out and training and get ready. And I said, that's probably the best decision. And listen, we've all had a lot of time off. It's been fantastic, you know, obviously, to be able to spend that time with family and a real trying time. But now it's kind of like, okay, let's start looking forward and hopefully getting back to more normalcy.

What household chore did Jake thought he escaped that he was forced to do this year? Are you kidding me? He does nothing. It's unbelievable. You know what? You know, he actually bought a house this year so he he has shoveled his driveway a couple times from what i understand which is one of those things that uh that comes with that the garbage going out is another thing like he he's had to take on those responsibilities because he

has his own place now but my daughter does more than he ever does she she's the one that uh we can always count on her to be be ready and available to make sure the house stays together if we're ever not here for a couple of days. But I don't know if I would leave it in his hands too often. What's your favorite Christmas hockey memory? Yeah, you know, when I found out I was coming out with you guys, I kind of started thinking through it. And obviously, I mean, I got Christmas gifts as a kid that were really special. I heard a little bit at the end of CJ there, and he talked about that Easton silver stick that Gretzky used to use and everybody remembers those you know that was like uh I funny story about that is I actually asked for one I was a healthy scratch in LA one day and I started talking down by the

Zamboni the trainer said hey listen is there any chance I could get a stick from Wayne and sure enough after the game um he walked down and handed me a sign that I still have today I've since given it to my son Jake Jake. It's now in his house. But you know what? It was just a great, you know, for me, you know, Gretzky was always up on a platform for me, even as a tough guy. But growing up, I did get a Titan stick, and that's why I'm circling

around this story. I got a Titan stick, and it was the Titan that Gretzky used to use back in the day. You know, the commercial where he was tapping the puck with his brother, and he smacked it out of the air. And I think I broke it on day two and i was devastated i was devastated because i you know it's just so special to have that stick but if i'm going to tell you my favorite though it's actually a little bit of a late christmas gift i was playing for the london knights and junior and i got a late christmas gift where where the Rangers called me up to play an exhibition game against the Russians.

And it was Sieska from Moscow that came in, and they were stacked. I mean, they were a stacked team. I believe in the next three years, there was over 15 players off that team that played in the National Hockey League. Pavel Bury was obviously their star. But I just remember getting that call up, playing at Madison Square Garden. Roger Nelson was the coach. I played on a line that call up playing at Madison Square Garden. Roger Nelson was the coach. I played on a line with Ty Domi and Mark Jansen. I felt like I was 11 feet tall

out there. What was that? The no BS line? Yeah, that was like, don't touch us line. And you guys know how it was. And I'll be totally honest. It was we didn't look at the Soviets, the Russians in a friendly way. We just didn't. You know what? At that time, it was we didn't look at the soviets the russians in a friendly way we just didn't you know what at that time it was still a real separation and you know we looked at them as coming over here and embarrassing us so we took some liberties that game i'm not gonna i'm not gonna deny that we played a very physical game they absolutely took that punishment and just fed us our lunch they really did they were a fantastic team. Sergey Zubov. I mean, I played with, I think, six guys off of that team over the course of my career. I crossed paths with like Andrei Kovalenko, Boris Mirna, Igor Kravchuk, you know, just guys that they all

trickled in from that Russian league. And that was the real influx of European players, especially from Russia in the next few years. I mean, the league just blew up with European players and the league's been better because of it. You know, it was at that time though, we didn't look at it that way, but now looking back, it's just going back and reminiscing. It's been amazing to see the names that came through there.

And, you know, Sergey Fedorov was on that team the year before he was already in. He was one of the first to come over from that group and he was in Detroit already, but just amazing hockey players that eventually were able to come over and play in the best league in the world. And you could see their dominance when we played against them. They were fantastic. They were unbelievable skaters and players.

But, you know, the funniest part of that story, though, and why I always remember it, I get there, I fly in, it's an afternoon game, and I'm just excited to be up and put the Rangers uniform on. It's an afternoon game. And I'm just excited to be up and put the Rangers uniform on. And it's funny because Bernie Nichols comes up to me in the dressing room and hands me this blonde wig and says, you have to wear this for warmup. No bucket. Put this long wig on. You know, the Russians are going to think we're crazy because it's big guys flying around

out there with a big wig on. And being a rookie, what am I going to say when Bernie Nichols comes down and tells me to wear a wig? I'm like, all right, put it on. I'm a gamer and kind of funny. But I always remember that. It was just a real good experience for me. It was a great Christmas gift, a late Christmas gift. We played on New Year's Eve day. But I found out probably about four days before and I always remember that as being a special gift. That's a fantastic story. And more important though, Elliot, when I looked at it, I reminisced with all the players that were on that team.

And I remember we walked by their dressing room coming down Madison Square Garden after the game. And they had this little tiny room. And all their equipment was just strong. It looked like the equipment was 20 years old. Kid you not. You know, I remember one guy, and I don't know who it was. Somebody blew him up at the blue line.

And the trainer wouldn't even go on the ice to get him and dave smith who you know works the league was you know he he was the one he was our trainer at that time he was going to jump over the boards and go out there and grab this guy because he's like are you not going to go get this guy up yeah he said he just had a different mentality they were tough as nails though they still are tough as nails but back then i think because of the situation and where they were coming from the desire to play the desire to be better to have a free life to be honest with you they were very determined i i recognize that from an early stage that you could hack them you could whack them you could try and you know give it to them physically and they just they would take it and come back for more no problem thank you so much louis for coming on and coming by we really appreciate it looking forward to uh the season resuming yep for sure

yeah okay guys thanks for having me on elliot sam cosentino is here and i i really feel that the answer to this first question is going to be some type of fine italian wine but here we go sammy what are you drinking at the holiday party? You spoiled it, man. So it would be a 2015 Delforno Amarone. Oh, Amarone. Nice. It runs at about 16%. That year is a really good year, and that bottle of wine might be the best I've ever had.

How did you come across this? The first time I had it was with my father-in-law. I ended up buying a couple of bottles. There's a good wine store at the Sutton place in Vancouver, and they happen to stock it. So I bought two bottles, and that was all I could afford, and that was way out of my league to start with. But it was so good.

There's going to be one here that's going to be had over Christmas to kind of say goodbye to this year. The other thing that it would do, if we're just sipping, I think a little Louis would be my choice. Now, I had that when my daughter was born. That's delicious. But it's $4,400 a bottle, so I won't be drinking that anytime soon, I can promise. So on your weekly paycheck, you could get like 10.

Yours. Somehow slide yours over to me i was gonna say just go to that that that tree in the backyard you have there sam you pull some money off of it and get yourself uh get yourself a nice jug hey i would i mean this is all bizarre for all of us no matter you know what profession you're in or who you are, how out of sync do you feel right now, considering you'd be covering not just junior hockey, but around Christmas time, there's tournaments. I mean, you go to OMHA games, GTHL games. You have your eyes on the prospects coming into junior hockey.

How out of sync do you feel right now? Yeah, it's awful. Every time I talk to someone, they're scouts mostly. I'm so sick of video. Guys are sitting in Starbucks just to kind of get out of their house. No one's comfortable from not traveling. They appreciate the time with their family. But for me, it's like a 14 year rhythm. the world junior camp. We have a few games in between. Then at some point I'm covering either the camp or the tournament itself, and then kind of get back into that, you know, weekly game schedule prospects game in January to kind of foreshadow the draft. So all of that stuff is completely out of whack. And like, I'm still talking to guys about what we just saw in the draft in October, but some of the surprises and that sort of thing. So that kind of hangover hasn't even played itself out yet.

You know, Sam, I'm always interested in your career arc. You've had an interesting path to get to where you are. You know, I first obviously met you when you were working in the Blue Jays clubhouse. And I always think it's very interesting about how you went from there to one of the foremost junior hockey and draft experts are in the industry. And I know you probably can't give us the full journey, but I'm interested in the thumbnail of how you got from A to B. Blue Jays job was the best job you could ever have. At that time, everything was free and easy.

And, you know, working with those guys and being a part of the home clubhouse eventually, because I moved over from the visiting clubhouse, it was the best job ever. But it was only a seasonal job in that I'd go to spring training and I'd only work home games. So I always knew I wanted to be in broadcasting since I was seven years old going to Woodbine Racetrack. And I knew if I could kind of manipulate some of the people I knew in the media side to give me part-time jobs like John Melville did at the score when I started there in 99. I also knew I wanted to get into game calling at some point. And I thought eventually it would be baseball and it was for a short period of time.

But the way to do that was to hook up with the Rogers local cast. So I did in Brampton, Mississauga did some stuff, uh, radio and Barry, and then in Toronto, St. Mike's Dan,

Dan Levy, so on and so forth. And that's where my love for junior hockey started. And then that transitioned into taking up a job with Sportsnet under Deb Sanderson in the 05-06 season, just based on junior hockey. Then it evolved into some lacrosse. Then it evolved into baseball. And so I was kind of doing all three things.

And then 2010, the baseball stopped for me. And then I went kind of full bore into the hockey stuff. And then Rob Corte was a big proponent of mine to get going on the draft stuff. And so the first year we had the rights, in fact, the year before in Philadelphia, when we knew we had the rights and we were just kind of seeing how things would work, was the first draft I worked on. And I think it opened some eyes. And then I know Rob fought hard for me to be one of our main

panelists, you know, starting the 2015 draft and kind of the rest is, that's just the way it's gone. I've been, I've been lucky for each. I've loved it. I will say this and I don't want to toot my own horn, but I will a little bit. I think I'm probably the only guy in the

country who's ever done color and an NHL game and a major league baseball game. I couldn't think of anybody else. I would venture a guess to say in North America. I did one NHL game as a color guy back in March 1st, 2004. It was an overtime win for the Habs over New Jersey at the Bell Center. And my baseball game was in 2000 and I want to say 10. And Ashby, Alan Ashby, was the game caller at the time and for whatever reason they just needed one game filled and it was a game against

Texas and it was Roy Oswald pitching and it got into a big mess with the manager and a whole deal but I think I'm the only guy in North American sports to be the color guy for an MLB game and an NHL game. That's awesome. Hey, Sammy, I want to back up to lacrosse. You mentioned lacrosse for a second there in 0405. Did you cover that Toronto? I guess I'm a big lacrosse guy.

Did you cover that rock team with like Popeye Doyle and Manning and Glenn Clark and Jim Feltman and all those guys, Sanderson? I mean, that was a heck of a run. Whenever I hear Popeye Doyle, by the way, I think of the French Connection. I don't think of the French Connection. Yeah, great movie. Colin Popeye Doyle, man. He's a great lacrosse player. I loved it.

And that building at the Air Canada Center, that was just a rockin' place during that season. Did you cover that? So here's my funny story about lacrosse. I actually got into lacrosse as the PA announcer for the Rock. So 2004 was that year that you're talking about. I'm looking at the picture. It's here in my office right now.

Team was unbelievable. We won the title. And I say we because Brad Waters was the president at the time. And we had a family connection there. And I ended up getting a championship ring. So I have the Toronto Rock 2004 championship ring. No way. Yeah, it's really cool actually.

It's my only championship ring obviously. And so it was the year after that when Deb signed me to do the CHL games, lacrosse just came up. So I was the guy on the floor. That job, I'm telling you, Jeff, for a guy who likes lacrosse, was awesome because you could talk to, you know that, you know, the guys are unbelievable. You could talk to anyone. I was on

the bench during the game. I was dodging balls. Guys are laughing at me. They're playing jokes and just having a blast. I loved working lacrosse. That was a ton of fun. We had, we had Shani up there and he was, you know, he's such a great guy and I miss it to be honest with you. I love working with those guys. All right. Favorite Christmas holiday memory.

2009. My nephew, I wasn't married. I didn't have kids. Um, you know, obviously very much into the world juniors. They were in Ottawa that year. So in 09, I ended up getting tickets to a game. And my brother and my nephew, who was like six at the time, ended up taking the train to Ottawa, got off the train, got in a taxi, went to the game against Kazakhstan, watched Canada win 15-0, and then literally left that game and got on a plane that night and came home and i'm like and my everyone in my family's like what are you doing the guy's six the kid's six how was he gonna so he was crushed by the end of it he was he was you know dog tired and i thought that was just an opportunity in my life where i could kind of give that experience to my nephew and so we did that

and getting to hang out with my brother obviously is always a pleasure. You never do it as much as you like. So that was kind of the one memory I have. That was the 28th of December 2009, 15-0, but that was the Eberle year. That was the year they beat Russia, I think, in the semis. That was the year they pumped Sweden in the final, like 5-1, 6-1, whatever it was. And so the comeback kids, all that sort of stuff, Tavares,

that team was really, really good. So I'm glad he got to see. If I had to go back, there's probably 15 guys that had successful NHL careers off that. That was such a fun ride. That was such a fun tournament. Sammy, this has been a lot of fun. Listen, best to you and yours, your family and friends, the

holiday season, all of it, healthy and well. Hopefully, we can get you back in the broadcast booth because that means that junior hockey is back on. Thanks, pal. No kidding. Thanks a lot, guys. Happy holidays.

Stay safe. And let's get back to normalcy here in 21. From your lips to God's ears, man. Amen. Hey, Elliot. What? Who's the real star of hometown? You mean the person with actual talent?

Yeah. Who is it? Oh, that would be tara sloan good morning that's very sweet but you know that's entirely untrue but thank you so tara this is the uh christmas slash holiday party for the 31 thoughts podcast we invite everybody to join jeff and it's not the red table but we're imagining it's a table. Nor is it the Algonquin table, I assure you either. The Algonquin table. And what can we serve you as you sit down?

Well, anybody who knows me knows that I like a nice Napa cab. How about that? Excellent. We got one of those coming. Sam Cosentino, by the way, went exclusive Amarone. Loves the double-pressed tannins. No surprise. Hardcore.

So, Tara, your rise here at Sportsnet and Hometown Hockey, you've got one of the most fascinating career arcs of anyone at our place. And I'm just curious, did you ever see this being where you would end up? No, definitely not. But it's also not entirely surprising, I guess. There was a certain point. I mean, I know when you kind of look at my trajectory on paper, going from musician to television host to hockey host, it looks a little disjointed. But really, looks a little disjointed. But really as soon as I started to move into the broadcast world, I started to direct myself towards sports

and towards hockey specifically. So that was intentional at that point. And that's just a result of my long time love of the game. And also, I give Michael Landsberg a lot of credit cause I did his show off the record like 30 times when I was in my band Joy Drop and so that kind of kind of wet my whistle a little bit and he was actually the first person to help me put my demo reel together so at a certain point I really did

direct myself towards what I'm doing now but I hate to say this but I mean I grew up watching Ron McLean right like so yeah I definitely would not have watched Hockey Night in Canada and thought I might be there. How much would we have to pay you to put that demo reel on television right now? You know, I probably still have it on VHS somewhere. So I'd be curious to see it. I have no idea what could possibly be on it. I mean, I had almost nothing, nothing to put on there. So if I find it, I promise you, you can see it. All right. I'm sorry. What is this VHS you speak of? I'm unfamiliar with this

terminology. Yeah, I know. Sorry, kids. It's a whole different thing. Well, if you look back and we're heading into the, I think the seventh year of our deal this year with the NHL and Sportsnet, I don't know if anybody thought or what anybody thought the hometown hockey was going to look like. Like the one thing I do remember is people saying like, I don't know how long-term this is going to be. And now it's a huge part of our show. And I can't imagine, uh, hometown hockey not existing as part of our package. And I'm wondering about this year. I don't know how much you're allowed to say Tara, but this is going to be your biggest challenge because, you know, you've carved a huge part of that show.

Like, you know, basically going to these communities in advance, getting embedded, doing your challenges, becoming part of the community. And this year, we're not going to be able to do that. So this thing that you've created, which is a monster, how do you do it for this year? Therein lies the challenge, really. I mean, you know, obviously, Therein lies the challenge, really. I mean, you know, obviously, technology is going to have a lot to do with it. I think one thing that probably we've all found throughout the last nine months is there is kind of a greater access. When we were in communities like Salmon Arm, for instance, you know, we may not have been able to do interviews with the most famous product out of Salmon Arm. But right now, because every people are basically isolating and available, we will probably be able to do higher profile interviews sometimes if we want to or need to. So I do think that kind of

access will exist. And that will look a little bit different. But yes, I mean, it's going to be a big challenge. I mean, for our producers on the ground, and for Ron and myself, because also, you know, just a huge part of information gathering is just on the ground, like you can really only learn so much on Google, what you really find out when you're on the ground is like, who is that important figure in this community? Who means a lot? Who's named you do people from this place want to hear on a national broadcast? So that it's going to be really tough. But we're going to dive right in as much as we can. And I mean, we've always been of the leave no stone unturned mindset. And so it's just, we'll just have to do it a different way. You know, one of the things that's,

that we, I think we've all realized about ourselves is we complain about things that ultimately we miss and wish we had back. What is the one, and one of the common things is travel, specifically, you know, flights and airports and waiting in lines. What's the one thing that going back to March now,

you've realized I'm never going to complain about again? I get busy and, you know, I don't want to say I'm a flake, but I think I've, as I get busier and busier, I've had a tendency to put off meeting people that mean a lot in my life sometimes, just because they become overwhelmed. And I think that's it. I think those are the relationships that I miss the most and the connections that I miss the most. It's just all about the connections. Do I miss travel? Not that much. No, I mean, of course, I miss the connections. Do I miss travel? Not that much. No, I mean, of course I miss like,

you know, the access. Sure. I'd like the option, but I'll take advantage of my friendships more. It's very well said. And I think a lot of us are feeling the same kind of way. My favorite segment that you do on TV, Tara, is when you go into a community and you try something, you try something that is big part of the community you go into a community and you try something, you try something that is big part of the community. Of all of the things you've done, and I realize I may be asking you to pick your favorite child, what is your favorite, the one that sticks with you the most? Well, it was one of the earliest editions, I think, of My Hometown Must is what we call those. I don't know that it's my favorite

but it was definitely the stupidest and therefore made the best tv um was we stopped in Thunder Bay on our second or third um season we did this sort of sauna sauna experience with some Finnish expats there. There are a lot of Finns in Thunder Bay. Did the sauna and I, like just a sheep, followed them as they jumped into Lake Superior. And this was in January. I think the original plan was to come out of the sauna and roll around in the snow. plan was to come out of the sauna and roll around in the snow. But they I don't know, they they had a lot of maybe liquid courage. And so I actually like I ran out, I saw them jump into the lake. I walked I was like, this is insane. And then I slipped in. So I mean, in it was, as you can imagine, it wasn't sub-zero, but it was pretty close. It totally took my breath away. I mean, I am so lucky that I did not kill myself.

So it was very dangerous, ill-advised. I don't think we could really get away with doing that again, nor would I want to. But by far the best TV and the most memorable. That was nature saying you're going in. Oh, God. It was so stupid. The things we do for our shows. Right?

Like, I would never do that in real life. That's awesome. What are the holidays looking like for you this year? Well, pretty quiet. Yeah. Yeah, like many of us. It's a bummer. No trips to Nova Scotia to see my family. We're all

just huddling up in our individual homes. Well, I like to call it Christmasica because I come from a multi-denominational family, but we have a Christmas tree. When you have kids, as you know, it becomes all the more special. So we'll have a quiet Christmas at home, lots of presents to compensate. And that's it. Kids are the big winners. That's the key. The kids are the big winners. That's it. And it's, you know how rough it's been on them. So, and just quiet. It's the calm before the storm. I think for all of us, as you both know, I'm going to just try to actually relax because I know that the new year is

going to be a little bit busy. Yes. Good advice, everyone that take care of yourselves mentally and physically. That's a, that is awesome advice. Listen, I know you got up and,

and fought some technology to get here. And we appreciate it. It's a daily battle. You know that, right? Well, listen, we appreciate it. Happy holidays to you and yours. know that, right? It's insane. Well, listen, we appreciate it.

Happy holidays to you and yours. All the best. Thanks for joining us, Tara. Thanks, Jess. All right, Sean McKenzie dropping by. What can we get for you to drink, Sean? What is your drink of choice this Christmas? I would love a nice glass of Brunello,

a nice glass of wine I'll go with. It depends on the scenery and what's going on, but you two are classy gentlemen, so I'd sit down and have a nice glass of Italian wine with you. Where does the love of wine come from for you? It's a funny story, actually, because a lot of people, I know my old man is pretty into wine, and he posts on Instagram and Twitter,

and a lot of people are like, oh, your old man got you into wine. And I want to go on record right now. You guys have a big following and say that I got him into wine. So I want to clear the air on this one. It actually started, I'll make a long story short, is I was going to Fanshawe College and I had to pick my elective courses.

And I was about 18 years old at the time. And I remember going through the electives and going, okay know pop culture that looks like a good one that will be easy and at the time my brother was playing division one hockey at St. Lawrence and apparently much you know not to my knowledge at the time but he was known around campus as the guy who knew how to pick the easy electives that's you know he would go to the freshman and be like don't take that course this one's gonna have no homework so So he goes, pop culture is going to be awful. You're going to have to write essays on movies and book reports. And he goes, let me see the damn sheet.

So he looks and he goes, wines of the world, take wines of the world. I go, I don't like wine. I hate wine. I'm 18 years old. Like I want beer and vodka. He's like, take wines of the world. I should say I was 19 at the time for you know legal purposes but naturally right around there and uh so i'm like okay i guess like sure i'll take it so i remember

showing up to this class and you paid like a hundred bucks and the teacher was when i say straight from france like he was you know you couldn't even understand him at some points his french accent was so strong so we get in there and you know first day we're talking about wine and i'm like this is boring i hate wine and then the first friday brings in wine to taste and this is gross and fast forward about four fridays later and that was our our tasting day and i'm like you know this is growing on me and a lot of the kids in the class uh didn't really like wine so it was just five or six of us every friday that would drink the leftover expensive wine this guy was buying and slowly but surely i got into it and by the end of the uh the course I was like I love

this stuff and I learned all the history of it at the time my dad was you know he would drink you know cheap California cab which is awesome it's great wine but I remember kind of expanding his horizons and so that's uh that's how I got into wine wine Wine insider, Sean McKenzie. I'll take it. Christmas at your family must have been a little bit different because obviously Bob's doing the World Juniors all the time. So would you guys do it early? How would it work? Yeah, so it all depended. If the World Juniors was in Europe, he would have to usually leave a few days before Christmas.

And people have asked me this before, like, did you hate it? Was it weird? Did it blow? And like, it didn't even seem strange. Like looking back, it seemed weird. Like, you know, your dad leaving on the 22nd or the 23rd of December and missing Christmas. But at the time it was just normal. Cause that's kind of what it was. But if it was over in Europe, he would leave on the 23rd or 24th sometimes. And I remember being pumped because you know in in order to get your gifts first i exactly we get to open one gift the day that he left so i was like you can leave dad get the hell out of here to get me my gift like this is perfect and uh so that was kind of always the fun part and

then sometimes we'd go with them and as i got older i i started traveling with them a little bit more and more so it almost became that kind of how i got into broadcasting and how i ended up loving it but uh it was different but looking back in the moment i never thought like this is weird it just it was what it was so you went to world junior tournaments with him then so he hears this he'll laugh because you know i was always kind of he calls me the mama's boy and you know he's you know so nice of him he uh him him and my brother were they would go away a lot. Like my brother went everywhere with them. Like he was, my brother was hockey crazy. Like he was, he was nuts. He still is. And, but I was always a little bit more, I want to hang out and play video games and hang out with

my friends. So when I was younger, I didn't go nearly as much as my brother did, but we'd go on family trips. And as I got older, you know, I went to Sweden once with them, uh, as I got older, closer to, you know, 13, 14, 15, 16, I went on a stretch. So I went to a lot of them and, you know i went to sweden once with them uh as i got older closer you know 13 14 15 16 i went on a stretch so i went to a lot of them and you know it was the vancouver world juniors the justin pogey that i really i really got to kind of sit on set all day with them and you know three games a day 14 15 hour days and kind of see how tv was made and that's the first time i was like you know what i i want to do this is There are people who come in and they watch these things and they say, wow, you guys are a lot more professional on air than you are off the air. So what was the

thing that you saw that made you open your eyes and say, this is a lot more fun or a lot less professional than you would believe on the air the funniest part is like especially growing up like anyone who you know grows up around people in tv and and you see these personas like you know like for example like i'll rip on him a little bit like you know my dad on air and you know he's known as this like real you know the bob father really you know everyone's got to respect him and you know and like me and my brother just lay into him on a daily basis like we chirp him non-stop like so i think it's funny anyone who sees a tv persona and then meet someone or know someone

personally away from the camera they realize that they're the same person but like it's just a lot less professional a little bit more fun so that's a great question because the thing that really really did spark my interest in this business was obviously I got to see a lot behind the scenes during that world juniors but like in Vancouver like every night after the game it was like you'd go to Earl's you'd sit and you know these guys would have nice bottles of wine and they have dinner and like it was like they were on like a hockey team like it was like this environment that was like it was so social and it was fun and then you see other jobs you hear their jobs that are nine to five in an office and there's nothing wrong with that but I saw the fun they had on the road and that when the cameras were off like they were chirping each other it was back and

forth it was like it almost felt like that feeling in a dressing room a little bit so I kind of saw that aspect of you know you work all day and you get to watch hockey and you get to talk and you're amongst your friends. And then you go out for dinner, do a nice restaurant and you're staying in a nice hotel. And it was at that point where I went like, I could do this. I could have fun doing this. I think that's the thing I miss the most this year. It's the thing I miss the most, Sean, by a mile, by a mile. I just did a podcast the other day and someone said like, what do you, what do you want to go back to in 2021 like what do you miss the most and like I said like a lot of things but professionally like I miss going to cover a game at Madison Square Garden then texting the guys you work with lobby in five going down grabbing a lobby bar

drink and then meeting at a restaurant that someone chose like from into the rink from the prep of the day to going out after like it just it's so damn fun that 10 seconds before you know the host is throwing to you for your opening hit right like at the top of the clock yeah it's saturday night you hear the hockey especially saturdays like and it's funny how the mind works like i did a lot of games when i was out in Ottawa that weren't Hockey Night in Canada, of course, that were regional games. And I remember my first Hockey Night in Canada game, the exact same prep, the exact same setup, nothing was different, but I heard the Hockey Night in Canada music. And then you hear Ron's voice and you're like, oh my God, this is happening. You could have been prepped the exact same way you would

have been for a regional game, but you were about 1000 times more nervous. And it's funny how your mind plays tricks on you like that. Like, you know, the moment's bigger, even though it's kind of the same and you kind of, but I miss that feeling, right? When Ron just throws to you and then you're off and running, you do a million games, but nothing feels quite like hockey night. Well, we're going to get a chance to do some soon, and we all look forward to it. Yes. Thanks for coming by, Sean. We really appreciate it.

No, thanks so much for having me on, guys. I really, really appreciate it. Have a nice Christmas with your Barolo, my friend. Oh, there will be one or two. I promise that. Atta boy. Have a great Christmas. Thanks a lot, guys.

Hey, Freed, we should point out, Sean is doing something crazy. And he's also doing something that I've always wanted to do. I don't know that I could ever do an Ironman. I've always wanted to do a triathlon, but I haven't even done a try-a-try, let alone a triathlon, let alone an Ironman. But he's doing that in July in Muskoka,

trying to raise money for Sick Kids Hospital. Fantastic. And in his tweet he says, who wants to watch me struggle for a great cause? I hate running, I suck at swimming, and this is the first bike I've owned in 15 years so I've signed up for an Ironman in July. You can enjoy my training struggles but it will come at a cost. I'll be raising money for sick kids. Good on Sean McKenzie, who, by the way, by the way, even in his tweet announcing that he's going to do this triathlon, can never resist to show you his muscles. whether it's a picture with his shirt off or in this case, his picture of his,

I don't want to say Martin St. Louis ask or Sidney Crosby ask quads, but nonetheless, they are prominent in the tweet for each. I was just exhausted reading the tweet, but good on Sean. Yep. Honestly, I've always wanted to do this.

Like I know you have a, a really deep bucket list of things that you want to do, whether it's things in your life, places you want to go. I'm the same, and triathlon is always something I've wanted to at least attempt. I've had friends that have done it. I have a couple of psycho friends that have done Ironmans before. I've always wanted to try this. Good on Sean. He's doing it for a great cause.

Every dollar going directly to sick kids. Good on Sean. He's doing it for a great cause. Every dollar going directly to sick kids. Good on Sean McKenzie. If you want to donate, the link is in the bio. Go get them, Sean. Great cause, great challenge. Elliot, this is going to be a lot of fun. Look who's dropped by the party. Flames reporter slash one-man conga line, Ryan Leslie.

How are you today, bud? Best of the holiday season to you, Jeff. Elliot, hi. Well, first of all, let's get this started. As you sit down at the table, what can we offer you? What can we serve you? I'd take just about anything you're serving at this point. I think we're all a little hungry and thirsty for some normalcy this time of year. whatever you're pouring and serving i'm having i gotta tell you merrick leslie has this rep like one of the most fun guys in the group yes just one of the most fun people and you know i really hadn't seen it i'd heard about it but we hadn't worked together a lot and a couple years ago uh he's in vegas uh for the

awards because everybody thinks and it was true that giordano mark giordano was going to win the norris and at the hotel we were staying at which was the win there's like a bar in the middle of the casino of the floor and it's open and you can see people walking by it's very social and for about six hours straight, Ryan was sitting in the middle of it, just calling in people who were walking by and like introducing them as they were the next guest on Saturday Night Live. I was sitting here. I have never seen anything like this. And I went to bed and I can say this now because it's long over. I went to bed and I can say this now because it's long over I went to bed and it was late and then I heard what time Leslie went to bed and it was so late it was early and I gotta

say that was one of the most impressive runs Ryan I have ever seen ever well I don't know if I should ask the editor to leap this out or ask for a promotion. But it is the National Hockey League. And that was a celebratory day, evening and morning. And that was a lot of fun. And I was glad you could be a part of the show that we were hosting. That was great. But you're right. There was a who's who of nobody's that day.

I mean, you had everybody from John Cooper and yourself. I think Marty Turkel stopped by. Darcy Tucker was. was a who's who of nobody's that day i mean you had everybody from john cooper and yourself i think marty turkle stopped by darcy tucker was it was just a collection of hockey fun you don't remember things because they're bad or boring that was a fun night yeah it was and i'm glad you remember it it was a hoot and i'm glad you were able to catch up on your sleep in vegas too elliot well done hey ryan i gotta ask you the same thing that I asked David Amber a little while ago. You know, this is one of those years where, you know, you learn how much you miss things. What is the one thing, Ryan Leslie, that you will never complain about again because you miss it so much?

The travel. I miss getting on the bird. I miss getting on the bird. I miss getting on the plane. I miss seeing the faces of players after a win, after a loss, going into a city with the faces of anticipation. As you guys know, we're very fortunate to be around the players who make this game great. Because it still is about the players. And you feel it through them. I miss that.

We're certainly on the outside looking in, but being as fortunate as I am to travel with the team and you think what the miles you go, the sticks that get cut, the skates that get sharpened. You think about everybody that's involved day to day in search of two points. That's what I miss. I miss what everybody is doing. I miss seeing it in the faces of the players. That's what I miss. I miss what everybody is doing. I miss seeing it in the faces of the players. That's so well said.

Very well said. What do the holidays mean to you, Ryan? I'm a big Christmas guy, to be honest with you. The house is done up. I got a dog for the kids this year, just ahead of Christmas. How early is the house done up? You got to get through Remembrance Day, and I think December 1 is the time you start. Okay. Just all in. You said you got to get through um remembrance day and i think december one is the time you start okay

and just all in you said you got a dog i bought a golden retriever nice and uh he's an absolute gem named backer named after my buddy back in ontario john backer shameless plug for a good guy hey john honestly it's about the kids well there's snow we're tobogganing through the lights at christmas and i have two daughters so the three of us just really hunker down and and we get right into it one year i took them out to the banff springs and spent christmas eve out there which was nice absolutely magical if anyone listening has that opportunity one day when things get normal again please do it They just do such a great job. So it's a big deal for me.

And I know this year is so different. You know, like typically the last game for Calgary is usually about the 23rd of December and you're right back at it on the 27th. And, you know, that 23rd game is usually on the road. And so you're scrambling to get back. There is something magical and mystical about that. You know, being on a plane, trying to get home for the holidays. I do enjoy that.

This year's a little different. Now I'm ready to get back to work, and I think we all are. Okay, so Ryan, your favorite Christmas hockey memory? You know, I can remember a few years ago, the Flames had lost eight in a row, I believe it was, and it was tough. And all of a sudden now,

it's the last game before the Christmas break. You're going into Los Angeles. Not exactly the Christmas feel, although the whole Staples Center was done upright. And honestly, guys, it was not going well. They were looking down the barrel, I think, of their ninth straight loss. And to go into a Christmas break, you're like, if there's one game you want to win on a road trip, make it the last one because the flight home is essential. They find themselves down 3-0 to the Kings, and Johnny Gaudreau goes out and scores a hat trick. And in overtime, it's the captain, Mark Giordano, who wins it. And honestly, you could just feel this anvil come off every guy's chest. It was unbelievable.

The ride home, the flight home, Brian Burke was on it, and he told stories. And the boys in the back, the players were having a great time. The plane was decorated. It was great. Everybody, Kelly Rudy was certainly there, and Rick Paul. Everybody's just telling stories. And it was really Christmas, you know, 30,000 feet up, heading back into a winter wonderland back in Calgary with a desperately needed win that the team needed.

You know, Berkey held court and told great stories of duck hunting and fishing, and the wine tasted a little bit better that night. The stories were flowing. So Christmas hockey memories, that was a pretty good one when you could see the faces of these young men who got a win right before the break break and everybody else got to enjoy it. And did they, were you able to walk off the plane or did they need a soup spoon for you? Oh no, all very responsible, Jeff. Despite what Elliot would have you believe, I did not go to bed early that night either. If we were put to a vote, who's the funniest person at Sportsnet? I think overwhelmingly you would win.

Yes. But from your point of view, Ryan Leslie, who's the sneakiest, funniest person we have? I appreciate that. I enjoyed some rivalry with Ken Reed on social media. Oh, man, was that funny. Oh, God, was that funny. Oh, God, was that good. As you guys know, and anybody who follows this great game knows, the players are just hilariously cutting. And to be around it on a daily basis, I mean, you've got to have some thick skin.

You better be able to give it back. You better be able to take it. I'm just lucky that in Calgary, anyhow, we've got a really good group to cover here. Kind of brings out the best on the humor side because, ooh, I take it, boys. They give it to me relentlessly, and it is wonderful. It doesn't matter if it's the captain or Matthew Kachuk on an off day or a good day. It is just a nonstop ribbing, and I just love it. I can't get enough of it.

I was going to say, who would be the best? The first name that would come to my mind would be Kachuk. Yeah. He's beyond his years, to be honest with you. He's, and he's got that confidence, that cockiness,

that it's the right balance that I seem to enjoy. You know, he's unflappable for a kid. Not much gets missed by that young guy. Not much at all. So it's great to have all those guys. You got to be sharp. You got to be on your toes and you got to realize if you're ever,

I don't know, pulling a Sean McKenzie and posting selfies with your shirt off, you better be prepared to back it up. That's fantastic, man. Thanks for joining us today. We look forward to seeing you back on Flames Games soon. My pleasure, guys. Let's do this again anytime. Let's get going. Drop the puck. Awesome. Thanks, Ryan. You be well. Thanks, boys. Elliot, pleased to be joined now by someone who I think we can perhaps describe as a triple threat. He is a broadcaster.

He is an author. The book, One Game at a Time. He is also a lover and performer of Kurtan, an outstanding Kurtan musician, our good friend Harnarayan Singh. Harnarayan, how are you today? Doing well and happy to be on.

How are you guys? We're doing good. Now listen, Alit and I know you're a big chai drinker, so that is sort of a blanket term. What is in your cup specifically? You know, black tea, you can do it up in so many different ways and i know you know a lot of people get their chai tea lattes from starbucks or second cup or wherever and we are heavy chai drinkers at home as are a lot of people in our community and you kind of make it on your own with all sorts of different spices like for example example, cardamom and cinnamon and cloves. And

I know the Punjabi term of one of the other ones, it's lachi, but I actually don't know. I can't think of what it's called in English right now. But there's actually like a number of different like spices that are the most easily accessible cupboard that we have is the chai cupboard and when you open it the aroma is just it hits you and it's like it's it's just amazing right because it's like it's you take that deep breath in and it's like okay this is gonna that boost is gonna help me uh especially when you have i have daddy brain nowadays, obviously my kids are five and three and I, you know, obviously we've been at home a lot, haven't been traveling and the lack of sleep. So, uh, those aromas and those, uh, spices, they all help in my chai that I make at home.

So until you mentioned it, I didn't realize that chai tea drinking was big in your community. Did your, your parents, and you've told the story about how they emigrated from India to Brooks, Alberta, did they bring recipes with them? Basically, how does it work? Does it pass down from generation to generation? I don't know if it came from when the British actually came into India and took over. But then obviously, the Indians added all of their own different spices to it. I don't know the history of it. But it's huge in India. Like, I remember going my first time to India was 1994. I've been there five or six times. And it's like, people there have chai, like probably 1314 times a day, it feels like it's insane. Like it's, it's such a staple.

And so, yeah, my parents are like, they're not so, you know, they're not at that level. But I would say, you know, twice a day. And, and then now as an ad, I probably didn't need it as much before. And I just enjoyed it before I had kids. But now it's become instead of a want, it's a need. And, and so I have my different caffeine levels, like if there's a certain day where I really, really need a boost, that's when I'll go to coffee. But otherwise, I stick to my, my chai's. And then within the chai world, I have different kind of levels. And you know, I'll dabble into some of the other ones too, like the Earl Grey's or I also love vanilla chai, like adding in some extra. Oh, I love vanilla.

I'm a big vanilla guy. Yeah, right? You know, some extra different flavors and changing it up like that. I want to ask you, and that's a fascinating conversation about chai. I want to ask you about playing tabla. And any time I remember having a conversation with one drummer specifically, Jeremy Taggart, who used to be the drummer from RLADP. So him and I are real good buddies. We just live not too far away from each other.

And whenever we get together, and I played a little bit of drums when I was younger, nothing to the extent of Jeremy or you as well as it relates to tabla. He always talks about how that is the coolest and the hardest to play. How did you get involved in playing tabla? Well, it's interesting because so in Sikh music called kirtan, tabla is one of the prominent instruments. And so it's so amazing that it can provide so much to any type of music, any genre of music. And what I love about it is that, so there's two different parts. And one is the, so normally with the left hand or the bigger drum, it's the bass. And then with the smaller one, it's the tone. And you can tune that to whatever tone that the singer is, who you're accompanying the singer is singing at. So you,

singer is you're who you're accompanying the singer is singing at so you it's there's so much kind of variation available you can do traditional styles western styles like there's just so much you can do with it and you can simplify it and you can complicate it and it's just it's mind-boggling the different variations and the different beat scales and And I think it fits my personality. Growing up as a kid, I was fascinated with it. In my book, I even call tabla my first love. And it really, it got me into music. And then it also got me more involved in my faith because I was so fascinated by tabla and music is such a big part of the Sikh faith.

And so, and then we started, as my mom is big into singing and music, and we started hosting some musicians at our house. And I was fortunate enough to have, I got to watch a lot of really amazing musicians firsthand. And I saw when I was a kid, kind of like a revolutionary moment or a revolutionary timeframe in Sikh music where we started to see Western beats brought into the tabla. And so that was really fascinating to see. And it's just

something that I think like, you know, as a lot of youngsters really kind of gravitate towards it as one of the more Indian classical instruments. But now it's become so much more than just classical. It's just, I love it. Like, there's so much you can do with it. I wish I, this is the first time, like, you know, I'm talking about it with you guys, but I haven't ever really married these two passions in my life together, where it's hockey and kirtan and tabla. So it's cool to be able to, I wasn't expecting this question,

but here I am 31 thoughts, the hockey podcast, you know, the be all end all of all hockey podcasts. And I'm getting to talk about tabla. Pretty cool. Well, you know,

I kind of look at it this way, you know, the way that this year has gone, a Harner Ryan, we're all kind of figuring and jigging our priorities. Do we do things the way we want to do them? Like this has forced us all to really think, right? So I've got to believe at some point in your life, the opportunity to tour is going to

come up again and you're going to grab it. Like, I think that you can do both. I understand that your hockey career is growing and your career is going to dwarf Jeff and mine's. There's no question about that. True. But I think the opportunity is going to dwarf Jeff and mine's. There's no question about that. True. But I think the opportunity is going to come where you're going to get a chance to do that.

I really believe the way life is going, that a lot of us are going to find ways to work in some of the things that maybe we couldn't do before. And now we're going to find ways to do them later. Just as a, as a quick aside to that, Harner Ryan, can you make us one promise? When that happens,

can you promise to hire me and Elliot? We'll be your roadies. You guys are crazy. I don't know what you're talking about. What's the next thing? What's the next thing that you're going to say? I'm going to do this. You know,

the book was really something quite revolutionary for me. And in the sense that the feedback that I'm getting, the impact that the story is having, has been incredible. It's been tremendous. So you know, not only did I find that people of colour who are growing up in Canada, or who experienced similar situations, like this isn't just my story. There's so many people out there who this has resonated with. And I'll give you an example. My editor from the publisher, Joe Lee, he's originally from Oshawa, Ontario, and he's from Korean descent. And he was talking about like stories from my book and the gist of my book to a couple of hundred people at the

publishers. And I'm sitting there beside him on this stage we're doing a Q&A and he's talking about my story my book and he became emotional and that really hit home for me that okay this this has the power to make an impact that it isn't just my story it's the story of so many Canadians but then on the flip side guys something I wasn't expecting at all was I've had people of the majority read the book, and they've reached out to me and have said that they had no idea that, you know, people go through this type of thing. And, you know, I had people who I grew up with in Brooks who I've never kept in contact with, small town Brooks,

southern Alberta. And some of them have said that, you know, we were in the same classroom, the same hallways, the same schools, but we had no idea that this is what you were going through or, you know, it was such a different experience for you. And they were grateful to be able to read this so that they could tell their kids to be more aware and to be more, you know, it's, it's just a sense of respect and a sense of love for humanity and to be able to spread that message and to be able to inspire others to do more. And, and I think, you know, maybe writing more books is something that's on my horizon. I would, you know, I can't wait for the first day that I'm able to call a, uh, an call a game in English play by play wise. That's a dream that I've always had. And, you know, I'm hoping towards that, hoping to get towards that goal too. So there's a lot of things you want to do. I just feel that, you know, it's similar when the publisher asked me to write the book. I'm in my mid 30s. I had no idea I would ever even be writing books, let alone

at this time frame in my life. So you reflect back on it. And it's I was like, you know, this all happened to me when I went through and wrote it all. And it's something that it makes me emotional to think about all of the help that I've received all that I've been able to do, but then also going through kind of the rough, the hardships and the traumatic times too. And so I'm really grateful to be Canadian. I would say that this is a place, this is a country where the opportunities I've received, I know my community's history, I know what's going on in India and things, and I know what's going on in America. I'm seeing it everywhere we all are. What I've been able to experience here, being a Canadian, I wouldn't have been able to anywhere

else. So I'm just speaking from the heart. And I'm really grateful. Who knows what's in store? I don't know if any of us do. What do you say to people when they when they say things like, I had no idea what you were going through. Because on the one hand, there's ignorance. And on the other hand, there's ignorance. And anytime someone comes to you with the idea of I had no idea or confesses to you, underlying that is an element of shame. Like, I'm embarrassed that I didn't know that was happening.

How do you respond? It's an interesting way that you put it. I mean, I certainly wouldn't want them to feel ashamed or embarrassed. I think my perspective is to be thankful that not only do they realize and not only are they learning, you know, from a person's story like myself, but the fact that they reached out, it means that it had an impact. And it means that it was moving, or it means that it really made them think about the world in a different way. And so I think, just by me acknowledging that, and by me saying, you know, thank you for saying what you said, it shows me that all of this work that we're doing right now, we finally have the ear of the world.

We're finally in a place where I wasn't talking about this topic much before 2020. There's so many things that I've said publicly this year that I've never talked about before. Yes, I've talked about some of the hardships or some of the challenges and obstacles I face, but in depth going over things that have been said to me in a hockey arena. I realized only this year, very recently, that a lot of the racism and discrimination I faced was actually within the hockey world, whether that's in my seats, whether that's on the concourse, whether that's walking

to my car to the arena, or then whether it was when I made it as a broadcaster. I mean, it was all within the hockey world, a lot of it. And so I think when someone reaches out and says, you know, and they're speaking from the heart, I think my response to them is to say, thank you for taking out the time to learn about my journey. And thank you for acknowledging. I'm appreciative of that because I think if they are, it's just like you telling me, Jeff, when you reached out and when we've had a number of things happen over the past year and a month or so, that I want these people to talk to their families and their kids about it.

This should be a supper table conversation about, about inclusion, about racism, about diversity, about love and respect for humanity. And how we're all one. So, so that's what I hope to achieve. You're a treasure. Like honestly, Harn and Ryan, you're such a delight. Every conversation I've had with you, and I'm sure Elliot and Amal feel the same way. You just go away from it feeling better and feeling reassured that there really are great people in this world.

We're proud to call you a colleague, even more proud to call you a friend. Thank you so much for stopping by this week on the podcast. Really appreciate your time and your words, bud. Thank you, Jeff and Elliot and Amal. Really appreciate it. Take care. By the way, if you check out our show links,

you can find out where to order, get your own copy of Harner Ryan's book, One Game at a Time, My Journey from Small Town Alberta to Hockey's Biggest Stage. High recommendation from all three of us here at 31 Thoughts to Podcast. So Jeff, most of the people we've spoken to here at our Christmas party are in front of the camera and we have to include the people who are behind the scenes because they are the front of the camera and we have to include people who are behind the scenes because they are the backbone and the lifeblood of the show so you know i wanted to include one of the producers and the problem at sports net is that there are no good producers yet so you you have

to go with the best one you can possibly find and this year there's no question the best one is young david azuma david welcome to the podcast and what can we serve you what an introduction wow hey zooms i don't know that's a lot of pressure representing all of the great producers i would say maybe on this uh cold morning here i would use a nice guinness that's our second Guinness user. We had another Guinness user. Excellent. Excellent. Well, you know, first of all, David, I just want to introduce you to everybody. You're actually going to do most of this yourself, but you've now started producing some of the Toronto Maple Leaf broadcasts on Sportsnet. It was a big opportunity for you when you were put into that spot. You've done a great job. So tell us a little bit about, first of all, how old you are, kind of where you come from

and your route to becoming a producer of Maple Leaf Games on Sportsnet. Well, so first off, 35 from Unionville, Ontario. So it's kind of cool for me, I guess, like to work on games with that particular team because being from there, that's who I grew up watching. And so most of my family and friends cheer for him. So it's been pretty plugged into them for my whole life, really. As for how I got there, well, I got maybe a bit of an atypical path. Like I never went to school for broadcasting or anything.

I just kind of came by this by my own interest really I started at Sportsnet doing what everybody kind of starts in the entry job like you kind of work on the highlights and do that for a couple years and then I think I probably just annoyed the hockey people enough by like telling them random hockey facts and following them around the office. And they eventually they took me in and said, why don't you come in? You can kind of learn from us and do the early morning jobs that those guys didn't really want to get up for at that time and come in at 9 a.m. after working the night shift. So I got to be doing that for a couple years and then eventually I just probably got my producing my first crack doing CHL hockey which was at this time that's probably about six or seven years ago I worked with uh Rob Falds and also Jeff on some of those.

And from there, I think I maybe just did a little more each year. Like sometimes you do sports that the way it works, like you do some of the West Coast teams. I did the ice surfing show with Jeff a couple years ago. That was pretty fun. Leafs was the last year was the first year I did the Leafs. So that's kind of how it came to be. Okay so Elliot opened up with what do you want to drink but I'm more interested in what

you would like to eat because David and I when we first started working together I remember I told him the legend of the super panzo and Dave was fascinated with this and Elliot the super panzo is something me and my buddies used to do at university where we would order a pizza ask them not to cut it. This is like late at night,

like 2 or 3 a.m. Ask them not to cut it and just fold the pizza in half and eat it. And Dave, I think it was actually you that ended up calling it the super panzo because, you know, David and I have this mutual love for pizza. So Dave, this is a long-winded way of saying not what would you like to drink but what would you like to eat we have to go superpenzo and much like the time that i i think i ate it in the office once i think we talked about this yeah there's video there's you're talking about eating this at like two in the morning i was eating this at like 7pm and then I worked my shift. That's a heavy lunch. Yep. So we get a super panzo with pepperoni, Italian

sausage and ground beef. And then sit on the couch with your Guinness. Does that come with a bottle of Pepto-Bismol or no? No, it comes with the creamy garlic dip is what you get to help yourself through it. See, Dave always impressed because Dave could stick it away like nobody else. But if you saw him, you'd say to yourself through it see dave always impressed because dave could stick

it away like nobody else but if you saw him you'd say to yourself there's no way this guy can eat like this well i gotta tell you something i can't believe you're 35 you look like you're like 15 really it's it's remarkable like when you when you see davey because he can put it away it's like do you have a hollow leg dave like where do you put all this food I don't know everybody's got their thing so I guess I so I want to ask you so when you do your production meetings and for everybody who wonders about this production meetings are usually about two hours before the show where you sit down you go over the lineup and show everybody how their ideas are working into it which on-air person do you say i am least looking forward to this meeting because a their ideas are terrible and b they don't pay attention in production oh yeah they cannot ask me to throw somebody under the bus. Wow. I would say.

I don't know. Sometimes I don't know that you're too keen on those meetings, Elliot. Sometimes I think, oh, he's not going to be buying these ideas and he's got better information in his head than I do. I have to say I've been told that I can be bad at these meetings. Hang on. I have to say I've been told that I can be bad at these meetings. Hang on. Dave, at those meetings, how many times have you asked Elliot to turn his phone off or put his phone away?

No, I fear doing that. You know why? Because I fear I'm going to be depriving him of a big scoop. So I think I also have a bad habit when I call. I'll call in the midday to touch base before we even see each other in person I think probably 50% of the times I call Elliot you're like getting out of the locker room like you just are talking to the coaches of the players then like you'll say oh sorry I'm in the middle of Tampa Bay's dressing room here like ah I did it again like the worst time to call this guy zooms I want to end on this one because I always go, who was your inspiration? Who did you try to be like?

Who did you enjoy growing up? And it's very obvious when you're front facing to get that type of question because it's an obvious one. We so seldom ask producers that same thing. So here I go.

Dave, of all the producers you've worked with, either our company, other companies, wherever, who's been the biggest influence on you? That's a tough one for i don't know i can choose just one i think that probably the bigger influence has come more recently for me so i think i would maybe choose um two guys that we work with now actually so brian spear who works on the

hockey night show and matt marstrom who does he mostly does the Wednesday hockey. So I think Matt I've known for a while, like right when I started, which now you guys laughed at my age, but I've been at SportsZone now for 14 years, and I knew Matt since the start of that. So he's a guy that I think being alongside him for that long, that's somebody that I kind of watched and tried to learn what he does. And then Brian, probably in the last five years or so that I've gotten to work, see the hockey night show that he does.

That's another thing where two guys that maybe have different styles and they do very different shows, but doing that job, like in me being new, and those are guys that I've probably had good chats with in the past i'm glad you didn't mention paul bromby suck it bomber if you're listening to this one uh david this has been this has been a lot of fun listen dude uh happy holidays you and yours

uh continued success you're as elliot mentioned like look dude you're a rising star in the company and the industry uh it's great to watch uh it's great to be part of it whenever I can, and I'm sure Elliot feels the same way. Have a great holiday season. Merry Christmas, and best of the new year to you and your family, pal. Thanks. Fun coming on, guys, and happy holidays to you and both your families. It's always a good day,

Fried, when you get a chance to say, good day, Scotto. What can I get you to drink? I would start with a glass of white wine, I guess. Pinot Grigio. Is that your go-to? I might start with a beer and then switch to a glass of white wine after that, I guess. But I'm a pretty simple drinker. It's nothing special.

Just like your entire career, nothing special. Yeah, you're right. That's the level that I strive to achieve. I almost got there. So when I got hired in 2003, people at Hockey Night in Canada joked that Elliot's arrival means Scott goes into semi-retirement. So I assume that these last six to 10 months haven't been anything different for you.

What have you been up to lately? It's pretty much a routine here, Elliot. The big joke, and I think you've probably heard this before, is that Anna and I have been married for 40 years and it's worked because I've only been around for 20 of them, but I've made up for the missing 20, I think, in the last six or seven months. Being in the bubble in Edmonton for approximately a month, five weeks was a real nice distraction. But yeah, it's not much, there's not much going on here these days because we're in code red, a lockdown here in Manitoba. Give us a snapshot of Manitoba right now. Give us a snapshot where you're at, family's at, and the province. Well, the province is suffering through the second wave of the

pandemic, much worse than the first was. It's been code red here, I think, now for about five or six weeks. The daily cases usually are somewhere between 300 and 500. Last couple of days, they've been below 300. So I guess there are signs the lockdown is working. It's a tough time. People can't get together for Christmas. is working. It's a tough time. People can't get together for Christmas, and that's really sad,

but necessary because we have to do what we can to contain this. There are signs that the code red conditions, as I say, are working. So that's the good news. And of course, the vaccine is beginning to be applied now. So there's hope. But, you know, it's tough for everybody. So there's hope, but you know, it's tough for everybody. Ann and I are, we're getting along fine, merciful Jesus, but, but we like everybody else look forward to the day that there's a return to some sort of normalcy. Now, how has this affected, you know, Darcy? Obviously he's a performer and I'm just curious, you know, the last 10, 11 months, how have they affected his career and what he likes to do? Good news, bad news. The good news is Darcy will be home for Christmas this year for the first time in about three or four years.

Nice. And we'll figure out a way to see him, even though we're not supposed to congregate at Christmas, but there's just him. The bad news is that there's nothing going on for entertainers and hasn't been now for nine or ten months. He was just getting ready to start his tour of the UK when the pandemic broke open in, say, last March and had to postpone the tour, postponed it a second time in November. So now he's making the best of a bad situation. He's focusing on a virtual show that he will in fact do on saturday night december 19th a couple of days from now excellent he's figuring out uh how to uh how to do a show in which he can interact with the audience he's got it figured out in fact so uh it's a neat project for him

and maybe the way of the future because he can do a show in his warehouse and not have to pack up and you know take his uh his equipment to the next city. Uh, so he's looking forward to it. He's making the best of it, as I say. And, uh, yeah, he's, uh, he's, he's figuring it out. When did Darcy get the magic bug? I can recall when I used to do Hockey Night in Canada radio, whenever you would come on, I'd always hear his birds in the background and you'd say, oh yeah, don't worry. That's, that's my son.

He's a, he's a, he's a magician. When did he, when did he get the bug, Scott? Well, first of all, I recall doing Hockey Night in Canada radio and those, oh, yeah, don't worry. That's my son. He's a magician. When did he get the bug, Scott? Well, first of all, I recall doing Hockey Night in Canada radio and the parakeets chirping behind us. But I didn't even hear it. Ann and I tuned that sound out a long time ago. But they're not here anymore. His birds are not here. They're at his warehouse where they're well taken care of.

But the magic bug took hold of Darcy. He tells this story when he's interviewed. And it's it's actually true and I were sitting here at the kitchen table one day Darcy would have been oh I guess nine or ten I had a deck of cards and I was fooling around with them and I said to Darcy here pick a card any card and I have no magic I know nothing but anyway he picked the card and I put the card back in the deck and somehow I had a 1 in 52 chance of picking out his card and I picked it out. And he was stunned. Couldn't figure out how I...

And so was I, as a matter of fact. And he couldn't figure out how I did it and I couldn't explain it to him. So that really got him going. And about a week later, he had 10 killer card tricks and after that entered a couple of magic contests at a community club here in Winnipeg and won them and decided that magic was going to be his future and we always said to him well yeah that's great nice thought but it's not going to work get a plan b and there never was a plan b so uh he's he's very very fortunate and so are we that it worked out for him you know scott one of the best parts about hockey night in canada is after hours and um yes i'm glad you said that elliot well it's true

as much as it pains me to admit it's true um you know last year obviously we couldn't do it after the return to play because it's something that just wasn't possible you know do you have any idea of what the the future of that segment is going to be? Has it been discussed at all? Because, you know, we just don't know what we're dealing with for the next little while. No, and you're right. Everything is, you know, it's up in the air. We don't know how it's going to look, what the schedule is going to be like,

where they're going to play. Will it be in their own rinks? Will it be in hub cities? But yeah, we've had a few discussions about it, certainly the producer, Paul Griss and I, and we think there's a way to do it. We'll have to be socially distanced, maybe even in different rooms,

but that show is best when it's in a story mode and we can get stories out of players, I think, even if we're not sitting beside them. So we think there's a way to do it. We're hopeful. Favorite Christmas memories for you? Grew up in a family of five kids. So Christmas morning was always a carnage in our house with gifts being ripped open. And at five at the same time, usually took about five minutes. But

I always remember when I was probably nine or 10, my parents would have bought the window at Sears. That's the store that they would have shopped at at the time in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and bought me a complete set of Montreal Canadiens equipment. I couldn't get it on fast enough and got out to one of the backyard rinks and had it on all day. I guess it doesn't take much to make a fan out of somebody that age, and so that ensured that i would have been a montreal canadians fan when i was growing up and i became a a diehard one and love those teams of the uh of the early 60s and who was your favorite player just out of curiosity

i probably had two boom boom number five and uh and uh the pocket rocket on river shard number 16 two excellent players hey scott um, Scott, enough of hockey. What is your favorite non-hockey sport to cover? I mean, you're not just an exclusive hockey guy. What's your favorite non-hockey sport? I did a lot of World Cup skiing over the years when I was at CBC, and I loved it. Got the chance to call Karen Lee Gartner's Olympic gold medal win in Albertville.

And later she joined us as an analyst and she and Max became very, very good friends of mine. I love that sport because it was probably the most danger filled sport that women compete in because they can reach speeds of, you know, 100k an hour tearing down the hill. And Karen was a great skier, great commentator and I loved working with her and I kind of became attached to that sport for a long time

That's awesome. Hey listen thanks as always for stopping by I do miss hearing the birds when I talk to you at your house but listen wishing you and your family all the best at Christmas this holiday season be well hope to see you on the magic eyeball when we get back.

Jeff and Elliot, best to you and your families. And I just have one request. Can you edit this to make me sound intelligent? Scott, Amel does that with me and Elliot every single week. You want to talk about magicians? Seriously, you're the third option here. I have a lot of respect for the magic that Darcy does, but the magic that Emil does every week on this podcast,

I'll put him in there against Darcy any day of the week. Thanks for that, Scott. Perfect. Thank you, boys. This year was a bastard. What else can you say? It feels like these 12 months just got in the way. I gotta believe that we'll all be okay if we hold on to Christmas Day.

Some days felt like the lifetimes without a reprieve. Elliot, look who's dropped by. I think I know the answer to one of my first questions. And two, you're going to get really annoyed with me quickly here as John and I kind of have a tradition when we're speaking publicly to one another. John Bartlett joins us, Bates Pataglia. How is Brad Lieb and Jeremy Williams? How is John Bartlett this Christmas season?

Oh, probably as well as Alex Foster, Jeff Corey, and Chris Saint-Jacques would be doing there, Jeffy. So happy that we'll be getting back at it in the new year. But in the meantime, just enjoying the holiday season. So take it in while we have the time, which is unusual for us to do. So enjoy it and looking forward to getting back at it. Brett Englehart, Colin Murphy. That sounds fantastic, John Barlow.

Now, for all of our listeners right now, they should know that whenever John and I are together, since we did Marley's games together for radio, when the Marley's first came to Toronto from St. John's John was the original play-by-play voice coming in from the very Colts of the OHL. And I did color with them. And whenever we get together,

we just randomly Elliot, and this will annoy you to no end. And we'll stop throw names like Ben Andrus and Roman Kuchenberg and Mark Morrow and Todd Ford and Robbie Earl at each other. Some of the original Marlies from 05-06. Yes, Elliot, this is what we spend our time doing. I already

find this conversation really annoying. I regret inviting Bartlett here. One of these days, Jeff, you and I should just do a whole sort of history of the beginning of the Marley's little thing where we can get in. Some of the stories that now I could probably tell would be great. I would just want to talk about the noodles at Rico Coliseum. That was before the press meal day where you had the coupon and you had to eat, so you'd wait for the noodles to be cooked.

That was a steady diet there. So good. So good. Okay, this story I want to hear. Okay, tell me this story. When the Marley's started for the first, oh, I don't know how many years we had, we never had a press room or a press meal. What we did is we gave out coupons to the media for the concession stands. So there was one noodle stand that was there in the concession and it would, it would open early enough that you'd be able to grab the bite, but you'd be eating it in the booth. And they made the fresh noodles right there. What would you call it,

Jeffy? Was it like a stir fry noodle kind of thing? Yeah. Yeah. It was vegetables in there as well. And just dump soy sauce on it. Like this was a staple before the pregame. Bart's would be like, it's time soy sauce on. This was a staple. Before the pregame,

Bart's would be like, it's time for the noodles. Time for the noodles. You go down and throw in about 4,000 milligrams of sodium, India, before you start the game. Then you'd be going through 17 bottles of water through the game just trying to flush it all out.

But it tasted good. It was good. Look at Bart's through the game. Why is his tongue hanging out? What is going on with Bartlett up there? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, that was something, especially in the American Hockey League,

you had to be very conscious of in the buildings is how close you were to the bathroom for the intermission because if you're chugging a lot of water, you had to know in some buildings you had to go down to the concourse, and that created a whole other job for you. You had to plan your intermissions ahead of time if you knew you had to go line up in the public lines. And I remember Grand Rapids was a terrible one for that, especially if you were on dollar beer night on a Friday game, because the lineup for the men's room in the second intermission wrapped around the building twice.

So, yeah, you had to plan ahead for that stuff. I got to tell you, i thought this story was going in a different direction and that that direction involved not the lineup for the bathroom for that reason but for another reason and i've got one of those stories but i am saving it for my book well that's good because that's probably a good spot to read it so it'll be flagged the book's been flagged why can't you be this funny on air uh that's probably a good spot to read it so it'll be flagged the book's been flagged why can't you be this funny on air uh that's uh that's good um you know i i wanted to say there's something you've been doing during this if you ever saw the 1999 movie mystery men one

of the mystery men was known as the shoveler played by William H. Macy. And I understand Mr. Bartlett that during the pandemic, you've been the shoveler on your street. Well, it's really a necessity of, uh, I had a lot of time on my hands and needed something to do, and it's a good way to burn a few hours. So I got out of routine there with a snowstorm we had a little while ago. It was heavy, wet snow. I started a mine, helped the neighbor, then went across the street. Then it kind of started, for a bad pun here, snowballed into going driveway to driveway in the wake. And you were just chatting with the neighbors. And so, yeah, I think I ended up doing about 17 driveways one day just because I just kept going house to house.

Hey, how you going? How you doing? I got nothing else to do right now. So it ended up being a pretty good day getting a little exercise in and chatting with the neighbors. That's great stuff, Johnny. Good on you. Yeah, it'll help if I end up running for council

or something, for mayor, you know? You're too smart to be a politician. That's right. Yeah, don't ask Elliot about politicians. Best holiday hockey Christmas story. Yeah, don't ask Elliot about politicians. Best holiday hockey Christmas story. Yeah, okay. So I've got two for you here, and this is great. So anytime I think of holiday hockey stories,

I always go back to my teenage years. And this is junior hockey stories I have, which are great. So growing up in Newmarket, I was the PA announcer for the local junior team, the Newmarket 87s, which later became the Hurricanes. And back in the mid-1990s, the 87s hosted an annual Junior A Showcase tournament every Christmas holiday, ran from the 27th to the 30th every year. There were 24, 26, 28 teams in it, two rinks going, games starting every day at 9 a.m.

They went all the way through to 9 o'clock starts at night. So because I was a PA announcer, I'd spend every day, every game at the complex in the booth doing the PA and music, living off of cold pizza and donuts and soda, you know, breakfast of champion back then. But anyways, I had a blast. I loved it. It was always a highlight of the holidays doing the tournament.

And the hockey was great, but it was long days. It was 14-hour days in the rink during the holidays. But the tournament became a really big thing for scouts, and it was a really fantastically run tournament. But it always kicked off with an annual game on Boxing Day between the 87s and the Russians, and they had a touring Russian team. So two great stories come out of these particular Boxing Day games. In 1994, the Russian Central Red Army team had been touring around Ontario

playing Junior A teams, and they were steamrolling everyone, and they hadn't lost a game yet coming into this Boxing Day game to face Newmarket that year. And they featured a young star by the name of Sergei Sabsonov. Oh, I remember that tour. I packed into Centennial Arena and now Herb Carnegie Arena for that game. That's right. That was the same tour, right? Yep. So the complex, it sold out. It's the largest crowd in New Market history at the time to

ever watch a hockey game. There's over 4,000 in there. It's jammed to the rafters. The standing room is like three, four rows deep. They're coming and sneaking in the side doors. I think it was the year of the lockout too. So everyone really wanted to get in on this hockey game. I don't ask the fire marshal if we were over the fire code. I'm sure we were. But the 87s are coached by Wes Jarvis, former Maple Leaf and Washington Capitol,

who now runs the national training rink in Newmarket, along with Mike Gartner. So the crowd's going nuts. It's an amazing game. Just turns out to be an amazing game. Newmarket had a good team that year. And Timmy Moran, never forget this, highlight of his career. Timmy Moran of Chapelleau, Ontario.

He scores what would be the game winner on a breakaway in the second period. Goes bar down. Beautiful goal. 87s, they hang on all third period and battle on to win. So the crowd's going crazy. It's the first time the Russians have lost in this tour. They beat the Russians and shut down Samsonov. It's huge. You can't hear a thing in the building. And the buzzer goes, game over. Huge deal. Crowd's going nuts. But as you guys know, an important part of junior hockey

fundraising is the 50-50 draw. So they're selling a ton of tickets all through the game because of this crowd. But it's the old day of tearing off the tickets, and it takes forever to count them up and count the money. So it took them all game to do it so the game ends crowd going crazy i've got the sound system that old octagon speaker thing crank full bore because they're calling to me saying you have to give the winning number of the 50 50 right at the end of the game and nobody can hear anything and i should be saying the final score new market and i'm like ladies and gentlemen, check your 50, 50 tickets. We have the winning number. And anyone can barely hear me. I'm trying to get it out. It's a couple thousand bucks. So there's some old video somebody posted on YouTube of the game. And it's hilarious at the

end. There it is. Everyone's going nuts. And you can hear me in the back. Check your 50, 50. So yeah, to this day, I'm not even sure if the winning person heard their number to get, get their money or not. What a, what a great Canadian broadcasting moment though, for a sports broadcaster, for a, for a play caller, like screaming out the 50 fifties as the place is coming unglued in the background. It's crazy. I mean, it was going nuts.

So, so that's the first one they beat Samson off. So now this becomes the annual tradition. The tournament kicks off on Boxing Day every year and Newmarket will play the Russians. So fast forward a few years ahead to Boxing Day 1999, when this time the Russians feature another young star by the name of Ilya Kovalchuk. And this game had a much different tone to it. And Kovalchuk made a name for himself. Not many people really knew about Kovalchuk too much before this Boxing Day game. It was a tune-up game the Russian team had had. They were going up to Timmins for the World Under 17 Challenge. So this game gets a little rough and then gets completely out of hand. There's all kinds of fights. Eventually all heck

breaks loose and a brawl breaks out in the second period. 18 players get ejected. 11 of them are Russians. But this is where it starts to get funny. You got 11 Russians thrown out of the game and somehow the bench didn't lighten up that much. So at one point, Kovalchuk's in the penalty box. He's trying to climb the glass. Then he hides on the Russian bench at the feet of his players so the referees can't see him to see who's thrown out. Because back then they just had the numbers on the sweaters. Nobody knew who these Russian kids were. So he dives under the bench so the referees can't find him to throw him out of the game. He's trying to hide. So that's not the end of it though. So he gets tossed and his teammates get tossed. They come back out wearing different sweaters and they're playing in the game again. And Kovalchuk comes back and finally

they figure out, hey, it's the same guy guy he's wearing a different uniform they kick him out again he comes back a third time so because nobody like you didn't know and the Russians were kind of there was sort of some idea over the years that you know it was funny you the intermission would happen and the next thing you know someone would come out wearing the same number and look an inch or two taller. And then there'd be a fresh showered face up in the stands. So there was always kind of suspicion they were rolling through more than their roster anyways in these games. But Kovalchuk makes a name for himself in this game, just being a complete circus sideshow and coming back into the game wearing different numbers a few times. So after the game, Charlie McCowan goes down to the Russian room and he's fuming about this he's he's losing it so he starts giving it to the coach and it's

funny because Charlie always said the Russian coach could not speak a word in English until I told him they'll never play another game in this ring then all of a sudden he had some English in him right so what was the answer see ya good like I don't even want to come back here. It became a big deal for the Russians too to play the annual game and do this Ontario tour. It was, it became a tune up for them, as I said, for, you know, whatever program they were going to, usually the under 17. So after a few years,

it had built up to be quite a thing for them to come around and do the tour as well. So, but after this one, yeah, that was it. That ended the annual Russian Day Boxing Day game. The next year, the Boxing Day game featured a team from the Czech Republic. So Charlie always joked. He said, the one mistake maybe I did is that we didn't have them back because if they had played the next game,

they would have been sold out to the rafters again after that whole fiasco. And so, yeah, so when I think holiday hockey, I always think of the the tournament all the hours i spend in the rink and then the annual boxing day games and those two stories to think samsonoff and kovalchuk both played in those games and and to have the crazy stories that uh that came out of them they're they're classic barts have a great christmas buddy uh and good on you for uh for shoveling those driveways we'll check in soon yeah you bet and uh have a safe and happy holidays everyone and we're looking forward to getting

back at it in the new year. Christine Simpson, hello. Welcome to the 31 Thoughts Holiday Party. First question, standard fare, what is in your cup? How about rum and eggnog? Is that the standard for you? Has that always been your staple?

Well, I was going to say it is sort of the one indulgence I allow myself. And somehow at Christmas, it seems to be. I mean, it's just so rich. And I got to say, I can only probably have one. But yes, I do allow myself that. I cannot hear eggnog without thinking about beckers. Are you the same? Yes, I am definitely the same. We are the same yes i am definitely the same we are the same similar vintage anyway yes we we uh we're pretty much the same age we grew up watching the same shows and watching the same commercials and apparently elliot buying the same eggnog uh from becker's that's the symmetry with me and simmer i think eggnog is disgusting oh i cannot stand it good because i'm not sharing yeah because i'm not sharing so that's

fine simon one of the things we've been um we've been talking to lots of people about is you know we all have gripes and complaints and it's sort of industry fair to be grumpy uh when you're on this side of of the camera we all are we all our moments. That's why we end up getting called poodles all the time. But given what we've been through going back to last March, what's the one thing or maybe a couple of things that you realize I really miss this and I'm never going to complain about it again? Well, believe it or not, for me, it's travel. And we all know there's a lot to complain about with travel, the lineups, the delays, all of that. But this is probably the longest I have gone in my adult life

without getting on a plane. And I do look forward to the day that I'll be able to do that again, partly too, because whether it's for work or vacation, it means I'm going somewhere cool and going to be around people. So that might be part of it too, is actually seeing other people. But no, I expect it will even be longer lineups and there'll be more that we need to go through at the airport to get on a plane again. But I look forward to that very much. You know, a lot of the things that when you traveled, like if you take a look at some of the big interviews you did over the past couple of years, there was Nathan McKinnon.

That one I remember was very good right after he had the blow up on the bench with Jared Bednar. That was fun. That was fun. You had a good one with Eric Carlson right after he was traded to San Jose. You had one with Max Pacioretty in his first trip back to Montreal. You've had a lot of big time interviews throughout your career. So I'm curious, Christine, when you get into that line and you have to show your vaccination card or take your rapid test or whatever you're going to have to do, who is to be the person you would say, I hope that this is the kind of person I'm interviewing when I next get back onto a plane? Oh, wow. That's a great question. Because you

know what? The ones that you mentioned were absolute highlights for me as well. I'm glad for the people watching them they were. You want to find someone in a moment where everybody wants to know how they're feeling and what they're saying. Max Pacioretty, a great example, you know, his departure from Montreal had some question marks. And so to be able to give the fans there what he was feeling coming back. But I'll also say the one that stuck with me last year that I did too, was sitting down with with Nate Thompson and his wife, Sydney. Quite often to me, my favorite interviews are the ones that actually have nothing to do with hockey. They have to do with that

person. They have to do with something that, you know, they overcame. And Nate Thompson, I mean, I'm still to this day, just so grateful that he decided that it was time for him to share his story, obviously, because he wanted it to help other people. And I think it did. I mean, the reaction that I not only got after doing that interview, but I know that he got from those in the hockey world and beyond. So it's interesting because I haven't wrapped my head around yet what hockey will be like when we come back. And I wonder what stories, personal stories, human stories are out there as we've all gone through this crazy, you know, nine, 10 months now. That's what I'll hope to uncover. So I don't know who it is and I'm not sure what the story will be, but those are the ones that I will hope to

uncover when we are back in hockey world again. One thing I wanted to ask you about that is I had a friend who was asking me, and it's kind of an interesting philosophical question. And he said, are you guys going to want to do those kinds of stories? And he said, honestly, is the audience going to want to hear those kinds of stories? Because we're going to be so COVID fatigued when life returns back to quote unquote normal, whatever that's going to be. And are people really going to want to hear those stories? And I said, you know, it's a good question,

but I think people want to hear a story well told. That's always my response to that kind of thing. I agree. And I think you do want the combination. Like, absolutely. I am, believe it or not, and I'm thinking of Ken Reed as I'm saying that, I'm also looking forward to the guys saying,

yeah, we need to get pucks in deep. We need to do all of the cliches just because we haven't heard them say that for so long. And it will signal that there is some normalcy back, you know, hearing a player give his cliche answers because it will mean hockey's back and, and, uh, life is somewhat back to normal, but I still say no matter what, kind of what you said, a good story is a good story, whether it makes you laugh or it makes you cry. I agree. Hockey player personalities. Elliot and I talk a lot about this on the podcast and how there's almost, I don't know, a sea change going on right now. Like there's still plenty of, you know,

yes coach, no coach, pucks in deep, All the answers are in that room, that type of answer you're going to get from a lot of players, but it seems as if more and more specifically with the younger players that they're more open to show their personalities, um, more comfortable being themselves than ever before. Do you find that simmer? I do. And you know, when I'm getting ready to do a game and doing my research to find little in-game stories to be able to talk about, you know, unlike before, I'm now searching through their Twitter feeds, their Instagram feeds,

and being able to see more of their personality in a way that we never could see before. And so I think that you're right. It is part of the new generation. They don't always need us to tell their stories. They can tell their own stories because they have the platforms to be able to do that. And I think when you see some of those younger guys,

you know, tearing down the walls and the facades and letting people into their world, it does encourage other players to do that as well. And in a similar but different vein, you know, you look at the guys who brought together the Hockey Diversity Alliance and speaking out again, speaking out of the good and the bad of the hockey but hockey world, but wanting to change it for the better. And so Matt Dumba, that's one of the highlights of the playoffs for me. You know, his speech at center ice,

you look at that and you think, man, good for him to do it. Good for his teammates to support him and the hockey world to support him. And obviously, I hope we see a lot more of that as well. Well, Christine, before we let you go, we're asking for favorite Christmas

or holiday memories. So we're curious, what would yours be? Okay, so you would think with two hockey playing brothers that I grew up with, it would probably be like an NHL game or a London Knights game when brother Dave was the captain of the team

or when Craig was in the NHL. But no, my favorite hockey Christmas memory is the floor hockey games that we used to have. Now, quick background. And Elliot went to Western as well. I grew up in London, Ontario. You might be familiar with Althaus College that is on the campus at Western.

Teachers College, yep. Back in the day, my dad, Don, was part of the faculty at Althaus College. So it meant that he had keys to the building. Well, Althaus College, of course, has classrooms and everything that a college would, but it also has a big gym. So on Christmas Day, dad used to take us all up, myself, our cousins, family, friends, unlock the gym at Old House College, and we had the run of the place.

And we would have epic floor hockey games, basketball games. We'd get the trampoline out. And I was thinking, like, not only our family, our cousins, family, friends, we'd have upwards of, I'd say, like 40 people there on Christmas day. And we would just go to town. And as you can imagine, the competition would get pretty stiff

when you consider the brothers being involved. But that to me was what Christmas was all about. And you sort of worked up a sweat and earned your turkey dinner later that night. Man, you mentioned that. And all I can think about Simmer is all the floor hockey games in various hotels at Christmas tournaments growing up. The mini sticks in the hallway, right? I remember those much more than the games on the ice. Like just with Simmer, you're 100% right, man.

I'm glad you use that one as your memory because now all those are flooding back to me. Listen. You know, I got to ask you one more before I let you go. Who's the most competitive Simpson? I would say Craig probably because being the youngest, he always had to fight for everything. And I would also say he would sometimes cheat if it meant he had to win. Anything to win. Oh, I can't wait till he's coming on.

I cannot wait to hear that. You just gave us ammunition. This is spectacular. That's what big sisters do, right? First question, Craig. Your sister says you cheat. You cheated at mini sticks. Thanks so much for this, Simmer.

Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. best to you and your family Thank you boys and right back at you Happy Holidays Pleased to be joined now by someone who's going to take us down memory lane as I selfishly ask him questions about his career He is Gene Principe and he joins us on 31 Thoughts Holiday

Special Gene, thanks so much for stopping by the party today Before we get going What do I see in your glass? What is your drink of choice? Thoughts Holiday Special. Gene, thanks so much for stopping by the party today. Before we get going, what do I see in your glass? What is your drink of choice? You know what? I have kind of started to enjoy eggnog. My wife likes it.

Now my kids, two of my three kids are old enough to drink, so they've kind of liked it. And it used to be just kind of the eggnog that you would get at the local grocery store. But now you can buy, I guess we used to call it spiked, like the party's eggnog. So a combination of that. I'm not much of a drinker, but I kind of like the taste of it as long as I can eggnog it down with a little bit of the stuff that doesn't have booze in it. How about that, Elliot? Back-to-back eggnog. First Simmer, now Gene. You like the taste of eggnog? Now, I will say this, Elliot. It's a small acquired window of

the year, and I don't have it all the time. So I think if eggnog was something that was on the shelves for 12 months, I would hate it. But just that little bit kind of around Christmas, it just kind of feels like it's a part of Christmas. So I've indulged in it, you know, a little bit. And so I kind of have started to enjoy it a bit more on a limited basis. So I got to tell you, like, Gene, of all the people at Sportsnet and Rogers, social media presence, I think yours is amazing. So yesterday there's somebody who tweets out that they're happy.

They don't have to watch their soccer on sports net. And you know, you, we, we all get these things all the time, right? I just ignore it. It's just, who cares? And I just love the way that you respond. Doesn't mean you have to trash us. Seems harsh. It's just, who cares? And I just love the way that you respond. Doesn't mean you have to trash us. Seems harsh, my friend, and not very nice, especially during the holiday season.

However, still enjoy the soccer. How can you be this nice to people? I don't understand. You know what, Elliot? I think one of the things I do is oftentimes I pick, you know, I don't even know why I pick some of them. They just, there's some people who work pretty hard on doing the soccer stuff. And I just kind of felt like, you know, that's not really nice, but we are allowed our own opinions. And so I always try and finish it with something, you know, positive.

I don't want to add to the stuff that we see on social media by being mean to this individual. That's just kind of like, am I any better than him then by doing that? So, you know, you try and make a point, but try and be nice about it. You know, sometimes I write my mean tweet and then delete it just so I get it out of my system and then write my nice tweet, which I send out. So I always feel better because I would hate to send that out and 30 seconds later go, man, I don't feel good about that. So I'd rather send it out and be more kind than mean to somebody. What does a Gene Principe mean tweet sound like? Well, yeah, you know, it's funny. My wife says, you've got everybody fooled. You're not as nice as everyone thinks. And I said, well, I said, you know, true. I mean, I've been married almost 24 years. And so probably with your wife and kids, you're most, you know, honest. But yeah,

I don't know. I try not to take things too seriously. It does take a fair amount to get me mad. I guess I can get there, but I don't know. I just want to try and be nice, I guess. And nice can be sometimes kind of boring, but I like it that way. I'm the kind of person that, like many, I want to make friends, not enemies. And if I do something that I regret, I really carry it. And so I want to have as few of those regrets and as few of those hours or days of carrying that feeling as possible. You know, here's the thing. Yeah, it is great. But here's the thing. Like, I think it's harder. This is the thing I give you credit for, Gino. I think it's harder to be nice than it is to be mean. Of course. Because being mean is easy. You just have to dismiss someone.

You can make one snide offhand comment that ends a conversation or anything like that. Being nice, it takes more time. You engage. You try to think of something thoughtful to say. Sometimes I think that, especially on social media, being nice is work. And that's why I think it's a great credit because I do think it is harder to be nice than it is to be mean and that's why I think too often I try to stop myself from taking the easy way out. Yeah and I would say this too I would say most if I get let's say 10 mean tweets let's say and I respond to those 10 I would say eight or nine almost always sort of come back and go well you know I didn't really mean that or, you know, sorry about that. I was just kind of letting off some steam or they usually kind of take a step back or

two. They don't have to, but normally they kind of come back with something much softer and more pleasant than their original tweet or post that they sent. All right. original tweet or post that they sent. All right. This time of year, we all sort of get wrapped up in memories and history and nostalgia. When I think Gene Principe, one of the first things that pops into my mind, just because I loved it so much, is Sportsline.

Yes. I remember when you got that job. Yes, Guy. Oh, honestly, Gene, I loved Sportsline. Yes. I remember when you got that job. Yes, guy. Oh, honestly, Gene, I loved Sportsline. Global Sports was fantastic.

What are your memories of Sportsline? What comes to your mind when you hear that? Yes, guy. For sure, that comes to mind. You know, I think that was my,

you know, when I was a kid, kind of in my mid to late teens and got into broadcasting, I'd always kind of set, I wanted to work in Toronto by the age of 25. You know, when I was a kid, kind of in my mid to late teens and got into broadcasting, I'd always kind of set. I wanted to work in Toronto by the age of 25. You know, I just kind of set that city and that timeline. As it turns out, I did get to Toronto. I was 28, which, you know, I was still happy with.

You set goals and you're trying to achieve them. It was really, you know what, that job pretty much set me up, not for the rest of my career, because I still hopefully have a few more years to go, but it's like going to an Ivy League school, I think. It just gives you a certain amount of prestige. It gives years and the gentleman I replaced, Mark Hebbshire, who was, you know, legendary for the work that he did. I'll never forget my first day he called and, you know, he wished me luck and kind of the old break a leg, do what you've done, be yourself. And I always appreciated that from Mark. He didn't, you know, he could have went, who's this guy? And, you know, I can't hold a candle to me, which was likely true. But instead, he took the nice approach and gave me a nice, warm feeling to kind of start things off. I made lifelong friends out of there. Not only did it help my career, but it kind of helped me, you know, as a person. And it was a great, you know, Toronto and Aerie is a great city to live in and to experience.

And so it was just wonderful. to live in and to experience. And so it was just wonderful. It really set me up, not only for the rest of my career to this point, but kind of for the rest of my life. Christmas memories. What's Christmas mean to you? Well, Christmas means to me on Christmas Eve, not eating meat and going to church, midnight mass. I was an altar boy from grade four to grade nine. So that was very important for us. We'd go and that was always my favorite mass because of all the singing and all the joy there is. And not to mention you get to open Christmas presents when you got home. So that was pretty exciting. And oftentimes Christmas day was spent with family, with some of my friends. We'd slide our skates on our stick

and try and head off to the local rink. We kind of planned for a time. And if you could make it, you could make it. You'd hop the boards, you'd put on your skates, and you would just skate. And listen, now as kids who go out to bars, it's great that they have phones because I can keep track of them. But back then you couldn't, you know.

You went out and you were out for hours at a time and your parents, you know, kind of felt safe that you were with people that were good and you were in an area that was fine for playing and skating. And I think the other thing I remember, you know, I've never bought anything online. I don't know how to online shop,

but I did know how to catalog shop. I know, sorry, my wife does all that. I don't know how to buy online and I'm just holding off, but I do remember the consumers distributing catalogs and the Sears catalogs and the Zellers catalogs. And, you know, we were, we were a middle-class to lower-class family. We didn't have a lot, but we certainly had enough. And I would always pick up, you know, whether it be a pair of elbow pads, you know, a Sherwood PMP stick or one kind of brand new item. You know, you get the catalog number and I pass it on to my to my parents.

And so it was always exciting getting those catalogs and shopping out of there. I know online is convenient and fast, but I love looking through those catalogs that pretty much anything in the sports section to enjoy and to sometimes get. You know, Gene, that since we started this interview with you, Elliot Online has already bought two shirts and I think a new watch. I don't know how to do it. You know, I hate to admit this, but the other day when we were taping some interviews, I did do some online shopping. Yes. That's fantastic.

But you know what that makes you, Gene, smarter than the rest of us that you don't do this you are going back to the sports line days certainly hey listen this has been a lot of fun uh merry christmas gene to you and your family best of the holidays look forward to seeing you on television again soon you know what right back at you guys and keep up the great work it's uh two thumbs up all across the country and elsewhere when it comes to what you two are doing. Thanks very much, Gino. Elliot, let me ask you a question. Hit me. What kind of person moves house during a pandemic?

Colby Armstrong does. How you doing, Colbs? How was the move, buddy? Oh my goodness. I'll never move again. I'll never move again. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We all say that. Bury me in this house. I'll never move again i'll never move again yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah we all say that bury me in this house i'm never moving again it's over this is it i'm done with it it's it was the worst ever it was terrible and even just buying the new house is just an all-around tough

brutal process so but we're in we we're here, we're happy. We're going to have our first Christmas in here. I got to tell you, two or three years ago, I can't remember how many years it was, we moved during the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs. I thought that was stupid and dumb. Like, I have to just tell you, you beat me on this one. Yeah, no, we, yeah, we, well, we wanted to sell our house. We were going to build a house.

So that was going to happen regardless up until this. And then we got out of the build and we found a house that we could just move into right away. So it actually saved us a little bit of hassle. But I don't know. Here we are. We're making it work. The old place sounded great and looked fantastic too. Like I always wonder about things that you miss from your old place.

Like there's always one or two things. Like I used to always talk to you and you'd say, Hey, yeah, I just saw Mario and Pierre LaRouche cause you would back onto a golf course. Yeah. I just went into Mario and Pierre LaRouche. You know, they're, they're playing this morning. What do you miss from the old place? I guess I do kind of miss that. Like we were right on a tee box in a golf course community type of thing.

And you know, I bought the house when I initially was playing for the Penguins. So this is in 08, like when I got traded, the year I got traded, I bought that house. Craig Adams rented it for years, which is really cool, really nice of him and his family until he retired. Then we moved back when I was done and moved back into our old house, which was, you know, I had the house when Mel and I were dating and now we come back in there. We have three kids, one on the way. It was just totally different place. But I do miss the golf course kind of thing a little bit, although I don't necessarily totally miss everyone stopping in my backyard on the tee box. And, you know, my kids are running around in their diapers in the yard and there's toys everywhere. And I got

to tell them to be quiet while they're teeing off, you know, it was kind of a whole thing. I much rather the house we're in right now beautiful place great neighborhood lots of young families and kids everywhere it's awesome I think the thing that I'm curious about now is you know Christmas unfortunately for people it's not going to be the normal Christmas this year but a newly expanded family a new house what's it going to be like for you these this time yeah it'll just be us it going to be like for you this time? Yeah, it'll just be us. It'll just be us in here doing our Christmas. And trust me, guys, we have more than enough people, four kids.

Christmas morning is a huge gong show. It is a gong show. So I'm looking forward to it. Our three-year-old is at a great age where she's super excited about everything. Our five-year-old is going bonkers for it. Our seven-year-old is super is super we have three young girls and cruz my oldest boy so if all fails i mean me and my me and my boy will just scurry to the basement to watch tv together and hide out

the craziness i'm curious about about cruz i know he's a big hockey kid what is he looking forward to at christmas and does he uh my kids are still, they're all, they're gaga for hockey still, obviously. And I think Cruiser is too. What kind of stuff is he into? Like, what has he asked you for Christmas? Yeah, it's interesting because I've kind of been waiting for him to like, really like take on, like he wants to play hockey.

He tells me I want to be an NHL hockey player. I'm like, oh, that's great. That's great. You know, it takes like a lot. Like you really got to want it. You know, you really got to love hockey hockey like you have to love it man so I just kind of like let him let him do his own thing and and he's kind of getting more interest now and just like really jumping into it so everything he kind of wants for Christmas right now I asked

him what he wants and he just says a new hockey stick hopefully Santa brings him a new stick and believe it or not the craziest thing about him is, and I'm going to say this on here. So it's going to get lots of play. Cause you guys are big dogs. And this, this is big time. He loves McDavid. He loves Connor McDavid.

And we live in Pittsburgh and Sidney Crosby's here. And I'm going, what are you doing? Like crowd, what crowd? He loves McDavid. So, and I think all,

most of the kids on his team, like love McDavid as well. So he wants all this McDavid stuff, McDavid poster. He wantsDavid as well. So he wants all this McDavid stuff. McDavid poster. He wants a McDavid stick. He wants all this McDavid stuff. So his stick has to have the P28 curve? Yeah, that big toe curve.

I don't like the toe of the curve if people look at it. It's got like a rounded, weird, I don't know. It's hard. I think it's tough for younger kids to get used to using. So when Crosby comes over to your house, does son say hey do you know connor mcdavid i remember like a funny story like i don't think i don't think my son knew like sid on the ice was sid off the ice yeah so like a number of years ago we were we were over this place and that was just like sid was just a guy but i don't think it clicked home that it was like that was the same Sid that is like the penguin Sid.

It was just like a guy. Ah, that's pretty funny. I kind of got the impression that that's where he was. That's what it was at because it wasn't like he didn't kind of like, you know, it wasn't like the usual kid thing. You know, it was kind of different. Just dad's friend. Dad's friend sid's here again oh this guy every day with this guy now by the way jeff did we ask colby what we were serving

him i don't think we did no what's in your glass for christmas colbs ramen eggnog oh my god can i just say like i used to hate it i never thought i would like it i eggnog nothing but i love it this is torture for elliot right now oh i can't like it. Eggnog, nothing, but I love it. This is torture for Elliot right now. Oh, I can't believe all the eggnog people. You're the third person in a row to say eggnog. Christine Simpson, Jean Principe, and now you. I never had it before. I can honestly say, and I feel bad about this.

I forget the guys. You guys probably know them. The Roots guys at the Roots store. Oh, yeah, yeah. the guys. You guys probably know them. The Roots guys at the Roots store. Oh, yeah, yeah. Great guys. And they had a Leafs Christmas party at their store, which was awesome. Like, you know, wives, girlfriends. It was a fantastic party.

And they had an eggnog station there, rum and eggnog station. You get a drink. I never had really a rum and eggnog before. It kind of looked gross to me. And I had it there, the nutmeg, everything on top of it. It was really cool. I tried it. I was just amazed.

And ever since then, so this was like in 2011 or something like that, I loved it. I loved it. And, yeah, it's kind of like I can't wait for eggnog season at the store when they start cracking out the jugs of eggnog. I just go to town. I just go to town, boys. Hey, Elliot.

What is going on? Does Melissa like eggnog? She does, town, boys. Hey, Elliot. What is going on? Does Melissa like eggnog? She does, yes. Yes, but I'm surprised at how many people really haven't liked eggnog or don't like the look of it or never even tried it, right? I think that's a real thing. So I say try it. I say give it a shot.

Hey, if you don't like it, you don't like it. But you've got to put some decent rum in there too. I like Appleton's rum. See, I have about zero time for eggnog right it, you don't like it. But you've got to put some decent rum in there too. I like Appleton's rum. See, I have about zero time for eggnog right now in my life. Like zero. Zero time for eggnog. But when I was a kid, and we talked to Christine Simpson about this, every year when Beckers would come out with their eggnog, look out.

Like after hockey games, this was the biggest treat when we got home. Speaking of Christmas time and being a kid, give us a snapshot of Saskatchewan Christmas for Colby Armstrong and Riley for that matter. Yeah, it was awesome. It was great. It was like, I just remember my childhood. Like, honestly, if I wasn't skating at the rink,

my dad built me in the backyard. Or once we got a little older, if he didn't build it, we had a park just down the street where we'd skate at the outdoor rink at the park. Or we were playing, you know, street hockey outside with all the kids. So that was kind of like, you know, just general, my childhood. But just around Christmas, family was over.

We got to open up one present the night before Christmas. And it always was like a pair of like pleated khakis with like a floral button up that we could wear to church that night you know like something that you just like you know part your your mom would like part your hair at the side and like lick it your finger and rub your hair down it was like that whole operation was happening we go to church come home wake up and the next day my dad was just getting the food rolling, which I loved, which was the best part. You know what, Colby? The one thing I wanted to just close on is

it's a bit of a heavier topic, if you're okay talking about it. I know that you've kept close with some of the kids from Humboldt. Just how much at this time of year and during COVID have you spoken to them? Yeah, we've spoken to a few of them. A few have reached out to me. A few that I got to know, you know, I would say immediately after it, but it wasn't really immediate. It was just kind of getting to know them and going back home and being a part of it.

You know, Tyler Smith is a guy I'm fairly close with, Nick Shumlansky. A few just reach out to say hello. I reach out to say hello back to them, and it's just kind of like that. But it's great to follow them, right?'ve enjoyed following with social media you can see you know the successes they have a lot of them are doing a lot of speeches and and uh you know really into you know the helping others right now through what they went through so i've loved staying in touch with nick schimlansky and tyler smith and just seeing what they've been up to and the stuff that they've been able to do in the last few years so that's pretty much it here and all the way here in

Pittsburgh I always kind of let them know like listen I know it's different right now but leading up to the pandemic as you know the door's always open come down come to a Penguins game coming out come check it out and it just works out also Tyler Smith is a massive Penguins fan so that's handy yeah he's been down to visit he sent me like a picked a video the other day of him with like his new retro like uh penguins winter coat which is like the old starter coat that we all used to wear when i was a kid which yes yeah he he was all pumped to get it so he sent me this video he's like check this out so he's all christmas came early for smitty yeah it was it was it's nice to see. It's nice to see him.

He's doing really well with the talks that he's been doing and helping out mental health. And, you know, he's kind of finding his way in that space right now. It's nice to see. That's awesome. Well, you and Melissa are great people. Yes. Thanks, buddy. Thanks, guys.

You and Mel and the kids have a great Christmas. Thanks for popping by. All right. I hope everyone gets everything they're hoping for this year. I know it's strange, and thanks for all you guys do. I love listening to you guys always, and I can't wait until I can see you guys. We haven't gotten any prettier, Kolbs. We're still a couple ugly dudes.

But we've got Hillary with the makeup. That alleviates a lot of those problems. Hillary is the secret weapon. Oh, Hillary Whitebread. God bless you. Oh, man. All right. Thanks, Colby.

Be well. Thanks, Colby. All right. Take care, guys. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Everything, all right? Elliot, it's always a good day when Cassie Campbell is part of the party, and she is

again today. Now, Cassie, I'm not sure if it's a glass or it's a goblet, but your royalty around here, what is in your container? Well, it'd be the largest container that is at the venue that I'm at. I always would ask for a large beer or a large drink, but I think around this time of year, I would say it is a spiced rum and eggnog with cinnamon on top. That's forward. Hang on. The reason I'm laughing, Cassie, is because you're the fourth person in a row to mention eggnog,

which Elliot thinks is disgusting and has no time for. And I think he's just throwing up a little bit in his mouth, even just hearing a reference to eggnog so gene principe mentioned it uh christine simpson mentioned it colby armstrong and you make it for cassie now we had no eggnog and now it's all over the place my husband makes and the best because like the rum just sort of sits on top a little bit and then so your first sip it's like it's like lights out almost and then uh yeah it's just pure goodness pure goodness now were you a becker's eggnog person i asked simmer the same thing beckers yes right yes because you'd run out and you'd run to becker's right oh my gosh they have eggnog at

becker's and you'd go and um yeah we don't have beckers out here in the west i don't think but that when i was growing up in Ontario, that was key. Elliot, you enjoying this conversation? I'm going to pretend it never happened. I'm going to make you one one of these days and change your opinion. I will try Brad's famous eggnog and see if it makes me change my opinion. However, I expect it will validate the truth. Give us your example of your drink. I am on a peaty scotch.

I'm on Lagavulin. That's what I'm doing. That's fancy. Especially at this time of year. And in a special party, you got to go with the good stuff. Cassie, what I say, I asked Louis DeBrustis as well, both of him and his son

Jake. But I would imagine you'd be the same way. When you think of growing up around Christmas time, is it more about Santa or more about hockey tournaments? I think it's the hockey tournaments. And it's in particular, for me was getting my own hockey equipment. You know, for years, I, you know, I had an older brother. So of course, I'm going to get the hand-me-downs as the younger sibling. I'll never forget it was like second year bantam and cooper alls came out and I finally got my very own set of cooper alls and then I remember my very own set of shoulder pads like new brand new out of the package which never happened to me

uh so I I think it is a little bit of both like it centers all around hockey but getting your own equipment as the youngest sibling that's brand new out of the package, there's like nothing like it. You know, your first pair of skates, they're actually the first person who's actually worn them. But you know, hockey's expensive. So it was it's tough on parents. But that that was big. It was like my second year bantam. Let's go back to Cooper alls there for a second. Because I was like you, I was really excited the first time I put on Cooper alls. And I was less excited the first time I went down on the ice in Cooperalls and realized, wow, these things slide. It's hard to get back up.

Do you want to know the cool thing? My mom was my coach growing up for part of my minor hockey. And she got me the Cooperalls, Jeff, that you could unzip the legs so they could be pants short pants or long pants yes and it was like I felt like a legend you know I felt like such a huge deal and same thing you fall down on your long cooperall pants and you'd keep going right you just slide forever yeah and then I remember unzipping them right and they became just the short hockey pants and there was nothing like those like I wish I still had them, just kind of wrapped up and saran wrap or something to keep them so they're good historically, I guess. But those were the

best, the ones that unzipped. And my mom got them. She was bang on. It was so good. That's elite, Cassie. That is very elite. She was good. Now, I look at your situation. Obviously, you were a heck of a player, Cassie. And when we think of Christmas and hockey, it's World Juniors. Was there anything for you growing up that you played at this time of year? Any tournaments, any Christmas events you ever played in? for the Brampton candidates. And we were in that tournament every year, Boxing Day had started and the four rinks, Meadowville four rinks, that's where we played. And-

Oh, Meadowville four rinks. You know, as a young girl, you'd show up, you got all your new Christmas clothes on for Boxing Day. You're feeling good about yourself. You got your brand new hockey equipment. I mean, you played your best at that tournament, right? Like you just felt like the cat's meow. And that was our thing.

We, you know, we didn't often do much else i i was at the mississauga girls hockey tournament my brother was probably at some other tournament and yeah so it was a fun time we're gonna get hyper local right now because you mentioned meadowvale what were some of the the other ranks this is like i'm totally excluding everybody outside of the gta here elliot on the podcast but cassie what were your favorite ranks? And did you ever play at Dixie Arena? I did. I played at Dixie Arena.

And that was a big deal for us in women's hockey to play at Dixie Arena, if you can believe that. Why? Well, it was just kind of considered the boys' arena a little bit, you know? And so when you got to play there, it was pretty neat. But you know, two ranks that stand out for me, Rosalie Arena in brampton which is now was has now been since condemned and torn down it was the coldest the most run down arena

but they had the best uh slush puppies right they had the slush puppy machine oh but i used to practice or play every sunday morning at 7 15 can you imagine like being a parent sitting in the coldest rink possible? You know, you're getting up so early to bring your kid to hockey. And then another one for me is the Brampton Memorial Arena, because that was my brother's arena. That's where the Brampton, the Boys Association played. And we never, ever got to play there. In fact, I never actually got to play there until I was an elite player playing for the Toronto Arrows. And I'll never forget my first experience playing there. It was just unbelievable. And that rink is legendary.

Just, you know, the curved ceiling and just the oldness to the rink. And that was pretty special. Who was the toughest, the toughest player you either played with, played against or saw? Well, I think Angela James. I was a teammate of hers, but I also played against her. And I remember being a defenseman and having her come down the wing and she just wind up with some kind of howitzer. And she was just tough as nails. And, you know, she dominated the 1990 World Championship. And I remember watching that. And who I played against was Angela Ruggiero, Hockey Hall of Famer. Well, both of them are Hockey Hall of Famers. And, you know, I played on the top line for Team Canada

with Wick and Goyette. And my job was to go in and, you know, she was always paired up against them as the top defenseman. And she was a big physical player and, you know, just a great, great player. And my job was to get in on the forecheck, you know, and she was my job. Like she was the one I had to kind of attack and get the puck

and, you know, give some space to go in and work to do their thing. And it was tough. And, you know, there were moments where we stood toe to toe and we said a lot of things to each other. But I have a ton of respect for what she does for the game. And even though she played for the U.S., I think it's fair to say I could call her a friend today. Yeah. Can we rewind to Angela James there for one second? How many times did you see her fight?

I only saw her fight once. I don't know how many other times it would have happened, but she fought arguably the other toughest player I've ever seen in Donna Lynn Rosa. And I remember the benches cleared and we, we formed like a boxing ring, kind of all of us, you know, we just, we were so excited to see this, you know, especially in women's hockey, where you'd get suspended for 10 games, which was like a quarter of your season, right? But it was like the legendary fight. The best thing, though, about Angela James is that she was mean and fierce on the ice, but she's like the greatest person off of it. And isn't that always the way?

Totally. No one else has done what she's done for the game, like as far as coaching, playing, reffing building aspect of it i mean uh there really should be a movie about angela james in our country for sure absolutely and you're right like one of the toughest ever and then off like every conversation i've ever had and you've had more like could not be sweeter could not be nicer and then i always think back like because i never saw her scrap but I've heard the stories and you've told me some too and I think to myself man like this doesn't seem like this person that I'm talking to right now like that's how different they seem I remember I was she played for the arrows I believe at this time and I was playing for Mississauga and she was

coming down the wing and I was a defenseman and I remember I was probably like 17 years old I was scared like it was one of the only times where I was scaredman and I remember I was probably like 17 years old I was scared like it was one of the only times where I was scared because I I knew I had to have a good gap but I didn't want to get too close of a gap because she could just bully over and I knew she had a good shot so if my gap was way too big she'd just use it and and yet I wanted nothing to do with her I was a 17 year old kid just hoping this moment was going to be over and uh I'm proud to say she didn't score, but I'll never forget the one, the first time I ever faced her one-on-one, it was more of a mental game than a physical game for sure. Like I just wanted that moment to be over as soon as possible

without too much damage. So last one for me, you know, Christmas, unfortunately for a lot of people this year, we're not going to be able to see as many people as we'd like to, but I'm betting the holiday has changed in a good way for you. Your husband, Brad, used to work for Hockey Canada, so he'd be traveling a lot at this time of year for World Juniors. Now he's in the Calgary organization. I guess you guys get a chance to spend with your daughter more time together over the holiday. It must be a really good bonus for the Campbell-Pascal family. Yeah, I think it is. You know, usually this time of year, we've got this little break like you guys, right? And you're rushed and you're trying to cram everything in. And so in that sense, it's going to be nice to be able to just

kind of sit down and watch and just, well, just spend time together. We've got some fun plans. We're going to go into the mountains and stuff, but really we're just having dinner with the three of us. And, you know, the world juniors, I remember my very first one I'd go, I'd finished my training. We'd have a Christmas break and I'd go and meet up with Brad, you know, when we were dating at the time was in 1999, Winnipeg, Roberto Luongo was the goaltender for Canada. And, and I remember being in that building and that was the old Winnipeg building, you know, with the picture of the queen. And like, it was just, you know, I got to go to the world juniors every time they were in Canada because of my husband's role and then boyfriend's role and it became kind of this tradition for me to go to the world juniors in Canada every year and

and then when he left hockey Canada and you know left that side of the the business if you will you know it's still something we support like you know I remember 95 and Red Deer and and you know just all those players and like there's so many highlights from that tournament that stand out for me so I'm looking forward to watching it and cheering on Canada and and then being back with Hockey Canada part-time now with our women's program like you kind of feel part of it again like you kind of feel part of the team and I haven't had that feeling in a while so you know it makes you remember what it feels like to wear the maple leaf. So I'm going to be cheering hard for Canada like everybody else and, and looking forward to just spending more quality time with family. You're one of the good ones, Cass. We love you. Thanks so much for

stopping by. To you, Brad, Brooke, the entire family, Merry Christmas, have a great holidays, and we'll catch up on the other side of the new year. Well, thanks to you both for including me on this list of, of many people, you know, and all the best for the holiday season and, uh, and love you both. You know that.

So take care. I'm going to put that Cassie Campbell, Pascal on the list of people we know. I'm so lucky. I'm so lucky. Thanks Cassie. All right, Cassie.

Thanks a lot. Bye. Elliot, a big star is coming on the program now and joining us here at our holiday party. It is Anthony Stewart. And Stewie, now that you're a superstar of radio, television, Hockey Night in Canada, Battle of the Blades, have your own hockey company training,

a minor hockey coach, et cetera, whether you're at Captain Jack's in the beaches or whether you're at the 31 Thoughts podcast Christmas party or holiday extravaganza, what are you drinking? Well, I'll start off by saying that Captain Jack's, they actually sell the most beer per capita in all of Ontario. So if you have a chance to check it out in the beaches, be sure to do it or don't.

But now that I'm more sophisticated now, I'm more of a red wine guy. So I'm not drinking the bottles of Caymus anymore. I'm more so the Chateau Saint-Michel or the $25 bottles as opposed to the $200 bottles. I never thought I would see Anthony Stewart bourgeoisie. I never thought that was going to happen, Stewieie that's funny um you know i gotta wonder like christmas in the steward household you know you come from a big family i've seen you play i've seen chris play i can only imagine how tough it was to handle the two of you how were your parents able to handle everybody well there was a family of seven. So we had five sisters growing up. And again, they were rough and rowdy. You know, my sisters are all, you know, 5'11", 6 feet.

So when things got out of hand, they really got out of hand. But during the holidays, you know, regardless of where we were, we tried to always come together and have a big, big party. Our family house used to be on a street called Catalina. So we'd have a big Christmas party called the Catalina Wine Mixer where there would probably be 100, 150 people there. Some people that you didn't even know would wake up the next morning on Christmas Day watching us open presents and waiting as if they're getting a present. No, it's time to go home, buddy.

But that just shows how family-oriented we were where there was people that didn't really have anywhere to go, but they knew on Christmas during the holidays that the Stewart household was a place to be. The Stewart household is a great place to be. And I'll tell you what, last Christmas, Elliot, Stewie sends me a picture of the buffet table. Okay, so the Christmas spread,

I go, oh, Stewie, that looks great. And he sends back, look closely, lasagna, every single big event. So whether it's Christmas or birthdays or anniversaries, we know there's a lasagna there. So who makes it?

Take us back. Who makes the lasagna? And as a follow-up question, Stewie, the big heart-aching question of the day for you as a lasagna gourmet and connoisseur, is lasagna a cake? A pasta cake, I guess, of some sort. But I don't know. But it's delicious. And my sister, I would say I'm a lasagna, more so a lasagna connoisseur than a wine connoisseur.

But my sister bakes the best lasagna. And people ask me, well, how good it is? And I say it's better than Italy. So if that's a compliment, I don't know what she puts in it, what the magic ingredient is. But I literally, when I say I can crush a whole lasagna made by my sister, I can crush a whole lasagna. It may take me a couple days. And, you know, after two or three days, you don't really want to be eating lasagna. But it is that good that it can be two weeks later.

If there's still some lasagna left, I'm firing it in the microwave and eating it. So it's that great. So I say it's better than Italy. I got to tell you, in the 17th century, Anthony, a thousand ships would be launched at this sentence. Now, there were no podcasts back then, so maybe we would have been safe, but I think wars would start over comments like that one. I know, and she's not Italian. We have a little bit of a Malta background. Our great grandparents were from Malta, but we don't really have that. We're not really Italian. So

those are fighting words. And I'm sure there's some Italian people listening to that, that comment, and they're probably going to want to, you know, fight me when they see me in Whitbridge next time. Well, I think, I think what we're going to have to have here is the great 31 thoughts, lasagna bake-off. I'm in. I'll send in a sample just for fun. I don't even need to have the competition. Cause I know that she would win the,

the giant ribbon for sure. That's how good it is. It's a fact. Now this Christmas is special for you guys. The Stewart family is one bigger. How's everybody doing? Baby Dylan is doing well. She was born three weeks ago on the 16th,

and she's finally sleeping almost through the night, only waking up once, maybe twice, where before it was four times during the night. But I'm sleeping well. I'm sure you're asking how I'm feeling. I'm feeling great. I'm sleeping well. I'm sure you're asking how I'm feeling. I'm feeling great. I'm sleeping well. My wife, not so much, but she's starting to get back into the routine of things.

But like we said, we're family oriented. My sister's been over and cooking, cleaning, basically living with us for the last two months. So it definitely takes a village and it's great that we have a close-knit family helping out with everything. Have you had anyone ask you the Canadian question about Dylan yet? And you know what the Canadian question is, right? Is this a 90210 reference? I'm trying to think.

No, the Canadian question, left shot or right shot? I don't know. I think she's going to be a right shot just so I can save some money on sticks here. I got all my, my, my sticks cut down from when I was a player and my son and daughter are both using them. But my daughter, my other daughter who plays house league with the Markham Waxers, she's a left shot. So she's sort of veering away from the family tradition because when you're not right, you're wrong, as they say. At least you can use those as hand-me-downs,

right? That's the good news. Okay. So you don't have to buy a whole bunch of new ones well you know Anthony I wanted to ask you like this past year was uh was a big one for you your role grew here at Sportsnet you were on Battle of the Blades just when you look back at your your media career starting to take off and what the 2020 year was like I mean it was a huge challenge for a lot of people I thought you really made the best of it. And what were some of the highlights for this past year as your media career starts to take off? It was definitely a great experience and just seeing the opportunities I've been getting, especially during a pandemic.

It's been definitely amazing. And the one thing I can say, and I want to thank you, Jeff and Elliot as well, is that everyone's been great. Everyone's a show business, it's cutthroat. Everyone's out it for themselves, but everyone has been great. Everyone's a show business, is cutthroat. Everyone's out for themselves, but everyone has been welcoming. Everyone's been helping. Jeff, you've helped me on the side.

Elliot, you've given me some pointers over the year. So it's great that everyone's in that close-knit community as well in the media side. So for me, I think the highlight would be probably calling my first Leaf game and being a player and going on Hockey night in Canada and being a part of that. So to be a part of that on the broadcast side has definitely been a great experience. But the one thing I can say is I don't try not to be in the moment because when you think about it, that's when you mess up.

So I think I've only messed up once where I've had the Ricky Bobby where I don't know what to do with my hands and I sort of lose my train of thought. That's only happened once. And I thank everybody except for BX who laughed at me. Everyone else felt my pain, but BX was the only one that laughed. You know, Stewie, if that's the worst thing that happens to you, you are so far ahead of the game. You know, it's funny. My buddies still make fun of me because that one night we did that game

in the playoffs, Toronto-Columb Columbus, where Toronto had that big comeback and Matthews passed to Hyman. And I said, who thought Matthews was going to pass the puck there? And you raised your hand. I go, Anthony, how did you know? He goes, and you go, because I know hockey. My buddies were like, ah, he was saying that he knows hockey and you don't, you idiot. Like, oh, it was awesome. It was so funny. that wasn't the case i wasn't trying to put you on the spot there but no funniest moment

the most fun moment elliot was when we were both wearing the same color jacket and twitter had a heyday on that and actually somebody photoshopped my beard your beard actually onto my face and so that was a funny day where i remember everybody right in the lounge they're laughing oh those are the best days those are the best days speaking of social media I mean you've become the the hockey gift king and your social media presence is one to behold uh I was a big fan of as you referred to it the battle of Nylanderia what's been your favorite social media battle so far, Stewie? The Nylanderia one was pretty crazy, just based on the fact that there's a faction of Leaf fans, obviously in the city, but there's a faction of Nylander fans when they're actually on Twitter,

looking to see his name and any negative thing that's said about him. It's full on attack. I know why Berkey says he's not, he's not on Twitter. It's because the Nylander fans I think know why Berkey says he's not on Twitter. It's because the Nylander fans, I think, would be after him every single day, all day. So I think that was probably the peak one. But I loved watching the comments on Justin Bourne when he was trying to tell Canada that Carey Price was the fourth-best-ranked goaltender in Canada in the Canadian division,

and they gave it to him pretty, pretty hard. So, again, I don't try to get the fans riling riled up on purpose. It's my honest opinion. I'm not hot take Tuesday guys, Jeff says, but it's good to have a little bit of fun, especially on Twitter. Nice.

Great year. Great to have you on board, buddy. Have a great holiday. Yeah. Thanks a lot. I just want to say Jeff and Elliot, you guys have been great to me and I appreciate all the help that you guys

done behind the scenes. And again, I'm very grateful for everything and keep up the great work guys. You too, my man. We have them fooled Elliot. We got them fooled. Stewie, you're the best man. Continued success, pal. Best to you and the family. Thanks guys. It would not be a party Elliot without Kelly Rudy. And thankfully he is here. And the first question Kelly, we must ask is what can we pour into that empty cup of yours that would make you happy? Oh, boy. I think anybody that knows me, that's a pretty simple answer, Jeff and Elliot.

It's a nice glass of red wine, chilled preferably. And that would make my day and my holiday season. On Saturday nights, after we're done with hockey night, Kelly and I will often go have a glass of wine together. And where we go, they know, have the red wine ready with a cup of ice because they know that's what Kelly likes. Yeah. And you know what, guys?

It's kind of funny because, as you know, over the years, I posted some of my dinner photos from the road trips. As you know, over the years, I posted some of my dinner photos from the road trips. And oftentimes, there's a glass of ice, exactly, right beside my glass, Elliot. And there's a few cubes in the glass. And people started to quiz me on that, like, what is that? How in the world can you put ice in red wine? And over the years, I've gotten some feedback that, hey, they've been trying it. They like it.

And not only that, but when they're home, they put their wine in the fridge or at least chill it a little bit. And it makes all the difference in the world. I do actually put my red wine in the fridge. Now, hang on here. There's a difference. This is my table wine. If somebody's coming over and we're celebrating something and we're going to have a little nicer bottle of wine,

of course I wouldn't put it in the fridge and ruin the beauty of that bottle. But I'm just talking about table wine and something that, you know what, if you chill it too much or put a little bit of ice cubes in, it's not going to affect the wine. Trust me. I was going to say, because for a second there, Kelly, I'm sure people started looking at whatever they're using to run this podcast, their phone, their iPad, their tablet, their laptop,

and were about to maybe just drive off the road and listen to you talk about red wine in the fridge. I still get that. I get a lot of red wine snobs that are, how dare you? You're ruining it. You can't do it. But I don't care. That's how I prefer it. And it goes down the hatch just perfectly. for his Christmas meal is his sister's lasagna, which as we find out is world-class.

Is there a must-have Rudy staple at the Christmas buffet table every year for you? Oh boy, that's a tough one because I grew up, as you guys know, I'm Ukrainian, so we would have the traditional turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, but we'd also have pierogies and cabbage rolls and the traditional Ukrainian dishes. And to this day, I guess we have like the turkey and the mashed potatoes, but the one item, traditional Ukrainian item, we still have cabbage rolls.

But you have to hang on here. They're not the cabbage rolls that most people would think of. They're not covered in the tomato sauce. They don't have meat. They're with sour cabbage. Not the Schmenke Brothers cabbage rolls. SCTV. Right.

Exactly. Exactly. These are traditional Ukrainian cabbage rolls. I don't know if they're for everybody because they're like a sour, sweet taste to them. But, oh, man, they are so delicious. And we're lucky because my mom has come down a number of times and visited and she's made the traditional Ukrainian food and our kids love it too. So it's great.

So, Kelly, earlier on today was flooding the rink in the backyard and it looks like we might even be able to skate because we've had some really cold temperatures the past couple of days. Might even be able to skate because we've had some really cold temperatures the past couple of days. Might even be able to skate this weekend. And I always think of how soft we are in southwestern Ontario when we compare ourselves to Albertans and Manitobans. I mean, people from Montreal always give it to me. I wonder, what's the coldest? Like from playing outside, Kelly, what's the coldest you've ever

been playing hockey oh man well going back in the 60s uh growing up in Edmonton and I'm not going to get into the whole thing about climate change and the bait and all that but it was much colder back then and I must tell you that it was often that we were playing uh minus 20 and colder that was a way of life back then. But having said that, we didn't know any different, right? That's what I grew up with, and that's what the weather conditions were. And keep in mind, guys, because I was not a high-level goalie, so when I started playing hockey at 12,

my only experiences of playing hockey were on outdoor rinks. Only during minor hockey week and it'd only be a game or two for our teams would I ever have a chance to play indoors until I was 16 going on 17 years old when I finally made a rep team now you know that skewed a little bit we had these things called shells I don't know if you have those in Ontario but they were still freezing cold they were covered but they were freezing cold still and uh that was sort of my version of playing indoors but man alive it was absolutely freezing and and uh you know i i'm glad to say kids don't have to go through that extreme weather anymore

let's take it a bit further maybe your favorite christmas memory i'm gonna go to uh one jeff that and ellie you both know my love for al arbor and the impact he had on my life but man did i make him mad one year it was my second year in the league and so it's uh 84, and so Christmas 1984, I believe we played on December 22nd, then we had the 23rd, 24th, and 25th off, but we played the 26th in Pittsburgh. And I was always, throughout my whole life, I was horrible right after the holidays, because loved the holidays, Christmas more than any other time of the year. And it was really tough for me to focus. So we went out caroling. There was five couples. There's Dwayne and Cindy Sutter, Brent and Connie Sutter, Greg and Tammy Gilbert, Thomas and Christina Janssen, and Donna and I.

And we went to some of the veterans' homes. And we had Christmas cheer on the night of the 23rd. So we went to Clark and Pam Gillies. We went to Bob and Janice Bourns. We went to, I can't recall, a couple other guys. And then we finally made it. Our last stop on the night was Assistant Coach Brian Kilray. And Brian and Judy Kilray, we had a number of drinks there.

We stayed out way too late. And Al got word of this after. And he didn't say anything to me. I started in Pittsburgh on the 26th. I was horrible. Not because of the cheer. That was two or three nights before. But I just couldn't focus.

Mike Bullard had a hat trick for Pittsburgh that night. And Al was furious with me. I'm getting on the bus leaving the Pittsburgh Arena, and he called me Santa Claus. He goes, oh, you like giving gifts to everybody, huh, Santa Claus? And he was just ripping into me. He tore into me for about five days, and he never let me forget it. And I can tell you what, I never went Christmas caroling again in my NHL career I was too

afraid to you know Kelly there's I've had so many different conversations about goaltenders with you and one of the ones a lot of them stuck with me and one of them was I remember you and I talking about that first wave of European

goaltender that came in. What do you recall from that era where it was pretty much every team had, whether it was their NHL goalies and their minor league goalies as well, were all North American, generally all Canadian. And then all of a sudden it was Marcus Mattson, it was Yuri Sira, it was Hardy Astrom. What did the goaltending fraternity back then do with this first wave of European goaltenders? Yeah, so there's kind of different stages. So the guys that you mentioned, now I'm just going to generalize,

but for the most part, a lot of us North American goalies didn't feel as though they could make the transition to the smaller ice. And one of the reasons why we kind of thought they didn't challenge enough. So they played a little bit deeper in the net. And those guys that you mentioned had some success. But the first guy that really came onto the scene that I knew was going to be great was Dominic Hoschuk. And it wasn't when I saw him in North America. It was my first experience playing against Dominic Hasek was in the 86 World Championships in Moscow. And I was like, oh my gosh, is this guy any good? And then the next year, we played against him when he was

playing for Czechoslovakia again in the 87 Canada Cup. And I remember talking to some team official with Czechoslovakia outside the dressing room in Hamilton where some of the games were played. And the guy said to me something like, well, Dom isn't having the best tournament here, but trust me, he's the best goalie in the world. And I thought, okay, I don't know about that, but I do think that he's a really tremendous goalie. Well, as it turns out, you guys know his development and what he turned into,

but it was in the summer. It would have been a couple of years later. Remember when he was first part of the Chicago Blackhawks organization? Of course. Yeah, and so he was training. I think his agent might have been Rich Winter who's based out of Edmonton and so Dominic was skating with there's a conditioning camp there that a lot of NHLers would go to and it was run by Kevin Primo who was an assistant

coach for the Oilers the three goalies in that conditioning camp were Grant Fear myself and Dominic Hoschuk and so grant and i are watching hoshek and we thought you know what he just plays too deep he just can't get away with it here in north america what we were to find out later is how what he taught us with the infusion of all the european skaters and how they like to pass the puck around the crease and not just come down the conventional way the north american way and and rip a shot coming down the wing. These guys had more thought to their game and they held on longer and they'd curl back and find a guy maybe backdoor. And so what all of us eventually learned from Dominic Hoschuk, that indeed you had to play deeper in your net.

deeper in your net. And because of all that and all the changes with the, the game itself, I thought Dominic did in fact become the best goalie in the game. In fact, I'm on record many, many times. And Jeff, you know,

this I've said, Dominic Hasek is the best to ever play the position, but that was the evolution to me. I'm with you, Kelly. I think he's, he's the best goaltender that's ever put on pads. Just remarkable.

Sorry, free jump. I'm hogging all this with goalie questions for Kelly. I just have to say, because I was looking this up, I looked up this game. Boxing Day 1984, Pittsburgh 6-5 over the Islanders. And you're right, Mike Bullard, hat trick. Mario Lemieux had four points. he had two goals and two assists and i have to tell you kelly the most impressive thing about this is that it was your first full year as a starter oh yeah for you to do this to al arbor in your

first full year as a starter that that's big brass ones, man. That's pretty impressive. Well, no, that's being naive. That's dumb and naive. I'll tell you this. The part about Mario having four points against me would surprise nobody, and that didn't bother Al even. Al recognized when a great player had a great game.

But Al, for whatever reason, this is the back story that I wasn't going to share, but I might as well. Al, for whatever reason, didn't really like Mike Bullard. And I don't know why, and I never found out, but Mike Bullard scored the hat trick on me that really got under Al's skin. And so that was the part that I learned that every single time that we played Pittsburgh after that, you know, Mario is going to have his night, but I had to make sure that I was rock solid against Bullard because I didn't want that experience again. Kelly, that's awesome. Listen, it's always a delight catching up. You're one of the all round great people of the game and great, you know,

we're just wonderful human beings and really inspirational and positive. And that's one of the reasons I think people love you. Thanks so much for this. Best of luck to your ever-growing family. Have a wonderful Christmas and we'll see you on the other side of the calendar. Yeah, Jeff and Elliot, same to you. Happy holidays. Have a great holiday season and sending our love.

Ron McLean joins the festivities. And Ron, your cup is empty. Your tongue is hanging out. What should we do to remedy this situation? Well, you've seen this act, Jeff, and so have you, Elliot. The answer is beer. Although I got a nice bottle of tequila from Mark McMorris back when we did In Conversation. So I could have a shot of tequila and then chase it with a beer.

How's that? Well, that'll warm you up. But I want to talk, Ron, about being cold. And you've lived in a lot of cold places. You've hosted Hockey Day in Canada from a lot of cold places. What is, because we look at you, Ron, and we say, this guy never freezes.

What is the coldest you've ever been? Probably Winkler. Well, it's a tough question, Jeff, because we had a real problem up in Iqaluit, uh, in Nunavut. We had about five minutes on the air, all the cabling and the cameras contracted and snapped. So we ended up moving indoors. We had such a beautiful, uh, landscape and setting with dog sled and ravens and the whole bit. And, and then we had to move indoors.

Um, but Winkler was, uh, and this might've had to do with the beer the night before. Uh, I remember I, I went past my quota, uh, on the Friday night and, you know, we have a long day to do with the beer the night before. I remember I went past my quota on the Friday night. And you know we have a long day in front of us on the Saturday and I was scraping the frost off the window of the hotel I was staying at at Winkler. I blame the firefighters in Morton. They heard, because Winkler was supposed to be

a dry town. Yeah. And they heard that we were complaining about that and they were kind enough to bring some beverages over. Anyway, that was a toughie. a combination of a little jagged and uh windchill you know i have to tell you last year i was wondering if you were going to say uh was it white horse last year was that was that last year yellow knife and it was cool yeah you're right it was yellow that's right yellow knife because i remember seeing d hamley one of the producers on television, and she just looked like she was frozen to the spot she was standing on. And I was thinking to myself, boy, it must be freezing up

there. It truly was. That was a toughie, but I was able to get in and out a couple of times to warm up. And I remember also when we did Cornerbrook, Newfoundland, Elliot, it was snowing like crazy. And I had to be on Vancouver Island for Rogers hometown hockey, uh, in Duncan the next day. And I was thinking, how in the world am I even going to get to Deer Lake, let alone to Toronto, to Vancouver, to Nanaimo and into Duncan. Uh, and, and poor Dee Hambly was with me. The only other, uh, funny, it's a flip argument,

but I remember Kamloops was beautiful, really sunny and warm. Tom Gilardi owned the hotel there, the Sandman and the Shark Club. And, uh, we did the warm. Tom Gilardi owned the hotel there, the Sandman and the Shark Club. And we did the broadcast on the Saturday in what had to be plus 15 degrees and gorgeous sunshine. So we've had the best and the worst.

Best ice you've ever skated on. That's a great one. Or most, I shouldn't say best. Your favorite sheet. Yeah, that has to be the one I started on, Jeff Whitehorse. My father was stationed at CFS Hillcrest in the Armed Forces, and we had a little backyard rink across the street.

Alphonse and Pauline Clement, their son Bill, invited me across the street, and that's how it all started for me. My parents were political science buffs, artistic music buffs, nothing to do with sports. But once I got on that little rink, and it was so cool because it had, it was surrounded by evergreens and we used to pause and pull the sap off of the trees to chew.

It was like bubble gum. And it was just an unbelievable backyard rink. And that would be number one, but I was just at Port Credit Arena, Port Credit Memorial Arena yesterday. It's a great one. And I'll tell you, Bill and Brian have that ice in tip-top shape. I was so wishing that I could have gone on my skates,

but we were just shooting for Chevrolet Good Deeds Cup. Anyway, I would recommend that as what seems to be a perfect sheet of ice. So, Ron, when you think about Christmas memories, holiday memories, what kinds of things stand out for you? Well, it's a big one. Whitehorse, I remember. I always got table hockey games, Elliot. So I remember being about eight years old and lying in my bed in White Horse, maybe even seven or six.

And I heard footsteps coming down the hall and I figured it was Santa. And it was either mom or dad. I wouldn't dare open my eyes for fear I'd jinx Christmas. But they placed the little replica Stanley Cup that came with a Coleco table hockey game. They placed that Stanley Cup on my night table. And that's what the footsteps were all about. So that's a very fond memory. I remember in Mill Cove,

my father stationed there in Nova Scotia and I received a pair of DR goalie gloves. Oh, wow. Yeah, the DRs. Yeah. So that was the, eventually Grant Fuhrer wore them, but that's even before his time.

And then Red Deer, I always fondly remember, I say this, 1971, my mom and dad gave me the Hockey Night in Canada double album history of the show set. And I listened to that album and evidently it planted a seed. I had no idea, no ambition to get into it. But that Hockey Night in Canada disc when I was 11 years old in Red Deer seemed to make a difference. The one thing that amazes me about you is, you know, you keep a lot of stuff. And I wonder how many of these things that you got when you were young, do you still have? A lot. And ironically, I have nothing in the way of memorabilia. Like I wasn't in 42 Varady in Brantford. I wish I had a few more things from NHL superstars.

I don't, but I have a lot from my childhood. I'm very grateful to have photographs of that backyard rink and Whitehorse. The only thing I really regret is I lost my Gretzky rookie card. I used to pack all, a lot of my rookie cards were in a box for safekeeping when we lived in Ancaster.

And I also had a letter from Jacques Plante. I had written to the great Jacques Plante and he responded. So I lost my rookie cards. I had Iserman, Lemieux, Gretzky, a number of them in pretty mint condition. And I lost this letter from Jacques Plante, which I really regret.

But yeah, most of the stuff, Elliot, as you've seen, like I'm just sitting here looking at the game sheets from when Steve Walkam and I refereed a preseason game and looking at the starting lineups, it's just hilarious to go through your files looking for one thing and ending up in a rabbit hole that takes you to another.

Oh yeah. You know, yeah. Oh yeah. Is that Colonial League? Were you guys ref together? This was an NHL preseason game. Oh, the NHL preseason game. Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I always, because you're such a guy for these kinds of things, Jeff, but we, so the starting lineups, we had Mark Recchi, John LeClair, and Ryan Malone for Pittsburgh. Ryan Whitney, funny enough, was on defense. I didn't remember that, with Brooks Orpik. And the Buffalo starting lineup, defense was Kalinin and Newman. And up front, they started their tough line.

Adam Ayer, well, not tough, Thomas Vanik, I guess, and Kotelik. But lots of, you know, Brier was in that game. So people, and Crosby is in that game. So people always ask me who was the best skater. And I always tell them John LeClaire was the one who blew me away. Despite it, Maxim Afinaganov, Brier, Crosby,

I was so surprised at LeClaire. And the next day we were doing Think Hockey back in Toronto and Craig McTavish was our guest. And I said, geez, Craig, I was so surprised at Leclerc. And the next day we were doing Think Hockey back in Toronto and Craig McTavish was our guest. And I said, geez, Craig, I was so amazed at John Leclerc because they were together in Philadelphia. And he said, yeah, Ron, the problem is he had

a wonky back. So he could only bring that, you know, once every nine or 10 games. But when he got up to speed, no one liked him. It's funny you mentioned Think Hockey. A while ago, I was thinking about Hockey Night in Canada features and you think about Showdown was a classic one.

And I always come back to think hockey and one in specific always stuck with me and it may seem like a tiny little thing, although I know that Scotty Bowman would train his team with this on a regular basis. The one you did with Paul Maurice on line changes. Yeah, one foot itis. Wasn't that fantastic?

Yes. Like that, I love that feature because you would learn something every week, but what was the one thing you took away from Think Hockey? Well, I loved Maurice as a teacher on that segment. So he talked about one foot itis is where you start to head to the bench

and then you glide on one skate for 15 to 20 feet. And he illustrated it. And you know, you see it time and again, players going off, drifting off the ice. So he taught that. Adam Graves taught me the way, it was kind of a can opener, but the way to get a guy off the boards to retrieve a loose puck. I thought that was very special. Dale Howarchuk, the late blessed Dale Howarchuk taught us tight turns and how to position the stick. And even Brian Kilroy on face-offs, I remember vividly, he would take literally gouges out of the ice. He was so strong.

But he and Kirk Muller both were of the opinion, you know, a very small circle with your stick blade. You don't take a wide swath at it. You just keep your blade within the actual dot as you attempt to win the draw. So, Jeff, every Saturday night when Ron hosts the main show on hockey night in Canada, you know, that Ron always takes huge pride in his work.

We all, we all know that nobody needs to be told that, but if there's one thing, all of us on the panel know it's that it's seven o'clock Eastern time after the pregame show is done. And the big show is about to begin. The game coverage is about to begin. Ron has his opening.

And Ron, you love that opening. We see it next to you. We've talked about it. We all know we stay out of the way unless we're spoken to. We don't open our mouths. But you can see your body really get into it. You can see your face really get into it.

It's obvious you have such a great passion for writing that 30 to 45 to 60 to 90 seconds. Like that is something you love to do. You'll, you'll have something special for opening night. When will you start crafting it or thinking about it? Well, for sure. You know, as an example, when we closed the Stanley Cup playoffs, you saw me build all the way through the playoffs.

Uh, what I would say at the end of the final game, right. Which was kind of the idea of with no fans in the building, you playoffs, what I would say at the end of the final game, right, which was kind of the idea of with no fans in the building, you know, Michael Jordan's idea that champions are made when no one is looking, and in this case, no one was looking, and they still found a way to bring it to that pitch. So I'm thinking a lot.

I've certainly, we've got what we're going to do for Rogers Hometown hockey set. The hockey night one will develop a little bit more. What usually happens, Elliot, is I need to hear what we've succeeded in having as our tees. Might be a musical artist. It might be, like I had a suggestion. I don't know if I should give it away on this. Should I give it away on this podcast that I gave it to Rob Cortay to work on? Might as well, right? I'm not going to get in

your way. Yeah, I'm not going to stop you. Well, no, I better not. But I'll tell you what it is. It's an idea. We'll make a deal, Ron. Nobody is allowed to steal this. So Ron's going to say it, and no one is allowed to steal it. All right. They'll kill me for giving this away. But it probably isn't going to happen. But the idea

is essentially John King of CNN at the magic wall. Did you watch the election coverage? Of course. Yeah. So he's going election coverage and how he would, yeah. So he's going to explain to us how things have changed. You know, he will take the board and show us how, you know, the teams that used to be in this division, well, they have flipped and now you need

to win this, you know, here, here and here in order to succeed. And here's where the strength lay last year in the playoffs, but now we're going to play a different format, different number of games. Here are the number of points you'll need, the percentage and so forth. You know how John King is, he's spellbinding.

So that's the idea. Like I probably thought of that a month ago and submitted it to Ed and Rob and just screwed it up by mentioning it here, but what the hell. Elliot here with a quick audio edit. The NBA on TNT stole Ron's idea on its opening night. They used John King and Wolf Blitzer to begin the basketball season. So I don't think this is going to be happening for us. They stole Ron's idea. Now back to the interview.

Honestly, I mean this in all sincerity. To put it on 31 thoughts is to reach the creme de la creme of people who love the game. So I'm honored to give it to you. You know what, Ron? Now we're going to find out the truth. Does anyone actually listen to this garbage? That's what we're about to find out.

It was funny to hear Bieksa, right? When he said, I finally listened to your podcast. What? You know, I'm curious. And maybe the answer is your podcast what you know I'm curious and maybe this did the answer is well Jeff I'm curious about things what's interesting you've seen so much done so much been involved in so much what's interesting about hockey to you still to this day well that's a good question and I you know it's funny in all the social injustice discussion that's been going on for this past year Ta-Nehasi Coates wrote a book called Between the World and Me and he talked

about being a curious boy and he found out that the world wasn't interested in curious the world was interested in compliance and that's a little bit jaded but there's a little kernel of truth in that honestly Jeff I think like us all I'm fascinated in the because every issue seems to come down to the collective versus the individual. You know, what gives you autonomy? What gives you your freedom? What makes you an effective citizen? What gives you community? And obviously hockey is the great example. You know, it's not a sport where, you know, Michael Jordan can come and play 48 minutes and that's that. It is a sport that relies on the 13th forward

and the 7th or 8th defenseman. And I find that still, to this day, the most interesting thing is how do you reach all of the members of the team and how, in fact, do you create that team? And if you could find the language to do that, then you might be able to find the language that you and I need in order to reach a viewer

without threatening the viewer or losing the viewer. I think that's what you learn from hockey. I'm treading water in the deep end on that one, to no surprise. Really quickly, Ron, before we let you go, Christmas, the holiday season, what's it like for Ron McLean this year? Well, we have a tradition, crab legs or lobster on the Christmas Eve, and then a cheese fondue on Christmas Day. It's just carrying me, Jeff and Elliot. We have no children. We just have a dog, Jackson, a standard schnauzer. So it's very small. And this year, to honor the crises

of the pandemic, we'll eliminate having folks over as much as we'd love to. So I think I'll play Bing Crosby's 1955 record, A Christmas Sing with Bing Around the World, which is kind of the Christmas music or carol version of Wide World of Sports. It was a wide-eyed thing for me as a kid to hear what the choirs in The Hague and Rome and the Vatican sounded like.

So put that on at some point in the evening and get into Mark McMorris' tequila. That is outstanding. Now, who is the chef? Is it you or Carrie on this or both? Well, she'll do the crab or the lobster and I'll do the fondue. I have a recipe.

I'll give this away too. It's 300 grams of Emmental, 200 grams of Gruyere, 100 grams of Appenzeller with a little bit of Kirsch and some white wine and garlic and some Madagascar green peppercorns. And you'll have the time of your life. That sounds spectacular. Steal that recipe. Don't steal Ron's open.

That's the it. What did we learn today, Jeff? You give Ron some mock tequila and mock beer and he sings like a canary. You're a pet Ron. That's right. Petron. Attila the pun, alive and well. It's great.

Ron, we always appreciate it. Thanks so much, pal. Same, Jeff. Thank you, Ron. Thanks, Elliot. Yeah. Pleased to be joined now by our second Simpson of the party, Elliot. This is Craig, former Stanley Cup champion, analyst with Hockey Night in Canada.

Craig, first of all, I'm guessing the answer is wine, but that's a pretty wide brush there that I'm painting with. What kind of wine can we put in your glass tonight? Well, I think to begin off, a nice little crisp, cold Pinot Grigio would sound great and maybe top it off with a nice, solid, rich cab to finish things. Were you always a wine guy? Yeah, no, I've never really been a huge beer guy. I always find it's just too bloating. And so wine is definitely the drink of choice. All right.

definitely the drink of choice. All right. So earlier on in our event here, a source who may not be a fellow Rogers employee slash family member. Okay. That's hard to pick. Yeah, I know. We're really keeping the anonymity of this individual. Yes. We asked who the most competitive member of the Simpson family was. And she said you you because you were the youngest, so you had to be. Yeah. But she also said that you may have cheated in mini sticks as a child. Is think the entire family knew that the youngest Craig would do whatever he could to win whatever game we were playing. I hate to admit it with young kids now, but there's no question that I was a pretty sore loser and I'd pretty much do whatever it took to make sure I came out on top. How ruthless were you with Christine or Dave? Well, I think the fact that I had, you know, five years younger than my brother Dave to always look, look up to him, you always had to be competitive. And you always had to do a little bit more, take the shots when you had to, and,

you know, do whatever it took to be competitive and to be involved to the point of you know one of the great christmas memories for me was uh you know i always wanted to play with my brother's friends and the only play that place that i would play hockey road hockey with was to be the goalie because none of them wanted to be the goalie and so you know little craig goes in there and the hitch was that I could play, but if I ever got hit and started to cry and ruin the game, I'd never be invited back. So I had to bite my tongue many times. I used to get drilled in the face with tennis balls. And I remember one special Christmas, there was a goalie mask under the tree for young Craig. So that took away some of the problem. They said, hey, if we're going to keep him in the game

so that we can all play and have fun, we're going to get him a mask so he doesn't cry after we drill him in the face. So you were used to punishment in front of the net, essentially, and that played out in the NHL. No question. It was from probably four or five years on when you've got a 10-year-old at that point.

And then as they got to their teens and I was just approaching 10, I had to learn how to take a hit to make a play, so to speak. Now, here's the other thing I wonder. You morphed into a hell of a hockey player, Simmer. When did Dave and Dave's friends start to say, all right, he's too good to play in goal. He's got to play out with us now. Well, I, I, I must be honest too. I didn't mind because I was a terrible runner. I hated running. So being able to be in net was actually okay. In road hockey for me, I didn't have to run around and chase those guys. But no, I think, you know,

once I got into my teens, we all kind of moved on to bigger and greater things. But it wasn't just on the road hockey field or, you know, we had a basketball net. And I think that was probably the one, Elliot, where, you know, in the summer times, I got into those games, and suddenly when I was 13, 14, I could hold my own and play the game. I don't think I was the proverbial last guy picked. I think by that time, I was one of the higher picks in the game for the family. All right, Jeff. Here's my last one on this line of questioning. Simmer, I was notorious for throwing temper tantrums when I lost when I was a kid. What is the worst temper tantrum you ever threw in losing a family event? Any kind.

Board games, sport. Hit us. Well, I would think board games are the ones. I think the hockey games or the basketball games, they're always great to have such energy. And at least, you know, you could spend an hour and be exhausted by the end. I think you'd be a little ticked off, but the reaction wasn't bad. I think Chris probably would remember playing board games. And if I lost that, I'd probably be more of a sore loser and, you know, the old shoot the board across the table and start

throwing the pieces. So I do remember my, I did have a bit of a temper. I hated losing. And I remember my dad telling me one day, I was about 13, about 13 years old, I think it was at the end of a tournament and we lost the game. And I used to, I used to get mad at the end of games. I remember one time I had had a great tournament. We lost in the final. And as the buzzer sounded, I flung my stick down the ice in disgust. And I remember my dad always stood behind the net

to suck in goals for us at the one end. And as I let go of that stick, my eyes just were riveted on my dad's. And I was like, oh, man, was that a mistake? And, you know, that's probably the last time I ever did that. And it's the one thing I remember him always telling me, if you can't control your temper, you'll never be able to control yourself and have great success. And, you know, I remember that moment as a real turning point of, you know, absorb the punishment. Don't get frustrated.

Don't get mad. And sometimes you have to live those lessons to learn them. Those are great stories. Listen, Christmas, as we all know, the holiday season, it's about family and getting together. But when you grow up in a family like yours, I mean, it must have been about, you know, Christmas tournaments. I mean, it was for my family. I mean, I would suspect it would be the same for you Simmer what are some of your favorite memories from some of your favorite Christmas tournaments when you were a kid my first great experience and you know playing in at Michigan State I was as a 16 year old the Great Lakes Invitational Tournament was my first feeling it

was right after Christmas every year and my first feeling of what it might feel like to play in the NHL was at Joe Lewis Arena. And it was Michigan, Michigan State, which I played for, Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan. And we set at that time the attendance record. I mean, you had the bands in the arena. It was an electric atmosphere. Everybody was in a Christmas mood. And that to me was the first feeling of what it must feel like to play in the National Hockey League. And I'll remember that first year, 1983, I would think it was right after Christmas as my feeling of, oh God, like this is what I want to do. And this is an amazing experience. And it all happened around after the Christmas break.

Simmer, I wanted to talk a little bit about now. And Jeff, I don't know if you've ever been to Craig's house in Edmonton. He's got a beautiful setup there. He once brought us over to his place. And I know last year during the playoffs at the Bubble, the broadcasters were allowed to go in and out. They stayed in a certain area in the arena, but they were allowed to go in and out. And a in a certain area in the arena, but they were allowed to go in and out.

And a number of the people who worked with us told us, Craig, that there was a night where you hosted people at your house, which was very special to them. You've got a great setup there with your deck. And I wonder, you know, when we last spoke to you, you hadn't had a chance to see your grandchild yet. And now this Christmas being this first one with that whole family together what's it's going to mean to you well it's always special and i think you've gone

through the the years of having the older kids and you know in our old house had a backyard rink that you'd have a fire going and play out on the rink we had a rink out here one year for the younger kids and really enjoyed that. This year, Elliot, I actually, Jesse and Sam were outside going to make sort of a fort and piling up snow. And I, you know, with nothing to do, I ended up building a little Christmas hut. It's about eight by six and it's got Christmas lights all around it. So the kids have a little place to go uh it becomes more special the younger kids obviously and Samantha's uh thrilled with Santa Claus coming again and can't wait for that to happen and for our little uh granddaughter Stevie

the most challenging part is since they got here in Edmonton, we've had the restrictions of we're not even allowed now. Originally, we were allowed to have them in the house because they're staying at their mom's place. And now we're not even allowed to have them in the backyard. So I've really only been able to spend a couple of times with Stevie. But as you know, the magic of Christmas is in the youngsters. And with Samantha being seven, it's pretty exciting. And I know for Dylan and Haley, my daughter-in-law, they're going to be thrilled having Stevie in her first Christmas.

So hopefully we'll get a chance to at least see them. Thanks very much for coming on and joining us, Craig. We really appreciate it. Well, I appreciate it. I enjoy listening to you guys. And happy Hanukkah, Elliot, and Merry Christmas to all. I hope everybody stays safe, stays healthy, and look forward to seeing you guys in person sometime soon.

Soon. Let it be soon. Yeah, and look forward to hearing you call a game again soon, Simmer. Thanks. Be well. Have a great holiday. All right. Take care. Elliot, there's no kind of party like a Carolyn Cameron party. So we are bringing her on with the big question of the day that, Carolyn, we're asking everybody, what is in your cup?

Your drink of choice is what? This time of year, a nice glass of red wine. Any particular kind? Right now I'm really into cab sauve. Does that make me sound like a snob? It's $15 cab sauve. So if it makes you feel any better, you sound like a snob for many other reasons, just besides the cab. There we go. Elia's just happy that someone did that. You didn't say eggnog because we had a run on eggnog. I hate eggnog. All right. Well, we had a run on eggnog. I hate eggnog. All right. Well, we had a run on eggnog,

but that seems to have hit its crescendo and is now descending. First of all, Carolyn, thanks so much for popping by, as always. What are holidays like for you? Give us a snapshot. We're sort of getting everyone to give us the childhood snapshot.

What do you remember? Any great Christmas holiday stories you have stashed away in your hip pocket. What's yours? Yeah, I'm very much a person of routine. And I think that started even from a young age of traditions because my dad has a video of every year since my eldest brother was born of myself and my two older brothers coming down the stairs Christmas morning, opening our stockings the night before we would always read was the night before Christmas, which he also has on the home movie camcorder. And yeah, just family time, we'd really just

stay in, we'd go to my grandma's in the morning, to open presents there. And then my parents would always host Christmas dinner. So we'd have about probably 18 people. Wow. So yeah, it was always great. So that, I mean, this year is going to be different. We're just going to social distance and see everyone outside. But even though it's, it's sad, it's, we're so used to it in 2020. You know, I have to say I'm lucky that my parents were never big into the whole movie kind of thing. I would hate to see, there's enough enough embarrassing stupid things i've done in my life like on camera for enough people to see it that i don't need them to see my young videos yeah the awkward years they got news for you they've been 50 awkward years never mind just this but do you

watch them at all carolyn and would you ever let anyone see them yeah and I was like I was uh especially for my first few years of life I was kind of a scary looking kid and a little crazy running around I was kind of just the prototypical third child so yeah it's I don't embarrass too easily I would let I would let people see 11, 12, 13 probably gets a little rough. But yeah, I don't watch them often. But my dad did like convert all of the VHS tapes onto DVDs. And then he put them on a hard drive. Nice. He recorded a lot.

He's basically in none of them though. You know what? That's funny because my most precious, maybe one of, maybe the most precious gift I ever got from Christmas was from my wife a few years ago. Because my parents, this is how old I am. I'm Elliot's age. My parents shot a lot of stuff, but it's all on Hi8 and Super 8. When am I going to get a chance to see that? So sneakily, my wife had them all digitized and gave them to me for Christmas one year.

So stuff that I had never seen before. And both my parents have passed on. And just like your dad, my dad's in none of them because he's holding the camera. Do you have a favorite Christmas present, either current or from a young Carolyn Cameron? Ooh, well, I was going to tell a story on here. So I don't know if I should tell it already, but that has to do with a very memorable Christmas present. Go for it. So my grandma, much like me, was just a very proactive, organized person, and perhaps a little bit obsessive about it. So we always had to give our Christmas wish list to Thanksgiving. And it had to be very detailed,

because most of the time, she didn't understand what the heck we were asking for. She just wanted to go out, get it, and we'd be happy with our gift. So I really wanted, I think I was about eight or nine, a Leafs jersey. And I think I was at the time where, you know, that stage where you're about to have a growth spurt and your feet are too big for your body. And I think getting hand-me-down clothes too, it was always, oh, you'll grow into it. You'll grow into it. So I asked her for a Leafs jersey and i thought well i guess i'll be i'll get a men's large because i'll grow into it so she got me the jersey my one and only leafs jersey and i still have it underneath the bed and i never grew into it

it is massive is there a number and a name plate on it no no number but it's the old style logo what would you have gotten i would have probably at the time gotten Curtis Joseph, but I think I was also, which is kind of cute, I was cognizant about how much it would cost and it was cheaper to just get a jersey that didn't have a number on the back. Well, you're looking out for your family. That's very, very, very ethical of you.

It's impressive. Now, was your family, did you have any like Christmas traditions, whether it was hockey outdoors or ball hockey or any other sport? We all know you're a huge tennis fan, board games, anything like that. Did you guys have that kind of a thing? I would always play road hockey on the driveway, regardless of what time of year it was. So even up around Christmas time and the thing too is I always like my dad would take me to the bank and I would take out like with my little passbook or whatever you call take out some money and then he would take me to Canadian

Tire and I would get the latest like whatever I still needed for the driveway so that was always very exciting and often happened during the holidays where I'd get like some goalie equipment for the driveway or a better net or a better stick. In terms of traditions, like we were really, and especially me, musical family too. So the holidays were so much about like Christmas concerts and yeah, just tons of Christmas concerts. So I always just grew up loving Christmas and I still put my tree up in mid-November. After Remembrance Day, I am good to go. We had this thing with Murph. He had the earliest one that I knew of this year,

but you have entered the competition. And I have no shame. I mean, time flies. Why would you not want to enjoy the Christmas season? Especially this year. Yeah, I'm with you. There's no rules in 2020. I think the Remembrance Day, nothing before Remembrance Day is an excellent rule.

After that, this year. Now, do you still play an instrument or anything like that? Oh, you guys are going to like, this is some good little timbits. So, I mean, not to brag, but I actually was pretty good at the trumpet. So much so that I owned one. And now like I just moved into a bigger space. So I got from my parents my trumpet. And maybe like two weeks ago, much to my boyfriend's disappointment, I played some Christmas songs on the trumpet.

For people that don't know Cameron, like she's like a triple quadruple threat. It's music, it's sports. No, it's just being mediocre at all. No, that's my line. It's nice to interview people like you and Taro who have actual talent. That's the good thing. Unlike guys like me and Elliot just say, oh, that's a bad pass. I thought that was offside. We'll be right back. That's a bad pass. And I thought that was offside. We'll be right back. And you're also really charitable.

Now, I know Steve McNeil as maybe the best referee that I've ever seen. Certainly the most colorful, the most fun. Like, I love Steve McNeil. Just like a wonderful guy. How do you know Steve McNeil? Yeah, so I met him, I want to say about four years ago. because when I lived out west, I started getting involved in the Alzheimer's Society. And that's because my now late grandma, who I mentioned, she suffered from vascular dementia. So it was a way for me to get involved when I couldn't actually physically visit her because she was in Toronto. in the Alzheimer's Society in Toronto. And I don't remember if someone got me in touch with him or I just saw that he had this skate happening.

And I went not knowing him and introduced myself and kind of explained my story and why I was there. And for those who don't know, he skates every year, every December on his late mother's birthday, who suffered from Alzheimer's for 19 hours and 26 minutes straight. And usually he does it at Nathan Phillips Square. And his mom was born in 1926. And that's when my late grandma was born. So it just, it's, it's nice when you can

do any charity work or, or donate to charity, but it's just nicer when you actually meet people and you can connect and understand where they're coming from. So every year since I've gone and skated with, I, not for 19 hours and 26 minutes on my end, but it's always kind of been a, it's been a nice part of the year. And this, this time of year, especially for people, it's a difficult time of year, especially when you have family who are suffering in this year, more so than any year. So it's always been a nice time of year to connect on that level. So Carolyn will be back a little later on the podcast. We're almost at the finish line.

Jeff had to go take a bathroom break, as did Elliot. Jeff has drank an entire case of ginger ale. Elliot is on his sixth glass of Lagavulin, and it does stink. All right, back to the guys and our last two guests this should be a lot of fun as we bring in kevin bx uh former nhl defenseman star of hockey night in canada bon vivant man about town currently in god's country hey kev welcome to the holiday party hey guys happy to be here this is my third time on 31 Thoughts? Second, third, fourth?

Is everyone keeping track? It's like after hours. Emergency guest. Break glass. Bring in Kevin. That's exactly what it was, wasn't it? It was like, oh, let's call him last second because somebody pulled out. Somebody really cool.

We had a cancellation. Who's got BX's cell number? First of all, poison in the cup. What are you drinking? How about an old-fashioned? If it's a little bit later in the day do you have a preference for the scotch you put in there uh i don't but probably like a maker's mark if i had to choose good call you're in lockdown right i'm in quarantine yeah we're up up north north of toronto so uh we haven't been back to canada for the holidays for a while and we came for the holidays we also came to see some family some uh some sick family so we're legal they let us in we're canadian citizens don't go reporting

me or anything that's right kind of kind of show this is but don't go reporting me i'm legal and we're keeping our distance and we're locked down in our cottage. What are Christmases normally like for you, Kev? We're a big Christmas family. So we've always, when I was playing, we would always go up to Whistler. When I was in Vancouver, we'd go up to Whistler. We'd go to kind of stay in a hotel and do all the Christmas activities. And then down in California, we would, two of two of the three years we went to Coronado Island,

which is a little island just off of San Diego. And there's like a beautiful old haunted hotel there. So we stayed there a couple of times, but it's been a long time since we've been back in Ontario for Christmas. And certainly up here where it's cold and there's snow already. You know, I got to tell you, I think that's awesome.

And my wife is really into that stuff, like the haunted hotels. When we went to Florence and we visited Italy, she was really into a haunted hotel that's there. And I said, do you want to stay in it? Like, I'll set it up if you really want to go. And she said, no, I think I'm really fascinated by it, but I think I'd be freaked out staying in it.

How are you guys staying in it we're okay for whatever reason my daughter is really into it and reese is only 11 now and she is and i'm not proud to say as a parent but she's watched every scary movie out there and i don't enjoy scary movies personally like it's a big joke in my family like oh dad's scared of scary movies but i'm like i'm scared of them i just don't like the way they make me feel so i don't know if that's the same or not but like so my daughter wants to watch scary movies and she watches them with her mom and her aunt all the time and she loves this stuff like eats it up and i'm kind of like ah i don't really want to subject myself to that if I don't have to so she loved it what do you like then

if you don't like if you don't like scary movies a rom-com guy what do you dig science fiction what do you like we just watched the the holiday last night I don't know if you've seen that Christmas movie one of the best Christmas movies ever Cameron Diaz Jude Law watch it so it's a little bit it's a rom-com this is like the first Christmas movie I've never heard of. Yeah, it's a Christmas movie for sure because it takes place before and after the holidays. It's Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet. They both switch houses for two weeks over Christmas.

One lives in LA, one lives in a small village in London and they switch houses because they both come off big breakups. There's the, the romantic comedy part. And then they kind of meet new Jack Blacks in it. You guys would like it. I mean, it's a little bit like we're all tough guys here. I know that on this call,

like we're all really tough guys and we're all going to hit the, the iron after. Sure. But this is a nice feel good movie. Now, hold on a second. What's the scariest movie? Cause I remember when I was about nine years old,

I watched the original Halloween and I love all the Halloween movies. I love the theme, but that movie scared the crap out of me. I almost pooped myself watching that movie. What was the scary, Jeff and Kevin,

scariest movies you guys have ever watched? Let's get that image out of our head first, Jeff of him pooping himself. I don't know like what the scariest movie is, but, uh, I was, I was really terrified of, of Freddie. Freddie was my guy that I was so scared of.

And Freddie Cougar is what I was terrified of. And you know what I did? This is embarrassing. I should admit this, but I put a poster of him on my door in my bedroom when I was a kid. And my rationale was if he ever came to my room in the middle of the night, I could say, look, I'm a fan of yours. Don't kill me.

Is that normal? Totally normal. It's actually, I got to tell you, I think that's a good plan. It's not the worst plan i've ever heard not terrible that's the way i honestly believed it in my head like this was a way like i had to look at the post every once in a while which terrified me but at least i i had a chance if you can uh for me it was the exorcist i remember watching that way too young it was like late late night and my parents had gone to bed and i was watching city

tv late at night and they had the extra assist on. And when Linda Blair's head spins around, like that was it for me, that image like haunted me for years. Well, I've funny. So I just watched the movie like a couple of years ago. And I,

first of all, it's an outstanding movie. I love Max von Sydow. And this is like just another great performance by him. But that thing absolutely terrified me. Like growing up, that was the benchmark for scary movies. Like,

have you seen the exorcist was like the barrier to entry for, you know, how scary a movie can you handle? Back to the gas, Jeff, back to the get, I know. The listeners have to listen to you ramble on all the time back to the guests right elliot let me

talk let me tell you about the first time i saw jaws kevin um actually again it's not like i'm talking to my psychiatrist and then when i was five things really went sour um kevin growing growing up in grimsby ontario what were christmases like when you were a kid christmases were uh shovel shovel the driveway and make boards out of snow. And then hopefully if you do that early enough, they crystallize and they're ice because of the weather. And then we would go outside and we'd play road hockey and full contact, body check each other into the mountains of snow, my brothers and I. The BXA Cup, right? It wasn't the BXA Cup back then.

We didn't even know about the BXA Cup. But it was the start of it yeah it was big al would get out there and he'd obviously flex his muscle and throw us around and that was kind of where we learned how we're in contact like our kids these days have to go to like hitting seminars and and learn how to officially hit we just did it with our big winter coats on and snow pants and just body checking each other into the ice boards. That is awesome. One of the things we're asking people is, you know, we all miss a lot of things,

and we realize we've taken a lot of things for granted. Is there something that Kevin BX said now will never complain about again? That's the end of the question? That's the end of the question. If you want, I can flower it up a little bit more i can i can dress it up put some lipstick on it wasting time and talking about himself and now the questions are too short well that's that's just a deeper question that i that i expected from you i expected a long-winded one i'd have to cut you off what what is something tell us who's got the best slap shot.

I thought we were going to talk wrestling or something like that. I'm into that. Sure. Let's do that. Okay. Well, let me try to answer something that I'll never take advantage of again or take for granted again. Take for granted again. A lot of people are saying complaining about travel. One of the things I think a lot of us

miss is being able to get on a plane and go somewhere or even go to a neighboring town and visit people. What are you never going to complain about again? Well, I don't complain ever, as you can imagine. But I do appreciate going out for dinner at a restaurant with good friends

because it's felt like forever since you've done that. But I will say, my son and I, were in denver and we're playing some hockey because i guess their state was a little bit more open a few months ago we went to the denver broncos kansas city chiefs game and that was a pretty cool experience to go to an arena that was only 2 000 people a stadium and you could just walk around at your leisure go into the team store go to the concessions no lineups anywhere so selfishly that was an amazing experience so i think i think covid's taught us that like the way we were living before it was was pretty disgusting right now we're all just walking around like spitting on each other and so like

i don't even i don't even mind well i don't even mind the mask. If I'm getting in an elevator with Elliot and Ron McClain and Kelly Rudy, I should have a mask on, don't you think? Elevators are frightening to people now. I was talking to someone about this the other day, that the idea of going into a crowded elevator right now, you want to talk about horror movies, Kevin? The 2021 ultimate horror movie is getting on an elevator without a mask on yeah it really is and like you we've

been watching a lot of movies obviously through this and you look at some movies and you're like oh my god that just seems so wrong when you have so many people like in a close proximity and none of them have masks on you can just imagine like the germ spreading i hopefully that fades as time goes on but right now that's like all we're thinking about we're watching the movie all right so last thing i want to ask you before we get to our next guest at the party because as usual you're chewing up all the air time uh this was a huge year for you kevin just in terms of you joined the show and you were a huge ad for us. You brought some life. Obviously, we're really happy to have you,

and you got great publicity. How much did the last year go to your head? Well, fortunately, I had 13 really good years before that, so not that much. Hang on. Can I re-ask that question? Yeah, please. No, I like the way I asked it asked it hang on i just want to add to it then did your wife have to widen the door frames in your home to fit your head in she's just staring at me shaking her head right now no like honestly i had i had a really

fun time during the playoffs and you know i was living in a hotel by myself for the majority of it in Toronto, which wasn't the best considering my family was up at the cottage playing on the water every day. But going into the studio, great group of guys. And I disagree. I think I was carried a little bit, especially by Elliot early on.

Ron carried me a little bit at times, but I think we gave a good product. It was entertaining, right? It was fun. You can say that, yeah, you watch shows like that to learn a little bit about the game and the teams, but I think you just watch to be entertained. I was entertained at times just listening to us banter on

and chirp each other, so I'm hoping the viewer was as well. I think they were. You were a huge add for us, Kevin. We're really happy to have you. We really are. Hey, Jeff. Jeff, this is good. We're sitting around and we're watching the game together. We're really happy to have you. We really are. Hey, Jeff. This is good. We're sitting around

and we're watching the game together. We're coming up with our points and we're kind of like throwing it at the producer. And Elliot just sits there on his betting app, quietly, doesn't say a word, right? So then they're like, a minute before we go on, they're like, Elliot, what do you want to talk about? He goes, oh, I'll come up with something.

Doesn't tip off anybody, right? Because then he just wants to jump in and steal like a minute and a half just for Elliot talk, right? Like every period, it's the same thing. Like nobody knows what Elliot's going to talk about until we get out there. It keeps his cars really close to him.

I do Wednesday nights with him. I know he's like the sniper. He's like, you know, bell tower Elliot. Like you don't see him and then he's on set. Boom. And just starts dropping bombs wait I hear heavy breathing Brian Burke must be here Berkey Berkey's awesome yeah hey boys hey Berkey just like being on tv with you and Elliot I don't

get a word in Berkey the next guest yes he is he is. All right. Upgrade. Upgrade. Just finishing your book right now, Berkey. Almost done it. Yeah, I should have mentioned him more, I guess. Not one mention, yeah, but that's cool. I'll make sure I mention you in my book. Yeah, don't hold your breath for the last part.

Enough Lou Amarillo references, though. I've heard enough of him. All rightv great chatting with you have a great holiday and we'll see you soon okay guys miss you guys happy holidays thanks kevin be well bud all right berkey before we start with you uh what can we put in your glass what's uh what do you do what do you what's your christmas cheer this time of year i like some baile. Like Baileys on the rocks or Baileys in a coffee? Or how do you take it? You can't wreck Baileys. It's good anyway.

Okay. When I say, I know some in our audience don't know the finer points of hockey. Could you tell them, for example, Berkey, what is icing? I think anyone listening knows what icing is. So just so you know, Elliot, Berkey and I have this thing on text where we just randomly send each other lines from Slapshots.

And to me, at any point of the day, I could get something. Do you want to share with our listeners what your favorite line in the entire movie is, Berkey? Oh, I love when the drunk says to Reggie in the bar, you got to fix the power player. Yeah, we're working on it.

And I've used that on fans in airports and in bars and restaurants for 30 years. There's someone will come up to me and say, you got to trade and say, yeah, we're working on it. Yeah, we're working on it. Yeah, we're working on it. It is as close to perfection as possible the problem now is berkey you can't use that anymore because that fan will go right to twitter and say i just ran into berkey at the airport and i said trade the siddines and he goes yeah we're working on it and kaboom all the vancouver media start texting you and calling

you are you trading the siddines i still will use line. I don't get accosted that much now that I'm not a GM. But, like, when your team is struggling, you know, fans in Canada are serious about their hockey. And it's not unusual for someone to stop you and give you a hard time, say, you've got to fix the power play. And, you know, yeah, we're working on it. I don't mind when people are polite, but when I was a GM, I don't get stopped now, but when I was a GM, I don't get stopped now,

but when I was a GM, but you'd be after games, you'd be walking in the restaurant like at the Center Ice Club in Vancouver when I was an assistant GM, or if you had to go see a season ticket holder at the Platinum Club at Deer Canada Center, and some drunks would accost you. I'm like, that's not part of my job description to be polite to a drunk who's giving me a hard time i got news for you it doesn't change in tv either yeah that's the truth now i know that i know so i came in with that line from the fashion show from uh from slap shot the uh uh the billy charles boy uh it's actually charles lebois uh the how many times do you think you've seen that movie? I remember when it came out,

and I had just played two weeks in Springfield in the American League. And there's a lot of that movie. I mean, Slapshot, when you watch it, a lot of that movie is very idealized. They've taken all the poor points of hockey and made them look as bad as they possibly can. But the fighting was rampant then, the drinking was rampant then, and the smoking was rampant then. I tell rampant then and the smoking was rampant then and i tell the stories in my book my first practice i was so proud i never thought i'd

get to play pro hockey and i come off the ice after my first practice it's 11 30 in the morning and it's a dingy old rink the big e the eastern states coliseum or exposition whatever it is in springfield mass and you can always smell horse manure because they had horseshoes in there all the time. And there's this dingy dressing room, but the sun was shining and it was bright. The room was bright. I'm sitting next to Dennis Palafi, who was our captain. And I'm sitting there going, 10 years ago, I just started playing hockey. I am playing pro hockey.

This is unbelievable. And I can't wait to call my dad and tell him i just had my first practice i'm getting 200 bucks a game and i thought it was a million dollars right and then two guys come in mike mcmahon and grant cole come in and mike mcmahon calls for the trainer and he brings out two beer cups full of ice like two big beer cups full of ice not no mix he takes out a bottle of rye from the stall under where skates go and fills up the cups with rye and they toast each other and they start drinking it wasn't even noon i couldn't believe it and and and pilo uh dennis palafi sitting beside me he's having a

cigarette like my first period of my first game we were playing i think the providence reds seven guys lit up after the first period in the room. Ashtrays in the dressing room. Yep. Was it with the call of day? And Kevin just mentioned your book, Burke's Law, a couple of seconds ago. And the reason I bring up Slapshot is you mentioned early in the book when you're talking about those dying moments, 2007, Ducks are about to win the cup. What does your video coordinator or one of your video people say to you?

Joe Trotta, who was our video guy. What do you mean one of our video coordinators? There was only one video coach back then. Joe Trotta leans in and says, and the Chiefs have won the championship of the Federal League right out of slapstick. That's awesome, Berkey. That's awesome.

Frej? You're a really social guy. You're a big-time family guy. You know, just the last couple of months and preparing for Christmas, how have the Berks been kind of handling it? The girls are great. So, Gracie's birthday, Brendan's birthday was December 8th. And so, that's a sad day for this household, obviously. But Gracie's birthday, amazingly, is alsocember 8th and so that's a sad day for this household obviously but gracie's

birthday amazingly is also december 8th so that makes an otherwise sad day a good day so marin gracie just turned 15 marin will be 17 soon uh they seem to be doing really well i did all their shopping all the stuff i bought them i bought online i haven't gone into a store to buy any christmas gifts i'm just going to wrap them all up tonight. I think everyone's doing well. I have some days where I get down in the dumps a bit, but pretty well, I think. Berkey, tell us about Brian Burke growing up and Christmas. I remember you mentioned to me once that Christmas was never about things like sports equipment, because that wasn't a present. That was something you needed to play. But what was Christmas around the Berks like?

My dad traveled a lot, and there's 10 kids, so birthdays were not a big deal because my dad missed so many of them. So on your birthday, you got to pick what you wanted to eat, and you got to pick what kind of cake you wanted. So you could have a chocolate cake or a poppy seed cake or whatever, but that was it. I want steak for dinner, and I want a poppy seed cake. So that was it. you got this i want steak for dinner and i want a poppy seed cake so that was it not no big gifts no big deal 10 kids right and the mom and dad 12 birthdays it's crazy so christmas was the big deal and my parents would have a load of stuff under

the tree i mean you'd laugh right now just imagine 12 people and say six seven gifts per person let's say you know even someone who's not very good at math can figure out that's a pretty big pile of presents and a big tree big fire in the fireplace and so christmas was a big deal and a huge dinner my mom would have to make two turkeys or a turkey and a ham i remember the milkman when we lived in chicago the milkman, when we lived in Chicago, the milkman dropped off 14 half gallons of milk twice a week. So you imagine, we could hear the glass clinking in the backyard for, it took him two, three minutes to unload. Like all these things that you don't think about having 10 kids. So Christmas was a big deal. Now, my parents did give sporting equipment sometimes.

I always felt it was unfair. Well, my favorite Christmas gift ever was I got Cooper 18s. I think I was trying to prepare for the show last night. I think it was 1971. I was 16 years old. I got a pair of Cooper 18s, which were like NHL-quality gloves. So they went up to your elbows then, right? Up to my elbows, yeah.

The wrist guards went up to your elbows. And I wore them for three years. Like they were, they grew, you know, I grew into them, but they fit me for three years. I had to get them repalmed eventually, but I thought that was the greatest gift I ever got. And then the next year or the same year, I got skates, but they weren't, no, it was the year before. I got skates and I went down and skated in the Creek Valley at the outdoor rink. And I skated so much that they broke. The blade broke off the boot.

And so I went home, and my dad says, come on. He took me up to General Sports, which was the name of the sports store in our town, and he bought me a pair of tacks, my first pair of tacks. I remember they cost $32. That was a lot of money back then. And my dad said, I'm not spending this money unless you promise me you're going to wear these skates out too. And I did, but I never gave my kids sporting equipment. I think that's, uh, if you're in a position to do it, I think that's something

your kid needs and it shouldn't be under a Christmas tree. You should put a pair of jeans or something else that they like under the Christmas tree. So my kids have never gotten sporting, something else that they like under the christmas tree so my kids have never gotten sporting like patrick never got skates for christmas bricky for me it's a wonderful life and emmett otter's jug band christmas is there something that you watch every year around christmas time and you won't miss uh it's a wonderful life uh die hard 2 yeah and Miracle on 34th Street, which I think is a fabulous movie. Do you realize we just walked into the is Die Hard a Christmas movie debate? No. I'm not in the mood to debate this year.

So, Berkey, here's the question I always want to ask you. I love watching on TV. You're obviously a huge ad for what we do. Do you ever get off of after finishing a segment and say boy if i was the gm and somebody said that about me i'd be calling them and killing them right now yeah i see when i started in broadcasting so i i worked for a rival competitor for a year back in 0405 during the lockout and i did the world cup for the cbc that year i did the draft for the other competitor and i had rules like when i came into this i had rules so i i basically i assume basic

confidence like if i'm going to rip a gm i have to assume basic confidence if he or she got that far that's number one number two is i assume good intentions i assume that they want to win as much as i want to win and then three is i assume that they want to win as much as I want to win. And then three is I assume that they have superior knowledge of their players. So if I'm going to rip Kyle Dubas for something he does, I've got to assume he knows that player a little better than I do. I can make a comment on how I put the roster together and so on. And then the basic rule is, my rule is, is there a nicer way to say this?

Is it fair? And so to me, I've tried to avoid personal shots, which I really resented when I, you know, I'll give you an example. So I said that Jill Thornton is a duplication, right? And I love Jill Thornton. But I think with Jason Spezza, it's a poor use of your last bit of cap space. Like you've got that guy in the room. the poor use of your last bit of cap space. I think you've got that guy in the room.

And some idiot online writes back, well, this is the guy who gave Mike Komiseric four years at $4 million or whatever. And I'm like, yeah, that's got a lot to do with Joel Thornton, you idiot. What does that have to do? Yes, okay, I made some bad trades. I'll concede that right here. I made lots of them.

When I speak publicly, people say, what's the worst trade you ever made? And I'm like, how much time do we we have i've made a lot of bad trades but i'm like what a stupid response this this moron and so when i came into i said okay i'm going to assume basic confidence assume good intentions assume superior knowledge is there a nicer way to say this am i being fair and that governs everything i do so So when I go after someone, you can bet your butt that I've thought hard about it and thought there is no nice way to say this.

It's a stupid thing, and you got to call stupid stupid. Just before we wrap up here, because we want to get to our next party guest, Jeff, if you are not frightened enough by Brian Burke in real life, Brian Burke is now coming to you in animation what are you two working on go ahead jeff this is awesome uh so we did a radio feature last year called hey burkey and listen the one thing about a couple of things about brian one uh he's got great stories most of them are even true. And he

delivers it in a really compelling way as well. And I'm not sure whose idea this was. Might have even been Amal Delich, our producer for the podcast, who's also involved in this series. Actually, Billy Duke approached me back in the spring about doing this project, and I was more than happy to jump on

and do it. But they thought it'd be a good idea to animate some of these stories and release them. The first one as we release this podcast has been released as well. And no, the first episode drops Christmas Day. You can find that at our various social media

channels. So Hey Berkey is now an animated feature and the first one revolves around, Berkey, and you'll remember this well, the Ron Wilson Christmas contract tweets. Oh! Which, in your words, Berkey,

was not the wisest thing to do for the coach, was it? No, it backfired badly. Berkey, one last thing for me before we let you go here. We know you've, for the Christmas trade freeze, the week before the official week of no trading.

I've always been curious. Has there ever been a general manager who has tested you on that? Anyone offer you, you know, LeCavalier for Mullen during the Brian Burke Christmas freeze? No, but I will tell you this. A lot of GMs were really sour about it.

Like the ones that told me to my face to the ones that complained to Gary Bettman were like, you know, one team shouldn't have their own rules. It makes me look bad in front of my players. And Gary was like, well, then do it. If you think this will make you look good to your players, then do it. But guys would come up to me and say, you're making me look bad to my players for no reason.

You're grandstanding. And I said, I'm not grandstanding. It's a trade freeze. It's a real trade freeze. And I remember one year, I think Marcus Naslin asked me to do it on December 1st. I think we started on December 1st. So the European guys could

book their flights and not worry about getting traded. I don't think players should get traded at Christmas time. This year's different. It's going to speed up now, I think. But I don't think players should get traded over Christmas. I don't think that's part of the deal. You are the opposite of the Christmas Grinch. Well, I like working with both you guys

and everyone who's listening, please have a safe and enjoyable holiday season. Berkey, we're happy to have you and thank you for joining us today, my man. Okay, happy holidays, guys. So Jeff, we're about to close this podcast, but first we want to welcome on our last official guest the producer of this podcast amal delich amal so like we said at the top jeff we initially came up with 52 people

and amal which he rarely does put his foot down he said that, that is insane. So we dropped it. I think the final number being ended up like 23 or 24. But Amal, first of all, what can we buy you? Well, a Rolex watch would be nice. Elliot, over to you. But to start it off, I would say some nice coffee. I've gotten to coffee quite a bit over the pandemic. Okay, you said coffee at the beginning,

so we'll get you some. Is this French press, or do you have a special machine at home? I've got a nice machine at home that we got with the new house. Hang on, do you have a preferred bean? I'm a big fan of the Kona bean myself. What about you? Anything that will have me buzzing for a minimum of two hours is okay with me.

Okay. High octane coffee for Amel. Done. Well, Amel, we just wanted to say thanks, not only for this, because this was a massive undertaking and you did a lot of work on it. But for the whole year, I like the year that we had on the podcast. We can always be better and we will aim to be better next year. But I was really generally happy with the year, and you're a huge part of it. You make this go.

One of sports net's hardest-working employees is Amal Delic, and I think a lot of people behind the scenes don't get the credit they deserve. And Jeff and I wanted to make sure that you did and that you know how much we appreciate the effort you put into this. I hope you and Joe in your new place have a great, great, great holiday. And I know you're taking next week off.

Enjoy it because we're going to grind you in the first week of 2020. I knew that was coming. I knew that was coming. I knew that was coming. I appreciate that, Elliot. And the reason why I don't put my foot down most times is because I have last edit on most things. So I just take things out because I can.

And then I put it up and you guys can't say anything about it. That's a good plan. I admire that. I have to tell you, I admire that. Look, buddy, this is, Elliot and I have been consistent about this one from day one. This is not a two-person podcast. This is a three-person podcast.

There's the river and there's the banks. We always focus on the river, but the life happens on the banks. Thanks for being so much of a big part of all this, echoing what Elliot has to say. Thanks so much, pal. You're the best. I appreciate you guys. You guys crush it every single week. First of all, Frej, we've reached the end of the podcast and it's a miracle you're not slurring considering how many how many jars of

lagavulin have you had so far put it this way the recycling bin is full i want to bring carolyn cameron back to the to the podcast here because she's a double triple threat she's an excellent broadcaster she also plays a trumpet and she also plays the ukulele. Yeah, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're carrying a ukulele, Carolyn. I was expecting a trumpet. Where is the trumpet? Yeah, so as I've been sitting patiently waiting for this party to end,

I unpacked my trumpet, and one of the valves, I can't get it unstuck, which I'm sure is a common issue on this podcast. I'm sure you've heard of that very often. So then I thought, oh great, what am I going to do? I can't just show up with nothing. So it's the ukulele, which I taught myself. So don't have high expectations. Okay. So two things from that answer. Number one, the valve on my trumpet is stuck is the new, the internet was out. I couldn't finish my homework. And second, there is no greater endorsement, Jeff, of this party we've had than as I was sitting around waiting for this party to end. Nobody throws a duller party than me and Freak. That's right.

It's a busy time of year. I've got a lot to do around the house. Yeah, like sorting out your sock drawer. I could either go to Merrick and Elliot's party or, you know what, these socks are a mess. I really have to do something about this drawer. Okay, so you've got the uke. How about a tune?

Okay. We Wish You a Merry Christmas? Let's do it. Do I have to sing too? Yes. Are you guys going to sing? No. Not a chance.

Pick a key, any key, Merrick. Let me just say, I know this has been a really hard year on everyone. I hope that in the last three hours, we've given you some opportunities to have a good laugh with some of our great people. The toughest thing for me, Jeff, about this year is just not socializing. I love the group of people I work with. I love shooting the breeze with them. I love ripping on each other.

And I know a lot of you out there are the same. So all the best for your holiday season. Can't wait for a better 2021 with everyone. Jeff? Great words, Frej. As we all know, ships are safest in harbor, but that's not what they're built for. We're all going to get through this. Be safe.

Be well. Hope you can all be with loved ones and things will be better. All the best to everyone here from 31 Thoughts, the podcast in 2021. Cameron, take us out. We wish you Merry Christmas. Cameron, take us out. you and your kin we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year we wish you a merry christmas we wish you a merry christmas we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year Happy New Year. Oh, happy Hanukkah, Elliot. Sorry.

Did you guys get that? Record that. Throw that in there. Is that fine?