Empty Netters Podcast - 9. Matt Duchene Is An Astronaut

Episode Date: December 15, 2022

00:00 Intro 03:43 Chara is a big fat liar 15:00 MATT DUCHENE INTERVIEW 20:16 Where Duchene would have played college puck 20:28 Telling Joe Sakic you want a trade 42:06 Whippy sticks are better sticks 50:00 Winning a gold medal 54:50 Duchy's obsessed with 9 57:57 It's hard as hell to score 300 goals 1:03:09 Pass Shoot Score   GET 15% OFF YOUR FIRST ONLINE ORDER AT https://www.siphecho.com/ WITH PROMO CODE "NETTERS" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before we get into this unbelievable episode of the Empty Netters podcast, we are going to hear from our presenting sponsor, ECHO Tequila. Not only is EchO Tequila my favorite canned cocktail in the world right now, they're also my favorite people in the world. We just spent the weekend in Nashville. We did a bunch of awesome things, which we'll get into, which is why this episode is so special. But we hung out with the ECHO team.

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I've got news for those people out there who aren't sure about tequila. Have an etcho tequila soda. You will be sure from now on. It is going to deliver every single night, night in, night out, on the ice, off the ice. Ech-Tacil-Tacola soda is what you need. So to get it, go to sip etcho.com, S-I-P-H-E-C-H-O.com. Figure out where the closest store is to you using their store locator. you'll be able to drive right down, grab that stuff, toss them some ice habit in your house.

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It's a, I would say it's a top five pick episode. Oh, easily, dude. Easily. So, guys, today on the episode, we are joined by Matt Dushane, star for the Nashville Predators, third overall pick, two-time NHL All-Star, three-time 60-plus point score in the NFL. You'll hear that all when we introduce it. Yeah, yeah. We're buzzing. to Nashville this past weekend, hung out with Dutchie the whole time. He is a absolute stud,

had a huge game, having a huge year, and he was just unreal on the show. He's a beauty man, class act on and off the ice. First guest couldn't have picked a better one. It's just truly remarkable. The guy just hung out the whole time. Couldn't have been funnier. He couldn't have been cooler. Just can't say enough good things about him. So let's get into some quick stuff before we get into this Dutchie interview because we got to give the people what they want. We got to talk about the happenings in the NHL. What's going to? on, do you have any hot ice? Because I've got one thing that I want to talk about. Yeah. I think it's, what I really love about this hot ice is it's hot goss, too. You don't really

get hot goss in the NHL. And we've got some hot goss today. Let's get into the major hot ice, and then we can move on. We've got a little bit of he said, he said, situation's going on here. So recently in an interview, Zedano Chara mentioned, Big Zee, talking about the 2011 Bruin Stanley Cup, said that they got some extra motivation because was it he said going into game seven no dude so i i rewatched the podcast clip he said it happened at the garden so that means it must have been game six or so okay oh that yeah there you go so he's he said that at some point in the series most likely game six they saw the vancouver canucks players miming grabbing the cup seemingly looking like they were getting prepared to win and then what

they were going to do when they won the cup how they were going to hand it off to each other and charr said that they used that as extra motive going in to win that game and then ultimately going back to Vancouver to win game seven and win the Stanley Cup. Kevin BXA on live TV. Well, on everything and then on hockey night in Canada last night. Yeah, yes. He goes, sounds off. It was like, that is not true at all. We didn't do that. We would never do that. I have no idea what he's talking about. And then he goes on hockey night in Canada last night, Sunday night, and talks all about it. And I will say makes a good point. He was like, someone would have seen that. Yes. If we were all doing that,

someone would have filmed that some ice crew member someone at the arena another player on the team would have seen that filmed it talked about it it doesn't make sense that over 10 years later this is finally coming out and no one has ever mentioned it which is a pretty good there fair point but this is this is this is this is this true is this not true is bexa misremembering maybe he wasn't a part of it maybe he was in the locker room who knows but this is some sexy gossip In the NHL world. Dude, so a couple things. Chara also went on to say that they heard, you know, from Guard and staff or whatever,

that the Canucks were asking questions like how many family members are allowed on the ice after. And this reminds me so much of the, there's always a Super Bowl team that's like, they had the parade route planned. Yeah. And I'm like, they already made the shirts. They made the hats, you know. And I'm like, yeah, they have to. It's a massive city.

You have to figure out where the parade route is. yes, of course, when they were a game from the Cup, somebody was asking how many family members are allowed. That's not a question you can ask once you've won. And they're scrambling, getting aunts and uncles down there. So I love that teams use this, but that made me laugh because he's like, they were asking logistical questions. And I'm like, yeah.

Whatever. So, Dan, Biaza said some stuff that you brought up his best argument. He also said some stuff that was like, his biggest emotion was disappointment. Chara is disappointing me because he's disrespecting our organization and our leadership. First Ballot Hall of Famers, the Sadeen brothers, Luongo. They would never let that happen because it's ridiculous behavior. And Chara, even insinuating that happened is disrespectful to those guys. And I was kind of like, yeah, if it was a literal drill at practice, so they were like,

okay, whistle everyone in the corner, now let's begin. But like maybe one dude was getting a water just like mimed the cuplifting motion. Some guard and staffer saw it, told them. Like I don't think this happened. Genuinely, that's my take. This didn't happen. and you can weigh into. But I wouldn't be shocked if someone was like, oh, it did,

but it was just like some dude went like this, and then they saw it, and Biazza was in the locker. I mean, whatever. This, to me, his first statements to me felt too defensive. Yeah. Felt like when you're bringing up stuff like the character of certain players, when, meanwhile, that was a pretty contentious series. You've got Alex Burroughs literally trying to bite Patrice Bergeron's finger off.

That's not debatable. That was happening. That was ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Marshand is table topping and flip. flipping people over his back. He's, you know, rockem, sock him roboting, Daniel Sadeen in the face. Or I can't remember if it was Henrik, whatever, either one of them. But this was a, there was bad blood in this series.

So let's not talk about the character of all the guys in the team. This was a great series. You guys hated each other. It was an unbelievable Stanley Cup Final that went to seven games. So that argument felt a little ridiculous to me. I completely stand by. His point of someone else would have seen this is a, good argument. But yeah, you do wonder

if what Char is saying is he saw two guys on the ice at one point talking about how they were going to pass the cup back and forth. That very well could have happened. But not great that... It does sound like Chara said it was the whole team going through this whole process. It almost certainly

wasn't that. Because to BX's point, you would expect someone at some point would have been like, yo, stop what the fuck you're doing. Because there are guys who are not about the pre-plan stuff. They're not about counting your chickens before they hatch. There's no way everyone in the Canucks would have been okay with that.

So there's no way that happened. Yeah. It is a, you wonder what levels of truth is the actual reality of this situation. Totally. Because that's, I guarantee Char saw or heard something. Well, that's the bad fact for Char I would say because in the interview, if you listen to again, he's like, the first time he says, he says he saw, we saw, and then he's like, we heard.

And then he's like, there were rumors. And I'm like, bro. Like, get your facts straight here. I'm sure Charra heard someone say something like that. And you never know. Someone could have made that up to give them false motivation. It's like Michael's secret stuff. Dude.

Someone in the B's organization could have come into the locker and been like, yo, we just saw those guys on the team pretending to pass around the cup. Don't let them beat you tonight. Dude, good on this exact thing down, Dan. Because my biggest takeaway from this whole saga, by far, dude, is BXA makes this comment. He said it last night on hockey night where he goes, because they brought up bulletin board material.

Was it bold and board material for the Bruins? And BXA was like, I find the concept of bullet and board material so stupid. You're in a final already. And what, you're like keeping some in the tank just in case someone says something mean about you to fire you up more. And I was like, dude, I disagree completely. Bolt and board material is the most real thing that's ever happened. And that series, sports are superstitious, dude. Horton's dumping garden ice on the Vancouver ice before game seven.

Whatever you need for that mental edge you take. And I honestly would have liked this take just as much if Char came out and was like, if he had said in his podcast, we heard this happened. I don't even know if it did or not. But it fucking fired us up and that's why we won. Then I'm like, you are completely in the right. This conversation makes perfect sense. And BXA, like, dude, bulletin board material is re on.

I agree. I am so on BX's side in this coming out pissing you off. Yeah, fact check it, whatever. Fact check it. Who knows if it's true or not or what level of truth. I do disagree. And bulletin board material isn't your. keeping stuff in the tank.

Bulletin board material is a reserve tank you didn't know you had. Exactly. You're already, you're ready to rock and then someone says, here's some shit that's been said about you guys, or here's some people who've been doubting you guys, and you just reach down into the doubt. It's like a mom lifting a bus off.

Yeah, dude. You don't realize you have that strength, but then something happens that makes you dig down even deeper than you think. And that bus made fun of her hair, and she was like, check this out, dude. I'm going to flip the shit over like a cup. So it is a really funny piece of gossip going on right now. that's got, you know, a bunch of unreal players just digging back into the annals of history

over 10 years ago to talk to you about it. Isn't that funny as we're on a podcast? Isn't that funny about podcast culture these days where it's like, this shit comes up now because they get these athletes, you know, on their own being comfortable or they've retired who gives a shit and you start hearing stories like this. It could be X. It was like, you would have heard about it. And I was like, well, this is Charles' first podcast, you know?

It's true. All right. Let's get into the quack attack. Let's get in and move on here. So we're going to talk about the quack attack. hottest teams of this past week. So Quack Attack is the three teams of this past week that we have deemed the hottest teams. Doesn't mean that we are saying that they're the three best teams in the league right now.

They are the three current hottest teams. And we've dubbed it the Quack Attack because, coincidentally, the Mighty Ducks have given us three movies with three Mighty Ducks teams. And we rank those teams. The third best team in the Mighty Ducks movies is going to be, understandably, the Eden Hall JV team. The second best team is going to be the District 5 Mighty Ducks, and the best team, without question, is the Junior Goodwill Games, Mighty Ducks.

So, that is our ranking. Let's get into the three hottest teams of this past week in the Quack Tech. CP. Who is the third hottest team? Well, I'll tell you this. Every now and then there's an honorable mention quack, and that team gets a bunch of quacks from us. And this week, the Toronto Maple Leaf set a three-in-o-week

with two shutouts against the Stars and the Kings. Really nice. They didn't quite make the third spot, but they're getting really hot. It's competitive out here in the quack attack. It didn't get in a third spot. Can we give the Toronto Maple Leafs some quacks really quick?

We sure can. Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack. Well done Toronto Maple Leafs. The number three team this week, the Eden Hall JV Ducks, is the New York Rangers. First appearance in the quack attack, I believe, Dan. Is that correct? I think so, too. I think so, too.

They had a three-in-o week with some good wins. They beat the Blues 6-4. They beat the Knights 5-1, and the edge the defending Stanley Cup champion in Colorado Avalanche 2-1 in a shootout. After a good, DART Dan, the rags faltered a little bit here. So it's nice to see them write the ship in some way. They're down to fifth in the metro, which is not where they thought they'd be.

But maybe a big trade coming for them soon. Maybe something's going to change. But I'm liking the way they're headed. I agree. The number two hottest team in the week of the quack attack, the District 5, Mighty Ducks, welcoming to the quack attack as well, the Washington Capitals. It's been a tough season for the Caps. Had a bunch of stuff going on with Darcy Kemper coming in net, starting hot,

then not being that great. of figuring it out, but Ovi's doing what he's doing. He's tucking all these goals. He's closing it on 800, which means he's closing on on Gordy House, 801 goals. This is just really, really cool stuff. They are, they're on a bit of a tear here. We thought that maybe they would miss the playoffs, but it's looking like they're getting it together. They've won four in a row. They beat the flames. They beat the Oilers recently, then the Flyers and the Cracken. And we've said the Cracken are a playoff. They're real good. So we've got a nice four and OV's empty netters, too. Yeah, it's really good.

Really appreciating this. Yeah, it's just good for the brand. Great for the brand. Great for Ovi. Yeah. Okay, the number one team, the junior goodwill games, Mighty Ducks, is the Pittsburgh Penguins. Yeah, they're figuring it out. Another hot start, rough, middle, hot again team after a three-and-o week with wins against the blue jackets

and then back-to-backs against your boys, the Buffalo Sabres, which we'll talk about in a second, sorry to say. They added wins against Vegas and the Blues for a five-and-o run here. This last dance is turning back into that EDM-DM bop that we wanted this whole time. It is. Sid has 38 points in 28 games. He's a sick, sick individual. Yeah, it's amazing that Sid is in the MVP conversation. He's just playing out of his mind.

He had that keeps the puck in on the board from his knees, throws a pass across the blue line. He's just playing great. Literally two-pad jammer into backhand sauce from your knees. Are you kidding me? It's amazing. So that is the quack attack. That's our top three hottest teams of the week.

And now let's get into this Matthew Shane interview. Guys, we shot this in Nashville at the Almost Friday Sporting Club. In a bar, you're going to hear a little bit of ambient noise. We were in a crowded bar, but it sounds great because Matthew Shane is great. It's an absolute blast. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Let's get into it. All right.

Well, the Empty Netters podcast is thrilled to welcome. Two-time All-Star Olympic Gold Medalist, Halliburton Native, three-time 60-plus points score, including 86 points last season, career high. Unbelievable stuff. Matthew Shane, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me, boys. Unbelievable stuff here. Here's what I need to talk about.

Dan and I were getting ready for this, and I was like, what do we wear? Like, do we wear our, like, empty netters shirts? It's like, Dan's like, I'm just going to pop a flannel on, whatever. I'm like, yeah, I think we play it cool. We look cool. And then Dutchie walks in, dapped up in the nicest suit I've ever seen. He's got a T-shirt. He's got a car heart suit on.

I'm humiliating. It's like the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life. And like I said to you, I should have known. He was coming right after the game. I should have known, and we should have dressed up a little bit. But, I mean, I think it's better that you're stunting on us right now. Frankly, it makes more sense. Oh, I appreciate it.

Yeah, I mean, I put some product in the hair post game, which I normally don't do. So you guys should feel. Wow. I'm honored. I'm honored. You guys look awesome, too. This is a big, big honor. I felt a bit over dress coming in.

Yeah, the true pad. I was going to say, you walked into the bar in this unbelievable suit, the boots on. It's just a great look. But he's just, you're showing everyone up here. Do you want, do you like a dress code? Do you like, do you think everyone should be showing up in suits? Are you like, no, we should be able to swag out like NBA guys, do? I like anything that could show a little bit of,

like personality and who you are i probably wear a suit no matter what but i probably go like t-shirt underneath it a lot we're not yeah yeah it's good look pretty strict here but uh um yeah we're no tie now which is nice so that's huge yeah it's it's always a pain trying to match everything together with a tie and so it's easier to put it all together so you feel the preds are more strict than other teams you've played for yeah we we have a collared shirt dress code so we have one implemented like technically like there's no dress code in the league anymore i don't know how it works but yeah we have a dress code what happens to your tie collection now. Just collecting dust. It's in the, it's in my top drawer and, yeah,

very rarely worn if ever now. Yeah. When we went to private school, you know, we played in hockey and prep school and it was like dress codes there in school and then, you know, growing up getting jobs, team dress codes and everything, our uncle still to this day, every year at Christmas, he gets a bag of ties and he's like, hey, boys, I bought you ties. And I'm like, dude, I haven't put a tie on in 15 years. It goes straight in a box with all the rest of Yeah, exactly. And I can just categorize them from every Christmas. Yeah, I mean, we'll see.

Maybe I'll wear them at some point again in my life. You'll go to a wedding at some point that might need it. Yeah, exactly, exactly. I usually, yeah, I usually just go with the plain black one that I have. Yeah, right. It's the problem. You wear the same one every time. I got 50, but I wear one.

Yeah, so, well, I'm at that age where there's a lot of weddings, but I'm also just getting past it. Most of my friends are having kids now, so, yeah. Yeah, not as many weddings going on. Yeah, you're not wearing a tie to a baby shower or anything like that. I'm not really going to any baby showers twice. Sorry. We got practice.

Another dry land, sorry. Who on the team do you think is the best dresser? And it's okay to say yourself. I mean, I do my best to try and be. I don't know if the guys would, what they would say. But we have a few guys that always look pretty good. We have a pretty well-dressed team. Tough to pick one guy out.

UC Saros always looks good. And his doppelganger, Alex Carrier, always looks good. They kind of look alike. And, yeah, I like their style. It's, they always wear a lot double breasters, which I like. Yeah, it's good, but I wear a lot of those too. So, you know, maybe it's a bias because I wear a lot of the same stuff. Yeah, right.

They just dress like you. I think they look good. Yeah, they look great. Does Yos dress well? Yeah, he does, but he's always got stuff on himself. Like, he's always got, he'll have like an off white hoodie on, like, for practice. And it's got like 16 stains on it and like, he'll have a nice suit. And it's got, I'm always giving it to him.

I'm like, dude, like, like you're going to buy this nice clothes. Yeah. like at least like wash it every now and then or like don't leave like if your kid if your baby like pukes on you like maybe change your sweater before you leave the house you know I imagine you can just afford to take that to the dry cleaner or something like what are we doing does he just get away with that because he's so hot he must I mean I don't know we I give it to him pretty good about it I'm like yeah I don't know I guess you can't see it on camera when he walks in so it's it's hidden a bit but yeah I'm always giving him always giving him heck about that

yeah I mean I would too anything you can get over him I would be like Like, you have ketchup on your suit again. What the hell are you going? There's times, there's a, you know, there's a horse race track up in L.A. in San Anita that we go to sometimes to bet on the ponies, you know. And I get an old suit. It's like a charcoal suit that's got just enough stains on it that's okay for the track. You know, like a stained suit is okay for the track.

I'm not sure it's okay for walking. Yeah, that track. Like, you can't go to the derby in that. Yeah, yeah, go correct. But I don't know if it's a stained suit is okay to walk into an NHL game. Yeah, I don't know. The, it's, yeah, it's not as much as suits as, is like stuff he'll wear to the rink it's just like pregame stuff or a hat the other day that was

like one that joe hanson's company made for for us and it was just like completely torched i'm like dude like did you not see all the sweat stains on that it's like no i didn't like i went golfing it at one time and i guess i'm just like okay like all right whatever you whatever you're whatever you're doing it's working for you seriously i was going to say that that is clearly the recipe of a guy who's just been able to get away with it his whole life it's like whatever it doesn't matter and listen good for him yeah seriously Matt, this is, without question, when we found out you were coming on the pod. This is something that I wanted to know for over a decade.

Okay. We each have picks, by the way. Like, we went deep investigated. We're on the case here. I've thought about this a lot. In 2006, you committed to the NCAA. Yeah. I need to know what school.

Like, where were you going to go? What school? And I have a theory. And I'm going to be so upset if you're about to tell me right now that there was no school. You were just saying you were going to play college. No, I committed. Okay. I committed to school.

you're a Packers fan right uh yes you're wrong though fuck okay I think all right I know you thought badger I was gonna say badgers yeah okay alright

I think I think Denver no oh my god okay where my old Michigan State oh I was gonna I had Michigan in my head but not Michigan State yeah Michigan State yep interesting

so my uncle played end coach there oh I think he lost the final as a player in the national championship he won a Mem Cup with Cornwall right before at 1980 and then back then you could sign like a schoolboy contract so they were in the queue

which meant you're not getting paid you're like 50 bucks a week so that doesn't nullify your NCAA eligibility so then he went played at Michigan State and then he won a cup later on so had he won at Michigan State he might have been one of the

maybe the only person to have a Memcup NCAA title and then a Stanley Cup that would have been epic Yeah, that's going to be a small group. He's still coaching the league right now. He's been coaching in the NHL since 97. And yeah, we had some family history there.

And basically, for me, I didn't know what was going to have with the OHL draft. And at 16, it's tough to leave home to go to certain places. And, you know, there was a lot of teams that were kind of rerouting and new coaches, new all kinds of things. And the coach of Brampton was a close friend of ours. And they had the fifth pick. And I ended up going fifth to Brampton. At that point, that was the best option. But Michigan State, we were looking at before then.

I was going to start taking online courses and try and excel my high school and graduate as grade 11. It's at grade 12. So I'd go there a year earlier because the route was going to be play junior in Ontario, play junior in the USHL and then go play at Michigan State. So it would have been a lot as a young kid. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And, you know, it worked out good.

Obviously, I played two years junior in Brampton and ended up in Colorado the next year. Yeah, doing okay there. Yeah. So it worked out. But I still always cheer for Michigan State football and Ruth, the Monk, because they're on family school. Actually, two questions. First question.

Was there a cut off in that OHL priority draft? Like, if you were like, if I don't, if I go, you know, first round priority fifth, I'm gone. If I don't go that high, I'm going to Michigan State. Was there a number you had in your mind or did it not matter? So my dad always said, like, going in, we knew by the time the draft came around where I was ranked and stuff, I kind of knew where I was going to go. But he always said, like, if you're not a first or second round pick

in the O, like, you know, school is going to be what we're going to be for. Yeah, then we're going to do it. Obviously, people sometimes talk like, oh, if I don't play junior, I'm going to play college, especially in Canada, as if college is worse and it's not, it's the exact same level of hockey. And if not, at times tougher because there's older players. But our thing was always like, okay, unless it's a guarantee that I can get a good school package in the O, because they give you school money, right?

Right. So I could have, if I never played pro, I could have gone to university in Canada for free. So it worked, that's how they combat. That's kind of sick, yeah. That's how they combat the, oh, I want my kid to have an education thing. Well, your kid's going to get one still if you do if you get the school money, right? So the higher you go in the draft, the more school money you get. So it was a win-win.

And after I got drafted, like I knew I had a chance to play in the NHL and, you know, and play young in the NHL. So that was the fastest route and that was always what was about. And that's all you got eyes on at that age, you know what I mean? Like, just get me to the show. It's funny. Like, looking back, there's stuff in junior, I wish I enjoyed more. I wish I kind of immerse myself and more.

For me, it was just all about how fast can I make this process of being a junior and get to the next level. And, you know, so when I go back and do it differently, no, I don't think so, but maybe a little bit at times, you know what I mean? Like, I would just, I think I wouldn't be as, I put a lot of pressure on myself. I've always been that way, but especially in junior, like, because I wanted to play at 18. That was always my goal. I want to be an NHL player at 18 years old.

And I was lucky enough to accomplish that, but, you know, there was times. I think I probably could have a little more fun while I was there. Sure. No doubt. Listen, as a couple guys that took a lot of college midterms and finals, I don't think you made you miss much. And then, hold on. Second question, Ashley, your wife has family in Ohio. They're like huge Ohio.

Isn't your brother-in-law, a huge Ohio State fan? So, like, I don't know how that would, I don't know if that would sit that well. No. I were a Michigan State guy. I know. I didn't meet my wife until I moved to Denver after. So, yeah, I think they hate Michigan more of the Michigan State. I was going to say, you skate by with the Michigan State of it.

Yeah, yeah, I'm a mistake guy. state guy like relax yeah her uh yeah her brother's an absolute diehard ohio state guy they're originally their family's originally from oh they they they all were in denver and now they're actually they all moved out here so oh huge her whole family uh actually they were out the game tonight and um uh they they uh yeah they're loving tennessee i mean this is this is this is this is it man this is the best spot oh yeah it's unreal so your second year in the o you guys lose to windsor in the mem cup do you think about that ever is that something that you're like it wasn't all Well, it wasn't the MEM Cup.

It was the final, the OHL. Yeah, that's right. To go to the MEMCup. Right. Yeah, I mean, I would have loved to have played in that tournament. I mean, you want to win as much you can all the way up. And it's funny how, you know, guys' resumes, they always throw in a MEM cup if they've won it, right? Or World Junior Gold if they've won it.

And, like, you know, Junior's such a crapshoot, right? There's a lot of really good players that win that don't ever win anything in junior. And there's a lot of guys that never go past junior that win a lot, right? So whether it's World Juniors or MM Cup or whatever. So I would have loved to, though. I mean, like actually my cousin, my uncle I was talking about that played in Michigan State. His son's my age. And he played, he was a backup goalie for the Colonna Rockets.

And they made it that year. And we were one series away from going. And so it would have been unbelievable to have both of us, you know, first cousins at the same. It would have been insane. You know, I had a five teams in the CHL the same year. So that, that would have been nice for sure. I mean, I definitely, I don't, I don't really still think about it. But because, I mean, we, we had a lot of injuries.

And they were just, they were at a better roster. certain we did. Yeah. They had some weapons on that team. Like, Halsey was on that team. Hall and Ellis and, and it's nice that you guys, like you guys lose to Windsor and then they went on to win the M Cup, which I think always feels good. Like you lost to the team that won. Yeah. I mean,

how we've been, our goalie, we had Thomas McCollum and Net, who was a really high, highly touted goalie. He was the first round pick to Detroit. He was unbelievable and he he blew, he hurt with his knee pretty bad. Couldn't push off one way. Our Russian stud at the time had a concussion, didn't play the series. And Cody Hodson was our other top guy on the team.

And he was sick. He and I were sick the entire series. We just, yeah. So it's definitely not excuses because they were better than us. They were a better team. But, but. I mean, I think we could at least take them to six or seven, not five games, you know. Yeah.

I have questions about that Russian stud. What was his deal? Evgeny Gratchev. Yeah, Gratchev as a weapon. I think he was, was he the one, I think maybe the only guy in the team who had more points than you? He had, he had, I don't know how many points he had, but Cody won CHL player the year that year, so he had an unbelievable year. That's right. Cody had a monster season. He was, he was third year junior, just been drafted high, and he was, he was outstanding.

And then Gratchev won rookie of the year that year, and there was some funny, there were some rumors that he might have been actually an overage. playing as a 90 birth year. Do you know any truth to those rooms? But it wouldn't surprise me because the guy was a freak. Yeah, he's like, you guys are all 17 years old, he's got full chest hair and a beard in the shower. It wasn't even that. He was absolutely shredded.

Really? And he, yeah, there might have been some Russian gas somewhere in there. I'm certain there was. I mean, the guy could play. He was my line made for a lot of the year and it was so fun to play with him. You'd give him a pocket score. He was such a good goal score. Isn't that a such a treat?

It was great. I'm surprised he I love the guy like he was such a fun guy to be around and I'm not sure what happened to him post junior he just kind of I was about to ask like you know it's always such a crap shoot so many things happen injuries bad situations but he is one of those guys that kind of looks at you look at his play

on the ice at that high level you're kind of surprised that he doesn't do more in the NHL yeah he never really got a sniff he was a ranger's guy and he he reminded me of like kind of like a Malkin-Svetschnikov like kind of yeah yeah yeah to use and I know those are two Russians but Russians always look alike.

I was easy to compare. They always, yeah. So he was like six foot three like two 20 just skate like the wind like like shoot the puck. I was about saying they had a great shot. Yeah, yeah, great shot. And they all every Russian can shoot. Oh yeah, absolutely. They all can rip the puck.

So he was just a typical like one of those guys and I was shocked to see him not kind of have a really good career in the NHL. Yeah, I bet that happens at every level right. you know, all the way down to youth hockey guys just flame out, but it's rare when someone's that good at that high of a level and it doesn't quite transit. He took a really big step from like his draft year. He was a second round pick to his

first year in the OHL, which would have been it's like third year or whatever, age wise, but yeah, allegedly, allegedly. Yeah, exactly. I mean, yeah, the rookie overager. Yeah, who knows, right? He flamed out because he was actually 37 when he went to the NHL. Yeah, so you guys always

through those phony birth certificate stories and you know some of them i've heard are you know the ones are confirmed i won't i won't sell i won't sell those guys i'm going to sue rome on the air you know a few that i've heard are 100% confirmed yeah i love that whatever it's naked do you make it misstated it by two or three years yeah yeah we can't know we can read russian anyway it's like whatever that looks like i dude so uh nchl draft your draft you go third overall tivarez headman you all you were getting talked about, that top pick, you know, who knows it's going to happen, but you were a big Aves guy growing up. So you're like visibly fist pumping when Hedman goes second.

It's one of the great videos about it. It's incredible, right? So, and that's cool because Sackick's like a boyhood idol. Hold on. Did you catch any heat from Bolt's fans from that? Never. Good. Never.

It's kind of funny, actually. Yeah, I never did. I mean, it just made sense. Like, Avs fans wanted you. And Tampa. Like, who doesn't want to play in Tampa, right? Yeah, true. But I was like, I'm such.

a hockey fan and like hockey like nerd like all day long that you know to have a chance to play for my favorite team and like it wasn't just my favorite team I like idolize these guys yeah yeah and sacking it just stepped into that role like you know joe wasn't part of the organization yet but i i i knew he's retiring like my first game was his jersey retirement i was gonna say he just retired i still look at joe like like a god you know he's he's he's he's he's he's just an amazing obviously one of the best players ever, but just an amazing human being on, like off the ice and great leader.

And he's, you know, he's a guy every time I see him, like, you know, we always, you know, shake hands,

hug, like, yeah, he's awesome. So, yeah, he's, actually his daughter goes to the University of Alabama. So I told him if he's ever out this way.

He loves Nashville too. Yeah. I told him if he's ever out this way because he was, he was giving me shit about being a member at Trubidor. He's like, dude, like, dude, do you tell me one of the way.

And come to him to date. Come visit your kid. go out and play. Exactly. I'm like, yeah, come see Cameron and Alabama in Tuscaloosa there and drive up and play some golf or something. Incredible. That's unreal. He's the best. Well, dude, so here's my question. He becomes GM, right? And he's like, your boyhood

hero, a god, agree. He took that team to the cup. You know, he becomes the GM and trades for agency, that's part of the game. I think one thing that you, everyone talks about is like, it's a business, dude. You grow up playing this game and you love it, but it's a business. That shit's part of the game. Was it weird

talking to your literally your boyhood idol on the team that you grew up loving being like, hey, can I, I want to play somewhere else? Yeah. Was that a hard conversation? Yeah. He came, it was kind of funny, like December that year, you know, and we had been rebuilding forever.

We weren't, you know, spending a lot of money in free agency. It was just like, just felt like it was never going to end and we were kind of stuck. I was kind of stuck and I wanted to have a chance to play. In the playoffs, you know, in the playoffs. And obviously that team took off the next few years. but like at the time like you can only there's no crystal ball you can only look at the cards for sure for sure and i mean yeah it was hard i mean he came over to my house he sat at a kitchen table and you know we talked and he was always awesome about it and i mean he what was the coolest

part is he didn't want to get he didn't want me to leave right which was made even harder and so flattering good i wanted to work i wanted to work and i was just like joe like we just don't have much common man like we don't have much in the system like you know no one knew calma car was yet. Yeah, right. That guy comes in and changes seriously. Like as good as like the forwards were on that team or are on that team that guy comes in and I mean he's he's a freak. He's so darn good and

kind of put them over the top to end up winning right. So we just had no idea what was going on and I had several people that were like talking to me and just being like Dutchy I think I think you got to try and get out and try to move on and you know give yourself a chance to do something and you know obviously they

went on and did some big things last couple of years but it was a totally different team. So Absolutely. There was nothing, like I never really look at it like, oh, geez, I should have stayed because if my date, I would have wanted to, like, things completely change. Of course. Cap room changes. I was two years away from a new contract.

And I knew that was probably going to be the biggest one I would sign in my career. And I wanted to put myself in the best position. So it was, it was incredibly hard. I mean, when actually, when the trade went through, he, he pulled me into, we're in, this is one of the greatest moments of my life, actually. Because you got pulled mid game, right? Yes. Not the trade part because that was so bittersweet.

Like I was excited to have a new chance, but it was so, I was heartbroken to leave Colorado. For sure. It hurt. Like the kid and me, it hurt, but again, it's a business. Yeah. Like it's not, you're not a fan of your team. You work for your team, right? Yeah.

So it's, it. So he pulled me, we're at the Barclay Center. He pulled me into this, like, it's like a broom closet and he put his hands on my shoulders. And he's like, hey. And did you know. He's like, I did this. I already knew I was traded. Yeah.

Because I came off the ice, but he's like, I did this for you. Like, go, you know. have a great, you know, good luck. And, like, I just want you know I did this for you. And, like, he was, like, a little bit emotional. I'm going to cry. I was like, oh, my God. I was like, I was almost crying because I was like, this is one of the best moments of my, of my life, like, in terms of my idol, like, treating me that way and having that respect.

And, yeah, I mean, I think about that a lot. That was, I always say leaving Colorado, it's the hardest thing I ever had to do because it was more than just my team. It was like, I was in love with that franchise from the time I was a kid. So it was really, really tough. And, you know, like, you met your wife there. Like, there's so much stuff there. There was a lot there. It just, it wasn't the right fit for me at the time.

And I never, there's no, I have zero regrets because my life is, even with them winning and everything, my, it was just, I needed to move on. I just needed a new start. No doubt. And we're heading over heels in love with Nashville. Yeah. This is, this would be home forever. Like, we're never, you know, whether, you know, they resigned me after this deal or, you know,

you get traded at some point, who knows what the future holds. I hope not. I'd love to finish my career here in Nashville. and we're living Nashville the rest of our life. That's, this is home. That's awesome. And I was going to say at the start of this, it was almost cruel that Joe became the GM

because you not only did you have to leave your hometown team, but you also had to say it to Joe. But after that story, I actually think it was beautiful that it was Joe. It's so personal, and you shared that moment. The way that it turned out, and there was never any bad blood or hard feelings. Another funny story, too, is when the trade was kind of close,

we went on a road trip, and I packed a massive suitcase. and he and I always had all I knew it was close right

yeah and he and I always always had the same suitcase which was hilarious so one said JS one said MD on it they're both two me

like suitcases and he goes to grab it and I'm like oh shit Joe just got my bag and it's like it weighs 150 we were going to Sweden to play against Ottawa

right yeah so I go Joe just grab my bag he's gonna feel how heavy it is like he goes he goes

He goes, Dutchie, does your back? I'm like, yeah. He's like, it's a little heavy, eh? He's like, why is that? Kind of winks at me. Like, that's the kind of issue we had. Yeah. It's like.

It's incredible, man. It was such a, he made it easy because it was never personal. And he knew where we were out as a franchise. Yeah. I'd been there for eight years. Yeah. You know, whatever. I was kind of the most senior guy of our core, like group.

And it was, you know, it made the most sense for me to be the guy that, you know, brought some return and moved on. So, yeah. 100%. Imagine telling an eight year old, Matt. that Joe Sack is going to be winking at you. Yeah, exactly. You would have turned into a puddle.

I would have turned into a puddle. Yeah. What do you mean? Yeah. No, I'm not doing that. No way. No, no. I was going to say,

when you think about the other way that could have gone with all of those pieces in place, this is your childhood team, a guy that you idolized, and you think about that scenario, it could have gone so horribly. Yeah. So what a dream it is that it went the way it went. And you guys still have a great relationship. That's such an unbelievable situation. Yeah.

And like, I texted, when they won the cup, I texted him like the next day. Yeah, I bet. I'm like, he put. And he put that team together. And he's so smart. He was the architect of that. And, you know, they started to spend a little bit more in UFA or a free agency. And they'd made some, they had some good draft.

I mean, McCar. I mean, that year, we were supposed to have number one pick. And we lost the lottery and fell to four. My God. That's right. And you somehow wind up with Kail. And then you get Macar at four. And he probably only slipped because he was playing Canadian Junior A.

And when you play that, everyone's a little bit like wary of how good because of the competition. but I mean that was a blessing in disguise for the franchise obviously for sure so yeah I mean kind of wild how it all went but you know like I said I've no regrets and I'm never been happier in terms of where I'm playing and family and everything we love Nashville yeah this is home I was about to say man you have one of the most interesting careers in terms of places you've played because it feels like everywhere you've been has some sort of personal connection to you it's like Colorado's your childhood team yeah then you go to Ottawa which is what like three hours from Halliburton

And then you go to Columbus and your wife's family, you know, she has family in Ohio. And then you go to Nashville, which is the epicenter of so many of your personal interests and now has become so seamlessly the place that you and your family call home. It's like, I don't know. I can't think of anyone else who's like, so. Yeah, everywhere I've played actually has like a pretty cool connection to my personal life. It's amazing. Yeah, I never thought about Columbus that way. Just because, but yeah, I mean, it is my uncle actually was part of the inaugural Columbus team.

So you coach there. Oh, get out. So, yeah, so there was some connections. And it was funny the other day I was singing about it. And I played for like three summer teams. I played for a bunch of summer teams growing up, but three of the teams I played on that had NHL jerseys. One was our third jersey,

Nashville's third jersey. The other one was I played for two teams that wore Blue Jackets jerseys. And I played for another one that I wore Avalanche third jerseys. Wow. So it was just like how to that. It was the only one I never had. And, you know, obviously being that close to home, there's still a connection there.

So, yeah, I mean, right from the time I left, I was leaving Denver, I wanted to come here. I wanted to come to Nashville. But I wouldn't trade my stops in Ottawa and Columbus for the world. I mean, they were great experiences. And we had the best playoff run in Columbus history. I was going to say, did that lightning? Yeah, it was sick. I mean, even the Boston series, like, if we get by them, you know.

You're from there, obviously. So sorry, we're rooting for the bees now. But that game three, you had. You kicked the shit out of the bees in that game. And if that game goes the other way, Yeah, so we won game three at home. Oh, it was four. That's the one.

Yeah, that's the one. That's right. So we lost in the WOT first game. We won in Watt, second game. Game three, we won. We played really good. We had them on the ropes. And then their big boys hadn't got on the board yet.

That's kind of what happened against Tampa. They, like Kuturov and Stam Coast and those guys, they weren't able to kind of break through. Right. And when your big boys aren't on the board, they're not feeling, you know what it is, right? You want to get on the board. You want to feel the puck. We took like two penalties early in game four. and then it was like Pastor Nack from Burghron and Marsha and it was like oh shit

yeah oh god there you go uh Tuka ask the next three games played out of his mind we hit in the last 61 minutes of the series we hit six crossbars I was about to say you guys rang iron like crazy in that series they're winning goal against this game six this is when I knew it was over because you can just feel it as hockey guy oh 100% oh shit this isn't meant to be uh Debruss comes down the wing takes a slap shot hits a crossbar goes right on to crachie stick and he shoots it in the open I'm like, okay, so we've hit six. Yep.

And now it's like, they get one and it's a doorstep to happen. Yeah. So it's, uh, it was just like, okay, like this isn't meant to be. Yeah. Which, and then they go to the finals, they steamrolled Carolina in the next series and we'd done real all against them. I always look at that is that was my closest opportunity to, you know, win the cup was that year. For real.

Really think that we get by them. We go to the finals and. Oh, definitely, man. You guys had a wagon of a team that year. You had a good. You look at the roster. It was deep. Oh, yeah.

Really deep. So it was, uh, now that I think about it, too, that, um, That Tampa sweep, that was just a nice little motherfucker to Tampa for you again. Like, you're just at every phase in your career. You're fist pumping their face when you get drafted and you sweep them out of the playoffs. Oh, that's great. They've had their, they've had their share of success lately too. Yeah, yeah.

Tampa's doing okay. Yeah, they're doing all right. I don't feel bad for Temple. I don't think they're losing any sleep over those two things. No, no, I don't think so. So we're at the game tonight. And I'm a big, personally, I'm a big superstition guy and, like, equipment guy. Okay.

And I'm noticing your. stick and your top tape is like a foot long. Okay. And admittedly, I know that you write some stuff on that. Yeah. So I want to hear about that. Okay. And then I also want to get into, it sounds like you change up your gear often.

Like you're changing the flex. You're changing your skate sharpening. Like, what's going on there? I do and I don't. When I find something I really like, I stay with it. But I'm always trying to find that next. I think like the old saying, like you don't have to be sick to get better. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So I think that's a, that's like something that, you know, I heard a few years ago. And it's true, I've always been that way. You can always, it doesn't matter if it's in the dressing, or sorry, doesn't matter if it's in the weight room or, you know, on the turf or equipment-wise. So, yeah, a couple of years ago, I lengthed my stick a little bit and change the flex with that length because. Right, yeah, yeah, what flex you have now? I'm in 80, 80, 80, 80, yeah, 80, yeah, 80. 80, yeah, 80.

80, yeah. 80, yeah. 80, zero. 80 flex yeah wow I was 70 before but my stick was this long so my stick's like normal length now so hold on you were a 70 flex yeah I started in the in the league at 120 dude that's what's gonna say it's 70 I cut my stick down what kind of made you do that like why also also are we just out of touch like is everyone in the league playing with like an 80 now or are you guys are 85 okay I think I'm in I'm trying to think if I'm an 80 or an 85 one of the two so you dropped 50 flex yeah dude straight literally dropped 50 I was going to say when we were playing, we were like 105, 110. And then now, I was going to joke with you like, now we both have 85 because I'm like, I can't lift a snapshot unless I have an 85.

I still can't lift the backhand. I think I use an 85. I think it's an 85. I mean, 8085. It doesn't really matter. Yeah. Kind of the same thing. So, yeah, what I did.

So kind of the progression was I had the same length sticks I have now when I was funny enough when I first came in the league. When I lengthed it again, I didn't even look at it. It just ended up the same length. Really stiff. Then I cut it down. I was training a lot with, with, uh, I hired same trainer as, uh, uh, Crosby. Oh, nice.

Yeah. He's still my guy. He's the best. Uh, been with him for, I was like one of his first two or three guys in the league. And, uh, so Sid and I trained a lot together. And I was kind of like, coming off a tough year, a lot of injuries. And I saw a short of stick was. I like, you know, I'm going to try that.

Yeah. So I cut it, I took his stick. I cut. I put a mark and then I cut it halfway between ours. And then I ended up going down to his. It was really stiff. You know, felt good. And then as time went on, I was like, I'm going to try Whipier.

Yeah. So I went Whipier, like, so anyway. And then I changed my curve. I started using Joe's Sackax actual curve and used. Didn't we all, dude? Not that one, though. That's not the actual one. Oh, okay.

Of course. Yeah, I was going to say, that's the one that us plebeians use. Yeah. Yeah, P92. That's like the most popular curve in the world. Correct. So, so then I started using an actual one. I had to drop it down even a little bit more because of the live.

And then switched back to, Switch to what I'm using now, and then eventually lengthed it. Yeah, so it's been an adventure over the career. I was going to say. I'm always just trying to play around with it. And, you know, last year I scored more goals on shots than any year of my career. And it was from the length and the, you know, just the leverage. Yeah.

More reach. Yeah, get you more pox, yeah. The small stick was in advantage for a while because you could beat guys with quickness and speed more. Now it's about everyone's so fast that the only, there's one guy in the league of beats people with speed. Yeah. Yeah, I'd never heard of them. So that, yeah, and it's, and, you know, so now it's all about leverage and having your head up and reach and all that stuff. Yeah, for sure.

And, yeah, tape job on the top. I always went off after Colchuk. Yeah. Oh, really? So that's why I did that. Tape job at the bottom was Peter Forsberg. So those were like the two guys. Wow.

I started doing that when I was like 13, never changed. So what was on the stick? I thought you just needed enough room to write everything on the time. Yeah, I was going to say. What was on the stick tonight? I always have the same. So every year I kind of have a theme for the season. And it could be something going on personal life or like, I'm a big music guy.

So usually the main thing is a is a lyric or title. Yeah. And so it's almost like tattoos, like how tattoos mean some of the people. Like I kind of do that with my stick. So for some initials for like friends and family up top, like just kind of encompassing everybody. I have F&L 16, which means free and loose. 16 like basically play like that. Like play free and loose.

Yeah. I was 16 years old. Oh, I love that. And then the lyric I have is The Crow, which is part of a hearty song. So he has like his new album coming out is, he's one of my favorites, has half country, half rock. And that's what I've always used to as country and rock. And that song's called The Mockingbird and the Crow. And it talks about how he was like kind of came up in traditional like music.

And then once he got to it, he did things his way and a little differently. and I kind of identify with that and just like my kind of my career and always you know kind of you know the whole you know having to leave Colorado thing just my career's been a little bit more exciting for better and for worse than a lot of people's and and I do things a little differently at times and so that's kind of I kind of identify with that and it's got a lot of you know that song's got a lot of you know punch to it too so and then I've got below that I've got my favorite Bible verse tattooed on my body Philippians 413 with a cross and then I've got my kids my two kids names and then BD3 for baby Dusha number three Oh nice. I was about to say so we don't have a name in that though yeah we everyone thinks we do we have nothing yeah so Do you know a boy or girl? It's uh yeah yeah you don't have to tell us I'm not gonna say yeah I'm not gonna say it's I'm not gonna say but uh because everyone we we we know what it is but we've also heard people that thought they knew it was and it comes out something different oh wow yeah we'll see what that's smart

yeah hold those cards people get surprises at the end yeah yeah well We'll see. How have you picked, most of the names you have for your kids so far are personal, like family stuff. Are you going to keep that trend? Yeah, so Bo is, it's not a family name. We just loved it. His middle names are family. David is my middle name, my dad, my grandpa's middle name, and then my wife's dad's first name.

My wife's dad's first name is David, and then Newell is his family name. So my uncle, coach, his name is Newell. Yeah, yeah. And then my grandpa's first name is Newell. And, yeah, that's got some history to it. And then my daughter, her middle name is same as my wife's middle name. And then James is actually a family name on my mom's side. But for boys, obviously.

Right. But we love that name for girl. We threw a Y into Gurley it up a little. It's a good move. Yeah, it's class. I was like, the Y's like. My favorite name for girl this time around is a boy name also. So we'll see.

My wife doesn't know what we're going to do yet. Yeah, no spoilers. I would name her right now, but my wife's kind of like, we don't. She does not sure. She's got to see her first. So girls are harder to name the boys. We had a boy name done if it was, well, I guess I just said it was a girl. I was about to say.

I didn't want to call you up, but you definitely just We're having a girl. We're having a girl. We'll edit that out. We'll edit that out of that. No, it's, yeah, so we'll see. We'll see what I'm. That's great.

All right, you're talking about you've got Forsberg down on your blade. What the hell is up with Johansons? I don't know. That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life. The only guy I've seen tape a stick like that was Mike York back in the day. I mean, it is. I don't know what's going on there. You can't not notice it.

It's so absurd looking. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know what. Does she get? shit for that in the locker no never it's uh it's uh sorry my phone's well yeah yeah no make sure my wife wasn't going yeah i was but say we need to make sure he's not going to the labor yeah no uh no no one really says anything to about it but they just let it right joey's joey he just whatever

yeah yeah it's just does fair fair yeah good lord broke the mold when he made him yes for sure an absolute stick uh okay uh 2014 gold medal all time moment incredible right you get added to the roster semi final round after tavares got hurt by the way yeah so which I know you love. Yeah, I was on the, I was on the team the whole time. Yeah, yeah, just popped into the lineup, right? Yeah, I was out.

I was out the Latvia game, and I kind of knew I was getting back in the next one. They kind of told me, and then J.T. went down. Yeah. And I was like, okay, I'm going. I'm dialed. That'll be the spot I fell. So then, yeah, I mean, my,

my Olympic performance wasn't kind of what I wanted to be, because I was, to be honest, I was scared shitless. Of course, dude. The youngest guy on the team, and you're, you go, So I actually, my gaming, my semifinal and final are my best two games. The other games I played, I didn't, I wasn't that great because I was just, I was so nervous. Because you're like, I don't want to blow this for my country.

Like, we're expected to win. We're supposed to win. You're all the way in Sochi. Like, there's so much. I was 22. Like, I was, yeah, I was pretty nervous. And so then the next time I was able to make the big team at the World Cup, I'm like, hey, I'm not doing that again. And I was really happy with how the tournament went from me personally.

And obviously we won, which that's all that matters. those things. It doesn't matter how well you play or how well you don't, I guess, as long as you win. But I get that wanting that to be a big moment because you're like, yeah, yeah. Like I didn't like how I was, I was overwhelmed a little bit and very nervous and anxious in that, in that, in that, in that, in that, in Sochi. And until I got back in and then I was like, okay, I can't play like I just played. I got to play better and yeah. And be more comfortable and just play looser. The break maybe it was kind of helpful. Yeah, I was good. I got to refocus. I was grateful for not playing that game and just kind of get to watch and refocus. So so. So.

Semifinals, you beat the U.S. 1-0, Jamie Ben, and then you beat Sweden for the gold. Yeah. What felt cooler, beating us or the gold medal game, don't lie. Honestly, so the gold medal game, we kind of knew if we showed up that we were going to win because Backstrom was out. He got tested for something. I don't even remember what it was. And they had one of the Cedines, I think, got hurt or like, they were bent up. And the U.S. had, was probably our biggest challenge. For sure. I think we knew that it was ours to lose at that point. Against the U.S., it was like, we'll see. We didn't score a lot of goals that tournament. We kind of played keepaway and just kind of waited for, you know, that one chance that would come.

And it wasn't the most exciting hockey, but it was very stingy and just kind of. It was a good game, though. And you're, I mean, you were nails that game. Like, I'm not just saying that. I remember being like, I'm serious. Because I remember that game. It was, you know, one nothing game. I think second period Jamie Bend goal or something like that.

Tip in, I think. And it was just that game. It was like there were, there were so few penalties. It felt like whatever is going to be the first goal. It was a dog. It was a dog fight. And, you know, I don't have very many memories from that game, to be honest. I think I was just so overwhelmed.

Yeah. Just fully blocked out. I remember being tight. And like just, you know, every shift you get out there, you're like, okay, I got to win the draw. And then I got to make sure I'm not getting scored on kind of thing. It was one of those things. And just trying to do whatever you could offensively and you could make the right play. And, you know, hockey, we can make it really complicated sometimes mentally.

And I probably made a little too complicated that tournament. But, I mean, making that team, I think was probably the thing I'm most proud of. in my career because just making Team Canada, making the, making the, you know, that big team,

it, they could take three, three different sets of, like, players on those teams. Oh my God. There's so much talent, Canada,

and I just felt really blessed to be on that and really grateful. I was actually about, what you just said, there's so many players you can pick from. Are you at all rattled that it feels like

Team USA is kind of sniffing on the heels now? We're coming for you. USA, no, they're good. That's going to be a battle. They're, they've really, USA's always been like a real meat,

potato's kind of gritty up and down type team and maybe a little bit of you know a little bit of a little bit of football culture in in hockey and it's changed a lot there's a lot of these kids now these american kids are so talented and um there's been tournaments where i've watched the USA play and they look more like Canada than we do at times and it's wild you know it's USA hockey should be excited i mean yeah um who knows and the next time we get another best on best term it's really disappointing that we've had two non-allympic years. I know. I know we're all hoping for it last year and didn't end up happening. And then obviously the World Cup just got pushed back because of the whole, you know, Russia-Ukraine thing.

And so it's really disappointing not to have that. Like guy like McDavid's never played for Canada. It's really sad. Isn't that crazy? On a best on best, you know, let's play world championships. But so, yeah, I hope we get that back. Because obviously World Juniors is the best thing for that now. I mean, we absolutely have to.

I mean, that's like you said, we got the Hughes boys. we got Zegris, we got basketball and Fox. Like, it is, that, that will be an unbelievable game. There's a lot of talent in the U.S. right now. And U.S. players look differently than they ever have right now. Yeah, that's so true. Yeah. So you're a big number nine guy.

Gotta talk about it. Yeah. And I have a question for you. Okay. For the listeners, you wore nine most of your career, then you've worn iterations of it, 91, 19. You get to Ottawa, none are available. You combine a childhood number five with nine.

I just did your research, man. I can't believe how on top of it. You won't know as much about me as me. I mean, I got to bring something to the table here. Great. You guys like, yeah, I'm impressed. You wear 95 now. Elite number.

You're one of, I think when you first threw that thing on, you were one of like six guys in the league to ever wear it. This is what I really want. It was even like deep in your life. Like you were born like nine pounds, nine ounces, right? Like you're like nine pounds nine ounces. When do you get off the ice at warmups? I know it's something too.

Like you get up to 2909, right? Yeah, from the bench. Yeah. There you go. Yeah, there you go. Warm up's the same. I'm always last guy out, but... Uncle was the one who wore five, right?

Yep. So that's why five is incorporated. Deep in your history, fine. So nine's up in your life here. Yeah. This is what I need to know, Matt. Okay. Your son, Bo is born on the ninth.

Yeah. Your daughter James is born on the ninth. You guys have fucked up, dude. We missed it. I know. So, like, what's the plan here? Are we going for the 19th? Or are we going, I mean, come on.

I would love the 19th. Yeah. She's getting induced on the 27th. Which is my grandma's birthday, so I'd be really cool. But yeah. 29th could work. I just say push two days.

Okay, so we got a scared the other day when I was in Tampa. I thought that we were going to have to, uh, she had some like test done and it looked like we're going to have to induce early, potentially. She called me the morning of, she woke me up before the Tampa game and that was on the eighth.

And she's like, and I'm like, hey, it's coming on the ninth. I was like, dad about like, we might have to have a kid tomorrow. And so, yeah,

we missed the boat on it. I was pretty disappointed. I'm such a numbers guy. Dude, and BD. If BD3 had been born on December 9th, you would have had to have 12 kids and hit the 9th of every month. And I'm sorry, but that was always going to have to happen.

I might have them use the same scissors on the abilc of court on me right after. Yeah, yeah. I think this is it for us. Yeah, that might be a snip situation after this one. I think so. I think we're done. If you would hit this third kid on the 9th, I wouldn't have believed in anything else other than the number 9.

Yeah, it would be crazy. I mean, truly, that would be absurd. It would be nuts. That took a lot of planning. I mean, it's like you're clearly such a numbers guy. When Bo was born, you obviously thought of that immediately, right? you were like, holy shit, it's the night. Yeah, like, yeah, and his birthday's 1-9-19, too.

So there's the 19-in there. And, like, my daughter's 11, 9-20. Yep. Yeah, it's wild. Look at that, 20 minus 11. 9. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's go.

That's pretty funny. This is unbelievable. Yeah, it's crazy. So hopefully there's, I guess, 27, 2 and 7 add up to 9. So if we're inducing on the 27. 2-7 is good, and I'm telling you, you never know. I'm hoping for 19. Yeah, yeah.

19 could work. That'd be awesome. Yeah. Yeah, nine's followed me my whole life. And so, yeah, anything, when I went to Ottawa, I was almost worth 21 because of Forsberg. And I was like, I can't not wear something with nine in it. Yeah, that would break it up too much. Yeah, so, yeah, 95s turned out good.

Pretty cool. I think it suits me. And it's kind of my own thing. So it's fun. Yeah, it's amazing. Okay, dude. So we buried the lead here, but on Friday, last Friday, December 2nd. Oh, yeah, this is kind of fucked up of you, honestly.

300th tuck. Quick fist bump for that. Pretty sick. Great stuff. You just couldn't have waited for us. You knew we were coming today. You couldn't have just held out a little bit. A lot of people are saying, a lot of people are saying it was rude.

They're already, they're so hard to come by this year for most of our team. Like, geez, I'll take anyone like that's right now, especially the goalie pulled. I was going to say a lot of people are also saying that you did it as an empty netter to honor us. Which was cool. You got the empty netter. You got your 300 was an empty netter for the empty netter for the empty netter. That's beautiful stuff. Well, we'll go with that.

Okay. So, dude, check. I actually haven't even told this to Dan. yet. All right. So you have scored 300 goals. It's an incredible feat. It became the 250th person to ever walk this earth to score 300 goals in the NHL. Wow. I thought it would be more than that. That's pretty cool.

Only 250 people have ever done it. That is pretty cool. I actually am in the dark here, so I'm kind of nervous about what's coming here. 250 people who have ever lived have scored through an NHL goals. Do you think more or less people have, and I'm going to give you some other things, okay? Okay. Do you think more or less people have swam across the English Channel from England to France,

which is 20 miles, and I know you're a bad swimmer, dude. I am. Do you think more or less people have swam across the English channel or scored 300 inch-old goals? That's got to be way less. 20-mile swim? 20.5 mile swim. For some reason, I think it's more because you're maybe building me up

that there was more people to swim. A lot of logic to this guy. A lot of logic to Dutch you over here. Also, I can't swim quarter a mile. It's like, I feel like anyone, I mean, You're not going to succeed, but people are going to try. So, yeah, maybe more. And was it 250 or 250?

215. Like 250 people is not a lot, right? Oh, it's tiny, dude. You've done an incredible thing. There's probably 1,000 people a year that try. But the other thing is there is a lot more people that swim on this earth that play hockey. Yeah, true. Oh, okay.

I'm with Matt. You're back to over. I'm with Matt. We're going more. You guys know you guys are correct. More. It's actually 1,831 have made it across the English Channel. Okay.

It's impressive. Ready? 250 people have scored 300 NHL goals. Have more or less people been to space? Less. Less. More. Really? We just hit our 600th person to space last year. 600 people have been to space.

You've scored 300. You've scored 300 goals. People are just like up in space and we don't know about it. You've done something significantly more rare than going to space. That's cool, Matt. That's pretty good. I'm going to feel pretty good walking out of here actually. I mean, you guys have really built me up today. Okay, ready? More or less people have summited K2, which is way harder than submitting Everest

That's less. That's got to be less. Because I know Everest is like 6,000 people. I know that Everest is like thousand. I want to say less, but you're making it so like it's more. Like, like, like there's more people because you're... If this is more, I think Matt's right. If this is more, this is, looks bad on you. K2, what's K2? K2, second tallest mountain on the earth, but the hardest summit on earth.

Okay. So, more. More, 377. Well, that's close, though. It's the equivalent of scoring 236 NHL goals, which is nothing to our boy Dutchie. Who popped three Hyundai, dude. Not a big deal. Okay.

Okay, last one. You scored 300 initial goals. Only 215 people have ever done that. Have more or less people won the Nobel Peace Prize? More, because it's been around longer, right? Dan. Where's it less? The Nobel Peace Prize.

Yeah. Less. Less. Less, less 103. It's the equivalent of scoring 404 goals. So you're not that cool. And by the way, not a big deal. Scoring 404 goals is the exact amount of goals Johnny Tavares has. And so he's got the Nobel Peace Prize, according to me, something to aspire to.

He's had, he's a great goals for. But, dude, you're the second one from your class, by the way, to ever hit the 300 mark, which is pretty sick. I got a little ways to catch up to Johnny, but. Well, here's what you'd rather for you. More points your rookie year. Here's what you rather for you. Would you rather score 100 more goals in your career, hit 400, or keep your 300 and win a Grammy for a country song that you wrote? Keep the 300.

Yeah, you still have your 300 tucks. No, I would, if it's 400, 400 for me is kind of, I think 500 is the number you want to. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was going to say you're going to hit 400. 500's hard. No, no, 400.

Yeah, you've got 400. You're going to hit 400, yeah, yeah, yeah. 500's really tough. A thousand points is easier than 500 goals. Yes, correct. Thousand points is a huge deal. But a Grammy, a Grammy, dude? Dude.

I think a Grammy over 400 goals. For an original song? Yeah. That's pretty good. Pretty sick. Also, you're going to, you just hit 700 games. So, 900. 900 games.

That's what he's going to get there. 700 is what next year? Yeah. Yeah, if I say healthy. Yeah, yeah. Oh, come on. Yeah. Like, that's going to be a,

fun little moment. Get a gift from the boys? I don't feel old enough to have been doing that, but yeah, it's crazy. I pinch myself sometimes how many, how many games I've been lucky enough to play.

Dude, well, listen, I just want you to know when you go home tonight, I want you to remember that, like, almost triple the amount of people

have been to space and have done something you've done on NHLS. You're much more rare than people who, you're better than an astronaut. I appreciate it. You know what?

After the loss tonight, you know, it's a tough game. Not a lot going on offensively for us. You know, I need a little pick- That's our headline.

Matt Chene is better than an astronaut. Matt Chene has been to space, basically. Pretty much. That's beautiful stuff. So, dude, if you're down, we were going to play a little game. Oh, yeah. This is stuff. We want to put you to the test and make you make some hard decisions here.

This game, we're calling, it's a little new segment. New segment on the Empty Nader's podcast. It's an inaugural segment with Mattie Shane. Yep, we're calling pass shoot score. Okay. We're going to give you three things. You have to call one of them pass, one of them shoot, one of them score. And the way it works, it's not like you hate any.

of them. It's just pass. It's a ranking. Pass. Assists are cool dude, but someone else is doing the work. So that's pass. Okay, so that's third. Yeah. Yeah. Shoot. Pucks on net is a good thing. Yeah. But it's just an okay thing. That's second. Yeah. Score, lighten the lamp. That's the electric factory. That's people show up for us. So we're going to give you three things. And you just got to hit us with a pass shoot score on each one. Perfect. Love it. Okay. Dan, you want to take us away? Yes, I do. Pass shoot score. Nashville, Denver, Halliburton. And, dude, keep a mind, bro. Your wife is from Denver, dude.

I know. You can't sue her. You live here. Well, she likes Nashville better than Denver now. Okay. So that might be a... She's from south of Denver, too. Like, she's from Parker.

So I got past with Denver. We love Denver. A lot of history, but two places are home. That's Halliburton and Nashville. You're a big hometown guy, and I really like that. You know what? Actually, Dutchie, I was going to say, one thing, I love how... We love our home.

I love how much you love your hometown and I was gonna be like dude you were like easily the proudest Halliburton did I've ever met But then I was like that's bullshit you're the only Halliburton did I don't want to say that but not many of us out there But dude I do think it's cool how hard you go for it and how it's shaped a ton of your life So I think that's an awesome thing we're we have a special we're a special it's a special town yeah small it's got such unique culture Did your uncle play in the league? No, he got drafted in the sixth round by by Vancouver that's right yeah another uncle dropped by the islanders too So are you the only Halliburton and a hush? Scheller? No. Cody Hodson.

Cody's from Halliburton, too. Sick. I didn't know that. Originally. He and I played tight together there. I was going to say you guys. I was going to say. He played with like Stamcoaston and Del Zado and those guys. Did he play on the Huskies? Yep. So we both played on Huskies before they changed the Highland Storm. Minden, there was Minden Monarchs and Halbert and Huskies. Those were the two towns, two teams. And then they amalgamated in another Highland Storm.

And now the new junior team in town, they renamed the Huskies. Halibund Sanhiske, so it's pretty great. There you go. Yeah, so she would be Nashville as much as I absolutely love Nashville. There's only one hometown for me, and that's Hallibur. Wow. I love that. I love it.

He's going to be here forever, did it's going to stay here forever, but it's still scored. We're Halliburton forever and here forever. Halberton's where we go every summer. Our cottage is our property there. That's a holy place for us. All right. Does Ashley love it up there or is she just tolerated for you? No, she loves it.

Okay. She asked me one time, she said, would you have been, would you have married? me if I didn't like Halliburton? I said, probably not. Probably not. That's a massive red flag. I don't think, I don't think we could have done it.

Yeah, that's as much of a red flag as you could ever expect. Life is so simple and easy up there. It's just, it's great. Being on the lake is just incredible. Do you train when you go up there?

Do you kind of just... No, I have a gym and we've got a hill. I put in like artificial turf hill. Yeah, my own gym, my property. There's not much up there. So you've got to kind of bring it to yourself. So, you know, build it.

Is it? What sheet you stay on? Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Nice. What sheet do you skate on up there? The one you used to play at? Yeah, growing up, yeah, I played high hockey there.

That's epic, yeah, it's good. That's pretty sweet. I only played in Halliburn for three years, and then I started playing in Lindsay for the AAA team there. Yeah, which is a decent drive. Very long drive. Yeah. My dad.

God bless my dad and my mom and my sister, too, for how many car rides she had to be part of us. Yeah, seriously. She probably, God bless her the most, actually, on that because she had no interest ever going, and she supported me a lot. So, always happy to give back. to her when I can for sure there you go real quick for the next one as a lake guy right because like Aliburton there's a lake per person you know I think it's literally more yeah I think there's

more lake what people in Alberton you can't swim dude like what did you do what did you do I mean I can swim I just hate it and I like snorkeling I just sink so I got to go out a little bit harder for it yeah yeah I mean I'm big fisherman I love wake surfing yeah oh okay yeah now we're talking yeah surfing's great I I bought a surfboat a few years ago and um Just got another one, trade that other old one in. And we love it. I mean, we'll do more of it as time comes. But I also love drinking some hedgeau on the dock.

Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah, you do. Cheers, boys. Yeah, cheers to the etchow on the dock. I love it. Cheers, buddy. Beautiful.

We grew up on the beach and, you know, like, we were always ocean guys. But then our parents got a lake house at this lake in New Hampshire. And I got to tell you, dude, once you get the boat out there and you're just, like, doing all the activities and you're just like drinking right on the dock, jump in. I was like, oh, actually, lake, life. Lake Life is awesome, but nothing beats the lake. It's incredible. Lake life is, and again, as a coastal boy, it's hard to admit it. Lake life is the best.

There's no showers on the lake. You just wake up, jump right in and start your day. It's unreal. Okay, you ready for the next? Yeah, hit him with the next. Passute score. These are songs, okay? Songs, yeah.

Mr. Misunderstood by Eric Church. Whiskey Glasses by Morgan Wallen. Macy's Day Parade by Green Day. Oh, man, you guys really did your homework. So, yeah, Macy's Day Parade was my first song I ever learned on guitar. I'm going to pass that one. Really? Wow.

Yep. Just because you've literally moved past it. I mean, it means something to me, but it's not one of my favorite songs. Well, dude, because for some context, we love playing music too. We both guitar players. He was a drummer for a bit, but we both play guitar now, yeah. It was like, started drummer, piano player, and then we were like, actually, chicks like guitar players, we should just play guitar.

But now, I've transitioned to piano now. Yeah, so we started doing that. You guys know, once you learn one instrument, you can learn. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah. I never get time to play now. My daughter always comes up even when I pull it out. Halfway through a song, it starts doing this on the strings.

Yeah. I don't get nearly enough time. It's my favorite thing I never get to do. I actually kind of, I feel you on that. But I thought, because there's the songs that I learned first that really resonate. So I was surprised the quick pass on Macy's. It would have to be. I haven't played that song in probably 15 years either, so maybe more.

Shoot would be whiskey glasses And score would be Mr. Misunderstood. Do you think that's your favorite song ever? Yeah, I love that song. I think just the lyrics are amazing. And, you know, there's definitely, that one is not so much the Mr. Misunderstood part, but there's so many little parts of it

that I can relate to stuff I've been through. Yeah, yeah. So it's just like it's been like kind of my favorite, my favorite song in terms of just everything. It's a great song. Eric Church is my favorite. I was going to ask, do you have a favorite cartoon artist

so you don't know? It always changes maybe. Honestly, he was my favorite for a long time. He's definitely like an A, B, or C, like a 1A, 1B, 1C. I'm all over the map with who my favorite is. It just depends what I'm listening to.

Yeah, for sure. That makes sense. I used to have it in my mind like, hey, this is my favorite. This is my favorite. Now I'm just like, this is why I listen to. Yeah.

Yeah. Like Wallin and Hardy are two of my favorites. And they're, I love that. Hardy's almost single-handly, bring rock and roll back yeah no doubt so for a while he's actually playing with nickel back uh at boots and hearts this summer in uh in up in ontario uh and i i i saw that i'm like oh my god i got to be i was gonna say you've got to be there right yeah absolutely i mean

nickelback takes a lot of flack but can Canadians love nickelback and i still love nickelback it's one of those things i don't get it and it's one of those internet trends that people are just like yeah i'm coming back around to it now yeah like we listed nickleback all the time in the room. I actually, yeah. Wow. I do that experiment all the time. People like to shit on Nickelback and then I put it on at a bar. Everyone's singing. Everyone loves it. Everyone loves it. They think it's ironic, but I'm like, no, you actually just like this shot. I thought the biggest breaking news of this podcast was going to be you accidentally telling us the gender of your unborn baby. But in fact, it's that the National Predators love Nickelback. Oh yeah. This is what's

going to bring Nickelback back to mainstream. We, we listen to them all the time. We, I've always love Nickelback since I was a kid. I mean, they, when I was, you know, 10 years old, they were the band. Yeah. And I grew up on rock and country. My dad brought me up with like old 90s country. And then like ACDC and Def Leppard. That was like it.

Yeah. Brian Adams. I mean, you know, some of those 80s bands. And I go on a Def Leopard kick every six months where, you know, my Friday lifts this year were like my heavy leg day. And I just,

I throw on Def Leopard. My cousin who puts me through my other trainer stuff at home loves it too. So we just be, you know, jamming out. Just rock it out. Yeah. I mean, we're the same age. I remember that. too growing up, people bumped Nickelback.

And these recent years, when people started shitting on it, I was like, I kind of enjoyed. I kind of don't want to be like, hey, I love that, but now I don't care. It's the point where it's like, yeah, I like what I like. All right, wait, before you're doing the next one? Yeah. Well, Dan had a joke to me earlier because I just wanted to bring this up. He was like,

dude, Dutchie is the most. Oh, yeah, I need to actually, thank you for bringing that up. You are the most American French Canadian who's ever lived. Like, you are, and I say that. I'm not a true French Canadian. I call Well, you know how, like, people, like, say that French are, like, they'll call him frogs or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I always say I'm a tadpole. Yeah, okay, I like that. I like that, too. My dad lost all his French when he was young, so I don't speak French, but, like, I love the French culture. I love my heritage. Maurice Richard was the reason for number nine. I just resonated a lot with that. Sure.

So, yeah, but I've, yeah. But you're like, you're a country music guy. But country's bigger in Canada than is in the U.S. That's actually I've heard that. Fair. So a lot of my, what about the animal, though? It's huge in the South. like if you go to New York,

country music isn't as big as in Ontario. Yeah, that's fair, actually. Like, Morgan Wallen's doing his new tour and he's playing two nights in Toronto. Yeah,

that's funny. He doesn't play two nights in... Yeah, he wouldn't do that in... And, yeah, yeah, so it's the South and the... I always tell people the South...

People can't believe that like country that I meet down here. I'm like, Canada's the South. It's just... We rock it. Yeah, but I do also know that you once say you identify as a bald eagle if you had to pick a spirit animal.

And that's about as American. You cannot be Canadian and say your spirit animal is a bald eagle. I'm obsessed with bald eagles as a kid. I don't know why. I just loved them. I was like, you know, eight or nine years old. So, yeah.

I mean, they're pretty sick. I still think they're the sickest animal going. Oh, yeah. We see them a lot in back home. So we probably have as many as a guy. I was going to say, I bet you have more, dude. That's kind of one that we like, we like snipe the ball deagle. You know what else we lie about, dude?

If you see, if you ever see on American TV a bald eagle and they make that screech sound, that's a hawk, dude. Like the ball eagle makes a weird ass noise. They do like some hawk noise to make it sound as a hawk. Yeah, exactly. I agree. That's a complete lie. All right, we're going to take it to the kitchen. Pass shoot score.

Sushi pasta, Cadbury milk chocolate. Sushi pasta. I think pasta is score. Oh, wow, right away. Holy shit. What's your favorite pasta? I never eat it. You never eat it.

You have it before the game's all time. Gluten free. It's not like the good stuff. But the good stuff's like a nice cheat meal. Do you treat yourself to the good stuff? I don't really do cheat meals too often. My pregame meal, I get to eat gluten-free pasta, and that's kind of like a cheat meal.

Yeah. I like the good stuff. gluten-free stuff. Which, what are you talking? Red sauce? I like the pink sauce. Like the rosé sauce? Yeah.

It's got to be the best pasta dish going is you go to Europe. You get the spaghetti carbonara. Oh, yeah. That's insane. Yeah. That's like, and then I actually think sushi would be my shoot and pass would be Cadbury chocolate. I love desserts, but like just a piece of chocolate.

I don't think I would take over like a nice, really good sushi meal or pasta. What's, what's, uh. I kind of like how you. your favorite meal you just never eat yeah he's like I don't I don't have it's just like no cheat meals never have it whenever I do I feel so damn guilty yeah like it's not worth the anxiety it is playing a game the next day to be able to justify it yeah which you actually do 82 times a year

I feel like you could sneak a few posse yeah I'm I've been really trying to keep it light this year so I've been eating a lot of fish so favorite sushi I love like a like a like a tuna with like some tempura shrimp on the inside, like some of that spicy mayo. Yeah. All the bad stuff in sushi, that,

that's where it hits. I absolutely love salmon sashimi, which is super plain. Oh, no, it's bomb, though. I love it.

I like it better in Toro, actually. Dude, me too. I feel like I get dragged for liking sand. Every time we go out to sushi, I'm the guy that's ordering all the salmon. Yeah, salmon, get out of it.

Salmon, like, salmon, sashimi is like what it's, I was going to say salmon nigeris where I live. That's, that's what's up. Like, and I like it, no, I don't like Wasabi.

Wow. I like just straight, I don't put soy sauce on anything either. Oh, damn. You're just, well, I mean, you're a sushi chef's dream then. Because when they come on, they're like, no soy, no soy. I like when they make the sauces and they put a little bit on. Yeah, that's a little bit of the creamy stuff. Like, it's good.

Like, so good. Dude, well, I, I only got in. I was that guy that only got into sushi because it was a vessel for soy sauce and wasabi into my body. Like, I was like, I would like to just drink soy sauce and wasabi. But, like, if I put sushi on it, it's socially acceptable. And eventually I morphed into more comfortable shit. People love soy sauce.

Yeah. I never got into it. It's too salty. It is. It is extremely salty. I'm a low sodium. Yeah. I don't put salt on anything.

I don't like a lot of salt. I don't need a lot of salt. It's good. Yeah. It's better for you. You are a dessert guy, though. What's the dessert? If it's not cadberries.

It's really hard to beat like a chocolate brownie, like a good one with like, Alamoid. Yeah. That is just so hard to beat. But Tiramisu is like, really? I love Tiramuu. Dude, you got to be going out to more Italian. You get yourself some pasta, you get some stuff at you Matt, you've earned it.

Yeah. You I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you. Like there's a chain restaurant called North and she'll order, uh, Tiramisu in from there and when she's been pregnant, there's the stuff coming through my door, I'm just like, oh God, like, babe, like I get mad or sometimes. Like you know, like don't order me like. Like I can't have this.

Or hide it and eat it when I'm not here. Like stop because like I can say no to pasta as much I love it. I can say no to bread. All I stuff. If I see dessert, it's over. It's over. It's over. I gotta have a bite.

At least a bite. Oh yeah. They're more savory than sweet than with the desserts. No, I'd be more sweet probably with desserts. But are you more like a chocolatey? Yeah. You lean that side more than like sour gummy, like any of that stuff. Yeah, yeah.

You put fruit in the dessert off. Yeah, pass. Knock it off. Like, like what's the same? Yeah, I actually could not agree with that more. I don't like apple pie, which is people think it's not. Okay, that's actually a good feather in your cat for not being a very American. Yeah, there you go.

I don't like key lime pie. I don't like strawberry anything. Yeah. You put strawberry sauce on anything. I'm like, get this out of my face. I completely agree. This is brutal. Completely agree.

All right, let's hit him with the last two. All right, next one. This is a grab bag one, okay? Pass shoot's score. The Green Bay Packers. Okay. Pass would be, they're all pretty equal for me. Like, I'm a, I haven't always been a Packers fan.

I kind of just got on to that. I don't know where it came. I was going to say, how did that happen, by the way? I love Aaron Rogers. It was it a Rogers thing? Or we'd go back like Farr's days. I kind of like, like, I don't know, I used to watch football with my dad. I wasn't super into it.

I'm a huge football guy now. But I, for some reason, the Packers always like, I don't know, those jerseys or the tradition. I love their traditions. Like I was also Montreal-Canadians guy growing up, right? Like, just their tradition. Yeah. Packers are like the equivalent of that.

I just love that. Definitely. Like Lambo. It's incredible. It's just like their jerseys. Everyone owns the team. The whole world owns the team, you know. Yeah.

Their jerse are beautiful. It's just, they got a lot going on. And then Rogers is just, he's poetry. Oh, my God. He truly is. He's got a canon, too. It's unbelievable. So I think Gibson guitars would be score for me.

And then I'll say Forrest Gump's up is past as much as I absolutely love Forrest Gump. Wow. I cry every time. Oh, my God. How could you not? I'm not a crier. Oh, really? I'm a big movie crier.

I'm a very emotional person, but I'm not a crier. Okay. Which is weird. But Forrest Gump gets you. Forrest Gump, oh, when he's talking to her grave and I was going to say, is it, yeah, exactly. I'm done. I'm done. It's when he meets Little Forrest for the first time.

Oh, really? Oh, every time. Yeah. When he asks, Jenny, he's like, is he like me? Yeah. I'm toast. When he goes, he goes, he's talking to her grave and he's like, she's so smart, Jen. Yeah.

And he goes, you'd be so proud. And the score. That score, dude, the music. Actually, coming back from Sochi, we're in the plane. We're in the connector. So we took a charter from Sochi to Newark and then Newark. to Denver. Yeah. And we watched that. On the plane. I'm in

business class bawling. My wife's like, if the altitude, you've got a gold medal in hand at altitude. I was going to say, Matt's white his tears with a ban from his gold medal. Legit sobbing. And my wife's like, what is wrong with you? I'm like, and she's laughing at me. I'm like, I can't help it. You're like, I'm sorry. This is an incredible film. Kids, like, I haven't watched it. I don't think I've watched

it. I don't think I've watched it more than maybe once since I've had kids and like maybe piece of it. Yeah, it's just. I was you say you'll probably cry harder. Is it? Is it? And are you, are you a Hank's guy? Yeah. Who isn't? Who isn't? Yeah.

Good answer. Who is it? He's unbelievable. Even that Christmas movie that my son's obsessed with the polar express? Polish Express? I mean, we have to look.

I hear Tom Hanks voice every single day because it's either on TV or the soundtrack's playing. So yeah. There you go. I don't get sick of it because Tom Hanks is a man. Yeah. Okay. Here's your last one. This is a bad one.

Like these are all going to be not great for you. But hold on. But to be clear, they're all bad things. So score. He, and this is, version is the thing that would bother you the least. Okay.

Yeah, it's the same rankings, yeah. But they're all tough. Pass would be like, can't take it. Yeah. It would be like kind of tolerated. Okay. Pass you'd score. Never catch a fish again for the rest of your life.

Okay. But you have to keep fishing. Yeah. You fish as much. You have to keep fishing. Yeah, it's not. But you literally get scumped. No,

no, just like every time you go out. Every time I do that line. Like you fish as often as you currently do. You just never catch one again for the rest of your life. Next one is, go on. dancing with the stars.

With no practice, by the way. Like you're not a good dancer. No. I know that. No, I'm not. And you now have to go on the national stage. My son is an unbelievable dancer. I don't know how he got it.

But anyway, the wife's very average, too. She gives it to me, I'm like, babe, you're not anything right. Shut up, bow. Yeah, shout up. Beautiful, but you're not like the best dancer. All right. And then the last one is, for the rest of your life, every pair of sunglasses you put on has smudges all over it.

Oh, man. Fishing, for sure, score. Like you could not live with that Getting skunked is one of the worst We're big fishermen too We fish off the rocks and Maine all the time It beat you that it is awful Well wait, I'm actually curious

What kind of fishing do you do the most? Walleye and Trote Lake Trote Okay yeah yeah we handline for the Lake Trote Oh no shit wow I've never done that that's cool Copper wire wrapped around like a wooden board We let it out and it sinks really well

Yeah yeah You do this by hand and the spoon like Just keeps it moving And you drag the bomb a little bit, stirs them up, boom. Okay. That's fun. We do a lot of surf cat, like for bass, right, in the Northeast. And it's, I, when I was, when we were young, people would take us just like, you know, throw the barber out and you're just sitting there.

And I was a kid and I was like, trolling is the best. I mean, trolling is the best thing, right? Like, we troll for pretty much everything. Yeah. Yeah. So doing that surf cast stuff is a blast. Yeah. That wouldn't bother me.

Okay. So that might be. Sorry. I think we flipped him. I think you mean, I think you mean scores dancing with stars. We're doing. Pass is fishing. Like you can't handle it.

Absolutely. Scores, dance with the stars, and shoot would be sunglasses. Sunglasses. I can't even look at my wife's sunglasses when they're smudging. They're always smudged. Matt, same? This just despicable degenerate. He wears glasses, too.

He has smudges all over his glasses and sunglasses, and I don't understand who he sees. It's insane to me. It feels like I can see, so I'm like, whatever. It's just so easy to wipe them off. It's just like clean them. I don't get it. What's wrong with you? I don't know, dude.

I should. It's just like I can do my shirt. It's right here. I have an easy rag. I just don't ever do it. I'm fucking idiot. I can't handle it. It's brutal.

Yeah. All right. Well, I'm glad to know that fishing is this tough. Me too. That makes me happy. All right, Matt, we have taken up over an hour of your time. And we can't thank you enough.

This is about no unbelievable. Before we sign off, do you have anything you want to plug? Anything you want to say? Anything you want to push? What's up? Just drink some hedgeo, man. Yeah, I agree.

Some hedge. Guys, get on the etcho tequila train. It's fun to be a part of this and Friday beers and this awesome bar here in Nashville. Yeah, if you're in the area, come check us out. Stop by the Almost Friday Sport. It is a time and a half. I've never not, I've not been here nearly enough because I have two kids under four, another one on the way,

and my wife can't drink, obviously, and wants no part of being in public right now. But I'm dying to put in a shift here of college and NFL football at some point. Dude, you will. By the way, this is the spot during the day. Oh, yeah. I think we're going to do our Super Bowl party here this year. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah, it's a no-brainer.

This room will be, yeah, dialed. Going off. It's incredible. Well, now I know what I'm doing for the Super Bowl. Yeah, exactly. That was easy. All right, well, that's it for us. Thank you, Matt.

This is been an absolute blast. You guys are awesome. Thank you. Awesome. All right, that was our interview with Matt DeShane. God, he's the man. What a guy. It's just like, I can't even begin to say how much fun that was.

I can't get over that suit. I can't get over him leaking his daughter. Oh, my God. Yes. The gender of his third baby. Empty Nader's podcast, breaking news. Now that was some breaking news. Unbelievable stuff.

But thanks. Huge stick taps to Dutchie. Such a blast. Can't wait to get back and do it again. All right, let's close out the episode, as we always do, with our segments that we love so, so much. Let's start with the playoff trail. Oh, okay, let's start with playoff trail. Dan loves the Buffalo Sabers.

He declared them a wagon about three weeks into the season. I sure did. I sure did. And then pretty quickly, the Buffalo Sabers got dysentery. They lost a billion games in a row. And it really reminded them. of the Oregon Trail, so Dan and I do a little playoff trail game. And Dan, I'll tell you what.

We said they had to take care of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and they did. And your boy, Tage had five goals. Five. I'll give you... Just saying, five. Tage said it in our season preview. Tage Thompson is one of the most underrated guys in the league. He is a top-top player, and if you can't see that, you have dysentery.

Well, that's a bracer. But then we did say they needed to get through the back-to-back against Pitt, and they lost both. They're still in seventh. They're 12, 14. in two. The next five games against the Kings, the Aves, the Yotes, Vegas, and the lightning. There are wins in there. You've got to start winning these games. There are wins in there, and I'm telling you,

we're going to get back to 500. That's the goal. The goal remains getting back to 500. Getting back to 500 is the next step. We'll this right into Eichel Watch, Chris, because this is some good news for me. Yeah. Guys, Ikele Watch is, as many of you know, at the beginning of the season,

CP declared that Eichl would have 72 points, so it is a road to 72 points, which it looks like he's going to clearly get. And the real battle now, what we're really paying attention to now is if he gets 90 points are over, I need to eat that many shrimp cocktail during a Vegas Golden Knights game. So what's the status update on Eichol? Dan, this is a sad one. The first sad one for me, I would say. He still has 29 points in 27 games, but that is no movement this week because he missed two games starting with that win in Boston when they broke the spreek. He did play and had no points in their

win against Philly on Friday, but then missed the Boston game again yesterday. I think it was. I don't think he re-injured it. His leg, it's an undisclosed lower body injury. I don't think he re-injured it. And I'm glad that he's still practicing and skating, so it doesn't look long-term. But this is something that we can't have, especially on our road to 90.

So all of you, Eichl fans out there, I encourage all of you to have one spoonful of shrimp cocktail tonight before you go to bed because I really think that'll help him get better. Look at that. So there's some action. So I am sitting pretty, because it's really the first time Jack hasn't been on a tear.

Speaking of people who are sitting pretty, Where in the world is Austin Matthews? I declared that Austin Matthews we might be seeing the beginnings of him, I don't know, maybe demanding a trade this summer. Play up somewhere else. Maybe trying to do something nice for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but I will say he is sitting pretty.

He's got 15 goals and 19 assists for 34 points in 29 games. They've won seven of their last eight. They're seven points up for the third place lightning. The Maple Leafs are on a tear. They are a certified wagon. Under the radar. Under the radar. With teams like Boston and New Jersey,

Jersey, and we've got, you know, Vegas is still doing amazing. The islanders are on a tear recently. Toronto is just somehow flying under the radar. And they are amazing. They're top three team in the league right now. Their big four are absolutely dominating. Austin Matthews is sitting in the locker room at Scotia Bank right now. No question. Just had a nice shower. Yeah, he's running the music. He's got his playlist going, took a great shower. He's probably doing a steam, getting a little massage. but he is in your arena. Toronto fans, you look great right now. Austin Matthews at current standing.

Ain't going anywhere. All right, Dan, let's give everyone stuff to watch this week. Yeah, games to watch this week, and then we will call it a day. I'm going to go a Thursday game. We've got the Maple Leafs and Rags. Ooh, I like that. Love an original six matchup. Both teams, the Rangers, like we said, they're in our Quacketech.

They're pulling it together. Just talking about how great Toronto Maple Leafs are doing. And then on Saturday, we love a Saturday game. Vegas Gold of Knights, New York Islanders. Islanders are on a tear right now. Knights have been a top team all season. That is guaranteed to be a great match. Very cool. Thursday.

While you're listening tonight, I've got Cracken at Hurricanes. That's just a good game. Fantastic. And we might have some action on that one if Dr. Locke ever gets out of Instagram jail. So we'll stand by. We'll see what happens. Right your local congressman. Pray for Dr. Locke's.

He's sitting in jail right now. And then Monday, I'm giving you Sabres at Vegas. It's kind of like your team and my team. Yeah. I like that. I like that a lot. And then Tuesday, I've got rags at penguins. I feel like those teams just hate each other.

Yeah, no doubt. I think they do. And then ducks at King's little backyard brawl. Hey. I'm never mad about a backyard brawl. Gotta love a Southern California battle. All right, guys, that is it for us this week at the Empty Nodes podcast. Hope you enjoyed that Matt Dushane interview as much as we did, like we said.

And until then, we will see you guys next week. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody. Massive, massive. Thank you to Matt. incredible. Yeah. And actually,

you know, by the time probably the next episode comes out, Dutchie will have a nice, beautiful little daughter there.

So tons of love to the Dushain family and welcoming your third child. Beautiful stuff. Maybe. And also, guys, if you aren't

already following along with the Empty Netters Instagram page, TikTok, all that good stuff, hop on, get involved.

We've got daily posts, funny stuff, just more of this stuff, just more ways to interact with us and stay up on all the HL happenings. It's a good time. And also, if you haven't already, go to Apple, Spotify,

whatever it is, smash that subscribe button, listen, like, rate, review. Get in with us. We need it. We're cool. We might have to eat 90 shrimp cocktail. You're going to want to see that. Producer Emily just laughing the fact that we're chill guys. That's not a good look. So chill. There you go. There we go. All right, guys. We will catch you next time on the Epionnaires podcast.