Empty Netters Podcast - TJ Oshie On His Olympic Shootout Heroics, Winning A Stanley Cup with Ovechkin, & Losing His Father| 132

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

The boys sit down with Olympic Superstar from Team USA hockey TJ Oshie as he walks them through all the drama from that epic shootout vs Russia. Plus, Osh dives into the Capitals superstitions and what it was like winning a Stanley Cup and partying with Ovechkin. Hear about how he missed his own draft, started his own hockey company, and what life has been like without his dad. NEW EPISODES EVERY MONDAY & WEDNESDAY! SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuf52MHW1O7guPMzsMvv2kA FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/empty.netters/?hl=en FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@empty.netters (0:00) – Intro (5:30) – Playing Minnesota High School Hockey (9:33) – North Dakota (13:00) – Getting Drafted to the Show (20:15) – 2014 Olympics (30:20) – Sticking With The Caps (37:30) – Winning The Cup (45:40) – Oshie’s Dad (59:00) – Warroad Hockey Co. (1:10:34) – Pass, Shoot, Score Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of The Empty Netters podcast is brought to you by our partners at BetMGM. Without a doubt, the best sports gambling app in the game. Get on there and join in on all the action with us. Ice is ready, babes, and we are back with another episode of the Empty Netters podcast. You got DP, your boy over here, Dan Powers. As always with CP. As always. As always.

As always. We've got an unbelievable episode for you today. We've got T.J. O'Shee. of the Washington Capitals and U.S. men's hockey Olympic hero on the pod. One of the

most excited I've ever been to speak to somebody. That's a fact. That's a fact. It's easy to get hyped and everybody, I'm such a fan of this league and everybody that comes on

I'm so appreciative of. But, dude, core, core memory. Ben Ginsburg is listening like 4 a.m. waking up thing a. donuts to watch OSH.

Yeah. Like just what a story, what a guy. Yeah. This was one I, we had circled for a long time. Osh is without a doubt one of the more, hey, he's got to be a top five humble guys on earth. But also one of the more unique hockey players you'll ever talk to. I mean, he's just someone who loves the game as much as anyone, but also is just not a psycho about it. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, like I love so many of his stories. We don't want to give anything away. We want to let you enjoy it. T.J.O. She, one of the best guys you'll ever meet, ever listen to. Get into the interview. We are joined today by a Mount Vernon, or maybe Everett, actually, depending on who you ask. But a Mount Vernon or Everett native.

A WCHA first team All-American for North Dakota. A world championship bronze medalist. The 24th overall pick by the St. Louis Blues in the 2005 draft. current assistant captain of the Washington Capitals, founder of War Road Hockey Company, NHL All-Star, and Stanley Cup champion. T.J. Oshy, welcome to the Entenetters podcast. I appreciate it. Thanks, boys. That's a heck of an intro. I must have been playing for a while. Must be getting old if there's that many things on the list.

Yeah, that's like a long scroll that you just open up of all these accolades. You know, like the town crier. I need like a trumpet ti. everyone fired up. Let's go. Dude, I got to ask, how's the golf game right now? The golf game in my mind is super tight. Okay. And on the range, it's super tight.

When I get out there, which isn't very often, but it's just not as tight as I'd like it to be. So actually, one of my best attributes, almost like since I started picking up, so I picked up golf in high school, has been my short game and my putting like being just kind of handsy-feely and I've had these like putter yips

for like three years it is just like it is so frustrating I literally have I took out two clubs in my bag I have two putters in my bag I walk around with two putters you're that guy it's mayhem

yeah you're fully in your head dude like you're not putting so you go to the other one and you're just back and forth all the time I'll drive at 320 off the tee have like a little wedge in and then like three putt it's so frustrating what's what's the difference between the putters one of them is

a uh so just a blade very small small grip putter like very handsy basically like it's what I like to use for like inside 15 feet and then the other one's just like the like the big grip you got the super stroke grip on it like yeah it's so it's the scotie

Cameron grip that comes with it but the grip itself is like oh oh long you know it goes halfway down the yeah and then uh and it's got like the massive i don't know it's called a mallet or whatever yeah those are like completely different putters so different that's i'm like that with my hockey six too i'm an absolute maniac yeah i would dude uh where good buddies was swayman and he said he was golfing with you in maine recently and you were you were great so you might be being too hard on yourself yeah i don't know so we got a couple rain delays and uh the boys went in and during the rain delay and hung out in the uh in the clubhouse and i think those

did not help me out. Yeah. I get a little excited when you get a bunch of the boys in one room. But, um, yeah, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was fine. It was fine. That's a great tournament though. It's awesome seeing the Boston guys up there too. Oh, yeah.

It's a blast. We battle all year, so. How does the back feel when you're golfing? The back feels good for the most point, most part when I'm golfing. Um, if I'm not really getting knocked around, I'm like, pretty good to go. Yeah, there you go. That's fantastic. Golf is perfect.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Golf is perfect for it. Golf's great. Yeah, golf's good. I can always, I can kind of change up my swing if I start getting a little tight,

which in hockey, you can't really change up like your stride, you know. You just skate. And you can't stop reverse hitting everyone on Earth. So it's impossible. It's impossible for me. It's like breathing. Yeah, exactly.

It's just Pavlovian. The situation's there. You got to do it. Yeah, you got to do it. Dude, you mentioned that you're in Minnesota right now, not too far from Nodak. and that's what I want to talk about with you first. You've told the story a bunch of times,

and you've mentioned that No Dak was kind of the first team that reached out to you, and that's a huge reason why you went there. And I want to hear about your experience there, but I also just like, I'm going to take this opportunity to call bullshit, because I just think it is insane that you are just lighting up Minnesota high school hockey, being Mr. Minnesota,

and you're not getting a call from the gophers? Like, how did that happen? so I guess it was I don't know maybe some years down the road and I found this box in one of my dad's my dad's storage unit and it was just it was a box and it just had like maybe 15 to 20 like other schools programs shut the fuck and it was like they send like the their their book of like there's i don't know whatever they send out yeah yeah know what i mean and um but even north dakota and i even had a north kota one in there which my dad also never let me see yep um so my dad he just like he wanted to kept scouts away from me he let's he just wanted me

play hockey have fun um and that's i literally never learned like what it meant to like be drafted or like any of that stuff. So I like didn't know. I just played. My dad kept all the other stuff away from me. And yeah, North Dakota was the first team that like had actually came and be like, hey, we want you to play in North Dakota. I never even went on an official visit there. I was like in town like I think I was in town like school shopping and we went to the game and then they they brought me to like the stick room and I was like let's go. I'm in. If I get, That many sticks, I'll go anywhere. Yeah, OSHA's like, you have any different,

you have any idea how many different types of sticks I can have in here? This is unbelievable. As far as I knew, like North Dakota's rink, every college was like that. I would have no idea. I never been to a college game, didn't watch hockey on TV, nothing. So what was your first point in contact with them? Someone came to one of your high school games to watch you play?

So my senior year, Carrie Eves was my head coach, my sophomore and junior year. He was a captain for North Dakota. My senior year, he went to North Dakota to become an assistant coach. And so that was kind of the second he left. It was, you know, I would have went, I would have went to wherever. Yeah.

It's a secret agent move. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, and then I wasn't, I wasn't, I was supposed to go to Sioux Falls for a year. But an opening came in. And as far as I'm told, I don't remember doing this, but apparently they asked me if I'd be interested in taking the spot.

And I guess I just accepted the spot on the, I was like, yeah. You're like, how many sticks do you guys have? I can't wait to play. Yeah, I can't wait to play North Dakota next year. And I guess they got off the phone and the coaches were like, well, I guess, I guess he's coming. He just accepted the job, even though they hadn't officially told me that it was my spot. and so I ended up being a true freshman but I used a lot of sticks that year

believe it or not doesn't shock me at all it fires me up that coach was just pulling a Vernon Dersley and keeping all these letters from TJ and also I wonder how many schools right now are hearing this being like what the fuck we had them we had a chance

it was there it was there I mean I don't know it was weird how it worked out but yeah it was I found like letters like personal letters in the with all the books yeah like hi tj i'm coach lucia yeah yeah love you to you know come visit school down and be a gopher so and did you never feel any pan because you know you you you bang the drum for minnesota hockey so hard did you never feel any

pangs as a kid at all of like it would be cool to be a gopher um so north dakota's very or sorry north koreau warro it's very split on their gopher sue affiliation And so you go into like one, because it's so close to Woro, a lot of people from Woro, just go to North Dakota. You got there or Duluth or Bimiji. And so to actually go to school in the cities, that's a long ways from home. Right. From Woroid. So you go into one classroom and there'd be like a Siouxhead.

Then the next classroom has like go for stuff hanged up. So it's like the school is very, we had a couple alumni go through. North Dakota. Some alumni I go through UMD and a couple through the gophers. So I had no affiliation to anyone and I was just, I just wanted to play hockey.

Dad just wanted to keep you close to home actually. Now I see lighting the goal letters on fire. He knew something. He knew what he was doing. You obviously had an unreal career there, man. And then kind of had a bit of a BC problem. And I got to ask,

if any of the kids grow up playing and they end up going to BC, is that going to be an issue for you? I just don't think it's like an option. Yeah, yeah, okay. It's off the table. What coach did to you, you're going to do to them. Those BC letters are going to come in and you're going to just put those in the shredder. I'm going to burn them.

Yeah, that was, gosh, it's tough. And I really don't like to tell many people because it's just so many players just have, well I guess I say my number but our number they just kick the shit out of us every year in the Frozen 4. Yeah. It felt like even if we scored seven goals they'd have eight and it was like... Dude, one of those

games was literally like 7, 6. It was something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy. I want to say it was like 7, 5, 7, 6 and like 6 1 maybe or somewhere in those ranges. Yep. So the junior year one, that was the one we thought we were going to win and they they I mean they handled us

they went off yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah Gerby I wasn't even gonna say his name god he was so remember how nasty he was in college crazy dude it's a little water I remember him he would just literally fly by we had like so many big like tough D man like you didn't want to be in front of the net with him

and he was just so fast they just couldn't he just like me goal yeah yeah I was like what did you did you want that like junior year were you like good I'm glad it's BC or were you was a party you like fuck this dude this sucks every year every the second year

that was when Duncan won the holy baker we saw Johnny T so Taves and me were aligned and we're like oh we're taking them down this year this is the year I want to say with that that might be the year that we had all the goals that was one of the high scoring ones

yeah yeah that's rough just rough I think that was insane that was actually in St. Louis too I think. Oh my gosh god Yeah double yeah Yeah double whammy God we're just dumping salt in the wound here

Uh well ocean Yeah new subject Yeah yeah yeah The uh draft that Dan mentioned And and and you've told the story But I think some of our listeners Probably haven't heard it so can you just tell a little bit about like Literally you're watching MTV with your boy

When you get drafted and and tell like the um Flying in at 4 a.m for the combine you know like before the VOT test Yeah like just tell them a little bit about that Yeah so we'll start with with the combine. Um, I had to drive from Warro to Winnipeg. My flight was at like five, six in the morning or something.

And, uh, I had my senior party the night before. And so we were, you know, uh, I want to say it was me and my girlfriend, like a joint senior party. Um, and so we were there until like two-ish. And then my mom was like, I'll just drive you from there. You don't go to bed.

So I slept on the way. She ended up getting lost. Yep. Um, I think she flagged down. of cops because she was like you know back then it wasn't you don't have apple maps yeah yeah we're in we're just in winnipeg somewhere she doesn't know where she's going um we have like vz navigator that like didn't work yeah yeah yeah and um yeah so i think she flagged down a cop she was like my son's going to the combine and she's like i don't know how to get there all this other stuff he

escorted us there and uh yeah so i flew in um that morning and my mom i didn't have like a really a a credit card or anything. I think my mom only gave me like 20 bucks or something for the trip. And so I landed, I had to go right into like eight or nine meetings with NHL teams. And so I didn't eat breakfast,

didn't have lunch, went straight into the combine, and I had never worked out before. So like, except for except for like the Except for like the like the school. Yeah like a weight training class where you just kind of hide in the corner. And so I did the training, got introduced to the wind gate in V-O-2, which was I've had. I fell asleep.

I remember finishing those. The one guy that was right behind me, he was like setting all the records and like the jumping. And it was like, it was insane. I thought he was like a 30-year-old. Yeah. But anyway, so I do Wingate, do V-O-2, go sit on the chair, put my head back, clearly hadn't slept much, hadn't eaten. I want to say, I might have puked first, and then I put my head back and fell asleep. And when I woke up, all scouts, all media, all the trainers were gone.

It was just hotel people putting away all the equipment. Oh, my God. It was brutal. I felt terrible. So I went to the store and bought a box of NutraGrain bars. I threw down like five of them. So ran a cold bath, like fell asleep in the bath, woke up, put on my suit again. I never worn that suit before.

So I put on the suit that my mom just got me and then did the remaining like 12 or 13 interviews. And then didn't know what to do for dinner. So I don't think I ate dinner and went to bed and got on the flight the next day. like it is genuinely a miracle you got drafted it's insane it's crazy it was a crazy day yeah I imagine these scouts are in that room just looking at you sleeping either being like this guy's a piece of shit

or they're like this guy this is a power move coolest calm this is a power move he's showing us that he doesn't care he'll do anything he gave it all he gave it all he literally emptied the tank here he well he gave it all on the VOT2 test

and finished last he died on the bike and was also last Dude, that's brutal. The first time you do like the Wingate VOT. It's fucking awful, dude. That's insane. I mean... I've never been good at it.

Even at 18, doing that on like two hours of car sleep is a, that's just a nightmare, truly. Oh, my God. It was rough. So, and then we go to the draft. I'm at my friend's house here in the Twin Cities actually in Rogers. We're playing golf like later in that day with his day. dad and his brother. And my buddy is like all gone,

he's like kind of a hockey nerd, you know. So he's gotten his like, Dell computer with like the dial up internet. He like logs in and he's just watching, I don't even think he's watching a video. I think he's just watching the pics come in. Yeah, yeah. And he's like, oh, Brian Lee got drafted,

who was going to be my roommate at North Dakota that following year. I was like, sweet, where'd you go? Tampa, what number? Awesome. Tampa's awesome. And I was in the, he was in the kitchen. I was in the living room. laying on the floor watching

Real World Road Rules Challenge. Great show by you. On empty. Phenomenal show. I mean, this is like the heyday. This is when they had like the main character. Dude.

Oh yeah, dude. That was like Johnny bananas, Alton, Landon, Landon. C.T. Those,

that shit was intense. Yeah. Yeah. So it was awesome. Anyways, and then yeah, he just yelled that I was drafted from the other room.

He said to who. I was like, who's a two or whatever? He's like, St. Louis and I was like, oh, I don't know anyone that plays for St. Louis. I don't watch hockey. Yeah. And so I don't, you know, I thought it was going to be like, I don't know, whatever, somewhere else.

And then I do all in my interviews and, you know, kind of got a lie saying they're like, you know, who you most excited to play with. I'm like, I don't know all of them. Yeah. You're like looking at, looking at your hand. You're like, I'm really excited about playing with. Yeah. I printed. So after my initial interview, I printed out the roster.

their coach's name. And so that I had that with me. We still went to the golf course and I did the rest of the interviews on the golf course. And I had my printouts with me. So if they asked me any questions about someone, I could. So Keith Kachuk came up right away. I was like, oh, I can't wait to play with Keith Kichuk. Yeah. Unbelievable. Dude. I mean, are you still like, because I know you're not like you don't go crazy on knowing everybody in the league, knowing all the stats and stuff. Are you still that checked out as far as that element is concerned? I mean, you, you. You, you, there's a lot of stuff, obviously, I learned along the way. Like, I'm not, like, an airhead by any means.

Yeah. I'm pretty, I got pretty good street smarts. But, yeah, when it comes to sports or hockey, at least, I'm still very much, like, I just play the game. I like to play it. Yeah. I don't, like, watch YouTube. I don't watch NHL Network. I don't learn anything that I do from, like, watching other people on TV.

Yeah. So, yeah, I'm still, I'm still, like, I don't. I'm terrible. When it comes to other teams' lineups, like when we play teams in the West, there's usually four or five guys from the time. I don't know who they are. You know, it's no disrespect to them, but I just, there's no way I would know. Dude, you know that, you know that chirp where like you look at the dude's nameplate? Yeah. Oh, she isn't kidding, though. He's like, I actually, I'm not trying to be mean. I don't know who you. I don't know who you are.

He's like, going up to Kopitar. He's like, what's up, man? I'm T. That's all I get good. Oh, that's fucking beautiful. Yeah. It's, yeah. Yeah. Well, dude, we got to move on down the line. And 2014, huge year.

And I feel like when you think of T.J. O'Shee, you think of 2014. So we have to ask you about that year watching Tom Brady rip the hearts out of all Seahawks fans and dancing on your graves. How, what does that feel like? I have the video on my phone. Were you there? the game. Oh, God. So you were, because I know you don't watch tons of stuff. I have a video of the interception. Oh my God. It was me, uh, coach Osh. Um, it was just me and him in my living room. And I had the, I literally had the play. I was like, here we go. Because you were about to,

you about to show it. Marshawn's going to put it in the end zone. Yep. And literally I intercepted it. And then my phone, I, you can see I throw it against the couch and this phone just goes black. Do you still have the video? You have to send us that video. I have the video. I have the video. Okay. You have to send us that video. That's incredible. You'll take me a little bit with all the kids' videos that have for now, but I'll go back. I'll find it. I'll send it to you guys. All right. I'm sorry for that dig, but I had to bring that up just for a quick second. But obviously what I mean with 2014, the Olympics and the shootout performance in Sochi. Tell us a little bit about how, you know, we want to talk about the shootout for sure,

but I know that you being a humble guy, just keeping your head down and working so hard, 2010 when that came around that was on your radar of something that you would love to do. I know that you would have loved to play for your country, make that team and when you didn't, you definitely used that as motivation of when 2014 came around it was not guaranteed. You knew that

and then you get one of those final spots. What was going through your head in the moment when you got named to the team and you knew you were going? Obviously I was super jacked up. It really felt like this

was kind of possibly my only chance to go, which ended up being my only chance besides 2010. 2010, I looked at it as, I had broken my leg in November, I think, in 2009. And so to me, it was more of like an injury thing why I didn't make it. I don't think I would have made it anyways. I think them going with Bugsie or Ryan Malone,

kind of like that older established guy was clearly the right play. And then when I got named to the team, there had been an article that had come out on the process of who they wanted to pick. And there was a lot of talks about the shootout. And I want to say up to that point that year, I was like, I was at like 80%. Dude, you were died. You were so dumb.

I was hot that year. And so I felt like I had a good, a good chance of making the team. Playing with Backus on his line, I think also helped. I was like, I played with Backus already. They kind of, you know, they need a shootout guy. And so when they, when they named the team, I definitely was excited after, playing in a couple world championships. I think the summer before, I'd shot five times in the shootout

and scored on three of them. And it definitely was kind of like a let's get to work now sort of thing. I wasn't like, oh, I made it and my dreams come true. So, yeah, super, super thrilled to be on the squad, but I was really excited to get to Sochi. And honestly, I was hoping that my five-on-five play would would get me some more ice time

but I end up being the shootout but I mean man you've talked a lot about how the shootout kind of really launched your NHL career right like it led to a bunch of things so it's it's funny

obviously you want to score on every single one but we always talk about one of your first attempts in that shootout it was the first extra time yes it was the extra time shootout you fucking undressed Bob

with that backhand forehand and then just flipped it over the net is there any part of you that's like thank God I missed that because it then turned it's over. The most epic moment of all time. Yeah, well, definitely the suspense, honestly, the bowl, I had two empty nets. Yeah.

And they were, neither of them went in. Seriously. Like both. They were my two best moves by far. Yeah. And the one, two, the forehand deke, the five hole and then the forehand deke were like premeditated. I already knew like, I'm going five hole. And then after this, if we have to go again.

I had to tell the coaches actually in a show. shootout that we were like reversing order they didn't even really know the rules but i had just done it in the summer before against like i don't know italy or i don't remember who i played but um maybe it was france or something but uh uh yeah so i was confident in the first two but yeah when that one went soaring over the net and i saw him still sliding like the wrong way yeah at the time i was like you idiot like you're never gonna you're never gonna go again like caner's next Pav is going to get another shot to go. You know what I mean? So I was like, you blew it.

And then the fact that they kept sending me out there was pretty, I mean, I mean, it was, after every shot, I was like, okay, like, are you going to, is this someone else's turn? And the coaches were literally laughing. And they're like, no, like, go again. Go. Go. But we had worked on shootouts. There was an emphasis in the tournament that shootouts could decide a gold medal game. Yeah.

And so we were doing shootouts every single practice. And I had had all those guys' numbers on our team anyways. So it was still, you know, I think I got enough confidence in the coaches to keep going. For sure. And I mean, it must have felt pretty awesome having the boys just kind of keep pushing you out the door, being like, keep ripping, dude, let's go. Yeah. I think it was Orific maybe one time. Literally had to like pick me up off the bench.

I get out of there. I came into the D side one time. It was honestly because I went in so slow, I had to skate faster to get to the bench than I did to actually get to the net. And so I started getting tired by the end, just kind of going back and forth. Dude, it's amazing. I also love how very often on the anniversary you give Quicky a shout out for being a wall back there. That's just like such a good look by you. Thanks.

Well, it's really, honestly, when I would miss in the shootout, it was like I felt like I was letting him down. down. Yeah. You know, I wasn't like, I guess maybe you're thinking about the team a little bit. More so I'm thinking about him back there. He's going against like my favorite player of all the time, Palo Datsat too. Same dude. And then Cole, yeah, and then Colvichuk stepping in.

So when I miss those two, to me I was like, oh, great. Like now quick he has to go again. Yeah. Kind of thing. So when I scored, it was immediately like, kind of like, you know. Dude, that was when you won. We did it. Like we, the point.

straight to him was fucking awesome. The first thing I thought it was like, dude, we did it. Yeah, 100%. It is funny because he's such an, well, not an afterthought, but like he's such a footnote to that story. You know, like you get all the press and I'm like, he played pretty good. Like at least 50-50. Yeah, like it should be you too. It should maybe be more. He's handling more guys than just me. Oh, God. Oh, it's amazing. Dude, do you, um, just in a fun way, obviously, do you ever rub that in Ovi's face at practice and stuff like that? It's literally never come up. one time. Really? Wow. That's so funny. It's never come up one time. He would be fine about it. Oh, of course. Even if it did. But I was, there was something I was always nervous about when I first got to D.C.

And the very first time we worked on shootouts, it was maybe towards the, you're like, Ovi, should I do these, Ovi? What do you think? Yeah. No, he told us, though, the Trotty brought over like six players maybe. It was towards the end of training camp. And Ovi was one about myself, backy. I don't remember Justin, no, Justin Williams, I don't know, whoever the other guy was,

Marcus Johansson, maybe. And, like, all right, oh, sorry, Kuznaz. Yeah, for sure. And so he's like, all right,

who wants to go first? And Ovi right away was like, pushed me to the front. He was like, oh, she's going first. Yeah. And so then he kind of like set the line up

for the next couple years. And then after he did that, I was like, okay, we're. Yeah, that was him acknowledging it, I think. Yeah. He was like, yeah, yeah, dude, I saw it.

That's why you never talked about it. There's no, no need. Give you a little nudge. I was like, all right, we're good. Dude, the, and obviously such a special moment for that whole experience, but I have a theory that literally every American kid that year started an NHL dynasty, and you were the first trade. Like, we start them with our favorite teams, you know, but like you were a brewing on my dynasty

and everyone in Chicago, you were a blackout, like literally, every American kid was like, Starting my franchise, trading for Oshy. It was like, it was a national movement, dude. I have bonded with so many hockey fans about that exact thing. It was amazing. Hopefully we got some w's. We sure. Oh, we won many cups too.

Many cups, many cups. You just talked about coming to D.C., and I wanted to ask you a little bit about that experience, right? Because it was like, you kind of, I've read some stuff you said where you're like, I thought I was going to be a blue for life. And then, you know, you get the call, like it's going to be moved. And even that was pretty chaotic where you're like, it looked like Pitt even for a bit. You know, it was like a bunch of teams in the mix.

You feel bummed. You feel let down. And then you get jacked up because they're like, you're actually riding shoddy with OV and backy. And that's pretty sick, you know. So talk about just the first taste of like, oh, NHL's a business and I'm a capital now. And then also when that deal was up, you know, now it's up to you like you're choosing now. And you're like, I'm going to resign with Washington for the long haul. Talk about, you know, what that was like and why that was a no break.

for you if it was. Yeah. So when the season ended, it was kind of like St. Louis had been through this cycle of like, you know, losing in the first, second round. And I want to say we lost maybe

in Minnesota or in the first rounder. I don't remember who it was, but we lost and it was like something's got to change. We can't keep doing this same thing. And so we had a bunch of like very like serious conversations with like coaching staff um the GM waited um a couple weeks um army I think to talk to the players he kind of talked to us as a whole and it was a very short yeah very short meeting like like I mean like

seconds where he explained his uh how not impressed he was by our exit And so yeah, so he had called me maybe two weeks before the draft, I want to say. And kind of asked what I thought our team needed. And I was like brutally honest, not necessarily throwing my teammates under the bus, but just saying in general, this is what I think the areas will be needed to get better at. Looking back, maybe he didn't agree after trading me. but you're like we need to get better at right wing and he's like you're gone so yeah and then the draft rolls around my agent calls me telling me I'm being traded to looks like I'm being

traded to Pittsburgh and then that fell through and then I want to say they either traded or signed Kessel and so then I was like okay so that's done I've always wanted to be a blue my entire life one to retirees blue and when that happened I was like okay I'm I'm good I didn't get traded they're gonna give me another year then be the best year in my life I just switch to a different training um and I was like literally up to that point having the best summer training wise that I ever have um and then I get a call yeah he's like it was 30 second call I was like hey oh how's it going I'm like great I'm actually working out right now and actually it was like a Saturday morning I don't remember what day it was but it was like a

I'm like I'm working out again today. Yeah, yeah. It's like, oh, that's great, whatever, whatever. And he's like, you've been traded. Washington will be thrilled to hear you working out. Yeah, to the Washington Capitals, Brian McClain will be giving you call here shortly. And then he's like, see you later, and then just hangs up. And so, yeah, so I was like super, I felt super, honestly, I felt like I let down like the fans, my teammates in St. Louis.

because when you got your boss, like the boss of your boss, saying that, like, he had already said that something needs to change or something not right. And when you're the guy that goes, you're just like, shit, I guess it's me. Like, I was the problem. Which is pretty hard pill to swallow for someone, you know, that I try to pride myself on playing, like, the right way and the way that team needs me to play.

And then I talked to Brian McClellan five, ten minutes later. And so that was like five, ten minutes. of like first I had to convince my wife that we were actually traded she's like no I don't believe you yeah she's like she's like we have a wedding in a month we're moving into our new house in a month that's right I forgot about that oh fuck yeah now we got to sell st. Louis we got to get into D.C and you have a we have a one and a half year old kid and so it was I mean it was mayhem oh yeah it was an insane summer yeah and and then after I talked to Mac, I was like, oh, shit, like, this guy, like, I know they traded me away,

but, like, this guy wants me. He wants me to, you know, at the time, it was potentially play with OVee and Backy, but I, you know, immediately switched my alliance. I was like, right, St. Louis. Bye. Army, you're dead. Yeah, yeah. And B Mac, like, anything you need.

Like, I'll run through a wall for you. Yeah. Yeah, hell yeah. And so, you know, since then, I get a lot long better now with Army, obviously. Yeah. Love St. Louis and the trainers and the staff and the fans forever. But, yeah, I am, once I switch to that capital side, I mean, it's honestly, it changed my career. It's probably the best thing.

Absolutely. Yeah. 100%, dude. And you've gone all in, man. Like, you are so caps. It's amazing. And, you know, the fan base welcomed you immediately. but you even said when you signed, you were like, it was always here.

No question about it. Like, I feel like you just completely bought in. Yeah. There's that, well, yeah, there's definitely a story. I'll just tease you because I'm not going to, I don't want to get it out until I'm done playing. But there's a story about how I re-signed. Oh, really? And yeah, it's a, I think it's a pretty good one between me and, and, well, I'm not even

same thing. I can't wait to hear this. Yeah, okay. Before, before I resigned in my end of the year meeting, it went a certain way and it went, it went pretty well. That's awesome. I like that a lot. I'm excited for that.

Yeah, me too. I'm not excited for the end, but when we get that story, that'll be fucking awesome. I love it. No, it's a good one. It's probably one of the highlight stories in my career, I think. Oh, that's awesome. Shit, that's a great tease. That's a great tease.

Wow, well done. Oh, I love it. Well, I mean. I mean, I'll come back on the pod to share the story. Yeah, there we go. Pause on the pod to remind you guys about our epic betmgm partnership. You have to take advantage. I don't know how many times I try to give you this gift before you will take it.

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about how it's, you know, one of the best things that's happened in your career and the cup has to be one of those things. So kind of going back to what we were talking about with BC, being a bit of a bugaboo with Nodak. Pittsburgh was definitely a bit of that with you guys with Washington. So

when you get that year, that year gets going, you take a couple knocks, then you get back on the horse, you're playing great, you get into the playoffs and you see Pitt again. I'm curious, at that point, are you guys like, motherfucker? I do not want to play this team or is it one of those things where you're like, no, we have to play them. Like, we have to get over this hump. I think there was a bit of resiliency had built up at that point from we were in Colorado.

say it is March. I don't know. Yeah. You could look at maybe late February or something. And this is just my assumption. I don't know if this is the way it was. But Trotsy was on the last year of his deal. And I want to say the only, I think maybe around,

like the only way he re-signed was like if we won the cup. Or like his, like something, like an extension kicks in. Yeah. Yeah. He came in in between like the first or second or second or third period, and he literally like just laid his heart out there. It was like literally getting into mostly the leadership group. So me, Carlson, Baxter, Ovi,

Brooks, Orpick, and basically said like this is the way from now on, this is the way that you guys are going to play. basically like you're going to play for each other you're going to play defense you're going to play like the way that the system is made or he's like or you will not play he's like I don't care who you are and but it was like it wasn't that's calm like he was like losing his voice yeah he was saying it and he was like not crying emotional but you could tell he it was like he was like this is what we're doing from now on I don't care win or lose like this is the way we're going to play and so from then on our defense really like picked up because

everyone was blocking shots every like obi was getting in there you know and if if ovi's blocking shots it's like yeah everyone else has to you just you can't have him the best goal score of all time blocking shots and you not doing it yeah and so um we go down two games to columbus um and then we we kind of just like get this like i don't know hope he goes back in that and we kind of get this like everything's going to work out feeling if we just play, let's just play this way. And we're going to, in seven games we'll win. We may not win four in a row, but in seven games we're going to win

because we're going to beat the shit out of their defense. We're going to hit everything that moves. And our power play and other stuff is going to score scores goals. And so after we beat Columbus and we got to pit, it was almost that same mentality. It was no longer like, Obey versus Crosby. It was no longer like, oh, we want to get like some cheap shots on these guys because it's Pittsburgh and it's a rivalry game.

It was just like, we were like so down to business. I remember we didn't even make like a playoff slogan that year. Every team does like, oh yeah, right. This is our year. Yeah, yeah. Whatever. We literally just wore just the NHL's normal, like whatever. Capital.

We were just like 100% all business. And even playing Pitt, like back, he got a concussion, I think. So we lost him. We have some like two guys that like hadn't played really at all. much that year come in and like have a phenomenal game or two. And it was just, and then when we beat, I mean, we beat, when we beat, when we beat pit, it was like, we're winning. Yeah.

Like, no matter what. Yeah. We're just going to stay this exact same way. We never got too jacked up on the bench. We never got down. No one ever like yelled at each other for like anything. It was like, it was crazy. It was like there was like some type of zen or something that we had on the team that was like we're

winning the cup and that's that. Dude, we could see it just as. is watching. Like I said that to Devo recently. I was like, dude, when you guys beat Pitt, it was like, oh, fuck, they did it. Like, this is the caps year for sure. And that's cool to hear that you kind of had that calm

just focus of like, yep, we did it. It's almost like miracle. It's like you get past the Russians and you're like, just we're going to do it. Just take care of business. This is unbelievable. Yeah. Literally it was, it's very similar to that. Like there was obviously, I think you can look at like Ovi comes in the locker room and just

lets out this like roar. And it's like you could tell like that's just like he's like oh yeah we're all like finally yeah but it was I mean after that it was even against Tampa I think down three two we were still like we're just yeah there was like literally zero panic no like what if we just were like we're going to win dude so that year like you I mean you get to this team you have an unreal rip 21 points 24 games just bawling out like that that's one of those stories. lines, it's like, we bring in Osh, boom, look it works out, you get past Pitt, Ovi gets his cup, trots his last year of his deal, you guys get it, bring it home to the fans. How electric

was that party? Like, when you guys were celebrating, there's obviously all the Hallow Man moments, there's the Ovi and the Fountain moments, but like, was that just one of the best times of your life and certainly your hockey career? Yeah, I mean, there was, there was a full 48 hours where I felt like I was like literally Superman. It was like, Like we were on top of the world. How many of those were you asleep? Were you awake for the entire 48? I wasn't asleep for that much.

And I'm historically a sleeper when it comes to having too many drinks. But it was, I mean, it was, I literally can't describe the feeling. Yeah, so awesome. Until I, you know what, you know what? We were all so just like didn't know what to do. Yeah. that like we just let the whole town party with us the whole time yeah and it was like we even talking to the guys with the cuff they're like no one has ever brought in this many like fans

that like you guys have we would be at like rooftop bars and there'd be like crowds out of the street and we'd be like to hell with it grab the cup let's go party with and we'd literally just go in the street and they'd make like we had the police make like this big circle and we would just go around to like the whole crowd let everyone touch the cup yeah and like go around and we'd like, you know, it was, it was electric. That's true. If you Google right now, Capitals Cup Parade, the majority of the pictures that show up are just like randoms holding the cup. It's like people on the street. You're absolutely right.

We were right in there. I mean, sometimes it was like, I'm sure that the guys would like the cup to just kind of stay in our little private room a little longer. But it just felt like, you know, I'd never seen a city like that, especially D.C., a place that historically is very divided, you know, politics and all this other stuff. It was, everyone was just so happy.

There's so, like, so many people. Yeah. It was, it was awesome. That's the best. It's absolutely incredible. Dude,

how happy are you that you won the cup right before the blues? Yeah, so that, like, if it would have been reversed, it would have been like a nightmare, dude.

That was me. It was my fault. Sorry, guys. No, it was. worked out pretty well, for sure, that we won first. Yeah. And then the Nats winning right after us, too. Like that was, they party with us. We party with, well, Bryce Harper did party with us, but we party with them. And it was, it was awesome. Yeah. So good. So good. All right. Now I want to talk about Coach Osh, I want to talk about your dad,

because he meant so much to so many people, but especially, especially you. And I think everyone that's a fan of you and the game, frankly, knows that he saw you. He saw you. he saw you win that cup and you give that incredible interview. He saw you make an all-star game, things I know he remembered forever. You know, it's just such an, um,

touch an uplifting moment. But the thing I really want to hit is the, uh, game after he passed, you came back and have a, uh, a hat trick. And like,

it's out of a movie script, dude. And yeah, yeah, there's incredible quotes from Bakke and, you know, the hug you guys had. Can you just tell us a little bit about how emotional that moment was and

just how you've been able to carry him with you in all walks of life. Yeah. So I think sports in general is kind of like my way of coping with things. It has been my whole life. My parents split up when I was in eighth grade maybe and they told me and I literally went in the back and I just started shooting pucks, taking slap shots as hard as I could. Like I broke our neighbor's fence or something which I end up having to do chores and work for it to pay off. But so that's, it was just kind of my, you know, my way of coping. with things in my in my life very buried I buried myself in athletics quite a bit and so he passed early in the morning I want to say probably around 4 a.m. the day before the game and and then I don't know what it was but after after he passed for whatever reason I was like I got to I got to get back to the team.

I got to go play. I think he would, I think he would, would have wanted me to, for sure. But something about it, I was just like, I gotta,

I gotta get back with, like, my boys. And we have, the, and D.C. are super lucky, especially at the time I came in. Like, this group that we have, you know, a lot of players have left since, but, you know,

backy, Johnny, Tom and O, and they were together before I was here. But they kind of become like your brothers. You go through all this stuff together. You win a cup together, a lot of heartbreak together, so many achievements, especially on the two big dogs. Well, Johnny, I think you can probably consider a big dog Napses. He's leading all the categories in DC for a defenseman.

But so yeah, so I just wanted to go back and be with the team. And this is during COVID times, right? So for me to fly across the country and still be able to play, you have to fly private, which is, you know, I don't like to spend money on stuff like that. But for whatever reason, I did it anyways and got back, I think I landed at like 8 or 9 p.m. in New York, and then we played the next day. So the game was super, super tough.

I think I probably almost cried every single time I got to the bench. Yeah. So every time I got to the bench, you know, even when I walked in, you see the guys that, you know, in the morning, everyone obviously comes and gives you a hug. And so every hug you get,

you're like, fuck. Yep. Yeah, you're like, God, I came, but I can't hear. Yeah, yeah. And then after the third goal went in, and even just like seeing how much my teammates were like trying to get me the puck and to score and to kind of get that, you know, that kind of reception. And, I mean, I've only had a couple of hashtags of my career.

So, like, for it to be that game, you know, you immediately think about, or I immediately thought about Coach Oshin, you know, that he was there, that he helped, you know, those things happened. Even like the first, I want to probably the, yeah, the first goal, it's going right on one of their defensemen's stick and it literally like bounces off the ice and does a perfect saucer pass over his stick onto me. I'm like, oh my God, it was like a three on one or something, which I would never shoot on a three on one. Yeah. And for whatever reason I was like, I'm just going, I'm going five whole. Yeah. And so,

um, and then the, the third one, like, under a guy's stick, you know, like when you kind of like, kind of go like that for like a pass to like get under someone's stick.

Yeah. Like to do that all the way down the ice. It wasn't even really looking at the goal. It's like, I'm singing it under this guy's stick and then it goes in the center of that. So you kind of just think he's there with you and get the embraced after the game. The embrace with back he was, uh,

super, um, that, I lost it. Oh, yeah. How did you not? I don't know if you get, some people know, especially DC fans, but back he's, me and back here are neighbors.

Our kids are all the same ages. Well, his three and my older three. And they've all been in the same class since they were two. So our 10-year-olds have been in the same class since they were two years old. Oh, my God. Our next two are his boy and my girl, Lenny, my little sporty one. They're like wrestle on the ground all the time, get each other in headlocks. They are running back and forth.

They've been in the same class. So that moment was like super special. It was like, you know, hugging your brother. So yeah, yeah. Yeah, super emotional game. I mean, crazy how it all, how it all ended up. But that was a, I don't know the, you know, the grieving. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, there's all the steps. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever it is, you know, that one took me past a bunch of them. Yeah, stage eight, have a hatty. Yeah. tribute to my dad. They said nine and ten to go after that. Yeah, that was awesome.

But it's amazing, man. Like you said, there's something so special about, you know, coach coach got you into this world and what, you know, was your dad, your mentor, your leader. And it's these brothers that you have on the rink that, you know, many years later are the ones that help you get through these moments. It's like you can't really script it much better than that. It's unreal. Yeah, it's a, it's a special game, man.

hockey's a special game. Yeah, it really is. And I think, you know, I owe a lot to the game and to my teammates and my dad and for getting me into it. I never mentioned my mom doesn't get a lot of credit, but she was always in the rink with us too. Yeah, of course. Yeah. A little shout out to Tina. Yeah.

She's a warrior. I get any feistyness I have is from my mom and the love of the game and my hands come from my dad. Yeah. There you go. I love it. we're talking about all these different guys and the elements of hockey, I feel like superstition is a huge one with your team. You guys are like the most superstitious team I've ever heard of in my entire life.

You claim to not be that much, but I know you got the butt taps going on on the ice, but you once said that you think Paul Korea is the most superstitious person you've ever seen in your life. I need to hear a couple of stories about the things that he does. Gosh, I mean, I only played with Paul life for just a couple of years. But there's, gosh, it was just like every day was like, like, seemed like to me. I don't know.

Yeah, yeah. Could be wrong. Holy could be watching this. He could text me and telling me I'm a idiot. But every day he just seemed so absolutely dialed on like everything that was happening. Like to the minute are we talking here? Or what do you mean? Like the exercise was like, you know, he was doing like that.

the thing with a ball and the band, like called like a Corex maybe or something. He was doing that. I didn't even seen it before. I see this guy. It looks like Spider-Man doing all these things. And he, I mean,

his body, he was just cut like a, like a, I don't know, like some type of warrior. Yeah. I don't know. Like,

um, and, uh, the way he taped his sticks. Um, he would go through practice every more, like, every time you,

you know, you're just doing like the circles. He would be doing it, but he would like, only take like backhanders five whole through the like through the center of the I don't know yeah I can't there's not like one thing where you're like oh that's absolutely insane but like every day it seemed like he needed to do these specific things yep to like to to play hockey yeah yeah yeah like you had a regiment I mean I was a young guy so like you know there's a good I might not have got a lot of sleep

night before so I was just on the training room I like didn't stretch just had a call hung out with the trainers, drew in a chew and just not very NHL-esque, you know, professional type warm-ups. And this guy's just like a computer machine with this regiment. I love when it starts to blur between superstitious and OCD. I'm like, oh, dude, you have a problem. Oh, yeah. Like, yeah, the way he would tape his sticks, too, like the absolute precision and focus.

I just was like, yeah. he's just like whew and you're just like dude that's a perfect tape job he's got like a ruler going along the top of the blade

making sure that's the perfect he's like Paul we got 82 of these bro you're gonna have to chill out a little bit yeah he was he was great Devo told us that you guys were ripping

Mario cart during the playoffs and that's your game eh your big Mario card guy can we get up to the can you see the Wait, oh my God, look at that.

Are you kidding me? That's incredible. Wario was my guy. Yep. Dude. Wait, hold on, I need to know why. Why was Warrior your guy? Because it sounds like War Road, or was it just totally random?

No, that was just completely by chance. Okay, nice. Because we were the World Warriors. Or are. Still are. So you can see by the shirt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's in Ojibway.

But so we were playing, I think I was. I always wanted to be, like, towed from my childhood. It was just, like, Toad, he's like, guy can fly through Coupa Troopa Beach with a little cave. Oh, yeah. He almost didn't even have to jump for him. So, I mean, we were playing like eight. I didn't leave the hotel one time into the 2018 playoffs. I only was in the lounge playing Mario Kart.

Actually, I went one time in the finals because I had to get fitted for my buddy's wedding in Vegas. I got a cab and went to one of those places. And so I felt like I was like, I'm pretty competitive, and I felt like I was a pretty good Mario Kart racer, but I wasn't winning every time, and that bothered me. So I think I Googled, and some guy simulated like 10,000 races, and Wario won, like, the most percentage of the time. So I was like, I'm switching to Wario.

It's a competitive advantage. Yeah, no, I was going to say, No one chooses Warriors. They go Bowser or D.K. You know, if they're going like the burly guys, they go Bowser or DK. Yeah. Brett Connolly got a Bowser inside his sleeve tattooed.

Nice. Nice. And then Niskinan was always Peach. And I think Jay Beagle was, I can't remember who he was. He was towed, I think. But anyway, so I switched to Wario, and I immediately started, like, taken over.

And those guys probably won't admit it, but like, I mean, I was, I was tough to beat. You were dominating. Yeah. Yeah. And it was always, we're just racing. We're 1 50cc. We're not doing battles that we were always doing races.

Only races. Yeah. Never with like the other characters, like just, just the four. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, just the four. And there was, sometimes there'd be up to like 12 guys waiting. So like depending on how many it was, like one guy gets to lose the controller.

Two guys, sometimes three guys lose the controller. winter's days. So there's a lot of, and then there was like a couple of the young European guys were just playing FIFA the whole time on the TV next to us. But the rowdiness was. Yeah, the real ones were playing Mario Card. Oh, dude, friendships end with Mario Kart sometimes if we're being real.

Like that shit got serious. I remember one time I came back to the room and me and Niskin had been playing. I want to say we woke up in that morning and we hadn't done anything but eat and play Mario Kart. And I FaceTime my wife before bed when we got to the room. and she was like, do you have pink eye? I'm like, no.

She's like, your eyes are completely bloodshot red and I like, look, I'm like, oh yeah, they are. It's like my eyes are almost bleeding from playing Mario Kart for so long. Sorry, I've won the flower cup

five times. I had a busy deal. I don't know what to tell you. No, no big deal. Yeah. Well, there's actually a perfect transition

into War Road, the company, because we got to get into that now. Whenever you hang them up, Osh, among the family time in the golf, we know how you'll be staying busy with this awesome company you found.

And we're actually, we're dripped out in it right now. And dude, I got a Tylo right here. Boys are looking sharp, too. I got one right here, which is gonna be under our gear permanently. So dude, tell us about how, you know, I know, I know with Jay and you know, talk to the founders and you got to call your boys back home to make sure the name was cool and all that stuff. But just tell us how the idea came about in the first place and what got you so excited about

it and what you see for the future of the company. Yeah. originally approached by now my partners who we had met through my agent and they came in and they you know we actually were at I think we're at the Capitol Grill like the famous one DC where all the movies are which is kind of a cool first meeting and they said they had an idea for this for this company they told me why how hockey you know has Bauer CCM but nothing really like there's a lot of opportunity a lot of space that's not being used

in the hockey community and hockey world. Totally. And similar to North Dakota, I'm a big hat guy. And so I was like, so well, I'd be able to like design my own hats and they're like for sure.

And I was like... And yeah. Dude, extra sticks. Do you have a lot of sticks and five hats? And I'm fucking down. Sticks and hats, like sign me up. I don't even need to get paid. Yeah.

And so that's literally kind of how it started. You know, they asked about the world name. Jason went to Minnesota hockey camps and always admired the kids from Warode. Yeah. And heard about, you know, this dream world that is World, the town of Warode. Free ice for everybody, baby. Free ice for everyone. Come early, stay late, skate every day is literally like on in the ice sheet.

Yeah. And so I told him I was a little nervous about that at first because War Road is It's just such a Cool name, I think Yeah, it's scass, dude And it's just like a super special place to me Truly don't think I would have played in the NHL

If I never moved to Warode I don't know what I would have been doing, but I wouldn't be as happy as I am now for sure. And so talk to my buddies. They agreed that if, you know, we took care of the youth hockey and helped out there, that they would love the name out there. So that was the origin.

It wasn't until we started getting a little more innovative that we came up with the TILO. They came, my partners came to me and they're like, what don't you like about, you know, your hockey gear? Is it your, you know, it could be gear, it could be your shirt, whatever. I historically had like an insane problem with like eczema from my gear. Even when I was a little kid, dude, I had to wear long sleeve shirts at school every day. I was like embarrassed about like my elbows having rashes.

Dude, I got it on my calves. I need to get like my, I still to this day in Beer League, I wear a full length jock because like my shin pads would give me horrible. them on my caps yeah yeah and it's I mean when I got to DC it went like got like 10 times worse I don't know I don't know why but it was to the point a couple times where I was like I don't know if I can play oh yeah dude it hurt you can't I had it it was like I mean it was like somewhat everywhere yeah and when it gets that bad like you can you don't want to wear a shirt no like you don't want to be awake um and uh you know there's been some

players that like have had to retire from stuff like that yeah i know a lot of players personally that really struggle with it so i was like i need a shirt somehow that like can fix this rash issue because it seems like you know the ones i'm wearing just aren't aren't working um i actually had switched back to the old school like 90s baby blue with like the navy blue color no wow like full hot cotton shirt yeah that's what i was wearing that but you must have added an extra 15 pounds I was like wearing a sweater underneath my gear

because everything else everything else the seams would like mess me up yeah yeah but yeah so then we I was like I want this also I think it just happened

like Obey had got slit on the wrist when he was sitting on the bench it was like a pretty important part of the game and I think it was like a third period or something And he had to go get stitches. And we're like, like, we need OV right now.

Yeah. And he had to go. So I was like, I've seen some, and it's happened a couple other times. I have a couple like nicks on my wrist. One needed stitches. One didn't. And I was like, is there like a cut resistant,

like something that you could put on like the wrist? And then he was like, oh, I don't know. Like, we'll look into that. And then the last issue was like my elbow pads slide down. And then once your elbow pad, once your elbow hits once it hurts for like six months oh it's over the rest of your life

you get it on anything yeah you're done yeah and um I mean I have I don't know how good you can I have like bone that like bro it's all the way right here

it was from here and it like traveled up here and it's just stuck in my the permanent bursitis of just like a swollen elbow at all times yeah and um and so anyways we meant the padlock which is the part

it comes back over the elbow pad. And that's kind of how the tie-low was made. And I loved it. I had Tom Wilson, a couple other teammates, try it. And we just tried to, like, keep perfecting it and did, like, the way we wanted. And that's kind of how the tile was born. And that's, you know, majority of our business now is the tie-low.

And, you know, unfortunately, with the accidents that have happened, the neck guard. But we were happy that we had the neck guard before, before that had happened when a young boy from Connecticut had died. And I literally saw it in the news. And I texted Jason and Derek right away. I was like, we need to protect like these kids that don't have paramedics all over the place. You know what I mean? We have two ambulances, two paramedics teams at every game in Washington.

So there's a better chance that, you know, you start. survive a terrible accident like that, but kids, there's no one. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely such a good point. And it is, I mean, dude, it's an answer to a serious problem. Like, it pops up more and more now. The game's getting faster. The gear is more advanced.

You know, your skates are sharper. And especially when you're talking about at a young age, that's when a lot of these accidents happen, dude. Like, kids are falling all over the place. You know, you're lower to the ice. So it's awesome to see it, you know, be such a quality product. And then also the, you know, like the shit that we're wearing, man. It's like, something that I love that you guys have done is there is no, you know, like Bauer, CCM, amazing.

But when you look at some of the, if I'm just like walking around to the rink and I want to be wearing shit that I'm warming up in, how often did it feel like these companies were teaming up with like a Lulu Lemon or a Viori to have like some of these nice, nice a leisure kind of fitness clothes? And that's another thing that War Road is answering. It's like these are clothes that I would wear to the bars. there's also clothes that I would wear when I'm training and clothes that I'm wearing when I'm going to the rink or going to the gym and stuff like that because that was an empty space in the hockey world. And it's not empty anymore, which is phenomenal. That's definitely the space that we wanted to get into. And I think being a new company, it takes a little bit until you have the means to get there. And so that's something that's opening up.

What you guys are wearing now is all on the website. Yep. And actually just got just got launched. And so we're, we want to get into that space. We want, we want hockey players to wear a hockey company and like be proud that they're like, you know, you meet someone that's not. And they're like, whoa, what's that? I'm like, oh, this is this hockey company world. You know, I feel like the hockey community is like so tight.

Yes. Anywhere you go, you meet someone, you know someone that knows someone else. Yeah. And you can immediately be like, oh, yeah, I played with him in juniors. awesome I miss them you know yeah or whatever it is like the hockey community is super tight and I think we just want something where it's not like you're proud that you're wearing something that's that's made by the hockey community for the hockey community it's not made for yoga yeah yeah or it's not made for football you know what I mean it's made for hockey for the

community and a lot of a lot of effort and time and sweat and things when into it and we're super proud of it. I'm super proud of it. Oh my god, man, of course. Couldn't ask for better partners and I mean, like I said, the name is, uh, means a lot to me. And dude, quality wins out, man. Like it is so comfortable both the, both the stuff we're wearing and the tile. Like it is, it is a perfect, I love having this on under our gear. Like it is an amazing, amazing product. Thank you. We, we really, that's one area, um, for, for me that just not, we will not, we will not, compromise the technology and the fabric for speed and the money that you would make on a cheaper garment.

So we really want to, and we will, not want to, we will and always will strive to have, bring the best possible products that we can. And sometimes that might mean that Tylo is a little more expensive than something else out there. but I can promise you we're working to make it the absolute best thing that's on the market. And that's the thing, man. It's like that's the stuff that lasts too. It's like I don't want to buy something cheaper that I'm going to have to replace in two years. I want to buy this that I'm going to have for a long, long time because it's quality,

because it's awesome and I trust it and use it. You know, like that's just the name of the game. I actually got a call from Jason. I was still wearing up until I switched to the title neck and wrist. I was still wearing one of our demo Tylos and he saw me like in between periods

or in an interviewer time he's like dude how old is that show I was like it's like two years old man he's like you got to switch and it's like why it's still it works great it's still working perfect

we have a newer model dude yeah he did he's like we have a newer one you got to wear the I was like well it's still working so I'm definitely that guy my wife asked me to get rid of all my old clothes all the time I'm like, well, I'm still wearing it.

Same, dude. I'm a nightmare with that. I love it. Yeah. Well, it's amazing shit, dude. We're going to keep rocking it, pushing it out for sure. Appreciate it. All right, dude, we're going to close you out with a game that we play with all our guests.

It's called pass shoot score. Pass. Great. Love snap on the puck around. Shooting's better. Love getting pucks on net. Score is obviously the ultimate goal. So it's basically going to be three, two, one.

So we're going to give you three things. You've got to rank them, pass, shoot, score. Okay. All right. Your first one is going to be country singers. So pass shoot score Luke Combs Luke Brian or John Denver

Oh That's a tough one So pass will be Luke Brian I mean shoot is It's tough Yeah With John Denver Yeah

That's a nice little wrinkle You put in there Damn you I'm not going to make it easy for you I'm gonna go John Denver Is going to be shoot Luke Combs score I can't I'm a massive Luke Combs fan

Okay. I can't believe the goal song doesn't get scored, dude. It's just like, it was too perfect. It should, right? It should. Literally, I, like, my kids sing Luke Combs. Yeah, dude. So it's.

I'm not exaggerating. I listen to Luke Combs fast car cover almost every day. It's gas. It blew up. Like my kids, like, the older ones not so much more, but now, but like when I sing to them at night, like it's literally, I just go like to my phone, I'm like, okay, take a lute cone. Yeah, yeah.

I'm like, let's go. And I'll just run through what I. I know probably almost every word to almost every song he has. I'd say 70% of his songs I know every word. What's your favorite? Oh, man. So the father and son album just came out. Oh, yeah.

And so there's a bunch of like super good ones in there. Yeah, that's tough. Yeah, that's tough to compete with. All time, I don't know. But the new album is pretty good. You know, it hits the, me and coach some of the songs, and it hits me and my little man on some of the other ones. No doubt, no doubt.

And you're going to keep him going. Like, John Denver staying the goal song, right? We can't switch to Luke even though he's become your guy. No. I mean, the goal song is staying forever. Yeah. I mean, me and my buddies on the golf trip. I did do karaoke.

That's how I picked the song. Yeah, that's perfect. And yeah, so that's sticking. That's an all-time. Our uncle used to, that was like, his favorite song on Earth. He was big sailor. I'd just be on the boat, just listening to that constantly.

I'm definitely like at the like bar or something. Like I'm definitely more of like a singing, like a group singing kind of guy than like a dancer. It's like we just had it. We just hosted a wedding. I don't want to go too long on you, but we just hosted a wedding two weekends ago. And the wedding ended with country roads.

And so it's like the last song in the night. Everyone's like crowd around each other. I had my two, my girls were in the wedding. So my girls were on the dance floor with me at like 11 p.m. singing country roads is awesome. That is such a memory. That's so awesome.

Whose wedding was it? Family? It was my wife's best friend's wedding. Awesome. Nice. So cool. The one that helped us with. Oh yeah.

Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Okay. Here's your next category, Osh. This category is called cheat meal. Okay. Pass should score.

A bowl of Captain Crunch. and it's up to you if you want to say out of the cup or not. All right. So a bowl of Captain Crunch, a maple cake donut or Grandma Oshy's famous peanut butter cookies at Christmas. Boy. Wow.

That's a tough one. I'll pass on the donut. These are all three. These are in any other category. Yeah, they're three scores. Dude, I'm the biggest maple donut guy you know. And I know you had one like, every day for breakfast, but I'm telling you, I had it for breakfast and lunch.

Like, that is how serious I take a maple bowl. It's so good. I'm going to pass, though. Shoot is, I mean, shoot without the cup is going to be peanut butter cabin crunch. My clarifying was, are you eating peanut butter crunch? Because, like, you're a peanut butter guy, clearly. I'm a peanut butter crunch guy. Okay.

So good. Oh, my God. So we had, I didn't eat peanut butter crunch out of the cup, though, which is like, just killed me. Such a mess. That's a mess. We had like a box in there, and I like lifted up and it was like too light. And I was like, no. And I looked inside.

There was like a couple like little. Oh, fuck. Disaster. Kids got me. Yeah. And then grandma, she's peanut butter cookies, they take the cake. She puts so much like sugar on top. You know, they got like the four marks.

Yes, dude. Oh. So good. Is she more of a crispy or like a soft gooey? They were more just like right in the middle. Yeah. It's like a little, a little crisp on the outside, but like the inside was soft. Yeah.

That's a perfect. That's a perfect cooking. It's a perfect cooking. Oh, if I had put in Joe's steak and stone crab in the mix, where would that have landed? I mean, I'm a sweets guy, dude. Okay, good, yeah, yeah, good. If I have to eat real food, I'm eating like a steak every time. Sweepatatat.

Yeah, God. They don't have, they don't have dungeness crab at Joe's. But if there was like a duchinous crab, like, you know, being from Everett, Pacific Northwest. Yep. I'm a sweet. I'm a sweet guy. I could eat cereal for the rest of my life. It's so good.

So here's my one last, like, food follow up for you on this one. You know, we heard about the story of the Guinness and Wine Mix. So I have a This is actually more on the sweet side I have something that you need to try If you haven't yet You gotta mix red wine and Diet Coke It's gonna change your life

Really? Yes I'm telling you it's like it's disgusting Is this thing going viral Because I could have swore I saw a video on this On Instagram or something I'm sure you did I'm telling you red wine diet Coke Put a little ice in there

It's like it's disturbingly good It's disturbingly good I'll get in there. I'm not typically a Diet Coke guy, but the wine must do something. Yeah, exactly. It does. Keep an open mind.

Yeah. Okay, here's your next one. Unique skills. Pass shoot score. The Hollow Man. Having a casino dealer level bridge shuffle. Or fitting 26 guys in a hot tub. I'm going to pass on the perfect bridge shuffle,

although I'm a pretty solid one. Yeah. um there's 26 guys in the hot tub I'm going to right back to the Nodak days exactly dude oh man

what was the what was the other one the hollow man dude one of the great one of the great performances of all time okay I'm I'm too much of a team guy

to throw the hollow man in the score so I'm gonna go I'm gonna shoot on the hollow man um and the 24 man hot tub after getting slept by Michigan Tech

is going to be my score. Dude, what an awesome story. I couldn't believe that. That was so great. And here's the thing, dude, was there, how much water was possibly in that hot tub when you all 24 of you got out?

So this was a North Dakota hot tub. So it was like made for like 16 guys probably. So the other 10, I mean, it was, it wasn't like we were sitting around hanging out. Like guys were like cannonballing. When we got out,

the water needed to be refilled. Yeah. For sure. That is so incredible. You know, you're in college, so not everyone jumped in the shower before. So the water isn't exactly clean either way. Oh, they had to drain the whole thing. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, that was a low point in the college career. At the time, Michigan Tech was not very good. Right. Yeah. But into a high point memory, though. Yeah, true. Yeah, into a high point memory.

Because you guys ripped after that, right? It was like... I want to say we only lost like one game. That's so insane. Maybe two the rest of the season. And that was December 17th right before Christmas break. Those bonding moments, too.

Yeah. It'll do it for it. Until we ran into the team who must not be named. Yes, true. Yeah. Let's see them out of it. Okay.

Last one, Osh. This category is called gifts. Gifts you've received. Pass you'd score. The putter for your thousandth game. The puck you got from JR at a roller hockey skills comp when you were 14. Or the painting of you and coach Osh

that the fam got you for Father's Day. Jeez. Man. so that's tough um that's a tough one so the the the the putter and the puck from jr are going to be very close

um i'm gonna i'm gonna put jr's puck as the pass how did that happen how did that happen by the way just uh just uh it's kind of just one of of those moments, you know, like one of those parts in your library, like, I still, you still don't believe that, like, you cross paths at that time. Yeah. Incredible. And the fact that I know

them now is, like, come full circle is just absolutely nuts. Um, and so a little kid for me back then, like, the only way I knew how players were like by hockey cards. I collected, like, all different types of cards. Um, which reminds me, I should go back through coaches storage and see if there's some, there could be some like, ones that are worth some money in there. But yeah, yeah. And so I had like a couple,

like a bunch of JR cards and he was kind of like one of the guys were my staple and my little book. So to get a puck from them, I was like, dude, like, to me, guys that were in my, like, you know, the notebook of all the cards, they were like immortals. Yeah.

Oh, of course. There was like Superman cards in there. Oh, yeah. They were like one of those people. Yeah. That's awesome. But I'm going to pass on the puck. I'm going to put the putter at number two,

which was a very good gift from the guys. Thousand games was one of the only goals I really had for my own career, besides winning a stand-the-cup and trying to get a gold medal and stuff like that. And then the picture of Coach and I is super special. That'll be the score. You know, it's still hanging up. and a good moment between me and the big man. Oh, it's beautiful.

Incredible, dude. I lost it when I saw that. What an awesome thing. Yeah, that was a good one. All right. Well, Osh, you absolutely crushed it, man. This has been so, so fun. You're a beauty for coming on.

We can't thank you enough. Before we let you go, is there anything you want to plug or shout out? No, I mean, we touched on World. Super happy the brand. I think we are going to, we're spreading pretty good. So we're going to be in Canada soon, extremely soon, hopefully to get overseas here eventually. But the brand, we're working hard to really create the best possible product for the hockey community out there. So hopefully everyone jumps on board when all the kids to stay safe out there.

Enjoy playing the game. Have fun. It really is the best game in the world. Appreciate you guys for having me on. Oh, always. This is great. You guys are beauties. Always. Shout out to Tina.

My mom, Tina, as well. She's, like I said, she's an absolute beauty. Fierce woman. Fierce. That's where the reverse hit comes from. Hands from dad. Reverse hit from mom. Exactly.

Any of the physicality comes from mom. There you go. All right. Well, I mean, we're banging the war road drum as well, man. It's amazing stuff. So, again, thanks for coming on. We'll have you on again soon for sure. But this was awesome.

I hope so. I got to get on and tell you guys the, when the time comes, I'll tell you the story between me and my in my resigning. Yeah, we need it. We need it. Huge shout out. And thanks to T.J. Oshy, such a fun episode. The best guy ever. Can't wait to keep, you know, hanging and talking with him.

Unreal. It's so cool. So many funny stories. Dude, he is the, like, the hockey player that I want to be. You know? Oh, man. And I mean all encompassing in his life. Like the way he acts.

way he plays, everything he's accomplished. It's like, fuck, man. And what he's doing now? Yeah. Good, good work and hard work and good people, man, you just see results and he's just the embodiment of that, which is amazing. And then, yeah, as we don't need to gas it up even more. But like, the War Road brand is so awesome. It's so cool being a part of it, seeing it unfold as well it is. It's just real stuff. Get this thing, dude. Get a Tylo. If you are playing still, they are amazing. I'm dead serious. Truly. It's, um, it's such a game changer. The padlock thing is actually the most influential thing in the hockey game as far as I'm concerned, saving my elbows.

But anyway, that was our unbelievable episode and interview with T.J. O'Shee. Got to be one of your new favorite players if he hasn't already. That is it for us today at the Empty Netters podcast. Another beauty. And we will see you next time. And until we do, Skate Hard.