Shaun Newman Podcast - #25 - Kylar Hope

Episode Date: July 17, 2019

From small town Saskatchewan to West Kelowna Junior ‘A’ onto winning a national championship and now Division 1 in Alaska; Kylar Hope‘s story does not disappoint.

Welcome to the podcast. So first off, this week I had some really cool news. I woke up the one morning, and we just passed 10,000 downloads on the podcast. So just first off and foremost, I want to say a thank you to everybody who tunes in each week and provides feedback and gives me some of their time. I really appreciate it all. Like, it's pretty cool to see 10,000. I remember when I first started this, I thought, you know, if I ever hit a thousand, geez, that'd be pretty cool. And we hit a thousand awfully quick and it just keeps on climbing.

So thanks for, you know, coming along for the ride guys, really appreciate having you. And I love hearing all your guys' feedback on what you're enjoying and what you want to see next and all that good stuff. I know there's been a couple people reach out about mics. We've had over the last probably five or six podcasts whenever I have more than just one guest on. We've had a couple of issues with Mike being quiet, quiet. And so we're working on fixing that and making sure that we don't have those issues in the future. So just bear with us and we'll get her all squared away and it'll be off to the races again. Last week I announced on here that on Saturday, September 28th, boundary of Battle of Alberta comes to town.

And we'll see the alumni from the Amminton Oilers v. Calgary Flames. and it had sold out the same day. I'd said eight hours, I got corrected. It was six hours. So six hours and all the tickets had sold out. So kudos to all of you, Lloyd Minster, Boundary Ford, who sponsored it. By them sponsoring it, all the proceeds go to Project Sunrise, which is really cool. If you were still wanting to get involved, there was six spots open.

Now it's down to two. So for $1,000, you can play in the game, and that gets you in the dressing room, gets you on the ice, all that good stuff. There's eight alumni on each team. So, I mean, it'd be a blast, like sitting in the dressing room with former alums and former NHLers and just getting to banter with them

and, you know, be a part of the dressing room atmosphere. So if you're interested in getting in the game, call Lloyd Minster Region Health Foundation at 306, 820, 6161. Ask for Malcolm Ragkey. He can get you hooked up and guys all the money is going to Project Sunrise. So if you feel like maybe it's a little expensive, I don't think so personally. You're going to get the suit up with NHLers, get a full barn to come watch you. But if you are feeling that way, all the money is going to a good cause. 100% of the proceeds are going to Project Sunrise, which is really cool.

So 306 8206-6161. Give the Lloydminster Region Health Foundation a call and ask for Malcolm Raggy. Two spots left. Get in the game and be a part of this amazing, amazing event. Next, Harlan Lessick and the Weekly Bean. You guys hear me talk about them all the time. They've been with me almost since the beginning. You can see whoever's coming up on the podcast in their weekly paper,

and that is in Lloyd Minster, Kindersely, and Moose Jaw. So thanks Harlan and team. Ken Rutherford appraisals. They are, you know, I never talk enough about Kenny, or maybe I do, but I don't think I do. Kenny, he gives me a studio to work from. So me and Ken took a part of his, he rents the basement of a house, and we took an old storage room, destroyed it, and rebuilt it up brand new, and he lets me sit in there and bring people in all the time. so thanks Ken and Gloria for that matter.

She sits in there and probably stares at us like we're crazy. The two of us, yeah, who is. But thanks, guys. I got three shoutouts this week. First is Lana McGrath. She said, I've listened to all of Sean's podcasts, and I highly recommend you do as well. There are some pretty amazing stories to be heard,

and all of them are thoroughly entertaining. So thank you, Lana. I appreciate the shoutout on Facebook, and I'm glad you're enjoying the podcast. Next is Greg Shearbeck. Played against Greg and noon hour hockey for years. He's a pesky little defenseman to get around. He said, hey, buddy, just listening to your podcast, and this is great.

You're doing a great job. He then proceeded to ask if him and Samir could get on the podcast. I'll leave that up to the listeners if they really want to hear about us, talk about noon hour hockey or not. And finally, Louis Stang, he had messaged me on Twitter last week, and had given me about four different names that I think would be really entertaining, actually. And he gave me their contact info, everything I could possibly want.

And so first off, I wanted to say thanks to Lewis for reaching out with some guests from Lloyd Minster that he thought would be entertaining the interview. And then secondly, not only did he reach out, he gave me all their contact info, made it super easy on me. And so I'm looking forward to digging into that. I'm obviously on, if you guys hadn't heard, I'm on vacation this week. I'm down in Minneapolis visiting my in-laws, so I will get to those hopefully sooner than later, Lewis,

but I appreciate you reaching out with him. And he said he was a little jelly about Strill Chuck getting a shout out last week. So thanks again, Lewis. Finally, guys, if you want to leave me any feedback, you want to get in touch with me, I'm on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And so reach out on any three of them. Let me know what you're thinking if you've got a guest you want to hear. If you're liking it, if you're disliking it, if there's something you want me to prove upon, believe me.

I'd love to hear from you guys. So you can reach out on any of those platforms, all right? Now, this week in studio, I have Kyler Hope. He was a Lashburn boy who ended up playing for West Colonna Warriors Junior A Club and found his way to the Royal Bank Cup when it was hosted in Lloydminster. He proceeded to win that, party like a rock star out in Lashburn, and then now is playing for University of Alaska Fairbanks. And so I look forward to talking a little bit about his time in Junior A

and his road to get to West Colonna, which I think is really entertaining, and then actually winning back in his hometown, or as close to his hometown as he can get, and now his travels up north. So, without further ado. Welcome to Sean Newman Podcast. Sitting across me, I have Mr. Kyler Hope. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, it's cool. We don't need to get all serious. We've been sitting here chatting now for 15 minutes. I just figured it was about time we introduced you and get this thing rolling. Yeah, we're rolling. Let's go. Yeah. Well, we were talking about podcasting world and everything else.

You're avid spit and chicklets guy then? Yeah, we've been talking about it for a bit. Now I just kind of throw it on whenever, like I'm in the car or whatever. I tune into a couple of Sean Newman's too. I heard the Morgan and Merv Mann one. Yeah, they're popular guys, right? They've got lots of good things to say too. I always start with guys.

I want to start here. Tomorrow is the NHL draft. Who's going number one? It's huge for sure, I think. Got to take the American-born boy, I think. Yeah, New Jersey's taking the American-Born, right? Yeah. I mean, do you go anywhere and watch it?

Are you, uh, no, I won't, no. No, I used to, like, no, I used to when I was younger. I used to watch, I'm an oiler fan, so I kind of watch what they do, but I keep tabs on it. I'll probably have it on where I am, wherever I am, but I'm not, like, going to go throw a party for it or anything. Are you, uh, excited about what the Oilers and Ken Holland might do tomorrow? I am, yeah, I'm excited for them to kind of turn around and get winning again. But I think, uh, I think they're going to take that D man. The buyer, um, no bro, bro, bro, bro, bro, bird.

Brobeard. Yeah, I think that's where they're going to go. I think that's where they're going to go. I know anything about him? Uh, nope, I don't. Swede, D-Man. No, Swede, D-Man. They usually go together.

We've got a couple of them already, so. Yeah. I'm excited for tomorrow. I love, I love draft. I like that stuff too. I go watch the awards the other night. I like everything to do. Like, I'm just kind of...

Carrie Price make you cry? Yeah, that was good. That was good, man. Holy. That's what you do it for. Yeah. I mean, You look at like the blues too with Layla Anderson.

That's right. That's just like the players just kind of gravitate to that. Like you might not think it, but he'd do it like every level. Yeah, you were talking about it. I'd just lead him where you're going, but you'd mentioned one of the coolest influences on your life was a little boy in Kelowna. Yeah, his name is Brendan Ritchie.

He's got like, I'm going to probably mess this up. His mom will give me crap. But he has like a very rare heart and lung disease, I think, called pulmonary hypertension. Yeah. It's kind of just like he can't get going too hard and like he can't play too hard. Like he can't play sports or else his heart will get beaten too fast. And it's kind of like he breathes, like if we had to like breathe through straw is kind of what she tells us.

So he kind of got brought in with Rylan Yer Mco. He was a player from Spirit River, Alberta. His grandparents and Brendan's grandparents met in like Arizona. And they kind of like figured out that Rylan played in West Cologne and Brendan was from there and the rest is history. Like he's still the number one fan up there. I think he just got like the award for fan favor or best fan or something. Yeah, which is cool. It's awesome.

And he's a little guy. We went, me and my mom went to Evanton like a couple weeks ago and met with his mom and him. Just like in WestEd, they had some appointments the next couple days. We went and hung out with them and it's just like awesome. I mean, he's just one of those guys that, like, that's why you do it. Like, whenever it gets tough, like, in the summer, like, those long, like, training days or you're by yourself, whatever, you just kind of push for, like, kids that can't do it, I guess. Like, you look at, like, the Layla, like I mentioned, and Brendan and, like, all those kind of people. I've had a cousin in the hospital for, like, the last couple months just kind of sitting there, like, I'm sure they would like to do it, so.

Yeah. And it's cool to see their emotions kind of. come out like when you give back like that yeah he was he he he got flown out to the rbc tournament by like ril and he like surprised us oh wow right before the final game he walked in the dressing room and literally i've never like had a like like crazier feeling like my whole body just like shivered and i was like there's like no way we're losing this now and like it was the same for everyone like our goalie won the MVP of the last game there and he gave like the trophy right to brendon and like everything

Like it was just all, it was him. He came to the party after and stuff. That's really cool. It's just like, yeah, great kid, great family. I just, like, would do anything for him. That's really cool. Well, let's go back to the beginning then. You're from Lashburn, Saskatchewan.

Yep. I don't know what my draw to Lashburn is right now, but it seems like there's a lot of guys I'm interviewing from there. We were talking about Murray McDonnell before we got going here. And I told Murray, I'll tell you, like, My brother won a national championship, or my one brother won a national championship with the Spurs back in the day fastball. And so I grew up around the Lashburn rink, had brothers play there. I mean, I'm from Helmong, but Lashburn ball was always good.

And our two communities of that kind of area, you were talking about you played on a Hillman and Lashburn kind of split squad, right? Like when you're in small farming communities, that kind of happens every second, third year, where you kind of do. join up so I'm not a positive one why Lashburn keeps coming up but there's a lot of cool people out there you know I guess I'm going to have to start giving Lashburn it's due because I told Murray I you know for the longest time you played the the Flyers and Getsy and them guys and you know you don't give them too much quarter but now you know I'm starting to learn there's some pretty cool individuals and actually the Flyers we had the Brumann fundraiser yep and they donated money to us so show to them guys that was really cool they reached out and and and uh

gave us some money for that. Awesome. I know brewery would want to say thank you to them, and I'm saying thank you now. So what was growing up in Lashburn, like? It was awesome. I'm sure it was probably the same for you. It's a small town.

I think when I was younger, I think I could tell you, like, which person lived in what house? Like you could go around town, and you could literally be like, this person lives in that house. But now you kind of drive around, and it's gotten a bit bigger,

and we've got a subway now, so we're big time. Brought that up too. Yeah. subway is everywhere, man Like any little town you go to, there's subway Tim's now That'll be the next one

Or a car wash But yeah it's getting a bit bigger And it's still the same place I mean you see the same faces around Like for me everyone asks how I'm doing And how hockey's going It seems like that question comes up a lot And always happy to like stop and talk to people about it

And like people like people care And like want to know like especially in those small communities Like Lashvir and like everywhere You see people from other, like, small towns and, like, they're talking. You just see people around that you know, and that's just what I like most about it. It's just that small town feel, I guess. Yeah. Did you start skating, like, raid away early on, or did it take time?

Yeah, I should have asked my parents. I want to say, like, maybe, like, three or four. I know the one story is, like, I couldn't skate when I was, like, just starting. And then they gave me a hockey stick and the way I went could lean on it and I was gone. And you're gone. Never look back. Never look back, yeah. So did you play other sports growing up?

Oh, yeah, just like high school sports. Yeah, you weren't a ball player any? I wish I played ball more. I played a bit, like, a couple years, like on and off. And like when I was really young, like soccer, I think everyone plays soccer growing up. And yeah, always been a big golfer. Like, I've been golfing since going out with my grandparents since I was like a little kid. So I still love golf and I try and go as much as I can.

That's one of my favorite things to do, I guess. Where do you come out on the discussion on whether athletes should go single sport, like solely play hockey year-round, that's it, or diversify and play multiple sports? Yeah, I think it kind of like comes back to like if you're going to play hockey and like the off-season training, I guess. You don't want to like completely. I don't think you should, like, completely just go for one sport, I think, especially as, like, a young kid, like, you need to go and play ball or play soccer or play whatever. I mean, all those sports just give you different, I don't know, give you different skills and looks at different things, I guess.

I don't know. I'm glad that I played other sports growing up. Like, I don't think I could do hockey year-round. I know that's kind of where kids are going towards now, but I played spring hockey in Saskatoon. for like five or six years. So hockey did take up a lot of my time. You drove to SAS tune and played spring hockey. How was that?

Yeah, we played for SAS Can, 95. It was awesome. All the players were good. Family was good. It's just like, I remember my parents took me there, and I kicked and screamed and cried the entire way. Like, I didn't want to do it. And then once I got there and they put me in the room,

and I got ready and stuff, it was all good. And the rest has been history. Like, I've met so. so many people through that and we'd go like every weekend and then tournaments in like regina calgary to winnipeg north dakota it was awesome i loved it that's uh the kicking and screaming is a funny story because that's how i was pretty much for my parents as soon as i hit like probably junior high they take me to these i was saying the all affair these MVP camps and they'd be in calgary and saskatoon wherever else and i didn't want to go none of my friends were

going i was going by myself and I just hated it. Like, everybody's at the lake, everybody's wherever, and I'm going on it. And then as soon as you put me in the dressing room, loved it. Yeah. It was, like, I can just imagine my parents driving there. Like, this kid doesn't even know what he's doing. He's going to get in the rink, he's going to love it, I'm not going to be able to get him off the ice.

That's exactly what happened. I think if my mom was here, she'd tell you the first time that I ever went to hockey. It was the same thing. Like, I wouldn't go out. I wouldn't go in the dressing room and get ready. I, like, cried the entire time getting ready. and then once I got on the ice I was completely fine. Cried when I got my first penalty.

She'll never let me forget that. I was always scared to get a penalty and got one and I freaking cried the whole time. Do you have siblings? I have an older sister. She's 27. Okay. She's married with a four-year-old and then she just had twins. Oh.

And then she has a stepdaughter as well. So it's a busy house. Twins. We have my niece, the four-year-old at our house right now. She's a handful. When you get to kids, we're expecting our third. And I don't know if I'm crazy or what, but I'm going to have three under three and a half. But no twins.

And every time I go in there and get the ultrasound, it's not a twin. I give a big old fist bump to the wife like, yes. I think Jenna was like a little worried at first, but I think she enjoys it now. I mean, they're both so funny. Those kids, I don't think they want to have it in any other way now. So kind of get them too out of the way at once, I guess. Yeah. I was going to ask, when we were talking about kicking and screaming, going to the ranks and stuff,

did you ever get the nerves before you walked in the dressing room, right? Oh, yeah. When you didn't know the group of guys, and all of a sudden you get in there, you sit down, and as soon as you sit down, they just go away. It's even, like, now. Like, I mean, like, going anywhere. Like, honestly, I still get those nerves. And, like, I was kind of a shy kid growing up, and I've kind of broken out of that now.

but yeah even like yeah everything i remember like going to well we were talking about rahay uh where i played in finland and i walked i it took me talking to myself to get me to go in the rink because i didn't know anyone there and going there as the only canadian guy so i didn't know anyone yeah that's hard and i couldn't talk to anyone so i walked in with my hockey bag and i'm trying to like power through and then you get sitting in there once they direct me where to go right which wasn't that hard i made it know it to be a bigger deal than it was right And I sit down, as soon as I sat down, they're just instantly gone. Like, as soon as you get in that, you know,

yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's kind of, like, everyone that's kind of done playing hockey, you know, they say they miss, like, the thing they most missed the most is, like, sitting in the room talking with all the guys. There's a dressing room. Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's just one of those places once you get in there, and, like, it's just, it's awesome. The people you meet, like, I can't, I can't even think of all the people I've met,

like, playing hockey. It's insane. And they, like, friendships I've made, so. Yeah, actually, we were just, well, you probably have it now. With technology, you can keep in touch with all of them, right? Yeah, a little. So I got the stuff that blow up every five days, all of a sudden something new comes out, and everybody's chit-chatting halfway around the world.

Yeah, social media is a funny thing now. So how many years did you, when did you, you played in Lashburn growing up? You mentioned you played the Lashburn Helm on Split. When do you go from playing in Lashburn to the next, Yeah, is it North Battleford next? I talk about this. Like, it's hard for me. Like, I think it was my second year, Peewee.

I played for the AA Barons in North Battleford. So that was kind of the, we played all over Saskatchewan. And then that split was my first year Bantam. I was back in Lashburn Hill one. And then I went back to Battleford for my second year bantam. That was double A again. Kind of the same group of kids. You couldn't come playing Lloydville.

because you're Sask resident? Yeah, that was a big thing. There was like the U-16 team, I think, that I wanted to play for. The rage, I think they were called. And we, no, I couldn't come to Lloyd, like, at all. You know, I don't know. Is that still a thing right now?

I don't know. You live in Lashburn? Can you come playing Lloyd? I don't think so. I don't know that, though. It's so hard, like it's so close. It's like 15 minutes to Lloyd or an hour to North Bottleford, which is kind of like the next level.

I mean, if you want to play at the next level, you need to go somewhere. That's right. And Lloyd would be a lot easier. Like, we come to Lloyd every day. 13 minutes from your doorstep. Yeah. So, yeah, Battleford was the place. And I had some friends go there, like, so that I still keep in touch with now.

So, yeah, Battleford, I loved playing there. That was good times. You were mentioning, I thought, an interesting story when you were playing for the split team, when you came back and you played. Or maybe it wasn't split. Maybe it was just you came back and played with your buddies. You were talking about winning division, no, tier three? Tier three, yeah.

And parents being mad that you were playing with opposing parents? That's what my parents said that, like, we won, like, the Tier 3 championship. We were in, like, tier 2, and we were kind of getting beat around a bit. And we got, like, sent down to Tier 3, I guess. And then we were beating everyone. Oh, yeah, you were one of those teams that's kind of in between. Yeah, so, I mean, it was hard. Like we were like by the end of the year

We probably could have played tier two Like it was the start of the year And we were getting beat up But yeah Apparently there was like parents Like mad that like I was scoring too much or something I don't know

Parents are funny Yeah Right They are Yeah Can't just go and cheer They gotta be I don't know if I'm looking forward

To minor hockey or not I mean hopefully my I'm gonna stick my son in rugby Oh yeah After In Lloyd In Lashman While my wife teaches at

elementary school so we'll be for the beginning anyways i'm assuming they'll come to lloyd once they get a little older but with them being so young um they both go to a daycare um oh i should know that's why am i having a brain the rambles oh yeah yeah just north of town there they go to their place every day for a day home daycare and so now with a third on the way we're gonna be we love it there so as long as they keep taking our kids, we'll be there for a while. Mel teaches at the elementary school. So I found out that he can start rugby at four. Yeah, rugby is a really good thing.

I played it a bit in high school. I remember I got hit a couple times and, like, I was smaller, and I got, like, hurt, and it was, it just wasn't for me, I don't think, and I just kind of, like, stuck to hockey. But rugby is a good thing. Like, it kind of blew up in Lashburn. I know, like, Mr. McDonnell, like, kind of brought it to Lashburn. I don't know the whole story I have to listen to his Sean Newman podcast.

No, yeah. It's like even all my friends like take so much pride in it and like wear the jackets around and stuff. I know they went to Ireland like and played. Yeah. And just really cool, like a cool sport. And just one of those things that like brings everyone together. Like anyone can play it. Yeah.

Anyone can run around and play the sport. So it's pretty easy to get into it. And plus it's a physical sport. We got Shay. She's my boy. He's in soccer, and he wants to push everyone. I got to tell him you can't push, and he doesn't understand. He wants to be a rough board.

He wants to be a big rugby player. Yeah, and I heard, like, oh, rugby. Yeah, they teach him how to use that aggression. It'll probably be a good thing. The contact sports are kind of dwindling away, so better get them in it now. Yeah, what do you think on them pulling contact further and further out of hockey? I don't know.

I don't even know what it's at for hockey right now. I think what were we saying? Bannam? Banham is where it starts up. I just think about, like, my age group. Like, we hit in, like, I don't know, novice, Adam. And, like, we're fine. Like.

We, uh, what you're talking about is peewee's when it officially started, but Adam they let you rub out. Okay. Essentially is what I remember. Yeah. It's like, I don't think there was really a rule when I was younger. It's just kind of you started an Adam and you rubbed out or whatever. And I mean, like, I never had a problem.

Like, we never had a problem with hitting, like, I mean, it's part of the game. And, like, I just, like, thinking about it as, like, all, like, the bigger kids, I guess. Like, the younger guys don't get to, like, learn it. So when they get thrown into, then they're getting pounded by the bigger guys. So you don't, I don't know. I don't know. It's one of those, like, you see it in the NHL now, too.

Like, there's obviously, like, the cheap shots and head shots that you want to eliminate, but it's still a contact sport, and it's part of the game, like, that people love to watch so yeah i think it needs to stay i mean as much as it can and it's it's an interesting dilemma they've created for themselves now just by removing it and removing it and removing more and more and more it's i don't know where it's going i like i keep hearing you know i've didn't know nothing about rugby until like a month ago and then now everywhere i go i see rugby everywhere and i keep bumping it i was on the tuesday night sports show with gregg becannon there a couple nights ago and we talked to a rugby guy,

and they all talk with the same thing, that right from the beginning they teach you how to tackle, and then teach you how to take a hit and all that, and I'm like, why don't they just take that theory and apply it to hockey? Yep. And boom, now you got 90, now kids know how to hit. Yeah, and know how to get hit too.

Yeah, and I remember, you know, when I was a kid, I don't know about you. Do you remember what the, how you learned how to hit was? Was there drills in hockey that you remember doing? I remember the one drill was like everyone lined up like five feet from the boards. The gauntlet.

This is probably what everyone sells. And you just like go through it. You get hit, you get back up and get hit again. You get hit like 20 times. I hated that drill. That's like one of the ones. I just remember like things like that. Maybe like just one on one like getting rubbed out maybe.

But no, I mean, I don't really remember. Although that drill did teach me if you're quick, you could dodge hits. You could rip through it. Yeah, absolutely. You got to know who you're like where each. guy. You got to know who you're going against, too. And then there was always the big guy go through, and he just loved you to try and hit him. Yeah, he bounced her off him. Oh, that was your good drills. I forgot about those. Um, going back to, so you played a year, or a couple of years

in North Battleford. Then you wrote down Midwest. Midwest, yeah. What year was Midwest? That was my midget. First and second year midget. Okay, well, then let's go back to North Battlefield. Did you ever, did you get selected in the badam draft? No, I was, I wasn't like, Nothing. I played in the Sask first tournament, like, where we went to Regina with like Zone 7 or wherever we were. And there's like that top 40 or whatever. Never made that. Never like had a sniff from W.H.L. Never went to a camp. Didn't get drafted, nothing. Just kind of. You have a very simple one. We were talking about what I did. You're basically saying back to me what I told you. And for me, like when I was like growing up in Lashburn, like I played hockey in the winter. And in the summer, I, you know,

dirt-biked and golfed it's not like i was like like i wanted to go play in the w hl or anything like so what did you what did you do in the offseason then did you do like as you got older did you start i remember like you did spring like training a bit like spring hockey i like i like couldn't even tell you what years that was it's just like i don't know but uh like i just remember like sometimes like north balford to like work out and stuff like younger which i don't know how if if it helped me or not. But it just, hockey never, like,

clicked in probably until, like, going into, like, my year in Prince Albert. Like, Midwest, I was still just kind of playing hockey. And, like,

I never really, like, bought into it fully, I guess, like, with the off-season training. Ah. So then non-kitting

selecting in the Bannum draft really didn't ball you in? No. I remember there's me and Luke Grassle from Lashburn. Yeah, Luke Grass is a good goal ten.

He, uh, I remember me and him both were like, I think he was playing midget AAA at the time in Swift Current. And, uh, I think he was like, maybe supposed to go. So I remember us like looking like at the, like in the computer in the school, like to see like we didn't have phones or anything. Like you look it out like that. I'm not even that old and like, yeah, I remember like going on the computer and like seeing who went and stuff and like neither.

I don't think, I don't think he got picked. I'm not sure though. I'll have to ask him. But no, I didn't. It didn't really affect me at all. Like, I was a smaller guy, and I kind of knew that I wasn't going to, and I didn't bother me. I wasn't going to affect me, really, I guess. Yeah.

So what takes you out to PA then for midget? Yeah, I had my two years in Midwest there, and, like, did really well. My second year midget, I had, like, 40 goals or something in 20 games. Okay. And I kind of had played games with the midget trip. play team like the stars in balford okay like one game a year like while i was in midwest like i would just go up and play a game and so with joel black here he's from edam i don't know if you know him or not can't say i do but that doesn't mean a whole lot he's uh he's uh he played mirage okay i think north

balford um so we are both in midwest together and we would go play with balford together and then i remember i was supposed to go to tisdale midgett triple a like i went to their camp and stuff kind of like saying you get a letter and you go see what it's all about and the coach there was like really interested in me and like told me that I would probably like be on the team this year if I wanted or if you wanted to go home and play like I was kind of like I was really worried to like move away from home for the first time and stuff so that kind of is what kept me in in Midwest there that second year which I probably could have played triple I just didn't want to move away yet I don't know I probably should have but

you say that but like you heard me talking earlier right like I came back from or on. I was happy to, I wasn't, I wasn't happy to get cut. I don't think anyone likes getting cut, but I just, I, you know, I talked to all these dub guys and they move away from home at 15, 16, 17 and high school and everything. It's like, it's a tough thing for kid. Yeah, it's not easy. And so do you hear you say that? I don't know. It's like, well, I should. Well, maybe. I don't know. Yeah. So, yeah, he had a lot of interest in me. And I kind of screwed him a bit. Like, I think I told him that I was going to come, like, for my third year. midget and then joel from midwest had like convinced me to go to pa and i'm like pa like i don't know man

like i didn't know much about midgett triple like i didn't know the minot's nothing i knew i knew that they were like one of the top teams and so a lot of deciding and i don't know like how the decision got made but i was like i guess yeah let's just do it let's go so we went to pa together and that was a great year i loved it there that's where i met my girlfriend i still still dating Oh, wow. Yeah. How many years did that? We've been, like, off and on a bit, but it's been like, yeah, a while.

Like, I've been out of school for, like, seven, six years. Oh, wow. Okay. I met her there. Like, we didn't start dating while I was there, but. So going to PA, I'm always curious because you would have been in grade 12 then? Yeah, it was my grade 12 year that. How was the transition to switching schools and?

Yeah. I actually have thought about that. Like, I think in Lashburn, the high school was like 200 kids. And I think like the amount, like the attendance or whatever at the Carlton High School and PA was like over 2,000 or something. Yeah. Like going from Hilland, which has 200 kids from K to 12, not even 160, then going to the comp, which has closer to 1,000.

Yeah, I can relate. So, yeah, I can relate. And like, I'm going into classrooms. Like there's other, like, half of. our team went to Carlton, half went to, like, a different school. Okay. He kind of got to choose. That was kind of like one of the recruiting things that they had.

So I went to Carlton, and I think maybe, like, two of my classes had other players in it. And, like, other than that, I knew, like, I didn't even know my, like, teammates that well. Like, I knew of them and stuff, but, like, hadn't really. Like, it was early. So I moved into that school and, like, I was lost. Like, it was so big. And, like, I was asking where rooms were and stuff. It was a mess.

but I mean it was fun like me and Joel we live kind of out of the out of town a bit towards Shellbrook like 20 minutes so we'd drive in together and we'd kind of get in the parking lot and like sit there before school and be like

all right let's do this and we'd head in and meet up at the end of the day and then go to someone's house and hang out until practice and yeah it was cool cool experience then I came back to Lashburn and graduated in Lashburn but I didn't graduate in PA but I think the graduating class in PA was like 500

and in Lashburn it was like 23 or something. You're giving me like vivid memories in my first year at the comp. And like I was stressed. I walked in there and didn't, I got lost trying to find class. The school is a bit harder too, I think. Like it's like a little bit different. Like you don't like all those teachers might not know all the students.

Oh, absolutely. In Lashburn like you're with the same class from kindergarten to grade 12. Comfortability. They're all the same teachers. So yeah. But it was great. Like I have nothing bad to say about the school. or anything. Our coach was the principal, too, I'm pretty sure. Oh, wow. And you were talking about

playing in the finals in that year for Midget? Yeah, we made to the finals. We had a really good team. A lot of really good players. And we made to the finals against the contacts. It was a best of five series. I think they were up to one. And we went to the, I don't know if you've been to the Shro in Saskatoon. It's like a small, small barn. Okay. And it was completely packed. And we stole in there to make it 2-2 and then went back to PA and we played in the Raiders arena. Yeah. Completely packed. Like just nuts.

Like everyone was like it's going to be packed and we came out and it was packed and I was like this is insane. Like even just like before the game and like out there it didn't even feel like real. Like that was my first taste to like the big crowds kind of. Yeah. So got out there and I think I scored in that game but we lost 3-1 to them and like lost a series and we were done and like we thought we were going to like the tele-escent. Cup. We thought we were going to win it all that year.

Like, we had a good team. So it was kind of a bummer, but I love PA. That was probably one of my favorite years of hockey, like ever, like first year away from home and had great billets, great teammates. It was awesome. Let's talk about your billets for a sec. I like talking about billets because I had the best billets. The Lane family took care of me, still talked to him, came to my wedding, and like,

they're unreal. and all of us guys who move away from home get put in with a family and then you become part of their family and I mean you've been to a lot of different places. If you want to give a shout out to the billets right now and by all means. Yeah, the Nybergs and Prince Albert were my first billets. And then in West Colonna had the Peterson's and then the DeRoses, the Dros is where I finished off building. And they're awesome people. They were an older couple that brought me in and I was like a kid.

Like, it was awesome. I loved it there, and I couldn't be more grateful for that. That was definitely one of the reasons why I had, like, such a successful year was they just fed me properly and gave me everything that, like, anything I wanted, anything I needed. Same goes for the Nybergs there, awesome, and PA. That definitely made moving out of moving away from home easier. I know, I think when I went to PA, I went to Malford first for junior A, like camp. and I was with my mom and she like cried the whole way and I'm like oh my god here we go

and then I'm like kind of like I'm moving away so I don't know what to even think right now so then I don't know they brought me in like I was another kid in their family there too is awesome moms are the best never be embarrassed to your mother my mother she's gonna be mad at me for this my mother here I'll I'll share a little funny story about my mother so the first year I play out in Dryden

It's like, I can't remember. What are we playing in Junior A? 50-some games, 60 games, something like that. And out of 50, let's call it 50 games. Out of 50 games, she missed maybe four. And that is like 16-hour drive away. She was mad at me one time because she flew to Thunder Bay to watch us play. And you can look at me, I'm not a big guy.

And I got booted out of the first game in the first five minutes for fighting. We played the same team the next game. And I got booted out of that game for fighting. So she came down and I played like. maybe 10 minutes of hockey. And in my hockey career, I'm not a fighter. I fought like, you know, 10 times maybe, something like that. And so she just landed on a weekend of that.

At our awards banquet, Coach gets up. I think I've told this story before on here, but coach gets up and he's writing down these numbers like this amount of goals, penalty minutes, wins, say a percentage, whatever. And he writes up this giant number at the end. It's like 20. No, I can't even remember the number. It was this giant number, thousands.

upon thousands upon thousands of and then he didn't put anything behind it and everybody's kind of staring at it's like what the heck is that and then he goes as he's going through he saying what he's are and he gets the last one he rouse it off you know like 37 thousand kilometers the amount of kilometers newman's mom drove to watch and play hockey this year right that was unreal well just support the same can go from my parents i think in prince albert i don't think they missed a single game home or away so they're either going to pa or like further. I mean, I remember that we were in Notre Dame one night, and it was like a snowstorm, like we were late getting there, like a stupid snowstorm, and they were there.

Yeah. Like insane. Yeah. Well, I work with Tim Hilsen Digger, and his, one of his, well, his boys both played really good hockey, and every weekend in the hockey season, he's gone everywhere. Yeah. Where are you off to this weekend, Tim? Well, boys playing over here. We're going to drive down there, catch a game the next in the morning when waking up. We're driving over here to catch the other one. Like, yeah, you know, you hope it's someday that you're at that stage probably. Yeah, I have for sure. Like, it kills my parents that they can't come watch me more now, a little bit further away. Yeah, yeah.

So Alaska is a little ways up there, isn't it? It's kind of tough to get to. What, I always ask, guys, what sacrifices did you have to make, do you think, to get to the next level? I know I'm going to ask that a ton by just people listening, like, is there, Certain things you had to do to set yourself apart, or was it just, you're just naturally skilled? I think for me, like, growing up, like, it was probably just, like, natural. Like, I didn't really make any, like, big sacrifices. I mean, like, once I got older and, like, you start playing, like, in higher, like, higher caliber hockey.

Like, you can't go out with, like, your buddies. Like, you're maybe playing on the weekend. I think one of the biggest things is, like, missing out on, like, everything your friends are doing back home. like still like right now like throughout the season you see them like doing things like going on like wreck tournament trips or playing in the red eye or things like that and like you can't like be there to do it i think that's one of the bigger sacrifices is like not being like there to do that and then obviously family too like being away from your family yeah like like i said i have like nieces and nephews that like i don't get to see a whole lot like so when i come home they're like another

inch taller. They had double the size and yeah yeah I think those are like the two biggest things for me it's not like I ever had to sacrifice like anything crazy that nothing that comes to mind I'm not I don't know how on earth do you get to West Colonna I I'm from Prince Albert from Prince Albert and I just we're talking about me here a while back right and why I end up in driding and not yeah anywhere around here and now you know I got to return turn the favor. Like, did you try out for the Blas, Bobcats, Blazers, whichever they were at that time, probably Bobcats?

Or, I mean, North Battleford or... There's, like, a couple of funny stories. I think I was listed with Melfort, and I went to that camp, like, on my way to Prince Albert, and then I played an exhibition game with them with, like, one of my linemates who went down there one night and played an exhibition game, which was fine. Like, I felt a little bit out of place. But actually, one of the best... stories I have is I was coming home, moving home from Prince Albert.

And I remember at the Turlford, and I went into, like, a gas station to, like, go to the washroom and grab something to eat. And I came out, and I had a miss call. And I was like, it was some weird number. And then there was a text. It was like, hey, this is Scott Hartnell. Just wanted to chat with you, like, a boat coming to play for Lloyd and, like, this and that. And then I called him, and he was, like, talking to, like, the bobcats and stuff. And it was just insane. I was like, I like, I like texting him back. I was like, is this real? Like, I had never talked to him.

I was like, what? Like, I literally, like, what are the odds of, like, me, like, jumping out of the truck and going in and, like, missing the call? So you call him back? Yeah, I did. So we chat. I think I probably still have his number. I don't know if it's his or not, but.

Yeah. So that was pretty cool. But so Lloyd, I went to, like, one camp and their coach saw me. And it was kind of funny that coach that had him call me, ended up in West Colona for, like, a year with me. Who was that? Ryan Parent. Okay.

So he was there for a bit. Now he's in Revelstoke coaching the junior B team, I think. Okay. They just won this year, I think. So Lloyd, no. Battlefield, no. It was Malford. I played a couple games.

And then while I was in PA, I was... But why, I got, I'm curious. The get Hartnell to call you. Did you just come and they just didn't watch it, or did you... I think I was already, like, committed to go to West Carolina. Oh, okay. Okay, okay, yeah. Yeah.

So, like, he was, I guess, trying to, like, recruit me, like, away. I don't know. It kind of comes full circle. We'll get to it. But, yeah, when I was playing in PA, I was, like, having a period year. I was, like, I think I was over a point per game, maybe. And my line mate, he had played the year before in Prince Albert with Matt Anhol. He was, like, I think he was the captain that year.

And he got recruited to West Colonna. And he was talking to this Adam. And then Adam was, like, well, tell your coach about Kyle or two. So the coach came out and watched both of us. And like kind of like after that, like it just kind of like hit it off and like asked if we wanted to come play for him. And we went out and like saw it was going on there and we both committed and went and played there.

So that's kind of how I got to West Cologne. It's crazy. I mean, growing up in Lashburn playing in Battleford Midwest, PA had nothing, no idea what, first off, I didn't know what Midget AAA was. Then I didn't know what the, BCHL was. I knew what like Malford was. That's right.

I didn't know anything about the BCHL like nothing and I was going there. I was going to Colonna that's all I knew. It was insane. So you go out. So I drove out there yeah. You drive out to Colona. A. Colona in Canada has got to be like one of the top places to live. It was unbelievable. Best, yeah, best place to live has to be.

What was your first camp like there? It was all right. I was kind of of like a player like i know when i played that game with malford and like i would get called up and play those midget triple a games with like battlefieldford like i'm just kind of that guy that doesn't want to like step on anybody's toes or do anything wrong or so i just kind of felt like a little bit out of place and like i don't know i was a little worried like i don't know like i didn't have a great start in west calona like i just threw the visor on like first time with a visor i probably looked like an idiot out there but i mean it it i don't know

I guess it's like anyone. Like I wish I could have came in and like been better like to start in West Colonna. But, yeah, I don't know. What, I'm curious, you played there three years. You would have played there until you were, you're 20-year-old. 20, yeah. You don't hear a lot of guys. Well, not, I shouldn't say you don't hear a lot of guys doing that anymore.

But everybody I seem to talk to, they play a couple years of junior. And then they're out and they're on to NCAA and that kind of thing. What did West Colona do so well to build a program? because you guys go on to win the Royal Bank Cup, right? Did they have, like, a really good management structure there, or a really good coach, or about a little bit of everything? I mean, you're in one of the most beautiful places to live. It's not a worry about guys wanting to go play there.

I think you could, like, talk about a lot of things. I mean, when I got there, again, knew nothing about college hockey. You see the lineup sheet, and you see guys committed to Anchorage, U.N.O. Harvard. I'm like, I don't even, I have no idea what, like, I know what Harvard is. Like, I know what that is. Like, I don't know what college hockey is. Like, I might have seen a game on TV and, like, not, like, I don't know, maybe.

I will save you here. It's a little different now, right? It is, for sure. Now it is, yeah. Like, now with social media, having a phone where you can look up anything, yeah. Recruiting is just way different than when I play. For us, it was like WHL, like, you want to play in the WHL.

That's right. But, like, for me, that wasn't an option. So I guess you look to the next thing. that was West Colonna. And I wouldn't change anything. I know right after I committed to West Colonna, Seattle, the Thunderbirds, like, reached out to me and, like, wanted to list me, but I told them, I'm like, I'm going to go to West Colonna and, like, do that.

Like, that's just kind of, I've already told the coach that I'm going, and that's kind of what my plan is and, like, they were good about it. So, yeah, West Colona, kind of rough first year. I think I had, like, 11 points, like, for, like, a kid that, like, has scored goals his entire life to score, I think it was five goals. Like, I didn't score my first goal to, like, 18 games in or something. Like, it was insane. I was like, oh, my God.

You put a lot of pressure on yourself then? Yeah. I mean, I wasn't playing a whole lot either, but, I mean, that's kind of, like, my fault, too. Like, I guess not my fault. It's just kind of getting used to the game. Like, it's different. Like, yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah, I didn't score. Like, I think I finished with 11 points. Like, that's right. in like 60 games. Lost out in the first round to Vernon. They were hosting the RBC that year. And Yorkton ended up winning. And I remember that was the first year,

like I saw the RBC on TV. Remember I was at my aunt and uncle's farm and we were watching it. It was like so cool. I was like that would be unbelievable to play in. Like who wouldn't want to play on TSN and all this. So that's kind of where the RBC thing started. So we lost that first year in West Cologne.

I didn't play much. Came back. train went back for a second year and same thing wasn't wasn't going well i think i finished that year with like 20 points but like first half wasn't going well i still remember um it like wasn't going well and i remember going to my captain's house and i was like talking to him i was like i just don't know what to do like i'd been talking to my parents i was like i was kind of thinking about like asking for trade and stuff like it just wasn't clicking yeah and uh i remember i was crying at his house. It was just me and him. We were sitting out on the porch, like, overlooking

the lake. I still remember it. If he listens to it, he'll be laughing. But, like, yeah, I was crying. I was, like, 19 years old. I have, like, crying. I don't know what to do. And, like, I've always had in the back of my mind that, like, Lloyd is hosting RBC. And I was, like, so close to going in and, like, asking for a trade, like, to Lloyd. Like, I don't know if he would or not. Never did. And then, like, I don't know what clicked, but, like, after Christmas, started playing more, started getting points, started playing with the top line and stuff. Playoffs, like, I played more. I was, like, on the power play unit, scoring and stuff.

It was, like, I don't know, we lost a pentict in that year. They had, like, Jost and those guys. So, yeah, didn't get traded, didn't ask for a trade. Come back my third year, and then after my second year, we knew we had, like, a good group coming back. And we had, like, committed some players. and got some guys in and everything just kind of like fell into place like start of the year we weren't like crazy good there was like the penticton they were absolutely loaded they had like

two kids come back from college like Penn State and Ohio State I think Penn State and uh they had broder and net like we're der's kid and uh they had Joe's Fabro yeah some players they were unbelievable like they're powerful you know was insane like so obviously they were the the favorite to win. And I know, like, right after Christmas, we got our goalie, Matt Greenfield. He came from, he played in the O, and then he was in Tri-City in the USHL. He came first game shut out Penticton. We were like, okay.

We had, like, goalie troubles all year. I think I looked the other day and we had like 12 goalies play that year. Holy crap. Just like not, like, not like good enough and getting, I don't know, hurt and stuff. So Maddie came in and shut out Pinticton. we were all just like, oh my God, who is this guy? And he was an absolute stud. Like, after Christmas, we, I think we lost, like, three games, like, going into playoffs.

So we were rolling. It's kind of, I kind of, like, look at the blues. Like, it's the same thing. Like, we had our Layla, we had our Bennington, we had our slow start. And, like, we just kind of, like, every series just grinded our way. We were down at times and just grinded our way through. So, I might say, this is your third year you get your goalie? Yeah.

Bowley comes in your third year. Yeah, no, no, that's right. That's probably me. The second year was, like, the whole trade and stuff. We lost in the first round that year as well. Yeah. So the second year was kind of third year, sorry. Did you know going back for your third year?

Like, you got something special here? Uh, not, like, not that, I don't think. No? I don't think anyone would have, like, I knew we were, like, going to be good, but. Were you a favorite to win the league? No, Penticton, for sure. For sure. Yeah, they were loaded.

But, I mean, I don't know, we went into the playoffs. We played Salmon Arm in the first round. They were kind of built like us. Like, we were a big team. Like, no one screwed with us. We had a lot of skill and a great goalie. And I played Salmon Arm. We beat them in six games, I think,

and we were kind of beat up after that. And then we went on to Penticton, and we lost the first two games in Penticton. I remember I had a buddy in Colona, and I was like, man, I think we're going to lose out. like we'll go like party after and like have some fun like like it's just a friend from Lashburn that was living in Colonna and came home and beat them twice tied at two two it was insane the rink was like getting more full like every like from salmon arm to Penticton

huge rivalry between Penticton West Colonna so the rink was already like pretty full go to Penticton and they have like a huge barn like it's like the NHL style like lower bowl dark and we steal a game there and we're up three two so we're coming home like like Frick we can win this like this is insane like so we get home and I remember we're up this game was insane

the rink was packed I remember there was Sam and our arm guys there that we had beat like cheering for us like behind the net um I take a penalty we're up a goal I think we're up a couple goals they scored I remember Joe scored he came back to his bench didn't like fist bump everyone

and he just said like, let's go when he lined back up. And we were like, oh, no, like, we shook the beast here. And he came out. I think they scored two. I think we were up four one because we scored an empty net goal. And then it was four three. I took a penalty because a kid had like a partial break when I hooked him in the box. They score on like a high stick tip.

High stick ref calls it off. Like I'm in the penalty box absolutely like losing your mind. Melting. Yeah. So that happens. They score. They wave it off. And then another play happens.

It's backdoor. Joe's to, like, some kid, wide open net and our greenfield glove save out of, like, midair. It was insane. And then, like, I got out of the penalty box and it was over and we won that series. It was, that was probably, like, the best feeling that we've ever had. Like, we've always lost appendix and, like, we might have beat them, like, two times my whole career. Yeah. And we beat them four straight.

Like, it was insane. So the party in the dressing room after that one was probably like, probably partied hard after that one. Then like we did like the BCHL or RBC. We were so pumped for that. And I remember like guys texting us from like Malford saying like, oh my God, like friends that I had like holy like how'd you beat them. And so I think right then like after beating them we're like,

okay, we're definitely like a favorite to win now. Who did you end up playing after that? So there's three divisions. Yeah. And the win. the winner, how it was when I played, the winner of each division played in like a three game, or three team round robin.

And then once you got three wins, you advance to the final, first two teams you get three wins. So we were going to like Chilwack and the Naino. Like, Naino was on the island like for one game and then coming back. Chilwack was the first team to advance. They were good that year.

They had some good players. They had Chilowski. He played for Detroit this year. And, uh, We played in Nanaimo at home. It went to double overtime, the team that won, like, went on. And double overtime, that we had a one-time or a kid, one of our 20-year-olds, one time,

went in off the backboard, at the back bar. Whole ring saw it. We didn't really know. And the refs, like, called it no goal. Like, after, like, you could see that it went in. So we're like, oh, my God, like, is ever going to lose off this? And then, like, probably, like, one of my favorite moments as, like, like being a hockey player i like picked the puck up in the corner and like came out in front of the

net all the way around the net and like wrapped it around on the other side it was absolutely insane and like sellied down the ice so we advanced to the the final and that was that was insane too like just looking back on it like it was just like a whirlwind like it just you can't even like express like how you feel i guess well so that was definitely the biggest goal of my career like It was the end of double overtime. Winner goes on to the final. You got to clarify, I don't know the BCHL well enough. Well, I played out in Ontario.

And then, I mean, around here, it's the AJ and the SJ. So I follow those two leagues, but the B.C. is kind of, well, it's exciting to have you on because I don't ever get to talk to me. Who plays in the BCHL around here, not many guys? So you're saying there's three divisions. Yeah, it's the, we were the interior. Yeah. So that's like Penticton, West Cologne, Vernon, Salmon Arm Trail.

Okay. Winatchie, they're in Washington. Okay. And then there is the mainland, which is like Quitlam Langley, Prince George, Chilac, and then the island with like Port Albarnie, Powell River. Holy man. Yeah, okay. Yeah.

So now it's like, they do it different now. Like, there's no three game or three like round robin. But you play Penticton in a best of seven. So we played Salmon Arn Bess of 7, Penticton best 7. That was to win our division. Okay. And that sent us to the three game, or the three team round robin. And so then you're in a three team round rob, first two teams to win three.

Move on. To the final. To the BCHL final? Yeah. Yep. That is weird. Yeah, it was wild. They changed it now, or they just had like two brackets, I guess.

It's just hard because, like, We're like, interior, we're like four or five hours from Chilwack is the closest, I think. And then, island, you have to, like, take ferries and stuff. So, like, I mean, like, you can't, like, cede that league to, like, one versus eight or whatever. Yeah, well, which makes sense. It's hard. Like, it's... But that is the first time I've ever heard of a three-team.

First semifinal, yeah. Right. So it was seven, or six games against salmon arms, six games against... Penticton. I think we played six games in that because we won three, lost three in that around Robin. Wow, that's tight.

It was insane. I remember going to Nanaimo and beating them, and then we had to come home and I think beat them again maybe. So then we were in the final against Chilac, us in Chilac. And we felt pretty good about it. I think we went up.

I think they had home ice and we beat them both times. and then they came to us and they beat us one and we beat them so it was three one in Chilac and I remember Greenfield our goalie got hurt he had a concussion our backup came in and he hadn't played since like Christmas that was like a sleepless night for me coming back to West Colonna's 3-2 sleepless night like before the game I was like oh my god like we got to like finish him off now we're like we can't go back to Chowack or we'll be done

And we came home and we ended up beating them and winning that thing. And it was absolutely insane. I had an uncle from Calgary that drove just for the one game. He came out to Cologne. Yeah. Watch just win it. My parents didn't get out for that one, but my uncle did. So that was awesome.

Packed barn. Pacted going nuts. It was insane. Like you just knew before the game that it was going to be full. Like I hadn't slept really. Like I couldn't eat. I was just nervous. I kind of flew through this, but like it's a lot.

No, no, no, no, it's good, it's good. So we beat them in six games. I think we won that game four, two. It was four one, and then they scored. Yeah. But we kind of had that game right from the start. Backup, we ended up playing absolutely, like, out of his mind. And then he had to play, like, into the Western Canada Cup, too,

and he still played really good. Before we get to the Western Canada Cup, I got to ask, like, what was, I've been talking to a bunch of, these dove guys, their bus trips and how far they went and everything else. What was,

and I know my own experiences and I know what the A.J and the SJ deal with, what was the travel like in your guys in the BC? It was actually, like, quite, like, pretty easy. Like, we had Penticton and Vernon

were only, like, in our division, you play everyone, I think it was seven or eight times. And then everyone out of your division, you just play home and home. Yeah. So,

like, ever once. Yeah. So Penticton, Vernon were like an hour each away. Which is awesome. It was like two hours. Trail was four and Salmon Arm was like two and a half. Yeah.

So that ain't bad at all. No. So like you could like, we'd go to trail and come back in a night. Yeah. Like that's four hours. Like we'd get back late, but. Yeah, but that's the life of junior hockey. And then like some mainland, like the teams around Vancouver,

we would like go like and just play one and come home like it wasn't too bad. We could usually play like Merritt. They were in our division. Then we'd go up to Prince George like all day. Yeah. them. That was a long one. Like you travel all day, get off at five, the bus at five, and going there and play, and then leave that night. How about, I've heard about going across Victoria and the ferry and everything else.

How's that? The ferries were cool. That was something new for me. Victoria was like a really cool place. We didn't get to see much of it. Like, whenever we do the island trips, we'd be three and three, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So you'd be in and out. but one of the cooler ones was power every had to take two ferries to get to it it was basically like on an island like he couldn't drive to it and it was just this like

smaller town like i don't know it was just you got to go there to to know what it's like it's pretty cool place and they love their hockey up there and it was a fun place to play too what uh who had the best fans in that like best barn best fans let's go best fans first uh i don't I don't know. They're all, like, supported pretty well. You got a probably penticton. Like, they had, like, a state of the art building, and they had, like, a lot of fans.

They had the, like, big screen. And, like, I remember, like, some games, like, the crowd was so loud. Like, you'd look at the person beside you and be like, oh, my God. This is crazy. Like, especially for us, like, we hadn't played in, like, an atmosphere like that.

When ACHE came in their league, and they, from the NHHL, they had a great, like, rank in atmosphere. It was really cool. And where is Winachi? Washington. Washington. So just across the border.

Yeah, it was like, I think it was like, I don't know, four hours in Vancouver is what I, I think we went to Vancouver after. It was a cool place, yeah. It's cool to like have the states team in there too. It kind of. Yeah, well, they're good. They won, was it last year?

And then they beat Bruce Grove and went to RBC or two years ago. Yeah, first time. American team's been at the Royal Bank Cup, I believe. Yeah, I think that might be right. Yeah. There are a few different American teams across Canada that compete in our junior leagues and have a shot out going to the Royal Bank Cup.

That one, yeah, that was awfully close. Yep. So let's talk about the Western Cup. Western Canada Cup. Because they don't do that anymore. Now it's back to the Doyle Cup, where you have the Best of Seven with the two champions of AJ and the... BC.

Yep. So we won the BC. And there was like talks we were going to fly to Estavan or fly to somewhere and bused to Estavan. And we ended up busing. It was so far. It was so far. Like it felt like we were on there forever.

I forget how long it was. But yeah, we jumped on it. We went to Estavan and like we got there and like all like the city boys in our team were like where are we? Like what is this place? But Estavan has like a nice rank, great rink. So the teams that were there was. winner of the BC, which was us, the winner of the AJ, which was Brooks,

the winner of the SJ, which was Malford, and then the host, Estevan, and then the winner of the MJ was Portage. Portage, man, Portage. Portage has been a good team for a long time, even back when I played, they were good. Brooks is like, wow. Yeah, I think like since, like, 2012 or something, they've just kind of been the power host of the AJ. Well, between them and Spruce. Yep. I think I when I was talking to TJ there, Lloyd, I think when I looked it up,

it was like Spruce Grove been to the finals nine of the last 11 years or something like that. Spruce and Brooks every year. Oh man, it's crazy to think, right? Once you get going, I mean, it's easier to recruit kids to go to somewhere that's winning. It takes somebody good there to manage that, though, right? Like, that's a tough thing. That's a beast to keep moving the right direction. And then for somebody not to come in and take the head coach or the manager move them up to the W.

HL or something, right? Yep. And that's how something like a program can fall backwards. For sure. So going into that term, like, I don't know. Like, our team was so, like, laid back and just, like, was like, went with the flow and kind of whatever, like, da-da-da-da. We were just winning.

Like, I don't know, like, it kind of sounds cocky, but, like, we were just winning. Like, that's all it was. Win, win, win, win. That's it. So we get to Sivana, we were kind of, I don't know, I guess the ones we were most worried about was Brooks. Like, it's not like we, like, did this massive priest go on them or anything. I think they did on us.

They kind of came at us, like, Guns Hot, the first game we played them. But, no, Estavan was fun. I mean, the atmosphere there wasn't, like, too great because, like, it's hard to get, like, fans out to... Well, yeah. Games that aren't Estevan. Yeah. Did you guys have... I remember when we played at the Dudley, we all got to have...

I can't remember. probably like we got in like Tuesday night maybe Wednesday night and then everybody had their pre-day skates and everybody got to kind of yeah that's kind of cool did you get did you guys get to do that and were you watching the other teams do their practices uh a little bit I don't think we like we're allowed to watch I don't really remember but that's kind of like I think that's why the coolest part is like like seeing teams from different leagues like get together and like kind of like look like you haven't seen any of them anymore like you don't even know like some of the players like Brooks had like Macar on it

so we were kind of like watching for him like to see like what he was doing obviously um but no like I remember there was like a small rink like attached to Estevan that we practiced in like you kind of had to like I think you practiced in that and like pregame skate was on the big ice maybe so I mean yeah

that was definitely cool I remember I remember coming out on the ice and falling flat on my face and there was every team was watching. I mean, we had probably a couple hundred people. Maybe not a couple hundred.

Yeah, frick. 100, 150 people watching us practice at like 10 in the morning. But everybody's doing the pre-scout seeing what each team had. And it was St. Buzards. St. Mike's Buzzards. They were like number two in all Canada that year. They had Bob McKenzie's son, who's now on TSA.

And I remember everybody just like, okay, that guy's a good hockey player. We got to whatever, right? And that was, like you said, that was probably one of the coolest parts of those tournaments, right? Everybody gets together and you've never seen, didn't know who they were from a hole in the ground, right? They knew nothing about us, which is kind of cool. Yeah, it is. It's a way that sometimes the best team doesn't win because you only get one crack at it.

And if you lose the wrong game. You look at like RBC now, like it seems like the host team wins every year, or at least makes a final. It has a good chance, right? If they haven't been playing and they're all healthy. I mean, Brooks was an absolute beast this year. Yeah, they were, lost like three games. Yeah, it was ridiculous. PG beat them in the Doyle Cup, best of seven series.

They beat them four or two, I think. Really? Yeah. So, like, it didn't matter. Like, PG won the BC and Brooks won the AJ. Yeah. So they play off. Yeah, and the Doyle Cup.

Yeah, now they do the Doyle Cup. So now, like, regardless if PG won or lost, they were going to RBC anyway, because Brooks was hosting. And they beat them, yeah. Beat him four, too. Yeah, they played the first three in Brooks, I think, and then the next four. And they beat them in six, I think. Oh, wow.

And then, yeah, I think they lost him both times. In the actual. Yeah. Yeah, but PG8, they were a good team, too. I was following them a bit. You still follow the league then? Yeah, yeah. I have a, like, I still have, like, the app and stuff.

See who's, like, leading scoring. Scoring all that? I did a podcast, too, like, got a hold of me. I was in Bowling Green at the time, and I remember sitting in the Continental Breakfast area doing a podcast with a BCHO guy. So it's kind of cool that they kind of follow up on their players too. Yeah, that's really cool.

That was fun. What was the podcast? I think it was just a BCHO. Oh, the actual league? I think there is one, yeah, BCHO podcast. Oh, cool. I'll look it up. Sorry, I keep pulling you off topic here.

I feel like I'm going too fast. No, no, you're doing fantastic. I don't think you're going too fast at all. what you're talking about in Estaband, like they don't do that. For people who don't know, they've done the Doyle Cup for a lot of years, and that's, like you say,

the winner of the BC plays Best of Seven against the winner of the AJ. Winner of that goes on to the Royal Bank Cup. And they do the same thing with Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and then Ontario, there's three different leagues and a host, so they do a tournament because obviously Ontario's got a lot of people. Yeah. And then everybody meets up the Royal Bank Cup. So this Western Canada Cup was essentially bringing all of Western Canada together to do a tournament instead of doing these best of sevens.

It only ran for like four years maybe. Yeah, I think so. It didn't last long. I didn't mind the tournament. I mean, it kind of got us like ready for the RDC tournament. By that time, you guys have played a crap ton of hard. Yeah, we, I think it was 24 games of the BCHL to win it. So that's like we're up to like 80 some games now.

Yeah. So yeah, we... How awesome was it to play hockey in spring weather? Like when it's just warm and you're in shorts walking in it. I think it was May long when we finished, I think. It's crazy. That's the best. I remember in Estevan, one of the best parts was like we'd walk back.

The rink was so far from the hotel, but we walked back once. And like at night, like one kid bought like a plastic bat and like one of those like wiffle ball things that you could like curve and stuff. Yeah. And like, because we were on the road for like a month when we left for Estevan and Lloyd. I think it was like 28 days we were gone for. And that was kind of what we did in our downtime. We'd go out.

We'd use our bus as like a backstop and play baseball. Like with that plastic bat and stuff. Or like we'd like chill in hotel rooms and like we like kind of got into yuker like big time. It's like some of us older guys like would get together and like listen to music play yuker. You got to find ways to We were there In Esavon, we were there It felt like forever

And then we went to Saskatoon In between the tournaments And stayed there for like The week Like falling Like leading up to RBC So we were in Saskatoon for a couple days Like just hanging out

Practicing So before we get to In between the tournaments Yeah You just kind of roll through then The Western Canada Cup Brooks, it was kind of, like, we didn't like Brooks. Right from the puck drop, like us and Brooks just, like, they're out for us, and we were like,

we had to be out for them. That's kind of like how they came at us. They played, I don't know if it was like their style of game or they're like, it might have, like, killed them in the long run. I don't know. But they came out as hard. Like, they were running our goalie. Like Greenfield was back and they were, like, running him over, like, their captain and stuff.

It was, I remember our captain was like fighting their goalie. Like we, in the final we beat them like six nothing. And there was like a fight between our captain, their goalie and like a brawl. Like it was. So right off the get-go, our first round Robin game against Brooks, they beat us, I think. Like they beat us up, I think. We're like, okay. We beat Estevan, we beat Portage.

We beat Malford. We beat Malford. And we lost to Brooks. So I think they were the first seed. or the second seed. And then it's like the winner that goes. Did you notice playing all the different leagues like that? Did you notice a different style of game in each league?

It's kind of hard with one game. Like we play each team one game, but it's definitely different. Like the BCHL is like known to be like a more skilled league. I don't know if like our team was. Like we weren't like we were more of like a big like worry down like beached defensively team. like we kind of called herself blue collar like meat potatoes type team like after like we weren't anything special like the penticton was the they were the shiny diamond like so um i don't know it's just kind of hard especially in that atmosphere like it was like sometimes like not very

many people in the rink like the games can get kind of slow and yeah which sucks but like we played estavan the first it was like the opening ceremony game And it was, like, pretty full. That was a fun game. I don't, I think we only, we didn't beat him by much, I don't think. But the Brooks game, like, if you're watching, like, as soon as it started, you were like, okay, these two are going to, like, be the ones to, like, go right to the end. And that's who you faced in the finals of the Western Canada Cup?

So you do, like, a round robin, and then the one-two seed plays in the championship game. Yeah. So that team goes straight through, and then the loser plays the third place for, like, the second spot in RBC. So we came out. It was the final. Almost want to be third. Like, if you don't think you can win that term, you almost want to be third, right?

I remember Portage is third, and they almost beat Brooks. They almost... So we came out against Brooks, and we scored, like, three quick goals, and we were laughing. We kind of just strolled. We, I think we beat them six-nothing.

Like, they were pissed right off. Yeah. And then we stayed the next day and watched them play Portage, and they ended up winning. So, like, okay, this is... Was it a sweet cup that gave you guys for winning that?

It was a pretty cool trophy, yeah. We didn't really, like, do much with it. I remember after we won the Western Canada Cup, we didn't, like, party or anything. We went to, like, a place and had, like, some drinks. Like, there was no big celebration in the room. Like, we were happy. But, yeah, on to the next one.

Yeah, we partied hard for the BCHL, like, at our owner's place and stuff. But Western Canada Cup was just kind of, like, like we didn't really put it in the case, put it on the bus, and the way we went. Yeah. But it was, I'll get a problem. picture for you. It's pretty cool.

What, uh, you, you mentioned in between, so you win an Estevan. And instead of going back to Colonna and like hanging out for a few days to drive all the way back, they take you to Saskatoon next? Yep. So what do you guys do for, what do you do in that? It's actually hilarious. Like, I mentioned I played spring hockey with Saskan there. Okay. We stayed at the same hotel, the Radisson downtown. Like, we always did at that hotel, like,

when I played Saskan. So it was so weird walking in there with like all my teammates. and then we get to the rink we're practicing at and it's the rink I played at like with Saskan and like I'm like there right now like with my summer training it's like the rink I go to and like all my friends like or all my like teammates I guess are like kind of like getting to see like where I like come from now yeah so like we're get like and obviously like in the back of my mind

like we're heading to Lloyd it's like that is home yeah so like they're like getting to see like you don't get to see everyone's like like you like create all these friendships but you don't really know like where they came from like you could be best friends as a guy and not like no like his story I guess and they are kind of all like watching my story like unfold I guess it was lucky for me a very unique experience it was yeah crazy I remember joking at the start of the year I go we'll win RBC and we'll have a shop party at my house and happen like what are the odds like they'll all tell you like any guy on the team will say like Hopper said like, we'll have a shop party if we went RBC. You guys had a shop party after the RBC? At our house, yeah, at my house. Like, my parents are still fine in, like, pop cans and, or beer cans and stuff later on.

That's awesome. There's some cool stories from that night, too, that I'll get into after. Sure. So, what do you, okay, so you, you're, Saskatoon, we're hung out, practiced a couple days. And try and keep you out of trouble. Yeah. I mean, we were, like, right downtown, so guys went to the mall and, like, the movies and stuff. Yeah, we're there for, like...

I think we, like, went there on Monday, and we left for Lloyd on, like, maybe Thursday or something. So you come to Lloyd, you come home for the Royal Bank Cup. You've pretty much just walked your way, not walked through it, but now you're all the way through, like, a ton of games. And you're what, how many games you get to win at the Royal Bank Cup to win it? I think we played five games, six at Estavan and five in... And five in the Royal Bank.

Yeah. So you've got to play five games. and if you win the right right ones yeah you get to hoist the national trophy yeah and so what what was I was like I watched you guys play in there and I remember well you guys were a good team I mean you want it all what are some things that uh the viewer doesn't know like the experience um maybe some cool things you guys did or people you met because I know they always bring in guest speakers and have just like I always talk about the Dudley Hewock which was the only the provincial term that I went to they had the guy they based Owego Thorpe Goldie Goldthorpe there

was one of the speakers right it was unreal and I assume on the Royal Bank I can't remember who they had but I'm sure you do like was there some cool stories that way and just yeah for sure um so on our way home from Saskatoon we stopped in Lashburn at the golf course and like they have a tent out there for like big like things that they have okay we had soup and sandwich there like we kind of set it up with my coach so like like the golf course I golfed at my entire life like all my like teammates are sitting there eating soup and sandwich it was so funny I had family there with like signs and stuff like welcome west colonna or like welcome home and stuff like good luck at rbc which is pretty cool so cool like my I think my mom had my dog there running around it was just like

what's going on and then from there we went to to J.H. more, like, where you're like, yeah, yeah. And, uh, we did a school visit. Like, we do school visits all the time. And my coach, like, asked if, like, like, if I wanted to do that. And, like, my mom, like, kind of works there, like, on and off. So she, like, kind of set it up. So we went in there with the Western Canada Cup. And, like, I, like, some guy, like, if you hear what it was, it was. It was, like, a row bank. Like, I don't know. Someone came and, like, had me miced up and, like, the news was there and stuff. Like, I was, like, going into classrooms, talking to kids and like they made this like really cool video of I don't know if you've seen it

it like me like going in the school and like talking in front of these kids and stuff and like whatever I remember I was like in the gym after with the entire school and all the teachers and like everyone and like I like had to stand there and like talking front everyone there was like 200 people I'm like oh my god here we go or my coach being like do you want to stand here with me you want me to stand here with you I'm like no I got it so like I was kind of like blabbering away like, I don't know, like, thanks for having us. That's cool, though. Like, that's just, I mean, the boys started chanting my name.

I'm like, oh, my God. So, yeah, there's a, there's a pretty cool video, like, really done well, like, of me, like, going to the school there. So that was probably one of the highlights for sure. And then, like, throughout the tournament, like, Lashburn, like, my house is, like, 20 minutes from Lloyd. So we jump on the bus and, like, my parents and, like, all my family, like, both sides would, like, come and, like, help prepare. our meal for the boys. Like, we go out there, like, all the boys, like, all our staff. I remember, like, all of them were, like, playing football, like, out in, like, my backyard

and, like, hockey downstairs in my basement and, like, checking everything out. And we had, like, huge meal. I remember my grandma and mom made, like, eight different types of pie and stuff just sitting there in the house. That's cool. So the grad was full of, like, my teammates, my family, like, all my, like, littleer cousins, like, got to, like, kind of, like, none of them had come and, like, seen me play. Like, they don't know what I'm doing.

Yeah. And they got to see it there. So I think they came out, I think we went out there one time. And then my parents had all the parents too out there one night. So that was another, like, really cool thing, like, to have a place to go like that. Like, and, like, for my parents, we were willing to do that for us. So, yeah, then we got to Lloyd. We were staying in the micro hotel.

It was, like, a new hotel, like, right, coming in there. Right on the east side. Yeah. Yeah. And we'd like eat it different. Like our place to eat was like the golf course. Like we go there like for like lunch every day. Yeah. Like each team had a different place. Yeah, a different venue. So like we went to like, I remember we went to like the sawmill and like I think like Rock Creek. I think it's gone now maybe. But just places like that. Rock Creek is now three trees. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like the same restaurant. They just changed the name. Yeah. So like I hadn't even seen those restaurants. Those were new like when I got there. I hadn't even been there before. I remember coming back every year and Lloyd would have expanded. Things pop up everywhere.

Still do. Yeah. We've got a casino now. That's true. So yeah. And then Lloyd basically, same as Estevan, like same kind of setup, same feel, except you're on an obviously bigger stage. Like kind of how you're talking about all the teams, like showing up.

That felt more, like, cool to me than Estevan because you walk in and like the whole rink is full of like the Nike and TSN logos, the boards are all done and like the rinks done right up so you're like oh my God this is like this is big time now. This is big time yeah and I remember watching like a team out there and I remember like I think it was the Bobcats

watching us practice and stuff so I think we got a couple like practices in there and then it was on did ever just like were you ever just sitting there going man if we just win the right couple games like still like I talked about like sleepless nice like oh my god like you just want to like win and just get it over with it's

i don't know it's easy to say now but because we won but like sitting there you have no idea like you don't know who again you don't know who the teams are you don't know who lloyd is we played lloyd trenton carlton place and brooks yeah so all we know is brux we know brooks is good and they're gonna like it's gonna be a war with them and then you play you know not to fast track the tournament but you end up playing the bobcats in the finals the lloyd bobcats yeah yeah we played them the first game uh lloyd it was like the opening ceremony game i think again okay and it was like full rink was yeah and we we ended up beating them i don't know i don't remember what the score was we beat them And then they kind of turned it on.

They were a team that won the eight games, and they made it to the final. I know Trenton kind of flew through the round robin, beat everyone, and then lost the Lloyd. Yeah. So, like, Carlton Place, they didn't win a game. They were done. And then we played Brooks in the semi-final game. So, like, I kind of still, to this day, is kind of, like, I don't want to, like, beat up Lloyd, but, like, the Brooks West Colon game was, like, the final, basically.

So, again, in the round Robin, they beat. just think it was like four or two or something so we were kind of like rattled again like like like here we go and then that semi-final game what to this day probably one of the funnest games I've ever played in like we had a section of fans they had a section of fans I remember like throughout the entire tournament I had like friends like in like different sections like anywhere you look like oh I know that person they're like all my buddies lined up against the glass with their their beer cans like stacked up like I'm banging on the glass smiling at them and stuff, like stuff like that.

It's just so cool. But yeah, that game against Brooks, it was such, like, for not, like, either of us being, like, the home team, like, the crowd was just, like, Lloyd packed it, and, like, we had our fans, Zia, their fans, and, like, I just feel like Lloyd kind of, like, jumped in on the fun, too. And that game was insane, and we ended up beating them and knocking them out and going to the final. Actually, that game, I think it was in the second period.

we kind of beat them up that game too it kind of got out of hand they i don't know if you're at the game or not i can't remember i watched it twice there and i don't know if i watched the semi-final game or not they uh they finished the game with like 10 players everyone got kicked out it was kind of a gone so in other words i didn't come to that game because i don't remember that it was just kind of we kind of get got up on them and then like just rolled with it i don't remember the score but they weren't happy and like everyone was getting kicked out and we were laughing and yeah doing our thing but I remember in the second period

I was in front of their net and I got slashed on the hand and I came back to our I knew something was wrong I came back to our bench and I slam my stick on the glass so hard like I hate when like kids do that like slam their sticks and stuff

and I did it I don't know why and I remember my coach for the following year in Alaska was there watching that was Ferguson and like I think it was we were in Alaska he was sitting right in front of the glass where you hit it I was like

that probably wasn't This might. Probably didn't look good. But, uh, took my glove off on the bench and, like, my bone was, like, out of my skin. Like, not, like, through the skin, but it was, like, it was, like, half an inch, like, above my, like, it was raised up, like, swollen. And I showed my trainer and he's just, like, oh, that's not good. And, uh, my auntie, she's a nurse. She was at the game and she was, like, sitting behind the bench. And, like, right away, she was like, that's broken. So, like, I went off the ice and, like, a car.

like to the room and like the tournament doctor like came and looked at it and he was like pushing on it and stuff and like at the time it didn't hurt like too crazy I had it swollen a bit and uh he goes I think it's good so I went out and we had it already like won the game it was so I was just sitting on the bench I didn't want to like hurt it anymore and so we won that game we were going to the final like it was like an earlier game for the final it was like a three o'clock or four o'clock start yeah so my line mate he had gone to the hospital for a shoulder he like messed it up he ended up scoring the game winning goal the next day too with like his shoulder was like not there yeah and uh he went to the hospital and i was

like i'm not going because i think it's broken and i don't want to like have them cast it and not be able to play so i remember like being up in like the lobby the civic center and like with all my family and like i had my hand in my pocket because i don't want anyone to like see or anything because it was swollen it was like a softball in my hand like it was girl and like it was girl and I was at the hotel that night before the game and me and my roommate, the captain at the time, we were sitting there and he's like looking at it. He goes, man, that's not good. And like I was icing it. And my trainer had like this like big elastic band thing and he was wrapping around like trying to get the swelling out. And I'm like, Mikey, this is not good. Like, so I left it,

played, taped it up the next day and kind of went with it. Played the final and ended up winning Before the final, I was up, like, stretching before the game, Craig Button walks by. I was like, oh, my God, what is going on? Like, Craig Button, like, I watch you on TV. And, like, so he stops and he goes, like, oh, I heard you got whacked last night on the hand. Like, how are you doing? And, like, I was just like, yeah, I don't know. It's not great, but, like, I'm going to go.

And we were kind of chatting, like, for a couple minutes. So that was pretty cool, too, to, like, talk to him. And then the final, yeah, we just kind of, I think Lloyd probably outplayed us, but we're pretty beat up. tired from like the night before and mattie our goalie absolutely stood on his head he was definitely like the MVP of our team he was i think he like signed in the a this year so he's doing well yeah so yeah once i got back home to west colonna i went to the hospital and it was broken broken head yeah playing the finals a broken hand yeah i didn't do much in that game

my shoulder was messed up too from the final and the bcchel the last game there what was the party like after you win the Royal Bank Cup? Because after that, I mean, you're done, right? Done, yeah. Now you're sitting there with a giant trophy. So, like, I don't know, you see all the videos of like the blues party in? Yeah. Ours was the complete opposite.

I remember we got in there. We all sat in our stalls. The trophy was sitting there, and we just sat there and looked at each other. No champagne, no jumping around, no music. We were just like, oh, my God. We did it, and it's over. Like, holy. You're the New York on.

back, did you ever watch boys on the bus with Grexky? No. Do you know the story? So the Oilers lose to the Islanders, however many games. I need somebody to sit here beside me and give me the stats, but they lose to the Islanders in the Stanley Cup finals right before they go on their big tear

where the Oilers would go on and win a bunch back in the 80s, right? And they come in and they lost, and everybody's leaving the rink and, you know, everybody's feeling pretty good. Like, you know, yeah, feeling good, you know, and we lost, that sucks, you know, but, you know, after that, we're going to go home, you know, have a beer or whatever, and they walk by the islanders, and they expect to hear them partying in there.

And they look in, and everybody's icing, and what Gretzky and Messi and them always talk about or talked about them boys in the buses, they went, oh, that's what it takes to win right there. Because you've got to, you got to go the extra level. That's honestly what our, like, I think overall, I think we played like eight exhibition, 58 regular season, 24 playoffs, and then six, an Estavan and five, and so. So it was like 100 games. Yeah, that's crazy. And I know that Brooks game kind of like took it all out of us.

Like it was a tough game. Yeah. And that's kind of the one we were like saving it for. So everyone was kind of beat up after that. But everyone wanted to play. Like everyone at that point was like it's. Yeah. My shoulder's not there.

But what does it matter? It's one more game. Yeah. I'm going to be on the ice. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool to be a part of. So yeah, after the game sitting in the dressing room, nothing.

Nothing. Nobody like I remember like guys. like hugging a bit and stuff but no like the coolest thing was out on the ice after like on the ice like with the trophy and everything like i had like both sides of my family like i probably had like over 30 family members out there and attendance watch so there's like tons of pictures like the memories on facebook that pop up like every day of like people post and stuff that you see is just like it's so cool like it's such a cool experience for them too like they like my cousins got to like get out of school to come watch games and like my like aunt and uncles really even work come watch games and

like my parents had my billet parents and like another set of billet parents down and like they're staying with them yeah at their house and like they were tailgating like before and like all my friends there like i remember like warming up in the parking lot and like seeing buddies walk in and like running up to them and like saying hi and stuff like i hadn't seen them since christmas so yeah yeah well It's pretty cool, Matt. It is, it is honestly, like, like, in a sense, it hasn't even, like, sunk in. Like, I think about it every day, and it still is, like, going from, like, Little Town Lashburn, not playing, going back and playing with Lashburn or Midwest, right?

Yeah. Maybe you shouldn't be playing, maybe you should. Then you make your way out to PA and somehow you go out to Klona and, you know, you think about coming, getting to trade, and also you stick in. And it all just starts to click and boom your, you know, your national champions. Yeah. Right? It's kind of funny.

We went to Kelona the year after we won during spring break of our first year in college, me and our captain, Camerino. And we stayed with like a Billet family. And we went and met with our coach. Like when we sat and like kind of like talked or whatever. And he's like, yeah, we had a deal done with you to go to Lloyd. He goes, you were supposed to get traded. And I was like, come on.

He goes, yeah, you're supposed to go and, and, uh, it just, like, fell through. It didn't happen. Like, that's what he told me. I'm like, oh, my God. Like, how, like, things could have changed, like, instantly. Yeah. Like, who knows, I could have been on Lloyd in one. Yeah, absolutely.

Like, West Klonel might not have made it or. So, like, that's another, like, factor, I guess. That was probably around the time, like, like, I wasn't doing well there. And, like, he probably, like, noticed that. Maybe it hurts. I don't know. I don't know what the whole deal is behind that. I'll have to get some more details on it, but it fell through.

At the end of the day, you get to put a ring on your finger. We saw the ring. The ring is gorgeous, right? Yeah, that's so cool. That's something that you just can hang on your mantle for the rest of time, right? Yeah, my parents made me like a shadow box thing. It's like kind of a big, like, frame with, like, all my, like, awards and stuff in it from that year. And, like, my ring kind of, like, sits in there.

It's cool. Did I read that you had the most? most points in the BC playoffs? Yeah, I think I was first. I think I had like 25 or something. 24, I think is what... That's, yeah, that sounds right. The internet says.

The internet. Yes. Yeah, that was pretty cool. My line, like, I think me and my line, maybe both had like 15 goals at playoffs, but we played 16 games, so... Yeah, but still, like, I mean, that's something like... Because you were talking earlier, but, like, you just struggled, right?

You're having a harder time putting the puck in that, and, you know, a guy who... grew up scoring and then can't, and then your final year, months just, like... Yeah, the start of the year, it kind of started slow, and then I got put in line with, like, the kid that, like, broke the goal scoring record for our team, and with another guy from West Kelona, like, a local guy,

and we just kind of, like, we were scoring, like, crazy. Yeah. I remember we went on a three-and-three road trip to the island, and we each had, like, I know the one kid had, like, 15 points in three games, and then we had, like, 10. Yeah, that's unreal. So we were just kind of like rolling and then into the playoffs, like you just kind of, I don't know. Do you go back to West Cologne at all?

Do they do alumni game, anything like that? Oh, they used to. I haven't been back. We went, me and my girlfriend drove out there last year. Just kind of, we ended up going, was it last year? Yeah, last year, the Royal Bank was in Chowax? We went and watched that. We were out in like Vancouver and stuff just kind of thrown around.

So we went, I don't know, we went to West Colona. I'd like to go back. I think we'll probably have like a five or ten year anniversary of like winning. Yeah, yeah. Like I think all the boys will go. Yeah, I was telling you earlier, I got my Dryden Alumni jersey on the wall. And I got to go back in last summer or last fall in 2018. And we didn't win.

And it was a blast seeing guys that I played with haven't seen like 10 plus years, right? You guys won it all. winning that create friendships for the rest of time. Winning just binds everybody together. That was another thing. After we got back to West Colonna, like, you didn't really see guys after. Like, we didn't have a party there. Like, kind of the end of the party was like at our place.

So let's talk about the shop party. Yeah, the shop party. There's a lot of stuff. Everybody load, you load the bus up and take it out to Lashbert? Yeah, it was insane. You win the Royal Bank Cup. You're spending the night anyways, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We left the next morning at like 11. and drove all the way back to West Carolina. Packed up the bus and said, boys, let's go to Lashburn's Saskatch. So we went to the shop and actually started the year, we bought one of those huge guitar amp stereos. Yeah. And it was like really durable. So that's like kind of we got, why we got it.

And we took it out there. And apparently like the shop must like amplify it. My grandparents said they could hear the party from like their house. They're like across the highway. Yeah. Like by the ball diamonds and we're like closer to Lashburn. Okay. They said they could hear us like clearly.

But, uh, yeah. We were up, we were up all night. That was fun. We loaded the bus and, like, that was a riot, like, so much fun. Like, they, we were playing, like, that stereo on the bus, like, as loud as a big go. What was your guys' win song? You had to have had a win song. It changed.

Changed all the time? Yeah. We had, it's, it's, it started with that one, the Blue Jays had that one year. Everyone liked it for what's called. That's terrible. Now, now, for the rest of the time, people are going to listen to this episode and go, What song is he talking about? I'm going to have to come on here and be like, it was this song.

It was, yeah, I should sing it. Maybe, no. Please, entertain us. I remember, I get ended with, let's get it started in here by the Black Eyepie's. Okay, that was the last. I think that's how it ended, yeah. But, like, it changed. Like, we were just, like, getting sick of it.

Like, I don't know if that's another cockier mark or not. You were winning so much, you had to have multiple wins songs. Yeah, we were changing. that what you're saying? Yeah, honestly, it changed, yeah. So, yeah, the party we got out there, and, like, they had a huge, my parents had a huge fire going, all the parents were there,

coaches. I had, like, all my friends, like, cousins, like, everyone, this anybody. I like, anybody can come, like, who cares? My dad has a shop, like, kind of unfinished, and a bunch of tables out there, and we were just, like, having a good time, like, nothing could stop us.

And, uh, Yeah, so much fun. Like, yeah, that was probably one of the funest nights of my life for sure. And then, uh, quick story here. At the party, I'm, like, kind of, like, cruising around or bumping into people, whatever, like, doing my thing. And I, like, catch eyes with my coach, and he's sitting by the fire and he just kind of gives me one of these, like, get over here. And I'm like, he has a trophy sitting beside him, and he, like, looks at me, looks at the trophy. I'm like, and then I saw it, I was like, oh, shit.

It was banged up. Like it was like the cup on the top was like so crooked like I thought it was going to be like break off and he's just like what happened and I'm like I've no idea I haven't even seen that thing tonight yet I think I had like a drink dumped on me out of it but so there's kind of a backstory like I won't get into it but I think a couple of the guys were like out like screwing around with it and it got like chucked in the mud because it had been raining or something and it was kind of muddy like chucked in the mud and like our pastor Like, was there? Like our chaplain, and he, like, was out, like, taking a leak and saw it and, like, picked it out of the mud. And it was all banged up, and they had cleaned it up and stuff. So there's, like, more to the story, but probably shouldn't be told. I don't know. So that was, so I remember the next day.

You're going to leave us all hanging? Yeah. That was just laying in the mud. I have to. Laying in the mud, they found it. I remember the next day I'll show you a picture. It was, like, the cup was, like, tilted on top. Well, I'll tell you this, anyone who's won anything,

there's stories where the cup gets lost, broke, bent. It was a mess. I think, like, hockey Canada was, like, threatening to, like, take it away from us. Yeah. But we, like, got it fixed, and it was, like, it looked brand new. Well, yeah. As long as you take care of it. I mean, like, every...

I saw a picture of it again this year, and it looks like someone else banged it up, so... Well, it's hard. You get 20 guys partying. Well, more than that. I'll be 30 guys. guys 40 guys partying and drinking out of it it's just bound to hit the floor yeah no yeah i remember we have like a mezzanine in our shop and it was like sitting on the edge like up there and everyone was just like looking at it like that thing's gonna fall never did that wasn't how happened but uh

yeah so he was he was mad with that but he got over it um got it fixed that was that night the western kind of cup got broke out too it was on the bus so we pulled it out drinking out of it and stuff that was definitely like where we kind of just let it all out like that was our party like we just saved it for that for sure that was fun so like the ride back on the bus to the hotel was probably like the best

like everyone was like party and still and like one kid had friends there from my Grand Prairie and one of the kids snuck on the bus and he was sitting at the back and remember he had his hat down and our coach came back and was like who is that and everyone was just like don't worry about

but and this kid just like stone face just was like sitting there rode back with us on the bus came to the hotel partying with us i remember the bus the next day was like a complete disaster like the bus driver was so mad because like chips were like thrown everywhere and alcohol like it just stunk like yeah and we had to like ride on it for the next 20 hours yeah back 15 hours to 15 hours west colonia so the next morning we like it was like 11 we came out saw the trophy and absolutely destroyed. I loaded it up. It was like sticky and stuff.

Like gross. So we got on the bus and we're like head to the Civic Center. Load all our stuff. They had the ice out and everything the next day. Really? Yeah.

They had like a tractor in there. Took it out. So loaded up all our stuff and away we went. Took like the back road like through the country to Calgary. I don't know why. But remember we had crosser

back to the back of the bus. He came for a drink. Did he? Yeah, it was funny. He came back. He was loving it. Yeah, he was a big part of why we won for sure. So, yeah, we got to Calgary, I think it was.

And we stopped at the mall there with, like, Cabellas and, or Bass Pro Shop. I don't know what that's called. Yeah. And we, like, went to the food court and stuff. And, like, some guys didn't even get off. They were so hungover. Like, one kid was on all fours the whole way. the whole way it was insane like i was like you have to eat like one kid just stayed and slept like

so let me jump back on and we get to west colonna and like between colonel and west colonel there's a bridge that like divides it to i don't know if you knew that or not yeah yeah it's like you come we came across the bridge it was like one in the morning and we get lit up by the police we're like oh my god like we've been traveling all day like and then another set of lights come on and then another set of lights and they like freaking escort us back into the rink like behind us in front of us beside us like back into the rink

and there was like a hundred fans there like ringing their bells and stuff that's pretty cool so we had stopped in I think it was Rebel Stoke and like clean both the trophies because they were like gross cleaned them up and like when we got there like we had all of them like sitting out there and like the fans like got to come and like see it and stuff

so that was pretty cool like the escort back and stuff like that like Nobody knew that it was going to happen? No, nobody knew. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Everybody's wondering what the heck's going on? Yeah, we thought we were, like, getting pulled over. Like, we're so close.

It's like, let's just get home. I'd hate to have you on here and not talk about your moving out of college hockey. Yep. You're up at Fairbanks. Fairbanks, yeah. What has that been like? I mean, I know I, I know I talked a lot. the guys that make that transition like it's a big change going from playing as many games you

played 100 games pretty much right and i mean that's winning all the way but you play a grind in junior hockey yep and then you go play college and what do you guys playing 30 uh i think we play 34 yeah and like playoffs is like best of three yeah yeah yeah nice and quick yeah um no it was good i mean i committed to them like when i first got to us colonna like knew nothing about college like I said. Yeah. But a lot of guys are committed, so it's kind of like what you want to do. Like you want to be like everyone else and like commit to a team like early and like leave

early. But that wasn't the case for me. Like I had a slow first year, slow, slow second year. Like didn't talk to any schools. I could talk to like one maybe. Okay. Nothing like crazy. And then my third year I like kind of like had a good year and like I was talking to a lot

of schools and Alaska came on my radar. Like my coach kind of set it up with me and our captain let Marino again to go together. and it was like i remember we were just about to leave on an island trip right before the playoffs and uh Alaska had called me in like a conference call with like all their coaches and i was like oh they're gonna think they're gonna offer me and they did they offered me like a scholarship and i was like like honored like i hadn't like offered a scholar been offered a scholarship to anywhere else and like i like was like okay like they gave me a deadline like it was like sunday and i needed to decide by Wednesday and uh went like went called my parents they're like you do what you

want like that's kind of how they'd been my whole career like left it up to me like don't do anything you don't want to so i kind of like thinking about Alaska it's like well this is i don't know like it's Alaska like but my coach thought it was a good fit and like fergie was like the coach there he's from like wayne right so we kind of had some connections through that and Marino was going to be going. So I called back like Monday, like the next day, and I was like, yeah, I'm going to come. Like they were the first team to offer me,

and like they showed interest, and I was like, it just seems right. I don't know. I wanted to get it done before the playoffs too, because I didn't want to be like worrying about like where I'm going to be playing next year during the playoffs, like in West Colona. So Alaska it was.

And how has it been since, like, what's life in Alaska like? It's cool, really cool. I mean, it's not much different. Like, I, it's the same, like, I have the same feel where, like, that community, like, tight-knit, like, up there, like, everyone, like, likes everyone. How big is Fairbanks? They have an Army base and a university there. I think the Army base is, like, $100,000 or something.

Holy, okay. I think. Or maybe, like, UAF, like, Fairbanks, and whatever is $100,000. But I think the city is, like, 30,000. Okay. So it's like, I kind of like, I kind of like, I kind of like. Yeah, I kind of like. like, compared to, like, Prince Albert, like, think about Prince Albert.

It's kind of, like, up in the trees, like... Yeah. What's some of the coolest stuff you've got to do while living up there? Every year, we, like, do, like, a camping trip with the team. Pretty cool. Like, you can do some fishing, and then there's a local guy there that played for the team. Like, he takes us fishing, like, pretty cool, like, places. But I got to go on a float plane with that marino again.

His name keeps popping up. A float plane out to, like, someone's cabin. And, like, we, like, saw, like, grizzly bear and like went through like the mountain range and like landed on a lake like in the middle of nowhere that was probably that was probably the coolest thing i've ever done for sure like you literally like you're lying on a small little like airplane you're jammed into to like get you somewhere in the middle of nowhere yeah so that was probably the coolest thing i've done we do whitewater rafting every year as a team which is cool we go to the donali

mountain range that's pretty cool um but yeah no playing there's great. They like their hockey there. They have a junior A team up there too. Really? Fairbanks, ice dogs. They're a really good team. They go to the final like every year.

What league do they play? The NHL. Really? Yep. They got a really good team up there. They were in the final this year. I am really curious on your guys' travel. It's insane.

And fly everywhere. Yeah, so every game is Friday, Saturday, and we will leave either Monday. night or Tuesday night like Red Eye. So we missed the whole week of school. So we fly, like we'll fly like, say Tuesday night, all night, get to Seattle at like four in the morning, get something to eat, sleep, like on the floor. Like we'll all like bundle up together somewhere as a team and get under an ex-flight

at like say nine and go to Detroit or Chicago or Minneapolis. Like one of those kind of bigger airports. Yeah. And then it's a bus from there. Like the close, it can be anywhere from like an hour bus. ride to like an eight-hour bus ride. Michigan Tech is in Houghton, Michigan, which is like the upper peninsula of, it's in the middle nowhere.

You're talking to a guy who played for Northland and had to go to, oh, God, I'm forgetting now. O'Clair is not up there. O'Clair is up there. Yeah, but there was Finlandia, which is in the upper peninsula. That's Houten. That's Houghton, right? That's Division III.

Yeah. And so we had to travel, but we used to go across to Adrian. Adrian was in But it was like a 12-hour buser Yeah In the middle of across So like you get off the plane And like you've been traveling all day

You haven't slept You ate like crap food And you're just like on the bus And like it's like The worst thing ever Like that bus ride is the worst So then you get there And like we get there on like a Wednesday night

So we have all day Thursday And then like we play Friday Saturday And leave Sunday Head to the airport Sunday morning And then so what? the next week. We get back Sunday night and go to school Monday morning. And try and catch back up on the week.

You just missed. The teachers are good for it. Like a lot of the content, like stuff is like on like our blackboard. That's right. Yeah. So like you can like kind of stay with the class. It's just you're not in class like participating,

I guess. But they understand like I haven't had any troubles as any teachers. So so is it the schedule set up then? So a week you're gone the next week you have home games so that. Basically. So that at least. We'll do one, We do one two-week road trip, so we're gone for two weeks.

Really? Where do you go there? This year we went to Denver and then Mancato, which is in Minnesota. Minnesota. I'm going to have to keep my eyes open because if I'm down in my wife's from Minnesota, from Minneapolis. If you guys are down playing, I'll have to make sure I come check that out. That'd be freaking straight.

Yeah, next year we're going to have a good team, I think. I'm excited. I kind of have that same feel like I did with the West Cologne team. I don't know why. Like we haven't been like a great team for my first three years. we have both our goalies coming back. They're both studs. We have our whole, like,

probably, like, close to both our power play units coming back. We kind of sputtered this year, but I think we have, like, nine seniors, so I think we can kind of lead the way. So I'm excited for this year, for sure. That's cool. What are you taking in school? I'm doing business administration

and then focusing in finance this senior year. That's cool. Yeah, I don't think I would have ever went to college if it wasn't for hockey. I think I've told my parents like I'm not going to college like in high school. Yeah.

Like I'm doing high school and that's it. Yeah. And now I'm seven classes away from getting a degree. That's cool. That's really cool.

I'm getting it paid for. Yeah. I'm doing two right now this summer to kind of like fast forward. What are you doing in the summer? Are you training here in town? No, I'm in Saskatoon right now. Oh yeah, you're in Saskatoon, right?

Right, right. So I'm living there. I work out every day, train on my own, just at a gym there, and then I skate with Tratch Power Skating. It's like Jordan Trach and Blake Tatchel, they started it. What's that called? It's called Trash. Trash Power Skating, yeah.

They have like all WHL. I'm skating with all WHL and like HL guys. Oh, that's cool. A lot of good players. It's good to practice with guys of that caliber. Absolutely. It makes you better. And like seeing them, like one kid's going to get drafted tomorrow and like the second.

or Saturday. He's supposed to go in the second round. Who's that? His name's Adam Beckman from Spokane, I think. Cool. I have to keep an eye on them then. I keep played in Battleford. Yep.

So, yeah, a lot of good players there. So I'm having fun there, doing a lot of golfing up there. But summer's short. Like, once you get home, you're home for like two, two and a half months. And then you're gone again. Gone again.

We got to go back. Take it from a guy where it's gone. Well, not gone now. I mean, I'm happy where I'm at, but it goes by quicker than you think. Yeah, it does for sure. Like all of a sudden, well, you just said it. PA was what six years ago?

Seven classes and you're going to be done in college. Yeah, that's absolutely insane. Right? And then college is done. You've been enjoying college? Yeah, it's been fun. You live in dorms or what did they got you in there? First year, you got to live in dorms.

And then the second year. What did you think of dorms? They're kind of like the size of this room. Like you're right beside the guy. Coed dorms or all? We had co-ed, yeah. Co-ed. We had like all-male floor.

Like, it was like kind of the athletes. Yeah. no it was definitely an experience like i think you enjoy it like we had a big freshman class we had 12 so like you can go to any room and just like pop your head and see what they're doing hang out whereas like some some classes have like four kids so you only have like one of the other rooms so such a cool experience i think i i would suggest to any kid that goes to college to live in dorms just for one year yeah no for sure i think i i i lived in dorms for three years i can be i probably yeah they're good no like i i think i think i i probably yeah they're good no like

I thoroughly enjoyed All your food cooked for and everything Yeah You just go Yeah, no it's fun You're looking for something to do You just start poking your head in every room Until you find somebody sitting there doing nothing

Or up to something and the way you go You get to meet people in the dorms too Forces you to Yeah Yeah Because you're literally living right beside them So in the second year We were

Three of us lived in an apartment On campus They're kind of like a rundown There is whatever Like we liked it Like there was other like guys up there Living in them Yeah

And then this year, four of us moved off campus to, like, a duplex apartment thing. Yeah. And now we're looking for a new place next year. We'll live off campus again. Enjoyed that. Yeah, I think off campus just kind of gets you away from the school a bit, and, like, it's a bit cheaper, so. That's cool. Yeah.

No, it's fun. Living with some good guys at Marino from West Colona. We're still, we're going on like six years together now. Yeah, that's really cool. And then we have a Swede living in a lot. and then a kid from Blaine, Minnesota. Oh, right on. I know where Blaine, Minnesota is.

Yeah, my wife lives very close to Blaine. But anyways. That's a side note. I'm curious, so, am I going to see you in the Saskalta here in two years' time? I don't know. Who knows? Definitely going to be a flyer one day.

Getsie, just so you know, when we get off air, I'm probably going to offer him a million dollars come play for the helm on heaven. I'd just like to throw that out there. I'll still be a flyer, don't worry. That's what he's saying on air. He's giving me a wink and a nod that we'll talk about Hillmont here shortly. He'll offer more, probably.

No, what does the future hold for you? You plan on going overseas down south? Do you even thought about it? Kind of like my whole career, just like, who knows, go to PA out of nowhere, go to West Cologne out of nowhere, Alaska. Didn't think I was going to play college. So I was out of nowhere. It just kind of like depends on the year, I guess.

I'm hoping to have a good year and kind of break out and catch the eyes of some teams, I guess. But if not, then I don't know. We'll see. You want to keep playing hockey, though. Yeah, obviously. I think I want to play as long as I can. I think it's kind of like my dream. Like, it's always been my dream to play professional hockey and get paid to do what I love.

So, yeah. But you never know. Like, see what's going on at home, too. You'll see. finish college for sure and then maybe the end of next year finished the year somewhere cool yeah well I got it shows that we've been sitting here talking on that thing for two hours now

so we've been going for a stretch part of it part of it was fun yeah absolutely I'm glad you're enjoying it I got four four little fun little questions I do I got a couple stories too if you want those sure no fire away with stories then if you want to go first or no no no no you fire away with stories Okay This will start In the RBC there

It was I remember Each game we had like Ceremony Puck drop And they had like I think they had heart and a lot And like MacArthur And like kind of some like figures around town

Yeah And we were playing Brooks in the I think it was I don't know if it was the Round Robin or the semi-final game It doesn't matter But Ceremony Puck Drop We're the away team

The home team always like wins it picks it up and it was against Brooks, and I remember, like, our whole bench. I might have started it. I was like, like, win it to our captain, like, yell and win it. They did a full-on, like, face off. Like, ceremonial puck drop. He won it back.

He had to, like, call hockey Canada and, like, apologize for... That was, like, one of the funniest things. So, like, us and Brooks are absolutely going at it for the last two weeks. And now, like, we're doing that, like, just stupid. So funny. And then I had this one, or there was one this year, or last year. No, it was this year. Start of the year we were playing Alabama.

Neither of us had very good records. Alabama hadn't even won yet. And it was in Alaska. They beat us. So it was our first win of the year, and it was their goalie's first college win. So they're coming to get the puck after the game. And, like, I know, like, what they're, I'm kind of an idiot. Like, I'll do stupid things.

like, like, and I can see this guy coming to get the puck and it's like near us and, uh, I, like, I, like, I, like, knock on the glass to a fan and I chuck it over the glass gone. The puck's gone and this kid's, like, mad. Like, it's starting like a scene, like, so dumb. And, uh, the ref comes over and, like, gets, uh, the ref comes over and gets, uh, the fan to throw the puck back over the glass. Really? Through the puck back over to the kid.

So, um, I'm like standing there watching this all unfold. Like I kind of started it and then just kind of dipped out. And Marino, same guy. He, uh, he did like a jump ball, like a basketball jump ball with the kid. And he won it back to like our side. One of our guys picked it up. After he throws the puck over.

So like the person threw the puck over the glass. And these two kids jumped up for it after the game and like tipped it back. One of our guys picked the puck up, put it in our goalie's glove. And I haven't, don't, I have no idea where the puck is to this. day no idea and I kind of started all this so then after the game our captain came in and it was like that marino was an assistant captain our captain came in and was like what are we doing like we need to show some class and like this and that and uh like all this so I'm like sitting there like oh my god what did I start and I he's going at it and they kind of like got into an argument

like a kind of a heated one and I'm like oh boy and uh so all this happens from us throwing a puck over the glass and the next day our coach comes in like it was like a friday night game and saturday comes in for video and he goes i need to address this and as soon as he said that i'm like oh this is for sure gonna be uh like about the puck thing it was apparently a puck was from over the glass last night and like they're pissed off about it and like we need to address it as a team and like see if we're classy and all this and that and then like the volunteer assistant coach comes up like he's a younger guy and he goes did you do it And I'm like, yeah.

I'm like, are they mad? Like, talking about the coaches. And he's like, no. He goes, they're not mad. They're laughing in there, but it was just funny. Like, my cousin, Connor James, he plays in Alabama. He's from Wainwright. Yeah.

And I have to get him on to hear his side of the story. But in the handshake, he goes, man, that was greasy. But I was just like something dumb. Like, oh, my God. What else he got for me? I know you're sitting on a couple of good stories that if you've been thinking about him. I have been thinking. and now I'm like hitting a blank.

I have to ask me here. Sure. Well, I got four fun questions. I may take us down very different roads. I do four. I do. I'll say four and then I'll probably ask ten. But I like doing the time machine question.

So if tomorrow I gave you a time machine, you could go to any, we usually stick to sports, but if you want to go somewhere else with it, you go somewhere else with it, but you could take a time machine to any event. Where would you go? That's a tough one. I think it would be like, it'd probably be straight back to, like, right after we won, like,

the RBC and, like, the party. Like, that night was so much fun. Like, I would replay that night, like, over and over again. Like, if I could, that would probably be the one. Maybe right to the final game. I don't know what the game. My hand was messed up, and I wasn't really, I was like, it sucks, but... Did your hand hurt that night?

Yeah, it hurt. It did, eh? Yeah. After it didn't. But, uh... No, I remember I couldn't even hold my stick. I was holding it with like my, it was my top, and I was swung with like my thumb and my pointer finger, and that was it.

I was just giving her. If you could have any two line mates, any two, could be Crosby and Gretzky for all I care. What two guys would you pick to play with? Well, growing up, I'm a weather fan, my favorite player was Alice Hamski, so I'm going to go with him, and I got to go with Connor McDavid, too. Hemsky and McDavid Hempsey and McDavid

And Hope Let's go I like Drew too He's a close one He's kind of the player I like look up to now Drew I like to like Claw

Yeah model my game He's like a leader And I likes to win And very skilled Gritty guy We'll do anything for his teammates I like that

But yeah McDavid got to love him And Hemsky's been my favorite growing up Since I was a little So McDavid

Like seeing that guy playing person is something, any hockey fan-shad experience. No, he's insane. Insane. He's on another level. Another level on the top level. Yeah.

Right? Like, ridiculous. Yeah. Insane. Who is the best player you've played with and against? With is a tough one. I mean, I played a lot of good players. Like up in Alaska, like I had Justin Woods and Zach Fry.

They both went on to play in the 8th. HL. West Colonna had a lot of good players that are, like, playing high Calver hockey, but I think I got to go with the goalie, Mac Greenfield. He was just an absolute stud, like, so good. Like, he was with the UFC Dino's last couple years. Yeah. And now he's, I think he signed with Springfield, maybe, in the HL.

Oh, wow, yeah. So he's doing really well. I mean, like, just probably one of the best goalies, like, I've ever played with and against. And then played against, I think. All the guys that are in the NHL, like the Jost, Fabro, Macar, Chaloski. Macar, that was the first I'd ever seen of Macar was in the playoffs there. Yeah, he's insane. That was insane.

He's a good player. We also played against Notre Dame, my freshman year in Norderdame, which was like an insane experience, beautiful rink, like right on campus. And they beat us. We didn't even score a goal. like unreal. We probably played them, but they were just, they scored,

we didn't. And they had a kid there, Anders Bjork, he played with Boston a bit. Yeah. And then their goalie, Cal Peterson. He played with the Kings this year a bit.

Yeah. They were both like another level, like in college for sure. What's the best college burn you played in? I was actually thinking with fans and atmosphere. I knew you're going to ask that. And like,

this year we played in Bowling Green once and they have like a smaller like three quarter bowl. with like a big screen at one end and a low tin roof and it was packed and it was literally the loudest thing we were in overtime i remember remember them like chanting and like banging on the glass and i remember like looking around and like thinking like this is absolutely insane like this is nuts like that was probably one of the coolest ones but uh man kato's up there too they have like a like an NHL like feel kind of rank it's like dark in the stands and like very bright and like the big screen and stuff so they have some like good fans that like

chant and stuff so that one is fun it's hard to like pick one like everyone's ever everywhere's so unique like like fair state i don't know if you know where that is but their rink is like a tiny little thing um where is that fair state that's big rapids michigan i think okay tiny rink but they again they pack it and they have like a huge student student section that's just like ruthless Like they'll have stuff up and warm up that you read and you start laughing It's like ruthless What's the best thing that a fan has done Like that you're just like

That's pretty good Oh my God that's kind of hard I'm gonna have to get back to you on that one When we went and played in Adrian The first year they played us I love student Like there's just something about college fans students You know when they sit there and think about it forever

We played against a guy's last name was Kruger. And there was a sign when I got there that said, Newman, Kruger's going to haunt your dreams or something. Something along that lines. And I skated by it and I was like, that was pretty good. And we got shelled by them. They were good. They went on a winter league that year.

There's been a lot of signs that, like, it makes you laugh. Like, you don't really remember. Like, I can't remember them. But a lot of the fans, like, a lot of the students are, like, really passionate. Like, they love their hockey. And that's kind of what they go to school. Like, some might, like, pick the school just to be, like, a fan there. So that's pretty cool.

That's kind of, like, what's so cool about college hockey is all the different atmospheres. If you could go back and hockey wasn't an option, what would you have tried playing? Like I said, like, for sport, I guess. Yep. Like I said, like, I wish I played more baseball. And, like, I've kind of gotten into baseball with, like, the Blue Jays and stuff. So, like, I don't know, I like baseball.

But I think golf, like golf is just, like, I like, I like, love it. I love going out and getting better at it. It's one of those things. It's like it challenges you every day. Like you can go anywhere and play. I mean, it's just so fun. Like I like to be challenged. Like, and I don't like anything to be easy and it's one of those things that like you have to be good or you're going to throw your clubs in the pond. It's so different too from hockey because you don't have anybody else to rely on. It's just you and you in your head. That's right. Yeah, it's a very challenging sport. Yeah. We do. I got one last one.

We do a game on here called Trade, Buy one out, and sign. So sign. Anyways, three players. And since you're an all their fan, I always pick the guy's favorite team. I'll give you three.

But I've done the Oilers so much because we're in an oiler hotbed. I'm still going to do the Oilers, but I'm going to go back a couple decades. And so I'm going to give you Gretzky, Messier, Paul Coff. You got to buy one out. I've got to trade.

trade one and you got to sign one long term and i'm i think he knows going to be signed long term i think i'm signing i think i'm signing greter long term um i seen a tweet the other day like his stats were just ridiculous absolutely he's first and then like he's fifth like with half his points or something it's insane so i'll sign him long term um probably trade messier get the most back for him and buy a coffee oh that hurts the defenseman in me Yeah.

Paul coffee is a stud. Yeah, he's a beauty, but... I mean, they're all studs who we can't. Messier is a horse, too, so... That's true. You probably get some return on him. You get return anywhere you go. That's the business in me, I guess.

College. Oh, cool. Well, I hope you've enjoyed it. I've really enjoyed having you here. Yeah, it was awesome. As your career progresses, you're more than welcome to come back on. For sure. Love to.

Yeah. I've been excited to come on. I know, since we talked and you said you were coming, I know there's been people. reaching out wanting to know when it's happening and that kind of thing and it's really cool here and all you like all you young guys where all you've all disappeared to different parts of the world hearing your stories and how things have been going and I'm sure here in the coming years as your career progresses more we'll get to hear some of that too and I look forward to it yeah for

sure thanks for having me yeah awesome cool awesome hey guys I hope you enjoyed Kyler hope he was a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to seeing where he goes, you know, what's next for him. He's obviously got to go back to University of Alaska Fairbanks and look forward to seeing how that works out for him and watch him where he goes next. Next week on the podcast, we're on the road to Calgary. We go down to see Lori Merseye, my brother Dustin, accompanies me, and we're going to discuss biking Canada. We did it back, three of us, in 2006. We biked across Canada in 69 days.

No, we were not avid bikers, not even remotely close. It is a very interesting story. It's one I wanted to capture now for a while, probably ever since it happened. I met Lori the day of us leaving, and the three of us flew to St. John's. And within the first hour of getting there, we had issues with bikes, and none of us were bikers. none of us did much training before we went it's quite a story so tune in next week to hear all about us biking Canada

until then guys