Shaun Newman Podcast - #19 - Jaxan Kaluski & Bryce Kindopp

Episode Date: June 5, 2019

On this episode sat with Jaxan Kaluski of the Seattle Thunderbirds and Bryce Kindopp of the Everett Silvertips. We talked about growing up in Lloydminster, going to the Telus Cup and what it takes to make & stay in the WHL

Welcome to the podcast. Normally at this time, guys, I like to do shoutouts and where you can find me on social media. But in my world, I had a really good friend, my defense partner of, I think it's like the last seven years now, getting a serious car accident or truck's accident here this past Monday. And so he's been an induced coma in Saskatoon Hospital ever since. And so since that time, life has kind of been on a bit of a stand still, to say the least. I think everybody's thoughts and prayers go out to Broomann and his family, and I know everybody's pulling for them. Since that time, we all got together and ran a golf tournament over the weekend.

that initially had been initially had been set up for the hitman as a little bit of a fundraiser, but to give everybody an idea, Tuesday afternoon, we went and saw a brewery in the hospital and knew we had to do something. And so we talked about it,

and Wednesday morning we made the decision to put on this fundraise around the weekend, this golf tournament, and donate all the proceeds. back to him and since then it has been well I honestly I just I I don't know how to describe it it's almost been surreal and we went from having maybe 50 some golfers and I think two whole sponsors to

72 golfers over 30 whole sponsors and just about everything under the sun for that tournament paid for and all that came together so so quick so like it just people the amount of people reaching out and and helping and and everybody just trying to do their best for for the man family and and and brew and Kira and you know I was saying earlier this yesterday you know at times in the world it just seems like can be such a negative place and then something like this comes along and rocked your world and people just come together and it's such a and it's such a terrible time and it's

such a wonderful thing to see people come together like that and I can't speak highly enough and be proud enough of the Home On community the Lloyd Minster community you know we even had the Dewberry Mustangs donate something and they'll get a truckle out of this for people who listen will get a truckle for years home on Dewberry on the ice since I've played You know, it's not like we're the best of friends on ice, but when things like this happen, people set aside their differences and go for a common goal. I shouldn't leave Dewberry as the only one, St. Walberg.

People from Nealberg reached out. I'm sure there's many more. I apologize already for not having everybody listed. I know the donations came in from as far south, as far west, I guess, should say is Colonna, Lethbridge, like, just all over the place, and it has been an amazing thing to see and be a part of. I got to say thank you to Graham Murray, Brad Simon's, Colcost, Riva. They helped with the golf tournament this week.

They were instrumental in putting it on, and without those guys. it just doesn't be such a success as it is. Like it's been a whirlwind ride like I've been saying. Other people though, I mean the list, if you're not on this list, I apologize already. I'm probably say that 100 times. There was so many people help that it was just, while surreal, is the only word I can explain. It's something that everyone should experience in this life,

not the tragedy part or the sorrow part, the hurt part, but when everybody comes together like that, that is just something that is just words. I can't describe it. But I'm going to try my best here. So Harley Newman, Jerry Wayhill, Jason Ross, Russell Murray, Max Siegler, Easton, Obrowski, Ashley Simons, Kobe McDonald. For starters, all those people helped, whether it was with setup,

showing up and working shift. or dealing with prizes or dealing with questions, people, helping out instrumental in making that day as successful it is. But, I mean, we had a whole in one challenge that we had people sit there all day long in the baking sun. Hunter, Medanick, his fiancé Lee, his sister Taylor, their mom, right? They sat there the entire time. I'm missing people here. I mean, there was just, they just sat there and watched golfers all day long,

and that was a huge fundraiser part for it, and that was really cool, and I want to say a thank you to them. There was the women's Lady Russ, or Lady Outlaws hockey team. They came and worked our, we had a little bar set up on hole six, and they sat there for 90% of the day and worked it. Actually, I think that's a lot. They sat there for 100% of the day, and I think they came and worked a bar later on at the actual hall.

So, I mean, without those people reaching out and volunteering, once again, just like a huge thank you to you guys. Rylan Thompson, old Tommy Thompson, he was our auctioneer. He did an amazing job. Can't speak highly enough about that young guy. He came and did our Calcutta. We ran a Calcutta auction halfway through, so after nine homes, we auctioned off to teams. We raised, well, we got a total of 8,000, the four of it going to Brewery, obviously. He also did our auction at night after supper and I'm gonna give you a little story here

growing up in Hillmont, you've heard the stories of Eileen Lindsay's buns specifically. Now, when there is a big event or somebody in need, Eileen Lindsay always donates baking. And there's always these stories about, oh, it's, yeah, somebody paid 100, somebody paid 400, somebody paid 400, stuff. like that and maybe I'm getting the numbers out of whack maybe it was even higher than that but I had to witness firsthand they were the first auction item we had and they went for seven hundred dollars buns or loaves of bread I should say four loaves of bread went for seven hundred dollars like that is amazing and the boys sent me a Snapchat that night saying I always wondered what seven hundred dollars of or

seven hundred dollar bread tastes like and they were saying as they're mouserful or br-per-you-good Just awesome to see. Secondly, I got to give a shout out to Easton of Boroughke because we're done with the auction, and by this time, we've auctioned off four or five items, and it has gone exceptionally well. And he goes auction off, he yells from the crowd,

auction off a case of Pilsner. And I look back and I got the microphone, I'm like, you want me to auction off a case of Pilsner? He goes, yeah, I'll start the bed in a 300. I look at Brad Simons, he's like, all right, Okay, so we walk in, we grab the case of Pilsner, it was a 36-pack, and we proceed to auction off two 36-packs. They go for a total of $2,000. Then we proceed to auction off the rest of the bar.

I mean, any bottle we had that we could sell, and I think our total for the auction that night was $7,500. And I'm telling you, there wasn't enough stuff in there worth $7,500. So it is just amazing to see. Give me a sec here, guys. I see that Jackson and Bryce have arrived. So I got the boys sitting in here with me while I do the end of this. But essentially where I was going was next. This golf tournament, we started out with having costs of, I want to call it, 7, 8 grand.

And all of those disappeared almost overnight. So I got to give a huge thank you to. Crude Master Transport, T-Barr 1 Transport, Kirk Kent, Thompson and families, McAllister drilling, can do, Ottawa and Lubin Town. Between all of those, they covered lunch, supper, guaranteed $50.50 at $1,000, guaranteed the Calcutta at $1,000. I should also mention Georgia Merv Mann's ranching outfits. VT Featers, Northern Livestock, and Shannon Eaton of Weaver Order Buyer. Those five put together a thousand bucks each and guaranteed us a $5,000 home one challenge. Everybody had to pay $20, or anyone could pay $20 for three balls.

And all that, guys, we still don't have the figure what it is at, but it was amazing. And just absolutely surreal to see so many people come together. for a cause like that to raise money for a good friend and a good community member and just an amazing human being. So I want to say thank you to everybody. And if I missed anyone, I really apologize. Those are the list, like I say, I think we had 125 businesses that I had written down on that day alone, had donated either through the auction site or written checks for the tournament, you name it. And it's pretty astounding.

So if you're looking to help out and you're sad, you miss the golf tournament, this still is the 32 auction site. It goes till this Friday coming up. So that's 32 auctions, 3-2 auctions, A-U-C-T-I-O-N-S dot com, backslash B-M-M-M-A-N. B-R-U-E, M-A-N-N. So please head over there, and there's some cool stuff. We got a bull. I was saying to the boys here.

We got a bull on our site. I don't know how the heck that happens, but all of a sudden we have a bull sitting there and you can buy a bull off there, putting it in your backyard. I'm sure the kids would love it. All right, while in studios tonight, I got Jackson Kluski of the Seattle Thunderbirds

and Bryce Kindup of the Everett's Silver Tips. We're going to go over a little bit of their minor hockey and Lloyd, the Bannam draft, playing in the WHL, what it's like, what it takes to stay there, off-season training, and we'll have a little bit of fun. All right, so without further ado. So welcome to the Sean Newman podcast, boys. As I was saying, you're the off air.

You're the two youngest guys I got in here, and I was laughing because I say be here by seven, and you both show up at 10 to 7. You're the fastest people to get here on time. And I've had like seven-year-olds here that are late. And they always text it. I apologize. It's not a big deal, but I'm impressed, boys. You're on time.

That's pretty cool. Try to be. Thanks for having us. Yeah, thank you. Oh, absolutely, guys. So what I want to do here, so everybody can kind of get used to your voice, is I was thinking you could say your name and then what team you're currently on and then give your favorite movie from the bus. And if you got a funny story about it or a funny line, not maybe not a funny story, but a movie quote you like from it, that would be awesome. All right. I'm Brace Kendall. The current team I'm on right now is the Everett Silver Tips of the Western Hockey League.

and my favorite boss movie would have to be the stepbrothers I think a good movie in general maybe not even just a bus movie but anytime it's on it's always a good movie did we just become best friends that's got to be the best line I'm Jackson Koleski I play for the Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL

just down the road from Bryce my favorite bus movie is probably a slap shot just a classic when everyone's bored it gets thrown on usually and gives a good laugh. There's a few crazy scenes in there, so it keeps the boys live. Slapshot's, like, timeless. Oh, yeah.

I think so, yeah. You know, like 30 years from now, kids will still be watching Slapshot. Yeah. Right? Like, it just, because I'm sure that's the 1970s movie. Good old Paul Newman in there, and, like, who else, right? And it's just like a throwback to, like, the old days of hockey, but that's a classic. Yeah, I feel like whenever you're on the bus, you almost have to put it on.

or what kind of thing. Yeah, don't even got to pay attention, but there's a few scenes that just grab your eye and give you a laugh or two. Yeah, we maybe won't utter those lines on here with them. No. Do you guys still watch Youngblood then, too? Yeah, that's another one too.

A little team with Miss McGingle? Yeah, we've seen that one a few times on there. That one isn't, it hasn't got as quite much flavor as Slapshot, does it? Everybody's favorite Slapshot, but not quite so much Youngblood. Yeah, I think our bus gets. young blood showing a few times a season on there for sure. Yeah, cool.

So you're both from Lloydminster, correct? Yep. Yep. I was wondering, I always ask, we always go back to the beginning. You're both young guys, but how did you get your start? How old were you, do you remember, was it early, or were you a late starter, late bloomer when it came to hockey? For me, I'd gone on ice my first year of initiation and didn't make it out too far. I think I started crying, Ashley, and thought it.

I called the quits right there. I took the year off there. My parents took me home, and then the next year after, I got back out there and stayed out, and then ever since I've just been playing from there. Yeah, I was kind of a little, I guess, not the same, but a little bit different.

I lived right by a rink when I was growing up, so I skated out there from probably when I was two or three whenever I could stand on my own on skates. And then I played my first year of initiation when I was four, I think, as a little underage. So my dad had to coach or whatever. but that was my highlight of my career getting to play a year of underage hockey, but I loved it ever since, so that's where that went.

Where did you play on the pawns? We lived over by Holy Rosary School there in Parkview, so there used to be just a rink built there by our house, so we'd walk down there, skate there a bit. I guess if we're talking about ponds, my dad built me a backyard rink growing up my whole life, So I guess I started getting before initiation on that. So shout out to my dad for doing that. I'm actually thinking about doing it.

I got two, I got a boy who just turned three and a girl who tunes two here in July. And growing up, somehow my dad convinced the old hillmond arena to give us some of the old boards. So we actually had on the farm an old little arena with Hillmont, like actual arena boards. And so we got to go and just hop up. off the steps of the trailer and go play hockey until whatever time, right?

Like, it was unreal. That's awesome. And at this point in my life, I'm going, you guys will get here someday when your hockey careers are over. You'll go, should I put the work in of an outdoor rink? Oh, man. Yeah, I imagine it's a lot of work. But at the same time, you look at it the way I look at it, right?

Like if you care about it and your kids enjoy it, it's probably worth it, right? Yeah, you bet. I always wish I had one, so. Yeah, it did a lot for me, to be honest, so I think it's worth it. You both talked about some of the biggest contributors or most biggest influencers on your life thus far as been your parents. Maybe we should talk about that for a little bit. Yeah, sure. I think the biggest part of my parents, for me, they didn't really force me to play hockey.

I think they just let me do what I wanted to. It wasn't really stressful. They didn't yell at me after a game. Gave me some pointers maybe along the way and maybe a couple arguments, but they did a lot for me. So, yeah, I think my parents were a huge part of it just because they were, they gave me every opportunity. I always got to get equipment when I needed it and stuff like that. And they worked hard to make sure I could have that kind of stuff to have the best opportunity. And my dad didn't play hockey for a long time, but he saw the game really well.

And that was a huge part too because obviously your coach can't be in here all the time too. So he was a big coach. And then my mom was just a great supporter always looking out for me if I didn't have my best game or whatever and stuff like that. So it was, yeah, it was good. Moms are the best.

Yeah, they keep everything good in the house. Did you guys grow up having, I don't know, I'm so far away from minor hockey right now. Did you have to do early morning practices? We did early morning practices our last year, our midget actually, before high school. Really? Yeah.

Like the year you guys went to the TELUS Cup? You guys were doing morning practices? Yeah, was it all the year? Yeah, I think it was 7 a.m. Before our first class. Oh, 7 a.m. Well, that's still early enough. It's not a 6 a.m. practice.

I think we had the odd 6 a.m. practice for sure. Man, I still think about that right now that my parents were, I was living in Helmont. So we were driving to Lloyd 25 minutes. So we're getting up at like 5 in the morning to get to Lloyd for a 6 a.m. practice. And my parents never complained once. Like, yeah.

Yeah, it's incredible. what they do but I think it makes them happy to see see their kid doing something that they that they really like and obviously I think it kept us out of trouble too so they're probably happy about that yeah I hear a lot of that is doing it to keep your kids out of trouble and happy those are probably the two big ones right if they're too tired of more and out they're not going to try and go find extracurriculars to get themselves into yeah for sure so I was wondering I've been talking with a lot of the old boys that have been on and I guess I'm, to you guys, I'm an old boy, which is funny.

I've been a young guy talking all these old boys. Now I'm the old boy. In the summers, I always grew up playing fastball or windmill, not baseball, but windmill, and really enjoyed having a break from hockey. I know it's been a big thing now. Growing up, we didn't have, there was no ice in Lloyd. If you can believe we had no artificial ice in Lloyd to go skate. So the only place you were going was either Saskatoon or Eminton to play spring hockey

for I think it was like a month and a half back then. It was a lot of money too, which I'm sure spring hockey now isn't cheap. What has you been your guys' experience with that? Are you both dual sport athletes, or did you both strictly go hockey and maybe just some thoughts on it? Yeah, I think growing up both of us,

we played spring hockey for a little bit. We went out to Edmonton growing up when we were a little bit younger. Our friend group kind of went through a little phase. We played a little tennis one summer maybe, and I think just going. has been a huge thing for both of us for sure, but I think it's been mainly hockey for me growing up. When I was growing up, I was playing ball for a bit, baseball. So I enjoyed that, but it got to a point I think it was too much for me and my parents

when it came to trying to enjoy the summer because we have a lake we like to get out too. So, yeah, I quit that probably when I was about 10 or 11. And then I started golfing a lot every weekend with my dad and his friends. And then me and Bryce now we golf probably almost every day together in the summer. So obviously we live a pretty lavish life in the summer, but it gets us away from hockey a bit and makes us enjoy the rinkmore too, I think, when we go. I'm going to pause there because I'm going to make sure I'm getting you bold. Keep doing what you're doing.

We were talking about your summers and dual sports. So you never burned out of hockey then? No, not really. I mean, obviously you haven't. I mean, you're still playing. Yeah, obviously. Once it comes to summertime, I usually work out in the morning,

and then, like I said, we golfed a lot, and then there was that one odd summer. I don't know why, but it was tennis every day, which was good for the cardio. Why tennis? I don't know. Like, who came up with the idea? Hey, guys, maybe we should grab some tennis.

Maybe because it was free or something, I don't know. Yeah, free. We thought it was good for us, so it was quite a bit of running there. The funny thing is I feel like everybody goes through a tennis phase Because I remember having a little bit of a tennis phase in high school too I was terrible at it How did you guys make out?

We're not good We're not very good We try the overhand serves, hypnotical Make up our own rules Yeah, it's not even By the end it's not even real tennis A little bit of wiffle ball too actually Yeah

Last summer Bought some wiffle balls Got a couple of boys together Yeah Typical hockey players Go to a tennis court Start playing tennis Realize you're not that good at it

Now let's change the rules and making it into a game we can play that's at least fun. Something that we might be good at. I don't know how many times I've gone to, I don't know, somewhere started a game out of like two sticks and a ball and you create some nets and you throw in a couple random rules and you have a blast for an afternoon. And then the next day you're like, how do we even pull that off?

Yeah, I know. Yeah, for sure. So how about you? Did you ever, sorry, you, Jackson? Yeah, I just obviously I played baseball there and stuff, and then we had that phase of tennis, so we did that for a bit. But did you ever, sorry, did you ever like, yeah, I guess what guys are, yeah, you guys are curious about it is, it's a big debate right now,

and now you guys are right smack in the middle of it, and obviously you got hockey careers to worry about, right? So obviously you're not going to go, well, I hate hockey, and I don't think either of you do, because, I mean, you both have very successful careers going on right now. but what are your thoughts? You got friends who would have gone through the same thing. Have you seen a lot of them burn out by the time they're 17?

They're just like, you know what, I'm done with hockey. Like I've done it too many. And is that more because they didn't have success with it in your mind then? Or what's your thoughts? Yeah, I definitely have seen that. We've had a couple buddies that came out of midget and just thought they just wanted to go to school because maybe they weren't so successful in hockey.

And I think maybe just doing too much training in the summer and not taking enough time off could definitely burn you out for sure. Yeah. Yeah, I think I see a lot of kids younger nowadays, too. In the summers, it's hockey the whole summer on your skates and stuff like that. And for me, I was never interested in doing that. We did spring hockey a couple years, but then after that, that was enough for me, and I just wanted to get away from the sport a bit.

It's just I found that it's too much at a young age, and you should get out and enjoy other things, because you never know what you're going to be good at. Maybe you're not the best hockey player. Maybe you're better at basketball or baseball, whatever it is. But we've played with guys that get to the WHL and they play for a year,

and it's just not for them. It's a little too much, so I think that all leads into that. But, yeah. Yeah. There's like sports growing up. Was there a sport you didn't get to play that you wish you would have? And for me, it was always football,

or now I'm starting to see rugby. Like I just, for some odd reason, I went, I don't know if I would have been getting. You guys are both looking at it. I mean, I'm a small guy. I probably would have disappeared on the field, got drilled and been out concussion first day. But for some reason, I always thought football would have been fun. But it always conflicted strictly with hockey schedules.

So to me, there was never any point. How about you guys? Yeah. For me, I think it was basketball. A little B-ball, as we are watching the Raptors game. Yeah. I brought my basketball hoop to the gym. I work out here last week.

And once I'm done working out, I usually play some one-on-one with somebody. or I don't know, it's just, I think it'd be fun to be good at that for sure. Prison rules? Yeah, anything goals kind of thing. A couple body checks flying around. Wait, a dumbbell off the head. Yeah, I think, I think I would have liked to play football. I always liked running sports.

I played a little bit of soccer, I guess, too, when I was real little. Got away from that, but like you said, it conflicted a bit, so I never got a chance to play that. But I think it worked out either way because I'm not that great of a catcher. But it's something I think would have been cool to be good at. And you've got to have energy to do it too, right? Hockey's demanding, man. Yeah.

You're on the ice a lot. Even back in my day you're on the ice a lot. And every weekend you're traveling because one of the crappiest things about Lloyd hockey specifically is the travel. Like you're just, you're not in Eminton where you're in Calgary where it's the city league and you just bounce around 20 minutes and you're out of rank and, you know, somebody from Eminton will call me and say that it's, oh, it's 40 minutes in traffic. Oh, that's great. Yeah. But I mean, here, like, growing up, I was Fort St. John, Fort Mac, uh, Grand Prairie. Oh, man.

The list goes on. Those are just the bad ones, right? Like everywhere you go here, what your guys, like you guys, I'm assuming grew up the same way, right? because, I mean, Midget, you're still traveling to the cities and everything else, right? Yeah, Calgary, those are probably... Yeah, I think in Midget, there was like a three-weekend stretch where we were in Calgary every weekend. And it gets annoying after that the third weekend, but we had a pretty good team, so it was easy to travel on the bus. But still, it's not, it wasn't too fun growing up with those travels.

The bus is tough to get comfortable on. It's tough on the back. Especially when you're a rookie two or something. Yeah, you're doubling up at the front of the bus. Oh, yeah, right, doubling up. I forgot. It's been a long time, Guise. Yeah.

Get the AC on for the bats in the back. Yeah, hopefully you're sitting beside a small guy or something. It doesn't take up too much room. You can kind of bully him a bit into sitting on the edge of the seat or something. What did you guys think? Did you see Zadayno Tara's comments on his thoughts on rookies? About a week ago, 10 days ago? I did not know.

He talked about how there's no. rookies in Boston treats everybody the same and that's the culture they have. And it was, for me personally, I never experienced that in all my junior days. Even in my, when I went over Finland, it was this rookie vet kind of thing. And that's been what's ingrained into junior hockey for sure. And it's a nice kind of little balance, right? But Oden Hillman playing senior for the last like seven, eight years, that's been something what Zanan O'Chara was talking about.

and it's a really cool atmosphere when you don't have the group building the group two groups even though it's a fun thing to be a part of in junior hockey because I mean the doubling up yes that just brings back vivid memories getting your first year you're well I don't know I will probably get to it but your first year you're probably a little nervous and then they stick you with somebody heck you're probably happy to be stuck with somebody for the first couple time so you're not so nervous and then after about the third road trip you're like okay out of yeah I could just use my own seat and that's right now Yeah, I think it's definitely growing out of the game.

The rookie vet kind of treatment stuff, obviously it's slowly going away, but there's still the little things in junior that they try to hold, like doubling up on the bus and whatnot. But I think lots of teams are working closer towards that kind of culture because obviously it works to look at Boston. They're doing pretty well. Yeah, we're just talking about it. They're up thumped them last night.

I'm still pulling for the blues. boys. They got a lot of Canadians, so I think I'm pulling for them too. Yeah. And they went from what? Dead last in the NHL? Yeah, and now in January February they were dead last. And then Old Bennington comes in. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Freaking cool. Yeah. So both you play your minor hockey and Lloyd. Now, you play your Bannum and Midget together? Yeah, we played Peewee, Adam, Peewee, both ears of Bannum. One year of midget.

You're tied at the hip then. Yeah, pretty much. It must have been a tough deal when you went separate ways in the dub. Yeah. Well, we're only 30 minutes apart in the dub, too. Really? Yeah. So you just bounce back and forth.

Yeah. Ever it's that close? It depends on traffic. Could be an hour. It could only be 30 minutes. I thought it was farther than that. No, it's just down the road. Just downtown Seattle kind of separates the two teams.

Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. Oh, wow. Somehow we've managed to stick close together. Oh, that's cool. Well, let's talk about Bannam and Midget then. I mean, you boys, I remember watching your guys' team specifically when you're on your way to Telas Cup. And the amount of talent you guys had on that team.

But, I mean, I didn't realize maybe nobody talks about it, but Banham back in Westerns. What was that like? Like, what was that group like? Because that group, everybody talks about Lloyd. You were saying off air, like, that's the first ever Lloyd team to go to the Teleth Cup. And it was a very special group, and a lot of you are scattered now throughout the WHL and Junior A and everything else. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, after our second year, the year we went to Tullescop and Midget, the next year I don't think anybody came back. I think everybody was gone to junior after that. Yeah, and back to Bann there too. Like, it was crazy to look back on that now and see how many players went on to we all kind of stuck together. throughout and all met back up our second year of midget. Some guys didn't make the major team like myself. I didn't make the major team at first year, so I played U-16.

But then we all kind of got back together, and then there was a few different players in the lineup. So we were really familiar with each other. We knew kind of what it was like to play with each other and win together. So I think we kind of had an upper hand on everyone for that kind of scenario, I guess. Well, and you got that midget year, you go to a max cup, right? Yeah, we lost two one in the finals at the max. Yeah.

Like, was that your first taste of, like, kind of the big stage with you? Yeah. We go there playing the Saddle Dome. Quite a couple thousand people there, I think. And it's on TV, too. So it was a pretty good thing, I think, and that was a tough loss for sure. Yeah, I think it was kind of, it was a cool opportunity to, because it was our first look at what it was like to play in one of those rinks.

And then also our first look at what it was like to play in one of those rinks. And then also our first look at what it was like to be unsuccessful that year because I think we only had like one regular season loss up to that point. And I think it actually came to Calgary too. They had our number of it that year. So we were really hoping to get them in the playoffs. But I don't even think we did get them in the playoffs. They lost out.

But it probably worked out because who knows what could have happened there if they had our number. What was it like was so, like was it just strictly talent on that team? or was it talent plus coaching? Was it just the group of guys jelled so well together? What do you look back on and think, like, that's what we had? Yeah, I think it was a little bit of all about, like Jackson said, growing up together. I think you build that bond.

It's almost just like going to the rink with your brothers every day. And then obviously we had a great coaching staff that year with Travis, obviously, he's taking the reins for us. I think it's just, once you have that kind of group in the room where it just feels like family and, you know, you can make a mistake and some guy will pick you up. I think that really helps for sure. Yeah, I think it was good, too,

just because we had such a good bond with Travis. He was our coach in Bantam, and we obviously went to the Westerns, and we had been together quite a while, and then we all got back together that year in Midget, and we all kind of knew what it was like to be with each other, and he knew what it would take to get us to a championship kind of stage. He just had the right mindset,

that he could talk to you like a friend, but he could also be hard on you and he needed to be and straighten you off if you weren't playing too well. So that part of it was good. And then, yeah, all the guys worked really well together. We had guys that, like, we had just guys with pure talent playing on the fourth line too.

So, like, it was, we didn't even have really first, second, third, fourth lines. Like, it was you could kind of mix and match, put anyone out there, and you were probably going to get a good result. Well, and heckless not even, forget about your defense. You had Ty Smith, who was the D-Men of the Year for... CHL. Thank you. And then you had T.J. Lloyd, who was the D-Men of the Year for all of... Yeah, CGHL. Yeah. Yeah. Like, that's insane. Yeah, it was pretty crazy. The pool of talent

that this kind of 2009 age group turned out to be in Lloyd. And the fact that we all got to play together and guys weren't getting scattered throughout going to the prep teams and stuff like that. It was cool to see that everyone stayed and we got the opportunity to all play together. And now it's cool to see where everyone's ended up kind of like obviously Ty. He's carving a pretty good path for himself and whatnot. Yeah, well, I think all you are. I mean, not everybody can be, I mean, everybody's got their different degrees of success. But like you look at your guys' team and everybody is doing pretty good, man.

Yeah, yeah, it was, yeah, it was a pretty special team. Not a lot of guys get to get to play on that, and it's funny too, because a lot of guys that we play with now in the dub, we all played against them back in the day when we were in Bantam and midgeting, whatever, because lots of them were from Alberta and Saskatchewan and whatever. So they all mentioned that they're always a little bit bitter about Lloyd and how stacked they were always. It wasn't fair to play us, so, yeah, I kind of like having the upper hand in the locker room battles.

That's pretty cool, though, right? Like, Lloyd's only, I mean, Lloyd's only for this area, it's big, but Lloyd's like 30,000 people, right? I don't know, 35,000. You're going up against cities that are millions of people. Yeah, you don't think you'd hear guys complaining about how to go play hockey and Lloyd, but yeah, I heard that a bunch too, the guy saying, oh, we got to go play Lloyd again. That's a feather in your boy's cap.

That's nice out. What was the national tournament like? Because that was out east, correct? Yeah. Yeah, that was out in St. John, I believe, New Brunswick. And it was pretty cool when we first got there because half of us haven't even left, Saskatchewan and Alberta and seen any other part of Canada. So everyone was pretty amazed at that.

But it was a cool opportunity to see kind of how we fared against the other teams. And it didn't go the way we wanted. We had a bit of a tough break down there. And it was what it was. But all in all, it was pretty awesome experience for us. Yeah. Just like kind of the atmosphere kind of thing, just being on that big stage. Like hotels right on the water, kind of just a whole different vibe there.

And then just the big crowds you get just knowing there's a lot of people watching you under a microscope. I think it helped our careers for sure. Yeah. Oh, I can just imagine the amount of scouts that were sitting there. Like if I'm a scout, that's where I want to be, right? Whether that's whether you're talking Division 1 or Pro, right? Or even Division 3, 2, it doesn't matter, right? If you're a school and you want good hockey players, you go to the big stages.

That's as big as it gets for midget hockey in Canada. Yeah, there is definitely a lot of guys that got that look that they needed, that extra look. Probably kind of like me too. I was already listed by Moostra before that, and then I got to, I don't think they knew too much about me, even though I was listed, and then I got to camp. And that was one thing that they were really talking to me about. So that definitely gave me an upper hand on other guys too at camp, I think. So something like that is huge for players that aren't exactly in the spotlight all the time too.

Yeah. How long did you guys go down to where did you say you were at? St. John, New Brunswick. St. John's. How long did you go out to St. John's for? Probably a week, maybe a little bit more than a week. Yeah. Flew out, obviously.

And was it all your families went with you? Yeah, I think we had a bunch of family there. They didn't travel like when we did. think they travel a little bit later. Yeah, I think I remember seeing a photo. There was, I think there was almost close to 100 people from Lloyd that came. 100 people and wow. Yeah, I think it was something crazy like that.

There was like friends of family that came and stuff like that. So that was one thing that I was always super fascinated by too was the amount of support we got. Like in our playoff games, we were at the start of playoffs. We were getting like 500 fans out to games, which is a lot more than others. and then at our regional championship to go to Telasca up, I think we had

like a full barn. Oh, was at the Civic games. The Civic was absolutely packed. People are just standing, like there was only standing room which I've never seen at the Civic before. So for warm-ups. The only times the Civic gets that fall is on the big stages.

So that is obviously one of the biggest stages Lloyd can see at the midget level. And that barn that night was bumping. Yeah, right? Yeah, I'll remember that forever. It was crazy. We always talk about how packed that place was for those couple of games. It was crazy.

Yeah, and it's cool to see a community get behind a team like that, right? Yeah. I mean, it's hard to do. We talk about it watching even the Raptors, right? Like, right now, the regular season, we're all joking, none of us watch regular season. But then as they go deeper in the playoffs, and they're currently losing 6559, they've got to pick it up.

But as they go deeper in playoffs and now they're in the finals, right? Like, the entire country is watching them. Like pretty cool, right? And that's what Boyd kind of does. Well, that's what a lot of communities does. Once you get down, it's hard to watch any team. I don't know what they play in the NBA, 82 games or whatever. Like, unless you're an absolute diehard, you ain't watching 82 games.

No. But if you can watch the big ones, and that's what that one was for you guys. Like, that was a fun one to watch. And it showed me, and, you know, I didn't come out and watch a ton of midget games that year. But that was one of two midget games I watched that year. And you guys were, like, unbelievable. It was impressive to watch you guys. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, that team was unreal. It was so fun to be a part of just all the talent and the friends I made on that team. A couple guys from around the town that I don't get to see you too much too often, but they'll always be one of my best friends, so it was awesome to be a part of. Yeah. Another thing about that game, too, just to add, was I remember we were standing in the hallway

and one guy peeked out and looked and saw the, The stands were pretty full, and I remember everyone just looking at each other, like, oh, boys, like, look at us, look at us, like, we're here. But, no, yeah, everyone is pretty hyped up for that. And, yeah, it was cool. I won't forget it. Yeah, just pull it up. It keeps wanting to fall down. I have some mic issues.

There we go. Jackson's messing with the mic, folks. No big deal. We were talking about coaches. What was so special about Travis? You both mentioned them as being one of your best coaches, and he's a local guy who played some really good hockey down south, right? CHL.

He actually played with my oldest brother back when they were on their dynamite role with the Midwest Red Wings back in the day. And a Paradise Hill boy, right, like local to the bone and for him to come back and then be on a team and coach. like that and then he guys mark him down as like he must have done something right what did he help instilling you guys yeah he was just one of those coaches that knew what it took and he just let us play our game kind of he he got on us when when he needed to but I think what else helped do is he wanted it just as much as we did he knew he could win a championship

and he wanted it really bad for us too in the community I know that so he just let us play our game and had great systems so yeah he was one of my favorite coaches growing up for sure I think a big part of it too like I mentioned before he was he was super personal bowl um he was one coach that will always stick out to me just because he felt he felt like another dad too he uh he wasn't he wasn't me and he wasn't wasn't too hard on you when he knew that he he shouldn't be and stuff like that and i think um lots of coaches are kind of starting to realize stuff like that now too that all players are different and he kind of knew how to coach different and whatever and that was a huge advantage for him over some other teams probably that had

different style of coaches and stuff like that but yeah I just remember like our our year-end celebrations and stuff like that like we were we were all just a family like like yeah we could all we could all be together and and it was awesome and fun whenever whenever we all get together so we still talk and and hopefully talk more before the summer is over hi cool I was wondering on the road you get that tight tight knit there has to be some shenanigans and I mean by shenanigans

I'm thinking of what we used to do is leaners lots and lots of leaners yeah speaking of leaners I don't know if it was at the max yeah it was at the max we kind of got the floors it almost and they had to bring up these big fans into the hallways and we got a pretty good

stern warning for that so the floors were pretty soaked yeah I think they might have been even threaten us to, that they were going to move us out of the hotel or, or something or whatever. But we were just such a close team that we couldn't get enough with just messing with each other. Like it would, it would just be uncontrollable. Like, you'd knock on a door and just throw a bucket of water in a guy's face. Like, it wasn't even leaners at the end.

It was just like anything just to piss another guy off. So it was good, though. I bet hotels, when they see there's a bunch of hockey teams. I don't know. You know, I got to get different athletes or on here that have a different, you know like baseball teams i'm sure they do the same things i just know hockey so well and i can just imagine being a manager of a hotel we got three hockey teams coming in uh just prepare the fans uh no kidding right because you always got the prankster who's the prankster on that team

oh boy oh were you all just a bunch of pranksters definitely i would have to say like mcgregor sinclair and logan gainer in there zack bandles out there too sorry i seem like the out of town guys were really the ones that like to stir the pot oh he's stirring the pot so much fun. Oh yeah, it's nice to see. Just get a rise out of somebody. Like, they don't want to be a part of it, but you just keep egging him on and they just get really mad. T.J. Lloyd's a good guy to get going. I'd say Bryce is pretty good at firing people up. He still knows how to get to me, say something. He knows that he doesn't mean what he'll say it. Just to get a rise at him, he's pretty good at it. Well, if you want to do that on air, that's totally good, you know?

I might have to pull it out sometime. I had a lot of questions asked when I was reaching out to you guys to get you on. Some of the guys who wanted you to come on wanted to know what you guys thought it took to get to the WHO. Like, what did you have to do? And I know you guys are in a lot of dry land, a lot of on ice, that kind of thing. But is there any, what did you guys have to sacrifice

to get to the next level? Yeah, there's obviously a lot that goes into it. It's kind of the extracurricular activities. You know, after school, maybe there's a party or something, but you gotta go on the ice or maybe get your workout in. I think it's just staying focused on that and treating your body, your body right, eating the right stuff, and getting the right sleep in. I think it's just kind of sticking to that, that, and it really helps out for sure.

The discipline of it. Yeah. Yeah, I'd kind of agree there. I think you're in high school, whatever, and I think it becomes more of a, I think in your younger days you can get away with a lot more stuff, and then as soon as you get older, guys start separating themselves from the pack because they're doing things that other guys aren't and I think you just got to figure out

what those things are for you that's going to make you better but I noticed that a big part of it was in high school you got on weekends, whatever, we're off playing games and there's lots of kids going out and boozing and partying or whatever and doing that kind of stuff

and sometimes you think like you want to be in that position but you're a lot better off staying away from that stuff and focusing on what's going to make a better person, better player in the long run. What age you both start working out? Peavy, I want to say.

Holy crap. Like, I think it was, like, when we were younger, like, that and peevee, I think it was more, you know, like cardio. Like cardio and just light introduction stuff. Coojo conditioning kind of stuff? Yeah, like, I've been going to Cujo for, like, since Peevee now. Oh, man. Yeah, I think, yeah, I didn't do a,

a ton of crazy stuff, but I know in Bantam, right, that's when you start kind of trying to put a little bit of muscle on. Obviously, it's still tough. You're still, your body's still developing at that point, but I think that's where I kind of started to try to get some more muscle going. You guys are going to both learn this very soon. Your bodies are still developing, and you're going to hit, like, more muscle mass when you're, like, 25,

and you go, God, I wish I had this when I was 18. Yeah, for sure. You just can't, at 18, you just can't put it on. Some guys, some guys built big. But at like 25, you just get, like, more muscle mass than you can even imagine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I think just obviously not letting yourself get in terrible shape is a huge part.

And then kind of the other stuff will take care of itself as long as you're doing the right things on the ice and whatnot. And you're both working with TAP, right? Yeah, I've been working with him for, I don't know how many years now. I think since he coached us. Yeah, PBAA. I think even right before Peeby in a spring hockey year. That was a first year. We did that.

And he got to Lloyd and then coach us in Peeby there. So we've been with him ever since then. And what's been cool about working with TAP? Because I know I've come out and helped, well, this is a long time ago now, but I think I came out and helped TAP when I first got back for, call it like a summer, not even. It was a few sessions, but I remember him working on skating and shooting at the same time. Yeah, there was a bunch of them.

And it is like, I don't know, for me, and I never played in the dub, but watching him do it or trying to do what he was trying to tell me was like, it hurt my brain to try and teach your body to do that. And I assume at a young age, learning some things like that, like what's been some of the cool stuff he's taught you? Yeah, well, I think a big part with Tapper growing up was he put us, we'd be young guys going against like guys that are just going to junior doing one-on-one battle drills. Playing up. Yeah, so he got us ready to play against guys that are just becoming men kind of thing. And then there's a bunch of technical stuff. He works on, like, stick handling, but hiding the puck while you're going to shoot. Like, just trying to find a way to score on the goalie, not letting the goalie know when you're going to shoot.

So he does a really good job with that. When was the first time that you were in a game and something like that clicked, and you were just like, oh. I don't know. Even in a game, when you do something, you're not really thinking about it. It just happens naturally. But you don't, you don't go back to the hotel and you're just sitting there. staring at the wall or watching the ball game or whatever and go, that worked really well.

Like, I didn't know if Tapp, if he knew what he was talking about on that one, but that one really worked. There's been one, like a couple times where I've done something in a game and Tappers text me and they go, hey, that worked out.

That was me. That was for sure me. So, yeah, I guess there's a couple times. I know Bryce has had his fair share of Lickens on me over the years, but especially he seems to score a lot more against Seattle than I do against Everett. but I just remember there is one game this year, right before Christmas, and I happened to score against them,

and Bryce was actually on the ice at the time or whatever, so that's kind of funny to think about. Six one game, just going into Christmas time, he decides to dash me up, so. But I get a text from Tapper after, and he just goes, unreal, man, that's what we've been working on all summer. So that's one that sticks out to me recently, but I obviously don't fill the net as much as Bryce does,

so I don't know. How many points do you have this year? I had 73 this year. And how many games? 62? 67. 67. Yeah.

And geez, that's pretty good. Yeah, it was a good year for sure. We had a really good team again, so that helps. Yeah, well, that does help. But, I mean, you put me on a really good team. I am putting up 60s. Yeah. Yeah, it's not easy to do what he did, so.

It was fun to watch, though. What's it been like playing in the dub boys? What is it, and you're still in it? I mean, but like, going from little town Lloyd and now you're in well Seattle right like that's kind of a big place like and Everett I mean I didn't realize it's right there so it's pretty much Seattle yeah they're basically the same

it's different you start your first year off you're not really confident you know you're dumping the puck a lot and then once you get to now like my ninth year old year you're starting to feel like yourself again you're holding the puck more making more plays I think once you get to junior and you start gaining confidence it helps so much so much more for sure I think but playing junior has been so much fun you make so much memories and so many great players go through the league so it's it's really fun to be a part of yeah I think you when you go you miss you miss all your old friends and and whatnot but playing junior has been a cool experience and it's super humbling too because you know you come from

pretty much lighting the lamp every year when you're younger right there's just you obviously to make it to that stage, you had to do a lot of good things, and you just felt like you were a really important player in minor hockey, and then you get to the dub, and it's pretty humbling experience playing my first year. I didn't play much because I was hurt, but there was some nights where I played a shift. One night I remember I were in Brown, and I didn't even play a shift, and I'm like, what am I getting myself into here? But as Bryce says, you kind of, as years go on, now, I'm 19, and I got to play a full season this year for the first time. which was an awesome experience.

So you start to build more confidence and a lot of things change and you kind of start to get your old self back and yeah, it's good. It's good to see how it looks now. Yeah. We were talking about road trips earlier. I bet you got some dozies on that

because I don't think you get, do you fly anymore? No, we got some long road trips for sure. You're pretty much like as far west. What is your closest games? Yeah, we're, yeah. Oh, oh, sorry, minus those, minus that. Portland is ours.

Oh, yeah, Portland wouldn't be too bad. Yeah, it's like two and a half, three hours. Let's go the opposite way. What is the worst road trip you got to make? Brandon. Brandon, yeah. How many hours on a bus is that for you? G sucks, too.

PG's horrible. I think it's like 22, 23 hours. So what do you do on that? You hop on a bus, And how many games do you play on that road trip? Seven, six? Yes. However, I don't even know how many, too.

Six games, I think. Yeah, I think we played six because we just played Portland on the way down there because that was my first time going down east while playing in Seattle. We went this year. Yeah, it's not a fun drive, but I remember we were going right around the trade deadline, and so everyone's a little on the edge of their seat. Not too comfortable time we ride on the bus, but I remember we drove to Portland. we, we, pretty sure we got shalacked by Portland a bit.

They were a pretty good team and our team was, had a pretty rough, or first half of the season. And we were, we thought we were going from Portland to Lethbridge, we were just going to stay overnight there and then drive to Brown and the rest of the way after that the next day. And next thing, you know, we show up in Seattle and we're all wondering what the heck's going on and three guys get off the bus, get called off the bus. And so we happened to trade three guys.

And then we went and we left. left and this is all in the middle of the night at like two, three in the morning. Everyone's just exhausted, like drop off these three guys, say a quick goodbye, and then we're on the road again back to Lethbridge. We ate, whatever, woke up, drove again to Brannon, got there, traded for new players, and then we got to PA later in the trip, traded a player, got new players, and that was probably the most insane trip I've ever been a part of just constantly new guys coming on.

I think we got like four or five new guys on that trip, and we ended up having a lights out second half, but yeah, it was. It was crazy for me. I got nothing like that. I've never seen that. You've been traded, though, Jackson. Yeah. Yeah, I was, I started in Moose Jaw.

Yeah, sorry, what was that like getting traded? Was that a shell shock? Were you, you know, like, was that tough? Yeah, so I was playing a Moose Jaw, and I got hurt my first year, came back, and Moose Jaw was looking like they were kind of kind of try to go for the championship. and I wasn't in a real great position.

Obviously, I didn't have much opportunity in the first year, and I think it just ended up being best for me and the team to kind of part ways. And so they sent me back on the trade deadline to Seattle. And at first, there was a lot of different emotions. I was super excited to get a fresh start, but I had great billets in Moose Jaw and some great friends that I had made there. So that was really hard to leave. but I was super excited about going to Seattle to get a fresh opportunity,

and it worked out great. I got to play some minutes there my first year, but last year was really a huge step forward. So, yeah, I think if it didn't happen, my hockey career could have went a different way, so I'm pretty thankful for that opportunity that I got. Cool. You bring up billets.

We better give, I had great billets. I give them shoutouts over and over and over again on this thing. Yeah. How about you guys see who your Billet families are and probably show them some love? Yeah. Pat and Janet Hawes, I've had them for three years now, and they've been unbelievable for us. They actually got a sauna this year they have in the garage,

so they'll do anything for me and my roommate. Yeah, they've been awesome. Just another family, it feels like home whenever I go back there, so I can't thank them enough for sure. Well, you pretty much become part of their family, right? Yeah, it's a cool experience for sure. Yeah, yeah. When you get good ones, it's, it is a second family.

Yeah. Yeah, my billets and Moose Joe were Mike and Carly and Benalek. They were incredible. They had some younger kids, one kid that is a few years younger than me, so me and him bonded pretty well, which was kind of a cool experience to have a younger brother because I just have a sister growing up. But there were some times where I wasn't too happy.

about life and things like that and they were always ready to talk to me after games and support me. So they were super incredible that way. And then when I got traded to Seattle, I had a single mom. She had a kid that's a year older than me and me and him got along really well. So that was cool. And her name is Lisa Hillard. She's a hardworking girl. She runs a daycare on her own.

She's up at 5 a.m., getting stuff prepared for them, getting stuff repaired for me. My billet brother, she made us breakfast down lunch every day, which was pretty incredible because not a lot of billets have time to do that, especially because she's taking care of a ton of kids. So I'm always thankful for both those families and what they're able to do for me and my time so far. Yeah, absolutely, boys. That's awesome.

They can never give enough props to the billet families because they, I mean, we've got two good ones sitting in here, but I'm sure we can all think of a couple of guys who go through any hockey team that are, disastrous to have in a house. I've heard Billet stories too on the flip side where Billet parents aren't the greatest. But for all of those, there's a lot of good people that help out and bring kids into their houses and take care of us and make sure we stay out of trouble and feed us and

close us and, well, maybe not clothe us, but put roof over our head and show us the love that at young ages we all need it every time, every once in a while. because you guys are in some pretty stressful situations playing that top-tier hockey, right? Like, even talk about every level you guys you're going to go up, you're going to get against better competition. That's the way it works, right? It's not like all of a sudden you hit a peak, and then the next year you go up to the next level, and it isn't better.

If you go on to HL, NHL, Division I, college, it doesn't matter what level it is. You're going to get better hockey players because they're all going to be older than you, right? So it just didn't have the age, like I say at 25, right? My first year of Division 3, I was a little bit shell-shocked because you're now playing guys that are like four years older than you. And you haven't had that. And four years at that time, 21 to 25, that's a big difference. And if you go play, I don't know, AHA or something,

there's like, now you got like 30-some-year-olds going against you, right? That is some old man. track going to be on you and they're smart you get smarter in the game as you get all you just learn some things that's what you're doing right now yeah so you're constantly learning and picking up new little tricks and everything else and then you go up against a 30 year old man but then again you guys got young speed and energy and that can be wearing on old guys too so um we were talking uh off air a little bit about um the bannam drop because one of you went uh you win yeah yeah Yeah, I was...

Sorry. Bryce, you went in the... You went in the random draft, and you did not. I did not. So, well, let's chat about this a little bit. I think you'd written a note, Jackson, that you were like... Lots of kids think they need to get taken in. Yeah.

Yeah, I always kind of like talking about that just because there's two different sides to it, getting drafted and not getting drafted. And I didn't get drafted, but it's not the end of the... the world because I think there's so many players that aren't ready to get drafted then. They're just not physically there. And there's also lots of players that do get drafted and they're over ready. I see it sometimes happen. So I think for me it worked out.

I think I'm still a late bloomer. Still trying to figure out my game every day and stuff like that and finding my best attributes. So for me, it worked out. I got listed when I was on that midget team that went to tell us. Cup. While we were at the max, I got listed by Moose Jaw, and then I went to their spring camp after that, and it went well, and then went to their main camp, and ended up signing and playing. So I think either way, you're just got to keep your head up, and there's no work, or other work's not done, you know, you've got to keep going. So kind of what a lot of people are starting

to say now, and it's becoming more of a prominent setting for players that they have to deal with. So, and Bryce, what, uh, what rounds are you going? Uh, third round. So were you, I haven't been, I didn't get taken in the band of draft. That's years and years and years ago. And I just remember being like, oh, that, that sucks, right? But were you sitting there watching it, listening to it? Or did you just get told?

How did that happen? I was actually taking a test at school. I think I was just kind of going to flow. If it was going to happen, it would happen. And then my teacher let me have my phone, I think, beside me, just to see if I'd get a text. And he was actually watching it, I guess. And he looks at him, he says, oh, you got drafted, and my phone starts blowing up. And then, yeah, it was a pretty cool experience.

But I definitely agree with what Jack said to say. I think it was maybe a little bit of a head start for sure. It's nice to have a little foundation. But it doesn't matter. It only matters what you do after. I think there's obviously a bunch of players who play in the league who don't get drafted. But it was definitely a cool experience at the time for me. So it was fun.

Really cool. Yeah. Yeah, sitting in class with your phone beside you. That must be a big thing in schools now that they don't allow you to have your phone out or something, eh? Yeah, well, I remember we were taking like a government test or a big kind of test and we're supposed to throw our phone in the basket. But I was pretty close with my teachers in school. Swung a deal to get the phone beside you. Listen here.

I had mine, too. Did when both you left, were you still in school? Yeah. Yeah. How was that transition? I did online classes, so I actually didn't go to school in Everett. So I maybe did play a little too much video games to school, but I did it as much as I could there,

and then came home and finished it off online. So I didn't really go to high school in my grade 12 year until graduation. Yeah, when I went down to Moosh, it was nice. It was so Saskatchewan School Division, so it transferred really easy for me, and then I went to the school there, and I actually met some really close friends that played. They played on the midget team there.

They were the same age as me, so I hung out with those guys lots to, and I still talk to a few of them, which is cool. So I had lots of fun making friends there and Moosh, you went away from the ring. So that was awesome, and then came back and went to school in Lloyd again until I graduated there. How I was talking with Dwayne Perlet.

This is probably a few weeks ago. and he's older than me by not that much diesel i know you're listening but um he was talking about bounce around and maybe his school kind of suffered a little bit like is there like when you bounce around a little bit like that like is there just no way or where you're you're fine with it like it was easy to transfer like because you're talking about going from moose john then back to lloyd you're talking about doing online schooling to uh graduating at a school that you pretty much haven't gone to the entire time right Like, what is that like, boys?

Yeah, well, and I have a really good kind of school accounts or kind of thing. I would go while the older guys would work out. I'd go to the school and have my laptop there and do it until it was time for practice or whatever. And we had tutors every day. So it was pretty easy to get my schoolwork done and then get ready to focus on hockey. So I had a really good experience with it, actually. Yeah, I was nervous at first going into a new school, and I knew just from hearing from some of the other guys,

that there was a bit of animosity around the school, just because some of the guys already go to school aren't a big fan, just because some of those hawks of guys carry that chip on their shoulder, you know? That swagger? That swagger. It's weird of the states, though, because it's all football there. Oh, yeah, right. I noticed they don't even care about the hockey players.

They don't even know where they exist. They didn't go to school there, because it's all football there. But, yeah, I was nervous at first, but it ended up going really well for me, and then came back, and it felt like I didn't miss too much. We were all still really close with everyone at the school, even though Bryce wasn't there as much in grade 12 as maybe I was because I was still in classes with people.

But, yeah, it was fun. We had a pretty close high school group. Yeah, so lots of us still get together whenever we can. Yeah, well, I hear you guys keep repeating that you're in close group, right? Yeah. Like. Yeah, me and Bryce and. and lots of the other guys that we played hockey with

of we pretty much hang out all summer together. All summer, yeah. Yeah, you talk about football at the school. Bryce, did you go watch any high school games? I did not watch any high school football games, to be honest. I'm trying to think if I watched anything. Because I didn't go there, but I know a couple. I think a couple guys wouldn't watch football.

There was a big team. I forget from where that was one of the best ranked high school teams. And you didn't go? I don't think so. I don't know what I was doing. I don't think, yeah. You want to see some intense fans. Go to a high school football game in the States.

Oh, man. The only regret I have in my college days is I didn't go to a Division I football game because I heard that is unbelievable. Well, everybody's seen the videos of it now, right? Like all the different chance and everything. But high school football is pretty cool. I didn't make it out to any either.

I lived real far from the rink. I lived, our Seattle plays out of, like a little area called Kent and I actually live in Auburn which is like 30 minutes from there so I had quite a drive to everything and I was getting tired of pain for gas all the time so I probably used that

yeah I was pretty stingy on gas down there so I was probably using that as an excuse not to go to a game or something well that's a decent reason do you with both your teams boys do you have to volunteer in the schools anything like that? Yeah the past couple years

I've done a couple school speaking that kind of stuff and then a couple like charity events uh this year i went to like a dog racing thing it was at like a pet store actually yeah and it was going to the charity i think and i got to watch a dog's race it was the weirdest and cool thing i've ever seen so stuff so dog race like how like around a track they're it was like a little competition they set up like dog food bags like little down the aisles okay and there'd be the owner down at the the end holding a tree to kind of call the name and somebody would be holding the dog and their legs would just be holding the dog and their get going and then the winner of that got to race during the intermission of our games I think so

yeah that was different but it's cool to do that kind of stuff when you're there yeah I uh I spoke at some schools too we'd always go and read uh lots of Mondays we'd go read to kindergarten and grade one kids um just different stories and stuff like that and they usually love that and then um we actually made it out to the Ronald McDonald house um for kids in Seattle downtown Seattle and serve them food a couple times. So that was a pretty surreal experience, seeing just how fortunate we are to do what we love. And just cool to be able to help out some kids going through something not so easy. So, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. That's a cool thing about hockey is you get put in a situation where you get to help out so many people. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we made it to a couple hospitals too. and it's just, it's crazy to see that kind of stuff and realize how lucky we are, but it's nice to be a part of that for sure. Yeah, and to give back a little bit, right? Yeah.

Yeah, I know when we were in Moose Jaw, too, or when I was in Moose Jaw, we did a ton of stuff with Special Olympics group in Moose Jaw, and we just go play Floor hockey with the guys, and there was, it ranged from kids to people that are 30 years old, and they all, it doesn't matter the age, they're just happy to see us, and it's cool to see the impact that just an hour of mini sticks or floor hockey or soccer or whatever it is that it has on those kind of people. So, yeah.

Cool. Well, I was thinking, I don't know how long we've been going for, but my brain's been fried from this last week. People heard it in the intro. I've been going pretty hard on this fundraising for Brew, as he's sitting in the hospital and we hope he gets better. but I got a couple fun questions here for the end. So on the bus rides, you both mentioned playing cards.

I was curious, what game do you guys play? What's your card game of choice? And is it actually cards that are you guys playing a game that is hooked up for your stinking phones and that's how you play cards? We play a lot of cards actually never. We play a game called President. Okay. So kind of like an asshole?

Yeah. Yeah. That's what it is. That's what it is, but now you're more appropriate. More appropriate. That's what we call it, so. I think that's about the only one. There's a new game we play called Cops and Robbers.

I brought it to these guys a little bit. It's like there's one guy, or, yeah, there's one guy who's like a robber, and he has one card, and everybody just stares at each other, and you're trying to, like, wink at each other. It's a weird little game, but it's different for sure. Okay, fair enough. Okay, that's a new one. That is definitely one I've never heard of.

Yeah, we play a lot of president or, as other people like to call it you know what but we also no swear words we also play another game that goes by a swear word

the censorship world asshole is not a freaking swear I'll say it ten times but that's fine boys yeah that's fair enough we play another game called Bullcraft I'm sure you know what else I mean

sure you know what else that goes by pretty much just you have to toss down a card higher than the last one one card that's one higher than the last one played and but you put them face down so you don't know if you're lying on so you got call your other person out um play that one a lot uh play the guys they got really into gammon this year so that wasn't good but a lot of blackjack and and poker on the bus um there's usually

five dollar bills flying around thinking guys are thinking that they're 20 dollar bills so uh stuff like that we play a ton of cards for some reason at the back so it's an easy way to have multiple people in on something it's a little interaction everybody likes to be a little competitive. She should look up the game, Kaiser. That's a four-person, two-player, or two guy, team two-vers-two. I bet you boys would like that. That's what we used to play on the bus all the time. My dad plays that a lot, so I might have to learn.

Kaiser's a fun strategy game. If you had a time machine, now you guys have not been, you're not that old by any stretch of the imagination. But if you had a time machine, you could go anywhere in the past. To any sporting event, where would you go? We'll start with you, Mr. Bryce, maybe. Any sporting event? Any sport event.

Like, you could go to the Blue Jays Joe Carter hit in the home run, for instance. But obviously, if you're not a Blue Jays fan, you go wherever you want. Oh, that's a tough question. I don't watch a lot of sports, to be honest. Okay, let's scratch the sports then. Anywhere you want to take the time machine, where would you go in history? Just leave the sports to the side. Geez.

Well, you have me thinking about sports, so I'm back. And I'm just going to stick with hockey. The World Junior game where Everleigh scored with like... Oh, yeah. Four seconds left, yeah. That's always in my brain for some reason. We got a picture of that in our house of Everleigh with the puck on his back end just as he's putting it in. Yeah, that's my choice.

That's a cool one. We were talking before off the air about a little debate that me and my dad and some of his buddies had at the lake. back in 07 when a guy on Dallas, I don't remember who it was, but he had an empty net with a few seconds left and missed and fell, and then, I don't even... Didn't even fall, he tripped.

He might have just purposely biffed after to try to sell the whole fact that he missed the empty net, but, and then Hemsky goes down for Eminton scores with like three seconds left and kind of blew the top off the place. I think that would have thought maybe be where I go. just because it's fresh on my mind and pretty wild. You know, it's a sad thing for Oilers fans. We're all Oilers fans.

And the best Oilers memory we got is Hemsky scoring. They didn't even win that game. No, they didn't. And I tried telling my dad that too. They end up losing an overtime. Yeah. I know. I tried saying that.

There's not a bunch of two good Oilers moments. No. They got Kenny Holland. What do you think of Kenny Holland coming in? I don't know who's going to fix him at this point. I'm hoping. I'm hoping he does the job. Yeah.

They should be able to get something going, I think. I mean, you got McDavid, Dysetil, you got a bunch of good guys. I think Hitchcock did pretty good for him, but he's getting pretty old. They got Tippett in now, right? Yeah. They just got Tippett signed as their new coach. Yeah. So I don't know.

I don't know what to think, but they were pretty good. Well, all you've lived through, minus the glory days. The Stanley Cup run when they lose in game seven, which, hey, I'm in your same boat. I was born in 86. I can't remember them hoisting a single of those Stanley Cups. And by the time I got in, it was the dark 90s, and we almost lose the team, right? And then we get the Chris Pronger deal, which then we lose Chris Pronger. We all know what happened there.

Yeah, that was not good. Right? Like, fair enough, okay. And stick with you others. We play a game on here called Trade, Sign, Buyout. Okay, so you got three players, you got to trade one, you got to sign one, you got to buy one out. So I'm going to give you the three.

McDavid, dry sidle, and Hopkins. We'll make it nice and easy or tough on you. We all know who you're signing, so I don't even know why you'd go against it, but maybe you'll surprise me. No, yeah, I'd sign McDavid for sure. Please. This is a hard question.

They're all really good. I don't want to give you an easy question. I'd probably trade dry sidel. I don't even know. Well, you get, he's a 50 goal score. You get a lot back. That's what I mean. You get a good couple pieces for sure.

And then, yeah, buyout Hawkins, I think. And buyout Hopkins, all right. Yeah, I think I would definitely sign McDavid, trade dry-sidal, like he said, for the pieces. And then Nudgeon Hopkins is probably the cheapest one to buy out. So I'll save the team some money. I like them, though. I like Nuge.

Hopefully he doesn't listen in. hear this. Yeah, well, if he is listening to Nuge, we all love you. And I hope they don't trade Nuge because right now there's talk about him getting traded for this, that, and the other thing, you're like, man, just leave it alone. Like Nuge is an absolute beauty. Who is the best player you've ever played with or against? That's pretty easy for me. I'd say Matthew Barsall. I think we played him so many times and just seeing the stuff, I think he put me on a couple highlight reel for sure. Just watching him now how good he is in the

NHL, he's definitely probably the best He was that good against you. Yeah, with Seattle, he was unbelievable. It felt like every chef the puck's just on a stick and something was happening, so yeah, him for sure. Yeah, I got to play with some guys in Moose Jaw that were pretty good. I played with a guy that had a pretty career year,

Jaden Hall Bigawks. He had 70 goals. 70 goals 70 goals and 72 games 70 goals 70 goals 70 goals he uh 70 goals

yeah no 70 goals yeah 7 zero yeah he was like one or two shy of the record I think in a single season or something but yeah it was it was kind of crazy just to see the holy man

he scored 50 the year before that too wow what is he doing now he plays in the A for San Jose's farm team for the bear good there. I'm going to have to take a look at that, like 70 goals. I mean, you hear lost guys getting like 100 points and stuff, which that's impressive in itself, but 70 goals, geez, Louise. Yeah. And I think a guy like Brad Houghton, too, that I played with, he wasn't as flashy, but

he kind of is just all around, and he plays for New York Rangers now. So he made a pretty quick transition into the NHL. So I think those guys were cool guys that I got the opportunity to play with. If you're in game seven, and you can have a lot of that. one player. It can be any player. It can be the best player in the NHL right now, McDavid, for all I care. Who would you want sitting in your locker room with you to step on the ice with?

Is it like a situational thing or just like the whole game? The whole game. You're walking in game seven on your home ice, chance to hoist a Stanley Cup. Who do you want in your dressing room? I'm going Sid. Jackson's going Sid? Yeah.

He's a lot of factors. He's done her. He's done her before. I want him. He's done it three times now. Yeah. Sid's pretty good. Would love that McDavid, but got to go with Sid. You know, McDavid's got to prove himself.

I mean, he's okay. He's just okay. I'm kidding. There can be any player. Any player. You can say Jackson, Kaluski. It's okay. I don't want to know.

I'll keep the boy his dials right in on the bench. You know that. Seriously, a good good goo guy. Yeah, always, always. I'm going to say, I'll just say Ovi for this one. Oh, Alexander Revechkin. I just feel like home ice. He's got a couple goals in him for sure.

Couple one-timers. Yeah, I feel like he put the team on his back a bit. Well, there's another Stanley Cup winner. And I tell you what, when you win, you're going to have one heck of a party. It looks like you had a good time. Yeah, right? Yeah, maybe Krausey wouldn't be the best pick. Who knows if he's having a good time after he wins or not?

The final thing I want to talk about, the last one here, is I've written down both of you guys, you said the best lessons you've learned in your time so far. So we'll start with Jackson, and I just want you to maybe say where you learned it from and how it's helped you. Um, your lesson you said was show up early, stay late. Yeah, um, I, I learned that, uh, my dad is crazy about, um, your dad's crazy.

Well, not crazy that way, but. I'm kidding. I'm teasing. Cairs a crazy amount about, um, how people perceive, um, your actions and what you do. And, um, he was always on me about, uh, being on time, which meant being early for stuff and whatever and and then when I got to Seattle they're super huge on

having us in early and then having guys stay late. They'll never actually get mad at you but it definitely helps your resume and puts a good taste in the coach's mouth when they see you staying early and or getting early and staying late and then it was funny because

we talked about that over email and then I was at work the other day and a guy came up to me at work and he's like, what were you doing there out front of work really? Because I was just sitting there having coffee in my truck waiting for to go into work. And I was like, oh, it was just early. And he was telling me that that was the greatest piece of advice he ever got was getting to where we had to go early to make sure that there was no chance of failure when it came

to showing up on time. So that's probably the biggest one for me. Yeah, and it's, you know that you both can probably speak to this, but that staying late thing or coming out early, that's where you get to, like I'm thinking on ice now, like that's where you get to work on your passing, your shots, your little things, and those extra 15 minutes, you multiply that over time.

They always talk about mastering a skill. It takes 10,000 hours, I'm sure Tapp said that to you before. And if you do those little things, and over and over and over again, and you get those extra 15 minutes, it's just another way to separate yourself from the competition all over again, right? Yeah, exactly, for sure.

And as a guy who used to hire guys, there was, I always waited to see what time they showed up, because there's no reason to be late, right? Yeah. And you hold the cards, you either, you want to be the guy that when you show up, you show up on time, and you never have to go while there was traffic and stuff,

because you need to be, you need to take a responsibility for it. So that's a really, I really like that lesson. That's a really cool thing your dad taught you. Yeah. Yeah, and your team's doing for you that for that matter. Yeah, for sure. Pretty thankful for just the lessons that hockey's given me. And obviously my dad's had a big factor in all of those.

Absolutely. That's cool. Mr. Bryce, you'd written you're never out of a fight. I like that one too. Yeah. I think I just learned that through experiences growing up playing hockey. I've been a part of so many games now where even watching games, you think you're out of it,

but there's still so much more you can give. And you never know what's going to happen. Just one bounce goes one way, and there you're right back into the game. So I've had a couple of cool experiences being down late in the game, and then just something happens, and now next thing you know, you're on top. And if you can keep that mindset,

no matter where you get in a situation, you never feel like you're out of it. You never defeat yourself before, right? And you've all played teams that just never give up and it's frustrating. Yeah, it's the hardest to play against. We're beating you 4-1, just die already, right? They won't stop. It's good to have just not even in sports either.

Yeah, absolutely. That is life in general. Life, I had Skip Crick on two weeks ago. He used to play for the Boston Bruins, and he finished up his career in Amiton for the Oilers and the WHA before the NHL, way before my time and your time. And he's talked about hockey mirrors life a lot. And that rate there is a big chunk of it, right?

Like life can be pretty rough on you sometimes. But if you never, you know, you're never out of the fight, right? Like that's a pretty cool one too. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I hope you boys enjoyed this. The two youngest guys have had on, I was a little bit nervous to see how this. would go with having two guys playing in the dub and talking and not wanting to say crap on air.

But I appreciate you guys coming in and making time for this. And I hope your guys is, I'll be watching how your careers move forward and maybe down the road we'll have you back on. Yeah. Thanks for all. Thank you so much. Yeah. Right on guys. Hey guys. I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. Next week on the podcast is Murray McDonnell. He was originally born in Toronto, Ontario, but consider Saskatchewan home where he's lived for more than four. years. He's a retired teacher who taught for Lashburn for 30 years, and during his time there,

he picked up a book, read about rugby, and then proceeded to coach it. While coaching, he won Lashburn or with Lashburn. He won five provincial championships competing against the largest schools in Saskatchewan. They also toured the United Kingdom twice, and he says the biggest thing he tries to instill in his players is building character and building life values. So tune in next week for Murray McDonnell. Until then, guys.