Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. 60 - Kris Wiebe- Lloydminster Blazers/Bobcats, Wichita Thunder & Colorado Eagles

Episode Date: March 4, 2020

Born & raised in Lloydminster Kris played 4 years for the Lloydminster Junior 'A' Blazers. He played 3 years for the Div 1 University of Findlay & a year with Niagara University. Played 3 years of pro for the Wichita Thunder which ended with a trip to the CHL finals with the Colorado Eagles. Since being back in Lloydminster he has been a volunteer Assistant coach with the Lloydminster Bobcats. Had a blast sitting down with Kris and his perspective on life overall was a treat to listen to for a couple of hours. Enjoy 

My name's Chris Weeb. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Well, it's just in game one of the Saskalta finals featuring the Hillmont Hitman and the defending champs St. Walberg Eagles will go Thursday night in Helmand. Game two will follow Sunday in Walberg. So game one, 8 o'clock in Helmand this Thursday.

So if you're in the area, I want to see some Saskalta finals action, hop out to the Helmand Arena. I'm sure it will be. buzzing. I want to give special thanks to Chris Weeb for coming in. I mean, I had a ton of fun sitting down with them. I think you guys are going to enjoy this interview. I wasn't sure, you know, I didn't know Chris that well before we sat down and, you know, just really enjoyed sitting across from him and hearing some of his stories, hearing his perspective on the

Bobcats in particular from obviously the junior A team here in Lloyd M. Minster, he's got a unique perspective, and you'll hear that here in a short period of time. Here's the factory sports tale of tape on him. He played for the Blazers for four years from 1997 to 2001, from 16-year-old to his 19-year-old year. He then went to the University of Finley, which was Division I, and spent a year in Niagara University as well. He then spent three years in Wichita, playing for the Thunder of the CHL,

with a local boy Travis Clayton. He took a trade from there and went to the Colorado Eagles, where he lost in the finals of the CHL. He won't love me saying that, but they did lose in the finals. He did take the trade out to Colorado and almost won the championship there. Since then, he's been back in Lloyd

and has been a volunteer coach, assistant coach, for the Lloydminster Bobcats now for roughly seven years. And he's just got a very unique perspective on the hockey world and coaching and being a leader. And I think you guys are really going to enjoy this one. So without further ado. Well, Spitting Chickles was the one that everybody talks about now. So I was coming, I was going, I had an appointment in Saskatoon.

So I drove there and partway there. I was like, I should just take some time and listen to these things. Give it a go. So I clicked on yours first. I looked yours up, listened to it. Which one did you pick first? I listened to the tap one and the Springer and... Oh, Lennon Springer and Morrison one.

Yeah. And then I started... And then that was when Bissonette was all over Carcillo. Yeah. So I listened to that. And you know what? Killed a, all of a sudden it was like, holy smokes, I'm done. I'm done.

Yeah, it drives over. Rather than like, I don't like this song, flick, flick, flick. I don't like this, you know, scrolling through everything. Yeah, it's interesting. It's not, like I said, I'm in and onto my truck all day and to start one up and get five minutes in. So I start when I don't drive that much, got dogs and I'll walk them at night or walk them in the morning. I'll start doing it then. Start doing it then.

It's really, it's a, if you find the right ones, and I'm not saying I'm the right one, by any means. I just like talking to people. I like talking to local people because there's people I've been around

all my life and I've never got to hear like their kind of journey, their story. And then I like to try and hopefully pull out some things that people want to hear about. Yeah. And if not,

it's a way to pass an hour or two. It's neat that you're local and you can do this. Yeah, that's right. There's enough people around here that are local. With good stories to tell. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whether your hockey players or not, or athletes or whatever. That's right. It's neat. I guess, with all due respect, you might not hit the national. You might, but this area, like Colby McDonald, he was the one that said, like, maybe, hey, he's doing this podcast. He asked me for your number.

Would you? And I was like, yeah, he can have it. Like, I'm not going to be exciting. But I... You know what, though? I disagree. Somewhere out there, somebody on Wednesday afternoon, and you're going to laugh about this,

is going to text me and say, fuck, that Chris Webb story? That was pretty good. Yeah, I'm not going to hold my breath on that. It's not like you went to the moon, man. I don't have... Go back to Joe Rogan. He has the ability now that...

I can drive two hours and learn something and learn something like extremely like, holy shit. I would have never done that before, right? And I mean, audible books and like, or audio books and stuff like that right now is giving you that ability. But I mean, somewhere, there's a Chris Weep fan out there, guarantee you never know. Yeah, that's why I brought you on, right? I guess, yeah. I think it's a neat thing. I think that it, like you said, you can share stories and you can, yeah, learn a lot about local people here.

And even your questions that you asked me, I got to reminisce about like, oh, yeah, I forgot about that guy. You know, I did play against some pretty good players. Holy cow. Lots of things that you think about after. That you're, I guess you almost take for granted. You don't pay attention too well you're there because you're in it. You're in it. Right?

Like some of the guys I played with. ex-NHL guys and things that they did and stories they told. And I was like, holy cow. Well, the first thing I learned when I started looking up, because you probably don't remember this, but I remember coming back from, I want to say, Ontario. I'd have to look at the years of when you were in Niagara,

but you'd just come back from Niagara. And somehow me and you met at a bar and we were walking around, I was young and you were like, you know, for me, the wise old vet, and you'd just come out of Niagara. Because you were telling me, hey, If you ever need a team to go play for, you should drop these guys in line because they're pretty good. And I remember thinking, yeah, sure.

I don't know my head for my ass kind of thing, right? Well, you know what? That's how I got my start after hockey or after college. You know, I knew a guy that somehow Travis Clayton, I had met him at the gym a couple times and run into him. That's how you get out to Wichita? Yeah, ran out and ran into him. We hung out at the,

Wade Redden, Corey Cross, golf classic. We were, quote unquote, celebrity golfers there. And I still, we,

the silent honor, the auction, the live auction was on. And we were both. Like, I was in college, no money. He was playing in the Central League,

no money. And we both stood there. And it was when the heyday was on. So things were going for 20 grand. 19 grand. We both stood there and he just looked at me. He was like, you keep your hands in your pocket. Don't flinch.

Don't make a move because we can't afford this. And we kind of hung out. And then all of a sudden, yeah, my last, my senior year, I was getting a phone call from Wichita. Like Travis has talked about you and we were wondering if you were interested. Isn't that crazy how small world it can be? Yeah. The hockey world is incredibly small.

I know people. I've met people that are like, you played there. you know this guy? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I know him real well. You know, like, how do you know him? Well, he used to date my sister or, you know, you go through all this stuff and it's like, how the hell did you ever meet? You know, he lives in Ontario or. So we had small hockey world. We home on this year, a hosted hockey day in Saskatch, right, had a North Battle for North Stars come out and the Notre Dame Hounds are playing. I was in the penalty box running the gate for

the first period of that game. That was it. And that, me being a, chatty Kathy. Guy gets penalty off in order to him, comes in, sits, and of course I start chatting to him, right? I like there, he played a couple of years in Dryden where I played my hockey,

knew the Lane family where I'd billet it and we sat and had a BS and all of something like, oh crap, you better get him back out on the ice, right? Oh my, in a little Hillman, Saskatch. Yeah. It's never seen a Junior A game in its life, right? Like, well, now it has.

Yeah. It's a, it's an incredibly small world. Good and bad. You have to be careful who you talk about. the way you talk about them because somebody always knows them, whether it's good or bad. Whether it's good or bad, yeah. They might disagree with you if you think he's the best guy in the world because he was a jerk when they played together and the worst vet or vice versa.

And all of a sudden, and you know what? We were all young then and now it's water under the bridge and the guy's probably a different, you know, people probably talk about me that way too. Oh, I guarantee people are still talking about it. Like say that all the time, right? Lots of guys just in the senior around here, right? You'll bump into guys. They're all assholes on the ice.

That's right. Well, it's just competitive. And then at the end of the day, sit around and you have a beer and like, actually, you're not a bad guy. You're not a bad guy. I don't mind you. We could do this again. We could probably have had you out our team, right? Those are usually the guys you want on your team.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's, yeah, it's a neat. It's just a neat. little world we live in. I know guys that I played against that I absolutely despised playing against. It's that they were the biggest jerks.

You know, like, that guy's an absolute prick. And you meet up, have a beer together, and jeepers. We should get together sometime. Like, we should hang out. You're a good time. And have lots of fun. And they think the same thing of you. I like to tell the story.

my first week at Northland when I went, I went to Wisconsin for Division 3. So I played my Division 3 there. I looked you up. Oh, perfect. Okay. We'll talk about your stats later. Yeah, they're not great. Well, that's, you know, in fairness, my best season, there's no stats online about it.

My last year, junior A. Last year, Junior A? Yeah. I put up 39 and 50. And then we got knocked out first round, but I was leading all D-Men in the league and points in playoffs something like that nothing i'm tooting my own horn now not that anyone cares but chad more was uh captain of our um college team for three years so we both came in as freshman and this is why it looks can be to see because as soon as i saw him i'm like i hate that guy

like and he just arrogant and he talked like you know he drove me nuts yeah and then that summer ended up living with his family and he stood up in my wedding and you can yeah you kind of bond with those guys and there's always, well, I had a freshman guy in my freshman class, same way. We didn't end up living together. We probably actually still wouldn't like each other that much. But same thing. He was the arrogant, walked in, told everybody what kind of scholarship was on. He was on.

Always had Monday practices. He was our work practice, skating practice. And he always had a tender groin and needed to sit out. And, uh, yeah, he was, he was an interesting fella. But, uh, you know, you get all kinds and, like, you can have guys that come in and I would never hang out with that guy. Well, wait a minute. Actually, you're not that bad. You kind of, you like that show? Yeah, sure. We'll go watch that. We didn't, well, I, we watched TV. We didn't have.

I mean, we were still, we were still using VHS when I was in. What was your TV show a choice back in the day that would surprise people? Oh, in college. You know what? I remember in college, what was it? That island, something island. It was basically The Bachelor. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A little bit raunchier. Yeah, what was that show called? Something Island. And I can remember we were playing the night that it was the finale. And the guys. had taped it. On VHS? On VHS?

Because we could plug it in on the bus. So we watched it on the way home. It wasn't, I was just, I was along for the ride because I was a freshman and whatever, I'll watch because it's a team thing. But can you imagine being the coach on that bus? Yeah, he, he, we had an interesting group, my first couple years of like super, real interesting. There was a lot of extracurriculars that.

opened my eyes big time to a whole new world of, uh, it wasn't just booze. Uh, uh, like, I had no idea. I thought that was just what it was. I can remember coming home and Bart Redden I'd talked to quite a bit, uh, leading up to going to school. I came back and told him, he's like, no, no, that's nothing like, that's not what should be going on. I was like, Okay, good, I didn't think so. But we ended up having. Well, you name it. I don't even know.

I was from, I kind of lived under a rock when it came to drugs and stuff. Which is good. I'm glad that I didn't know. But we had six guys, my sophomore year, get kicked off the team. For drugs? For doing or selling drugs. Yeah, it wasn't. wasn't my proudest moment to be a part of a group like that.

But boy, did it change things when they were gone. All of a sudden, we were a team and we were having fun and playing well. And they just, yeah, they had mixed up. Those were the days of like ecstasy and then whatever else they could get their hands on, I think. Lots of stories that I won't even come close to telling on this. it was a yeah like a wild time yeah and the stories that I heard were wild I was never around it and I don't know if you're recording this and you're going to play it anyway I honestly wasn't around it it wasn't anything that I was ever into we're recording this yeah but uh um it's

certainly opened my eyes to a lot of things and well I remember being in Brandon so in junior we weren't allowed to drink in Dryden. We got green lights. I shouldn't say we weren't allowed to drink and dry. We weren't allowed to go to the bars in Dryden. Dryden's only a town the size of Vermillion, give or take. And so when we got a green light,

we were allowed to go across back into Manitoba because Ontario was 19, so half the guys were only 18, half were, you know, whatever. So we'd go to Brandon, and that was the first party I've ever been to where I'd seen Coke before. Not any of our guys going, And we went to like a third party and it scared shit out of me.

I remember it was, I still think about how much money was on that table because it was like, I don't know, my mind might have played tricks on me, but a mountain. Yeah. Right? I'm like, this is, this is not my spot. I need to be elsewhere. It was, uh, it was to the point where I can remember being in class one day. And it was our assistant athletic director who was also a professor. I was close with them.

he was a sports guy he actually pitched in the majors for he was up for a cup of coffee and real good guy and we got along real well him and I and he came up to me and he's like we've heard you guys had a party on the weekend

and said yeah yeah yeah what did you hear not very good things and right then I thought oh boy like you know I wasn't like I but as soon as you right I was on the team so you are involved, even if you're not. And that was kind of the eye-opener of like, I don't like being associated with something like that.

And then somehow, there's lots of stories I've heard of how it kind of all came to a halt, but it was like undercover cops. involved. Did you ever have cops show up to your practice? Not no. We never had, well, no, I shouldn't say that. The one story that I, the story I heard was there was a undercover cop showed up to our coach's office, whether that was at practice or not. I have no idea. Middle of a bagskate, we had two cops come and talk to our coach. So that was, that would have been. That was fun. Yeah, fun. Yeah. Ended the practice. Well, just lighthearted after that. Oh yeah. Just lighthearted.

Yeah. Yeah. We showed up on Monday. Monday practice. That guy was, the guy I talked about earlier was probably just nursing his groin injury. That's right. As per usual. But there was six bags, six garbage bags of equipment sitting there. And it was like, what the hell's going on here? You kind of know, but you don't really, like, no way.

And I walked in the room and everybody was kind of looking at each other. and it got started to get talked about and you know how I was still, I'm sophomore. So second year, I was an assistant captain at the time, but I didn't know that this was hush, hush. Nobody really knew what was going on. And we got in there and it was, and I've told this story to very few people, all of it.

Actually, very few get the whole story. But this part, I remember going in and, you know, some of the older guys are, you know, this is junk. We're a team. Nobody should have, who rat it out and everybody's staring at each other. Like, I didn't say, oh, yeah, who. That in comes the undercover cop story. That's when you start going, oh, okay, like this was more than just somebody that was mad.

Yeah. And not just smoking dope. That's right. And, yeah, there was guys that, you know, that's junk. This is bull. who would, you know, we're a family. Nobody should have been ratting out anybody. Nobody.

We're all kind of like, well, nobody knows who said anything. Nobody said anything, obviously. And it took about 10 minutes into practice, and it was an entirely new team. It was just, it was like a weight was lifted off. Everybody's shoulders, you could just feel it. Everybody was having fun.

And from then on, we went, we didn't win a lot that year, but we played a lot better the last six games or seven games or whatever we had. But that's the story that I've kind of relayed, especially dealing with some younger kids now. Things happen. For the people don't know, how many years now have you been an assistant coach with the Bobcats?

I think about six. I should know that, but it's just kind of all blended together. I've been grandfathered through three or four different head coaches. We always kind of joke about that because I'm a volunteer so they can't fire me. I just continue to show up. You just continue to show up. I show up and everybody like, hey, how's it going?

Right? Like I still get my jacket at the beginning of the year and I'm in the team picture. Yeah, so it's been probably six years now, I think. Going back to the weight lifted off your shoulders, that's what leaders have. to do though right like it starts from the top that's what the coaching obviously the coaching staff could see it yeah there was obviously something well yeah when you got somebody sitting in your desks and we've got a list of names and we need to start investigating and in class you got the athletic director

assistant athletic director coming up to it like obviously the words around campus it wouldn't be that right like something like that doesn't just kept hush hush when it's that loud yeah um the unfortunate part was that there was some there was some young guys there's one guy in particular was a freshman real good kid uh i can remember talking to him at practice saying like come on man just stay away from that stuff like you're good you can be something here and he had a tough home life um for him to get away was a pretty big deal to go to school i think if i remember correctly like you know kind of raised by his great grandparents and mom and dad were around but not really.

He had got mixed up and was partaking in a few extracurricular things. And, you know, he was on the list. So he was kind of a, you know, a casualty that probably I've often thought about him. And that's a small world hockey small world story too because a guy. I played with in Wichita, came up and said, you played in Finley? And I said, yeah, you know this guy? I'll leave his name out. But you know him?

I said, yeah, he was, I'm like, I love that kid. Yeah, I'm good buddies with him. And, yeah, it was a tough break. He got kicked out. And he's doing okay now. And, oh, that's good. But I've thought about him more than once. It would have been nice to see him be able to kind of keep his nose clean.

But maybe that was something that needed to happen to realize that, This was not the path he wanted to be on. You got what, two kids? I got two, yeah. How old are your kids now? My boy's eight, and my daughter just turned seven. Turn seven, eight and seven? Eight and seven, yeah.

Nice and close. Yeah, yeah, that was, we were planning on having two. We just weren't having two at that close. I got a four-year-old in April and a three-year-old at the end of July and a one-year-old in, oh, I should get this right, September. So we got four, 300 four. So I know all about that. Yeah, 19 months apart.

That was 14. 14, yeah. Yeah, I would do you a little bit. Just right back at it. That's right. Yeah. The first one took so long to happen. That's right.

For sure, we'd get a little practice in. That did not happen. Yeah. The reason I bring it up is you talk about a good kid and just falls in the wrong crew. I've had this thought more than once. I've talked to a lot of older generation. people on what they did with their kids to keep them out of the shit. You ever think about that?

Especially now in a world where, you know, now we're legal everywhere. Yeah, it's different now. I've thought a lot about it. You know, you can think what you want. Drugs are never a thing in my life. They just, it was, it was always just, not what I wanted to get into. And I always stayed away, but I was busy with hockey and, you know, weed was at that point,

at certain points in my life, that was the worst thing in the world. Like, how could you ever do that? Now, obviously, that's changed quite a bit. Quite a bit. I was talking with somebody recently about it. You know, I'm going to have to have the talk about. that with my kids the way my parents have the talk about booze with me you know we always had a rule we still actually do kind of have a family rule that no matter

what time in the morning you get the phone call it's always expected that you won't drive home you can call me at whatever time doesn't matter I'll come pick you up and we'll never talk about it again and that was just with with the booze this is going to be interesting because I probably don't know enough about weed and understand enough about it to really have a good, solid talk with my kids, but I'm thinking we have a few more years before I have to, I'm hoping I have a few more years to deal with that. I got plenty of years, hopefully, knock on wood before I have to. I was always just busy with hockey.

Yeah. You know, my mom talks about it even now. I played junior hockey when I was 16. And always, you know, before that, you're playing hockey. You had curfews. You had coaches that were checking on you. You had obligations. And there was, you know, there was team rules and there was things.

And mom said, I never had to worry because you had to be home. So they didn't, they did their fair share of parenting and enforcing. But, you know, 16 years old, Gord Tibido tells. tells me I got to be home by 11 o'clock. You're home at 10.30, right? Like, I'm sitting by my phone waiting so that I can pick on the first ring. That was easier then. Do you guys still do that?

I mean, not obviously curfew, obviously curfew. But now not everybody has the landline phone. No, I think there's a lot of texting that goes on. Yeah. I don't actually don't know how it gets done. That's not in my... Because think about it. You shoot them a text?

Yeah, I'm home. Yeah. Like... I've thought... I know there's a way they do it, but that's not on my list of responsibilities. Fair enough. I have eight-year-olds that I coach, my sons. We joke about...

Oh, okay. Okay. We, I joke about them having to be at home for curfew when I see them at the Bobcat game and on a Saturday night and we play at 8 a.m. the next morning. But I don't know how they do it. I know there are... Nigel has... And coaches have had in the past have had ways of making sure that they're home,

whether it's a, you know, yeah, I'm home. Okay, phone me from your, phone me from your billet's house, or have your billet text me or. And we know this. You only got to worry about what, three, four kids? The rest of them, you know, they aren't up to anything anyways. And you know what? If you have a good group, those three or four kids fall in line pretty quick.

they understand real quick that it's going to be policed maybe not by the coaches even. We haven't had a lot of issues with curfew that we know of, or that I know of that's been passed on this year or in the past couple. How about this year? I mean, it was a tough year. You guys, when did you end up with 11 wins? Yeah, we got 11 at the last game. then you'd be old.

Yeah. If I were to be an outsider, which I am, and kind of summarize the season, it looked like a pretty tough year. But the one thing you guys went and I give credit to Nigel, I assume, is he pushed community involvement. Like, I mean, I could be wrong because I didn't play for the Blazers or the Bobcats. But dang, you guys were in the schools a lot. And if you weren't in the schools, you were doing something over here. If you weren't over there, you're doing something over here, you were just constantly had those kids involved in the community.

And it was very noticeable. Yeah, I think for sure this year, it was a huge jump in that. When I played, we were always out in the community. It was just a thing we did. I had lots of fun being a part of doing that. I can relate a little bit easier than some of the, some of the guys. I was,

I was a hometown kid at that time. Um, I remember leaning over the boards, you know, getting high fives from Kent Stanaforth and Devin Hartnell and, um, Scriven and I mean, Cody Boutel,

uh, Lorenz, there was, all those, those guys were heroes. Um, so when I got to play, and I'd look up and see these kids.

I thought, you know, I had somebody do that for me. That's the least I could do. And it was awesome. We would go, we did air bands. So the schools would put on air bands. And my mom was a teacher and she was involved with the Lloyd Public School Division. And she would hook us up with different things to do. and I can remember doing an air band with a group.

We had like Mark Hallam, Fraser Philippic, Lee Siemens, myself, and maybe one or two other guys. And we went into Bar Colony School and did an air band. And I still remember it was like a rock concert. They called us onto the stage and the kids went bananas. And I mean, we were just a bunch of goofy teenagers that were having fun. And the screaming, I still remember my eardrums rattling as we were doing it. And that was just stuff we did.

That was part of the gig. And we've talked about it not necessarily this year, but in years past when, you know, you get, especially now, athletes in general, hockey players, kids, teenagers, the world's changed a bit. And sometimes, unfortunately, they think that maybe they're a little bit more important than they are. And without those kids and without the fan base, we're nothing. So it's the least we can do to go out and be a part of the community. And, you know, I used to work. I wanted to be a teacher. So I went and helped in a classroom.

after I was done high school in between my 19 year old year, I went and worked at a school, Jack Kemp, and Lindsay Pryor was her name. I'm not sure her married name now, but I went in and worked with kids that, whatever she needed me to do, I'd go reading the hallways, I'd go help with math. That math wasn't above my head at that point.

I think they were in grade one or two. So I'd hang out with those kids. it was just last summer. There was one kid that stood out. He was a smaller kid that kind of just, he was just a short, small kid. But friendly is all get out, always smiling, always happy. We would, you know, him and I would goof around

and we'd have fun and pulled up to one of my job sites this year. I was looking at this guy going, like, I think I know you. And he's looking at it. me going like I think I know you and he said do you he's played for the Blazers you're Chris and I said oh my chase he goes yeah so that's 20 some years ago and I see him on job sites now and like I phone my mom and I was like you'll never believe who I saw today and we've got pictures of me and him skating at a like a bobcat yeah yeah he's I was pushing him around on a chair and like

I still have that picture somewhere but um you know another hockey He's a small world story. That's all just based on me being out in the community. And I think that it's really important now, and it's nice to see our guys and listening to their speeches and some of the kids talk this year at the banquet. It really means something to them.

They're invested in this community. So I guess to the point that it must have been a tough year, it wasn't, it wasn't. You know, obviously the points and the, the standings didn't really show what I think we accomplished. At the end of the year, I told the guys, you know, I've been a part of this organization for a very long time. I've been in good times, I've been in good and bad times.

And very rarely was I mad this year with effort levels. And, you know, we'd get down one or two. And in years past, it was kind of like, like, I'll just mail this one in, like, we're done. And I think probably with a month left in the season, we were mathematically out of the playoffs. And it's like, okay, we're just riding this one out. We're counting the days down. And, you know, they almost started playing better.

And I think that the pressure was off. So unfortunately, fortunately and unfortunately, the pressure was off for them. So now we can just go play. We don't have to worry about anything. but they played like some of their best hockey was from January on and I told them like I I don't know if I'm more proud of a group than I was this year for the way they handled themselves because they could have easily just mailed it in and you know started missing curfews and going out and doing things but they were still at the community events out in schools

smiles on their face doing what they needed to do you know still looking to the future going I'm a part of this organization and and we've got something here we've got to start to something so it was a tough season in a lot of regards but but at the same time I think that we've we've got a great base a core group that have started to pull uh pull everybody together and and I think the biggest thing is they've probably started to understand what it takes to to be good you don't just show up and win. Like you actually have to, you're going to be sore and you're going to be, you're going to hurt by the end of the game. And the next day when you roll out of bed,

you should, you should be sore and tired. And you know what? You've got to play tonight still. And you're going to be even more sore, but it's going to be worth it. So it wasn't as disappointing, I think, as a coaching staff,

maybe is for. Obviously you want the wins is what you're saying. want the wins. Yeah, that's why we do it. We're, you know, we don't go. You're not looking for participation. No, you want to be at the end of it. But, but winning's fun. Yeah. There's no question. I don't know what the stat is. At one point, it was 18 games, and I think we're into like 23 or something. One goal games we lost. Yeah. That's a, that's tough. Because it gets tiring. Mentally that's tough. Yeah. Yeah. And it gets tiring saying, you know, wow, it was close.

Jeepers, guys, it was close. You'd rather just get shelled eight one. You go, all right, boy, let's come back tomorrow. And we've done that. That's not fun either. No. You know, in the community, the guys that I've talked to are, you know, so close, so close. And, yeah, you know, you say it with a smile on your face.

Yeah, so close. Yeah, it's getting better. But deep down, you're like, geez, you know, why did we hit the post? You know, you had a wide open net, man. I like to give it to chance, Adrian, who, salt of the earth kid, I don't know how many posts he hit, down one, wide open net, zing it off the crossbar, off the post, missed the net. It's like, man, just cite that thing in a little bit. But it was frustrating in some regards, but like I said, I think that it's going to take some time. You don't just, you don't build in a year.

You've got, you know, I've talked to, I've talked to a lot of coaches. I'm fortunate to be able to have some, who I'd consider some big names in the coaching game, especially at like the junior and college levels. You know, just on my phone and their buddies. I can just phone them and pick their brains about lots of things, minor hockey, lots. But even at this level, and Gord Tibado was one of the guys that I phoned, and he said, you know, you're going to suck for three years. Like, it's going to suck here for three years.

I don't know. Man. He said, I talked to Fran Gow when he was in Drayton Valley and said, how long? He goes, we were brutal for two years. Then it started to pick up. So I hung up the phone. I phoned Nigel, and I told him, okay, don't change anything. You can't start, you know, this is the direction we're heading, but it's not working, so let's go this way.

And then, well, let's go back to this and stay the course. And it's going to take, like, we're going to suck next year. According to the gurus that I've talked to. And I can just hear Nigel going, I don't know what I suck next year. And I said, we're not going to suck, but don't expect. To win. We can't just expect to win. Yeah.

It's going to be worth it at the end. And I think that showed at the end of our season with the way we built and we like we could have mailed it in easily. Just we're done. Started booking flights to wherever the kids go and holidays or whatever they wanted. But they really dug their heels in and, I mean, they were working. And Nigel and Brady, Bocke's are assistant co. coach those guys are awesome and they treat the guys great but it's never a you know never a day off I guess they they're always teaching they're always working

they're always pushing them to get better and I know sometimes that's tough to see you know in the media you talk to people in the streets they don't always see that part of it they see the they see the 11 wins and go like well maybe next year. But those are the things that are happening and and when you have a good group, and Nigel's done a phenomenal job with his scouting staff to find good character kids, kids that you'd want, like kids that I want my son to be around. I'm okay with, you know, in the past and a couple years ago, even, you know, I'd have the opportunity to be around. I'm okay with, you know, I'd have the opportunity to bring Nolan, my son to practice. I was like, you know what, you can stay,

just stay home today. And this year, it was, you know what, you want to come on the bus? We'll go on a road trip. Come. And, you know, they treat him great. They talk to him. They treat him like a human being. He's excited. He gets to be the stick boy for the day. And that says something about guys that we have on our team. And you can start to see them. build around each other, even the guys that maybe were on the fringes early in the season that came from new teams and, well, this isn't how we did it last year. And, you know, when I was here last, you know, now all of a sudden it's like, no, I got his back. So it was, it was neat to see them develop into that. It's, um, you're reminding me of when I talked to Nigel at the start

of the season. What you guys talk about is like, man, I hope the wind's fall. That's, that's, that's what I want to see, right? Like, what you guys talk about is awesome. And you just hope the winds can fall, right? And they will. At some point, they will. You know, we were asking certain players to do things that just weren't in their That's just not what they do.

They're not. And I say it respectfully. And I can say it about myself. I mean, I knew what type of player I was. And you talk to, you talk to players about like, hey, it's okay. You're not going to beat them. There's three of them and one of you. Don't go one on three.

It's not going to happen. You're not going to beat them. Well, I think, no, know what you're good at. I know that I wasn't good enough to beat guys one on three. But I also knew that I had a good shot. So I'm going to get myself into a shooting position. Or, you know what? I can probably chip it and go get it.

But, you know, comments have been made. Chance was one of them. I made a comment on the bench one day, but why does everything have to be backhand sauce? Why can't we just put a pass on the ice on the tape? And he kind of jokingly turned around. He goes, because it doesn't look sick. You know, it's not everything has to be a highlight real goal.

And I had asked more than once on the bench after a guy scored a quote-unquote garbage goal in front of the net. Does that feel any different than going bar down through five guys? Nope. Nope. They all count. Nobody asks. One story that I heard from the Niagara University I graduated from, I still keep in touch with their assistant coach.

And we discussed it. I think it was last year, the year before he was in town recruiting. So we went out for supper after. and I was talking about, you know, they all watch YouTube and everything's got to be sick and everything looks so sexy now. And he said, you know what? Our head coach, he'll come in in between periods. And he'll say, boys, I don't care how it goes in. Just score a mucker.

I promise you, I will phone your girlfriends and tell them you went bar down. And he says the team loves it. They laugh. But that's kind of where we're at. like I promise I'll make it sound great for you if you just go score that goal to tie it or if we could just win this one. I don't care how it looks. Let it go off your butt. Somebody take a slap shot off your ankle and it deflects in. It all counts. We'll get you the goal. That'll be it. We win the game. Everybody's happy. But I think that's not just with us. That's, I mean,

even my son at eight years old like he's practicing the backyard on the backyard rink and it's got to be well did you see it went bar down you can't barely raise the puck yet like let's work on let's work on the fundamentals before we start worrying about pulling it between our legs but they see guys that can do it now yeah that's great i think that's i mean there's never been a higher emphasis on skill in hockey no and and i mean it looks awesome uh on on TV. We watch the NHL and, you know, McDavid's doing his thing. Crosby's still

Ovechkin, all those guys. I mean, not one guy in the league that can't do sick stuff. But when push comes to shove, they know what they're there for. The one that goes off your face, well, those ones, I guess, go on highlight reels. But, you know, the guy that stands in front of the

net that earns a living, Dino Cicorelli that stands in front of the net, tipping pucks and getting beaten up. Who was a guy for Detroit? Homstrom. Holmstrom was a guy who made a career off tipping things. Yeah. Ryan Smith.

Yeah. Those aren't shown anymore as a real high-end play. Yeah. If you've stood in front of the net and tried to tip while in the NHL a 90-mile-an-hour slap shot, it ain't as easy as it looks. No, it isn't. But you know what? Those guys know how to shoot pucks off people's legs.

That, I mean, that was how I earned my living in the Central League. I was never like a skill guy. Didn't get a lot of power play time in junior my first few years. You know, in college, last couple years, I got power play time as I grew older and into a veteran guy. And I can remember my rookie year breaking into power play. practice and my coach said okay we kind of looked like you serious he said yeah you're coming you stand in front of the net and at that point i knew like okay i'm going to have to get good at tipping pucks because i'm playing with some uh in our league good players talented players um joe blasnick who could

shoot the puck like he was clocking at a hundred mile an hour dan tatro was on the point uh jason and Duda and Travis Clayton, I knew where I was standing. I'll go help you get the puck, and then I'm going straight to the front of the net. And I would just close my eyes and tuck my chin down so that my visor would protect my face. And Tatsy and Blas would just fire away, and they would go off my shin pads, off my butt. You know, I think I had 20 goals my first year. And that was just, it was like, okay, well, they're counting them. They're counting them for me.

But the willingness to go in the dirty area too, right? Not too many people want to get in front of a hundred mile an hour slap shot. Well, if you want to stay on the power play. And, you know what, at that point, I was unwilling to do it enough earlier in my hockey life that I knew that if I didn't do it now, I wasn't going to get a second chance. So I just did it. And those guys knew, like, I can remember, I remember Dan Taitro on one, he fired a bomb past me and probably from you know between the dot and the top of the circle

and i was cringing i just like basically huddled up and he scored and he looked at me he goes i'll never miss from there well thank god because like i had no chance to move i'm glad that you're i'm glad that you're that confident dan because i wasn't um but those guys knew what they were doing they knew they knew her to shoot and they knew how to shoot it and um i probably was hit with less pucks in those few years that i played with them than the rest of the time than in junior you know um i've always as a coach now i've always thought because you beg guys just stand in front you'll score goals and i'll i'll fire them after practice all fire pucks at them and you know i'm risting them at you guys and you're cringing just relax relax relax but

they always come back and say well our demon don't know how to shoot and i've always thought as a coach i'm going to put one day when i when i have the opportunity i'm going to put all the demon in front and i'm going to let the forward stand at the top of the circles at the blue line and fire pucks at them and i'm going to let them hit them and then at some point those demon are going to go oh i get it okay yep now i now i know why they don't want to stand in front um but it it does take take it, I guess it takes some guts, but it's just kind of a, I knew I was, that was how I was going to be able to get ice time. I'll stand in front, I'll do whatever you want me to do. That was always kind of the way I played. And coach tells you to do something, you just go do it.

If it doesn't work, well, that's what, that's what he wanted me to do. So not that it's his fault, but if I don't do it, then we'll never know. And again, we talk about that as coaching, as a coaching staff. You can't be mad if we lose and you didn't do what we asked you to do. If you go out and do exactly what our game plan says and we lose, then we need to figure out a different game plan. But if you're, if you're not doing anything that we've asked you to do and your two other linemates on forward are doing exactly, then you're just, you're, you're, you're, you're dragging them down right now. It's a buy-in. It's a total buy-in.

And again, back to the Bobcats, we saw that buy-in late in the year where they were starting to just realize, you know what, this might work. It might not be as pretty, but chip and the puck actually works to get things moving. You know, the days of dump and chase are gone. which I totally understand and I get it. But there's a time and a place for everything. Well, just because you're chipping doesn't mean you're dumping. No, but that still is a, that's a mindset, right?

Yeah. I'm trying to make something happen. Well, you did. You just coughed it up and they went on a breakway. Great assist. But it's a mindset. Well, I didn't, you know, I tried to make something happen. I tried to beat that guy one-on-one or one-on-two between the legs.

It doesn't work. Unless your name's Connor McDavid. or one of those guys, you know, high high end. Yeah, you're not doing it. It's just not happening. Well, and you can do it. You're just not doing it consistently, right? Or one out of ten.

We've heard that too. One out of ten times it'll work. Yeah, man. That's not a good enough percentage. It's a shitty success right. Yeah, that's not a good enough percentage for me at this point. So. Do you, I was curious, because you played, so you played your 16 to your 20-year-old year

with the Blazers? No, 19-year-old year. 19-year-old. Yeah, I didn't play as my 20-year-old. As your 20-year-old. and way to school, yep. Yeah, and it was... Are you seeing that then the same,

you guys talk about, or you've mentioned, you know, guys coming and then continuing on, like, their career with the Bobcats. Do you have a time, or not a timeline, are you worried as you get progress and get better, you're going to start to lose those guys

to the universities, the colleges, or do you think they'll stick out, for you it was four years. For another guy, it might only be two. I don't think it's a worry. You know what? I'd gladly replace guys that are going on to get scholarships or to move on to the next level.

That's junior hockey. Again, that's maybe something that if you're not in or involved in junior hockey, you don't quite understand that that's the business of especially Junior A to move kids on. you should be rebuilding. Every team is rebuilding every year. Brooks rebuilds every year.

Spruce Grove rebuilds every year. Okotokes rebuilds every year because they're sending guys on. All the time. All the time. So that's what you want to get to then. Yeah, you just want to be able to, you know, with their names attached to recruiting, obviously it's it's easier

yeah to in some regard to to recruit those guys because they know you know you get a you got a top end midget triple a kid that's gonna choose between well just go with Brooks Brooks Brooks has been well even Spurs Grove but Brooks is in all of Canada yeah the premier destination for year so where am I gonna go that I want to further my career

am I gonna go there or am I going to go to old that doesn't you know I should just use Bobcats I guess but well use Calgary Canucks they're about to move to Blackfault yeah that haven't sent a kid on a scholarship in how many years that's right

I'm probably going to go try out of Brooks because they seem to be moving guys on they have connections they but there's a reason that they they send guys on they they win they play the systems college coaches don't want to have to teach a pile. They're understanding, but I mean it's it's like school when your kid moves from grade three to grade four. That grade four teacher isn't expecting to have to teach

grade three reading or math. That's an interesting way to look at them. I'm married to a teacher and my mom's a teacher and answer teachers and I have education background. And that's what you want. As a junior program, junior A program, I believe you want to have to move kids on. You want to say goodbye to them because they're going on to school the next year.

Because you know what? That kid that we watched in Midget, AAA or wherever, that's going to be good is going, I want to go to Lloyd. they move kids on and that you know that I think is a as an organization

is a feather in our cap when we when we can move guys on yeah you gotta you gotta rebuild but we're rebuilding anyway because we lose guys to 20 you know over age or some guys you know what just decide it's time for me to go to school

I'm done I'm done hockey I'm 18 and I know that I'm not going to move on past this level so it's You know, I want to be a doctor or an engineer. Let's get things started. So you're always, you always have a turnover rate anyway. If you have the credentials that are saying, we're sending kids away. That's an easy way for you to attract.

That's going to attract. That's going to attract. Or whoever you want. Yeah. Right. And even, you know, one episode I listened to you, talk about the year that we hosted the RBC. and the comment was made about like how how could they not recruit that year and I was in the same boat when we were hosting I was like holy smokes like this is going to be we're going to have we're going to have an awesome team and going into the summer you know before and we're recruiting and talk to Gordon Gary and they were like no it is hard don't ask me why I don't know why if it's the pressure if it's the know that maybe they're not top-end guys so they aren't going to get as much ice time or

whatever it is but you know they did a lot of homework those two coaches gerry van harrowe and gordtibito they did a ton of homework going into that summer and you know we made some deals the year before that according to that episode there was guys that weren't very happy about it but it wasn't it wasn't just to you know who cares about this year. Let's move on to next year we're hosting. It was to set up because they knew we aren't going to be able to just, A, we aren't going to be able to recruit midget AAA kids because you're not going to win a Royal, but you're not going to win a national championship with a bunch of midget AAA rookie junior hockey players. You have to have the experience. That was a tough year, though,

because the year you trade away those guys, you guys were really good. And that's what we were talking about. Yeah, yeah, you were. You guys were taught. And maybe I'm maybe it's top four, but I saw you play against the spruce groves, the cameras, the, I don't know, would have been Brooks then, I suppose it would have been Brooks back then, right? And you guys are beating those teams. You guys were unbelievable that year. We were good. We were really good. And, you know, Gary, when he came in, he really, he really did good things with getting the right players in and setting up structure and, you know, just having a team game. But the reality is, the unfortunate reality is, you know, again, Gord Tivito was brought up in that episode where, you know, he'd won. he's coached for a bazillion years. And he's won one championship.

He's made the playoffs every year, I think. Over a thousand wins as a head coach. Won one championship. Should have had two, the year that I played for my third year when we lost to Fort Mac. Fort Mac was hosting the Royal Bank Cup. and apparently one of the sponsors, big sponsors, came in and basically handed a blank check over to the GM there

and said, win it, do whatever you got to do. So they were able to recruit in some pretty big names. Fort Mac? Fort Mac, yeah. But back to the Bobcats. The reality is it's so hard to win a championship, even if you're that good. because we were that good that year.

Your third year. My third year. But we ran into Fort Mac who was hosting the Royal Bank Cup and they loaded right up. Gordon, I still talk about that to this day. And that was 18 years ago, roughly. And he says basically every time we talk about it, I still talk to Fran Gow and he tells me

that nobody even came close to touching them that year except for us. Nobody gave them a run in the playoffs like we did. Nothing. It was basically a breeze. So it's so tough to win. You're always looking to the future no matter how good. So were we willing to, you know, to word this properly,

I'm not sure I'll be able to do it justice. But, you know, to focus just on that one group when we had, an opportunity like we had the following year hosting the Royal Bank Cup. You have to start planning at that point. The disappointing part was the trades that we made. There were players that didn't report. And again, why? I have no idea.

Miraculously, one kid from Brooks got a scholarship like a week and a half after he found out that, you know, after the season was over, he was a futures deal. And after the season was up, all of a sudden he just got this Hail Mary scholarship. And we had no idea that that was coming and still kind of have some doubts as to why that happened. But, you know, that was going to be a big part of the deal that we had. there was just some unfortunate circumstances after we made the trades that again lots of people don't know about and they just make us look like idiots because well we traded all these guys away and now we don't have anything in return and that got talked about in the coach's office how how this

was going to look but we still you know we still managed to put together a pretty good performance and Gordon Gary did an unbelievable job that year recruiting what we could and putting together a group of guys that, you know, lost out and then came back after a month of being off and put together a performance like they did. And almost. And almost. You know, even now it's taken. I had that game DVR.

It may still be on. I've never watched the full game. It just, it was so. disappointing at the time. But knowing how it ends, I mean, it would be pretty tough to watch the entire thing in its entirety. Yeah. And Gordon, I talked about it after, and he said, like, you know, I haven't watched, I haven't watched it. And he finally came back, he said, I watched it. We couldn't have got anything more out of those guys. It wasn't a six-nothing game. We played, we were so close. It was so close. But it took a couple years for him to watch it, I think,

or at least a year, I still haven't watched it, just because I don't want to have to live that disappointment again. But at the same time, I got some memorabilia stuff hanging in my own office at home. And, you know, it just dawned on me one day. We were silver medalists at, you know, at the national level. That's pretty good. We didn't win, but we're pretty good. it just didn't work out and that was that was heartbreaking for those guys because they they did they were a good group it was a it was a good group to have around

we moved a I think six guys moved on to college that year and then after that Gord obviously changed his job title to White Court's head coach and GM and Um, how, speaking of, uh, the years you've been now, a volunteer assistant coach, you've been under, is it four different coaches now?

I was under Gary, Gary and Gord, Travis, Travis and Nigel. How tough has that been, uh, overall to have so many different faces come and go? Because I assume they're all trying to put their stamp on it. Uh, yeah. It hasn't been tough. Yeah, maybe tough isn't the right word. No, it's been interesting because really the only, why I shouldn't say the only, Gary, I didn't know when he came in.

The half a season before Ryan Parent had been let go, and I kind of jumped on board because I was helping behind the scenes what I could do just to be involved with the, team and help out and they basically needed somebody on the bench to help. Like, not even talk, just like open the door, run the D. That was the first time I'd ever really been involved with D. And I remember Danny Hagarth was standing beside me, help. And when I looked at, I was like, I've never played D in my life.

I don't know how to do this. And he's like, they're, D's easy. Don't worry about it. You just tell them they basically know when to go. So I started helping then, thinking that that was just kind of a, I'll help you limp through the year and we'll get through this and see what happens. Started talking with Gary and getting to know him a bit. And then all of a sudden he phoned one day after his press conference.

And he says, geez, I didn't even talk to you about this, but we announced you as the assistant coach. You might want to go home and talk to your wife. So I saw, yeah, okay, I'll let her know. And I came home and explained and that was good. It was all good on her end. But no real parameters of what was going to happen with how I was going to help or what I was going to do. So we kind of went through that, kind of just flying by the seat of our pants. obviously I have an actual job business to run so the volunteer wasn't going to be able to

to be my number one priority so he's you know whenever you can make to practice come to practice if you want to come on the road you're welcome if you you know come to the home games that's great and I said okay that's fine sounds awesome you're running the D okay so now I'm trying to figure out a coach and you know he helped me along the way a lot and then Gord came in and I obviously had a relationship with him as he coached me for three years and then he left for St. Albert my last year when they still had a team so that was awesome Gord was that was great to have both those guys involved Gary and I became friends and then obviously Gord and I are close close friends and almost family I would consider him. So for him to come home, as he used to say, and then, you know, be a part of

my family with my kids and everything. And I learned a ton from him those two years too as a coach and, you know, simple things as far as matching and matching lines. And I still remember him pulling me end of the, we're walking back to the coach's office after one game and, or in between periods or any looks at me. He says, if we're trying to match lines, Chris, how do you think that you would not get that pair against their top line? I don't know. He goes, if the top line goes out, they're up next because they're not coming on right after they've just changed. Oh, okay, well, that was stupid. I'm sorry. He goes, no, you wouldn't believe how many assistant coaches I've had to explain that theory too. So simple little things of that and how to what to expect and and he's always been

known as a pretty hard coach. I know when I played for him, I mean there was there was no messing around and and he was all business but he has a way of, you know, almost a tenderness of he can yell and scream at you but I practice the next day he's going to come and explain to you why he was yelling and screaming and it'll make sense yeah you're right

that I shouldn't have done it or I should have made that play you're right yeah I get it now and that was just he's a fiery he's competitive he's uh unfortunately probably doesn't have

all of his ex-players may not share the same views that I do. But he was probably one of the best coaches that I ever had, if not the best. And one of the best coaching mentors that I've ever had, for sure, one of the best mentors. Well, you can easily see that when you talk about him. Yeah, he's a... You're very passionate about him. Yeah, he's a pretty... He's a special guy in my life and in my family's life.

but so it was a lot of fun working with him even must be interesting coaching you I was just going to say it was it was always fun I had to bite my lip more than once when he'd be yelling and screaming at guys because I would flash back to I shouldn't say yelling and screaming but getting his message across yeah and I would I would bite my lip and think oh man I remember that. Oh yeah, I can remember. And then we would walk out and he would kind of smirk and we'd have a little giggle about it because he wasn't always mad, but he was the boss to the point of, you know, I believe it was Tom Kecka, one of his first years, as his assistant coach in Fort Mac. Gord was given his pregame speech, finished up, and Tommy, who likes the talk,

gave, you know, come on guys, let's go, or, you know, one of these raw, raw things. And they walked out and Gord looked at him and said, my voice is the last voice they hear. Don't you ever talk after I do again? And that was it. It wasn't ever meant to be a mean thing or power struggle. It was just, this is how things are done. And so I had heard that story prior to me ever coaching with him. So I never said a word while Gord was talking or when Gord was done.

And do you have anything to add, Chris? Nope, nope, you've said everything. So then he left and Travis came in, who obviously I played with in Wichita and become good friends. When I got traded from Wichita to Colorado, my wife actually, we weren't married at the time. We were getting married the next summer or that coming summer. and him and his wife Toby took my wife in, I guess. She moved in because she was a teacher in Wichita. Okay.

How tough was it then to get traded? That was a really tough. It was a tough decision. We discussed it kind of as a couple. I knew that it was an option. I was at probably about a 95% that that was my last year. Colorado was one of the top teams in the league. You ended up going to a finals.

We went to the final, yeah. And it was tough. It was probably harder than we were expecting. So did you ask for a trade then? Yeah, you know, it's not something I'm proud to admit. I disagree with asking for trades. But I knew I treated it kind of as a, you know, like a 20-year-old. uh would this is my last year i have an opportunity um and i think that it would be in my best interest

and um rarely did i ever take my best interest into into account when it came to i was a team guy and again so much so that gourd has talked to me after my playing career and said you know you were probably loyal to a fault um you could have you could have you could of went to other places and tried it out but you know through through junior I wasn't this was this was the team I dreamed of playing for um I think there was opportunities to go elsewhere but it you know I always you know I think we got a shot here I think we got a shot here and and I wouldn't change that but uh you know when it came to it came to that last year in the miners that I knew basically it was going to be it.

I wanted a shot. I wanted to win. And there was some other things that were, things weren't going well in Wichita on. And, you know, we weren't very good that year. And one thing I always went back to, when I'm supposed to be getting paid, then I better get my money.

And if you can't pay me, then I won out. And there was, you know, a couple times, some the whole check wasn't getting uh paid up and and uh stuff like that so it was it was time to leave um i had a great time in wichita i met i met great friends still guys that i still keep in touch with um but uh yeah that was a tough it was it was tough asking tougher asking for a trade than i ever thought it would be um because i just felt so selfish doing it but at the same time i it was something I really wanted to explore and give myself an opportunity. So anyway, that's how I met Travis.

It was great coaching with him. It was tough watching him some days because I think that he got put into a situation that it was lose-lose. As soon as his first year, I forget how many kids, speaking of asking for trades, that just seems to be a thing that you're. you're that you do now, which floors me still, but I forget how many guys asked out before the, before camp, like through the summer, we had like a handful of guys that were going to willing to come back that weren't even part of our Royal Bank Cup team. So just to ice a team

that year was tough, you know, and it was interesting working with Travis at that point. because like I said, I think to a certain extent, he almost got thrown to the wolves, which was unfair, because he wasn't, I think he deserved a bit of a mentor and a guide for at least the first year to kind of help him through. And he didn't, he was just kind of thrown into it to figure it out on his own. And again, with the players now,

everybody is not as loyal to a fault as much as much. to a fault as maybe I'm used to being and there just wasn't there wasn't the interest to come back. They all wanted. And, you know, I think there was some backdoor deals going on without us knowing. With us knowing about it, we knew what was happening with certain guys that were saying, you know, I'm not going to report. And I'm only going to, I'm only going to report to this team if you trade me. Well, they already know our hand has been played.

So we're not getting a whole pile for that kid. you know we'll get 1500 bucks for his player development fee and that's about it so that was tough and then when Nigel came in I again with the small world hockey world he did his student teaching here and my mom was

through the U of S she was basically overseeing the student teachers in Lloyd and he was one of them that year So I had met him once at a barbecue and my mom had had him over for supper and said, you should come and I want you to meet this guy. So I don't even know if he remembered meeting me, but he was coaching, or he was on the road because he was coaching in cameras when he came to us. So he was living in cameras, going back and forth, trying to sort out how to go forward

and again to even ice a team because there was guys leaving and not reporting here and there. I was in the states visiting my in-laws when it all went down, so I came home and thought, well, there's practice. Coming up, I should just see if he even wants me around. So I phoned him. We got in touch, and my job interview, I guess, was over the phone as he was driving from cameras to Lloyd. And it went pretty quick.

He came off saying, you know what, don't bother coming to practice. I said, well, I can make it if you need me. And eventually he just came around and said, you can be there, but I'm going to be honest with you, you're not going to have much of a voice. No, like, I have to, I have to get this team to buy into what I believe in. And I remember telling them, listen, you don't come to my job sites, telling my guys how to do their job.

I'm not going to come to your job site and tell your guys how to do their job. You tell me what you want and I'll do it. If it doesn't work, that's fine. I'm okay with it. My, you know, I can deal with that. I'm a big boy. But if you need some help, I'm here because I've always had a very special spot in my life and my heart for this organization. And I just want to see it succeed.

So I was at that point, I was willing to do whatever. And, you know, it was going to be for the next three months or whatever it was. And then we'll, you know, go from there. And the season ended. And Nigel and I got to be close. and friends and worked well together. And I just said to him if there ever gets to a point where you don't want me here,

or I don't fit into your culture or whatever you're trying to build here, you let me know because I don't, I'm not doing this just to be that alumni that's standing on the bench to say that I'm standing on the bench. If you have a purpose for me, I'm in. If you don't, again, I'm a big boy, and we can still be friends.

You've got a job to do, and I'll find something else. So that led us into this year, and he didn't tell me to leave, so I just came back, and he hasn't told me to leave yet. Everybody asks me, I think you're going to help next year. You're going to help next year? You're going to help next year? I think I am. Nobody's told me any different.

How special it isn't going to be when you guys win? Yeah, if I'm around. Right. I mean, you've given a lot of years to the... Lloydminster. Yeah. Yeah, if we... Whatever name you want, Blazers, Bob Gets.

If we win, you know, when they do win, and you know what, we've had that talk at home, I know that the year that I'm done is the next year that they're going to win. I know that. It's always seen that way. We lost in Colorado in the finals.

The next year they won it. The year before they'd won it before I got there. you know it's just one of those things and if it takes me leaving for them to win i guess we can we can explore that option too i shouldn't i'm speaking a show on hands here wednesday afternoon nigel's phone to me right now ready to talk about next year um but uh if i'm fortunate enough to be around for it it'll be pretty special um for me obviously but you know even just for for the community for sure. We've got fans that

I remember them watching when I played and they were there before I played. We've got some very loyal fans. We've got a strong fan base that have been through a lot of disappointing, I guess

you could say, years of being so close and being not even close and so bad and at some point this organization will win. I hope selfishly. Selfishly, I hope that I'm still around to get a taste of it.

But if I'm not on the bench, you know, at some point I'll be in the stands and my family will be just as excited as I will be because it's been a family. It's kind of a family affair. You know, my parents billeted after I left. My sisters were around. They're quite a bit, eight and ten years younger than I am. So they had billets when I left for college. And it's just been a family thing that we've done. Been around this organization.

Do you have a billet? I lived at home. I lived with mom and dad. Sorry. Does your family now billet? No, I don't. We've talked about it, but I, I always get the fallback on if I'm coaching there's no way I'm doing.

So that's, we've been able to keep them out of my house at this point. But there's that that age range. My daughter's seven. So, you know, we probably only have about a couple more years. Four or five, six years before there's not a chance that anybody's allowed in my house. What was, going back to your plan. days. What was, so you get traded from Wichita to Colorado.

And you mentioned Colorado wins the year before. They make it to the finals of you, the year you're there and lose to Arizona. And then they went it the year after. What was it like walking onto a team that was while expecting a championship, I suppose, every year? Yeah, that was, you know what? That was a, unfortunately, I mean,

I guess I shouldn't, fortunately I had the opportunity to play where I did. unfortunately I was only there for four months I think but it was a I learned a lot in those four months about

winning about how to be a team so I got traded and that organization they're in the American League now but they were top notch

I mean we chartered a jet, a plane because we were going to Youngstown, Ohio, and it was during March Madness, and all the flights were booked. And our coach crunched the numbers and we were just chartering a plane to fly. And like, talk about feeling like a rock star. We jumped on this plane and flew in, one, two games, flew home. You know, it was, it was on rink. and Chris Stewart was our coach and he was

he was an old school hard ass and I remember I sat at the front of the plane and he turned around and says in his real deep, slow, Wichita do stuff like this nope, nope, they don't. But when I got traded there, we were on a road trip into Arizona. Their bus followed them.

I think they flew in, not chartered, just commercial that time. But they flew me in. I met the team in. We must have been in. I flew into Dallas. We were playing Fort Worth. And then I think we swung down into Arizona.

And the first game in Arizona we played. And I had guys like, Greg Panquets, who was in the show with Ottawa for a cup of coffee, grizzled old vet that, like I remember lining up against him. with Wichita and looking at him thinking how do you have your chin strap on that tight and your face looks like leather and one of my old coaches Wade Fenning had played with him in PA and I said hey Fenner says to say hi and he looked over and goes you know Fenner you say hi back and he never ever this guy was crazy like would he called it chicken neck he would flip his stick upside down so the blade was hooked

towards you and go into a scrum and stab people in the neck and skate away and nobody did anything because he was after he did that he would kick the snod out of you he was that tough yeah fought his own teammates during camp he was crazy tough um but one of the best people that i've ever met in my life off the ice um so he was there ryan tobler american league guy drafted by nashville i believe he was with Nashville in their organization. Riley, um, oh,

no, I'm going to forget his last name because I'm on the spot. Ed McGrain, Riley Nelson. Um, we just had a, we had a boatload of good players. And we were in Arizona.

And it was, we were up by one, I think, called a timeout, 30 seconds left. They call a time out, drawn our zone. I'm sitting on the bench.

Like this might, There's no way I'm getting out there. I know that. First game with a new team, I'm planting myself in the middle of the bench. And they start going through the game plan and they start throwing out. Like I think Philippic and guys like that got thrown out.

So they've got all these guys. McGrain, Nelson, Tobler, Pank, was they're all sitting on the bench. And not one guy says anything. They just stand up. And I'm like, all right, fellas, let's go. We win the game. Everybody's happy.

And I'm going, holy smokes. And I looked at Panks at the end of the game. And I said to him, is this how it is every night? He was, what do you mean? I said, you guys didn't get out there in the last 30 seconds. And, you know, at the pro level, guys are looking for stats, a nice time, and, you know, I should be out there. And unfortunately, that's how it was in Wichita.

No matter who you threw out there, there was going to be somebody complaining on the bench that they weren't getting the chance to play. So I looked at him, and I said that, and he laughed. He goes, what are you talking about? I don't give a shit. We won. and that was kind of the moment that I went home my god this is the place from this is where I want to be this is where I need to be um they they took me in as as well as they could because I wasn't I was the

new guy um but they always treated me well I kind of was the utility guy at that point like they had made the trade for a reason and I was going to get tooled into the lineup wherever they wherever they felt necessary. So that was fine with me. I was getting to play with a bunch of good guys, and I learned a lot that year about those four months about what it would actually take to win. And it still floors me,

and so much so that we were preparing for playoffs, I think our first round, and Panx was our captain, and he stood up after the team, we had a team meal out at a restaurant and we, you know, they booked the banquet room for us to sit down and we did video and had our meal

and went through the lineup of, you know, this guy, you know, their tendencies and what we were going to run for special teams and stuff. And he stood up and he says, I just got to let you know that we do have a special group in here because we had a guy come in and he told that story. And he said,

that that should say something about this group that we know what we need to do and and this is this is how we win. So it was interesting. It was it was tough in some regards because I was away from you know my wife and everything that I kind of knew for the last two and a half years and fit in on that team and I knew my role and I was I was trying to find my spot on this team. but it was a lot of fun and I'm glad I don't I don't regret doing it so it was yeah it was a special it was a good learning learning time of my life that's really cool I always I've heard different guys speak of going from that type of group in Wichita and which I have no idea what the type of group there was but just kind of the way you talk but go to a team that is that good. Yeah.

And you just know they think about we're going to be there at the end, right? Yeah. And to walk in there and have the fresh eyes and the sea, well, you just talk about it. Yeah. That's, uh, like there was no doubt in their mind after we lost out. You know, we're all packing up. And I, again, I know that it's likely my last game. And, you know, I was, I was upset and emotional and guys are walking by.

Like, don't worry about it. We'll get them next year. like we'll win next year don't worry about it and I was like yeah you probably will I don't know if I'll be around but sure enough they did did you ever have

did you so after that year did you think about going back did you have the opportunity to go back I had the opportunity after my exit meeting with Stewart our head coach it was pretty clear that we had some

stuff back home our family business and I'd given myself after school Gord actually had become my quote unquote agent that I still owe him a case of beer I think at some point that was our deal

didn't really need an agent but more of an advisor, mentor type guy who'd always been there for me even through college when my first university had shut, closed the program, hockey program down and I transferred but going into the pro level he had said you give yourself three years if you haven't if you haven't made a jump in three years that's where you're staying and then we make some decisions

and it was my third year and I knew I'm I'm not a math guy but I'm a numbers guy and I stick with numbers with like you know here's three years if I I'm gonna here's my goal if I if I don't make the jump then then you know it's time to pursue other of things and I had I had some an opportunity back home and it was kind of time to you know I was 28 and it was going to be married and the paychecks in the Central League aren't that big and you know there's other opportunities to to kind of get to get to get going and I think I think probably going into minor pro the best feeling that I had was it was it was such a fun time the first three weeks two weeks of being there

in which I phone I can remember phone and home and saying like I know I can see how guys can really bite into this life it's unreal but I also had that feeling looking around the room going I don't have to be here I have a degree I have other opportunities you might have to be here. Like, there's a reason why, not everybody, but there was certain guys that that was all they had. And I was glad that I had other avenues that I could pursue. Everybody talks about it from the day you basically hit junior high,

you know, get your education, do you have plan B just in case something doesn't work out. So I had given myself the three years, nothing else was really coming up you know the idea of going overseas had maybe kind of went through my head one of my best friends in wichita we were roommates when we'd go on the road we would always stay together and he went to Germany just to explore it and he talked about playing in rinks with like three walls basically an indoor outdoor arena you know all the guys were working it was it basically to me the way he explained it was he was getting paid to play senior triple a and everything that he made he just spent on traveling and

going to see the world or that country i should say and uh that that piqued my interest but at that time in my life, it was kind of, it had passed. So it was time to come home. How was the adjustment to life after hockey? I think for every hockey player, it's different because it comes very abruptly. Yeah, it, I think, you know, again, having a bit of a plan set in place, I knew what was happening

and when it was happening and it still is tough not everybody not everybody thinks like hockey players not everybody talks and acts like hockey players you know you have certain leadership qualities that you have in the room

but you can't always dig on guys and chirp guys and have say a non-hockey guy understand that you know it was a pretty ruthless comment, but it was just joking. Yeah, we're just all in good fun. Yeah, it's not all in good fun for a lot of guys or a lot of people that don't necessarily

live in that world. You know what? I had a lot of things. I jumped into my career here that I have now, the family business. I was navigating. The concrete life. Yeah. talk about like spectacular i'm not chartering jets like i like we did in colorado but uh it's uh i

enjoy what i do now um you know i was we were my wife and i were navigating through our first year marriage our uh her i should say her where is your wife from she's from indiana muncy Indiana, Ball State University. How big of a city would that be? Oh, I should know that, but I'm going to say when school's in, it's a lot bigger. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's one of those cities. It's not that big, but when you've got to...

How is she adjusted to Leibminster, Saskatchewan, Slashirene, Alberta? Much like a lot of people that I've talked to that had never visited. Canada outside of the summer. The first the joke about it with people that have done that there was a some we had some backup trainers come and help us the chiropractic team and he the the the guy came up and said your wife your wife's from the States I said yeah how did you know that well my wife's worked on her before and we've talked and He says, I think he's from Illinois.

And I said, oh, yeah. How did you, like, Humboldt, I think is where they were from. Okay. Or she was from. So how'd you end up here when my wife's from there? I said, oh, did you ever visit in the winter? He goes, no, she only brought me in the summer. I said, that's exactly what I did with my wife too.

So the first winter, she was going through immigration. So we were, again, navigating through stuff like that. So that was a whole different ball of wax. But that first winter, there was points in the winter that I mean I'd grown up here I knew what we were getting but the minus 30 stretch for two weeks

even I was like nah it's getting cold out minus 51 this year yeah we're not going outside and we had a dog at that time and I remember her parents face timed and our dog's beard was frozen with icicles and my beard had frozen icicles on it and

her dad just like my god Natalie you you You could die there. It's just another day. But we've been here for eight years. No, 12 years now. 12 years we've been here. She's adjusted well now.

The first year, there was a lot of discussions about how brutal the weather was. I know all about these discussions because you're, I was given, my wife was. giving your wife's number back when she first moved her. She's from Minnesota, which I mean, obviously, the experience is winter, but not quite the same. They always say it's not as bad. Well, it's like a, um, it's a wet cold down there. Which everybody laughs out. Yes, but it's milder. It soaks you to the bone. So you get minus 20, let's say, is their worst. Yeah, but it feels like minus 40. Yeah, it feels like minus 30. Yeah, okay. I don't know if anything feels like our minus 40. Yeah, it's still cold.

And they get tons of snow. Yeah, and wet. But in the summertime even, the sun goes down here. It gets cold, right? It just gets chilly. You can be in a T-shirt until 4 in the morning and never think twice about it because it's that kind of humid. Humid.

It's disgusting and humid. I don't deal with that well. Niagara Falls was the only place that I've ever high-centered a vehicle. And it was after class, I came out and we'd had a dump. and I was in my blazer, which was four-wheel drive, and I pulled ahead into the parking, like to drive out of the parking lot. And this stuff just packed hard, like wet, gross snow.

Snow, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of like what we had today. Today, except it was like a foot over, you know, two hours. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That lake effect, it's, people laugh because, oh, it's a dry cold and, oh, whatever, it's a wet cold, but there is a huge difference. And even now, my mother-in-law, who is one of the sweetest ladies you'll ever meet, she comes to visit us in the summer. And it's just a breath of fresh. Oh, my God, it's so nice here. It's not, it's just not that hot.

Well, Lynn, this is as hot as it gets. It's smoking hot here right now. Well, no, no. I mean, I mean that it's, you know, it just, it doesn't smother you. Well, yeah, that's a nice way of putting that it's not. I mean, this is as hot as we're getting. And we're complaining about how hot it is right now. And she's, like, loving life because there's no humidity. My brother-in-law lives in Houston. And at our wedding, he told us, you know, we'd love, we can't wait, you know, for you guys to come visit. But don't come in June. Do not come in the summertime.

It's not fun. It's just, it's too hot. It's too hot and it's humid and it's gross. They don't do anything outside. So, you know, we can, I've used that. argument before, you know, and we can complain about how cold it is here, but at least we don't have to deal with that. If you're cold, you can always put more stuff on. If you're hot, it's tough to cool down. It's always funny when it gets like minus five here and you just see people

walk around a T-shirts. Yeah. This is the greatest day in the world. Well, even today, we're at work and one of my guys says, it's like a summer day out there. It was spring day. We're in T-shirt. Plus three. I'm shoveling driveways going like, do I take my hoodie on? Do I not take? I'm sweating. I know that I can't. The only thing that was crappy about today was that wind. If the wind got you, man. Not that anybody cares about the weather report. Okay, well, we're into the final stretcher. The crewed master final five.

Shout out to Heath and Tracy. Of course, Kobe, you know him quite well. Yeah. So five questions. If you could choose line mates, any line mates, who would you take? Realistic line mates or, like, guys that I would have been put on the ice with? Hmm. I was going to say whoever.

I mean, it's pretty tough to say, like, obviously dry-sidal and mac david have had put together a pretty good year dry-siddle winning the MVP um i think he's got a shot at it i don't i think i think it's going to kind of come down to a political decision i think so uh unfortunately about how he's minus what is he minus 14 right now yeah and i think that's i mean that's a big part of what's uh what's going to help or hurt the oilers right now is you know some of those guys i'm anticipating waiting my phone to see what the score is you want to guess what the score is right now no i don't want to know it's a final take a stab three two oilers well you got one thing right they won but you got to go higher

really yeah eight eight eight three wow eight three it was two nothing when i stopped watching to come here. That's, well, that's good. I hope that they can put a bit of a stretch together. Drysettle with a tricel with a hat trick and an assist. So four point nine for him. So what does that put him up to? A hundred and, yeah, he's tearing the cover off this thing. Yeah. If you're going to look at it, I mean, I guess the MVP isn't all encompassing. You got to have, you got to be able to play on both sides. The one thing, the one stat that got told, I think it was listening to Elliot at Friedman was, in the history of the game, there's never been an MVP with a minus rating. Yeah, well, then he won't get it.

I guess if that's... Oh, he still got 10. Yeah. Minus 14, he's just got to keep putting up legs like that. As long as he's not on the ice for the three against. True. But I guess if I had to pick two, yeah, sure, let's go with McDavid and Drys. I'd even be able to score with them maybe.

Stand in front of the net and let him shoot it off my face. Simple enough. I mean, I watch the goal, Archibald's goal here tonight. I mean, he just goes to the front of that. That's right. But again,

know your role. You're going to get that, yeah, you're going to go do what you do, and I'll just, I'll be there for you to help you out. You know, and everybody around here talks about this,

but how good of a contract is $8.5 million now for Drysettle? Yeah. Like, that was a smart, smart move. And we don't like to give, really too much. No, I was going to say that's one of the only

smart ones that he he had. He had a couple. Jack Cassian was up there. And Pat Maroon. Yeah. But after that, it falls off pretty quick. Yeah. Real quick. Yeah. His minus

rating is pretty low. He's you didn't like the Taylor Hall deal? I was really hopeful that year. I was pumped because they got this name and things were going to change and then they made the playoffs and it was you know what it was electric it was going to be awesome and then you start oh well maybe it was just well

maybe see something that we don't maybe it was just no it's two now three holy smokes uh yeah we're uh we're really swimming in debt here but uh thankfully they were able to turn it around and start to clean it up a bit this year hopefully so that they can build Well, they got two of the best players on the world sitting there. They just need to put the pieces around them now, and they're going to have a shot. You know, you look at Tampa Bay in particular, or even San Jose, right? There's some teams that have had shot after shot after shot, because they've been that good for that long. And all you can hope to do is being the same breath of error as those teams, because that means you have a shot.

Unfortunately, as much as I want them to win, I don't know if they've got it yet. Well, I tell you what, this is what we had Brothers Roundtable on here last night. And the only thing I'll say is, what I love with the NHL is just make the playoffs. Yeah. Because all of a sudden, if Smith goes unreal and McDavid and Dry said all they got to do is score in the P.K. Stop supposing team, I'll see you squeak through a round. Yeah. So then you squeak through a round.

Well, all they squeak through that first round. against San Jose and then... And then should have... Should have been past Anaheim. And all of a sudden it's like... But the should-ofs is what... Yeah, it kills a game. Every team should have won.

Every team that year thinks they should have won. At the end of the day, you get into the 16th. That's a huge step. And then it's anybody's game. And right now... Tampa Bay last year. Right? Like, I mean, everybody was picked...

I picked them to win, and then they just... And then you just watch it. What is going on? And if you get in right now, the city of Edmonton and the fans of the... Oilers, I think. I think they're all, I think they're fairly realistic. Like, we're not going to win, but just give us the taste of postseason hockey.

We've waited for long enough. You teased us a couple years ago. Let's just make this consistent. Let's have some fun with it. And eventually. And if you win a game, the building will come off. And if you win another game, the building will go nuts on. The city will go nuts on.

The province will go nuts on. And it'll just like junior hockey, you're going to have just like junior hockey, you're going to have guys starting to waive there, no trade clause and add your team to the 10. That's right. The list of 10 and it's starting now. You know, I, you know what? I want to play there. And before it was like, don't you ever trade me to that whole?

While you're being sent to Siberia, which was called Emmington. Yes. Yeah. So they're working on it. I think it's positive right now. The realist in me, the fan in me says they're going to win it all and I can't wait. I can't wait to share that with my boy. I can't wait to just...

You remember the... Boston? The 80s? I remember the last time they won it. I remember sitting on the... I remember when Billy Ranford did his interview. I remember in Boston when they hoisted the cup. I was sitting in the living room with my dad watching it.

You're lucky bastard. Yeah. I'm just too young. I remember watching them lose to Carolina. My wife and I had come home for the summer. We were renting a house and... She had no idea. Like, things shut down.

We don't talk. We're watching the game. And I remember, I remember sitting in the living room and she looked over at me after they lost and like, what's wrong with you? Why are you crying? I was like, it's just been so long. They were so close. They were so freaking close. Oh, man.

And they shouldn't have been. No, they were. They were a fun team to watch. Yeah. But they weren't, they weren't a great team. But, uh, just, caught fire. That just goes back to what I say about any year you get in the playoffs.

Yeah. Yeah, you can... You just got to get some good goaltending, some timely scoring. Your power play starts to click. Yeah. The PK, you know, right? And you get the grant, you know what, like... You get a bounce here, bounce there. Guys, like, I trained with Fernando Pisani in the summers.

So I had some... I knew that guy, and he was, and he scored. He was unbelievable. I went and bought a Pisani t-shirt for my wife. and like this is who this is this is what life is right now you know we rarely will shut down work early but when the other games were on we weren't planning anything past five if they were out in Carolina right because the early game and it was yeah it was fun that was fun so I would like that I'd like that back I'd like that atmosphere back and I would I would really like the flames fan to

just have to chew on it for a while I like right now is uh well or Toronto I don't know what it is right now, but as of yesterday, Oilers' Flames, if they started today, or yesterday. They would play. They would play. You know how electric that would be? That would be, now that, yeah, that would be awesome. I'd be nervous because I don't know how well Edmonton would handle it. But maybe that's just my pessimistic nervous side.

Because I would hate to have to swallow that for the whole summer and listen to that for the following season. Flames fans. I hate Flamed. I hate the Fleeves fans. flames college roommate flames oh you hung up with him captain of my that he lives for married you lived there

flames fan right that would have been a friend's off right there it's like an instant text yeah it's like yeah fuck yeah I can't I just can't get behind I can't get behind the flames not after the last couple years

they just there's only one I shouldn't say only one it's probably a couple more but the one flame that I could always get behind the Jerome McGahnler. That guy played the game right. And I swallowed my pride the year that they made it to the

finals with the Harley Bar and the Ferrenses. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dad was friends with them. So we'd go over and watch the games and that was a lot of fun. Never ever thought that I would cheer for the flames, but I got behind them then.

And then when they weren't cheering for the oilers, the Flames fans weren't cheering for the Oilers when they were making their runs as you know what deals off we're never no never again and from that day on there's a rule in my house if you ask my kids they know like there will be no flames gear in my house you are never you can cheer for whoever you want except for them um and my daughter who now is seven but even like at the age of five and six she said you know my favorite team is who the flames you don't like the flames you're just saying that to get under my skin and it would it would just drive me wild and you don't even know a

player on the flames honey yeah but they're my favorite team go to your room yeah we I just didn't I still can't I can't get behind them if you could sit down with any person current or past to have a beer who would it be oh there's probably some family members in there that I would the wouldn't mind sitting down getting to know a little bit some of my old teammates just to catch up I knew these questions were coming I should have prepared a little bit better but yeah you know there's there's so many that I could go I could go with and I don't know if it wouldn't be I know I've heard you know everybody pulls out the the big name you know or whatever and Gretzky and I probably would just go back to a couple

a couple old teammates or friends that I you know haven't which is an incredibly boring answer but you know like a guy like Pankowitz who I played with for four months and I actually ran into him I was at the concrete show in Vegas one year and I looked into the piano bar and this guy looked over and we kind of stared at each other through this dark, murky room. And I could hear him go, weep. And he came over with this big, like, we just ran into each other in Vegas. And I could have sat there for hours and just BS.

Yeah, guys like that, my old roommate, you know, we try and keep touch. Some of the guys that I'm, that are coaching, you know, that I played with, that I could just sit down and pick their brains. Mike Gabbinette, who's at Omaha, Nebraska. I just haven't caught up with them for so long. It would be nice just to sit and pick their brains and see how things are. And, you know, what would you do with this type of player? And, you know, just kind of just shoot the breeze and, you know, tap their brain for some info.

If you could coach under one person, be an assistant coach, who would it be? Well, the safe answer right now would be Nigel DuBey. Okay. That is a very good answer. But if you had the choice, anyone in the world, any coach in the world, who would you, across any sport for that matter, who do you think would be just to sit there and watch them do what they do? You know, the stories I've heard about Hitchcock would be interesting. He seems like a guy that, I think probably at certain points in his career was ahead of his time with the way he had. handled players and did things.

You know, some of these younger guys in the NHL, too, that look like they're, like the guy in Chicago, he looks like he's got a baby face. Yeah. You know, and, you know, obviously, you've done some things right. And you've studied and you've worked hard and you've figured out a way to get through to Patrick Kane and Jonathan Taves that are older than you. you are just about older than you and have won cups and are some of the best players in the world and they still have enough respect for you to go out and work hard and play so um you know

i always had gordon gary would always come to to mine because i could sit and and listen to them tell stories and talk about different players that they had and and how they handle different situations so i guess there's a couple there fair but nigel well of you're obviously would But Nigel's right at the toe Right now I have to say that Best player you played with and against

With and against That one I did prepare for I've even got a list Oh he's even got a list I brought a list Along with me And again I'll have to thank you

Because I got to think about this for a bit So The players that I played with Would have to be Hartnell Panquit's Tobler Clayton McGrain, Ed McGrain, guys that won't ever get noticed.

Those are statistically the guys that everybody would be like, well, you played with Hartnall, yeah, we were rookies together, we grew up together. Mark Hallam, Dave Meissen, and Doug Pernack were, they were veterans my first year. And Hallam, I actually got to play with for a couple years. He was my captain. And he was probably one of the most influential people as far as teaching me and what I wanted to model myself after being a captain and having it be my team. But not in that, well, this is my team kind of way.

He was the first guy that would, if we won, it was everybody else that won the game. If we lost, he was the first one to take it. it's on me tonight. He was tough. He could score goals. He did what he needed to do. He was one of the most professional players that I played with. And he was only in junior when we played together.

He was just that. He knew what it took and he was a phenomenal person. And I love being able to catch up with him. Where is he now? I think he's back in the, medicine hat area that's where he's from he was in Okotokes for quite a while i think he's back though in medicine hat that's one jersey

I've walked by and i've met well once again i was too young yeah you know what he was never a flashy guy though yeah he was uh yeah he's the all-time points leader for the blasers blazers bobcats organization um and deserving of it he

I mean, he blocked a shot one game. He blocked a shot, took it right in the cup, and probably 20 seconds left, whistle blows. He comes to the bench, we call a timeout. They just call the time out. He blocks the shot, we call our time out. And he jumps up and down on the ice a couple times. And we're like, holy smokes.

He just get hit in the nuts. he's got to be it must not have got him he must have took that in the leg or something takes the face off wins the draw we win the game everybody's pumped we walk in

and halem's pukin in the bathroom because he took it right in the nuts and like that's a special head to go to the doctors because it was bad but didn't complain

finish the game finished the game and won the face off, wasn't coming off. Like it was, there was no question that he, I'll stay, I'm staying out here. But like to be in that much pain and, and then go puke afterwards, he's, uh, yeah, he was, again, statistically, that might be a surprising comment that that would be one of the best players that ever played with.

But, um, all around, he was, he was, uh, phenomenal. Um, that group that we had, my, my, my, my, first year junior I had Dave Meissen as our captain and Doug Pernak who was an assistant captain and maybe not the best role model for a 16 year old but he was he was a good solid guy and so much so that later on he went and he went and played in the central league in Tulsa and after his playing crew was still living in Tulsa and he just came and watched I had no idea he was there He was waiting for me after the game to come out of the dressing room. And right back to kind of the day he left,

he was giving me the gears about taking so long to come out of the dressing room. And he'd been waiting there for 20 minutes. And, you know, I had no idea, but for him just to stick around. And, like, I was 16 years old. He had no business even wanting to hang out with me at that point. He was 20 and, you know, guys like that. And Dave Meissen, again, taught me how ways to be elias. and captain I still I can remember him sitting me down as a 16 year old he sat and

to be able to sit beside him in a stall like I just stayed away from that side of the room I don't want to ruffle any feathers I'm just happy to be here he sat me down and we were having a team meeting or something and he patted me you come sit with me I sat there and I was only smokes now what he looked at me he says you know what we've been playing well I'm proud of you I think you mean that. And that was one of those things, life lessons that I took into the rest of my career, too, and, you know, to take a young guy under your wing and kind of just let them know, you know,

you're doing okay. And I'm proudy. It was a statement that stuck with me for, well, I'm 38. And I still remember that day. And so those three. guys probably are one of the tops but playing against you know I think you've got it on text but there was a long list there too comrie uh Sutter Lundmark or Souter not Sutter sorry I wrote it down I better read it otherwise it's going to be wrong um there was a ton like again it's one of those

things where I think back and I'm like holy smokes I played against those guys yeah um Where is it now? You got it there or what? Oh, yeah. I got it sitting here. A second. Now it's going to bug me if I don't list it. I'll find it.

I do remember playing against Ryan Sutter. He was on the national development team. And again, a guy that was... Mike Comrie, Reney, Reney Bork, Scotty Upshaw, Matt Green, Ryan Souter. And then you said the Luskin can go on. Yeah, like there was tons of guys. again, before they were in the NHL, obviously, Comrie, Bork, Upshaw, that was all in junior.

Yeah. But you think back now, again, because you had asked me these questions, you started thinking, like, holy smokes. Where did you play Ryan Souter? He was part of the national development team when I was in college, and we would play them. Really? And typically they would route us. So it's a bunch of under 18 kids, 18 and under. that are part of this elite program,

and they had scholarships all wrapped up, and basically would just run the tables with, and they still do with a lot of high-end college teams. And I remember playing against him. That's my one claim to fame. I scored the OT winner, and he'd been yipp, and we'd been yipping at each other that game, and I got the puck and somehow got around him

because I would never get around him now. but I beat him and scored the goal and I can remember looking at him and I said where were you on that one? And I skated off the ice and he showed me because I think he was in the show like two years later and he's had an unbelievable career and he's a guy who logs like 30 minutes a game and I'm sitting here going you remember that time that I scored the OT winner and he's like no I don't even what team were you on I bet you he remembers I doubt it I bet you he does I wish you had bugged him.

Yeah, maybe. Well, there you go. I got him. I own them. Say what if I ever get Shea Weber on here? Or Shea Weber, a suitor on here. Yeah, if you get a chance, yeah. Don't be surprised if he says, no, I have no idea who you're talking about.

Come on. Come on, the guy from back of the day. Yeah, University of Finley. What was in your time you've played in a ton of arenas? Is there an arena that sticks out? Ralph Engelstad Arena, hands down. You don't even have to answer. Finish the question.

And what was it? University of North Dakota. We played in a Christmas tournament there. That's where Matt Green was. And that was one of those games. We lost by one. Still haven't forgiven the guy that my teammate that changed on a horrible change. And they scored the winner.

But, I mean, you walk into that place. We just about beat them. But Taves, well, they had a list of NHL. that were all at World Junior. So that was our only shot at it. But it was phenomenal. You walk into any call a drink now, and it's, it would almost be an average drink.

But at that time, it was, like, I mean, it was leather seats. Yeah. I remember we looked into their dressing room, and they had different air vents coming down. One was warm. One was AC, so that in between periods, they could blow cold air on them. they had an underwater treadmill.

And again, lots of teams have those now. At the time. At that time in like 05, I think that was, 05 or 06. Like that was state of the art. It was the biggest, at that time, it was the biggest scrolling clock around, like to separate the top upper bowl from the bottom bowl. And you'd go in there and it was the atmosphere, the the student section and you know they had this mosaic tile floor that had their big

sue head on it and like it was just like dad came and watched that tournament and i mean he was in all we as opponents of that team we were walking around their rink like going holy man how come i didn't sign here uh but uh it was that at that particular time that was state of the art phenomenal. Their visitors' dressing room was nicer than our home dressing room back at our university. So that was the nicest arena still that I've played in. And we went back a couple years ago with the Bobcats and watched. And again, it hasn't changed.

So I'm sure that it's, their dressing room has changed. Again, phenomenal. But the facility is now another 15 years older. and like any facility. And it's just an average because in the college market, they have to, that's a recruiting tool. Absolutely. Everything, just the details that they had,

every single guy that had ever played there that played in the NHL or got drafted, has his name on the wall. You know, Stanley Cups marked by that guy that played there. Like, they just had such a rich history and they displayed it for everyone. Because they were proud of it. And again, there's a lot of college teams that do that.

But I remember when we took the bobcats down there and kind of dropped it and like, I played here. What? Yeah. Like, this was, yeah, it was phenomenal. Their dressing room now is, I mean, that's NHL quality. Their video room was ridiculous. like they have 25 seats in there and that are all leather like stadium seating big smart board and it's it's not a big huge room but it's enough to fit that in and we're looking at it

as coaches going like wow and they said yeah it's pretty the assistant coach that was taking this right says yeah it's pretty impressive we usually take the guys in here we find that we can talk to them for eight to 12 minutes after that we lose them so we use it for eight to 12 minutes a week you have this room for 8 to 12 minutes. Like, and that's just their video room. They have a meal room. They have a,

a player's lounge that, like, he checked in because they played that night. They had pregame skate, and then they played that night, and he's like, I better just check because we've got it set up for them to take their pregame nap.

Some guys just nap here, right? Like, so it's all dark, and everybody knows that certain guys are sleeping, so they leave them alone. And, yeah, it's just, yeah, Can you imagine taking a pre-game nap at the rink? Having a nice enough room, right? I was just going to take a nap there.

20,000 seat arena or whatever. They all had key fobs and the ice was theirs whenever they wanted. Outside of, like, practicing game time. But, like, that was their rink. Like, I had to beg the Zamboony driver to let me on at my college. Like, I've got an hour in between class. Can I go shoot the puck? Well, I just flooded the ice, you know.

And they had that whenever they wanted. So that's the nicest drink I've ever played in. That's a good answer. Yeah. You jumped on that one. Yeah, that stands out in my mind. That was a pretty special tournament. I got to play in a pretty memorable for me.

I'd like to point out at the start of this, he said, I don't know how the hell is going to listen to this. We've been going for over two hours now. And I've thoroughly enjoyed the hell out of this. That's good. We didn't even touch on the questions you asked me. What the hell am I supposed to do? You know, I walk in, we start going,

and it just goes where it wants. That's the beauty of a podcast. That's why you're good at what you do. Maybe. We'll see. You can, yeah. Well, that's the way, at the end, I said, you asked if I, what do you want to talk about? That's your job, man.

You can direct this. I tell you what, I go back to, you know, when we, the very, if you go all the way back to the start of this two hour conversation and you're like, yeah, I don't know who I'll listen to this, whatever. The truth of the matter is, is I never worry too much about the audience. Because to me, if they tune in or don't tune in, that's up to them. But here's the way I gauge it, is if by the end of two hours, I'm going, should I keep the guy here for another hour? Because, like, this has been a lot of fun.

I know they're going to like it. I guarantee on Wednesday I'm going to hear about how good this was because it was really good. And we didn't even talk, like, we didn't even talk about half the stuff. No. All the questions, but shit. You'll have to come back. I'll have to come back. Maybe we can make this a duo.

Maybe. start this thing up. It's a good retirement plan. You get paid good money to do this. Oh yeah, totally. Yeah. A little more than concrete, I think, yeah. Probably, likely more.

Well, thanks for coming on. This has been, I've really enjoyed this. Well, I appreciate it. Yeah, anytime. This is the first time that I've done anything like this. Well, you did very well. Yeah, you've, we've went down, you've taken me on a journey through my first podcast,

So I appreciate it. Oh, well. I've enjoyed it as well. Thanks again, Chris. Anytime.