Empty Netters Podcast - 11. Let The Ladies Fight

Episode Date: January 12, 2023

(2:56) Blake Wheeler's Nut (14:46) Jack Hughes is RED hot (30:51) Hottest Teams of the Week (33:22) Hannah Bilka and Aerin Frankel Interview   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You will. Now let's get into this episode. Welcome back to a new episode. Happy to be here. Our second episode of the Empty Nerds podcast in 2023. Second episode of the year. Wow. Unbelievable stuff. You sound pretty sick, buddy. I am sick as a dog.

Do you have any idea how mad I am that I'm locked in a studio with you while you're sick? Just air just circulating in here. It's just like we're in an airplane right now. It's just a tunnel of sick air. Just germs. Whoever sits right here next. Sick. It's all over the microphone.

It's just your amoebas are everywhere. I'm on the mend. I'm on the mend already. Disgusting. You think so? Yep. You sound awful. Low water mark yesterday. That's unbelievable.

You want to get you? get into some hot ice? Yeah, I would that actually, anything hot, hot. I'm going to say, get you some hot tea and then some hot ice and we're going to get you feeling better. But we got some stuff to talk about in the NHL where we're so pumped to be back in studio here after that amazing Charlie

McAvoy interview and we're going to get into what's going down in the streets in the NHO world. What do you got first? Do you want to do Wheeler first? Let's do Blake Wheeler first. He's my guy, by the way. I know he is. So the hot news here with Blake Wheeler, forward for the Winnipeg Jets.

This guy has missed three weeks. And we just found out he missed three weeks because on December 15th took a clap bomb from the point, some friendly fire from his own teammate, ruptured his testicle. Emily, what do you think about that? That sounds painful. Sure is.

And he then finished the game, played over 18 minutes of ice time in that game with a ruptured nut. With a cracked wall nut. How does your nut? Not rupture. Picture a green grape that you've brought in for lunch in a little Tupperware container. And then one of them accidentally rolls out onto the table.

And Brian, your deskmate, comes in with a glass of water, and he puts his glass of water down on the table, and he accidentally puts it right on that grape. And you know how the skin of the grape can sometimes split and just like smush open? That is how you rupture it. Oh, I'm nauseous. So Wheeler ruptures his nut, plays the rest of the game, definition of hockey tough. Yep. If anyone was curious if Blake Wheeler's a hockey guy, now you know for certain. I really want to talk about here.

This is a dude that the Jets stripped the captaincy of, and he's out here literally putting his balls on the line for the team. What more can you ask for? People got kind of mad at me earlier this year. We made a video, Dan. I want to say, man, I forget what it was. It was like a text tracking video, you know, and we made some joke about the Jets spiraling, like they got rid of their captain, trip to their captain of his sea, whatever. And some Jets fans, and I love the Jets.

I'm a big Jets guy, by the way. A lot of Jets fans got mad that was like, you know, good. Like, no one needs to be the captain. And I was like, what do you have against my guy, Blake Wheeler? All he's ever done is be a Bruins third liner who was put in purgatory there for no reason, even though he was nasty, gets swung in a trade that the cup season. like four Peverely was that the four Peverely trade yeah i think it was and you know as a beast man you can't get mad if it gets you a cop ever but i was so sad to see him go back when it was

the thrashers mind you that was a thrashers trade yeah so sad to see blake go and then so happy to see him absolutely thrive because dude check the numbers here but we always make that joke about some of the guys the bees have let go over the years it's like it's like a kessel sagan we like it's like an all-star team there's like eight captains that are like the brutes just let walk and I'd be I want to check the numbers here but I'd be hard pressed to think of someone who was more productive over at least a

window there than Blake Wheeler Yeah it's Kessel, Sags Wheeler, Dougie I mean he's a beast Those are the top ones and he's going to put his nuts on the line he's literally dropping his nuts on the ice. I'll skate with him any day and getting blasted by shots. Yeah it's just

crazy stuff though it's tough look that it was his own guy because it's a way more badass story if you're like you go full mystery Alaska Have you seen that movie Emily? What's his name? No, I have not. Skank Martin.

Skank Martin slides in front of an NHL clapper. Yeah. Points at the mayor. Yeah, I did that for you. Yeah. It's because he was stupin the mayor's wife.

So he blocks a shot off the dick. That was his penance. He was like, I'm a good guy. I'm going to put my cock and balls on the line from the town of mystery. It's a great, you've seen the movie now. So that's, I wish Blake had that story. wish he was like, I slid in front of, like a Roman Yoshi platform. I wish it was the Jets

coaches. Is that a family skate? Yeah. It was the GM. It was the GM's wife. It's out there having to shoot around with the kids and just smacked the wheeler and the nuts. That would be better. He's just like, yeah. I took the sea off for you. Well, I mean, Blake, we're just given stick taps to you because that's just, that's just true hockey tough. And no cup checks for him for at least a month, boys. Yeah, no, zero. He's got three kids. So it's good. And they've already taking care of business in that department. Let's get into some All-Stars. That's the next bit of Hot Ice.

So we got the first wave of NHL All-Stars out on the line, and this is the, what is it, the writers? Yeah, the writers voted, and it's one player for each team, one player from one guy from each 32 teams, and then the fans are going to vote. I think it's already up, but it's now till January 17th, two more skaters, one more goalie, so 12 more total from each division. Okay. And when is it done?

This January 17th, I'm pretty sure. Okay. All right. So this pod will be out. and we're going to still have some All-Stars rolling in. But I don't think we need to read down the list of... Do you want me to read down the list? No, read it really fast.

All right. Here are the... This is the NHL Writers' All-Stars. We've got Sidney Crosby, Johnny Goodrow, Kevin Hayes, Jack Hughes, Brock Nelson, Alex Svechkin, Andres Vecinoff, Eegorkev, Ego, Cicesterkin, Nikita Kutrov, Dillan, Mitch Marner, Nick Suzuki, Tage Thompson, sup, Brady Kach, Matthew Kachuk, that's kind of awesome.

Lina Solmark, Koura, Clayton Keller, Jason Robertson, Bad Vlad Teresenko, Seth Jones, Kail McCarr, Josh Morrissey, U.S.S. Marysse, Kevin Fiala, Nazim Codry, Connor McDavid, Elias Peterson, Troy Terry, Eric Carlson, and Logan Thompson. Those are the 32 NHL All-Stars per the NHL writers. There is one that I really want to talk about here, and that is Kevin Hayes. Shout out Hasey. Have we ever seen a guy get into the NHL All-Star team who is, with the exception maybe of John Scott. Yeah. Who is health bombed by their coach in that same

season. One of the, and the health bomb made no sense when it happened. Absolutely no sense. Even more highlighted now, how ridiculous it is. It's also, it's another thing in the, you called the beginning, said, look for Torts getting fired this year. I still

think it's on the table. Because the Flyers stink. There was those arguments, there were those arguments that was like, you know, what do the Flyers hope to achieve this year? He's not going to get fired that's that exact reason. They're not planning on making playoffs, but we did say there's going to be some volatility here.

Did not expect it to be with Kevin Hayes. Torts kind of starts with, this sick guy. So disgusting. Torts kind of starts the year by being like, no one is a captain of this team, which I just think all signs pointed to Hasey there. And I get maybe doing one season after Drew leaves not doing it,

but you already had half of last season without Drew. So it felt like a fresh start just give it to Hasey. And not only is that happening, Hayes is having a good year, and then he gets health bombed. Wild stuff. And did you see his quote? No.

Okay, so this is actually so sick, Dan. And there were actually some cool things here, you know, it lists like what number all-star selection there is. And it was cool to see. Some of them are lower than you'd think. Yeah, okay. That was awesome.

But this is Hayes' first. And his quote was, it's a cool situation for me because not to get emotional, it's probably the only thing my brother since he stopped playing hockey wanted me to accomplish. I never thought it would happen, but it did.

Yeah, that's awesome. God. That's so awesome. Isn't that an amazing? What if, like, I can't imagine. He said not to get emotional. I can't imagine how emotional he was. You see those videos of, uh, guys finding out, right?

Yes. Like a coach gets to tell somebody and it's like a rookie or it's, you know, a vet makes his first, whatever. Yeah. That conversation, whoever got to tell him must have been so awesome. And then him calling his parents, like every step of this news. Yeah. Must have been so cool for him.

It was interesting how Torts then doubled down when he was in, interviewed about it and he was like, I will do anything else that weekend. It's the dumbest weekend of the year. I don't give a shit about the All-Star game. And I'm like, what is your problem, dude? Just like, relax. You're on your retirement tour. You already said it. You already said that this is your last coaching job. However, it ends. I get an All-Star question for you. What do you think about the every team gets a guy from this, this, this is the first time they're done this format where it's like the writers pick one guy from every team and then fans are voting in, like I said, two more skaters per division. What do you think about the one for every team and the like, you know, two from here,

two from here. And just before you answer, the reason this came into my mind is, and I think we all kind of reacted this way, we saw O'Mark was the Bruins rep. And you're like, oh, well, I mean, he's like lost one time. It's the best goal in the league. Yeah, it's got to be him. But then I'm like, well, pasta has like the second most goals in the league, third most points. Like, you feel like he's going to get in. Lindholm has 28 points and a league leading plus 29. Marshies got 37 and 32. So if I'm of like a fan and you're like, you only get two more from the Atlantic, I'm like, are they both Bruins? And it just feels like you're limiting other. Like I wish it wasn't so regulated is my point.

What do you think? I think the one from our team is so dumb. It's the everyone gets a trophy mentality. Yeah. I get it from a marketing standpoint. You want every fan base to tune in. But I'm just not sure that's what's necessary. I don't think that is what's going to pump the ratings of the NHL Ulster game.

Obviously, this is a decision that's made by the league that a lot of research goes into, I imagine. But the one thing that kind of goes against that statement by me is looking at the list, everyone on that list is an All-Star, as far as I'm concerned. Oh, yeah. Everyone on that list is an unbelievable player. So it's not like no one on that list doesn't belong in the game. It is a matter of we're weirdly going to have some All-Star snubs that wouldn't be there if this wasn't in place. Right.

But I think who fucking cares? It's, you know, if you're pitching a 75 point season and you don't make the All-Star team, big what. I mean, it's cool when you look back in your career, maybe Hall of Fame voting and you have X amount of All-Star games and you're like, I should have had six All-Star appearances, but I didn't because everyone gets a trophy rule. That kind of sucks, but I'm not sure that's going to keep people out of the hall. Yeah. If you're a bubble Hall of Fame guy, I doubt your All-Star game appearances are what's putting you over the edge or not. Maybe, but I doubt it. I think that's right, especially because they'll start knowing that this exists.

Like voters are aware. All-fame voters are the same people that do this. But I do kind of hate what you just described. And you're 100% right. Everyone on the list is good. Because I was going to be like, well, the league wants to have a good pool of talent there. I don't give a shit. Every team's represented.

But everyone is good, so it's not a big deal. I do kind of think it sucks. You know, this isn't like a couple years ago. Remember in NBA when Luca was like crying on the bench? when he doesn't find out. This isn't that. It's not the NBA. I don't think these guys are crying.

But it's a cool thing, right? Yeah, I don't think they give a shit, honestly. So it's kind of tough when you get, quote, unquote, snub. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting because I think I like the three players. I don't know if there's a cap, but I think there shouldn't be more than three players to one team. Yeah, I don't know if there is. Because the whole point is watching these guys from different teams playing together. But you look at a team like Edmonton, for example, right?

Drysiddle is going to get voted in. Yeah. But R&H is having a career year. I mean, he's having a dominant, dominant year for the Oilers, and he's not going to make the All-Star team. Yeah, I'm like, that sucks. And that does kind of suck, but it is what it is. It's a competitive league.

There's 32 teams. We'll analyze, you know, end of the month. We'll see why the roster shakes out and we'll dive in again. We will, we will. All right, we've got to move on. Speaking of good teams, I want to talk about the canes real quick, but in a bubble of the Met.

You want to talk Met umbrella. On this rainy day. Yes. We're going to talk a MET umbrella. Great. The MET is out of control. Yeah, sure is. The Metropolitan Division is wild right now.

We were pumping the tires of the New Jersey Devils for a long time here. They're not the Kings of the Met. They ran over a nail. They did. And the Cains, we're going to show some love to the Carolina Hurricanes. They are rolling right now. They are rolling atop the Met. They look so good.

Everyone on that team is firing. Devils are in second, but they look like they're slow. slowing down a little bit. Yep. Dropping some games here and there, but they're still good. And Jack Hughes is as hot as ever. He's the man. I mean, he is becoming every single bit of that number one pick that people thought he was

going to be. He is, I would say, with the exception of, I don't even know if McDavid gets this way because he's such an alien. With the exception of Connor Bardard, I think Jack Hughes is the most confident person on ice right now. Yeah. So Jack is just buzzing. You love to see it.

The rags are falling apart. They're losing bizarre games. They're like playing well, but like Schisturkin's not playing that well. And they're losing terrible games, soft performances. They're down to, I think, fourth, is that right? Yeah, yeah. And then the caps are back. Okay, let's take these one at a time, all right?

Yeah. The Cains, I would say this. I know. Like, where's the surprise here, I think? Yeah. No, they've been. Is it, they had a slow start? they did for sure. Is that why people are shocked? But I'm like, yeah, they looked incredible last year.

They're incredible now. Honestly, I would say the biggest surprise of the Cain's season is that Andre Casha played a game. He played one game in October and then was immediately put on IR and hasn't returned. And it's not making fun of him. It was a concussion and that is serious. But the only surprise is that they even got a game out of Andre Casha. That poor guy. He's the most injury prone human being who's ever laid out. So the, I'm good there. The Cains are a wagon. They were supposed to be. They are. The devils are they slowing down? Dude, they have 15 losses on the season and 11 of them have come since December 1st. Like, I mean, that's officially a slowdown. Yo, you are in trouble. No, no, no, no, no. You're not in trouble. But you are hitting rough pumpkins here.

Yeah, it's a bad stretch. It is a bad stretch. But I think they aren't showing cracks really to me. I think they'll pull up. Yeah. But let's check in in a couple weeks. If they're spinning still, I'm a little bit like, oh, oh, you're in trouble. And to be clear, I still think they're a very good hockey.

team. I think we had even said before, I expect them to come back to the mean here a little bit after that start. Here's the crazy thing I saw though, Dan. 11, 10 and 2, so really 11 and 12 because the 2 OT losses. 11 and 12 at home. Like 14 and 2 on the road, 11 and 12 at home this year. Wow. Just clean that up, boys. Yeah, they're vagabonds. They love the travel. Which is super valuable in the playoffs, but you just got to be able to protect home ice a little bit. Yeah, you got to, yeah, you got to shore up that home ice a little bit for sure. Okay, and then are the rags in trouble? Yes, and for three reasons, in my opinion. Reason number one is the devils. The devils took a huge leap. Like when they were looking at

their division preseason, the rags, they were like, were fine. You did not anticipate the devils being a huge problem for you. So reason number one, the devils are good and that's a problem for them. Reason number two, dude, the caps. The caps are like that you'll know her name, I hope. The caps are like that girl in Austin Powers 2 in the beginning, who's on the dancer with him. and she like takes the knife to the back and she's like, use the machine gun. Use the bazooka. And they fall together and he's like,

why won't you die? Yes. She literally refuses to die. Caps are like, you know, they're old, their injury, Wilson's out, Baxter's out. Dude, this is the thing though. The Caps just added

Nikki Baxter and Tom Wilson. They hung on. They did. They didn't fall behind that badly. And now they've added one of the best two-way centers in the last. 10 years of the NHL in Nick Backstrom.

And probably the most intimidating guy on the ice and Tom Wilson. Who, by the way, people forget, is a 50 to 60 point guy. He's the man, dude. Tom Wilson is a, he is in that Marshand category. He's in that Corey Perry category of he is a pain in the ass. You hate him if you're playing against him. You would kill to have him on your team. Seeing him get back on the ice doing his little spank-celly,

pre-game stuff with OSHA. You can see how much. She is buzzing to have him back. It's like the cap, you do not want to run to the caps. They've got a Stanley Cup winning goalie between the pipes. They just added two top six forwards. Look out for the caps. Problem one, devil's, problem two, caps won't die.

Problem three, people behind them, dude. Like, they're in a wild card spot right now. Yes. But you've got Pitt, I strongly believe, I'll have to be wrong in this. I strongly believe Pitt will be a playoff. Pitt is a cockroach like you read about. Do not count them out. The islanders are feisty as hell.

The sabers, dude, are going to be in the mix the whole way. Oh yeah. And you've got to believe the Panthers have a second half fight in them here. Sabers aren't in the Met though. Out for the Wild Card. You're talking Wild Card. Yeah, because they're in a Wild Card spot right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, got you, got you.

The Panthers won the President's Trophy last year. I've been horrible if they have any dog in them. They're going to come back a little bit here. So it's not like, yeah, wow, I didn't expect the Caps and Devils to be better than us, but at least we're an easy wild card. I'm like, you're not even that easy of a wild card. Yeah, so they got some soul searching to do in the dog days of winter here. Yeah.

And we just touched on the caps, but it's like the Mets. dude, the Met is hot. The Met is very, very hot. Okay. Let's go to, I got one more piece of hot ice. Okay. What about you? Uh, yeah, me too. Okay. My last bit of hot ice, we touched on it just very briefly a second ago is Connor Bedard. Uh, this kid, we've been posting about him a little bit on, on the Instagram page. Conor Bardard just went to the world juniors. And if you don't have these numbers, CP, do me a favor and look them up. Or, or producer Emery, you can get off your phone and maybe try to do something for us. I'd like to know how She was already looking this up Yeah, she was on top of it I'd like to know how many points

He finished the World Junior tournament with I have it Okay, do you have how many points A certain someone had as well Who has more than him? No, a teammate of his Oh yeah, oh yeah, I have that too Okay, great

Connor Bredard just went to the World Junior's And absolutely Just shat all over everybody And everything One gold, obviously and then makes his return to the WHL and in his first game back scores four goals and two assists for six points on the night

to put his total on the season to 40 goals and 93 points in 36 games. Like he is... Did you know what pace that is on the 82 game season? Isn't it 212? 91 goal, 121 assist, 222 points season. And that's obviously that is an NHL translation

and you can never translate your game in juniors to the NHL as simply as that. But Connor Bedard has been the talk of the NHL world and this upcoming draft for over a year now.

Everyone knows how amazing he is. These last two months has been a solidification of, I think we're dealing with a Connor McDavid Sidney Crosby level talent. Yeah. We are dealing with a guy

who's doing stuff that only a handful. You can count in maybe one and maybe two hands that people have done before. And it is, it's becoming comical. What a joke this league is for him.

He's 17 years old, and he is, the, the WHL is legitimately a geriatric men's league scrimmage for him. Yeah. He does whatever he wants, whenever he wants,

and it's ridiculous. Dude, uh, I want to say something sick about the world juniors, but before, just to stay on that train of thought, I agree. Yeah.

And while we're talking about his potential dominance, let's just quickly hit the do you care about the size thing. He's 5'9. He's the same. Johnny hockey's 5'9, by the way. He's 5'9. He'll put on weight. It's weird.

Like when you see in some other leagues, these guys come in like young and like skin and bones and you're like, well, they're going to bulk up. Hockey's not really like that, you know? No. Jack Hughes isn't going to get jacked. You don't need to. Janus became,

Janus was nothing and is now Jack. Jack Hughes is not going to get jack. Johnny Hockey never got jacked. What you see with Conradard is about what you're going to get physically. Yes. Well, he'll get strong. for sure. He'll get stronger, but yeah, he's not going to actively need to go to the gym and put on 20 pounds of muscle.

That's just, you don't need that. He's going to get stronger on his skates with game time in the NHL. He's going to get stronger on the puck with game time in the NHL. That's just an experience thing that he will get. I'm not worried. I think we are in an era of seeing this game change. It is funny. My Prince, Tage is a giant.

Yeah. And that's a bad piece of sample data. But the game's getting, I don't want to say smaller, but it's getting faster. It's getting quicker, it's getting shiftier, and it's so exciting and it's so amazing. And I look at guys like Jack Hughes. I look at guys like Quinn Hughes. I look at guys like Patty Kane, who he's often, you know, he's compared to Patrick Kane all the time. I think he's fine.

I really do. I don't, I'm not worried about his size. It's something that I'm clocking because everyone's clocking and I think you have to. When a guy's coming into the NHL and they're 5'9, that's small. But I'm also not ruling out him growing, dude. Like he's 17. A child. I mean, I was still growing when I was 17 years old.

It's possible he gets up to 510, 511. It's possibly he doesn't. But the WHL is no slouch league. There are monsters in there who are going to the NHL along with him. So, yes, I am registering his size, and it might be an issue, but it's not something I'm worried. It's certainly not something I'm worried about if I have the number one overall pick being like, oh, my God. Do we take Badaard? Dude, you mail in that pick in your fucking sleep today.

Put a tent at the podium and sleep there. Yes. I would literally get a talk back from Home Alone too. And I would just say, we are selecting Connor Bardard. And I would leave it at the podium and go, just get this over with as fast as possible. I think Vision translates, he has a million assists. He can do that at any level. And I also think, to your earlier point, I used to see guys with sick hands.

And I'd be like, oh, you're just not going to have this time and space to do that in the league. You're going to get pushed off the puck. But you look at these kids out there right now. We bring up Zegras all the time because we love him. but the stuff he does, it translates. He's a small guy that is like, whatever, my hands are nasty. I'm going to try to pick the puck up to a backflip and throw it in the net, and then he just does it. So I think Boudard's going to be amazing.

Let me hit with some World Junior stuff real quick, because this just killed me. And this is going to get into just something I'd like that. Yeah, so I'll finish with what I know you want to talk about. But so Bidad had the most points by a Canadian ever in the World Junior's seven games. He had nine goals, 14 assists for 23 points. Okay. But that is the fourth most points in a world juniors ever. by a Canadian, fourth most by a player

at the World Juniors. Do you know who has the most? You know this person, but this would be a crazy... It's an American? No. It's a... Swede. Yeah. It's Peter Forsberg. It is. 1993 World Juniors... That was fucking sick by me. I did not know that. Actually, that deserved some credit. Good job.

There's no way. Good job, Dan. Good job. Hey, so... All the haters. We do know hockey a little bit. So, Dan, Forrestberg, seven games, had seven goals, 24 assists for 31 points in seven games. Who was he dishing to? Okay, dude, the second most points ever in a world juniors, it was on his team. Yeah.

Marcus Naslin. In seven games, had 13 goals. Nice. In seven games. 13 goals, 11 assists, 24 points. That's got to be most goals of all time. Yep. Yeah.

And my favorite part about his stat line, seven games, 13 goals, 11 assists, 33 pimps. Dude. Second most points in world juniors ever and 33 penalty minutes, dude. Naslin is getting Gordy Howe Hattricks all over. over the ice. Yeah. Okay. So I was like,

damn, did they win gold that year? That Sweden team, they have the two most highest points ever. So I check it out. They get silver to Canada. All right. So let me read this to you,

dude. That 1993 tournament was played in a round robin with no playoff. So like, you just, you know, they would line up.

And by the way, Sweden and Canada, both went six and one. Sweden lost, their loss was to Canada, 5, 4. And that determined it? Canada's loss was to the check

74. And I don't know, maybe it was like a goldiff thing or something, but justice was served in my opinion Canada won gold and they beat, in fact, Sweden the one time they played.

Was head to head not the tie break? I don't know. Yeah, okay. Round Robin, top three teams winning gold, silver bronze, respectively. As this tournament was ongoing, the nation of Czechoslovakia dissolved into two nations, Czech Republic and Slovakia, mid-tournament. But the team stayed united through the tournament and got bronze. That is elite, dude.

The World Junior Czech-Chek-Lewazlovakia team lasted longer than the country itself. I did that 30 for 30 immediately, dude. I was like, what? That blew my mind, and I love that so much. I like how literally the world junior Czechoslovakia team lasted a few weeks longer than the country itself. That is so funny. It says the team remain united throughout the tournament, however, the Czechoslovakian flag and anthem were replaced by the flag and anthem of the international ice hockey federation. Wow.

Just fucked. But dude, that is so funny. That is so funny. So, you know, you're hearing these Forrestburg 31 points, Nazlin 24, Bred 23. And ya boy, Shane Wright, return. to the world juniors to captain team Canada. Did it have a tuck in the gold medal game. He's final, which I was like really happy for him.

But in seven games, Dan, he goes four goals, three assists, seven points. Like that is so, you're in the NHL. You're in the NHL, dude. This is a junior tournament. You're a literal NHLer. And you're returning to play in the world junior tournament. And you're getting a point for game, sure. But Connor Bedard is stunting all over you, all over you.

And then you head back to the NHL for what was it, a game, maybe two? and then get sent back to the O HL. No one is lower. Just morally. And I'm not shitting on him. I feel terrible for him. Me too. But no one is lower on earth than Shane Wright.

It's a confidence thing. It's awful. Yeah, yeah. And I just can't believe that the Cracken organization was like, we need to send this kid back to the OHL to get his confidence back. He can't even get his confidence in the HAL. Yeah. It's just you are now, if you are Shane Wright yourself,

and I'm rooting for you, buddy. I want the Shane Wright Revenge Tour so much. But if you're Shane Wright, and if you're the Cracken and Cracken fans, we have officially entered, oh, no, territory with Shane Wright. Agree. And I don't think we were there yet. Oh, me neither.

It was kind of like, oh, we're fine. It's a slow rookie season. And obviously, you know, miles better than what's happening Shane Wright, but Jack had a slow rookie season. Yeah, totally. You can see, there's a leap can be had. I'm fine. It's fine.

But we have some warning signs on the dashboard here. Hopefully Shane heads to the OHL and dominates again and he comes back stronger than ever. Dan, with the rise of Bedard on the horizon really quickly for you, does the NHL have a Conner problem? Like if we have Connor McDavid and Connor McDard as like the two next great stars for the next two to three decades. I suppose my question to you is what's the problem? Well, I think we're like one more Connor away, one more stud prospect Connor away from becoming like a real issue. Yeah, that's too many good Conners.

I can't have it. Like, don't sleep on Connor Garland. You know, like, there are other good Conners in the league. We might see other Conners rise up now. If we get another certified All-Star Connor, we're in trouble. The NHL will have a Conner problem. Yes, yeah. Let's keep an eye on that.

Thank you. All right, let's quickly do our three hottest teams of the week. And then we're going to get into an amazing interview this episode. But we're going to do something different this week with hottest teams of the week. Why don't you tell the listeners what we've got in store? Okay, so we're going to put the quack attack on hold for a little bit. We're still doing our three hottest teams of the past week for sure, but now

we're going to, on a post, so you'll see the weekly post still, we're going to show you guys what these teams are as hot as. So there's going to be some things hot in pop culture and we're going to be comparing the teams to those graphics, and you're going to love it. It's going to be a barrel of laughs for everybody. Oh, it sure is. Listen, these are the three hottest teams of the week, and we've got

to tell you what they're as hot as for reference. And Dan, to start this off, we're going to do, which we sometimes do, an honorable mention. It's both an honorable mention and in honor of the quack attack. Yes. So we're going to give some quick quacks to the Boston Bruins. they've won four in a row starting with the Winter Classic

and then they absolutely crushed their West Coast swing. They beat the Kings 5-2, the Sharks 4-2 and then pounded the ducks 7-1. So if we can give some quick quacks to the bees. Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack. Sorry, that feels rude to the ducks, given that they just got shit. Well, that was extremely rude to the ducks, I call it. But it is what it is.

All right. Third, hottest team of the week is the Nashville Predators, Friends of the Program. What's Up, Preds? Winners of three straight last week, they beat the Habs, six to three. Hurricanes, which we just talked to, about are the hottest team in the Met right now.

FD's 3 to 3 to 3, and beat the Capitals, who have also been great 3 to 2. This is a Preds team that's had a hard time burying the biscuit, and they might as well be bakers right now, because they are tucking Ginoes like you read about. Preds are hot. I love it, and I'm rooting for them, too. The second hottest team

of the week, the Seattle Crackin. The Cracken have been in the Quack, the Programme formerly known as the Quack attack more often than I would have guessed to start this season. The Crack had 4-O-W-O-W-E. They beat the Islanders 4-1, the Oilers 5, 2, the Leafs 5-1 and the Senators 8-4 in your classic Wednesday night beer league affair. That's a lot of goals in a week, Dan.

Yeah, sure is. That's a great run for our boys in the Pacific Northwest. They have a game in hand, and they have a couple games in hand even, I think, and they are like comfortably in a playoff spot right now, which is great to see. The hottest team of the week, the number one, hottest team of the week is a team that's quite literally putting their balls on the line, and that's the Winnipeg Jets. Beautiful stuff. They've got a three-in-a-week.

They've got five straight wins going back to December. They beat the Canucks, the Oilers, the Flames, the Bulls, and the Canucks, again. The Jets are a point behind Dallas with a game in hand for first place in the central. You know, don't think a lot of people had the Jets being a monster team, but got news for you. They are. If you're running into the Jets on your schedule, look out. They are scorching hot. Scorching hot.

And the hottest team of the week. Okay. Now, we are going to jump this episode to an unbelievable interview we did with two absolute studs and stars of the U.S. Women's team. This was super fun. we're talking to Hannah Bilka and Aaron Frankel. These two are super young, super talented, and super smart, intelligent, capable, and unbelievable people.

Interview was such a blast, and it was so cool and fun to be able to shine a light on the women's game and the grueling schedule and just wild routine that these girls go through because obviously there is not a huge mainstream professional league for these women to play in like there is for the men's with the NHL. So we got to talk about all of the cool little things about the different leagues that they're playing in the different organizations and player associations that they're involved in as well as especially with Hannah literally being a student at BC right now. So we got to talk to them right before they went to the rivalry series in their game against Canada. They talked about the bad blood that boils over with that and just a total blast with these two. So let's kick it to the interview.

Well, today the empty netters podcast is super psyched to welcome on two of the all-stars, I'm going to say. of the U.S. Women's National Team, currently playing in the rivalry series. The game's on Monday, right? Monday playing against Team Canada. We've got Aaron Frankel with us and Hannah Bilka. Guys, welcome to the Empty Netters podcast. This is so exciting.

Yeah, thanks for having us. Absolutely. All right, I want to get into a bunch of things, but I want to start with the rivalry series. So you guys have this game on Monday against Team Canada. This is how, what number game is this in this current run? We're at number four. Okay. Yeah. And do you guys think that the rivalry actually is a thing? Like, do you feel like when you jump on the ice, it's more of an exhibition game or are you actually really wanting to beat them? And you feel like it's like, all right, we're playing these same girls over and over again. Is there any bad blood? Is there any, like, actual anger that builds up? And you're like, we want to fucking win this game.

Yeah. I think, like, there's not a trophy at the end of it, like a world championships, but you hate them. them. Like on and off, on and off the ice, like, the competition is so high. Um, you'll always see, like, games are getting in scrums. Like, you're chirping each other. Um, yeah, very fun games to plan. Okay. And do you guys have any crossover? Like, did you go to school with any of the girls on Team Canada? Did you play any sort of level? Yeah, there's definitely some crossover. One of my Northeastern teammates is playing here with Team Canada. Um, she's making her national team to be, so we're enemies for this trip, but love or to death at Northeastern, but here can't associate.

Yeah, absolutely not, right? It's got to be as serious as it gets. Okay, you both went to Shattuck. I went to prep school, and I have a bone to pick with you. Oh, gosh. You're from New York. I am. New England prep schools are right there.

Why did you bail on us? I mean, I get it. Like, you went to the Hogwarts of Hawkins. So it makes sense. But I'm curious, Erin, was there any, was that in play for you? Were there any New England prep schools that you were thinking about? Or was it always Shattuck or bust? Yeah, I looked at a couple, but I fell in love with Shattuck. It's a really special place. And you play a ton of hockey there. And just kind of looking at the people that came before me there. It was an easy decision for me to go there. And I was young when I left home, but totally worth it and recommend it to everyone. And you did what, repeat sophomore year and then, or did you repeat or did you just go sophomore junior senior? sophomore, junior, senior, three years. What about you, Hannah?

Yeah, sophomore. Same deal? Yep. Okay. And there was no overlap with you too? Oh, yeah. There was? Yeah.

When I was a sophomore, she was a senior. Okay. So you guys had one year together. Yeah. Did you feel like you guys bonded well that year and it's continued or were you guys like just kind of friends at school? I feel like our friendship has grown for sure over the years. Yeah.

Coming to stuff with the national team and being both in Boston, playing against each other, obviously. Northeastern versus BC is a big rivalry. but we've definitely grown closer over the years, I'd say. I bet, yeah. I mean, now four or five years later, you guys are teammates again. That's pretty exciting. Talk to me about Shattuck.

I want to know, like, all the dirt. What is that school like? What is it like boarding there? You guys both left at what? 15, 16 years old. Same deal for me. It's like, it's an interesting thing when you leave and go to boarding school. And I actually have found, especially being out here in California,

no one understands boarding school. Like, they think that I'm, you know, fuck up. They're like, yeah, you got. sent away to military school or something because you were a piece of shit. And I'm like, no, it's just like a thing. Like boarding school is a real thing. So you guys leave at this young age playing hockey at a super high level. I'm sure it's amazing. But I know that there's weird shit about Chaddock. And I want you to tell me all about it. Like what are the weirdest rules that they have there? What were the weirdest things that were going on? Classes that you took, just stuff

that sticks in your mind years later that you were like, man, that was so strange at that school. it's basically just like if someone doesn't know boarding school it's like summer camp like the whole the whole time you're there without parents and stuff um just basically with shattick though when we were there um we it was called a blended schedule so we'd only go to school um tuesdays and thursdays and then monday wednesday fridays um it was like a blended day so you could go into class if you wanted extra help you could be at the ice like at the you could be at the ruse like you could be at the rink, you know, shooting pucks, you know, practicing and stuff.

So it was definitely a different environment, but... Hold on. So you were telling me two days of the week you guys went to class. That's right. And then the other three, it was just optional. Like, you could go to class. Yeah. What person would ever take that option and actually go to class?

I imagine it's only if you were like failing something and you needed desperately to get extra help. Right. I personally took those days off. Yeah, I would hope so. So, I mean, Shattie. is for you guys especially I imagine it was hockey first

like you did you feel the emphasis of academics at all or were you like no we are here for hockey I mean I think I was like school is important of course but when you're around such good players that you know you just you love like everyone loves hockey there

yeah that's true what a good feeling yeah it's just a Disneyland of hockey players so it's fun like you're always you're always practicing you're competing you're you know working out and it's also on the men's side too it's so fun like there's players that i went to school with that are now in the n-h-l um so it's just like a cool environment to to be in okay i can't i'm trying to wrap my head around this because i i'm going to saturday classes over here in new england

prep school and you guys are just if you want going to class as a 16 year old i can't even possibly imagine that do you feel like at school you guys hung out with the men's hockey team the most or Who are the other people at Shattuck? Is everyone an athlete? Are there just NARPs at that school? Or is like everyone truly playing a sport? There are NARPs. We had a bioscience center of excellence that was like pretty big.

So that was like their hockey. And we had a lot of soccer players, figure skaters. But not going to lie, hockey kind of ran the school. And so we did hang out a lot with men's and women's hockey. Was a lot of fun to like intermingle. We had like what, six teams between men's and women. So there was a ton of hockey players. I think a lot of times the NARPs got a little annoyed of us just because...

I would imagine. I was about to say, I can't really picture the crossover between the bioscience people and the hockey people just like hanging out after class. It was minimal, yeah. I would that. All right, I asked earlier, but are there any rules at that school that were bizarre? Because, like, all right, I'll give you an example. I went to Andover.

Okay. And the... What they allowed boys and girls to do together was very strict. Because it was like, you know, you're away. you've got 14 year olds there and then you've got 19 year old PGs and it looks like my senior year I could have been

the father of a bunch of kids at that school so after if you're in a dorm for example we had a three foot rule and it was like three feet need to be on the ground at all times if there is a girl in your room or if there's a boy in your room

was there anything like that with you guys or did they just let you run them out it sounds like this was straight up if you want to go to school you can kind of go to school we're just here to play hockey and do whatever you want I don't even think we could

go in boys dorms. No, yeah. Okay, all right, here we go. There was definitely separate. But one of the stories, I'm not going to name the person, but like the girl snuck into a guy's hockey bag and to get into the guy's dorm. It's a good move. So, let's be honest.

Was carried in over the shoulder, right? You get creative. That's, I can't tell what's more impressive. Thinking to do that or the dude picking up that bag like hockey equipment. I think there was an owl. that came from the hockey bag at one point as the head got hit. Do you guys have dorm parents? Yes.

Yes. Did you have good dorm parents? I had, I personally had a good dorm parent. She was like 24. I'm still friends with her, but she, I mean,

I would like sneak out and stuff and she would, she knows like she went there too. Yeah, yeah. She kind of knew like the environment you're in and let it, let it kind of pass. Okay. My senior year dorm,

so we weren't allowed TV. TVs in our rooms. It was, that was like one of the few, no refrigerator, no TV, because they just think you're going to mess around, not do any schoolwork, and if you have a fridge, you're naturally going to put beer in it or something. That's a big, big no-no. Like, Andover, Exeter, those New England schools is a pretty hard one-strike policy. If you get caught doing something, you're kicked out of school immediately. And I think my first week of senior year, I have a TV in my room and a fridge in my room. I think it was like a Wednesday night. There's four dudes in my room. We're watching you know, some awful movie and two of us are packing lips and drinking beers and our dorm

parent walks in and was like, well, guys, this isn't great. And it was like, he was like yours. It sounds like he was cool. He went to Andover and he was like, I get it. But it was like so funny that first week he was like, why do you guys do this to me? Like, why are you making my life difficult by doing all the things that you're not supposed to do? Yeah. And it's like, that's a normal high school things. Yeah, of course. It's just that prep school that they make it such a, like a big deal. Yeah. Like kids,

15 years old aren't doing that. Like, yes, exactly. And it's like, you get, I mean, you guys both went to your, did you go to public high school in New York and Texas before? Yep. So the, I imagine the kids that are doing shit there in high school. It's like, it's hard to leave that and then go to this boarding school where it's like, you're free from your parents. But then at the same time, you can do whatever you want, but you have these dorm parents and

administrators watching you all the time. It's a bizarre world. So you guys leave Minnesota both end up in Boston. Did you like it? What was that like? Did you feel like, even though you guys didn't go to school ever, did you feel like prep school, like actually prepared you for college like it does for so many? I imagine, especially with the regiment at Shattuck and then going to your training and practices and stuff in Boston at Northeastern and B.C.

Pretty similar, I imagine. Yeah, 100%. Especially for hockey. I just felt like the transition was easy because Shattuck really prepared us. And we had so many amazing players that we played with at Shattuck. And so once we got to college, it was like a little adjustment moving up from high school. But the hockey was so good at Shattuck that it felt like pretty natural to go. And I love Boston and the city's amazing.

So it's a great place. You as well? Yeah, I think like when you go to a prep school at 14 years old, like that's kind of your college transition period. Yes, definitely. So I think, you know, my mistakes that people are making at 18, 19, I already made it at like 1415. Yep. That's how it goes. It's perfect.

Yeah, you grow up faster. but I don't think I would want it any other way. So what I find so interesting and frankly annoying for you guys, you guys are elite hockey players. You have been at a young age. You go to arguably, if not definitely the best high school in the country for hockey. Then you go to two amazing programs in Boston. But as we know, there's no certain next level that's going to take care of you for life.

So you guys get to college. How much of an emphasis for yourself? Obviously when you get to school, you have your dean of admissions telling you need to pick a major. You need to take classes. What were you two thinking when you got to school? I mean, Aaron, I'm very fascinated with you because you did criminal justice, correct? Yeah. I need to know all about that.

Why did you pick that? Are you into that? Or was it like, yeah, I'll give this a shot. And then, Hannah, I want to, because, I mean, you're a senior right now, right? Yep. And I want to know what's going on there. Because it's kind of annoying that you guys are, I mean, I'm not trying to gas you up here. You guys have multiple, you know, gold and silver medals between you, NCAA player of the year for you, hockey's rookie the year for you, Hannah.

Like, you guys are elite athletes. You were in the top 1% of the country at hockey. It's amazing. And yet, you are being forced to make these decisions at school that a lot of, you know, the men's players don't have to do that, really. So walk me through that process, what it was like for you, why you chose what you chose. Yeah, I chose criminal justice Because my dad is a lawyer And I just always asked him so many questions

I was so curious about Like crime and just like why people commit crimes And like crazy people I just think it's so interesting Like love the Netflix documentaries On like forensics and CSI All that stuff So that was a pretty easy decision for me

Because I knew math was definitely a no Anything on the business side Definitely a no So I started taking classes My freshman year like See if I liked the CJ stuff And I did so just ran with it.

Not exactly sure where that's headed for me, but we'll have to see. Are you into that stuff in like normal life, like your personal life? Do you watch all those crime shows and are you into all those crime podcasts and stuff like that? The Idaho murders recently has me losing sleep at night. Oh my God, it's horrible. I'm just dying to know what's going on. All right. Give me two off top of your head.

I'm putting you on the spot two of your favorite crime movies. Ooh. And if you two tell me that you guys don't watch movies, I'm going to die. I watch it. Thank God. I know. I feel like that's, I don't know, for you two, producer Edge. today. I feel like your

generation's not watching movies as much and that's killing me inside. It makes me so sad. I love movies. That's how I kill time. Okay. Good. I'm going to go with a show. Jeffrey Dahmer. You like that show? Yeah. Wait, the doc or the Netflix one? I like the Netflix shows. Oh my God.

It's horrifying. It is, but something about it I just love, like, I just like need to understand why people I actually get that. Yeah. When that show was announced, I went down a rabbit hole of research about him. Edd, you might remember this. I came into the office and I was just telling everyone about what Dahmer did and I was like, go away Dan. What is wrong with you? I didn't watch it alone though.

I watched it with my roommates. Yeah, I would not be able to do that. Yeah. That's insane. Okay, so that's a good reason. It's in your family. Your dad being a lawyer got you into that stuff. Makes sense. Hannah, what did you choose and do you like it or are you just doing it to do it? You can be honest. Yeah. Well, mine is probably opposite ends of the spectrum. When I committed to BC, I was 14 years old. And like, I visited and I was like, the locker room looks nice. I didn't even know anything about the school. I was like, oh, it's a good school.

Like, whatever. So I just chose it. And then whatever senior year, they're like, oh, you have to pick a major. I'm like, what? I had no idea. So I ended up picking the basic communications, but I actually really ended up enjoying what I'm doing. So I hope to do something like on the communication side of like the NHL or anything in sports.

I'm really interested in. Okay, all right. I like that. What's been the best part or was the best part? Because actually, Erin, where are you living now? Boston. You're still in Boston. Yeah.

So what's been the best part of Boston for the two of you? Obviously, and this is where I'm talking, I know that hockey dictates so much of what you guys do. But you, not too far for you, Erin, you come from New York, but really the first, I mean, I imagine substantial amount of time you spent to Boston as being at school. And now you're there. And then you're coming from Texas. So what do you like about the city? What don't you like about the city? What makes it feel like home?

What are the stuff that, what's the things that you guys love doing in that city outside of hockey? I just feel like it's like the most complete city. Like it has it all. Hockey's right there. There's so many like fun sports teams, like Celtics games, Red Sox games,

especially like during the summer. The nightlife is unbelievable, good food. I just, I'm sold on Boston. I moved there right after I graduated. I knew I wanted to be there. Have you bailed on the Rangers? Are you a Bruins fan now, or do you stick with the Rex? That's my one, I don't know, it's tough for me, because my family's all Rangers fans.

Like, my grandparents had season tickets always went to Madison Square Garden. But being in Boston now, I've been watching the Bruins more, so I'm kind of on the fence. I was, I was, yeah, I know. I'll take that. See, I have the opposite. I went to And over with Crider. Okay. And I have that, it's like my great buddy playing for the Rangers, and I have that weird kinship that I'm like, I feel like I have through for you, but I hate that team from just being like,

a Bruins fan my whole life. So it's tough. But I'm glad to hear you're kind of switching over. I know. After last year, Rangers made it hard though, because they went on that run and it was fun to watch. That's true. All right, Hannah? Yeah, I think everything that Aaron said, I think the, just the family, like, community, like, we'll go out to dinner or something and someone be like, oh yeah, that's my cousin. Like, yeah, that's so Boston. Everyone knows each other. Yeah. Yeah, just just great places to eat. It's a small city, so it's pretty, like you can get to places easy, and then, yeah, the nightlife is pretty fun as well. Do you guys stay there over the summers? When you were in school, were you staying there, or did you go back home a lot?

Depends on the summer. Last summer, I stayed in Boston for most of the summer, but summers before I was home in New York. Okay, and who are you living with now? Do you live with teammates or do deal with friends? I live with three prior northeastern teammates, yeah. Okay, cool. And you're, are you on campus or do you have an apartment? I have an apartment. senior year, yeah. And you live with teammates. I live with teammates, yeah. Okay. It's just, it's, you guys are both in that era where everything you do is encompassed around your teammates and all the things that you have to do. It's pretty amazing. So, I mean, it sounds like Boston is stuck with you guys. Like, you enjoy living in that city, which is not always the case. I mean,

you guys, both obviously talented players, you went to great programs, but it's cool that you ended up in a place that has fun stuff to do in a city now that post-school, you find yourself living in. That's pretty amazing. So, do you feel, like you guys obviously knew each other in high school. Did it take a while to kind of find each other again and become as tight as you are now? Because I mean, I think that's something that a lot of people will want to know is that you're playing for the same U.S. team now, which is amazing. You guys knew each other in high school, sure, but you went to different schools. You don't always have such a close relationship with teammates, and it seems like you two really do, which is pretty great.

How did, do you feel like that happened in the last few years? I mean I think And also feel free to talk shit about each other If this isn't true Like you asked Well when she was a senior and I was a sophomore Like you'd walk around like head down Like you'd do whatever they tell

Like they call seniority on us like Oh wow That was a shattuck thing Was you a bully? No I was nice But you just respect Like it's just like

Yeah Unspoken role You kind of respect the seniors And especially they had such a good senior class So we all looked up to them You know we're playing U16 versus like we do scrimmages and stuff and like it would be so so intense like like obviously as one of the younger players like we would you know want to beat them on the ice because off the ice it was

yeah like kind of that uh that tension and stuff but um i think this past this past world championships we were we were roommates in denmark and i thought we got a lot closer yeah okay that's great is what's the favorite place you guys have been for all of these games Honestly, this trip, like, has been really fun. I went to Seattle in November, which was really cool as well. I've never been to the west coast at all. But hitting Seattle, then now Vegas and L.A. has been really cool. Like, completely different scene.

When we're in Canada, we're in Kelowna and Kamloops, and there's not a ton going on. They have, like, nice scenery, mountains and stuff. But I love being, like, in a bumping city. Okay, so this is your first West Coast trip ever. Yeah, with the exception. You as well? Yeah.

Okay. So thanks to Dami over here. Tell me about what happened in Vegas. What was Vegas like? And I've heard this story that you guys did something interesting with your per diem money. Well, yeah, I mean, you can't be in Vegas and not go to the casino. So we went a few times, played some roulette. We happened to get per diem.

So it was a nice way to not spend your own money. And you just threw it all on red. What happened there? Yeah, it's like monopoly of money. Like a hundred dollar bills are like nothing. Like you'll just give it. to them and it's it'll go away fast but I'm I'm leaving Vegas up 200 so hey there we go and was this your first casino moment yeah first casino moment and are you hooked now I mean you win on your first casino

moment you're just you're fucked now you're gonna go back all the time right like it's it's it's I can definitely see how it's addicting well luckily there's an encore in Boston so bilks and I might might be there soon be careful with that you were talking about how everyone's related in Boston it's the encore in Boston is one of the most hellish places I've ever been in my life It's just filled with the most degenerate Boston people you will ever see. But sometimes you just got the itch, so I get it. Okay, so you guys, I need to kind of get into here about what you're doing now, Aaron, after college. You're obviously training all the time.

What are you, like, what's the day-to-day life? Do you have a job? Are you looking for a job? How do you balance all that stuff with everything that you're doing with, I imagine, an insane regiment of staying in shape, staying in playing condition, and all that stuff? Like, what's going on your day to day right now? A ton of training, working out and skating, and I'm playing in the PWHPA, which is the professional league to players association that we put together. And all the girls, mostly between U.S. and Canada, national teams are playing in that league. And we travel around a ton.

So we actually came from Ottawa to Vegas. So we hit different spots, mostly Canada. We went to Montreal this year, Nova Scotia, and we play two, three games on the weekend. So we've been traveling a ton. So I actually haven't been in Boston that much. But day-to-day, just working out and skating and finding ice around the Boston area

and then getting ready for travel. Okay, great. That's a perfect transition into the PWA. This might be a stupid question, because obviously you guys have dedicated your entire lives to hockey. And I imagine you love it, correct? Like it's weird. Sometimes you find people who are amazing at it playing at this level and they're like, yeah, I don't necessarily want to do it forever.

I feel like the PWHPA made an amazing stride in these past couple years with kind of getting all of you amazing players together and really pointing at the obvious that you need to be better taken care of because there have been these leagues in the past where there's no financial compensation, certainly not a livable wage. In an ideal world, is that something that you guys would love to see happen? Is that something you would like to do to grow women's hockey on the professional level to a place where there is a full league with multiple teams where you guys are getting taken care of with health insurance, with the financial compensation and livable wage that you deserve when you're putting in this many hours and playing at this high of a level? Or is it something that you're like, I don't know, that playing at the national level is amazing, but that's kind of as much as I want to do. Do you feel like if that league can get to that level, it's something that you'd like to do and play in 82 game season, play every single day? Definitely. And I think that's like what the little girls have right now to look forward to. We obviously have leagues right now, but they're not completely where we want them to be. So I think the players on our team right now that came before us, Kendall Corrin, Hillary Knight, they've been paving the way for so long for us. So it's kind of our job now as we get out of college to continue to grow the game. And the league's taking a lot of steps in the right direction. So just continuing to build it and putting time into it and just believing in the cause because it's headed in a really good direction. Hannah? Yeah, as a college player, I want something to look forward to. So I think it's awesome what they're doing, kind of sticking with it, sticking with the league. So if that can be a job for me when I'm older, that would be awesome. Okay, good. So you guys both have the hunger still. You want to play all the time. I need to ask a couple things about both of your college careers. Starting with you, Hannah, what happened last season? You turned into a goon. You had 26 PIMs last year. What was that? that about. I think maybe we didn't have the best team record. So I think, I think there was one game.

We were actually playing Northeastern. I got like three penalties in the third period. Like, what do you do now? Are you just hacking people out there or what? I'm just so competitive that sometimes like, the game will be out of my hands. It's like, okay, I got to get on the score sheet somehow. So I'll just, I don't know, like hit someone in the corner. Yeah. So I think when the games aren't going to, well then sometimes I'm a little bit of an emotional player and something can get you just take it out in a really healthy violent way exactly that's great are you getting roughing calls what's going on here um I think it's probably like just going into the corner and not looking at the puck and just taking the body okay like especially versus northeastern like

I think that's our the you know biggest robbery for really yeah you feel like that over be you yeah um just because they're they've been so successful these past yeah so yeah they're they're a monster of a team and you want to beat them. So when we play them, it was, it got pretty, got pretty heated. Okay. And how do you feel like this season's going? You're the captain this year, obviously. You're leading the team in points right now.

Congratulations. Keep it up. Do you feel like you guys are in a good spot right now? You're not back into games until January. I think you got Maine next, right? Yep. It's messed up. I'm from Maine, so I'm going to need you to lose those games.

Yeah, that's the worst travel trip. Oh, I bet it's terrible. Is that your least favorite place to go? Oh, my gosh, it's terrible. It's like in the middle of January, it's like cold. It's whatever negative degrees. The rink is not the nicest. You can say it.

You can say it. Talk that shit. It's not a great rink at all. And Orno's awful. It's just like in the middle of nowhere. It gives Maine such a bad rep. Yeah, it does. No, but I mean in the second semester, like that's the most important parts, like the playoff games.

So, you know, however the first part of the season goes, it doesn't really matter. It's all about the second semester. So I'm hoping, really looking forward to the bean pot. Hopefully we can, you know, be successful there and then in the playoffs as well. All right. And, all right, Aaron, the hellish overtime road that you had in your last two years gives me anxiety. Me too still. I can only imagine.

So you guys get to the national championship, your first senior year, right? Yep. And you lose an double OT to Wisconsin. How often do you think about that game? Yeah, probably more than I should still. No. I'm thinking about high school games still, and I'm 33 years old. So you can think about it as long as you want.

I felt like that was our year. I think my fifth year, we had a really strong team as well, but something about that group, my senior year, like I really thought we were going to win it. And going into double overtime, obviously, like, was nuts. And we never anticipated ourselves in that situation, like if you had asked us in September of the year. but that was a crazy game

and any time you play Wisconsin it's just a battle like they are a powerhouse for hockey so but you guys were that year too you were a wagon we were I know I know and I think we had a lot of people pulling for us

like all of hockey east and stuff like wanted to see us win it and team from hockey east hasn't won national championship so I did feel like that was our year but as you know we came up a little bit short which it's tough yeah but I mean God

so you can be salty here because this is what I really really want I actually think about this all the time when there are games like that. Like I went deep into the statute of that game. Yeah. That season, giving you some props here,

you broke every record that exists in college hockey for goaltenders. So unbelievable stuff, first of all. Is there part of you in that game when you're in the second overtime where you're looking around at your teammates being like, can you guys fucking score a goal for the love of God when you're racking up 50 saves in this game? Like what's going through your head?

It was just like a waiting game. Like I knew we were going to get chances and they were to. and there's a little bit of beef surrounding that game winner that Darrell Watts scored, but it was just crazy game. Like I kind of, like I remember parts vividly, but it's a blur. It was really long. And by the end of it, you're just exhausted and like just trying to stay alive out there. Yeah.

And then the next year, your fifth year, you guys lose in overtime again. Yeah. When you're heading into overtime in that game, are you just thinking, here we go again? Like, why is this keep happening? Exactly, yeah. And that one I never lost faith in either of them, but in that one I really thought we were going to score. But the game was just going longer and longer and it was double overtime. And like we weren't getting as many chances.

So I was kind of just like we were playing not our whole roster as well. So girls were getting tired. So another loss, which was really heartbreaking. Yeah, I'm sorry to bring it up. No, it's fine. I got to know about it. Yeah. Sometimes it helps to air it out.

Yeah, yeah. So when you look back at your career, like I said, I mean, you won the Patty Casmeyer Award, which is amazing. You're a two-time hockey east, goalie of the year. It's unbelievable. You went into Northeastern and the coach told you you weren't going to be the starter. You had to fight for that spot.

How, I mean, I don't need you to talk about how amazing you are, but how often do you look back with a sense of pride and then also continue to use that as drive when you're like, yeah, I came in and I wasn't guaranteed a spot. And then here I am breaking all these records, taking our team to a national championship, and now representing your country, like how often do you think about that as extra motivation? Yeah, from time to time. I think my story at Northeastern is, like, pretty unique.

I definitely wasn't recruited that heavily in high school. And I think getting to Northeastern that really gave me a lot of confidence and figuring out that I was able to play and be successful at the college level. And it took a little bit. I didn't start my freshman year towards the end and towards hockey's playoffs. And then once we won that first hockey's championship, which was the first ever for Northeastern, I think that's when. I gained confidence. And so, yeah, I look back on that in time, and I'm like, you can do whatever. Like, for the younger players out there, like, just set your mind to something, work hard, and you can achieve it.

Hell, yeah. I love that. All right. I'm going to put you on blast here. But, Hannah, you're going to be the one to do it. I believe, and I know that you guys know this, goalies are notorious freakzoids. You're the weirdest people in the world. Hannah, what's the weirdest thing about Aaron?

And then, Aaron, I want to know what you think is the weirdest thing about yourself. Good question And say this with some pride The weird stuff is what makes us unique So Right I mean Hannah You've lived with this girl

You've groomed with her Your teammates now Like what's what's going on Maybe she's just like so locked in In a game or like in practice And just so clumsy like So clumsy off the ice Yeah

Like she was walking Examples right now I had an incident this morning This morning Get it out there She had a bunch of stuff in her hands She were like kind of going Like the last one's on the bus

And she was walking up and just West like fell Eat it You fell off the bus? No onto it I actually might have a bruise on my knee But like going up the steps of the bus And you dropped everything of course

Yeah One of the most athletic players on the ice But then off the ice I'll say it I'm a nah Yeah You're just clumsy as hell Yeah Have you always been that way?

Um Yeah I mean I played other sports growing up And like I can do it. I played lacrosse at Shattuck in the spring, but like you don't want to see me run. You don't want to see me do like shuffling, like any of that stuff. Just save it for those guys. You're just locked in in the crease and everywhere else. It's a disaster. Okay. So is that your answer to? The weirdest thing about you is that you're an elite athlete and yet so, so clumsy?

Yeah, I would say so. I think like one of my things, it's not like a superstition, but something I just don't go on my phone on game days. Like, just don't, don't, no social media, no phone, just put it away for the day. That is shockingly healthy for someone your age. Yeah. I love it. I'm incredibly impressed by that. That's amazing. Okay.

I need to get some background on the hometowns now. Hannah, being from Texas, what got you into hockey? And what made you be like, I need to get out of here, go to Shattuck, and then go to Boston and be as in love with Boston as you are. Like how was the hockey vibe in your hometown? Did you have other players that you kind of looked up to? Did any of your siblings play? What's the deal there?

Yeah. I have an older brother who played hockey and I just kind of wanted to be him when I was younger. So I would always rollerblade and ask my parents, but they're like, girls don't play hockey. Like, no, no, no. But I just kept asking. And then they finally said yes.

And played boys growing up. There weren't any girls teams, really. So it was an easy decision when Shattuck came to me and asked. Yeah. Did Shattuck reach out to you pre-B.C.? Or was it around the same time? It was, yeah, it was around the same time. I was like talking to colleges and prep school kind of at the same time.

What a dream to have both of those things just wrapped up in your life. You're like, yeah, I know where I'm going to prep school, and know where I'm going to college. It's just. It's crazy. Some of the biggest decisions in adolescent life you just had answered so quickly. At 14, it's crazy how, how. faster your life changes. I mean, good Lord. That's amazing. And then, Aaron, you started not playing

goalie, correct? Yeah. My parents refused to let me go in the net. They didn't want anything to do with it. But did you want to? Like, when you first started playing, were you into it and then eventually they caved? Well, they put me in like some dumb figure skating, learned to skate and I was not having that either. I wanted to play hockey. I saw my cousins playing. And they like, they tried every effort to keep me out of the net. Like, they didn't want to buy the expensive gear, which I don't blame them and then they didn't want to like buy it for me to the next day. Be like, actually, I don't want to play goalie. And I feel like I was a crazy kid, so I could have done that.

But they let me like start trying it and they made me do both for a while. So I'd say first two years I was playing hockey, like they didn't let me do like goalie full time. They're like, nope, like on these days you're going to skate out. Yeah. Yeah. So what are you guys into outside of hockey? What makes you tick?

What are your favorite things to do? Hannah, I love that you watch movies. It's great. I'm a huge movie fan over here. So that's huge. But it's like you guys get, you know, a week off where you don't have to train. You don't have to think about any games coming up. What are the things that you're doing?

This is where I want. Let people get to know you here. I like to travel. I like to go to the beach a lot. So I'm going to Florida in January. I'm pretty excited about that. Like I said, I live with three of my Northeastern teammates. So we do a lot of stuff in Boston together.

And it kind of feels like college still, like whether we're going to Newberry to shop and getting dinner. and drinks and stuff, it's, it's fun to still have them in my life and spend a lot of time with them. And I love dogs, so I'm active on Rover, if anyone. Oh, get out. I love that. Yeah. I think, I think bilks might be as well, actually. Yep, on wag, actually. Oh, you're wag. Okay. So you guys are just dog watchers. Plug myself. Yeah, like for, need some money in college. Yeah, it's yeah. It's amazing. Yeah, around Boston, it's, there's a lot of opportunities. Yeah. I was going to say, but there's a ton. Um, so yeah, what's like, what's like of it, uh, life at BC like?

for you right now when you're not wrapped up and all this stuff. Yeah, I definitely watch a lot of movies. Yeah? Probably like a few a week, sometimes like over and over again. Um, and then I, me and my roommate will I don't know, she's pretty active on her TikTok. Um,

then we'll just go to the cities. Um, yeah, a lot of good place. Hold on, we need the time out there. Active on your roommate's TikTok, what does that mean? Is your roommate a TikToker or are you guys just watching TikTok all the time? She's a TikToker, yeah. you got to get into that

I mean we're talking about making extra money here there's no more money in the world than on TikTok right now it feels like yeah she's like our two brains together are pretty creative so we'll just come up with some crazy TikTok idea and we're like yep let's do it okay so this is like you're you're sliding it

under the table here that you are a TikToker as well like half a TikToker because I don't have really my own account but I'll just you're just featured on hers all right exactly so is this breaking news like are we going to release all of the TikToks that you're in on your roommates account right now? No, it's she has like 35,000 followers, I think. So we're gonna get you your own TikTok account. Plug, plug her. No, I'm, no, I don't know this person. I'm plugging you here. That's my job here. We got to get you your own account.

It's like, it's like, if I, if the video goes south though, it's like, it's all the blame is on her. That's actually true. You have a really good fail safe there to just blame it completely on her. Yeah. What is the content? What type of videos are you guys making? Um, just like a lot of hockey videos, like dances, funny things, really anything, like when we're bored and... Hannah, those two are not the same thing. Hockey videos and dancing. Like, are you dancing with your hockey equipment on or what's happening here? Honestly, she does. In our locker room. Okay. Well, yeah. Guys, I'm telling you there's a market here. Like, you, this is just going to fund the entire women's hockey league if you guys just start going viral for hockey locker room

dances. Yeah. There you go. Like, this is a no-brainer. I need you both to get on this big time because like, what are we doing here? All right, I want to play a game with you guys that's going to put you to the test here with a couple of tough decisions. We call this game pass shoot score. It's basically, would you rather

fuck Mary Kill, whatever. But it's just going to be ranking stuff in your life. Pass is going to be the one that you can kind of do without because passing is great, getting an assist is great, but it's not our favorite thing to do. Shoot, you have the most shots in the entire world, Hannah, by the way, on your stat sheet. We'd love getting shots on net.

So that's the one you're like, okay, I really like that one. And then score, obviously, is the one that you have to take no matter what. So starting with you, Aaron, pass you'd score, go back in time and win that national championship, win an Olympic silver medal. Or win a world championship gold medal. Oh, that's so difficult. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to have to

pass the silver medal Okay, love that Gold or bust? Shoot the national championship and score the last one. Okay, I like that. You're not living in the past. That was really difficult, though.

Yeah, I have to say. When you started talking about that national championship game, I knew this was coming, and I was like, ooh, that's going to be really interesting to see what she says. Okay, Hannah, pass you'd score, win hockey east and the beanpot this year. take BC to the final and the Frozen Four,

or score Hattrick in the World Championship, but you get silver. Okay, I'm passing on the last one. Good job. That was kind of a test. Yeah, no, that's an easy one. I'll take pass to the first one, the beanpot, and then I'll take my chances scoring on the final four. Okay, all right, I like that.

All right, now this is kind of the one that's for both of you, where you've lived in your lives. Pass, shoot, score, starting with your own. New York, Minnesota, Boston. Pass, Minnesota, shoot New York, and score Boston. Damn, okay. All right. Hannah, pass shoot score, Texas, Minnesota, Boston. This is hard.

past Texas Are people at home going to be very mad about that? Probably. I might shoot Boston Square Minnesota. Wow. I'm surprised.

We need to get into that now. Why do you love Minnesota so much? I don't know. I think I just like it's just a cool area as well like I think if I could live in like a lake Lake Benatanka like houses up there

like have a boat, have a dog. I'd be. set for life. Listen to this one. Just a casual. Yeah, I'd love to have a $20 million home on Lake Manitaka and have a bunch of dogs running around. That would great. No, but I get it.

I think Lake Life in Minnesota is borderline impossible to beat. But you don't care at all. I know. The summers. I think the summers in Minnesota, they do it for me, but the winters... Oh, yeah, they're impossible. So I pass it. Yeah, that's absolutely impossible.

It's way too cold in there. I'm surprised that you both love Boston this month. Do you feel like Hannah, you're about to graduate here? Do you feel like you have a plan of where you want to be, where you want to go? Do you want to stay in Boston or do you want to go back to Minnesota? Yeah, I have a fifth year, so I'm still... Oh, really? I'm not leaving college yet.

Okay. Love college. So, yeah, the plan is to stay in Boston for another year. Okay. Live it up, be a college kid because COVID, they kind of, they kind of jipped us, so... Yeah. Which is what you did as well. You got the fifth year.

Yeah. So do you feel like that takes some pressure off you this season of being like it's not the final kick at the can necessarily? So you kind of have a little bit of relief going in knowing that you've got another year coming. Yeah, but at the same time, it's like as a senior you just want to win something. So I think you do have that safety net, but at the same time, I don't treat it like that. Yeah, I hear that. So with you guys both, you know, doing what you're doing, playing in this, you know, amazing team, this amazing league, what do you guys want to see the most from, you know, the women's league and what we're working

towards and what you're trying to make happen here? Just like continued support, I feel like some of the games have been amazing. We had over 14,000 fans in Seattle, and that was really special, and I know the girls had a crazy crowd in Anaheim when they were in California. I wasn't there, but I think they had 13,000 that broke the attendance record. So I would just say continue watching women's sports and hockey. and I feel like we've proven that we have a pretty good rivalry going on here with Canada. It's entertaining. It's fun to watch. So I feel like we just got to get more people hooked on it.

Because once you watch it, I feel like you keep watching it. Definitely. Hannah, is joining the PWHPA in the plans here for you, or are you unsure? No, for sure. Yeah, I think it's a great league, great players. I'm not sure about the idea that you're playing on the same team with Canadians. It's all kind of mingled, which is crazy. But I still think it's a great. great league great you don't like that well it's just weird because like you hate them like when you're where you know i'm yeah you know i was like i've asked like all of the older players like what is it like like being on a line with you know yeah the the the people that you guys are

going to battle with in all these series yeah that's tough but i mean they're great players too so it would be fun to play in that league are there any is there anything that you know for as you're saying trying to grow this league and get more eyeballs on it is there anything that you think should happen needs to happen with the league with like maybe rule changes or exposure or things like that because I think this is a cool platform to talk about like getting people more focused on it and paying more attention to it. I would say exposure, yeah.

Yeah. Definitely keep watching. I don't know about rule changes, but I think when we visit the cities like actually getting out to the games because we go to some pretty cool spots. I know we're headed back to California in March and we're going to Florida. So I would encourage fans to go to those games because they make it a really cool experience. We just had like the All-Star game in Ottawa. And that was really cool, like different skills competitions, like fastest skater and accuracy shooting and got a good turnout for that.

So I would say just keep watching. And Hannah, you don't think that you want to just like add fighting so you can get all that aggression out? I want fighting. I mean, no, I want checking in women's hockey. Okay. That's something that I was kind of leading towards. Like, do you think that that absolutely should just be added? Because personally, I think it makes zero sense.

I think it should be added. I think it makes the game faster. And I think like when you're at a hockey game, everyone, you know, goes crazy for an open ice hit or something. Yeah. Like, I don't know. I would say there's definitely body contact in our sport, but. Oh, there for sure is. Yeah, but.

But yeah. I think checking would, I mean, personally, like, I think it would make the game faster. And I would be all for it. Okay. I mean, you don't have to worry about that, Aaron in the crease. But, like, do you agree? I do agree. I think they are trying it this year in, like,

the professional league in Sweden. And I've heard some cool things from my teammate that's playing there. She's pretty into it. And I think it would be interesting, definitely, to see. And I think it would shake things up and probably drum up some more fan support. Yeah, I love that. Is playing overseas is something that either of you ever considered? Like going to the Swedish League or something like that?

Having the PWHPA, I just kind of was focused on that. And my fifth year, I knew that that was where I was going to play after college. So I haven't really thought about going overseas yet. I think it's really cool from like a travel perspective, but I feel like I would miss America if I was gone for too long. But you love travel. I know, I know. But I like shorter trips, like a whole hockey season I might get lost out there.

No, I get that. That's tough. All right, well, guys, I've taken up an hour of your time here. Is there anything that you guys want to plug, talk about, get people to start paying attention to you other than, obviously, the league that you guys are involved in. We've got this game on Monday. What else is going on in your lives?

What do you got, Bilks? Hannah, other than your TikTok. Yeah, I was going to say. Not. I don't go to anything. Producer Edge? What's the game plan against Canada? Oh, I like that.

Fight someone. I'm kidding. She's not kidding. She wants checking. She wants. No. You would never expect it from Bilks over here, but you are clearly an angry player.

Like, this is crazy. You're doing well this year. You got, what, three penalties this year? Yeah, I don't, yeah, I don't think. Probably, like, accidental, like, tripping. Yeah, see, I think that you, I think you were on something last year. Like, you've got this cool reputation now that you'll just fly off the handle at any point. You need to get in the box way more.

Yeah, I think the all-around player. Like, that's what I'm saying. I think this game against Maine in January, puck drops, I think you just need to cross-check someone in the face. Just to set the tone. I think I should, too. I mean, I love, like, Kachuck. Marchons, those type of players, I think they're just, they make the game more exciting. Like, if you can score goals and also, you know, kind of get under the competitor's skin,

like, you kind of can do it all. All right? I like that. Do you guys have, I mean, Erin, I feel like you were a big Lundquist fan growing up, I imagine, right? Yeah, and I like Shisterkin recently. Okay. Do you feel like there are players in the NHL that you look to, to model your game,

try to play a little bit like anything like that? Yes. Yes and no. I feel like I take things from watching a lot of goalies. It's hard to completely like mimic a style for goaltending. There's just so many different players, different goalies. But it's like cool to watch what people are trying. Like I feel like goaltending is like, there's always like these trends.

Like people are trying new things. So it's cool to like watch the best of the best try and like try some stuff yourself and see what you like, see what works. Hannah? Yeah. I mean as I would consider myself more of a skill player. So, you know, I love watching Patrick. Kane, you know, Pashtonach. Yes.

You know, as a Bees fan, yeah, really like watching those players. So you're a Bruins fan as well now. Yes. No loyalty to the stars at all. No, I love the stars. But more recently, like, they're just so much fun to watch. And also going to games, like, the garden is electric. Totally is.

Yeah, so it's definitely a fun environment to be in. Okay. All right, quick couple things before I let you guys go on this Canada game coming up. You don't have to name names. but this Hannah, this is probably more for you skating out there. Do you have someone's number? Is there someone on Team Canada that you absolutely cannot stand? Yeah.

Yeah? More than one? Or is there one that comes to mind? Yeah, more than one. Do you want to drop names? No. Okay. I had to try.

And then, Aaron, is there anyone for you that you are like absolutely not, this person will not score on me? I think we have probably similar ones in mind. Interesting. So there's legitimate bad blood here. Oh, for sure. Yeah. I love it.

Do you feel like you get more, actually, this is the question I'm most interested in. Do you feel like, and go back to Northeastern Days too, do you feel like you get more jacked up for these national games than college or is it the same? I know it's hard to compare because when you're in it, when you're in season at college, you're so fired up. But like here you're wearing, you know, USA on the front of your shirt. Is it, do you feel like there's that extra level of, you know, desire to win and really just stick it to the other team? Yeah. I do. I think, like, just being a younger player, like, you hear stories from the older players,

and you're like, oh, I hate them that much more. So, I mean, I haven't played a lot of games, but I've definitely had that anger built in. And also just from, you know, U-18s, you play with those same players now on the national team. So it's just, it's kind of all boiled up. And then, yeah, I would consider it a little bit more, like, more on the line than college. So you get more. Yeah, for sure. That makes so much.

much sense. And can you guys speak to the listeners about something I think is so fascinating? Obviously, guys in the NHL deal with this when they first get into the league. You two are in such an incredibly unique situation where you're both playing college and you're playing with girls your age. You right now, I imagine one of the oldest girls on the team. And then you jump into this national team and you're playing with players like Hillary Knight who's, what, 12 years older than you, something like that? Is that dynamic weird to get used to at the first, or is the team just so well, you know, well put together that they make you feel welcome right away? Is there a seniority element there, or does it feel very welcoming from the jump? I'd say very welcoming.

I think we were talking about it earlier, like some of the older girls are some of the goofiest ones and they're always having a good time and you feel like everyone's the same age. And like when you're in the locker room on the ice, like there's no like age, like you just don't even think about it. Like it just everyone's meshing together and having a good time. That's awesome. Do you feel like, I mean, going back and forth right now, Hannah, do you feel like you have to switch it off when you go back to BC or is it like, uh, whatever, these are all just my homies and it doesn't matter. We're just playing hockey together. Yeah, it's, I think it's a different dynamic, um, but kind of similar, similar, like I'm a little, you know, I like to let loose and kind of be, you know, more of the

outspoken one in the locker room in college. And then here it's, it kind of was a seamless transition. soon as I kind of got to know people, I was just being myself and they were very welcoming. And you have a BC teammate playing on the national team right now with you, right? Yep. How much, does that make it easier? Is it more fun having her there or is it like, whatever, it doesn't matter? Yeah, no, I absolutely. I think she kind of took me under her wing. And also there's older players that graduated from BC there that we kind of have that

BC bond as well. So they're great with helping out the younger players. Yeah. How many Northeastern girls are on the team? There's two others right now. Yeah. Do you guys have like a little internal rivalry there of who has the best representation on the team? I mean, that has to be a thing.

You guys would be lying to me if you're saying that if a new girl joined the team from Northeastern, you wouldn't get a little pumped up. You've got another husky on the tent. I would definitely be pumped, yeah. There you go. And when you guys, when you go back to school, Hannah, are the girls in the Eagles team asking you a bunch of questions about it? Are they, is anyone kind of jealous about it? Because I imagine there's a level of competition to that that's like, they're trying to get in this program as well. They're trying to get on this team as well.

How does that work? No, honestly, when I go back, like, I'm just another college kid. They just don't care. No, they're like, hey, you want to go out? I'm like, yeah, absolutely. No, they don't treat me any different. Okay. Do you feel the same way when you're, you know, getting involved with all this?

Because this is, what game will this be for you, Aaron? Game number? I'm not sure. I think my first national team roster was in 2019. Yeah. Couldn't tell you exact game number, but same as Hannah. Like when I got back to school, it wasn't any different. Like people asked questions more about like, oh, like you went to L.A.

Like that, that's probably a question to get. Like, how was Seattle? But you two are cracking me up. You were talking about being in Denmark a second ago and you're like, yeah, we were in Seattle in L.A. It's unbelievable. It's like, this is so funny. But I mean, all right. Well, guys, this, I'm so glad you came in.

And truly, this is a. a blast to be able to talk to you about this stuff and get our listeners more involved with the leagues that you're in in this cool rivalry series. We're going to the game on Monday. I'm going to be a lunatic for you guys. Any lasting words that you want to shout out to the people.

Shout out to anyone at home. This is your last chance. Drop the TikTok handle, Hannah. Abby Levi-Jones. Okay. Is her last name Levi, and that's just a fun pun? Yeah. Okay.

There's so much content here. You can incorporate that into videos. amazing. All right, Erin, anything for you? No, thank you for having us. It's been fun. Oh, my God. Anytime, guys, this is a thing that's like anytime you're in town, anytime we're around where you are, come back on. We need to get more people talking about this stuff because it's so awesome.

So yeah, thanks so much for coming on. No, thanks for having us. All right. Huge shout out to Hannah and Aaron. Such a fun time with them. So fun watching them play. Extremely jealous. I missed it. Yeah, yeah, it was a bummer to not have you there, but those two carried, they saved me. They carried the interview. They were so much fun.

and then going to the game the next night, they weren't kidding, dude. Those teams hate each other. I love it. There was an unreal fight with Hillary Knight in that game, like seeing the women's teams drop the myths and get in the dirt. Wait, they fight.

I didn't know that. Well, they're not supposed to, but these, I mean, Aaron and Hannah were not, they hate each other. Like, Team USA and Team Canada, there was an immediate brawl in that game, and it was clear that they're like,

yeah, this is a fun rivalry series. We fucking can't stand these girls. so they were tossing it, which is funny because on these pro teams that they're in, these associations, they're all in the same team. Yeah, right. So it's just like they're going to war with these girls and it was just such a blast.

So huge shoutouts to Hannah, huge shout out to Aaron. Such a good time. Can't wait to have them on again and keep talking about the women's game because it's growing and it's a blast. Let's wrap this episode up like we always do with some fun little segments.

CP, take us away. Let's get into some Michael Watch, Dan. Here's the thing. Jack is back, baby. He was removed from IR right before we recorded last week, and casually in his first game back, he has a goal and two assists against the Penguins because he's an absolute savage.

Okay? In the next night, Dan, the Kings beat the brakes off Vegas. Jack had no points and was a dash four. But we don't care, because this isn't a plus minus bet. It's a points bet. We do care about plus minus. Plus minus is very important, and some of you guys in the comments

who don't think plus minus is important, truly blow my mind. I respect you. I love your opinions. Keep them coming. But it's wild to me that people think that plus minus doesn't matter. It does.

But it does, and Jack's back up. He's got 32 and 29, and he's back on track. We feel great. All good wishes that he doesn't get hurt again. Yes. Jack, we finish the season, buddy. You're going to do it. You're going to do it.

On the where in the world is Austin Matthews train. We don't have much to report here. You know, Austin's doing well. We talked about it. Last episode, he went over to Montana, but he's just checking some stuff out. The Leafs have lost two of their last four games, but they're eight points ahead of the bolts. in second place in the Atlantic. Austin's got 20 goals, 27 assists for 47 points and 41 games. Not lighten the world on fire like last season, but he's doing fine. And until the Leifes really starts

struggling here, maybe start falling behind in the standings, I'm not, I'm not going to have Austin leave Ontario for a little while. Okay. So he's, he's okay. He's home. Leaves fans, you're doing all right. Home cooked meal. Yeah. Dan, the playoff trail, we had talked about the Sabres doing so well in the last episode. They've only played one since, but it was a 6-5 win, OT win against the wild. They almost blew a 4-2 lead, but they were down 5-4 very late. Dahlene tied it up, and then they won it with like 19 seconds left in overtime. Which, by the way, is different.

Sabers fans, that's a game we lose. Yep. Earlier in the season. It's the game we lose last year, the year before. But I'll tell you, you did win, but I'll tell you this. The Buffalo Sabres are still not getting good goaltending. Yes, we knew that goaltending was going to be the problem for the Sabers. It's going to continue to be a problem until things get a little tighter there in the crease. But listen, I'm not here to shit on tendies.

That's not what we do around here. We need our attendees. We love our tendies. They can heal. They just have the mesos. We're not resting on our laurels. Like I said, we're not getting too comfortable. I made the mistake of getting comfortable early in the season.

That's when we went on that skid. I tightened up. The team tightened up. We're pumping in goals. We're surging up the standings. And don't look now, but the sabers are four points away from a wildcard spot. That's two wins. You know this is not sustainable type of hockey in the playoffs.

No, it's not. But did, what do you mean in the play? Dude, are we talking about winning a Stanley Cup here? Yes. No, no, we're not. We're talking about one step at a time. It is the playoff trail, not the Cup Trail. You're right.

One step at a time, we're rolling that wagon into the wild card. That is what we're going for here. And like I said, stay sharp. Sharpen those swords. Stay sharp. We're just headed towards the playoffs. We cannot rest. Amazing.

Beautiful stuff. You got anything to watch this week? I do. but why don't you lead last time? Okay. Thursday, when this comes out, I'm going to give you Toronto at Detroit. Honestly, it's just some of the best sweaters in the game. And in fact, Dan, I think they should be forced

to wear their darks, both of them, every time they play. Okay. Would you accept that? Yes, 100%. I could not be a bigger supporter of that. Like that blue and red, just so cool. Yeah, perfect clash. I love it. Okay, Friday the 13th, I'm giving you a game

because Friday the 13th is historically been a very lucky day for me throughout my life. So I wish you all. Happy Friday 13th coming up here. I'm going to take Jets at Penguins, the second place Jets. Dan, my boy, Kyle Connor, on pace for 41 goals this year right now. He's got five goals in his last four games. I told you at the beginning of season he needs score 50, so he needs to pick it up a little bit to hit there. But I do think that's possibly the quietest 41 goal pace I've seen this year. I don't think anybody's aware that he's just pumping in goals. It'll be like the second highest total of his career. I think Horvatt is the other one that I would say is quiet. All that is on pace for 50, and no one's really talking about. No one cares. And then Monday, I'll give you Dallas at Vegas, two first place teams going head to head pretty much level at points of the time of this recording.

So I'll be tuning into that one for sure. That's a really good one. Okay, my two Saturday, Bees Leafs. Great rivalry game, first and second in the Atlantic. It's going to be the first time they played since the Leafs beat them and snapped the Bruins winning to win Street. Oh, nice. Which was, you know, obviously that was in the whole, you know, ridiculous signing era. And it'll be interesting to see them match up again.

And then Monday, I got a Monday game as well. Wings Avalanche. Just a classic rivalry. Old school battle. Yes, takes you're right back to the early 2000s just, you know, bare-knuckle brawling games of Stevie Y, Joe Sackick, Ray Bork, McCarthy, Fedorov. Let's try I could go on and on them. But it's always fun to see the abs and the wings match up and square up. Some good games this week.

Great games. Okay, we hope you guys enjoyed that amazing interview today on the episode. and we will see you guys next week. And until then, skate hard. Skate hard, drink some Etra tequila soda. It's beautiful stuff. Later, guys.