Empty Netters Podcast - The St. Louis Blues Are Going to SHOCK The NHL This Season w/ Jim Montgomery | EP.219

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

College superstar and NHL coaching genius Jim Montgomery joins the pod to talk about how good he thinks the St Louis Blues can be this year. Getting ready for camp and dealing with the Kyrou trade talks. Then he gets into his UMaine career, coaching Denver, and of course his tenure with the Boston Bruins. The nicest beer league hotline ever submitted has the boys fired up and they blind rank what’s the best fake hockey name.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That's the one thing that's so beneficial about being in the NHL is these players are so smart and good that you can never underestimate how much they can handle. And when it becomes too much, there is a point where, and this is a benefit of having great captains where, you know, Schener and Falker and Thomas and Pereko came into my office and they're like, we might need to slow down a little bit on the details right now. And it was great feedback for me. And that's when I knew, hey, we're in this together. When they're coming into the office and they're like, just slow it down a little bit. We're okay. We're good. But let's hone in on what we're really good at and then just continue to build slowly.

Ice is ready. And we are back with another episode of the Empty Netters podcast brought to you by BetMGM. I am your host, Dan Powers. And with me, he is too afraid to get a professional member. massage. He never has because he's not sure if he's supposed to get completely naked or not, and he's too scared to ask the masseuse. Chris Powers. What do you do? What do you do, as always? And I, you get, you do whatever's comfortable. Yep. Well, that's the thing. I don't know comfort. Never known it. Never will know it. Yeah, you're afraid of it. Never will. Never will know it.

You know, I once got a massage at, uh, I always, I love a Thai massage, but what's funny is I, I, I don't get The Thai massage. I go to Thai massage parlor's and I ask for a Swedish massage because the Thai massage is too intense. Oh, I thought the Swedish was intense. No, no, no, no. Swedish is like, Swedish is a nice, a nice, relaxing rub down. Yeah. Tie is when they start climbing on you. Yeah. We're talking elbows, knees. Yeah, no, no. Head, shoulders, knees and toes. They're standing, they're holding on to bars and walking on you. And they also just bend you. It's like a sports massage. It hurts more than it feels good. And people are always telling me, I think I talked about this on the pod once, or I made a video about it.

And people were like, no, that's the, you want the hurt. And I'm like, no, I don't, dude. I hurt all the time. That's my daddy is hurt all the time. I'm miserable. And my back's all out of whack more often than not. I would like a relaxing massage, sir. I'd like to almost fall asleep.

But one time, I was in this time massage parlor, and I left my skim's briefs on. And I got on, you get under a sheet. Yeah. And the woman came in and she started going to work and she like pulled the sheet back and she goes, take these off. Yeah. And I went, yes, ma'am. Took them right off. And now never put them back on them.

You spanked your bare bottom. I'm always butt naked. Well, it feels fantastic. Recovery's important. It's needed. It's like the most needed thing in the world. You know who talks a lot about recovery actually? Oh, stop it.

Dude. It's such a bad segue. What was great? The great segue I had was it's one of the most needed things in the world as well as needing. this interview with Jim Montgomery. Mine's better. No way, dude. When they hear it, though, once they hear it, yes, he does.

He says, dude, I was just listening to it back. That's why I know. He says, he says, recovery one time. No, he says, you've got to get in the cold tub. You've got to get in the hot tub. You've got to get massage. You've been to have done even better. That would have been a better one.

Yep. Recovery is important. Fucking fired up. Yeah. Fired up to have Jim Montgomery on the podcast. Yeah. We have become really close with Monty. He's one of the best guys in the biz.

Unbelievable coach. episode was fantastic. We were all snapping it around. He just seemed so happy and on top of the world and I can't wait for y'all to hear it. We are joined today by a Montreal native, a megastar at the University of Maine

where he won a national championship in 1993 was NCAA tournament MVP. He's still the school's all-time leading score and he has his jersey retired. He played in the NHL for the Blues, the Habs, the Flyers, the Sharks, and the Stars. Former coach of the Denver

Denver Pioneers, where he led them to a national championship in 2017, and he was named the Spencer Penrose Coach of the Year, former coach of Dallas Stars, former coach of the Boston Bruins, where he set the record for 65 wins and 135 points in his season and won Jack Adams Award for Coach of the Year, and the current coach of the St. Louis Blues, Jim Montgomery. Welcome to the MTNetters podcast.

I got it. Can I start to toot your guys' horns? Because you guys have been incredible. I know that we met at the All-Star Games, and through our buddy Sully. But, you know, what both you guys have done sending those videos in the last two years in springs, almost a year apart. My one son and my daughter, they both break arms and you send them get well videos,

and it really picked up their day. So I'm honored to be with you guys. Oh, Monty, the honor is all ours. This has been a long time coming. We've been so pumped to get you on here. But as I said before we started recording, it's the only, as much as we love sending the videos, we got to stop, stop breaking wings for the Montgomery kids. Like, this is, this is, this has got to be, got to be done.

Yes, yes. I'm worried about next spring, Dan. You know, I've already set my calendar. I'm like, someone's going down. It is like clockwork now. Like next spring, I'm going to be sitting there being like, oh, geez, we haven't gotten a text from Monty. I wonder what's going on over there.

Yeah. Well, hopefully, you know, we're just playing and the kids are just watching games in the playoffs. Yes. Yes. Yeah. That is our wish. I agree.

Monty, where are you joining us from? Are you in, are you at the facilities? Are you in St. Louis right now? Yeah, I'm at our practice facility, Santine Community Ice Center. And it's great. You know, the suns, they start to get older. So they come in with me to work. And it's awesome.

Like, my oldest is working out with Colton Pereco right now, so the benefits of the NHL a little bit. Yeah, that's not bad. Are you, are you itching to get back into it? Or are you trying to soak up every moment of summer that you can? Yeah. I'm not itching to get back into it just because once the season starts, it's a grind and you know it's never ending and you love that part of it. But you really enjoy the solitude really of the summer and spending time with family and friends, going on vacations like we did last week and just being able to spend time with your children and your wife.

But I am really excited about the upcoming season. And I think we know who we are and what we are and what we look like now. And now it's about growing even more. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, well, that's a perfect transition into what we really wanted to talk about off the jump. You're obviously here at the facility. I think you've got a great looking squad going into this season. It's your first full season with the Blues as head coach.

You had an unbelievably exciting year last year. You took the boys to playoffs after really no one thought that that was possible, which was incredible. and you've now got this great group. You've got some young players. What's the belief going into this season right now in the room, you know, when you're talking to some of the boys, talking to the rest of the staff? Is playoffs a no doubt for you guys in your mind?

No, I can't say, you know, playoffs are no doubt because I believe the central is so hard. There's, you know, there's so many excellent teams in the division and there's a couple of teams that are loaded. But we feel as a group, and this is starting with ownership to management, to coaching staff, to players, that we know what we have to do. And that's such a big part of being ahead. And what I mean by what we have to do is there's a certain work level, there's a certain standard, and there's a certain amount of compete that we expect to do daily that is going to allow us to play at the standard that our fans expect to start.

to play at, which is, you know, a blue collar, this is a blue collar city. They really respect when you're physical, when you give all for your teammates. And it shows there's a brand of hockey that is very evident when the fans are watching that these guys care about each other. And that's where we need to have a great camp so that we can start the season on time and start off on a good note. You've said before that one of your favorite things about hockey and about this game in sports is a group of guys all pulling the sled in the same direction, kind of rallying

together, being a family, working towards one common goal. How strong is that vibe in this locker room and with everyone from top to bottom, like you say, because you've mentioned so many times how a huge reason for you going back to the blues was you could just see that energy from the owners all the way down being such a collective unit. Yeah. And, you know, it took us a while to get there. And it does. I mean, that's, the world doesn't work. You don't step in and you start working with a bunch of new people. It doesn't matter if it's players or it's coaches or as a combination. It takes time to be able to get through, and much needed, you need the adversity to be allowed to grow from it. And we know what it was and what we looked like before the four nations and what we looked like after

to four nations. And watching that as a coach, you love to see that transformation of your team becoming a group of individuals into a one mindset. And it's very evident about how selfless they become. And as a coach, that's what you're always looking to have is everyone is thinking about the team. They're sacrificing for each other. They defend each other.

and it's very simple hockey. Like if I have the middle of, I'm in the middle of the ice and I pass it to you on the right wing, Chris, I'm driving through. I'm going to do the dirty work so you can set up Dan. And then we have a successful entry and a goal. It's those little things that became so evident in how we played. And then you become hard to play against when you get to that up.

Yeah, that's so true. God, I love that. What is it, for those who wouldn't know, what would you say are some of the key differences between getting a coaching job, a head coaching job in the middle of the season versus having a summer and a preseason to prepare? The difference is when you start the season, like I will this year, you have all offseason to prepare on little wrinkles you want to put into your team with how you're going to play. you start to lay the foundation right away, and you build on that.

In the middle of the season, you don't have time to do that. So having the benefit of Ken Hitchcock here in St. Louis and having a lot of talks with him before I got the job in St. Louis when I was working here previously, and I talked to him when I was in Boston too, because he's a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the game.

And, you know, he said, just go in there and have a couple of key things you want to work. on and more language than systems. Because you don't have enough time to change things. Because all you're going to do is confuse your players. So I came in and I really just wanted to focus on a commitment to winning goal lines, having numbers at each goal line, and for our forwards to be getting back above pucks and D-Men having tight gaps.

Those are the words I really use at the beginning. And then once you start to have practice time, I would work on one thing a day that I wanted to alter or change. And then slowly but surely through video, and these players are so smart and they learn so quickly in the NHL. I mean, it's amazing sometimes how quickly they can see something and go apply it on the ice.

And that's the one thing that's so beneficial about being in the NHL is these players are so smart and good that you can never underestimate how much they can handle. And when it becomes too much, there was a point where, and this is the benefit of having great captains, where, you know, Schenner and Falker and Thomas and Perako came into my office and they're like, we might need to slow down a little bit on the details right now. And it was great feedback for me.

And that's when I knew, hey, we're in this together. When they're coming into the office and they're like, just slow it down a little bit. We're okay. We're good. But let's hone in on what we're really good at and then just continue to build slow. after a bit. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

And talking development, Monty, you've got two young, young players that were super excited about that I wanted to ask you first, your 19th overall draft pick, Justin Garbeno, who lit up the queue last year

and has decided to go back. Can you tell us a little bit about what you think his upside is and how you feel development goes in that league with him being at the queue again? Yeah. Well, you know, actually,

he was just in St. Louis because he came in yesterday and I met with him yesterday. So it's amazing that you, the timing of this is great. I love his swagger. I love his confidence. And what I also like is how much he talks about, like, watching video and learning from it. The guy wants to be a player.

He understands, he's going to score at this level. It's a matter of when. And he's going to come into camp and knowing the way, he's coming into camp trying to earn a job. And if he goes back to Bobriand, he's going to. go there and he understands that it's an opportunity for him to be a leader as a captain and continue to grow and lead the right way. And those are all things that we think are going to help in his development to be in a real good blue down the line.

Yeah, amazing. And then the other one, Jimmy Snuggiero, obviously, who we love, Minnesota gopher, stud, you know, comes out, get seven games to you guys, four point seven, playoff games, four points. What do you see in there, future superstar? Well, you know, I've learned. in this job not to get too high on players. Just because once I say it,

then everyone's expecting them to live up to the standard, you know. But what I do know is having worked and seen Jimmy play in real tough environments, like Winnipeg in the playoffs, that's a tough environment. And not only was he up to the task, but, you know, he thrived in it. And he also learned certain things that he needs to do this, summer in order to get better.

Him being able to have that kind of success and be a part of the making the playoffs and then in the playoffs, I think is only going to propel him to be further ahead when he starts the year this year. And there's going to be growing pains for him that we've talked about playing 80, you know, 80, 82 games compared to 36 in college, you know, managing your body, managing sleep, rest, nutrition, all those things. And that's why, like, him having that. finish is going to allow him to start off. But to answer your question, how good do I think he's

going to be? He's going to be real good for the St. Louis Blues. He's going to be important to our success this year. That's huge. I was going to say, Chris, Monty goes the other way whenever he's asked about players. He's like, they suck. They're terrible. Reverse psychology. Yeah. Mind game with the media. That's how you do it. But real quick, Monty, because on that point, I think it's interesting that we see a lot of guys have kind of a sophomore slump or whatever when it's like it's a more of a grind in harder. People have tape on you and blah, blah, blah. How much of coaching young players is the mental, too,

just trying to give them the conference. You'd be like, it's okay. You know, like there's going to be growing pains in this league. Yeah, I think that's the big hurdle for players becoming consistently good in the NHL. Yeah. Is, you know, the grind of it, being professional on and off the ice, like I talked about, you know, and every day expecting yourself that you need to be good every day. You can get away with it in junior hockey and college hockey,

not being good every day. And I'm talking understanding that in the NHL, we don't get to practice a lot. But that 35 minutes we do practice, be ready to go. You can have fun in practice. We want to smile on your face. You score a goal. Go ahead and tease a hole for dinner, you know,

have some fun with them because they're extremely competitive too. and they love that, gets them going. But when it's your turn to go, don't screw up the drill, be ready, because we're here to get better in that 35 minutes. And once we're done with that, then go and, you know,

use all the opportunities that the NHL affords you with recovery. You know, cold bath, hot tub, whatever you need to get ready for tomorrow night. Absolutely. There are obviously so many different coaching styles

and approaches to the game. And of all the people that we've talked in the league that we know, you know, guys, players currently in the league, some who have retired who have played for you, you are so unanimously talked about as a player's coach. And we just heard it in the examples you gave with, you know, the captain group and the blues coming into your office and then down to you spending time with and talking to guys like a prospect who is just drafted. What about your coaching style do you think resonates with players so much that you are talked about this way so often? And when did that kind of become a core foundation of the way that you deal with players? I don't know. You know what? That's a hard question to answer.

I just know being myself, if I'm myself, that's when it's genuine with players. And I feel like everywhere I've been, that's the case. Whether I've been really had hard conversations with people, because you have to have hard conversations, I think, in order to grow. And, you know, an example I can use in at the different levels. In junior hockey, I had Johnny God bless his soul. And, you know, he came and he was supposed to be a fourth line player, but he was way too good to be a fourth line player as a 17-year-old.

And he's quickly on the first line. And he didn't value, you know, reloading and back-checking because he was an offensive stud. And having some tough conversations with him about how that impacts the rest of the team. You know, and having captains talk to him about it. Like, him and I had this incredible relationship throughout, you know, after I would play against him in Calgary or Columbus, we'd always see each other. I got to meet his wife and his child.

And the last time I spoke to him after a game in Columbus with Boston, they were expecting their second. You know, that's one example. Then Troy Terry and Denver. You know, he came in from the national program and was such a talented player, you know, but he needed to start to understand how everything he did, very similar to Johnny, you know, and flourished in his second half of his freshman year, led us in his sophomore year to a national championship. And we still talk, you know.

And then about the NHL, let's talk about pasta, you know, because, you know, he flourished. in Boston. And I had to learn how to deal with him. I remember, you know, like, and what I mean by this is we got off to that great start. And I remember we might have been 12 games in, and pasta had like 20 points in our first day. That is crazy.

Yeah. And, you know, he started off slow. And I remember after 10 minutes into the game, I kind of barked at him at the end, because he likes to sit in the corner of the bench, and I barked at him. And then the next day, you know, I asked him what, you know, you didn't seem right.

He was just honest. He goes, I don't like it when you bark at me on the bench. I'm like, okay. And we met each other halfway. You know, and it was like, if you're not playing well, I'm going to wait to you, slide down the bench. Now, don't sit in your corner. Slide down the bench so I can talk to you and whisper in your ear. And just simple communication like that allows you to grow in a relationship, you know.

And it's no different than your relationship as brothers, you know. Like, it's amazing. And it's, you see it. It doesn't matter if you're talking to captains. You can't expect players to know what you want unless you communicate to them. And I just think being able to communicate not only what you want, but listen to what they want, people want to be heard. They want to be respected.

And I think that's the easiest way to get respect. Absolutely. I mean, I think you just hit the bullseye. It's, you know, communication is so, so important. And here's the thing, not everyone does that. So the fact that you do clock those little things, you know, whether it be, you know, a body language cue or something someone says, and then you do take the time to talk to about it, that makes all the difference. And I think it's interesting hearing about all these different players that you've worked with. There are guys that, you know, knowing you a bit and your coaching style, there are guys that when you're,

you went to the blues, I was particularly excited to see how they would flourish under you. And one of those big ones was Jordan Kairu. And he's obviously an incredible player for the Blues. And you guys have such an interesting roster where you look at guys that people that you've mentioned, you know, guys like Falk, guys like Pareko and Schenner, these really great older veterans. And then you have that middle group like Rob Thomas and Jordan. And then you've got obviously the young prospects.

And Jordan, a three-time 70-point score, 36 goals last year, one of the best five. on five forwards in the league. He's he's so phenomenal. He's under a great contract. I personally just think he's absolutely flourished under your coaching style. How do you, you know, you've said before, we've seen comments that you love his game. It sounds like you guys have a great relationship. And then there are some of these, you know, rumblings that you see in the media. Maybe he could be on the way out. Is that stuff that you just try to ignore and focus on the coaching side and just think about the best for the player or is that stuff that you have to consider? You know, it's a great point you bring up.

And yes, Jordan's incredibly important to the blue success. You know, there's a couple of players on our team, Jordan being one of them, that, you know, we can't control and we understand it's part of the business that people have to talk about, you know, and I'm talking Twitter feeds and people that are really well respected in the hockey community. Totally. You know, that maybe, you know, Jordan will be, we're looking to move them. And we don't control those things. But until like that trade deadline or the draft is over, you know, there's no sense calling about every rumor it's going out there. They're professionals. They understand that what's being put out in the media usually isn't what's really going on.

But it's still hard on him. And I understand as people, as does Doug Armstrong, like those things happen. But when the draft was over and we had development camp, I called Jordan. I said, how are we doing, bud? And, you know, he's having really good summer. He trains well. He's extremely strong and powerful athlete. And then, you know, I just said, hey, how was all the rumors, you know, and he said exactly what I said to you.

like, you know, hey, as an individual, you can't help it because your family's talking to you about it, you know. If you have a wife or a girlfriend, they're going to be like, hey, do we have to move? You know, those things, it's just, it happens. It's part of, it's part of life as a professional athlete. Yeah. But, you know, you know, and I explain, hey, we don't control those things, but let's start talking about next year.

You know, all that stuff is over and done with. And I really am happy that you're still a blue and all that stuff. think it's important that they hear those things, but now it's about what do we need to do to be good next year? And that's all that matters, because we're really happy that we've made steps, but we got a lot more steps to make if we want to be who we want and say we want to be internally. And internally, we have a lot of expectations. I don't think the expectations externally, which I don't care about. They seem to think, like, oh, the blues, you know, are going be like the 20th team in the league.

That's fine. But internally, our expectations are a lot higher. Hell yeah. That's amazing. Not Jordan, and this is kind of like a hypothetical, but in your coaching career, have you ever had, do players call you or text you every now and then if there are trade rumblings out there? Is that something that you've ever had to deal with?

No. No, you know, players understand coaches, coach, managers manage. Yes. And they also understand we don't have control over that. Like, they don't, you know what I mean? I don't. So that old saying, you control what you control, it gets hard at moments and it just does.

That's the life of, you know, the NHL. But, you know, you got to be a pro and you've got to move on. You got to do what's right for, I always say if you're present and you're working in the now, you're going to be in a good, healthy place. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Great.

Monty, I want to flashback now with some fun stuff for you. So we're going to UMaine, a couple mainers on the call here. So very exciting stuff. So you end up at UMaine because too much homework at Middlebury and Princeton, eh? Adobe Acrobat Studio, your new foundation. Use PDF spaces to generate a presentation. Grab your docs, your permits, your moves. AI levels of your pitch gets it in a groove.

Choose a tablet with your timeless cools. Flex those tunes. Drive design, deliver, make it sing. AI builds the deck so you can build that thing. Do that, do that, do that with acrobat. Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with acrobat. Way too much. Which is incredible.

Hey, was it your dad who I know was such an influence on you and your siblings and honestly you was a coach? But was he bummed at all when you were like, I'm not going to Middlebury. How did he feel? Yeah. No, he just, he liked the opportunity, you know, of going to a high-end academic program like that. I think deep down, no, once we were being recruited by Maine and Grant Stambrook,

who was almost the same age as my dad, like three years younger, they connected on so many levels because they both played football, they both played different sports. and my dad played against Winnipeg in the championship of junior football in Canada. And I think Grant might have been at the game. He knew the players he was playing against because he was from Winnipeg. Once that connection happened, I think my dad would have killed me if I didn't commit to me. Fair, fair.

And well, hey, man, good thing you did because like the performance from you and the team, that 93 team, 42, 1 and 2, possibly the greatest college team of all time. when like we said you won the Natty in that game you are down 4-2 to Lake Superior State and you have a casual natural hat trick in the third period to win championship

was that the greatest night ever or how did that how did that feel it's definitely one of the best nights in my life and not because of my personal performance but as a group of seniors that year the seven of us we had made a commitment and a pact to each other that it doesn't matter

you know, because we had been to the Frozen Four, we'd lost in the finally. A lot of us that had individual success. But we hadn't won a national chance, and this was our last kick-at-de-can to win a. And we weren't going to let, and we had these incredible freshmen, the Ferraro twins, Korea.

Yeah. We had, there was other freshmen that were so impactful that people don't even talk about because of how great those three were. But we were going to make sure that they understood right away that it was a, everything was about Maine first and what we do, then it was about trying to be a Hobie Baker winner.

And the amazing thing is we had all this success and everyone got rewarded for it, which always happens. Team success breeds individual success. Yeah. Was you, well, I guess I kind of have two questions about this because I was actually watching the, there's a stream of the game.

I was watching the third period last night. And you guys look reasonably polar. down forward to you know what what was the vibe like on the bench in that third period do you remember where you guys like we're going to do this yeah i remember um there was a little bit of a and and i mean a little bit just a little bit of frustration in the dressing room after the second um but the majority of the talk right away was about how we're going to come back and win this thing and the thing is like in the moment i didn't think we were being outplayed that badly everyone Lake Superior dominated us in the second.

And they outscored us, definitely. And they did have, but we had chances in the second. So we knew we were getting chances. Yeah. And, you know, Sean Walsh did a great thing. He adjusted. And we put in Garth Snow. And, you know, his job, as he was a great puck antin.

And he could really probably shot the puck harder than I did as a goaltender. And he was the new breed of those. And every time they dumped it in, Sean Walsh said, forwards take off and guards send the puck. There was no two-line passes in college hockey already. And as forwards, our eyes lit up. Like, we're going for it. So I think there was excitement because of what Sean said.

And because of, you know, I think almost every captain of the seven seniors spoke in that second period. And the belief was, we're going to do this. Well, there's some fabled lore, Lodgy, about what you said in between periods. there. And obviously, I know you were a very vocal leader. Sean had even said that he was going to just give you the room. And he'd sat a couple quotes about that. But can you give us any insight on what you said or is that is that secret to the main boys in that locker, which is fine if it is. No, it really, it's, no, it's not secret. But I remember Eric Finn, Kent Sulphi and Justin Tomlin, all had said something already. And Dan Murphy did. And after they had all spoken,

and we're getting ready. And I just remember getting up and saying, hey, we're fine here. Everyone has said the right things. Let's just go out and do it. We cannot be stopped when we play our version of hockey. And I think when Sean came in and said what he said, I think we went like this. Yeah. Yeah.

Everybody peaking. Imagine making that statement and then going out and scoring three. It did. Like that's how you back it up. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Well, it helps when you have Paul Korea and Cal Ingraham. And Paul sets you up for three goals from about five feet from the net. And all you got to do is push it along the ice.

Yeah, just put the stick flat on the ice, right? It's funny. It's funny watching the stream because this is like before replay and, you know, like high deaf and everything. Yeah. Every fucking goal they think is Cal's that you score. Like the first one, they are like, and that was Cal, I think, from Korea. And then they correct it later. And then the second one kind of gets tipped in, you know. And they're like, and that was Pal in front of the net. I'm like, can somebody announce that Monty's scoring these goals, please? Yeah.

Well, that second goal screwed people up. I was trying to pass. Yeah. Korea dropped it to me and I tried to hit Cal going back door. Yeah. And the defenseman covering Cal put a stick down. He poked it right in the nap. There you go.

They all count, baby. Yeah. All count the same. Going from staying in college but going to coaching. I wanted to talk about Denver for a moment because you obviously, it wasn't even your first job. You were at Notre Dame and then RPI where you coached one of the great studs of all time. Matt Merley.

From the Mershammed. And then two Clark Clubs at the USHL. It's incredible. And then you get to Denver. And you had such great success. There's such an unbelievable program there. You know,

you had NCAA births every year, two Frozen Fours and, of course, a national championship. We look at Denver now and, you know, this remarkable program there are, which a lot of which has to do with a part of the path that you carved there. and you look at a guy like David Carl

who obviously gets NHL offers every year it stays there for you creating the success that you did there and that amazing program and all the great players that you had was there any part of you that hesitated about leaving and making the jump to the NHL and just seeing

what a great situation you have at a great program like that in college hockey yeah it was it was some real long conversations between Emily and I about what's right how we wanted to raise our kids. And, you know, I'm incredibly lucky that I have such a understanding and driven wife who runs a

great household and does a great job as a wife and mother and stuff. And I said, it really, I think I was 47 at the time. And, you know, the conversation comes, it had been a couple of times. It had been a couple of years already where I had returned to Denver. And now I'm 47. I have four children. And it's like, do we want to go away from me being home? Yeah, right.

80% of the time to now being home really 45% of the time. Because, you know, the travel and just how many more games and all that. And, you know, what it came down to is a couple of things. Denver was unbelievable to us. One of the best bosses I've ever had in my life. Pegg was the AD and she was incredible. And the associate AD was great. You know, we had a lot of success and Denver's a great place to live.

But it came down to, I felt myself in college had gotten to the point in coaching where I was getting comfortable. and wanted a challenge to see how I would do against the Babcock, Hitchcock, ruffs, you name it in the NHL, Barubes, Tockets, all these great coaches, Cooper, that, you know, are still in the league doing well. And the other thing that it came down to was, you know, you've got to make a decision, you know, how you're going to raise your children and stuff. and knowing that you're probably only going to be in one spot for four years. And I haven't even been in a spot for four years yet.

That would be great. Yeah. Yeah. I'll take it right now. You know, so it was at that point in my life where we just made a decision that it was now or never. It was either I'm staying at Denver. And I knew Denver would be in a great place with David Carl, David Carl, I knew he was going to be an exceptional head coach.

And, you know, having worked together for the five years before he took over, I saw his growth and I knew he was ready. And I'm just so happy that he's done what he's done with the program and taking it to 10 national championships. And there's one of my favorite books or my favorite book ever is good to gray. And they talk about leaders building it. And if you build a really good program, you want to hire from within. because that person understands and how to take that program, maybe even make it better.

And I think, you know, David Carl has clearly done that. And I take that as like so much pride in what he's done at Denver and how he's grown and how he's made it his own and how it's still so successful. Yeah. It's amazing, really. It truly is. Monty, the Blackbears had a bit of a resurgence this year. So.

Benny Barr, baby. I know. Your boy. Your boy. So if we are staring down the barrel of a main Denver natty coming up soon, who are you pulling for? Oh, that's a tough question. Yeah. Yeah, that's brutal.

By the way, I donate to both programs. Equally, equally, equally. Want that to be very clear, folks. Yeah. Because you know what? It's part of your makeup as a person. Like, I always say this to my buddies who say no to playing golf. golf with me when I want to play golf.

Don't forget your roots. Because a tree with no roots, it dries up and it rots. Yes, dude. You know? Come play golf with me. Yeah, it's so good. Wow, I love that. Yeah, we'll have to get you one of those split jerseys, you know, like the old, like, like a parent.

The parent. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Well, Monty, you make the jump to, you do, you live the dream. You make the jump to the head coaching job. And I wanted to get into the Bruins a little bit, obviously, because, you know, we grew up in New England.

We're Bruins fans. So it was incredible. But my first question is that Bruin's head coaching job is the first head coaching job you get after taking control of your sobriety. And immediately you win Jack Adam. You know, you just have an incredible season. And you gave in such an epic speech, by the way.

I recommend anybody that didn't see it live or hasn't seen it. Please go YouTube. Monty's acceptance speech. But can you just touch on that a little bit for us here? And what that year meant to you having the results you had in that moment in your life? Yeah, I think what that year meant to me after, you know, struggling to overcome my personal addiction with alcohol, you know, it to me that that year was really about all the people that helped me get to that spot. And there's so many.

There's people in Dallas, like Jim Nill, having encouraged to fire me. I am so grateful for what he did. You know, it sounds crazy, but that's how your mind changes when you start to get sober. Is these people that made hard decisions that maybe a lot of people on the other side would think hurt you, he actually was helping me. So it starts there. And then, you know, my family, my wife, having, you know, all the, it takes a lot. Because I'm going through a change and she's dealing with the change.

and what a rock star she is. Then I look at all the people like, you know, you guys know Sully, but Michael Solomon's been a huge person. And everybody in that Monday, Friday group that during COVID we were on three days a week, you know, doing our meetings. So many close friends that were part of the East and West Coast All-Stars. And then it gets to St. Louis professionally. Doug Armstrong, giving me a second.

chance. Not a lot of people have the courage to do that, you know, and I'm grateful for that. And then Craig Barubi, the way him and the staff here treated me, the way the players here right away treated me. You know, those things are little things that add up to getting your confidence back, to being understand you can do this sober in environments where you were celebrating previously. And then getting the Boston and having a great fortune of the Bruins giving me a second chance with Cam Nealie and Don Sweeney and a Jacob family. And most importantly, walking in and learning how lucky I was to have Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchon, running that dressing room. Like, as the coach, you think your job is always

just a coach, but it's never just, it's more about managing people. Yeah. And in Boston, I didn't have to manage people because those two completely controlled and managed the people in the locker room. So I was like, oh my God, I get just the. coach here. Yeah. This is the best job ever. This is fantastic. Yeah.

So all those things, they help you, you know, and just like, I'm grateful for the opportunity in, I'm a much better coach now than I was when I was in Boston because of the people in Boston, you know? Yeah. Well, perfect segue, because I was going to say you'd coach such incredible people in St. Louis ahead of that, and then you get the luxury of coming in and getting a burg and a marshy. And was that, was the culture in Boston, everything that you had heard?

hurt. Like when you got there, were you like, yep, did they really have built something here? Yeah, it didn't take long to see that. And, you know, it was special. And I always say this culture is something you got to work on daily. And I saw that then. And, you know, I can't say I saw that the last year. And that's where I think myself, you know, I should have put more emphasis. on making sure the culture was maintained because unfortunately it wasn't the same. And that just happens. That's culture changes over time. And that's something that I know I learned from when I was in Boston and how much I should have been more on that than coaching part. And you don't even have to aim at Boston with this answer. But how does a team generally regain that culture?

What steps have to take to fix that? Well, I saw it and lived it here in St. Louis. We feel our culture changed much like a lot for the better, you know. And what that takes is it takes a lot of hard meetings where there's honest feedback. There's hard one-on-one meetings. I'm not just saying myself. It's everybody. It's general managers talking to players.

General Manager is talking to me. Maybe I'm not doing, you know, not doing enough. Have you thought about this? And those hard conversations, if you're listening and you have a growth mindset and you start to get everybody into a mindset of a growth mindset, you start to take off again. And again, my biggest concern starting off this year is making sure we understand the work ethic and how hard it was for us to do what we did.

people forget sometimes how hard it is and how hard you need to work. And work is fun because in the end you want to win. And there's a lot of things you got to do in this league. Sometimes you're going to lose when you play well because other teams are really good too. And that's okay. But you'll want them to know they were in a battle if they came in and beat you, you know, that they got some war wounds and they're going to be like, that team plays hard.

Don't want to see them again. Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to see them again. That's the kind of thing you want to have, that if people come into St. Louis, they're leaving here and they know they're coming in. It's not going to be an easy night. Monty, what kind of pressure falls on the shoulder of a coach, definitely, but even the players, when you have such a big season like Boston did that first year, to try to go all the way. And I guess as a follow-up to that, obviously we know now that Florida team was nowhere near a wildcard team. You know, so it's like you can just catch like bad breaks and seating and play.

I've long said that that was the Eastern Conference finals and everyone should chill out about losing. You know, like that's what it felt like to me. But yeah, what kind of pressure is in the room just after having a regular season like that? Yeah, I think there's a lot of pressure. And the pressure really comes and is it comes when you face adversity. Like I saw it out in game two. Like we were playing tents. And we were such a free-flowing fluid team.

You recognize it pretty quickly when you don't look like yourselves. And then we went in and, you know, we went up 3-1. And, you know, game five, after we lost game five, I was like, we're fine. You know, like we were the better team, in my opinion, in game five. But game six, Florida had gone another level of confidence. And he didn't start to look like ourselves again. And it's handling that adversity. And there's also other things.

Like little things happen that make you feel like, oh, yeah, it's a foregone conclusion. I've talked to Coop about this because they had the great year in Tampa and lost to Columbus. That first round is hard. And the other team thinks they can beat you. And I remember little things like PR people, like, okay, we got this interview to going, and don't worry about it. You know, it's going to be crazier once we get to the finals. Everyone, everyone's mindset is you're going to the finals.

You know, having a conversation with Bergey when, you know, we sat him out a couple of games. And I'm me teasing him, having another day off. And he goes, I'm preparing for a two-month war. And that is what your mindset should be as a player. Yeah. You know? but I think there's too many people thinking that that started to affect the mindset of our dressing room.

And it comes from, you know, I know having talked to my brother or friends from Montreal that are, you know, huge Bruins fans because I was there and they're like, man, who do you think you're going to play in the face in the finals? And it just, all that kind of talk, it unfortunately, it shouldn't, But it does have an impact. Yeah, and it's just when you face the adversity and it's the first round, you don't handle it like you would normally.

Not to mention the other locker room has literally nothing to lose because they're like, you know, whatever, where the wild card seat, everyone's already penciled in this other team for the finals. So you're kind of going up against that freewheeling confidence, which is a nightmare. There's also the element, Monty. We always talk about like Bob was the backup goalie going into that. And when you look at what he's done now since, it's like truly the birth of Galactus happened in that series of what this Florida team has turned into. It is. It's crazy how a lot of things worked out for them throughout that first round.

We talk about all the time that last second breakaway Marci had in game five. Could you imagine all the immense differences that would happen if that had gone in? But going into your departure of Boston, I know that you're familiar with the saying that in the NHL coaches get hired to get fired. It happens all the time. And I think a lot of fans need to know that so often it's not really a case of a coach's ability. There's situational elements that lead to it. And I do think, however, with you leaving Boston, that is one of the very rare times where it felt more or less. collectively like the fan base and many of the players didn't like the decision people were like

nope this is not what needs to happen and that then led to such a whirlwind for you you know you had such great success with boston you fit in so well everyone there loved you so much then don sweeney makes a change and everyone was kind of thinking i mean i remember we said on the podcast the next day i said this jim montgomery will not be unemployed for long how many days was it i think it was five right like it was So fast. So what was that like? I mean, all the emotions with everything in your professional coaching career, that week, less than a week, what was going on in your head?

Was it almost too much to handle? Or was it just like everything, right? One day at a time. Yeah, you're right. It is one day at a time. And, you know, when you get fired, you can't help it. And like I've, it's funny, I've talked to a lot of other coaches and whether it's, you know, Paul Maurice, you know, or, uh, that's so many. Like, we know we're hired to get fired, but when you get fired, you feel worthless.

First of all, your first thing you, you, you, uh, think about is protecting your family, you know, you feel like a failure. Um, oh my God, am I ever going to be able to coach in the league? Now, the one thing I will say about that, I didn't have that feeling. I was like, I'm going to coach in the league again. And then it came down to when's that opportunity going to happen? And my mindset went into, okay, what did I do wrong? Where's my ownership of what went wrong this year in Boston? And my mind is just starting to get around that concept.

And then, you know, Doug Armstrong calls me. And he starts talking about, you know, what do you think about coming to St. Louis? And my brain is like, oh, I'm never saying. us to him. I'm like, when are you thinking? Didn't you say, Monty, when he called, you thought he was just being a friend, being like, hey, how you doing? He wanted to play golf, Dan. He's like, oh, yeah, let's go. I'm free. Yeah, let's go to Jordan's course. Griskey can get us on in Florida. But, you know, and then my mind, I have the conversation with him, and then your juices,

they just start getting going. And, you know, you. You start to be like, wow, I think I can do this. I know half that roster. You know, I know those guys. I know the people. This would be, and this is a huge impact is your family. Like, you know, Colin is my son that you guys met at the All-Star Games. And oddly enough said that I'm sully's friend to you guys.

Yeah. Funniest moment of my life. That was so good. Oh, my God. It's a moment of my life. Yeah. Honest to God, for people who don't know that, story, Monty's son comes up to us, I think in the media room, Chris.

Yeah, it was. Toronto. Toronto media room, the Toronto media room, the most intense media room in the national hockey league. And this kid comes up with all the swagger in the world, comes right up to us. Initially, I was like, oh, he's an empty netters fan. And then he just daps us up like one of our boys and goes, I'm Sully's buddy. And we were like, I was like, sick.

Oh, cool. And then after talking for 10 seconds, I was like, wait, you're Monty's kid. That's what you are. It was incredible. Yeah. No, he loves that too. He takes that like a pride of joy because him and Sully are tight. But he, you know, comes back.

I went and picked him up from school the day I was like, oh. And, you know, I talked to him in his room and he's tearing up because he goes, I'm fed up of new schools. I'm fed up of making new friends, tired of moving, you know. And then that happens that day. as a parent that kills you. You know, and then you're a day and a half later, I talked to my wife and St. Louis thing is starting to boil a little bit.

And I said to him, I said, what do you think about potentially going to St. Louis? And he's like, well, he goes, that would be perfect. I have friends. I know where I'm going to school. Like, all of a sudden he lit up. And I'm like, okay, okay. So once the family part is very easy and you know the people you're going to work with,

I know the ownership, you know, led by Tom and a few of the other owners. You know, they're great people. My wife loves St. Louis. I love St. Louis. It's a great place to live. This is the problem we have with St. Louis is St. Louis has one, I think maybe the second biggest alumni group that lives and plays scrimmages together.

Seeing Lewis, we have tough time getting people to come here, but once they're here, they never want to leave. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy.

It's an unbelievable place to live. The culture here is so family-oriented that players, like Brayton Shen's a great example. It's been in two different orientation and comes here

and he's just an exemplary blue, you know, understands the culture, and you go along the list of great players that have played here and guys that are blue-collar, people. That's why they fit in here. Totally. God, it's amazing.

And, you know, obviously, as you said, you get to the blues, things go so well, better than many people expected. It's awesome. You know, obviously, you don't want to wish any ill well, but did it feel kind of nice making the playoffs and seeing the Bruins miss the playoffs? You know, it's funny. You know, people always think that then I've been in wars with those people. And I know how much they've helped me. and Joe Sacco, I'll talk about a player and a coach, Joe Sacco was instrumental in my personal success with Boston.

You have a great staff under you, and I had a great staff, Joe Sacko, Chris Kelly, and a bunch, you know, and like Joe Sacco is doing an incredible job. Like Boston had reduced their scoring chances against dramatically when he took over. you know, offensively it didn't go well. You know, but I felt like he, you want to see him have success

so maybe he gets the job, right? That's what I wanted for him. Yeah. Because he, I know how talented a coach he is. And then I look at a player, you know, and I look and I start to see, you know, guys, it doesn't matter if it's Charlie Coyle or Trent Frederick, Brad Marchon,

David Posterner, guys that I'd worked with for two and a half years, you want to see them have success. Charlie McAvoy, Linhol, you know, all these guys. And I knew the struggles we had all encountered together. And I wanted to see them come together and have success for their families and the Bruins and the city of Boston.

Like the Bruins matter in that city, you know? And it'd be in success. So my mind doesn't go to like what most people think. Like we made the playoffs, they didn't. My mind goes to those people. And then I don't. only have like 5% of my time to think about that. I'm thinking about the blues, the blues, what we need to do to have success. And that's the grind of staying present in the NHL.

You know what? I want to be clear. I told Chris about an hour before we popped on here that that's exactly what you would say to that question. So I knew you were going to do that. And I love it so much. It will come as no surprise because I'm sure they reached out anyway, but we see those guys a lot and they could not have been happier for your success in St. Louis. Like they were so on the bandwagon pulling for you guys. So it's actually, I love to see that relationship. Well, and that's the culture of the Bruins that they talk about. Just great people. Everything

starts with great people. Yeah. Okay. Monty, we're going to get you out of here. We play a quick game with everybody, okay? The game is called pass, shoot, score. And basically, we give you three things inside of a category, three things that we think you really like, and you have to rank them, pass, shoot, score. Pass is your least favorite

because passing the puck's, whatever. shooting is your second favorite because we like getting pucks on net and scoring is the ultimate goal so that will be your favorite. Okay. Okay. Your first category is players who inspired you. Pass shoot score, Curtis Joseph,

Al McInnis, Brett Hull. Wow. Pass would be Al McKinness. I didn't get the opportunity to play with him. Yep. shoot would be bread hull because no one shoots better than him

nice nicely done great great it's well done and score would be Curtis Joseph he's someone he never got the opportunity score and he didn't get scored on

very much so I'm going to go with score with him but his professionalism was pretty inspiring to me yeah and hey we don't know him

that well he just came on once but never scored on by Ovi so he was part of that elite elite crew, which was pretty sick. And he seems like a great guy. Oh, he was the... Unbelievable person. Yeah, the best.

Yeah, yeah. All right, your next one, Monty, is going to be St. Louis restaurants. So your past shoot score is Cafe Napoli. Oh, boys have been to St. Louis, huh? Annie Guns. Who. And Vito's Pizzeria. Oh, wow, this is a tough one.

Yeah, I thought so. I thought it might be. Oh. I guess one's my favorite pizza place, one's my favorite Italian place, one's my favorite steakhouse, huh? All right. We're going to pass on anti-guns. Longest, longest drive. Okay.

Wow. He's got great reasons for this. This is well done. We are going to shoot with Vito's Pizzeria, and we're going to score at Cafe Napoli. Wow. Okay. What's the order at Cafe Napoli? Oh, for me, the appetizer is their,

They're colomari, and it's not breaded. I forget how long. I think it might be just simmered on the top of the sauce is incredible. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. The veal chop is incredible, and then their bolognese is outstanding. Yeah. I heard the veal chop rivals the one at Piros, which is half the table.

Well, well, we all know that Piero good Piros is at that level. That's all time. That's all time. Okay, this one comes from a little inside scoop, Monty. But your next category is songs. So pass shoot score. Live in on a prayer. Don't stop believing.

Summer of 69. Oh, God. I'm scoring with summer of 69. Nice. He knew. That's so good. Yeah, I got to say pass. Shoot is don't stop.

believing. I mean, that's, you know, that's an all-timer and just the title of it. You don't stop believing. I mean, that's staying in the moment. Yeah, you're right. That song we live forever. What was the first one, too? I love that song.

Living on a prayer. Yeah, living on a prayer is one of the all time. When I had hair, hockey hair, and I'm playing 16 years old playing midget hockey, man, that was the pump-up song, right before it went on. On the ghetto blaster. whole day. Yep. You know what? I just found out, Monty, randomly, I was doing a search and the number one song in the country, Billboard number one song, the day I was born, was living on a prayer. And I was like, you know what? This is like my mantra for life. Like, I actually love this. This is

now my, this is my go-to song now. I love that. It is an incredible anthem song. Wow, it's the best. All right. Now, to close you out, Monty, this is called Career Haddy. What we do with guys who are playing, it's their three favorite goals of their career. And obviously you could do that too. You could, I mean, you could just pick all three goals at Maine in the national championship game. But what we want to do with you right now since you're coaching is your three favorite games that you've ever coached.

And you can take a second to think about it. But if you've got it right off the top of the head, you can let it. College counts too, like any level. It can be anywhere. Yeah. God, that's a hard question to answer. Yeah. Yeah.

The three top games, no specific. order national championship at Denver game seven Poster knock overtime goal Oh such a good one So good And at Medcan

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The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan, live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. The third one would probably be the last game of the regular season last year with the Blues when we clinched playoffs. We had to win. And just the way we came out and slam-nexed.

I came down four nothing in the first period. It was just, that was kind of like the crystal moment of, man, we've really arrived. Like the way everybody just wanted that moment so badly. So those would be the three. Fantastic. Amazing. Fantastic stuff. Well, Jim Montgomery, you are the best for coming on.

This has been so, so fun. Can't thank you enough. But before we let you go, is there anything you want to shout out, anything you want to give some love to? No, I think I've given love to a lot of people that matter to me in my life already Because you guys is so good at preparing good on you guys I love it I love it's like we said it's top down it takes everyone here to make it a good show And that's exactly what you did so we appreciate you so much my man

Huge thank you to Monty that was a blast Always does with him he's the fucking best I just like can't can't get over how lucky the blues are And what a good situation he's in he gets me fired up Me too. They talk about his speeches in the locker room and how he gets the boys going. I don't doubt it for a second. He gets me fired up and I'm sitting across the Zoom from him. You know, I hate the blues because of what they did to the Bruins in 2019. And I got no love for the blues anyway, for any other reasons. And I thought about it and I was like, I don't think a player, I think about guys. Like if one of our boys went to a team, if I would be like, I'm a blues fan now. But I think genuinely I'm like, no, I just root for that guy. Whereas Monty, I'm like, no, I want the Blues to win now. Yeah, dude. That's fucking crazy.

I love him, love his whole family. Yeah, love his whole family. They're the best. They're the best. So that was fantastic. Let's take a break. Let's take an ad break. And then we'll come back.

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We haven't bantered across this table in a long time. I know. We got Brian in here. Yeah, this is OG. Welcome back. This is OG and genetics. Yeah, wow, it really is. This is like the early days.

We got producer Brian back on the sticks. We're back in the studio. Dude, your boy. Finally came home. Yeah, he's going, going. Back, back. It's actually to Cali. Yeah.

That's crazy. I guess that's not crazy. You sang it for a reason. You picked the song because it says, yeah, dude, that's why I did that. Yeah, you could have done, is that Mace, the, the, Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back, welcome, welcome. Yeah, I could have done that, but mine was better.

But I think I'm back, not going back. Like, if you were in New York, it would have made sense. Yeah, fuck, I should have done this on Thursday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm back, dude. Yep. I'll tell you, New York, those who know me, I don't like New York that much. Not the biggest fan.

But now I went there when I'm talking like one. Yeah. It's not that bad. Dude, see, you are level seven susceptible. No, I'm not, dude. I just know. I go to London. You're like, I'm a London boy.

I love it here. And then you go to Sweden, you're like, this is like my second. home. I love Sweden so much. And then you go to New York and you're like, New York, pretty cool. I'm like, okay, dude, where would you like to go to next, pal? What would you like your new favorite city on earth to be next? This is crazy. This is a crazy take. You just, I mean, I have long said London is my favorite city. I've long said that. It's once you started going there. No. Well, well, yeah, I have to go to a place before I like it, idiot. And then you go to Sweden. What do you want me to be like this? Oh, dude, you know what I love? I'm a big Cairo guy. Always

have been. I love Cairo. I have to go to a place to say I like it. Yeah, you are the, you're right. You are the dipshit that's like, oh, dude, I fucking, I love Rome. And I'm like, you've never even eaten Italian food. That's another good one, yeah. You go to Italy,

and you're like, Italy is amazing. You're saying objectively great places. Like, this is such a bullshit schick. You're trying to make fun of me for liking good places. Oh, dude, it's always so predictable. And then also I said, as soon as he comes back. I said not that bad. That's a, that's a, that's a, uh, that's a, uh, that's a don't buy for the blue

fans out there. That's, that's something to celebrate. Well, when I've said so long that I hate it, that's what I mean. That that that's a way, like, I'm like, it's not that bad. That's what I mean, this is a massive win for the city of New York. Yeah. To hear that you're, that you're, that you're, that you're, that you're, that you're, that you're, fucking, God, I can't win with this guy. Okay. Give me your best part, worst part. Give me the best part, worst part, something you learned. I hate that fucking. game. The best part for me is the walkability.

Yes. It's so awesome being able to walk everywhere and you just feel so, dude, it's like you get a second, third workout every day. If you're just whipping around, now there were days where it was too hot. Oh, yes. When I got back from Sweden, when I got back from Sweden, a place I love, by the way, I would call it my second home. When I got back from Sweden, we landed and it was like 96, 50% humidity.

I don't even know if that's a high percentage of human. I have no idea. I think it's actually very mid. It might be mid. I mean, 50 is notoriously right in the middle. But it was like you're walking around. I'm walking through swamp ass. Yeah.

Not have swamp ass. I'm walking through it. I can taste it. And you also have it. And I have it too. It's very, I'm contributing to the atmospheric swamp ass. There is atmospheric swamp ass in New York when it gets too humid like that.

Yeah. It's crazy. I have a question about the walkability. And the times I visit, I also love that. That would be a major perk for me too. But I will say it's, and I already think the counter is going to be like traffic in L.A. sucks. Yeah. But it takes a long time to get places.

Like everyone's like, oh yeah, it's like a 40 minute walk. Well, let's do it. And I'm like, great. But then I'm like, that was 40 minutes. Well, here's the thing. It just burned. Okay, good question. Here's the thing.

There's a few different answers to that. depending on where you're going, the best part about, maybe better than the walkability, the best part about New York is if it's things like groceries, a bar, just a bite to eat,

there's something everywhere. So if you're like, I got to go to the convenience store, that will always be two minutes away. Yeah. If you need to go get a slice of pizza, that will always be two minutes away. A grocery store,

that will always be five minutes away. So that is where I'm like, it's not far walking. Something is, always close. If you pop on Uber Eats for delivery, which I only did twice when it was like Sunday and I was like, I'm not trying to go anywhere. Yeah. Everything takes 10 minutes. Unless you're like, I need this specific spot and you are far away, which is like a dumb thing. It's all, it takes 10 minutes, but you wouldn't even get delivery because you just walk. Yeah. Now, if you're talking,

hey, friends are at a bar and it's a 40 minute walk, you take the subway. Oh, you do. I'm not a subway guy. You won't do it. It's not that. I like the walk. The 40 minute walk doesn't scare me. I'm that's sick. I'm going to go drink. I might as well walk 40 minutes and get some great steps in and burn some galleries. But if it's too hot or if you don't have time, you just get on the subway. Subway. And Subway's air-conditioned. It is. Oh, yeah. Oh, I thought the subway was it was getting down is tough. Like if you go down, and this is just in the summer, but like you're, when you head down on the platform, it's hot. Yeah. But the train is air-conditioned. Okay. That's not that bad. It's not that bad. It's not that bad. Best part walkability. Worst part. Worst part is there's too many people, dude. It's fucking nuts. Yeah.

I mean, there are too many people everywhere you go. Walking around, I don't, as much as I love the walking. Yeah. I don't get, I don't care if I'm going around the corner or if I'm walking 40 minutes. Yeah. I never do a walk where I don't get pissed for at least a moment. Because what you always run into is a group of four fucking yellow bellies. Just, I don't know why they're.

cowards, but they're walking four in a line. Yeah, that's kind of. And I'm like And if you're walking slow, which is fine, you can't block the whole sidewalk. You got to walk ducks in a row. But then you can't talk. Well, you, I'm sorry.

You got a car. You got a car. You got a car. That's fine. Yeah. Do it like you're in a car. Yeah. Because when you get stuck behind a bunch of yellow bellies, it drives me nuts. I was in New York briefly. Yeah. And I was once in your life or recently? Recently. And I was sitting at Luckies.

You know that place? Yeah, it's the best. Yeah. So I'm sitting at Lockes. You know that place. I live above it. I'm sitting at Luckies and this is what I fucking hate about New York. Oh.

Dude, I'm sitting at Lucky's and there's that little street that's not a very busy street, but there's like that Street that Lucky's is on. It's like a weird, there's like a main street. Yeah, you're talking about Lafayette and Cleveland. Yeah. They split. I'm a New Yorker. And there's these two guys.

And it's a Sunday. I forget. He's from New York. Fuck. I know. I'm from Jersey. I don't really claim New York like that. You're from Jersey, actually?

Yeah. Oh, wait, I know that. Where at what town? Oldtapan, Bergen County. Oh, shout out. Stand up. So these two guys are skateboarding on that street. Yeah, dude.

That is crazy. Sorry, go on. No, go ahead. That street is insane. It's like there must be a Reddit or a chat. That's like, hey, cars don't go down the street a lot. We skate here. There's a good curb.

Yep. It's next to a park. 100%. There are a ton of people. So there's a dude skateboarding with a camera. So he's like, and he's filming his boy. He's also skating. Yep.

Who's also skating. And the dude is like trying to do a kickflip or whatever. And they were pretty good. They were doing some six tricks. But like this guy's trying to do a kickflip. And a car turns. happens to turn down the road as they've started. So they're skating, boom,

and then the car comes. And then the car has to slow down near to a stop. Because the skaters. You guys are skateboarding in the middle of the street. Yeah. And the dude tries to do his kickflip, doesn't land it, and the board just is there, and then he doesn't fall. He kind of just

takes a few steps. And now the car's at a complete stop because the skateboarders in the middle of street, and so is him. So is the guy. Both guys, really. And both dudes, just like meander up to the board literally probably take like 45 seconds to just like pick the board up

No chance that is so long Dude I'm dead here because he like went away is away You know like he's like bruh Yeah yeah he like ran out his fall And then he's like wandering back As the cars just stopped there And I'm like You guys are one billion percent in the wrong here

Like you're skateboarding in the middle of the street And I don't mind there probably is a cool Reddit That's like this is a sick area skateboard cars don't come by But when one comes, get the fuck out of the way. And dude, it's just this like New York attitude that's like, what, dude? I'm just skating in New York. And I'm like, get the fuck off the street, dude. It is everywhere, dude.

No one cares about anyone but numero uno. And I won't have it, dude. We live in a society that is built on community values. And I will not stand for the fucking selfishness that permeates through that city. Christopher, your larger feeling might be correct. What you just said, the anecdote you chose, is that might be a one of one in New York City. That's the only time it's ever happened? Yes.

No, dude. I'm telling you I just spent a month and a half in that city. I did not see a single skateboarder other than right on that street. So I bet it happens on that street a lot. That might be true. It was the most disrespectful thing I've ever seen. But, dude, like, literally pick your board up. Knowing the way people honk their horns and almost run over bicyclists all the time,

there is no way that scenario happens anywhere in that city. So keep your eye on that street. Tell Alice to keep, tell Alice to fucking put a time lapse up. I will. I will. On that street, dude. But I'm telling you that can't be your, like you started saying, this is what I hate about New York City. As if that happens.

It's a disrespect. Okay. Disrespect. That's different than a bunch of skisclists. No, that was disrespect. That was, I was, it was watching. So it's the attitude you hate. Yes.

Yes. Oh yes. The act. That's what I'm getting at. No, no, no. That has never happened in this in that city at once. No, it's, it's the, it's the dude. What's the, what is that TV show?

What he's like real smug? No, it's not the office. It's the office. It's an outtake. The bed bug. The bed bug. Smug like he thought he was funny. Dude, this guy.

He was a bedbug. Dude, this guy was bedbuging down Lafayette Street. Yeah. And I was like, pick your fucking. born up, dude. Yeah. I was so mad. I was like this, you are, go away, dude.

You're a bed bug right now. You know what else is fucking crazy is the rats. Oh, dude, there are rats everywhere in that city. It's nuts. People like it, dude. They're like, they do. They go, it's cool. It's, I love it.

It's New York City. They're like, it's great. Us and the rats. I got a video on my phone that I'll show you. I wonder if we should put this in the pod. We were walking back from dinner one night, and there's a lot of those bulkheads. It looks like an entrance into a basement and it's a lot of restaurants. It wasn't one of those.

It was this weird. It was like a hole in the ground next to a bulkhead. And it was just like on the flat ground? On the sidewalk. On the sidewalk. No, not a manhole. It was just like on the sidewalk. I took a video of it, man.

I'm going to show it to you right now. I want want you to watch that video as I talk to you. There were no less than 50 raps. in this little hole crawling all over each other, peeking out. And I was like, oh my, they started like jumping on each other and running across the sidewalk. They were going under cars. And I was like, this is insane that this situation is connected to an establishment. Yeah, yeah, where we eat.

Are you seeing that? Yeah, this is disgusting. It's disgusting. It's a swarm of rats, dude. They got a whole, dude, do you want to talk community values? You want to talk community values down in this hole, dude? They know what they're doing. I'd rather live with these rats than that guy on the skateboard.

I'll tell you that much. There are comics made about the rats taking over from the sewers beneath and they could, based on what I just saw. I didn't even get into the sewers. And there's that park that I was talking about next to where the skateboarders are. There are children. They're children at the park. I was sitting with a buddy eating ice cream on a bench. And I, it was late at night, or not late, it was like 9.30.

And we're sitting on this bench. And it's a nice little park. And I turned around and just in by the fence. where there's, you know, they've planted trees and shrubs. I just look at the ground and there's like four rats just running around. Anywhere that there is a semblance of outdoors in that city, rats will be. It's fucking, it's, it's heinous, absolutely heinous. But you would you say it's because there's that debate going on about the big cities, right, in our country?

Would you say New York's the number one city in the country? Yeah. Even with the rats. I mean, it's, it's a thing that's like, I don't think it's the best city, not for me. So when you ask, do I think it's the number one city? I think it is the city. It is the most major city in the United States.

I don't even think that's the state. No, that's correct. That's the correct state. But there is a debate online right now of what are the big four? What are your four? I think my four, and I honestly don't know that it's up for discussion is New York, L.A., Chicago, and Miami. Now, are those my favorite cities? Not necessarily.

But I think those are the big four. and I know some people are going to come at me with Texas. Dude, so I just Googled it. What are the largest by population? That's a good question. Do that. Largest by population. Largest by population are New York, one, by a mile.

Yeah. Los Angeles, two, Chicago three, and this is what they have is the fourth major city as well. Houston, four. And that was when you Googled the four majors. Yeah, and by population. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I think that they're just doing it by population. Like, there's a lot of people.

This is my thing. Okay, okay? No, this is ridiculous. This is my thing. When you ask, what are the four major cities in the United States? We're not saying what are the four biggest cities. We're saying, what are the four majors? Who the fuck?

In anywhere other than the United States is going, I gotta get to the U.S. I gotta go to Houston. Who has ever said that? What's it? I'm going to Google this. What's in Houston? Oil.

I bet. Dude. They've got the Houston Astros. They've got the Houston Texans. They've got the Houston. That's it. The only cool thing they used to have was the Astrodome, but that's gone. It's gone.

That was the field with that dumbass hill in that. field, wasn't it? Oh, yeah. That was fucking crazy. No, no, no, no. They flattened it? How many people blew out their ACLs on that thing? They probably a lot.

They flattened that shit. So this says... Who, I say again, would you be willing to bet that less than 10 people in the history of the world living outside the United States said to themselves at one point, I, man, I'm, you know what I'm Jones in for? Houston. I got to take a trip to Houston.

If you say what to do in Houston, it. Imagine meeting a Spaniard, going to Barcelona. And he says, I want to go ape in Houston and zipline. And dude, don't get me wrong. Did you just find a zipline course in Houston called GoApe, Houston? This is the number one hit if you say, what should I do in Houston? It says, go ape. Hold on.

Is Go ape Houston a larger recreational park where there's a lot of things to do, or is it just a ziplining park? It says, zip line, climb, and explore the treetops at go ape. Houston, an outdoor adventure you won't forget. Is there that is... Imagine claiming you're the fourth, you are one of the four major cities in the country, and the number one thing to do is zipline. And I love a zipline. Do not take this as zipline slander.

But dude, if you type in what to do in Houston and someone tells me to go ape, that is a crazy name. That's, it's like just a wild name. Go ape, Houston. Go ape, Houston. Do you think it's a directive? Like, they're telling you? Go ape, Houston.

Dude, you're climbing tree tops. Or are they saying, like, go ape in Houston? They're going, well, what's the difference? Do you think there are go apes elsewhere? That's why they had to qualify it with Houston. It's GoApe, Coal. Is GoApe a franchise? Let me check.

GoApe Los Angeles. Because obviously, if it's a major city thing, ooh, okay, goApe.com. No. GoApe.com. GoApe recreational activities is a franchise. It appears. They have locations in Houston.

But this is saying they don't even have... Oh, there it is. Houston. They have three in Texas. Two in Virginia. Ohio, North Carolina, Nebraska, two in Missouri, two in Maryland, one in Indiana, one in Illinois, one in Delaware. What the fuck is going on? Those are the Go-Ape locations.

Go-Ape being... Oh, and show me that map again. Go-Ape being a large recreational activity company, and they have multiple locations in Texas, but then also went, you know where else we need to... a presence. You know where we need a footprint is Delaware. Let's get in Delaware and Maryland. How have they not hit Kentucky and West Virginia? How have they held out? They're working

on it. They're working on it. I think they also need to get, they need to bridge that gap between Texas and the rest of them. Arkansas and Louisiana are really holding them back. Yeah. Yeah. That is fucking crazy. Incredible. Holy shit. You said Chicago? Yeah, but

let's just, I want to go back real quick to. Imagine being in Barcelona. Yeah. And meeting a guy. You meet a dude. You guys really hit it off. And he's like, dude, I've had such a great time meeting you. The Sangria. I would love to meet you in the United States sometime.

Let's go to Houston. What would you say to him? I'd be like, oh, dude, don't do that. Don't go to Houston. I mean, I went to school in Austin and I only went to Houston twice and like, it's all right. Austin's gas. I also hear Houston's traffic is like worse than L.A. you wouldn't know.

Yeah. I mean, what do you think about the Boston take or the Philadelphia take? I, to be honest, I have an affinity for Boston.

Boston is a lock. Lock. Lach major top four major cities. You're fucking kidding me. You're kidding me. Locke. It didn't, dude,

the country was invented in that city. The literal the country was invented in that city. There's massive, massive infrastructure. There's massive history. The world is run up in the

northeast. The entire country has run from the northeast. Not Boston. Yes, it is. We're going to put Portland, Maine on the list next? What about Concord, New Hampshire? Concord? You want to bring Concord into this, dude? How about Manch, Vegas? Manchester, New Hampshire. Let's put that on the list. That's better. That's better. Boston is a lock major city.

No, well, yes. Boston. Top four. No. Boston and Philly are in the conversation. If somebody from Barcelona goes, I'm going to Boston, I go, That's awesome. Yeah, that wouldn't be crazy, but I, that wouldn't be crazy at all. But dude, it's not. It's not.

It's not. I think, I think what's crazy to me is I feel like Dallas should be on this list above Houston. Who the fuck is going to Houston? Who has ever wanted to go to Houston? It's Boston. And what did you say? Dallas.

No, no. Do you give your four? My four is New York, L.A., Chicago and Miami. Everyone wants to go to Miami. And I will hear Miami. Miami is, um, is, fantasy land like Miami's not even in the country like what sometimes? No, Miami's not like where where?

Miami is not real. And dude, Miami has no laws. I love Miami. They have no, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think New York and Miami like the two greatest visit cities, certainly in the country. Yeah. It's, it's, my four are the four.

No. My four of the four. No, Boston over Miami. No, dude. Miami's fun, dude. Miami's fun, dude. Miami's fun than Boston. 100%. Miami is more fun than all of them.

Miami is bigger than Boston. Uh, good. question. That doesn't matter. Don't even look it up. I'm just curious. Don't even, okay. But it doesn't matter. They're both small. Miami is more of an international city than Boston.

What number do you think they are? Boston, 25th, 902nd population. Whoa. Yeah. The second I said it, I was like, that's probably wrong. Miami's really south and pretty small. I think it's more international. In Boston? Yeah. Yeah. It has the same, it is the same amount of pro sports teams. I'm counting the Panthers. I am. Okay.

And I'm allowed to. But nowhere near the past, like, you know. No, but I think I actually think, I brought it up with Houston because I think having four major sports teams is actually important. Me too. Massively. Miami has it. And a captain. It's a destination.

It's a place where if you're in the U.S. or outside of the U.S. and we're talking about U.S. that you got to see, Miami is on that list before Boston is. Yes, it is. I don't think so, dude. It is, dude. It is. If you want to, if you want to feel like you're getting a sense of American cities, Miami is not that at all. Why?

Because it doesn't feel like an American city. Yeah, it's a fantasy. Boston, you're like, here's America. Boom, there you go. You got it. You could stop there. Hey, you two, where's Vegas? Because Vegas feels close to Miami in terms of cops.

Vegas is more fantasy factory than Miami is. Agree, but it's like they're, you're both. about to have four sports teams. I know. It's like Vegas. No, no, because Vegas is, Vegas is an amusement park. Bigger than Boston population. I believe that.

But they're definitely including like Henderson and Summerlin and blah, blah, blah. I don't, I don't count Vegas because Vegas is an amusement park. Vegas is a cruise. Yeah. You don't go, when you go to Vegas, unless you are living in Vegas, you are in one spot. Yeah. The whole time. Also, the strip itself is really small.

Yes. Vegas and Vegas. I love. Love the Vegas. Me too. I love the Vegas. Not Vegas. So I'm,

Chicago is in there. I know it is. No, Chicago's kind of sick. No, Chicago's a lock, but I, I've said this,

and I'm going to get heat from this, from people for this. I don't love Chicago. I really don't. I don't, I don't get it. I don't,

I've been there in every season, and in the winter, it is unlivable. Truly unlivable. And in the summer, the whole time I'm thinking, I wish there was a cool place for me to go. I wish I could go to water. No, you go to the Michigan lakes.

But again, that's like I would prefer to go on those lakes, the experiences I have, if I'm in the city and I go to those lakes, I would prefer to be in Minnesota or Michigan. The version of the lakes in those places are better than Chicago. Here's a Chicago take that's completely wrong, but it's how I feel. It's such a fake workplace. Like everyone's like, we have a Chicago office.

I'm like, okay. So the New York office has everything and you happen to have people that just work satellite in Chicago. We live on a coast, dude. And again, I'm like, everyone in Chicago hates me now. And I'm like, what are you talking about? Oh, you work in Chicago? It's crazy to me that Chicago became what it did. Yeah.

I mean that. Like, why Chicago? What happened, Detroit? You guys fell off that bad if Chicago surpassed you. And then they did. One more hot take. L.A.'s fucking. We are so boosting of L.A.

and only gets the credit because it has entertainment. Like, LA is amazing American. Yeah. L.A. is trash. But we have Hollywood, and Hollywood are the celebrities. Well, as far as work. Yeah. But L.A. is the best weather in the country, no question.

Yep. It is. But, like, it has the same weather. You know, like. Yeah, it does. San Diego really dropped the ball. Yeah. Because I'm like, L.A. is a joke.

I mean, it is crazy how much, how sick San Diego is. And maybe that's the secret. They're like, shut up. I think it's actually my new list. New York, Boston, New York two. No, sorry, New York one, Boston, two, Philly three, Atlantic City, four. What, why do you keep saying Philly?

Philly's an atrocious tank. It's an atrocious tank. Philly sucks. Philly is terrible. Philly got passion, dude. Yeah, dude, you know who else has passion? Criminals. They got to grease the polls in Philly.

Criminals are passionate about... They got to grease the polls in Philly. Criminals are passionate about breaking laws and committing crimes. This talk just made me realize that the Northeast is all that matters. So it's like... Oh. Oh, yeah, I mean, that is true. Every East Coast is like...

Pip four cities up there. What's Jersey, dude? Jersey City, is Jersey City cool? Yeah, I got the boardwalk, the shore. I actually... I've lost in Philly Jersey City. I talked about this. The other...

Dude, Atlantic City and the Jersey Shore are sick. I know. I used to shit on them. They are fucking sick. It's so fun. Margate? Also, it's gas. Dude, that is the type of area.

Jersey Shore summer, Atlantic City. People are fucking grimy, and I love it. It's awesome. want you to be that way. Me too. You go to those bars. Like, if I want to pretend to be a classy snob fucking prick, I'll go to the Hamptons. Go to the Hamptons.

Go to the Hamptons. Go to Nantucket. Go to Martha's Vineyard. Pretend like you're fucking richer and cooler than you actually are. You donkey. I'll go to Jersey Shore and get nasty with people. Dude, the, I was just saying, Atlantic City has bad marketing because they are, like, I've always viewed it as.

far from Vegas in terms of what it could provide you, not literally distance. And now having been there, there's plenty of sick casinos that have everything and people getting after it. Like, I was like, how did you not, how are you just not literally East Coast Vegas in terms of a hype? Like it should be like, we're doing our batch party. Where should we go? Vegas or Atlantic City.

But instead it's like the gap feels here and it shouldn't be. That's all I'm saying. The one thing I did say to you is the flying into Vegas is the boat. All time. And you can, the strip is so much more walkable than, like, you can't be like, oh, I'm going to bop up to 50 fucking casinos in the nice city, but it's still sick. Before we move on, can I, I have a take for the two of you that I really, I want, I want your honest opinion.

I want you to sewer me if you must. I, I felt this way a couple days ago. A new frozen yogurt spot opened in New York, where, where I am. And it's, I think it's called Little Mimi's. It's like an Australian place, I guess. Can't wait to see the connection. And it was. It was, it was, they opened it.

Yeah. And it was a big thing. It was coming. The signs were everywhere. And they opened this place. And for three fucking days, well, it was open before I left. A line down the block for this frozen yogurt place. I have been this way for years.

I would argue my whole life. Once I started processing when this would ever happen to me, I think I've been this way my whole life. I genuinely. think there might be two things on planet fucking Earth that I will wait in the line for. Oh, oh, okay. Waiting in line. What are they?

I think flows, hot dogs. Hell yeah. And I don't know what else. But I wanted to say two because I did enough. The emphatic two and not knowing the second one is fucking all time. Dude, I don't know. Two things.

that I won't wait in line for. I said Mike. One, and then I don't know. I said Mike. Dude, waiting in line is the fucking craziest behavior I've ever seen in my... I actually think it might be top five craziest behaviors that human beings do. When I see, especially in that city, in New York, when I see these places where people are waiting in line, I don't fucking understand what is possibly going through. their heads. And I'm asking you both, what are you waiting in line for? Here's a great example.

A bar. You go to a bar. Your friends are in there and there's a line. Just go home. Go to a different bar. Okay, but what if they can't? What if they're like, oh, you know, we bought a... I'm not talking about your friends. I'm talking about you. If you got there and now there's a line, go home. You, anything else is a better use of your time than waiting in that line. For food, there's a place. Emilio Bolato, apparently amazing chicken parm, I haven't had it yet. They don't take reservations, they open at five, you walk there at 5.30, there's a line down the block. Yeah.

I'm like, I'll never have that. Bye. And that's okay. Until they invite me in and set a table aside, or until I think about it and I get there at 445, or find maybe a weekday where it's not as crazy, I'll never eat there. And I'm okay with that. You know why? Because there's other chicken parm in the city and in the world.

Yeah. Unless there is a vaccine that is saving your life and it's the only one that exists and this is the only place where it is, don't ever wait in a line again. You are wrong. I don't think I am. I really don't think I am. You're not as wrong as some people think you are. It's fucking nuts. I think for Froyo, it's crazy because there's not much like variability in like the taste of Froyo.

You're really going to tell me that any Froyo is so much better than another Froyo. You're a liar. No. You're an idiot. It's insane. But I do think there will be times in your life moving forward that you're like, that was a worthy line. Oh, you know what? I tried to go to Katz Deli one day.

Yeah. It was raining. Line. Line. And they were like, it's going to be an hour and a half. And I was like, you are fucking out of your mind. Yeah, dude. Long line?

Long line. Forget that. I got to the front. I asked and they were like, yeah, it's like, that's the line. It's an hour and a half. I walked down the line. I had half of mind to look at every one of them and go like this. moron, moron, moron, moron, moron.

What about, do you, we got to stop this, but what, did you think, is there a difference between waiting in line for something and getting in a line that is, like, for example, you get, you get to the airport and they're like, TSA pre-check lines right there, and you're like, okay. I have to do that. Yeah, I'm like, okay, I'm trying to get, well, you don't. You could just not fly. Go home.

You don't have to fly, but I'm like, but I need to. I think that there's a clear, there's got to be a clear qualifier here. it is something that you have to do. You're right. Free will. I don't have to get on that point. But I have purchased a ticket to this flight and you need to queue up to get in in an orderly fashion. That's fine. I'm talking if you were just going, I have an urge. Yeah. For a food, a beverage, a this, or that.

If you're waiting in a line, you are wasting your life. Yeah. Okay. Get out of that long. Okay. Let's get into a beer league hotline. Yes, please. O.G. Baker. Hit us with the beerly caught line. See if Baker stumbles. See if he still got the juice.

I was recently going through my dad's stuff after he passed and found a hockey stick with a bunch of signatures. He was a sports broadcaster covering the NHL, so I figured it was NHLers. I spent countless hours investigating but couldn't figure any of them out. They were sports style signatures with a number incorporated into it. Years later, I saw one of my dad's coworkers and he asked about the stick and it solved the mystery. They weren't NHLers, but his beer league team. after a big tournament win, the team signed a bunch of sticks for all of them to have his keepsakes. He had it right next to his other sports memorabilia, like a sign Gie LaFleur picture.

So I know this was one of his favorites. I thought it was awesome. Damn. I did not expect to... Flawed. Cry right now. Absolutely floored. Dude, I am rattled by this because I can't believe I've never thought to do it.

There will come a day. Dude, where you never play beer league again. Yep. And you don't know it. Beer league's not the type of thing where you retire and you go. It's my last season, boys. You're just not going to come anymore. And I don't know when that, that day might have come from me.

I haven't played beer league in months because of all the travel. You got to, I got to do this. I got to go get an old stick and I got to have the whole team sign it and just know that it's my fucking beer league boys. Dude, this is one of the best moves. Fired me up so much. This is unreal. It's his rosebud, you know, for the Citizen Kane fans out there. These are the things you cling to that you're like, what mattered?

And you go, it was that tournament win with the fellas. And we all signed it with our numbers. You know, he said it was like a hockey style signature with the numbers that we all wore in Beer League. Because that's where I was finding the fun as I grew old. And he kept it with the Gila Fleur picture, Dan. You know, and all his favorite stuff. fact that this guy is is is is it was a former broadcaster i want to know who he is so badly but i almost don't want to know for the privacy of the family but i i know i know it's so amazing but he's

he's a former broadcaster he's he's clearly got a lot of great memorabilia and this he covets so highly that is fantastic i'm so with you everybody we should all do this literally you know when someone that's always like you'll have a um a tragedy in your family or whatever yeah Everyone, when they're leaving, will be like, go hug, go call your parents, go hug your so-and-so. This, that's my PSA to everyone listening to this right now. You know what? Go to your beer league boys and have everybody sign something right now while you still can. Yeah, everyone listening to this.

If you're in a beer league, you guys should chip in 10, 20 bucks each. You should bulk buy a bunch of wood sticks. Brand new wooden sticks. Everyone sign it. And just keep it. You're going to love having that one day. So sick. What idea?

I'm rattled. Me too, dude. He goes, when he goes, thought it was awesome. I was like, me too. Yeah. That's sick. Incredible. Fuck.

Awesome. All right. Let's do some more awesome shit and take it to a Bauer blind ranking. The only thing more awesome than this blind ranking is the Bauer Twitch. We're talking about sticks. Yeah. Unbelievable. This blind ranking is fictional.

hockey players names. So not, not the player. How good they are. Hockey name. Like, this is a hockey player from entertainment. Do they have a good hockey name? Got it. I'm doing this a couple times. This is fictional hockey players names, part one. Baker, give us the first one. Deney Lemieux. Okay, Dan. A little slap shot out the gate. This is going to be really difficult to separate the player from the, or the name from the character. Is the name a cool hockey name? I think it's one. You think it's one?

Deney Lemieux? It's, it's, chat GPT would come up with that name. That's a French Canadian as a guess, pal. That's a fair point. Like that, that, that, I mean, they came up with this name for that movie before chat GPT exists. But I think, and maybe it's my, um, French Canadian, well, I was about to say my anti-French Canadian bias, but that makes it sound like I'm on a vendetta against French Canadians. You can be?

Hey, hey, you can be. I could be, but I'm not, but I don't love. There are better hockey names to me than a French Canadian name. Put it that way. Interesting. Want to go to? This is a peak French Canadian name, but there are better hockey names than French. You know what's funny is I'm thinking about another French Canadian fictional name that I think is better than this.

So I want to go three. I want from one to three. Maybe even four did. Maybe it. No, Danil Lemieux is fantastic. Three, three, three. Although, although, although maybe we do go four because Lemieux. You can't just take one of the all-time best players and say, four.

Four. Fuck you, Denise. However, that's boring. This movie came out way before Mario was playing. That's true. Two. Is that right? I mean, Mario is winning cups in the 1990-191.

This movie came out in like 79 or something. Look, well, it's not way before. Look that up. That's fucking 12 years. I don't know when the movie came out. Yeah, but you're booze. Like Mario wasn't playing it, you know, I mean, he was literally, but. Mario's rookie year was 84, 85.

Yeah, this movie came out. Yeah. Slapshot came out 77. Back to three. Back to three. That's crazy. Back to three. Okay.

Three. Stevie Weeks. See, this is my, this is my cup of tea. Oh, yeah. This is my cup of tea. I'm going five here. Five? I don't think Stevie weeks.

Stevie follows us, by the way. So don't fuck him. He's going to see this. The actor does? Yes. Does he? Yes, dude. Because we blind ranked him in a fictional hockey player and he got five and he out

of ten. And he was like, I feel like I could have done better than that boy. So be prepared for the comments section. Well, again, this is the name, not the, not the player. Stevie Weeks is a sick. Did he really only get five in the top ten? He's got to be hired. I know.

I think we were drunk. on like Connor Banks goes, you know. Yeah, that's crazy. Stevie Weeks is way better than Connor Banks. Or wait, no, Adam Banks. He's better than Adam Banks. Connor Banks, Steve's probably better than that. Connor Banks, too.

When I don't know, yeah. He's a fast skater. He skates like the wind. He skates like the wind. Stevie Weeks is a sick name. I don't like the Weeks, which is tough because Weeks, he's our boy, but he's a goaltender. Yeah.

Weeks doesn't feel like the most hockey name to me. I wish we had gone four for Denise. I would love this at three. Danilamue is better than Stevie Weeks. You know what I don't like? The Stevie. Oh, interesting. Steve Weeks?

Oh, I don't like Steve at all. You hate this name. Stevie Weeks. Stevie Weeksie Weeksie. Stevie Weeksy I like a lot. We gotta go four. Four. And Stevie, when you see this, you've been hard done by again, in my opinion.

I feel like we need to start. start calling him by his name and not Stevie. Yeah, find out. We're going to call this man, Ryan. Ryan Northcott. Better, better hockey name in Stevie Weeks. Wow, dude, probably the top rope. Dude, by the way, Ryan is a fucking handsome dude.

Always was, dude. Always was. We gotta get him on the pot. We've got to get him on the pot. Why is he not come on the pot? We actually should hit up Ryan right now. All right, we're getting Ryan on the pot. Ryan, you're coming on the pot. Stevie Weeks, the name is going to be four.

Four. Okay. I mean, now we're talking. Now we're cooking with fucking propane. Gunner stall, probably one. I'm, I'm, I'm, that's probably one. I think it's probably one. It's a safe one because you don't know what's coming, obviously. It's a very safe one. And I think I can live. I can live. Yeah, I can live. I can live. I think that's an all-time named it. Gunner stall.

Gunner stall is one. Yeah. Yeah. What a fucking honky name dude. What do you call him? Just Gunner. Stallie. Stalzzy. Stalzer. Stalzy. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. For the first time I'm realizing, it's not a great nickname. Not my favorite.

Stalzy is a great nickname. Stalsy. Yeah. Okay. Gunnerstall one. Birdie Burns. Five. Really? Five.

The judge's son, dude. You're doing the character now. You're breaking the rule. You're breaking your own rules, man. I'm talking about him as a player. You brought up the judge. judge that has nothing to do with that this is a random name birdie birdie burns get that fucking elimination out of my face he's pretty sick birdie's pretty sick i mean i guess it's not two though

but we only have two and five right it's just hockey names yeah yeah no you're right you're right you're right you're right it's five five so what do we got in two gordon bomb bay dude that is a tremendous hockey name it actually is it's not just because of what we know about Gordo is... Gordo is... Bombay. O-G-O-G, Nettus fans know that we did character names in the early days. Before the podcast even existed, I'm talking the Instagram page.

And Gordo is the ultimate hockey name. That's your boy. So you've got Gordo there. Bombay is a sick... Bambay is a sick-class name. You have any idea how fast you'd get a Bombay-G-N sponsorship if you're in GERN-Bomb-Bah and you played in a fucking league? Is Gunner Stahl better than that?

Yeah. Yeah, I think that it probably is. Gunner is such a sick name. and given that it's, I mean, it's Icelandic in that movie, but like, Gunner Gunnar is a very Scandinavian name. Sick. Yeah.

Stahl. Sick. Gunner Stahl. He spells it sick, too. I think that's a perfect blind rank. Gunner Stahl, Gordon Bombay, Daniline LeMew. Stevie Weeks.

Steve Weeks. Perfect list. That might be two perfect lists in a row. I like Stevie. I like Stevie. I like Stevie Weeks a lot. That's fucking fantastic. Fucking beautiful stuff.

Hey, listen, great, great, episode. Shout out to the Netters fans. Shout out to being back in the studio. Unreal stuff. Shout out to Jim Montgomery. Fantastic guest. We love you, Monty. Thank you for popping on. We're going to hit up Ryan here. Get him on the pod. Got to get him. In the meantime, folks, you know the drill. Go subscribe to the YouTube. If you already are, tell a friend to subscribe to the YouTube. Hop on our merch site, empty netters. Dot shop. Find some cool stuff. We've got some new cool shit coming out. Make sure you're following us on all channels, and we will see you next episode. Until we do.

Skate hard.