Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 125: Featuring Brent Sopel + Teddy Purcell

Episode Date: November 15, 2018

On Thursday's episode of Spittin' Chiclets the guys are joined by Teddy Purcell and Brent Sopel. Teddy stops by to discuss what it was like to be at Martin St. Louis's Hall of Fame ceremony along with a few other stories. And Sopel joins to discuss his entire career, his dyslexia, what he's up to now and a ton more. The guys also touch on some news around the NHL as well as a quick NBA rant from Whit.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. Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 125 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by New Amsterdam Vodka. It's going to go around the table and say hello to the fellas this evening. Start out in the dirty desert with our boy Biz Nasty, Paul Bessonet. What's up, brother? Hello, everybody.

Ooh, stealing my thunder uh next we got a man i think i don't know if whitney's on his cb on his trucker radio but he's commuting back to boston uh ryan whitney what's up brother where's your exact location right now what up what up i'm back pass an exit to be webster ave on like 95 north there's a trucker next to me he's probably got a hooker in the car too some. Some of those truckers are filthy animals. Dude, I'm giving him the dude, dude, dude, dude. He won't give it to me. I'm too old.

What's going on, guys? I'm much fucking snorting truckers. You're a fucking clown. Snorting truckers delight, no doubt. And finally, our producer down in New York City, Mikey Gurnelli. What's up, brother? What's up, boys? I'm very excited. We have a ton of new merch dropping this week, including some awesome ugly sweaters.

So I'm very excited for those boys. What did you get? A rat in your room? Oh, yeah. So so, boys, he's gone. I think we got these like sonar things that you plug into all the outlets and I haven't seen him. So I think he's gone and I think I won the war. Yeah, he's gone, except for the 17 million other rats and mice that live on that God forsake island with you. That's true.

That's right. Dude, I love how you're saying a sonar thing. Like, it's a thing. You don't know what it is. You didn't just get a mousetrap. No, we got old school mousetraps. But we have these like sonar things. I don't know.

My roommate got it for us. And I don't know. We just plug them in all the things. And these little fuckers aren't around anymore things. I don't know. My roommate got it, got it for us. And I don't know. We should plug them in all the things and these little fuckers aren't around anymore. So I think they work. Fucking shred the Mises to pieces. All right, boys.

Monday, we had the, this year's hockey hall of fame induction ceremonies. Pretty good class. And right now, I think the last couple of years, we've gotten the classes of guys we grew up watching. Well,

maybe not so much Grinnelly, the youngster of the group, but all these guys, we had the pleasure and joy guys we grew up watching. Well, maybe not so much Grinnelli, the youngster of the group, but all these guys we had the pleasure and joy of watching. And, you know, as they played, we knew we were watching Hall of Fame careers. Let's go through the roll call here. The guys, well, the one lady who made the Hall of Fame, let me find my notes right here. Martin St. Louis, spitting check, that's alumni.

Martin Brodeur, probably the best, what do you call it, everything on the line goalie in history of the game. Willie O'Ree, the first black to play in the NHL. In addition to, he started the diversity program with the NHL to branch out to children all over the continent. Alexander Yakushev of the fabled Soviet teams of the seventies. Jaina Hefford was a Canadian women's player and and uh good old gary betman was uh inducted into the hall of fame as well so uh guys did you have a chance to catch any of the speeches or any

of the ceremonies the other night biz uh i did not but uh you know a few guys that once again i grew up uh watching that's kind of nice because before like before the last couple classes i felt like out of touch and uh i'm not much of a historian. I didn't watch a ton of hockey growing up. I was too busy playing at making the NHL, not a big deal. But one thing I would say is I'd put Marty Brodeur in the body-defying science category of that generation. Like, where, like, you would probably see him walk in the street

and be like, oh, that's just your average Joe. But, probably see him walk in the street and be like oh that's just your average joe but no that's actually the greatest goaltender that ever lived would you agree with yeah i mean he he has all the records here 100 i think it's 125 shutouts right around that i don't know if i have the number exactly right his wins will never look like it'll never be touched he's just i mean it was 22 years of that guy 22 years of him just making big saves he also was i mean i don't know if he was the first he was definitely the best to play in the puck he was pretty much a third d-man he was just skating out there roly-poly bing bang tape to tape like better than most d-men and then he'd make

these six saves and he was a kind of a hybrid. He wasn't, you know, butterfly. He just had his own style. I guess Hasek did, too. So, I mean, that was – the night was awesome. I mean, I loved Martin St. Louis' speech. We posted a little bit of it on Spittin' Chicklets, I think, of, you know, how he's saying don't ever give up. I mean, usually when you think of, like, a kid making the NHL,

they go through adversity, whether they're 12 years old or 10 years old. People are like, oh, he can't play in the NHL. What do you want to be? I want to be in the NHL. Oh, pick something else. Can't do that. I mean, that's not really adversity, but it's people telling you you can't do it. That's what everyone's used to.

He had to deal with that, not only growing up, but when he was in the NHL. Calgary signed him out of college, but then they waived him. I mean, then he had a team quit on him. He ends up being in the Hall of Fame. Are you shitting me? I was working with EJ Raddick this week. He mentioned that he was scouting with Dallas when he played at UVM with Eric Tarrant.

They were freak shows. Absolute freaks up in Vermont, just dummying people, probably crushing Ben and Jerry's after. And even then, the other scouts you gotta go see this kid play you gotta go see him play he's like oh well who drafted him nobody he won't play in the NHL he's too little but he's incredible in college so his speech was awesome um it was a cool night Willie O'Ree well deserved what the fuck took him so long to put Big Willie in I mean god that guy's been a first black player ever played the Jackie Robinson of hockey

you gotta get him in sooner so I'm glad that he's been a first black player ever to play the Jackie Robinson of hockey. You got to get him in sooner. So I'm glad that he's finally there. I met him last year. Just a hell of a man. No, a lot of good points there. I'm going to go back to Marty Brodeur, probably known best for his rebound control, his timely saves. He's an absolute gamer.

I actually heard that he used to play a game. You know, we all play rebound he used to play one where it was he had to control the rebounds where if he could end up getting it in the mesh above the glass where he would get score points and that's how he worked on his rebound control just to like kill plays and you know help out his defenseman of course he was unbelievable playing the puck too um moving to on the saint louis i mean he he kind of he was kind of one of those guys that paved the way for where the nhl headed as far as those little guys who yeah theo flurry was probably the the guy before him that was you know just a little guy out there

but but it fucking sucked man and the game's gotten better ever since those guys paved the way for for scouts and teams giving smaller guys with speed who were skillful more of an opportunity. I mean, I bet you older people who watched these small guys playing growing up could think of a handful of guys who probably got, I wouldn't say blackballed, but just weren't even considered to make the NHL because of their size. Like back then, that's just the way the mentality was. You needed to be big, over six foot. You need to be close to 200 pounds.

And that's why you were going on the first round. And, you know, of course you, you, you mentioned the adversity he had to go through in order to make it ends up being a Stanley cup champion league MVP. I want to say, what does he have? Two gold medals or, or I actually, he was one team and that was, I, a rift between him and Iserman, and that's how it got going.

But he made it. Oh, he did make it. But then he made it because of an injury. He won the World Cup of Hockey with LeCavier and Brad Richards after they won the Stanley Cup. 2004, I think he won the Cup, MVP, Ted Lindsey, and then he won the World Cup. So incredible.

And what you're saying about smaller players, it's so true because I can remember growing up and wanting to be in the NHL so bad, all I thought about. And I remember constantly being like, well, at least I have the height. Like no matter what, I have the height. Some guys have no chance. You know, the guys that are smaller, just like in my mind at that point, oh, he has no chance. So at least I'm somewhat there with having the height.

And that did suck for a lot of guys. I played with some incredible players who really didn't get a fair enough shape because of their size. And now it's different. So you do think of other kids that are never thinking, oh, I can't play in the NHL. Not that the kids are out there doing it. I hope they aren't.

But Martin St. Louis proved that he certainly didn't. No, that's a great point, Witt. And, R.A., I want to talk to you about this. Witt mentioned it. It took him a long time to put Willie O'Ree in. If anything, if I can spin it into a positive, now that social media has gotten so big, I'm almost kind of happy they did wait this long

because so many people are able to see his induction and how important it is to to bring in like the multiculturalism multiculturalism and diversity into the game and now he's able to you know to speak on it and and of course his his his induction speech touched a lot on that so you know yeah did it take him too long to do it sure but i'm glad that he was able to do it on this big of a stage, and congratulations to him. And, Christ, we talked about the adversity that St. Louis faced. Could you imagine the fucking adversity that that guy faced? Yeah, you're right, Biz.

If it did happen 25 years ago, then, you know, he might have just kind of been lost in a little bit of the dustbin of history today. People are like, oh, Willie O'Ree, yeah, he was the first black guy, and really no connection to him because we haven't seen him, haven't heard of him. But he's been such a presence for the last couple of decades since he took the job with the NHL, you know, the first diversity officer, you know, and spreading the gospel of hockey to inner city youths and black and Latino kids who otherwise aren't exposed to the game and, you know, kids who are poor and stuff.

They say basically, I mean, from what I've read, he's getting inducted as much for that as he is for, you know, being the first black player. It's kind of a two-fold thing because he is going in as a builder, if I'm not mistaken. He went in as a builder, not as a player, because, you know, I think he played 45 games, which is irrelevant. I mean, he was the, you know, he broke the barrier. And I think it was almost 20 years before there was the second black player

in the league. It was quite a lull afterwards. Yeah, his name escapes you, the fellow that played for the Capitals in the early 70s. So, yeah, it was great to finally get him in. Yeah, I think that's a good point, Biz. The buildup maybe made us appreciate him a little more than if we were just reading about him from 20 years ago.

Another quick note on Manny St. Louis. I texted you guys the story last night in The Athletic, and I do constantly reference that site because the hockey journalism there is fucking incredible. There were so many good writers who got laid off. The Athletic scooped them up, and they're doing, like I said before, what newspapers used to do. There's a tremendous article on Marty's Game 6 overtime game winner

in the 2004 Stanley Cup. They talked to everybody. They break down the play. You should take a read of it if you haven't. Obviously, our listeners as well. And then just going back to Brodeur, man. I mean, he had a 9-1-2 save percentage and a 2-2-4 goals against

124 shutouts. And you think about a lot of the era he did that and it was before the Buzzy start, back in 91-92, man. There was still some bad goaltending back then. There was still some outrageous numbers being put up. And the fact he was able to have such good numbers considering he had,

you know, a lot of the high scoring heyday still there. Tribute to him. Also, I just want to mention that Gina Hefford, she did win four straight gold medals. I don't want to give the woman short shrift here. Four straight gold medals on top of a nice post-Olympic career.

And Yakushev was also in the 72 Summit Series, which I'm sure all your Canadian grandfathers and great-uncles always talk about Biz frequently. Yeah, and to touch more on Jaina there, she was the only woman inducted in this class, of course, finished off her career in the NWHL. And, of course, with the Brampton Thunder, and then, of course, with the Canadian Women's National Team.

And, I mean, I don't want to – what's that? Sorry. Who won the gold medal in women's hockey this year? Oh, the United States. Yeah, oh, I just wasn't sure. Oh. You're going to interrupt me for that? Well, Jaina did win four, as you mentioned, R.A., in 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014. So I just wanted to remind you of those.

And, of course, addition to a silver medal in 1998. So congratulations to her. We got to give the ladies some mad respect. And, of course, you touched on it too, Gary Bettman. Yeah, he's not the first commissioner to be elected to a Hall of Fame in his respective sport. In fact, quite a few of them do get in. I don't know if it's a payback from the owners that the guy worked for.

But, you know, Bettman, he gets shit on all the time. He still gets booed. I love the way he kind of eats it up. But if you look back where this league was before he took over and where it is now, hell, man, I have no problem with him going in the Hall of Fame. I mean, the growth of this game under his stewardship has been fucking incredible.

I mean, we talked 25 years ago, the hockey, what was it, the contract the league signed with TV partners, it was just over $5 million a year. I mean, that gets you a fucking third line forward for one year nowadays, and that's what they had to dole out between 30 or 20-something teams back then. So the league's exploded on the bat, and I'm sure people will cry about it, but I really have no issue with them going. And what about you, Wits?

Yeah, me neither. The more, you know,. And what about you, Wits? Yeah, me neither. The more, you know, I kind of heard both – well, not heard, but realized what's happened since he took over, the more I understand it. You just went into a good description of it. But, I mean, think of the last few Stanley Cup finalists. You know, you got Nashville. You got San Jose. You know, the Kings have won.

Anaheim's won a cup. And all these places weren't around. Tampa's been there. It's impressive to see all the places that weren't considered. I actually heard he hates the term non-traditional hockey market. I guess it, like, drives him nuts. But it's very impressive to see where these teams have come from and where they are now. They're all over the entire United States, Canada.

And because of that, you're seeing kids, no doubt about it, because of that, kids are coming from different places. Kids are coming from Florida, Austin, Matthew, Scottsdale. We've talked about this at length. And it goes back to Gary Bettman as part of the reason why and making sure that these cities got teams. And so to put them in the Hall of Fame, I understand that. I think at times, booing them is just – I think people just do it and making sure that these cities got teams. And so to put them in the Hall of Fame, I understand that.

I think at times booing them is just – I think people just do it just because, like, the guy next to them is doing it. I mean, I don't really know why you're actually booing them. The lockouts piss people off. But hopefully we don't have another one for a little while. That could be a touchy subject. I've already started thinking if there's one, do we keep doing chicklets? We'll be fucked. We're not going to talk about it. We can talk about

all of our lives. Shit. We can't have a lockout for chicklets. But good for Bettman. Get in the hall. Enjoy it. Have a good night. He actually had some humor in his speech, too. Oh, quickly before we move on, Marty St. Louis was sick because the Lightning were playing the Sabres the next night.

They actually lost. Buffalo's on a tear. Mikey Grinnelli with the over on the point. But all of his ex-teammates from Tampa, Ryan Malone was there. Teddy Purcell's going to come on. We're also dropping a Brent Sopal interview. We haven't mentioned that. But Teddy, we're going to talk to him. So that was

pretty cool to have some ex-teammates. That shows how much of a good guy Marty was. Yeah, I think they had to bring in fucking two plane loads of guys that were there for his speech. You just touched on it. Teddy Purcell was there to honor Martin St. Louis and, of course, watched the induction ceremony.

I would imagine that none of us on this podcast ever make it there. So what we are going to do is bring Teddy on to, or maybe Grinnelli will. You never know. Like NHL fucking spit spit and shit let's produce her but we're going to bring him on for his behind the scenes look at it he's going to talk about it more in depth i thought that would be cool for our listeners to experience

that um and to touch on what you just touched on too wit was uh we're touching buffalo saber seven two and two in their last 11 games, four wins in a row. They're in the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Grinelli, you are not superstitious at all, and you will talk about it. You've been yelling it from the mountaintops. You took an unbelievable futures bet, and the Sabres continue to roll. They're the guys. I love them.

I'm riding with the Sabres team. I was talking to Witt about it last night. At the beginning of the year, all three of you guys were pumping Florida's tires. I sat back and said, I think that Buffalo's top nine is better than Florida's top nine. When you look at them,

I just think it's true. Witt kind of gave it back to me last night that Florida's top nine might have more points. I just think when you look at the guys, it's just a solid, solid lineup, top to bottom. And now that Dolan's going to learn to actually play, and he'll learn from Rasmus Ristolainen and those guys, I mean, I think it's inevitable that they're going to be in the playoffs, boys. Oh, all cakes exposed. I hope so. Oh, old kicks exposed.

I hope so. It's fun to watch, but you're getting a little, you're getting a little carried away right now, Mikey. A little carried away. I have to. I either go all in, or I can't go in at all. You know? If you do something, you got to do it 100%. That's what she said.

Hey, Mikey. Mikey. Sorry. All right. That's what she said. Hey, Mikey. Mikey. Sorry.

All right. Podcast. Tell the story about the ordering of the drink last night. Oh, this is bad. Let's hear it, and then we're going to move on to R.A. Let's hear this quick. All right. I think it's the end of the podcast. We're grooving through hockey right now.

Okay. Let's save it. R.A., what's your thoughts? Yeah, Grinnell, there's of the podcast. We're grooving through hockey right now. Okay, let's save it. R.A., what's your thoughts? Yeah, Grinnelly, I mean, there's still a lot of pucks left, but you do have to be impressed with what the Sabres have done so far. It's fun to watch Triplets alumni Jack Eichel tear it up too. And there was a trade in the NHL yesterday, Wednesday, but before we get to that, let's bring on our buddy Teddy Purcell

to get his perspective on the Hall of Fame induction and a few other things. This interview is brought to you by Herbal Active. It is the CBD product we've been talking about nonstop. It is unbelievable for pain management, for mental awareness, for anxiety, for anxiousness. All the guys have been using it. Promo code, of course, biz20 for 20% off.

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He was with a bunch of guys, including Ryan Malone. Was Bugsy scooping ice out of people's drinks and chugging them? We were doing it all. Set the tone. Malone was coming in hot. So how was it? Give me the breakdown of when you got up there uh who you went out to dinner with uh marty speech all that give us give us the back info here i mean it was so awesome uh bugsy actually called me like a month ago and was like hey have you

talked to marty and we do some business stuff with marty so i was like yeah we talked like here and there texting he's like you gotta call him right now I'm like man I hate secrets just tell me what the fuck's going on he wouldn't tell me wouldn't tell me and then uh finally I called Marty and he was like yeah I want to invite you to like my hall of fame induction I was like whoa like I didn't expect it at all so that was that was super cool um so I got up there like the ceremony wasn't until Monday but I'm like fuck I'm never gonna get invited to one of these again, so I'm coming in early. So I scooted in on Saturday morning, and I get to the hotel,

and they're like, oh, hey, Mr. Purcell, welcome to the Hall of Fame. I'm like, oh, thanks for having me. And then it was actually super nice of the Tampaa owner mr vinik who's the nicest dude ever he uh i get there i check in and my hotel was paid for everything was paid for my tickets were paid for i basically like went there for free which is also hilarious and um marty rents a restaurant out one night we go there we get absolutely shit-faced. Marty's excited. His family's obviously thrilled. It's, like, the best thing.

You got a bunch of beauties there. We go back to the hotel. We have a hot stove in the room until, like, 6 in the morning. We get up the next day. Oh, that's what I meant. Oh, I'm so jealous. That's what I meant. Marty had, like, the best guys there, too.

He had a bunch of guys from his 0-4 Cup team, obviously. Vinny was there. I mean, this guy doesn't even get old either he looks great he's tan he's jacked i'm like i know i tried to he actually put me down in the hot stove at 7 a.m he said i was getting i went over the edge i was trying to be i was being too mean he took me down in the marty sweet i loved it oh my god so marty so marty actually he was allowed to like invite as many people as he wanted you made the cut and this makes me want to be so mad what are the chances i get a look from sid i mean i think you're there you're a glue guy wait you're like me it's like me and bugsy like we i don't know why the hell we got invited, but I was like, all right, you're going to invite me? Give me an inch.

I'm going to take fucking six miles. Let's go. Never be back again. And it was great just because it's actually, it was sad, but it was so awesome. I don't know if you guys saw the speech and Marty thanked his mom. So the last time we saw Marty's family and friends, it was when his mom passed away at the funeral.

So to see his dad, Norman, he was dancing. He had the finger snaps going. His elbows were going crazy on the dance floor. He was loving it. His family and friends were there. So everyone was so happy. So it was just really nice to see everyone in such a good mood and celebrate, you know, obviously the career that everyone knows, how good

he was and what an impact he had for everyone. Teddy, did Marty not know that the current Tampa Bay Lightning were going to be there? Was that a surprise to him? I don't think it was a surprise. They were talking. So it was also awesome of Mr. Vinnick, too. The boys flew from

Tampa to Buffalo and all the dorks that weren't invited they had to get off in buffalo and go to chippewa street need wings all afternoon and the guys that i play with marty flew to toronto went to harbor 60 had a free meal went to the event and then bus back to buffalo the next night so that was marty was like super happy to see those guys, and obviously it was cool that they went out of their way to do that. I mean, obviously it was a no-brainer, but it was super cool to see all the support that Marty had.

Hey, I don't want to be a Buzz Killington here. Did Stevie Y end up going? No, he didn't. That was the first thing I asked, too. And then it was like we were kind of laughing, too, I guess. John Cooper went, and Marty talked about all his coaches, and Cooper was, like, sitting at the stage, like, you know, the puppy dog with his head tilted, like, ooh.

And Marty didn't say his name. We were dying laughing. Aw. Did he forget, or was it an accident? Like, was Coop's pissed? I definitely don't think it was an accident. Like, accidentally on purpose, maybe? Oh, geez.

Yeah, I mean, I respect it. Remember Jordan's Hall of Fame speech, for Christ's sake? Yeah, exactly. I mean, he wasn't there that long with them. It was just kind of funny. I was like, oh, I was in the crowd, like, kind of, like, pulling my suit collar. Like, ooh, whoopsies. Hey, what's the –

Teddy. What? Oh, sorry, Baze. Go ahead oh sorry go ahead oh no no i was just gonna ask what the funniest thing bugsy malone did all week i don't know me and bugsy we got into it all weekend we went watch football on sunday um saturday we had that uh he rented out this restaurant with all his family we go back at six next day we show up again then after the hall of fame because actually one of the coolest things ever was marty had a great crew from the when they won like brad richards vinny freddie modine tim taylor andrew chalks um and me bugsy obviously stayed after i mean if we're gonna have a hot so why not missing that and uh

you know marty was watching it he was obviously nervous and he was happy after if we're going to have a hot stove, why not miss that? And, you know, Marty was watching it. He was obviously nervous, and he was happy after, and we were having beers. He was, like, had his Hall of Fame jacket on. He was all jacked up, too, that he got a suit made for him. He was like, this is the first time in my life the suit was too short for me. I had to get the legs, like, longer. He was like, can you believe it? Can you believe it? Marty saw it on TV for the first time, like after it was obviously we're in Canada.

So it was all over TSN or whatever, Sportsnet. And just to see him like watch himself on TV, like we were all, I mean, it's four in the morning, but it was pretty cool to see. I was just pretty like honored and humbled just for him to even think about me and invite me to such a big event. Teddy, we always used to laugh on the golf trip. We'd be like, look at these guys we're hanging out with. Zenneper over there, McDonnell over there. So I can't imagine when you were walking around the Hall of Fame speech night, Larry Robinson, Scott Niedermeyer, just like left and right,

just seeing Hall of Famers. Lanny McDonald, you get any stories or any chats with any of the legends? Yeah, like, so the first night we get there uh i check into the hotel and everyone's just kind of hanging out the lobby and obviously toronto is a good city but you're there for when you're a good friend's hall of fame thing so you just want to try to soak up as much as you can so i'm not like going out to the bar like with my friends that i have there or whatever and um come in like met marty burger through the, uh, team Canada,

a little bit of the Olympics stuff leading up the Olympics last year. He was like assistant GM. He comes up and was like, Hey Teddy, what's up? I'm like rubbing shoulders with you guys. I'm like, what the fuck am I doing here?

Like I'm the biggest pigeon ever. Uh, Lanny McDonald comes over and he's like talking to the boys. He's just crushing red wine. He got red wine all in his white tuster. I was dying laughing. I like wanted to send a picture to my dad but i didn't you know then the same thing like so what happens at the hall of fame thing is like i was putting on my instagram too like this it's funny like some fans in like la or wherever they're

obviously not that good of fans or thought that i was cool but didn't realize how much i suck so i was like putting it on my instagram like and i also have i have fucking eight followers too which is even funnier but i'm putting it on there like oh it's such an honor to go in the hall of fame like i'm right at home thanks for having me and they're like oh my god that's so cool like congrats on such a big night and i was like jesus christ so so we go there and they have, like, a bar all over the place. So the guys are just mingling. It's great. You see, like, old coaches.

You have, like, I saw Stumpy Thomas. I'm talking to him. He's an awesome dude. And Sean Burke. You know, the other GMs are there, other players you played against. So you're just kind of, like, catching up and talking to guys. Then I happen to be downstairs, and I'm like, Marty, after the the hall of fame they all go down and like sign this book it's like when you get married you sign the official paper or you're going to the hall so everyone else went up to like this

private room where all like the guys pictures of their heads are like actually in the hall of fame room but they turned that into a bar so it's like a party for like just the guys are inducted in their close family so i was like downstairs mingling and like the security guard had to come find me because i couldn't get up there and no one let me in so i was like obviously the pigeon that i was but i was like downstairs open bar i'm fucking mingling i'm having a great time i'm like i don't want this night to end so then all of a sudden like the bagpipes come on and i'm like what the fuck is going on here so i'm trying to get upstairs all of a sudden every nhler hall of famer that's there so dominic hasik pat left fontaine dave anderchuk marty gretzky paul coffee adam oats cam neely

and i'm like luke robitaille i'm like oh hey boys like what's going on let's get the fuck out of here like oh my god that's quite the list no i know that's really it was unbelievable it was really cool to see like i can't imagine how like exciting it was for for the guys that are actually going in the hall but even just for the fans and a fan like me too that actually played and played against some of these guys i was like wow this is actually really fucking cool to witness this. Hey, did you get to have a conversation with Hasek? I didn't. I said hi to him, and he, fuck, I think he, like, walked the other way.

Hey, Dominic. Oh, hey, baby. He's like, yeah, I'll take another glass of Caymus, sir. You're like, oh, okay, I'll go get it. Do it, bud. I know. I looked like an Uber driver. It was a black tie event.

I had a dark suit. They're like, ah, no, I didn't call an Uber driver. Well, that's why they didn't trust you. I know. I'm wearing a wire. So, Teddy, so give us a little bit more of how things are going. You're working with Adam Oates, who I think people loved his interview. Thank you for helping us set that up.

And how's everything going with you? Everything's good, man. I actually came home to Newfoundland and how's everything going with you everything's good man i uh i actually came home to newfoundland um after marty's thing i haven't been home in a year and a half ot like gave me 10 minutes off of not talking hockey so it was nice of him um but uh that was actually pretty cool too i didn't really know what i was going to do this summer after coming back from the nightmare in russia and he was out in la.A. training Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler, and he came to me, and he was like, hey, man, I know you kind of had me as a coach,

and I worked for you when you were playing. How do you feel about working for me? I was like, I don't really know what I think about it, but, you know, let me see, and it's actually awesome because he's a great dude. We get along so well he's hilarious as you guys know he's like witty and that dry sense of humor um obviously his hockey iq is off the chart so i still learn a lot i actually feel like i'm a better player and know more about hockey now that i'm done and making no money than when i actually played

so i'm actually a little sour about that but it's cool to still talk to the guys and be around it and still watch and you're involved a little bit. And we travel to some good cities and we see the guys. So I think it's a really good balance for me right now. Teddy, we saw he signed, well, basically a contract with the Kings a couple weeks ago, but the press release didn't really offer a lot of details. Now, how is that still going to work? Where if he's working with the Kings, is he still going to be allowed to work with players on other teams?

Or did the Kings make him put some sort of language in the contract? Do you know anything about that? Or would you rather not say? No, I mean, no, he's open about it too. And there's no big secret behind it. He's an independent contractor now. So it's not like he's going in and telling systems and, you know, talking about other players with who he's working in and telling systems and uh you know talking about other other players with

who he's working with to the kings um i think they want some help on the power play and some offensive zone you know kind of just a different voice a different hockey mind and um from you guys talking to him and everyone knows his career he's got some uh pretty good ideas that work for him and um so i think for now for now it's a good balance for him where he can, you know, help them out and still work with his players on the side. So it's a good fit so far. Teddy, I want to ask you this. How thankful are you for this job?

Because it kind of – I wouldn't say it came out of nowhere, but like when you retire, man, it's difficult. Sometimes you just find yourself in a rut. No, for sure. And like the last time i talked to you guys i was obviously so happy to come back for russia i really didn't give a shit i could i would have shoveled shit for a year like i was that happy i was just smiling and didn't care about anything but like you said it it does uh set in like reality sets in you're like okay what am I going to do now? And it did. It kind of fell in my lap.

And then the Kings approached me, too. I'm just doing some, like, TV stuff. Like, I'm going to do, like, 15 episodes this year with some of the guys. So it's good that I think when you're a player, and Witt and Biz, both of you guys know this, that when you're a good guy, you don't burn bridges. Yeah, coaches hated us because we all sucked and we fooled the league and made more money than we should have.

That people, like, if you're a good guy, people will come back to you and circle back and they want to work with guys that are kind of fun to be around and good dudes. So I think that was kind of the situation there. And it's keeping me busy. And instead of drinking 15 times a week, now I just drink seven. So it's keeping me busy and instead of drinking 15 times a week now i just drink seven so it's perfect who's who's been your funnest player to work with so far in your new role

um i think that's a tough question because i like talk to all the guys too a little bit and um just maybe even maybe even like the biggest project like where you think that you can really help this person oh yeah that'll really help the guys that'll go over well that's like winning the most improved hey you suck but you still suck we're getting a little bit better okay so can we just I on it? Can we all agree on it? I'm going to agree on the question. Actually, so I worked out with Mark Scheifele in Toronto years back, and I always knew he was a good player. I didn't realize he was going to be like a – he's arguably like a top 10 player, would you guys say?

Yeah, I'd say top 20 for sure. Yeah, whatever the number is, But just to see how dedicated He is and How much he loves learning from Oti And how fired up he gets I know I've just been Impressed by that so I would say Give Scheife he needs a little confidence

So I'm trying to help him he's got kind of bad Haircuts and his style is getting a little better So I'd like to give Scheife a little Chicklet Hey And Witt I actually got to spend some time like getting a little better so i like to give shite for little chicklets bub hey uh and uh whit i actually got to spend some time with him he's a fucking great kid he's got a good personality um i would consider him in like the hockey nerd category where he ain't going out every night having beers with the boys but uh nonetheless like just a great personality uh and does he not

have a a nutritionist where he's broken it down where he knows exactly what he needs to eat at each time of the day and exactly what is going to help his body succeed and what his like his body would be allergic to or is that is it that intense yeah i mean i think winnipeg too like the restaurants are limited so uh like i was up there before their training camp and like wheels has like a chef who went over the meal was unbelievable so i think shife got on that board too with like getting a chef and just i know when you're so rich too like you have a chef around you know you're going to eat well you don't have to go out and deal with the cold and fans if you play bad

like all that bullshit. So it's just like convenient, easy for them. And then I think, you know, he's a little bit on the – obviously with the Tom Brady coming out and all that stuff too, he was just kind of interested in it. So I think he went out and got – I don't think he's as crazy as Brady, but he's just kind of seeing what he responds to well. And obviously his body feels good. He's knocked on wood.

He's been pretty healthy the last few years obviously he's been a stud in the game and a difference maker every game so you got to tip your cap like whatever he's doing is working might as well stick with it right yeah oh yeah teddy uh before we let you go um did you end up getting all the money you were owed from russia no i didn't know like they i didn't get a hundred grand and unbelievable i know now we're talking about like so they say they pay for your gear i'm like okay i went over there with like skates that i had in la and in the minors my last year pro and i was just like sulking around i was like i'm not even a good skater anyways. My ankles are so weak. And like these skates were like paper bags.

And then I had no, I was using like old sticks that were like four months old. I didn't care. I'm like, I'm in Russia. Who gives a shit? And so we had to play. I was there for like four, I was there for four months. And right before the playoffs, I get a new pair of skates and like 34 sticks i'm like i left all my gear there anyways like i was like oh yeah you owe me 8 000 like and and they said they were

going to pay for my parents flight that was in the contract and my flights back and forth that's probably another 20 grand sort of fleece me but fuck those guys well teddy before you let you go is is there anything else you want to talk about that you were expecting us to ask you oh that was good i mean party might be a little bad i mean i said we stayed up we stayed up till seven watching uh talking about hockey and life but man it was good to see him smile so much and and those guys must have had so much fun when they won the cup and just to you know see Vinny and and obviously set the tone Bugsy Malone was really cool I'm just thankful

that Marty uh like I said earlier thought about me to invite him you know we did play together for five years but I didn't make him better in his career obviously Vinny, Richie, Stammer these guys but for him to think of me that uh he obviously thinks of me as an okay guy so that was uh something i'll always remember it's almost like your first nhl goal i'm like at the hall of fame like this is fucking awesome hey last question was bugsy malone still scooping ice out of guys drinks yeah he was i already had that i know that's so stupid too it's like you're talking to someone I'm talking to Dave Anderchuk or you're talking to a

Hall of Famer and Bugsy like dips his hand in your drink when you're not looking and giggles it's like ooh no worries you got a chug like who comes up with that rule that's like borderline like serial killer shit yeah yeah excuse me Mr. Anderchuk I gotta chug this hey all of a sudden he's like

he's like hey to chug this. Hey, all of a sudden, he's like, hey, Gary, chug it down. Come on, Peppin. There ain't no ice left in that drink. Eddie, you see that? I got Gary. I know. Gary's at the Hall of Fame. He had a pair of Skechers on, too.

It was kind of hard to see. What? Come on. Oh, dude. Oh, buddy. You're the best man um we're gonna we're gonna hopefully uh if you if you will come back on and you know a month or two we love catching up with you yeah boy thanks for having me love listen we'll chat soon thanks love you daddy bye bye that

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Yeah, we mentioned the trade that happened Wednesday. To me, it kind of reeks of, I want to wake my fucking team up trade. GM Jim Rutherford sent Kyle Hagelin to LA for Tanner Pearson. Not a blockbuster of a trade, but certainly two guys who've been struggling this year, both getting a change of scenery. Let's see.

Hagelin is a pending UFA. So if the Kings don't manage to become a contender for the rest of the season, he could potentially be on the move again. He's 30 years old. He's in his eighth season. He's a $4 million cap hit. He's been a struggle so far this season. One goal, two assists. He did win the two cups with Pittsburgh in 16 and 17.

Tanner Pearson, Pittsburgh's getting a guy four years younger. He's only 26. He's in the second year of a pretty team-friendly four-year, $15 million deal, $3.75 million average hit. But he only has one assist thus far. He also won a Cup as a rookie back in 14. Again, guys, I think this is two guys who are struggling. I think the Penguins maybe Rutherford is just trying to tell his locker room,

hey, you know, you guys got to wake up or somebody else could be next. What's your take, Wits? Yeah, that's a pretty good analysis by you. Thank you. Listen, this is something where sometimes both teams need a change and players need a change. So Tanner Pearson, I'm interested to hear what you have to say about him because you were in L.A.'s organization.

He was awesome when he won the Stanley Cup. I mean, he was fly. I feel like he played with Jeff Carter a lot. And he has good wheels. He could score. He wasn't a soft player at all. He seemed hard to play against. I was shocked when I saw zero goals, one assist right now. And then came with Haglund.

He had a slow start. He had a good run. He was a big part of those championship teams. But all right, similar salary. Let's do a swap here. Pittsburgh kept $250K, I think, annually or this year teams but all right let's let's similar salary let's do a swap here pittsburgh kept 250k i think annually or this year to make it an even cap it for la because haggle's making a little bit more money but all pearson's also signed i think for two more years after this one i i believe that

that's the number so you know something goes over imagine he gets a chance at crosby or malcolm i could see him first of all here in the news he's getting traded it's always shocking the first time so he's probably a little upset he's got some amazing memories being a king but then right after that holy shit have you ever heard of Ryan Whitney that guy made 24 million playing with Crosby what am I gonna do with a chance of playing with this guy this This is incredible. He's probably fired up right now. And even if it's Malkin, I could see him really stepping up and having some big games and a rest of a big season for Pittsburgh. And I also like Hagman's game. He's quick and he makes the Kings a lot faster than they are. Although Pearson's not slow either. So we'll see. Yeah, Whit, great points. I look at this one on a bigger scale than, let's say,

a Max Domi for Galchenyuk trade for the simple fact that I'm shocked at the lack of offensive output through these two guys. Quick note, R.A., Pittsburgh will be eating $250,000 of Hagelin's salary to even it off at $3.75, which is Pearson's salary for this year, next year, and next year after that. You mentioned that he's signed for two more years. Classic case of both these guys need a change of scenery. Let's see if it works out. I don't mind the gamble by Pittsburgh at all. It's interesting because I don't think anyone heard anything of this before today. And then, well, sorry, yesterday, Wednesday is when we're recording.

But, yeah, no, I think it's going to be good. And I think it's going to wake Pearson up for sure. As far as L.A., it looks like they're kind of headed towards a little bit of a rebuild, just trying to dish some salary. People are commenting that it is to open up some cap space in order to re-sign Drew Doughty. So who knows? I wish them both the best and you mentioned it, man. A lot of memories for

Pearson and Hagelin in both of their respective cities. Also, boys, we also should mention Jim Rutherford signed, I believe, a three-year extension with the Penguins. But he's not happy right now. He had made some comments out in the public and the media about, you know,

he's not happy with the way they're playing and not happy how the season's going. So to make a trade, that's the first step, try to get the guys going. Because it's surprising to see. I mean, Jersey was playing, wasn't playing well at all. And Pittsburgh got dominated by them. They're not dominated, but they lost to Jersey. Halsey, four points. Shout out to that beast.

So, Pittsburgh's got to figure it out a little bit. I'll tell you, if I'm an LA Kings fan, Biz, I'm asking, why did they make this deal? Did they make the team better for now or for the future? I mean, you did reference it could eventually be a salary dump because Hagelin's money

is going to come off the books. That's if they even keep him for the rest of the year. But if I'm a Kings fan, man, I'm fucking scratching my head right now. And, which, yeah, you mentioned Rutherford. He signed through 2022. And one other note regarding the Penguins, Sid did mispractice yesterday on Wednesday. They set up a body.

Hopefully it's nothing long-term because, you know, we want to have one of the best players in the game constantly playing. We didn't talk about this too. I love the Pens organization. I love the city. Their Twitter and social media though with the fans is absolutely fucking banana lands. I would put it up

there with probably Vancouver as far as the crazies. They are ruthless. Jim Rutherford brought them two Stanley Cups back-to-back. Now, because they've had a slow start, and every time they've had issues, he's went out and addressed it and, for the most part, been very successful with it.

And I've been reading on Twitter today that they want his head on a platter, and I'm thinking, but they still got, I would say, a solid three- to four-year window with, of course, the core pieces they have in place. Let him shake it up a little bit as he's done in the past and had success when things don't go right.

Then you can judge him last year. Christ. They, they, they ran into a hot Washington team. Finally, they ended up losing to him. Of course,

penguins, uh, Twitter reacts like, like maniacs. Let's see what they can do in the next three years. You know, Rutherford has a pretty good resume. He's done a lot for that organization. Chill the fuck out.

Also, Biz, we got to remember our podcast is popular in Pittsburgh. The Yinzers are spitting chiclets fans, and I think that Twitter, it's fake world. It's a small, fake reality people live in. So most of the Penguins fans, i think that twitter is the it's fake world it's a small fake fake reality people live in so most of the penguins fans i think you ask them and they they are very happy with jim rutherford and they have trust in him we just hear this weird culture creepo twitter group that we sometimes think is like real life oh that's true yeah my bad so just uh maybe erase everything i just said grinnell i i compare penn's fans to Patriots fans' wits.

They almost fucking take for granted what they have. They've got titles, they've got a contender every year, and they still want to bitch about shit. There's definitely some similarities there. I will say, to back up Biz's point here, out of all the feedback we get on social media, out of all the negative feedback we get on social media, out of all the negative feedback we get on social media, a lot of it's from

Pittsburgh fans. Really? Yeah, they're spoiled, buddy. They don't know they got it. Good. You may not remember me snapping it tape to tape for a couple seasons there. You think the dark times are behind them, but I guess not. And boys,

let's not forget maybe why this trade happened. Of course, the struggles offensively and Pittsburgh not doing well. But let's talk about this Metropolitan Division in general. Holy shit. Who the fuck would have guessed where it would be almost a quarter into the season with the 1, 2, and 3? We got Columbus leading the way. We got the Islanders in second and then the Rangers in third place in that

division. Of course, it's still early. Of course, that's going to get shooken up. But, I mean, you guys want to start it at the top with Columbus? Yeah, I mean, Columbus was a playoff team last year. I think because they didn't have a good showing last year, people might not be taking them too serious. But it's no surprise they're doing what they're doing.

They got a pretty good squad there. But the Islanders, man, I think everybody wrote them off. Frankie Borelli was practically hanging off the fucking Verrazano Bridge when Tavares left for Toronto. But I think we've seen this before with teams. They lose a guy and it kind of galvanizes a team. They rally against it. And again, Biz, like you said, it is early,

but this division looks upside down right now. I mean, it's not doing what we expected it to do. The Devils, I get the kind of, they started off a little harder. They've been struggling a bit as of late. But, yeah, you know, Jersey, you're reading it backwards. Jersey, Pittsburgh's in second to last place. Carolina started hot. They've cooled off.

I think it's also important to know too how close these teams are I mean all these a team in fucking six places only four points behind like the first place team so you know a quick streak of winning or losing can easily flip the division quick but it's early it's I think

you know things might level off at some point but the Capitals too they look like they may have a little bit of a championship hangover you think about that, Biz? Yeah, I'm interested to hear Witt's thoughts on the top three right now. Yeah, all right, not to call you out, even

though I love doing it. Columbus, they lost in the first round, but they were up 2-0 and went to double overtime, a game three against Washington, so I know you're probably right that not getting to the second round is considered a failure, but they played Washington as hard as anyone else in the playoffs did.

So you knew coming into this year that they'd be a team that would be dangerous, especially with Panera, and he's so nasty, and I don't know if he's going to resign there. It sucks if you're a Blue Jackets fan right now. But then you look at the Islanders team. I was so – I mean, I was wrong about all of them, shocker. But I can't – the Islanders, this goes to show Barry Trotz is a good coach, man. I mean, he obviously – everywhere he's been, he's had good teams,

whether it was Nashville, the Capitals, or right now the way that the Islanders are playing. Thomas Grice has been phenomenal. But the forwards up front, I mean, they lost one of the top players in the league, and everyone said they'd be shit. Maybe they used that as a little bit of a rallying cry. Sometimes I think that's a little overrated in pro sports. But you never know.

And they've looked awesome. And now they're going to start playing a few games back at the Nassau Coliseum. That place is going to be rocking. The atmosphere has always been just shit in Brooklyn. And then the Rangers. Shout out to David Quinn, Man Rocket, hottest coach in the league. Thank you very much. Obviously went to BU.

Went to BU, former coach at BU. And the Rangers had a tough start. They did not look good. Some weird healthy scratches going on there of some veteran players, and they've turned things around. Lundqvist in father time, he's just still kicking with the best of them, and so that

team's really flying. And also, our boy Kevin Hayes has looked great lately. Shout out to our boy. Actually, I feel like one of the most favorite guests by the people who listen. I think they love listening to his expression when he's with KY. So good for all these teams. It's very surprising to see.

I think Washington getting Tom Wilson back is a huge addition for them. He plays on that first line. He's a motherfucker out there. He's faster than people think. And he's not going to change the way he's playing. He's got to stop with the hits. But don't pick it up. But it's definitely great to see the way he's playing. He's got to stop with the hits. But don't pick it up. But it's definitely great to see the parity.

I think it's a good thing for the league. I'm wondering if you agree with me or not on that, Gage. Yeah, okay, so I'm going to start at the top. I'm going to come back to Columbus. But you touched on the Islanders. I might get smothered for this comment, but I feel like they're this year's Las Vegas Golden Knights, and I'm going to tell you why.

They got trots, much like a coach very well respected, very well liked by his team. He gets in there, new system, they've tightened things up a lot defensively compared to last year, because we knew they had some offensive weapons, because they were getting

it done offensively. Their goaltender has been unbelievable. I'll let R.A. take the goaltending stats right now. If you got Thomas Grice, you can pull him up when I'm finished here. But I just feel like the team in general has that us against the world mentality. They're like the NHL outcasts, much like Las Vegas was coming in the last year. the NHL outcasts, much like Las Vegas was coming into last year. They lose Taveras. You know, Eberle wasn't wanted in Edmonton, goes to New York, has success there.

He's had a good start to the season again. Philpula, who kind of got moved around a little bit after Tampa Bay. Andrew Ladd, who everyone criticized for getting a ridiculous contract. He's been solid for them. Leo Komarov, who people thought in Toronto was done. He goes over to the island. He's been solid for them. Leo Komarov, who people thought in Toronto was done, he goes over to the island. He's been solid for them as well. I mean, Matt Martin, he's only played 11 games. He came over from the Leafs as well. He's had three big goals for them. And another thing I want to mention is I'm still waiting for Matt Barzell to pop off even a little bit more. He's second on their team in scoring right now.

It is difficult for a guy like that in his second year. All of a sudden, the big boy Tavares has gone to Toronto. Now he's got those first-line matchups, which makes it more difficult on him facing better defensemen on a nightly basis. Currently right now, too, his shooting percentage is at 7.1%, which is bound to even out. Last year, he finished at 12.1%. I know he's not known for his goal scoring.

He's more of a setup guy. Currently, only two goals this year. I believe that that's going to scale up. 14 assists, of course. Did you have those goalie numbers for Grice? Because he's been lights out, R.A. Got him right here, brother. He started eight games so far, 5-2-1 record,

with a 1.98 goals against and a.938 save percentage with one shutout. He's a guy who was, you know, a bit of a, I wouldn't say journeyman backup. He was with a few different teams. He never really got an opportunity to start. He got that in the Islanders, and it looks like he might

be a number one in hiding who's been, you know, kind of never really got a good shot at it. He was always backing guys up, but if he can maintain this pace, then the fucking sky might be the limit for in hiding who's been, you know, kind of never really got a good shot at it. He was always backing guys up. But if he can maintain this pace, then the fucking sky might be the limit for the Isles this year. Absolutely. And then moving on to Columbus, of course, who are leading the division right now.

I guess the reason I'm so surprised they're in the position right now is because Bobrovsky had a horrendous start to the season. He's finally caught stride. In his last five games, he's only allowed more than one goal in one of the five starts in all those other games he's only allowed one goal which is remarkable so obviously with him catching stride the obvious Panarin we talked about him last week he's fucking filthy one of the most ridiculous trades in recent memory currently that Columbus team has 11 players with nine or more points.

Panarin, of course, leading the way. And then their one-two punch on the back end of Seth Jones and Wierenski. Seth Jones has only played 11 games, too. He missed seven to start the year with injury, but he's already got nine points. Wierenski's got 11. So ultimately, they have everyone pulling the rope there. They're coached well.

So I guess not as big a surprise as everyone thought, but that Metropolitan Division in general. And then, of course, in third right now is New York, who everyone thought was going to go through a rebuild, but they've been very impressive. Hey, go ahead. Yep. Let's not forget, I'm going to bring his name up every time we hear it

throughout the podcast, Zach Wierenski Grinelli. I think he slept through one of the interviews he said he'd give us back when we were little. Let's just be a little mice that Grinelli weren't afraid of on R.A.'s couch. He probably had a couple living in there himself. When we did the Little Mom and pop shop podcast. Wierenski said, yeah, I'll come on and just slept right through it. He's never answered.

You owe us. You owe us. You know, now people are going to be texting you. Did you hear about Witt? He called you out. You slept through his podcast. They didn't appreciate it. So, Wierenski, please, please, come on.

Help the fellas out here. Yeah, and bring Seth Jones while you're at it. So, now we're going to be bullying guys into interviews. And speaking of interviews, we have Brent Sopel, who is very candid. We heard of some funny stories. We heard, of course, another Babcock story. Oh, geez, this guy is just getting torched on our pod. So, let's throw it off to Brent Sopel.

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download the seat geek app and enter the promo code hockey today that's promo code hockey for 20 off your first seat geek purchase seat geek, right now, right from your phone. I am very excited to welcome to the Spittin' Chicklets podcast a guy that I've never met in person, but heard a lot of great things about. He has some wonderful stories to talk about through his NHL career, his junior career, and of course, some Russian gas stories from his time in the KHL. He's went through some difficulty in his life. A very open guy, and he's going to talk about it.

We're going to welcome to the Spit and Chicklets podcast, Brent Sopel, 659 NHL games drafted in the sixth round of the 1995 NHL entry draft by the Vancouver Canucks. What a city. Welcome to the podcast, buddy. I appreciate that. Just let me know where to send that check for that intro. I'll send you a Venmo request for some dough.

Perfect. He tried adding 100 games. He tried adding 100 games. He was looking for a little extra cash. Yeah, he knows how it is. Can't blame a smart man. Thank you. Thank you. So, hey, let's start at the beginning. You were a Western League guy. cash yeah you know he knows how it is you know can't blame a smart man thank you thank you so like hey let's let's start at the beginning you were a western league guy so obviously you've

probably fucking you know crushing guys throwing both hands seeing girls strip riding along your bus the old junior show oh yeah absolutely the. I mean, rookies in the bed, naked, in the bus of, you know, the seven-hour bus ride and see who comes out with their clothes on. Well, I mean, you started in Saskatoon. And, I mean, were you drafted there in junior? No, I was from Saskatoon. And, you know, they saw me and they're like, I might take a shot at this guy.

He can't skate. You know, he's me and were like, you know, I might take a shot at this guy. He can't skate. You know, he's the slowest guy in the league, but I think I was playing mid to triple A, so they brought me up a few times. I ended up getting, you know, getting lucky sticking there, and then I got traded off to Speedy Creek, the home of, you know, Graham James, you know, the pedophile that needs to be put behind bars for life.

Oh, wow. Yeah, fuck him for real. So you got discovered and kind of walked on with Saskatoon with the Blades and played there a little bit in 93, 94, a little bit more in 94, 95. And then in 94, 95, you said traded to Swift Current where you pretty much finished the rest of that season. Yeah, correct. You know, it was two and a half hours down the road in beautiful God's country,

Saskatchewan, as we like to call it. You know, as a young kid, getting traded from home. You know, got a little homesick early, but, you know, found the ropes, found the local bars, found the local high school girls, so I was all set pretty quick. Nice. Let's see,

you got drafted in 1995. Now, you said you were a terrible skater. What kind of things did you have to work on, Brent, to improve your game that you were able to go from barely playing to getting drafted in the sixth round of the NHL? Honestly, my skating was always you can ask both these guys

their width. I was rated probably the slowest. I was never the strongest skater. That was a big thing. I came in the league offensive, defenseman. Back in the day, thank God, we had the hang on. We had the water skiing. We could hook anybody. I came in the day, thank God, you know, we had the hang on. We had the water skiing. You know, we could hook anybody.

So, you know, I came in the right time where I was doing a heck of a lot of that. But, you know, it was – I got lucky. I had some skill. But it was more of a – I had more of a work ethic than anything. Yeah, I mean, back then, you know, skating wasn't really the focus. They were more concerned on whether the guy was over six feet and he could fight a little bit. That was more important than the skating aspect.

Oh, yeah. You know, in the Western League, you know, you had to have at least nine tough guys, you know, on each team. There's at least, you know, one bench-clearing brawl a year and at least a, you know, line brawl every other game. So you had to be tough. And skill and skating wasn't really too much of a concern. So we talked about this a few podcasts ago.

Were you still in the WHL when they made the teams warm up separately? Yeah, that's when I was in the WT at that point in time. You know, we'd be out there, i think it's like 45 minutes before we have the full ice there's 20 of us whipping around like idiots uh on this full ice um you know when you're the visiting team that finally you know they woke up and did the half ice um you know halfway through my whl career so brett um you spent some time in the minors, right? I mean, you're grinding it out in the always hungry league, as we call it. Was there a moment when you're thinking,

I don't know if I'm going to make it as a regular NHLer, or the whole time were you thinking, I'll get there at some point? What's kind of the mindset as you're playing two, three, four years in the minors? Well, you know, it's funny you ask that because, you know, I never thought I would ever make it up. I think that it was my third or fourth training camp. I'm in Ottawa, and, you know, we play an exhibition game, and Mark Crawford is the coach at this point in time.

You know, he pulls me in. He's like, you know what, Soaps? You know, we're sending you down. You know, you're a pussy. You don't fight. You don't hit. You don't skate. You don't pass. You don't shit. Yeah, I swear to God. And he's like. You're a pussy. You don't fight. You don't hit. You don't skate. You don't pass.

You don't shoot. Yeah, swear to God. And he's like, you're a pussy. You do fucking nothing out here. So we're sending you to the minors. No shit. Coaches are so fucking ruthless. He says, you're terrible.

You do nothing. You don't shoot hard. You don't skate hard. You don't pass hard. You do absolutely nothing. You have no hope of an NHL career. So, you know, you're heading off have no hope of an nhl career so uh you know you're heading off to the minors and uh see you later said no hope no joke don't even no

no no joke and so you know at that point in time i'm like huh you know i guess i'm gonna go on syracuse i'm gonna have a career be a career minor here and you know that was it so i thought you know nhl was was no hope after that meeting. What year was that? Because, I mean, you had a pretty decent year in 97-98 offensively with 10 goals, 33 assists for 43 points in Syracuse, where you spent most of your time in the AHL. Yeah, yeah.

I think it was the next year. It was that same year I got sent down i got called back up you know in february i end up you know i had a i think it was a 10 game point streak and things were things are going well it was right around valentine's day i got a call back saying you know coach calls me and said you're going up i'm like yeah okay you know is it april fools i already you know i already know crow hates me so you know ha ha ha where's the joke where the camera is and all like you know he's like seriously you've been playing well so i went up to went up to vancouver and i never came back so when you showed up where you're

like uh hey uh crow is like this cool you know about this yeah you know it's i'm like you know crow you know you and our best I'm like, you know, you know, you and our best friends, we end up, you know, Crow and I have probably the biggest love-hate relationship. We had more fucky matches in the dressing room and on the bench than, you know, than I've ever heard.

You know, he came after me all the time. Is it true? I was always told Mark Crawford would go up and down the bench and just kick guys, kick them right in the back. Kick me, he choked me, he grabbed the back of my jersey and just, you know, pull you back. So, you know, oh, yeah, he attacked guys personally.

You know, he came up one year after the season. He's like, so, you know, you need to work hard. You know, you need to gain, you know, 15, 20 pounds. So, you know, left there, went right home, hit the diet, hit the weights, put on 20 pounds of muscle. And I come back here, and he's yelling at the bench, what are you, fucking Hercules now? Are you turning green?

Are you Hulk? Just screaming at me. Suspended me for, I think it was like six weeks. Wouldn't let me play. Only practice. Bag skated me, and I had to step on a scale every single day to see what my weight lost before he'd let me play. Oh, geez. I've heard numerous stories about him playing mind games with guys.

So all in all, though, if you saw him now, would you talk to him? Would you have a normal conversation? Or do you kind of hate his guts? You know what? Some of the things he said, yeah, fuck you. But for whatever reason, he kept putting me out there. And I probably played almost probably close to 500 games in my career or was with him, for him, I should say.

So as much as I hated him, for him, I should say. So as much as I hated him and, you know, for whatever, he had something that he liked me. So back to the love-hate relationship, you know, I definitely say I hate him and say, you know, you're an asshole sometimes for sure. Brent, did any guys ever take a poke at him when he's sitting there and they're kicking him and choking him and getting in their faces? Did any guys ever lose their shit and try to take a swing at them?

You know, nobody took a swing at them, but there's a lot of guys that wouldn't say anything. You know, like I said, I'd have fuck you matches, you know, I'll never forget in L.A. You know, I fucked up, you know, he goal, he comes back in, and he's like, you fucking face the media. I'm like, fuck you, I'll face the media. I can bring him right in front of the dressing room in front of everybody.

You know, I just gave it right back to them. Nobody took a swing, but there's a lot of guys that would just take it. I only took so much of it. Did guys in the room give him shit, whether to his face or about how well manicured his hair was all the time? It seems like that's something guys would give him shit

about. Oh, fucking just for men. He always knew when he had a good dye job. Sideburns were nice and nice and painted black so you know we always we always chirped them but you know he wasn't afraid to get in everybody's face so i'm gonna it's a two-part question here i want to talk about your time in kansas city because i've i've uh pittsburgh was supposed to move there when when you were playing there? Remember there was all those rumors because they had an arena built? Yeah, before they got Crosby.

Thank you, Sid. I think that's pretty much what changed everything. But as far as Crawford's concerned, I heard he was the type of guy, though, when you came back at him, that's when all of a sudden he would respect you and you'd kind of be one of his boys, kind of like Keenan was. Yeah, you know, I think I'd have to agree with you because I came back at him all the time. And like you said, you know, I was down in Kansas City.

You know, that was one of those stints where he was bag skating me and wasn't letting me play. So they sent me down. You know, they're going to send me down on one of those, you know, two-week conditioning stints that they used to do to guys. I ended up going to Kansas City playing two games, and somebody got hurt. You know, thank God. You never want anybody to get hurt.

But if you're a guy that's, you know, getting bag skated every day, and you guys know you're not in the lineup, you know, you need to get somebody hurt to get back in. So, Casey, I had a great 48 hours while I was in Kansas City. Hey, so I'm looking – I'm kind of going through the Hockey DB. So 2005, 2006, the year after the lockout, you signed with the Islanders. Was that a one-year deal? Because that year you got traded to the Kings.

Well, that was a two-year deal. And, you know, same thing. You had Mike Miller there as the GM. You know, I told him to go fuck himself. So we had the owner. Give me the story there. Give me the story there. Yeah.

Well, Charles Wong is the owner at that point in time. And, you know, he walks in. It's a Saturday morning. You know, we're at the hotel having pregame before we're getting on the bus and going to Jersey for an afternoon afternoon game and he comes in there he talks starting to talk about you know who the hell knows what he's talking about and he said i want you to watch the the movie cinderella man and you know write on the dvd what this means to you and i want you to hand it in you know didn't watch it i wrote nothing and i put the receipt and asked

for my money back and so that that went over you know that went over well but um the milberry story is uh you know i had an ex nanny try and you know try and sue me for 26 million dollars you know she tried to uh uh accuse me of all this shit you know i ended up being on page six of the daily news you know madonna was in the top half and i was in the bottom half and milbury told me hey just pay this broad off and i said fuck you you know so uh so this is just some random woman at the time that you or or like what you were dating her and then no no no you know i was married at that time and uh you know we'd hired hired a nanny and you know she was wasn't happy with her with her pay and uh you know she said she was doing it for all her her country people uh you know just you know just try to take me take me for money but at the end

of the day i told nobody to fuck off i'm not paying you. I'm not paying her. And that's why I got traded. Really? Oh my God. That's going to be a one-of-a-kind reason to be traded. Thank you, Joe. Melbury had a lot of good reasons to trade, guys. Sarcasm in my voice.

That might fucking take a day. Oh, shucks, Mike. You traded me to the LA Kings. Thanks a lot. Yeah, from the island Mike. You traded me to the LA Kings. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Rick. Yeah, from the island. Yeah, I don't have to deal with you. I don't have an owner that's telling me to go watch Cinderella, man. Thanks.

Appreciate that. Yeah, you don't have essays. You get the cold notes. Were you like, bro, have you not heard of fucking Gladiator? Yeah. You know, that's the nightmare of the shit that's been going on for years here in Long Island. You talk about why did Tavares leave?

Well, because it's been a shit show. Garstogel was from backup goalie to GM. That'll never happen in history again. Yeah. He was, you know, one year he was my backup, you know, when I was on the island. And that's when, you know, when he went to GM, and he was using dirt on guys that's when you know when he went to gm and he

was using dirt on guys that were going out in negotiations the next summer jesus what a fucking gong show well now it all started with the owner though it was a little bit of an odd situation he was like buddies with some of the guys too i mean i know dph was good buddies with him just no foundation to that organization, and it was just a gong show for so many years. Yeah, well, that's, you know, Yashin got that $90 million. Di Pietro got the 15-year contract. And I remember watching an interview when we were in Toronto.

You know, he's on Sportsnet, you know, saying that, you know, everybody knows that Rick Di Pietro left a lot of money on the table. What? He got $64 million. I'm not sure what he left on the table other than he played, what, 30 games? After getting knocked out by Brent Johnson by that solid right. Exactly. But back to your point is there was no foundation. It was just a complete shit show.

These guys would go to lunch with them, dinner with them, and buddy up with them, and they got millions of dollars. Stupid me. Yeah, and buddyed up with them, and they got millions of dollars. Stupid me. Yeah, they cashed out. Yeah, it sounds like a game plan. Fuck, I should have took that route. And they roasted him. I know.

Fuck you, man. And then you ended up going back to Vancouver to finish off that 06, 07 season. You spent quite a bit of time in Vancouver. You had to have loved it there. Did you see business documentary? No. Oh. Quit.

Shut up. Don't stir the pot. Forget about that question. Let's stay on topic. We'll cut that. We'll cut that. Do you read that article with the province? What was it?

Vancouver Canucks were 45-0. The road team came in two nights before a game. Oh, I mean, that makes back... Okay, so when you were playing there, the Roxy was probably at its peak. Oh, prime Roxy downstairs. Nothing better. No more better. Really?

There's an old saying. I definitely had my footprint in that place. Well, there's an old saying. If you walked out empty-handed, that you'd actually have to chop and hand your dick in the next day at the rink. Oh, 100%. The Roxy was the easiest. Put it on a tee.

Fishing with dynamite that there's ever been. And then you go over to Chicago. Yeah, that's what I want to talk about. Yeah, I mean, Witt, take the reins, buddy. Take the reins, Witt. I remember you got to Chicago and you played, I think, two full years and then the third year you won the Cup. That was it, right?

Yeah. So it seemed that you fit in perfect there. The role they had you playing and the year you won the Cup was just a great year for you, especially in the playoffs. What made it such a good fit for perfect there. You know, the role they had you playing, and the year you won the Cup was just a great year for you, especially in the playoffs. What made it such a good fit for you there? How much did you love that city, which I still say is my favorite city in the NHL?

So give me a little info into how the career started in Chicago, and then, you know, leading into how the Stanley Cup was won and raised by yourself. Yeah, well, I'll tee this up that uh you know i went uh you know i was unrestricted coming to that year in vancouver and you know i didn't didn't have a very good year uh you know in la and vancouver so i ended up having to go to detroit on a tryout really and called my agent my out called my agent said you know what you know we're looking for a right-handed defense in to play with Nick Lindstrom.

Oh, yeah, sign me up. That's a tough job. Ian White did that for a year. R.A. could fucking do that. Anybody can. So, you know, I'm like, okay, you know, I go there and, you know, bad cocks a coach, which is awesome. Guy's the greatest coach in history, not. So, you know, we uh playing some exhibition games um you know kenny holland you know calls my agent said

you know he's playing well we'll give him a one-year deal at a million bucks and uh so my agent calls me that morning and actually that morning we were flying to toronto uh to play a home and home with maple leaf so i talked to him i said you know what you know there's a few teams and actually that morning we were flying to Toronto to play a home-and-home with Maple Leafs. So I talked to him. I said, you know what, there's a few teams that we're talking to that give the old same excuse, oh, we've got some young guys, but we want to see how they do. Every team does it every year.

And my agent ended up calling Chicago and gave him the time with the GM at that point in time. And I was like, you know what, we'll offer him a one-year deal. I think it was like $1.3 million. But, you know, I'll guarantee him top four minutes. So, you know, I landed in Toronto, talked to my agent. He called me as soon as we landed. I'm like, you know what, I said, I'll take that deal.

I said, you know, if he's going to guarantee top four minutes. I said, here in Detroit, you know, I'm competing with Chelios. Guess what? Guess who's going to win? I said, I'm not going to play very many games. I may win the cup, but after that, my crew will be over. They'll ship me over to, you know, overseas. So I said, you know, I'll take the deal in Chicago and, you know, go from there.

So I said, you call Kenny Holland. Well, get to the rink. I'm talking to my agent. You talk to Kenny Holland? No, he can't get a hold of anybody and in the media. So guys are getting ready for the game. I'm just in my underwear. Guys are like, what are you doing?

I'm like, hey, you know, I just signed a Detroit. Five minutes before warmup, I call my agent. And he's thinking, no, you got to walk in that room and tell Babcock you're not playing. Oh, fuck. So, two minutes before warm-up, there was no spare. Didn't bring any extra. I walked in.

I said, hey, Babs, you know, with everything going on, you know, I got to think about myself. And, you know, I'm not going to play tonight. Yeah. You know, what the fuck? Fuck you. Where's the fucking GM? Get the fuck out of here, you fucking cocksucker.

Oh, yeah. Just motherfucking me. Babcock said that. I would have gave him a right fucking hook and dropped him, but I'm Team Babcock just to rattle. Where's my contract, buddy? Like, what are you talking about? Yeah, you know, this is what I got, And I said, I got to look out for myself.

I blew my knee out. Guess what? You guys don't give a shit. You're not going to pull that from me. So I'm in Toronto, you know, get my suit. Brian McClain was the assistant. He's like, get your suit and get the fuck out of there. You know, so I'm standing in the hallway, you know, Toronto,

with all the reps from all the stick companies are out there. So I'm talking, I'm going, all right, what the fuck am I going to do now? All my stuff's in Detroit. I got to find a flight home. So I end up taking a limo to Niagara Falls, staying overnight there, flying to Buffalo the next day. Detroit got my stuff, and, you know, I ended up in Chicago. They said, listen, so if you're, you know, we got a young team here, we want you to come here, but, you know, FY,

you're not going to play the power play. You know, we got Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook. We want you to mentor them, but you're not going to play the power play. So that's when, you know not going to play the power play so that's when you know happy gilmer came into play 364 more days in the batting cage and i just you know i sat there turned into a defense and defenseman who just took slap shots off a face and you know it ended landing me you know uh extension uh a few more games and you know and some stanley cup at the end of it.

That was the best decision in your life right there. You ate shots for breakfast, dude. You know, people ask, you know, at the end of the day, I played scared that my career was going to be over, so I didn't give a shit. I didn't care if it was Shea Weber. I didn't care if it was Chara,. I didn't care if it was Chara. I was going to stand in front of there.

If it's going to hit me, it may break bones. I don't give a shit. But I'm still playing in the NHL, and I don't have to worry about life after hockey. So I'll say this. The smartest guys who have usually sometimes the longest longevity in the league are those who adapt. Because you said coming in, you were some skilled defenseman, but by that time, it's like there's a new wave of guys

who they're just more mobile, they have harder shots, and this and that. Not to say you were the most offensive defenseman, but you're like, in order to fit in nice here and get compensated on the back end of your career, you're going to have to adapt and do things that you maybe didn't do early in your career. And fuck, dude, I mean, that's what everyone remembers you for now is the fact that you were eating pucks with the Chicago Blackhawks.

And to go back on when you walked in at Babcock's office, that probably was hard to do for you, but that was probably one of the best decisions of your life. Yeah, you know, it was the toughest because I'm like, look at this team. You know, Lidstrom, you know, we go down the list. They end up winning the Stanley Cup that year. So I'm like, fuck, you know, I may never win a Stanley Cup. I'm walking away with it.

So, you know, basically I was cashing in. You know, I was going all in on myself, knowing that, you know, if I don't put up the numbers, if I don't have a good year, you know, I'd fuck myself and fuck myself out of a Stanley Cup that ended up being, but you're exactly right. It ended up being the best decision that I made. Came to Chicago, you know, fit in. Obviously, pretty easy group.

That was Jonathan Tays and Patrick Kane's rookie year. So it was pretty easy. You know, I just had to go out there and, you know, try and mentor these guys and, you know, teach them a little bit. But what are you going to teach a guy like Duncan Keith? So I just let him run. And, you know, I sat there eight pucks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And, you know, like I said, play an extra three years.

Brett, there is one guy I do want to ask you about. I wonder if you were his mentor in any way. You spent three years with him in Chicago. Then you actually got traded to Atlanta with him. You were in Atlanta for a brief stretch. Hoping you might have some good big buff stories to share with us. Dustin. Oh, shit.

Big buff. There is no better man than that guy. He's unbelievable. I'll never forget the stories he'd tell me. He got drafted by Chicago. He unplugged his phone because he didn't want to go to camp because he was 300 pounds and he didn't give a shit. That was back in the day, no cell phone,

so he just unplugged the house phone and they couldn't get a hold of him. I think I've told this story on the pod before. It was when they brought him in one summer to basically get on the diet and get on the training regimen to get him NHL ready, and they told him he had to start eating better. And sure enough, after he ended up going to a Cubs game and he was eating a big thing of street meat, fries with meat on it and cheese, and one of the brass members whether it was assistant gm or

gm at the time ended up walking by and seeing him he was just scarfing this thing down the side of the road after a fucking cubs game oh they tried everything bringing your dieticians and you know his girlfriend was living and taking them shopping they tried everything but at the end of the day finally when you know when we won you know that year that year and put him up at four, what was he playing at? 275, 280. Nobody's going to stop the guy. So finally, they just let him go and kind of let him do what he needed to do. And look, I would end up being a hell of a player.

So that can kind of lead us into something that I think, rightfully so, i can bring up and that is you played in russia for four years three years three years okay and now i see the first team you played for nobles novo kuznets that is a trash. Did you ever go there? Did you play there? I saw that place. And how did you do that? So, you know, obviously not too many people there, but if you want to YouTube Crocodile Tears, which is a synthetic heroin,

that's the root of it. That's the hometown. So you'll be able to watch that whole city. Well, RA knows what you're talking about. They inject it with gasoline or eyedrops and their limbs fall off. You'll be able to see my apartment in that video.

It goes back to being in Chicago. Tough run there, huh? It was, you know, drink at night when there wasn't games. But, you know, I went over there. You know, there was three or four guys that could speak English, North Americans. Coaches didn't speak English.

That next year is when, you know, our trainer committed suicide in the rink with the Russian gas. Oh, God. Not our Russian gas listeners. Not our Russian gas. Well, can you elaborate? I mean. You know, again, you know, in this city, nobody spoke English.

You know, you go to a local restaurant, it'd take us 15 minutes to try and figure out that we wanted some bread. You know, we had absolutely no idea. You know, the Russian gas, everybody knows all about it. Our trainer, we had to go to the rink the night before a game at 7 p.m. for video. Oh, my God. Video for the next day.

That's worst in Baza. Whatever that's called. Yeah. No, we never had Baza, but we had tom for video oh my god video for the next day whatever that's called yeah no we never had but we had to go for video and uh you know went home you know came back the next day i guess as we left you know the trainer got in this little massage table that was heated and he strapped the mask on and he turned on the gas and uh you know killed himself holy jeez that's not good for the t-shirts sales yeah yeah yeah dude cornelli have them cut the t-shirts um but for for those who are wondering what bazaar meant or is it is that what it's called wit bazaar yeah i i've talked about or you got we have new listeners. Yeah.

Some people – actually, Soaps, why don't you explain it? You spent more time in Russia than I did. Yeah, you know, it's so – it all depends on what team, but there's a lot of teams that went – you had to go sleep in these barricades where, you know, where the Russian Army was the night before a game. You had to be at the baza by 6 or 7, and you had to stay overnight there. Single beds where you put your laptop on the baza, on this bed, and you got about half an inch on each side.

And everybody on the team had to stay there night before every single game. And it was a nightmare. Thank God in Novo and Kuznets, we didn't have to. That whole place was a nightmare anyway, so didn't have to worry about the baza. So this baza, what if a guy had a pregame night ritual of tugging one off?

Were any of these guys just doing shit like that in the baza, or was it pretty just everyone went to sleep? Right. Everybody went to sleep. It was it's uh everybody wants it was you know it was awful you know everybody because they watch you know at the end of the day as windows it's uh they watch every move you make you know they go for quantity not quality you know so there's no rest there's no nothing they're watching every move you make they owned you um they're making sure that the russians don't get out because every chance that they have they're going out to drink the warm beer with with the straw so it was watched pretty heavily um on everything that went on god help whoever was in russia watching me throw myself

around the room jesus thank god nobody spoke english because I have no idea. That's a scary thought. You always knew when they were yelling at you, but I didn't give a shit. I didn't know what they were saying. They're showing you can cable yourself and beat the wheels off your cock. You're like, oh, shit. What are you, Lou Lamorello sneaking in my room while I'm at practice? Hey, but you spent a year playing for UFA. I actually didn't mind where they were located.

That was a fun rink. The team's pretty good. Is that better? You must have enjoyed that more. Yeah, you know, it was way better. You know, Novo Kuznets was always interesting. You know, I don't know, Wade, if you had this, you know, a doctor that killed himself when I first got there.

He's like, you know, Hansen, that I got to go and go and go to the hospital you know to get my blood taken you know because i need an hiv test for you know for my visa well you know i walk up there there's this glass it looks like it's looking uh dairy queen the lady opens up the window exactly like you know your order you're getting your order from dairy queen you shove my arm in there and she grabs this needle that's wide open. It's probably been used by 10 people, and just jabs it in my arm. So, while if I didn't have the age before, I got it now. Hey, speaking of the needle story, that reminds me of when I broke my toe. I was playing in the American League, and we were playing up in St. John's,

and it was bugging me so bad at that point that I had to get it frozen before games. Well, the guy who was supposed to freeze it, like the team doctor for the St. John's or whatever, it's in the AHL, it's a jungle. Well, he's late, so I'm fucking waiting to go out. I'm almost going to miss warm-up here. This guy finally wheels in. That's when you're like, this is pro hockey.

What the fuck? Where is this guy? Finally, he wheels in. He slowly gets a new needle together. It is this guy? Finally, he wheels in. He slowly gets like a new needle together. It wasn't a used one, so thank God. But this guy, he sticks it in my big toe, and it's going out the other side, and he starts like pushing the fluid out.

And it's spraying, and I'm like, buddy, it's not even in my fucking toe, man. Are you a doctor? And he's like, well, I'm a veterinarian. And I'm like, what the fuck is going on here? Luckily, he backed it up a little bit, squirted some in the toe, man. Are you a doctor? He's like, well, I'm a veterinarian. I'm like, what the fuck is going on here? Luckily, he backed it up a little bit, squirted some of the toe. I think I fought twice in the first period and I got kicked out. I went and got shit-faced

in St. John's. Hey, Soaps, I've actually told this story before that when I was doing my, you know, you got to do the blood work, right when I got doing my, you know, you got to do the blood work. When I, right, right. When I got to Russia, the lady taking my blood was smoking a cigarette in my face. He's doing it.

How many, how many rinks did you walk out with a haze of smoke sitting across there? Cause everybody's got the darts on and everybody's got their jackets and their hats on because there's no heat in the rinks. Jesus. So now, so were you there's no heat in the rinks. Jesus. Now, so were you there for the love of the game or like a little like broke or like, what was the situation that you stayed there for so long?

Not going to make money, right? Yeah, at the end of the day, it was money. Like I said, I was so scared of ending my career. I didn't matter where I was going to go. I was going to, you know, going to go to Novo Kuznets, which is, you know, the worst place ever. You know, I ended up in Ufa, but I didn't give a shit what I was going to have to do.

Same thing in Chicago. If I got to, you know, play with broken bones and, you know, take them off the chin, off the teeth, I was going to do that because I was, you know, I was scared shitless of the game of hockey being over. Now, would you say Russia was good or bad for you at that point in your life and career? Was it something that you're glad you did, or you're kind of like,

eh, maybe I shouldn't have done that? You know, I'll never say I'm glad I did it. You know, I was in and out of, what, 14 countries. You know, these stories that there's only wit and a few others that can validate them because, you know, it's that fucking crazy. But, you know, I that fucking crazy but you know i can say i lived through it uh i lived through all those planes um you know guys you know smoking on the plane opening the back where the all the luggage is sitting on the back of the bag drinking

beers and smoking darts on the plane you know i lived i lived through all that shit to tell the stories um one story that uh a few of the more modern day guys to talk about that that are still over there some of my buddies is they say you show up to some cities on the road and they'll be like 15 hookers waiting in the lobby and some of the russian guys will just like call down the lobby and say yeah yeah send up the one with the green dress oh yeah you know they they lived you know they lived for their their beers and their hookers. It didn't matter. You know, you go to Moscow, you know, half the bars were whorehouses. You just take them and, you know, are you sportsmen? You know, all the hookers.

Are you sportsmen? Yeah. You stay hotel? Yeah. I know that one. So, it's hookers and beers. You should probably know everywhere. No, I don't know anything.

I'm not a pay-for-play guy, and I swear I'm not just saying that for the podcast and that I don't want to be canned by the Coyotes. I don't want to be canned. Which I'm sure once this comes out, I will. But, no, but, yeah, one of my buddies said that he had two of the hottest women he's ever seen same night, and it cost him like $800. And, like I said, I'm not down for the pay to play because you also don't know what kind of situation those girls are in either.

They treat women like shit over there. I ain't fucking down with that. Hey, wasn't it insane? Sopal, did you have any examples of seeing the Russians when they would have their girlfriend and then their wife to the game the next night? Well, that was every game. It was tradition there

to get married at a young age, 18, 19, 20, and have two or three girlfriends on the side. That's what you did. They got married so young over there. There was a girlfriend section and there was a wife section at the rink. They were in the opposite corners.

They were just like, I better have a better bag than that bitch but they didn't they didn't give a shit you know like you said they treated their women or their dogs better than women you know they tell their wife to go home and i'm going out you got no choice you don't get to get puddled till you know nine in the morning then go back you know show up to practice completely in the bag and then then you go home or disappear for five days not tell anybody where you are go on a bender and show up like you know nothing happens did you ever uh dummy anyone in in a game you ever fight over there at all yeah i gotta yeah i got in a few fights over there you know yeah chasing these fuckers around you know thinking they're all that getting you know paid so yeah i got to get a few guys's face

gotten a few fights but uh you know they wanted nothing to do with that there was a you know it was a beer league no hitting uh you know don't touch me i won't touch you league so um you know there's a ton of skill you know poble chuck waschuk was over there when I was there, Tarasenko, Panarin. So it was guys like that on the big ice, you know, being as bad a skater as I am, I had to work 10 times as hard chasing these fuckers around. Did you ever have any issues with getting paid on time? I imagine Novo Kuznets had some issues. You know what?

No, I can honestly say I got my money, all my money on time. I never had a problem anywhere. That is not normal. Yeah, no, not normal at all. No, Kuznets is as shitty as the place was. I got my money. You know, they probably shorted me, you know, some luck of change here or there, but I got my money.

I didn't have to fight for it. I didn't have to yell and scream or threaten not to play, but, uh, uh, I was lucky. One of the lucky ones that always deposited my bank account. As soon as it deposited, I got it the fuck out of the country. Hey, did you talk, uh, did you talk to any guys from the team that had all the fighters on it where the owner was, was a crazy Russian and apparently he would go into the locker

room with like AK 47ss and shit yeah yeah yeah oh my god yeah i know i knew a lot of guys you know in that league when when you're uh you're a north american you just want to see another north american to say hi you know to feel like you can speak english so i was like fucking you know i I'd look to see who's on the team just so I can talk to somebody and, you know, think I'm normal again that I could talk to them. So yeah, we played them many times

but obviously, thank God they didn't chase after me because, you know, guys like Morassi would have beat the fuck out of me. Quick question, actually going back to Chicago soaps. The game, the last game of the 2010 Cup vs. Philly did you know Patrick Kane shot did you see it go in did you know it went in

like oh you're one of those confused people that didn't know what was going on no I think I was the last one off the bench because you know obviously everything I'd gone through this is towards the end of my career you know Manny Jose had lost two cups in a row. I was scared shitless that, you know, it didn't go in.

And we were going to end up coming back. Yeah, exactly. You know, bad karma ended up coming and losing. So I had no idea. I kind of slowly threw the leg over, you know, over the boards. And I was at center ice kind of skating backwards, looking at the bench, waiting for, you know, confirmations from, you know, from the coaches. You know, half the guys, you know, still don't know, still never seen it go in.

But they tell me it went in. The party went on. So lucky to say that, you know, that did go in. I was happy to win a Stanley Cup. I love that that's your story now, that you were nervous, didn't go in, but you were really grabbing your phone quick and texting Babcock, fuck you. Yeah. First thing I did as soon as I got back in the dressing room,

right past the boys' party and big fuck you, text the Babs. We're going to have to get a Babcock support group between you and Mike Commodore started soon. Oh, we're just scratching the surface. We can go on. We'll have to get you on again because you've been very entertaining.

R.A., you got one more? I got one more, actually. After you did Russia, you came back, you played at the AHL in Chicago. Now, was that just to make sure that hockey was out of your system because you didn't play a whole year? I think you played like 20 or 30 games. Was that just to make sure you were completely done with hockey? No, you know what?

I was short of 1,000 regular season professional games by, I think it was like 30 or 40. So, you know, I had kids at that point in time. So, you know, three years in Russia, you know, was enough. You know, not seeing the kids for nine months a year. So I came back here and I wanted to hit that 1,000 games. You know, even though it's not the, it's not the silver stick in the NHL where you've got that policy. But I got a Stanley Cup and I can say I played

1,000 professional regular season games. So I can hang my hat on that. A lot of guys can't. It's a hell of a feather in your hat, for sure. Oh, for sure. But it doesn't matter here. It's all about what have you done for lately. So everybody's like, fuck you. Where are you at now? Well, Soaps, I want to matter here. It's all about what have you done for lately. So, you know, everybody's like, fuck you.

Where are you at now? Well, Soaps, I want to talk to you a little bit about that. Like we've talked about the hockey side of it. You know, you've obviously had some ups and downs in your personal life that you've been very vocal about, which to me, I not only commend that, but you've now been helping out a ton of people even away from the game, just fans. And I just want you to touch on that briefly and give fans a perspective of

where you've been and what you've come back from. Yeah. And, you know, you, you heard me say a couple of times that I, that I played, you know, I played scared, you know, as a kid, you know, I was told that I was dumb and stupid. I was reading at a grade four level going into you know grade nine freshman and uh you know I was just just school fucking suck hated it you know couldn't read couldn't do anything you know I probably haven't passed grade eight you know they just passed me along because I was a hockey player and uh you know it wasn't until later on you know I had kids I think I ended up being 33 or 34 years old when I found I had dyslexia.

It kind of made sense going, all right, all those years I wasn't dumb. I just couldn't figure it out. But it doesn't change the fact that I still have a hard time reading and writing and writing emails. So I played in fear all those years, knowing that I'm going to have 40, 50 years of my life or, you know, have to get back in the workforce. And how do I write a resume when I can't write a fucking email? You know, what I do. So, you know, I hit the sauce pretty hard. You know, I was drinking a ton, trying to get the pain to go away, knowing, you know, am I going to find a job? Am I not going to find a job? You know, to find a job you know I got kids to support I got bills to pay you know I mean you know I made money but uh you know I ended up

getting divorced so uh there goes that and what I do so you know I hit the ball pretty hard and you know thanks to you know actually biz one of your buddies Noah Friar you know grab the had the balls enough to have a support group and and toss me into to rehab and uh you know grab the you had the balls enough to you know have a support group and and toss me into to rehab and uh you know kind of get my life back on track uh if it wasn't it wasn't for him where would i be uh that's a good question i could probably say i wouldn't be here today and uh you know next week is being sober two years oh man congratulations it's fucking awesome and and man i know you you know you kind of ripped on yourself a little bit there for like not being able to read and write you're

you sound like you're an articulate guy i mean you might have a career in media whether it's doing maybe doing radio or or fuck man maybe we even throw a fifth guy on the podcast for crying out loud the way you wasn't tonight oh fucking you know I don't know if I'm at your level, boys, but, you know, it's, you know, there was no straight line A to B for me. You know, it was zigzag, and no matter where I was, you know, as my kids grew up, I couldn't read them children's stories, so I had to make up children's storybooks, and I had three characters, Pinky, Greeny, and Blacky, and I'd just, you know, make up stories.

They went to the second Six Flags and Greeny Pits His Pants and my kids are laughing and having a good time but that was the way I covered up my insecurities about not reading and everybody

learns in a different way but still struggling on a day-to-day basis about it, but finally feeling at least pretty good about who I am today. So personality-wise, when you get to talk about it and all these people heard your stories and everyone was so positive towards you after hearing it, do you feel that it helps to talk about it? Are you less upset and insecure about it?

Yeah, you know what? For all those insecure about it yeah you know what for all those years you know i didn't know what it was and then when i found out what it was you know you i thought i was the only one you know what a fucking selfish idiot you know i'm not you know dyslexia is one in five kids have it or people have it so uh you know coming out and talking about it you know i have parents emailing me all the time you know kid, help me with their kid, what I do here, you know, what I do there. So, you know, if I can help one kid and have him not feel the way I do, you know, every single help these kids, you know, get their self-esteem because at the end of the day, that's it. You know, if you don't have any self-esteem, start high school, what are you going to turn to?

You're going to turn to drugs, drinking, and it's going to lead you down a bad path. And thank God I had hockey or guaranteed I would have been down a bad path a lot earlier. Yeah, we'll make sure to send out the link to your foundation for all our listeners when we air this episode. Yeah, that'd be greatly appreciated.

Like I said, people don't understand that dyslexia is hereditary and it's one in five. So, you know, you got kids, you walk in that classroom, you know, break the numbers down. It's pretty staggering. Listen, talking to you has been a lot of fun. I think that you should be really proud. I mean,

I remember playing against you just thinking you were an absolute warrior. You played for a long time, growing up on a farm where a lot of people told you you wouldn't be able to ever make it. And you proved a lot of people wrong. So not only that, but then the off ice issues that you've dealt with and where you're at now. So you should be proud and we really appreciate you coming on.

So thank you. No, it honors all my boys. You know, I listen to you all the time. So I appreciate you taking the time for me. We all know your schedules are busy, making all the big bucks that you guys are now. So I appreciate you having me on. Hey, thanks a lot. Yeah, thank you, buddy.

Thanks a lot, Soaps. Really appreciate it. And Bastu Chief said to say hello, too, by the way. Guy's got no idea what he's talking about every single day. I can't believe you guys associate with that fucker. Fuck all that one, Chief. Ouch. All right.

Take care, my friend. Thanks for coming on. That interview was also brought to you by Eagle Energy. Eagle Energy started as a great idea. Take all the benefits of an energy drink and remove the negatives to create an innovative product that delivers caffeine faster without any calories or sugar. You know, me and Biz have been slurping on these things for months because they work. They don't get you too wired. They just keep you going, man. It's a great

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Thank you very much to Brent Sofel. Great guy who had a lot of good stories for us. As you heard, he experienced the KHS, the Russian way of life a little bit. So also for people who are wondering, Joel Quenville's firing didn't come up because that's one of the interviews we banked. It kind of sucks for us when that happens, when stuff breaks. We're going to try to be better at not banking so far in advance. But I'm busy, busy, busy.

Everyone's kind of busy except for Grinnell. He's just busy getting after it. So we're going to try our best. um sometimes it's just too far in advance and and also he was over on Redline Radio I believe just recently uh a Chicago-based sports podcast part of Barstool's network so check him out over there too but thank you very much to Brett very very interesting interview I love talking to guys like that who just have a kind of a unique way of looking at things, a unique perspective. And he had the all-time fucking Russian gas story.

I don't think we can ever top that one. I mean, that was next level. We'll have to send some guys over there to play just to bring more back. Oh, seriously, right? Holy shit. Another story. We were just talking about the Metro division a few minutes ago, Biz. Buddy Tom Wilson, he did appeal his suspension. it was reduced from 20 games to 14 games uh however the

capitals have already played 16 games so uh he's gonna get his money back but he gets fucked out of those two games the team gets fucked out of those two games there's a those are two games he couldn't score add totals to you know his career totals and uh brian burke uh made you know do you want to mention it? Brian Burke did an interview the other night, and he basically was saying, like, they should have fixed this. After Dennis Weidman appealed his suspension, it got reduced, and he came back after the, you know, after there were so many games already played,

he got fucked out of games. Like, basically, if you're going to get your suspension reduced, you shouldn't have the team already played that many more games than you're going to be suspended for. And they didn't fix it then, and now we're seeing Tom Wilson get fucked again. And I think the league almost does it on purpose, knowing that the appeal is going to lower the number. So if they delay it, it allows them to get a little more fucking games out of it.

Some people commenting, of course, on Twitter didn't really grasp what he was trying to say. He's not taking the player or the situation into consideration what he's saying is is after the Weidman situation this should have been addressed because both the NHLPA and and Lee can come together and say hey listen let's figure out a quicker way to get this handled so this doesn't happen again so now it's happened twice let's hope they take the proper steps in order to address it. That way we don't have this come up again. I don't think anyone is sympathizing or a lot of people aren't sympathizing for Tom Wilson in his situation, but they're just saying the overall situation.

They're definitely going to have to figure out something, whether, you know, how the arbitrator is going to work, how's it going to be. But that, that is an issue that I'm sure will get solved at some point. I hope it does. Moving on, we had a milestone on Tuesday night in the NHL. Jumbo Joe Thornton scored his 400th goal in just a phenomenal, phenomenal game. 5-4

win for the Sharks, who were up 3-0 against Nashville. Nashville comes all the way back, takes the lead 4-3. San Jose ties it up. And then what a way to get your 400th as the winning goal on home ice. A big-time celebration. You know, Jumbo keeps it pretty at a minimum with his cellies.

You know, usually just a low-key fist pump, maybe. But you see a big arm swing up against the glass. He was fired up, and deservingly so. Hall of Fame player. You saw Brent Burns. Brent Burns sent out a really nice tweet after. You know, you could tell it was a heartfelt tweet talking about just how appreciative he is

to not only get to play with Joe Thornton, but meet him and become his friend. That he's a better guy off the ice than a player he is on the ice, which is saying something. And also, Joe Thornton just always seems to be smiling. And I know that it's hard not to, when you've had the career he's had, but I need everyone to do me a favor and check out the NHL players in the

history of the NHL who have 400 goals and a thousand assists. And it's an insane list. I think it's around 12 guys. It was on NHL network today. Maybe Grinnelli, we can get that out on Instagram. But it's insane company. So congrats to him. And we got Sully's season. Budweiser sponsored us. That's on the Monday segments.

But I think we definitely need an honorable mention to him because you mentioned he's not very candid when he scores because we all know, hey, I'm a passer. That's what he used to tell us. I'm a disher. I'd rather a sick apple. Hey, I'm a disher. But he ended up big fist pump.

And then the funniest part was when he went by the line, and you could tell the boys were so fired up, not only because it was the go-ahead goal, but just because it was his 400. It was such a special moment. The post-game interview was unbelievable. So he, he's going to be our,

our, I guess our Thursday edition of Sally season. And we're going to crown him the victor on this episode. So congratulations to jumbo Joe. I did text him. He said that maybe he'll make time of time for us on an interview. He hates doing this type of stuff, but Hey,

hopefully soon enough we can get him out of his shell and he can join us. I'd say he's definitely the – Oh, I would. He's an in-person guy. He's a must in-person guy. I'd fly to him. I'll fly to Switzerland. I think his wife's from there.

We'll go over to Swiss, have some chocolate, hang out with Jumbo. He's definitely the sentimental favorite, though, I'd say, in the league for the guy that everybody wants to see win a cup. I mean, Ovechkin was obviously up there, but I think Joe Thornton's a guy, no matter where you're from, what city you live in, or what team you root for, man, you would love to see Thornton get another crack at it for sure. Biz, you had a big signing in your neck of the woods, correct?

Jacob Chikrin got extended. I think it's a great, I wouldn't call it a gamble, but Chikrin has had quite a bit of adversity the last few seasons. He tore his left and right ACL in the last two years, has had limited time. But this guy is like Wolverine. Always comes back before schedule. He fucking works his balls off in the gym.

He had to spend the entire summer in Philadelphia recovering away from his family. The mental grind that this kid has been through has been ridiculous. I feel bad for him because he's such a good kid. He ends up getting rewarded, though, for his commitment to not only coming back and recovery, but just, you know, he's a stud. I think he's going to be a star. And the Coyotes, I think, get a really good deal. Why don't you hit us with the exact terms here, R.A.?

Yep. He signed a six-year extension worth $27.6 million, comes out to $4.6 million a year. And I'll tell you, man, the Coyotes, you know, there's everyone goofs on you calling them wagon and stuff, but they've really assembled quite a back end there. You know, they now have Chikrin, Nicholas, Sharmus and super, super Nintendo Sharmus and Oliver Ekman,

Larson, Alex Goligosky, and Jason Demers all signed through at least the 2021 season. I mean, that's what you need. You need, you know, a core, a good core consistency in the lineup and you know, Arizona's building something there. And before I hand it off to you here, I think that he's going to be a very good top four defenseman, produce fair offensive numbers.

I believe he would probably have been a $6 million type defenseman, maybe five and a half without the injuries. You know, let's hope he plays beyond that contract. And, Witt, I want to ask you, for a guy who's been through that the last two years and how big of a mental grind going from back to back, very significant, serious injuries, I mean, you had the same thing happen. Like, what's that like just, I mean, living in your own head for that long, not being able to play?

It's the hardest thing in the world, Biz. I mean, I was coming off of, you know, a major ankle surgery, like my 17th, and finally got back after battling you know all summer all training camp the season before was when the rehab started and first game I got tripped up and you know didn't tear my MCL but had a bad sprain in my MCL and then right away you're just thinking oh my god again like I have to restart it. And that was – I mean, he tore his ACL. He had major, major surgery. And the fact that he came back that quick shows that he is a beast.

He's also handsome as hell. Tyson Nash on NHL Network, they're asking him, how excited is the team to have him back? He's like, how excited is every woman in the world to get this guy back on the ice? Oh, he's a he's a complete man rocket. to have him back. He's like, how excited is every woman in the world to get this guy back on the ice? He's a complete man rocket. By the way, do we have some man rocket ugly sweaters coming out? Oh boy, I won't take

mine off. It'll just smell like BO the whole time. I don't care. I love the look of it. Also, we want to say good luck to Scotty Upshaw. He had surgery. Big fan of the show. Everyone knows he's one of Biz and I's boys. Great guy. So good luck to him in the rehab.

He rehabbed a little in Vail. He's going to come on in the future. We'll get some Scotty Upshaw talk, which everyone will love. And other than that, I don't know. We got anything else, boys? A little longer episode, but like to be chatting. This is making my ride go a little quicker. One thing before I have a very serious question for you, Ryan Whitney,

I will get scalded from Red Wings fans if I don't mention the fact that they beat my beloved Coyotes. The Wings are one of the hottest teams in the league right now, seven and one in their last eight, five wins in a row. I was getting slaughtered online with Wings fans commenting about my wagon, commenting about the Coyotes. The most I've been bullied online by any fan base. So you guys have bragging rights, but they'll be traveling to the desert soon,

and we're going to get revenge. Now, before we end this episode, we still have the funny story that we need to hear about Grinnelli, but I need the fucking oxygen to breathe. I need to hear your thoughts on the Draymond Green and Kevin Durant situation. Sickly. Oh, I was actually wrote this down. I wanted to bring it up.

I forgot. Are those two clowns kidding me? Actually, Draymond Green, what a goon he is. What a goon he is. What a goon. Dude, you shouldn't be the one trying to dribble it down the court and hit the game-winning shot, you selfish clown. This dude honestly – by the way, Kevin Durant, I think he's a two-time finals MVP at least at one time.

He's a bitch, but he's also – he's got burner accounts going after 13-year-olds. Complete bitch in terms of how he lives his life online. But he's an absolute gamer. Sick jump shot. He hits them to win the games all the time. So Draymond takes it. That would be like me wheeling the net if we were down a ball in Pittsburgh and Sid's like, hey, Beaver tapping me.

Winnie, I'm open in the middle. Witt, I'm still open. Witt, I'm open in the middle. Witt, I'm still open. Witt, I'm way ahead of you. What are you doing? And I skate off sides or fall into the bench, and we lose. Like, dude, pass the puck. And then you know what? I would have said, shit, I'm so sorry.

I had a brain cramp. I don't know what I was doing. You know what Draymond says? You's a bitch, KD. Fuck off. I don't need to pass you the ball. This is my world. I'm making the big buck. And this is my team. And then Durant's like, fuck off i don't need to pass you the ball this is my world i'm making a big buck and this is my

team and then durant's like fuck off and then the other guys we got boogie cousins grabbing them and then boogie say it's all good it's all good you're the man you're the man don't even worry he's like no fuck off boogie they don't get it i'm the man i'm just i'm disgusted by that entire something where we can vent maybe every Thursday episode about the other stuff. Because there was also crying on the court when Rose had like a 50-point game, like at Bergeron after missing a year from a concussion, came back and had a four-goal game.

He'd be crying in the middle of the game. Get out of here. I mean, it's just – it's furious. I know people probably think I'm just like ranting and don't feel this way but I actually hate that I hate the NBA sorry I couldn't tell yeah that one was ridiculous

apparently it ended up going into the locker room and it's just like Draymond you're a role guy on a very good team just dish the goddamn ball and you know what you said Whit if he did screw up and the guys are like yo yo, buddy, dish that, he's got to be like, boys, I fucked up. I had the brain cramp.

But no. Very stubborn. Boys, do we cover the Jamie Benn fight? We hadn't mentioned it, no, because we had a lot of shit to talk about tonight. Yeah, there was a ton of shit. Sorry this one ran a little long. But before we wrap up, I need to hear this story from Grinnell. It's my

story. I think it would do a lot better if Witt told it. My bad. I thought it was yours. Let me preface by saying me, Whitney, Brett Merriman, Young Page Views, and Rudy went out last night and got some drinks.

And Frankie and Frankie Borelli, Iitt wasn't too pleased. And Frankie. And Frankie. And Frankie Borelli, I'm sorry. And Frankie Borelli. And Witt wasn't too pleased. Suck on that, Frankie. Suck on that, buddy. I know you're listening.

Witt wasn't too pleased with office manager Brett's drink of choice. So, Witt, why don't you tell the story? Thanks. You will not believe this move by this kid. Nice kid, fluffy hair. Nice kid, though. I met him in Saratoga for a few minutes this summer. Nice guy.

Comes out for beers. You know, so I go up to the bar. Hey, I don't need a drink. All right, so we had gone on the IPA, so we switched over. We were having some vodka sodas, New Amsterdam vodka. Absolute winner. So we're having some, and I said, all right, well, we need three vodka sodas, and we need two beers.

I think there are three beers. Some guys are still having beers. All of a sudden, this rep kid's like behind my shoulder. Like I feel his hair bump into my shoulder. It's like soft as a pillow. Like, what the hell? He's like, did you order the drinks yet? I'm like, yeah, I just ordered the three vodka sodas and three beers.

She hasn't started making them. He's like, oh, I'm going to switch mine. She's like, did you order the drinks yet? I'm like, yeah, I just ordered the three vodka sodas and three beers. She hasn't started making them. He's like, oh, I'm going to switch mine. She's like, what? He's like, could I get a pumpkin spice flavor, short rim, spiced rim, sugar on the bottom and the top martini? I was like, dude, are you kidding me right now? You should have seen the look she gave him. She's like, instead of making three vodka sodas and getting three ipas

i have to make you this drink dude it took her 25 minutes and he got this thing in a glass that honest honest to god you could one time you could hold it you could hold it with your index finger and your thumb i'm doing that while i'm driving right now and i'm just sipping like a like a like a like an old lady in England drinking tea. And it was just, I've never seen anything like it in my life. I was dumbfounded. Brunelli, was it not deservingly like me to be, what is going on, right?

What planet am I living on? Yeah, I was rattled. I was most rattled by the way he did it, how you were just like, yeah, we'll take out three vodka sodas and three more of those IPAs. And he squeezed in and he was like, actually, we'll take out three vodka sodas and three more of those IPAs. And he squeezed it, and he was like, actually, scratch that. I'll take a pumpkin spice espresso martini with the sugar on the rim.

Pumpkin spice espresso. He's like, I need some energy, so this espresso martini will, and the pumpkin flavor will fall. I'm like, Brett, dude, honest to God, you're jump-starting a puke right now for me. I'm having nightmares about this. I woke up, dude, I had a nightmare last night.

I woke up in a sweat to a dream of that kid doing it to me again. Boys, I can't really chime in on this because I'm a bad order guy, but that's more so with food sometimes. But, yeah, that's a tough drink order. Craziness, craziness. All right,, but yeah, that's a tough drink order. Craziness. Guys, this is a long episode. Hey, one quick one. I've been asked a bunch. People

want to know Man Rocket status, the Blackhawks coach, Jeremy Colleton. I haven't seen a good enough pitch yet, so you guys got a vote on that? You know what he's got? He's got that Toby Maguire look. He looks like the guy who played the Scarecrow in one of the Batman, Robin, with Christian Bale. Zillian Murphy, man.

Great actor. Wow. Good call, Whit. And, dude, how about Uppy, though? Scotty Upshaw, even in his post-operation, he's got Bedhead, a Johnny hanging off him, oxygen tubes, wires everywhere. Three Cialis in him. Still a goddamn man rocking.

I was like, oh, just come out of surgery, and he should be on the cover of GQ. Well, yeah, he's probably – coming out of surgery, you feel great, though, usually. Yeah. Well, boys, that was an unbelievable episode. I know we ran a little bit long, but there was a ton to talk about. Glad we mentioned some teams that we don't normally get to talk about. So we're going to wrap it up. Thank you everyone

for listening. Have a great weekend all. Well, you went uptown Riding in your limousine With your fine park Avenue clothes You had the darn Perignon in your hand

And the spoon up your nose Ooh, when you wake up In the morning With your head on fire And your eyes too bloody To see Thank you.