Empty Netters Podcast - Logan Thompson & The Washington Capitals Are Eyeing The Stanley Cup

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

Cal Clutterbuck hangs out with the boys and gives one of the funniest interviews ever! Why can’t the Devils win without Jack Hughes? Celebrini is in elite company after his first 100 games and LT gets his 100th win in style. Nate Dogg is absolutely nuclear right now and Jack Eichel is on pace for his best season ever. The battle of Michigan delivered in college hockey, the boys break down all the action. And there’s an electric beer league hotline and blind ranking. NEW EPISODES EVERY TUESDAY & THURSDAY! Watch full episodes, shorts, and clips on YouTube. Listen to the podcast on Spotify or anywhere you get your pods. Subscribe & follow Empty Netters everywhere: YouTube: / @emptynetters Instagram: @EmptyNetters TikTok: @EmptyNetters X: @EmptyNetters PRESENTED by BetMGM. Download the BETMGM app and use code “NETTERS” and enjoy up to $1500 in bonus bets if you lose your first wager! Thanks to our Sponsors! BetMGM: Use bonus code NETTERS when signing up to receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your first bet loses. Aura Frames: Exclusive $35 off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/EMPTYNETTERS. Promo Code EMPTYNETTERS Harry's: Get Harry’s Plus Trial Set for only $10 at Harrys.com/NETTERS. BetterHelp: Start a new tradition of taking care of yourself this December and get 10% off at https://www.betterhelp.com/netters Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US) 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY) 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR) 21+ only. Please Gamble Responsibly. See BetMGM.com for Terms. First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Bonus bets are non-withdrawable. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. This promotional offer is not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Empty Netters podcast. Can you believe what this has become? There was a full 48 hours where I felt like I was like literally Superman. Jumbo loves playing Fortnite, so he gets on the sticks. Did TR show you the sauna cycle, or was that all year? Not I invented that. Almost a year now that I haven't taken a body check. That's kind of nice.

Finish tonight with some chicken fingers and a few guineasas is right into you guys. That's where this pod came to life. Ice is ready, and we are back with another episode of the Empty. Netters podcast brought to you by BetMGM, which is now live in Missouri. So my goodness, if you are in Missouri, get ready to get cracking with BetMGM. I am your host, Dan Powers, Sean, the man himself. I like Buffini. Don't ever let anyone tell you they can pronounce it Buffini.

Okay? That's your name. He's on the sticks. And then over here to my left, a man who once almost got arrested on an airplane for throwing up during takeoff. Oh yeah. Chris Powers, as always. New Orleans. Leave in New Orleans. Shout out Flip. Shut up, Flip. Bachelor party. You screamed to the flight attendant.

I've never, I've never seen you be rude to anyone in my entire life except that moment. But I was actually being polite because I was about to, I was, you're like, do you want me to puke all of the plane? She was like, you need to sit down. We are literally actively taking off. And I was like, okay, well, I am actively ejecting. So would you like me to do that on top of the person? They thought it was a ruse. They were like, yeah, right, dude, you're going in here to do heroin, like Charlie from Lost. Right. And you're like, I assure you I'm puking. Yeah.

And then I did. It was great. That was sick. It's a good stuff. Speaking of great stuff, we've got an amazing episode today. Cal Clutterbuck joins the show. And I'll tell you what, I think you guys are going to be seeing a lot more of Calcutterbach on this show. You can be the funniest guy.

You can be the funniest guy. I think we might have found ourselves a consistent recurring guest because Dude, I... Clutz is fucking hilarious. I text to my boy Kyle, who's an Islandist fan, because I thought he would be excited. And I go, dude had a clever buck on. And then I started typing,

pretty much laughed for 60 straight minutes. And I hit send on that text, but as I do, a text from him appeared. From your... Oh, yeah. And it said, gulfed with him once, pretty much laughed for four straight hour. Oh, my God.

And I was like, dude. Agree. Consistent experiences with Clutz. Shout out. out my boy Kev, who made that introduction, made that happen. But fantastic stuff. We'll get into that soon for now. We're going to get into the hot ice of the week. Kind of a quiet week in the NHO. Yes. Kind of a quiet week. There's always stuff to talk about. It's weird. We try to not be a, let's talk about this game podcast. Yeah. You know, it's weird. Like you get your news immediately

on every website and you don't need me to like recap a regular season game unless it's the winter classic or something. So there was some fun action. this week, this weekend. There was some fun games, but there was just not a lot of rippling news. You're right. We also try to snap it around,

talk about as much teams as possible. But then it's difficult. Like, I'll be honest. It's difficult to talk about the flames right now, or the Preds and the Blues. And it's like, we try. We're trying.

So we do what we can. By the way, I had a real significant hankering for a donair this weekend. Yeah, I saw this. So I made a donair. Do you know what a donair is? So you know what like a Euro is, a cabaw?

It's pretty much that. Yeah, can we break that down, by the way? Like, how did they pull that on? Well, so this is what I learned here. Okay. Folks, we'll get into hot ice at a second. Edmonton, as we've been there the last couple of years for the Stanley Cup, there are donairs everywhere.

And like some people call them doner cabab, but it's just, it's a sandwich. We, in Ireland, we have this too, but we don't call it a doner. We make it sound far less French. We call it a donor cabab. Just a donor cabab. Oh, okay.

So this is the thing. So a donor kebab is totally a thing. And most of them have, are more like traditionally Greek, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and with like, you know, you put peppers in there, tomato, onion, set zik, stuff like that. apparently a donair, which makes it a donair. And our experience has been in Edmonton, there everywhere.

And we would literally have one every single night at 3 a.m. It is ridiculous. I got a massive hankering for them. I found a couple of viral donneres that's like you make the ground beef mixture. Put a little lamb in there if you want. Yep. Chop up some onions. People are asking me to drop the recipe.

I'll do it. And then you put it down on parchment and like roll it. and press it paper thin, and then roll up the parchment, put it in the oven, cook it. And when it comes out, it's like that, it's as if it's like shaved, yeah, you know, kebab meat. Perfect. Then you make your sandwich. I learned yesterday, because people were coming after me in the comments or in the DMs,

that Donairs are from Nova Scotia. And if you look it up, whoa. They are invented in Nova Scotia. So I don't know why Edmonton got so obsessed with Donairs. That is alarming. But the big difference I found, which I'm going to do today, is I believe what makes it a Donair is Donair sauce. Oh, okay. And Donair sauce is like evaporated milk, sugar, white vinegar, garlic powder.

And like, you know what I'm talking about. When we have Donairs, you're like, what is that like sweet sauce? It's Donair sauce. So I think that is the difference. But if you look up Donair, it's like a Donair is a popular Canadian fast food sandwich originating in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I'm shocked that Halifax has been cocked. Dude, it's, I, it's bullshit. For years now, I've been saying my favorite thing about Edmonton is Donairs, but apparently

they're from fucking Halley. And no one, dude, I feel as though the fine people of Edmonton should have told us that. I think this is some stolen valor. They should have said, thank you for supporting our city, but I do want you to know that we have stolen this. We have stolen this, and that is actually from Halifax. And I'm like, oh my God.

So anyway, we were fantastic. I'm going to make Donair sauce today. Let's talk about the New Jersey Devils. Sure. The New Jersey Devil. So like we said, folks, it was a, you know, kind of a slow week, but there's definitely some talking points. And the New Jersey Devils are one of them.

We had them both. We both had them very high. I think I had them winning. Very high in the Met. And they started off the season. They were. They were. Jack has been great.

Jack gets hurt. All of a sudden, Devils have lost five straight. And they're out of playoffs currently. They're out of playoffs. They can't score. They don't score anymore. They have scored seven goals over those five games. Yeah.

I think two shutouts. Yeah. They had a four-game homestand. Lost them all. Yeah. How you doing? And now they've got the Sends who have been struggling, but then the bolts and the ducks. And I'm like, what if you lose to the Sands?

Two teams that are at the top of their divisions. If you lose the Sends, now you've lost eight straight games. Are you, okay, I look at the Florida Panthers, first and foremost, when I think of teams that are great that are underperforming, but I'm like, I genuinely do not care about their situation because of how hurt they are. I mean, the Florida Panthers, we don't need to list it, but like Kachuk, Barkov, Kulikov, Kulikov, Gajevich, Nossick, and Schwint, all are currently hurt. So, no worries. I even look at the canes and they have had so many injuries, dude. Slavin is still out.

They are world beaters considering what they're doing. Exactly. And like they're finally getting, a Slavin's still up, but they're getting kind of healthy and, you know, like they've had a couple of great games here. The devils, to me, I think are still in that I'm not worried face

because they have Jack Hughes, Brett Pesci, Zach McHughan, Jonathan Kovicev, and of getting Daddenoff all out with injury. That's crazy, dude. What are their timelines? I feel like we've been saying this all year. I, fair, good question. Kovacev, and Pesci, I'm like, what happened to you guys?

And where are you? I'm going to look this up. Keep going. Oh, yeah, because I want to know what their timelines are too. Jack, I think we've got at least another month here with Jack, which is crazy. Pesci says likely a broken rib or hand after blocking a Brent Burnshot on October 26th. Imagine being confused about whether it's your hand or rib. Say aye.

Say aye. We don't know. Sidelining him for at least a month, placing him on LTIR. So, but like, we should be close, but actually it says in December that he was still weeks away. Yeah. Focusing on building hand strength, must have been a hand. So, like, we'll probably go for, we'll say Pesci, like, January, Jan 1. Yeah, like in the new year.

Daddanov fractured hand. Jack Hughes What's going on with these hands in New Jersey? Oh shit. The hand of God, the hand of the devil. We've actually just uncovered something here. Dude, this is all, it all goes into the curse. We've actually uncovered something.

There are bodies under the prudential. Under the rock. The water is freezing. Under the golden gate. There are mummies. There are literal mummies under the Peru. Okay. And people are shocked.

There is. They have never needed us more. He was activated off IRMid November with his return timeline varying based on recovery. So he's probably getting close. Dad enough. Yeah. Yeah. And what about Kovacevich? And that'll bring me into my point, my larger point about the devils. I genuinely think with how tight everything remains in the league right now, which has been so fascinating how all of these teams are just so close in points. I mean, the devils have 33 points. there are one point off of wildcard spots and two points off of the third place in the Met.

So I think that everything is fine. Underwent knee surgery May 8th, 2025 was expected potentially not until 2026. So I think he's also like just grinding back. Yeah. Jan focused on Jan. So actually, yeah, I guess it's kind of if the devils are lurking, which they are, by the way, they're one point out of the... I just want, like they're right out, like you were about to say about the wild card, there are two points out of third in the, the met.

It's so fine. So, yeah, if they're just lurking, you're okay. You're okay. And it's clear that the team goes with Jack. Well, yeah, that. Which is a little bit rattling because, you know, you made a point of saying you were bringing up the guys on the devils and how good of seasons they're having. And I was like, yeah, you're right. but what's interesting is you have Nico Hesier with 26 points and how many games did they play?

29. Brat has 26. Timo Meyer has 23, which is amazing. You've wanted Tim O'Meier to have a great year. Dawson Mercer, 21, also big jump from last year. Nemich 15. Luke Hughes 15. Gritzuck 13.

The big thing for me is Hescher at 26 and 29 is like he sure is Patrice Berseron for me. He is a Selky type guy. Career high of 80 points. So he's very close to his. He is right on that. And it is weird, though, because not every team can have guys that multiple dudes over point per game. That's kind of ridiculous. There's like, one of there, four teams in the league that could do that.

That do that. So I'm not looking at anyone that I'm like, I need better for the degree. I'm like, yeah, Brat. And he should be in like, we're 80 point guys. I'm like, yeah. I'm like, Brad, I think clearly has it in him to, like, be a 90, 95 guy. 88 career high, yeah. But yeah, it's like you've lost your over a point per game guy.

And everyone else is doing all right. It is, you go over to goaltending. Yeah, that's the hard truth, isn't it, Dan? Markstrom with a three. That's the hard truth. With a 3.51 goals against and an 876 save percentage, that is where you're like, oh, this is why we're in a bit, we're in rough pumpkins. And is this, does that?

mean, though, that there is no savior in January. We don't return all these guys and then Markstrom gets good. I absolutely think Markstrom gets good. I, I, I, there are, there are guys in the league who have slow starts like this. Yep. That I'm like, I genuinely don't care. You're going to be fine. He's too good. Jacob Markstrom is too good for me to think that this is like an actual issue. Four shuddies last year, 250, 900 say a percentage, but 250. I mean, like, you'll take, They would be comfortably in playoffs if he was doing that right now. Yep.

I agree. So that's the issue. You're going to get bodies back. I think Markstrom's going to get his mind right. And the devils will be fine. Get their hands right. We need to figure out a way to protect their hands. Maybe they need to start wearing their gloves more off.

No, dude. No, bro. It is, um... God, dude, I wish I had this guy's character name. That would have been such a poll. But it's David Dukovny in Zoolander. Oh, J.B. Pruitt. He has a hyperbaric chamber on his hand. He's the world's greatest hand mom. Do you think this puppy would ever age? Do you think the devils would have any issues?

Their hands were in hyperbaric chambers at all the time. Can I throw a curveball at you? Yeah. We saw how easily that thing broke when Derek stepped on it. Can you imagine if Jack had that on there? There's more glass around his hand now? He sliced off. You freaking idiot? So actually, maybe, maybe, now that you're saying that, that would pamper their hands too much. We need to, we Literally one Brent Brin. You know how you... You know how you think that we all need to be eating dirt more? Yeah.

I think the devils need to be roughing their hands up. Working the minds. Yeah. What do they... There's that shit. It's like, it's like dog something, dog weed, dog wood or something, and you like put it on your hands and it makes your hands tougher. There are these guys on the internet who are trying to like turn into superheroes.

And I'm serious. Have you seen this? And they're like... They're sticking their... hands in buckets of rice and they're rubbing this like oil on it and they're like getting grip strength the likes of which I've never seen and they're like these guys are like Spider-Man holding themselves on walls with their fingertips it's real this TikTok says making my hands tougher by spraying them with dog medicine yeah and I'm not crazy this is happening it's crazy

dude I think it's like it's for dogs I don't know if it's for dogs or not but if you If you type in dog med on Google, it auto fills to medicine on hands. So we got to send the devil's dog medicine. That implies that more people are searching for dog medicine for their hand than for their actual dog's illness. We got to send the devil's dog medicine. Yeah, that's what it is. And then we're going to toughen up their hands. And then, dude, guys, then they lift the cup.

They might dent the cup. They're going to throw it through the ceiling. Yeah, rip it a point. It's like those guys who like rip the toths off of beer cans. They're going to do that. that to the cut. Okay. We got to toughen up the devil's hands. Taffin up the devil's hands a little more from Marksson.

But I'm not worried about them. Another guy that I'm not worried about in the slightest because he is off to a torrid start to his career. Macklin Celebrini plays his 100th game. Becomes the sixth fastest, or the six most

points ever. Through 100 games. Through 100 games. The list. Number one. Sydney Crosby. Unbelievable. That's actually shocking to me. I thought I assumed it

was McDavid by a mile. Well, I'm a... Yeah, keep in mind, this is among active players. Yeah, yeah. I was surprised. It's like, what? Yeah. Crosby 1, 132, OV2,

which you always say young OV. Yeah, the, the recency biased disrespect that happens with OV all the time. Young OV was special. Yeah. Still special, but young OV was special. three Malkin, four Krill Capriza. Incredible.

Dude. People sleeping on krill, too. Incredible. It's insane. 17 mil, dude, should have been 18. Should have been 20. Make it 20. Yeah.

You bitch. Five, McDavid, six, Mac. Pretty pretty good. How good is he? I think he is generational. I think... That's the question, right? Yeah, yeah.

He's of my blood. Yeah. And is he, is he, like this guy? 100% In a few years we're going like, oh, who is he kicking off Mount Rushmore? Like Sid came for Gordy Howe, dude. Like, Gordy Howe was fucking minding his own business on Mount Rushmore, looking at the views. He didn't do anything to anybody.

He did nothing, dude. He didn't do nothing to no one. And then with Wayne and Bobby and Mario. Yeah. Looking at the views. And then Sid was born. and he came for him. Do you think it's better to be a Rushmore guy

or better to be like Yager? A guy who's one of the all-time greats, but no one's like, you're definitely top four. So every time his name is whispered, people are like, what a, I mean, God. Okay. No one's ever debating. No one's ever coming for Yon.

No one's ever coming for him, dude. You're just, you're just, great take. Yeah, you're just living as like, dude, be a six. Be a six. I'm the man. Dude, be that, live right in that. six area.

And yeah, that's great. You know what, dude? Because I feel like I fucking do this every episode, but you're, you picked the perfect number because if you get a little bit less than that, now you're like, now people are like, he's not even top 10. Exactly. And now everyone's higher, you're like, what happens to Ovi in my opinion. You're go.

Wait, what? Which is what happens to Ovi in my opinion. Like that kid said was like, he's obviously top 10. And I was like, is he obviously top 10? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. So it's like, that's six. I mean, you can be yager. Be younger. That's the problem. You can't be anyone else though. It's literally be younger.

I do think Macklin is, I mean, it's ridiculous to say right now, but he is certainly on pace of being generational. He is 19 years old, dude. He's Jason Taylor. And he is, he's just, this isn't, you know, we're not having a fluke here. This is, he's one of the best players in the league right now. It's sick. It's crazy that the jump is so. was so immediate. Not that he wasn't nasty last year he was. Could have been rookie. Yeah, I mean. But just this year, I'm like, oh my God, dude. I mean, Chris, we're about to get into Nathan McKinnon later in this episode and how he's on pace for like 136 points. Macklin's on pace for like 125.

Dude, can I ask a question? Imagine being 19 years old. This man is so far, this boy, rather, is so far away from legally being able to drink a beer. in the city that he plays a professional sport. And he is on pace to have well over 100 points in the National Hockey League. The, let's see, basic stats. I feel as though we are in a point boom.

Would you agree with that? You think we're booming points. At least like, you know, in the 90s, like Eiserman was scoring a thousand points and then it really went. I mean, Jimmy Ben won an Ross with like 80 points. Yeah. And then it dipped and then, but now we're up again.

I always love doing this. We have officially, we have, oh my gosh, it's even more than I thought, boom, 35 players who are over a point per game right now in the NHL. Yeah, okay, that's great. One of them is John Tavares. Dude, don't even get me. I can do a whole fucking episode on Tavares.

How many games have the Ducks played? I believe the Ducks have played 30, 30. Let me check that though. Might be less. The Duckeys have played 29. 29 games. Okay, so just for context, Beckett Seneca is on pace for 67.8 points, which would lead all rookies. Yeah.

I think Mac had 63. Right around there. I think, yeah, 62 maybe, right? And we're in a point boom, if you'll give me that. Sure. In a league. Let's live in a world where we're booming on points. Yeah. In 2005, Joe Thornton won the heart and the Art Ross with 125 points. 96 assists. God, I didn't really say it was that close to 100. Played for two teams. That would have been sick. Yeah, which is fucking lunacy. Led the league. Okay. Sid had 102 points that year as a rookie. 39 goals, 63 assists.

It was insane. Like, that is so stupid that I'm like, what literally? How many points did Ovi to have that? Literally, what are you talking about? And Ovi, Ovi had 106, 52 goals, 54. 52 talks as a rookie is disrespected. And I'm like, Mac is in, Max, generational in an era where we're scoring more, getting 60 points. Beck at Seneca, looking NHL ready.

I've said it 10 times, looking NHL ready immediately, 67 points. 106 points as a rookie. We, I can't process what we will do the day someone does that again. Bro, if they will ever. Can you even fucking wrap your brain? Gavin McKenna comes up next year and has 103 points. Yeah. People will lose their shit.

Well, well, here's the thing. It would be if Macklin was doing this last year. Yeah. It's the exact same thing. Yeah, right. Like Macklin right now is just doing what Sid and Ovi did their first year in the league. Right. Yeah, exactly.

Which makes Sid so Because don't forget Ovi was You know He was a year older He was also playing pro in Russia The year before Like

Literally Sid was in Oceanic And went like this And I will be in the NHL now And I'll have 103 points please sir And I was like What Dude that I'm sorry

You what? It's insane It's crazy Rookie But it's such good Company that Macklin is in. And as I said, our last episode, we did our quarter season awards.

And I was like, he is, I would straight up give him the heart right now because he is, he is taking this really random, said Mack. Yeah, this really random sharks team that a lot of people thought would finish at the bottom of the league again and they're flirting with a playoff spot. And so much of it is because of him. Yeah. So much of it. Man, those guys, this is actually cool.

Those guys were extra special. Like this, that is not done, but they did. So, a Sittanovi rookie year is... People have only been over 100, seven times ever. And it's Mario Joey Juno for the B's. That's gas. Crosby, Howard Chuck, Ovi, Stasny, Salani, most ever, 132 points as a rookie. 76 goals.

That is... Was he 18, though? Or was that an Ovi situation? Either way. What? Are you saying to me? Can you imagine you draft him and you're like, dude.

Yeah. He was 22. Okay. Yeah. So that's a little different. For sure. For sure. For sure.

18. Sid 18, dude. Yeah. We might never see it again. Right. Never see it again. We honestly. Think about that for a second.

All you watching at home going, look at Mac right now. Imagine if this was literally last year. Yeah. And you were like, wait, what? But again, it's, I think he, I genuinely think Macklin is generational. And, you know, I, I think Badaard, his jump. this year has just been so fun to see. Like, don't forget, he's, he's only three points behind Maclin.

Yep. He's to, you know, he's in fourth place in the league. So I think he is flirting with, if not certainly generational as well. Yeah. But, I mean, Jesus Christ, Macklin. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Going to another 100 milestone, little stick taps to our boy.

Logan Thompson gets his one. 100th win. 39 saves in a shoutout against the Blue Jackets. Unbelievable. First shot out of the year. I know. And he has so many one goal against games. But he's 5.0 and 1 in his last six starts.

And dude, the one was 400th, which I didn't even realize. Yeah. He was texting. I was like, dude. He was like, I can't believe that was for it. But he actually, I'm glad he did it this way. Did it in style. So question for you, Christopher, because you have been very lukewarm on

the team. Yep. Now sitting at first of the Met, Washington Capitals, kind of a wagon. Dude, and I feel six times a fool because almost, actually, no, OVee did start super hot last year. So maybe flashback to the year before when OVie was like, ah, I'm just here for the boys. I was like, oh yeah, yeah, you guys stink. And OV, thank you truly from the depths of my heart for everything you've given this game, but like you're here. And keep yager in, dude, but like, you're not, you ain't about that life anymore. And then last year he was like, I'm the Terminator, you're a bitch, I am about that life. I might score a thousand goals. Literally the term. I might score a thousand goals, yeah. Think about that. I can't. But this year, it did seem like he was like,

I'm for the boys now and I got my thing and we good. And he started really slow. We were all like, oh, he loves a chase. He's going to score those. He was three away from 900. He's going to score those three goals in in the first two games of the year. Took him like 10. And LT was playing great, but the Caps just weren't playing that good. Yeah. And it seemed to me that I was like, this is the team. This is the team I thought they were last year, which is a bubbly wildcard team. Yeah.

Which is fine. You have a great goalie. And a combination of LT stayed incredible. Ovi woke the fuck up. What is he? 14 goals now or something. Yeah, he's got more. Dude, he's got 14 and 15, 29 points in 30 games plus 11.

Dude, Ovi. Dude, let me check this. Look at that, dude. He's dished. Still the case. Yeah, it is. Sid. Ovi has more assists than goals.

And Sid has more goals than assists. And Ovi has more assist than Sid. What's going on? What in the fuck is going on, dude? These two, dude, they're always just toying with us. This is their whole, this is all simulation. The entire NHL for the last 20 years has been a simulation. I have a lot to talk about with the caps.

Okay. But to answer your question, they are a wagoon again. Yeah. And I fear, no offense, kind of what happened in playoffs last year. You know, because I think they would tell you, they were like, oh, man, Carolina, like, boat raced us just with, like, the speed and the intensity. So I'm kind of like, you might be the same team, but they are officially nasty again and are going to be very near the top of the MET the whole way through. Yeah. I mean, dude, their goal diff is just so great.

It's incredible, dude. They've got so many guys who are so. in the positives, in the plus minus. But there's a few things. The OV respect meter is peaking. And I need that to be the case for every fan of hockey right now. I mean, you've got to be talking about this guy with so much adoration. It's ridiculous.

Jacob Chikrin is now, if you are not on Team Canada, what's that? If you're not on Team Canada, if you're not on Team Canada, What the hell are we doing? I believe it was last year. Weren't the Caps the only team without anyone at Four Nations? Oh, that might be true. I think it was. That's really funny.

And that is really funny. And I am now here to say, dude, LT is your starting goalie, Canada, and Jacob Chikrin is like, dude, he's got 11 goals, 14 assists, 25 points, and 30 games. He's a plus 24. He's legitimately like after kale. I'm almost like he's like it's him. Yep. Jacob Chikrin needs to be a lock. And then also, how about the fucking fine wine that is John Carlson?

Yo. You want to talk about respect? You want to talk about demanding your risk? Yes. No one talking about John Carlson enough. 23 points plus 10, six goals, 17 assists in 26 games. dear God But then

There's a guy that I'm waiting for My man But Stromer's playing great again Protas like you said Perfect hockey player 10 and 10 He's playing great again Ryan Leonard was Buzzing

The last four or five games And then he got hit by the Trooper train By the way I talked about this last night Clean hit Yep I am so like I've come around to If you slow-mo Every single hit

there's going to be head contact. Like think about the way your body moves when you get hit by another man flying 25 miles per hour on the ice. Your head's going to go forward and it's that that was a good hit. Shoulder tucked. Leno kind of had his head down.

Brought it up the last second. He got popped, hurt his shoulder. He's going to be okay. But it's like that was a clean hit. But he's playing great. And then you've got guys like Connor McMichael who was so good last year he's only got four goals right now but as this team's like starting to cook a little bit

feel like you're seeing him starting to wake up a little bit and it's just higher and higher that this team can go the big ones for me are uh pl who's out right now very good it's gonna be he's he's got zeros through six only six games though yep but you get back him in and he starts doing what he was doing last year and that's a big like holy shit a big if so a Big if definitely based on his career. Right. Because he was so good last year, I mean. Yes.

I don't mean like he's not going to do something. Yeah. Yeah. But Tom Wilson, 17 goals, 15 assists, 32 points in 30 games plus 19. He has this 25% shooting percentage. Ridiculous. I feel about that. But for me, Tom Wilson must be up there on.

high up there on most valuable guys in the league. They love him too. It's just... They fucking love him. Yep. And it's just for what he does, he's another one dude. How is he not on Team Canada? Yeah.

Well, bro, this is... We don't need to go back into this, but this is what I was talking about with the other app and we're like, Mac and Bedard got to be in at this point, which I kind of hear you. But it's like,

the people that you cut off Team Canada is crazy. I know. It's a really hard conversation. To be Tom Wilson, to be to be an over point per game guy now in your career on pace for like well over 40 goals. To be that good at killing penalties, to be that physical, to have that much of a motor, the guy can play fucking 30 minutes a game if he wants to. That is a dude. It's say what you want.

I think I went on this rant last year, but he is high on my list of like every team in the world would kill for. Tom Wilson on your roster. Yeah. A guy that fucking gritty who's going to get you 80 points, that is insane. Oh, dude. When would we do like the rat, all-time rats? Yeah. You know, like most productive rats.

He has had such a cool transformation into I am, obviously I'm going to stir the pot, but I'm very good at hockey. Yeah. I'm producing at a level that your team depends on. Yeah. That's sick. It's unbelievable. Let's take a quick ad break and then jump back into another monster in the league right now.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, you know I've got to talk to you about BetMGM because they are our favorite partner and they bring you this podcast and I love working with them and I want you to work with them too because every Tuesday of the NHL season, BetMGM is dishing out extra winnings with the NHL Oz Boost token. Here's how you get in on this fun because you know I'm playing. I want you to play too. So you need to download the BetMGM app and then you log in to your... account and you add an NHL wager to your bet slip. Then you just activate the token. Ping,

how about that? And if your boosted bet hits, you get a bigger payout. So if you haven't joined the bedem gym family yet, like I'm saying, what I want you to do, because now is the time, download that app and use promo code netters. That's N-E-T-T-E-R-S. And you get up to $1,500 in new player offers on your first wager. Is that a joke? No, it's not. It's very serious. Download that app. Use that promo code netters. Use the NHL odds boost token. Get the 1,500 new player offer and make it legendary. We're back and we've got some quick hitters before we get into some other stuff, but Nate McKinning is having an MVP year again.

Yes, he is, Dan. I got a couple things to say. First, some props. He's dominating the league on the best team. He's on pace for 138 points. His career high is 140, which is an obscene number, by the way. I feel like we just talked about a point boost, point boom. It's easy to become numb to it.

140 points is an obscene number in the national. Probably the, well, we both made our piece about Badard and Mac, but like probably the odds favorite to win MVP. Go check that MGM right now. And he's so fun because of what he's capable of. I would even argue, and you know I'm such a Cooch Stan. But Cooch is like a silent assassin in a way. Like I'll just turn on the game or I'll look up the bolts box score and it's like, Cooch four assists.

Cooch goal and four assists from that points. And they're all, they're not even secondary. They're like great passes, but it's just, just, no one's racing to Twitter for the cooch play that often. Yeah. And I'm a cooch stand. I love cooch. Nate and Connor, certainly. I feel that are the two guys that constantly, I'm getting texts.

Did you see that? Did you see that? Did you see that? On Saturday, he plays the game versus the Rangers, Nate Dog, tie game with four minutes left, power play, shot from the point, rebound up in the air, Nate, baseball bats it into the goal. Bang. I'm already getting text. Nate. Nate Dog got it again.

Yes. Rangers tie it with the goal he pulled. Yeah. Was it quick? I think it? Yeah. I think so. Rangers tie it late.

Goes to overtime. Let me check that. I get an immediate text again. Nate Dogg, did you see that? Toey, backhand, back bar out. Take a walk. Take a dog walk.

Nate sellied hard too. Which I like seeing fired up Nate in a big way. it was quick of you so first of all just flowers because those were two sick fucking goals insane

absolutely sick fucking goals um my question to you is how sick was the overtime goal how sick was Nate's overtime goal I mean so sick

like I hold on I'm watching the wrong one room I'm watching the basketball bat You watched Toey I've seen it I know I'm just saying Watch it right now

I mean It's sick But it's not Like I wasn't losing my mind over that Okay I kind of agree And I don't mean to be like That wasn't that cool

But I'm the amount of Love it received Okay I was like social It's what's funny is I find the ability To elevate and rip a backhander like that more impressive than the backhand toi. Completely

agree. Literally what I was going to say. The best part of that goal is that backhand. The backhand is moronic. Yeah. I've actually never been the biggest backhand towey fan. Okay, I actually have a... We've got an offline about this because I have a lot to say. Okay. But...

I think a backhand towey's cool. I don't think it's... I don't think it's that unreal. I also don't think it's that hard. Okay, actually, let's talk about it right now. Okay. It isn't. It isn't. I don't even think it's that effective.

Okay, that's, this is what I've learned. And who just said this, dude? But basically, the argument was the toe drag is actually, if you have the skill to do either, I would say neither are that hard. Right. Would you, like, can we just live in that world? Like, it's not an easy thing to do if you're just like, I'm learning hockey. I'm like, toe drag that guy at speed. Yeah.

Like, that is hard. But if you're these guys, I'm like, you can toe drag people. Yeah. The toe drag actually, and you say this all the time, isn't that effective, I think, because it's not that deceptive. And if you can really snap it around and you can turn it into a shot, like Matthews and Bedard for sure. But in terms of like the move, you're, you always say this to me on D. You're like, I know exactly where they can only go one way. Like their toe drag.

You also can't really pull it inside to protect yourself. Like it's kind of like out front. And you're clearly, like you've flipped your stick over. Yeah. And somebody, I'll find this clip for you. Somebody just said, like, an NHL guy was like, I never backhand towie because I was like, whatever. I'll just tow drag people.

And then he trained with Nealander. And he was like, dude, it's way better because you have the puck on the left. You have to see, but like, it's on your fore. You're like loading a shot. It's in the shooting zone on your forehand. And you can like step in the D's like, you're about shoot. And then you just, you can just roll your hand. Yeah.

It actually becomes a move. Like you can pull it. around because the backhand toe. They had to respect the shot. There's a toe drag, I'm like, I'm not respecting your shot because your stick is upside down. And I was like, actually, that is true. I think, I think backhand towie, I always grew up with being like, that's like the flashiest, dumbest

thing. Yeah. And I'm like, that is actually the only towie you should ever be doing. You're back in on backhand. Yes, because you, you show shot. You show shot. Dude, this, that is, whoever said that to you is a moron. It's an NHL players. Well, he's, he's a, he's a moron because... I'll find you this clip.

No, but it's... Think about it. If I'm a righte, you can also show shot and then just roll your hands forward into a deep, like, into a normal tow track. Like, you can show shot with either tow drag.

It's all I'm saying. I think it's a cleaner, I think it's a cleaner exit around the D because I'm going like forward still instead of coming all the way. Whatever it is. I'm just, I want it to be very clear. There are, you can show shot on both. A toe drag. A backhand toe drag is, is effective. But you can show shot with both.

I think it's a greatest move of all time. And I respect that. I respect that for you. But the backhand shot was... The backhander is just unreal. I want to give some love to the Rangers. They're 2-0.2 since Fox has been hurt. And we said that if they go 3 and 7, they're dead. Season is over. And they're 2.0.2. They haven't lost in regulation. And both their losses have gross. school. They've been very hard done by. People are saying they're better without Adam Fox. By both losses.

Remember we brought it up? Last time he was hurt. They're like seven, two, and one. Yeah. Here we go. God, interesting. Do they have to trade Adam Fox? Ewing theory.

I like it. But the Nate dog is just, you know, he's out of control. And another sick OT winner that we're just going to touch on quickly, the play in the Vegas game, just remarkable. was so sick. Two, two against the Rangers, N-O-T, 16 seconds left, clean face-off draw, right back to the defenseman by Eichael. Ikel takes off, indirect pass off the boards. Ikel break away. What a pass, first of all. Obviously, they practiced that, but like perfectly placed pass. Ikel, I forget who was all over him, but like getting his stick slashed out of his hands,

basically. Yes, literally. Dill goes backhand, forehand, bang. It was just, it was beautiful in every way. Yeah, the stick blowing up and, and him just doing Selly was great. That's actually, and I'm sure that's happened before, maybe even by Vegas. I just kind of watched it. I saw it happen and I was like, oh, fuck, that was awesome. That is a really interesting play because three on three, that these are the plays I dreamed of when four on three was invented where I was like,

yeah, it's just chaos because anything can happen. I want more of that. And you got to be super aware of that on ozone draws now because I don't see why that should be, That's like automatic. Boom. You win that drawback by. Take off. Yeah.

Every fucking time. And credit to whoever was the offside D on the rags on that play. It's probably the guy who knocks his stick out. He does. The second Jack takes like one hard crossover step, he's like, fuck. Like he takes off too. Yeah. He can see it.

He's like, oh shit. Yeah. And again, per my opinion, that's the best skater in the NHL too. So you're like, fuck. Holy shit. But yeah, that was really cool. And I just. love that play so much and that's something you've got to have your head on a swivel

for if you haven't seen it go watch that Ikel overtime goal because that was fucking awesome execution by everybody. Yes, very much so. Carter Hart, two and O, two. Both O.T. Or no, one shootout, one OT. And I will say too, nothing, I used always say this about Rask.

Rask would, every time Rask would get beat, it was just because like, Rask would come out and take the perfect angle and just kind of go like this. Yeah. And be like, if you can find the puck-sized hole past me, it will go in. And he obviously made incredible saves and is one of the most slept on and best goalies of all time. Correct. But he, in my opinion, rarely made like desperation reactionary flailing limb saves because

he was always in the right spot. Most of the goals Carter Hart's given up are kind of like that. Like that one, I think it was Laffey that barred him. Yeah, he's a big angles guy. He's just right here and it's like, wow, great shot. You know, point being, I haven't seen Carter Hart out of position or look floundering. What's it? what are they, not to chirp Hill,

but the Merle's in an army always say like when they lose their crease too much, they look like a street hockey goal, you know, they're like diving and all of them. Carter Hart has been very like, I'm good, which is my fear for him coming back was he's going to be so out of his element.

But it's going to be very interesting to see if, you know, if Carterhart gets some reps in here while Hill is hurt and all of a sudden he is, you know, 15 games in and looking good, it's going to be very interesting what happens. I know. Very interesting.

You have a stupid wedding story. Yeah, I got a story for you. Why do you always have some crazy story when you go to a wedding? Cool shit always happens to me. I don't think this is cool shit, though. Cool shit always happens to me. No, I actually, something funny happened, and then I have something epic to tell both of you.

Okay. And I think it's epic. You guys might hate it and be mad. I told you, but I was like, God, that is so awesome. Okay, so funny thing, I was at a wedding in Naples. I told Sean about that, and congrats to Devin and Farber. a lovely event. I'm flying home back to L.A. from Fort Myers, and another buddy, Teddy and Emma are on the way to Boston.

You met them. Yeah, they're great. You flew to Fort Myers? Yeah, he's closest to Naples. I know, dude, I actually was laughing about the childhood days. Man, many a time at this airport. Teddy and Emma board a jet blue flight to Boston and the entire UMass club team is on the flight, which actually fired me up that the UMass club team is playing someone in Florida.

You don't always get that. Yeah, the fact that they're traveling. It's insane. Take up all four rows. And as they're boarding, one of the players rips the loudest, wettest fart he can possibly rip. And everyone on the team starts dying, laughing. They're moving the, they're turning the nozzles on. And a flight attendant even has to walk by with her nose plugged.

And I immediately get a text from Teddy that's like, this happened. And I was like, do you ever age out of that with the boys? When you're with the group of your boys, do you ever age out of a perfectly timed fart in public? No. And I'm going to go one further and say, don't exclude the gals in that. Yeah, fair, Dan. I think the gals, when the gals are farting together, I bet they're laughing too. Do you think girls hang out at sleepovers and rip ass?

Yes. You do? Yeah, I do. I really do. I don't know. See, my girlfriend farts a lot. Yeah. An insane frequency, an insane volume, an insane smell.

But she didn't do it for like the first, she trapped me. About the first year, there was no farting at all. Right. And then she got comfortable. They're incredibly good at controlling it. And I think that there are girls out there who would not fart in front of their friends. Yeah. And maybe like me until they're very, very comfortable.

Yeah. Like my girlfriend was with me. Yeah. So some girls. I don't know. I could see it either way. I think there are some girls who are even around their friends. they're like, no, I don't do that.

Yeah. I'm a pretty girl. I'm a cutesy girl. But I think there are some girls who are like, whatever, all over. But I don't think you ever grow out of it with the boys. Just you with the team, the whole team there. Fart is always funny. The whole team there?

I will say, though, I have, however, I hate this move. Oh. Well, I don't, I don't partake in this. You don't even, or did you, you do urinal, you do urinal fart? I remember we had this conversation? Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you were a yes, urinal fart. I was pro urinal fart because you're in a bathroom.

Yeah, bathroom fart's fine. There's a place to pass gas. It's a bathroom. But, uh... You don't fart into the toilet and flush it? For, yeah. Do you imagine every time you had to fart? You're like, I gotta go to the bathroom, sorry.

Um, farting on it in a trapped, confined space. I don't care if you've not taken off yet. Yeah. That is a wild. But what about all the boys there, though? I don't care. Team jumper. You know it's going to hit.

You were just in the terminal, dude. Let it rip out there. Uh, yeah. I think it's just, it's very inconsiderate. You also, you come across like a bunch of dipshits, too. Yes, but you are. You're like, you're, do you ask gloves here? Yeah, yeah.

You are idiots, unfortunately. In the best way, I'm not an insult. I'm not mad about having a laugh with the fellas. I'm mad about everyone, including the flight attendants that you trapped into your wet farts. I couldn't tell if she was part of the bit. Like, I couldn't tell if she was like, I'm just going to lean into this laugh and like make the boys laugh even harder or if she was truly. I bet it was both. Yeah.

I bet it was like, oh, we can make a lot. funny make a joke of this but also you this smells bad it smells bad okay well this transitions perfectly into what i wanted to tell you guys okay this is a piece of news i just acquired and it makes perfect sense to me and i thought it was amazing okay and this will now change your opinion on something that you do all the time forever so apologies in advance uh someone at the wedding told me i found out this news their buddy works for a commercial airline and When a plane lands and pulls up to the gate and they sealed fucking thing and they walk down the jet bridge and they open the door. Yes.

The people on the land side, not on the plane, open the door, gag, violently gag at the smell that comes out of the plane. Because everyone on the plane has just been like eating, burping, farting, B.O. That's been sucked in there. and we all just acclimate to, like, you're just sitting there, you don't smell a thing. He goes, when that door opens, it is the worst smell. No way. Man has, like, we literally have to go like this. We're like, oh, fuck.

It is the worst smell that a man has ever smelt every single plane door I open. The putrid shit that you guys are sitting in for six hours. I was like, oh. Can you fucking believe that? Oh, my God. Oh, that's so gross. I'm never flying again. That's so.

Michael's every single person's farting and blah, blah, blah. That is so gross. And it also makes so much sense. I was like, oh my God. He's like, it's, it is horrific. Yeah, of course it is. Of course it is. It's 300 people.

You're literally in a metal tube up in the air for like six hours with hundreds of people. They're like bringing like gross food to the first class. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it just sick, it just cycles through. And there's a bathroom on there too that people are shitting in and pissing in. He was like, you would not believe. It is like the worst moment of my day every day. Like having that waft of smell, wall of smell hit us.

Yeah. You know what that. That is so rattling. Dude, that is that is so rattling. And I'm just sitting there. I'm just sitting there watching movies. Well, you know what's crazy. I kind of am this way all the time.

anyway, if that information does not make you take a shower the second you get off a plane from now on. Like that's in your hair, in your clothes. Oh. I'm so mad I know this now. I know. I thought Dan would be mad. I thought you might like it.

I'm pumped. I know it. I, that is just. Well, I mean, I'm glad I know. Yeah. Because now I can do even more things to, to, no wonder we're getting sick all the time on planes. Pretty gross. You would think that they would have, like, the best.

best hepa air filters ever, though. You would imagine, but I guess not. But it's like, what can you do, you know? Right. You know they're always saying, like, oh, it's all recycled air on planes? Well, aren't we, like, surrounded by air? Why can't we just take in more air? Well, that, okay, so, but that's right, because you have to seal the plane, right?

Right, it's like, yeah, it's pressurized. I think the next evolution of planes needs to be a way to get the windows open. Mm. Just flying lower. Yeah, honestly. But then it takes longer. Doesn't it? I don't know.

I think the higher we get, the faster you can go. It's like a shorter, if you're like closer to the planet, right? It's like a shorter circumference. Whereas if you're farther away. So I think it's all conspiracy. Why are we flying lower? We got to be flying lower. Someone, a pilot, tell me what's going on here.

Why don't we fly lower? But there's got to be a system where you can like the windows, maybe there's an outer layer that the windows can open. And then that air gets in. And then there's like a inner layer that's sealed a little bit more and you just barely crack those windows. So then it's like the air that gets in there. I don't know.

I don't even know if you could because it's like it's so pressurized. I know. Yeah. It's crazy. That is literally gagging. Yeah. No shit. Well, a lot of shit, actually.

Tons of shit. It's all shit. It's all shit and farts and burps and unspoiled food. Dude, can you believe that? I was so shook. It's just crazy Yeah like that we're all like just We're in here

I sit there dude Think about those long flights too Like flying to Europe Dude I'm flying home this Christmas Yeah yeah You're gonna be in 11 hours You're gonna be in that poop chamber For 10 out

Fucking person Say apologize to the person Standing at the door when you get out When you get out say I'm very sorry I'm so sorry what just happened to you Now you know Now you think about the hot flights you're on When you're like God I was sweating my bag

Off that whole flight That is amazing door dude Oh God All right, on that note, let's take an ad break and then get into some college talk. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp, and it is the holiday season right now, and there's no better time than to get involved with BetterHelp, because therapy can be a great way to amp up your holiday traditions. During the holidays, you've got a ton of traditions, whether you come from a huge family

and you celebrate with tons and tons of people, or you don't have a lot of family, or you're starting your own right now, and you kind of need new traditions. It's a perfect time to create new ones to find out what works for you and your family. And therapy is a great way to combine those two things to feel what works amazing. I have a bunch of these. Every holiday season, I sit down with one of my dear friends and we go over all of the things that we did that previous year that we really like, that we're proud of, things that we can work on, we share them with each other.

It's a new tradition that we started a few years ago. It is fantastic. And it is because of therapy. It's great advice and great work. ways that we can kind of work on each other, work on ourselves, because the holidays can be a crazy time. There's so much going on. It can be stressful at times. It can be overwhelming. So December is a perfect time of the year to implement therapy and working on the things that are going to make you feel good, your family feel good, so you can take care of yourself.

And starting some new traditions could be amazing, whether it's perfecting a new cookie recipe. We've been making cookies every Christmas for the past few years, and it's been fantastic, trying tons of different recipes. And now it's turned into a tradition. that we do with the family. It's so therapeutic. It's fantastic. It's something I look forward to all the time. And these are the type of things

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for Netters College puck drop. Another fantastic weekend of college hockey. We had some upsets. We had some expectations that were met. Great stuff. Starting off CP with Minnesota at Ohio. Ohio State, unbelievable stuff from Minnesota. Dude, it was another split. We see a ton of splits this year. Parodies everywhere, but Minnesota went to Ohio State and beat them 6'3. It was Thursday Friday. Friday, Ohio State held them on 6'5 in overtime.

Yep. But the Gopher's transition is still on, I'm saying, because they were dead, DED dead after the first 10 games of the year. And now I'm like, okay, keep winning. Sneaking wins because they were supposed to be dangerous. Yeah. And they're starting to every now and then look a little dangerous still. They're winning big games and that is way different than the first, you know, few weeks of the season.

So Minnesota is definitely, they have reached, I'm not sleeping on Minnesota. Yeah. Right. Tough game. You know, I'm not deading them. Yep. Maybe the best team in the country. It's incredible.

Number 10, Dartmouth goes to Brown, beats them 7.3 at home on Friday and then Yale 6-1 at home on Saturday. They're 10 and 0. Dartmouth is not playing around. They were already a top 10 ranked team. Yes, these are all Ivy games. Maybe they're not playing the Michigan's and stuff like that yet. But like we said, dude, you have to take care of business. You cannot slip against unranked teams.

You cannot slip against rival opponents in league opponents. And every single week, it feels like Dartmouth is just beating the brakes off of teams. They're flying around the ice. It's actually crazy how good this team is. I think we're going to see Dartmouth in the tournament. Me too. I think it would be bad at this point. I think that we're going to see them make some serious noise.

This was an awesome. We almost made this our game of the week, Duluth and Western Michigan. So I think this was really cool for two reasons. Duluth beats Western Michigan in Michigan 4-1 on Friday. Then Western Michigan beats them 3-2 on Saturday in OT. The reason I think it's cool is because Duluth, we had, Duluth went on that insane run and we were like, holy shit, they might be a top three team. Plant Bros. Just buzzing.

They slipped up one, but it was like, they're really good. They have a little time off. Then you go, you beat Western Michigan in Michigan. And I go, it's a reminder that Duluth is that boy. They're that good. And I'm like, great. But I actually think the return volley from Western Michigan was so important because they, defending champs have been chirped so much that they're like, we haven't fucking played

anybody. They can't beat good teams. Their wins are meaningless. And I'm like, they just beat Duluth, who we all think is one of the best teams in the country. For sure? So that was a great split. That's a great series.

That was a great split. Important wins for both teams. Yeah, no doubt about it. Number 15, BC, big weekend, in mass, tilt. They're playing Lull. BC beats them 3-1 in both locations on Friday and Saturday. Dean Laterno steals the show, three goals over the weekend. Let's talk about them because my Dean's list this week is BC specifically, or BC, but specifically,

James Hagen's and Dean Laterno. Yeah. Dean Laterno last year. had a very poor season. Yep. Very poor season. And after being a first round pick by the Boston Bruins and like horrific, not very poor. Oh, it was horrific.

Yeah. However, a bunch of reports came out that Laterna was hurt all season long. And now this season, he's healthy. And here he is 17 points in 16 games, one point behind James Higgins for team lead. One goal behind Higgins for team lead, too. Yes, good call. And these two, both Bruins draft picks at BC. playing really, really well,

you now start to be like, holy shit, what do they have here? But my question is this. We talk about guys who are stealing the show in the league right now. Macklin Celebrating, we saw what he did at BU. Will Smith, we saw what he did at BC. Jack Eichol, saw what he did at BU.

These guys were lighting college hockey on fire. We've got Hagen's and Laterno here over a point per game, but just barely. If you were a Bruins fan, Are you excited about this? Are you like, you know, both these guys, are you like, I think I maybe wanted more? They're both return players. They're not freshmen.

Is this something that you are fired up about or is this something that you're pretty excited about? I'm thrilled about Luterno because even when he, I know his first round pick. And dude, how many times do we bitch about? They're like, we took this guy in the first round because he projects to be a great third liner. And I'm like, what? What? Yeah. So take this with a grain of salt.

But even when they took Leturno, 25th or whatever was, what that was? Yeah, I believe that's exactly right. He was a gamble. Like, people were even saying that. They were like, look at him. He's huge. Maybe he's a Tage Thompson. But this is kind of like a high upside, but maybe we miss.

Yes. Yes. So I was already going into it like, this maybe is a miss. But I'm fine with the gamble at 25. And then he's very poor as a freshman. and I went, well, that was a miss. It's a hilarious miss at this point, but that's a miss. And now he looks like an extremely competent college hockey player.

No doubt about it. And hopefully he continues to develop and shows up in Boston and produces. And this is a guy that I go, if he ends up a second liner, third liner even, but like a productive third liner, I go, you know what, dude, that worked out. And maybe he continues to develop and he gets so good and he's the first liner and he scores 40 goals. It's insane. But right now I'm thrilled with where I'm at with Dean Laterno. Hagen's, I think, if you're an objective Bruins fan, and keep in mind, we've met the kid, I love the kid.

I was begging the Bruins to draft him, and they did. So this is all wins. Higgins, I think, as an objective Bruins fan, you were hoping was producing a bit more this year because the argument was he was the heavy, not heavy, but he was a, for a long time, the projected number one pick in the draft. Yeah, this kid and all those clips, remember when he got to BC and he's stick handling? And they're like James James Higgins has never even seen the puck. It's incredible.

The way he moves, the way he can pass, what he did at World Juniors. It felt like if he falls, you just got a Macklin Celebrini who accidentally fell to you at seven because the scouts fucked up. Yeah. And I think that's what you were hoping for. You were hoping that this year he has 70 points and 65 points in college and you go, oh my God. Yeah. We got a number one pick. And right now you feel like you got a seventh overall.

Yeah. Which is awesome. So the thing that's interesting is, if you look at other teams, if you look at BU, for example, Hudson is the only player who has more points than them. Both these guys have more points than Cole Eisenman, who we think is going to be an unbelievable NHL star. You look at Penn State, Horikoff and Gavin, both guys who have less points than them. Will has more points, I think. It's really not that many teams. Michigan has, sorry, Horace. Horcalf's on Michigan. Weebusch is who I meant on Penn State. Hage, Horcough, T.J. Hughes, all have 28 points. Yeah. And where you plant, Rosa?

They're way high in the league. And let me look at Duluth. But when you look around the league, or the country, rather, 28 points for max, 24 for Zamb. Yeah. But then Shagabay, 20. Like, right with them. Yeah, yeah. So, like, it's interesting because.

They are amongst the top of the league with every other team. So it's like... Fair. Maybe I should be a little more. Well, it's me too. Like, I've started to be like, oh, shit. You know, like, it's not like every team has guys who are just fucking lighting it on fire. Like, they're both, they're top of their team.

BC's doing well. That's a great weekend for them. Like we just said, they're 15. And they just had two big wins in mass. Like, I'm like, you know, fucking A. And Hagan doesn't get an A plus, which is what Laterno is getting. Yeah. is because there was a chance that he was like going to go nuclear this year.

Yeah. Like his expectations were so high. Yeah. That I'm like, oh, my God, please let James Hagan score 70 points. Yeah. It's unbelievable. So he still gets an A because he's been great. Yeah, no doubt.

Okay, this one fired me up, actually. And apologies to Sway and to Benny Barr and to all my friends from Maine. But the U-Main Black Bears lost at home. Number 11, you know. twice to UNH Wildcats, won nothing on Friday and three two on Saturday. Dude, it is very tough to go up to Orno and win a hockey game. Yeah. Especially against a November 11 ranked team, especially when you are unranked and not very good.

And God bless that rivalry because that is a monster weekend for the moment. Monster weekend. And listen, I'll say it. Like, I'm sorry, Sway. I love you. You're one of my best friends. I'm a UNH fan over Maine. Yep.

Which is insane because we're from Maine, but UNH was right there. Yep. And we want UNH to be great again. This is how you become great again. Two wins against a ranked opponent, a rival ranked opponent, on enemy turf. That was insane. That's fantastic.

Possibly the new number one team in the country when we get to it. Number two, Wisconsin. You were right, by the way. You were like they have to be number two. They're very good. You were right. They're very good. They go to Notre Dame and beat the shit out of them.

7-4 win, 9-2 win. Dude, they are, they're flying. This Wisconsin team. Yes. Not much else to say. are flying. Yukon went to Merrimack on Friday, one three nothing,

hosted them on Saturday, 152, good weekend for them. They had a really tough schedule at the start of the year, remember? I kept getting all those splits. Now that it's lightening up a little bit, you got to get, now you start having sweep weekends.

Sweep, sweep, sweep, sweet. Good job. And then I'll also go, number eight, Quinepiac, went to RPI on Friday 151, but then went to Union Saturday, lost four nothing. And we have been,

Quinnipeak's one of those teams that we're always being like, maybe they should be higher. I honestly think we had them six. last week. They had a really good run where you were like, everyone's sleeping on them.

Little hiccup, they'll be fine, but this is what happens in college hockey. No doubt about it. Number 17, Cornell, dude. Goes to Clarkson. Yep. And what happens?

You've been saying this, dude. Dude, I'm telling you, Clarkson is knocking off ranked opponents left and right. Clarkson, it might be my biggest sleeper in the country this season. They just keep beating ranked opponents.

It's crazy. Cornell finishes off Good weekend. They go to St. Lawrence win 7-2. But that's a big loss for a team that, you know, preseason ranked in the top 25 and they just like hadn't played, hadn't played, hadn't played, they come out, they play well. Then you lose to Clarkson. And again, I just like, I got to give some luck. Marks. You just keep fucking beating good teams. They're doing it. B.U. They beat Vermont at home on Friday two to one, but they lose to Vermont at home three, two on Saturday. Yeah. That B.U team cannot get in a rhythm. And no, they can't. It took them till, don't forget, Cole told us. it took them till bean pot last year, which is in February. So they could still, they could flounder for two more months and then get hot. But flounder they are.

So I'm sure they're frustrated. Put it that way. Yeah. I mean, nothing's over or anything, but I'm sure they're very frustrated. Yeah, no doubt. Also, number 13, Minnesota State, who I have been really high on, as you know. They hosted Ferris State. Minnesota State won 5-1 on Friday, but they lost 4-1 on Saturday.

Ferris is competitive, but that's a tough early. loss for a team that I've been hoping was just going to catch sneaky fire and start making waves. They're fine, but just, you know, got clipped a little bit right there. Yeah. Denver, number six, host number 19, Miami, Ohio takes care of business for nothing on Friday, 5-2 on Saturday. We saw a couple slip-ups with Denver. Then you have a-

After being so hot. Went so hot. Yeah. Started to slip again. Then you got a double-header against a ranked opponent to convincing. Those are great wins. Convincing wins. Yeah.

No-deck. Number five, no-deck. They go to St. Cloud, beat them 4-3 on Friday, 4-2 on Saturday. This team is really consistent. They are very consistent. And I do want to give a little bit of a pat on the back to St. Cloud. Because those games were gnarly. Good fight, good night.

Yeah, they were battles of games. So good shit to them. But yeah, no DAC number five and just like winning games. And then Northeastern hosted UMass for a Saturday Sunday series. Northeastern won 3-2 and OT on Saturday but lost two nothing on Sunday. in mass games are always going to be tough always going to be tough Eastern is still very good

I'm sure they wanted both there but you know minor speed bump yeah now we had the Battle of Michigan started off great for my boys again on enemy turf in East Lansing 3-0-0 win big shutout for the boys and I was like fucking here we go dude

get ready to get fucking sweat bitch exactly yeah unbelievable then on Saturday we go to Ann Arbor Horikov puts them up 1-0 and I was like Dude, blow the doors. Yep. I wanted like 6-0.

I know. But fucking A, dude, Michigan State, they dug in and had a gritty, gritty win. Two goals from Rmani and then Porter Martone, friend of the program, gets an empty netter. Bang they all. 3-1 win for Michigan State. Going to keep both those teams high, high, high in the rankings. Important bounce back. Important bounce back, honestly, as a fan of the game and as a fan of college hockey, I kind of like the split.

Obviously, I want to beat the shit out of them. but also I hate that I love Porter now because I'm like, fuck, do I love someone on Michigan State? Yes, I do. It's brutal. But yeah, it was just, you know, it's good for hockey. The split is good for hockey. And both away wins. Yeah.

Pretty fun. Yep. Pretty fun. Yeah. Well, actually, I feel bad for the fans. Like, you want them to get the home. Like, it should have been a rip and a rip. I know.

But you know they travel so well. Fair, fair, fair. Yeah. All right. Let's get into our new rankings. Top 10. Here's my question, dude. Boochie eyes.

I notice Bocha grease. I think Wisconsin's one. I don't think they actually will be, but these are our rankings. Yeah. And it's different. Listen, I'm a Michigan man. And at the end of the day, the number one Michigan beat number three Michigan State and then lost it. So it's like that's not that big of a slip.

But we had Wisconsin two and Wisconsin fucking beat the bag off two, two games. Yeah. Okay. Wisconsin one. Wisconsin one, but Michigan two and Michigan State stays three, in my opinion. I think I personally would go North Dakota three. Oh, I didn't think you were going to go there. Now you have my attention.

I love North Dakota. Any chance I can get to, listen, if I'm going to knock off Michigan, I'm knocking off Michigan State too. But they beat the number one team in the country. They did beat the number one team in the country. But it's a Michigan rivalry. It was a split. You lost at home. Okay, dude, I'll fuck around.

I mean, they're going to be three. But these are our rankings. Yes, these are our ranking. So we're going to go Wisconsin. Michigan 1, Michigan 2, North Dakota. 3. 3. Michigan State 4.

Now, I think you have to go Denver. Denver. Absolutely. Denver 5. That's a great weekend. Denver 5. Dartmouth 6. Yes.

I was just about to say that. Dartmouth 6. I like Duluth here. Oh, wow. We fuck Duluth though. Fuck. Duluth. Actually, I think I go Duluth over Denver.

Oh, really? They were ranked ahead of them already, and they beat. I guess they lost, though, right? Like they had a loss. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, fine, fine, fine. Michigan State 4, Denver 5, Dartmouth 6, Duluth 7. I will go...

I could go Western Michigan right there. I was going to say, I'll give your Broncos some love here. Western Michigan 8, right there. Western Michigan 8. Do you have... Does Quinnipiac stay, top 10 for you? No. Okay, so little hiccup from Kinnipak, little hiccup from Northeastern.

How about, how about Minnesota? May not in the conversation. Does Mancato get in there? Nope. Do we, do you put Penn State in? We didn't even put them in last time, right? I think we, I think we had 10. Oh, you know what I'm putting in, dude?

BC. Oh, really? Yep. And they can go 10 if you want. No, I'm into that. All right, BC 10. So we need nine. and it's going to be either be Quinnipiac.

But they lost. I might go BC 9 and then 10 is either Quinnipiac or Northeastern. Okay. BC 9. BC 9. Could do Quinnpeak lose to again? It lost to fucking Union. Northeastern lost to UMass.

One of those two. I'm going to keep QU in there. QU 10. If we're going to put a mass team, BC in there, we can't do Northeastern. Wisconsin, Michigan. Wisconsin, Michigan. North Dakota, Michigan State, Denver. Denver, Dartmouth.

Duluth. Minnesota, Duluth. Western Michigan. Western Michigan. BC. Boston College. Quinnipiac. That is our new top 10.

Gas. Let's get into the game of the week. We've got a hockey east matchup. BU, Northeastern, Friday, Saturday. Very appealing matchup. That's a good one. I was really interested in, though. You like this other one?

Duluth is hosting Arizona State, and Duluth is gross. They think they're a number one team in the country. So certainly when you're hosting a 7, 8, and 1 team, you go, we're going to win. But Arizona State came in preseason like 12 or something. And they are four and one in their last five with wins over Nodak, Denver, and Ohio State twice. If they can win. Sharp action by you. Or even two, or sorry, if they can win two, or even one in Duluth.

you start thinking like we can make the tournament again. Oh yeah, dude. And like we're, and if that's happening too, we are like, we're talking about Arizona State. You know, like we're talking about them getting some fucking love in here. So I love both those, but that's a great one to keep an eye on. Okay, we are going to take an ad break. That is Netters College puck drop. We're going to take an ad break.

And then we are going to get into our interview with Cal Clutterbuck. Fucking awesome, dude. you're going to love it. Hear these ads and then enjoy Cal. When the holidays roll around, you're trying to be thoughtful, right? I'm looking at my list and I'm like, okay, I need to get something that matters to each person. But then if you can't figure it out because I don't know what they want from certain stores, it's like, okay, oh, here's a gift card. Here's a gift card.

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Please support our show and tell them it was us when you check out. Go elevate your shave. All right, we are joined today by a Wellen Ontario native, a Halenka Cup gold medalist, a U18 world silver medalist, the 72nd overall pick in the 2006 draft to the Minnesota World. Wild, former alternate captain of the New York Islanders, the NHL's all-time leader in hits. He's got the best hands on the golf course and the best handle bar across his upper lip. Cal Clutterbuck, welcome to the empty netters podcast at long last. Yeah, boys, thanks for having me.

I'm excited to be here. Getting ready to have a nice chat with you guys. Just chat with you a little bit before it came on. It's been a long time coming. I'm glad that our buddy Kevin can get this lined up. Yeah. It really is special. Chris, we were, Cal and I were joking the other day. I said I've been trying to get him on for about a year now. And he was like, well, yeah, you had to get your handicaps to a good spot for me to be able to chat with you. God, so true. You're going to be welcomed into the same room. That's fair. That's fair. I love that, dude. Yeah, I was asking, I was asking where the boys' caps were at just because I'm coming down. I'm coming to L.A. with the Islanders in March, I think. And I was like, all right, well, if you boys are out there and you want to, how many shots do I have to give you if I'm going to go out there and.

Yeah, you'll be a little generous, but we'll get out and have a great time. It'll be better. It was funny, Clutter, when you were joking about that, CP and I were at this similar place that just opened up. It's fantastic. And not to sewer you CP, but he was having a meltdown. He was working on a club and it wasn't working. And when you were like, how are the boys doing?

I was like, not good. Don't talk to you. Don't talk to me. I changed my story from the ground. You were very direct with him not being good. Yeah. I was like, dude, you can get in his head way too easily. It's true.

Yeah, yeah. Physical tools are there. It's up here, club. Like, this is, this is the real problem. I think I said I'd have you in the fetal position on the fourth green. Yeah. Oh my God. Just sucking his thumb, dude. That's the problem, dude. That's the problem. I used to be, I used to be a reverse sandbagger where I'd be like, people would be like, what do you need? And I'm like, dude, I don't need shit. Give me three strokes. We're fine. And now, dude, I'm like, no, dude. Give me 50. And then now I'm busy. And I'm like, now I'm a real sandbagger and I get you back. the other way. So you got to be careful with it. I went through the same thing. Like I was like, I got good and then people are like, I'm not giving you shots. Like you're really good. And then I hurt myself a couple times, shoulders, wrists, whatever. And like, I would just go out and expect to shoot a good score, you know, like somewhere around even par. And I was shooting like 79, 80, 83. I'm like,

what's going on here? So I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to start putting these in because I'm getting my ass beat all over the golf course. I went up to like a four. I was like, all right. I guess this is where I'm at Take them Take them if you got her back down I got her back down now I got her back down There you go

Yeah Have you ever Have you ever played with Delzato I have not But that motherfucker is the biggest Sandbagger in the world Is he? Oh I'd say it if you were on this call right now

Like he's always It doesn't surprise me I play junior with that kid He's a stick And he always comes out And he's like dude My irons are terrible right now I'm playing at like a five

And then he just shoots a 69 and we're like, you fucking rat pig, dude, get out of here. It's so... Can't shoot 69 with a five cap. Yeah, exactly. Exactly right. It's ridiculous. Dude, well, that's actually an amazing transition because I wanted to kind of hit you about the early days.

You know, you have such a cool story of telling your dad, like, oh, maybe this isn't for me, you know, and he kind of playing that much. He talks you into toughing it out. And then you end up having a great junior career. And honestly, dude, a lot of credit should go to you for all those Tavares, Osawa General's points because, you know, dialed him in on the line. But then you get drafted to the wild. And dude, you're called up so fast and you make such a huge impact so fast on the ice and in the room. Was that transition harder than it looked like?

Or I guess how were you able to find your role in the NHL so quickly? I don't know. I was just honestly just so young and dumb that I just was just living my life. I was like, all right, I'm going to the rank today. Luckily for me, like my game, my, my, my, my on ice game was very, uh, like, brambunctious, I guess. Okay. Love that.

Obviously, obviously got a lot of attention. I, I grew up in like the last wave of like the old school junior junior, like beauties, like, we're going to do this. And so when I went to junior, I went to St. Mike, so we were, there's a, we were, I was on a good team. And Dave Cameron, the coach at the time put me like, I was a, fourth liner I was playing like I don't know like five minutes a game I'd be healthy every once in a while and then we go to like there was one night this night the story that you were bringing up was in particular in Barry um Brian Little goes out and scores

four goals he's my age he's an underager he's got like 20 at the time I can't like he's got four goals I got four minutes I'm like I like you know saw my dad outside the bus after the game I'm like this is it but like I'll finish you're out here but this is like I'm going back to play junior B and you know going to make my 20 grand and just going to like just figure it out something else I'm done so we had to talk and then from there I just felt like I was playing with house money I never actually thought I was going to make the NHL honestly so I just kind of went out and and I don't know just play it I didn't really worry about it too much I think a lot of kids these days get drafted and then they're like how do I make the NHL I'm going to make the

NHL they have an expectation for themselves when they're going to be there um there's a lot more opportunity for young guys now. Like everybody gets an exhibition game. Everybody gets a look. So you can go out and make an impact for me. It was just like, how do I get, how am I going to get noticed? I'm not going to get noticed scoring.

I mean, people will notice, you know, my shot every once in a while because I can shoot it. Yeah. But it's not going to be like my ticket to the league. And I was always really, really good at physical contact.

And, uh, you know, for my size, I was always really capable of, of, you know, being physical, effectively physical.

So I leaned into that pretty hard. And that's what got me there. And then, you know, here I am now the all-time leader. Yeah. So awesome. I don't really, I never thought about it. Were you, because I know before minors and everything, you were, you were like playing some baseball, some golf too, I think. Is even volleyball?

Is that right? Were those like, where is there any moment where you were like, I got to go back to that? Like, I'm going back to be a baseball player? Or was that too far gone? Yeah, baseball for sure. Um, golf I was still just, it was still just a hobby. Uh, it was like, uh, you know, new love, probably like a teenage discovery.

Played a couple times with my dad when I was a kid, but never played any competitive golf or anything. Um, so baseball for sure. I loved it. I, if hockey wasn't so, if I didn't have to make the decision so early in life with hockey with regards to going to. Yeah. I would have played some more serious baseball. I continued to, but I, you know, like, you got, you a couple shoulder injuries here, like an AC joint. Then you go back to your high school baseball season. You can't throw a ball from shortstop. It's curse anymore. So, like, I'm playing first base.

And I'm like, all right, baseball's out. Yeah, dude, usually it's like your 33 year old major league or gets moved to first, you know, like, yeah, fucking 15. They're like, I got moved over at 15 and a half. That's awesome. Oh, my God. It's unbelievable. Dude, when you got into the league, like, I mean, I like what you were saying of just like

kind of having that young attitude and going out there. and doing what you did well. Did you really feel like there were any growing pains of, like, you know, making that jump to the national or were you just like, nope, I know what I do well, I'm going to do it hard and intense every single shift, and that was that. Yeah, I was pretty much that. The guys were bigger, obviously. The guys chasing me around were tougher, obviously.

And so it was difficult, like, I almost felt like a rabbit and a greyhound race a lot, Yeah, sure. You know, just because I couldn't fight everybody, couldn't fight every night, didn't want to, had no desire, wanted to play. You know, did enough offensively to where it was just like I could go out there and bounce around. I played quite a bit the first couple of years. You know, I had the responsibility of being like a third line kind of checking forward. So I was getting 13, 13, 14 minutes and a checking rule.

And I was being really annoying. So the only transition was, you know, even the biggest transition was going to play for somebody like Jacques Lamar who like didn't speak a word to me in my whole rookie season. So that was difficult. Not a word. Is that true like literally just like didn't say anything? Not a word. How did you deal with up? I would talk to assistant coaches like I would talk to Mario Tromblay or Rammer or Bob Mason, the goalie coach.

but like never ever did John Glamar speak a word directly to me during that year So like what That's so fucking good What game We're in the season where you're just like Okay this is how it is

I'm not even going to try to talk to it I didn't even think about it I was like I don't know This is what this guy does Yeah right It's normal I mean there was a point in time where he He called John Scott you for two weeks

Because he didn't know his name You go fight somebody It would be like we'd be in a scrum at practice. I'll never forget it. You're scrum at practice like Owen Nolan's on the team and blah, blah, blah. He's like, you know, Bella, Blanche, you over there, cowboy over there. Everyone's gone.

And like, John Scott's standing there like this, like waiting for him to like, he's like, you, over there. Every day, you, you, you, you, everyone else's name and then you. It's honestly to the point where like, if he were to ever address you,

you'd be like, what the fuck? Yeah. Yeah. It's like, what I do wrong? Like, this is going to be bad. Unbelievable. Yes. Well, you know, you obviously have several great years in Minnesota. You establish yourself as a pro, but you've said multiple times that when Breezy and Souter signed, you were like, okay, like, I'm probably going to be on the move here. I want to get into what you felt when you said you went to New York.

But before that, could you tell our listeners the boot story when you heard where you were headed? Yeah. Yeah, I was in my basement with my back home at the time. I had like a nice bar set up, obviously, most important room in the house. So I was down there with my friends watching the draft because at this point I had known that I was going to get traded that day. Likely, likely traded.

I mean, that was in the summer, that's really the only time that stuff goes down in and around the draft. So I was watching the draft. I'd heard some rumblings. I was thinking potentially San Jose or Anaheim, I heard a couple Western conference teams being in the West already. I was kind of excited, obviously, about California and that. whole thing. So I'm going to this day, like very excited. I'm like, tell my buddies, like,

come over a while, have some beers, we'll watch the draft. I'll get traded. Everyone's in duck jerseys. Yeah. We're all just like sitting there and I got like, you know, realtor.com set up on like, I'm just like waiting for the hot listings. Hot. And, uh, Gary Batman gets up there like, I forget what it was probably end of the first round. We got the trade to announce the whole thing. And I just remember, like, I was sitting there, like, I'll use my coffee mug, but I was sitting there with my beer like this, just watching. And he said the New York Islanders and I was like, I just kind of was frozen in time for 10

seconds. Yeah. What? Like, what the? Yeah. Immediately, like, all my friends just like, pin, like you could hear a pin drop. They all knew too. Like, nobody was like, I just kind of got up from the couch, walked to the tap.

I had like a Molson Canadian tap keg thing in the bar, and they were giving away these glass boots as a promo. And I grabbed the boot off the shelf. It was an ornament to that point. I grabbed it off the shelf. Filled it. Filled it and just like, you know, took it down. Remembering the twist it at the bottom.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you got to get the bubble, the vortex. So I took that down and refilled it, went back and sat down. And like after 10 minutes, my buddies. my one buddy's just like it's going to be all right man it's going to be right which means it isn't i was like yeah i was like oh man so anyway the day progresses i'm like drinking we're drinking to forget now not not to celebrate and uh get through the day and i end up talking to snowy and dougie and uh obviously i knew johnny

and um kyle aposo a little bit and josh bailey and marty and like all my best friends now turned out to be the greatest thing for me and uh and And you guys, I mean, Long Island's a weird place. Like, if you're not from the tri-state area, you have no idea what Long Island is. Like, the Hamptons are a mythical creature. Like, everything is, like, about Long Island is like, but where is it actually located? Like, I had to go pull up a Google map to just be like, oh, okay, I get it. So then I got here and spent a couple years here.

It took me a couple years, like, get plugged into the golf course. You know, the country clubs and scene. And I'm a big golfer, obviously. So I needed to get my, you know, get to know some people in that world and, you know, there's beaches and cool shit to do. And you can go into the city whenever you want, you know, I'm a 30 minute train away. So it ends up being like the greatest place ever. I'm close to where I grew up. People can visit all the time. So it was great. But yeah. First time. So good. I was choked, man. Yeah. The shock factor will get you, do. Do you think you're going to be in Orange County and next thing you know you're on the island? My soul like left my body and was just watching myself sit on the couch. No. Like, oh, what do I do? But obviously, I mean, you just mentioned it. You've said it multiple times that, you know, going to the Islanders was the best thing that could have ever happened to you.

And, you know, can you expand a little bit on what you just said of, you know, finding the golf courses that make you feel at home and make you feel happy? And as well as the boys and the community and all that that just really stuck with you. Yeah. So away from the rink, I've just really leaned into getting to know people, sorry, away from hockey. as I was, you know, playing hockey. But for me, my wife does this really well, too. Like when we go somewhere, we like to establish ourselves to make it feel like home. I had, I think one daughter at the time.

I now have four kids, three daughters and a son. They're all grown up here. They know nothing other than Long Island. And we just wanted to create, like, we just wanted to turn it into home. And, you know, you don't really know if you're going to like somewhere unless you, like, approach it that way from like an attitude perspective. You know, going home to Canada for the summers started to become more difficult with kids being in school.

Once your first kid goes to kindergarten, then you're walked into the end of June, and then you want to be back for the middle of August to start skating with the boys. And so, you know, going back home really wasn't an option. And hockey itself was going really well. You know, Marty Casey and I obviously got together my second year here and played together every game for almost 10 years. and team was succeeding. I really felt confident about the direction of the team,

re-signed a couple times, was thrilled they wanted to keep me around. Life was developing here for us. And, you know, I've been here 14 years now. So 13 or 14 years. So, you know, this is home. I've lived here longer than potentially, like, almost longer than I've lived in my parents' house when I grew up.

Yeah, yeah. They're at 14, 15. So, you know, I'm approaching the amount the time I spent living with my parents growing up, which is kind of wild. It makes me feel old. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we don't talk about that. We don't talk about that. But you just brought up on the ice because I wanted to ask this next where almost right

away, you, Marty and Casey find that chemistry. Totally. And, you know, Trotsy's calling you eventually the identity line and all that stuff. Were you, that's such a unique thing, right? Like, that never happens, what you three had there. Did you know in the moment how special that was? Like, could you guys feel that vibe like, man, this is really cool? Yeah, I think,

I think we played Washington 2015 in the playoffs. Barry was coaching Washington at the time. Yeah. Marty Casey and I really had a lot of responsibility in that series and that series was like crazy physical, like really, really crazy.

He can go back and watch like there's a YouTube shortened version of the physicality of the series. Like it's, I recommend it. It's a pretty good watch. It's, it was wild. And I think from that moment on, like the Coliseum crowd

appreciated us and then we went to Barclay Center and had some years and then we came back to the collie and Barry kind of reignited the flame but for me personally I just saw it as a good opportunity to combine the two things that I do well I feel like I you know obviously a penalty killer and like I do the defensive stuff and you know I really took a lot of pride in that part of my game but it also allowed me to have a role that was let's say cemented like a lot of guys in my position, third and fourth liners, their lives are spent two years in one place, one year deal here, two year deal there.

You know, was I going to try and climb up the lineup in New York when that's clearly where they saw me playing? In my mind, no. I was just like, this is great. I feel like we have three guys on a fourth line that are probably good enough to play on a third line, maybe a second line at times if you needed it. So the three of us together should be able to have an impact on the game as long as whoever's coaching us, you know, relies on us and uses us properly.

I think we just added a different element to the team. And, you know, I think at the time they're trying to take out stage fighting. You're trying to eliminate the horser that is not, that can't play. How are you going to have a fourth line that's used and effective? And, you know, I feel like we were the three that kind of gave people a glimpse into like what it could look like. We had one guy that could fight heavyweights. We had two guys who could fight middle weights. We were all physical.

We score. We were able to play against, you know, the Sydney Crosby's and the OVs of the world and keep them off the board. So that, you know, in my mind, that became sort of the model for what a modern day fourth line should look like. Dude, I got to say, I think this is unique to hockey, like the team you root for because I don't think most people in the league can't be like, this is the fourth line on every team in the league, right? Like, they know their teams. but dude if you talk to fan bases that have won a cup I swear universally they sing the praises of the fourth line that changed the game like Dan we always talk about that

2011 the Merlo line the Merlo line and then Paul Maurice this year remember he put like Greerze and those boys on the ice at the end because he was like you deserve to be out here because like you sit you turn that Toronto series round or whatever he said yeah but it's like those fucking moments dude that's what wins cups like no joke that is what wins Stanley Cups that's what causes deep playoff runs so I love that you guys found that identity and really made it your own. It's so cool. Totally, yeah. We had, and in Tampa, you got to give Tampa credit because they'd be this two years in a row.

They had a line similar to ours and, you know, Goodrow and Coleman and Gord. And so when we would play in Tampa, Coup would put those three out against us. And when we'd play at home, we would try and play against Cooch. And so, you know, a lot of times in Tampa, those games were just like, those two lines just like run into each other for the whole game, nothing happening. Yeah. The rest of the team would play the game. Like, truly an unstoppable. Forcible force and movable object situation.

That's right. That's right. So good. Well, I mean, in this stretch, you guys had such exciting teams, and it's awesome hearing about all the chemistry with all the boys. And you then obviously get to the year where Tavares is a free agent and you have had a long relationship with Johnny. And you had talked a lot about how he said that he had had plans to kind of just hear the pitches from all the teams starting July 1st. But then you also said that since he wasn't all in, you kind of had a feeling like this might be it. he might be leaving. Was that, I mean, as one of the biggest free agent moments in the monitored NHL, was that

rattling for you guys and for you specifically as a longtime friend of his? Or was it just, you were able to be like, this is business. This is the league. It happens. Yeah, it was, uh, I remember, I remember just being like, once the decision was made, just being like, okay, I think I had, I think I had prep myself ahead of time. Like, yeah. I have said it.

There's a part of me that after the season ended and then we started talking, it was the summer he was getting married. So we were having a lot of, you know, weekly, daily conversations about things like bachelor party, wedding stuff. Like, you know, just like, yeah, group guys in a group chat talking and then him and I talking on the side. I, I really got the sense that, um, there was an appetite for him, um, to go home, which, you know, like, I don't know if there was any other place that he would have

chosen overstaying in New York. be completely honest. Yeah. I think, you know, what ended up being the infamous pajama boy photo is like, you know, that's a window into like Johnny's one desire as like a hockey player. And for him to have put himself in that position to not only be coveted by that team, but a chance to go back and play for that team when that team like was really up and coming,

you know, Mitch Marner, awesome Matthews, those guys really had already solidified themselves as budding superstars at least. And you throw a kneelander in the mix and you really felt like Toronto was building something that could be dangerous. So, you know, for us, when he made that decision,

we kind of just, we were kind of in flux as well. We had some success in 15 and 16. I think we missed the playoffs in 17. Cappy gets fired and 18, Duggy takes over or 17 and Duggy takes over. And then Duggy has a full year. of coaching and we had missed the playoffs by a point

really felt like we were kind of stalling in the development then Franzi leaves, then Oki leaves, then all these things kind of unfold all at once. And so Johnny felt like those guys kind of paved the way for him to go and so that opened his mind to him leaving. Now, that being said, we didn't have much time to be that sad about it because we come in,

hire Lou, higher Berry, and we are expected to be the worst team in hockey. And we go and finish like a point out of first in the Metro Division. And like, you know, we sweep the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round. So we, you know, Brock Nelson's coming out party. Matt Barzell had some more responsibility. Jordan Eberle was still there.

It was one of the greatest teammates and players that you can plug into a lineup. Ledz and Boych were still there. like we really had a good team and you could see what it turned into with not only Lue's direction, but Barry's as well. Barry was great for us. He was so it ended up being, you know, the best thing for both parties. Johnny's happy.

He's still in Toronto and and we had a pretty good run. Yeah, I mean, you just mentioned, you guys go to two straight Eastern Conference finals. You got backed by Tampa, but you know, seven game series, one nothing game in game seven. Yeah. And that's insane. I'm saying.

I know. Seriously. Good Lord. But how on earth did you guys pull that off? I mean, you lose your captain, your best player. It was such a monumental moment. But then you just rallied together and then you go on two epic runs. How did that happen?

Yeah. What was the shift? Because I've always wondered about that. Totally. We just, I don't know, Barry came in one day and he just, first day. I'll never forget, we were playing Carolina Hurricanes in the season opener in Carolina. and we go through training camp. Training camp was really difficult.

It's like that's first and formal. I think a team's attitude is determined in the first three days of training camp. Wow. I love this take. Yeah. Yeah, I like that too. I've had training camps that are easy.

I've had training camps that are hard. And the best teams I've played on, the training camps were hard, like really hard. Like, to the point of almost breaking you hard. For at least the first three or days, you know. because I think you have to, that's the first thing that bands teams together. People are like, oh, let's go team building.

Let's go play golf. Let's go have some drinks. Let's do this. That's great and all. But the only time you get really, really bonded with a group is when shit gets really tough. Like when you go through a tough situation together. So we go through a tough situation together.

Johnny goes to Toronto, okay? Tough situation number one. We're coming in kind of not hanging our heads, but like, no expectations. Barry kicks us in the ass on day one. Like, I'm going to bury you guys today because you guys are way better than you think and we're going to go starts today.

We get buried day one. We get buried day two. We get buried day three. We go through training camp. We're about to play the Carolina Hurricanes first game of the year. We're flying out that afternoon. Before practice, Barry goes, Carolina Hurricanes,

going to out shoot you two to one tomorrow. They're going to shoot it from everywhere. Their defense are going to be down the walls all night. Don't mistake activity for achievement. who cares if they get outshot two to one we're going to win two to one we go in to Carolina the valve philpa scores with like four minutes left we win two to one they out shoot us two to one we win two to one so we're like we're like oh this guy's off to something yeah yeah all right like for barry it was like everybody in that team had a had a purpose like we all had

roles right and he was adamant about maintaining guys awareness of what their job specifically was this team in order to make the team successful. And we played 500 hockey until like the middle of December and then we won 13 games in a row. And then we were like, oh shit, we're pretty good. So it was, it was crazy because I've never seen a team be so automatic. Like honestly, yeah. We were just the same every night, every single night.

And it was just like that was the thing about us is people are just like this team is remarkably consistent. Yeah. And you guys were a bitch to play against too. I remember that. Like it was just like, every. and talked about how frustrating it was going up against all four lines every night.

We had like, we used to love and go back and just watch the press conferences after games and people would be like, God damn. Yeah. It seems annoying. Yeah. Which just fires you up more, you know? Was Barry a fun guy to be around?

Like he seems like, you know, he's got his ways, but also seems like kind of an awesome dude. Yeah, he's fun. He's, you know, he's got, he's got his guys that he likes to pick on and, and make fun of.

But, you know, he's really good at locker room psychology and management. You know, I think that's the one thing. I think he might be missing right now. And he might have mentioned it in a recent interview. But being a GM now, he doesn't get the daily interactions. I felt like that was his favorite part. You know, you'd come in and he'd be sitting there and you'd be having breakfast. And he'd like pick a guy and stare at him.

And you know how he does like the dancing eyebrows is not your eyebrows start dancing. It's just like, all right, what's very going to say about me today? and he was very, very good at just keeping the locker room mentality like steady. You know, classic like, it's going well, he starts barking at you. If it's not going well,

he's positive, like that whole thing. Yeah. He was a really good, really, really good sort of locker room manager. Yeah, it's great. And I do have to ask, someone with such prolific facial hair, which I know nothing about.

Correct. Do the playoff beards get a little annoying? No. No, it's like The bigger it gets, the closer you are, right? Right. So who cares? Yeah.

But some of the boys on Florida last year when we were with them after they won the cup, we were like, how fast are you going to shave that? And they're like, fucking tomorrow morning. Like, is it a great moment? But then when it's over, you're like, okay, I'm glad to get this off. Some guys, I mean, I wore a beard for the last year that was like down here. So, you know, I literally like, I have a picture. I shaved it down the middle

the first of November to put the mustache. It was like, God, you got to send that, dude. I need to see that. Yeah, I agree. I need that picture. I looked like a Scottish terrier.

It was like, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Just have that like little beard there. I will send you the, I'll send you the photo right now, actually. Oh, my God. It's so,

it's so funny. But I love having a beard. I hated, that's the one thing about Lou that I had a hard time with is not being able to grow facial hair because I just like I look like a pussy with a helmet on and no facial hair. Like, you know. Lou, dude, you can have you seen these pictures?

Let me like, let me intimidate these young kids, please, by just, you know, showing them. How fast does it grow? Like, if you shave in the morning, like, what are you looking like in the next morning? Oh, this is me. I shaved yesterday. Yeah, Jesus Christ. Yeah, I shaved yesterday. God, brother.

That is, that sounds exhausted. It's getting a little gray though, you know. Yeah. It's distinguished though. I like, yeah. I agree. That's better. I'm into it.

Did you get that photo? Let me see. I just did. Oh, my. You look like an anime character. Like this is. That's crazy, right? Yeah.

Actually, the shape of it is remarkable. He's like, holy shit. I shaved it after like a year. I was like, oh my God. My face. is so small. Yeah, I feel like that. Again, I can't relate.

I can't grow facial hair. But I feel like when you guys shave off the beards, it must be such a shocking moment of like, is that what my face looks like? I came downstairs. My kids were like, what the? Yeah. Who is that? Who is this guy?

Like two-year-old was just like, took her a second. That is so good. Oh, my goodness. Clutz, something you mentioned at the top that I wanted to come back to is one of of my favorite parts of your whole career is you play until your 36 year old season and you hit the thousand game milestone incredible hell yeah become the nchl's all time leader and hits incredible and it's the first time in your career you play all 82 games incredible and dude you had some huge injuries fucking burr slicing your hand off dude can't even feel your fingers you know like some shit

went down that journey dude thousand games from a kid who almost fucking quit in minors you know thousand games nchl all time leader and hits surgery surgeries like do you think about how much of a battle was that to get there dude it's insane you know I I again like I don't know I don't know how much of a battle it was I just it's just what I was doing at the time yeah um the injuries sucked because I went through like a long period in time like I want to say I went through 12 years without requiring any surgery with being totally fine um Barry's first year I came down with like a back problem. Come to find out like, you know, my back had been bad for years, but I didn't like,

I didn't think about it. You know, you get up in the morning morning. You're like, that hurts. Like, yeah. I can't squat very well. Like, oh, it's bugging me again. And then I had an incident where like I ran into somebody like kind of back to back. I think like somebody tried to like, you know, hit me like as I was kind of facing the other way. And I felt like a jolt. Like I felt like this weird like nerve sensation like in like my tailbone. I was like, that's not good. Didn't love that. Yeah.

Yeah. I didn't like. So then like this is like, I don't know, three months left in the season. It's just progressively getting worse. And then to the point where like I had to get carried off the ice. I didn't even play the last game against the hurricanes. We lost in four. I didn't play game four because I was literally like on the floor in the locker.

I'm trying to like have the trainers tie my skates. I was like I'm done. So I went ahead surgery. That summer. Then I came back from that. Let me think here. And then the following season, I had my wrist sliced in December of 19 right before COVID, which was scary. That was the worst one.

Dude, that story is so gnarly. Oh, my God. I have no feeling in this hand. Oh, still. Still. Holy fuck. How do you golf? Well, that's why I went to a four.

Yeah. Such a prick, dude. Can't feel his hand, Dan. He fell to a four. This fucking guy, man. I had to figure it out. I my short game used to be like really good and so the the like green side stuff like it took me a long time. I'm still kind of fighting a little bit of the the chippy yippies but like I'm working on it.

It's it's very strange. Like it just feels like, uh, you know, if you like if you if your hand falls asleep, you sleep, you sleep in a funny position or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know that feeling when it's coming out when it gets really tingling really tight. It's like hot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It feels like that all the time. 24. That is a torture chaper. Yeah, I see. It's torture, dude. It's torture. To the point you get used to it, but it's torturous. Like, if it's, if it's going to rain, this, he'll tell you.

Fucking, come on. At this point, Clutter's like, just cut it off. This is insane. It's amazing that it works totally fine. Man, how I said, you'd mentioned when you got gashed open and it just kind of missed that main artery. Yeah. You said that you could see. see it like pulsing was that right here was that terrifying or were you like well that's kind of cool

it was a relief because I was like the minute I got cut I was like look down yeah that snapping feeling immediately happened I went like kind of like you know my hand closed down because my nerve just got yeah god I was like okay that's not good but I also was just like waiting for it to start like you know spurting yeah and it didn't really so I was like okay um and then once I got to the hospital and they, I was sitting there with the nurse and they gave me some meds to like take a little the edge off. I was kind of just looking at it. And she was like, you know, running me through what everything was. And so that's when I kind of was like checking it out. But I was also, I was also high as a kite. Yeah. Do it. Do it surgery on himself. Well, didn't, didn't one of the nurses

pass out in the room on you? No, that was my mouth and junior. I guess. Oh, it was your mouth. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Skied in the Mellon Jr. And she, the next morning at the dentist, she, they opened me up. And she just totally flopped on my chest, passed out. Yeah. I was like, 17 maybe at the time, too.

And I'm like, what was that? Yeah, yeah. And this is like, uh, it's like Saturday morning. He opened the office. The office is closed. It's just the two of them and me. And I'm in the chair. He's like, you mind helping me like get her off of you?

And I'm like, okay. Yeah, the hygienist thing, she's just doing a cleaning this morning. Totally. We'll get her some orange juice. Like, she'll be fine. She's like, I'm a tired of, I'm newly pregnant and like, you know, I don't know what happened.

The doc's like, well, I can tell you what happened. The guy who sewed him up last night, I didn't sew up the inside of his mouth. It looks like, you know. Yeah. Yeah, he's the demigorgian out of here. Bleeding everywhere. I needed like four teeth replaced.

God. Here she is passing out in the first two minutes. Like, you never done this before or what? Get to the first tooth. Yeah, we haven't even I haven't even got the freezing in yet Such a grind Well, I mean like CP said

The career unbelievable Getting those 1,000 games And now you're still with the team Working with with the aisles I want to talk about Schaefer And you know The amazing shift that this year has been You guys get the first pick

You win the lottery, it's amazing And I think what's so cool about Schaefer this season has been Leading up to the draft He emerged as the guy It was like, this is the number one pick. The Islanders could use a great defenseman like this. But it wasn't like that all season.

This wasn't really one of these Bedard years, McDavid years, where it's like there is one guy and that's that. We're done here. It was really the last couple months where he sort of emerged as the pick. And then even after the Islanders picked him, there was all those talk of, you know, should he go to college? Should he do another year, junior, this, that, the other. Sike, he's in the league. He looks like he's been a 10-year vet. He's unbelievable.

and the vibes on the island from a fan's perspective are so different. It has been such a fun season. Injuries aside, doesn't matter. Every single Islander's game, they can beat anyone in the league. That is such an unreal feeling. How has it been for you? And, you know, everyone in the organization seeing and feeling this really incredible shift. Well, it's been incredible, you know, for us.

And this just feels like, you know, they won the draft lottery, they also ended up winning the lottery lottery because you don't even if you win the first overall pick, like, you know, they're not guaranteed to be generational superstars. And it definitely not at 18. And it's definitely not at the defense position.

So, um, and then his personality and his like ability to just, um, kind of like bring it out of people. I people are just so excited. I think the one thing about Islander fans is, and most New York fans is, you know, it's very much, what have you done for me lately, lose a couple games, like we've got to change it all. And, you know, this guy needs to go and that guy's too old and this guy's too slow and this guy doesn't have it. And, you know, it was a lot of that, especially the last couple of years, middling success, kind of like team stalling a little. Um, Brock Nelson leaving to go to Colorado. He's coming back tonight actually to play. Yeah, big one. first game of UBS so that'll be a good one tonight um but i think the fans were kind of like what direction does this team going lull amaryll gets fired matthew darsh replaces them patrick wast

stays on as the coach i think what's happening right now is a nice marriage of ideologies i think darsh matthew darsh wants to after having been with this tampa team he wants to have a team that is capable offensively like a little more a little more high octane offensive capability abilities and he wants to marry it with playing solid defense. Our fundamentals were rooted in playing defense first and scoring enough to

try and win games on stingy D and goaltending. And I think, you know, when it was succeeding, Islander fans loved it. They'd be like rubbing it in everyone's face. Like, you can't screen us, you can't do this, you can't do that. When it stopped working, the games weren't as entertaining.

It wasn't like, it was just like, you know, a lot of punt punt and go get it like a lot of like flips a lot of frustrating like and so this kid comes in and and instead of a total rebuild you've got yourself a hockey team that's very exciting to watch you got bull horbats got like 15 tucks yeah you know he just makes everyone in the on the team better he's playing 25 minutes so for half the game you got a kid out there was making everyone on the ice better yeah that breathes life into guys like matt barzell and and uh you know bull horribat clearly Heinemann too. Heindman's definitely

buzzing because of it for sure. And you go to Heinemann, they trade away Noah Dobson, they get a couple first rounders, they get this guy, Heinemann, no one's paying attention. Everyone's paying attention to Schaefer and Acheson and Echlin in the first round picks and the new young guys and Iserman and Danny Nelson, Cal Richie. Everyone's paying attention to those guys.

And Heinemann comes in here and just, you know, he can fly. They put him with Bo Horvatt, which is a great coaching decision because he's a puck hound. and he fires the puck. He's got one of the best snapshots. It's my favorite part. Like long stick.

He can shoot it across his body. Like that's how I used to love shooting the puck. Like I spent so much time like release points and shooting and shooting and shooting. And this kid fires it. So, um, you know, the lineups kind of like,

kind of like started to like find itself. And so they go on this road trip and, and they've been able to transform the manner in which they play the game. their approach to the game, make it more entertaining. At the beginning of the year, they were giving up a lot of scoring chances, which was always caused for concern. You know, the old school in me is just like, well, you know, you can't be giving up like 15 high dangers every night and expect to win.

But they've chopped that number in half and, and they're exciting to watch. Like, they carry the puck into the offensive zone more than anybody in the National Hockey League, which is like from a New York Islanders team for less 12. Yeah. And like, you're like, that's different. And so people are noticing and it's fun. Like, people are having a great time at the games. Circling back to something you mentioned at the top that I think is so cool.

Everyone, you know, forgets that this kid, Schaefer, turned 18 in September. Like he was a, he's a child. He was literally a minor. Yeah. Like right before training camp. But what I love so much that you mentioned is I can't help but notice his maturity, his personality, the way that he's so young and he's playing so well in the league. But also the way he talks to the media, the way he addresses his teammates, the way he behaves, just by, body language, things like that on the ice,

that's just as impressive as his play to me. It's wild. And I was a little worried about him because I just thought he's given so much energy to each interview and he's given so much energy to the fans and the people. I was concerned that potentially he'd get tired. And then when you get tired of it, if you don't do it one day, people start to ask like, what's wrong? You know, you set the standard of like, of like, this is who I am and this who I'm going

to be. And then, you know, you have a bad day. and people are like, oh, what's wrong with that guy today? Because he's not his normal. Normal self, I'll tell you, that's just like, that's just who he is. He's had a couple difficult things. Obviously, a couple tragedies and he's forced him to grow up very quickly. And, you know, that can go one or two ways for young men.

But, you know, credit to him, I've gotten to know his old man a little bit. And he's got a really good support system and, you know, in and around him. And now he's got a really good support system on Long Island. and he's living at Marty's house, which everybody's talking about. But, you know, it's provided some fun social media stuff. But at the end of the day, I think it's a great place for him. Marty's one of my best friends. He genuinely feels like a part of their family.

He's only been there a month or two. When you go over to their house, he's playing with the kids. It's a really good place for him. He feels like he, I think he feels like he has a home and a family. And so that's important for a kid that age. But you've got to give the kid all the credit in the world. he's incredibly mature. He came up,

an example, he came up, we were flying to Vegas a couple weeks ago for a road trip. We're on the plane. I'm just sitting there by myself, a couple of my movies and download,

so I was pissed, just kind of like raw dogging it, looking out the window. And, uh, terrible feeling. Horrible feeling. All set up, got my headphones fully charged,

everything's charged, flipped the laptop open, click the play button. It's just like, this video can play back. I'm like, oh, let's try the next one.

No, Nope, nope, nope. Nope. I was like, oh, boy. So about two hours left in this flight, he just came up, started chatting with me, sat next to me. I talked to him for, talked to me for like an hour and a half, just about anything and everything. And he's like, got up.

He's like, all right, going back to my seat. Just kind of like, you know, what 18 year old goes up to like a 38-year-old grizzled asshole that sits next to him? He's like, what's up, bud? What are you doing? Yeah. I'm telling you, like the kid, he's an old soul. It's unreal.

It definitely is. Yeah, that's amazing. Clutz, when we hit up some of the boys that you were coming on, no one revealed anything, but pretty much everybody was like, you got to ask, he's an all-time pranker, all-time chirper. So I had to ask, are there any pranks that you're allowed to tell that you remember or maybe some insight of what goes into your sick mind when you're getting under somebody's skin with a good chirp? The chirping is tough because I have a very, very good,

keen eye for noticing physical traits on people that I know they don't like about their soul. Yeah, right. So, you know, similar to like a caricaturist, like somebody who's got, like, you and your girlfriend sit down and make ridiculous photo of you. Yeah. The one feature that you have that, like, sticks out. I'm going to attack it and then I'm going to marry, like, you know, the holes in your,

like, hockey game that I'm going to try and come up with a comment that, like, marries the two. And I'm not going to say it until you're standing in front of your entire bench or my entire bench. So I want everyone to hear it. If it's gold standard, I want everyone to hear it. So I have to do something to provoke being chirped by somebody on the bench. I have to pinpoint and then I have to go and be ready with the response. Yeah, yeah, you're two steps ahead. You're two steps ahead of this. Yeah. So that's why I think people thought like, holy shit, like, this guy's just got zingers off all over the place. But yeah, off the dome. You know, kind of like, oh, it's the

best list. I was always trying to like, I would pre-pick the guy, but I would make him sort of like He walked into it himself. I'd have the thing ready to go and I'd be like, sit down and shut up. You know, it would be like, guys would just be like, yeah. But the prank's the best prank, the best prank, the best prank, was Derek Bougard's idea. It wasn't my idea. So Boogie comes up to me, Eric Belaget is a character, okay? Like grumpy old Frenchman at the time.

I was playing with him. I was his centerman. It was later in the year. Boogie comes up to me, he goes, Going to Belanger's locker, steal his keys. And we had to, in Minnesota, we had to park in the parking garage. I had to run, you know, 500 meters to the parking garage, get his car, pull it into the loading dock. Boogie standing there with 12 bags of, like, packing peanuts.

Yeah. From, like, FedEx or Kinkos or wherever he got. Yeah, yeah. Like, I knew a guy that worked at one of these places and he got, so we opened the sunroof and we just bang, bang, bang, dump them all in there. he climbs into the driver's seat, drives the car to the Zamboni entrance of the XL center so that when Bella comes out for practice doing a couple, like, you know, the ND 500, he's like going to see his car. So he does two laps and doesn't notice.

And everyone's just like, fuck. Everyone's like laughing, laughing. And then you could see him. He goes by the Zamboani entrance. He peels out like into the slot and then like just puts his hands on the net and like is staring at his car. Just like, what is that? and I skated by him and I think it was old Nolan's just like

it's packing peanuts you fucking idiot so he couldn't practice he couldn't practice he starts losing his mind everyone's dying laughing because he's so pissed off all the other French guys are just like man whoever did this is going to pay man you guys are going to pay you guys are going to pay and I'm like oh shit

this is my rookie year I was like oh fuck yeah like what's going to happen to me when they find out it was me And I was like, Boogie, what's going to happen? He's like, nothing. What do you think they're going to do to us? So nothing happened because it was me and Boogie.

I don't know if Bell ever found out it was me and Boogie, but like, oh, wow. It was insinuated a couple times. And I think Mark Andre Bergeron came up to me a couple days later and was just like, if that was you, that was fucked up. That was fucked up. Oh, God. No comment, dude. Yeah, denied you. I was just executed.

Yeah. You know, I don't know anything about it. Sorry. Yeah, exactly. That's awesome, dude. No, it was great. It was funny. Dude, I have to give a little tire pump to the entire crew here.

This summer, I think I'm ready to declare that we all released two of the best schedule release videos in NHL history. And I want to know whose idea was that for you guys? And, like, was that a blast to do? It was great. I listen, I got, I got a phone call like, I don't know, probably in June from kid Alex who does the social media and stuff. He's like, I'm thinking about doing a scheduled release video, you know, it's going to be like kind of a funny sort of this and that. And my mind immediately, I'm like, I don't know, man. Like these things are always so cheese.

Like I can't. I'm going to have a hard time with this one. Like send me the ideas and he sends me the ideas. is and and I'm like, it still looks so cheese. Like, but whatever. I'm like, whatever, let's just give it a shot and I'll go in there and we'll, we'll work on it. And if it doesn't come out the way we want, then we don't release it, you know, or we try something else.

Yeah. And we just did, I mean, we went in there and shot them all. We shot it in like an hour and 15 minutes. Incredible. I did like a take or two of each. People are like, this is going to be really funny. And I was like, I don't know. Like, I didn't know how I was going to turn out even after I did it.

because I'm not much of an actor. So I just didn't, I didn't know. Like I'm like, this could be funny. It could be totally stupid. Then he sent me the video and I was like, ah, it turned out all right. Yeah, it's good. Yeah.

Hell yeah. When they released it on social media, I got so many comments. I still get so many comments. I believe it, dude. Being on the concourse at UBS, people are just like, man, that intern video is so funny. Yeah.

So it's good. I mean, it was a great experience. I had a lot of fun doing it. But I just was worried it was going to come out Come out a little cheesy. No, man, when it came out, it was so good. And it was also like, you know, listen, we do a lot of that shit, especially here in L.A.

It's like part of our other career. And we saw it and we were like, oh, it's bad news for clutter because now we're going to have to get it to make some shit because you were good at it. You were really, listen, we've roped in a lot of the dudes and some of them are great. Some of them are really rough. And I got to say, you were in the S tier of performance.

Two takes, Dan. Two takes. It was unbelievable. It was so good. I would love to do it. Whatever, whatever you guys got for me. Let me know. For sure.

We'll whip up some sketches, dude. And then another quick hit I wanted to ask you because I love the four play boys too. And I was listening to you on. Oh, they're the best. Dude, one thing I've always wondered, and you told the story, and I'm going to make you tell it again. But the, we will watch Ovechkin stand in his office and hammer fuck one-timers in on the power play over and over.

And I was like, why don't they? just fucking put someone standing right there. And then you said, you said a really funny anecdote about covering Ovi on the penalty kill. So I want you to tell that here. Yeah, we would just, I would just go stand beside him. I said, you know, Frankie asked me the question. And I was like, you know, Frank, like, just stand beside him.

Like, and I stand beside him, my greatest talent. You're like, he like, you killed Ovi. Like, how many times did Ovi score on you in the last 10 years? I'm like, I had to think about it. Like, I don't think many. Like maybe once or maybe once or twice. while I was on the ice and and so

I was just like the key is just this literally stand next to him. Like we would have conversations. Literally having conversations. Yeah, we'd have conversations. Just like, like,

what would you say to him? No dead ass and what would you say to him? He'd be like, oh, you're fucking going to leave me alone. I'm like, no, you know,

I'm not leaving you alone. Like, I'm going to stand right here. Are you going to move? He's like, I don't move. I'm like, I don't mean either.

Like, it was just like, constantly. There's some games he'd be grumpy. and like we wouldn't have a conversation, but a lot of times I'd be like, I'll be like, you go in like low back door or? And then the last couple years,

he started like, he started moving. So he started going to the back post. Yeah. He started coming up to the blue line and try and take a one T. They started having a T.J.O. She kind of slide off the back and his spot will we go down. Um, so it got a little more complicated near the end. You're like, we had an agreement.

But for, what are you doing? Yeah. It's just like, you know, he stands there like, just like with his hand sort of like down on his band. Yep. Literally just stands there. So I would literally just stand there the same way and right next to him. Dude,

that is so funny. Sometimes the best solution is the easiest solution. And it's funny how not enough people figured that out, but you certainly did. It's amazing how when you're out there, something will happen away from him that makes you like a moth to a flame want to go and help out. Yeah. And, you know, you just can't. Don't do it.

Yeah. You need to help out. It's going over there. And it's going to help out. All of a sudden, the puck gets loose and you see it passing to where you just were. And you're like, no. Yeah, the minute the puck gets touched by Nick Baxter, you're like, we're dead. And dude, listen, I'm sorry, but we can't let OVie chase down your hits record.

Like, I can't have him to be the goal guy and the hits guy. So I don't know what we got to do if you're in touch with him, but somebody's going to tell him to ease up because I can't have this. Shannon Hogan, my host, just did an interview with him last week. and she was going to bring it up. I'm like, just don't bring it up because if he's aware, he's going to go try and break it. Like, I think of all the records, like he's not even aware of this one.

So we're just going to let him like, we'll let him sleep on that one. You're right. Yeah, we can't let him know. That's the thing. Yeah, we do have to cut this. Because if he finds out, he'll go get it. Yeah, we can't know. But you just touched on it clutter.

One last thing I want to talk about before we get into some fun stuff. You, you've made the transition to the broad which is something you said that you never thought you would do but you know you worked for msg networks you did for a year without officially retiring but then you release that awesome instagram video and you're a media guy now and you're fantastic and it seems like it's been so fun and uh i just want to know is it is it a transition that feels like it's been easy for you has it been nice leaving the game and then you know getting into something that's still a part of the game has the whole experience just been great yeah i mean when i left the game i want to

wanted I needed a break from it. I, I, you know, it's like, uh, it just was my whole life, you know, and I here I was approaching 40 and, and, and just grinding and grinding and the older you get, the harder, the more, you know, grindy it gets. I was always, when I was young, just like, oh, man, training camp, I can't wait until I'm old, so I don't have to worry so much about training camp and, you know, I want to be a vet and then you get to be a vet and you're like, 16 years in, you're just like, man, this is a grind. I wish I was young again with a little energy and excitement, you know. Buddy, tell me about it.

We can relate. It's, you know, I just needed a break. And so I had a nice summer of, you know, doing the other things. Wasn't training. Actually, I was still training and skating because I thought, I thought that I was going to maybe get a deal somewhere else. But when it came time, like August last year, I just committed to fall golf, fall golf, New York. Yeah. I was like, okay, I'm going fall golf.

the process of that I ran into, I play a lot of golf with Wally Zerbiak. He used to play in the NBA. Yeah, yeah, hell yeah. Former Celtic. Yeah, so he does the MSG broadcast for the Knicks sometimes and he does radio and intermissions. So he's like, my producer's coming out to Meta Brook, or to plan him to play golf, come out and play with us.

I went out and play with them. We're sitting around having beers after. He's just like, you ever thought about doing TV? I think you'd be decent on TV. I was like, yeah, I mean, not really. It's not really my thing. And he's like, well, you should talk. talk to like, Steve, the producer for MSG Isles.

I'm like, okay, sure, give him my phone number. He called me that night. He's like, do you want to just come on the home opener? We'll just put you on the pregame show. It might even be like just an interview. We'll see how you do. If you want to do more, you let me know, if not. Go for the pregame show, hour long pregame show.

Did our right. Told him I'd stick around for the intermission analysis. Did well. Told him I'd come back next game. Then I'd ended up doing, like, you know, I did. I think almost 20 games last year. And then after about five or six games, I got to go between the benches for a couple,

which was another layer of like full broadcasting. And then so I'm full time between the benches now. And I got to do my first two-man booth with Brendan Burke in Jersey a couple weeks ago, which was awesome. So I'm like wholly a media guy now. Yeah, you totally are. welcome you. Yeah.

But like, to your point to the question, it, it really helped me transition out because I thought to myself, like I, I want to, I want to see hockey, I don't want to think hockey.

I'm going to create a career that's anti-hockey, post-hockey. And, um, you realize that like my PhD is in the game of hockey at nowhere else. So it's like, unless, unless I was ready to go,

like, you know, go back to school or shovel shit at the bottom of the ladder somewhere else. Like, I don't know if, you know, it wouldn't have made. me all that happy. So it's easy to, it was nice to be able to go into something that I was,

I know more about than most people because of my experiences. Totally. And, uh, you know, obviously I can I have a, I can articulate well enough to where it comes across fine. And, and, and so it's been great. It's kind of, it's been easy, but it's been great. Yeah, man. It's, I mean, yeah, like I said, you're great at it. Shine. It's, I'm excited to, to see the more plethora of things that you do. Because, you know, with the schedule release, with all the stuff, it's like, there's a lot of fun to be had. It's like, it's like, it's a lot of fun to be had. So it's exciting.

Speaking of fun, we're going to wrap you up here. We play a game with all of our guests. It's called pass shoot score. It's basically a ranking system. We're going to give you a few things that we know you like that are important to you, and you're going to have to rank them pass shoot score. Passing is great, but shooting is a little bit better, and scoring is the ultimate goal. So that's going to be your ranking.

So your first one is going to be favorite movies. So your pass shoot score is beer league. Ace Ventura and Shawshank Redemption. I am, this is tough boys. Yeah, they're supposed to be tough boys. Yeah, they're supposed to be tough ones. With the Beer League, didn't you? Yeah, yeah.

I think, I think for the sake of, this is going to upset a lot of people. I'm going to pass Shawshank Redemption. Oh my God, dude. I mean, I thought that was going to be a winner. Well, let's be honest. It's an outlier. It's an outlier in the other two.

I'm shooting Ace Ventura and I'm scoring Beer League. I think Beer League is one of the best cinematic masterpieces. Not many people know about it. Not many people know it, dude. It's a deep cut and it is, if you've lived in a small town and seen a group of 40-something wash-ups go through their softball season like I have, it hits so hard. Like, it's like miracle for softball player. Yes.

Yeah. That's a perfect cop. It really is. Holy shit. But I do love that you've got appreciation for Ace Ventura. Those goddamn movies are so funny. And they hold up. If you pop that on right now, you're like, yep, this is still one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.

It's incredible. I can recite both movies from start to family. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. I watched it a thousand times. I mean, also Courtney Cox and Ace Ventura Pet Detective, maybe the greatest crush of my entire life.

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. What do you feed your dog? What's miserable? There's so many of those little lines that I'm like, dude, the, the dolphin trainer bit too. Oh my. Hey, just get out of here. Why?

So you can beat them fatty. So it's so good. Like, there isn't a line that he says that isn't like doesn't have. He is, he's perfect. Like, he should have won two Oscars for both of those movies. I agree. I completely agree. If you think clutter, I see a glass.

sliding door and I don't do the Roger Prodactor bit, you're out of your fucking mind. It's unbelievable. I got to go to something when I was like 12 or whatever. I don't even know what it was, but Dan wasn't allowed because he was younger. Some of my friends and I went and Dan was bummed. So to make him feel better, my dad took him

to Ace Ventura 2 in theaters without me and I've never been more jealous or upset of anything in my whole life. It was a fucking sagging. People forget that that movie starts with a montage. That's a that's a bit of cliffhanger. And I remember being 12 and being like,

what movie is this? And then Ace just turns his head and I knew I was in for the next best two hours of my life. It's incredible. Puking into a bird's mouth, a spider cliff. Dude,

did you see someone? Oh, dude. Someone this year do the, the rhino birthing costume for Halloween. Yeah, I did see that. I did see that. I'll send you a picture,

Clutz. It was fucking insane. Okay, here's your next category, Clutz. All right. The next one is music. Pass shoot score. Smashing Pumpkins. Collective soul. Billy Joel. I think I'm

passing collective soul shooting smashing pumpkins scoring Day Joel. Billy all the way to the top, dude. I knew you were 90s. I don't, I don't pick Millie. You know, my house is getting destroyed. That's true. That's true. It's for safety. But he is like, I mean, look, his, the amount of songs, like, the size of the catalog. Hits after hits, after hits, it's insane. It's too many hits to not keep him up. And you met him, eh, right? Yeah, I sat with him during the UBS press conference

when they were announcing, but they were going to build UBS eventually. That's how long I've been here. We were like a year into Brooklyn, so it took him three years to build UBS. So three years before they built it, I was there with Billy sitting there and he was just like,

I don't watch hockey, what the hell is? going on here. I got to get to my sound check. I'm playing the garden the night. Is that true? If you were whispering to each other the whole time, just like, he's like, I'm sorry, man. I don't know. I don't, you know, I don't, I got to watch hockey. I'm like, why are you here? Awesome. What a legend. And, uh, and, uh, and you were

locker room DJ a long time, right? Yeah, 11 years, 12 years. Yep. What were the hits? Um, I, I, I would always pick, like a big booty at the end. Like, uh, you know, the big booty mixes. Oh, fucking. Or, we're going to a little. Like down under country or whatever, like they all started to like the mashup scenes started

to get a little crazy. But I started with like Fit Radio. You guys know Fit Radio? Yeah. So Fit Radio was the first one to do mashups. So like we would, you know, I would just chuck one of those on for the post meeting till warmups. I would chuck one of those on so I didn't have to fiddle around and fine tunes all the time.

And then before that, um, I would just pick a genre like for like when like from 4 o'clock to 530 or 515. and whatever the meeting is, I would pick a genre and then I would sit in my stall and have a coffee and a chew, tape my sticks and I would just kind of like cherry pick tunes to play

or guys would ask me to play certain tunes and I would play them. So I really enjoyed that because I'm like, I hated warming up. I'd never warmed up my life. So like I had nothing to do for two and a half hours before the game.

Take me like five minutes. And then I'm like, what I do that? What I do with the other 97 minutes that I have left before I had, to go on the internet. So picking tunes was always good way to pass in time. And by coffee, do you mean five espresso shots?

Yeah. Yes. And I was shotgun in Red Bulls by the end of it. No, dude. Glass. No, dude. Jesus. Yes.

Wait, on top of the espresso or in place up? On top of it. Five espresso's dead and a Red Bull shot a shotgun. Two Advil, cold and sinus. Yeah, I was a suit of fat guy.

Everyone's like, He's hitting everybody. What's going on? Like, no shit. Got to the point where I'd be up to like 5 a.m. after the game. So my wife come down and get ready to go to the workout class. And I'd just be sitting on the couch.

Like, she's like, you're still up? I'm like, yeah, I can't sleep. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're like, I'm down to 110 beats for a minute though. So we're getting better. I'm wired. Like, Marty. God damn.

Like, I'm redlining out here every shift. He's like, you're not out of shape, dude. You're just like, you're full of amphetamines. Yeah. Exactly. You have rhino adrenaline surging through your veins. Oh, my God. That was pretty funny.

I remember the first time I shot gun to Red Bull. I was just trying to get somebody's attention. I think it was, uh, I always had a couple sips of one before we go for warmups. I'd finish it before the game. It was like playoff gamer as a big game. I was like, you know what? Like everyone's in here right now. I'll just like take my scissors that I used to tape my, cut the tape off the toe of my stick and just poke a hole in the bottom of it.

Stand up in the middle of the room. Take it down. Chuck in the garbage. say a word, just went back and sat down and, like, just kind of, like, picked my eyes up to see if anybody had seen. Oh, the guys are just like, Jesus Christ. What the fuck was that?

I was like, got them. Yes. And we win, so now I got to do it every game. Yeah. Yeah, that buzzer goes. Every game for two years. Shit. Yeah.

I know. I guess we're shotgun on. Yeah. Okay. Your last one, you know we were going to go here. We're doing golf tracks. Bash you'd score. Bandon Dunes,

National Links of America, and Chinacock. We're going to pass Bandon Dunes. Great place. Yeah. Great place. We're talking, like,

are we talking all the courses at Bandon Dunes? Or are you talking like... Yeah, fair. Yeah, that's fair. Let's go to one of the whole experience. Yeah. Let's go your favorite at Bandon Dunes.

My favorite at Bandon. Okay, still passing. Okay. Fucking goaded me into that one. Yeah. I would say I'm going to shoot Shinnock and score National. Wow. Wow.

That is huge for National lengths. I thought Shinnock was going to be your one for sure. I think the back nine at Shini is the best nine holes of golf that I've played anywhere so far. But the overall experience and feeling at National is special. I just like I love it there. I love the vibe. A lot of times you play both in the same day. Yeah, do a little lunch in between.

You shit and me? Yeah, you go to the nice little like open air dining room, jacket and the lobster. And then you go and play in the afternoon coming down 18. The sun's coming down. It's like 8.30. Well, you know, like nice and liquored up. You know, everything's good. It's just a great, great end to a great day.

So I think National is my favorite of the three. That's awesome. Yeah. Love to see it. Hey, you played half moon bay. I have not You should get That's a sick 18

Just like the sun coming down On the cliffs there Like holy shit So awesome Was there like just north at Dana Point Like in Newport? Yeah Yeah

No no no no No it's up Half moons in SF Yeah it's at the Ritz Oh okay Just just outside of San Francisco It's fantastic

Got it got I got got Yeah Two great courses It's great time Yeah I uh West Coast golf I've done bandin

I played bandin Uh The whole Shebang over there And then I've been out to To Pibble to do that swing but no no cypress no monoray peninsula just just the Spanish bay and spyglass and pebble which was cool years ago yeah it's it's good to have more to check off it's like we'll get out there

yeah it's a beautiful yeah yeah you guys got to come out here and check out i mean nassau county and long island is like it's like u.s golf mecca dude honestly it's i know it's not even on the island but um this summer i was playing a bunch in in and around jersey with uh grinnell and it was fantastic. So I'm all in. We got to get more of the tri-state golf on our belts. Dude, and you got to do the pro-athly golf tour with us this summer. Yeah.

It's actually in Jersey, dude. It's so easy for you. I was, I was going to do it this year. I just so happened to be, I had a trip booked out to California. I spent a week out on, on Beach Road there in Dana Point.

Yeah, yeah. Dude, it's insane. We have a whole place. I got it. I think we played 45 holes one day, right? Like we, Yeah, we did.

Like, honestly, Clutz, I can't think of anything that you will love more. Yeah. Like, it's just such a good time.

Take Dizzy's money. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm not giving them five. Yeah. No, no,

correct. Correct. All right. Well, Clutter, this has been a fucking blast, man. Like I said at the top,

we've got to get you on more and more often. We can't thank you enough. And before we let you go, is there anything you want to shout out, anything you want to plug? Um, no,

not at the moment. I'm just, uh, I'm sure there's a bunch of things coming down in the pipe. I'm going to start trying to put more on Instagram videos out of me being, uh, you know, trying to figure out my style.

But I think it's, I think you're, you're looking at it just a little dry and, you know, um, trying to make people find where the joke is in the, in the, in the,

in the clip. So I'm working on it. Um, uh, yeah, but no, just, uh, I'm just,

you know, keep my nose down. If anybody wants to watch the Islanders on MSG, you'll find my ugly mug between the benches most nights. So go ahead and do that. But no, I really appreciate you guys having me. This has been great. I'm a fan of yours for a while and watch your show a lot.

So it's nice to finally get on here. Absolutely, man. It's an absolute blast and our pleasure, for sure. Cal, my man. Like I said at the top, hilarious, hilarious interview. I hope you enjoyed. What a legend, dude. He's in the basement.

He's fucking got the pop-by-forearms. He's a plus-5 handicap. Dude, he's just an awesome. He's the coolest guy of him. awesome, awesome dude, and he's going to come on the show way more. We should post the picture of his beard. With the shave beard. Yeah, it was funny.

It's actually one of the funniest. So funny. Oh, God. Huge thank you to Cal. He'll be back. Legend. Absolute legend. Such a legend.

All right. Now, let us get into a beer league hot one of it. One of our favorite parts of the show. All right. We've got a guy who's easily bottom five of the roster and the worst of our four D. He's a pylon, never hustles, screams at everyone, bad changes, missed passes, bitches about effort while he glides around like it's open skate. Multiple players have asked the captain to kick him out. Vibes tank every time he's on the ice. The problem? Every time we win a championship, the same clown throws a ridiculous barbecue. Waggues, steaks, high-end cigars, massive spread, probably two grand on his dime.

It's legendary. Do we keep this hypocrite because he funds the Wagyu Cup parties? Or cut him and go back to Costco burgers? Fuck. First of all, great read. Great read. Great read. Uh, fuck.

Oh, I think this is easy. You keep them. Definitely. You keep him. You keep him. This guy's putting all this on his tab, no problem. Two G's. Two G's Wagoo.

Also, is there any? anything that's motivating you to win a ship. More than that. Stogis? More than Stogis and some Wagyu? Dude, what's the, what's the fucking grill that they have in the gentleman? The gentleman? Yeah.

Oh, it's Guy Ritchie's invention. He invented it. And then he product places it in his, in his movie and show. Pro move. I think, dude. It is a, it's a fire pit and a barbecue. It's a barbecue. Dude, unfortunately, is there a level?

I guess that's my question to you. How annoying could he be? Yeah. The fact that he's... In how often are you winning? Well, you know, good point. I think clearly enough that he's... Me too.

You guys must be a top team in the league. I have no problem with him being bad. Okay. Me neither, actually. We've all got bad teams. We will all eventually become bad. Dude, and this, I'm now, I always get worried with ones like this because I'm like, doesn't this guy hear this? Or how does this work?

Yeah, this is so specific. He knows this is him. But so now I'm about to do it. I'm about to incriminate myself. Okay. But one of our first years playing Beerleley out here before we met the boys we play with. Yeah. We played on a team in like a super low division that we got immediately kicked out of.

Yeah. But there was a older gentleman on that team who was not very good. but because he was an older gentleman and, you know, like, whatever. And I think his son actually played on the team, too. Do you remember this? Oh, I thought you were talking about the late, great Marshall. No, no, no. Yes, I do remember this guy.

And then, and he, you know, he was, he was a bit of a liability. Yep. But I, but he was playing with it. I actually thought it was a beautiful thing. He's playing with his son. Yes. And then he threw the most electric party in. So we won the ship.

And then he threw us an absolute banger of a cup party. and any ill will that I may have had about his playing ability evaporated. I was like, that was fucking sick. Yeah. But he was also a nice guy. Oh, he was incredibly nice. He was like a really good dude. This guy, okay, so, again, I don't really care about the play.

He's a pile on, never hustles, bad passes. You can live with that, dude. That's Beer League. The bad changes and screaming at everyone, I need to get, what's going on with the bad changes? Does that mean long shifts? Because, like, you're not, he can't be called. I think it's. You think he's calling guys off the ice?

No, no, I think he's on the ice. Oh, and a three on two is a little thing. Definitely, that's what it is. I respect that. He's like, fucking Pope. I know. Give me all. Dude, I'm going to take a dash what he would say.

You just, you can't. Really? Listen, that bad, that bad change is brutal. Yeah. I only hate the screaming at people. Yeah. Yelling about effort? Yeah.

People who are not good, who are then beaking your teammates, some of the lowest awareness you will ever see in pickup sports. And you call as a hypocrite because you got to, dude, you, you beak about effort, but you are giving effort every time. So there's never, you're not a hypocrite. I'm not a hypocrite. Yeah. So you can't be beeking about effort.

and then not trying. Correct. So is there a line? What? How much yelling does he have to do before? It's no longer worth the waggoo. I think because I agree it's worth it right now. I think if you're winning, it doesn't matter.

You can do anything. I think you can insult your mother. I think you would go medium rare. Yeah. You guys cannot, you cannot go more than two seasons without winning the ship. Oh, interesting. So like this take two. If you lose two seasons in a row

Don't win the ship You have to win that third season Otherwise he's gone Or he's cut Yeah But then he gets picked up by someone else And then they're having cup parties Well maybe they might lose

They might lose Well I also like they're saying like Oh we'll have to go back to Costco burgers I like Costco burgers Yeah I don't want to shame Costco burgers Another good take here Yeah Good times can be had with Costco burgers

But it's it sounds It's not yeah It sounds like he's got a sick house too It sounds like he's probably Like a sick barbecue High end cigars This guy's rich. We're not getting Stogis anymore.

I promise you that. This guy's rich, so his house is nice. It's not the Wagu Burgers. It's the set. It's the whole setup. It's also... It's the Costco Stogies. Yeah, it's Costco Stoogis.

That we can't have. Those are dry as far. And dude, it's not that Costco burgers taste bad. It's that you're paying for them. True. Because everything was free. Everything was free. And now I'm like, fuck.

Dude. That's it. Guys, keep them. If you go, if you go three seasons without a ship, he's gone. Do you think that this is his way of apology for like he knows when he gets on the ice? I've been a dick. He's not as good of a player as he'd like to be. And so when he comes off of it, he's like, I'm going to make it up to everybody end of the season.

Yeah. I'm going to. I was thinking about that. I think, yeah. I think he knows a little bit for sure. That he's like the brag. You know, he thinks he's, he throws this party to celebrate himself. The other end of the spectrum is he's like, another cup for me.

Look at me. I did it into the waggoo. That's fine. Yeah. That's fine with me because I get Wagyu too. You don't care. That's fine. Medium rare, please.

Yeah. I find guys do that. Sometimes you see guys who it's their day to bring beer and they bring like really nice beer. And I think that is often synonymous with a guy who's like, I'm not that great out there. Yeah. I want to give you guys a nice beer. Because you got to be something.

Yeah. It's true. Actually, that's a great point, dude. You've got to be something. You got to be either good or a good hang or you bring cool beer. You have to contribute. And if you are, your contribution is the cup part. Yeah. Then that's a role. Someone has to play that role.

And he's playing the role very well. Very well. So the answer is you absolutely keep this guy around, but you've got to win. You start pushing the envelope. Can you start asking for more? No. Maybe some, maybe some oysters. Oysters? You want oysters at your beer league cup party? Yeah. Jesus. Let's work up to oysters. Let's start with shrimp cocktail. Yeah. And then we'll eventually get there. See, you got to find the no, though. You know what I mean?

It's true. With a guy like this, it's true. He'll probably be like, oh, hell yeah. Yeah. Okay, let's get into Bauer Blind ranking. We've got our finger on the pulse of the holiday season right now. And our hands on the pulse. And our hands on the pulse. The best hockey stick in the game, the Bauer pulse,

is just changing the way you play hockey. Get your hands on one. It's an incredible dude. You need. Mid-kick feel, low-kick release. So we're doing a two-parter here. We're actually probably going to do a three-parter? Three-parter. Unbelievable. So there'll be no repeat.

obviously. So if something is named in part one, it has been eliminated, and we have that knowledge. Yes, we do. Basically, there's three Wednesdays between now and Christmas. Yeah,

and we're going to do three. We're doing a three-part Christmas movie Blind Ranking, brought to you by Bauer. And for those of you, this won't make the clip, but for those of you at home listening, I guess every pod listener probably knows,

but the amount of responses of like, how is blank left off? And I'm like, it's what is given time? I know. It's people who still don't understand blind ranking is. So the good news is if something's not named in this one, you get two more swings at it.

15 movies are going to get named and we are going to rank them. And then, Dan, I'd be very interested to do, maybe we'll do it in the pod only. After the third run, we'll do a full 15. Whoa. Now we have the data. Blind ranking 15. No, no, no. We'll have the data.

We'll have the data. We'll go. These were the 15. Now we'll rank them. If we could do it again, like these is the order. Okay. All right. Blind ranking Christmas movies part one.

All right. I feel like our audience doesn't know how big movie buffs you are. Yeah. Yeah. Christmas fans, too. Yeah, big Christmas fans. All right. Number one, love actually.

Fuck you, Dan. Wow. This is going to be really tough. Why fuck me? Because this is your favorite of Christmas movie. It's not my favorite Christmas. Or it's your second favorite. It got beat.

This is going to be high for you. But maybe kind of low for me. Honestly. Richard Curtis is a legend. He's one of my goats. And that movie's amazing. But I just, there's some Christmas flicks. I love, love actually.

I know you do. And people who hate it, you're doing it for clout. Yes, because you're doing the thing where you're like, this is actually not that happy of a storyline. Correct. How sad is this? He kissed his best friend's wife. And I'm like, shut the fuck up.

I agree, dude. It was lovely. He held up a sign. It's so annoying. It's actually a testament. to how good of a film it works, that it doesn't make you feel bad when you watch it.

Yeah, correct. Also, that's life, that's life. The movie, that's life, you know? Poof. That's two of those. I might go, mom. Yeah, love actually is about all of the different forms of love we feel during the holiday season, both good and bad.

Both misplaced and property placed. We got chirped recently for going three out the gate. Often. and I, but I feel like three is correct. No, dude. You want three? Actually, maybe I do because I was going to four. I think three is correct.

I think four is too low. Love actually is a great movie. Okay. Okay. Three, boring, I know. I'm sorry. Klaus. One.

One. Absolutely easy one. Best Christmas movie ever made. If you haven't seen Klaus. I'm talking about this, Sean, right? You were talking about this, yeah. If you haven't seen this movie, if you were listening to this podcast, or hopefully this gets in the clip, if you haven't seen Klaus,

Literally stop this YouTube. Yep. I cannot believe we just got Klaus. That fucking fires me up one. Wow. Okay. That was a quick one. Okay.

Home alone. Two. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I feel... There are ones. There are ones... No, no, no.

There are ones I like much more than that, Dan. I know, dude, but like you don't know what we're getting here. Home alone. That's why I love actually should have been four. There is a world. Yes. Don't make me do this. dude. What do you mean, dude?

Like, yeah, there are some that you like more, but like, Home Alone, we're going to put below Love Actually. Yeah. Fuck. Home Alone is fucking incredible. So good music. Yeah. Is that a joke? No. It's serious. It's very serious. Home Alone, too.

Spirited. What do you mean? Great movie. This is fantastic. I love spirited. Such a sneaky, sneaky, sick movie. Yeah, it's a really good time. God, so fun. I guess five.

No. Yeah, yeah, I think. Because I've already fucked it. What do you mean fucked it? This list is currently perfect. Anything I'm fearing can't be saved by a four. That's my point. Well, it's better than a five.

Fair, fair, fair, fair. But there's, I love spirited. Me too. I'm surprised by this take. I spirited so good. Well, what do you mean? Like, I love spirit. I think you're going to be a walk four there.

No way. There are so many good movies. Fuck. I know, true. But that's what I mean. We've already fucked the good. You are boosting. You're boosting spirited, though. I don't think I am. It's clever. It's very clever. It's very funny. You want five? Yeah. This is fucked. Okay. So it's the only open spot right now is four. Four. Okay. We're going to go spirited five. All right. Well, next one is Polar Express. I wish it was four. I wish spirited was four. I would have flop. I would have flop. But that's

That's a fan. That's a really good list. This really came together because some bad shit could have happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bad shit could have happened. That's a fantastic list. I would have flopped spirited in Polar Express, but our one, two, three is fucking perfection. And Polar Express went off the way.

It did. It did. Absolutely incredible book. And there are really lovely moments in Polar Express. Also, you don't talk about music. The music in Polar Express might save it all. But they went, Zemechis went really weird with that. And that should have been five overspirited.

but I don't think anyone's freaking out that spirit it isn't for. So it's a great job. Really, really great job. There's one diehard spirited fan out there who's so upset. Yeah, he's pissed. He's pissed. And I get it. I get it. It's musical.

It's great. Okay, that's a great episode, great stuff. That is going to wrap us up today. We've got some fun stuff later in the week. You guys have been asking for it. We're going to give it to you. We are now doing once a week. We're going to review the three of us.

every episode of heated rivalry. That'll be coming to you on Thursday. So keep tuned for that. Hope you enjoyed Cal Clutterbuck. C.P.'s rocking a bunch of merch. Bye, bang, bang. Go buy it. Subscribe to the YouTube.

Follow us on all channels. We love you guys. We'll see you later this week. And until then, Skate Hard.