Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 102: Featuring Brian Boyle + Wade Redden

Episode Date: August 10, 2018

On this week's episode, the guys are joined by some legendary guests. First up, they are joined by Devils forward Brian Boyle to talk about his career, his sickness, life off the ice and more. Then, on another addition of Kelowna Diaries with Biz, he's joined by long time Ottawa Senator Wade Redden, to talk about what it was like to play 1000 games in the NHL, his experience with the Boston Marathon bombings, and more. The guys also get into their usual shenanigans which includes Ryan almost fighting a 10-year-old on NantucketYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. This episode is brought to you by Keeps. What's up there, Spittin' Chicklets listeners? I know a lot of you folks like our new t-shirts with our line of us guys, our versions of ourselves, and of course, you see mine. I have no hair. That's my predicament, but it does not have to be yours because that's what Keeps is for. You keep your hair now. Getting started with Keeps is so easy. You sign up. It takes less than five minutes. You answer a few questions, snap a few photos. A licensed doctor

that looks at your info, recommends the right treatment, and tells you what you need to do. You don't have to leave your couch. And again, you don't have to be bald like I am in my 40s. If you're in your 20s, guys, and it's starting to thin, get on it. You need to save it, and this is how you do it. Keeps offers the generic versions of the only two FDA-approved hair loss products out there. You've probably heard of them, and you can't get them for this price. It's that simple. Keeps is only $10 to $35 a month, plus now you get your first month free.

It's one hell of a deal for keeping your hair. There's no reason to put it off any longer. Take my word for it. Stop hair loss today the easy way with Keeps. To receive your first month of treatment free, go to keeps.com slash chiclets. That's K-E-E-P-S dot com slash chiclets, C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. That's a free month of treatment at keeps.com slash chiclets. Keeps, hair today, here tomorrow.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode of 102 of Spittin' Chicklets, brought to you by Barstool Sports. Summer vacation edition for myself, reporting live from Vermont. Let's say hello to the fellas. Producer Mikey Grinelli, sweltering somewhere in Boston. Hello, gentlemen. Our boy Ryan Whitney getting ready for a big weekend.

Yep, brother's wedding this weekend. Can't play in the Fallon Cup because of it. It's my member guest. Selfish. Yes. Yeah of kind of hate him right now but i still love him so what's up boys and that was our other member of the cast paul business aka biz nasty checking in from the desert deal with that terry ryan followed from last week what a doozy he was somebody i had to get fucking earlobe surgery from that fucking interview with terry ryan boys mix uh mix signals about it uh a lot of canadians loved it uh some of our american fans didn't we have to establish that there was a bad connection so when i wasn't bullshit i think

people thought we were snow job no there was definitely a listening issue with him up there well i i fucking hope so because i said the the name Terry about 2000 times and I might've fooled myself. So do you remember them? Do you remember like the micro machine guy who was just like, just talking 9,000 miles a minute. That was Terry. But everyone tweeted me. I didn't even get his best stories.

So I know there's more to come with him yeah we tried we did try to in person guy we need him in person to be like shut the fuck up terry we got it you're next you're next hold on but he was a funny bastard we'll get him back we we might be doing some live podcasts and if we bring him in to tell some stories we are going to put a shot caller on him so the minute we need to stop we'll just fucking mail him put him put a shot caller on him. So the minute we need to stop, we'll just fucking nail him. Put him on a shot clock. Oh boy. Something that I also forgot to mention you guys, when Grinnelli made his trip to Vancouver,

Grinnelli had never heard of pierogies. He had never heard of pierogies. He had a pierogi here for the, when he was here for the first time. Is that not insane? Isn't a pierogi just a sub? No, no, no.

Seven year old. No. So you don't know what pierogies are either. All right. I've heard the, Is that not insane? Isn't a pierogi just a sub? No, no, no. He's a fucking seven-year-old. No, so you don't know what pierogis are either, R.A.? R.A. doesn't either. I've heard of them. I don't know that I've ever eaten one, to be honest with you. They're fantastic. You haven't heard of them? They're fantastic. Aren't they like grinders and sandwiches?

Tell the crowd. I need to know. No, it's not ravioli. Well, it's like a pasta thing, like kind of like pierogi, like sort of like pasta-ish. I know what pierogi is, dude. I lived in Pittsburgh. Pierogis are filled with dumplings of Central Europe origin made by wrapping.

Hey, Biz knows what they are so much he's reading the Wikipedia on dumplings. Well, here's the thing, though, is I feel that once I say that, people are going to be like, oh, yeah, it's a fucking pierogi pedi on dumplings well but here's the thing though is i feel that once i say that people are gonna be like oh yeah it's a fucking pierogi because most people had a pierogi before where i'm trying to explain it to you because obviously ra is confused as to what a pierogi is well like i i see dumpling in like the same like they're like a cousin they're usually with potatoes in the middle you can have them with fried onions like what do you call that call that? Sour cream. People put that on it. So, anyway, I guess it's not that shocking,

and I thought it was crazy that he'd never heard of it. No, not a lot of Central European food in Boston that we got down through the years. That probably explains a little bit of it, mostly Italian and what have you. Another issue I had with Grinnelli actually was one of his – look at his pith – is he was giving it to young page views about wearing shoulder pads in men's league. Now, I'm going to defend him on this. You think I fucking trust beer leaguers with my health?

I'd be wearing a fucking full cage and be surrounded by a bubble if I was playing men's league with guys who barely can make their high school teams. That's embarrassing, Biz. I'm embarrassed for you. If I was an investment banker and had my men's league Tuesday night and got my tooth knocked out, you're an absolute loser.

I don't know if I'd wear a full cage, but at least a half shield. There's not a single person in my entire beer league that wears shoulder pads. Jack Eichel told us he plays three on three, and he wears the shoulder pads. Is he good, Whit? Is he a good player? Well, it's funny because that's the highest level, making like $10 million a year. And so I guess if he can wear shoulder pads,

it's not that big of a deal. Nobis? Yeah, but he has something to play for. All right, you're a working man. I race for shoulder pads at work. He has shoulder pads on right now for the podcast. Otherwise, I'd look like penis. He's like, hold on. Let me get my Don Hurst.

What were those things called? Remember those big-ass football ones? I never wore football pads, man. Go ahead, Beers. Well, R.A., if you get injured outside of work, correct, and you can't physically work, you're fucked, right? No, it's getting paid. It depends exactly where you work and what season it is.

But like if me, for example, if I got hurt up here, I mean, I wouldn't get workman's comp, but I wouldn't lose my job. I wouldn't like get fired or anything. But it's going to hurt your pockets. So you wouldn't want to like separate your shoulder because some guy fell down behind you when you were like pivoting and all of a sudden you end up landing on your shoulder. Now you need surgery. You have a job where you have to use your muscles, where some people can maybe sit at a computer and do their job and still get through it.

So I will never rip a guy for wearing shoulder pads. But the point is, though, Biz, no one goes hard enough where you're going to hurt yourself. Like I've never even seen an injury in beer. Buddy, you're dealing with guys that might not sharpen their skates throughout a whole season. What if they lose an edge and it's an accident? I'm not saying guys are throwing body checks. I'm saying

what happens if a guy accidentally falls and takes out your knees and you land on your shoulder? Guys are like duct taping together synergy because they can't get another twig. Oh, Douglas. I said Dunhurst.

Douglas shoulder pads. You remember Douglas shoulder pads? It was what Latimore wore in that movie about the college football team. Hey, question. So Brian Boyle, our guest this week, not a big deal. We have a video of him on Spittin' Chicklets and on the Spittin' Chicklets Instagram of him playing beer league hockey this summer. And he wasn't wearing shoulder pads. Five-year-old.

I think you're missing the point I'm trying to make. As I'm saying, I don't care if guys don't wear shoulder pads. I'm saying they shouldn't be criticized if they do. Unless they like run you over or bump into you like dickhead because you have shoulder pads on. Leave me alone. If everyone else doesn't. Imagine you're just out there buzzing around, like who cares? So let me explain myself though.

So in my beer league, like I said, no one wears shoulder pads. So I see a picture of YP and shoulder pads. He's getting chirped. Yeah, I know, but yeah,

but maybe he's playing in a league where, where guys are rubbing guys out and it's a little more intense. So to criticize that without even knowing that there's another Bozo movie. I mean, I'm not a Bailey guy, but there are definitely different levels of Bailey. There are probably hotos in one and fucking guys who just having fun. Another me personally. Yeah. If I had assets to protect, I would, I wouldn't be ashamed of work. I've covered on anything.

I don't probably wouldn't need shoulder pads, but I don't know. What assets does YP have? Well, next thing Grinnell, he's going to be body shaming me, What assets does YP have? That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Next thing, Grinnelli is going to be body shaming me. But to move on, Grinnelli, I respect your opinion on it, but I just was a little sensitive to guys having to actually work real jobs other than just doing podcasts for a living. It'd be good content if I got hurt in beer league.

Like if I got my tooth chipped or I got hurt, that's good content. Right. And you could still do your job. Exactly. Right. Some guys couldn't. So I win the argument. So segwaying into men's league. So I did a promotion the other day and it was these kids out of Toronto that started this men's hockey league. And it's pretty fascinating. There's 120 teams canada in 11 major

cities and and they want it to keep growing and growing and it's called the lug hockey league lug so um the concept is is guys who wanted to pursue their academic uh academics as opposed to maybe playing for the school and not focusing 100% on academics. These guys have a season of 16 games. I think you're going once a week. Very reasonably priced and the caliber of hockey is pretty good. So they have a summer league and a winter league and the winter league starts in these 11 cities like Laurier, Western, which is in London, unbelievable school. And it's just, it's better than intramurals. I guess you could call it like club hockey in the States.

So these guys wanted me to talk about it on here to spread the awareness. I'm going to be Instagramming like the website and stuff like that. Actually wit, which is even one of the guys who started had a story about you. And I get like some of the money that they're giving you for this well yeah we have to split the revenue of course with barstool i mean no brainer one of the guys i love hockey i'm in one of the guys had a story about how he was when he was 11 he was such a hockey nerd he used to call hotels uh when teams are in town and he read the the the what do you call it, the fucking… The rooming list?

No, yeah, but like what do you call it, like a playbook, not the playbook before games. Itinerary? No, like when you go to the game, you get one, and it shows the lineups. Oh, like the stat sheet kind of thing, like the lineup. So he would check the lineups of teams, and he thought it was a typo when it said Ryan Whitney. He thought it was Ray Whitney.

He thought for whatever reason he'd be traded to Pittsburgh. so this kid ended up getting a call in the hotel saying hey can i speak to to uh ray whitney and they've sent him to your room and apparently you had this guy on the phone for 10 minutes pretending to be ray whitney do you remember this wait you are you fucking with me right now i'm dead serious and this guy told a story about how he used to call and then he said that was the end of it he stopped calling uh rooms after this and stopped being such a hockey nerd yeah i was like yeah dude i'm like man my groin's killing me like i was just like t and this guy's teeing him up oh so you do remember this? Yeah, Malone was my roommate. This was like 2007, I bet, right?

I think it was your rookie year. Yeah, and he's like, who are you talking to? And I'm like, I'm Wizard right now. I didn't even know it. I was like, dude, yeah, I changed my curve the other day. I got a little bit more of an up shoot. But my hands are so dirty. You know it's not going to really change anything for me. The kid's like, oh, yeah.

I can't believe this is – like, you actually – I would have never even remembered that. So he told me this story the other day, and he was one of the guys who started the league, and they just wanted me to let everyone know about it. And they're still taking applications for teams, and even individual players, they'll put you on a team. Like I said, the caliber was way better than intramurals or beer league.

Their second season is starting back up in October. They have a summer league and a winter league. So when everyone's back at school in these major cities, you guys can sign up. Once again, I'll throw a swipe up in there tomorrow, and you guys can go right there. So it's kind of like club hockey in the U.S. Exactly.

Where kids want to keep playing hockey, but if they're good enough, they may just not. They're like, all right, I'm done being with serious hockey. So I play club hockey. That's what I did. Yeah, with no shoulder pads on. There's a shoulder pads allowed. Well, I don't know.

A lot of Pennelly goes to this school. So there was this kid who was buzzing out there, and I was like, wow, this kid's pretty good. Drafted by the Coyotes in the fourth round. A little steal by Chica. So this is the type of caliber that's in these. Well, that was the summer league. Obviously, he's not playing in the winter league.

But the winter leagues will, I'm sure, be good. So I just had to mention them. I think I've done my part in raising awareness for Lug hockey. Some Coyote scouts here in this. He's like, that's where that kid's playing this winter? Fuck, what happened? Another thing, too, that's cool, it's, you know, these guys will start a league if they don't have one in your city.

So if you get enough teams to sign up and join, they'll kind of create one there, and it's just going to keep growing. Like I said, 120 teams over 11 cities right now, and this Lug and it's just going to keep growing. Like I said, 120 teams over 11 cities right now, and this Lug Hockey League is just going to keep growing. And fuck, boys, it's nice to stay in shape. I mean, do you play men's league, R.A.? No. You can skate.

I can't. No, I can skate enough to play in, like, a beer league. But, yeah, I just – I'm at the point – I was actually going to say it. Like, I think you get to a certain age where you're like, you know what, it'd be really fucking stupid for me to break my ankle at like 42 years old, so I just cut that shit out, yeah. I don't really do much to stay in shape.

And then Brunelli would be making fun of you about your cast on your ankle. So what else did you guys want to talk about? Yeah, we got like, we don't really have, for everyone listening, much hockey news. This is the downtime there.

Oh, Kessler sent that to Johansson. I can't think of it off the top of my head. Do you have it, Grinnelly? Yeah, so Ryan Kessler tweeted at Ryan Johansson saying, you know, they've had their beef before. They've gotten a couple fights. And, you know, he said, Ryan Johansson19, how's your summer training going? Want to meet me in the streets before we get going on the ice?

And then Ryan Johansson responded. He didn't tag him in the tweet, but it was apparent he was, you know, talking back to him. And he said, I'll pay for your parking, is what Ryan Johansson said. So what time was Kessler sent that? So Ryan Kessler sent that tweet at, it looks like, 6.38 on August 5th. At night or in the morning? At night. At night.

And then Ryan Johansson responds at 9.14. I'm sensing like Kessler, knowing Kessler, people probably think he's the worst guy. He's actually a great guy playing with them. I mean, I could see how people can't stand him who play against him. But 6.30, text time, maybe play golf at 1 o'clock, start a booze. You could easily be in one. And one of your buddies is like, hey, he ran your show. You're such a bitch.

Corey Perry was probably egging him on the whole time. Hey, you won't chirp him on Twitter right now. Nah, 5.30 whole time. Hey, well, you won't chirp him on Twitter right now. Like, nah, 530. Nah, 545. You won't chirp him on Twitter. Dude, I'm not going to chirp him on Twitter at 630. He's like, all right, fuck you. Give me my phone.

I'm interested to hear R.A.'s opinion because I'm sure he hates Kessler from the rivalry with the cup there and all that stuff going on. R.A.? Yeah, he's definitely, I mean, like Witt said, he can understand why people don't like him, and I'm definitely probably in that crew. It obviously goes back to the bruins canucks i mean you just probably always gonna hate guys on that team whatever nationality they are uh but those two had actually reminded me like my father and like my uncle trying to text each other like dude

just fucking need to say it right to him or reply right out and it was like he replied to like nobody then the guy gave another answer. It's like scattershot. But it's hilarious, though, that it's almost like kind of the NBA coming into the NHL because those guys are always talking shit on Twitter. And now the NHL is doing it. I think it's hilarious. I think they should fight. Rough and rowdy five.

Ooh. Kessler, I just, you know, he was so, he's probably so pissed off and he's just like, all right, fuck, I'm going to rattle this guy. But, I mean, if I'm Joe Hanson, I'd probably come back with something like a little better, like I'll pay for your parking. And by the way, this reminds me of Mike Motto, who was the original Spittin' Chicklets guest biz. Do you know Motts? No, I heard he's an awesome guy. Oh, he had a legendary episode. And he, if he sees Sean Avery,

like he's, he's street and fighting him. He says he'll fight him anytime, any place. Really? So like Kessler brings up this, I'll fight you in the streets, but Mott's is the original. Like I'm fighting him no matter where I see him. Streets are in a rink. Jesus.

I mean, what did he do to him? Or did you just hate him that much for his overall antics? I'm going to tell the listeners to go back and listen to the Mike Motto episode. We filmed it at noon at R.A.'s place and we were together at 11pm. It was a

12-hour podcast. If we'd recorded the whole day, we would have got 19 million views. It would have been Terry Ryan fucking just talking and talking and talking. We don't even take a breath. My opinion on this is I fucking love it. I like the dramatic shit off the ice. We're in the offseason.

Hockey fans are chomping at the bit. They get a little treat in August. Beginning of August, they get a little fuck you match on Twitter between two of the NHL. Well, I mean, Kessler's kind of on the decline in his career, but man, I don't hate Kessler. I don't hate Johansson. I like them both. They're both great guys.

It's just like that's the competitive nature. To take it to social media, I wouldn't have done it, and I get to sit here with my popcorn. It gives us something to talk about on the pod. Maybe they did it for our podcast. They fucking right they did it for our podcast, so thank you they did it for our podcast so thank you to those guys let's add some more and already i'd have to agree with not going right

at him but these guys i mean you know their gm would be calling and being like you know delete that and i miss the days of when like jr used to just like fuck you guys and the like the patrick wash going back and forth with the two rings in the ears. Like more of that stuff, please. Yeah, man. People eat that shit up. It's fun. It adds a little flavor to the game. But you're right.

There's still too many old school GMs who are like, you know, knock that shit off. It, you know, draws attention away from the team into one person. There's still a lot of guys with that old mentality, I think. Do you think if we got in touch with those two and could somehow set up them meeting to street fight and then we just put it on Spittin' Chicklets, like live Instagram story, that would be one of the biggest hockey videos of the century. So maybe like a rap battle, but no rapping, just straight words? No, and then like in the back, I'm like, world star.

No, I have to be up to your bar stool. Yeah, you can't be promoting other brands. Tesla's just chucking bombs. Johansson has like a tank top on. It would just be electric. Yeah, just to clarify, I don't hate Kessler still. That was like, you know, he left Vancouver a while ago. That hate is with Vancouver.

I don't have any beef with him nowadays, I guess. He's on a team that's not a rival. Well, boys, I don't want to run too long here because we have two big interviews coming up. I got like six minutes. With Red and Brian Boyle. Sorry, I don't want to run too long here because we have two big interviews coming up. I got like six minutes. With Red and Brian Boyle. Sorry, I drew a blank there. But one cool thing is Eagle Energy bought an ad read this week,

but they told me instead of reading the ad to just tell a story, similar to the one they told about the stinky puss there a couple weeks ago. So I got one for you, and It was early in my professional career. I'm not going to say what team I was playing for, but I'm sure if you have half a brain, you'll be able to figure it out very soon. So I'm in Arizona at a bar in – I think it was called – it's Whiskey Row. It's still there. And I want to get your guys' thoughts on this whole situation.

So this is brought to you by Eagle Energy. We go to the bar after the game. There's a bunch of the boys, a bunch of buddies of boys who were in town that weekend. It was a big night and I was single at the time so I'm chatting with this girl. Very attractive. And after about 20-30 minutes

the conversation of her having a boyfriend comes up and the fact that he's overseas fighting for basically our free. free dude you motherfucker biz no no no no please no time out you are prejudging me listen to the story so she goes goes on to tell me like hey like i'm attracted to you and me and my boyfriend have this agreement where like he likes when i bring home guys and they pound me while he's on FaceTime and he watches. So, so, so right away I'm like, Nope.

And that was just my initial reaction. So, and then now my thought press kicks in and I'm making, making sense of it all. And I'm telling her, I'm like, one, there's, I don't know if this guy actually likes that or he's just saying that to keep you around. Two, he's overseas fighting for my freedom. So there's no way because I don't know if he genuinely likes to see that. If he really wants it.

If I knew the guy and I knew he wanted it, that's a different story, sweetie. So I tell her no. And it was kind of like a shock to the system. And I was like, listen, like there's other guys here who may. So I ended up introducing her to one of the call-ups and he was a pretty handsome guy. And long story short, they get talking and he seems like he's down with it when he goes home with her and we have practice the next day.

So I cannot wait to find out how this all turned out. Well, long story short, he got cold feet and they agreed on the fact that he was going to do it. And then she'd be texting them all the details while it was going on and he was firing back and you know like oh yeah he's doing this to me now and and and he seemed to love it and and it was very uncomfortable for this guy so i got all the feedback on here and i asked you guys like what like what the why would guys ever want to watch a guy pound their girl? Like, that's crazy.

I've heard that shit before. You're a sick mutant. If you have any desire to watch your old lady get roundhoused by some stranger, there's no explanation for that. You always hear that story. Like, if you're going to come to me and say, yeah, like, my wife wants to watch me that's like oh well at least then like you're gonna just not even be a part of it and watch somebody go to town on the woman you're supposed to love you're a psychopath all right i'm a big you know different strokes for different folks guy it's not my cup of tea i don't want to see my old lady get drunk. Or it'd be like, oh, if it was Terry O'Reilly,

if it was Johnny Busek, if it was Raymond Bork, I'm getting off on my rock. No, I mean, people like different shit, man. And I've always kind of been, if it's two adults, if it's consenting and no one's getting hurt, then fucking have at it. I mean, some people genuinely

get off on that shit. Again, I'm not one of them. But that's what they like, and they find out they like it some weird way like you ever see a movie sideways the wine movie that was out a few years ago it's not an old one so don't fucking yell at me i've seen it yeah it's it's a great movie i'm curious to know though ra yeah how many of these guys do you think genuinely that makes them happy where most of them are just agreeing to it because they got a smoke show and they're older and and maybe they need some hymns or maybe some more eagle energy in their system to get the thing up or i don't know i don't think too many man i mean obviously there are cucks out there guys who get who get walked over no matter what but i don't know i think it's

probably a consensual thing again it's something that none of us have favor it's really like i said not our cup of tea but But I don't know. As you get older, man, you find out there's a lot of things out there, not necessarily for you, but for other people. I don't think people just do it because they fake it. Now, as far as that night you were with that lady, you know, talk about doing it for the troops, huh? But I would want a little evidence that there wasn't some, like,

400-pound guy in a cellar, like, jaying off to it. It was really, like, a person. Oh, no. I think at the time when I introduced him to one of the call-ups, some like 400 guy, 400 pound guy in a cellar, like Jay and off to it. And it was really like a personal, a person. Oh no. I think at the time when I introduced him to one of the call-ups, like she was texting him to like, be like, yo,

I found one essentially like a ton thing. And I never actually saw like a picture of him though. Uh, she says, well, he, yeah, he, he's in the Marines and he loves watching online.

And then you get there and she's like, uh, yeah, he's in the closet and he watches on the computer and he's going to hop out of get there and she's like uh yeah he's in the closet and he watches on the computer and he's gonna hop out of the closet he's gonna choke you out he's gonna end up slitting your throat so but i didn't tell you he's gonna actually be there he just watches from a distance i mean yeah i mean you yeah you're definitely running the risk anytime you do that now i guess my question to all of you would would be when of course if you weren't married ra and then i mean grinnell youinnell, you're single. Would you be able to do that? Let's say it's the hottest

women you've ever seen. Are you able? No. In front of the husband? No. Not my wife. I always think he's going to snap and come over and shoot you or stab you or something. If he wasn't in the military, I would do it in a second. Really? In college, girlfriend.

He does it right now. Yeah. If he wasn't in the military, I'd let him watch. I'd let him videotape it for all I care. And that story is going to segue me into a different side of it where it actually did get executed. I have a buddy who's from Vancouver. And a few summers ago, we went out on a Friday.

Saturday, we were all heading to cottage country. And it's on Bowen Island. So you have to take a ferry over there so i didn't i lost him throughout the night there was a bunch of us out partying and he ends up showing late to the cottage and and i one of my other friends comes over and goes go ask ian why he has that nice bottle of scotch in his hands so i walk over and i'm like okay what's the deal with the scotch? Jackie told me to come ask you. And he's like, man, last night when I hadn't seen you, I met this guy who came over and pointed across the room and came up and said, hey, listen, I got my girl here. She was gorgeous, apparently, who I basically want you to stop her.

And he's like, listen, man, I got something lined up tonight, but let's exchange numbers. And, you know, he's a different type of bird. Well, he was supposed to come with us the next day on that ferry, but he was going to take a later one because he was texting with the guy and he decided to go over to this guy's mansion in West Vancouver. Obviously, this guy's got dough. So he gets to the house.

The girl's there. This guy kind of brings him through the house, shows him around. He's talking. It's getting a little uncomfortable. And he has to leave soon to catch the last ferry. And they're in the room. He's like, yeah, like, what's going on here? He's like, oh's getting a little uncomfortable. And he has to leave soon to catch the last ferry. And they're in the room. He's like, yeah, like, what's going on here? He's like, oh, yeah, my bad, my bad.

And he goes, you guys have fun. I'll be downstairs. So my buddy just lays into this chick for this woman, sorry, for 30 minutes. She's hooting and hollering. He can obviously hear it downstairs. So he finishes up and he comes down the stairs. And the guy had a big bottle of scotch ready for him he's like thank you so much for coming over uh you know i hope you had fun maybe we could do this again sometime and he leaves and goes and takes his fare he comes over

to cse it's the minute he got in the uber leaving the house and he knew it was like safe and gone he's like oh my god and he got a bottle of scotch out of it so that's that's pretty much all i got for the eagle energy ad read and i was just i was just in nantucket for a couple nights which is an island off of everyone knows dave portnoy has a home there nice island off of massachusetts so my brother's wife so me and the wife went went down there without rider so we had a couple nights alone. It was great. Saw Sean Horkoff, his wife. But the people down there, some of them are –

I mean, there's homes there that are $35 million. So you see these people, like, sweater tied or knots around their chest. Their kids are just white shirt, red pants, like 10 years old, just blonde hairs. These people are so weird, some of them. I always wonder, are these people real life? If you have like $700 million in the bank at three houses, one's on Nantucket, and you're so rich, and you have all these nannies.

I see them. Do they actually like each other, these couples? I never know. I can never tell. But they have kids down there. And I honestly wrote down on my phone. I had to write down this interaction I had with this 10 year old kid. I'm sitting at the bench. My wife loses her sunglasses for the 15,000th time. She's got to buy her 15,000 first

pair. I'm like, I'm not, I'm not going in. I'm sitting outside. I had my phone gone. Just come out when you're done. There's a kid standing there and his sister's like 15. She's holding the dog. And this kid just like standing there, he's kind of looking at me. You could tell he's loaded because they were with their babysitter who was like 20 years old. She's inside trying to buy the kid stuff. They're outside. The girl's got the dog.

She's 15 in her own world. The 10 year old, he's looking at me. And then all of a sudden he says, this is the best fudge in the own world the 10 year old he's looking at me and then all of a sudden he says this is the best fudge in the entire world you'll love it and there's a fudge store to the right of me so i kind of look over i'm like that fudge unreal bud he's looking at me he's like what i'm like is that fudge unreal you just said he's like no i was reading the sign so I look and there's a sign exactly what he read. I'm like, oh, okay. So I said, have you had that fudge though or are you just completely going on the sign?

He's like, I haven't had that fudge. I was like, really? I was like, do you play any sports? He's like, no, never had any desire to play any sports. That's what he says to me. 10 years old. I'm like, really, what do you do? He's like, I play Fortnite.

And then when I'm online online i shit talk everyone else his sister looks over he does he really is the best shit talker i've ever met i'm like this fuck these two kids so she's holding dog i'm like what kind of dog is that kid speaks up before she can even answer i don't even know what he said some ridiculous name i'm like does it shed he goes no he goes no you idiot it's hypoallergenic i go why you call me an idiot my wife my wife my wife my wife takes the corner i'm sitting down i'm now sitting up on the bench and all she hears me say, why you call me an idiot? She's like, what the fuck are you doing right here? We get up. I'm like, nothing. This kid's an asshole.

We're walking away. We're walking away. He goes, I can't even imagine if I got you online playing Fortnite. I'd ruin your life. I could. How did you not beat the piss out of him? I can't even imagine if I got you online playing Fortnite. I'd ruin your life. Oh, my. How did you not beat the piss out of him? I might have gone on him.

No, Bree, she's looking at me, and she says, you have such problems. What is wrong with you? And I'm just sitting there, and I'm muttering. I'm like, if Ryder ends up like that, I swear to God, I'm going to beat the bag out of him, motherfucker. I i'm still rattled by this kid and you could tell he's just like i'll buy you you peasant that and that's why i would have needed to get the last word in and and my girl who you know we're talking again not a big deal um baby yeah um but i buddy i would i would have said something. I could not.

You're hypoallergenic, you idiot. Well, I've been in a similar situation, R.A., where we were on a ferry coming back from Victoria to Vancouver where I got out of my door on a ferry because I drove on, and I nicked a car. Like, I'm saying nicked it with my door where you couldn't see. It didn't leave a Mark. So this guy gets out and he wants to take all my information.

And I'm like, but it didn't leave a Mark. Like I had four people with me. They all looked and they're like, there's nothing. And I said, sir, like, can you even see anything? And he's like, I just want to exchange information. And buddy, trust me. And we're going back and forth so finally i give it to him and then and then uh i look at the kid because he had there was like a 10 year old kid and i and i

mutter i was like you better not turn out like a loser like your fucking dad and i think the mom kind of heard me and she perked up the kid was like what the fuck and and and because i because i need to get the last word in those situations where like fuck that guy like I didn't make the car I was 26 years older than this kid and I wanted him dead I mean I want to fight him I might

head over there with you and fuck dude maybe two on one or something I would ruin your life on fortnight what the fuck the timing of your wife was impeccable too because just as you have not exchanged with him. She's probably like, imagine blaming it on you. And meanwhile, the kid was being a little rich prick.

So a curb your enthusiasm situation where you were the bad guy, but this kid was... I want an ice cream. Nice little round table campfire setting there, boys. And now we got to send it over to the interviews because we have two of them. We're going to send it to... We're going to send it to Brian Boyle first. This interview was brought to you by Udemy. One thing I love about podcasts and about listening to podcasts is the learning experience,

to be able to open my ideas to others and to learn new ideas in a new space that a decade ago wouldn't have been available to me. That reminds me of another great learning tool I found the other day, and it's called Udemy. With over 65,000 courses, Udemy is the largest space for online learning. It has something for everyone, whether I'm at home, at the desk, on the computer, goofing around on the app. Udemy gives me access to new knowledge wherever I am. You guys need to check out Udemy. They've helped students all over the world improve their skills, their careers, and their lives, and they've helped me set up this exclusive offer for our listeners only. Go to ude.my slash chiclets right now and get 90% off when you sign up for the classes.

You will not find a better price. So sign up for classes now using our link here at Spit and Chiclets, ude.my slash chiclets, and get access to life changing classes for 90% off. And make sure you download their app for your phone so you can stream your studies wherever you are. That's ude.my slash chiclets, ude.my slash chiclets. That's C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. That's C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. We are now pleased to be joined by a good friend of mine, a local Massachusetts guy, not a big deal, played in the NHL a long time,

current New Jersey Devil and Masterton Trophy winner Brian Boyle. Thanks for coming on, bud. Thanks for having me, boys. Are you a listener or are you just going to tell me you listen because we're buddies? You know what? I've been listening lately in my car. I'm getting sick of the sports radio around here. I feel so old when I say that, but I drive to work out in the morning, and I can't listen to music.

They're like, Pomerantz sucks. Pomerantz, he can't pitch. That's you. You're a caller. Yeah, I'm right on board with them. The team that's won like 75 games and lost 10, they're screaming at. It's pretty brutal. I'm excited to be on

this. Today I listened to the one you did with Looch and then the 99th. Who was that? That was a good one. Who was 99? I don't good one. Who was 99? I don't even remember. We don't know. We're working so much. We work so hard that once we –

Bri, you know what it is? It's like having a good game, you want to forget about it and concentrate on the next one. We just kind of erase them from our mind. It's Pat Maroon, by the way. It was Pat Maroon, by the way. Oh, sorry, Pat. You're the man.

Oh, Patty Maroon, yeah. My ex-teammate. Great guy. That was a good one. So, all right, big year for the Devils this year for the team and for you. What kind of changed there? I know you were new to the team. It was your first year there.

But explain to me the year personally with what you went through at the beginning of the year and how the team did. So give me a little rundown of the season personally and team-wise. Okay, going into camp, I felt awful. I would do like 30 minutes on the ice and go home and sleep for three hours. I'd have like one of those Trinta cold brews from Starbucks, and I'd sleep for three hours. My wife was like, what is going on?

She had a newborn and my son running around the house, two kids, And I was just, I'm going to take a nap, honey. And I was, I was pretty scared that I was, it was going to be my last year because I was like, I am so out of shape. What is wrong with me? And then we had, uh, just like the standard blood work you do the first day of camp, uh, when you have all your testing and stuff. And we did our testing after that, like pull-ups and all that stuff. And I didn't do well at anything, which was a little bit – I did a lot worse than I thought I would do. And it was kind of surprising. But I got a call like four hours later, you have to come to this hospital.

We got to run some more tests, et cetera. So it was like three or four days of pure panic telling me basically I had leukemia and I didn't know what it was. Like they didn't know what kind. Jesus. I found out, yeah, it was like four days later. I found out that it was chronic myeloid leukemia, which is like at that point, I'm an expert on leukemia.

I'm studying WebMD. My wife's going nuts. She knows everything about it too. point i've i'm an expert on the chemo i'm studying web md you know my wife's going nuts she knows everything about it too she took out all the sugar in the house which was devastating please don't do this to me at this time food gone because apparently that had a big i don't know i didn't have any reasoning behind it but it was like she went she went overboard with like the health food i think and then we got news that it was cML and we were like celebrating that, you know, because it's so advanced now with the treatment that I didn't have to do like a bone marrow transplant,

chemo or radiation. So then it was kind of like, all right, so let's get on this medicine and I want to get playing. But I guess my spleen was really big because I had way too many white blood cells in. I had to wait. So I just kind of watched. And I was still pretty nervous because our team was so fast right from the start of camp. But it was kind of wild. I kind of felt bad because I didn't really know these guys.

And they're all telling, they have to talk to the media about me. And, you know, we didn't get to spend much time together. We didn't get to, you know, go into battle, so to speak. And they're all, you know, having to do the whole, like, talking me up. And half the guys didn't even know me. So I appreciated them. Just making stuff up about you. Yeah, stretching the truth, saying what a great guy I am because they

hadn't seen me, like, moody when I have a bad game or minus two. I'm trying to blame someone else. Nice pass, Whit pass it was wild but then I just kind of it was kind of good in a way I kind of got to know the team from afar when I jumped in uh in November November 1st is my first game they were already flying so I was pretty nervous I didn't want to screw anything up but it was uh it was a fun team to be a part of there was a lot of kind of storylines for our team and you know pretty much all good stuff for most of the year so it was a i was happy that i landed in the right place after signing on july 1 and because you don't really

know what to expect and you know everything pointed towards you know i made the right decision i was lucky that they wanted me at At what point were you finally like, man, you're feeling weak and all this type of stuff. Did you ever have concern of something that was wrong or you figured you'd go to training camp and would be told because all the tests that happened in training camp? Yeah,

there were like points in the summer where I don't know, like you know, like in New England right now, lyme disease is crazy rampant and a guy like i mean i like to play some golf in the summer and my pounds always end up in the fairway no no it doesn't where i play um and i thought for sure i had like some kind of lyme disease or something because i was so tired just felt like really really really dehydrated.

Like it was the craziest feeling, just so sluggish all the time. But I was kind of like, all right, I'll just kind of bounce back. Maybe I'll go to bed a little earlier tonight. Because you guys know when you're banged up or whatever, you're hurt, and until you feel like 100% again, especially if it's just kind of like a lingering thing that might get worse every day, but like you can't really tell. i was just like maybe i'm just this out of shape better you try to like tell yourself you're feeling better and you know when i finally got got better i got on the medicine

and like four or five days later i felt like i could not get tired i was like superhuman it was unbelievable it was so i didn't really realize how bad I actually felt until I got better. Well, sometimes when you're not feeling great, no matter what it is, there's some relief in hearing that. Obviously, with your case, I mean, it's kind of like a, well, it's finally nice to know that I know what's wrong, but now I've got to fucking deal with this shitstorm. Well, you know, we were kind of relieved.

Like, I was really relieved that, you know, it wasn't just my body was just failing for no reason. And the prognosis was really good. You know, the media, the press stuff, I kind of just looked at that like, okay, now I have an opportunity. Because when I played, I always kind of thought that of thought that I should do more outside of hockey, trying to help whatever cause it might be. I never really could figure out what kind of cause that would be. So when this all happened and I started feeling better, all these kind of opportunities have popped up

to try and either encourage donations somewhere or donate to something or say a few words about some sort of foundation or something. So the whole gong show that came after, I was diagnosed and stuff and all the media stuff. I tried to think about, okay, now this is the answer to that question that I've had for a number of years. Now I can do more with it. And, you know, hopefully we're kind of getting the ball rolling a little bit this summer with a few different things.

But, like, all the other questions and stuff, yeah, I mean, it gets kind of old. But it's, I mean, people want to know. I'd want to know. And the biggest thing I can say is I'm good. I'm fine. Because you don't want people worrying about you. That's kind of a bad feeling, especially people close to you. They've seen me now, so they know I'm fine.

That was why I wanted to get back out and play as quick as I could. So is this going to be your 12th season? What is it? Yeah, I think it's my 12th year. Holy fuck. So 12 years, but you still must have been shocked to see the kind of outpouring of support from not only other players around the league, but fan bases. I remember being overwhelmed even for you.

Like, wow, this is incredible how many people are reaching out or sending tweets, things like that. That must have been pretty special to see. And probably you didn't even expect it, I'm guessing. Yeah, no, I didn't. I definitely didn't. It was wild. Like guys, like six degrees of separation. I played with this guy who has this guy.

He gave me your number. I wanted to reach out. You know, we never really met or hung out. But guys I played against, there was like coaches and GMs from around the league that I never really had or hung out. But guys I played against, there was coaches and GMs from around the league that I never really had a conversation with. Gary Bettany calls. All these people are just reaching out. It's a great league in that sense that hockey is important to all of us,

to what we do. Life's more important, and people's well-being's more important, and it was really evident. I couldn't believe it. Like, I had to charge my phone three times a day, and I don't... You don't even go on your phone. You won't even text me back half the time.

What's that? You won't even text me back half the time. You're not even on your phone that much. Oh, yeah. Well, my son, like, he'll steal it and hide it somewhere and tell me I was a bad boy and I'll get it back tomorrow. Which at this point, like, I'm like, I don't care. That's fine. But then sometimes I need it. But, yeah, I'm not very good with my phone.

Dry, when you did return to play, was there any concern that your game might not be up to snuff because of the illness? Yeah, I missed camp. And I'm not like a guy that just throws the boots on and wheels and deals. You're a work it slowly in the game shape type guy. Yeah. So I just was like, ah, maybe I'll hit a few guys. But that was the hardest part because until I played everyone at least once, I couldn't,

like, guys were so nice even when we were on the ice playing. They were like, you know, give me shin pad taps and hey,

it's really great. Like, it was good because the refs wouldn't call a penalty on me which was awesome. But the guy, like,

everyone was being so nice. It was kind of like, well, I don't really want to like, I don't want to go and hit this guy really hard. Like, that guy speared me last year. was kind of like, well, I don't really want to like, I don't want to go, like hit this guy really hard. Like that guy speared me last year. He had the TV time.

Oh, we were chatting and like the fans. So it was kind of, it was just a weird, weird thing. I just tried to be just kind of simple as I could. Hindy was unreal

with the whole thing. He's like, but the first game, he plays me like 15 something on November against Vancouver. That's a lot of wind the whole time that's that's that's a little bit north of my career average um if you work me in a little bit i can get i can i can play those minutes but like it was uh like no camp just skating by myself for a while three days practice and then fly to Vancouver in 15 minutes.

I was kind of like, it was fun though. It was really, I just, I was kind of playing with house money at that point because, you know, I thought I had a longer leash than I probably did. But either way, it helped me kind of confidence-wise. So people, I think, don't know. We're going to go back a little step in your career here. Your first round pick by the LA Kings, spent parts of two years with them, I believe.

But even before that, when you were at Boston College, sorry to hear that, you were a defenseman. Was there not talk about LA making you into a D-man? How did that all go down? And were you like, please, no, I'm not a breakout guy. I'm going to dump it in and go hit the guy. Well, in college, I had a little bit more swag to my game. I tried to get a bunch of points, and it was a lot of fun.

But the last, like the playoffs, my senior year, so the hockey playoffs and then the national tournament, we had some injuries. So Jerry York said, you know, do you want to go back on D? And I said, yeah, just because I could play more. No offense, Whit, but D is so easy. So easy. Just sit in a rocking chair, dude.

I mean, it's hilarious. So in terms of breakout passes, it was more like somebody would rim the puck and Schneids would stop it and I would just wheel the net and skate. I would just go. So I didn't ever skate backwards because I'd either mess up somewhere up in the offensive zone and just keep skating forwards or just get a shot. But it was like the most fun ever. So I thought I was going to be Paul Coffey pretty much.

So then I signed after my senior year. They played me a forward in the playoffs for Manchester like that April because they told me it would be unfair. So I'm like, I haven't played any hockey in like two weeks, and I haven't played forward in like a month and a half. But I played forward. That was a good experience. And then I went into the next training camp as a defenseman,

played in Manchester for like 35 games on D. I remember I was leading the team in goals, and I was like last in the league in plus-minus. You're just a one-way defenseman, not exactly myself. I was a two-way guy. I don't know if you ever watched me play. Big-time defensive player myself. Oh, dude, to this day, I think

you've hit me the second hardest out of anybody in my life. You hear that, Biz? I think the River at Cape Cod Whalers. And you just ran me over. Really? It was one of my six hits of my career against Boiler. Well, I wanted to chime in on the defenseman and forward thing because I play both, not a big deal.

Yeah, you are a versatile guy, Biz. I knew that. No, that's what I'm saying. But I would say this. Mentally, as a defenseman, it's a little more difficult. You've got guys breathing down your neck all the time. You've got to make the little plays. Your execution has to be better.

But as far as fatigue, playing forward is an absolute nightmare. It probably ruined my career. It made it and ruined it because your body, you're constantly under fire. You're always in traffic. You're getting shit-sized

passes from defensemenman like wit. And, you know, it's just a lot of fucking skating. It's great. It goes fast. You can't hit someone. Stop. Go back the other way. Stop. Get off the ice. And then like, especially when you're

I don't know if you can hear that. Oh, I can hear it. My son. No, it's fine. Trust me. We've got a producer to get on. Put him on the mic. He came down with a sword. He wanted to joust a little.

I sicked the wife on him. I'm doing a Chiclets interview. Jesus. What's that? I'm doing a Chiclets interview. He's like, oh, I listen too, Daddy. Yeah, this is important. No, he can't.

Not until he's at least eight. 25. Yeah, so then how about with biz like when you're playing forward now and then it's like you know say you're playing like six or eight minutes a game you have to go full sprint mode then sit down for 15 minutes and oh it's awful it's awful and and i like 10 windgates a day as joking as is joking as i was trying to beat or as jokingly yeah that's pretty good jokingly as jokingly? Yeah, that's pretty good. Jokingly. As jokingly as I was.

Man, am I talking normal? Is that normal English? No, but that's like your English, so I love it. I'm following it. Sorry about that, guys. Jesus Christ. That was the worst part, was not only are you going out there, but you're going out there cold, and then you're fucking sprinting around. Like guys who are playing top six, they're getting in the rhythm of the game,

so they're cruising at about 80%. Would you agree with that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I try to take pride in seeing guys who play like the same minutes as me. I kind of match them up. Like I'm not going to go into a season and then finish the season and be like, okay, how many points did McDavid have and how far away was I from him?

Yeah. I just, you know, and I don't really look at that anyhow, but it's just, you want to be as effective as you can in your role. So, because you kind of, it's a tough situation, especially on the road. They're going to throw out their top, like you go to Boston and then I go on the ice and Bergeron's line comes out and I'm just like, okay, this is... You're like, oh, Jesus. If they don't get three or four shots on that, this is a win.

Right, and even for a guy like you, like you said, you played 15 minutes, and you were sucking wind. You're a big guy to get up and down the ice and play 20 minutes a night and have the pressure on you to put up, I would say a top six guy, the pressure's on you to put up at least, what, 60 points? If you're a top six guy, no. 50? If you get 50, I think you could say you had a really good year.

But that's difficult at the level now that the game's played. I mean, if you don't play power play, it's tough to get regular shift points. How I evaluate talent in the NHL is who the best players are five on five. And how much points are they racking up? If you can put up 40 even strength points in a season, you're a fucking stud. Oh, yeah.

Your entire career. But I mean, let's not go too, like the 15 minutes, I was tired. That was my first game of the year, though, Bess. I had leukemia. I'm still trying to play a few more years. So if any of the GMs listen to this, I'm ready. I'm in the best shape ever.

I got one more year in Jersey. Ray Sherrill will probably listen to this. Ray's my man. Probably extend me after this interview. Right. Just going back to when you said you returned and you found yourself, like, you know, being too nice to guys because they were nice to you when you were sick. How long did that take to go away before you can start being mean and burying dudes again? Well, it was definitely at least one round through every team,

except for the exception of probably a couple guys that play a certain way. And, you know, like the rats around the league. I'm not going to get into it, but for the most part, I mean, everybody was, it was just really weird. And now, like at this point in my life, I wait to throw hits until probably February, March, just to get warmed up for a playoff run because it just gets, it gets a lot more fun then,

but there's a lot more wear and tear on your body. So if you're going in October 1st trying to lead the league in hits, like Matt Martin style, it's like I can't. I just know my own limits at this point. I'll play hard and I'll try to do what I can, but when it comes to game-changing hits, if you can find a spot, it's... It's post-deadline. It was just weird.

It was every TV time out with the ref. It was awesome because people were thinking of me, and that's certainly like... A lot of shit happened this year in the league with guys and some tragedy that they had to deal with.

I've always tried to either give a guy a tap on the shin pad as they're going through stuff or it comes out in the media or something like that. It's every game. It's weird when it's you. I really do appreciate it. Don't feel bad for me because I'm good. I'm playing right now. I have to be good.

Yeah, and then you feel guilty for rubbing the guy out. Yeah, it's a little uncomfortable. You're like, hey, fuck you. Don't fucking tap my shit, Pat. I don't need your fucking tears. And the guy's like, Jesus Christ, man. I was just trying to say good luck, dude. Jesus, hell, hell.

Hey, so Boiler, you've been to two cup finals, right, with the Rangers and the Lightning? Yeah. Okay, so give me a rundown of kind of, you know, what happens after that. I mean, it's so heartbreaking. It's such an amazing year to get that far. But, I mean, do you just think now of wanting to get back there and just dreaming of just getting another shot to get to that cup final

and get a win oh man uh i'll say this just to get there you need breaks like you need to get lucky along the way it's not even lucky but it's no it is i think it is yeah i mean it's it's you have to because the teams are so good it's like um so we had hank obviously in new york who was lights out uh we had we had a bad break in new york and it was like we had six games and nine nights in the playoffs so we got we won game one thank god against pitt in the second round and then we lost the next three and then we won the next three. So, like, stuff like that happens. You think you're a team of destiny. We went into L.A. and lost, I think, we lost three overtime games.

We left L.A. after the first two games down 0-2, and we weren't, we had to lead the whole time in both the games. We weren't ever losing. We'd get a lead, and then they'd tie it up late and score in overtime. it's kind of like stuff like that would happen it was like a questionable goalie interference in la but like the la one after that it was kind of like you know am i going back to the rangers yeah you were ufa that summer right i had a good year i was ufa great time to go to the finals okay we can do this what's that great time to go to the finals. Okay, we can do this. What's that? Great time to go to the finals when you're a UFA. Oh, yeah, that's awesome.

But I also had to get to Orlando as fast as I could because I was having a wedding in like four days. Like if we went to game seven, I would have had to get a private jet to go to my rehearsal dinner. I probably would have missed it. If we won, I definitely would have missed it. We'll get married next year, honey. That was that. We had the wedding

and the honeymoon, and I signed with Tampa on my honeymoon. The next year, we go to the finals again. So like 50 playoff games later, in two years, zero cups, but my son was born like two weeks before we lost to Chicago in the finals, where we should have won that

series, I thought. Obviously, you could say whatever you want, they wanted, they deserve to win, but I thought we had control of that series. And, you know, again, there was some bad breaks, but then my son was born and we're just like first time father and deal. Like it was kind of, there's always kind of something going on too. So I wouldn't just sit in the hole and like in the basement with the lights off and well on losing two cups in a row.

Plus, I was with Tampa coming back, and we had a really good team, so I was kind of just trying to get excited about it. But it's brutal. Like, it's brutal no matter what. It's just like, what just happened? You can play 107 games two years in a row. Oh, my God. And it's just kind of like, what?

Yeah, nothing. I mean, just in that stretch of time there like for what six years in a row you'd paid 100 playoff games that's a that's a lot of extra hockey that's not a lot of time for summer training which of course like is if you're able to get bigger stronger faster but it uh that's not a long off season oh yeah i mean and then so yeah right so last year we played i was with toronto two years ago sorry we were toronto and then like probably around now like august early august i started feeling really crappy going in to last year so like i have it this summer i feel awesome like i finally get to train but it's like it's weird because i'm like

when is this when is this going to start up? When does the season start? I know I have my house done. I don't have to find a house. I don't have to do anything. This has been great because I feel like I'm getting in really good shape, which is good because, like I said before, it's a contract year. Brian, you obviously played for the Rangers for a while.

Now you're with the Devils. You've played both sides of the Hudson River. That's a huge rivalry in the sport. What's that like going from one side to the other? Is it just like shut the hate off on one side and turn it on from the other? Is it that simple? Yeah, because I had a little buffer zone there for Tampa. It was great.

Like, New York made me kind of what I am in the league. I got to play there. I played regularly for five years. We had some good runs. A conference final and a cup final. And then in the conference final, we actually lost

to the Devils. So when I come back this way and I'm playing for the Devils, I wanted to be a part of that team because they hadn't been back to the playoffs since they beat us in that conference. I don't know when Henrik scored

that double overtime or overtime, whatever it was. So I wanted to be part of that. And, you know, I had the three years away from New York when I was with Tampa and then the last bit with Toronto.

And, you know, people still reach out on Twitter or whatever, the Rangers fans, you know, saying really nice things about me. And I had such a blast there. The playoff runs we had in that city were unbelievable. And going into Jersey, I didn't really know what to expect, but when we started off so hot, like, the building was awesome because it's a really good

building anyways and then the fans are packing the place because we started off like nine and two and i come back in there like again like the stuff i had to deal with in camp so the fan support i got like almost immediately was unreal so it just kind of i kind of thrived off that, and that was where my loyalty lied. I was embraced by them almost immediately, so it was up to me to try to keep them happy and play as best I could. And part of that is hating the Rangers, and that was easy for me too because we've had some battles with them. I had battles with them when I was in Tampa.

We had a seven-game playoff series to go to the finals. Yeah, well, I mean, I think that the year you guys had, I mean, that's your eighth or ninth year in a row making the playoffs with three different teams, or four different teams, right? So, I mean, the fact that you're doing that, and I think the way the Devils played this past year, it's only kind of looking up there. So you're in the right spot to try to get back to a cup final.

I think it's a young team that's getting better, and we really appreciate you coming on. I had one last question. Oh, there it is. Because I want to get him on the podcast, and I know R.A.'s not crazy about him. Wits, 50-50. But you play with Sean Avery in New York. Yeah. What was that experience like like i don't mind him he's he's a i mean r.a's kind of giving me a little shit here but describe what it was like playing with him so he he was uh you know on the ice he was one way

and that's i mean practice is isn't much different than games so So there was times where I would be screaming at him, chasing him around in practice. Off the ice, my first year there, he made it a point to try to find me housing. He had connections in New York. He did a lot of things for me just to help me out, to make me feel comfortable. Now when we got to the locker room, he just shred me in front of everybody,

and I was pretty sad going home, and then he'd try and help me out with other things. He had his bar there. He was really generous with all that stuff. Dude, I met my wife at Warren 77. Oh, really? He had a part of that bar. Yeah. Yeah.

So I didn't even actually think of that until right now. But he, yeah, he was unbelievable with that stuff. Like he, you know, and he's certainly a character. Like it's, you know, I worked for him. He had a really good career. People still talk about him. He, you know, he doesn't really give a shit. So he's going to be himself.

But he worked really hard. As a teammate, he did what he could to be effective. And he put himself in the fire a lot of times. And I don't care how you do it. If you're willing to do that every night, you've got to have some respect for a guy. Because he fought. He was tough. He didn't just get away from everything. Yeah, so every night you got to have some respect for a guy because he fought he was tough he did the thing like he didn't just yeah every night be the fucking asshole it must be exhausting no no no it's true you know you got to be the back you even talk to some guys who fought

i know uh like jody shelly for instance he he's like the nicest guy off the ice i would have never known that by his on ice persona so it's in sense, like some guys are acting out there as well as trying to play hockey. Yeah, I can't imagine doing that. I don't chirp. I don't really, like I'm not good at it, but I also don't have the energy for it. Yeah. I can't imagine these guys do it every single day. It's crazy to me.

Was it weird seeing the relationship between him and Torts? Because him and Torts went at it quite a bit, didn't they? They did, yeah. It was kind of, when Aves would go and do something like really, kind of like an Aves type thing to do, I don't really know how to explain it, but it was just like all eyes would look at Torts, look at him, look at Torts, and kind of like some guys are excited, some guys are a little scared.

I always got kind of excited because I knew there was going to be fireworks and it was going to blow over. But I think Torts liked the fact that he brought a lot of guys into the fire on certain nights. I think he kneed that over 82 games, but it was kind of comical to watch. Okay, so you kind of just touched on it. I mentioned Hitchcock in a past interview and how when we were at the St. Louis camp, he would bitch at the guys,

and sometimes they would come off from shifts and be like, shut the fuck up, right back at the coach. To me, that was a little wild. Did any of the guys do that to Torts, or was Torts the one guy you didn't do that to? Or if you did do it to him, would he like it? I don't know if he'd like it, but him and I had quite a few interactions like that.

But you think that he, deep down, he's like, fucking right, now he's gone. I got scratched for an afternoon game, and I was getting treatment. I got to the rink, like, three and a half hours early, and I was getting treatment. And I come in for the team meeting, like, my neck, I couldn't turn my neck. I don't know what the hell I was doing. But I go into the meeting, and I see the lineup on the board, and I'm not on there. So he has the meeting, whatever.

I go into his office, and I just told him, I'm not hurt. I can play. And he starts yelling at me. He said, I knew you were going to come in here and tell me you weren't hurt. So we just start going off on each other. I end up like – I don't think he likes when people talk about stuff like this, but I thought it was awesome because I laughed at his door. I had some words for him.

I called him a name, I think. And then this was like probably eight games before the playoffs. It was the locker year. And then for the rest of that, even into the playoffs, we lost to actually Boston in the second round. I was 13. He played the crap out of me. And I was like the next day, I'm like, I shouldn't have said that.

And he's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, well, in your office. I don't even know what he said. I shouldn't have said that. He's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, well, in your office. He's like, I don't really I don't even know what he said. I don't even remember it. It's like you say your piece, he's not going to hold a grudge as long as you come back to work. I wasn't playing great, so

I started playing better. In a way, it motivated me, but he wasn't going to hold a grudge. He'll say what he has to say to you. He's not going to hold a grudge. And he taught me so much about the game and how hard it actually is and how hard you have to actually work. And, you know, you're there to do what he says because that's what's going to help the team win.

And if you don't like how the message is being sent, it doesn't really matter. You kind of have to fall in line. Do you think he relies a little too much on that? You but that's like how i was kind of that's how i was kind of raised it wasn't a whole lot of time for back and forth my parents there was a lot of us no it was just do what i say well i guess the with the follow-up question of that though is he relies on that a lot playing with the emotions of his players do you think he does that to overshadow his maybe his his intelligence of the game and how he can Do you think he does that to overshadow maybe his intelligence at the game and how he can adjust?

Or is he also a good coach as far as the X's and O's? Well, I have no idea. I think he's just an emotional guy. And if he thinks you're not playing well, he wants to piss you off because he thinks that will probably help you play better. Or he's just pissed off and he wants to tell you about it. He's a very honest guy. He's an unbelievably charitable guy.

He cares about people. I know that, but he wants the best out of every guy, and he's got one way of doing it. So, I mean, certain guys might not like it, but that's how he does it. And I think it's – we overachieved for a couple of years there, I think, with him. And then we all kind of came together. And then we just – I think we got pretty tired because it was – training camp was like the worst week of my life.

Yeah, I've heard that. It's like KHL training camp. Yeah, and he just – like you said, he just like – I find that – I found Dave Tippett was like that. When you give him teams, he could like squeeze the most out of guys. But maybe if you were giving – he was giving squeeze the most out of guys but maybe if you were given he was given like the most offensive skilled lineup where it's just like man like those you got those guys grow tired of going to training camp they're like it's fucking game we haven't

played game one yet and we're all fucking sore groins here well he made i mean gabby gab mary gabbert scored 40 twice with him and the year year he didn't, he was hurt. He missed like 30 games. So, I mean, he got the best out of everybody. I was he was an unbelievable coach. I love towards. OK, well, go ahead with bright. Dude, thank you so much. We've taken a lot of your time.

We appreciate it. A guy that many people wanted us to get on here. So I'm thrilled. We didn't want you, but we didn't want you. But so many people asked. I'm like, all right, you win the crowd, you win your freedom. Exactly.

The people that they want, you know, it's up. All right, dude, thank you so much. And good luck this season. Back in New Jersey.

All right. Thanks fellas. Appreciate it. Thanks. See you, bud. Special. Thanks to Brian Boyle for coming on.

Glad to see he's doing well after, you know, a couple of tough years there. And he's, he's back and buzzing. know a couple tough years there and uh he's uh he's back and buzzing so we wish him nothing but the best this season and now we're going to throw it along to longtime ottawa senator wade redden welcome to another interview edition of the colonna the clone episodes and we're here for a charity golf tournament and we have the pleasure of interviewing wade redden a throwback someone say so i guess i'm getting up there in age

a born in 77 i looked at that today holy shit man cracked 40 a year ago so congrats congratulations yeah no it's uh time flies Can you believe someone would play at that age? Well, I look at Z. I mean, obviously, Big Z is kind of in a league of his own in a lot of ways, but he's still holding on and still a dominant guy. Yeah, no, to go to that age, I know I obviously couldn't do it, and my body certainly wouldn't be able to handle it at this point. At 30, I started hitting downhill. I know. couldn't do it and I my body certainly wouldn't be able to handle it at this point at 30 I kind

of I started hitting downhill I know I think that's a lot of us could say the same so I guess my problem was I know Z he's not much of a drinker yeah well my off seasons that's I mean I like to get into that a little bit even during the season quite a bit actually too well I guess there's an argument to be made like you want to enjoy the time too right but yeah big z is a dedicated guy i i enjoy a cold beer now and then too i don't think my tolerance is what it used to be back from the day but well the recovery we go back to recovery i know well that's what just said i could probably be good for a shift or two but after to recover i just don't have that that sounds a lot like my career right there shift or two a night and i was good uh you were born in lloyd minster yeah yeah born and raised lloyd farm just northeast

of there that's that's a tiny town isn't it yeah it's well it's an oil town so it's been kind of up and down thriving but it's like 30 000 people now so it's a small town all All that oil money. Oil money. So that's how you made it. You were competing with those Toronto kids. You probably had your own power skating coach, skill coach, nutritionist. Yeah, that was my mom and dad that did all that stuff.

Well, you end up going, fast forward, you're in your junior career. You played three years in Brendan. Yeah. With the Wheat Kings. Yeah, which was great, actually. I enjoyed. We had really good teams. We had, well, we won the league my last year,

and then we ended up going to the Memorial Cup twice because Kamloops hosted, and we lost to them in the league final my second year. So, no, it was, I still look back. Actually, it's funny because Kelly McCrimmon was the GM there and he was kind of well he just left there a few years ago but he was around there and Brad McCrimmon was just finishing his career and we were kind of listening uh he'd be around a bit in the summers and saying how great at time of your career it is and then looking back it's certainly say the same thing that the junior hockey that's kind of a pretty easy life everyone's having fun I mean it's it's a great time in my career well that's yeah and things change definitely when you get the pro

and how much pressure there is you learn that pretty fast exactly especially in a Canadian market but uh you you were mentioning that the well before we got on the interview here that your draft year was the second year that they'd implemented the Bantam draft. Yeah, for the Western Hockey League. Which is so weird how they do that. I don't know why they would change it up. Yeah, well, it used to just be a – I don't know how they did it before. They'd just kind of list guys, whoever they wanted, I guess.

But, yeah, I know in Ontario it's a year older, which it seems to be a little – makes more sense. But, yeah, seems to be a little more sense. But yeah, 14 years old, you're drafted. Yeah, and I don't know if any guys in the WHL ever played as a double underage. I don't think so. Because it happened in the OHL. We talked about that with the Shen boys. And Jason Spezza did it.

And then, of course, Tavares and McDavid. Where these guys were so far advanced. Well, that's 15-year-old then, right? Well, these guys would pay double underage, essentially. Yeah, right. So when you guys, the Bantam draft, they would go right into the OHL. You have to be a pretty special player in order to do that. Clearly, these guys got exempt for a reason,

but I was surprised to hear that a WHL guy had never done it. Well, they'd come up for a few games. They've never played a whole season, but they'll bring guys in, I think think for a game or two here here and there but yeah where were you drafted in the in the western league draft i was second overall it's same with your nhl career same yeah which is weird because we interviewed the shens earlier today and they both went fifth overall back-to-back years in the nhl draft. Were they both fifth overall? Yes. Right.

Yeah. With a two-year age gap, the older Shunner has a late birthday. But then you get drafted by the New York Islanders. And what happened? Maybe a draft day trade or something? Well, it was me and Brian Berard. He went first to Ottawa, and I went second to the Islanders. And then I think we both went back to junior that year.

And then both organizations got new coaches, new GMs, kind of flipped it. And then we ended up being a part of a trade with Toronto to go back. I guess I went to Ottawa, he went to the Islanders. And then Kirk Muller went to Toronto. I never understand these three-way trades. Everyone was happy. I don't know. They put my mind in a pretzel, don't they?

Don Beaupre was in that deal too. That's a cool old name. I like to, a little tidbit that I always like to say, that I was in part of a trade with Don Beaupre. When I saw that you were drafted by the Islanders and you ended up in Ottawa, I'd assume that you were in the Yashin trade somehow or something no but it would have been the other way around wouldn't have been oh yeah that's right a few years later I was this was 96 still so 97

yeah 96 I guess so yeah no I I went to Islander camp that year after I got drafted and then back to junior and then the trade happened that year. And then you broke right in. I think you played all 82 games your first season in the NHL. Yeah, I did, yes. Not one healthy scratch. Well, it's funny because we had 8-D there that year, and then obviously the first couple games, I think,

I was a high pick, so they keep you in. Just throwing pizzas everywhere, and you're just waiting for them to yank you out. Lo and behold, Sean Hill and Stan Neskash. Fifth game of the year, they both blew their ACLs. Oh, that's a significant amount of time. So that's kind of opened the door. They needed to play me, basically. And Lance Pillick was my D partner.

So, yeah, I forget how exactly who we called up or whatever, but they played us every game. That's unreal. Yeah. And then you spent a long time in Ottawa. I mean, were you pumped being a Canadian boy, getting drafted to a Canadian market? Yeah.

Oh, it was great. I mean, because the Sens were pretty awful, actually. Yes. And then the first year I got there, we made it to playoffs, and it was kind of a whole turning of the organization. Jacques Martin came in as coach. Pierre Gauthier was the GM. So I think there was 12 new players that first year,

and it was kind of a turn the corner, and we had some really kind of built a lot from that time on. We had Alfie was the Calder Trophy winner the year before. He was in his second year, my first year, and we just kind of started to build. Oh, they had how many high picks, so they just started to kind of... Well, usually when we're interviewing a guy, I'll go right to his hockey DB,

and then I'll go see what team he was on and who he played with. And around that third or fourth year you were in Ottawa, when you guys kind of started that, I don't know, you guys kind of went on a run for about five, six years where you were in Ottawa when you guys kind of started that I don't know you guys kind of went on a run for about five six years where you were extremely relevant going you guys went uh to the Stanley Cup finals the one year you mentioned you play with Alfredson you play with Heatley yeah Spezza uh Yashin what was that like well Yash was good actually I mean he was uh well what year was it I mean I think he ended up holding out like my third or fourth year shocker yeah he was wanting him he had a contract he wanted a new turtleneck every game so they're

like man we can't put that in the budget in ottawa there man he couldn't afford that but anyways yes was good i mean he was a talented guy and then it's funny how it worked out. He gets traded, and who's coming back our way is Char and Spezza as part of that deal. So, I mean, that was another big turning point for the organization, I guess, getting Char, and then Spezza came in and was really good for a long time. So, yeah, Hosa was there. I mean, we had some good young guys. I used to play a Nintendo game, and Radek Bonk was in it,

and he was unstoppable. Was he that way for a couple seasons? Well, it was him and Hossa's rookie year, actually, and then Magnus Arvidsson. Those three played together. I think they all had probably 60, 70 points, but they were probably the best line. Just maybe not the most skilled,

but they were big and strong and dominant. Mike Fisher was coming in around that time too as a young guy. Yeah, him and it's funny. It's actually cool to think about this because him and Chris Neal came in together and they were kind of inseparable. They lived together and they were best of buddies. But when those two came in,

although they were only 19, 20, 21, whatever they were, they kind of added that element, kind of a little more grit. And that's kind of when we started to have a little more success in the playoffs when those two came in. Yeah, those young legs who were still hungry. I mean, Neil was fighting everyone. He was just a prototypical scumbag on the ice,

hated by every other organization other than your own. Yeah, yeah. And Fisher would go through a wall. He's just like a bull. Did he meet Kerry when he was in Ottawa when you were there? No, not when I was there. I think it must have been just after. That's kind of cool, eh?

I mean, you're making like $4 or $5 million a year, and she's probably making that a show. I mean, you're set for life. Oh or $5 million a year, and she's probably making that a show. I mean, you're set for life. Oh, my God, yeah. And she's stunning. Yeah. No, he did all right for meeting her. I think I need his agent.

Well, now I'm working for Nashville, so I go and see him, and he takes me up. He's got a 600-acre hunting camp. He's just living the life. He's hunting all the time. He's got that, and then he's got a big ranch in nashville so he's okay well i guess we'll go there we'll we'll talk you you uh you got a job with nashville predators and you get to live here for most of the year in colonna but you you help out their prospects yeah kind of a new role i well

maybe not new as far as the league's concerned but every team's starting to bring kind of a new role. Well, maybe not new as far as the league's concerned, but every team's starting to bring kind of old guys in to help mentor these young guys and make the transition a little easier. So that's what I've been doing, working with Scotty Nickel. He's kind of heading that. Oh, wow, he had a great career too. Yeah.

Well, it's funny because I talk about me getting drafted second overall and going that route. He was the 11th round pick and played seven years in the minors and kind of grinded his way that way so it's it took him that long to break in and then he had a very significant nhl career he bounced around a little bit yeah he played i think seven eight hundred games by the end of it so he did he finish in san jose we both finished in st louis together we're both that's where we kind of met and got a connection

but he i think he was a year or two there but yeah he had a good stint in san jose that was kind of his last big run i think but uh since we're talking about the end i mean i'm sure a lot of people get it well probably talk to you about it now is maybe a little touchy subject back then you signed that big deal with the Rangers, and then you played two years there, and then you ended up going to the minors for two years. One, that's how I heard you were such an unbelievable guy from everyone because of the way you treated all the young guys down there, and we'll get to some of those stories in a bit.

But, I mean, that must have been an extremely tough time for you. Well, it was and it wasn't, I guess. I mean, I think I go to New York new york and yeah it didn't go well there so torts his first year as head coach right well tom runny was the coach and then through that i think it was through that first year torts came in midway through and then he was there the next year and a half and i loved a lot of the things tororts did. Obviously, I think my game was going the wrong way, and it didn't really fit in with what they were doing, and it was, yeah, it was tough.

That was a tough year, that last year. Well, you'd never played in the American League your entire life, so you're going from flying on the charter, you get your own room, you're eating filet on the plane every night, and then all of a sudden, they take it away from you.

The only good thing is you're not paying that 20% escrow, know and you were making i think what six at the time yeah six and a half so that was a big big not a big deal but it's funny because well like i said it was more it was tougher in new york kind of going through that and just with the media and the fans, like it was not a fun situation. So to go to Hartford, it was almost a breath of fresh air and just went and played.

And it was unfortunate. And looking back, like I wish, you know, I guess you obviously would have done a few things different to kind of... I believe the cap era was then, and it sucks because, you know, maybe you said your game wasn't where it was at the peak, but based on what you were making, maybe not. You're still an NHL player.

Put the onus on that for sure, yeah. And it's at that point, and it still happens to guys. It's what they're making. I mean, Chan Girardi went through it. Yeah. I mean, now with the buyout rules and stuff like that, usually towards the end it's happening to guys and it's unfortunate but uh i i've heard from a lot of guys you you did you

made the best of it yeah no like i said it was actually a breath of fresh air in a lot of ways and the guys are great like they're talking about the junior years going back it was almost kind of re-entering those kind of like seeing the rookie parties at that level how excited the guys get yeah I mean and just every day the guys come in and it's it's pretty chill it's pretty easy going like which is I mean obviously would have liked to be in the NHL but I made the most of my time there and Kendra Nander was a coach I worked with JJ Daniel and they treated me great I played played lots. So it's still a pretty good league. It's not like I'm in a beer league playing shit hockey.

It's good hockey still. One thing is the pressure is not even close to what it is at the NHL level. No. Still there a bit, but I'm sure that was dealing with so many years of playing at the peak of your game in a Canadian market. That was probably a nice to step back. Yeah. So that way, I I guess life was easier that way obviously it was a tough pill to swallow but what I moved on from it and the fact that apparently nobody could touch you because the story I heard was anyone who came to your aid if someone ran you would get a free iPad and then also you'd throw ipads on the

on the board for player the game so everyone if a guy ran you the rumor rumor has it that four other guys on the ice from your team would go over because they all wanted the ipad well i mean we'll go with that yeah that's a uh be extended a bit, but there's a few iPads doled out. Actually, one of my deep partners was Jared Nightingale. He toiled a long time in the minors and was really tough and became really good buddies with him. And he was a tough guy too, so he wouldn't let me put up with too much out there. It was pretty cool.

Who are some of the biggest clowns you played with? I know Andre Waugh was on your team in Ottawa, and he's a prankster. Oh, Andre was never a dull moment. He'd get his guitar like we had a team party or something, and just even his antics on a daily basis. He was just so funny, say the funniest stuff, and we got to be pretty good buddies we're you know both

young guys and you know go out for beer whatever and hang out and play the guitar a bit so he would what's the funniest thing he's ever done prank wise with with the Ottawa team any anything any juicy stories oh I don't know prank wise he was always doing something just silly. I remember when I think it was 2002, we had maybe seven or eight guys going to the Olympics. So he's a USA passport. So he puts USA, gets a blue practice jersey and goes out there for the, turns it inside out, puts big USA on with a K for the captain.

Yeah, just a clown. Yeah, just a clown, always doing something. Apparently when he was with Pittsburgh, I believe Tarion brought him in, and they were playing in Tampa, and he'd played there previous. So after warm-up, he was a healthy scratch, so he went and got his gear off real quick,

and he went and dressed in a security guard outfit. Because he knew where it was, and he had buddies who were the security guys of the ring, so obviously they okayed it. And when the Pittsburgh guys were going out to the bench, because the coaches always go first, and they walk, and then the two minutes buzzes down. And he's there giving guys knuckles in a security outfit,

faking talking, the walkie-talkie, and all the guys couldn't even keep a straight face during the anthem because they're all still laughing but the fact was he changed his security guard outfit i can't remember he was it was little tamer i think is doing stuff i remember when he won the cup with the tampa though and i was just watching on tv so happy for him but he was out there and that was when hulk hogan was around so he was, like, doing the Hulkster. Yeah, ripping his shirt off. Oh, yeah.

He was a piece of work. Actually, a side story to that. Apparently, he invited him in the locker room, and they had to say, hey, yo, no, it's, like, closed off. It's just for, like, family and friends. And Hulkster was pissed. Oh, my God. Yeah, he wasn't too pumped about that.

And then another one is I think when tampa traveled to play in pittsburgh he took all the boys dress socks uh after after pre-game skate and then tampa goes on after because home team gets first skate okay so just like little shit like that constantly yeah no i'm there's so many funny moments with that guy just probably just random things that i can't even tell you, get out in the story, but it just made me laugh every day. He's just a funny guy. Good guy to have in the room.

Yeah. Okay, so question about Vinnie Prospo. So I played against him when he was with Columbus. Would he fake tan? Was he a tanner? Because you'd always have this crazy tan like you just got back from Olympic break in Cabo. And guys on the team started giving it to him. Was he tannin' back in Ottawa days?

I don't know if he was tannin'. Do you know what? Good question, actually. So I played with him in New York, too. And thinking back, he did have the blonde locks and the tan, but it never occurred to me to ask him about it. Maybe spray tan. He was a little more conservative about his skin. Our producer, Mikey Grinelli, is going to jump in here.

Yeah. Well, I wanted to know, 2013, you got to play with the Bruins. A lot of people don't know. You guys went on the Cup run that year, but a lot of people don't know. Jeremy Iago was on that team. What was it like to play with him? I'm sure he was a character. Yeah.

No, he was, it was pretty, I i mean we both got traded on the deadline basically to come there so i was in st louis he where did he come from dallas i think another great trade by armstrong dallas yeah yeah but it was cool to watch him work like he would show it was funny because boston obviously you're right downtown and, but his stipulation, he needed to get ice at 10 at night, and we ended up going on, like you said, the cup run. So he was out every night at 10 p.m. getting one-timers. I think the trainer was getting fed up with going out there to have to pass him the puck.

Apparently, he would skate with weight vests on. He'd put weights on his sticks and work on his hands like that. Just skate around the ice with a 10-pound plate on his bottom of his stick. Just crazy stuff, but just always really dialed in. When he was in Florida, they actually had to tell him to cool it because Barkov was going with him all the time. And Barkov's playing with him all the time. And Barkov's playing like 23 minutes a night.

So he started breaking down a little bit. And finally, the GM there at the time had, I think, was it Talon still? Yeah. Now it is. Yeah, now it is. And I think at the time, he had to go in and be like, hey, no more coming in and skating and working out. You guys are, with the travel schedule now and how many games these guys are playing and how much ice they're lugging,

your body can't do it. Well, I know. And he'd work out after games till 12, 1 in the morning. He'd go on the road and coming in from dinner and he'd be going out for a jog. Like he was... Apparently what? Like 500 squats a day, whether they were body weight or...

I know. Well, it's funny. I never really talked to him a lot about that, but I remember Steve Valliquette would kind of pick his brain when they played together in the Rangers. Then he'd tell stories how Jager, he'd open up to him and say how, as a kid, like he was doing all these body squats every day. And it's, I mean, You look at the frame on him.

He's such a strong guy. Even when he played in his skates, he's got about probably three-quarters of an inch of blade when you think about it if you go on your edge. But he's always based right. He's got his feet planted, and he didn't have to skate too much. He'd just throw his ass in you and protect the puck. Kind of like Matt Sundin.

Yeah. And you saw a lot of him in Ottawa, Toronto. You guys always had those rivalries. Yeah, he was a tough guy to contain. Big man. Just used their body well. It's kind of a lost art in today's game. Yeah.

Yeah, I know. It's a lot of little guys now that... Just flying around. I couldn't keep up. That's why they had to retire. I know. I actually tore both up. That's why they had to retire. I know. I actually tore both my ACLs my last season.

That's how fucking fast these guys are getting. My whole body exploded. But Grinnelli, great question about the hugger. Thanks, man. Did you, Reds, did you get your 1,000th game with them, or was it with St. Louis? With St. Louis. Which is cool because, you know, after you got sent down or hurt uh to hartford

yeah for two years did you ever envision yourself getting to a thousand games i guess that was i was six games away at that point so i was like yeah that's if anything just get yourself back and get because that's that was pretty proud moment looking back at my career that's amazing i know i was so i was huge and you know to get that opportunity was was great i mean i was only st louis that was that lockout year so i played 20 plus games there and then six in boston and then a little playoff action but uh yeah no the that was that was a big big moment in my career was it a situation where you after the the run in Boston you were like I'm done now or were you kind of like if I get a deal I'll go back and see how do you how did you prepare that summer yeah excuse me I kind of uh

I was hoping that something would come along I guess looking back if I I should have I mean what some guys did or a lot of guys in that position are doing is taking PTOs and going and getting part of a group. Then obviously the good guys that are good to have around, I think they like to keep those guys. Even on a limited basis, they'll play. And I guess at the end of the day, I was probably content because I'd gone Hartford and St. Louis, Boston, and kind of bounced around. We just had our second little kid. So it was like, and at that point,

I knew it was probably going to be a 6-7 roll as a D-man. And maybe not making any money. And at that point, you'd already made a couple hundred million. Like a tech guy over here. I'd done all right at that point. I was very fortunate, obviously. I mean, we could back it up a bit, too, to that Ottawa Cup run. That must have been, in Canada, just crazy times.

Finally, you guys had gotten there with having those strong teams for so many years. Yeah, it was kind of a breaking through. we'd had some disappointments in the playoffs and then the kind of you know i think oh three maybe was our year actually to go all the way we ended up losing in the conference final the jersey late in game seven and uh then they went on to beat anaheim that year and then oh seven we we faced Anaheim as well and come up short. But it was, yeah, I mean, that was a proud moment. I mean, to get over that hump and to get to the final, I mean, that's a pretty proud thing that we could say we did,

and fortunately we didn't quite get all the way. I kind of want to talk about the Leafs. I'm sure we're a big rival, but who were some of the toughest players you ever had to play against? Well, you mentioned Sundin. Do you know who was really good for a few years that I remember answering that question was Sammy Kapanen when he was with Carolina.

His kid's playing for the Toronto now. Yeah, that's right. But I found those little guys, like, I don't know. I mean, obviously the game's changed. And then when you add in a Crosby and an Ovechkin, I mean, those guys were good right as soon as they got in the league. But it was some of those little shifty guys that they were just so hard to contain coming out of the corner and strong, too.

Try to lean on them, and you think you can push them off the puck, but then they zip by you or they use their strength to get by you. And I actually started my pro career as a defenseman, and then when they took the can opener away, I was fucked. It was game over. They had to switch me to forward. Remember the old can opener? Imagine that.

Those little guys didn't bug me until then because they used to come down the wing i used to put my stick right between and brian mccabe was a master at that i played he came to the wheat kings actually at the end of his junior career and oh he'd send guys flying just give a little tug and then he'd give him a shot in the shoulder when they're off balance and just... That was my move. That was my finishing move, Mortal Kombat style. And they took it. One lockout and then I was hooped. Not only did they chop the signing bonuses in half.

So I was a fourth rounder. Typically, guys were signing for about $300,000. Then I was signing for $175,000. I mean, even the first rounders before that were making like $1.1, $1.2. And then now the max after was about 250 at the time, 255 or something. So they took everything from us. They took your Mortal Kombat, yeah.

What were the high-end signing bonuses when you broke into the NHL? So I broke in. That was really the first year after the there was a cap on this rookie salaries that first year so I think Thornton was Joe Thornton was a few years after me and him was he before I actually think I know why they put a cap on that well he's of another guy you played with Alexander yeah yeah that was the cap that was the final straw yeah so it was 850 he signed a long deal like what was it 12 million over five years or something if that makes sense nba money yeah but then so i come in the rookie cap but then i think my bonuses were

like 25 grand 50 grand but then thorntonon, I think his second or third year, he's making another $2,000,000 or $3,000,000. So then you look at the... So I don't know what it's at now. And then they trade him for a couple bags of pox. I know. That's a very sensitive subject for our producer who's born and raised in Baltimore.

Don't remind me. That trade sucked. Jumbo Joe. Oh, he would be crying right now if I brought that up on the pod. Who's another guy who's not here. I know. What is he, on vacation or is he just?

He's always on vacation. Yeah, he's always on vacation. So I have to do all the work and they reap all the benefits? Yeah. Anyone else that you hated playing against and you might even kind of still hate them now? Oh, God. Maybe like a tight Omi? Was he running around at you allall yeah him and tucker were

i mean those two from the toronto days those guys were running around and we didn't have a lot to answer it as kind of a like i said when fisher and neil came in they kind of took some of that uh isn't that nice yeah having guys like that around you need those guys yeah yeah but there's a few guys i remember montreal we kind of had some battles never saw them in the playoffs but a guy like martin ruchinsky he was a tough like he played hard he was big and strong and i don't know we never fought or anything he i don't think he fought much but just always going at it with each other, just hitting and battling.

So didn't like him. Well, that's a lot of years of both core groups going at each other all season long. And then you guys met in playoffs. Two hours down the road. Yeah. A lot of Toronto, yeah. And you guys have met in playoffs, what?

Three, two or three times. Three, I think. So yeah, they were tough. They had those veteran teams too, right? Like Tom Fitzgerald. We'd out-shoot him like 50 to 20 every night. Cujo would stand on his head or they'd block about 40 other shots, like all these veteran guys that knew how to win.

And then McCabe was still can opening guys and getting away with it. Yeah, big skills he was on the back end. Hal Gill was there? I think he was there for some man just laying out on cory cross another lloyd minster boy same hometown as me he used to he used to take the most abuse as a leafs defenseman because i used i was i'm from ontario yeah and he used to get ripped cory cross non-just though he was good he was like the big slow guy back then so literally he couldn't even move on the ice well those were the days to be that way I guess

him and Aki Berg played together they were just and if you beat a guy wide they just basically take your arm off yeah exactly and actually going back to Aki Berg is he Finnish? so apparently when he was done he went back home to finland and he he's like a trainer for one of the one i heard that just

recently and he loves it and apparently and apparently he loves when the boys rip on him and and they just when he comes in they all just chirp him and he and he loves it well i'm happy he's a punching bag for the boys so he was taking taking third my year at the draft. It was Berard, me, and then him. He went to L.A. that year. Really? Yeah. I mean, one of them's not like the other. McCabe had a pretty good career.

Oh, McCabe had a great career, yeah. Did he hit 1,000 games? Yeah, I think he got like 1,200 or something. Oh, wow. What did he end up with? I guess the last thing we'll touch on is obviously some bad news came up. It was Ray Emery, the passing him, you you play with him for a while there and i mean such a a great guy contagious smile great in the locker room and you know it's you know he uh he was a bit of a hot

head but i think that's what everyone loved about him well you respected him for it because he'd you know he'd back up whatever he said or he wasn't scared to turn down a challenge or anything like that whether it was on the ice or you know playing i remember the year we went to the final like he heard his like he twisted his thumb over like his tendon in his hand every time he caught a puck i think he was just cringing so he didn't practice much but the way he grinded through that and never heard him complain once like and just yeah the way he his energy like the way he was off the ice he was a cool guy and you know loved to have a laugh and had an opinion on things and was a smart guy too like he was so it's just sad to to hear that yeah it's been a tough tough time for the

hockey community and uh like i said we i spent some time with them at the biosteel camps i play with them in ontario and uh i was i was talking to a few other guys about it how uh you know he'd always carry that louis vuitton wallet around and then and then i knew he we picked him up to sign him to a pto and i didn't know when he was getting to town but one morning i went to the rink and i went in the trainer's room and there was a big louis vuitton suitcase so i was like okay razors here he loved those he was a flashy guy dressed that way he rolled in the big 26 wheels on his hummer on the white on the white the white escalade yeah that was the big story during the cup run.

They kept trying to, you know, through some controversy. Oh, yeah, that or the orange Lamborghini. So he was, but he backed it up like he was, he loved it. I mean, that was him. And he kind of stood by his actions and what he did. And he didn't always make the right decisions,

but he was, he answered to him. And was it was sad sad to hear him go well i want to thank you for doing this and joining us we've uh got some very you know very big interviews it's great to sit down and chat with you guys too that's a lot of fun and moving forward maybe any plans changing out of this role you got any uh itch to coach i I don't know. I don't really at this point. It's funny you say that because I got three daughters now, and we just had the first two six- and eight-year-old on the ice with the hockey gear trying them out for a little hockey, so maybe I'll be coaching that level.

So no boys? No boys. So maybe some girls hockey in my future. That's usually called karma for the way you were in junior. Good karma in my future good karma I feel like I'm going to be the guy who ends up with four daughters well you'd be a good father to them yeah no boy would ever

come to the house I'll tell you that are you strict like that well we'll see the social media all this stuff that's out now that you have to worry about I don't even know we're not at that's out now that you have to worry about, I wouldn't even know what to do. I don't even know. We're not at that stage yet, but it is scary to think about.

Like, God, yeah, we'll be knowing what's going on as much as we can. You'll be doing background checks on these guys. Oh, damn right. Make some good cop buddies in town. I've made some good buddies in the law enforcement world over my career, so I'll be calling them up. Getting them show tickets for background checks right you know before we wrap up here you had a pretty crazy story about uh when you first got into boston when you got traded there at the deadline yeah so

2013 to get traded at the deadline that's april and it takes a week or two my family joins me and ended up getting up an apartment up in the back bay area up and by Prudential Center and that first night we stayed so we stay over and then we have a game the next night against Ottawa actually so I was out with some buddies the night before from Ottawa and I'm not playing that game so my wife you know I get back from the morning skate and the marathon's going on at that time. So I'm going, and my dad was in town. So I go,

dad, you and Lois go and, uh, check out the, uh, the race. The Nika, she goes off and I do some shopping for something.

Girls just get down for the nap and we can see the finish line from our place. And all of a sudden here, boom. And it's like, Oh, that didn't sound like a kind of a like a celebratory finish or something yeah that was so anyways i come around the corner and i could see around the whole thing and i see a big poom of smoke and then it was what i don't know i guess they

got the time down but it was a few minutes later and i hear another one and i can see this people scattering and i mean and then it's like okay something's going on here yeah so i can see the people scattering and my dad should have come back up to my place but he's like oh they'll be okay he'll uh you know everything's good so they just started walking away with the crowd and then whatever 15 minutes later they start evacuating our building and my two girls are sleeping they're like not even one and not even three so i'm like what the hell am i gonna do like and i couldn't get a hold of my wife we weren't talking there was no cell service what ended up happening we got a hold of each other through chris kelly who was in the north end and his wife his landline was

working so i could call his wife. She could call my wife. So I ended up loading the girls up. And my neighbor was helping me kind of get the girls loaded up. And it was the only time I think I woke them up ever that they didn't start crying. They just kind of sensed something was going on. So we had a double stroller. I load them up in that, get downstairs. And that was like a two-mile walk across town.

And just like obviously people that make you nervous to even walk over but I mean I guess you can hail a cab because everything was shut down there's guys on the street with like you know big rifles it's Boston was I've never seen Boston before I mean I don't know if they had gotten there at that point but just people were leaving town right like you I forget which road it took a few days i couldn't get down to the is it boylston that street yeah so i couldn't get that way but i kind of skirted around and fuck just beelined it to we ended up staying three or four days with chris and chrissy kelly and so you were this up we were kind of out of our place they kind of quarantined that whole area

so it's kind of crazy man so you were in the rink the night that you know they had that that night where the fans sang the national anthem yeah what was that like that was i you know i was there the next game and we we still the fans still sung the national anthem yeah i mean you had chills oh what song did they play that was kind of the i forget the name was it uh but god bless america or something well yeah obviously they sang the anthem but they also kind of there was a song associated with it like probably shipping up to boston maybe yeah whatever i still hear it it just gives me chills like it's uh you know it was a pretty special moment and it's crazy like how that kind of rallied the team

like that was a bonding moment or kind of a just a turning point because like how that kind of rallied the team like that was a bonding moment or kind of a just a turning point because the team was kind of struggling and ended up going right to the final that year but it was uh it was impressive to see just the people of Boston and the way everyone reacted and how everyone came together is is a pretty special time for me obviously and you know to be part of all that. It's amazing what sports can do in times like that. I mean, you saw it with Vegas this year. Exactly.

Right at the start of the year. And we actually played them their first home game after the tragedy. And it was pretty wild. They had to change everything last minute. Because they had all these these celebrations prepared to like open up the new season yeah right season they would have been a big moment anyways four days and they put on a show to to remember all the all the people who passed away and uh derrick england got on the mic yeah i don't know how how the hell he did that same kind of

what luongo did in florida this year and uh you know and then they go on to have a season like that it kind of it's it's amazing that sometimes what sports can do in a moment of tragedy yeah I totally agree I mean it puts it in perspective and you get stressed out and whatever it's a it's a tough job I guess professional sports but it's pretty fortunate life to to live so absolutely and i think that that helps bring bring everyone together and it's something they can all bond around and um yeah i remember all the the people from boston same thing they had a bunch of the the victims on the ice there later later on during the playoff run and it was a pretty cool to be be around that well thanks

again for joining us. This was an awesome time. Good chatting with one of the old boys. Hey, man. Pleasure's mine. Appreciate it. And that interview was brought to you by Burrow. Guys, anybody who's been in college or just got out of college,

everybody has a bad couch story. You might have got one from an old cousin that had some bugs in it or you just got a big deal on someone. You don't want to deal with any dirty companies out there super expensive plays that overpriced you want to go to borrow borrow gives you style and comfort and a whole new level and it ships to your door fast and free your relationship with your couch will never be the same you can customize your borrow sofa to match your style you select the color the size the armrest height the leg color what do you want to do i personally like You select the color, the size, the armrest height, the leg color. What do you want to do? I personally like a little Kelly Green, the Irish in me. I like a nice ottoman. If that's what you want, boom, you tell them, they'll do it up for you. And it also has

a built-in USB charger. Nowadays, everybody's on their phone. You don't want to go far. Boom, you get a USB charger in your couch. You can't beat it. Shipping is fast and free. And unlike the rest of the furniture industry, you're going to get it real quick. You get 30 days of cozy on your comfortable burrow, risk-free. So try out Burrow at one of the partner showrooms today. Customize your own burrow and get $75 off your order by going to burrow.com slash chiclets. That's B-U-R-R-O-W dot com slash chiclets, C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S for $75 off your purchase. Burrow makes the luxury couch for real life. And a special thanks to Wade Redden for coming on.

That was a crazy story about the Boston Marathon. And he's, you know, he had a lot of miles on his tire. He played a long time and glad to see he got to a thousand games. Unfortunately, I didn't know that he'd fought in Ryan Whitney before I interviewed him, so we couldn't bring that up. Sorry about that, folks. We'll get Witt's say on that next episode.

All right, a couple of things happened in the hockey news lately. Yeah, a couple of notes we like to keep tabs on. Quiet week as expected at this time in August. First off, I got one thing. I am at a vacation lake right now, so you do hear crickets in the background. Someone accused me of having a nasal whistle last week.

Now, if I had a nasal whistle, I would hope Mikey Grinelli would point that out and let me know because I didn't hear it and no one else said it. But this week, it's just crickets in the background of Vermont. Just clogged up pipes, ARA? No, no, this is a family vacation. No, this isn't a Vermont skiing trip. This is a Vermont lake house. Wink, wink.

Okay, first, just to get the bad news out of the way, Stan Mikita, Chicago Blackhawks legend, icon, still holds franchise records. He died last week at 78. I'm sorry, earlier this week at age 78. Huge icon to the Blackhawks community. He's got the statue there. He had a falling out like a lot of players did with the Blackhawks community. He's got the statue there. He had a falling out like a lot of players did with the Blackhawks in the 80s, and they kind of brought him back into the fold after the old man words died.

That was good. They kind of were a bit of makeup. So when he passed away, at least there wasn't those lingering resentments. So condolences to all your family, friends, and fans of the Blackhawks, of Stan McKee, of Paul. Anything you wanted to add to that? Well, R.A., I mean, see, he's a little bit out of my era. I was born a little later than you.

He's well ahead of mine, too, for the record. Oh, so you didn't even get to see him play on the end of his career? Actually, he thrived in the 60s. He actually did play until, I believe, 80. So I did see him in the ass end of his career, but certainly not when he was winning MVPs. So when deaths happen, as far as NHL history and in players that I never got a chance to see,

I usually turn to like the Bob McKenzie's and the older guys chiming in. And from what Dave said, he was like the triple threat, so to speak. He had personality and was funny and great with the media. He was an unbelievable player. And I mean, just a winner. So a tough day for the hockey world.

And, you know, these are the guys that paved the way. And still, like I said, still holds the point title for the Blackhawks on pretty much an ancient franchise. So that tells you what type of player he was. And shifting gears, a little more a little a little more happier note i guess if you unless you're from edmonton today we're recording thursday which will probably be yesterday when it drops uh was the 30th anniversary of wayne gretzky being traded from edmonton to la um basically that was probably you might even call it the big bang of of the nhl modern era because that in turn opened the door for all the Southern expansion we've seen. I mean,

at the time the Kings were the only NHL team West of the Mississippi. This was 30 years ago, 1988. There are now seven teams West of Minnesota with an eighth on the way in Seattle. And since that trade form war for warm weather cities that didn't even have teams have won the cup since the Gretzky trade, Dallas, Tampa, Carolina, and Anaheim, and the Kings have won it twice since then. Also, if you haven't seen the 30 for 30 called King's Ransom directed by Peter Berg, it's excellent. I think it really flew under the radar because there were so many good

30 for 30s, but if you're a hockey fan, you have to see that one. It's the first time we really got Gretzky's point of view on why he was traded, and yes, in fact, he did want to be the highest paid player in the NHL. He just wouldn't come out and say it 30 years ago, but he did in this documentary. So there's a lot of perspective worth checking out there. But yeah, man, it's a huge fucking huge day in hockey history, Paul. You would have never played in the desert if it didn't happen.

I mean, that was an unbelievable little history lesson there, R.A. So thank you for that. Two, maybe I've underestimated the amount of growth that Wayne Gretzky has done for the league as far as American teams and ones in warm weather climate. I mean, look at California now. I mean, San Jose, Anaheim, and L.A. have been very relevant franchises here for a good chunk of time. And, wow, wow, thank you, R.A.

That was fucking fascinating. Thank you, pal. And it's actually kind of funny when you think of it it's it's gretzky in some sort of way fueled this uh fueled well fueled the seeds to get austin matthews in toronto it's almost like he kind of helped the leafs in this roundabout way because he brought hockey to la which in turn brought it to the desert which in turn that's where austin matthews became a fan and scottsdale was a coyotes fan and now he's in toronto so there's kind of this weird full circle back to it that's where Austin Madden became a fan and Scottsdale was a Coyotes fan and now he's in Toronto so there's kind of this weird full circle element to it that's crazy yeah because the minor hockey system if he doesn't have that to fall back on where was he going to play yeah so he would have never put the skates on that was his exposure to hockey and he ends up in

Toronto so Gretzky like I said he you know everybody always wanted to play for Toronto but in a roundabout way he kind of helped the Leafs. And last but not least, we're big fanboys of Sidney Crosby, and it was just his birthday. He just turned 31, and I looked at his numbers the other day, again, just to refresh my memory, and this guy, I think he's on pace to become the second best player ever. Ever. And he might even already be there.

He's certainly in the conversation. I mean, you know, obviously we talk about Wayne and Mario and this generation, and, you know, he already has. I mean, you know, obviously we talk about Wayne and Mario and this generation, and you know, he already has more cups than you know, Mario Lemieux, so you could put him above him in that conversation if you really want to, and yeah, I'm not at the point, I know, and Boston was supposed

to hate Pittsburgh, but I'm, you know, I appreciate everything the guy does. I enjoy watching him, and ideally we get in front of the 15 years. Love it. Well, great podcast. It was a long one. Hope you guys enjoyed. And once again, thank you to Lug Hockey. Like I said, join up if you guys are looking for some good hockey in Canada,

especially in big cities with universities. That's where they're going to be mostly. And, of course, Eagle Energy for pushing the ad read aside and allowing me to talk about a little bit of a weird situation with the, with cucks as you guys like at Barstool like to call them. Yeah, it was fun stuff. We,

we, we love to do it every week on here if we could. Well, that wraps it up for today's episode. Enjoy. Thank you.