Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. 52 - Div 1 Hockey - Arizona State University - Tyler Busch

Episode Date: January 15, 2020

Born & raised in Lloydminster. He played for the Spruce Grove Saints of the AJHL winning back to back championships. He won a World Junior 'A' Gold medal in 2015 and has been with ASU for the past 4 years. 

This is Tyler Bush. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. This episode is brought to you by Mazz Entertainment. Now, if you are unfamiliar with Mazz Entertainment, they do production, live production for large bands, DJ. They have DJs, rentals, and sales. They also do business corporate AV and installs as well. Now, let's just get to the point.

Mazz is the man. If I have an issue with anything, when it comes back to this podcast, I switched over to an Apple computer, this is probably a month or two ago, and having serious issues, the guy I call is Cody Maseril. If you're looking for a DJ for a wedding, the man you should be calling is Cody Maseril. If you have a high school dance going on, the man you should call is Cody Maserl. He is the bomb. He's the best. To get a hold of him, his number is 7-8-0. O20142920 or Cody at mazentertainment.ca.

I promise you will not be disappointed. Just one other quick story. We're in the middle of Hockey Day in Saskatchewan coming up here very, very shortly. And call Cody, say, hey, I'm looking for like a spotlight to kind of shine on a door, so when the sky's skate, a bye, boom. 20 minutes later, it's sitting on my doorstep

with instructions on how to do it. Like, I mean, that's the guy. guy Cody is, I promise you won't be disappointed. Now, into Hockey Day in Saskatchewan, it is this weekend coming up. Thursday night, here's a bomb for you all. Thursday night is Wade and Friends. Now, that is Wade Redden and Friends. And we just found out Marty McSorley will be playing in this game as well. So now you got Wade Redden, Marty McSorley, Border Kings from 01 and 07, Hillman Hitman from 2015 after they ended the Hillman drought of 37 years, all playing Thursday night. It's going to be a fun, fun night. Friday night,

the banquet is sold out right now, so unless you can sweet talk somebody who might have some tickets. It is sold out. You can get into the dance, the cabaret after, $8.30, $30 to get in. That gets you to see Jordan Pollard and the Dirt Rich band. And also, I got to give a shout to the Fred North Foundation because I found out earlier this week that any money raised that night, they will match up to 25 grand. And that's huge. And if I haven't said it before, all the money coming from this Hockey Day in Saskatchewan

is going to getting new boards in the home on rink. And obviously, new boards are not exactly cheap. So that's super cool of the Fred North Foundation. Sorry. On Saturday, you can get tickets still for the Midget AAA Men's and Women's Games. at 1 and 4.30 and then at 7 o'clock that night, or 7.30 that night. It is the North Battle for North Stars, who are the top of the SGHL and defending champs taking on the Notre Dame

Hounds. And that is all happening at the Helmand rink. $25 gets you the entire day. 12 and under are free. You can pick up tickets at factory sports, tops, or fountain tire. So lots going on. Obviously Sunday, finally, to kind of cap off Hockey Day in Saskatchewan is all Helmont Minor Hockey, followed by Hillman-Hittman v. Lashburn Flyers Senior Saskalta game. So tons of cool stuff going on here over the next few days, folks. So if you are in and around town, get out there and help support the Helmont community. I know I'll say it. I'd greatly appreciate it.

Now, last week I had Paul Beazinet on the podcast, and, well, if anyone listen to Spitz, and chicklets. The feedback I got was, well, it still hasn't stopped coming through. I like this one, earmuffs for all the kids out there, but Kobe McDonald said, holy fuck Sean, that was a great. I got to admit like I had chills for like 70% of that listen. Never expected to be so deep and then he laughed. That was once again biz nasty from last week. I had also Jordan Chong, my old roommate from Dryden Days, said unreal job, Bids, unreal job with Bids, such a fun episode. Kurt Tenney, once again, earmuffs.

Holy fuck man, you set the part pretty high having Bizz on. That was an awesome interview. And then finally, a buddy of mine Josh Spiegel out in Wisconsin said, Hey, Big Fella, keep up the good work. I have a blast listening to your show. Awesome guests with awesome content. Stories are classic. Love it, bud, keep it up.

Thanks, guys, for reaching out. Glad you enjoyed last week's episode with Paul Bezanette. If you haven't listened to it, I highly suggest you go back and dabble in it. It was a lot of fun, and I really appreciate him hopping on the show with me. Now, for this week, here is your Factory Sports Tale of the Tape. Today's guest is Tyler Bush, the Arizona State University Sun Devils Captain. He's born and raised in Lloyd Minster, Alberta. He played his minor hockey in town before heading west,

where he would suit up for the spruce grove saints of the H.H.L. Once there, he would help them win back-to-back championships and wear the sea. In that time, he won a World Junior A. Gold in 2015. Now, currently, he's in his fourth year with the Arizona State Sun Devils, and once again, we're in the sea for them as well. So this was a cool little interview I did while down in Arizona on holidays. Appreciate Tyler having the time to sit down with me,

and without further ado. So welcome to Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by Tyler Bush, captain of the ASU hockey team here in Arizona, Phoenix. And first off, just thanks for sitting down with me. I know you're not in school right now, so you've got a little bit of time, but still to take some time out of your busy schedule

to sit down and have a little BS session with me is cool. Yeah, no, thanks for having me. It's good you could make it out here. So the first question I have with the talk, my head is are you ever coming back north because I like walk in here and flip flops this facility is gorgeous I'm going like I don't know if I want to leave yeah definitely a nice place to be to play hockey you know I love going back to Lloyd and seeing friends and family but I think when it's all sudden down I'm

my chances of staying here probably a little bit higher so you know guys I've played with in the past and stuff have all kind of stuck around so Great place to live and I can kind of see myself being here the rest of my life for sure. It'd be easy. Yeah, wow. I mean, it's just a beautiful little spot. First time I've ever been to Phoenix before. I've never, never been here before. Now, this is year four for you? Yeah, it's my fourth year. So I got a few more months here. I got one semester left. Well, in four years, what do you suggest a guy sees if he's only here for seven days? Oh, God, there's so much. I mean, it's nice being right outside the city kind of. obviously when their school like the campus area is always buzzing there's a ton of people and I think it's the biggest school in North America there's like 80,000 undergrad kids so

I read 102,000 in your guys's program yeah it's I mean it's growing every year so it's like there's people everywhere um there's always stuff to do around campus but as soon as you go in like phoenix area there's you know the basketball team the coyotes um the diamond backs during the year like it's it's kind of cool you can if you're if you're a sports fan there's definitely um a lot to do in regards to that and um golfing is another thing that everyone does here like it's especially in the summer it's really cheap and and easy to get out so um i mean you could get away with golfing every day and playing a new track every day because there's so many courses around here so um i know on off days that's what our guys do quite a bit next question i have to ask

is how is going on spit and check That was good, actually. It kind of came out of nowhere. Just a little background on that is like Bizonet was at one of our games. He comes more often now, but he was at one of our games and he was kind of poking fun at one of our players after. This Johnny Walker kid, he was poking fun at his skating or something like that. And the boys kind of got a hold of that and we're listening to it. so Johnny, I tweeted at him and kind of called him out for it.

And then they started talking back and forth. And he said, why don't we get a couple of guys on the podcast? So, yeah, he asked me, I was just kind of a background guy. But it was cool to go on and talk with those guys and bullshit for a good. It was awesome. That's like, I was explaining this. So I go to your guys' game on Sunday. And I've been to a couple of Division I won hockey games before.

And, you know, truth. there's probably been known people in the building who played very good hockey, whatever. And Paul, Mr. Bizonet, Bisnasty, whatever he goes by, comes and sits right in front of him. I'm like, what is going on here? Like, this is, I don't know, huge deal in my world, podcasting world. I mean, in the hockey world, Spinjiklets is right up there with Coach's Corner now pretty much, right? Like for the younger generation, that's huge. How is he playing in a game having that guy around the building?

Yeah, it's cool. I remember the first time he came. Like, it was in between periods and he was like in our bathroom taking a leak. And like guys are walking in and out of the bathroom being like, oh, shit. Like this is here kind of thing. So no, he's a nice guy. And like he'll pop in every once in a while if he's out of game and say hi after the game and stuff. and he gets pretty into it too.

We saw him along the glass, like banging the glass after a goal or stuff like that. So, no, it's cool to have a face like that at your games for sure. The Oceanside is an interesting place for a school of 100,000 with a Division 1 hockey program. It's got a lot of character. Yeah, we'll say that, yeah. Yeah, I mean, we're talking about the roof. How the hard is it to adjust to a roof that low? Yeah, I mean, a lot more whistles during the game.

You kind of don't have an option of the high flip out of the zone, but I don't know. I was saying when I first got here, it was a bit of an adjustment, and you go on the road and play in front of like 5,000, 10,000 seats, and then you come here and it's like 1,000 max. Let's talk about going on the road for a sec. Because you guys aren't in a conference, right? No, no, we're independent, but we play all the time.

Division 1 game, so we play basically anyone. So all of our games are out of conference, technically. Yeah, correct. Right. So always on a plane, hopping on to Phoenix and flying everywhere? Yeah, yeah, we fly to every place. We've charted a couple times, but mostly commercial flights. Yeah, how's that bouncing everywhere?

It's okay. I mean, travels long, like, especially where we're at. We're kind of the only school that's out east or out west, so we're traveling a lot to the East Coast, Boston, New York area, a lot of the times. This year we went out to Alaska. Up to, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we played in Fairbanks. So we've kind of been all over the place, but you get used to it.

I mean, we travel a couple days before we play. What's worse, bus legs or plane legs? Probably bus legs. Think so? I think so. I mean, we get a lot of time to adjust. If we play on Friday, Saturday, we'll fly on a Wednesday and have a day of recovery there. So it's good.

We get enough time to recover after a flight. And I'd rather fly a plane and get there as quick as I can. That's true. I'm sitting on a bus for hours. Only thing about a plane is you don't really get to move around. At least run a bus. It's your team and you can kind of bounce around wherever you want. Yeah, yeah.

No, it takes some getting used to, I guess. But it's, you know, it's good. I think I've got used to it. And we have a pretty good schedule. It all broken up where we don't go on the road every single weekend. Where's been the best atmosphere, best barn that you went to so far

since being down here? There's been a lot. I mean, Penn State was really cool. They got a brand new rink. I think they built it four or five years ago, and they pack it, so it's a cool atmosphere there. Minnesota, planning against a gophers, was pretty cool.

I'm trying to think. Western Michigan actually underrated barn. They got a ton of fans. a ton of students and they're just rowdy like it was a sick atmosphere and went there and you wouldn't even think it like they got an older barn but like the whole across from the bench the whole side of the ice is all students and they're all standing the whole game chanting stuff like that so that's that should be the best thing about college hockey in the States is yeah usually the student

section is the best section to be yeah watching all game long or when the bands come out and play. Yeah, it's cool. Do you guys ever get anything crazy like that in it being such a small ring? We don't get the bands, but we'll have we have that tiny little student section, but honestly, like

a lot of times we'll have a pretty, like this weekend was as great because people are on break and home for Christmas, but usually we'll fill that thing and it gets pretty loud in there. Like the atmosphere is good just because it's so small and they kind of jam it

packed, so. but I mean it's it's completely different going on the road with the big student sections and stuff it's you're almost nervous to take a penalty because you're hearing it like as soon as you sit down in the box you're hearing it from the students so one fun atmospheres to go around our atmospheres and like play in front of that many people and and you know like just like the school atmosphere of having everybody raw raw all decked out in colors and the band while the student sections they just get rowing Yeah. I really, really miss going to schools like that that just prep for you and their tailgate.

Do they tailgate her? I mean, not that you'd know. For football games, we do, yeah. Yeah. For football games. Did you get out to a couple football games this year? Yeah. Well, our school, like our school's football team, we've probably gone.

I think I saw two or three games this year. But when they play at the start of the year, it's so hot, we'll usually go for it over the first quarter, first half, and then go watch their ass somewhere else. Because it's too hot? Yeah, yeah. It's like, and the student section is packed too, and everyone stands for the game. So like you're just leaking sweat by the end of it. You're a polar bear from Canada.

You can't handle the heat. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, it gets pretty hot in the summer. But good trade off, I guess. So are you outside right now? Is it cool for you? Yeah.

A little bit chilly? You've accustomed yourself to now you're cold outside? Yeah. I think this is the perfect time of year. Like, the weather's great. It's perfect for golfing and stuff like that. But sometimes in the summer you walk outside and the heat hits you and it's like, ooh. But, no, it's great.

I mean, we get pretty much our whole year around is good weather. Do you get a ton of people come visit you now that you're in Phoenix? Yeah, I've had a handful. Yeah. A lot of people come vacation here and stuff. So I've seen some old buddies and stuff that'll come down. and let me know when they're in town and I'll kind of show them around and hang out for a bit. But it's good that, you know, this is a place where a lot of people want to come visit.

So it's easy. Let's go back to when you're younger years, when you're growing up in Lloyd. Did you always grow up just playing hockey or were you multi-sport kind of thing? Yeah, I played baseball mostly growing up in the summers up until I was, I would say, 14. I played baseball mostly every summer. a couple times I play lacrosse, but I loved baseball. I thought it was a great, great sport. I thought it was nice to get away from hockey too

and spend the summer just doing something else. You know, hockey can. So if you could go back and hockey wasn't an option, you would have been a baseball player then? I think so, yeah. Yeah, I think that was probably the most enjoyable sport I played, and, you know, I loved every aspect of it. I actually played catcher in Lloyd for a few years,

and I just love being behind the plate and being able to call games and take pitches and stuff like that. And I think it's a great sport. I'm pretty good buddies with a couple of baseball players here to play at ASU, so I think it's a great sport. Do you ever get out and take a little BP? No, I haven't.

I know a few guys that have actually went with a couple of the baseball guys and went and hit some balls, but I'm going to have to hear this next semester. You're running out of time now. I mean, I guess if you settle in and for the long haul, don't leave here, you got plenty of time. Yeah, yeah. Well, they got a great baseball program here too.

Like, I mean, their alumni is off the charts. Like, they got Barry Bonds and. Bonds won here? Bury Bonds went here, yeah. I'm trying to think who else. Chase Otley is a great, like, have a really good career. I think he just retired. Andre Eathier went here.

some names like that. That's pretty cool. How with the hockey program? I mean, it's pretty young. Is there any big names that have come out of here? Well, this is our fourth. Fourth year. Full year, Division I,

1, but our goalie last year, Joey DeCord, he was drafted by Ottawa, and at the end of last year he signed with him, and he played one game with the senators at the end of the year, but he's in the minors now, but he's the one name that's kind of gone on and played pro.

And with ASU, you guys are, what did I read? And the guy in the stands was telling me, too, the fastest Division I team to make the tournament. Is that correct? I think that's probably right, yeah. Three years, yeah. And I think it's been a while since an independent team has made the tournament too. I think we were the first in my 20 years or something like that.

Who did you play in the first? Quinnipec? Quinnipiac, yeah. Quinipiac? Yeah, we lost by goal. Was that in their rink? No, it's a neutral site. Neutral sites.

Where did you guys play that game? It was in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Allentown, Pennsylvania? Yeah, it's where they're the flyer. I think it's the Flyers minor league team plays. Okay. It was at their rink. So there's four teams there.

The fans? Yeah, yeah. There was four teams. There was us in Quintipiac and then Duluth and Bullion Green were there. And then Duluth and... What was that? What was that? It was a second night.

It was good. I mean, one game winner take-all. Yeah, yeah. It was tough for us because we don't have a playoffs. Like, we don't have conference playoffs. So after our season ended, we, like, knew we were going to make the tournament because we ranked high enough. And so other teams go on the next two weeks play in their playoffs.

So we kind of sat around and just practiced for almost three or four weeks before we played that game. Ouch. So, I mean, we started slow. and gave up a few, and then I think there's two nothing going to the third. We scored one early in the third, and then made a push, but we lost by, I think we might have lost in an empty netter. I think we lost by two, but, yeah, I mean, it was tough to adjust at the start almost,

but, I mean, that's hopefully this year if we get in, then we can learn from that and just be a little more ready. I assume that your program's trying to get an accomplice? Yeah, I think so. I think the biggest issue is that is getting a rink first. I think that's what a lot of the conferences want is for us to get a rink before we join anywhere. So, I mean, hopefully sooner than later we can get one built. But I think once our team gets a rink built on campus, it's just going to skyrocket

because kids want to come here as it is. And that's basically the only thing missing. It is the only thing missing. I mean, this is, as a hockey guy, if you're anywhere from up north, you come down here, you're like, yeah, I could probably do this. Yeah, I can handle this. Yeah, that's all. When I took my visit here, I was a little skeptical because they were just brand new.

And, you know, they were struggling and didn't have a great roster. But as soon as I stepped down campus, I was like, I got to go here. Did you, when you came here, did you go to other campuses at all? I well originally I was committed to Ohio State oh okay yeah I I toured there I went to Penn State as well on a visit and and then I was with Ohio State for two years I think and then decided to go a different way

because I had some buddies that went there and didn't work out for them and stuff like that and they had some different recruiting guy like they had some guys brought in their recruiting changed a little bit and stuff like that so I decided to go a different way and I came down here on a visit and I was like yeah no brain no brain yeah but my first two years here we struggled a bit like it was tough we we didn't have the very good record and there was a couple long years but I think this last year and then this year so far it's been great and it's been nice to see the program kind of turn around and kind of take off, so it's been cool.

And you get to be a big part of that, right? I mean... Yeah, I mean, that was a big reason why I came here in the first place is tons of opportunity right off the bat. Like as a freshman, I was playing a ton of minutes, and I think it was good for my development, for sure. Yeah, well, I'm playing tons of minutes and playing, like, good hockey teams. We were talking about Michigan Tech over the weekend. That's a good hockey team. That was a good hockey on the weekend.

Right. Yeah. And when you're, you know in a small barn like that, you get a real feel. Well, and you guys have to walk. Both teams have to walk in front of the stands to go back to their respective dressing rooms. It's just, I don't think I've ever seen that before. But it gives me a new respect for how big everybody is. Brick me. That Lemieux on your guys' team is a giant, which I mean, I guess gets that from Mario.

Yeah. I suppose Mario comes around the room every once in a while. Yeah, he comes to quite a few games. He's never really came in the room and talked to us, but I think Austin would rather him just kind of stay on the outside. It's probably tough for... Yeah. He's trying to make a name for himself.

Well, yeah, I'm sure he's heard it all growing up too and stuff. He's kind of been Mario's kid his whole life rather than just Austin. He's a big boy. Yeah, he is. He's tall. He's not very thick, but... Yeah, he was fun to watch. Honestly, the entire game was fun to watch.

Yeah, no, he's a good player. Like, he can definitely see his talent level. Like, he, he can see the guys. He's in 96, too, I think. But he registered it. He was first year he got here. Okay. So he just practiced in play.

And then last year was this full year. So this year he's kind of took off and took a big step. I think it's tough for guys sitting out a full year and then getting back into it. And then trying to get back into it. Yeah. But this year, he's been playing well. Then you get a couple of boys from Bonnyville, too. the Pashton brothers.

They have the Bash brothers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Did you guys, you guys played together before Midget or something, bad? I played Midget with Steen. When he came to Lloyd, my second year in Midget, we played in Lloyd together for the Midget AAA team, and Brinson was playing U-16 at the time.

Okay, yeah, yeah. So I knew them, like, I grew up playing against them, and then they played in Bonneville when I was in Spurs. So were they committed before you committed? After. After. Brinson was also, he was committed to Vermont originally too. And then he decommitted. And then it was right around the same time as like when I committed here.

So our coaches got on the phone with him right away. And I think he wanted to go somewhere with his brother too. And so I was talking with them on the phone and trying to get them to come too. So it's good. It all worked out. Yeah, well, it's. I was saying to my brother, who came with me to the game,

we're looking at like the rosters of both teams and how many Alberta kids and, you know, not even Alberta, like Lloyd, Bonneville, Irma, Wainwright. Right. Between the two teams, you know, there's quite a few guys that are from the little area called home for a lot of us.

Yeah, no, it's cool. It's, uh, it's been, it's been awesome to see it kind of develop and the talent out of Lloyd Minster is kind of off the charts right now. So it's good that guys are going the college path too. I think growing up, we weren't exposed to that a whole lot. Basically, everyone just thought of the Western League and knew about that. And me included, I always thought the Western League would be the path.

But then after going junior A, I figured that college would probably be better for me in my development. Were you taken in the bad of draft at all? I was, yeah, I was a white pick. But who took it? Prince George. Did you go out to Prince George? I did, yeah, the year I got drafts when I was 15, I went to their camp, and then my 16-year-old year I went to, and I got cut before exhibition. So I came back and played a year midget and then decided to go to Spruce, and then thought probably college would be a better idea at that point.

So the initial plan had been to play doubt, though. I mean, yeah, growing up, that's what I wanted to do, yeah. But I'm glad to just picked up. Yeah, this is a pretty cool route that is becoming more prevalent. Like more kids are sticking in junior A so they can essentially go this route. Yeah, and I mean, if you're a late bloomer or late developer, I mean, it gives you a couple more years at least before you either go pro where you're done. So it's nice to go to a place and kind of prolong your career a couple more years at least.

What was it about Spruce? Well, I knew there was a handful of kids out of the Lloyd area there already. Parker McCoy played there. I played midget with him. Him and Carson Sufsey went to Spruce, and they were there that year. So I went to their spring camp, I believe, and signed with them. I think it was a white card or whatever they called it. I signed with them after spring camp and then affiliated my 16-year-old year and played

like eight or nine games with them and then the next year I started as a 17 year old so they saw it you owe it essentially yeah essentially yeah I mean I knew guys there like after my spring camp I talked with McKee and stuff like that

and he got me signed right away so there was also three or four guys on my midget team that were affiliated with them too and then we all ended up going to spruce the next year affiliate and alloy yeah yeah that's interesting I didn't realize so

So, you probably know the answer to this, I guess. In Junior A, can you affiliate kids from any mid-T AAA team then? Yeah, you could back then, I know. I don't know if you still can. No, you probably can. I'm sure you can. Yeah, it's, I don't know how exactly it works, but they must have a card or something, or you've got to assign that kid to an affiliate card,

and then your rights are kind of with that team for that year. I think so. Let's talk about Spurs. because, I mean, I was doing the numbers. In the last decade, so since 2010, I guess including 2010, Spurs and Brooks have both won five championships. So the last 10 championships have gone to either Spruce or Brooks. And a huge chunk of that was under Jason McKee in Spruce, who would have coached you.

And then obviously Ryan Papuano has been there since, what is it, 2000? 8 to Kern. So he's been, those two guys were, the building blocks might have been in place for Jason because I think he got there, he's assistant coach right at the beginning. He did, yeah. But I mean, what is it about those two places

that are just so dominant? I know in Spurs, it was probably a culture thing. I think, you know, coming for midgets, it was like a big jump getting there, but you kind of realize right away that the team was all about winning, and their culture was so good there that you kind of stepped in, and all you had to do was follow the lead of the older guys. And I remember when I first got there,

just looking up to the 19, 20-year-old guys, and kind of sitting back in me, and like, holy shit, like, this is a big jump, and you've got to make some adjustments to kind of model your game after those guys and just buy into, like, a winning culture. And I think that's what Jason did. so well as he got guys to buy in from day one and he did a great job recruiting guys that he knew would come in and buy into the culture so we had a ton of skill on our teams but we also

like played really hard and played a good system so yeah it was it was fun being there I enjoyed my time there you mentioned Jason was one of your favorite coaches what was it specifically about his coaching style then was Was it the culture piece then that makes him stick out, or was there other things? He was really detailed with his game planning. He put on a ton of work. How so? Well, like our structure as a team, our systems and stuff like that would change every game,

depending on who we were playing and stuff like that. And I learned a ton from him just as far as X's and O's. Like he made sure guys were prepared every night. And if you weren't thinking and you weren't prepared for a game, and then you would probably stand out. So he was great at getting guys to buy into his systems. And I think he out-coached a lot of teams for sure. Yeah, good coaching.

When they can disassemble the other team, can really give you a leg up or multiple legs up. And I think that's why our rivalry with Brooks was so good. Like my second and third year, we played them in the final both years. It was a really good coaching battle. Like every period almost, teams were making adjustments and switching on the fly and stuff like that. So it was fun to play for sure. What do you think about Brooks now?

Like, they've been, they just broke like the all-time wins record. Like, they've just been winning. It's almost like a little bit unbelievable. Yeah, it is. It's crazy. And they get guys from all over the place, too. I know like in Spruce, I think every guy in our roster was Albertan. But I don't know, like Brooks back then, I know they brought in guys from out east

and American kids, but he must do a great job of recruiting. He must spend a lot of hours going on and getting kids. But, yeah, I mean, they sure do know how to win, that's for sure. I can tell it's tough to talk about Brooksville. Yeah, no, it's, it was fun to play them always. They had a great bar and good crowd. and when we played them in the finals, it was always a war. So first year we played them in the finals.

We won the second year they got the better of us. So it was a good battle. They had some really good teams and really competitive. You guys won back to back, yeah? Yeah, my first and second year we won. What year was better for you, do you think? Geez, they're both great, but different, really different. Like my first year, we played two.

Sherr Park in the first round went to game seven and won game seven or the second round we went to game seven with Fort Mac won an overtime in game seven and then my the third round the finals we swept drum heller like it was it was weird how it was like so long the first two rounds and such a war and then we kind of rolled through the finals but um that was my first kind of big win as a team and like to win that league was was pretty cool and then to repeat the second year that was great too i think we came into camp right from day one and that was our goal is to repeat and we knew it was going to be tough but um we had a really good team and um played well down the stretch and ended up being bruce in the final usually like to let the boys give a show

I assume you had billets and spruce. Did you live with the same family the entire time? After my first year, I changed bullets, and I lived with the family, the second family for two years. Okay. Yeah, and they were really good. It was Mike and Angie Mitchell. Their son actually plays for Spruce Grove now.

Okay. And he's a good player. Two, Cam Mitchell is his name. He just committed to Omaha, Nebraska. Okay. Yeah, he's doing really well, and it was kind of cool living with them. He was a little younger and I'd go to his games when he played Bannam and now he's

he's playing for Spruce so it's pretty cool. What rink did you like playing in in the AJ? It's a little different. I always ask the dub guys because they go on such a variety tour if you will in the dub. The A.J, I mean, I guess I haven't played in all the ranks. Obviously you have, but what rink was your favorite? And you can't say Spurs.

Yeah, no. I love coming to Lloyd just playing in front of friends and family and the old civic Yeah I know I always got up for those games Just because your family was in the building And stuff like that

And I also like playing in Grand Prairie That's a place that A little far over the way But I really like their rink And they had a great barn So it was fun to play there always What rink had the nastiest fan? Probably White Court

White Court Yeah they were like Well, it was just such an old barn, and they'll have the seating on the one side, and they're kind of right on top of you. So we play them in playoffs a couple years, too, and they'd get pretty rowdy. Now, both years you guys won, that was in the stretch where they didn't do the Doyle Cup, right? Right, yeah. So you played the Western Canada Cup? Yeah.

And didn't fare so well there? No. The first year, well, it was tough. Like it was, you come off the high of winning like seven game series and like in front of big crowds and the atmosphere is so big. And then you go to the Western Canada Cup and it's a tournament format in like a host team location. So the crowds weren't great compared to what they were in playoffs. And I don't know. It was just tough.

And my first year, we were in Manitoba. And we lost the final playing game. We had the win. We lost the host team, so that was tough. Our goalie got hurt. We had our backup coming cold, and we kind of blew the lead in the third period. So that one stung big time.

The second year was up in Fort Mac. And, yeah, I mean, it was just a different atmosphere going from like a seven-game series to all of a sudden playing. It's too bad you guys hadn't been, because now they got the Doyle Cup back in, Yeah. It was only like a span, like five years, four years where they had that Western Canada Cup

and then it essentially fizzled out because teams were losing money. Yeah. I believe off of hosting it. Yeah, I'm sure. Like a best of seven might have done you guys gig. It would have put tons of fans in your home barn, right? Yeah, I know. I wish that's the way it would have went.

But, I mean, what can you do? I mean, it's tough looking back and being like we were so close. But, yeah, I don't know. I think the league championships were great to be a part of. And like I said, it's tough going from a rivalry, a seven-game series, to all of a sudden playing against a bunch of teams you've never seen before. Did you guys win on home ice or were you away? We were away both years.

Both years? Yeah. How was the bus ride back? It was good, yeah. Well, the first year we drove back right away. The second year we stayed at night in Brooks, celebrated a bit and then drove back the next day. But actually both years were in overtime, too. It was overtime.

Really? Really? Yeah. Oh, just to add a little cherry on top. Yeah, I know. It was cool, yeah. How about you played in the World Junior A Challenge? That was in Ontario, wasn't it?

Yeah, so I played two years. My first year I played, it was in Kinderslie. Oh, okay. Yeah. My first year, I think we came in the last place. So in the World Junior League Challenge, they break you up into how many teams for Canada? There's two teams. There's a Western Canada team and then Eastern.

Okay. Yeah. And is there specific how many guys they can take from, like, say, the AJ, the MJ, SJ, etc.? or is it just? No, it was just anyone. They had a camp. My first year was in Calgary, and then the second year they did it in Ladook. But they take kids from the BC, the AJ, the SJ, and the MJ.

And I can't remember how many kids they had at camp, maybe 60. Oh, yeah. It's a weekend camp kind of thing. And then they take the team right from there to the tournament. So first year was tough. We didn't do too well. And then my second year, yeah, we went out to Ontario, and it was pretty good. What was the town in Ontario, you guys play?

Oakville. Oakville, yeah. Isn't that raid on Lake Ontario? I think, yeah, it is, yeah. Was it a nice spot or? Oh, sorry, no, it wasn't Oakville. It was Coburg. We played in Coburg, Ontario.

Coburg. But that's right on Lake Ontario. Yeah, I think it is, yeah. Yeah, we played, I think it was in Oakville and Coburg. Like, we played all our games in Coburg. Okay. And they hosted the RBC a couple years later. They have a really nice rink.

And it was packed, like, there was tons of fans and stuff, so it's cool. What was it like putting on the, I'm assuming, I believe that's, first time you ever put candidiers in? Yeah, that was the only time I ever got the chance to do those two years. Is that like unreal? Yeah, it was awesome. It was like, first time we do it was kind of a like, holy, like this is sick. But yeah, it's fun to represent your country like that.

And I know a lot of guys don't get an opportunity to do that. So it was good. Who would have been playing an tournament like that that guys listening would know? Well, our team was stacked. Our second year, we had a really. really good team. We had, like Kail McCarer was on our team. Oh, yeah.

Tyson Joe. He isn't that good. No. No. Yeah, he's struggling. Yeah, no, he's, he's pretty unreal. There's, well, actually, our team had four first rounders. There was him, Tyson Joe, Dante Fabro.

Fabro. And Dennis Chilowski, who's with Detroit now, too. So, and then guys like Brinson and Paschenaq, like Bobby McChabro. man from wainer he's my cousin he played on the team too um but yeah it's it's been cool to kind of stay in touch with those guys and see their curders unfold and kind of take it's one of the questions that had written down actually how cool is it right now to be sitting in arizona and then watch your buddies play like all over yeah because i mean i was just text i briefly texted kerson um who's playing in minnesota right now uh

And, like, he's tearing it up as the way I look at it, right? Like, for a guy to walk in and start playing that many minutes, putting some points up, like, it's pretty freaking cool. But, like, you must have a list of, like, 20 guys or more. They're just playing everywhere. Like, you play with Clegg back in the day. Now he's strapped it on for L.A. Like, how is cool is that? Like, when you flick on the TV and they're just, like, a new guy, it seems like every week stepping out in the NHL.

Yeah, it's awesome. It's cool to see it all. unfold for guys and, you know, just getting the chance to play with them and then seeing them kind of take off is awesome. And like he said, Clagher the other day made his debut, got to watch him, and then Seuss is obviously doing well with Minnesota. So, but yeah, there's a list of guys that I keep in touch with that are doing really well. So, yeah, hopefully I can kind of compete with those guys someday, but we'll see. Well, I think you're doing pretty well for yourself. Mm-hmm. Right? I mean, like, Div 1 is no slouch. You guys got a good team. What is your record right now?

Um, I think we're like, let me check. I don't want to lie to you. I'll pull it up here quick. Hold on. You're supposed to know this off, I'm ahead. I know. We're 11, 8, and 3. 11, 8, and 3. So, so how many games you got left then? Um, we got seven weeks left, so 14 games. 14 games. Yeah. Geez, that's a lot of bats decent length. Like, that's actually, I think back in, when I was playing, I think we only played 25, maybe a couple out of conference games. Like, I think we played just shy at 30.

Yeah. Well, it's nice, too, that would break up. And, like, you practice all week and get your schoolwork done and stuff, and then you just play on the weekends. And it's kind of cool. You get into a good rhythm. What's your schedule look like? What time you guys in the gym?

What time you guys skate? Yeah. We work out from 8 to 9 and then every morning pretty much yeah eight to nine every morning other like so if we play Friday we won't work out right right right right go in and do like a mobility or stretch or something like that but and then we practice from 10 to 11 or 10 to 12 we have the ice 10 to 12 so every day every day we practice usually 10 to 11 and then the ice is open for guys to to do whatever and then the rest of your day is basically all school So.

How many classes do you got today? I got three in person classes a day. Like throughout the schedule. You say in person because you have a couple of classes where all you have to do is log on? Online, yeah. And a lot of guys, well, a lot of guys take majority of their classes online. But there's a rule with international students that you have to at least be in three in person. So I got class pretty much every day.

But a lot of guys just do their score. Would you rather be just watching? watching online? Depends what class it is, I guess. But I've like taking online classes probably a little bit more. Really? Yeah. I'm starting to get older, I guess, because that's the first, my time we always had to be

in class. I mean, that wasn't even an option. Right. Just sit in your house and take five classes a day or whatever it is and never leave the front door. And it's kind of like a lot of them are like work at your own pace too, so you don't really have a schedule. kind of just do it whenever you have free time.

So guys have pretty open schedules when they do online classes. Yeah, a tough life. I know right. Man, I love college. I'm drawing a blank right now. I'm standing here thinking about you sitting in a house not leaving there. That blows my mind. I'm always in class, though.

It's so as American kids that are too lazy to get off the couch now right now. You hear that voice? I was watching the world juniors the other day. I assume you guys are like the rest of us. When the world juniors come on, the Americans and the Canadians like to have a little wager, maybe a little bit of a... Yeah, yeah, it's pretty competitive in the room.

Well, we played in the afternoon, so we watched the first little bit of the game, and then we couldn't watch it at the end. I missed the third period because we had to get ready for a game. Yeah, no, and we missed all the fun part. Yeah, exactly. But one of our assistant coaches is Canadian, and he kept running in with updates whenever they score it.

So, yeah, it was actually pretty nice to see the American kids after they lost to Finland there. You can bog them a little bit. They don't take that too well. It's just, it's kind of nice that it's the Americans, right? Like, it's just like to poke them a little. It is, yeah, it's nice. And I live with an American kid, too.

See, when I was in the, when I was in school, I got the stretch of where we won, I think, towards the end maybe we lost. But we had a stretch there where we won how many in a row like eight or whatever it was. It's just for you. Oh, and then even in junior out in Ontario, we had a couple Americans that loved one of my best friends. At the time was from Connecticut. And that's when they ran into the Crosby Superstar team. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

And it was like. it's too easy pickets right at least now it's you know Canada's right there every year but the other teams oh yeah

other teams are a little more competitive what was playing the Russians like because that's who you guys won the World Junior A Challenge like what was what was playing different countries like yeah it was cool that was my first kind of crack at it but obviously the Americans

we played them and that was a huge robbery that was like you didn't know any kids on the team, but he still got up for a game because it was the versus U.S. Yeah. Was it packed for them? Yeah, it was. Yeah, all the, all of our games really were sellouts there. So I think they sat like five or six thousand maybe, but um, that's still a decent turn on. Yeah, it was great atmospheres. Yeah, it was awesome and playing the Russians in the final was cool too. Obviously there's a lot of history there between those two countries and um it was nice to beat them.

Did they have different styles? Did you notice? Like playing the Russians, playing U.S.? Like, did they have different, anything that sticks out? Yeah, I think so. I think the Americans is a little more like north-south and play hard. A little more dump and chase probably. And the Russians are a little more lean towards, like, possessing the puck and keeping the puck and trying to over-skill teams.

But, I mean, it was cool to play different styles. hockey like that. I've noticed that, you know, even watching World Junior stuff like that, every country kind of plays a little bit of a different style. Well, what are you going to, before we get into our final five, I was curious what do you think is up next for you? Like where you got a few more months of college left, enjoy that. You get another chance, you know, possibly getting, if you guys play, play work. well in your last 14 games, there's a possibility of being ranked again, I assume, right? After this season, where are you wanting to go?

I mean, I assume the NHL, but I mean, what have your options been like? I mean, it's tough to say at this point. I think obviously the goal of mine is still to play in the NHL. That's been a dream of mine since I was a little kid, so I want to keep playing, whatever it takes me, whatever kind of options I have. Whether it's the minor leagues or over in Europe somewhere, hopefully I get something and just try to keep playing as long as I can and kind of see how it unfolds.

If you get a chance to go over to Europe, Europe's a lot of fun. You want to see some crazy fans. Europe has them. Yeah, there's a few guys that I've played with here that have gone over and a couple of guys playing that England league. There's a kid in Norway right now, a kid in Italy, and they all love it over. over there and they said it's great like you said sick fans and well I just it's as a free

agents you go play one season and as a free agent instead of you know I don't know going from whatever town in the States Canada you can go to France or England or Sweden or Finland or like you know Italy yeah it's just everything's so close over there and there's really good it's surprisingly good hockey and I would also say to anyone out there who says that they don't hit. The hardest I've ever been hit, ever, not even questioned, came in a game in Finland. I got pretzled. Like, I don't know how I didn't break something.

I didn't realize my body could contort that way. And the fans were unbelievable, and I got screamed at and finished. I have no idea what people were saying to me, but I assume they were mad or happy or both. A lot of fighting in that league? No, no. To be honest, they're big rings. They're big rings. Lots of skating.

More hitting than I would have thought, but very little fighting. It doesn't mean it isn't rough. It just wasn't... But I mean, look at hockey these days. When was the last time you guys had a game there was a fight? Yeah, it's changed a lot. In your time at ASU, has there been fights? Not really, no.

If you do, it's just a scrum because everyone wears cages, so there's not a whole lot you can do. you can go to a junior a game I mean it still happens right like fighting still happens but I mean when I was in high school so we're talking early 2000s we'd go to the junior B bandits and Lloyd

or even the Blazers and go to Washington fights because there was like well the junior B team there was probably five to eight good scraps in a night and the junior A's they had forget what the guy was he was an absolute behemoth

and then he was from Ode East he was like Newfoundland or something and he was a giant of a man who would take you know these dips out of a tinne can where he'd take like half a tin can and put it in I remember sitting beside him in trial it's being like I'm going up against this guy like holy crap

and I saw him like we're advisors off guys and then just pummeled that's what he used to go and watch and now like you go to a hockey game you go to an NHL game like how many fights really is there I know I haven't seen one live years. Like, whenever I go to NHL game, there's, like, it's, I mean, there's still hitting and

guys are physical, but especially during the regular season, you can tell the guys let up a little bit. Yeah. What's, what's the Arizona Coyote's rink like? It's nice. Yeah, it's all in Glendale, so it's like a bit of a weird area. Like, it's hard to get to almost, like, especially during the week. There's traffic is crazy to get out there, but I like it. We, like, it's, we think, played there a handful of times too and it's nice to you guys get to play in glendon yeah my first year we played there almost half of our home games were out there really um you get decent fans for that is it pretty easy that's the thing because now it's a drive yeah and i mean there will be four or five thousand but it feels like no one because you're in a huge rink but we've been out there once this year

but um the plan originally was to play out there as much as we can but now it's like we'd rather Yeah, on your little, the ocean sign, isn't bad? No, I think it goes, honestly, I mean, yeah, it has its characteristics you'd like change, but I'd rather a small barn and a thousand fans in there than a barn that can hold, I don't know what the coyotes can hold, 17,000 and have 800 or whatever, right? Like, that's no fun. And we play well there, too. Like, we're like a big, strong team and play physical, so we can kind of run teams out of our rank that,

come in and feel uncomfortable right away. Yeah, well, I could see that. Okay, well, I'll get to the final five. Brought to it by Crudemaster. Shout out to Heath and Tracy McDonald. Huge supporters of the podcast, they sponsor this little segment here where I give you five questions.

We try and keep it nice and light, or we can go down rabbit holes if you like. Sounds good. All right, if you could pick your wingers, anyone, to play on your line. Who would you want? NHL players are talking? I'm talking anyone, man.

Oh, God. I'd definitely be taking Nathan McKinnon. Yeah, that's good. That's good. He probably tough to play with. Crosby. I love Crosby. I mean, they're both centermen, but I put them on a wing, you know?

And growing up, I was a huge Crosby fan. You know what A, that would be a sick line. I mean, like, yeah. McKinnon might be, like, you're not an artist fan. I'm a lot of this fan. We got McDavid. He is by far the most skilled player in the NHL. There's no doubt in my mind.

But McKinnon last year in the playoffs was on an entirely different level. Like it was... Yeah, he can dominate. Like, whenever he has the puck on the stick, he can speed the game up or slow it down. Or, like, he can play anything. How much did it suck that the Olympics didn't have the pros go overplay? It's terrible. Because every time that happens, you miss an opportunity where,

I'm not saying McKinnon and Crosby would have played on the line, but maybe. I don't know. Who knows? But McKinnon, Crosby, McDavid, right off the hop, those three could be three centers. Like, and now maybe you've missed that window. I don't know. Yeah. Probably just didn't have McDavid and McKinnon, but, you know, Crosby's getting older.

Still should be around by that time, but. It's sad to think about because, I mean, growing up, it was like the Olympics for the biggest hockey event ever. Everyone loved the Olympics. Still love the Olympics. Yeah, but, I mean, it's. Even the World Cup when they did that a few years ago, it was unreal to watch those players play together

and actually compete rather than an all-star game. Well, that's the thing, yeah. Like, actually compete. And there's something to be said about them putting on the Canadian jersey, right? That draws the line real quick between you and your American friends. Yeah, I know. Right? Like, I wish they...

Hopefully in the future they get back to it. Well, they're going to China for... 20 what is that 2022 yeah right because we won in 2010 2014 we missed 2018 yeah 22 i think they're in china yeah that's too big of a market the nchel players will be there i hope so i hope you're right i'd put money on yeah it's as a fan of the game it's like the one time you get to watch like the super team come together for all sides i mean it happens for all all countries. Canada will have a scary team that year.

Who will be their goalies in, yeah, two years, 2020, yeah, two years. Who will be their goalies? Price. Think Price? I think right now it would probably be Price, but I don't know. Right now, who do you got, Price, Holdby? Yeah, Holdby, like, you can pick it, yeah, I don't know. I don't think, I'm trying to think if there's any, like, young studs from Canada.

Gibson's American, isn't he? Yeah, he is. Yeah. But, I don't know. They could probably play without a goalie and still win. That's true. They're frigging legit. Yeah.

They got a lot of options. If you could have a drink with one person. Anyway, who would it be? I was talking about this the other day with someone on my team. I can't remember whoever you're saying. I'm a huge MMA fan. Really? Yeah.

Like UFC? I love UFC. I'd say McGregor would probably be up there. He'd be interesting. Yeah, I think he'd be up there. Do you think it's a little show with him? Because I feel like the UFC lately, specifically him and...

Who's the guy who lost him? Kibib. Yeah. I can't figure out if that's, like, wrestling tactics. I think he knows what he's doing. I think McGregor is, like, his marketing side of everything. Like, I'm sure he's not like that in real life. Like in person, he's probably somewhat normal.

I mean, he's probably got a few screws loose, but I think when it comes to promoting himself and he's doing a pretty good job, he knows exactly what he's doing. And he gets a rise at everyone. Like his fan base has, like, kind of took off ever since he kind of came to the UFC. But, and you see other guys doing it too. Like, other guys are trying to do the same thing as he done.

Like, as far as, like, calling out other guys and kind of being a loud mouth. It's I think a lot of people are attracted to that. Well, we come from a sport where there's a reason why Biz Nasty is so popular or why even spitting chicklets is so popular. Most hockey players don't say one thing behind the scenes and then when they get a camera in front of them are very white collar. Right? And for somebody to come out and say it like that, that's, I mean, that's Connor McGregor and I mean, that's Connor McGregor. nutshell he just at all times he's letting him fine did you watch the have you seen the

pfl professional uh i watched a bit of it the other night yeah what did you think of that it was good i mean it was a million dollars per belt or something yeah a million dollars christmas eve no christmas eve new year's eve million dollars for each winter yeah we're on the road uh when they did the qualifying for that over the weekend so guys would fight and if they won it was like a bracket tournament and if they won they'd come back out like an hour later and fight again and it was we're like holy like so this was it was the way of the old system of the ufc yeah i guess so like they it was just for the qualifying fights they would it was like a three round like bracket tournaments kind of thing per weight class so guys would fight if they won they'd go back like backstage

get ready for the next fight right away and then the finals was like two days later It's like, it's got to be tough on the brain. Tough on the body. Yeah. I might explain why the heavyweight was a bit of a snooze. Yeah. But in the second round, they were both so gassed. They pretty much laid on each other.

Yeah, it's. But a million bucks? It's a lot of money. It's a lot of money. Yeah. If you can party with one person. Next question. What?

I don't know. I don't know. You'd have to be smart about it. You don't want to get in trouble, you know? Like, you don't want to go down the wrong. path. I think there would be a lot of professional athletes would be fun, like, especially older guys, like Gretzky, Lemieux, guys like that. They just sit down with them and hear them, hear their stories. Just be a fly on the wall and that's listen to him. Yeah. Well, I, so I live with Riley Simpson. That's

Craig's son. Craig's son? Yeah. And when Craig comes, like, well, we've been golfing with Craig and stuff like that. And to hear some of his stories is, it's pretty cool. So I'm sure if you sat down with Gretzky or Messier, or Lemieux, any of those guys, I'm sure you could bullshend for quite a while. No, can't. If you could go to one organization, sports organization,

does not have to be hockey, does not have to be pro, it could be, well, you're probably not going to pick a different university, but you've got to get my drift. It can be football, basketball, hockey, baseball. If you could become part of one organization, one organization would you want to go to? Question two. I'd say, I mean,

I'd have to stick with hockey. Any original 6 team would be set, like the Blackhawks, I think, would be so cool. Chicago was like an unreal city. Great history, unreal fans, unreal rank. The Madhouse? Yeah, like, I think being a part of that organization would probably be top-notch. I mean, the Rangers, same thing, at MSG, like, I think any original 6th team, I think what's coolest about them is, like, they go on the road,

and a lot of places they'll get more fans than the home. team, like, especially in Arizona. Like, if the hawks come, like, majority of the crowd is red, which is sick. What's the best deal you've ever got on tickets to go to a coyotes game? Well, we know, like, a few, like, some of the younger kids of play for the coyotes that are our age. We know them, and, like, there's a couple guys in our team that played with a few guys before, so sometimes they'll get us tickets for free and leave us tickets at the door.

That's bad answer because... But it's not expensive to go to a game. Like, you can get upper bowl tickets for $1.5.30 bucks. You come from the land of the Oilers, and the land of the Oilers, it's like $150 to sit on my noseblades. I know. And then you hear about down here and it's $20 to get in the door and you're like, sign me up. Well, I know what the... Usually the crowds aren't great.

Every year I've been here, but now, like, they're having a really good year. They're having a really good year. Yeah, they're a good team. And they just got hauled, too. I know everyone. Have you been out to? watch game while hall's been playing i did last week i went to how did he looked he looked good yeah their team is good like they got three solid lines i can score and like they just play hard too like they work and they're

fun to watch like they're a good team i think if they make the playoffs like they could go in a run they got a good squad who's in net from right now um well darcy kemper is their goal he's hurt but he's hurt yeah they have anti-ranta is in there right oh ranta that's but kempers he was having a really good year i don't know how long he's out but I think he made the All-Star game like he's having a sick year yeah so yelt I know I wish the others can figure it out yeah do you ever stop in and watch the others when they come to town uh yeah I do I went last year I also went this year too so you gotta take a peek at McDavid and see how he's looking well I mean watch you see his goal the other day yeah it's ridiculous like well watching him like in person is completely different

than on TV too Like the way he is without the puck Even like he'll kind of just glide around and wait And then as soon as he gets it's like bang he's gone Yeah his speed is Almost indescribable It's just unbelievable There's yeah

The amount of times he stick handles a puck though Almost hurts my brain Just like it's like I can't even move my hands that fast I know Yeah well There's like I think there's like I think there's a handful of guys that when you see them live, it's like they're separated from

the rest of them, like, and it's easy to pick him out right away. Like, Austin Matthews, he's from Scottsdale, and in the summer he'll skate with us. Oh, yeah? So we're on the ice with Matthews in the summer a lot of times, and I remember the first time I stepped on the ice of them. I couldn't believe how big he was. Like, he's huge, and he can move, and, like, what, like, things he does with the puck, like, just things like.

I've never seen before. Like, he has the puck on a string, and, like, when he has it, he can do whatever he wants when he's playing shunning out at the rank. But there's only a handful of guys out there that I think are at his level. So off-season training, you stay in Phoenix? This past summer I did, yeah. Our strength coach is really good, too. Leanne Blynn is her name.

She's like a professional weightlifter. like she has world records and lifting weights and like no kidding olympic lifts so yeah um she's got a really good background she used to um be the head strength coach for boston college so she's seen a lot of guys move on to the nchal and have good careers and um so what was it like living here all summer and training here uh it's nice because we well i was with another kid on our team johnny walker he was he stayed here too um so we lived here together um And, yeah, it was great. Every day we'd go up, get up in the morning, go work out.

And then sometimes we'd go skate. Sometimes we'd go play golf and kind of just take it easy. Lay by the pool, hang out. It was a good summer. You want to babysit some kits for a couple days and maybe all go hit the golf course? Yeah, no kidding. I meant to ask, when you were back in Lloyd, what did you do in the off-seasons? Do you work with Tapper and Coooooo?

Kudra and all that? Yeah, a couple of summers ago I trained with Curtis, off ice, and then I would skate with Tapp. I spent one summer in Wainwright training with Adam Huxley. But yeah, I've kind of been all over the place as far as summers go, but I think what they got going on in Lloyd is really good. Like, I think ever since that Kujo was put in place and TAP as well, like you've seen kids development kind of skyrocketed.

And now every year it seems like there's a new kid coming on a little. Lloyd and opening a lot of eyes. So I think Lloyd and the surrounding area has a ton of talent and some good, you know, people supporting it and pushing those kids to get to the next level. Yeah. Yeah. What was one of the cool things that one of those guys taught you? Like, is there anything that sticks out?

Like when you're on ice, work with all their different techniques? Is there anything that sticks out that was like, huh, never thought to do that? Or it translated maybe to the game really well? Right. As far as off-ice training, I think Kujo was great with, I mean, I've never lifted a weight until I went to Kujo. I learned basically all my weightlifting from him. And then when you get to the college level, like weightlifting is a big part of it just because he don't play as often. So I learned all that from him as far as on ice. I mean, Tapper, I've learned a ton

from him. You know, he's worked a lot with me as far as puck protection and kind of, I like how he personalizes guys too like he'll take guys one-on-one and work on kind of their strengths and weaknesses and we did a lot of puck protection stuff just using my big body to to the best of my advantage and he was really good with that stuff so how well nutrition i assume um they probably have you on a nutrition plan here or maybe not yeah um well we cook for ourselves and stuff like that but um yeah our strength coach same thing she does um a lot of nutrition nutrition stuff. Is that hard to or is that just an easy thing to kind of slide into your lifestyle? It's easy for us because we get fed from the team quite a bit like every day after practice we have

like catered meals at the rink and stuff like that so we get treated pretty well as far as eating but yeah whenever we need anything like we're really close with people on our staff that'll that'll help you with nutrition like we'll take time out of our day. to help guys with whatever they need. So she's helped a lot of guys with their nutrition and kind of what they should be putting into their bodies and stuff like that. So she's great.

Cool. If you could choose game seven of, I assume you're not going to pick NBA, but hey, you never know. NBA, MLB, NHL, or the Super Bowl, Big Four. We had it. We can toss tennis in there. If you really want, we could throw soccer in there.

Which one would you take? to watch. Yeah. Hockey all day. Hockey all day. Yeah. You see in the Stanley Cup present it would be R.N.? Yeah.

I mean, I just love, like, how much they ramp it up for the playoffs. Like, it's a completely different game. And it's cool to see, like, what those guys go through to get to game seven of a Stanley Cup or, like, what it takes to win a Stanley Cup. Like, hearing stories after they're done of all the injuries they have and, like, what they're bought is.

it went through, it's incredible. So, I mean, I've watched playoff hockey every day, have it good? Yeah, well, the first round of playoff hockey, nothing in any sport beats it. Yeah. First round is unbelievable. Yeah, it's awesome. And the NHL is cool because

the parody of the league is truly, if you make the playoffs, you have a shot at winning. Right? Like, I mean, it's been proven time and time again, just because you're number one seat doesn't mean squat. And so to get in to the playoffs, it's only the first round it's just like hockey and meaningful hockey every night it's like awesome yeah well

look at st. Louis last year oh st. Louis is perfect one yeah but all right final question for you who is the best player he played with and against um I played well I played that in that tournament with McCarr he's probably doing the best that I everyone right now was he filthy I assume he was filthy back in that term yeah and I played against him too when he was in Brooks. I remember my second year in Spruce when he played him in the final. He was an affiliate and he was 15 years old, I think, and he was like the best player on the ice.

At 15. He was their best team at his call up and like that was the first time I seen him play or played against him and like, think about that. Yeah, he kind of knew right away as soon as he had the puck on a stick, like that kid's a player. What was so at 15 while he's playing him? it his skating ability or was it his puck canler or was it just everything yeah he well he's so good on his edges like i remember just like trying to defend against him like when he has the puck

at the point like he'll fake a shot and make you sell out for like trying to block a shot and he'll step around you like make he look stupid whenever he wants kind of thing but he can get up and down the ice like no one i've seen like and he's not overly like quick or powerful but he's just so good on his edges like he's he's really tough to defend and great with the puck obviously So he'd probably be one of the best players I've been on the ice with. Playing against my freshman year, we played against Denver, and that was the year they won the national championship. They had Will Butcher.

Oh, yeah. He's a defenseman. And Will Butcher for New Jersey. He's in New Jersey now. Yeah. And he dominated when we played against him when he was in Denver. He won the Hopew Baker that year. but he was a D-Man that like he stood out like he dominated like no one I've seen so

and how did he do it was it speed he wasn't overly fast either I didn't think he just like every time he had the puck he made the right play like he never made mistakes it seemed like and um like their team was stacked like they have the Troy Terry kid yeah Troy Terry and Anaheim yeah that um Henrik Borgstrom he's a finished kid he's in Florida now he's in Florida yeah like that like those guys just kind of dominated and And you'll see it every year. There's a few guys in college that can put up crazy stats and kind of score every night. But I thought Butcher was maybe the best college player I've played against.

No kidding. He is good. And he did well when he stepped in the NHL too. Yeah. And it's just like he's not a guy that'll wow you right away. But the more you watch him, like he's so smooth and then like makes a right play, it seems like every time. Cool. I appreciate you letting me pin you down here for an hour, hour in a little bit.

I've enjoyed meeting you. I've enjoyed sitting on your campus. I don't know if I'm going to drive back to my place or fly home anytime soon. I might just hang out here. But thanks for hopping on with me. I've really enjoyed this. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me.

I'm glad you could stop by. Thanks for tuning in, guys. Just a reminder, once again, the Hockey Day in Saskatchewan is going on this week. All money raised is going to get new arena boards for the whole. home on rink. Currently the boards are in pretty rough repair. They're from the original rink. They're from the original rink and they're over 40 years old and they're in, you know, to the point now that they're becoming a serious issue. So if you can get out and support this great event, please do so. Once again, that Wade and Friends game, $10 to get into,

$12 and under free. Saturday, $12 and under free once again, $25 to get into. of the entire day and then Sunday is minor hockey all day long. Banquet, obviously, Friday night with tons of silent auction items on. If you go to 32 auctions.com, or you can look it up on Facebook on the Helmand Arena or Helmont Hitman pages and find the links there to go bid on some items that ends Saturday night. Anyways, thanks for stopping in and listening. A ton of fun. I got some really cool guests coming up here in 2020.

I think you guys are going to be really excited for. So until next week.