Empty Netters Podcast - 48. Trashy TV with Keith Yandle

Episode Date: August 9, 2023

Keith Yandle joins the pod with the boys. They break down some of the best teammates in the NHL as well as the crazy ride to becoming the NHL Ironman. Keith recalls some of the greatest pranks he's pulled throughout his career, and gets into Kevin Hayes' wedding being one of the most fun nights of all time. (0:00:00) - Intro (0:00:48) - Kevin Hayes' Wedding (0:08:54) - Prep School Journey (0:15:40) - Skipping College For Major Junior (0:21:44) - Becoming the NHL Iron Man (0:30:23) - Life Since Retiring (0:35:34) - Karlsson to the Penguins (0:47:55) - Being The Best Teammate in the NHL (00:55:50) - Prank Sinatra of the NHL (1:01:09) - Pass Shoot Score   SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuf52MHW1O7guPMzsMvv2kA FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/empty.netters/?hl=en FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@empty.netters   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right. Today we're joined by Boston Native, Cushing Academy Legend, 105 pick in the 2005 NHL draft by the Phoenix Coyotes, former member of the Yotes, Rangers, Panthers, and Flyers, three-time NHL-All-Star, and former NHL Iron Man, Keith Yandel, joining the Empty Natives podcast. How are we doing, bud? I'm great, boys. Thanks for having me. Nice to talk hockey during the summer here. I guess camp's starting up pretty soon. So good to get back in the flow of things. But sick of watching baseball, looking forward to hockey to get started. And it's good to talk with you guys right now.

And thanks for having me on. Those dog days of summer get extra tough when the socks are in the last place. Yeah, and it's raining every day. Seriously, dude. We got to jump right in. How was Hazy's wedding? Still recovering. Still recovering.

It was an absolute blast. I was there. So the wedding was on Friday. I was with him on Tuesday, so we golf Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, rehearsal, dinner, wedding, all that shit. So can you swear on this? Sorry. Yeah, yeah.

Let a rip, of course. You can let it rip whatever you want. So if for me it was a long week and getting, you know, closer to 40 isn't as easy to recover, so I'm still recovering to this day. But yeah, back in Boston right now, after the wedding, visiting some family, got a member guest golf tournament this week with a lot of H-L guys, so that'll be fun. But yeah, the wedding was insane.

One of the probably the best party I've ever been to. He had already gotten, he had already gotten married. He'd had his, like, in the church, his wife is Russian. So they had like a Russian Orthodox wedding. We had to hold the crown over his head. I was, I was that going to ask if there were any of those things. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

So that was all like the two weeks before. So we did that. And then this was basically just a rip it up. party at one of the nicest venues in Massachusetts. And, you know, he brought the noise he had, you know, there was so many guys there that I played with, played again. So good to see guys like that during the summertime and catch up. And the amount of dancing that hockey guys can do is so impressive that, like, no one

cares. Everyone's just out there partying. Yeah. The Kachuk brothers, if I ever got married again, which I won't. But I would hire them to come if they didn't want to come. Yeah. Kevin Chattonkirk, legend at a wedding. Really?

I've heard that. Chris Stewart, legend at a wedding. Just dancing. These guys are just dancing. Like no one's watching. It was beautiful. The walk. Because I remember going a couple of weddings early in my career and it was like kind of like the hockey guys just stand in the corner.

You know, have a couple beers. Talk to talk to their old teammates. But these guys, man, like on the dance floor, Johnny Hamm and she's dancing his ass off. Brian Boyle, who's one of the best dancers as a huge man, too. So it was a lot of fun, a lot of dancing, a lot of sweating. But it was an absolute blast. And just to see him that happy and it was a lot of fun. Dude, Jans, I feel like it's been a huge summer for NHL weddings.

It's like McAvoy's wedding was this past weekend as well. Brady's wedding was earlier. And the fact that Brady got married like a month ago. And then I don't know if you've seen it yet, but a video immediately surfaces of ham and cheese on Brady's shoulders with you in the back. ground just like, I was like,

the bopping, dude, yeah, just like making sure that Johnny doesn't fall back and split his head open. It was like, truly,

it's like watching an NHL All-Star team just dance off and have the best time ever. It was so fun to watch. I can't believe it. Well, because Brady's like,

all right, Johnny, and Johnny's like, 137 pounds, so he's like, all right, Johnny jump on my back and I'm like,

no, don't do it. Like, the floor might be slippery, you never know. And I'm like, I'm just kind of spot him behind him.

Like, Johnny was probably the only guy there I could pick up, so I was a little confident, but yeah, there was an absolute blast. Did you get on the dance floor? Did you show up for each other? What's that? Did you get on the dance floor? Oh yeah, of course. Yeah.

Okay. My wife would never let me not get on the dance floor, but I like to shake it down anyways. I have to, you got to get in the mix out there. Where, what was the venue? And was it like, since it was just the party, were there the normal weddings, like, do where they're like passed around apps, speeches and all that shit? Or was it just like, no, we are literally just here to dance? No, they did that because the actual wedding, like the Russian one was probably only like 40 people. This one was I think like 260 or something like that.

I could be wrong. But so, yeah, there was speeches, you know, it was everything a regular wedding would have. It was just a five, 10 minutes ceremony that one of our friends got ordained to do. And he did it. And he was like, all right, I'm going to wrap this up. Let's go party. And that's what we did. There you go.

Dude, Zegris recently said that Shadi is a wedding all-star. So I got to know why he is held in such high acclaim. Like, what is it about him that makes him such a good guest? I did not see him not on the dance floor. And I don't know what it is with hockey guys. And I could never do it because I always had a bag of milk body. But all these guys take their shirts off. Every guy has their shirt off dancing tattoos.

I'm like, fuck, I wish I was this cool in this. But Chaddy's just that guy. Like you look at him and you think he might be like a 45-year-old guy and then he gets on the dance floor and he did not stop dancing the entire time. He was outstanding. Covered in sweat, dude. I've soaked through. I've ruined a few suits at a couple of those weddings.

That is such, you just got to love that. I feel like there needs to be awards for wedding MVPs because you can make or break a wedding. If you get the right guests there who are just ripping the dance floor, getting everybody involved. Have specific dances that you do. It's just like it turns it up to 11. Is Shady, your MVP if you were handing it out? He'd be up there.

But also the kid that, the kid who got ordained, his name's Chris Kowalski, we call him Killa. He's like six foot eight, but he played basketball and baseball at BC with these guys. And he's like the type of guy he gets everybody on the dance floor, but he'll bully you up on the dance floor. He's like, hey, grab you by your shirt. He's like, let's go.

and 10 minutes after you finish eating, every single person was on the day. God. God, I fucking love that. Perfect game. He might have been him and Shattie are my 1A and 1B. There you go. Dude, do you know if there was any crossover with the McAvoy wedding?

Because there was part of me that was curious. Like there's so much Boston representation. Shaddy's actually one that I wouldn't be surprised if Shaddy went from Hazy's wedding to Charlie's wedding. I didn't ask too many guys. I know Chris Wagner was going to it. I would imagine there would be a few. guys that that went to that um but his was in boston kevin's was down the cape so it was easy enough

travel and all we're all we're down the road and different days too and i think like chris cradder was there i think he's getting married this week so it's like yeah he is the summer i don't miss those days where you're playing with the young guys and it's just a wedding every other weekend and having to travel to and stuff like that so hopefully uh hopefully kevin's was my last one i have to go to for a while dude think about your recovery right now for the boys that had to hit both I don't think you'd be here, yes. I honestly think it's giving me anxiety right now thinking about if I had to go from Cab's wedding to Charlie's wedding.

Like you'd have to stay buckled the entire time otherwise you would die. Yeah, and you have to bring it too. You can't just sit there and be a stump on a log. Because then someone comes on a podcast and says you were a clown always sitting in the corner. You know, you're like, I don't know the details, dude. Check the game notes. You'd have to wave in some PEDs or the Russian dance to make it through both of those weddings. We had the IVs going.

I got an IV yesterday. What's today? Tuesday? Yeah, Monday. So I needed the IV to get back up. Yeah, I loved it. For the listeners, when we were talking about scheduling this, we threw like last and last week towards you and you were like, I've got Kev's wedding on Friday.

I'm not going to be a human being for a few days. And I was like, yeah, that's for sure. Did you do you win any money on the golf course, those days leading up? Yeah, we actually, the first day, me and Kev won some money. And then second day we did like a blind draw. We had eight guys. like a blind draw. I think my team came in

Dead last. Like the guy I was playing with wasn't very good but, or it was me. Yeah, no, it wasn't you, dude,

it wasn't you. And then, we, I can't remember what, yeah, we play, we definitely played for some money.

Nothing, nothing life changing, that's sure. Good, that's the way to do it. That's the way to do it. Okay, epic weekend.

I'm so glad you had that going. Yeah, seriously. Let's get into some stuff pre-NHL. We were talking about this before we recorded. But we're actually on a little bit of a New England prep school heater right now.

We just had Fantillion who went to Kimball Union. I don't know if you knew that. But of course, as we said, you went to Cushing. Dan went to Andover. I went to Exeter. So, dude, when we were back and playing and you, too, Cushing was so sick. Like, we used to always say on the schedule, Cush at Cush was the hardest game. So I want to hear a little bit about, you know, you'd be a Milton kid, like, ending up at the cake eater prep school, you know, the hockey factory.

Tell us what that was like. And you guys, which year did you lose in the finals? Would that have been, 02 maybe? Your first year, right? My first year, yeah, 02. It was either O2 or O3. Yeah, okay. I think my last year we lost in the finals too.

Yeah, I couldn't remember if you guys won one or not because you were such a wagon. But yeah, tell us about that whole experience and what that was like being at Cushing. So I did the one year at Milton High. I had, I was awful student and wasn't a very highly touted player, just kind of did my thing. It's playing public high school hockey, which isn't great, but I was having a blast. And I actually kind of wanted to stay a little bit, but my dad was like, you got to get out of here. If you want to get it better, you got to go up to Cushing. My brother was at Cushing before me. He had went from Catholic Memorial to Cushing. And he was one of those kids that everyone wanted

back in the day. And so it just kind of followed his footsteps up there and went up there. and actually didn't, I knew Chris Bork a little bit, just from, you know, skating around here, but didn't really know anyone was super nervous, hadn't really left my friends and family. And then I think it was like a week before school, a kid backed out that was supposed to go to Cushing. So Billy Ryan, my best friend, was an unbelievable player. He played at Maine. It was drafted in the second round, I think, by New York. I was like, hey, dude, why don't you come up here?

And he was like, he was at Catholic Memorial as well. And they were really good back then. He was like, all right, fine, I'll come. Went up. So I had my best friend, and then I had Chris Bork. So, you know, two guys I knew. And then Bill ended up rooming with this kid, Boomer Ewing, who went to BU. So we had us four that kind of were always together.

And we basically lived at the rink. So sick. The best thing about Cushing, the ice was down all year. If you had an off period, you could go up and skate. even if you didn't have an off period, you could go up and skate. But for us, we were literally at the rank from the time school was over until the time study hall began. And I swear, I tell everyone that's when I took that jump in my game.

And, you know, Ray Bork was so that Ray Bork, they won the cup in 01. Then he came up, he coached us that year, so the next year. So he was one year out of the NHL. And having a legend like that helping me out was, you know, the type of coaching you can never even pay for. So I think for me, owe him a lot of credit for that, just putting in the time and work with me

and really helping to focus my game because that was a little bit of a wild man. And, you know, he was kind of like, hey, listen, you can get a scholarship to school. You can, you know, better your life, better your family's life. Just you've got to figure it out. And with his help and all the other coaches up there,

Coach Jay and Coach Troy, they were amazing. They just kind of let us have fun as long as we were doing the right thing. playing hockey, working hard. And every guy up there, I think my first year there, we had, say there was 25 guys in the team. I think 24 were committed to D1 school. So it was, you know, you have-knots, dude, they were so nasty. Dude, we were so nasty.

We had like our, our backup, actually our third string goalie was Richard Bachman, who played in the NFL. Yeah, like, what the fuck, dude. And so what I'm saying. Brock Little, remember him? Yeah. Played at Yale, like, played for the Olympics. He was on JV. Dude, he couldn't even cut the line.

Connor Sherry couldn't cut the lineup as first, like, first year and stuff. So we just had teams that were so good. And they just, with the rink being there, we would, like, we're just hockey junkies up there. Everyone just wanted to play, wanted to get better. And we pushed each other super hard every day. Dude, it was so, like you said, Chris, like going, going to Cushing and playing. You guys had that Murderer's Row mural in the rank of all the guys in the NHL. and when I was at Andover, you had just broken in and your face was plastered up there.

And I was like, Jesus Christ, they have like 25 NHL guys in the last six years. This is insane. I was a joke because like Schneider, was it Avon? Like I was like out here parading out of the high school kid like trying to score on NHL goalies on every fucking high school team I was playing against. I was like, this is ridiculous. But, but yeah, well, two things. One, it's unbelievable to be a Milton High kid being like, yeah, you know, I'm playing

public high. I hope I can make it. And then a year later, you're at Cush with Ray Bork being like, dude, you have what it takes to go. You're like, oh, that was a crazy turn of events. And then two, I, IPG to Exeter, because we're the same year, I just missed you, right? If you would left, I guess I'm a year behind you, but you had just left. And Chris Bork had just left. But Ryan Bork was a freshman, I think, when I was there.

So we go play at Cush. I think we tied you guys 3-3. It was a great game. We had a pretty good squad that year at Exeter, but we tie you guys 3-3. but Ray was behind the bench running the D door. And I'm a lifelong Bruins fan. I'm like, holy fuck, dude, Ray Bork is here. And I remember, I had a pretty good game.

We typed three three, I think I had like a goal and assist, you know, two points. And I'm, let's fucking go, boys. Two points in prep school, I would have a bad night. Yeah, right. Yeah, so true. So I get, I go down the handshake line and Ray's last. And I was like, I don't know what to say. I want to say something, but I don't.

So I'm just like, hey, good game coach. I always wore 13 and everything. And he shakes my hand and he goes, how to work out there, one three and slaps my ass. And I was like, this is an all time day, dude, all time day. So yeah, always a memorable night at Cushing, dude. That's how he was, though. Like, Ray was the best. Like, he's one year.

And he was at practice. And they lived in, um, Topsfield at the time, I think. And he would drive an hour and a half every single day in the middle. You know how it snow is up there in Asperham. Like, he's driving awful conditions. and he was there every single day. And it's hard for us not to be like, okay, we got to put in the work if this dude's driving an hour and a half to help us out.

So it was pretty special having him. So true. That's awesome. Wow, yeah. I didn't think about that. That's such an extra added element of motivation being like Ray Bork's on the fucking bench and he doesn't need to be here. Like I better work my ass off tonight.

Obviously, Brian going to Cush, had to have been a huge factor in you getting there as well. And then correct me if I'm wrong, but you were also considering you, UNH because of Brian as well. And then I think there was a main stint in there. And, you know, I'd read that you said juniors was the easiest path to the NHL, which at the time certainly would agree. But like, is there any part of you that kind of looks back at that hockey east and college hockey element that makes you feel like I wish I had done that or I'm glad I didn't?

What was your mindset with the whole college hockey journey that was about to happen? And then ultimately didn't. So I'll give you the story. So we, I do wish I, I wish I was able to play a year with my brother. I wish my dad could watch me and my brother play together for a year and, you know, enjoy that. Because he had, he was, he had coached high school hockey as well, and he was retiring that year. So he could watch me and my brother go to every game. And then I had to accelerate a year to get in with, to play a year with my brother because he was a few years older than me.

And I had to do a summer class that year. and I had a, it was it was at Quincy Community College and I showed up, sat down and I'm telling, like, I hated school more than anyone. And I sit down, I'm like, hey, how long is this class like hour? And the kid next to me, a foreign kid, he's like, four and a half hours. First break I got on the pay phone. I called my mom. I said, you got to come and get me. I can't do this shit.

She was like, what? She was like, and my mom knows nothing about hockey. She was like, what are you going to do? I don't know. I'll go up to the Quebec League. And she was like, and then what? I was like, I don't know if I don't make it. I'll go to the Marines and she was like,

I think we got to talk about this. I'm like, no, it's done. So, yeah, and then I was drafted by Chakoutini, and they kind of, it was last minute. Like this was in probably June, July, maybe August, kind of right when training camps in the queue, because my first day I got up to the, to Moncton, they were in training camp.

And so got up there, Chakutomi, had to trade my rights. to trade my rights to Moncton. Because I didn't want to go to an all-French-speaking place. So the league kind of helped me out by trading me to Moncton. And we were hosting the Memorial Cup, which I didn't even know what that was then. So we were hosting that. And it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me,

having a coach like Teddy Nolan, you know, playing with guys like Brad Marchon, Luke Bordaun, Philip Dupuy. Our best play was this kid, Marty Carson, was drafted by the, Bruins. He was amazing. And just to see what it took, you know, you're coming from high school hockey where you're playing, you know, it was at Milton High. We played 20 games a year. And then Cushing, I think you play maybe 30. Yeah. Yeah. So you go from that to playing what's junior 75 games or something like that. It was a huge adjustment. But for me, it was just, I never, never liked to work out.

I didn't like to do any of that stuff. And it was just, all right, go out there and play hockey. And that's kind of what I like to. to do and I was able to have a good year that year. Lucky enough because if it, you know, if I went in, had a bad year, had a coach that didn't like me, it could have been a total different story. But, you know, I had Teddy Nolan and Danny Flynn and Danny Laquois and those guys were so good to me, so good to help me out, had a great billet, billets up there. So they really helped me out.

And, you know, they were like, all right, your goal is to, you know, make it to the NHL next year. And I'm like, what? Yeah. Is that a possibility? they're like yeah I think so and so lucky enough it it happened and um you know like I was going to be in the Marines a week ago dude like so I don't have to go to Afghanistan yeah pretty sweet deal yeah so it was uh it was a it was a man bit rob Irvin the owner up there took so such good care of me my family he was you know able to

you know because we didn't come from you know money where you know you could get on a flight so he was able to get my family flights up to Moncton to come see me and, you know, for me to fly home if I needed to. So they took such good care of me and owe a lot to them as well. That's so great, dude. The difference between ASEANs is when you were young, you were like, I hate working out. I'm going to play hockey every day and then you made it to the NHL. And I didn't realize that until now. I hate working out so much that I just played beer league every night. It cost me a billion dollars. But I'm like, whatever, dude. The best sweat you can get, though. Yeah, exactly.

For real. It's, I mean, it's funny, dude, it's sound. you know, that's kind of a wild journey. And it's, I fucking love hearing stories like that where truly it sounds like the NHL wasn't really on your radar until all of a sudden it was. But it sounds like juniors is almost the absolute best recipe for you. It's like, like you said, you know, you weren't a big, you know, getting the gym guy. And all of a sudden you're in this league where you're playing 75 games a season. And that's exactly what you love and thrive on.

So it worked out perfectly, it sounds like. Yeah, and Ted D. Nolan, I'll never forget my first kind of meeting with him. after the first game because they didn't know who I was. Like they didn't, that was before you had like scouting tape. And, you know, so the first game and, uh, and I was just going, like just getting the puck trying to go into end. And, um, he goes, hey, to any coaches I would tell you to like, you know, get back, play defense.

I'm like, yeah. Pass the puck sometimes. Yeah. He's like, I was like, there's been a few. He goes, all right. He goes, that, that's not what we're going to do here. He's like, anytime you feel like you can go end to end or, you know, wielding that, make a play.

Like, I want you, you have full reins to do whatever you want. And I was like, all right, sounds good. Fuck, yeah. Yeah, it helped me out. I mean, our team was unbelievable that year. We won the Quebec League, lost in the MECP Cup finals to Quebec, who had a wag. They had Radulov, Blasic, the goalie was unbelievable. So it was a tough loss, but it was a fun year.

and we kind of learned how to be a pro, and I think it helped me with that next step. Yeah, no doubt. And I mean, talking about that next step, dude, like you make it to the league. And then I feel like quickly, you know, you're like a defenseman of the year in the HL, All-Star, and then bang, you're in the NHL.

And then I know you've talked about it a million times, but next thing you know, you're becoming the NHL Iron Man. And like, I don't need you to go through all the stories of that because I know you've talked about it, But the 19th and the heel. Yeah, for real. I mean, like, dude, you battle through some insanity. But was that moment when you broke it, right?

Like when you became the NHL Ironman. How much of it was on your mind? Like, were you going into every game being like, oh, damn, I'm getting closer? Were you kind of just like, no, dude, I'm just playing like I always play and I'm just battling through stuff because that's my game? Yeah. So a lot, especially earlier on, I had no clue. I didn't even know.

It was kind of, I'd say up until maybe like, 500 in a row or 600 in a row is when people started talking about it. But I do remember one incident we were playing in Vancouver. I got hit from behind by, what was his name, Dorset? I think he, like, tripped me. I went in, and I got like a real bad bone bruise on my knee. I couldn't even walk. And Dave Tippett, we were playing in Edmonton the next night, and I was on the

trainer's table. He was like, he's like, how are you feeling? I'm like, oh, I feel great. He goes to the trainers. He's like, do you think he's going to be able to go? and they were like, nah, probably not. And he was like, and Tip had a streak going as well. I think he was 400 and something games, and he said he missed one game.

And then he was like, I regretted that ever since. He was like, listen, he was like, I want you to just play, give us how much. And he was like, you know, you can go out there on the power play, play power play, see how you feel. He was like, I just, I want you to play and then see how you feel the next day. So luckily to him, he had the, he was aware of it a little bit more than I was. And I think that's kind of when it started for me realizing it. But for me, it was, you know, if I was able to skate and, you know, put my skates on and get out there, I wanted to play. And just kind of how I grew up, my parents never missed the day of work.

They were truck drivers and weren't people that were complaining about injuries or too much, you know, too much work or not enough sleep. So it was just kind of my parents got up, went to work. My dad worked midnight till nine. and my mom worked, you know, 4.30 in the morning until 4.30 in the afternoon. So it's kind of one of those things where in my family you were working. You had to do it. You had no other choice and owe a lot to them for that mindset.

But yeah, there was, I think when it did happen, it wasn't like a sign of relief because I think deep down from me, I felt bad for Cogliano when he got that, he was ahead of me. He got that one game suspension. I think I really didn't feel like it was mine as much as it should have been his. And then I knew Phil was right behind me and he's going to play until he's 57 years old. As long as they keep serving hot dogs. I know he's going to be short-lived.

But I think for me it was just kind of, if it's something I can control my kids where you have to put in the work, my nephews, like they realize that they're all, they're all older now. My kids and my nephews and, you know, hockey players like that. So I think for me it was just more setting an example for, you know, the kids of my family and in helping them out. Hell yeah, dude. That FedEx mindset. Yeah, that NHL Iron Man Street, dude. Dude, not. Also, I got to say, huge stick taps to tip it.

Yeah, honestly, we might not be here if it weren't for him being like, dude, you got to get out there. That's fucking awesome. Yeah, and he was literally, he was like, I don't care if you play one shift. And it could have been one of those things, but we didn't have an extra guy that night. an extra D-Man, traveling light on the road. But he was like, I just want you to see how it feels. And I do remember that game. It wasn't feeling great.

But I remember it got through it. And I think the next day we had a couple days off or whatever the case was. So I was able to let it heal a little bit. Not that we're blaming anyone. But were you pissed? You didn't get to a thousand. Like deep down, we were like, fuck, that would have been sick a thousand a row. I actually, when they told me that I wasn't going to play,

I completely understood. I was playing like dog shit. I should have been scratched, you know, the 10th game of the year. Yeah. Once, yeah,

once you do, you look back at, I think a thousand in a row would have been cool. Obviously, no hard feelings. Yeah. Against anyone there.

But yeah, I do think it would have been cool to get a thousand in a row. But now I'll just lie and tell people I did. Fuck, yeah, and honestly, man, I think the boys...

What you do, Jans, you just go like this, when people ask you about, you go, yeah, I think it was like, fucking a thousand games or something.

Some are close to a thousand. You know, like, that's all you got to say. And I honestly think the boys lucked out, dude, because they would have had to fucking buy you something sick if you hit a thousand in a row. Because, like, you got, I think they got, you got a golf cart, right, for your thousandth game. So, like, a thousand in a row, dude, like, something serious was coming your way. I got to say that's one of the coolest thousand games gifts I've ever heard in my entire

life. And I abuse it, too. I use that thing every single day. Really? Really? Okay. That's what I was going to ask. Yeah. And I still have all the stickers on it too. They were like, oh, you can take the stickers off. I'm like, absolutely not. You guys bought me this. It's staying exactly how it is exactly how it's fucking unbelievable. Is that the best thousandth game gift you've ever seen? Because it's the best I've ever heard of. I mean, I feel like guys always go to the default watch route. But like that is unbelievable. So we got for Shane Donne, which is a cool one, because if you know who he is, he's a cowboy. And we got him a horse and a saddle, which is. pretty awesome. Wait,

like a horse, like a living horse. Yeah. Yeah. And he, in this saddle was the sickest saddle, like engraved leather with like, you know,

the Winnipeg, the Jets logo, the coyote's logo, all of his games, like just everything he had accomplished. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen. But that was one of the coolest. I think Jovo,

I think Eddie, we got him a trip to Augusta, which was cool. Wow, that's awesome. Yeah. I've heard, that a few times. So before I forget, back to the, when they scratched me, I don't know if many

people know this, but Nick Seeler, all-time, all-time teammate, all-time guy, and a guy who is, you know, if you look at the beginning of the year, maybe a seventh defenseman, he went into the coach's office that night when they told him I wasn't playing, and, you know, he was like, I'm not going to be a part of this. I don't want to play. He's like, if he's not playing, I'm not playing. Yeah, like, did the Rudy for me, basically. put it seriously do you down and yeah i heard that and legit still talking about it now puts a tear on my eye and he um forever grateful for him for that uh just even going into a coach's office and saying that especially when you're a when i mean if you're anyone but you're you're a guy trying to

establish yourself as um you know an nchl regular which he is now and he's proven himself but it's uh you know that that meant the world to me dude i will get into this part later that's a too, but there's been so much written and said already about how great of a teammate you've always been and what a testament to that exact sentiment, right? Because that is, that is unbelievable. What an awesome story. That's wild. How did that shake out?

Like, where the coach is just like, listen, man, like you got to play or what ended up happening with that? Yeah. I think, I think they would just like, hey, listen, it's just part of the business. It is what it is. And then I had heard after the fact and, you know, sat him down and told him he didn't need to do that. and, you know, how much I appreciated it.

But it just goes to show you what type of guy he is. And, you know, he's one of the most, all he cares about his team. All he wants to do is the guys to have fun, smiling. If you're making fun of him, as long as everybody's laughing, he doesn't care. Just one of those guys. And you look at him on the ice, too, and he'll fight anyone. He'd fight his mom if he had to on the ice. I remember we played Minnesota and end of the year, nothing.

And we were a million points out of playoffs. They were, I think they were as well. And we're at the faceoff. And I see him squaring up with DeLorey. And I'm like, oh, my God, dude. You don't need to break a hand before summer and ruin the golf game. Like, come on. But just shows you what type of guy he is.

Just a sandpaper, you know, guy I would take on my team any day and go to bat for the rest of my life. Fucking awesome, dude. Awesome. Okay. So then I want to get into retirement. You had a real, it was so funny because you retire with the boys at Chicklets. Amazing. And then P.K.

and Charra, same day. You all retire within eight hours of each other. Do you remember? I was trying to find the timestamps on their tweets and the chicklet, then the Chicklets episode dropped. Do you remember who was first? I don't. I think I had, I remember that it was like, I had knew the whole time. And I think I had talked to my agent.

I'm like, when, like, what are we doing? Like, do I tell people? Because I had already, everyone around me knew that I wasn't going to play. Yeah, yeah. You know, I knew that at the end of the year, like all the guys in the Flyers knew. I think we played, yeah, we played the centers, the last game, all those guys, I don't know how they knew. Kevin Hasey must have told Brady Kachuk, and all those guys came over to me after the game, which meant a ton. That's awesome.

You know, a handhake, a hug, which was, you know, emotional, but just goes to show you what, you know, the NHL best league in the world. And, you know, these guys really do care, even though you're going to battle every night. but yeah that night i think it was whenever they say they come out on a wednesday i think like monday or tuesday i texted biz and whitt i was like hey if you guys want to say it on your podcast that i'm retiring go ahead or tweet it out or something like that because i don't have that and um they were like hey we're doing an episode wednesday why don't you just come on and do it and i was like all right perfect so yeah i think that must have been a tuesday night we did that and then when it came out and then yeah i do remember z and and and uh people

P.K. the same day, but I don't know who was first. You're like, what the fuck, boys? I had my big announcement. Jesus Christ. Oh, no, I could care less. But it was funny for, you know, for us, for fans and shit, because it was like three Hall of Fame caliber defensemen on the same day. We're like, we're all retiring.

And it was like, whoa, the fuck is happening. There was too much going on at once. It was insane. And by three, you mean two. P.K. No, no, no, no. We mean three. I don't think Charra.

I don't think Charra has shot, if we're being honest. He might get it. Yeah, yeah, maybe. But yeah, so you're retired. We talked a little bit earlier, but you'd be down in Florida. And I know you get back to Boston every year for the Bunker Hill Day parade. Other than that, and something like Hasey's wedding, are you ever coming up back up east? Or is it pretty much Florida all the time now?

No, so I'll be Florida all year. And then when the kids get out of school, we go over to Nantuck. It just bought a place over there. Well, bought it a year ago, and it just finished. in April. So now we'll spend our summers there and enjoy the island time, which is, which is, I never, never went over there as a kid. I think like four or five years ago, I went over.

I'm like, have you guys ever been to Nantucket? Yeah. Oh, hell. Yeah. It's the best place in the world. Yeah. So I was like, this is the greatest place in the world. I need to buy a house here.

And then once we, once we knew we weren't going to live in Milton, sold my house there and bought in Nantucket. And now we'll just go Florida to Nantucket. Yeah. Are you by Witt over there or no? Very close to Witt. Nice. That's beautiful.

Probably like two miles. Dude, what is it about the Bunker Hill Day parade that made you and the fam go there every year? So all my family's from Charleston. Everyone's there. It's just one of those things every year as a kid. I always look forward to going to it because my dad's got eight brothers and sisters. You know, obviously you don't see each other every day. especially when you're away playing, you miss people.

And my aunt, Amarie, who, you know, everyone kind of goes to her house and then watches the parade up the street. And just seeing them and my aunts and my uncles, they, you know, they don't care about me as the hockey player. When I played, all they cared about was how I was doing. I know how the family was. So I think especially Charleston has that,

it's so welcoming, especially how. having blood from there and all my family being there that, you know, when I go back there, it's, you know, just, you know, you Keith and no one's, no one's talking to you about, hey, you should have shot it on the power play, you know, blah, blah, blah. So it's just, you know, everyone catching up. Yeah. So that's probably my favorite thing about it was just seeing people that you grew up with, seeing how everyone's doing, you know, watching everyone's kids get a year old or every year

and, you know, just keeping tabs on people. But yeah, it's one of my favorite days. I actually missed it this year because it was away for a lacrosse tournament, which was sad. But it's definitely one of those days I have circled on the calendar that I love going to see my aunt, and Marie and the rest of the clan. It's kind of like an unofficial family reunion. That's perfect. It definitely is.

And everyone there, we eat the same thing. Every year, my uncle, Bobby, makes these chicken salad sandwiches. Everyone kind of brings something. So I legit look forward to those chicken. salad sandwiches all year and Reese's tarts. So it's definitely a lot of fun. But I'm actually, I'm going to see them all Sunday,

which will be nice to catch up with everyone. That's fucking beautiful. All right, I want to get into some of the stuff that we're looking forward to this season. But a perfect one into that is, what do you think about the Carlson trade? I feel like that is a huge blockbuster move that puts some like legends on the same team

for one last ride. And as an offensive D-Man, looking at maybe the best offensive dmen of this past season, going to play with Kras and Malkin. I'm curious your thoughts on that move. I love the fact that Dubas came in, and obviously you realize that Sid, Gino, Latang, they obviously show no signs of slung down,

but obviously they're getting older in their window, say it's three, four years, whatever it is, they got to capitalize. And for what they've been able to do for that city, since, you know, people forget, especially the younger crew, like that, I remember my first year. Like, it was like, that team's going to move to Kansas City. And if Sid doesn't come in and do what he's done the last, you know, 18, 19 years to put that city on his back. They got a brand new arena.

Like, the rink was falling apart there. I remember my first couple games playing in the igloo, like, you flush the toilet. They didn't have urinals. They just had toilets. You flush it, and the water would squirt back at it. It was just, it was like Alcatraz in there. You just look at what those guys have done every year, just been so, like, you know, they're in the first year they missed the playoffs, right?

Yeah, yeah. It's all correct. In 17, 18 years. So what that's done for that city, I think they deserve every opportunity and, you know, to go out on top. And, you know, I love the fact that Dubas came in and made a monster deal. And, you know, you're not just bringing in a guy. guy for one year. I think Carlson's got a few years left, right? And it's, you know, he's a horse.

And, you know, if you look at that power play, hopefully they go, hopefully they go 2D because, you know, you can have Latang and Carlson out there, a little bit of old school 2D, which I always enjoyed. But he, I think it's going to be special for them. You know, obviously that no one's going to hand them the cup and either going to have to work for it. but those guys have worked for it for the last, you know, almost 20 years. Yeah. And realistically with those two, if you go 2D, it's five forwards on the end. Yeah, right. That's right. Gifted as anyone else.

It's ridiculous. It's also nuts, man. Like, Dubus makes that move. And to get a guy with an $11.5 million cap hit and somehow lose $3 million on the overall cap is like, that was a monster trade. And, you know, people talk about how Pittsburgh was struggling defensively last year, adding Carlson's not exactly adding Zadano Char to your team. but end of the day they're better now and you've got a weapon on the blue line so it's a it's a huge

statement coming in he's been the gym for what two months yeah so when you do that's that's fucking great and you can you can you i think you can find guys too that can help like you got brian duman who's you know one of the best shutdown guys uh you can bring guys in that can do that role you look at last year even with with florida what they did they brought in mark stall for a year who was a guy he expected to play 12, 15 minutes a night and was playing 23 minutes a night, shutting other teams top lines down. So I think you can bring in a guy like him,

a guy like Rocco Gutus, like there were guys around the league, but there hasn't been a guy who's got 100 points since 1994 or 93 when Leachie did it. So to be able to do that and save money, whatever you want to say is pretty remarkable. And I'm sure there were 31 other teams. trying to do it. Absolutely, dude.

Yeah. And you just brought up the Panthers. Was there, what was that like kind of watching them go on their crazy run this year? We do having so many boys on the team and have just played with those guys. What kind of emotions were you feeling there? It was unbelievable. And especially being in Florida and knowing, you know, because it's not that hockey market where everyone's fully invested all year, but to see the hype around the city and to see

the, you know, people come out of the woodwork, which, you know, in, in Florida, it's, it's 80 degrees all year. You can, you know, there are other things to do rather than go to a hockey game, right? If you're in Minnesota, the warmest place in the entire state is probably the rank. So it's like people are going to go to the rank. But if you're in Florida, like the buzz that they had going in and the heat were in the finals too. So like, all teams just kept going, kept going, both eight seeds, you know, beaten one seeds. No one gave them a chance to and to see what they did, to see, you know, what looked like just like,

just like a full team chemistry guys bought into each other. And I give a lot of credit to Matthew Kachuk, you know, what he's done for that team. Obviously, Eckblad, Goudas, guys that have been there for Haggy. But they just had guys stepping up Montau, who we talked about earlier. It's just, it's just one of those things that they were so good at the right time. And Bob finding his game, you know, when he needed to, it was awesome. and I hope he can continue that this year, especially because, you know,

playing with him and being down there, you know how hard he works, and I think he deserves what he got in playoffs. So hopefully they can do it again next year. Obviously, it's a different task, different year. But, yeah, if they just stayed healthy a little bit longer, I mean, obviously Vegas was a weapon. They were unbelievable.

But I think, you know, if they can stay healthy next year and put in that type of effort. I remember saying it before the playoffs start. I'm like, these guys have been playing playoffs hockey for the last two months, just trying to get in. Like, they're not going to be an easy out. And then everything, you know, they're playing the Bruins just had the greatest season of all time, but they didn't have any adversity all year.

So it's like, I think just the chips fell into their pocket and they ran with it. They didn't, they weren't given anything. But, yeah, they were amazing. and I think it's going to really help the hockey down there now that they have the new rink going downtown, the practice rank. Hopefully a game rink comes soon down there. I think that would change it a lot. But it also shows guys around the league, you know, everyone's going to want to play there. Obviously, the weather, the taxes, the lifestyle.

It's an amazing place to play. But I think even more so now, especially from what they did last year, it's going to help them. They get to play golf of you. You're down there. Yeah, take them whatever they want. Dude, part of the pitch. Yeah, but for real, we had the same thought with Beast fans, obviously, and it was like, that was the one team I didn't want to see in the first round.

I was like, please not the Panthers. And then bang. Do you have any, you know, dark horse teams that you're looking at this year that you think might make a run? This year, I think, I don't even know if it's that big of a dark horse, but I think jerseys and saw Tommy Fitz at their GM at Kevin's wedding, I think that they're going to be a wagon this year. And I was on them a little bit this year when they were on their run. But I forgot Tommy was their GM.

And now that they have, who did they bring in? So they signed, what's his name, Maya, right? He re-signed. And then they also traded for Toff. They got to Foley now playing on. Yeah, to Foley. That's a huge ad. Huge ad, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And just as quietly too Like the way Dougie Hamilton play Like I think that they're so deep If they can get the goal tending I think they're going to be a scary team Um Dude for sure And also like Schmead is like

He came in in the playoffs And he won that Ranger series for them And if he all of a sudden steps into that first role And is like no I am this good I this past weekend I said that they are my surprise Someone said like you're way too early to call a pick for the cup and I was like, I think it's the devils.

Like, they are, they are a wagon. So they're only getting better, too. They're so young. It's crazy. I think the way Tommy fits, like, he'll load up at the deadline if he has to. He's not afraid to do it. I think the way that the GMs nowadays are, none of them are afraid to make a deal.

Like, it's everyone wants to win, whether it's, you know, one year from now or this year, like all these teams, everyone wants to win. There's no more just happy to be, you. making the playoffs and stuff like that. For sure. Dude, I had just a quick one, like, you know, hearing about, you know, naming all these teams, hearing about you playing in Florida.

Was there ever a part for you towards, you know, those last, we'll call it, five, six years of your career where you wanted to go to Boston or thought you might be going to Boston? Because, you know, as Bruins fans and being in the area, I feel like every trade deadline, the last six years of your career, your name was brought up. And obviously, being a Boston boy, it was like so many fans were frothing at the mouth for that reality.

So I'm curious what it was like on your end. Yeah, it seemed that I think you're 100% right. It seemed like the last six years it was every year. But I think the main one too, or one of the main ones, the year I got traded to New York. Yes, dude. That was that. That was kind of the first one where it was like,

I think it came down to either Boston or New York. And looking back, I'm happy it was New York. Our team was unbelievable that year. But even my last year, when I signed in Philly, I was going to sign in Boston. And it was, it literally was a coin flip. I talked to the people that matter to me, my brother, my dad, my wife. They wanted me to play in Boston. But looking back, I'm happy I signed in Philly just because, you know,

what happened with Hazy's brother and being able to live with Kevin that year, I think, you know, I think someone, someone upstairs told me to sign there as opposed to signing with the Bruins. And so definitely no regrets on any of that. But I think, yeah, it would have been cool, but it would have been a lot. Like, my dad's got a million friends. My brother's got a million friends. So much family. Like, you know, you have a bad game.

You go into the grocery store. Like, someone's saying something to you. So I think it would have been a little bit more of headaches than it would have been, you know, not a headache. So I think for me it was, I wish I had, but also, you know, you can't dwell on it that I did. Yeah. Dude, it makes sense. Well, not to mention, you would have had a fucking thousand people asking you for tickets every single game.

Would have played for free. You know, you always think of that glorious side of going playing at home, but you never think of the logistic nightmare. I also love Jans. It's like, so I asked the people who matter to me. They all said Boston. So I said, I'm going to feel like. See you later.

So I listened to none of them. They were like, perfect. Thank you. I'm going to Philly. How are you? That's so good. Oh, okay. So I want to talk a little bit about, oh, actually, before I do that, I really wanted

to actually settle one debate for us because we did this funny blind rankings of goalies in the league right now, current NHL goalies. And I almost don't even want to paint it for you, but I have otter super high. And I was getting dogged for it. But I know you were on PMT, a month or two ago, whatever, and you were saying some really nice things about Otter. So can you give us, you know, top three, top five, whatever you think, current NHL goalies right now? He's definitely my top three in no order. I mean, you've got to go Vasilevsky. I think just what he's done, just so my thing as a Dman who didn't like to get

hit, I like the goalies that can play the puck a little bit. Yeah. I've been Mike Smith, I think, saved my career by about four or five years. So I do like a goalie that can come out more. play it. But yeah, for me, it would go Fasilefsky, I'm putting Ottinger, Ottinger, and Shisterkin. Okay. I was wondering if Shest he was going to crack the top three. I was wondering if Sorokin would, because I'm a big Sorokin. No, I hate the Islanders. I play for the ring. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. That's very fair. That's very fair. Okay, so, dude, we had mentioned a camera before we were recording yet. We had mentioned earlier the Athletic did that great article on you a couple years ago of you being the greatest teammate ever and the funniest guy in the league

and i heard the big cat and pft boys tell you told them you hadn't read it you're like i've never read it and you were like i might read it after this episode so my first question is did you read it i didn't still know for it to come on an audiobook you know what maybe we'll record it we'll find a recording other for you reading it you guys read it too yeah we'll read it too uh so well it's great it's an awesome article everybody loves it everyone you've ever played with loves you but dude, we were reading and we got to thinking, now that you're out of the league, who is the funniest guy in the NHL now, in your opinion? So I think the obvious answer for me would be Kevin Hayes, but I'm going to throw one out

there that you guys probably wouldn't expect, and it's Mark Pissick. Wow. Go on. The funniest fucking guy ever. Dryest sense of humor will give it to anybody. If someone messes up, you cannot mess up around. this guy. Like, even if a coach messes up someone's name, like, just the way he delivers it is so good. Yeah, I made, I made the trainers put me next to him every single road trip and at home just

because during a game, like, you know, someone would be taping that. Like, just his one-liners were so funny to me. I would put him as my, as my want. If I couldn't put Hazy, the obvious answer for me, I'm going with Pisser. He's a laugh-out-loud funny. And, and, and, one of the best teammates ever to. You gotta love an unexpected funny guy. Those are the ones that hit me the hardest. So that actually checks out.

That's so funny. And where, like I said, the article, you know, is you're the best teammate. So you don't have to name, you know, you don't have to pick one because it's impossible. But can you tell us, you know, three, whatever,

some of the best teammates you've ever played with? Because, you know, they're all picking you. But what about the other way? So my number one is Shane Don, just because what he did for me in my career, coming into Phoenix as a young kid,

18, 19 years old. And goes back to the hockey culture is Keith Kichuk is, so Keith Kachuk's dad worked with my grandfather on Boston Fire. So I had a little bit of a connection,

didn't know him that well, just, you know, kind of family friends, knew his brother, Kevin Kichuk, but Keith Kichuk called donor. He was like, hey, you got to look out for,

you call him Boston cousins. Like, you know, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You call it a cousin. He's like, you got to look out for my cousin, whatever. Takes care of me. He let me live in his house. Keith did, right?

Donor from day one with, yeah, Keith Kachuk let me. So I stayed in Big Walt's Place my first year in Phoenix. But donor from the first day, I'll never forget. He skates up to me. We're in line. I could tell he was like looking for someone. I was just like standing in line, just horrified for him to even see me. And he's like, you're Keith Yandle, right?

I'm like, yeah. He's like, what's your nickname? I'm like, you can call me whatever. It doesn't really matter. He's like, no, he's like, what do they call you? And I was like, oh, my uncles call me jelly. He was like, all right, I'll call you jelly. Three years later, he's still, like, the only guy in the NHL calls me jelly.

Just my uncles call me that. And, like, every time I see him, he's still like, jelly man, jelly man, like, just the way my uncles do. But he's, yeah, he's definitely the guy I owe the most to. If I didn't have him as a captain, I was actually. just in the car with my wife talking about donor and what he meant to me in my career. And if I didn't have him my first year, and I would have been out of the league first year, gone. It just wasn't dialed in off the ice, you know, trying to live the party life a little bit too much. You know, he helped me on the summertime.

I went out and lived out in Arizona to work out with him and to be around just to kind of learn from, you know, one of the greats. but he took the time and the effort because it was a lot of effort and you know some nights where he was dragging me out of the bar or whatever it was but uh yeah definitely owe a ton to him so i would put him put him up with a lot of those guys there especially my first year him Derek Morris Derek Morris was a guy he drove me to the rink every day uh I didn't pay for one thing for probably five years with him just every dinner but yeah those old guys Jovo, Mo, Ken Clee, Keith Bauer. Like, those guys, they just included me because there wasn't a lot of young guys in the league.

And there's a lot of off time. And Adrian Koyne, another one, he's probably my number two or three. Like, those guys meant so much for me, whether it was just inviting me over for dinner to, you know, be around their kids. And that's why everyone always asked me, like, how did you get married so young? a kid because, you know, my kids are 12 and 10, and they're like, you know, you're young in the league, like, getting married. I'm like, if I didn't get married, I would have been out of the league. Like, but you go to these guys' houses and you're eating dinner with them, you're playing

mini hockey with the kids. And now you see them like, Adrian O'Coyne's kids drafted, you know, Shane Donne's son's drafted. And, like, I got to play mini hockey with these kids and, like, you get to see them. And now I hopefully get to watch them playing the NHL for the next 20 years. and yeah just just what those guys meant to me was a lot and then in you know new york guys like rick nash dan boyle ryan mcdunna like just guys that are so good to you and you know you're going to a new team i hadn't i'd never been on a new team and the way that those guys helped me out and just get acclimated to new york which is a scary place if you've never played there there's

so much to do and um you know just just helping me out showing me around the city you know hazy is well but yeah definitely donors the number one um sorry to anyone else but no one didn't like that from him don't that first summer donors like uh yens we're going to do a workout it's four hours yens like yep i just got hit the pay phone real quick uh mom got him get me the fuck out of no man i i i love stories like that because i don't think enough fans realize you know when you think about it obviously the transition from wherever you're coming from to playing in the national is insane but when you hear stories like

that, you really get the full flavor of how wild it can be and how difficult that adjustment period is. And it's awesome when you hear stories like this about some of those old vets who take the time to take a young player under their wing, show them the ropes, make sure they get through that first transition period. It's like you think about how many careers are saved by people like that. And then also how many careers you saved doing it, I'm sure, on all these different teams you played for are just showing guys how it's done. It's like, that's why the league is the best league in the world and my hockey players are the best people in the world and it's just like truly so awesome to hear so yeah it's just passing the buck down to somebody else and um you know you

never want the you know someone you never want someone to not be included or anything like that and you know i learned i learned that from those guys and i think one of my greatest prize was never never doing a room service on the road um you know i think in you know when you're young like you're you're you're getting off the bus you're just waiting like is someone going to invite me because it's before the group chats and all that stuff. So you kind of just like... Great point. Waiting for the nudge.

Like, hey, lobby at 7. So, like, anytime getting off the bus and you're always the last guy off the bus and never forget, like, Joe Bo, one of the first trips, like, hits me. He's like, hey, dinner at 7, like, in dollars going to Noble. I'm like, oh, shit, I can't afford this. But these guys are, like, paying for everything. Just so good to you. And you know guys are going to do that until the end of time.

And it's just the way that the league should be. And I don't think it's like that in many other leagues. And that's why I think the NHL is the best. Yeah, it's the best. Dude, before we get you into our final game we do here, I got to ask you a question about you are notorious for your pranks in the league. And like I think, you know, as well as funniest guy in the league, best teammate, I think you are the prank Sinatra of the NHL in the past.

And I need to know this golf ball thing. thing you just did with Quinn or recently. When that got set up, did you think he was going to fall for it? Because watching it, I can't fucking believe that Quinn thought that was actually a ball. That he exploded a golf ball. So like, I need to know what was going through your head. So we would just do it and I'd be like, all right, hit one more and I'd set it up for them. Because if you feel that ball, everyone's seen that ball before.

Yeah, yeah. Everyone knows what it feels like. Except for Quinn, apparently. That's what I'm saying. So I was like, all right, I'll put them down for the guys. I'm like, all right, do it quick. we need one more good one out of use and I would just put it down and then they'd hit away. He wasn't the first one to go.

Like a bunch of guys had already done it. And I was just like, hey, don't tell anyone, you know. Yeah. When he hit it and he's like, oh my God, dude, I broke it. I'm like, I know you broke it. He's like, that's got to be the longest one. He's like, I've never seen somebody break a ball. So I don't think he had ever seen that before.

Obviously, he's got better friends than me where they're not pranking people on the golf course. So, yeah, it was a big surprise for me. that someone didn't know what that was. Okay, because I was looking at your reaction, and I was like, I think Yans is legitimately like, wait, does Quinn not know what just happened? Because, like, his reaction was so funny. But, dude, you kept your composure that, like,

you made the video because you didn't. I just wanted to convince him that he actually did it and, like, to leave the room, be like, holy shit, I broke a golf. Yeah. I can't believe you had that in your back. I would have been like, Quinn, what the fuck are you talking about, dude?

But you were like, yeah, buddy, that's 320, probably. Right down the pipe. It's so insane, dude. I know you've shared some, but do you have any pranks throughout your career that you're like, that's the best one I've ever done? Or any that went bad, by the way. None went back because nothing was like malicious or mean or nothing. A good one was, I think it was my first year in New York.

And when we lost, it was like you do the exit meetings with the GMs and you get there. And it's usually by like, you know, games played, whoever gets to go in. And I walk in and like Rick Nash is waiting there. I'm like, who are you waiting for? He's like J.T. Miller. I'm like, Millsy's in there. And I love Millsy. He's one of my best friends.

Like, Millsy's the best. Yeah. I'm like, Millsy's in there right now? He's like, yeah. So I went in, grabbed his car, drove it and put it on the highway. And then Daisy came and grabbed me and dropped me off.

So Millsy gets back. He was like, dude, I'm in a rush. I got to get back to Pittsburgh. Whatever happened. So he was just going to drive home right after, but wanting to hit the road. So then he needed about, you know, 35 minutes to call triple A to find him.

know where his car was. So kind of backfire. Get the call the low jack. Dude, you're like, oh shit, nobody telling. Exactly. That was a good. Oh, shit.

What did Millsy do when he found out what you did? Was he just like, fucking a, land? What are you doing to me, and every time you just go, you're an idiot. You're an idiot.

Yeah. Yeah. But another good one in New York, me, me, hazy and Kristen, my wife, we dressed up as,

as autograph seekers for Halloween. outside and like made the booklets everyone got everyone to sign no one knew it was even us so we got every single guy and then we came in after that was a pretty good i mean that wasn't really a prank as much as a Halloween as a Halloween yeah but that's awesome that's a great bit though yeah anytime you're doing something I heard no one knows who you are I forget the guy's name but don't or told me some good ones which I never would have done because it's just a pain but a guy would go to a barber shop get all the hair put vans Vaseline on guys' windows and then just put all the hair on the guy's car windshield. And to get that off is, and then you put the windshield wipers on, it makes it even worse. So I never really did anything too bad that way. I never like took guys shoes. I remember guys used to take guys shoes or cut guys pants.

I never like damaged anyone's goods or anything. I was just kind of, I was more like getting guys, you know, to bite on something, if that makes sense. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, those are the best ones. It's unbelievable. Dude, now that you're not in the league and with the boys in the locker room, how do you really scratch this prank itch? Like, are you pranking the kids now?

Like, we got a fucking pop quiz Tuesday. Every day, yeah. Yeah, like, what kind of business are you giving the family at home? I torture them. I torture my kids. Actually, I got Brian Dumlin at Hasey's wedding. One of the priests that had did the Russian wedding, you know, obviously dressed up as a priest,

but he kind of looked like Mr. Hayes, you know, a little bit. So Dumo was like, because he didn't talk at the wedding this week. Right. He just walked behind Dumont and was like, who is that? And I was like, oh, that's Mr. Hayes' brother. Which obviously it's not. Like he does. Yeah, he's a Russian priest.

I like those type of like lie pranks, you know. And then he's like, oh, me too, dude. And then like 30 minutes later he came up to me. He's like, I was like, hey, I was just kidding. That wasn't missing. He was like, I told my wife, dude. Why would you say that? You look up and Dummelin's like shaking his hand.

Like, congratulations. Such a beautiful day. Those are my favorite type of one. Okay, yeah. So, Yens, this is the last, we'll let you go with this. So that we play this game with everybody. It's called pass, shoot, score. And it's just a ranking system, right?

So we're going to give you three things in a couple different topics, and you rank them pass, shoot, score. Pass is your least favorite because, you know, pass and the puck is cool, but we'd rather like the lamp. Yeah, actually, maybe we've reversed it for Yance. I'm open to that, actually. Score is the worst for you, specifically. Shoot is still second and pass is first.

The Yan's special pass-shoots score. Okay? All right, here's your first one. We're going foods. We're going Boston foods for your first one. All right. So pass-shoots score, North Shore beef three-way from anywhere you want. Cup of clam chowder.

I'd say barking crab, but you can pick anywhere you want. Or an Italian sub at Monicas. I'm going the roast beef on the score. That's the word. is last. I've never had one. I hate you. You've never had a beef?

Never. I hate roast beef. So white trash. Wait, how do you know you hate it? You tried it and you hated it, right? But wait. So one of my aunts on my mom's side who can't cook, she used to, every time I was over that house, she made roast beef.

And there was like, I hated it. I hated going over there for it. Give me the chicken salad. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Hold on. Do you like prime rib?

I hate it. Oh, wow. Okay, so I was going to say, we need to get him into good North Shore beef, but he actually might hate it. Okay. No, I hate it. All right. All right. Passing North Shore.

No, scoring. Yeah, because that's worse. Yeah. Okay. Clam Chowder. I'm going with shoot. Okay. And an Italian sub, Monicas wouldn't be my number one, but an Italian sub in Boston would be my name.

Where's your one? This place called two, two Italianos. Dude, that place is fucking unbelievable. Insane. I went there last summer and it is so good. Oh, my God. I can't believe that's your one. I was actually just in the north end this morning or this afternoon before this afternoon before this.

And it took everything in my soul not to get a Italian sub. I can't believe you didn't do. That's some willpower. No, we ate at Giacomo's, but I wanted to get one after. Sick. Yeah. A bang, bang. Here's your next one.

This one's kind of bittersweet for us because they all. are fucking shit memories. Pass you'd score if you could get any of these back and reverse it into a win. First, giant Super Bowl loss, second Giant Super Bowl loss, Eagle's Super Bowl loss. I'm going to go with the helmet catch is my one. Yep. Because that was the year they were undefeated, right? 18. 19.0, exactly.

Yeah, that's my number one. That one was brutal. The Eagles won second. just because yeah that was off that such a winnable game dude yans that one was awful like brady threw for 600 yards

and played a perfect game in our defense like billiuchick just decided to bench malcolm butler and just let our defense get rung up the entire game is insane and then what was the third one the other giants one yeah the second giants one yeah that's the last one yeah but to make up for all those ones

I was at the one that they beat Atlanta. You were at that game. Fuck, yeah. He was during all-star break. Me and Thorntie, me and Sean Thornton got a plane and went to it. It was, he wanted to leave at halftime. I was right about to ask if you lost faith. Credit to you.

Yeah, fucking Walberg left. I mean, credit to you for sticking through it. We ran into Donnie Walberg, his brother. And Forty was like, where's Mark? He was like, he left at halftime. They wouldn't let him back in. I was like, yes. Yeah, yeah.

You got to pay the pipe. How did you feel, though, dude? Like, when it went 283, you were like we're dead. Oh yeah. I'm like let's at least stay. Like there's nothing else. We were going like there was a convention center party after.

I'm like we're not going anywhere far. Let's just stay there. Yeah. And then when they won, oh my God. It was big best. We had an absolute night. Just an all time feeling, bro.

That was so insane. We were high-fired. You know how strong and big authority is. He was, we were high-fiving like we were on the team and I thought he broke my hand. He's going to dislocate your shoulder. Yeah. Well, here I got a follow-up question for you.

When Tom left, because you know, you were down in Florida, so like Tom comes down to the Bucks, and I know you've been asked this and you kind of were like, like most of us were, you're like, you know, I'm not a Bucks fan. Now I'm bummed Tom left. But I think I heard you would say I'm not going to watch many Bucks games. But my question is when he's in the bowl that year against Paddy Mahomes, were you rooting for him or what? 100%. Yeah, dude, I was just as dialed for that one.

Like, I was so fired up. You also got to think of how many good memories he gave. Like I remember exactly where I was the first one that they won in, what was it, 2001. 01, yeah. Oh, one at my buddy Anthony Levita's house, running around the street, shirts off in whatever, freshman year high school. So like just all the memories that he brought us. And so we worked out in Foxborough with a bunch of those guys, never with Tom or anything,

but with a bunch of the guys like David Andrews, the center of the team. So I think just the amount of joy the Patriots have brought, you know, me, because when you're a hockey player, like, you know, there's Sundays usually your day off. Yeah. And, you know, the Patriots are on and you're just stapled to that coach watching the game. And you're fully in, like, it was a 15-year period. I could name every single guy in the team. 100%.

Yeah, dude. Same. So it's, yeah, you obviously never root against the paths. and I think our dark dark, dark days are coming with the, with them not being as good, but you can't complain when you have, you know, 20 years of, worth it. Worth every second, dude. Yeah, dude. One thing that always pissed me off, Yans, was that every Brady bowl we got in New England

was always the most stressful game of all time. And then he gets his bowl in Tampa and they absolutely beat the shit out of Casey. And I was like, yeah, can we get one easy one, man? Come on. Yeah. It's brutal. instead of like the Seattle one where they have to make an interception on the one-yard line. Grind think you're going to lose.

So, yeah, they found a way to do it, though. That's why he's the best. Yeah, fucking right. Okay, next pass shoot score. TV shows. Love is blind. Teen mom, family feud. I'm going to go family feud as my score.

Really? Wait. Okay, okay. But you know that's third. Yep. Okay. That's third, yeah, but I do love it. I think Steve Harvey is so funny.

It's insane. Yeah, it's so true. Love is blind is my past. It's a great show. Okay, wait, all right, sorry, sorry, go on, go on. And teen mom is my pass. Oh, wait, teen mom is one. Team mom is one.

Dude, all right, this is my fault. How in the world do you like team mom? Dan, Dan almost didn't let me put team on the list. like, do not ask teen mom. He doesn't like that much. I was like, I think he does. Let me say this. I'm with you.

I fucking love trash TV like this. It's so fun. But how is teen mom won? I loved it. The first two seasons, like, it's good. I mean,

Jersey Shore is probably my all-time favorite show. Yeah. But teen moms is not far behind. My wife will come in the room and literally just shakes her head and leaves when I'm watching that stuff. What are you watching? You're a loser.

Are you? You're just like captivated by how insane these people are? It just makes me feel better about myself. Yeah. Yeah. I get that. Listen, I get that so much. She's like, what you?

She's like, it's rotting your brain. I'm like, but it's shutting my brain off. I don't have to think about anything. I can just watch people act wild. Like the low deck I love. Oh, yeah. That's a good one. Do you watch Love Island?

I do. I watch them all. Yeah. Every single trash show. Love Island is my current obsession because I, it makes me feel better about myself. I also just love the British element of like these people say and do the most preposterous things I've ever seen. They're crazy. It's pure entertainment.

I love it. Is there is what's one, do you have a favorite right now that's on right now? That's, I'd probably say, um, of those type of shows, Vanderpump rules, but just ended. I'd say Vanderpump was probably my favorite the last couple years. There was so much drama and so much shit going on in that. He could be talking about. succession, you know, like I could say we're talking about succession and Keith could be saying the same thing. So much drama. I've never even seen an episode of succession. Why would you when

you've got all these great shows? You got teen home one through eight. Yeah. Dude, also we were joking about like trying to come up with a song segment for you, like a whole segment of songking. And I was like, you know what would be sick? I think family feud could add a sock button. Like, because you get some ridiculous answers in there, you know, and they're scrambling. And I just think if Steve Harvey had access to a quick song, that might hit people pretty hard. It would be beautiful. I like that. Something to think about.

All right, dude, here's your last one. You actually mentioned it earlier, how you've never got room service and you're a big, you know, go out to dinner and team activities guy. So pass shoot's score on three of some of the coolest activities that you've done getting the boys into. hitting a comedy show, seeing Book of Mormon, and team mini golf. Ooh. I'm going to go,

oh man, those are tough, three tough ones. Those are the toughest ones so far. I'm going to go, oh, God. I'm going to put mini golf at last, even though I loved it and we went. There was a time in Florida that we went

every single road trip everywhere. And then I kind of got sick of it a little bit, but I'll put that one last as my score. I'm going to put, is it just Book of Mormons or any Broadway? Any Broadway. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, let's go any Broadway. I'm going to go, what was it, Broadway and what? Comedy shows.

I'm going to go comedy shows as my shoot and Broadway is my pass, my nice. I love that. I love that. Just saw Book of Mormon for the first time. Fantastic. Yeah, dude, it came out here. I missed it early. Just saw it. And you'd seen it forever ago, right?

Yeah. I've seen it three times. Tremendous experience. Tremendous. We saw it an original cast that was unbelievable. With the owner, too. Yeah, that was unbelievable. My favorite one, one of my favorite ones,

School of Rock, you know, the movie School of Rock? Yeah. How good is that? So good. Yeah, yeah. Incredible. Dude, I love, you know, it's funny. I, you know, reading this, obviously you'd seen Book of Mormon.

I was like, that's great. And my follow-up was going to be, are you a Broadway guy? And I'm loving hearing that you're a Broadway guy. I saw every single one of them in New York. Did you ever see, oh, hello, the Nick Kroll, John Mullaney one? No, I don't think that was out when I was there, was it? Dude, it was, I don't think you were in New York when it was going. And it was very short-lived, but I think it might be on Netflix.

I was right about to say, it's on TV, yeah. It's so funny. Those two are just absolute clowns up there. Um, that's fucking great stuff. Well, dude, uh, we've taken up plenty of your time here. There's been an absolute blast before we let you go. Uh, is there anything you want to shout out, anything you want to plug or talk about? Not much.

I, it's maybe the only thing. Me and my brother did our hockey camp this year, first one ever, um, first time we've ever done anything together. We did a camp in Nantucket with, uh, young kids. I think it was like seven to seven to 12 and then 13 to 16. Um, we've glugged camp in Nantucket. And we didn't all fish. just going to be a one done thing. We didn't know how we were going to like it, but loved it. Like just being able to do something with my brother like that, get back. And just to see how

excited the kids get when like He'sy came over. Like you get an NHL guys come in and hanging out. And I think ultimately just having a week and, you know, because, you know, my brother's a cop, he's busy. And I think having a week where we were able to spend it together with our families and just hang out and, you know, be on the ice, which is, you know, both of our. original loves, I guess, you'd say is, that was pretty special to me. So, yeah, just our hockey camp maybe, Y3K, hockey camp, check it out. That's amazing. Yeah, so we're going to do it next year as well? Yeah, yeah, we're 100% doing it next year.

We might even do one in Florida and then do one in Boston, too. I just don't know if that's going to be next year or the following. That's amazing. I love that. Also, I feel like you've got to say happy birthday on the air to Nisen. Whose birthday is it actually that you got coming up tonight? It's my sister's twins, Maeve and Owen.

They're four years old, so happy birthday, Maven Owen. There you go. Dude, I'm actually, I'm pumped that you brought that up because when you said you have your niece and nephew's birthday party,

I was like, do you have a niece and nephew that are coincidentally born on the same day? Or is this like what's going on? Twins. Twins. Yeah. Twins makes sense. I love it.

Beautiful. Yeah. So it'll be a fun night. Hell yeah, dude. All right. Well, Jans, thanks again. This was an absolute.

last dude you're the best for coming on we appreciate it yeah no i appreciate it uh thanks for having me and keep up the good work boys you know it you know it man you know it man