Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 108: Featuring Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin, And Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Episode Date: September 17, 2018

On this first Monday episode of the season, the guys are joined by a star studded, very rich group of NHL hockey players. First, the new captain of the Arizona Coyotes, Oliver Ekman-Larsson joined the podcast to talk about his career and the upcoming year, as well as living with Biz last season. The boys then do a Pacific division preview, breaking down every team in the division and then wrap up with a great interview with Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin.You 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 of Spittin' Chicklets is brought to you by SeatGeek. Buying tickets can be complicated and confusing, but there is a simple way to buy with SeatGeek. SeatGeek is the smartest, easiest way to get tickets for every type of live event. Whether you're catching your favorite musician on tour, like Pearl Jam at Fenway a few weeks back, shopping for the perfect gift for the holidays, or searching for a last-minute deal to see your favorite NHL team,

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Just download the SeatGeek app and enter the promo code Hockey today. The promo code, again, is Hockey for 20% off your first SeatGeek purchase. SeatGeek, right seat, right now, right from your phone. Hello everybody, welcome to episode 108 of Spittin' Chicklets, brought to you by Barstool Sports. Before we bring it to the fellas and introduce them, I want to let you know we've got a big show for you today. We've got Jack Eichel and Noah Hannafin, both of them at the same time. We did an interview with them a few weeks back. And Arizona Coyotes captain Oliver Ekman-Lasson also popped in for a little bit.

So we've got them coming in a little bit. In the meantime, let's check in with the boys. Let's go out to the dirty desert. Paul Biznasty, what is up? Very excited for our two-episode-a-week launch here, and we're going to fucking dig into divisions, boys. Yeah, yeah. We're going to get into the Pacific Division in a little bit.

Say hello to our boy, Ryan Whitney. Fucking Sunday night, I'm fucking getting crushed gambling. The Giants are down 10-0. Fuck you. Dude, fucking – I had to see it for you earlier. They blew a fucking 30-10 lead. No, I'm serious. I'm down so much money, and then I take the Giants.

They're down 10-0. Eli Manning, that – Hey, he's washed up. I know it was a hockey podcast, but that guy is washed up, no? His stupid face he makes, that ugly face and those big, goofy-ass body. Hey, you know though, he has a parent wrench on him, though. I'm not even joking. I just thought of that.

But yeah, no, what's up, guys? What's up, listeners? How are you? Really happy to be back. Eric, can we go to our daily episodes now? So, we got Peyton, he's booking. And of course, our producer, Mikey Grinelli, down at the Big Apple now. What's up? Boys, boys producer mikey granelli down the big apple now what's up boys boys boys granelli granelli had a notch last night what yeah he had a sleepover

i called him today and he had a sleepover you're the only one bringing the entertainment to the podcast right now i mean i that's what i'm here for boys no married guys i gotta talk out of school. How'd you meet her? Met her out Friday night. Oh, so just met her out Friday night, Saturday night? No, it was actually kind of weird. She asked me to go on like this, like go to her friend's surprise party on Saturday night.

So I said, yeah. What? Yeah, it was a little. Her parents were there? So you just met all her friends the day after you met her. Oh yeah. Holy shit. Then you really met her. Take it from the top. How was the chemistry? Great chem. How was your performance?

So here's whiskey deck. So my, my roommate, Oh no no i put on a show my roommate he's got this carpet he put on spitting chiclets and had a listen he's got this carpet in the living room and it's like one of those like shaggy carpets it's like a sex carpet it's got like two inches of like of like carpet it's really you're saying it's easy on the knees no yeah my no my knees are killing me right now. They're all cut up. I got some rug burn right now. Some CBD bomb on it.

So you're basically having a better start to the season than Oliver Ekman, Larson. You move to NYC, get a new fat contract. I mean, he got a fat contract in the sea, but I don't think he got a notch, man. So you got the trifecta. Well, thanks, man. Whose boat were you on yesterday, Grinnelly? I saw that on Instagram. I don't know, man. I didn't think you got a notch, man. So you got the trifecta. Well, thanks, man. Whose boat were you on yesterday, Grinnelly? I saw that on Instagram. I don't know, man.

I didn't know anyone. I had no idea where I was. It was one of those things where we were passing the Statue of Liberty. I was buckled on this yacht. I'm like, what the fuck am I doing here? How did I end up here? I paused your Instagram story like nine times to try to see the face on the chicks.

I'm like, how is this girl? Okay, yeah, it's all right. Little Vito Andolini out there. I paused your Instagram story like nine times to try to see the face on the checks. I'm like, how is this girl? Is it up? Okay. Yeah, that's all right. Little Vito Andolini out there. Shout out to the millennial. So one of us is hot. All right.

What's going on in the NHL news? Right after our last episode here, big news. I guess it's somewhat expected. The legend of Detroit, Henrik Zetterberg, 2008 Kuntz Mike Trophy winner, officially retired. Or I shouldn't say, I think he's saying he's not playing anymore He still has money on the table So I don't even think he put his papers in But he's done playing hockey

Incredible career I think it was a little under a point per game Just an absolute legend Rose when the games were the highest Wits, I mean, hell, you played against him in a Stanley Cup You could say a lot more than I can Yeah, he's matched up against Sidney Crosby that entire series. I got a lot to say about Z, Henrik Zetterberg.

One of the best people I've ever met. I'm not talking in the hockey world. Just an amazing guy who makes people really feel comfortable, you know, right when you meet him. There's never any awkwardness. There's never any ego in him at all. Hot as shit, too. His beard looks so good.

He's got great hair like most Swedes. But, guys, listen, the number 210 comes into my head immediately when you think of Zetterberg. And, you know, you're wondering how many – is that goals? Is that playoff points? Blah, blah, blah. No, that's what he was drafted. In the seventh round, he was the 210th selection, which just shows you,

I mean, that's 1999, which I believe was in Boston, Massachusetts. I was at the draft. How are you? I was a big up and coming, so why don't you come on down to the draft? This will be you in a couple years. Zetterberg was not there when I was there. I only went to the first round. So 210th pick, and he comes over to Detroit.

You're a fucking idiot. This is the guy. You're a fucking idiot. This is the guy who never played a game in the AHL. And that's saying something for most people, right? I mean, the most special players in the world, usually they don't play in the AHL. But in Detroit, it very rarely happens.

Rarely. They are so cool with sticking somebody for two years in the minors. They really don't care. But he came over right away, and he was able to prove that he was ready to play in the NHL. And then just learning from all those guys. And we recently interviewed Sean Avery, who was,

I think his second year when Zetterberg was a rookie and, and talked about the team they had, they 10 hall of famers. And I think learning from those guys, Zetterberg learned what it took to become an amazing pro off the ice. He already had the skills and the game on the ice. He kept getting better and better and better, an amazing offensive player.

And I kind of think of him as a, as a two way center though. Like in my mind, I don't just think offensive stud and that's a guy who had 92 points one year in the NHL, his career year, 2007, 2008,

when he won the cons might and dummied me ruined my whole life. But an amazing career that unfortunately is ending with injury. And I was with him this summer. It was never brought up after, but he told me this summer, like, God, it hurts a lot. And we were on a golf trip. So I know people are like, what are you talking about? It hurts.

Any idea what's going on with, like, or it just degenerative he has such bad arthritis in there that he's basically risking if he were to take a bad hit um he's looking at a chance of his back being fucked up forever and i mean this is the guy who's not worth it at this point oh dude what can't you do and uh he's in a very very special class of players who have won an Olympic gold medal, a Stanley Cup, and a world championship gold medal. So nothing left for him to do. Last year, he was still one of Detroit's best players in a tough year for that team. But Ken Holland came out and said one of the greatest Red Wings to ever wear the uniform.

I completely buy that. His uniform number will be retired in the rafters, number 40. Just a great friend, though, and somebody that I met through Dan Cleary and has since then become a good friend to me in that we text each other

on the side during the year. He'll send me Snapchats or whatever of me on NHL Network just making fun of me. He's a good guy. He's like, Holy fuck. Look at that suit. What you should do with that suit. Get some style. Jesus Christ. Nice. Afro says all this stuff. But we team up, we team up every year on that golf trip.

We're always partners. We beat Horkoff Cleary, I think three years in a row. Now, thanks for coming out. How are you? I kind of carry Zetterberg in that match. Not going to lie. But I love them. And I know, I know I've probably talked a little bit too much. This might be better than his Hall of Fame speech. I should do his Hall of Fame speech. Yeah, you should. Imagine I get up there, and I'm just like,

NPS, PS, I'm not done. You have a pretty big dick, right? Get the Hulk off the stage at the Hall of Fame. Zetterberg's like, what the fuck are you doing? You have a pretty big deck, right? Get the hook off the stage at the Hall of Fame. Zetterberg's like, what the fuck are you doing, Whit? Whit, you've pretty much covered it all. I mean, part of a very small class of guys who've played over 1,000 games in the NHL, of course, did it with the same organization. And another guy who just made Detroit Red Wings scouts look like legends

because, you know, you mentioned he was a seventh-round pick. I mean, you had Datsuk, who was a late-round pick. And around that era is when all they had these guys popping out of nowhere where people were like, holy fuck, not only do they got the Hall of Famers, but they're turning seventh-rounders into future Hall of Famers. So, nice little – that was a nice little send-off by you, Witt. And it's unfortunate we won't get to see him, that man, Rocket, play again. Oh, quickly, quickly, one more thing I forgot.

Gustav Nyquist and Cronwell were telling me the best thing that Zetterberg did was if they had a game on the road and then they knew they were able to kind of go out as a team after, very rarely nowadays we've said on this, do you play on the road and not fly out after? So the night you are staying in the city guys are like come on we gotta have a good game because we get to go out tonight flights in the morning what else you gonna do after the game Zetterberg was notorious notorious for having Nick Cronwall quoted he said this minimum of three points in a game when we knew we were going out after in the city.

And he's telling me this story. This is, you know, a while back, a while back, and I'm laughing. This year, they're playing in Vegas, and I knew they were staying over, and I'm like, I want to see what Zetterberg does. Five points. No, fuck. This last season that just happened? This guy's so good, and then he really bears down when they're staying overnight.

Hey, I remember it. It was early in the season because they came to play Arizona, and I think they went to Vegas after. It wasn't five points. It was four. I'm pretty sure it was five points in Vegas. But they smoked them. I think they smoked Vegas that night.

I didn't actually – because I didn't have his numbers in front of me. I just want to shout them out. 960 points. It was 337 goals, 623 assists in 1,082 games for 0.89 points per game average. That's pretty nasty. 120 points in 137 playoff games is pretty outstanding, too. And the area did win the cons. My 13 goals, 14 assists for 27 points in 22 games.

And even the next year when Detroit lost the Cup to Pittsburgh, he had 11 goals, 13 assists, 24 points in 23 games. And if you want to get a good shot of the Conn Smythe trophy, check out my Instagram page. I slapped up a couple of pics from when I snuck in the locker room after they won the Cup that night. And not only, I mean, 1,082 games, but 137 playoff games. And I think we can all agree those count as basically double on your career. And, I mean, that's an amazing feat, amazing career. And I think we gave them a nice little send-off together, boys.

Absolutely. Well-deserved, man. It was a hell of a play to watch. What else is going on around the league already? A couple signings or at least one. Josh Morrissey. He was RFA in Winnipeg. He just re-upped.

Let me find those numbers right here. He's defenseman for. Solid player. Solid player. Yeah, I think it was a little over three. I'm going to pull them up while we're talking here. Yeah, he's wits. He's an irascible little player.

He likes to mix it up a little bit, wouldn't you say? What'd you say wits he's um an irascible little player he likes to mix it up a little bit wouldn't you say what'd you say i said he's he's an irascible player he likes to mix it up yeah yeah it's like good that's pretty impressive irascible i never heard that yeah like uh hard to play against that can be trouble trouble mate yeah basically it means he's an impish like a troublemaker like likes to stir shit up. I don't know if I would describe him like that, but I would say he's hard to play against. It may not be because he's overly physical and in your face and kind of like a rat-type player, but he skates well.

He's a smart player. I would use the word cerebral. Is that a word? Is that a good vocab word? Hey, guys, this is getting a little too intelligent for me. I just woke up from a nap too, so let's just tone it down a bit. Well, listen, this is a guy who two years ago played all 82 games. Last year played 81.

So very reliable in terms of being on the ice, right? The best ability is reliability. Is that what they say you know biz if you're trying to build a team you want a guy who's going to be in the lineup every night so Morrissey can stay healthy uh great first pass keeps the game pretty simple I mean this is a 13th overall pick so if you're looking at um you know a top 15 pick you might sometimes think he's gonna be really good offensively I think this is just a really good overall player. 20 points two years ago, 26 last year.

So he jumped up there. This year, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him around 30, 35. And a big important piece for Winnipeg, one of the top teams heading into this season. So good for them to get him signed because I was curious when that would go down. Boys, just a quick compliment. The Giants, for Christ's sake I you know obviously there's a rivalry between Winnipeg and Arizona but just a quick shout out to Winnipeg and that organization as a whole uh drafting uh

developing players properly uh managing their assets they are going to be a very strong force this year that central division is is a gong show and i mentioned it i think last podcast is it's going to be a cock fight and uh it's tough for them to make it out especially with the way they align the playoff setup and um i mean it's yeah it's pretty wild those numbers biz i mark he signed a two-year 6.3 million dollar deal so 3.15 that's a bridge that's a bridge if i ever saw one absolutely absolute bridge deal here it's like here you go kid let's keep doing what you're doing improve a little and then you had a nice little payday in a couple years so you know happy for the team i'm sure they getting them at that price and

you know the kid has an opportunity to make some big dough if he has a couple of nice and uh and the kid has an opportunity to make some big dough if he has a couple of nice years. Boys, I think that we're going to get into it right now, but because we're kicking off the two-episode week and we're heading into the season, training camps have begun, we're going to go over the divisions, and we're going to rank teams offense, defense, goaltending, and even at the end, we're going to put our predictions in

for who we think is going to make playoffs at the top of the division and of course who maybe fills into the wild card role so but boys before we throw it over to our assessment of the pacific division which has became a monster with the carlson trade we're going to have another suite on and a close friend of mine uh recently named captain of the arizona coyotes the biggest wagon undercover secret of the Pacific. And he's going to come on and just talk about his success in the NHL, his huge ticket, and, of course, becoming the fourth captain in Arizona Coyotes history. And having to live with you.

Correct. So we're going to head it off to Oliver Eckman Larson right now. This interview was brought to you by Dollar Shave Club. No matter what you do in the bathroom to get ready, Dollar Shave Club has everything you need to look, feel, and smell your best. They have amazing shower stuff, hairstyling products, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and, of course, razors and shave supplies. Myself, I've got to shave this bald melon of mine every couple of days.

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but you can't go wrong with any of them. Head over to dollarshaveclub.com slash chiclets to pick up your own Dollar Shave Club Starter Set for just $5 after your starter set product ship at a regular price, and make sure to check out their new video too. That's dollarshaveclub.com slash chiclets dollashaveclub.com slash chiclets that's c-h-i-c-l-e-t-s and uh a big uh special guest was nice enough to pop by and uh a close friend of mine not a big deal just a poppin just just a little quick hop in i mean that's just to the status spit and chickless has gotten we got the fourth captain in phoenix slash arizona coyotes

history all over eckman larson thank you for hopping on the podcast yeah thanks for having me i i know you were living with me last year and cooking some nice uh, so I felt like I kind of had to. Or I had to, yeah. But this is Wit. I need to know, like, why did you ever let this guy, Bissonette, live with you? Is that true? And were you always there, or did you actually leave him alone in your house too? Because God knows what was going on there. Well, I needed somebody to clean my place, and he said he couldn't really afford a place. So I was nice enough to have him stay in my place.

Two clean shots right there. Holy Christ. Let's just end this now. Oliver, I know last year, you know, there was, there was rumors that you were going to get the C and, you know, maybe not necessarily a bad thing. They kind of let it breathe a little bit. Of course, Shane, no one had it forever,

but got to be a big relief to finally get it this summer and then not only on top of that, get that fat contract. Yeah, I felt like Tocrid did the right thing there to wait and got to know his players a little bit more for a season there. So I think it was good that I kind of got a year to to really get back on my feet after my my mom passed and and just having fun with hockey again so um so it's nice to to finally uh be the captain and super excited and I think uh we can do some damage this year. Oliver that that was, I'm sure, a tough season for you.

You kept out under wraps for a bit, the fact that you were sick and played through it and still played unbelievably towards the end of the season before last. You went back to Sweden to deal with that. Just talk about the impact that's had on you and your family and how you've done to try to get over it. Yeah, well, obviously, family always goes first, right? So it was kind of hard, but I couldn't really do much.

She wanted me to stay over here and I wanted to do that for her. So that was pretty easy for me to make that decision to stay over here and play and do that for her. So it was kind of nice to just be around the guys because that helped me a lot to not think about it every single second. But, yeah, like I said, it was a tough year for me and my family. And it was, like I said, just being around the guys and the sport that I love helped me a lot. And then you had that off season to decompress.

And you came back last year, new coach, new system. I mean, overall, the team with a terrible schedule early on, too, had a tough start. But you still end up coming back to rattle off 14 goals in a full 82-game season. You played every game. I was looking at your hockey DB, Oliver. Every full season you've played in the NHL, you've had double digits in goals. I mean, has that been something that you've – have you always been a scorer? No.

But actually, after you left the team, it would have been easier to score. I think I have the puck more. Yeah, you were a second and third pairing back then, so you'd always get stuck with guys like me on the ice. So ever since then, you had back-to-back years with 20 as soon as I left. Yeah, no. But, I mean, I think I got to play more and more and felt more comfortable out on the ice. And me and Keith Yandel, we built some chemistry on the power play,

and I think that's probably why I scored a lot of goals that season. Big-time friend of the podcast, Keith Yandel. So I have a question. All right, you come over from Sweden, and your rookie year, you play a little bit in the minors most of the year in the nhl 48 games that year uh did you start the minors no i actually made a team right off camp um so i started playing went over to europe with paul bisonet then we we actually had our first two games in Prague.

Against the Brawns. Yeah, exactly. So that was a nice trip and got to know the guys. I didn't stay much back there, but it was nice and it was kind of nice to be close to home too so my family could come and watch the first two games. That's pretty special. So Biz, did you know this this kid was like this good right away or were you trying to get him out like being bad off the ice or what was the deal

right away skated like a dove and i remember being in line with shane dove like a dove he doesn't even try out there he just buzzes around it's a joke not fair um but shane don't we were standing next to each other in line and he looked at me he goes this guy's gonna be special and uh i was like rich i was like shut up like shut up don't this bitch is gonna be in the money for years but you were right no but uh no he was always gonna be a special player and uh all right do you remember that series when we went over to boston to play uh or sorry run over to check to play the bruins absolutely yeah that was the year the bruins went on to win the Stanley Cup that year because actually Brian McGratton was on the Bruins for that trip,

but he ended up getting cut. But, Olive, I had a question for you. I know Nick Lidstrom is the name that comes up when we talk about retired Swedish defensemen, but there's a guy I was wondering if you looked up to when you were a kid, Frederik Olesen. Did you watch him play when you were young, or was he too old for you? I'm probably getting in trouble if I say that he was too old, but I didn't watch him play. But I heard a lot of good things about him, and he was actually, he's from close to my hometown, so I heard a lot of good things about him.

Yeah, you guys, obviously, Swedes, but you have very similar styles of play. I watched them play the same franchise, Winnipeg, which became Phoenix years ago. And you guys are very similar. I believe you broke his power play goal record for the franchise, correct? Yeah, that's right. Suck on that one. And one other question. There's no real, I mean, there might be an exception to, but there are no real Swedish bums in the NHL.

All the Swedes that come over, they have a great worth. I think they really play hard hockey. They play fair hockey. What would you attribute that to for the Swedish hockey players? Why do they have such a good worth, Gethard? I think we have a great program right from the start. When we start playing back home, everybody is like, the ice is bigger and we learn how to skate fast and handle the puck pretty good.

I'm not going to say that every Swedish player is good at that, but for the most part, and that's the way we play back home. Yeah, among the Euros, you certainly do have a good reputation in the NHL, unlike some other ethnicities we won't mention. Ruskies. You just mentioned them. That's the joke. What about Peter Forsberg?

I know he was a forward, but was that a guy just every young hockey player in Sweden looked up to because he's basically a god after the postage stamp? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I always had Nick. I always looked up to him. And then Peter Forsberg because he scored a lot of goals and won the Cup one time there too. So, I mean, that's probably the two biggest names back home. So, they were my idols growing up.

I always wonder with guys from Europe, not just Sweden, but say seven, eight, ten years whenever you're done playing, do you think

you'll live over here? Do you think whenever the career ends in North America, you'll move back and

live in Sweden the rest of your life? I think I might spend the summers back home in Sweden because it's beautiful there in the summer.

And then when it starts to get colder over in Sweden, I might keep my house here in Phoenix and Arizona. So, yeah. So, I mean, I've been here for eight years now, and this really feels like home. And that's why I decided to stay here. Oliver, your brother's over with the organization over here, which is awesome because you have some family close to you.

Chances are he'll start the season in Tucson. Just talk about that a little bit and having him over here. And I mean, Tucson's just down the road, so you get to go watch him even play. Yeah, no, it's awesome to have him close. I get to see him a couple games down in Tucson every year now, and it's a lot of fun. We haven't really been super close, but I think the last two, three years we start to hang out in the summers and do a lot of fun stuff.

So it's awesome for him, and it's really good for me to have him close to so do you have anything else for me about like living with Biz like tell me something about this guy that I can use for the rest of time something scummy about

him something cheap just give me anything no I was actually surprised because he he he cleaned he uh he cooked like he was unbelievable he yeah if uh oliver you're the first guy i would you're the first guy to back me up on this podcast and i appreciate that actually and then and then we went for a fun night after the season last year and uh and i picked up the tab we won't talk about you don't talk about where it was we'll keep it under wraps all oliver's oliver you're pretty secretive guy which is good you keep all your your personal

life under wraps just like you biz yeah well well i've been around you, and I've seen that you get in a lot of trouble. So I'm trying the opposite. So you avoid me at all costs. Oliver is actually in the market to purchase a new home in Paradise Valley. Maybe you guys are going to do it. I actually did. Oh, you got it? Yeah, it's a done deal. So I'm moving to 28th.

What an off-season for you. You get the C. You get the new big fat contract. I don't know, you made like, what, $70, $80 million? And then you buy a new house in PV, man. Your life is going pretty good, Oliver. Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good right now, and it's a lot of fun, like I said. It's great living here in Arizona, and I love it here I talked to me uh about Zetterberg retiring do you know him well and and have you sent him a text yet

no I haven't I I got got the chance to play with him a couple times uh great guy um um good hockey player so uh no it's sad to see it's sad to see that um he had to to retire that way um all right well i'm curious first year as a captain does anything change for you i mean there's going to be times you kind of at some point throughout the season even if the captain's lead by example guy you got to address the team and. Have you thought about how things will change for you and how you'll approach being in the locker room a little bit different, or are you going to try to pretty much keep the same low profile and let your play do the talking?

No, I think I will probably stay the same, try to lead on dice instead. I've never been super loud in the room but uh but I don't have a problem uh if I have to speak up and and do that I'll I will so we'll see I haven't really thought about that yet um it's pretty pretty new to me to me still so we'll see well Oliver we wanted to thank you for popping by. And of course, hopefully the coyotes can start the season the way they finished it.

Second half of the season, one of the best teams in the league. And you were on fucking fire last year. I think you finished with what? 14 tucks. Yes, you're right. Holy shit. I had that many one year old.

Hey, let's hope for another season. Yeah. Thank you very much. You don't have you're welcome um you pretty much did on your own i just put my stick on the ice well you still did it though thank you thank you buddy yeah you pump tires oliver thank you for so much for hopping on and uh and we'll see you tomorrow yeah thanks guys thank you very much to Oliver Ekman-Larsen

the smooth skating swede a lot of fun to watch I'm sure it's a lot of fun for you to kind of announce his games a little interested he he made my talk about Zetterberg look even crazier he was like good player good guy

well thanks Oliver I really appreciate it he's like I'm not impressed. He's like, whatever. He didn't sign a ticket like I did. All right, so Pacific Division, boys. Where are we starting? Anaheim? Let's start at the top with Anaheim.

Alphabetical order. Okay, so all you fans, we're not saying Anaheim's going to be number one in the division. We're just going by the A's. What's before is R after N for Arizona? Yeah, we're going to have Arizona next, so we're going to follow Calgary, Edmonton,

San Jose, Vancouver, and then the Vegas Golden Knights. Okay. All right. Well, let's talk about the Anaheim Ducks a little bit, boys, right? This is a team that, and oh, I also wanted to tell all our listeners, as we talk about also wanted to tell all our listeners, as we talk about these teams and we give our predictions,

like, let's be honest. It's before the year. We don't know. Just doing our best. Try to describe the type of teams they are. So don't fucking come at us with, they don't know what you're talking about.

Like this guy, blah, blah, blah. Like we might mess up some things. We might be wrong. And my team that I picked to be worse in the league, Vegas, might go to the cup finals.

Just shut your yak. On to Anaheim. Team's getting a little older, boys. Getting a little bit older. Now, I love the club. I love their back end. And that's kind of where I'm going to start. Cam Fowler and Hampus Lindholm, dominant players, especially at times. I mean, I think

that last year Fowler being injured for a little bit of the year really hurt this team, but Brandon Montour and Joss Manson kind of round out their top four. I really like this group. It's where they're aging a little bit up front where I kind of worry, and a lot of guys are making a lot of money. You'll see what they're expected to, you know, what they're expected to produce. Will they, will they not? I don't know, but that's going to be the question for this team because in net,

Josh Gibson is very solid. Or is it John Gibson? Holy fuck. John Gibson. John. Close enough. Hey, it's a J and it's a Gibson.

So Jay Gibson, solid, very solid. I love the D, but up front is the kind of the question mark for me. It really is. And besides Ricard Raquel and Ryan Getzlaff, you know, you're going to need to bounce back here from Perry and Kessler to really be going.

And if they are, this team could be really hard to deal with because last year I was talking about them winning the cup. Now I'm bogging them. R.A., before I hand it over to you, I'll say this. I agree totally with the age thing, of course, with Getzlov and Perry. I mean, Perry's kind of lost his step a little bit. I still like him net front presence. I would say their top three lines are extremely respectable.

I like how they locked up Henrik to – I guess Ryan Kessler's another guy. Like, depending how he comes back, he had that hip problem a couple years ago. He had surgery on it. Last season, his offensive output was not at par with his past seasons. So Henrik could be a good hinge guy. I think a lot of this offense is going to depend on how Kessler either steps it up or has a season like last. Another concern of mine is depth on the fourth line up front

for the Anaheim Ducks. I mean, you mentioned it. We're going into training camp here. There's a couple guys I don't really know much about coming out of the American League. They got Troy Terry penciled in on the fourth line right wing. Oh, he ain't playing fourth line. No chance.

What do you think he's going to be playing with? I think he'll be top two lines. I think he's an absolute stud. I think he's a huge bright spot and kind of their biggest up-and-comer in terms of like rookies or, you know, younger guys. But he's American, so obviously I'm kind of blowing him a little bit. Well, right, and once again, you know, Corey Perry, not to take anything away

from what he's done in the nhl uh he's slowing down a bit uh so maybe they'll they'll kind of throw troy terry in there a little bit i mean on that right side they're pretty strong they have silverberg on the second line penciled in and then uh cost casse i believe is how you pronounce it and then as far as the back end i i guess it still the same concern is, is the depth on that third pair. I mean, I don't know who they got penciled in right now. They got Luke Shannon. Yeah.

Luke Shen, who's a good penalty kill guy. I mean, but just overall, like, I mean, as far as depth's concerned, based on the rest of the division,

that would be my concern. And then that, I think they got, they got a good goalie there. And then of course a good backup, which I believe is Ryan Miller still. Really? Yeah, you do feel like, like Whit said, you know,

they're getting a little aged up front, and you feel like this window for Perry and Getzlaff is closing. You know, they won the Cup. Shit, that was 11 years ago, man. That was a while ago. You know, Ricky Rako's really been a surprise for them. I mean, 34 goals last year, 35 assists, and the best part about him

for the Ducks, I would say it was his contract. He's under the same deal for four more years at only 3.789 million a year. That's pretty cheap money for a guy putting almost 70 points up for you. The D, they also brought in, what's his face from Tampa, Andre Schuster. He's a little bit of a thumper on the back end there, but they didn't really bring – they lost BX. I mean, I don't know if that's a huge loss, but they didn't really seem to bring in any big free agents or big names. They got into the playoffs with what they had last year. I think it's a solid team.

But, yeah, I think depth, like you guys said, I think depth might be an issue for them unless somebody kind of comes through this year. We're not expecting. They do appear to be all set in goaltending. John Gibson, better than decent year last year, 9-2-6 SP with a 2-4-3, four shutouts, you know, 30 wins. He had a good year. So the thing is, though, it's such a tough division.

I think the league's so competitive, man, they can have a good year and still not be a top three automatic playoff bid in this. We're going to get to the playoffs in a little bit. So Anaheim, yeah, they didn't really do much to improve, but they really didn't do much to, you know, to fade off a bit. So it's going to be interesting. I'd imagine they'll probably just kind of coast along with, like, how they've been doing.

Boys, I don't know about you, but I have them as a bubble team, but I got them missing the playoffs this year. I just think the Pacific's too strong. I think that they just, I don't know, it's just going to be tough to compete with that lineup to make it to the dance. I think that they just, I don't know, it's just going to be tough to compete with that lineup to make it to the dance. I think they get in the playoffs. I will say two things because I was a

member of the Anaheim Ducks organization. One, we kind of I mean, Corey Perry, you know, it sounds like we're kind of dogging him a little bit. So I just want to throw out what that guy's been. I mean mean hate him if you're not a ducks fan and how he plays love him if you're a ducks fan incredible career unreal

player but god i think he is turning 34 pretty soon 33 right around then so it's old now and just by losing a half a step i i think you see that's why he probably took a step back but who knows right maybe this year maybe summer, the way he trained, something changed and he come back and rips it up. So don't want us to think that we're underappreciating the type of player Corey Perry's been his entire career. Second thing, Bob Murray, the GM, either hates my guts more than anyone or is the rudest person.

Dude, I used to see this guy in the mornings. He wouldn't even think about saying hello he'd walk right by you'd be in the elevator with him he wouldn't even say one word i'm like jesus christ i think what the issue was though now that i'm really talking about this he traded kunitz for me he's probably so pissed off you made him look bad i mean i probably wouldn't talk to you either and then he saw Kunitz. He's like, are you fucking kidding me? He said, that's why he hated me.

Either way, not a very friendly person. And it sucks being on the media side. You know, I was just calling the Perry thing for what it is. He's an awesome guy. I like him a lot. It's just, you know, for what he's making over the course of the last two seasons, he's only missed nine games. And he had 19 goals two years ago, and last year he had 17.

So that's a big drop off from 43, 33, 34, 51 year. Did he win the Rocket, Richard? Yeah, he won the Rocket, Richard. He won MVP that year. He got 50. Jeez, you have two major league awards. So not looking good for them moving forward, boys. Just like we said,

getting a little old. We're going to move on to the quiet wagon. The Arizona Coyotes. R.A., you got any thoughts? The covered wagon biz is talking about the quiet wagon Coyotes. You know, biz, I have a thing I came up with a couple years ago with

Bastu Chief on our old podcast. I call it like the trophy triumvirate. Like if you have a Norris caliber goalie – Norris caliber. I'm sorry. You know what I mean. Norris caliber defenseman, Vesna caliber goalie, and like a Selke caliber forward, then that's going to kind of build your team.

The basis you can kind of build off from that. You know, right now I think Arizona has two-thirds of that with Oliver Ekman last, and he didn't really get any votes for the Norris last year. Really not his fault. It's just the way the voting went. But I looked at anti-Ronta, the starting goalie. He didn't get one vote for the Vesna last year. And Marc-Andre Fleury came in, I believe, fifth. Let me give you their stats. Marc-Andre Fleury had 46 games started, same as Ronta. Mets, Marc-Andre Fleury had 46 games started, same as Ronta. 2.24 goals against, exactly the same.

Marc-Andre Fleury's save percentage was a 9.27. Ronta's was a 9.30. So you got, you know, basically, I think, a Vesna caliber goalie out there. I didn't see a ton of him last year. I know he was hurt early in the year. Yeah. But, I mean, those are some outstanding numbers. When I dug deep, I couldn't believe he didn't get not one point in the Vesna vote.

Usually a guy might give you a fucking eighth or a tenth place vote. He didn't get anything. So, like, you got him. You got Lassen. Basically, there's some good pieces in place. I just don't think there's enough right now that they're really going to compete for a top three spot in the division. You know, they're scoring.

They were 30th in scoring last year. They're special teams in the middle of the pack. Hopefully, you know, Grabner and Galchenyuk, they're good, solid pieces. I don't know that either one of them moved the needle. They should fill the net a little, help with the scoring. I see improvements, Biz. I just don't see them getting to a playoff level yet. Well, we're in the course of a five-year rebuild.

This is year four. Five years, dude? You don't need a five-year rebuild. Buddy, time out, time out. Five years? What are we talking about here? Well, listen, we got to a point where our team was getting older. We made those three years where we made playoffs in a row

in the last year that we made our run. And we were always flirting with that with, you know, Tip wanted to be competitive and try to make playoffs to be like, hey, we need to kind of rebuild here. So it started then last year was just as we hit the top of the mountain. Now we're making our way down, so to speak. You know, we picked up Ronta and, you know, he dealt with some injuries early on, but once he got going and settled in second half of the season, he was one of the best goalies in the league. Great move by Chayka, I think, to get Darcy Kemper. He had an awesome start to the season with L.A. last year

when Quick was struggling. And we locked him in for two more years. So as far as our goaltenders are concerned, we look great. And then we move to the back end on D-Core, which I think is the team's other big strength. Of course, you mentioned Larson. Jason Demers, Wiley V vett he has a little bit of offensive presence smart smart little defenseman jacob chicker and this guy's a physical specimen

he's hot too oh he's a fucking man rocket he's right oh he's one of the best looking guys and he's such a nice kid but he's had some bad luck yeah what did he get hurt last year but back to back years he's torn his ACL. What? Same one? That's awesome. I believe they're different. Dude, that's like our boy Fabry, Biz. I know.

And Chick came back. He started getting into rhythm last year. And I think he tore his other one about five, six games left in the season. But both times he's tore them. He's came back like a month and a half before he's supposed to, this guy's like Wolverine and he repairs like crazy. He was posting his, he was posting his recovery on his Instagram all summer.

And normally I'm not down with, with the whole like posting workouts, but the shit he was doing in order to get back sooner than later was, was fucking insane. He spent the whole summer away from his friends and family, went to Philadelphia, and it's great to see that he'll be back sooner than expected. He hasn't been cleared for contact yet, but I'd imagine that early on in the season he makes his debut. Of course, Nicholas Jarmelson, who they re-up for two more years, so he has three total years left with uh with the Arizona Coyotes a great uh a great guy defensively on the back end uh you know probably one of the

best shutdown defensives in the league they had to overpay him a little bit for the back two years but uh I like how they only had to get him for two in order to do that and then Alex Goligosky I mean you played with him what oh me and. Dude, we lived together for a little bit. Actually, he was like – I wouldn't say – him and LeTang were these up-and-coming studs, and that was one of the reasons I think Pittsburgh was like, oh, we could trade Whitney. We got these two guys coming. Goose and I used to take Ambien and then play NHL 09 against each other.

Dude, we would wake up on the couch with games that were in the second period that the ref was waiting to drop the puck. We were just like, what the hell? We were playing money for each game and we could never remember how many games we played. Goose is the best.

Hell of a game. Nice little scouting report there, Mr. Bam Bam. Of course, to round off their sixth defenseman, they got Kevin Connaughton. They brought him back. Last year, Coyote's defense were one of the best in the league at providing offense.

Goligoski had 12 goals. Connaughton had 10 overall. Connaughton had 10 tucks last year? Yeah, Kevin Connaughton had 10 tucks last year. He signed a two-year extension. So the back end's looking good. The forwards, boys, there's a lot of question. And R.A., I'll probably toss it over to you here.

You can go through the forwards if you'd like. Yeah, taking a look at last year's squad, I mean, Clayton Keller, what a revelation he was in the running for Rookie of the Year. He ended up 23 goals, 42 assists, 65 points in 82 games. But, man, that's a kid you build your future around. I love it. He looks like he's about 12 years old out there, but the kid gets it done. Patrick Kane Jr.-ish.

Yeah, absolutely. Sounds crazy, but I don't think it will in five years. No, probably not. Derek Steppen, he's obviously great both ends of the ice. They brought him in from New York a couple years ago for you know his veteran leadership struggle a little early on but he's the type of guy you know when you build them what they're trying to build out their business he's the type of guy you do need um last year Max Domi they obviously traded him to Montreal they only didn't get a great ton of goals out of him last year only nine goals

I would think that Galchenyuk would more than make up for that. I think Galchenyuk is going to be a big time... I think he's going to have a pretty big year. I think it's getting out of Montreal. It's getting away from that gong show off the ice and on the ice.

And I think he'll be pretty solid there. I wouldn't be surprised to see him playing with Clayton Keller. I'm wondering how they'll work their lines. But he could have a big bounce back here. Boys, Clayton Keller, Derek Stepon, and Richard Panik finish the year together. They had tons of chemistry. So they'll probably start together.

Yeah, they're matched up right now. Derek Stepon, Mr. Reliability here. He's had five seasons in a row where he's hit the 50-point plateau. I'd say as far as league standards are concerned he's a high-end second line center but last year he was big for this team and detrimental to a lot of the growth of these young players as you look through the lineup Perlini, Fisher, Strom, Dvorak like a lot of young guys Lawson Kraus is another one Vinny Henestrosa who came over in the trade from Chicago. A lot of guys with question marks as far as can they bring it to the next level.

And, you know, it should be interesting because we have a lot of those types of players, so a lot of it's going to depend on who's going to, you know, make that jump and fill out the top six role. Because right now it's, you know, we got Christian Fisher and Perlini penciled in well yeah they had solid years last year but the consistency in order to stay in that top six boys you got to think at least 50 points a season yeah put up or shut up i got one question though fire biz can we agree well can we agree that rick talkett is the meanest looking motherfucker in the

nhl oh yeah he's uh he was a tough customer when he played, and he did a great job, especially after the tough start they had and just staying with it. And as I mentioned before, one of the best teams in the second half of the season last year. Let's not sleep on the fourth line either. They got Brad Richardson and Nick Cousins, who Nick Cousins is a great Swiss Army knife. He can jump up into those top lines, great with the puck,

provide some offense. So, boys, I consider them hopefully a bubble team as they make their rise. I think they're – yeah, I could see that. I don't think they're getting in the playoffs, but I think they're going to be hard to play against, and they're going to cause a lot of issues for teams. So, look out for a good season from the yotes especially a bounce back after last year let's move on to the calgary flames and uh

all right what do you think yeah man they're a team they they on paper they have a lot of talent um they brought in james neal for you know for some scoring he's obviously very good at that mike smith's a top flight goalie i expect matth Matthew Kachuk to get another year of progress there. They weren't able to get in the playoffs last year. I don't know. I think they get back. Johnny Goudreau, he's a magician out in the ice. I love watching that kid play.

They're basically five. We didn't bring in the odds. They're five to one to win the division. It might be worth a small bet. I don't know that they're going to pick up the division, but I don't know. Calgary, they didn't have a good year last year. There was nothing really you could put one finger on, but they had a huge trade.

They got rid of Dougie Hamilton. There was yet another locker room that said, you know, he might not have been the best guy in that locker room either. They got rid of him, brought in Noah Hannafin, and drawing a blank, who came over in the trade with Hannafin, the forward? Oh, Elias Lindholm. Lindholm, right. So, you know, you got a couple of new faces in the room.

That could be a big deal. I don't know if Dougie Hamilton himself was dragging the team down, but it didn't sound again like he was the most popular guy. But yeah, so Calgary's, you know, one of those teams, man. Like you say, you look at them on paper, they got a good solid squad. They should compete this year. And I think they will. I think they're going to be in the running for one of those top three spots in the division for sure. I do will. I think they're going to be in the running for one of those top three spots in the division for sure. I do too. I think they're kind of a sneaky bet in terms of they could win the division. If Mike Smith plays well and their D plays like they can, great top four. In watching defense, T.J. Brody is a very underrated player.

He makes the game look very easy, how he skates so well. He pushes the pace of the play a lot. He carries the puck up ice a lot. So he's a very good player. Gio Donovan is a great captain. I think that everyone in that room loves him, and guys love having him on the ice. He's a tough bastard.

He's hard to play against. He also has some great offense. Travis Hamannik is a lot of potential there. I think that you could see him jump in and jump out and become just a really dominant player or maybe kind of stay where he is right now. You're wondering where that'll go. Noah Hannafin comes in there with a lot

to prove in signing a big contract. Funny that he's on this episode even though we interviewed him a couple weeks ago. I like this team a lot. When you get up front, uh, Johnny hockey, our boy,

uh, Johnny ham and cheese as Keith Yandel calls him. Um, he's a, one of the best in the world. So it's fun to watch that guy play. It's fun to watch him do his thing. And,

and Michael Backlund makes up a great part of that team. He's underrated centerman. So they have a lot of, a lot of weapons up front. They've got some good D, and if Mike Smith plays well, they really could surprise and end up doing a lot of damage in the Pacific. And why I like your guys' opinion is just how young they are, especially with the way the NHL set up all the travel

and how much the pace is picked up. Just having those fresh legs all season and that young blood in the locker room. And the real deal. Yeah, and of course the real deal to line up all those parties for all these young guys. Real deal. Who would you guess the oldest guy on the Flames is?

Well, I would say Giordano, but they got the perfect mix of vets and guys who can lead these young guys. I mean, if you look at their top six, i mean kachuk's fairly young uh monahan's young goudreau's young i mean sam bennett's not that old lynn holm they got they got some some good young spots on this team so i i like them and you guys mentioned us if smitty stands on his head like he did for us the year we made our run i i have no doubt that this team is going to be a bubble team, but I think that they're going to make it. Agreed. Agreed.

We'll have to wait and see what happens. This is going to be a tough one. Edmonton. This is a tough one, boys. You know why? Because I live there. I played there. Aldo.

I got shit on I went to the 14 different Aldos At the West Edmonton Mall I went to Cactus Club Waitresses were beautiful Didn't talk to one of them I saw Mike Comrie ask for the Billionaire's Cut Even though it was called the Millionaire's Cut steak

But he's so rich He called it the Billionaire's Cut Always made me laugh. I had to plug my goddamn car in at night so it started in the morning because it's so fucking cold in Edmonton. I never got to play in the new rink, though. I got to walk through the hallway

from the dressing room to the ice where Dustin Penner looked at me my first game and said, wait till you hear the verbal abuse I take on this walkout. And then the doors went open, and all of a sudden it was, Penner, you fat fuck. You piece of shit. You lazy fuck.

Oh, my God. How they paid you this, you piece of shit. Fuck you, Penner. Penner was like our best player, too. Oh, my God. That's beautiful. I'll always say it, though. This city loves hockey.

They deserve a winner. They got a winner for one year after the doldrums, the 12 years of hell or whatever it was, 10 years. And then they made that run to game seven of the second round, and then last year happened. So, guys, let me tell you something. Before we go into their roster, before we talk, if this is bad again this year,

I don't even know what's going to happen because then you start talking about, all right, McDavid's making this much money. What else can we do? Who are the guys here that are the issues? We had the good year. We thought we were ready to go. We had one step back here, but Oh, that's okay. That was a fluke. That year was a fluke. We're going to be good. Well, if they're bad this year, heads up. Heads will roll. Who knows what will happen.

But that team cannot come out and be shit again in their unreal new rink with their fans who love hockey and hate players when they're bad and love them when they're good. They can't do it again. They can't deal with it. So, McDavid's going to be McDavid, guys. He's Crosby McDavid, right? Best player in the world. Don't deal with it. So McDavid's going to be McDavid, guys. He's Crosby McDavid, right? Best player in the world.

Don't worry about him. It's what else do they have. It's what do they get from goaltending. It's what do they get on the back end. Because if they stink again, it's going to be frigging hilarious. I know hilarious isn't the right word. I'm not laughing at, like, them being bad. Just the fact that, like, oh, my God, the Oilers are legit bad again.

What the fuck? And, Whit, one major concern for me is the drop-off. I mean, between Dreisdietl and McDavid, they had 178 points last year. I mean, the next guy was Ryan Noobjian Hopkins at 48, and then, you know, it got worse from there. But I think that they're going to be okay. I like the addition of that Ty Ratty. He's a solid player.

He was in the St. Louis system for a bit, was he not? Yeah, he was. We were there with him. Good, solid player. He had a really good run in the minors. Obviously, you know, in order to be successful at the NHL level, you have to at least be able to dominate the AHL level if you go there. I expect a huge bounce back year from Looch.

And, you know, I like the addition of Kyle Brodziak as well. Good PK guy, good for defensive zone face-offs. He played there before. He knows what he's getting into. Right. He knows the food could be great most nights. Some nights it's bad. You know, he knows Edmonton.

You know, and the back end's solid. They got some solid players there. Are they overpaying a couple of the guys there? Sure. Sequeira's on a pretty sick deal. They need Sequeira to be healthy. I said this last podcast. Oh, yeah, for sure.

I said this last podcast. I think they need a little morale boost, you know, because the dark days happen a lot in Edmonton, and I think that Scotty Upshaw, who's there on a PTO, I think if he could make that team and he'd be good for that locker room, putting on the tunes, making the mood a little bit lighter, could put them over the hump and get them where they want to be as an organization.

I'll tell you, though, when I was in Edmonton, we could have had Tiesto putting on the fucking tunes and we would have still finished in third place. But sometimes it just doesn't matter. A guy and a name that needs to play well he needs to be good is jesse pooey arvey okay fourth overall pick in 2016 you can't take a guy fourth overall and end up seeing him not have success to a high level, top two line guy. I mean, he's still young. This kid is a lot of skill, a big body.

I don't know how well he moves. There's games he's looked great. There's games he's looked a little slow-footed. So maybe, you know, maybe this summer, being how young he is, all of a sudden he took a big step skating. Who knows? But they need that guy to come in and have a presence and not be in and out of the lineup and not occasionally getting power play time.

And, I mean, he spent some time in the minors, which isn't the worst thing, but you pick a guy that high when you have these chances to get these great players. You've got to be able to hit home runs, and they're going to need him to have a good season if they want this team to kind of go where they think they can be. You know, any roster with Conor McDavid on it is going to be top heavy, of course, but this roster is really not very well put together. It's just, you know, it's got McDavid, Dreisaitl,

who's probably getting a little too much money. It's just not really filled out in the bottom. But I think their biggest problem, you know, unlike the other former Ranger goalie who was traded out west, we just talked about, Andy Ranta, Cam Talbot needs to be much, much better this year. He was also a Ranger that got traded. He had a 9.08 save percentage of 3.02 goals against last year.

That's just not good enough in the NHL if you want to be a playoff team. He's got to be a lot better. He was better when he started there. He really fell off last year. Honestly, I think he was probably the biggest reason that they didn't have success last year. I think he was one of their worst players. When you go, he's not good, man.

It has a ripple effect, and other guys lose their confidence. I think that was probably the biggest factor for them. R.A., I agree, especially early on. I think that was kind of the catalyst at the start of the year. After that, it just seemed like nothing could go right. Of course, Looch had a tough time scoring in the second half, but a lot of good guys there.

And I expect them to have a bounce back year. Cause you know, when all those things are going wrong, it makes for a tough season. So we're going to move on. Yeah. We're going to move on to the, to the fun teams,

boys, LA Kings. And they got a couple additions and you know, they still got a very, very good core group of players. So why don't we let you kick it off, Mr. Whitney? Well, I said when Kovalchuk ended up signing with them that I don't know how much success he's going to have. It's way different now, man.

This guy left, what did he leave, four years ago? Can we look that up quick Grinnelly maybe? But while you're looking it up, I'll say, the game is not the same as, as when he was over here. And this is an incredible player who's done a lot. You see internationally what he can do. His shot will always be a weapon. He's going to, I'm sure he'll be on one of the, you be on one of the flanks on the power play. He'll get his one-timer goals because he has a complete rocket. But in terms of creating off the rush and things like that, I don't know if he's as fast and dynamic as he was naturally just because it's been a long time since he played over here.

And I think people are penciling him in for 30 goals, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if he doesn't reach that. And if he doesn't, I'm not going to say they're in trouble, but this isn't a fast team. This is not a fast team at all. Go ahead, Mikey. He had last played in the NHL in 2012-2013 for the New Jersey Devils, so he spent the past five seasons playing in Russia.

Dude, five seasons, bro, in the KHL. It's a lot of Russian gas. I mean, I was over there for a year. It was like dog years. He's basically been away for 35 years because one year in Russia is seven. It's dog years. So 35 years ago he played in the NHL. Good luck.

Yeah, my concern echoes you, Ryan. You know, Ilyich Kovachuk is talented and skilled as he is or was when we last saw him. How much does he still have left in today's modern NHL with speed rules? He's what? What did we say? He's 35, 36. And then the Kings, I wouldn't really say they went out other than him

and really improved their roster all that much. I mean, they didn't lose much. They didn't really bring much in, but when you didn't make the playoffs last year, you probably needed to do a little bit more than Kovalchuk. I think, you know, I wouldn't say the seizing is hinged on him. If he's a superstar like he was five years ago at all style level, then yeah, he could be the difference, but they're old.

They're still kind of rolling out a lot of the same guys. They won those cups with, I haven't said all that John quick. He's, he's pe peaking in his career right now as a goaltender. If he has a great season, he'll keep him in competition, certainly within shooting distance of a playoff spot. But the Kings don't scare me today like the Kings scared me four years ago. That's a good point, R.A.

The core group's getting older. That's something we've said a few times here. I still think that they have about two, three years of gas left in the tank to be competitive and be one of the top teams in the league. I mean, anytime you got Anze Kopitar down the middle, followed by Jeff Carter, that's a fucking hardcore one-two punch. And they missed Carter last year. He came out of the gates like a bat out of hell,

and then when he got that injury, it killed their team. Right. I think a lot of the, it killed their team. Right. I think a lot of the – go ahead, R.A. You're going to chime in there, buddy. No, I'm just going to ask, has Katsa manrocketed? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's got a weapon too. Ranch, ranch, ranch.

And he's got a wrench. I thought I was about to ask. Currently they have – What a snapshot. Jesus Christ. Currently they have Adrian Kempe, who's another bubble guy. If he has a breakout year, that just gives them even more depth up the middle. And, of course, Nate Thompson, fourth-line center, which he's back there.

Correct, guys? I believe so, yeah. Which player? Nate Thompson. And I would say he's probably one of the best guys in the league on face-offs. On the back end, they're solid once again. They're big. They're heavy.

They play very good structured hockey. They're always going to be competitive. So I would say that they're going to be a playoff team here, boys. Yeah, for me, I think they will be. But I'm so pissed off that I picked them to beat Vegas in the first round, and they got swept, so I don't even want to say they're going to get in. Screw them.

Mario, what do you think, buddy? Yeah, like I said, man, I don't think – I shouldn't say that. I don't think they improved enough. Everything like Whit said, it just hinges on Kolchak so much, man. If he's just mediocre, then I think the season could be torpedoed. But they should be interesting. I mean, they still got, you know, Andrzej Kopitar. He's a joy to watch.

He's what? He's only 30 years old. He's not that old. What? He's only 30? He's only 30. And, dude, he had – I mean, he's another guy. Played out west.

He probably had, you know, more of a – he probably should have had a little bit more of, like, hot – people talk about him for the hot last year. 35 goals, 57 points, 92 points in 82 games. I mean, that's a hell of a year last year. He kind of gets lost in the shuffle, man. I think people forget about him. He won the Selkie. Obviously, people know that.

You're talking about Anze Kopitar, correct? Right, yeah. But we didn't hear much of him. He is a fucking beast. You know who he is of the West? Yeah. I would – A little more scoring maybe.

I was going to say more of a Barkoff. Oh. Like Florida, which he's an up-and-comer. They're very similar, just heavy through the middle, great skaters. They just play an unbelievable 200-foot game. These guys are – but, all right, great point. Another Bergeron, just so reliable all over the place. Such an intelligent player.

So we got to move on, though, boys, to probably, I think, the favorites. The San Jose Sharks. You guys want me to start it off? Yeah, go right ahead. I mean, we talked about them last week's podcast just because that's when the trade went down. But this is a wagon. As far as regular season went last year at the beginning, Martin Jones struggled a little bit.

I expect him to be dialed in. And then they got a solid backup in Dell. And he had to come in 29 times last year. That's a lot for a backup. He had 2.64 goals against average with a 9.14 save percentage. He ended up having 15 wins and 5 losses, so pretty good record for him. I mean, top four on the back end is fucking solid. And even their 5-6 defense, with Dylan and Bron,

a couple big boys that helped kill penalties, and even big guys, they're still fairly mobile. Their top six are very impressive i'll be interested to see how evander kane uh comes in he had an unbelievable uh end of the season when he got traded which probably led him to getting that big ticket with them uh just you know sometimes you don't see the most motivation from guys starting those big contracts. They got their payday. Joe Thornton, older now, so intelligent, but he is slowing down. Pavelski getting a little bit older, but I think they're still able to get it done.

The bottom six is really where I have a lot of question marks. Like the Arizona Coyotes, where they have a lot of question marks. Are these guys going to be very solid NHL players? Because they're just coming up from the minors. Meyer? Listen, dude, this guy, that's my – He's a bubble guy. He's one of my look out this year type guys.

A Swiss guy too. Yeah, he was the ninth overall pick in 2015. Yeah, 2015, yeah. And 21 goals last year, dude. I mean, he's a beast too. He's a big guy, six feet. He's heavy though too, hard to play against. And he's one of those players you kind of haven't thought of in the past,

but that San Jose has done a good job of kind of retooling on the fly without having very high picks. I mean, ninth overall, right, that's pretty high. But a lot of their other guys, you see people making impacts that didn't have to be first-round picks. So when you have a D like they do and two superstars, Carlson or Burns, one of them is going to be on the ice all game. That's kind of how it's going to go.

I mean, there'll be very few shifts when one of them isn't on the ice. And because of that, it'll be so easy getting out of their own zone that they're going to get these forwards to puck and in positions to make plays and have years that they really haven't had before. I mean, you know, notwithstanding Pavelski, Kutcher, and Thornton, guys who have done it forever. But incredible team. I think they're going to do a lot of damage.

I think it's a tough building to play. I know that. And it's my pick to win the Pacific. And, R.A., before you start going there, they've got this anti-Svomela coming over from Finland. I don't know too much about him. He's penciled in as a third-line center right now. I don't know what's going to happen.

Camp always changes things. And just some of these question marks, like Sorensen. He had 32 games during the regular season. He had a fucking awesome playoff. He ended up having four goals and an assist in the 10 games they played. But once again, he's not proven at the NHL level yet. So I'm interested to see what some of these guys bring. Another guy I'm not sure about is Don Squoy.

Obviously, he's fucking unbelievable. He's got some high-level skill. Just a little inconsistent. He lit up the Coyotes last year. I know that. He had 14 goals, 18 assists. I don't know if he's able to jump into that top six guys because another guy, Kevin LeBanc.

LeBanc, is that how you say it? I think, yeah, maybe LeBanc. LeBanc, yeah. He's good. Butcher, guys. Very good. Very good, but once again, small sample size. He had 77 games last year, 11 goals, 29 assists.

So a lot of the guys on their bottom six are a little unproven as far as doing it for many games, but should be interesting. Why did the Giants give Beckham $50 million? Their quarterback can't even throw the fucking ball. Hilarious. I was waiting for that. I just saw the fun bit. How are you?

How are you, Cowboys? We haven't actually mentioned any of the gambling odds yet, but I know you had said that you were going to take San Jose to win the division. Interesting, of two of the sites I used, one had the favorite to win the division at a plus 155, and the other site had them at a plus 350, which I'm going to try to jump on that tomorrow once my credit clears from fucking this week's debacle.

But if San Jose is going to win the division, Biz, they're going to need better performance from their goaltenders. I know you said Aaron Dell had a decent year last year, and he did good for a backup. But, well, Marty Jones, 255 is not too bad, but the 915 save percentage, again, that's just not what you want your number one goaltender to have. You want him at least 920, if not higher. So if Your number one goaltender to have, you want him at least 9-2-0 if not higher. So if they're going to

compete for the division, he's got to be better. Obviously, I think they're going to be one of the top three teams in the division if not win it. This stack man up front, just talking about what's his face, fucking Pavelski. He's 33 years old,

man. I didn't think he was that old. I mean, he still plays well. 22 goals last year. Logan Couture, he's having a hell of a career for himself. Great call for Pavelski. But, I mean, it's fucking – Adam Carlson is so huge, man. I mean, you can't say it changes that team at all. It just makes them that much better.

Like Witt said, they're going to have basically him or Burns on the ice all the time. You have two weapons like that on the back end. It's fucking tough to beat. I mean, Brent Burns led the team in scoring last year. 12 goals, 55 assists, 67 points. And if Carlson was on the team, he would have been, let's see, third in scoring on the team. So I don't know if that's indicative of their scoring depth not doing enough for the forwards or just that these guys are so fucking good.

But yeah, the San Jose definitely going to grab a playoff spot, whether they wrap up the division, that's going to depend on Martin Jones having a better year. Boys on to Vancouver. Do we even have to talk about them? Vegas. Yeah. You got it. Wow. Good job. Hey, Vancouver though. Vegas, yeah. You got it. Wow, Biz.

Good job. Hey, Vancouver, though. Everyone, just watch out. I don't know how this kid didn't go higher in the draft. Do you guys know who Elias Pedersen is? No idea. Okay, okay. You just fucking wait to see this kid.

He's going to be a superstar in the NHL. Incredible player. You think he's going to hop right in and make an impact? I'm not saying this year. I'm not saying right away. I'm saying in the future, this kid will be a superstar in the NHL. That's all I'm saying. I was just a little confused by their offseason moves.

Like, I love Antoine Roussel and what he brings. And, I mean, Jay Beagle, of course, he's been doing it a while over in Washington. I just wasn't crazy about the amount of money in the term. I mean, I just – I thought maybe it was a little bit unnecessary. Like, were other teams offering Jay Beagle, like, 2.2, let's say? He ended up getting, what, a three- or four-year deal at 2.5. That's a lot of fucking money to be paying a fourth-line center. Yeah, I think it was kind of the perfect storm in terms of you have a great year and you win the Stanley Cup as you're unrestricted.

Your whole team loves you. Your organization loves you. They know they can't pay you as much as you're going to get on the open market, but they're also happy to probably speak glowingly of you when people call and ask. So that's somebody who I'm, I'm glad he got that money. Um,

I don't, I mean, maybe he's a little overpaid. You're unrestricted. You win the cup and you play the role he did. You, that's what's going to happen. Uh,

but I've never heard a bad word about the guy. I just think that it's going to be a long year in Vancouver. You know, you think Besser right away is somebody that's fun to watch. But after that, it just gets – I mean, guys, Bo Horvat, like, you know, he's a great, great player. It's just like to look at all those top centers that he's going to be line match against in the Pacific, that's a tough task for him.

I mean, let's hope this Elias Pedersen comes on the scene faster than you thought with, because after that, the drop-off down the middle is Brandon Suter and Jay Beagle. I do like the addition of Antoine Roussel for the simple fact that at the beginning of the year last year, they had Dorsett in the lineup, ruffling feathers, and they were actually staying competitive the first 15, 20 games. So I'm assuming that Green wanted him to come over and play that identical role.

And Antoine Roussel can add a little bit of secondary scoring as well. Yeah, and also Sam Gagne, my former teammate in Edmonton, a good friend. He's there. He had a good year there last year. When I look at the D, it's funny. I remember when Alexander Edler came into the NHL, I thought he was going to be a Norris Trophy winner. He had some moments and seasons where it was just incredible.

I know he's battled some injuries here and there, but I'm interested to see the type of year he has because there's moments when he's so dominant, the way he skates. Similar to Ekman Larson a little bit, like back in the day at least, the way he skated, his shot's incredible. He hammers guys too when he wants. So that's somebody that could have a great year. Good Branson, a great leader. Good guy. Teammates love playing with him. We'll fight anyone.

He's someone that's, that's important to that team. It's just, you look at, you look at their roster and there's some very good players at the top end of the D and the forwards, but the depth is, is the biggest issue. And that's why I see them missing the playoffs again. Yeah, I agree with you there, Whit. I don't see them getting over the hump. I mean, they're fucking 30-1 the win in the division. That's a pretty large number to win a division.

You know, Brock Best had an outstanding rookie campaign, 29 tucks in just 62 games played. You know, he's probably going to improve on that. Bo Horvat's another kid who I like to watch. He seems to get better every year. But, you know, a huge loss. They lost the Sedin twins. You know, that's two guys that I know they haven't been putting up the same

numbers they did, you know, 10, 12 years ago. But they were still putting 50, 60 points a year up, providing, you know, a lot of leadership in the room, I'm sure, and, you know, doing what they do on the ice. That's two huge holes that you really just can't – Did I tell you that I was at that game, their last home game in Vancouver? Last year? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, when they gave the final salute, yeah. But it was awesome. And then I forget which one of them scored the OT winner. Yeah, I still get them confused all 20 years later they they played unbelievable that game they were buzzing around and and every time they were on the ice the whole crowd would be on their feet just cheering and stuff it was it was an emotional night um you don't like to see your team lose boys but fuck when this a game like that with those guys retiring it was nice to see him score the OT winner. Yeah, I'd like to see Legend get a send-off. And then

obviously the other one assisted on it. Of course, naturally. Also, we're probably going to look at young American defenseman Quinn Hughes. We should hopefully see him this year. Honestly, camp's just started up. I thought he, didn't he stay in college? That's okay. I was just going to say.

Going back to Michigan for the season. Okay, camp's literally just started this week. So I'm admittedly not up to date on who went back and who didn't. So scratch that. We don't have to restart it, but yeah, Beagle and Roussel, the Beagle sign.

And yeah, like you said, which teams love to pay for that championship quality. We started here in Boston, like guys who left for more money. They, and yet I think you see it in a lot of sports when guys win that championship,

there's a premium on them. Guys want to kind of pay for that championship caliber or whatever level they're bringing with them. So it's going to be interesting what happens there. What about Gaudette Grinelli? Is he looking to make the squad this year? What's the deal with him? Yeah, Gaudette will definitely push for a role there.

Okay. He'll be Baker winner. But the big thing for them again last year, Jacob Markstrom. You played with him in San Antonio, right? What's years ago? Oh, he's a golfer them all the time, didn't he? Yeah, best story of all time. Have I told it on here?

But when he was sleeping on the bus, have I said this story? Oh, yes, you did. You did. Tell it again. Tell it again for the new listeners. For anyone who missed that episode, we took a bus from uh oklahoma well yeah san antonio to oklahoma city and you know the bus left after our game say like 11 we get into oklahoma city like 6 a.m and guys just go right off the bus which is a sleeper bus uh so you know you got

your own little how do you how do you describe there's little like bunks on the bus that has like you know shades you can shut or whatever so everyone gets off the bus you just woke up and you just walk upstairs you go back to sleep well you know then you wake up at at noon and you have pre-game meal or whatever and we're down there we're like oh where's marky i must be sleeping. Doesn't he eat pregame meal? And then we get back down for the snack before the game, and we're like, oh, where's Marky? He must be over at the rink. We get to the rink.

Where's Marky? Finally, somebody gets in touch with him. This fucking savage was so tired and so asleep, he stayed asleep on the bus when we got into Oklahoma City. Everyone got off the bus, and next thing you know, the bus driver drives the bus 25 minutes to the bus graveyard. And Markstrom woke up like four hours later, and he looked out the window, and he was in a parking lot with 7,000 underbuses.

He's like, holy shit. Then he had to take his blanket. He had to get off the bus. He took his blanket. He chucked it over the barbed wire fence that, you know, doesn't allow junk boxes and scumbags to jump off the bus. He took his blanket. He chucked it over the barbed wire fence that, you know, doesn't allow junk boxes and scumbags to jump into the bus graveyard. So he had to throw his blanket over the barbed wire,

and he crawled over the barbed wire fence, and he, like, waited for an Uber and barely made the game in time. Oh, my God. Lucky he didn't get attacked by a fucking Doberman behind closed doors like that. I didn't know you guys had a game that day. I just thought he fell asleep, and then asleep and then in the morning he woke up. I love him. He's a handsome fellow.

Yeah, well, anyways, he needs to be a little better than his 9-1-2-2-7-1 last year if the Canucks are going to make the playoffs, which they're not. So, yeah, move on to the last team. Geez, Ray. A little miracle you never know. I feel like the Vegas Golden Knights put me on the map last year as a hockey personality. It was all in the wrong way, but I still got on the map. No pubs bad. Any pub.

What's the saying? Kind of like Dallas put JFK. Any publicity is good publicity. Kind of like JFK put Dallas on the map. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. That wasn't funny. That wasn't funny.

Too soon. That's a far present. Any publicity is good publicity, Ryan Whitman. Yeah, yeah. I got any publicity is good publicity. Oh, guess who they got, Whit? Your boy, Pauly Walnuts. Oh, Pauly Walnuts, who's promised to come on the day he retires.

Oh, he won't come on before i don't i don't know if he won't but he won't be nearly as cool as when he retires and comes on boys they're they're top six very uh very good looking that max patch already deal uh helping them out alex tuck they got him penciled in uh second line right winger he came came on the scene. That's a tough loss for the Minnesota Wilds, who I believe – Oh, they just let him go. I believe they gave him to Vegas in order to protect somebody else. So thank you very much. You know, their bottom six is a little suspect.

That Nosek, though, had a big playoff, so maybe he's ready to elevate his game. And, boys, as far as the back end, I don't know. I'm looking at this team and I think a lot of things still have to go right. Like they did last year in order for them to make the playoffs. Really? Yeah. I just was Schmidt going down their back end. Doesn't stand out a lot to me.

I believe Shea Theodore still doesn't have a deal. So right now they got two've got two young defensemen who will not be starting the season there. I'd imagine that they get something done before the season starts. But I like Colin Miller playing with them. They've got Nick Holden who signed there as well. But I don't know, guys. I feel like a lot of things went right for them

in this tough Pacific division. I think that they might even be the second worst team in the desert this year. So much for the paternalistic no biases, huh? No, zero bias. They got Marcia Shaw. They got Smith. They got

Carlson. They got Patch already. They got Paulie Walnut-Stastny. This team is going to be in the playoffs again. I was a moron. I'm dumb. You're smart. I'm stupid. You're not.

I'm ugly. You're handsome. I know I've heard it all. This team's good, man. I will say, though, I actually, in terms of when I tell everyone that we don't know exactly what we're talking about, I had no idea Shea Theodore didn't have a contract right now. That's shocking to me. I think it's a smart move by him.

He's got some leverage here. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want that. He's not signed yet. He doesn't have much leverage. Well, hear me out, though. Schmidt goes down for the first 20 games. You get a little bit more leverage. That helped.

Yeah, that definitely helped. Well, I'd imagine maybe something would be done by now, but when did Schmidt News came up? He was probably putting the stuff in Schmidt's workout shakes. Whoa, breaking, breaking. Grinnelli, send it out. Send the rumors out. Grinnelli, I forgot to tell you before,

I got a great picture of me and Zetterberg. You can throw that up on the Instagram. Nice. He's like, he's just throw that up on the Instagram. Nice. He's like, he's just teaching me lessons on the golf course. Vegas is sick, dude. They got Fleury and Nett. Imagine if now that I'm saying they're good, they're going to stink, though. Fuck.

I just think the atmosphere in the arena, guys love playing there. It's tough to go in there and win. And I just think it'll continue. I don't necessarily think they'll go to the cup final or have the regular season like they did, but I do think they're a playoff team, and that won't change. And they love playing for Gallant. It's a good team.

It's tough to play against, and it's going to be another fun ride for Vegas. And, R.A., before you chime in, the reason why I think they don't make playoffs is I just think that the Central is so strong that they're going to have a couple of the wild card teams. But either way, in the West, it's going to be a dogfight. Yeah, I mean, I think you could even argue they might have even gotten better. I mean, yeah, they did lose the real deal, James Deal.

They lost Perron, who didn't play a ton. Tata didn't really even play much in the Stanley Cup. I mean, he was scratched for most of the Cup. But they brought – they traded for and signed Max Pacioretty, obviously 30 goals – consistent 30-goal scorer. And then they brought in Paul Stastny, too. I mean, I know he's 32, but, I mean, we saw – I mean, shit, man. I wish we'd seen that kid in the playoffs for the last several years.

He was a gamer in the playoffs, Wits. I know you said you weren't surprised by it, but he was tremendous. And I guess him, Paul Stastny, in the playoffs for Winnipeg last year, he was absolutely tremendous. So I think the fact that they're adding him in, Pat, you're ready, losing, you know, Neal and those other two, I think you could even say they're better, man. I don't think you're going to have really much of a drop-off

with Marc-Andre Fleury. I think he needed to change his scenery. He's capable of doing this. We saw it in Pittsburgh. I think it was just what he needed. It kind of lit a fire under his ass. I don't see him falling off at all. And as far as the crowd, I don't think that's a first-year thing, man.

I think this is what it's going to be. I think Vegas is just such a unique place that they're going to be doing these wacky shows every night, the pregame stuff. The crowd is going to be into it. I think just that's going to be the atmosphere. I remember when you came to the Garden in the 80s, the crowd was on top of you. The Bruins were going to bury you in the corner. It's like the arena was going to have its own personality.

I don't see that going away. I think they're going to contend for the division as well. Wits to go to the yards. One side had them plus 280. The other had them plus 250. So they're almost a co-favorite with San Jose for the division. And I can see why. I think they'll be one of the top two in the division again.

A couple other mentions, boys. They got Carpenter who came over from San Jose who's a solid player. Witt, I know you liked him. You talked about him during playoffs. I remember, yeah. And then a little insurance policy with Oscar Lindbergh. I don't know if he's going to be penciled in at the start of the year, but they've got the American Hockey League affiliate in Chicago,

which usually doesn't mind stacking up with players. So, boys, listening to you guys, you kind of convinced me to maybe change my mind a little bit. I actually think that they're going to sneak into one of those later spots. I think it's San Jose, Vegas, Calgary is my three Pacific going to the playoffs. What's interesting is, just to go back to Vegas last year, they had five different goalies they started last year. I mean, Marc-Andre Fleury only started 46 games, which is low for a starter.

Malcolm Subban got in there, Maxime Lagasse, Oscar Dance got in a few, and then the kid Dylan Ferguson, they called him up, I think, from juniors for a couple games. So, you know, it's unusual for a team to have that much success in the regular season and have to rely on five different net-minders.

Well, that wraps up the Pacific Division. Going over the additions, the subtractions, what we think is going to happen. So now we're going to send it to two young superstars. I guess right now Eichel's superstar, Hannafin's not there yet. He could be. He's a man rocket, though.

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And now it's our pleasure to bring with you a recurring guest once again, Jack Eichel of the Buffalo Sabres, and a first-time guest, Noah Hannafin of the now Calgary Flames. Welcome to the show, gentlemen. Thanks for having us. Noah was only 25 minutes late, but it's cool. That's kind of how he does things when you're this handsome. You can be that late.

I want to hear, first off, the news about you getting traded. Where were you? I always like hearing trade stories. You knew something was going down, but what's the exact way you found? Yeah, so I was at my apartment actually during the draft. I thought something was going to go down. You knew, huh? Yeah, I thought something was going to happen.

I just been talking to my agent. With the new owner coming in, he's going to be making some changes. So I kind of had a feeling something was going to happen just because of money reasons and stuff like that. But nothing happened on the draft, so I was like, ah, whatever. Maybe it'll happen later in the summer. And next day, I went to the movie theater, actually, with my brother and sister, and got a quick buzz from my agent. And I was like, oh. Phone vibrated the movies, dude.

R.A. Perlman's going to kill you right now. So what? You got a message, and you're like, he said, call me? It was like, yeah, call me. It's important. And I was like, all right. And I went outside, and he was like, yeah,

I think you're getting traded to Calgary at any minute. And I had no idea Calgary was in the mix at all. And then you're like, I'm getting paid. You're like, oh, they're going to sign me to a ticket. Thank you. Well, I think you've got to be excited right away, though. Canada hockey, right? Like Carolina, there's 8,000 people at the game sometimes.

So you've got to be excited. Every night's going to be packed. No, I'm pumped, man. It's going to be sick. I mean, Calgary's a huge hockey town. And I know Johnny and I know Kachuk real well. Lindholm got traded with me over there. He's a great guy, great player.

He's had a good deal, huh? Yeah, he did. He's a really good player, too. I think he's super underrated. I think if they put him with the right players in Calgary, I think he's going to rip it up. They've kind of transformed a Canadian city to be fun to play in.

They've got such a good group of guys there. I'm not saying Calgary's a beautiful place, but playing Canada, it's cold. You think they could be in warm weather, golfing all the time. Yeah, but Calgary's never that bad, I don't think. They've got the Chinook winds. You ever heard of them? Oh. They keep it warm, I heard.

Oh, okay, nice. I'm guessing. I'm kind of making that up. All right, we've got another guy here, Jack Eichel. Not a big deal. Superstar, how are you? Thanks for coming on. Dude, talk to me about this year.

Talk about this summer, what's going on, and some big changes in Buff. How good is this D-man? Do you know? I mean, I've just watched the same highlights everyone else has. He gets me hard. Dude, he does. Those moves. The highlights are pretty good, huh?

They're filth. They're filth. So him snapping it up to you? Yeah, we won the lottery. Dude, he does. Those moves. The highlights are pretty good, huh? They're filth. They're filth. So him snapping it up to you? Yeah, we won the lottery. I was sully. I was pretty pumped we won. I mean, he's pretty ridiculous. Toughest piece to get now is like a number one D-man.

For sure. And they come at such a high price and teams aren't getting rid of him. And he's like a really, really good dude, which is cool. I went out and went to dinner with him after he got drafted before development camp and uh yeah he's a really really good guy like super like super chill he's um like no ego to him yeah swedes are the best people in the world he's uh he's almost like kind of like a little bit naive where like he doesn't even understand how big of a deal he is at all you know like people are coming up to us at dinner he like doesn't even understand how big of a deal he is at all. People are coming up to us at dinner and he doesn't even understand that yet. It's cool. He even

asked to split the bill with me. I thought that that was pretty cool. That's a classy move. I asked him to go to dinner and then he was like, do you want to split it? I was like, um... Did you see the contract he signed? I thought it was pretty cool of him that he asked. I was like, oh, I thought...

That's what biz went to the bathroom. No, that's what it is. Go to the bathroom. Well, so, like, yeah, I mean. I would have asked for your air miles, too. Do you have any extra points on that card that we could maybe transfer over? But, no, I mean, him getting, the fact you guys got him and then the big trade with O'Reilly, who I know you're boys with, but all the pieces you got back. Yeah. Yeah, we got a lot for him.

And people ask me, like, you know, what you thought of it. your boys with but all the pieces you got back yeah um yeah we got a lot for him and and people asked me like you know what you thought of it it kind of sucks because he was like one of my best buddies and we were really tight and there's kind of like rumors out there that me and him had like problems rumors like that are unreal which are like kind of ridiculous and and people were like running with it at the time and and it's kind of crazy because we were actually really tight he's like one of my best buddies and i just i kind of wanted to put those to rest there could be worse rumors though there's like rumors about guys crushing guys later i'm like this is not even true dude by the way you ever think like when those rumors are out that you guys just like make a video like

like or do something funny or to come out and say this is bullshit we were doing it all the time because uh he's he scored a goal last year, and I went over to give him a knock, and he kind of breezed me as a joke. And then the Buffalo media ran with it, and they were like, they were like, look at this, O'Reilly or Eichel, they're having problems, and me and him were dying laughing. So we started thinking every time one of us scores, breeze the other guy.

Everyone's going to think we don't like each other. Just take a high five. So we were messing around with it, obviously. You're like, all right, tonight we're going to take it to a new level. We're going to go toe-to-toe during the game. Yeah, dude, I'll let you hit me first, and then people will love it, though. They'll be running with it, and then you actually hate the guy. Well, either way, my question away from the NHL with these two,

Massachusetts, born and bred. Thanks a lot. Not a big deal. You guys were the number one guys. I heard about you two when you guys were like 12 years old. You're the same age, right? A couple months. Okay, but did you play on the same team growing up?

No. I'm 96. At the end of 96, I was born. He's early 97. All right, so not the same team. Yeah. No. So I'm 96. At the end of 96, I was born. He's early 97. Oh, so you – all right. So not the same teams. Yeah. Not the same.

But – Yeah, we played – Cross paths a decent amount. We played a lot. We played the U.S. program together. Yeah. So when did you guys go out there? For junior year or sophomore year?

I was a sophomore. I was junior. You were junior, yeah. Pioneer? Pioneer, yeah. People don't even know how good Ann Arbor is, do they? It's an unreal place to live. I love that place.

And you live in there in high school? How are your billets? Mine were great. Yeah, mine were great. I got kicked out of my first year. Yeah, mine were good. Shut up. What did you do?

It was the biggest bunch of bullshit. My buddy back home, Pat Foley, now he's a Boston cop. He was there, and he had this great family. So they were going to be done taking kids. They had a kid who was 11 or 12, and then a Boston cop. He was there and he had this great family. So they were going to be done taking kids. They had a kid who was like 11 or 12 and then a younger daughter. And I was out there. One night I crashed my car and I was like, oh, my father is going to kill me. So I made up a story that I got hit in the parking lot.

And he's like – my dad knew right away. He's like, okay, well, there's cameras in the parking lot. So we're going to call. I was like, oh, I was lying. I in the parking lot, so we're going to call. I was like, I was lying. I actually buried it to a basketball hoop back in our driveway. So he's like, go tell your Billet family

that you fucking lied about the goddamn car accident. Even though it was my car. So I tell the Billet family that and they're like upset. I was like, it's my car. What the hell is that about?

Fast forward, fast forward, Thanksgiving morning, I wake up in Green Bay. Do the Gamblers still have a team? Yeah. Just disgusting Thanksgiving morning. Mike Eves calls me at. Do the Gamblers still have a team? Just disgusting Thanksgiving morning. Mike Eves calls me at 7 a.m.

All your stuff's packed at the fucking Ann Arbor Ice Cube, Ice Square, whatever the rink is. You're kicked out of the house. I'm like, what did I do? I didn't do a book report for a Pioneer High thing and the teacher was like, where's your book report? So I told my billet mom. I'm like, I need the movie. You gotta go rent me the movie. She's like, why?

She's like, my teacher said if I didn't understand the book, the movie will help me. But I was just panicking. She called the teacher, found out that she didn't ask me to actually watch the movie, and then they packed up all my stuff. She threw my toothpaste in with my sweaters and just dropped the box off. I slept in my car one night at Pioneer

High. What? 17 years old, dude. I was like, fuck this. Hey, so you're homeless. Legit homeless scrub from Massachusetts at Pioneer High. It was 17 years old, dude. I was like, fuck this. Hey, so you're homeless. Legit homeless scrub from Massachusetts in Pioneer High. It was during, you know, people park there for the tailgates for U of M. Situate special. Yeah, I was just like trying to find internet on like

a Wi-Fi password from the school. Were you buckled when you crashed the car? No, I wasn't even like drinking then. I just, I was so, worst driver ever. Backed up, buried this basketball. Hey, you ever write them a letter, your old billets, or a phone call saying, hey, fuck you, look at me now? No, I didn't. I used to send the kid emails and then try to stay in touch, and they

gasped me from him. But yeah, that was my billet story. What was the book that you had to read? Catcher in the Rye. I don't even know what that means. And I was like, is it a movie? I was like, ah, fuck, I can rent the movie. Never the same. Yeah.

Did you do the whole action where Whitey happened with me? No. I was there, but I don't remember. Whitey's on his own planet, by the way. Colin White we're talking about. Yeah, Colin White. Unbelievable. Like, completely out of launch.

Best guy in the world. Rat rink. Rat rink. Tell that story quick before you go. Tell that story quick. Oh, my God. It was, what was it? We were, man. When you got trapped. Not only the combine. Tell that story quick before you go Tell that story quick Oh my god What was it We were at the combine

It was at the combine He was on stage Ottawa media They asked him to describe himself And he was like Describe yourself as an athlete He already can't speak by the way He can't speak if it was him and somebody else in the room.

Yeah, he's the best. And he called himself. He goes, yeah, you know, I like to refer to myself as a bit of a rat rink. And then his face. He was trying to say rink rat, but he called himself a rat rink. I'm a rat rink. And then the cameras on him after, he was like, like he knew right away that he called himself a rat rink. And then for like, everyone still calls away that he called himself a rat ring.

Everyone still calls him a rat ring for this guy. Oh, my God. What were we talking about before that happened? Speaking of ranks, we got to talk about this three-on-three league. Oh, where they beat up on locals. No, no. He was going into a story quick. Oh, he's got a side story. Sorry.

Yes. Go ahead. Yeah. So I lived alone. I live with another Bella family. Colin lived with his mom. But he didn't have his license at the time, but he had his car out there. So he wanted me to drive him and pick him up every morning.

With his car? I had his car. So I left early. I was running late for school. It was my fourth inter-route being late. And I took the wrong turn. In Ann Arbor, where we lived, it was kind of boonies. It was pretty dark.

And I took the wrong left down a street. it was a cul-de-sac. And I fly around the cul-de-sac and drive directly into someone's parked car on the inside. And total, total, Whitey's entire car. I freak out. I have to go knock on my neighbor's door. And I call Colin. Him and his mom drive. His car is a pancake.

It is completely flattened. Just wrecked his Jeep. It looks like he's about to cry. So you couldn't even pull up with it either you just had to call him like dude i just got me a jeep i was like i was like hey uh what do you know what's up he's like where are you dude i'm like i just totaled your car oh no wait so why were you going so fast around the conference like wiki late for school and i Can't be late at school. Can't be late at the program. No, no, but they have strict rules. Can't be late at

the program. Can't be late at the program. They're all about time. They marry you afterwards. Dude, they're like,

yeah, they get some army in them there. Like, you can't be late unless you're doing 90 in the college. Crash your buddy's Jeep Wrangler.

Well, of course, Whitey has a car and doesn't have his license. He's coming in here today. Like I said, I'm like, what are we going to say to him?

Like, Whitey, how are you? Oh, this guy's that dumb. No, no. He's a beauty. He's a beauty. He's a rat rank. Okay, so going into the three-on-three. Wait, should we let R.A. ask a couple hockey questions?

Because hockey fans like to hear hockey questions. I think hockey fans like to hear three-on-three with pigeons from Bentley. No offense, Bentley. More than they like hearing about their season. These guys are playing at the Tingsborough rink in three-on-three league. Tewksbury. It's Tewksbury. Tewksbury.

Tewksbury's super skilled. Tingsborough and Tewksbury are the same thing, I think, in my mind. So their team is you two, Evan Rodriguez, Daniel Regan, AHL Rookie of the Year, and Matt Grizzick, Bruins defenseman. You guys are losing games in this league? No, we haven't lost. We haven't lost, but we had a one-goal game our first week. We had some tight games, man.

We played the Whitney brothers from BC, and they're like sick. Guys are hiring Tortorella to coach their teams everyone's blocking shots everyone's committed we kind of mess around for a little but then it's fun yeah then we bear down like we were losing a few weeks ago with like 8 minutes left and then we kind of like alright we might as well

play a little bit here like where you score at one point you're actually fired up like a little bit of a fist bump no not at that point yeah you got the game winner with like 0.7 seconds left. That was the first one out that night and celebrated the game winner. I drove straight home from my bed. You guys are good. In Tewksbury.

Imagine how devastated the other team was. Like, we had him. We had him. Dude, we had a hashtag made up for it, too. We just couldn't seal the deal. Fuck. They fire torts. Alright, so who's the tender

in that? Our first week I don't know who the kid is. He was a Sebbies kid. He stood on his head though. He absolutely stood on his head and usually they rotate the goalies around and we were like, we leave him out to dry, like three on O's and shit. And he makes some good saves.

He makes the unbelievable saves. So we were like, all right, you're our boy the rest of the summer. He's like, yes. I bring him a big water every week. He's like, that's all he brings me, too, is fucking Poland Springs. Cost me 89 cents. Eichel, what a guy. Let's mention you guys, obviously, are American.

How long do you think before it takes for Americans to basically take over Canadians in the NHL? Oh! No, I mean, the percentage, I mean, it's been getting lower and lower every year for 20 years now. I mean, it seems like. Has it really been? Yeah, it's been dipping consistently.

I mean, do you think maybe 10 years that, you know, it's going to be even or is it going to take longer than that or what? I mean, numbers wise, i don't know but i mean think about like skill wise there's always going to be those top canadian players i mean think about a canadian the canadians could put two or three olympic teams in if the nhl went and and probably be pretty successful their second team could win yeah exactly so i mean i think like you think about it like that and there's a lot of really, really high-end Canadians in our league. But I think obviously the U.S. has done a really good job

and probably a pretty good amount of the top-end U.S. guys have come from the national team. And I think that's a pretty good feeder what they're doing with that. So to touch on the national team, do a lot of these kids have money growing up who end up going? I don't think it's – Well, the reason I ask that is because they've been doing studies. That's your angle as a Canadian, huh?

We're too rich? Well, no, no. I was going to say – You guys just do it on our sport. No, same thing with Canadians. In order to get to the level at the top in Canada, you have to have a stick handling coach now. You have to have all these coaches.

Ice time is so expensive. Equipment is expensive. Playing for teams too. So already on a national scale, you're eliminating a lot of people who just can't simply afford to put their kids through hockey. The reason why Scandinavians are getting better and better and better is because it it's it's open to everyone and they pass down equipment and and it gives everyone uh i wouldn't say a level playing field but if more kids are able to stay in hockey the older they get well there might have been a kid who was good enough to make it to nhl but his parents can afford to put him in hockey very true so that's why it's like i mean i it's going to continue to grow in scandinavia because of the

way they're doing it over there. And the Swedish people are the best people. And they're the best people, and they're athletic. Like I said, I was talking to a couple of the Finnish and Swedish guys, and they pass their equipment down when they're done using it. They don't just resell it or whatever. You think I was using a hand-me-down, dude? I had 70 goals when I was 10. Right.

But there's people who don't. Anthony Stewart was a guy. He didn't have a ton of money growing up. So a lot of the kids on the team's parents would chip in to help pay for his season and his ice time and his equipment. So that's a great question, all right. Thanks. And, yeah, I would say that the percentage of NHL is probably not a lot of poor kids that make it to the NHL. Because, you know, you do need some cabbage to play.

Not to say it's all rich. But I think a great story is Glenn Metropolitan. He played for Toronto. He's from Toronto, played for the Bruins. He's a guy who grew up in the projects in Toronto. His brother's in jail for murder, I think. Yeah, exactly. He's about as hardscrabble and blue-clawed as you can get.

He had shit growing up and fought his way to the NHL. I think the same could be said for the other side, though, for somebody who doesn't really have a whole lot. Obviously, their parents work hard to make sure that they have the opportunities to play. And I think that they take it. I mean, they appreciate it more. They don't take it for granted. And maybe their values are a little bit different.

I'm not saying you know because obviously i have friends that are on both sides of the spectrum and uh i mean i i didn't grow up like super wealthy my parents did as much as they could for me from the minute i started playing hockey and i think that you know now it's nice to be able to help them a little bit but yeah like you said i think about the poverty throughout the u.S. though. Some kids can't even play basketball or football. Hockey's probably the most expensive sport. Yeah, exactly. Equipment ain't cheap.

Actually, switching gears, I want to ask you something. How familiar are you with Calgary? I know you probably visit a couple times during the regular season. Do you know much about the town, the history, or did you kind of get a place here? No, I don't have a place here. I'm looking now. But I don't really know much about the town, the history, or did you kind of get a place yet? No, I don't have a place yet. I'm looking now, but I don't really know much about the city. I know it's a population

pretty similar to Boston. I know it's cold there, but I don't know too much about the city to be honest with you. I talked to Chuck and Johnny a bit, and they love playing there. It's like three hours from Edmonton, but ten light years, too. I think they get bunched in the same areas. Calgary's got a little more going on.

It's a lot more aesthetically pleasing. You're going to be at the Stampede next year. I was at the Stampede. I was with Johnny Goudreau. What was Johnny wearing for shoes this year at the Stampede? He was wearing Gucci's. Gucci cowboy boots. I don't know if I told the story on one of the previous podcasts, but him and Smitty and a couple other guys had to ride horses in the parade

for the Calgary Stampede leading in on Thursday. And he wore shorts, like regular golf shorts, and then Gucci boots. One of his buddies showed me a picture of him on this horse and these Gucci loafers, and he's fucking just having a gay old time. That kid is unbelievable. How does he get away with that? How does he do everything he does? I just love watching that kid play hockey and live off the ice.

I wish he lived in Boston. I know. Then he'd be out a lot with the boys. This one might be tough to answer, but with what went on in Carolina. I've just been hearing stuff about this owner just coming in, changing things up, ruffling some feathers. Yeah, not an ideal situation. Yeah, it was tough.

It's tough because they have so many good guys there. All the players are such beauties. I think a big positive for them is Brendan Moore coaching. I think Rod is going to do an awesome job there. What was he doing when you were there? He was an assistant coach. But I think he's just going to be a player's coach, and I think the guys are going to love him.

Obviously, he's a really hardworking guy, but I think he's going to do a great job. It's a weird situation because the owner came in, and I think he's obviously a really smart guy, but I think he is real hands on. He kind of wants to run the whole shit, but he's almost like the GM in a way. He's run the team. That never works.

It's a different situation there. It's pretty strange, but I hope Roddy and I hope the guys do well, obviously. Is Brendamore still a beast in the weight room? He's a sick person. It's insane. You should see this guy work out.

He'll put like a 40 pound weight vest on and go in the gym and just like rip pull-ups. Shut up, dude. He'll work out like three times a day.

He's the most shredded guy. That gives me anxiety to be on this team. I get depressed thinking about the fact that a guy like that much older than me is so much in better shape

and like I look... Try being me, dude. I know. you're even worse look at R.A. holy fuck ah shit well I mean you've moved on from Calgary I want to get back to more like

when you guys were younger what was the word about Eichel just like the next fucking Gretzky, huh? Like, when you were, like, 10, you're like, this kid. Was it already at 10? No. No, he, yeah. It was weird because when Jack got a bit off, when we were, like, 13, 12, 13, 14, he was

actually playing for the Junior Bruins. He was playing, like, Junior. So, we were all playing. Like, I was playing for the Kings at the time. Like, the Social Kings. Yeah, you have, like, a game Sunday at 8 a.m. Yeah. Exactly. He was playing Saturday night. He was playing, like, Junior. So, like Social Kings. Yeah, you have a game Sunday at 8 a.m. Yeah, exactly. He was playing Saturday night.

He was playing junior. So I didn't really see him a whole lot. And he was a year older. So I didn't really see him a whole lot until we started going to those festival camps. And then I went to the U.S. program with him. But yeah, man, he was just nasty. Fuck, Michael. You were just that – was that hard for you?

You know you're the best player. Are you just always thinking, I'm getting better, I'm getting better? Not listening to what people are saying. Well, I mean, it was more like a comparison. It was more of a comparison like around here, right? But then you think about you go to a tournament and you see a kid from Chicago or Toronto or Montreal and you feel like there's always someone better than you.

So you kind of think about it. I always thought about it like that. And, you know, there always was somebody better. There always still is. And so I think that was kind of my motivation to just try and work. And it was good because there were so many guys around here that were so good, like him and all the other guys that we grew up with, Whitey. It was a good age group for Mass.

It was a really good age group that I think we pushed each other because we were competitive. We always wanted to be better, and I think it ended up working out. Yeah, it did. You think? Yeah. I don't know if you saw what you signed last summer. It worked out. Going back to Carolina, Noah, what do you think the pressing issues are for that franchise to succeed down there?

Is it just like a lack of interest in the area? It just seems like they're trying to get over the hump. I mean, do you think they'll ever make it? I mean, I know they won a cup in 06, but it seemed like they let the air out after that. Yeah, it's tough, man. I think it's one of those markets where unless they're winning and they're nasty, they're going to have a real hard time

getting fans in the stands. When I was there, I played three years, and we probably sold out once or twice the whole season. That's so like just get sold. It's just tough. And then when you see, you know, I mean, say you play like the Rangers, right? I mean, it's all Rangers fans. I know, I know.

A lot of people from the North moved down to North Carolina. So that's their one struggle, I think, is just getting a solid fan base where you're going to get consistent people showing up. But that's why it's going to be a bit different from maybe in Calgary just because it's going to be sold out every night. So I'm excited. It's so easy to get up to play there. Oh, yeah.

It's going to be awesome. Well, it's all there is. You know, it's like that's like the town really revolves around that team. I don't know if you've answered these questions too much, but what's with the number change? Oh, yeah. He changed his number. He went with LeBron on it.

I love it. Don't call him LeBron. Don't call him LeBron. No, he's actually opening up a school, but it's like a hockey school. Making notebooks or whatever. Don't have to tape your stick, right? I'm going out for warm-ups with my kid. When I get older,

I'll be ripping shots on a nine-year-old goalie. Did you see that video of him? The windmilling at his kid's hand? That was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. He doesn't want the attention. Let me windmill a nine-year-old. He had headphones on, too. He had beats on.

Do you see that? I'm not the biggest LeBron fan, but I feel like... I appreciate everything he does. I think he's unbelievable as a person. It's incredible. I'll say that. Are you really?

I have to. Do you like him? I like him. I just don't like his antics on the court. The flopping and just like – every interview he's got earphones in. To me, it's like he's so nice in some areas where to me, that's just disrespectful to the person asking questions. so nice in some areas where to me that's just disrespectful to the person asking questions. Anytime a media person came

up to me, I'm giving them my utmost respect because they're the people that fucking, well, they're you. Yeah, yeah. And just because if I was the one asking questions, I wouldn't want fucking someone with earbuds in. I'd feel like a pigeon.

Next summer when Eichel comes on, when you talk, he's just going to put beats over his head. Fuck this guy. I always wanted to get nine back. I thought it was a good opportunity too. Obviously, we've had a couple tough years in Buffalo, so I figured maybe switch it up. I wore it

at BU. I wore it before BU a little bit. Holy Baker. I just thought it was a good opportunity to grab it. I'd rather me change and get it than somebody else come along and grab it, and then I'd kind of regret not having it. And then have to buy them a watch. Does that happen in the NHL? In MLB, when you go in, let's say you get traded to a team

or you want a number that a guy has. You played in the NHL, dude. Well, I know, but I've never heard cases of it happen where a guy says, hey, man, I want that number. I think that there's been a few cases of guys going in places. Go ahead. Oh, no. You have to, Jack.

I can't think of them off the top of my head, but a couple guys have changed their numbers for an older guy coming in. Well, we talked about a few weeks back, Samu Solani wanted Randy Kyle Lyle's number, right? Didn't we talk about it? And he asked him, and Randy Kyle Lyle flipped out on him. Yeah, even for asking. He was buying my fucking number, yeah.

Yeah, he offered him money for it. But in the MLB, it's kind of like a known tradition. If you come in and you have seniority, the younger guy will just give you the number, and then that older guy has got to get him a watch. Which is like nothing. It's a quick rolly. What did JBR go to?

He went to 25 from 21. For what reason though? I thought he was always 21. Did somebody else come in or were they retiring in 21? Who wears 21 in Philly? I don't think anyone. When he was in Toronto, he changed. Toronto has

so many like have you seen how many retired numbers like what do i pick dude like what number yeah them in montreal uh one question i had for for ike's is how excited are you for the team this young team coming up because when i was younger i grew up 40 minutes from buffalo and they had that's when they were making their runs dude it was such a fucking fun sports. They go fucking ape shit. That's the thing. It's like last year the Bills made it to the playoffs

and the city almost blew up. They were going nuts over the fact that they made the playoffs. It was really cool and then just for us, it's good that the excitement's kind of getting back and it's good that we got Rasmus and and you know things are looking positive again obviously you want that

excitement going into your season so it's just another opportunity and and like you said like they really appreciate us and for us not being successful last few years you still get treated so well there which it's pretty amazing yeah it's like they they're they're like thanks so much for everything you do and you kind of think in yourself if you were in some other markets people wouldn't even talk to you you know so yeah and good luck no appreciate it how do you find the balance between bills mafia and being a member of patriots nation like how's that work yeah it's a little weird obviously because i'm like a die of Patriots Nation. How does that work? Yeah, it's a little weird, obviously, because I'm a diehard Patriots fan. And I don't know.

If the Patriots play the Bills, I'm rooting for the Pats, but I silently do it. And I root for the Bills in every other game. I love the Bills, obviously. I had a conversation. Our owner actually owns both teams, and he was like, I actually really appreciate the fact that you didn't switch over. It shows your loyalty to your team.

Oh, yeah. I think people would hate you for doing that. They're like, wait a minute, you're from Boston. I'm a switchover. I'm a big wall back at the 2004 World Series. I've almost gotten a scrap. Matty Kachuk's father, yeah, because he was all geared up in Sox gear because he moved to St. Louis, but he stayed a Sox fan.

And they were about to get swept, and they're like, fuck you, Kachuk. Go back to Boston. He tried to go after him in his shit face. It's like father had to hold him back and shit. Walt's a monster. Yeah, I hate it. I saw him out in St. Louis one time when I got cut. Thanks a lot.

I was flying home. I'm like, Big Walt, what's up? He's just a man. He's a monster too. Like he'll just, you could just tell his hand gives you a high five. You're like,

what the fuck? This dude is just a beast out there. When we were younger, we played for like the Junior Bruins and he was one of the coaches because Matthew put up this one when he was like 10 years old. And I remember like he was,

it was towards the end of his career and then he retired. And the next summer we came back to play in the following tournament and he literally looked like an absolute unit dude he was like he had it in like car accident swallow the airbag holy fuck but i guess guy ever wait is kachuk your guys age he's my age what a crew huh he was at the national team with us too you guys won the world then for

sure yeah i did our goal did. We were on the same world team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Kuchuk and you. Yeah, yeah. Dude, yeah. That team was so fun. It was Matthews,

Kuchuk, a bunch of guys. Whitey, it was fun. Wierenski, McAvoy. Which is nice because it's a young,

you know, this next generation of guys kind of like hockey nerds. They're a little different. But all those guys you just mentioned ain't hockey nerds. They're fucking... No, But all those guys you just mentioned ain't hockey nerds. They're fucking...

Yeah, Wierenski slept through three of these interviews, I think. He's told us, what is it, three times he's going to come on? And every time he's fucking, I'm sorry, I was asleep. The interview was at noon.

I'm like, this kid must be... Hey, he must do all right for himself, too. He's a handsome fella, big guy. He's a player, huh? He's a really good player, yeah. That guy's got some skill.

Sick, man. Yeah, he does. Hey, so what college did he come out of? Michigan Okay so he went and joined the Lake Erie Monsters And we played them in the conference finals They won it I think They won it

Man I'm like who the fuck is this guy He never played before Because he just joined the team He was playing like 25 minutes in playoffs He's like coming down the ice And like I'm forechecking him And he's like giving me head fakes You tore your other 18, huh?

But don't fucking joke about that. But no, he's got alligator blood. He's big. He's strong. He's got a good stick. He's fucking sick offensively. This kid was like, what was he, 18 when he came into the American League? He was the best defenseman in playoffs.

And I'm like, this is going to be the next Jay Bowman. He's going to play 20 years in the National Hockey League. Maybe an even little more offensive skill though. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he's going to make bank. He's is going to be the next Jay Bowman. He's going to play 20 years in the National Hockey League. Maybe an even little more offensive skill, though. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he's going to make bank. He's probably going to make 100 sheets. I love those guys that make bank.

I love it. Hannafin joined one of the country clubs I play. Yeah, I have two. Wallace and Golf Club. And this year, these two waitresses are like, who's that guy you were talking to? I'm like, no, Hannafin. They're like, oh, my God.

He plays hockey? I'm like, Jesus Christ. This're like, oh my god, he plays hockey? I'm like, Jesus Christ. This kid's got something going on here. I'd say panty soup, but then I'm pretty sure a feminist would write another article about it. So we would say that if it was a couple years ago. Did you know that the Phoenix Cowboys got a phone call

about two weeks ago when some lady was writing an article about the fact eight years ago I had these panty soup shirts from sauce hockey and wanted to write an article about a t-shirt that was made eight fucking years ago sorry i gave them out to girls like jeter what do you want me to do like sexist and i'm like listen there's nothing wrong with saying a girl's got a lady boner over me that's like that's not sexist that's just calling it how it is because that whole term is like when you know you come skate on the ice and ice and no helmet and warm-ups

and all the ladies are getting excited. Panty soup. Is there nothing wrong with that? Not one bit, dude. We've grown up on that. Any big stuff this summer? Any vacations? Nothing? Just chilling? Just working out, dude? We're in Chatham this week. I'll be down there.

Yeah, dude. We're playing golf right at Eastwood Hill a few days. That's a track. Yeah, man. How's your game? It's all right, man. I'm getting better. Do you love golf? I love golf.

So you have the bug? I love golf. It's crazy, huh? It's so fun. It's so frustrating, though. I started playing a few years ago, so it's kind of an easy transition from hockey. Hardest sport in the world, would you say? 100%.

There's nothing close. And it looks like the most simple because it's just sitting there easy transition from hockey. Hardest sport in the world, would you say? 100%. There's nothing close. And it looks like the most simple because it's just sitting there right in front of you. As we're watching Tiger Woods during this interview, he's four under. Thanks a lot. This will probably come out in December too. Maybe he'll win the Firestone Bridgestone Invitational. On to you. No trips?

Coachella? No? Yeah. I mean, I was out in California a little early in the summer, and then I went to a few. I went – I golfed was out in california a little early in the summer and then i went i went to a few i went i golfed down in kiwa for a little nice yeah it's nice down there um was in nash for a weekend uh i went over i've been in tuckett so just here and there just getting away you guys skating every day now this is august 1st we're recording. Yeah. Four days a week now, you think? Yeah.

That was my fourth skate of the week and I got two more, so six this week. And you're skating twice tonight, Buffalo Sabres, so try to keep your hands off yourself. Yeah, you're skating twice a day in early August. This guy's getting 900 points this year. We have anything else for these legends? It's August

2nd, just in case anybody wants to. Oh, it's August 2nd? Just in case these guys are playing. Every day is Friday to me, so I don't sometimes know. Life every day is Friday. Exactly. Wait until you retire, man. You're going to quadruple the money I have.

My life's great. You'll quadruple the life. Fuck. I want to ask Jack what's going on with your bike buddy. Is he going to sign soon here? Yeah, I talked to him the other day. I mean, I don't know if... Reinhardt. Yeah, Reino, bike buddy. Yeah, I mean, he'll sign. I mean, they'll figure it out. He's a really, really good player. He had an unbelievable second half. Unbelievable, yeah. Unbelievable. I mean, he's only getting better too. And it was a little

bit weird because in the beginning of the year, they kind of tried him out at center for a bit. He hadn't played center in a few years. He was kind of trying to adjust to that. I think he struggled a little bit playing in the middle. We lived together. I think he was a little bit frustrated playing in the middle. I thought that he played better on the wing. As soon as he started playing on the wing,

I think he was a point per game last 50 games of the year. I mean, he played really well. Was he really? Somewhere like that. Yeah. 45 and 45. I just didn't even know his old man played in the NHL. Have you seen that guy's numbers?

Yeah. I mean, yeah. He's a, you talked to Mr. Reinhardt. He's like a unbelievably smart hockey guy. I fucked up. How all of his boys played. And like my first question was, yeah, so you play? Dude, I had 900 more points than you had minutes played.

You could tell he went from kind of like a half smile to like this fucking loser. I'm here watching this shitty movie he made with my kid in it and he's going to fucking ask me if I played? Hey, before we go. Give me a break. You don't even want to go to this movie and this kid's chirping me.

Before we go, Noah got a sleeve tattoo. It makes you even hotter. What did you get? That's a sleeve right there. Are you going to finish that? Yeah, we're going to finish that. Dude, that just gets you like enough.

Alright, show them your tramp stamp. That just gets you like – All right. Oh! All right. Show them your tramp stamp. Dude, that's sick. How Boston is that right there? Every kid I know has that on their quad with hockey sticks going through it.

Hey, Ryan Lannan. Irishman on the head. 29-inch hockey sticks. Ryan Lannan. I think you might have both. Every Boston kid has hockey stick shamrock name usually misspelled. You know the Keith Yandel story, right? Oh, yes.

Tell this. This is great. I'm sure listeners know this, but these guys don't. So him and Chris Bork and Billy Ryan, I don't know if you know all those guys. They're best friends at Cushing Academy. They're going to get tattoos, and Chris Bork goes first. You know, Bork. They were getting like a – not a Celtic cross, something

like that. And Keith's like, yeah, I'll get the same thing. And he starts and then Billy Ryan comes in. He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop. Keith's like, shut the fuck up. Dude, he is putting Bork. He had B-O-U-R and Keith Yandles back so far because he just said the same thing. So Keith has this like

tribal symbol through Bork and then like Yandle above it. It's disgusting. Terrible. Did he not cover it up? No, he did a line through the first four letters of Bork. I think he's actually gotten, since then, I played with him when he had that god-awful one,

but I think he covered it up with a nice one. Jumpstart a puke, no joke. Oh my god! Oh, kiss! No,. Oh, my God. Kiss. No, I didn't. Dude, pull your. Oh, dude.

Look at those hairy quads. Jack, I look like Torrey Krug with these quads. I mean, dude. That's my other tat. I got that in 93 and I got that in 89. Oh, dude. Oh, my God. That's the worst one I've ever seen, dude. By the way, it's not even Penn State.

You do better off with Penn State and a Diddler instead of Plymouth State and a fucking tiger. The worst tattoo is Brian McDonough's. Have you seen Brian's? No. Brian has a Tasmanian devil with a football and a hockey stick. No, he doesn't. Who does?

Dude, it looks like a demented action figure. I don't even know what it is. No, Eric Nystrom, dude. Niall, come on this. He's a great guy. He's the worst I've ever seen. Above his, like, on his pelvis, it's like respect, passion, like, love. I don't know

the three words, but it's three words like that just right above his horn. Like, I'm like, Ni, what the fuck? He's like, I know, I know. So we'll have him on and discuss that terrible tat. Two or three words, like, don't ignore balls. At one point, I wanted a tat and I'm so, imagine my body with tats, So we'll have him on and discuss that terrible tat Two or three words like don't ignore balls At one point I wanted a tat

And imagine my body with tats dude You gotta be ripped and tan with tats Like if I had tats no offense alright It would be disgusting Yeah I kind of regret My scarecrow on my arm No this has a jack-o-lantern That's like a stale jack-o-lantern

From 17 days after Halloween? I just get so tan this summer, it basically just looks all black. When did you get that? Oh, fuck. Was it over a long period of time? No. I got this probably back about 10 years ago. What'd you do when you got that done? Maybe a little more. You watch a show

or something or just kick it on your phone? So the guy who did this just rocked it. The guy who did it actually is Steve Ta on by Steve. So the guy who did this just a rocket. So the guy who did it actually is Steve Taft. You want to show Ink Master? Yeah, yeah.

It's on like A&E or whatever. Yeah, that fashion show. He won it. So I was like, I'm going to get a tattoo on my eyes. I was like,

reach out to him. He's in Connecticut. It's like an hour from my house. I'm going to go to the best guy. Yeah, so I reached out to him.

He's like, yeah, come down. He is the biggest beauty ever. And he flies. So actually, story, I wasn't even supposed to get this. Oh my God. I was supposed to go get a consultation and just talk about ideas like yeah i come down he is the biggest beauty ever he's any flies so like actually story i wasn't even supposed to get this oh my god i was supposed to go get a consultation and just like talk about ideas and stuff and like that's like i'm gonna go look at a car and then you leave with yeah and he's like um actually the guy i was supposed to do is like back though so let's just

do it now and i like wasn't ready to tattoo at all like this is like it was like four or five hours like the outside one so i I was like, all right. And he just goes and he just turns on the death metal, blasts it up and it starts ripping, man. I was like, oh, he's listening to like Pantera.

What is this? What's the significance? Like, who is that? So I actually, that's St. Sebastian, Patriot Saint of Athletes. Oh, dude, that's a prep school around here.

That's where he went. What a sicko. All boys school. That's a fair tiger though, where I went. Yeah. So I don't know. I'm going to do something back there. Probably get a cross. Yup. That's where he went. What a sicko. All-boys school. That's a fair tiger, though, where I went. I don't know. I'm going to do something back there. Probably get a cross. That's a lion.

What's the difference? They're the same family, aren't they? Meow. This is the worst man ever, man. Inside? Wow. You're going to have you, Monaghan. What other handsome guys are you going to have on that team in Calgary? Oh, yeah.

Sweet, sweet, sweet. He's hot as shit. He's hot as shit. Who else? Giordano's not exactly like the hottest. I'm thinking of the captain, like assistant captain and stuff. Who's the coach in Calgary? Bill Peters.

He's actually in Carolina. No way. So you both went together. Yeah. Are you boys with him? Nice. Well, thank you very much, guys. On to another season. We'll see you next summer. Thank you very much

to Jack Eichel, Noah Hannafin. Noah's over in China right now. It should be fun. Jack Eichel's getting ready in Buffalo. But I think that the way we did it, it's pretty interesting today, boys. We went over the Pacific Division. For everyone at home listening,

let us know if you like it. The way we did it like that, we can keep it more concise. We're not really exactly sure, but going over each team, we figured that's the best way to do it. So give us some feedback in terms of how you want us to kind of go over the other three divisions in the league,

and that's going to be coming in the next three episodes. That was a fun time with Jack and Noah, huh? Yeah, it was. Those guys. One of my buddies said, oh, is Noah Hannifin quiet? And I said, I kind of thought he was, but he's not. He was great to hang out with. Good dude.

Now that I've gotten to know him, a lot of fun. But those two guys growing up, and I know they were one year apart, but just the fact that they're both this good and grew up playing against each other, it's pretty cool. Yeah, it was fun shooting the shit with them. Go ahead, Grinnelly. What did you say, pal? I was going to say both two very, very rich kids now. Yeah, it was fun shooting the shit with him. Go ahead, Grinnelly. What did you say, pal? I was going to say both two very, very rich kids now.

Yeah, I know. Grinnelly, your contract. Grinnell, I had a couple questions for you. It's like a day for them. Grinnell, I had a question for you. After all the information about you dropping all that money on that tab and then you talking about it on here, obviously your buddies probably listen to

the show did anyone send you any venmos after hearing the interview nah uh i've gotten some of my buddies have bought me beers at the bar and they kind of all like give me the benefit of the doubt now what's that mean so if i say i'm not paying this tab like i'm not buy my beers and they're like all right okay all right that was right okay you know manning's a bum you know you should have a punch card for each one of them and have their names on it i like i would say what eight beers each but i'll tell you i get i've gotten a lot of dms from from listeners and stuff of just like random people who are like fuck your friends if you ever want a beer you're ever in edmonton i'll buy you a beer you're ever in tormonton, I'll buy you a beer. You're ever in Toronto.

And a pair of shoes. Yeah. And a pair of Aldo's. So I guess. Oh yeah. Also, Hey, my Instagram follows shout out. I, I, I love the replies, but I'm still like figuring out the whole like way to reply to each one. I wish I could do it online. Like, cause I like, Hold on, hold on. What do you mean? You're still figuring out how to reply? Well, cause some replies, they go to one thing it seems like and other replies like once you

reply to them it goes to like another pile i wish like a story if you do a story a reply is going to go to your dm and if you just do a picture and someone writes in the picture it'll be all under the comments yeah no i know how to reply like on the comments but when and when people just are replying to other shit basically basically, I'm not ignoring you. I'm just, I wish I could sit on the laptop and do it, but I can't figure out how to fucking reply on the laptop either. And I'm not an old fuddy-duddy. I'm an early adaptor.

You sound like a complete. Hey, Whit, I was thinking this. I want to start an Instagram for Ryan Whitney, and we'll have Grinnelly run it and just post it. I don't know. Yeah, we talked about this. I don't know. I don't know, dude.

Yeah, it has to be Whit. Hey, why are you private. I don't know. We talked about this. I don't know. I don't know, dude. Why are you private? Do you want strangers seeing your shit? Do you want them hitting on your old lady or something? All of a sudden, people are just tapping my old lady. I'm walking into this big ass house and there's some chicklets listening or just... I'm here for the gangbang. I'm like, what the fuck happened? I should have never gone public

on Instagram. They saw my wife. There's a lot of weirdos out there busy and you got to be a little protective i was always pretty private i don't know i don't know speaking of weirdos i have like sometimes i'll get some people like i don't mind replying to everyone i got guys like dming me and then sometimes i'll read it and i just like put like a heart because i'll write like six paragraphs and then i get the like message back like oh like i know you think i'm an idiot, and I'm like, man, I get fucking hundreds of these things. Can I actually have a social life? I do two podcasts

a week now. I got to work with the coyotes. I'm trying to fucking do work on the back end for the boys, and now I got to worry about fucking answering the customer service for spitting chiclets. Well, actually, I got a real good message a dm whatever which did you get the picture i sent to our group text the memory remember the last episode you talked about carlson's unbelievable like moon high sauce pass against the bruins yeah remember you mentioned the last episode huh it was to hoffman exactly so someone dug up the clip and it was carlson was passing it to Mike Hoffman, the guy whose wife allegedly slandered his wife. So just kind of weird coincidence that you mentioned that clip and it happened to be the guy who got traded as a result.

I went to a wedding Friday night. Wow. My wife's friend. You looked great, by the way. I saw your picture. Oh, dude, how hot did I look? You looked good. I got so wrecked.

Some kid came up to me at the bar, and he's like, hey, I love spitting chiclets, and we're just shooting shit. Thanks. He's like, can I get you to video saying not a big deal? Dude, this someone out there has a video of me just loaded cross-eyed, just slurring, not a big deal a big deal like farm animals sometimes it's like telling us what to do like take a picture with this do that but we don't mind i like fun oh i was buckled my wife and i got a hotel down the cape i woke up i had no clue where i was she's like you told the same story

you told the story about your bus ride in the ushl that was 20 hours long you told it for the 15th time i'm so sick of that story for fuck's sakes uh our wives you know the wit's drinking hey it's amazing how much the that strangers that listen to the podcast think we're cool and all the people hanging out with us are like you're a fucking loser i've heard this yeah but heard this story. They come up and you meet the person that likes listening to chicklets and then they probably think I'm going to be funny and then

after five minutes I just haven't said anything. I'm just on my phone. They're like, this kid sucks. Thanks a lot, Eli Manning. Thanks a lot for nothing, you fucking scum. I gotta go catch Insecure. Peace out. See you, boys.