Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. 79 - Clarke MacArthur - Ottawa Senators

Episode Date: May 18, 2020

Golfing with Michael Jordan thats pretty much the jumping off point for this one. Born & raised in Lloydminster Clarke was undrafted in the WHL bantam draft, but that hardly slowed him down. He won a AJHL Championship & then followed it up with a WHL championship. Was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres 74th overall in 2003 and over his career played over 500 games between Buffalo, Atlanta, Toronto & Ottawa.

Hey folks, welcome to the podcast. We got a doozy of a one for you this week. A lot of fun on this one. But before we get there, let's head to our sponsors of today's show. The Lloydminster Regional Health Foundation would like to thank our local health care team who responded so quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our local hospital leaders move fast to secure life-saving supplies for our frontline staff. And within days, our hospital had a strong stock of life-saving supplies from the local community.

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Here is your factory sports tale of the tape. He was born and raised in Lloydminster, undrafted in the W.HL. Banham draft, hard to believe. 2002, he won an AGHL championship with the Drayton Valley Thunder. 2003 drafted 74th overall by the Buffalo Sabres. In 2004, he won a W.HL championship with Medicine Hat Tigers. O.5, he won a world junior gold on the absolute best. Best world junior team Canada has ever seen. No argument.

There's no argument. And his NHL career saw him play 552 games. He scored 133 goals, 171 assists for 304 points. He spent time with the Buffalo Sabres, Atlanta Thrashers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Ottawa Senators. I'm talking about no other than Clark MacArthur. So enjoy this one without further ado. Okay, well, welcome to Sean Newhouse.

Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by Mr. Clark MacArthur. Thanks for joining me, Bigfellow. Yeah, thanks for having me. So we were supposed to do it yesterday, but it kind of fell through. So the first thing I got to get to is everywhere I go around Lloyd, I hear about Clark, and if I've got him on yet, and if I can get him on to ask him about if he does, in fact, golf with Michael Jordan. Yeah, I do. We moved down here, what, three years ago now. So I met him through a friend of my who plays on the PGA tour.

Jordan lives in Jupiter as well. And I joined this golf club called The Medalist. And my buddy Dom was like, hey, do you want to come out and play with Michael Jordan, like, this group? And I, like, heard about this game. It's like, you know, obviously it's a big deal out here. they got like six or seven guys there's no there's no rules out here in florida for golf really you can play a six-sum seven-sum so i'm like yeah yeah let's go i want to play for sure and uh you know i'm like how much do i got to play for like is obviously he's going to gamble and whatever and uh he's like

oh you can play him for like 500 bucks so i'm like all right i'll give it a try and uh so that night i was all nervous you know because i you know i obviously never met him watched a lot of his videos always loved him as an athlete. So I get, I get to the course and we're all hitting balls. There's like six guys and hitting range balls, hitting range balls. I'm like, what's going on? Where is the guy? So then we all go to the putting green. We're putting a little bit. And then you just hear like this, wom, mom, mom, mom, like he's got all these Ferrari. So he like wheels in, whatever, opens the door, gets in his cart. He's got like his, you know, his drinks are set up there. he's got his own personal cart, like his own Jordan cart, because he's so big.

And he just, he drives right by. So he's like, let's go right to the first tee, you know, so we all go. And yeah, that was pretty much, that's pretty much the way it started. So I ended up breaking even with him that day. And every round we play, we play 36 holes every day. We play four days a week, 36 holes. And we do it in like five hours with six guys, six caddies, six cards. And we just, my dad comes out.

you got to ask my dad about it. He comes out and does a little side gambling. He rides in the car with me and bets against him all time. So it's pretty funny. So you're golfing with him four days a week? Yeah. 36 holes a day. Yeah, it's more tiring than when I played hockey.

Especially in a mix of beers in there too once a while. That's unbelievable. You know, the documentary, I mean, COVID, I don't know. how we can get into it but you know like everything's shut down and if i you know in 10 years when my kids are older and they ask me what do you remember about COVID-19 i'm going to be like well xyz tiger king and the michael jordan documentary right like that's that's pretty much what you're going to remember and you're in the land of where michael jordan's there oh wait and the tiger king's there too yeah absolutely the tiger king's something too

Wow. I thought my life was messed up. They take it to a whole new level there. Yeah, so MJ ended up, he opened his own golf course last year called the Grove 23. So all the guys that play, the same guys played Dwight Freeney, the NFL player, myself, Darren, this other guy that Mike's been hanging out for like 20 years. and then a couple other guys play. We played with Charles Oakley yesterday. He's pretty funny, dude. There's some cool guys.

Like my locker stall, it's literally myself, Keegan Bradley, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Phil Mickelson, in this first little row. MJ always jokes. He's like, he's like, I don't know how you got in here. He's like, this supposed to be the pro athletes in this row. He loves to let me know how average, I was when I was playing.

Have you watched the documentary? Yeah, I've been watching it. He is, he never stops then, eh? Never. Never stops letting you know how great he is. Yeah, he's pretty funny. He's exactly, what you see is exactly what he is every day. The switch goes on and he's built for being in front of the lights for sure.

You mentioned other guys in there. Have you golfed with Tom Brady then? I haven't golfed with him now. No, I met him there a couple weeks ago I met him. Played with Dustin Johnson, Ricky Fowler a bunch. Rory McElroy's out here. I haven't got to play with him either. I guess he's pretty exciting to watch.

Don Bezelli, he's a good buddy of mine. He's on tour to play with him. Keegan. All those guys are out here. obviously it's a good spot to practice when they're on their off weeks and stuff so get a lot of a lot of good golfers how's your golf game come along golfing with the likes of that it's it's good now I'm both a scratch you know from all the courses we play out here I play I play to a scratch in our game we all we have a set game with Jordan all our shots are I got to give him a shot on each

side he's like a two handicapped and just works its way through all the guys' games have to match up because there's a lot of action going on with everybody. So you got to, everyone's numbers got to match up. It's unreal. I bet, you know, when you were walking way back when when you first started golfing with those guys, you're like, how on earth am I sitting in this room? I mean, you've had a great career, but Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, are the epitome of greatness? Yeah.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. It's funny how certain things happen. You know, I get injured and I'm upset about that. And then we move here and then like this whole new chapter opens up and it's been pretty fun. So the whole thing has been a pretty fun ride. Not bad for coming from Lloyd Minster, you know. It's pretty cool to get to see what I'm lucky to get to see some of the stuff I've been able to see. Well, let's start there. Let's go back to Time in Lloydminster. I watched Interimmson. you had with, it was after you'd scored the OT winner in, what would that have been, game. Which one? Which ones? That's so many. Game six in Ottawa, when you were with Ottawa in the playoffs after coming back off your injury. And Ron McLean had your parents call you and they kind of partially

interviewed you. And I thought, I thought, it was really well done. Anytime you get to listen to Ron McLean, he's the best, right? What he does. He's great. Yeah, it's great. You said growing up, your parents taught you many lessons. You said good ones and tough ones. And I thought maybe we could elaborate on that because I was wondering what were some of the

lessons you learned early on. I think I can't, you know, when I go, when I think back on it, my dad, I mean, he'd pissed me off. We'd go at it a lot. But like, when I really think back. on it now, like, now that it's all over and remembering, like, kind of what he did. I mean, he was like a genius as far as, you know, at the time I'd get so upset with, like, some of the stuff, but he was setting me up for, like, this is going to be hard. This road's going to be hard. No one's going to, you know, there's going to be no pity party. No one cares if you don't make it.

You know, he's like, if you want to get out of Lloyd and do this and it's going to be hard. and they were they were hard on me my mom was always kind of the one I could talk to a little more about it and but at the same time they they built me up to you know even even if he you know get pissed off at me for my work ethic or something one night you would always reassure how good I am and he was really good at boosting my confidence and and I needed that big time when you get to pro and all the way through there's just little obstacles all the way through and I was built and ready for it. Well, when you look at your career path, I think it's, you had to grind through some things. Like, you're a guy who's one of the most successful players to come out of this area,

but you're never taken in the Bannum draft. And I, you know, I can't remember myself particular if I recall the Bannum draft. but for you where you were at your career even then do you remember that pissing you off that killed me i was so upset when uh just because i had good years but we were in lloyd and i don't know if like wasn't they didn't see me enough or i mean obviously you we played back in the day it was i was small you know i but i i had skills and i had but i i just kind of got overlooked and I was devastated about it. And then as the weeks went on to make it worse,

that's when they start giving out letters. You know, Derek Jervais, I'm just trying to think of some guys. Lee's Lasky, just good players in town. Chapman, all these guys would get. I think Chapman was actually drafted, but they were getting letters for invites to go to the, and I didn't get a letter, not one letter. And I think I'm not pausing this. You have to look back on it.

But I think I led the league in scoring that year with Lee. I think we were both one and two. I can't remember how it went. So I was kind of like, I don't know what, you know, and my parents were kind of like baffled by it too a little bit. Like they're, you know, and I remember my mom like calling and trying to figure what was going on. And then Mike Winager was a scout in Medicine Hat, and my dad knew him.

And I think that's how I got a look from Medicine Hat. But I remember my mom that summer's like, you're going to go to Edmonton and you're going to play in the Summer League in Edmonton, like the AAA tournaments. She's like, you know, and I was like, I don't want to go. You know, I want to stay home, just hang out with my buddies and golf. and she was like, no, like, we're going, you know, you're going to do this, whatever. And I went there and I played really good the whole summer, like, at these tournaments with, like, the so-called first-round picks of the BAM draft.

And I didn't see any difference between them and me. Like, I really didn't. And that's what made me move to Strathcona the next year to play against all those guys. Just to try and get on a bigger level, a bigger scale, more, more size. opportunities for the scouts. Yeah, exactly. And then I finished second in scoring in that league that year in Strathcona. And then that was it after that. I had, you know, I had some medicine hat was obviously trying to get me to sign. And there's a bunch of other teams that were giving me like opportunities. And so that was kind of, that was kind of a coming out

party, I guess, for for me. When you look back on that, Clark, was it maybe one of the better things Does it happen to you? Did, you know, like, getting drafted? Yeah. Yeah. You know, and it was because it just, like, lit a fire under me that I was just, like, playing pissed off all the time after that, like, trying to prove to everyone.

I felt like I did that a lot of my career just because I wasn't the greatest player. I wasn't the biggest guy. I wasn't the strongest. I wasn't, you know. And I was always just, like, had, like, a chip on my shoulder. And, you know, it was like, I belong here too. or I don't know, I just used it to fuel me all the time. You know, well, I think I read somewhere, you get cut from, or not cut, you get sent down from Med Hat.

You go play Drayton Valley. And that year you go from like 5 foot 4 and grow like six inches or something. Yeah. So I got a good story about this too. Like this, everyone in town that knows my dad. This is great too. So I get cut from medicine hat. So basically I had a good camp and they're like, you're making it at 16.

They're like, you're going to make it. We're going to get you a billet tomorrow. So I went home after the game, called my dad, my mom, like I'm going to make a team. Like they just told me I'm getting a billet. So I was all pumped up. Next day I go in there and the general manager goes, we made a mistake. You need one more year. We're not going to be a good team this year.

We want you to go play. So I was like, I was so mad. You know, because I was like, Western Hockey League is like the NHL for the kids, right? I mean, that's like the league. Do you get all your status? You know, like trying to get a girl to date me and Lloyd. You got to be. So whatever.

So I come home and I'm thinking, okay, worst case, like, I can play for the Blazers. You know, I think they're the Blazers at the time, weren't they? Yeah. I think they're called the Blasier. Yeah, I think they're the Blazers. So they had this bonehead of a coat. Wayne LaBrie, I think, was his name. I don't even know.

Do you know which coach I'm talking about? I mean, I know. I know you remember. Well, there was a, there was a stretch of about three or four of them. I can't remember all their names, but I remember when I was trying out, he told me to go try out somewhere else, and I ended up playing junior in a different town. And I just remember watching you not play there as well and others. And I mean, but I know who you're talking about.

So we go sit down with them thinking, I'm going to be, you know, top player on the team. I'll stay in Loy, this would be great. I can stay, go to high school in Loy, play one more year here. And so we go into this meeting, my dad and I and the coach, and he's like, you know, Clark might be able to fill in on the fourth line here and there. Like he's going to have to earn his way into whatever. And my dad goes, listen, buddy.

And my dad was my biggest fan. And I love him for that. But he's like, he's going to be the best player in your. team, let alone, and I'm sitting there like, am I, am I dad? And he goes, we're not, he's not playing here on your fourth line or you're in and out of the lineup. He's like, Drayton Valley, the best team in the league's been calling us for two weeks. We're trying to make it work with you guys because we want him to stay in town. You know, Drayton's going to have him play on the second line, which I did the whole year. And yeah, this guy, this guy.

It was, it was like, I don't know what it was with the Blazers back then. I mean, Scotty Harton went through there, and I think Reds played there too. And they did, it worked out for them. But like, I know Lee's Alaska was a really good hockey player in juniors. And he went back there and they gave him the runaround too. And he, you know, and he played in the Western hockey league for four or five years. I mean, like, I don't know what it was. Like they were upset that we're from Lloyd.

And normally you like the guys from Lloyd, you know. I don't know. I don't know what it was. but that was another great thing that happened. At the time, I was so homesick and upset because I didn't want to go to Drayton Valley, especially when you pull in there. I mean, Lloyd looks like Vegas compared to that place.

So I get there, and they got like a full, like, all-star team. I play second line. We rip it up and we win the whole thing. I mean, every time we played Lloyd, I'm like, God, I want to just kick their ass every single time. And that LaBrie would, like, send guys out to try and fight me, like, challenged me. It was unbelievable. It was hilarious, but that was such a fun year. I remember scoring the first time we came to Lloyd. I think I got the game winning goal in the whatever. It was like five minutes left in the third and I scored and I was like it couldn't be any better right now. Anyway, I still love Lloyd. I have nothing against Lloyd. I love Lloyd. I love the people Lloyd. I was just, it was just like it gave me such a sour taste of I just didn't get it.

You know, I didn't understand. I still don't. I think our group, that stretch of years that you talk about, I was right to smack. Well, I was a year younger than you. And we all experienced that. I mean, I'm not even putting myself in in the same boat as you, but we all experienced the confusion of the leadership at that time.

You know, there was talented hockey players in Lloyd, and none of them stuck around Lloyd or very few. I shouldn't say not all of them. There was a bunch that just left. And I mean, you talk about Lee. That's funny. I hadn't heard about Lee. But Lee's won national championships at the U of A, right?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And he was a great Western Hockey League player. You know, like he was like a heart, like a two-way second line player in the Western League. Like, I mean, it was like if you were from Lloyd, it was harder to make the team. They'd rather have someone come in from out of town where normally, you know, to fill the rank, you want some locals.

I mean, I don't know. Anyway, you got me all pissed off now. Trying to enjoy my day. Welcome to the... Welcome to the podcast there, Clark. I'm enjoying it. Me too. You know, once again, though, I go,

it's probably the best thing that happened to you. It was a blessing in disguise. You end up not playing for Lloyd, and maybe things would have worked out perfectly. Instead, you... I don't know if you dodge a bullet, if we can call it, that, but you end up going to the top team in the AJ and winning it.

Yeah. That's still to this day. I mean, we won in the Western Hockey League, too. The AJHL one was my favorite one to win. I don't know what it was, like, just a good, like, group of guys, but it was, we played till, like, June that year, went to the, we went to the Doyle Cup, and we should have won that, too. Against Chilliwack, they had a really good hockey team, too, but I was such a fun.

fun year. It was nice being close to home too. My parents could come to the games. I liked having, I miss that when I played in the NHL. I missed having my parents come to the games. And I used to let, you know, when I played in Medicine Hat or I don't know, it was like a, it was like a, I just felt better, felt safe. I don't know what it was. When they were in the crowd, I always felt better. and I miss that when we, you know, I had to move, move away where that wasn't doable anymore. Well, and I think, like, your dad coached in hockey all growing up, and then Deb obviously coached us in ball all the way through. Like, those were.

We got a couple of rings in ball, too. Yeah, we did. We were a freaking good team. I mean, I got to play with you guys every second year, right? But every second year, we just dominated. Yeah, that was fun. It's nice having your mom coach, too. Always got to play.

It's great. Those are some fun times, man. That ball season, when hockey was over, I couldn't wait to do that ball. It's so fun. Did you miss it after? Oh, sorry. No, I just said these kids nowadays, I feel bad for the kids now because it's a 12-month sport.

And if you don't do it, you can't keep up because, you know, you had these parents that are trying to do anything to get their kids to the NHL. and you should play golf, you should play tennis, you should be playing. I remember I used to see Scotty Hartnell playing tennis over at Bud Miller, like in the summers. Like you guys playing the NHL, like you got to take a break, give those muscles a break, like those your groins and your hips and, you know, play ball. Like put a chew in, hit one out of the park. It's great.

Just kidding, mom, not a chew, but big league chew. You know what's funny. I was, I was telling the wife I was explaining to her, Wife's from Minnesota. She's not a hockey person. She has no idea who you are. What? For Meehani and not a hockey person, huh?

Oh, that's a crazy thing. They call it the hockey state, but it doesn't even compare to anywhere in Canada, which I mean probably shouldn't be surprising. Yeah. But I was telling her a funny little story about you that my first beer, my first alcoholic beverage ever came at, the expense of you and the Kuzaq brothers. Really?

Yeah. Where the heck was that? At the Kuazaks. Somehow we were all over there. At their farm? Oh, okay. Were we like gopher hunting and stuff? I remember.

We snuck up. Concussions. I can't even remember yesterday. Yeah, Landon and Shane will get a kick if they're listening to this. But yeah, we were at. Yeah, those guys are awesome. We're at their farm one night. I honestly,

remember all the details but I remember his Mike's hard lemonade and I thought I remember thinking geez that ain't so bad because I can't remember how old we were and and then we tried 18 probably right at least 18 for sure 18 and then we tried up we there was nothing else so we tried a prohibition which was which is not alcoholic beer right but at the time I was like yeah oh they had a beer this is terrible why the hell would you drink this yeah that's so funny It hadn't been, I only went there once. I think I only stayed over there once. We were like in the truck shooting gophers.

Yeah. Like we're talking. Crush and suds. If I told anyone here, like I'm in Florida. If I were told, like, I should just tell that story, like about, if I said gopher hunting, I mean, I don't even think anyone have a clue what I was talking about. I was just gopher. For my 34th birthday a week ago, I went out and crushed Pelsner and shot guns.

chauffeurs. That was the day. It was perfect. Can't beat it. Can't beat it. It's good times. How has COVID been down there? Like with everything going on? It's all right. I mean, it doesn't feel like what you're seeing in the media here. Like it feels like people are still getting out. We get out on the boat all the time and people are gathering. It seems like I went to this dive bar, it's called. I was getting takeout the other night. It's like three nights.

ago and the place was packed no one had a mask on I was like look at these animals I'm like we're going right back to lockdown it's crazy waitresses had masks but no one else everyone's just hanging out I mean just unreal so I don't know I think people have gone so crazy they rather get it then sit at home and you know hide they're like I don't care I'm going out, I'm going to party. I'm going to go out for dinner. I'm going to lose my mind. So it's definitely different here from, like, New York or something. You read those stories. I mean, they're living in hell there. Yeah, go on. I'm pretty thankful for where we're at. You know, Canada. We're all spread out.

I mean, there's some big centers, but other than that, I always laugh. Like, it gets minus 40 out here. You don't want to go over to anyone's house anyways. You're just like, just leave me. indoors keep the heat on yeah you're in the prairies that wind just blows the COVID right through there anyway you ever uh do you miss living up here at all I mean you're living in pricking Florida the the sunshine the water the golf courses everything is beautiful down there yeah I mean I like it here it's great I mean do I miss living in Lloyd per se no like I haven't been there for a long time the weather's my neck's already a absolutely shambles.

I don't think I could take that minus 40 anymore. I wouldn't be able to turn it. But I do, when we come home, like we came back last Christmas and surprised my parents with the kids. And it was cold as hell. But I got that little like tingling in my stomach

every time I like coming to town there. Just all the good memories, you know, with Tyler Dugan, Jay Clark, all those guys used to hang out with us kids. and going up to like Minnes-Syquin Lake. And so I love the prairies in the summer. I mean, I don't know what it is about looking at a field with, you know, where it's just a never-ending.

I don't know why that feels good to me, but it does. I don't know. I'd explain anything else besides that. But it's definitely home. When I used to come home from Ontario, I grew up on a farm, obviously. And as soon as I hit Saskatchewan, I shit you not every single year. I get stuck behind a cattle hauler.

And the smell of manure was like, ah, it smells like home, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy how there's just certain things that you, you know, it just takes you right back to when you're a kid or whatever. But I definitely cherish the years I had in Lloyd growing up there for sure.

How are you feeling? I mean, like, that's probably another thing that gets asked around here an awful lot is it just doesn't much talk of it right or people don't know i guess yeah i uh as far as my head i'm fine you know i i feel like i fully recovered um my neck was the problem like between i have a between my c2 and c3 i have no jelly left in between there so it's like bone it's like rubbing all the time so i had to get if i wanted to continue continue playing, I would have had to get a neck fusion. And that's when I said, that's it, I'm done.

Like, is a good friend of mine, Derek Dorset, who I play with in Medicine Hat, he had the same problem. He got the neck fusion. Literally 10 games into the next season, you got hit, and it separated. And then it's just a mess. You know, if you get a fusion in your neck, like, no matter what, like, I want to be able to golf. I want to be able to still play softball. Like, that stuff just hinders your mobility. So. I got to get it worked on all the time every week or two. I do maintenance on it and whatever, but pretty good for playing as long as I did. I mean, there's guys in way worse shape and guarantee.

There's a guy, an oil change guy in Lloyd that's backs and way worse shaped in my neck. You know, so I'm not complaining. When you go to, you win the AJ and you finally crack the dub. Right? I think probably that year you're like, I'm making the Tigers. I don't think there's any doubt in your mind. They've probably already talked to you. I mean, you just freaking won the AJ and set the world on fire kind of thing. How cool was it to finally step into the WHL? It was, and I'm glad I didn't play at 16 because it would have been a lot of growing pains. And playing it in the Alberta Jr. at 16, I got to work on my skill.

I got to, I used to go to the rink at lunchtime. I remember the town was so small. I had class in the morning and I would literally in my last class is over at like 1145. I would literally go over to the rink because I didn't, I barely knew anyone. The team, they're all 20 and 19. We had an old team. Like we had an older veteran team. And I would go skate at our rink, put my gear on because I'm like, this is unreal.

We got our own lockers. We got our own. I would just drive over there and skate for an hour at lunch, eat my sandwich on the way there, skate, shoot, go back to school for the last hour and then go back to practice for two hours, you know, after school. So I got so much time and I put so much effort into it that year that when I got there at 17, I was like, all right, screw you guys like I belong here. And you had all three years there, Clark, you were both as consistent as it could be on putting up points and being a contributor to that team.

Yeah, we had a great coach there, Willie de Jarden, and I was a fire pistol. I mean, you remember me in sports, but I mean, I was, you know, when I think back on some of the stuff, it's not like I had the greatest attitude. I had to learn a lot. But when I got to, when I got with Willie, he, he unloaded on me. I mean, I was banging my stick, you know, taking dumb penalty. lead and he really dialed me down. He's healthy scratch me a couple times.

Like he just said, you're out tomorrow. Okay, like, I love you as a player. We're not training you. We love you. But you got to sit out. He's like, I got to make an example. You can't punch you guy, you know, and take a 10-minute mish content. Like, you know, I would just blow up.

And then as I, he kind of rained me in and I got better and better at it, became better teammate. And, you know, I felt like throughout my NHTS. shell career. If people talked about me, I was always a, you know, a good teammate where when I played with you, maybe you're in peevee or they would have said, guy was shithead, you know? I remember having words with you on the ice. Yeah, I mean, I had words with everybody, I'm sure. That's probably true. I was so intense and so, you know, and I couldn't, I didn't know how to handle it. And Willie, really flipped that around for me. And it was, I would have never made it otherwise.

What was it like getting scratched the first time? I mean, because I was one of the top players on the team, so it was like, it wasn't like, hey, Clark had a bad game, we're going to sit them out. Like, the papers are on it. Like, why is he sitting out? Like, why is, you know, like, what's going on? And then, so I just told the paper or the newspaper, I'm like, I can either, you know, Willie said, if you want to say you're sick or what, you say whatever you want, you're sitting out. and I remember thinking, should I just, it was in my draft here. I'm like, should I just say that I'm sick?

And then no one will know. And then I'm like, screw that. So I'm like, yeah, I took a bad penalty. I was, you know, hurt our team. And I just took it, took it on the chin because the media would have found out anyway. You know, there's some guy in our team that would have, you know, it was going to get out anyway. So I just like, whatever, I made a mistake and the hell with it. Well, I tell you what, if you, I think if you would have said you were sick, for sure,

it would have gone out and for sure in your draft year that would have hurt you more than just owning up to it yeah and there's no repercut I mean it wasn't like I was in trouble with anyone I mean it was fine everyone blows up once in a while don't they uh yes all it yeah it's nobody's perfect and and there when you're passionate about something it's uh that energy at times is hard to control Yeah, absolutely. What was it the second year you're there, you guys win it all? And I, you know, you win the AJ, man, that's a big feat. Then you get into Med Hat and in year two, you guys go the distance.

Like, what was that year like? It was great because the first year I got there, Madison had hadn't made the playoffs for like seven years. So they fired the coach. They got rid of some of the players and Willie Dejardin and Doug Lister came in. And wait, did Doug come in the first year? So this is where my concussion stuff. Yeah, he's there the first year.

So they come in and they rebuild this team. And we squeak into the playoffs. And now we're building like an identity. Our team is like we're the bad medicine hat tires. you come into our rank like we had guys a good fight we had Darren Reed we had all these you know we're a good team and so we get the last spot in the playoffs I think and we play swift current their first place we go into Swift Current spank them two games in a row come home spank them sweep them just punt them first rounds we're like now everyone knows like we're the

real deal you know and we ended up losing we ended up losing a red deer who won the league in game seven in the second round. But like, so we went in after that season. That summer we're like, okay, guys, everyone trained. Let's get, we can win this whole thing, you know? And like Willie kept, we had some partiers. We had some, but he was really good at managing our team. And we came back to next year and we're like, we started off slow.

We were like 500 for like the first like 10 or 12 games. And we had every, I mean, we were an all-star team. but we were all just dicking around. And I remember Willie coming up, just blowing up on us on the bus. And after that, I think we won like 25 games out of the, out of 27.

We just went on a tear and then just, I mean, we went to the playoffs like a joke too. We swept Everett in the final. So it was pretty good. Went back to the Med Hat parade. Oh, the Med Hat parade? Yeah.

Yeah, it was great. That was a fun three years there too, man. I'd love to go back and do those. Do those over? Do you miss being on the buses? No. God, no, not at all. The Iron Lung, I wrote, I mean, can you imagine how many times I wrote around the

plane on a bus? The miles, it must have been incredible. The Western Hockey League, it must have been incredible. I was a pro traveler, though. Everyone used to just lay between the seats. You all bring like a little foam and a pillow. talk about, you know, who's looking good at Med Head High and who isn't, you know, the next thing you know you're out cold.

My mom's shaking her head right now. I can just feel it right. What was your favorite trip to go on back in the dub? Where did you want to go play? Like, did you just have a barn where you walked in? You're like, yeah, I own this place. where the heck did I play I mean I love playing in red deer Red deer was a lot of fun

I used to torch left bridge but that was probably my left bridge I always had a heyday against it seemed like they're the team I always had good nights against so I was I like going to left bridge I like going to Regina because Chapman was in Regina you know and you go to where the hell does the last year

Moose Jaw, Lee was in Moose Jaw. Like, you know, you see these guys in Lee's my best friend growing up, you know. And we had battled literally since we were five years old. His dad and my dad had been splitting us up every day. You know, like, I mean, we went at it, ping pong. Name a sport. We fought all the way through. So like, we line up against them, you know, it was pretty fun to see, like, our hard work kind of paid off

and give him a little slash on the back of the legs. Yeah, it was always fun playing those guys. How about playing in the United States? Everybody, all the kids always talk about Portland or Everett or just the fans there and how crazy the barns were. Yeah, there's some good Seattle, Seattle had a, they played in their NBA stadium there, so it was a mess. But Portland was crazy. What was it, Tri-Cities? I'm trying to think.

Portland was the one that was real, like you wouldn't expect hockey to be big, but the rings were packed. I always loved playing Spokane, too. Spokane was awesome. What was it about Spokane? I don't know. I just liked the,

they had a good rink, good little town. Just a nice, nice spot. When you, you got the lockout in the NHL. And that year the World Juniors is going on. I'm sure you're foaming at the mouth to get the invite to be on that team.

Like, what was it like stepping on with that group of guys? I don't think anyone in Canada can argue that is like the, I remember watching that. That was the craziest group of hockey players to assemble for the World Juniors. Yeah, it was great. That team was just so, I mean, look how many franchise tags are on that team. It's incredible. old amount of guys, everyone but me pretty much.

It was great because it was a lockout year. So it was the show that year. That was like that tournament was everything because there's no hockey going on. So, you know, you get to play with Crosby. And I used to go to L.A. with Crosby. We used to go to UCLA in the summers with our agent. This is back when I was still living in Loy, when I was like 15, 16. I was like drive up to Evanton, get on a flight, land in L.A.

State, UCLA for two weeks. and then come back to Lloyd. I was like, this is great. So I get to play with him again. Getslaft, Perry, Bergeron. Bergeron was a great guy. I mean, I got along so good with him there. I know with him a lot.

Stephen Dixon, that was my line, and him and Colin Fraser. We were like just the mucker line. Pretty much what you did your whole career. So we, but this Stephen Dixon was maritime guy. he was so funny. I couldn't even look at him. Like, don't look at me.

Just go away from me. Like, day of the game or, like, just get away from me. That was so funny. Couldn't even, he just couldn't take him serious at all. One of the things I remember about that group was you had Sutter coaching. Yeah. And now, did you all have to have a certain type of haircut or no long hair or no facial hair or something along that lines?

Yeah, he likes it, you know, he's a clean cut. Cowboy, intense man, but great coach. Love the guy as a coach. Love him because he picked me. It cost me 10 grand, but, you know, it was worth it in the end. You don't get on that team without paying this guy out. He was great, though. I think I made it because I had good games,

and I always played pretty good against Reddier. And he obviously got to see me firsthand for a couple of years. But he was strict, but at the same time, like, Nobody wants to win more than that guy. Guy's crazy. Loves to win. How so? He's just so intense, so prepared.

So, like, I mean, look when he played the NHL. I mean, he was, like, he was a heck of a player. So you can just feel it. Like, when he steps in the room, he had like that, what's the word I'm looking for? An arable. I only got my grade 12. Yeah.

Yeah, you just felt the presence when he walked in the room. barely got in grade 12. And you can't remember it anyways. No. No. You say he was prepared. What sticks out to you looking back on some of those things like that, you know, I mean, by that time, you played some good hockey. Like, what was, what separated him from other coaches at that point?

He had good strategy, good systems, knew the other, the, the, the, opponents in and out, knew exactly what they were doing. We studied all that stuff. He was definitely ahead of the curve. So you go into the game, knowing the game plan and just makes it a little easier. How excited was the entire group to come up against Ovechkin and the Russians in the finals? Yeah, we wanted to crush him. You know, that was, I remember Brent pumped us up before that game and, you know,

nobody swing away from him, hit him every chance, and we literally just pounded him. I mean, he left the game, I think, right, halfway through or something. Yeah. Obviously, an incredible player, but we knew, you know, like if you want to, in a one game take all, you got to take him down, do it quick, you know, and so he took some big hits.

So, yeah, that was a fun, really, the only thing better than beating the Russians would have been beating the Americans in the fun. well, but they stunk so you couldn't even get there. I can't wait for them. They look good, though. They're matching track suits and everything. They look like a hockey team.

They just weren't one. I can't wait for my American buddies to all be texting me. They're just going to be hasten on you. Or laughing, probably. They got a pretty good sense of humor. Who am I kidding? Yeah. I got a green card, some.

I'm kind of stab myself in the back there now. about the draft what was it you know different guys have different experiences with talking to the teams before the draft going through the combine that kind of thing when you look back on it is there you know was buffalo the team did you think or was there other things that play there yeah there when i did the internet when the combine was in Toronto. So we did the whole workout thing. And then there were certain teams. Like I think I had like I think I sat down with like 15 teams maybe or 17 teams. And there was like certain teams where there's like three guys in the room, you know. And then when I went in with Buffalo, like all 12

guys are in there. And my Phoenix was another one. L.A. was another one. And I was like, oh, I could go to L.A. That would be nice. And obviously I went to Buffalo, not the greatest city in the world. But you could tell, like, the teams are really interested, really had you higher up on their list or wherever. And I wasn't surprised when I went to Buffalo. That's for sure. You got interviewed by, say, a team like L.A. or maybe even did you get interviewed by, like, did you get interviewed by the Oilers? No, I didn't. I don't think I got interviewed by the Oilers, no. That was my favorite team growing up, too. How dare they? to just rip that poster right off my wall right after the combine.

When you were a free agent, did you ever think of like, hey, maybe I should go back and play for the owners? I know my parents did. I know they let me know every week. My dad wanted me to come out west the whole time. I just, you know, there's a couple teams. I thought for a while I was going to end up in Nashville. which would have been pretty cool. But Edmonton would have been,

especially with the new arena and everything, that would have been pretty cool. But it just wasn't there for me. I was always, you know, more interest in the East, more cash. Not that I played for money. Oh, God.

What was your first game like? Because you're a guy who played for the Rochester Americans. Actually, let's go your first game in Rochester, because you finish your dub career. And then I assume fly down to Rochester for their playoffs that first year. Yeah. Yeah, we finished up. We lost in the second round or something.

Then my agent called and said, Rochester wants you to come up because they had a really good team in the playoffs. And they were trying to win it. They want you to come and play. And I was kind of banged up, like my shoulder was sore. I had like a sprain in my shoulder. And I was supposed to go to Cancun. So I was like, this isn't really working out as I had planned.

And I was supposed to go with a bunch of buddies from Lloyd, I think, to Cancun. So, you know, my dad's, you go to Cancun when you get back. Like, you got to, you know, so I went down there and rehab for like a few days. And then I jumped right in the lineup and played the last couple rounds with them. So that was fun just to get like a little taste of pro hockey and like playoff hockey. So it's good to have that in the back of my mind going into the next season. Was it an eye opener going? and playing some of the HL?

Yeah, because now you're playing against the men. And, like, the HL now is, like, a glorified junior league because they had, like, the veteran rules and everything. But back then, my whole team, like, 10 guys were 30-some years old. They had three kids, you know, like, full beards. Like, they're, you know, like, they're men, like men working. They're at their 9-to-5 job.

And you want to try and take a 33-year-old's job who has two kids and a rent to pay. Like, you're going to earn. it you're gonna earn it and it's gonna hurt and it did you know like I mean no one's no one's given their jobs up you know they're trying to feed their family and it was a it was a rough first first half of the first year for me it was tough how so just the strength like I thought I trained hard like I didn't train hard like these guys just train hard you know like so use an eye opener and took me the whole first half of training getting in the gym putting in my time to build myself up and feel confident. And then the second half, I went on a

tear and played really well. I led our team in points out here, I think the first year. But the first half, I was, it was definitely an eye-opener. What was the life style change like going from, you know, the dub where you're still, I mean, you're still a kid playing in the A? I mean, your young guy. but going from kind of a very structured system where they kind of keep tabs on you and then heading over to pro where, you know, you got to look after yourself and, you know, if you want it, you got to be the guy pushing the envelope. Yeah, it was tough because you got to cook, you got to do your laundry.

You know, I'm on the phone with my mom. How do I, you know, how do I wash my underwear? Because at the billets, they're doing everything for you, you know? So like, how do I cook this? How do I? get a credit card. I need to pay this bill, you know, so I put her through hell that first year, but that was probably the toughest part. And then there's, and then there's half the American League guys aren't going anywhere, you know, the American League's the ceiling for them. So like, they want to go party.

They want to go, you know, that's the last stop for them. And for me, I was like, I'm trying to get out of here. I'm not looking to get comfy and wrong. even though I have a place there now in the summers, but I don't know why. My wife's from there, but I was just so focused on getting to Buffalo, you know, like I, and, you know, I only spent a couple years in Roch and then I was up, but I didn't want to get sucked into the, you know, the Bull Durham minor league, because that was going on. There was a lot of drinking and a lot of stuff going on if you wanted it.

well it's I would say a lot of people get sucked into that you don't need to be playing in the HL to get sucked into the party the party lifestyle because I mean we all go through that and they're all offered an opportunity to go into it yeah yeah it's not like I didn't party I mean anyone listen to this that knows me knows I've tied it on if you you know

here and there when it's when time's right but you got to have your priorities in line and you know mine was to make the NHL not to be the best part of year on the team. What did you learn? You know, you spent, what did I say, three years, 0405, 0506, and then starting in 0607, you start splitting games, I believe, into the NHL. What did you focus on while down there? What did they have you working on?

Were you just obviously getting stronger, building your game, confidence, you name it? But was there specific things you were trying to do down playing in the A? I think for me, like, I recognize, like, how good the top-end guys are in the NHL. And not everyone can play in the top couple lines. I was lucky enough to get to play a second line most of my career. But there's always every coach wants, like, a two-way guy on all those lines. So I worked on penalty killing. I worked on getting a puck off the wall out of my,

and I worked with the assistant coaches nonstop on all these little things that make a big difference, but nobody really wants to work on those. And I was like, I need to like separate myself somehow from everyone else. And so I tried to, you know, become a better two-way player, not just offense, you know,

like try and have a little bit of both sides of the game going for me. And that helped me. When did you learn? When did you realize that? Like, if I don't separate myself, I could be sitting here for a while. Yeah, just, I think in training camp, you know, you see like Danny Breyer and you see like the top guys. You're like, wow, those guys are definitely better than I am. You know, like you're not taking their job.

They make $7 million a year. They're under contract. Like, you're not getting that job, you know? So it's like, how can you make yourself, how can you find a home on this team? Like, what are you going to do? Like, you got to, you know, so like, do I like checking and. you know, no, of course I don't want to get hit. I'm like, you know, I should have been born in Europe.

But like you have to find a way to, you know, make an impact or help the team. And that's, you know, it doesn't take long to figure it out if you're, that's all you're trying to do is get there. You know, you mentioned you didn't indulge in the late night life very often. But if you were to in the A, what was the fun town to go to? in the HL? Yeah. Oh, God. Probably Chicago.

Just like the NHL, Chicago. Best city in the U.S. Hands down. Why is that? Just great atmosphere like downtown, like the restaurants and bars and, you know, good-looking humans.

That does help. Yeah. Yeah, I always liked that city. is fun too like Chicago's the that's the spot like in the summers too like Jeff and I go once in a while to Chicago in the summer just to hang out for a couple nights and stay downtown it's a really cool place a lot of history it's good spot I would have thought so many people talk about Vegas as being that that place yeah Vegas is well Vegas I wasn't even in the league when Vegas came in I'm

don't think her. I was hurt. I mean, I was hurt my whole. Didn't they have a team in the A, though, Clark or no? No. Not unless I'm drawn a massive blank. No, no, no, no. You'd know better than I would. I thought they had a team in the A for a bit. They didn't have a team when I was playing. I mean, San Antonio had a team. Houston had a team. Those were pretty much the teams. I'm trying to think anything further than that. Yeah, Vegas definitely didn't have a team. that's got to be a fun spot to go now as a team I bet yeah yeah I've heard some good stories I've been a few times like just on vacation but it's uh everything's available there take it for take that for what you want I was listening to uh you know I mean you search

your name on YouTube and shows all your top goals the the ones that are the best is when Rick Jennerette is calling him. A guy has like the greatest freaking voice in the world. Yeah. Like he's got to be top, I don't know, five all time in the NHL for calling games. Yeah. As a player, did you ever like, do you guys even care about that? I'm trying to think if I ever cared about it.

Oh, he's a legend in Buffalo. Guys love him. Yeah, he's traveling with us every day. him and it was him and harry neal harry neal would have six courers lights down by the time we got on the bus after the game to the airport minimum

six in his thing i remember we were leaving pittsburgh it's like a legendary story we're leaving Pittsburgh after the game we're like in traffic and lindy roughs the coach and harry neal i like walked by his seat because they're all the media's up front so they get off the bucks

and look in harry neal's seat like we always did because it's hilarious he had eight beers in there in like a 30 minute it was legendary i mean you guys would put him down like waters and like try drinking eight bottles of water that's hard too you know let alone beers so he gets he gets off the bus and i see like we got our you pull the bus pulls right up beside the plane and you just walk up the stairs under the plane so i see half the guys on the walkway it's cold out and they're all like looking down at the bus i'm like what's going on like what's the hold up Harry Neal's got his horn out on the front of the bus

Like the lights are shining on the bus He's got his hand up taking a leak Right on the front of the bus Like just absolutely crippled And I mean And like Lindy's like what are you going to say Like the guy's a legend Like what can you say to him?

It's so funny They were awesome Him and Rick are just hilarious It'd be nice to get to that legendary of status Wouldn't it in life Oh my God I don't know if I want to earn it to wait Harry did. I mean, that guy's, that guy's liver's got to be like, I think the check liver light's

been blinking for about 30 years. You read some of the old books. I was just talking, me and Kent Stanoforth were talking a day or two ago about, you know, some of the books that come out about old. I mean, like you go through Don Cherry and them guys, but I read Brian Kilray and his stories about, you know, getting on the bus after games in the OHL. And that's just what they did. And he was, he's back,

he played back in the time of when the NHLPA, the Players Association starts, right? And they talk about hopping on the bus and here's a six pack and that's what they did. Right? Like they just, they crushed beer. Those guys went hard.

They went hard. I play with Chris Shelleyhouse at the end of his career. He's a legend, legendary. Atlanta. Yeah, he could pound. I mean, he would bring his bike right into the sauna after practice and just sweat the poison out. He was a maniac.

Awesome guy. How unreal was that? Because he was 47 or 48? Yeah, 48 maybe. Played 30 years. I barely lived 30 years. I'm 35. It's crazy.

30 years in the league. Did you, when he walked in the dressing room in Atlanta, did you just kind of like, ears perk up and try and catch a few things? Yeah. Well, my uncle ruined with his brother, Steve Shelleyos. So, like, we had, like, an instant connection. And then he comes down here in golfs now because he's friends with Jordan, too. You know, so I get to see him.

I get to see him at golf and watch him drink a beer a hole. Pretty legendary. Yeah. Still in better shape than I am, 50-some years old. Just a Greek god. Yeah. Does he just work out nonstop then? Is that like his, his jersey?

Yeah, he's, he's got a sickness for sure. Just an unbelievable shape. How long are we going to chat for here? Should I make a sandwich? I mean, we've been going at it here for a little bit. I might just pull up, pull up to the kitchen here. We can just do this all afternoon. I'm going to be honest.

I'm going to keep chatting. So if you've got to do things, you, you figure it out. like a cooking network here in a minute. Well, to give you some. I'm still making the mac. I could do the mac and cheese for everyone in Lloyd. I,

when I first started doing this, I targeted about an hour. And then you cut off good conversations. And so what people would say was, why do you keep cutting fucking people off, smarting up? And I'm like, oh, okay. So then I go an hour and a half, right? thinking like, geez, that's a freaking long time.

And then they hassle me again. Like, if the guy wants to talk, let him talk. I'm, okay. So I'm not sitting here saying we're going for four hours by any stretch of imagination. But, I mean, the other thing we can do, too, Clark, is we can go for another 20 minutes. And then I can just bug you again in a couple months. And we can do a second part if you want. Oh, we're doing part two for sure.

Hold on. I'm going to take a picture of you. I miss you, man. I haven't seen you forever. There we go. That's a good looking fucking human right there. That's a good looking man right there. I'm going to send this to you.

Whatever you want to do, brother. I'm available for part two. I'm available to cook for everyone. I can, you know, you tell me. Well, you know, before COVID happened, I was fully planning on coming down there. Like, I was like, screw it. I'm going to fly down.

I'm going to hit up Robert Oswald, who lives just south here. I think it's south. And then I'll slide up and hit you. And I like doing it in person. I like sitting across from somebody and bullshit in a coffee or whatever your beverage of choice is. And it's a lot of fun that way. But now shit, like things are just, this world we're living in. It's just crazy right now.

And so make the best of it. Yeah. It's good they got this Zoom thing. I mean, this is pretty cool. But in person's nice. Yeah, well, if we ever get it opened up again, I'll make sure I come down and you can absolutely destroy me on a golf game. I'll let you feel good.

Yeah, it's either that or I come back to Lloyd, maybe. We'll go go for a hunt. God, I want to shoot one of those little bastards. I think I've been bottled up in this house too long. I just want to shoot something. Oh. Well, they're running around. That can be doable.

There will be 400 freaking farmers just lining up to let you come shoot some golfers. Yeah, I bet. You hear that crack? It's insane. I don't know how many years left. I don't think. Got to get my golf in now. Do the body just breaking down?

Do you got to do workouts, stretches, that kind of thing to, like, keep yourself limber? Yeah, for sure. I got to work the guns out, you know. Put those little P-shirts down. You got to get these things ready for the beach here. They are P-shooters. How hard was it being traded on the deadline? Or did you see that coming?

You're playing from Buffalo. Now you're up and you're like, you're playing. Correct me if I'm wrong, Clark. but you guys playing with Buffalo had it made the playoffs again for a little bit of a stretch and you're on a team that is for sure making the playoffs that year and then at the deadline you get dealt to Atlanta. Yeah, that's what they do. They deal the dead weight.

So they pooched me out of town. It was to get traded because that was the first time I'd been traded. And like literally when you get traded like that afternoon, I got on a flight, went to Atlanta, I got picked up, went to a hotel, played the next day. And like, you just have to, like, get your life together. It was crazy. Like, I packed my wooden suit box, or what is George Strait? What's that song?

Pack a book. I can't remember. Anyway, but yeah, I just, you know, like, it was, it was a tough month and a half that I was there for sure. I did not enjoy my time there. I liked the city and everything. It was just such a cluster the whole time. And we had, like, 17 Russians on the team.

don't love that either. Tough playing with different nationalities? No, they just, like, Russians are like, you know, they're like the Russian mafia, you know, like they kind of just hang out with each other. They speak Russian in the room. They, not that they're bad guys. I play with Kuliman and Grabowski in Toronto. They're two of my best buddies when I played there.

They're awesome guys. But it was just like a divided team. We had a bunch of Swedes. We had a bunch of Russians. We had, you know, we didn't have enough farmers. That was the problem. So you like playing with the good old Sasky boys? Yeah, I like just playing with their regular Joe guys.

Talk about Pilsner. How many bunnies are on the bottle? Now you're going back. Yeah, no kidding. What's your beer choice right now? What is the thing down in Florida? I drink Coor's Light pretty much. Whatever's cold.

Coors light. What are you drinking? Might as just drink water. Especially American beers. They're a little lighter, aren't they? I don't know. They, yeah. They definitely aren't good.

Americans are soft. They got to, you know, take a couple percent off the alcohol. God, I miss it. You know, when I was in college, be surrounded. Well, in college in the States, you're surrounded. by you've got Americans everywhere, but now you're surrounded by American hockey players. We used to watch World Juniors all the time. That was the greatest.

And the Olympics went on while we were there too. So you just get to absolutely razz each other. Yeah. Just great. Yeah. So it's always that battle, you know, between Canada, US, it never goes away. It seems like. We used to do.

a shootout challenge, I think it was like once a week, the Can-Am challenge where the Canadians would go against the Americans. You guys do that at the end of practice or anything like that? Yeah, we did some stuff like that once in a while, little games like that. All the countries go against each other or whatever, yeah. What are some of the things you miss? You know, you've been out of a league, you know, what's some of the things you miss about playing the game? Obviously, the paycheck? Yeah, I miss

scoring a goal Like that For like two seconds after you score a goal You get this like Ecstasy that you can never I've never been able to get Well maybe like If I pour an eagle in on or a birdie

And on Jordan on 18 for the cash I'm pretty happy but There's just this feeling you get That it's like I've never been able to like Get that feeling again So That's kind of what I miss.

I miss that. I miss a lot of things about playing. I mean, I don't miss being hurt. I don't miss the grind. I don't miss that. But I miss the guys, the travel, you know, get on a jet. I mean, life was good. So I'm very grateful for getting to see that life.

Well, that'd be an eye opener, I would assume, going from even the Western League where you're on a bus going everywhere to now you're on jets flying the world, flying in North America. Yeah, playing Texas Hold'em. Nothing better. What was the media frenzy like? Like, you go to the Leafs, and I know, you know, all the places you played,

I'm sure the media is all over you, but Toronto's just a special place. When you watch some of the behind-scene footage of those places, like Toronto was on a different level altogether. Was that something you thrived on, or was it just like, What is this?

I liked it at first, and then it gets old really quick. Like how quick is really quick? Like two weeks, two months? Probably like the second year. I was just sick of it. Like 50 media people in the dress room every single day asking the same questions, because there's so many papers or something it's like, and then we didn't have a good team that first year.

So it's like, you know, they're just, you couldn't even, I mean, we go to dinner. But you couldn't even go out in town. Like we just stopped. I would just order in. You know, you go to dinner and, hey, it was like right out of slap show. You get working on that power play. Like, yeah, yeah, we're working on it.

Or like, hey, you know, you look up from your spaghetti and meatballs. And there's like 12 people looking at it. You're like, huh, you know? Like, it was cool to have that experience because you're like a New York Yankee when you play for the Leafs. But at the same time, like, I don't know. I've never been huge on the crap. crowds and that kind of stuff. So what would you guys do to get away from that?

Like, would you, I don't know. Like, when you have a day off or something, no one's seen anyone. Everyone hates everyone anyway. You know, we've been together 60s in a row. Like, you get the one day off a week. And I just sat in my apartment ordered from this burger joint I loved. We always had Sundays off and I just watched football. Who's your football team?

I like the Packers. I used to like the, I don't know. I don't know. I don't even, ever since they started kneeling in the anthem, I don't really like football anymore. Are you a Bucks fan right now? A Bucks? Yeah, that's crazy. He went there. Actually, the owner of the Bucks, his family lives beside us in Rochester, the Glazer family. So I've been to a couple Bucks games and went and sat with them in the owner's suite. It's pretty cool. They own that team. I actually got a funny story about this. You want to keep this thing on here. his name's Joel Kassowitz and he's a member at Oak Hill golf course in Rochester when I'm a member and we're playing the invite and I got I can't remember who I had there as a partner I think I had a Kessel, Phil Kessel usually comes and plays with me and we get down the first hole and like if you live in Roch you're a Bills fan, you're Buffalo Bills fan

even though they stink like you have to be a Bills fan right and he's got this Bucks hat on and the bucks were awful too and it was like the second or third hole and like nice hat he was like yeah yeah I'm like what a terrible team they are you know like just kind of like chiming him he's like yeah I know we have to wear it though we own the team I'm like oh okay

my god they're actually pretty good you know I didn't mind them so they own the bucks and Manchester United how about that have you gone over to watch a Manchester United game no no Screw the bucks Clark Get over

The bucks are three hours from here though That's my reason I went to that Yeah well you You Three hours is nothing Yeah How was the owner's box Nice

Nice How was the owner's box It was nice It was nice Like really it was nice That's the word Whatever you're thinking That's what it was

That's how nice it was I don't know. I'm not like an interior design. Like, I mean, it was like a nice bar. You know, I really like the granite countertops they picked. Yeah, it was pretty cool. And me and Joel were betting on the game, like a little side action. So I had Cincinnati and he had the bucks, obviously, that's his team. So we're sitting there and it's like a tight game and his wife sitting beside him and her family owns a team.

and comes down to the field goal at the end of the game and Cincinnati has a chance to win the game and literally they I can't remember we're gambling maybe $500,000 bucks for the game and they kick it it's like a 50-yard field goal right down to shoot right to the thing and I'm like yeah

I just like just reacted like because I won the bat and he's like he looked over him he's like you know like not now my wife's right there like I don't you know it's so funny that was the last time I've been there though that was my last invite and you didn't get invited which is kind of kind of rude by them I win and I don't get to come back but what kind of that's a joke hearing for the bucks losing yeah you can't invite that guy back no that's fine

I got my I got my t-shirt I'm down there got my free football he's like who do you want to sign it I'm like I don't know one guy in this team you guys are in last place you know It's like someone asking me for a signed hockey puck. Do they really want it? I doubt it. You know what that brings up is when you did undercover pro and you were Phil? You remember that? Yeah.

That's funny shit, man. Yeah, that was fun. Did you actually sell a jersey or was that freaking total BS? They, to this day, I don't know. I'm sure they staged that because, I mean, was he going to, buy MacArthur jersey, I don't know, you know. Not the easiest thing. No, if listeners don't know what the heck I'm talking about,

go search, I don't know, undercover pro Clark MacArthur or something like that on YouTube. And Clark is employee of the month, Phil. Phil Johnson, who goes around the store with a camera crew. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it. Yeah.

Yeah, that was fun. Was that like a standard thing or was it because you were starting to kind of show up as one of the players, one of the guys? That was the first year there we had a lot of attention on our line like me, Grubowski and Kulamon. We were having a really good year. So we, I don't know, we ended up getting quite a bit like side deal stuff, you know, like cars and, you know, in Toronto, they make it widely available to go speak to court. or do you know do certain things so what was the coolest corporate gig you did then uh we went to some i went to an indy car or uh what is it called i don't know indy car race whatever it was and we're like in the corporate tent there and just a cool event you know people all dressed up myself included

you know drinking having dinner watching the race the race is going right you know what did you think of that the the race i mean wasn't in the sorry it wasn't indy sorry it was formula one oh formula one yes so it was like you know and then they're gone again you know like you go back to eating your steak or whatever you're eating so what's you think of that what do you think of the races like were the races good or you're just like that's it kind of fucked up like i don't you're not even seeing anything i mean i barely even wash i was just mingling you know having a good time it's more about the it was just a cool setup we were sitting up above everything and it was just like a bunch of

cool people in there and like myself you know when you look back on it i mean not that you can top jordan because jordan is jordan and now you've thrown up tom brady but when you look back on your playing days who is the one person who walked into whether it's the dressing room or walks into a bar you're at and sits down with it when you think back on like cool experiences and cool people that walked in and you got to sit and bullshit with for 20 minutes. Who's a person that sticks out? I think like the biggest name was like Crosby then probably. Like you would have been like the wow factor of hockey.

But I'm trying to think, I don't know. I'm just thinking about mac and cheese right now. Oh, you know who I met last year was I go to this Joe Namath. I go to this Joe Namath golf tournament at Trump right down the road here. and got to golf or was on the driving range and kind of hung out with Bobby Orr for a little bit, which is really cool. Bobby R. Yeah.

Yeah, he lives down here. And my dad's, one of my dad's really good friends, Barry Gibbs. Do you know that name? Yep. Yeah, right. You're like Googling it down below right now. It's Gary BBS. It's G-I-B-B-B-S.

We want to like pretend like, you know. He was like first or second overall drafted. And he was. All my fucking bullshit. Fuck you, buddy. And he's Bobby Orr's, he was Bobby Orr's D partner. So I said to him, my dad's good friends with Barry Gibbs. And we instantly, he's like, oh, how's Gibby doing?

Like all that, you know, it's pretty, so it's pretty neat. And I know Barry Gibbs very well just because he'd come to our house and hang out and he's a great guy. And, you know, I played in the NHL for a long time, too. Well, this is what we're going to do. because I know you want to get to your Mac and cheese and everything else. It's the third or fourth time you brought it up. Your stomach's rumbling. I can't keep you focused anymore.

I got to keep, I'm going to have to plug my phone or my iPad in here. I told you we're going to use it all. I thought this was like a four-minute interview. Thank God I got this nice comfy chair to sit on. Well, now you know. What we're going to do is we're going to go into the Curdmaster. We're going to go into the Curdmaster Final Five.

We're going to end it on this segment. and then what we're going to do is in a month's time, we're going to have part two. Love it. Okay. So here's the crewmaster final five. It's the last segment of the podcast. Heath and Tracy McDonald sponsors of the podcast. Huge shout out to them.

It's just five questions. Clarkie, you take it as long or as short as you want so you can get back to your mac and cheese. If you could pick your linemates, who would you play with? Do I have to say like Lloyd guys? Nope. Anyone you want. Turned past, who you played with, who you didn't play with, against, you name it. Scotty Hartnell, I'd play with.

And we could be thrown on our line with us. Crosby, McDavid. I got about five guys I'd like to play with. McDavid, actually. Actually, I'm kicking Hartnell out. I'm going to take Crosby and McDadeo. How sad, well, I'm sure you're like the rest of us, that the Olympics didn't happen,

and those two guys didn't get to play on the same team. Yeah. I mean, I didn't lose any sleep over it, but yeah, I would like to have seen it. If you could have coffee with one person or beer or whatever your beverage is, you can sit down with one person. Who would you take? God, that's such a hard one. I've been watching this last dance, so maybe Rodman.

Love to hear a couple of his stories. Rodman would be fun. Yeah. Can you believe he got to go on hiatus for like four days in the middle of a season? Yeah, it's crazy. Absolutely crazy. What's been your favorite COVID hobby? What do you've been up to?

Obviously golf, golf. Golf, golf, more golf, my favorite sport. Who was your favorite media guy? Media guy? Yeah, who did you like talking to that you give time of day? you. Well, that's, that's an awfully nice compliment.

I guess I've won you over in an hour and 20 minutes. Is that all? I thought it's been, I thought we were up going on four hours here. It's been that painful. I could be, I could be in Calgary by now if I was, you know,

started in Lloyd, it'd be just pulling into the city. Well, get on a fucking plane. Let's do it. Maybe, maybe this summer. So who's,

so who's your favorite media guy? Favorite media guy. Was there a favorite guy? There wasn't a guy who walked in the dressing room and you're like, you know, and I'll talk to Bo over there because, you know, he's been pretty good. Bruce Garriotch and Donnie Brennan and Ottawa

were pretty fine guys. They come in the dressing room after games? Yeah, they're with our team. Yeah, they're good guys. All right, final one for you so I can let you get on to back to golf, nurse your hangover. Who's the best player that when you stepped on the ice,

whether they were playing with you, against you, and you're just like, like, holy crap. Like so good, you mean? Yeah. Dadsook. What did, Dadsook? Like, not, like, you played against Ovechkin, Crosby. Yeah.

I just, DadSoup was just so good everywhere, you know? Like, those guys are really good offensively, but if you get them in their own end, like, it's not, like, the worst thing in the world. Like, DadSoup was, like, just dangerous everywhere. I mean, that's my two cents. I mean, I don't know. Oh, you're the guy who played them.

Yeah. I'm the guy who watches the game. I enjoyed watching you play, Clark. Oh, look at my. Hold on a sec. My wife's out of the window. She's like, hey, I need to come in and shower. Okay.

That's great. Hey, I really enjoy it. Appreciate you taking some time to sit down with me. We'll make sure we hook up for part two. All right, brother. Thanks for having me. You bet. Take care.

Hey, folks. Thanks again for joining us today. If you just stumble on the show and like what you hear, please click subscribe. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday a new guest will be sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you find your podcast fix. Until next time.