Shaun Newman Podcast - #29 - Cory Cross

Episode Date: August 14, 2019

On this weeks episode we interview Cory Cross who went from Junior B hockey to University to  being selected 1st overall in the 1992 NHL supplemental draft. We discuss: - NHL Supplemental draft  - U of A Goldenbears  - Tampa Bay  - Minor leagues

Welcome to the podcast. I'm excited about two new offers from the podcast. First off, we're actively open now for sponsors. So if you're interested in sponsoring any of the episodes on the podcast, send us an email at Sean Newman Podcasts, Gmail.com. Sean with the U. And we'll get you the details. Secondly, we're offering the podcast experience. For me, being able to interview my father and, And my brothers was a really cool experience on so many different levels. We talked about doing it for years and years and years and to finally have it come to fruition was surreal. I used the word surreal many a time on this podcast, but to have my brothers sit around and do a round table, and then my father to hear his story was awesome.

And I guess now I have peace of mind that if the unthinkable word, ever happened, I would still have a part of their story for generations to come. So what I want to do is offer that opportunity to you guys. If you've ever thought, listen to this or had the same thought I did, right? Like it'd be really cool to get grandma and grandpa's story or your parents or your siblings, your spouse, your kids. Essentially, what I'm offering up is the opportunity for the opportunity for the parents. podcast to come to you. So either you can come into the studio or I can come out to you guys

and essentially come capture you guys a story. There's three mics that come along with it, myself and three mics. We can have three on at a time, yourself. It's kind of open to what you guys are interested in and we'll try and capture some things for you so that if the unthinkable were to happen, you'd have the same peace of mind as myself. And if you're looking for a little added incentive. The first five people to sign up for the podcast experience, I'll give them 50% off. We'll make it nice and easy on you and try and give you the best

experience possible. And yeah, guys, I'm looking forward to it. This week, the Boundary Battle of Alberta, which sees the Calgary Flames alumni versus the Eminton Oilers alumni come to Lloyd Minster, September 28th, have been announcing their rosters. And this week, Calgary Flames have went with Dana Mersen, a defenseman drafted fifth overall in 1985 by the Hartford Whalers. A cool thing I dug up on him. He was a part of the Stanley Cup winning 1989 team of the Calgary Flames. But his second year in the WHL playing for Calgary Ranglers, he had 32 goals, 92 points, and led the entire dub in scoring.

92 points is a D-Man. Holy, holy, coolly. And he played 16 years in the NHL, so he had a healthy, healthy career. The Emmington Oilers have also gone with a defenseman. Doug Hicks, actually, who was from Cold Lake Alberta, he played back in the day for the Flynn-Flam bombers when they were a part of the WHL, but it wasn't the WHL, it was the WCHL, the Western Canadian Hockey League. he was drafted 1974, sixth overall by the Minnesota North Stars.

And he played 10 seasons in the NHL, three of which were, for the Emmons and Oilers, their first three years into the NHL when they were granted an expansion franchise or brought over, I guess, into the NHL. So that's the two guys brought up for the game, the Boundary Battle of Alberta, Calgary with Dana Mersen,

and Oilers with Doug Hicks to join the others. That's Saturday, September 28th. They're doing the double header. There's still tickets to the noon game, which you can get if you go to Boundary Ford in Lloyd Minster. They're $25 a piece. All the money is going to Project Sunrise, 100% of the proceeds, guys. So get over there and grab a tickets while they're still available.

I want to give a shout-out to Ken Rutherford and Ken Rutherford Appraisal Group. Ken was, if you've been following along the podcast, was the first guest I had. He was the pilot episode, and the backstory to that is he let me, while together we destroyed a room in his office. It was an old storage room. We got it and then refurbished it

so that is now what you see is the podcast studio. And he, without question, he let me come and bring guys at all times the night to do these podcast episodes. and Ken is just the best. So if you're looking for a guy to do some appraisal work for you, give Ken a call. His number's 306, 307, 1732.

He is one of the best. A couple of shutouts this week. Colin Ringett had said one of my favorite episodes he was talking about last week's Kenny Morrison and Lyndon Springer. We had a blast talking with those two guys. It was awesome. And wish them the best of luck. If you haven't listened to that one, I highly suggest you go back one and listen to last week's episode.

The other one was a shoutout on Twitter from Shane Tamare. It said, I'm a little late to the party, but I've been catching up on the Sean Newman podcast. Have to say as a fan, broadcaster, board member, and former Billet, it's been informative, interesting, and all around entertaining. If you're a fan of junior hockey, I can't recommend it enough. Great work, Sean. So thanks to you both. As I always say on here, I appreciate all the feedback. Love hearing from you guys.

and it's always nice to hear that people are enjoying what we're talking about. So thanks again. If you're wanting to get a shout out or you want to let me know something, reach out to us, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, search the Sean Newman podcast, let me know your thoughts. If you're liking it or if there's something you want to see, a guest you want to see on here, by all means, let us know. If you're wanting to get on the email list, once again, those three platforms just send us a message or email us again, Sean Newman Podcast at gmail.com.

You can let us know if you want to get on that email list. There's some cool things going on there, some little bit behind the scenes. Now, for this week, we have former first round draft pick of this NHL supplemental draft, which no longer happens, but of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Corey Cross. He was fantastic,

and I'm not going to sit here and tell you the whole story. I want you guys to hear it. It was awesome to sit across from Corey, so without further ado. All right, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. I am joined by ex-NHLer superstar, Corey Cross. Thanks for having. I know about it's superstar, but thanks for having me here. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, thanks for coming. You're my first, well, actually, that's a lie. I'd skip Craig on probably five to ten episodes ago. So you're my second NHLer. Nice, nice. Yeah. Well, you go from the oldest to keep working down the ages, I guess. Well, we were just talking about it.

You played 12 years, over 600 games. You played for my favorite NHL team, and you played with two my, well, no, my two favoriteest hockey players of all time, although one was a cup of coffee, one guy, you played multiple seasons, Ryan Smith and Emmington. Okay. And Stevie Y in Detroit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm really excited to have you.

Yeah, good. Well, I'm excited to be here. I'm back in Lloyd for a couple days, so it just worked out good timing. Well, I won't beat around the bush. I really want to go back to, with all the guys I start out, I want to go back to your younger years, how you got started in hockey, and if you got started right away, or if it took you until an older age,

whether it was your brothers and you, your dad pushing you, outdoor rink, that kind of thing. I just want to go right back to when you first got on the blades. Yeah, and I think I just got into hockey because my other brothers that play hockey, and my oldest brother, Dale, is 10 years old. to me. So he was playing some, you know, higher level hockey. Went to Waver and Red Wings, I think, as a 15-year-old or 16-year-old. So, you know, I was about the time where I started five or six,

I started and always looked up to him as my, you know, my superstar in my eyes, right? And watching him in the SJHL and then in the Western League. So grew up watching him. I remember always having the point race with him. And I didn't realize that time. His job wasn't the score points, but I was thinking I was pretty cool because I was beating him in points every year. But he was more of a fighter and a forcer back then. But yeah, I just got into hockey. And my middle brother, Glenn, he started actually coaching after he was done his minor hockey. He got in the coaching ranks. So he was always coaching either a team ahead of, you know, ahead of me or or he was coaching me, either as an assistant,

and then he was my last head coach in midget. You got coached by your head coach was your brother? Yeah, yeah. My last year midget here in Lloyd was, Glenn was the head coach of the team. Now, is this the famous midget year that Morgan Mervman always talked about? That's right. Yeah, it was a famous year.

We had a mishmash of guys and end up having a pretty good team. We didn't think we were going to be all that good, but we had some good chemistry. Everybody got along really well, and a lot of those guys are still good friends. And refresh my memory, why was that such a special year? Did you guys go on and win that year? No, we didn't win anything.

No, we just, you know, it was just a fun year. We just had a really good group of guys, Warren Noble and Morgan Man. They brought the comedy. And, you know, things happened that year, too, like Jody Pollard, another buddy of ours. He had broke his neck that year, and he was one of our top, he was, if not our top player. And so a lot of things that happened that year. and we just kind of clicked some guys who hadn't played at that high of hockey. Doyle Landry, Shane Snydle, Lee Sauer,

they never really played high-level hockey or the top teams, and they were on a line, and they just jelled and a lot of other guys who just, it was a real mishmash of guys. But, yeah, it worked out really well. I'm curious, I always bring this up with every day. guy that comes on. Back then, were you playing hockey around? Were you playing other sports? What did you do in the off season, I guess? Well, I get asked that a lot because of my success. And, you know, obviously parents, I'm coaching young kids now and parents are all asking me, you know, did you

play other sports? I said, no, I played road hockey and I played ice hockey. And then if I had to play, I played grass hockey. Like, I was hockey. It was. It was. you know, in my eyes, I was, you know, 365 days of the year, but I was other running. I wasn't skating on the ice that much, but I was, I was a hockey player. I was doing everything hockey. Played one year of baseball when I was, I don't know, I think it was 12 or 13. Really cut into my parents' camping time, so my dad eliminated that from my spring program. But, yeah, it was just hockey. And it was kind of funny. But I was a, I was a, I was a, I was a good athlete.

I mean, we'd get the guys. We'd go play flag football or football in front of the comp. And, you know, playing lots of sports, whatever it was. But nothing organized on my end. So I kind of, yeah. But I was an athlete. I was good at track and field when I was younger in junior high and played on the volleyball team in junior high.

I was going to say with your height, you had to have played volleyball or basketball or something. Well, I wasn't that tall. It wasn't that tall in junior high. I didn't actually grow until grade 11 and grade 12. I think I grew like between 6 to 8 inches somewhere in that, in like a 2 to 4 year span. Yeah, but how tall are you?

6.5, just over 6.5. So 6 to 8 inches, you're still, well. Because I was, it's funny, I look at my grade 9 grad picture, and I'm the second last guy from the end in the back row. And so I'm guessing I was probably 5, 7 or 5, 8 maybe, you know. somewhere around there and then. You're saying you were my height in grade 12. Grade 9.

Grade 9. Early right, everyone's laughing right now. Maybe I was shorter than that. I don't know how tall I was, but in grade 12 I was, you know, back real middle.

Like I was 6.3 and a half. And I grew another two inches after high school. No kidding. Yeah. That's unbelievable. Yeah. So I was a real, really tall, really skinny,

late bloomer, you know, and, um, it's, It's funny. My son's going into pee-wee this year, and I was thinking back of my pee-wee career, and he obviously, he wants to play on the West Cologne top team,

and I was thinking whatever, where I played my first year of Pee, and I played on a Pee-Wee-B team, and we ended up playing Pee-Wed D Provincials, and we won the Provincials that year, and that was my minor hockey highlight. So I was thinking, you know, my idea of it doesn't even make the top team. It's not that big of a deal. It's not the world. No, no. So it's interesting.

how you look back. I looked back at my minor hockey career, and obviously in Loy, there was, you know, there wasn't a lot of opportunity. You just played where you were, and you just had fun and did the best you could. Do you ever remember anything about the Bannum draft at that time back then?

Well, there wasn't a Bannum draft. There was, you just got, the Western League teams just, they didn't encourage you, they protect you. They had protected, protection. Protection lists. And Jason Plandowski, Danny Hagarth, myself, actually all went to Regina Pats camp.

I think that was after our second year peewee going into Bantam. But then I never got asked. They actually put me on defense, and I was a centerman at that point. You were going to play center. Oh, yeah, yeah. Did you like the switch then, or do you miss playing forward? Well, I play forward now. I'm back to my original position in the Thursday Night Hockey League,

in Colonna. And I'm a terrible forward now. Terrible. But, you know, I think it helped me with seeing the ice. Help definitely my offensive skills playing forward and then moving to defense. Because I moved to

defense in my third year of Bantam here in Lloyd. I played three years of Bantam because it adjusted the ages then. Yeah. So it was just a lucky thing. We didn't have enough defensemen for an inter-squad

game and evaluations and so they pushed you back to defense and then all of a sudden you just stuck yeah yeah yeah a guy named john john stuart was my coach then and and and he came after me after he was like you want to just play defense and so i actually played a little i played half the year defense and then danny hagarth played a little bit of defense that year too we switched back and forth back and forth but then after that i was defenseman from from then on and did you uh did you miss playing forward or have you always enjoyed defense? No, you know what? I figured out I was a better skater backwards

than I was forwards. So it was just a natural fit and I could see the ice really well. Not to mention you'd have a hundred foot reach. Well, I did after I grew all those inches. Yeah, well, true, true, yeah. But yeah, you know, I kind of, when I was on forward, I was, yeah, I just wasn't the fastest

skating fastest forward skating guy but backwards i could skate really really well and and always my um my my best attribute was reading reading plays and seeing the ice and and i just just kind of realize that when i moved on the fence so i got to ask then where does you of a come i'm saying to off air i've heard this story forever that you went from playing rec hockey and all of a sudden you're playing for the golden bears yeah is that that you're playing for the golden bears yeah is that Is that any remotely true? That is true, yeah. So my last, so after my first year of midget, I tried out for the Blazers, got cut,

went back, played midget here in Lloyd. But I had already graduated high school because I was 1970. I was born January 3rd, 1971, but I went to school with all the 1970s. So I graduated high school and I had one more year of midget. And my parents had me on a scholarship program they had been putting in. and since I was a kid. And I could take one year off of high school, but then I'd have to join a secondary school

to get that scholarship money, a college or a university. And so after my second year midget, I only had one offer from Brandon. And I don't know how, I don't think it was all that serious of an offer to come to training camp. And Lloyd was asking me to come play for them, but I didn't want to miss out on this money. And so I just decided, you know, I'm just going to go to university and quit hockey actually.

And by money, you mean what your parents have been saving for you? Yeah, they were putting me on like a scholar. I ended up being probably, I don't know, close to 10 grand, I would think. Yeah. So I just quit hockey, went to U of A and took ice hockey class. I was going into education, going to become a teacher in my Zed program. You had to take activity courses. to learn how to teach kids sports, right?

Volleyball, basketball, all different activities, and ice hockey was one of them. So I figured I was going to miss hockey a bit, so I took this course and started skating in the course. And then I realized I was really missing hockey. I wanted to play some more. So Billy Moores, who was the coach of the Golden Bears that year, he was the instructor, and I asked him,

if there was a place I could play. And he's like, wow, there's a shirt park. Crusaders, there's Fort Saskatchewan, there's St. Albert team. And I said, well, I don't have, I didn't have a car. I lived right across the street from campus at that time and didn't have a vehicle. And so I told him that and he's like, well, I got this junior B guy's name and had this Willie Rollman's name and business card, gave it to me. I took it home. I called up Willie and said, hey, you know, I'd like to come out and trial for your team. But I don't have a vehicle. I have somebody come pick me up, and one of the players picked me up and went to the first evaluation.

And it was obvious to me. I was going to make the team. I mean, I was a pretty good player. But I needed a car, so my roommate was Jody Pollard, who had to take the year off because of his neck, but the doctors gave him a clear bill of health. And I said, let's go play on this team. So we did. And we ended up having an unbelievable. Junior B team. Like there was probably probably could have three or three to five guys should been playing in the Western League that year and probably another you know could have been six to eight guys playing could have been playing Junior A but we were all going to university and they're all actually all these guys were buddies and there was a few guys from

out of town we just joined this team and we just cleaned up our whole the whole year we cleaned up on all the other junior B teams in Edmonton. Unfortunately we went to provincials and we lost in the semi-final and We were just, we're in all that in greater shape because we didn't take it very seriously. And Jody always bugs me. That was my fault because I gave the puck away in the semis. And they tied it up with, I don't know, 10 seconds left or something. And they won an overtime.

I can't remember the team. Yeah, I'm not sure who the team was. But then after that year, Billy said, you know, you should come try out. and he actually asked quite a few guys on that team to come try out. And me and another guy named Scott McDonald, we actually made the Bears from that team. From Junior B. Yeah.

A little far cry from rack hockey. Yeah, yeah, it was Junior B. But it was, you know, back then, you know, it wasn't just Western League teams that CIS teams scouted. It was Junior A and obviously this Junior B team. So I made the Bears as an eighth defenseman. and played 10 games that year and just pretty much practice with the team

and that was a huge experience. I mean, just getting stronger. I mean, like I said, I was really tall and thin and didn't have a lot of strength than just practicing with a high level. Yeah, a high-level team like that. And working out that summer, Ian Herbers took me under his wing and we worked out all all summer.

and the next year I was top four defensemen. And we ended up winning the National Championship that year. And Tampa drafted me in the supplemental draft. You've gone way too fast. Oh, sorry. We just won a national championship. Let's talk about the national championship. Because that, I mean, U.S.A. now wins it quite often.

But back then, I mean, they were winning them, but not. No, I'm not like they are now. That was the first one in a few years anyways. It was, it was actually, yeah, I forgot about that. I mean, they had a real powerhouse team back when Randy Gregg was on the team. They won a whole bunch in a row. And then I can't remember when they won. It had been a few years since they'd won a national championship.

And the Calgary UFC dinosaurs were really strong that year. They had a lot of Western League guys. UvR. Regina had a really strong team. They had picked up a whole bunch of Regina Pats guys. and U of S always had a solid team. But our team was unreal. We had Ian Herbers, went on a coach with the Euters, went on for an NHL career, getting him with Garth Premack, who was 6-3,

and probably the most all-round, best all-round player on the team. He was drafted by Hartford, I think. And there was Serge Lerjouis, who was a real slick, Offensive Defense, he actually won the Canada West or Canada player of the year the next year for all of Canada. Oh, wow. And he was 6-1, and then we had another guy named Mike Moore. He was 6-3 and Stan Marpo who was just a fire plug, but he was probably the toughest guy of all of us. And we just had this huge defense, and it just was a huge part of our why we won.

And then on the fours line, we just had a ton of skill and probably the best player. in Canada at that time was a guy named Adam Morrison who who could have broke every record he wanted to he just if he felt like it he would do it and some days he's like ah I'll just pass to everybody this game but he was he could score at will so at that level but um yeah we went on to we I think we beat the dynos in a real real tight series is that always best of three and I'm pretty sure we we were down one game the first game we lost Second game, we scored a tide up in the last minute, and then won an overtime, and then the third game. Third game we won, I think, fairly easily, but I can't quite remember, and then beat U of S in the final.

And then went to... Just to back you up there, when you're playing U of S in the final, is that a best three? Best of three. So do you go to U of S for a game? No, whoever has home ice advantage, you play all three games, Friday, Saturday, and then... So did you guys have home ice advantage? We did, yeah. And was the fans there just nuts?

It was nuts then. It was crazy. The football team, they would all come to the games and they were chanting. And the football guys and hot guys are pretty tight. Yeah. And I remember almost their whole team was there. And it was just crazy in there. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

Was that your first taste of an environment like that? Oh, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, it was neat. It was neat. You know, they've always done a good job of marketing their team. there in Ebenson and yeah it's just a great building it's a great arena to to play in because

when there's that many people it gets real loud real fast so how many how many people would sit in that rink well I think they get around 2,200 I think 2200 going nuts yeah yeah yeah yeah lots of fun it doesn't take it doesn't have to be 20,000 to be loud those small little barns when they can just sit right on top Yeah, and you can hear every word coming. Those are usually the fun ones. Oh, big time. Yeah, as in just like we see in Europe, right? Yeah.

You're probably playing a few barns like that too. The Europe had the best chance. Yeah. Ever heard. Just crazy. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, then we went to, we went to Toronto from there,

and we beat, we had lost the Traw Riverier in the final the year before. And so they were the favorites, and we ended up beating them 9 to 1. In the semifinal, we beat them 9-1. Oh, yeah, tournament. Yeah. So back then it was just a semi-final and final, two games. Two games? Two games.

That was it. Yeah. So we beat Trawrieve-year, 9-1. I got the ninth goal. Yeah. Hey? All counts on the stage. Yeah, exactly.

And then, yeah, and then we beat, who did we beat? Oh, Acadia in the final. Acadia in the final. Four to one. Was Morg playing out there yet? Morgan was a, he was a, yeah, he didn't play. He was like a, he was an extra guy there. But he was on that.

He was on the team, yeah. Because the next year they win it then? They beat us in the semis and then went on to win. The next year? Yeah, it was the exact opposite. They beat us in the semis, they spanked us pretty badly. Well, how cool was that being at a tournament where you know a guy that you played with a minor hockey season?

Yeah, yeah, it was neat, yeah. And, you know, we had kind of lost track of each other. And I knew he'd gone out east. Oh, wait, you didn't have social media back then? Yeah, no media. No cell phones. Yeah. So we hadn't talked to each other for a while.

So that was really neat to see. Yeah, I don't think anyone, I have a hard time fathoming that now, not understanding where your buddy is, right? Yeah. It's just, it's so like. He's right there. He's right there. Anytime you want.

Yeah. Anytime something big happens to you, everybody in the world knows. That's right. Yeah. Which sometimes good things and bad. It's good and bad. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

So, yeah. So we, yeah, we had a great year, winning the national championship. And the summer started, and I heard rumblings that I might get picked in this supplemental draft. It was back then, it was, there was only the team.

Supplemental draft only ran for like 12 years, right? And it ended right around the time you got picked. Yeah, just a few years after. It ran a few years after I got picked. And it was more for a college, it was a college draft. Yeah, right? And it was because the guy named Adam Oates, you heard of Adam Oatsy, and another guy got huge free agent deals coming out of college.

And so they decided they better put this draft in to stop that. And all the teams used to pick. They used to always have a pick and a few picks. So I think there was a few rounds of it. And then it just got dwindled down, dwindled down. the year I got picked, there was only the teams that missed the playoffs, got one pick. And that was it. So.

Why would it matter if teams got one pick or four picks? Like, why do away with a supplement in the draft? Because right now they're signing guys. Yeah, it's right back to where it used to be. Yeah. And there's lots of talent coming out of them. Absolutely. Yeah, they probably is a better time now to do it than was back then.

But who knows, it might bring it back. They're trying to limit costs and all these free agent guys. Yeah. So, but yeah, for sure, that's a lot more U.S. college guys coming out now than they're I read you were one of 11 guys to play out of the supplemental drafting system. You're one of 11 guys to make 100 games in the NHL. Oh, really? There's only 11 of you.

And then dwindling talent is what it said is why they got rid of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting, hey. Now look at the U.S. college guys. It's just friends. On the, out of the 11, I mean, you got to be one of the top guys at 600 plus games. Yeah. Like, that's a pretty dang good career in my books.

Yeah, no, I didn't think that was going to happen. So what do you, like, I highly doubt this supplement, maybe I'm wrong, and you can, so you get past the actual entry draft. Were you even worried about the entry draft? Well, there was rumblings that I might get picked, but I never did. So were you, like, following it that year? Did you have a party and watch the TV? No, no, there was none of that. No, there was none of that.

No, it was just open up the newspaper the next day and see who got drafted, right? And I never did. I never heard, you know. Did you have an agent at the time, Corey? Not at that time. No. No, not at that time. I got an agent, like my first, I guess my second season with the Bears.

Okay. I got an agent, yeah. So when the supplemental drafts going, Now you got some rumblings that maybe you're going to get taken? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I knew something was probably going to happen. Yeah. I didn't know what Tampa was going to pick me, though.

I can't remember who the other team was, but they had third pick, I think, and I thought they might pick me, but Tampa picked me. The head scout, he was telling me later that he went to scout the Scarf Pre-Mack, who is my defense partner, and he had gone to the national championship to scout Garth and saw me and they picked me. What was the feeling like getting picked by Tampa Bay? Heck, getting picked to the NHL, let alone Tampa Bay.

Well, kind of a funny story. And Jody Pollard comes up in a lot of my stories. Him and I were pretty much best friends. And him and I were out on a little bit of a binge, a little bar hop in the night before. and ended up at a house party. And we had to get home. So I ended up, he borrowed the guy's bike that we were,

I can't remember whose house we were at, but he borrowed that guy's bike, and I had Jody's bike, and Jody's a lot shorter than me. So we biked home, and my mom woke me up. It was about 7.30, 8 in the morning, and I wasn't feeling too good. And mom's like,

there's somebody on the phone for you. I'm like, who's that? You know, gruff, gruffle voice. And she's like, hey, it's Tampa. I'm like, what? So I get on the phone and it was Tony Esposito. Tony Esposito. Tony Esposito.

Yeah. And he's like, hey, it's Tony Esposito. And we just picked you number one in the supplemental draft. And, you know, and I'm like, I'm like, still hung over to the kills. I'm like, oh, that's great. I don't even know what I said. And I just said, okay, thanks. And I guess they probably said, oh, well, you know, get back to you and get some information from you.

And hang up with the phone. My mom's like, what happened? I said, oh, I got drafted by Tampa. And she was like, well, that's, no way. She goes, no, yeah, I'm going back to bed. So I try to go back to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I just lied there. I was pretty excited and got up and started calling the guys and said, hey, let's,

Let's meet at the wayside at noon. That's awesome. So what was the old wayside bar there? The oil pad? What's it called? I can't remember what it was called. I need somebody sitting beside me. There were some girls dancing there.

Yes. So that was the only place. Yeah, that was the only place that was, I think, open at that time and seemed like a logical place for guys to meet and have a cell. Celebration. Look up everybody in the phone book. Yeah, yeah. Send out a group text.

That's awesome. So you celebrate it, but then what happens? Do you start training for it? Do you go down to Tampa? Oh, yeah, this is funny how the stories come out. So I'm in, so they're going to invite me to the training camp. And so I was in the summer, in the summer I'm there. I'm working at the UVA hockey school, working out, getting ready for camp.

Because you, CIS guys can go to an NHL camp and they can come back. Okay. Unlike a U.S. college kid. Unlike the NCAA. Yeah. And so the doorbell rings. And I answer the door and it's a UPS guy or FedEx. And he's got a package for me.

And it's from Tampa. It's from Tampa Lightning. And I'm like, oh, thanks. And he goes, well, it's 30 bucks. And I'm a, like, I'm a college kid. I have zero cash on me. I don't have a credit card, nothing. No tap.

No tap. No nothing. And I'm looking at this guy, I'm like, what do you mean? It's 30 bucks. He goes, well, it's COD. I've never been delivered anything. I didn't know. A COD?

What are you talking about? It's like, it's cash. You know, you've got to pay me for the cost here. And I didn't have 30 bucks on me. Didn't have 30 bucks. Nobody had 30 bucks. And I'm like, that's ridiculous. So what happens is?

So I sent it back. I said, I don't want it. Just send it back. So they sent it back. You didn't take a look at what it was? I think it was a Jersey. It was a Tampa Lightning jersey for being drafted. And I just sent it back because I couldn't pay for it.

So I had no options in my head. I was just dumb college kid. I didn't know I could come back and pick it up later or whatever. And I remember the headscout called me a few weeks later. He's like, hey, how are things going? And I said, yeah, they tried sending a box to me. I couldn't pay for it. So I sent it back.

And he started laughing on the phone. He was, those cheap bastards, they sent you something, COD. And I'm like, yeah. So that was the end of it. Never heard the end of the, never heard what happened or nobody ever talked about it again. Did you get the jersey at least at something? No, well, I got a jersey. Got a jersey, but not that jersey.

Yeah, yeah. And then, and then, you know, Tallas Tampa's first year in the league. In the league, yeah. In the league, yeah. Expansion year. Yeah, and so they were going to have me to the training camp, but then they realized that I was going, I told them I was going back to U of A to finish up my last year. And so right at the last minute, I think it was like a week before I was supposed to leave. They just said, you know what, we're just going to, you know, we'll just forget about training camp. We'll just come watch you and keep on you during the year and see you next year kind of thing.

So that's what happened. So you go and finish your U of A career. Yeah. And then it's the following summer that you head down south to your first training camp at the Tampa Bay Lightning. Well, so after my... Can I just before we move on from... I love the names, because you get to play a couple of games with these guys

after your U of A year, right? Yeah, so at the end of my year at U of A, they wanted me to go to Atlanta and play with their farm team. Yes, yes. The Atlanta Nights. The Atlanta Nights. And I signed a 25 game tryout. That's kind of what they do, what did back then.

And I think they still do that, actually. And so I went to all my teachers, right at the end of March, and said, hey, I'm turning professional. And I need to move my exams to June. And they're like, yeah, absolutely, just defer our exams. So I got all that done. But I was taking this gymnastics class. I was saying I had to take these activities. courses. So here's a 6-5 skinny skinny hockey hockey tank gymnastics. It's just terrible.

Just terrible. Couldn't do the splits. Couldn't do a headstand. Nothing. And I had to do a high bar swing to get a four, to get a passing grade, a 50% grade. And I said to the, said to the instructor, I said, I'm leaving for Atlanta tomorrow. I have to do this high bar swing. You and then I can, you know, then I got my four and I can leave. So he got me on there, did the high bar swing, and I don't know if I did it properly, but he said, yeah, it's good enough. Carry on.

Gave me a check mark, and I was going to Atlanta the next day. People pay a lot of money probably to see those videos, but you're trying to do all that gymnastics. Oh, yeah, it was terrible. Just terrible. I was laughing. I looked up the inaugural Tampa Bay Lightning Team, and the names that I saw on it are just awesome.

Peter Kleema, Bob Beers Yeah Darren Pupa Mark Bergeman Yeah Roman Hammerlick Yeah

I mean I got the entire list here But I got stories all those guys Like Bob beers I mean You've probably heard that Where they go get some Kelly Buckburgers And Bob Bearders and Bob Beard's like that little And I'm like Bob Beers must play back in the 70s

Right like I don't remember Bob beers He actually does the color for the Bruins Does he? Yeah. Yeah, he had been. I'm pretty sure he still does it. He probably is. I think he does the radio or the TV for the room.

Well, needless to say, I had no idea he was still in the league when you were in there. I started looking into this. I'm like, Bob Beers still played. Like, are you kidding me? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, pretty solid defenseman, actually. Yeah? Yeah.

With the greatest name. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, going for some beers. A beers. Absolutely. Yeah. So what was it like going to your first training camp down there? Or actually, your first games because you signed 25 game trial.

Yeah. I played five, what I played, or maybe around 10 games of Atlanta to finish the year off. And, you know, they already had an established team. We went in the playoffs and I didn't play in the playoffs at all. I just watched and practiced. And we ended up losing, I think, in the second round. And it was, you know, just kind of, just some good experience for me. Did you see a noticeable difference in the game coming from CIS going to?

Oh, for sure, for sure. I remember when I traveled down to Phoenix, this was kind of another funny, cheap, didn't have any money story. I flew into Phoenix thinking that somebody was from the lights was going to be there to pick me up at the airport. And they had sent me an itinerary. And they had faxed the it to me and I didn't really, I didn't know, I just left it. I was like, yeah, okay, I know they'll be at, they're supposed to practice this time. I'll just get to the rink when I land and and off we go, right? So I land, there's nobody there.

There's nobody there to pick me up. And I have just enough money on me to get a cab, and I wait because I think they might be late. So I wait for a while, nobody shows up. So I'm like, well, go to the rink, get a cab, go to the rink, spend all the money, all the cash I have to get to the rink, and they're not there. And the rink is empty.

And so I'm talking to the rink. and I'm like, hey, where's the nights? And he's like, oh, they canceled their ice and they're having a golf day. And I'm like, oh, I got to get to the hotel. And a guy named Jim Thompson and Phil Croke, they were playing with the Phoenix team. And they came out, and they saw me standing there.

And they're like, oh, what's going on? And so I introduced myself. And Jim was an Emmettin guy, so he had heard of me. And he said, oh, yeah, we'll take you the hotel. So they took me to the hotel. And they got set up in the room. and waited for the night guys that come back. So I was almost stranded at the rank with no money.

So I saw Phil Crow years later, and I said, Philly, I owe you big time. You saved my bacon? Yeah, exactly. So we had a good laugh about that. And, yeah, but it was noticeably guys stronger, guys were bigger, faster. It was very noticeable, and I knew I had to work real hard that summer to get up to speed to that level. So what did you do that summer in particular when you came back? Was it, did you stay in Eminton training?

Yeah, I just stayed in Edmonton. Again, I worked at the hockey school for money, and Ian Herbers took me under his wing, and he was turning pro there too. He was playing in Edmonton with their farm team. He just took me under his wing and said, hey, we're doing this, and we just trained all summer and skated with a lot of the NHL guys there.

conditioning camps and just getting ready, just like guys do now. So enough I went to training camp after a tough summer of working out. So is this year you make the Tampa Bay Lightning Nets? So no, I got cut. I had a real good training camp. Mano Niroem was playing that. I scored two goals on Manoan Rialm and I ended up being one of the top scoring defensemen in the inter-squad games.

I kind of thank Manon for that. because I scored a couple goals on her. Probably wouldn't have gone in on any other goalies there. But God recognized. They were like, who's this guy? Like, I came out of nowhere, right? And got in a couple exhibition games. Didn't play very poorly.

The first game was super nervous. And then the second game played okay. But it was just obvious. I wasn't ready. And I got sent down to back to Atlanta. I got to ask, what was, and I don't know, maybe you can tell me. What is a fonder memory, the first exhibition game you had?

Or was it more serious when it was the first regular season game you get called up to? Yeah, well, I remember the first regular season game way more than the first exhibition game. Yeah. Yeah, I don't remember too much, but the exhibition game. So, yeah, it wasn't real all that eventful. I was just, you know, when you're in that, you're probably having you too. like you go somewhere and it's just a haze like you're just like it happens things happen and then you look back like what just happened like you know you don't even have like it just like wow that

just went by and gone and didn't really even have any time to soak it in right so yeah it was kind of one of those experiences um but then so i went yeah i went to atlanta and that was my first real taste of pro hockey you know a full season um of pro hockey and And it didn't go well. Like I, the coach wasn't a big fan of mine. I mean Gene Uriaco was a real old school coach. And he wanted me fighting. You know, he wanted me, you know, I was just kind of feeling myself.

I looked back and like, I was just feeling myself out. I didn't know what to expect. Homestick for sure. Like, first time I was ever away, a huge city, millions of people, Atlanta. and didn't really, you know, didn't know anybody on the team, obviously, and just, it just things weren't going very well. And I found out that there was myself, Jason Ruff, and Eric Chiron. We were Tampa's three main prospects.

And Gene wasn't playing any of us. He was sitting us out or we were playing sparingly, and he was lying to the Lightning. He had been telling them that we had been playing. playing and he was trying to promote these other guys and they found out and they fired him we were we were we were number one in the league and they fired him and about halfway through the year and they brought on a guy named john paris junior and first black hockey coach professional hockey coach really yeah and they brought him on and told him that hey you got to play these guys so he started so he started playing us and um you know and then things started going a lot

better. And then Eric, Eric, Sharon got called up for five games. So in their last 10 games, they called him up for five. And then the last five games, they called up myself and Jason Ruff. And like I said, the first game was memorable for me. Playing against Pittsburgh was my first game. So who would have been on the other side against for me? So this was the year they just had got upset by Tampa. They had won two years, prior the Stanley Cup and they got upset or they got upset by the Islanders sorry David Volex had scored on a long time ago it's a long time Islanders upset them in in a game seven and but they had Lemieux Francis

Yager Yager Stevens Rob Brown um Larry Murphy yeah holy crap it was their Stomby Brass on then he might have been playing yeah it was their Stanley Cup team right And I remember Wayne Cashman, it was our de-coach, and I was playing with the guy named Sean Chambers, another. I think he was drafted in the Southern Idol draft. And he said, you guys are playing Yager, Francis, and Joey Mullen. That's who you're playing against tonight. I was like, holy shit. So I remember stretching, stretching.

I was just staring at them. I'm like, wow. Are you kidding me? I am here. and my very first shift, I crushed Joey Mullen. With one of the best body checks, I threw my whole career. He was coming down my right side, and I just stepped into him and just crushed him,

just labeled them. And then my second shift, I got scored on. So I went from having a great first shift to say, it wasn't my guy, but I always say that wasn't my guy. And I have video evidence that wasn't my guy, but they'd tick-tac-toe. There was like three behind the back passes and in the net, and I was minus one after two shifts, and then they show.

And, yeah, but I went on, I played really well. I played really well with those five games. Where was your first game at? Was it at home? It was in Pittsburgh. So we're all in the road. We went Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Toronto, Montreal, all those old rinks. Yeah.

And then back to Tampa for the season finale. for the season finale. So what was it like sitting on the bench or trying to cover guys like, like, well, Francis, Yager, Mullen. Yeah, you just, I mean, fortunately I was big and I could skate pretty well back then. And, you know, so that wasn't,

I just used that to my advantage, right? It was good positioning and just hope they, hope you got in the way of their passes and got your body in front of them and hauled them down and hooked and held and all that. A little different game than now, right? All that stuff went was okay. So that was right up my alley.

I was actually watching highlights today when you were playing in Toronto against Ottawa in 2001. Yeah, yeah. And some of the stuff the refs let go back then is awesome, right? Like, it's such a different game now. Yeah, it was totally different. Totally different. Big guys ruled the game back then, right? Yeah, and now you can't, well, you can't do half the stuff you guys did.

Yeah, exactly. What do you think about with the game now compared to when you play? Do you think it's better? It is better. I mean, the talent is... Well, you can't argue with the talent. Talent's unbelievable. Kids now are just so talented.

It's crazy. I sometimes think it's too fast. I think it's too fast for some fans to watch. Follow the puck, especially on TV. But, I mean, it's just, it's entertaining. Yeah, they have to tweak some of the stuff, like the stuff we saw in the playoffs. They have to figure things out where what kind of team you're trying to build, right? It's kind of, and I heard the guy on the radio say, you know, you're building your team for the regular season so you make the playoffs.

So you have skill, you have fast, skill guys, and then the playoffs come, and the refs where you seem like they change the way they call the game. And as you saw in the finals, big, strong, big strong defensemen. All changes. know, physical forwards, it totally changed from the regular season. Regular season, you hardly see any hitting. And then all of a sudden the playoffs, it just, and then they don't call all that stuff, right? So they got to, somehow they got to figure that out on, you know, because GMs, teams, they don't know how to build their team, you know, how you build the right team, right?

So, yeah. But, I mean, yeah, it's better now, way better. There's so much talent in the game. The amount of talent is ridiculous. but you got to play with well you got you got to sit in your time you played with Tampa for six then Toronto for three yeah then New York for a cup of coffee yeah four months in New York and then Emmington for the mother's a stop at yeah lockout yeah that's three years they still called a year so three years there and then Pittsburgh Detroit yeah and in that time you get to play

with like just amazing people. I play with a lot of Hall of Famers. All those guys are going into the Hall of Fame. Now it's pretty, it's pretty, it's really neat. Yeah. Really neat to see. One of the guys I hope really gets in is Alexander McGilney. Yeah.

Probably the most talented guy I played with. And where did you play with him at? In Toronto. In Toronto. Yeah. Unbelievable skills. Like, ridiculous. And he, and he was a real team guy.

Like he adjusted his, his game to fit. teams like no a lot of people have given them credit for that they just think he was just an offensive guy I mean he he would kill penalties he would block shots like he he should be in the hall fame I really think he's one of those guys that they're missing

the boat on but but um you know the list is long Matt Sundeen Steve Eisen I mean just in that one time in Detroit like all those guys Lidschann Lidscham Shann Lidstrom Shann Eisenhan Eisenman Chelyos

but you do play in New York you get to play with Lindross when he's there. Messier. Messier. Picksburg with, well, Crosby and Lemieux was back at that point. Was he not? Yeah, he had quit before I got there. Oh, he quit before he got there. Yeah. Like it's, well my, excuse me, my first year with Tampa, Denny Savard was the big guy there. Oh yeah, Denny Savard, right. So he was like, he was, you know. Old Jofa bucket still? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that was my first dealing with, the first superstar, right? Yeah.

Great guy. Awesome guy. Did they, uh, I, um, this is why you're on because I have no idea the inner workings of it. Did you have to do anything as a rookie,

like buy dinner or did they put you through a couple of the paces as a rookie? Yeah, you have to buy dinner. That's the big thing in the NHL now, was buying, buying dinner for all the guys and whoever a rookie that year, you know, pitch your money in.

It's usually, usually a 5,000 limit. and yeah you just guys pick anything they want any wine that drink anything they want to drink do you remember do you remember uh your year we were in quebec city Quebec City Quebec City and um I got off lucky because back then the Canadian dollar wasn't very strong so we were and there was there was a few of us there and um I remember a few of the guys were already full so they they it was a short night for a few with the guys before they even got to dinner. So, yeah, I got off lucky.

I think I spent, I don't know. It was maybe $1,000. Yeah, how many other rookies on that team, or do you remember? How many were splitting with you? I think there was four or five of us. Oh, okay. Yeah, it was quite a few. Quite a few.

Yeah. And that was an second year in the league then. Yeah. And what was it like, I mean, everybody looks at Vegas now and sees what they've done and were able to do. But back then, it took probably seven years, five years, six years, six. years until you guys were competitive, yes? No, not that long.

We made the playoffs in 96. 96? 96. So, it was only four years. Four years, yeah. Yeah, we had a real, we had a good team. We had a really good team. Great power play run by Peter Clemah, Roman Hamillick.

Yeah. Guy named Brian Bradley, who was just a skilled guy as anybody, just was in the wrong era, right? He'd be an unbelievable player in the era right now. And those guys ran our powerplay. I mean, one-timers just galore from Peter and Roman, and those guys could shoot the puck. Peter probably one of the most pure goal scores I've ever played with. Put a puck anywhere he wanted to easily.

Yeah. And so we had a top five power play there, and then our penalty killing was top five as well. Oh, wow. Yeah. And me and a guy named Bill Holder ran the charge there, and Darren Pupo was our first. our goalie. Darren Pupa had a Vesna Trophy winning season. He was he was top three in the in the

voting for Vesna Trophy that year. Unbelievable. I had bad back though. Couldn't play all the games, but when he played, who was your backup day? We always won. J.C. Bergeron. So, yeah, things went south when J.C. was his, he didn't get, he didn't get a lot of help from us, But Darren was so good. Darren was just unbelievable. I've never seen a guy knock down so many pucks with a stick as a goal. He would just stand there. He couldn't go down because his back was always sore.

So in practice, he'd stand there and literally just knock all the pucks away with the stick. It was unbelievable. And, yeah, so we had, I think we had, we had a kind of run like St. Louis did. We were the second or third best team in the second half in 96 and made the playoffs. and had a killer be-killed series against the Flyers when they had the Legion of Doom and they were the number one team in the league. And going up against Lindrosse and Renberg and...

Johnny O'Clair and they had Brindemore, Joel Otto, Hextall, and Nat. What was that like? It was... Because that's Lindrosse in his absolute heyday. I don't know. I can't remember the goal. It wasn't Hextel.

It wasn't Hextol. I got to get that in. Lindrosse was unreal. He was the best player in the league. Hardest player to play against when he was back then. So strong. When he got mad, he could hit you like through the boards. Yeah, he was, you couldn't stop him.

And really hardworking player, when I played against him in New York, or with him in New York, he was always shooting. He was always out on the ice half hour before anybody else was shooting pucks and doing things. Yeah, he was a real hardworking guy. and but our series was it was just vicious it was just old time hockey and uh guys were getting hurt left right and center and it was a big reason why they didn't go on was was of that series it was because of that series they went and played florida the next year now or the next series and that was the year florida went to the finals with van beesbrook and that's right yeah and met uh colorado wasn't it yeah yeah

yeah exactly so florida beat them the second round Yeah, so. But yeah, and so we were real happy. You should just saw the people in Tampa when the playoffs started. So we played in the old baseball, where they play baseball now. It's called the Thunderdome. Okay. Back then.

29,000 people in our playoff game. 29,000? 29,000. Yeah, it still holds a playoff record for attendance. Wow. Yeah, it was unreal. And was it just nuts in there? Just not.

You can, we, so we went up two games. the one, Alexander Sullivan off, scored an overtime winner. You and I couldn't hear each other we were talking or yelling at each other. It was so loud. It was unreal. And then people were lined up after the games that were lined up. They had to put barricades there so people couldn't get. We actually get to our cars.

We probably had a 150-yard walk to our cars just the way it was set up. And people were lined up down the fences, like looking for autographs and stuff. It was crazy, crazy. That's something you don't hear up here. Or I know, well, I mean, in back then especially, because the media coverage wouldn't have been nearly what it is now, right? Yeah, yeah. It was unbelievable.

So here's a question then. You played in a lot of different places. Where has the best fans? I know you're sitting in Alberta country, and everybody wants to point to Amiton, but where was the best place you played for fan support? Well, you know, you can't be Toronto. I mean, I think Toronto was the best, you know, anywhere in Canada you went.

You felt like you were. Sorry, folks. I didn't mean to bring up Toronto. anywhere you went in Canada, felt like you're in a home game. There's nothing worse than watching, going to an oiler game. Yeah, yeah.

And you get out cheered by the Maple Leafs. That's right. They're just everywhere. Yeah. Die-hard fans, right? But they got the history with it too, right? Absolutely. You give 100 years to any team and we're coming up on 100 years, isn't it?

It's 100 years. Yeah, I think so. 1918? I'm not sure. It's right. We're close. If they aren't 100 years, it's, some Toronto fan is going to be all over me here when this comes out.

Because it's close. Yeah. Interesting. And you look at the Oilers on the other hand. What are they? 40 years? 79. Yeah, 79.

I think I played in the 75th. Yeah, it was the 75th anniversary of the least when I played. And that was 99, 2000? That was in, yeah, around 2000. So it's just shy of 100 years. Yeah. There you go. We figured it.

That's right. Yeah, I remember that. Nobody get too, man. Yeah. Yeah, and unfortunate, that 17th anniversary, they were announcing the top 75 players of Leaf history, I think, your top 25. And unfortunately, an older gentleman was representing his brother and passed away. He stepped on the ice. He was so excited.

He had a heart attack right there. What? Yeah. Yeah, we were all standing on the blue line watching these guys come out and he took one step on the ice. and went down. And the usher, there was a couple usherettes there, and they grabbed them, and they were able to get them back on the bench. They're all coming through our bench.

And the team doctors had been there to watch the celebration, and they were trying to resuscitate this gentleman. And they had to keep going on with the ceremony. It was all black. Nobody noticed. Nobody knew what was going on other than the players, and maybe some people that were raped. behind the bench because you couldn't see anything just a spotlight on the people right just

unfortunate incident um yeah we yeah we almost had a count we almost canceled the game but we we all we left the bruin's key i think was we're playing the bruin's and they came on the ice and we told them what had happened and then so we all went off the ice until they figured out what we should do and then they decided okay well let's keep playing so yeah just a terrible incident but but But, yeah. Holy man. So, but anyways, back to the fans. You know, all the original six teams, you know, diehard fans, like the Rangers, Detroit, Chicago.

Chicago, the Leaves, Montreal, you know, and, you know, Edmontons fans are right there. They're diehards, right? They want the best for their team, and they want a winner, and, you know, they'll do anything it takes. What was the most imposing building to go into? Like what building was like, ah, we're going into... Well, back then, Philadelphia was... It was pretty... I mean, they had a big, big strong team, and their fans were...

They didn't call it the Legion of Doom for nothing. No, and their fans were vicious, like vicious fans, yeah. But... I had, I had, I forget who asked, but somebody wanted to know what was the best chirp you've ever heard on ice. Oh, I don't know. That's a tough one. I don't know if I can think of that one now off the top of my head.

Oh, man, there's a lot that I can't repeat. Darcy Tucker had quite a few. I don't know if I get, I don't know. I can't remember. Those things that I don't remember. Yeah, sorry. Who was the, who is the, I don't know if it's best fighter or strongest fighter, but something along that lines, that you didn't have to, by no means, did you have to scrap?

But when you went into somebody's building or maybe he was on your team, who was the toughest guy? Well, there was always a handful of tough guys that you just. Because that was back in the day of the top guys. You really stayed away. I mean, I stayed away. You know, me being a big guy, they were like, yeah, well, I'll take you on, but I was like, I was too scared to fight those guys. They were scary guys. Who would that?

Tony Twiss, you know, Sandy McCarthy's. Didn't you play with Sandy McCarthy? Yeah, in Tampa. In Tampa? Yeah. You know, Donald Brashear was back then, well, every team had a few guys. Was Probert still playing back then? I think he might have played against Probert maybe in the start of my career.

I can't really remember. How about Ty Domi? Ty Domi was super tough. George Lark was maybe the toughest guy, though. Yeah, Big George. Like, it was really lucky that people, he didn't get mad. When he got mad, I saw him only get mad twice. and he absolutely obliterated those two guys.

He was just so happy, go lucky, just whatever. But he was the toughest guy I played with. You think it's a good thing that fighting's leaving the game? I think there's, yeah, I think it is. I still like to see it, though. I mean, I like the guys enforcing the game and controlling the game. You know, I've played in a league that doesn't have fighting

in the university. and the stick work and all that stuff, it just gets in the way. Yeah, everybody who has played college or university hockey always talks about all the stickwork because there's no repercussion for it. That's right, yeah. So, yeah, I do like a good fight.

Still like good fight. Love watching it. Yeah, and it's just, I think it's part of the game, but, you know, not a lot of people are leaning the other way. Well, now we're the complete of it. opposite of the spectrum is we got social media covering 12 different angles of everything, right? Right.

So anything bad that happens, whether it's a fight, a stick, a hit to the head, anything, you just get scrutinized so much now. Yeah. No, you know, it's, you know, you see guys get hurt in a fight. You never want to see a guy get hurt in the fight, but that's the risk of it, right? But you never want to see anybody get hurt any. Period. Period.

And you, but it's a physical game. Yeah. You can't stop it. Yeah. I mean, it is what it is. This is the game, and you chose to play. That's the risk you take, right? Yeah.

I wanted to, your last year in Tampa, going back to your plan. I love the top, a couple names on it. You got Darcy Tucker, who you get to play with a few times. Yeah. And then number two on the scoring list was Wendell Clark. What was Wendell Clark like? Awesome guy. One of the best guys.

Just, you know, he was just awesome. He came to our team, and obviously at the latter part, of his career. And I remember he was, I was still a young guy then, and he was always on the medical table and I was getting a hard time. And him and I joked about it years later, I was getting a hard time. You're always on the medical table. He goes, he just looked at me and said, you just wait. You just wait, your turn's coming. And sure enough, when I got older, you know, I was on the medical table a lot, but the guy was just heart, heart and soul of the team back then. And he was just having fun. He was having fun then. He realized his career was was dwindling and it was just,

it was just about having fun and he just had a great year. He scored, I think he, I think he ended up scoring 30 goals that year and he, he was our representative at the All-Star game. And I think we traded him to Detroit and he finished up in Detroit that year, I think. Okay. And then the next year, him and I played in Toronto again. In Toronto again, yeah. Well, a bunch of you guys from Tampa end up in Toronto. Yeah, yeah. It's funny how that work, but Wendell's always been a true ambassador. Like he, he does so much work in Toronto with the Leafs and being an ambassador for that team and that community. I mean, he's just,

he's God there. And it's no better guy to for kids to look up to than that guy. Just hardworking and just salt to the earth, a human being. How are we doing for time? Yeah, let me just call. Yeah, absolutely. We'll pause for a little bit. Just so everybody's aware, we're going to have to have a part too

because Corey's got to leave us all here soon enough. I'm putting the blame on you. Yeah, yeah. A tight schedule in a Lloyd. A couple other names that I have to throw out from your time in Tampa is Dino Cicerelli, Chris Grattan, Rick Tabarachi, Vincent La Cavier and Bill Rantford. Now, there's probably another 30 names for people or 60 names for people that they would say,

but those names really stick out to me. Like Dino Cicerelli, he would have been at the tail end of his career, I assume. Tail end of his career, yeah, for sure. He talk about a guy who can deflect a puck in front of the net and take a beating in front of that, like Ryan Smith, Craig Simpson, those guys. Those guys were good, but Dino was the best. he you could take 20 shots as hard as you could and he would get a piece of 19 of them like he would or 20 like it was unbelievable how good he was at that and he was just you know this little italian and just just a fire plug and yeah it was a lot of fun to watch him play um growing up watching him in minnesota when he played in minnesota like i had his hockey cards and then and then detroit and um paining in the Man, he was a pain in the ass to play against.

But great, great, have a good teammate for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Did you ever have the moment where you're a fanboy and some guy you sat down, you had to get his autograph? You know, I started that in my career. I was getting autographs for guys that kind of had meant something to me either playing with or had growing up watching and that and like a guy named Gerard Gallant. Yeah.

You know, he was a big influence of me when I first came to Tampa, first year I was there, kind of took me a little bit under his wing at training camp and got to know him a little bit. And so I got his autograph and John Cullen, another guy who I played with in Tampa, he had a bout with cancer. Him and I became real good friends. You know, when he got, he got cancer halfway through the one year, you know, it was just crushing for the whole team. He was just such a like, well-like guy on the team. And when he got cancer, during the, he was just, the year was crushing for all of us but you know fortunately he got got through it and and um so i got his autograph and then you know wendels of course and i started picking up as my career was going i kind

of you know i end up being you know just the guys were guys like i was kind of starstruck at the start of my career but as i got later my career wasn't nearly so as much no no i got a few jerseys collected yeah but um but that was about it You know where we're going to do the second part of this. I'm going to tour out to your house. I saw a video of your, well, it's probably a couple of years ago. You must have had a guy come interview you. It's on YouTube.

Yeah, yeah. And your basement looks under you know, with all the jerseys and everything hung. Yeah, well, that's my workout room with the jerseys. And then, yeah, we built a, built a house there on the lake in, on Lake Okinawagon. Yeah. I've got a suitcase of jerseys. And it's funny, I grew from Lloyd. I put a, when we had the golf tournament here, Wade and I,

I put in a thing, it was a auction item, and go to, go to Klona, party at my house, boat ride, golf, what a little package, and one of the guys, I can't remember the guy's name, but he bought it, he's from out of town, but he bought it and they came out and had him over to the house, and we took a boat ride down the lake and came back, and I pulled out all the course, or cross jerseys, all that I had. And everybody, there's probably about 10 of us there, and we all put a jersey on and got this big group picture taken with it.

It was pretty, yeah, it was pretty cool. Pretty cool. They thought it was pretty neat. But I got this, yeah, bringing this suitcase out every once in a while and just show the people, whoever is show the company, the jerseys, and they're just like, kidding me? But there's no, there's not many places you can put them all. No, that's right.

That's right. So. We were talking here when we took our little break. we skipped over you went in a Turner Cup. Right. So you play one year with Atlanta and you guys win? Yeah, yeah. Like I said, well, that's when they fired the coach, Junior Bracko,

and they hired this John Parris Jr. And we had an awesome team. We had a really good team. And we went on, JC Bergeron was our number one guy. And he got hurt right at the end of the year. Actually, when him and I and I and Jason Ruffalo and got called up to Tampa, He got hurt in Tampa when he was up in Tampa. So our backup goalie, a guy named Mike Greenle,

who was a color guy for the Minnesota Wild now. Okay. He became our starting goalie. Well, he's never played best hockey's ever played in his life. And we won four straight in the first series, four straight in the second series. And then we played Fort Wayne in the final. Where's Fort Wayne?

Indiana. Indiana. Yeah. Okay. And we end up playing them. They had a real good team. Who would Fort Wayne be in the system for? Who would they be the farm staff team for? Geez, that's a good question. I think they're just an independent team.

So in the IHL, they had some independent teams. Like Las Vegas Thunder, they're an independent team. So where teams could all put different players on it? Yeah, they could assign their own players. Yeah. So they weren't all owned by NHL guys. Like Atlanta, we had some independent players. Did they still do that?

Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, they're still kind of, yeah, they still, those HL teams will sign a player to an HL deal. Oh, to an HL, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so they still do that. A little more prevalent back then. The IHL had kind of branched off from the American League. And then, yeah, we beat Fort Wayne.

The first two games went back to Fort Wayne. It was just a, it was a really tough building to play in. Lots of people or small rank? Yeah, just small rank. a lot of energy. They had this crazy guy and like, what was his name? He'll come to me. He was a colored guy. Man, oh man, he was the biggest man I've ever seen. Steve, Steve something. I go, he'll come to me, but he was so scary. You know, he was, there was muscle on muscle and not guy. And they'd play Welcome to the Jungle and it was just, the place was just rock. And it was a rough

city and they just loved the rough hockey and it was a small barn and we lost the i think we lost the next game and then uh so we're up two one playing them in the in game four and um we were we were down down a few goals going in a third we tied it up in i'm going in a third overtime the guy named steeler ruse scored and make it seven six and that was this fourth fourth or fifth goal the game or something or something crazy like that and we had i'm winning and six games anyways. So, yeah, but it was fun. I ended up separating my shoulder in the second last game of the final, so I didn't play in the final game. But still, fun group of guys. Great, we had a really good team. And not a lot of those guys went on to have NHL careers either.

I just really came together, and for whatever reasons, they just, you know, I was the guy that had the longest career. And, yeah, we're having our 25th year reunion this, this, I think, October. Back in Atlanta? I think back in Atlanta, they're just trying to finalize the details. Yeah. So that'll be fun to go back there. Yeah, absolutely.

See some of those guys. I haven't seen some of those guys since we played. So it'll be interesting to see what they're all doing now. And to win, right? Like all that together would be a lot of fun. It was neat. I mean, hockey in Atlanta back then was just a dot. Like, you know, it was a basketball and football town, right?

So did you get lots of people up for the finals then? Yeah, we sold out. So we played in the old Omni, and it was sold out. How many fans are you talking about? Yeah, 17,000. It was a big old barn. Yeah. And it was funny because the guys that ran Atlanta, the Knights then were circus guys.

They owned a circus. So they put a real show on. Absolutely. It was kind of the start of. the entertainment that you see now in the states of all the games. These guys were kind of the first guys that do it because they had to get people out to the games and entertainment was their business with the circus. So they did all these gimmicks.

It was quite funny. I remember two people got married. They brought in Claude the trumpeter. Remember Claude the trumpeter? The Quebec? He's from Quebec. They hired him for the playoffs. I'm going to lick them up after there.

They hired him in the playoffs, and he would, that's what he does. He actually tours around the alumni hockey team now and entertains the fans. But back then he was a hired gun, you hired him to entertain the fans. And so what would he do? He'd play the trumpet through the games and a real funny story. So he would play the trumpet at the, he'd come on the concourse. First whistle would go of the game, and he'd come on the concourse, and he'd play, get his trump, go, do-da-da-da-da.

And everybody yelled, charge. and he'd run down, down to the glass level, run up and smash his shoulder in the glass, and everybody would go crazy, and then he'd start playing the trumpet. And he would hang on the glass upside down, playing the trumpet, did a whole bunch of crazy things. This crazy French guy. And so he was a big part of our, everybody loved him. And it energized the fans.

Fans just loved them. They were coming to the game. It's probably more to see him. More to see him. Yeah. in the game six in the final and we get this and he comes running down and he goes to put his shoulder in the glass and the glass gives away and he lands he lands on his head he lands on his head on the ice and and the guys were lined up for the face of it it happened just behind them and they

turn around and he's lying on the ice like he's knocked out and he's on the ice so EMS guys come out and they have to put him on a backboard and they take him off the ice say stop to play. And a buddy of mine, Wade Gartner, who lives here in town. Yeah, no way. He was at the game. He traveled down to watch our final

game. And, oh my, it was, you know, unfortunate the thing was so funny. So they card him off and we go on, we're playing. And I'm not, like I said, I wasn't playing that game because I was hurt. So Wade and I are just sitting

in the stands watching. And Rita, we're up two or three goals. in the third period, we're going to win the game. We were dominating the game. And like five minutes left. You hear this, did it, do-na, and we look up, and there's this clawed to trumpeter, and he's got a neck brace on.

He's got a neck brace around his neck. And he runs, kind of slowly runs down the stairs. And he goes and throw his shoulder in the glass, and he stops, and he puts his finger on it, just touches it while the place erupts. Just goes nuts. And we were dying laughing And then he just had that It was unbelievable how loud that rink was for the last five minutes

Like he because he just kept playing And people were just going crazy It was so much fun And then we were out that night Out that night at a bar, just drinking And he's out with us And he's probably on every painkiller And knowing the man

And he's just having a good old time And he's got his neck brace off And he's not feeling the thing and Wade and I were just dying laughing. That's awesome. Yeah, and years later, I ran into him at an NHL alumni game, and I said, remember that time? And he's like, yeah.

And I said, I was playing in that game, and his mouth just dropped. And we had a good chuckle about it. But Atlanta did a great job of entertaining guys and entertaining the fans and kind of led the way for how the games are running down in the States now as entertainment. All the young kids who play in the dub right now, they all talk about how the best fans in the dub are in the States.

Yeah. Yeah, no, they just, I mean, they're there. They're just loud. You know, American fans are just loud. You know, it's always been the criticism of Canadian fans. They're too into the game. Like, you know, they're all analyzing the plays, right? They're all thinking, not just going out and having a good time.

You know, it's a little more serious up here. So maybe you can answer my, age old question I ask everybody because this has been one as fans we've always asked would you rather go to the games than your shorts playing in Tampa or showing up to the hockey hotbed of the world Toronto now now in I've done both yes you have and Tampa was was pretty cool yeah I mean I when I see guys signing for for the same money down south I know why. Your body doesn't hurt. It's so much easier to play down there. Like, man, my body hurt. I didn't have any hurts in Tampa. My body felt great all the time. It's warm. Your body's always flexible.

You come up to Toronto, Edmonton. Cold weather, you're just, you know, you're just stiff all the time. I mean, there's a reason why the older generations go down south. It's totally true. And yeah, so it doesn't surprise me, guys leave the cold weather. I mean, it is nice to play. It's play in a hockey hotbed, but now you're going down to Tampa. I mean, that fan experience they have down there is one of the best in the league. They do a great job for the fans, and they have a great team. Well, they have arguably one of the best teams right now. Yeah, exactly.

And, you know, in California, they got good teams. Dallas got a great team again. Yeah, so it's pretty easy to get guys to go down there and play when you get a little bit of both. Right. Curious, with all the teams you've played for, does Tampa like hold a special place in your heart? Because they were the first team. They're the team that drafting the supplemental, that kind of thing. Or was there a different place where they kind of won you over and you never wanted to leave?

Yeah, I know Tampa. Tampa definitely was a special part of my heart. I love going back there. I've been able to go back there a few times. I used to have a condo down to south of Florida, south Tampa, sorry. So I've been there a lot, actually, and taking my kids those games. You know, this is kind of, you know, this is where I started playing. It's pretty special.

Toronto, Toronto is still, I love going back. I always thought I was going to retire in Toronto, I thought I was going to live there. But, yeah, going back to Toronto is really special. We had a really good team back then. Fans were great. You know, some of the best hockey I played was in Tampa and Toronto. Yeah, both those cities are pretty special to me. Well, I don't want to get into Toronto,

because if we get into Toronto, we're going to be here another hour. You played with some legendary players there. You had some legendary series. I remember watching those as a kid. Yeah. But I was curious maybe in 97, you go over to, actually, I'm not sure where you go to. Helsinki. Is it Helsinki then?

Well, I was in Finland. We went to Team Canada, went to Turku, yeah, Turkoo, Finland. And so after the regular season's done, you get selected? Or how does that work? Yeah, so. And I'm talking the World Cup of Hockey or World. Yeah, World Championship. Yeah, World Championship.

Yeah, so, yeah, 97. I had, you know, I had established myself as a top, top four defensemen in the NHL and in Tampa. And not having a lot of media back then, you know, nobody really knew who I was. but I killed all the penalties. Me and the guy, Bill Holder, like we would kill almost two minutes of a penalty. And Terry Criss wouldn't even bring us off the ice. We would just go back out there.

How was Terry Crisp? Yeah, he was interesting. Fiery, very fiery, yeah. It's Redhead. But really good to me. He was really good to me. Yeah, he loved me. He loved how I killed penalties and played the heck out of me.

So it was good. And, yeah, that year was Hartford's last season, and we played in Hartford's last game, so that's a funny story, too. Played in Hartford? Played against Hartford. In Hartford, the very last game of the Hartford Waders. The Brassmanza.

The Brassmanza. So we were thinking it was going to be the last, you know, it was between them, us, and Montreal for the last playoff spot. And Montreal won the game the night before. we were both out. So we're at the bar, so we fly in the Hartford. We all go to the bar to watch the game. Montreal ends up winning.

So it eliminates both Hartford and us. So the next game is a nothing game. Nothing game, yeah. And we decided to have a few more pops than we should have. And my roommate back then was a guy named Sean Burr, and he had quite a few pops. And we had a one o'clock game, and we woke up at nine for pregame,

had to shake him awake, went down, had breakfast, come back up. We both went back to bed, slept it for another hour, got up, walk across the street to the mall to go play the game. And Sean has, the whole bunch of guys had bonuses, right? Back then, lots of guys had bonuses in their contracts. Dino needed one goal for a big bonus. so he had curved a stick like a boomerang. And he didn't even do any. And he wrote on,

Sean Burke was the Hartford Whaler goalie. And he wrote on there, one goal equals 500 bucks, Burkey. And all he did, the whole warmup was skate back and forth on Red Line, showing Sean Burke his stick. So,

Berkey got the message, right? And Sean was telling me the night before, he's like, okay, I'm plus 11. I can't be lower than plus 10. or I'm not going to get this bonus. I'm like, okay. You know, didn't really think anything of it at that time. First period goes off.

He's minus one. They score, he's minus one. So, and guys are hungover. Like, it was such a bad game. Like, nobody wanted to play, right? And we start the first, second period, and it was an old time where you skate on the ice, you do a few laps and then you go back to your bench, right?

The whole team. And so, we come. on the ice, Hartford's come on the ice, we do some laps, and then we're crisscrossing again and go back to our benches. And Jason Musotti was the backup goalie for Hartford. Well, Sean suckers Musotti just punches him right in the face and starts at melee. And guys are like jumping in and Stu Grimson's on the whalers then. He's like, what's going on? And nobody knew what was going on. And Bersey gets kicked out of the game. So, because he couldn't be another minus. He didn't want to be another minus. Because he would, he would have a lot.

his bonus. He was so hungover. He couldn't play. He was so bad. So he skates off the ice. Just a big smile in his face laughing. And I'm just like, what a beauty. What a beauty. So he ends up getting his bonus. Dino Cicerelli, sure enough, gets puck in the slot, takes a shot. And Berkey, I'm sure he let it in. Just gives a whiff job. Dino gets the bonus. And then we're, where it comes down to our bench that Kevin Deny needs, needs a goal for, for his bonus. And they're beating us by a goal, I think. It's 2-1 or something. And the only guy that I didn't understand the message was Roman, because Roman didn't speak great English.

And so we pull our goal, he was empty net, and Danine's out there. He takes a shot while a hammer, like, dives in front of the, and knocks it down. keeps the play going. Then Deneen gets against, shoots, he hits the side of the net, misses. And we're like, hey, what are you doing? Like, Deneen needs a goal. Like, let him score.

Why? He doesn't understand. Well, you end up not scoring. Didn't get his bonus. And that was it for the Hartford waiters. People were crying in the stands, and that was the end of the brass bananas in the mall in Hartford. So kind of a fun, fun ending for us.

But, yeah, Chris Grattan, Rob Zomner got asked, the coaches told them right after, hey, you guys are going to Team Canada. And so those are the two guys on our team that were going. And so back to Tampa, flew back Tampa. I ended up having a team party at my place. And it was like five, six days later that Bobby Clark called me and say, hey, you want to, we want to come play for team Canada and here are a bunch of guys that had said no and they're just going down the list and and my name popped up Wayne Cashman. He was the assistant coach and wanted me

to come over and so obviously I jumped at the chance. And did you jump through the roof? Oh I was so excited. I couldn't believe it. Because that's your first time you had to up until this point in your career you play, put the Canadian jersey on right? You've never done it before. Never done it before. Yeah. So I, so they were having training camp in in Winnipeg and they We had a couple of exhibition games against the Americans. And so I flew up, met the team there. Most of the team had been there already because I was a late call. And suited up right away.

I hadn't skated, I think I maybe practiced once, but I've been drinking and partying for the last four or five days. I didn't know what kind of shape I was going to be in. I ended up playing exceptionally well. And like I said, nobody really knew who I was. The coaches didn't, some of the coaches didn't know, who I was, like Andy Murray was the, he was a Canadian national team coach. That's right.

He was an NHL coach. And it cemented my spot in the top six for the world after those two games. Yeah, and you're playing on a team with, well, your leading score of that tournament was Travis Green. But then it goes, Owen Nolan, Jeff Freezin, Anson Carter, Rob Zamner, Keith Primo, Mark Recky, Jeff Sanderson, Jerome McGinnla, Chris Gratton, Rob Bloss. Blake, Don Sweeney, and then a little farther down, Cori Cross. Brian McCabe, Chris Pronger. Yeah, we had a, you know, a lot of those guys had pretty good careers.

Well, once again, you talk about how many guys are Hall of Famers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, World Championships always one of those things where kind of, they get the young guys, right? The young guys coming up and give them a taste of it and see what they're all about. And that's what it was all about then. And yeah, we just, Sweden had a real good team. William Nielander's father was the top Swedish player. That year.

Her back on that team. Yeah, he could, he was unreal in the European ice. You know, he didn't have a great career over in North America, but on the European ice, nobody could hit him, and he could stick out on a phone booth. And they beat us pretty handily, the round robin. And in this year, 97, in the, The finals, you guys play a best of three, don't you?

Best of three, yeah. They haven't done that in forever. Yeah, they always change it. They always change the format. They're always changing it. They're always putting more teams in or less teams. Yeah, I don't know why they keep changing the format all the time. Yeah, okay.

But yeah, that just year we had a round robin, and then we end up playing Sweden in the final best of three. Yeah, and you lose game one. Lose game one. Yeah, and came back and beat them the next two games. Yeah. And it was just a really close games. I don't remember too much about it.

Just really close, fast-paced, two exceptionally skilled teams. It's just a different, it's different playing over there in those world championships. Like we saw this year, you know, those teams get into a, they've been playing the trap system there forever because of the big ice. And they just wait for a mistake and there's not a whole lot of forechecking and stuff. and we had these crazy breakouts because they would just stand in the neutral zone and you could hold and grab more so there than you could in the NHL.

So we had this really big defense corps. Steve Chason was another guy on that team. He was a big guy. And we would leave the, we would, defense would get the puck behind that, and they would just stand out at the blue line in the neutral zone. And we would leave the two defensemen,

leave the puck for the centerman. He'd get all the speed. And wind up? Wind up. And the 2D, we would just skate out, and we would just, the first two guys we saw, we would just put our stick between their legs, and just pretty much pick them up and just move them out of the way, and our center would just wheel through, and we'd get the zone every time. Like, you couldn't do that anymore, right?

No. It was just crazy how they played. So that was a real eye opener. Refereen was a real eye opener. It's not very good refting over in Europe. No? No, just, if you hit a guy too hard, it's a penalty. You know, there was some frustrating times for.

for the guys that had gone first time over there. But yeah, just, yeah, we had a lot of fun, those World Championships. There's a lot of male bonding, a lot of team bonding, and the families. Families come over and then that ends the bonding. But yeah, it's always a good time. I mean, there's enough drinking those World Championships. But it's, you know, the guys are serious about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

But when it's free time, they enjoy themselves for sure. Yeah. And, yeah, it was a great experience. What was winning that like? Like, where does that rank winning? Oh, it was number one. Number one highlight of my career for sure. Was winning, wearing the Maple.

Yeah, nothing like it. I remember putting it on them for the first time and just couldn't, one couldn't believe it and just so excited. And, yeah, definitely, definitely the highlight of my career. Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, we only got a few minutes left because I know when you were talking to your wife, we said round 540. Yeah. We're getting close.

So there's a few questions that had been submitted before I came in today. Okay. And so I thought maybe we'd ram through those and when you got to go, you got to go. Okay, sure. So the first thing that was asked me, and we kind of talked about a little bit of half, but off air, was Malcolm Radkekeke asked, as if we're going to see in September for the Euler Flame alumni game here in Lloyd. Yeah, I hope to be back. I've said I'm coming.

It kind of revolves around my son. That's always the minor hockey crazy time. Right, right. And my son, you know, I don't think I'm coaching the team. I think I'm just going to help whoever coaches, but my son always wants me around like for evaluations and that. But I think I'll sneak away for that one. I haven't been doing a lot of alumni stuff because I have been coaching.

And this year I thought, you know, I'm just going to take the time off, just help out and do some extra things that I've been putting off. That's really cool. Yeah, it'd be nice to come back. Brent Wienes had asked, in your time in the league, what was your favorite charity to work with or be a part of? Well, favorite charity. Man, there was quite a few in Tampa,

but that's, man, so long ago I can't remember. Actually, I won an award for the community service. I mean one of the guys from the Buccaneers. They actually had an award back then, and him and I won it my last year in Tampa. So I did a bunch of stuff with everything from Special Olympics to hospital stuff. Is there anything that sticks out in particular? Like even maybe,

Well, the children's hospital in Toronto. Like in Toronto, I didn't, I wasn't asked to do those too many things because they had a lot bigger names. But the Ronald McDonald House was always, we did a tour of the Children's Hospital and Ron McDonald's House every year in Toronto. And that was, that was, that was, you know, heartbreaking to see, to see, see the kids in there. and, you know, you're trying to just raise their spirits, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's, yeah, that's probably the hardest thing to see as a player. So get emotional just thinking about it.

Yeah, yeah. So. Well, it's cool what you, or it's really inspiring what the NHL does. You see it all the time. You see it all the time. It's awesome. And, you know, a lot of guys make a lot more money now. So they're able to, and that's, you know, that's not the thing,

but it allows them to do more things. Yeah. You know, whether it's, you know, having a box at the games or, and that was one thing I was going to do in Tampa when I was, I was, because I didn't have a contract. I was a free agent. I said, well, we were negotiating. I said, well, I put my negotiations on, you know, I'll buy a box for kids.

And, you know, they ended up, they weren't interested in that. But that was, we were trying to negotiate something and end up negotiating a different deal. And they traded me like three days later. But it was a different ownership group. Yeah. Yeah, I'd just come in. but yeah, it's awesome to see, I mean, especially when you have hockey markets and the kids look up to these players. And, yeah, it's great.

And you see it all the time now on social media, what guys are doing. Yeah, well, that's, we talk about all the distractions and the negativity behind social media, but someone like the things that it allows for people to see on what's going on is amazing. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, that's a good part about it, isn't it for sure. Well, just two that come right to mine from this year has been St. Louis Blues and the girl they had with them. Yeah, exactly. And then Kerry Price at the awards, NHL awards, having the boy come out, like those two right there off the top of my head, right?

And that's in the last, like, month. And, you know, and now you say that the NHL and the individual teams, they do. They reach out more now because they can, those are great stories for them. Yeah, absolutely. And those, and, you know, back when I played, those, that didn't exist. like didn't exist. Like there was no getting that out other than maybe a video on the,

on the Big Tron. Yeah, Jumbotron or whatever, right. So that's a great story for the, that's why you see so much now. Your brother wanted me to ask, did you ever meet George Steinbrenner? George, yes, I did. Yeah, had a Wade Gardner again.

Another, you know, comes in a story. story. He came down with another Lloyd boy, ex-loid Blazer, Jeff Hill. They came down to visit me in Tampa. And it was spring training that when they came down and our medical guy was a baseball guy. And I say, yeah, connections with the Yankees. The Yankees had just built a brand new facility in Tampa. It's just exceptional, exceptional building. And he goes, yeah, I know I know the guy. I said, well, I need, I need some tickets. So, yeah, I'll see what I can do. So the next day, it got your tickets. Perfect. Tell Jeff and Wade, yeah, we got Yankees tickets. We'll go to the game.

Perfect. So it's all set. The next day, trainer calls me over. It's like, so I got you better tickets. I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, but there's a catch. I go, what's the catch? He goes, you're going to be in George Steinbrenner's box. And I'm like, what? And he goes, it ends up. that I was his grandson's favorite player. I don't know why or how. But, yeah, he goes, yeah, they found out you're coming to the game, and they want you sitting in his box, and you've got to bring an autograph stick for his grandson. Easiest thing you know, yeah.

So, again, I call Jeff and Wade, and I said, yeah, I got a special surprise when you guys come to Tampa. And there we are sitting in George Steinbrenner's box. And I still remember those two giving me a hard time. How can you be, like, the grandson didn't know what your name is. There's no way you're his favorite player. They were just giving me a hard time. You haven't scored a goal and blah, blah, blah. So anyways, we ended up getting pictures of George Steinbrenner.

That's pretty cool. It was so funny. And I've got that picture. I've got that picture up on my fridge in Toronto. and a couple of guys come over like, not George Steinberg. John Steinberg? One of my brother, or my brother Dustin wanted to know, did you always think you were going to make it to the NHL?

No. No, of course. I mean, obviously with the story, you know, always there was that dream. At what point did you think, you know what? I might be going there. Well, I guess when I got drafted, you know, I guess that's step one, right? But when I started skating with the oiters, the um uh in the summers so when i was getting ready for training those first couple of years of

training camp and i was skating with the the pros um the order pros not and i wasn't too far behind i'm like i can play with these guys like that's when the confidence started and i knew i wasn't too far off and that's why i started thinking yeah this this could be a possibility and then i got the then i got the five games in with tampa and in the training camp and and the training camp and camp. Yeah. Yeah. In the five games of Tampa, then I was like, okay. Yeah, I'm, I'm here. Like, I'm right here, and I don't want to play in the minors anymore. And it's probably a good time to, good time to stop because, yeah, that next year, you know, came to training camp and I was on, it was my mission to make the team that I did. So. Cool. Well, I got two questions for you,

nice and quick, and then I'll let you go and get to your barbecue. I always ask every guy, comes on here. It was suggested by a listener way back when. If you had a time machine and you could go watch any event unfold, whether it's sporting, whether it's history, just go to a place in time, where would you go? Where would you take the time machine?

Well, I'm a big World War II fan, so I wouldn't want to be in it, but the invasion of Normandy, I think, though, is probably the most epic thing in our generation or this last 100 100 years right so that's probably one thing i would like to see from obviously not

be involved in but it'd be pretty amazing to see if you could pick one defenseman to be your partner who would it have been living not past present playing well the guys i had a salary cap is not an issue the guys i had best chemistry with were bill holder any bill holder in tapa Ackyberg in Toronto Acciburg, yeah Steve Stahos and Scott Ferguson Okay

Those four guys are probably the guys I had the best chemistry with Just we just knew where each other was And that's You're not gonna give me Bobby or Paul Coffey I mean obviously I'd like to You know what Brian I would have loved

To play more with Brian Barard Brian Brard Okay Brian and I were deep partners Brian was a phenomenal player And then when he got injured You know And I was We were deep partners there

and I think him and I would have done some, had a pretty awesome season. That would have been a good thing. That's when he gets hit in the eye? So he got lost his eye, yeah. Were you on the ice for that? I was on the bench. Yeah, he had changed.

He just happened to be on the ice before me. Yeah, yeah, okay. But you were his defense partner at the time? Yeah, mm-hmm. I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah, and then they hired, they signed Gerald Didick, and then he became my partner, so it was, you know,

It wasn't the same. Two different players, right? Yeah. So, but I mean, I didn't play with them, but I watched Nick Lidstrom. Yeah. Brian Leach, two of the best, two, two of the best offense one I've played with for sure. I'm going to a wedding here in Buffalo in about 10 days' time, and there's a guy at the wedding that I played with, and any time we played with, we got scored on.

So I'll rephrase the question. Is there a guy that you played with where you just had no chemistry, and anytime you got on it, it just seemed to go in the back of the net? Well, I remember Eric Brewer. I had terrible chemistry with Eric Brewer. It's just like, pass me the puck, man. Like, he just would not pass the puck over. He probably would give me a hard time that was going to, you know, for whatever reason he wouldn't pass me the puck.

I'm like, pass me the puck, I'll get it back to you. You can go, I would have made him a better player. But he just, he was young. just wasn't quite there yet. And, yeah, I didn't like playing with him too much. But, yeah, other than that, you know, in Tampa, I play with a lot of, a lot of rookies. Yeah.

Any rookie call-up, I was, that's who I was with. And so, but, yeah, no, I can't really, other than Eric, there wasn't too many other guys that I had terrible chemistry with. Oh, I forgot Darius Casperitis, another guy, who him and I had great chemistry in New York. Yeah. Yeah.

So. Well, I really appreciate you coming in. I know you got a busy schedule as people can hear your phone's gone a couple of times. I assume I've taken you over the time limit. But I really appreciate you coming in. I hope we can do this again because I'd really like for people, I'd like to hear more about Toronto and Eminton, the Canadian markets, Madison Square, Detroit with that team, a second world championships, the Royal Bank Cup.

Like, there's just so much more. And I'm old. No, you've got such good, you've got such good stories though, right? And cool experiences that not a lot of people get. Yeah, no, I'd love to come back. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, cool. Yeah, thanks again.

Okay, thanks. Hey, guys, I hope you enjoyed Corey Cross. That guy has a cool story. I really hope in the near future we can get him back on for part two. because there's a lot more to his story, and I want to get into the Leafs and playing for the Oilers and all that good stuff. So I hope in the near future we'll get him back,

and I fully plan on having them back on, and we'll just see what Corey's schedule is like over the coming months, and we'll try and get him back on so we can hear the rest of what's been going on in his career and up to this point. And, yeah, so I hope you enjoyed that one. Next week is Sidney Smyth. She is a girl out of Minnesota who played Division I for RPI and then carried on to go on Red Bull

Crashd Ice. And so here's a little snippet from our interview next week. What to bring and what to do. I was like, okay, and I had never really seen Red Bull. I mean, I kind of had heard about it one time. And then we had a game. I was coaching a game. and this game went into two overtimes.

And it was like, I was like, I've got tryouts, you know? And so I message later. I'm like, hey, I don't think I'm going to make it. She's like, I don't care how late you are, just show up. I was like, okay, all right. So I pick up my friend on the way, and we just come running into the rink and we're getting dressed. And I ran into, remember I said I played that the summer hockey.

So when I walked in, there was another girl there, and I played summer hockey with there. And I was like, hey, I know you. She's like, what are you doing here? Like, I don't know. Were you trying out? She's like, yeah. And she had a little.

done it before so she knew she was getting into so I'm getting dressed and I'm like well I guess I don't need you know you don't need your stick but you wear full gear right full gear yeah and we get out there and everyone's taken there like hot laps and she's down there like crouching and doing these squats and I'm like what is she doing and I didn't realize you got to like it was an obstacle course so you had to go like you got a duck gun or something and you had to jump over something and she had done it before so we were just like a whole bunch of minions following her trying to mimic whatever she was doing.