Shaun Newman Podcast - #98 - Bob Stauffer

Episode Date: July 22, 2020

.ou want everything Edmonton Oilers? You've found the right episode. Bob is in the know when it comes to the Oilers & the NHL for that matter. He has been the longtime host of 630CHEDS Oilers NOW & an analyst on the Oiler's radio broadcast.    Let me know what you think     Text me! 587-217-8500

This is Bob Stopper from the Oeders Radio Network, and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Hey, folks, happy hump day. We got a good one for you coming right up. But before we get there, let's get to our sponsors for today's episode. Lauren and Gunner over at Art and Soul, Lauren says, never in the history of my framing career has anyone brought something in that they didn't care about. She encounters so many things that you wouldn't expect to go into a frame. For instance, just last week, she had a voice.

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These are the guys. Give them a call. 780-875-9663. If you're in any of these businesses, make sure to let them know you heard about them on the podcast. And if you're interested in advertising on the show, visit shan Newmanpodcast.com in the top right corner, hit the contact button and send me your information. We've got lots of different options and I want to find something that can work for the both of us. Now, on to your T-Bar-1, Tale of the Tape. Originally from Eminton, Alberta, he did the play-by-play for the U of A Golden.

Bears for 13 years, 89 to 92, and then again in 98 to 2008. He hosts Oilers Now, a radio show dedicated to the Amminton Oilers, Monday through Friday, noon to 2 p.m. on 630, Ched. He's a radio analyst for every Euler game, and there is no one in media business more connected to the team than this guy right here. Of course, I'm talking about Bob Stauffer. So buckle up, here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast.

Tonight I'm joined by Bob Stoffer, host of Oilers Now on 630 Chad and radio analysts for the Emmington Oilers. First off, thanks for joining me, Bob. No problem. Sean, how you doing? Hey, I'm doing fantastic. I mean, you've got to be getting a little bit excited. Hockey is just around the corner. I'm excited. Frankly, things are going, you know, the most recent amount of testing that they did, you know, because safety is a big part of this.

for the players and very positive news from the NHL a couple days ago. So, it was great to hear. I mean, I still did a show. I think the last time I've checked, I've done 92 of the 93 shows, Sean, that I could have done that were live since we stopped playing.

So for me, I haven't stopped, right? Like, I'm still putting in all the calls every day and talking to the various guys that I sort of try to keep tabs on each week in terms of with the others, organization and it's been it's been an interesting time to say the least and i sure hope we get to the stage where we can see some hockey here in about a week to 10 days well it's certainly

looking positive bob like i mean it's just around the corner you can almost taste it oilers back in the playoff geez doesn't that roll off the ton well it was a you know a tough stretch i mean it's if you told me in 2016 17 Sean that you know the team had missed the playoffs the two years, I would have said you're crazy, right? I mean, Frank Cerevelli came to town from TSN. He had the orders winning in the Stanley Cup in the fall of 2017. I certainly did not envision the challenges that ended up happening. I will tell you that in March, I bumped into a guy I know from a different organization, and he had raised some concerns about the lack of the orders. He said his club needed to get quicker and faster. He said, that's the way the game is moving,

and we might not see a return to sort of old school heavy hockey. And his concern was that the orders were sort of steering a direction where they might lack a little bit of quickness. And to be honest with you, Sean, that's why I'm really excited about what I've seen out of things down at the downtown community arena. The orders are way faster than they were in the fall. And so they're in the qualifiers, and obviously they'll be the favorites against Chicago.

but we all know Chicago's got great veteran core leadership there. We'll see how she goes. Yeah, well, Chicago is a dangerous team because they're a little bit aged, season, but they just got a whole huge break to heal up and get ready to go again. And if there's a dangerous team out there, Chicago certainly sticks out because they know how to win. You nailed it. They know how to win, right? You know a lot.

I mean, you've, you got four or five guys that won three Stanley Cups, and they have pride, and they, you know, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Taze, they're going to be bringing it. Well, and Keith on defense. On top of that, Bob, they're getting a golden ticket. They get in the playoffs. I mean, if we think about the NHL, if you just get in, you never know. We saw that in 0506, right?

For that matter, we saw that in 0304 with the flames run. I mean, that came out of nowhere, and then the orders in 0506. So it's going to be really intriguing to see. But again, for, you know, one of the things that was quite noticeable over the weekend, they scrimmaged Saturday and Sunday, just how fast the team is. It's way faster that it was even in the fall. And people think, well, what are you saying? The team was slow on a team that had Connor McDavid.

Well, he only plays 22 minutes a game. The other 38 minutes, you need – so they've got a lot of support players that have given the team a different dimensions. Yeah, but people are ridiculous. Connor McDavid's one man. I mean, this isn't basketball where he gets to stay out there all game long and everything runs through him. I mean, you've got to have other guys who can play. So team speed is different than single speed.

You know, if you take a look at, we went in, I've told the story. We went into Detroit, October 29th, and Detroit skated them. As you know, the home team skates first on game day. And they were flying in practice. And they got larkin. And at that point, they had Athens to C. And he could really move. And you contrast that.

I watched the orders morning skate that day. Nygaard was not in the lineup. Yamamoto was down on the minors. Emerton went out and got Tyler Ennis and Athens to see you. It completely changed the complexion of the team. Like it was evident for the, you know, they got out to the great start this year, but pretty much after kind of a five and a start,

the orders were basically a 500 team until Yamamoto came up at the end of December. Then they were a different hockey team. Well, I'll tell you what, Yamamoto surprised the shit out of me. I was a guy going, man, he is too small. Like, you can just see it. To me, I was like, I don't know if he's going to make it. And then when he came up and just started like, holy crap, I was like, who is this guy? You know, the funny thing is he just didn't have any puck plucked the two starts the two seasons before.

You know, like he had chances and he was around in that. But one of the things that he said he worked on because he had the wrist surgery, he said that he worked on quickness and tightness. spaces so he could win puck battles so you can get underneath guys when he was in on the forecheck and stripping guys of pox and uh you know he's altered competitive i you know i i'm i'm a little bit older than you and uh i've joked about it a lot over the years that you know i lacked the speed talent agility coordination toughness and character even played it in the 12 team w hl you know i was 511 and 185 pounds at 15 and uh but you had to be really good to play in a 12 team WHL as a 17-year-older even back then.

And I wasn't good enough. And I think of, you know, guys wanted me to play a physical style, even in midgette double-A playing for Stu McGregor, like who was the old former Oedars head scout. And Dagadelski's the head coach now at Penn State was my center that year. And he was a little guy. And he grew in a little bit as time went on. But there's just take a look at how guys were drafted throughout, like even the Oilers, how many guys they drafted sort of circuit.

93 to, you know, mid-2000s that were bigger guys. Now there's way more room than ever, it's a different game. There's way more room for smaller players. But the other thing is, it's not how big you are, it's how competitive you are. And Yamamoto is a competitive player, and he wins puck battles, and he's smart. And what made him Newton Hopkins and Drysettle so effective together

is that they can really cycle because it can read and react and they support each other so well. offensively. And I mean, that's why Leon, but the others need to have a little bit more balance, which is why I think Newton Hopkins has been with McDavid in this training camp for the most part. They kind of went to that with a couple of games left before the pause. It's going to be really intriguing to see how those lines end up shaping up. So it doesn't surprise you then that Yamamoto broke out the way he did. I didn't think he'd be a point per game. I thought he could

have, like if he played 27 games, I honestly felt, Sean, he could he could get 10, goals and 20 points in 27 games, but I didn't think he'd have 26 points to be plus 20. You know, I didn't think he'd be quite that good. But in fact, I don't know if you remember, I don't know if you follow me on Twitter or what, but I tweeted out that morning in Detroit that the orders do not have enough quickness and pace in their lineup. And they may have to look the way it's going right now with Yamamoto bringing them up. And there was a couple other immediate guys in town that took a pretty serious run of me,

which I'm not always the biggest fan of. Like, those guys all have my number. Call me. Don't sit there and, you know, bring it up on Twitter. And I just, I know what I saw early in the season when I watched the games online out of Bakersfield. Like Yamamoto was their best player. And he was better than guys the orders had in the, like Tomas Yirko played in that game

in Detroit. Sam Gagne, great guy, you know, awesome guy is a 12, 13, 14 forward. You know, Patrick Russell played in that game. And I just, I saw Yamamoto. was having a higher ceiling. So, you know, Keith Kretsky stepped up, and when they took him at 22 in 2017, I'm really pleased. I mean, let's face it, it's a game change. I think when Ken Holland came in here, I don't want to speak for Ken, but, you know, everybody kind of has a plan.

And I'm not sure when Kent necessarily took the job, if he could have envisioned Ethan Bearer making the contribution on the back end that he did this season, and Yamamoto, given the team of Spark, he did at Christmas. or Caleb Jones. And now we might have another emerging story to watch here over the course of this training camp as well with Broberg, but we can get into that a little bit later on. You bring up some good points. Some days.

With Ken Holland taking over the reins, I remember I got three older brothers, and we were on a road trip heading to Vancouver at the time. And I got in a huge argument with one of my older brothers about Ken Holland, being a terrible decision for the Oilers, I thought he was going to be great just looking at his track record with Detroit and what he'd done and how he developed players and let him kind of percolate through the system. Are we starting to see some of that with the Oilers now in a short period of time or was it already there? I had this conversation with him when he was still in Detroit. You know, if you got Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent Hopkins and Leon Dreisdell and Connor McDavid,

number one and number one and number three. Those guys play. Like when you have picks that high, they're that good. They can impact things. And the players are the first, I remember Taylor's first year, two guys, they both ended up in Anaheim, the two players. But they were pretty significant players on the O'Ollers team at that time. They both said to me, Bob, Hall's a stunt.

Like, he's a stud. And then the next year, Newton Hopkins comes in and gets 23 power play points and 52 points to 62 games. He still have guys today that said, oh, he got rock. I'm like, how did he get rushed? He had 52 points in 62 games. Like, that's hard to do. Actually, the guy that sticks out to me is Justin Schultz.

As a guy and actually. Different position. And the guy who sticks out to me right now that isn't being rushed is Evan Bouchard. And those guys, I'm a defenseman by trade. So I watched that. And when I saw, when watched, I can't remember, it was towards the end of Justin and Schultz being with the Oilers. And he just, he looked defeated.

And I just thought, you know, it's a guy who needs a little pressure taken off and some maybe some time to find his confidence again. Then he went to Pittsburgh and you saw that player they had when he first showed up. That's all. And I don't know whether that's, you know, management or not. Oh, I think part of it's also positioned.

Okay. I think it's easiest for a winger to jump in, Sean, right away in play. Yeah. Then a center. then a center, okay? Defense, you know, you're closer to the mistakes you make and end up in the net, right? That's why it becomes an issue. And the problem of Justin Schultz said, I remember going into, we were in Colorado,

Steve Tamplin, he was still the GM, so we took a cab over to go watch Denver play Wisconsin. It was the worst game I'd ever seen. Nobody hit each other. It was, it was, there was zero physicality. It was a one-nothing game. Joey LaLezia was playing for Denver. That's Nugent Hopkins buddy from the lower mainland. And he was pretty good in that game.

But, you know, in fairness to Justin Schultz, what I'd say is think of who he was paired with his first two years in the NHL. Nick Schultz and Andrew Ferrence. Now, he could have been paired with a Nick Schultz when Nick was in his prime with Minnesota. Or Andrew Ferrence, when Andrew was in his late 20s, he would have had a way better champ but by that point those guys were both sort of

declining themselves and then Justin's trying to learn on the fly and again he's in a position where he's close to the net so the mistakes they end up becoming magnified and no question he went to Pittsburgh

they slid him further down the lineup he basically played too high that's the beauty I mean if you're a defenseman you've got to be stoked with what's going on here cleft bomb's a legitimate top four defenseman nobody would debate that he played 25 minutes of game Larson probably is going to be more valuable in the playoffs than in the regular season with the way the game's gone. And that's going to be an interesting guy to watch moving forward, just in terms of, you know, because he's got another year left in his deal for the upcoming 2021 season.

But he's really well liked by his teammates. He's an unsolished player. Nurse has got tremendous athleticism, and he works really hard. And my experience has been, in every wake of life, guys that work hard can improve. It's the guys that don't want to work that don't want to get any better. Ethan Bear has totally committed himself. The auditors do a media, Sean, they do a media golf event at the start of the year each year.

And Dave Tippett had the misfortune of being stuck with me. And we ended up talking. And it was before practice, any of the training camp had started. And so it was just the captain skates. And I said, have you noticed anybody during the captain's skates? He said, Ethan Bear is in unbelievable shape. He's taken a huge step forward from last year. And Ethan Bear ended up top five.

No, he led rookies in ice time this year. He had, because I tweeted it out like three days ago. So now you've got, so you got Clefbaum and Larson. You got Nurse and Bear as your top four. Matt Benning is a serviceable third pairing right shot defenseman. He's got the best plus minus on the team over the last four years. You've got an option between Jones and Russell. and the defenseman that's been most noticeable

in training camp has been Brober. Like it has been wow moments. I mean, and it's unfortunate that there's no highlights of what he did on Saturday, but he was beating some of the best players on the Oilers on certain plays. And he's got, believe me, he's got the, the players are the first to know.

They know, they know right away. And he's really assertive in terms of how he plays. He transports it himself. I mean, you mentioned playing defensive. defense and I was a forward, but sometimes, like, I couldn't skate backwards worth of crap, right? Like, I'm the first to admit to that, right? Lateral movement for a guy that was 511, 185 when he was 15, probably wasn't the top end of my, you know, top part of my game.

But I had pretty good speed, North and South. A lot of defensemen aren't really explosive in terms of their forward skating. It's more, you know, Jay Beaumester, there was a guy that could really skate. well, Robert can skate. Like, that's who he kind of skates like. That level of ability, that, and it's the effortlessness in which he skates. So he can transport it,

and then you've got a guy like Bouchard that can transition it. We're not even talking about those two guys that being in the Oilers' top four. But they might make up the Oilers' top pairing in five years from now. So for once, like think of when the Oilers were trying to break in Schultz

and break in Petrie on the right side 100% and think of what right think of where they're at right now and that's so so here's a deal they had two goaltenders this year Sean that they could kind of count on right that they give Dave tip of credit he managed those guys very well they because of bear's emergence this year and Jones coming up after Christmas they got greater depth on defense than they had before they split up Connor and Leon especially once Yamamoto got sort of established in the lineup the one thing they were missing was a little bit of winger depth. And then they went out and dressed that by getting Athens-EU and Tyler Ennis.

And, oh, by the way, they had the number one power play and the number two P-K. And everybody had a defined rule. There weren't a lot of guys that weren't on one of those two units. So I don't even think we saw the full horsepower of the team before the pause. Because Athanas-Eel wasn't totally fit in yet with the team. Sometimes it takes a couple months. And a very smart player, good reading react player, might be a better fit in a short term with a guy like dry settle. So there's reasons to be optimistic when maybe in the past there was justification for not having that same sense of belief.

Yeah, well, I just listened to a lot of the guys you're talking about, some of the moves made, just holding some guys down, you know, creating some competition, that, whether that's, just drafting and slowly percolating up. And I just, you kind of get an easy feel of you got the right guy at the wheel in Holland and Tippett right now. And everything they've done since coming in has been working. And so that always helps. Winning always helps. Getting into the playoffs helps.

And, yeah. If they can find a way, if they can find a way to, you know, I know everybody, you know, lots of fans, fans are so funny, right? We're in the playoffs. man, what if we just lost Chicago and got the first round draftics? Like, who cares about the first round traffic? Let's win a couple rounds here. Build some confidence.

100%. We got to win some games to, you know, build that winning culture. You keep losing. You ain't going anywhere. And Conrad David, you know, that kid, he needs a couple wins under his belt. That'll only make him better. I think that this, you know, this experience of Tippett this year, those guys like there's going to be some opportunities here Sean especially with a compressed cap at 81.5

I think we're going to see the benefit of what like you got to give Holland and Tippett because he played a factor and who got brought in but look at Josh Archibald coming in and killing penalties right and and Riley Sheehan I mean those guys both came in on one year deals and they were completely you know this because you played right so just look at the order deployment. So on the first power play unit, they use either JSON or Neal. Those guys right now are on the order's so-called fourth line, but they're both getting opportunities as net front presence. And then you've got, in my mind, unparalleled in the one-three-one formation, the three guys, McDavid Drysettel and Nugent Hopkins. I'm sorry that there's not a three guys in elite. I mean, two of those guys are one, two in scoring, and the other one, Nugent Hopkins in his career has always been on the power play, an elite points per. minute guy in the power plate.

So that's, and then, and then they use cleft bomb who doesn't demand the puck go through him as a defense. Because he wants the puck in the hands, frankly, of better players in terms of McDavid, Dr. Settle and Nugent Hopkins. But we're talking about deployment, right? So, you know, we, you could have, so you got Nugent Hopkins playing with McDavid and Cassian. So Cassian doesn't play in the power plant, doesn't play penalty kill.

But that means he's fresh to be a real aggressive forechecker when he's out with McDavid and Nugent Hopkins. It's 5E5. If Ennis ends up playing with Drive Sital and Yamamoto, Ennis and Yamamoto are on the second unit. Shannon Archibald are on the first PK unit. Athanas Yu, if he's on their left side, he's on the second power play unit.

Kera's playing with Chase-on and Neil, and Kaira's one of the penalty killers. Usually the second unit with Nugent Hopkins. They usually kill penalties. So every forward kind of has a role on the power play in PK. And then Cassian can play penalty killing because he's done it before. But he's super fresh and effective 5E5. Oh, by the way, he gets to play with McDavid and Nugent Hopkins.

So, Sean, you play it. I mean, that's one way to empower all your guys to feel like they're a part of it. And that's kind of what they've done here. If you can find a way to give everybody a job, right? Yeah. And not sit on the bench, that's a dangerous thing. So what you're saying is you feel pretty confident the Oilers are going to be a threat in the playoffs here. I feel pretty confident, Sean, that we're going to a different place over the next four or five years.

And I'm not the only one that feels that way. Like I'm, I talked to a couple guys from Western Conference teams and they're like, all eyes are on you guys in Colorado. You know, Colorado might be a little bit ahead right now. Obviously, they got McCar. He's a real special right-shot defenseman. They have Bowling Byron coming. Graves has been a bit of a surprise in the back end. They're bigger man.

Eric Johnson, Eric John, like, to me, Eric Johnson and Nurse are kind of similar type of guy. He's a good all-around defenseman, a little bit of size. Eric Johnson is not as physical as Darnell is. but still a very important guy. It plugs a lot of minutes. Eminton's, you know, that combination for Colorado, McCar, and Byram, I would assert you,

probably has a higher offensive ceiling there. I don't think there's any debate than Broberg or Bouchard, but Broberg and Bouchard are bigger. And that does tend to play a factor in time. And then you look at, you know, obviously Colorado's got the one elite line. McKinnon may be the most, last year in the playoffs,

he was by far the most dominant player on the ice at all times. Yeah, yeah. And now they got Cadry as a second-line center who, you know, I know it's crazy to think about what it could have should have. If he doesn't get suspended the last two years against the Leafs, or against Boston, that's part of the reason why he got traded. If he doesn't get suspended, who's saying Toronto doesn't get out of those,

either of those two series? There's a chance Toronto, you know, they get, I mean, they lost in seven. and I'm not the biggest Leaves lover, but I did think that the Bruins were right for the Becken last year but I just didn't see Cattery getting involved with Jake DeRosk again and getting himself taken out a lot of series

because he was a really important player for Toronto. He brings him some bites. So Colorado has they made some good additions like Burakoski and the Chuskins in there and they can skate and they were a team that was too slow back in 2016-17. People forget that.

Colorado had a way worse record that year than any of the Oeders bad years. They got rid of two-thirds of their lineup because they were too old and too slow. And they're a fast team now. And Joe Sacka, give him credit. A lot of people didn't think maybe he needed to do that. He made a lot of money in his career. But he's got a couple very capable assistants in Craig Billington and a guy named Chris McFarland. And they've built a pretty good hockey club there.

But a lot of people around the league think Colorado and Hamilton are going to be the teams to watch over the next five years. So I guess what I'm saying to you is I'm not sure how far Evanton's going to go this year. But I mean, how can you not be somewhat optimistic now that evidence has got a better defense that they're going to be able to make some noise over the next four or five years? I think that that's, you know, I think that's a fair assessment. You know, you bring up Toronto. And I was curious what your thoughts are.

You know, on the first round, you got 24 teams making playoffs. you look across all backups in the first playing series or what have you, whatever you want to call it. Is there a team that sticks out to you that's sneaking in that you think you better watch out? Well, I'm still trying to figure out. Who did Columbus upset last year? Tampa Bay. Right.

That was pretty, and they just didn't upset them. Right. Right. And there's, see, there's an L.O. like you are gonna you know if you're privileged enough to to work in the businesses to broadcast you're gonna be wrong sometimes like I'll be honest I thought a couple years ago like four or five years ago John Tortorello was done I did not think that he's he would have evolved the way he has but he gets you

everybody thought Tortorella was done there wasn't a guy right that Tororella is getting a job not a chance right after Vancouver right we all thought, you know, the way that ended up going. But that team plays hard for him and they're healthier. Like that's the thing. There's a team that's been beneficial. Now, Toronto's obviously got a lot of high-end skill. Like, I don't see how, I can see Columbus upsetting the Leafs.

Like, I don't think Pittsburgh there's any chance. I don't even think Montreal is going to win. Like, I think it's going to be three straight for Pittsburgh. You don't think, everybody's talking like if Kerry Price gets hot, maybe there's a way. I don't see it. I just don't think the Canadians have the depth that come close to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's got gunsled back now. You know, they picked up Zucker.

Like, they've got a pretty good hockey club. So I'd be surprised. But I do think that I'd be a little bit nervous in Toronto about Columbus. Just as you know what? It's understandable if there's people that are nervous about Abbotton because of Chicago, because of a lot of experience. So, but I don't think Columbus, like Columbus didn't unload anybody. You know, Chicago traded away the better. of their two goaltenders, Robin Lanner.

They traded away four. I mentioned Steve McGregor. He drafted Eric Guffsson. He had 60 points two years ago for the ox. And I don't mind the matchup for Evanton lines two, three. Like Taze, you know, Jeremy Culleton, Prince Albert, Raider, grad, he can pick his, he can pick his matchup. He can put Taze out against McDavid or he can put Taze out against Dry Settle, but he can't

go against them both. and that means, you know, theoretically, one of Connor or Leon's going to get either Dylan Strom or Kirby Doc. And I think Kirby's going to be good, but I'd want that matchup if I was Dave Tip. 100%. And I mean, at the end of the day, special teams, if they can keep doing what they're doing,

special teams win hockey games in the playoffs. And having the number one power play walking in, I'm sorry, that means something. That means a whole hell of a lot. Well, Chicago also five-on-five, they get grinded. Like, they are a team that really struggles to, they don't have defensemen that can stop the cycle. You know, that's where, that's where Larson comes in. You mentioned you played defense.

I think you're a little bit undersized as a defenseman compared to some of the bigger guys out there. But that's where a six-foot-three, 220-pound guy like Adam Larson has that ability to stop. Like, you know, nurse can do it. And that's back to the comment about the abs D. There you, that tandem of, and they were both fourth overall picks and the orders guys were taken later. but the oldest guys are bigger, which is a theory that I have, Sean, if it was me, I'd always take a forward in the first round,

okay, even as Evanton gets Broberg 8th and Bouchard 10th and back-to-back years, and I'd always take a defenseman in round two because there's less pressure on rushing defensemen. You know, the guy goes back to junior for two years, then he plays two years in the minors, and he's taught how to play, and then he comes up. Roeberg's situation is different

because he played over in Sweden and emphasize, you know, defensive position and competitiveness. And if you were out watching the Oilers scrimmages, Sean, you would realize that, like, he doesn't get beat by quick little interior moves and guys lifting his stick around the NAD. And he can angle guys off. And he's way more than 203 pounds. Like he's listed at 6.3-203. I'm going to guess he's 215 right now.

And, I mean, he's such an incredible skater. but he looks after his own defensive details. He has that. That's part of the reason why he's got a bit of an advantage right now in Bouchard. Like Bouchard's still learning a bit in that regard, because Bouchard has been so focused on offense, offense, offense, every level. And that competitiveness that Broberg has shown is part of the reason why he's getting

on the radar screen. Another thing that probably goes on the radar with Broberg is playing over in Sweden. That's that big ice. And that big ice is different. It's just a different game. there's you talk about angling being able to angle on the big ice is just different and now that it's you know it's not crazy smaller but it is smaller and that that is definitely different and that would help a guy like brover see i have a theory that you know guys grow up in sweden and they wanted to be

nicholidstrom so they gravitated towards playing defense right and in canada this generation has grown up watching Sidney Crosby. So the most competitive guys and now Conorner, so center is going to be the position. You know, in the late 80s, early 90s, there was a run on French Canadian goaltenders out of Quebec

because Patrick Waugh was the guy of that province. And so, you know, Sweden, even like what happened with the world juniors, like people are like, well, Brobert didn't play in the power play. He's a first round pick. And I'm like, yeah, they got a lot of depth

on defense and it's a 19 year old tournament and this guy's you know halfway into his 18 year old year like if let's not forget if we're fortunate enough to get up and run in here by December the world juniors are in Evanton and Broberg could theoretically get into playoff games for the orders and be back with the world juniors of Sweden and he will be on the power play at that time I can guarantee you that so but the depth of the Swedish system on the fence they know how to develop defense there's no question about I was reading uh article today and I hadn't really thought about it, but you'd be closer to what's going on with the rinks and all the teams coming in and how they're going to play the games and everything.

Are they, why they're going to have to share their dressing? I think so, but I don't 100% know. To be honest with you, I don't know all the particulars around the Hub City stuff. Some of us is going to be a work in progress, but I believe Eminton will have to share the dresser. Let's put it this way. The way I would describe this is Edmonton is the host city, the hub city, but the oilers are not the home team. There's 12 road teams here.

Yeah, I don't. That's the Ferris. The longer I. That's the Ferris picture. Yeah, after I heard that they might not even have full access, well, sole access, I guess, to their dressing room. I mean, nobody can talk about home ice advantage all they want, but it's just a sheet of ice. There's no crowd. There's no, no, not even your dressing room anymore.

So to me, you're just in a tournament and that's the way you go. Well, and that's kind of how the Olympics work, right? So it's supposed to be like a village, you know, an Olympic village style of situation. I'd say the only place that it might help, like goaltenders knowing how wrap rounds with the board work and defensively knowing how to play pucks on soft dumps and chips and things like that into their own zone. Might have a little bit better feel. Might have a little bit better feel. Sometimes that's just experience, period.

I was going to say, like, the rinks are getting to the bee where they're almost cookie cutter, not the building itself, but the ice, for the most part, or maybe you see different. You go to all the rinks. You think there's that much of knowing the boards. I mean, you aren't going from small towns to Saskatchewan to the next farming town over where if you rim it the one way, it hits the stanch and it bounces straight out. Like, they just don't have the uniqueness like that. Oh, I mean, okay, I called games at the University of Alberta for 13 years,

and their corners are really acutely cut, and you do a hard wraparound on a, the puck can come right back in front of the net, because that's how boxy it is there, right? So certainly in the NHL, I mean, I don't know, maybe your brothers would remember this, but Boston and Buffalo were tiny arenas. Like super tiny. Way back when, right? So you could,

the University of Saskatchewan used to be like that as well when they played at the old doghouse and Rutherford Rink. Like Rutherford Rink, I think, was only 160 feet long. And like blue, from your blue line to the opposition blue line was under 90 feet. Like you could, you know,

maybe it was 100 feet, whatever. You could score on a shot from center. And so that's 100, like, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Edmonton, there's some similarities in how those arenas have been built. And so they're somewhat similar in terms of the layout of the press boxes, but also in terms of, so there's a degree of truth to what you're saying. I wouldn't call them cookie cutter, but I would say there's a lot of similarities around between the newer facilities. Are you guys going to get in, or the commentator? We don't know. We don't, we don't know yet.

I know that the TV, you know, there's a TV crew, like, Luda Rusk and Chris Cuthbert are in for sure. And we're, you know, but beyond that, we don't know. We have contingency plans, put it that way. So you might have to do it via TV then? Yeah, off a monitor from Ched. That is a possibility, Sean. Gee, how do you feel about that, well, that'll be different.

Yeah, well, we'll wait and see what happens. That's all I feel about that. you know you mentioned you did play by play for a lot of years now you do the color commentating on radio what do you prefer well i really like hosting the show whether it's now right and that show is we do that show is new to two year round right so we do we have 250 to 220 live shows a year right that I would personally host you know and I like analyzing games and that you know that show was important for us

in terms of you know positioning advocacy for the new downtown entertainment and arena complex which we would not have if Daryl Cates didn't own the team people need to remember that and also you know like the rebuild tended to be a little bit longer than everybody was hoping but the thing I'll say about the show is you can pretty much say what you want, provided you can back it up, and it's got to be fair. So sometimes there's some criticism that maybe not everybody likes to hear.

People aren't, you can't BS the fans, they know, right? It's just there's a difference between being fair and critical and just being relentless and nauseating and annoying. And that's where Twitter becomes very unique. So if I didn't have a show, maybe we'd be having a different conversation. But the fact is, we're a team. And it's the play-by-play guy needs to be in radio. The play-by-play guy during the game, he needs to be heard 90% of the time. Right?

Because he's the eyes and ears for the fans. And then you've got to read and react. It's no different than when you're supporting the play on a forecheck. You've got to read and react off your play-by-play guy. you also got to let the game breathe. Like when a goal gets scored, you don't have to say something right away. If it's at home, the crowd says everything.

And in fact, if it's an opposition goal at home, the crowd's silence says everything. Right. And that's part of allowing the game to breathe a bit. So I just consider it a privilege to do what I do. Like to think that, you know, for 12 years, I've been able to travel around with an NHL team, host a daily show,

have a relationship with several corporate partners. You know, not buddy-buddy with any of the players. There has to be a professional, courteous, respectful sort of relationship there. I'm also double the age of the majority of the players. So, you know, I guess. So over 12 years then, Bob, what's something that's... Yeah. What's a cool memory that you go, man, that was something.

That was something. there's a bunch like I remember when Gerald Cates was pursuing the team and I like I know Cal Nichols Cal's son Ken Nichols was in my wedding party by the way it's my anniversary today Sean so I just I just want to mention

no it is seriously my anniversary today so there you go but yeah no kidding we're going to play that Flintstone song a little bit later on, Sean. You know, Darrell getting the team and pushing for the building and watching, when they rolled out the building

and thinking long-term what that was going to mean for Evanton. Like, for me, that was a big thing in terms of the individual games and stuff. You know, Gagne's eight-point performance was really wild. Like, you just don't expect to see that. And, like, you know, Jim Harrison, who was from Bonneville, He had a 10-point game in the WHA for the Oilers. Daryl Sittler had a 10-point game in the NHT. But Sam Gagne, in this day and age in the NHL, getting 4, 4, and 8,

that was pretty wild. I mean, at least 8 or 10 Connor McDavid goals, you know, where he's just gone, oh, my God. Watching Leon Dreissel exceed expectations and become as dominant of a player. I mean, the owners basically have two of the four best players in the world. McDavid's goal in Toronto this year, and his reaction after the goal.

That kind of had me. And just, you know, knowledgeable fan base, every time we go to Montreal, because the Oilers usually play pretty well there. And Canadians are a smaller team that wants to play up-tempo. You know, the trout, like, I like Montreal. I like Chicago.

I like going to those cities. And then, you know, the relationships and the people you meet along the way. So it's, I mean, dry, dry settle, setting up day her knee, game five against San Jose in 2017. I was cool. Being in Los Angeles when Hall was selected first,

being in St. Paul when Newton Hopkins was selected first. Really happy that Eminton took Dry Settle 3rd in 2014 when we were in Philadelphia that year. Connor was given in 2015. So there was, you know, and there's been some tough moments, too, Sean, like watching Anaheim come back from 3-0 down in the final three minutes in game 5 of that series, round two back in 17. You know,

people forget that Sechra got knocked out in the first period of that game. Russell got hurt, and the orders had some inexperience on the ice. So, you know, you can't help, Sean, you know this because you played. When you're around people, you care about it.

people. Like I, you know, let's see, first year I did the games, Mac T was in his last year. Then the next year, we had Pat Quinn, God rest his soul, right? Then we had Tom Rennie. Then we had Ralph Kruger for a year as a head coach. Then we had Dallas for about a year and a half. Then Todd Nelson came in for a half year. Todd McClellan came in for three and a half years, hitch for half year, and now tip it. All of those guys, like, I'm doing the team's daily two-hour show. All of those guys have given me a lot of time over the years. And, you know, several of them will, I'll get a text out of the blue and they'll ask

about my family and stuff like that. And I don't, you know, I don't talk a lot about my family on the air just because I like to keep that a little bit private. But, you know, all I'll tell you is there's a lot of really good people. So it's tough to be specific with one or two cool events. I mean, the Connor goals are given. You know, it's just, I remember Chris Knoblock saying to me, I went and saw Connor play twice in Erie in 1415, his draft year,

because I didn't think Hamilton, Sean, was going to get Connor. I thought it was going to come down to Strom or Hanof it, okay, because I thought we were going to be drafted third or fourth. And I remember Chris Knoblock, he's now the Rangers farm team, he's their head coach, Hartford. He said, Bob, you're going to watch Connor four or five years into his, career and this is after the orders won the lottery he texted me that night so you're gonna watch Connor four or five years in and say I've never seen that move

before that's how special and unpretable that's how gifted this guy is and he's never gonna stop trying to improve and now what we got going on Sean and and you know this because you're in a former player yourself like we have a situation where Connor and Leon are driving each other to be better and when you have that Peter Zoski wrote about that in the book, Game of Our Lives. It's called osmosis, you know, players learning by watching and observing others. That's something that kids are missing out by not being in school. A lot of kids learn that way.

That's a concern that some of the educators have with people having a homeschool and then the challenges that come with it during COVID. So there's so many memories, it's tough to pinpoint one or two, but I could tell you this, if I ever, you know, if hopefully 20 years from now, it's at least another 20 years, I you know if I retired some point I'm gonna I'm gonna have a lot of stories to tell us for sure It'll make one hell of a book Bob Well, maybe maybe not Here's a question for you. I had a buddy call me today

He knew you were coming on and not that it was in your time, but I you being around the oilers Does the name Daryl Duke mean anything? Oh yeah, he was sure He he had one of the most he was the orders trainer and he this was in the sort of the embryonic stages. Daryl passed away a few years ago. Correct. But do you know the story about him and George LaRocque? Well, that's what I want to know. Yeah, they knocked each other out in the order's dress room.

Could you lead the, do you know the full story? Could you lead the listeners through this? Well, I believe what happened is Daryl had basically said, I might get George. You know what, I'll get George to tell a story on Friday show. But they set up a boxing ring in the dresser, remove the ping pong. table out of the way. This is at, you know, Rexall place. And they

hit each other at the exact same time and both knocked each other down and out. And I don't know which other player did it, but one of the older players took some chalk or some white tape and taped it around Georgia's prone body, as if to say it was like a crime scene.

So he was with the Panther Jim Darrell Duke couldn't have been more than when he fought more than 160 pounds like he's not a big man but he knew how to box and George was just a huge

left-handed strong guy with great balance and he could just out muscle you right so but he ran up against the guy to knew how to box and each landed a pretty good shot I'd heard the story and I'd heard that Kevin Lowe came in and was trying to stop it and all the players said Glenn Sather and put them up to it.

So then they let it go down. Yeah, I don't know about that end of it, but I can't tell you that I, George, George, I used to train a body by Bennett with George back in 2007 when I was a little bit thinner. And I used to run steps with him. And then he had me come out and skate with a bunch of guys. Sean Bell was out there, and there were some other guys. There weren't a lot of pros, but there were five or six and some junior guys. And it was non-contact, right, because it's just a skate.

And so, Sean, I wasn't expecting it. And on one of the rare occasions that I actually had the puck, I start going up the ice. And, you know, I'm like 42 at the time. Like, I don't think George was 30 yet. Maybe he was 29 and 30. This was in the summer of 08. And at the last second, I realized, wait a sec.

he's going to try to hit me. So I made the dumbest decision possible, which was to try to jump out of the way, right, to get out of the way of the hit. And so I left my feet, you know, left, my feet left the ice, and he hit me right in the sternum. And it was a total yard sale.

Like my helmet went about 10 feet in the air. One of my gloves came off, right? And I was like, and guys were in shock because he hit like a 42-year-old guy that obviously was, not in shape and not a pro player. And he said he did it because I chirped him years earlier

and stuff. And so I grabbed my stick and skated right over to him right away. And he's laughing at the bench and I stuck my stick between his legs and said that let's go. And I may have used some other words to describe let's go. And Sean Bell was, hey, like George is trying to. And I'm like, seriously

George, we got to go. We got to settle this right now. I'm really lucky that George was in a good mood and was chartered a lot of days, Sean, because it would I would have gotten even uglier after that. So George may have had a couple laughs about that. I asked him because he hit Luchich. When George was in Montreal, he hit Luchich.

And he said about three weeks ago on the show, he said, he said, Stoff, I hit you harder than I hit Milan that night. But he got all of me. Like he got me right in the sternum. But, I mean, did you imagine getting hit when you think it's not on contact? You're not preparing yourself for the hit? Those are the worst ones. Yeah.

And you're getting hit by a guy that's 260 to 265 pounds. It's the reigning heavyweight champ of the National Hockey League. Do you remember when McIntyre hit the guy from Calgary? I think it was Dustin Boyd into the boards at Emerton at the start of the, I'm thinking it might have been 2008-9 season, and then Prust went and then fought him, you know, and everybody was like, wow. And the funny thing is Prust in the American League two years earlier

had fought Ben Thompson, former Alberta Golden Bear that played for the medicine and that tigers. Ben Thompson is 5'5 foot six and about 155 pounds of Pruss. Pruss went after him because Thompson had lit up one of the Russians in Calgary's farm team at that time. And so within a two-year span, Brandon Pruss had fought one of the smallest guys in the American Hockey League. And then, you know, Mac was 6'6 and like 260, he bought one of the biggest guys.

So kudos for him. but that's, Dustin, I know how Dustin Boyd felt. I felt like a mosquito getting hit by the proverbial windshield. It was just, you know, my teeth are still sore, you know, 15, what are we, 12 years later? That's a great story. George, George was always a fan favorite. Hell, he still is a fan favorite. He was here in Lloyd.

They did a charity game. What was that? Last summer. And he was larger than life, right? Like, it's George. He's a giant big... He's an emminton. Yeah.

He's an emerson, sporting icon. He's a legend. I had a question from a buddy of mine, and he follows you very closely, he follows the Oilers very closely. He was wondering if the Oilers are ever going to have... I don't know what to call it exactly, Bob, so just bear with me. But an Oilers Sports Channel, the only comparison I can kind of bring to it is, like, the Yankees Entertainment Channel, where everything is on it, right?

They have practices film. have the minor league games, they have retro, you know, Oilers in 30, they have everything. He goes, are they ever going to do something like that? It's an interesting question, Sean. It's not a decision I'd be making. It's about my pay grade. Yeah. Right.

But I think there's no wrong idea this time. This is what could have, who would have thought that five years ago, I'm going to run a run here, Sean, or I'm going to do about five podcasts over a three-week run. And that you can do something like this over Zoom or Skype or, I mean, I have the worst technical abilities of any man you've ever met, right? And it's easy. Right? And so I would say never say never, right?

There's Leafs TV. The Oilers website gets a lot of traffic with what they produce. There's lots of different ways to deliver things for potential corporate partners as well. So your friend's suggestion to me is not out of the realm of possibility because I think there's more sports franchises and sports entities that have to think of things in those terms. One other thing we've got to bring up today because it just happened is the Eskimos are no longer the Eskimos.

What's your thoughts on that? I think it's time. You know what? My bigger concern for the Eminton football team, I mean, I grew up in Eskimos fan. I'm an Everton guy. you know, he cared about the orders, cared about the Eskimos. Actually, you know,

in the orders from the WHA, the Eskimos were the bigger team in town at that time. I'm a huge UVA fan. You know, I care about the Oil Kings, and I care about the Bakersfield Condors. You know, they listen to the constituents out there. My bigger concern is where's the CFL

going to go long term. You know, is this going to be... Where is the CFL going to go long term? Well, they've clearly lost. a generation. There's no question about it. I'm a hardcore NCAA college football fan. It's unbelievable. College football in the Southeast

is like hockey in a place like Edmonton and in Montreal. It's religion. Right, it is. Like, the mistake that they made in the United States in the South is if they wanted to really kibosh COVID, they needed to tell everybody that if you want to watch SEC football, fall in the fall, put a mask on.

That's how we have to, like, that's what we're going to have to do here over the next couple months here to get our numbers down to the point where maybe, so, you know, it's, but in terms of the CFL, it does not have the same engagement from the younger generation that the NHL does. It's not even close, and it's gotten even further. I know it's from hosting a show. Like, when I did Total Sports from 2003 to 2008 on 1260, we probably did CFC, we probably did CFL 20 to 25%

the first couple of years. And by the final couple years in 2008, it was 10% of our show, because you got to give the people what they want. And they wanted non-stop order talk. That's what they wanted. It's that simple. Yeah, you're talking about the CFL. It's

disappearing almost. And the biggest show in town when it comes to football is the NFL, and right behind it is, like you say, NCAA. It is, it's not even close. And I'm a I love the Rough Riders. I really do. We grew up watching them. One of my fondest memories was the Grey Cup in Eminton. We drove up there as kids. And I'll never forget it till the day I die.

And are you young? That's the 97 Grey Cup. Yeah. And we went and watched Flutie play and destroy us. Absolutely destroyed us. It was like minus freaking 50. And with about four minutes to go in the game, the Rough Rider fans started chanting, we're number two. It's the only fan base I've ever seen do that. Half of them were probably drunk at the time. Actually, who am I kidding?

Four quarters of it. Everybody, but the kids were probably drunk. It was cool. I was working for CBC as a runner and ended up having to drive the head of CBC to the airport just as the game was concluding. and his brother was an RCMP and people were,

it was so cold, people were trying to break in on the CBC trailer thinking that it was bathrooms outside, because they'd sit up, seriously, oh yeah, and that's,

you know, it's funny when you're down on the sideline, you realize how small some of the defensive backs were. Like there's a lot of those, those guys aren't 511. Those guys are 5, 7, 5, 8, 5, 9. There's, but,

yeah, you know, and riders, obviously, University of Saskatchewan, University of Regina, because I did football and hockey play-by-play, right? So they did a huge following, much more committed following than the Golden Bear football program, which was a very good program throughout the 1970s into the mid-1980s. One of the cool things about CFL, though, I will say, is there something special about them not making millions upon millions of dollars and having to go get jobs and work and work?

It's just a big working man's league. Oh, it is. I mean, the minimum salary is like $65,000 now, but frankly, I wish that the salary cap was higher. Like, it's like $5.5 million per team, you know? So obviously, Ebbinton and Saskatchewan could support greater contracts. I would argue that there's only three or four markets to really care about the CFL. Like Vancouver doesn't care about the CFL.

Evanton does. obviously the riders. I think it's fair to say to Winnipeg. In Calgary. And Calgary's been the best team in the league for the last 15 years. Like the Esk, and again, I was spoiled. I watched the Eskwin was 78 to 82. So I was, you know, Warren Moon was on that team.

The guy is a Hall of Famer in two different leagues. So what does that tell you? Well, before, well, Warren Moon, yeah. I gave you more than a half hour, eh? That's right. Well, I got one final segment for you, Bob. It's the crewmaster final five. But before we go into it, I wanted to hear some tree planting.

And I promised you I wouldn't lead you in, though, away from sports. But me being a fellow tree planter and hearing you planted over in Ontario a bit, I was just, you know, I wanted to say, I give you a, when I hear you talk about that, I give you mad respect for people who've never tree planted before. And that puts air on your chest. How long did you do it for? Just the summer, right before we bike Canada. Which year did you go?

2006. And so you're a rookie. So what did you make on average per day? Not just, not in a full day, but if you factored in the half days and what would you make? Did you make 200 bucks a day, 150 bucks a day? So I was nine and a half cents a tree. And my best day was 3,000 trees. So what's that?

not even $300. $270. On an average day, probably over the course of it, it was close to $200. I was freaking, I mean, well, you know, the one thing about $2. And you would have been a good rookie. If you were making that as a rookie, because the one thing I've been told, I've still got a couple of friends at own companies up there, I've been told the money isn't any better today, Sean, than it was back in.

So I started in 86 with an Everton-based company. worked for them for three years, 86 to 88. We were in Northern Alberta, and then in 87, we went to BC, sort of Clearwater, Avala, Blue River areas in BC. 86, up near high level in Steen River and the Chichaga River and the Chichaga River and the Wadisca River. 87 and 88, we're in Grand Prairie as well a lot. In 89, we went to Ontario. So we went to Blind River in Manitouge, Ontario.

I went with a company called Coast Range for two years. In 1990, Coast Range again. And then 91 and then 94 to 98 with a company called Silverado. So the first year I went up in 86, Sean, we only had four women in our camp out of like 27, 28 people. And by the time I finished, I formed in the last four years, from 95 to 98 I formed. out of 45 people in our camps, 16, 17, 18 would be women. And they were much more aggressive than the guys. Like, you know, they, you know, and every bit is capable.

I mean, frankly, it's kind of a unique job because you're almost better if you're a little smaller. Because you don't have as many back problems. You're bending over anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500 times a day. I think the average, we were probably planning 13 cents per tree up there. terrain was a little bit tougher than what you were. Do you plan on Ontario? Yeah, yeah. In the shield, it was terrible.

Do you ever see snakes, garter snakes, come slithering by as you were planning? So I'm not a snake guy, Bob, and I tell this story because someday my kids will laugh at it, but I've screamed like a little girl. Like, I mean full on screamed. And normally when you tree plant, you tree plant by yourself.

The day I, this garter snake about a meter long went rolling, by me while I bent over to put it in. There was a guy where were planting doubles the one day and I went racing down the hill and he's like, what's the matter? And it was a snake. All it was was a garter snake. Yeah, I hate snakes. They're terrible. I can tell you like we had

in Blind River, we had days where you're planting across and you'd come across 25 to 30 of them within a 200 foot radius, right? It was a little freaky. Now, that's This is how much things changed.

When we first went up in 86, like we had shotguns in our camp to kill the black bears. By the time I finished, yeah, by the time we finished in 98, if there were bears on our block, we would go to a different block to go plant. We wouldn't even, like, that's how far things had already moved.

My first year in 86, we didn't even have WCB regulations for our camps. You know, so it was just a war of attrition. Like, it was just, it was, it was, And we only got paid like six, six and a half, seven cents. So I did, my first year in 86, I don't think I made, I probably averaged 160 bucks a day. But by 90, by 90, like in 90, we made about $400 a day that one year. I might have taken a gun.

They gave us a bear whistle. That's what we got. You got a bear whistle? Yeah. And so the black bears would come up and try and steal your lunch every once in a while. And you're out there. All the time. Yeah.

And I tell you what, you go a little savage when they're staring at your lunch and you're out in the middle of nowhere. And I tell you what, that job makes men out of little boys or, you know, women. Did you ever work in the oil patch, Sean? Oh, yeah, still do. Full time. Yeah. For Baker Hughes still. I can't.

I briefly spent some time on a service rig. I thought that job was way worse than treatment. planning. I thought tree planning was, oh yeah. I have poor technical. I'll say this. I like the lifestyle of tree planning. I think the people are amazing. You'll never meet a group of people like that in your life. Right. But I literally had nightmares where I'd wake up doing the tree planning motion in the middle of the night. And I was, after the first year, I was like, I can't go back to that job. I cannot go back. Well, my hands, my, I had cramped, the first couple of years, I would have cramped hands until November from the, from the D-handle shovel. Because we had a D-handle, back then we had D-handle shovels.

And so you'd get what was known as the claw. And it would take, I'm serious, when I would sleep at night, I would wake up every night in my hand, my, my, my, my, my, my shovel hand would be clenched. And I'd have to pry the fingers back one by one, right? like that's how bad it was so there you go there's your tree plan I appreciate the tree plan because every time I hear you talk about it I I think kudos to you because

that job is you can sit there and talk highly about it but that that takes some gumption to do day after day let alone year after year so hats off sure let's go on the crewmaster final five and then I'll let you get back to your night just five quick questions

Bob and then you can go on your way If you could sit down with one person to pick their brain, who would you want? We have them. Ken Holland. That's who you would want? Sit down and pick Kenny's Holland's brain? Are you talking about hockey? If I could go back in history, I would say Robert F. Kennedy.

I wonder what would have happened in the United States if he had not been assassinated in 68. There's a series of Bobby Kennedy for president that's on Netflix right now. And many of the same social conundrums that we currently have were happening back in 1968. And I wonder what would have happened if he would have won the, you know, if he would have obviously not been assassinated. I think he was far more altruistic than his brother, who of course got assassinated in 63 as president. I think he had a higher ceiling. I think that he was way out of his time on social issues, on issues with women.

And I think the United States would have been, I think the separation of wealth would have been far less great had he ended up becoming the president of the United States because the transformation that occurred in the early 1970s allowed the rich to become extremely rich. And so, and this is, there's a couple theorists out there, one of the guys' names is Eric Weinstein. He's a Harvard educated theorist that works with field capital.

This guy's brilliant. Yeah, I'm not talking about what he's been on Joe Rosen. Yeah, total libertarian. And he's talked about how economics changed in the early 70s and allowed the rich to become super rich. And I personally believe if Robert F. Kennedy had won the, if he had won the Democratic nomination, I think he would have easily won the election.

He would have brought different parts of the United States together. So there would be one guy that I would have loved to have talked to. There you go. I don't know if that's what you were looking. I mean, if it was hockey, I'd want to talk to. If it was hockey, I'd want to talk to Kent, which I'm privileged enough to do so because he's got so much experience and he's devoid of ego.

So it's humbling to talk to a guy like that that gives you his time and sees things the way he does. But in terms of politics, I'd say Robert F. Kennedy. Both are great answers. Who's the most underrated oiler of all time? Well, I don't know how Glenn Anderson, like Global and Corrus, just did a top two line team. And Glenn Anderson's in the Hockey Hall of Fame,

and he didn't make Edmonton's team as one of the six forwards. Obviously McDavid and Drysettled did. But to me, the four Hall of Fame performers, forwards in the 80s team, all should have been on there. So you could make an argument, Glenn Anderson. Like he's top 10 in playoff goals, game winning goals, overtime goals, penalty minutes, assists and points. Like, he was a pretty dynamic player that was clutch at critical times. And I think a lot of people don't realize how good Glenn Anderson was. I'm going to tell you right now, of recent vintage, Dustin Penner was an underrated player.

He scored over 90 goals in less than four full seasons in Emerton. He was well-liked by his teammates. He stuck up for his teammates. He didn't fight for himself. But if Cronwell went and drilled Hemsky or Lannin Wilson took a run at Sam Gagne, Dustin Penner was filling those guys in. So I actually think Dustin Penner was a fairly underrated player. And a more recent vintage, maybe Ryan Nugenton,

Hopkins because of the selflessness of his game. Kills penalties in a support for a role the last couple of years with McDavid and Dry Settled depending upon the line. I think he's a little he doesn't get the respect around the league that maybe he should. He's pretty good hockey player. Which brings me my next question. How on earth do you remember the stats that way? Is that just a God-given skill or is that hard work and you just constantly working at it? Well, I have a theory, Sean, that if you're telling people how hard you're working, maybe you're not working that hard. So, okay, I would like to think that I work pretty hard. It's a passion, though.

That's the thing, like, I'm doing something that I love. Like, right now, everybody's, there's a lot of people out there busting their ass and doing a great job and their respective jobs and having to really alter, because they don't have the day-to-day communication that they would have had face-to-face. I'm really lucky to do what I do, but it's not a job to me. It's a passion. So I'd say a combination in terms of the stats. I mean, I have a really good memory. Always have had a really good memory.

But I also have a passion for it. I think the witching hour has happened in the Stauffer household. There's thunder, and we have a dog that gets a little upset. son gets my son starts laughing and then it becomes uh let's leave it there go for it thank you thank you very much for hopping on i really appreciate it sure sean best of luck with your podcast okay thanks for your time thank you cheers me hey folks thanks again for joining us today if you just stumble on the show and like what you hear please click subscribe remember every monday and wednesday a new guest will be sitting down to share their story the sean newman podcast is available for free on apple

Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you find your podcast fix. Until next time. Hey folks, I hope you enjoyed that one. We are now closing in. We got 99 and 100 next week. Crazy how quickly it just flies by. Now, you're sitting here waiting to hear another. And if you've been listening along, I think my hints get worse and worse as we go along here in hopes to preserve the secret as I haven't been telling anyone. But here's how you can enter. If you want to toss a guest out in order to enter, head to social media, tag the podcast and hashtag who's 100 with your guests for 100. For each post, whether it's on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or just head to the website and email me your guest. You'll get an

entry into the draw. The draw will be, I'll announce it at the end of 100, so the same kind of format we got going here. I'll announce who's wanted. And a shout out to factory sports. They've donated $200 gift card. That's super cool. And then Sandy Beach golf course, a round for four people and two carts. So all you got to do is toss out a guest on social media, tag me and the hashtag Who's 100. And here's your hint for the day. Doesn't wear your glasses. That's it. We'll catch you on 99 and they. Have a great week, guys.