Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 129: Featuring Jeremy Roenick + Nick Niedert

Episode Date: November 29, 2018

On Thursday's episode of Spittin' Chiclets the guys are joined by Jeremy Roenick to talk about everything under the sun. JR talks about his career, some things he's learned along the way and he also tells arguably the craziest story/prank of all time. The guys are then joined by Nick Niedert, the ECHL goalie who just got his first win in pro hockey in over 1000 days. The guys wrap up with some NHL news, Grinnelli makes a new Sabres bet, and RA recaps his 5-0 gambling corner.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 129 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by New Amsterdam Vodka. Let's go around the table and say hello to the gentlemen this evening. Let's go to our buddy, Brian Whitney first. What, dog? What's going on? What up, what up, fellas? How you guys doing?

All right, all right. Next, we'll go to Paul Bissonnette, Biz Nasty out in the desert. What's up, brother? Looking forward to hearing about these fucking gambling picks, R.A. Stay hot, buddy. Five and all, making me rich. I'll try. And, boy, Mikey Grinelli, producer down in New York.

What's going on, brother? Boys, the Sabres have won 10 straight. I have a little proposal for you guys later, but I know we're going to get to the Sabres later, so I'll wait. Yeah, we'll get to the Sabres. Huge 10 wins in a row. I think they've only covered the puck line twice in those 10 games, but they're still making money elsewhere.

But the big news since our last show, Ronnie Hextall, shit-canned as the general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers. People probably thought it was going to be the coach to go first. It was the GM. So what say you, Biz? What's your take on the old fire in here uh i mean i'll say this i was a little shocked that he went before uh before the head coach and the reason i say that is because like i feel like they've assembled a pretty good roster

like they you go down their roster jaru couturier voracek connect me simmons like their top six are very good. They got some decent bottom six. I mean, Jordan Wheel's a guy I play with. I think he's a really good third-line center. Their back end's good. I mean, the one issues in goal, I mean, that's been like forever for the Philadelphia Flyers.

I just – like I said, I'm just shocked that it wasn't the coach first, and that's nothing against him. But just like, I mean,'m just shocked that it wasn't the coach first and that's nothing against him but just like I mean it's his job to get the boys going but hey I think I think the the organization wanted to shake things up a little bit maybe to get the boys going but then fuck man they followed up with a brutal loss to Ottawa who came in there and and and and shook him up yeah that was I mean you know Ronxtall sitting there, he's loving that, blowing a lead against the Senators, losing 4-3. Biz, I think you're right. I mean, I think a lot of people thought Hextall would be gone before Ron Hextall was. I mean, in a sense, it was up

to Hextall. If he wanted to get rid of him, he could have, but he really stuck to his guns. He had a lot of trust in Dave Hextall, and that turned out to be, I mean, I guess the wrong decision. I mean, he's probably looking at it right now. If I'd gotten rid of him, I would at least still have my job another year, see if we end up getting into the playoffs. But you said it before, and we've said it on this podcast. It's

goaltending. Ironically, Ron Haxtell, one of the great Flyers goalies. A shout-out to winning the consmite for a playoff MVP when he didn't win the Stanley Cup. A goalie ended up not having a goalie is what ended up really kind of killing him. And they haven't had one in 35 years, it seems like.

And because of that, it's just a team that never has consistency. You can't win in the NHL without a goal. You can't win in Major League Baseball without pitching, in the NFL without a quarterback. It's the one key position that if you don't have it, you may win some games on offense, you may get into the playoffs,

but you're never going to win the Cup. You're never going to get it done and win that ultimate goal. When you look at Hextall getting gassed, a lot of people also brought up that the Flyers don't even play the style of hockey that the fans enjoy, that the fans have always kind of, you know,

gotten around and enjoyed and called each other. We're the Philly scumbags. We just dummy people. We're fighting. I mean, they lost to Toronto six, nothing a week ago. There wasn't one. They didn't have a penalty. I mean, what Flyers fan is sitting around watching and could ever remember a Flyers team in the past getting blown out six nothing and they're not being a fight or something pushing someone getting I'm getting a minor penalty so that was what seems like it was almost the last straw of just a team that doesn't

look inspired now is that the coach you could say yes I mean a lot of people point to him but when when when I look at Flyers fans that hate that hate their head coach so much it's like man this roster is good, and yeah, they're not living up to their expectations and where they could be in the standings, but they don't have goaltending. So what coach is going to be out there and get a team to win when they can't get any big saves?

So it goes back to players. I know we're a player-first podcast, but you still see Hextall gone, and at some point Hextall gone. And Paul Holmgren did say that whoever gets hired as GM, Hextall gone. And at some point Hextall gone and Paul Holmgren did say that whoever gets hired as GM, Hextall's fate is in his hands. He's that I don't really want to be, I don't want to say it's in his hands, but it is. So we're going to see what happens with the search for GM going on.

Yeah. I think Holmgren's just passing the buck basically to whoever the next GM is, is obviously going to probably fight a Hextall. That's I mean, every GM wants his own coach. I can't imagine whoever they bring is going to say, I'm going to keep this guy hired by the previous regime. So I think Holmgren was just making somebody else do the dirty work. You mentioned the goalies.

I mean, we talk about this wits for three years. We've been doing this podcast almost, and I feel like we've been talking about Flyers goalies for the last three fucking years. They're on their fifth goalie already this season. Only two teams in NHL history have used five goalies in the first 25 games of the season. 89 Penguins and the 06 Thrashers. So, you know, there are goalies out there every year.

There are goalies to be signed. I mean, they could have had Jaroslav Halak, Curtis McElhinney was on waivers. They just can't seem to ever land the right goalies. I mean, again, five goalies in 25 games, not good. He was there four and a half years total, only made the playoffs twice. You know, Philly's the city with expectations. They want to be in the playoffs every year.

They should be a contender. But Hextall, they groomed him. They brought him in. It just wasn't a success. It's going to be interesting to see what they do next. But, again, as long as they don't have a goaltender, man, they're just going to be this kind of laughingstock because they're not a laughingstock of a franchise.

They're just not going to be a contender at all. Well, and, I mean, Brian Elliott's played 14 games and has decent numbers this year. Calvin Picard, I mean, he's played 11. He's got 4.01 goals against average. He's still 4-2-2. That's his record. I mean, that just tells you the type of goal support they're

getting and just not winning games so I don't know boys I mean shake things up but I could imagine that if a few more performances like that continue they're gonna have to uh they're gonna have to gas the coach too and that'll be what the fifth of the year I mean I wonder what the NHL record is for for goaltenders or uh for coaches getting canned. Considering none were last year as already mentioned recently. And, you know, Nolan Patrick, there's times I watch him and you could see a dominant force in there, you know, a bigger player that could skate, has vision, has hands. And then there's other times where it just, you know, it hasn't clicked yet. Now this was, I mean, 2017 draft.

So there's plenty of time for this kid to become a stud, but you look some of the names, and you see Pedersen from Vancouver was behind him, and Middlestad and Buffalo was behind him, and Heskinen and Dallas. When you pick in the top two, top three, top five, you've got to hit home runs. That's just how it works, especially nowadays. Before, it used to be wait, and a guy gets picked fifth, maybe he'll play in three years. Now, it's right away. when you have a guy that you're that you're picking that high and you see so many moments when he can dominate but then there's times he isn't consistent you see other guys beneath him in draft status whether it be really early or not uh in terms of how how

long ago he was drafted you still need to see production consistently and realize and think, all right, we got ourselves a franchise-type player second overall that year in 2017. So we'll see what happens with him going forward. It's funny that you say that. I'd be curious to know the percentage of top five picks, let's say, of guys who haven't entered the league in their first two years if they've went down to the AHL and seasoned up a little bit to eventually become what they were supposed to be of that top five pick.

Usually it's like if you don't just come in and make an impact, I feel like you just dwindle off. Yeah, well, before it was different. I mean, I was picked in 2002 and I wasn't ready at all to play in the NHL and took my time and ended up playing a little bit, not a big deal. Um, but you're saying that nowadays, yeah. Okay. Nowadays it's like, it's like, if you don't make an impact right away, it's just like, they basically not know that you're a boss, but rarely is this, is there going to be a top, you know, three to five pick that goes to

the AHL finds his game, his pro game, and then comes up and ends up scaling up to be, well, a top five pick at the NHL draft. And you said it. It's like now the expectation is you're drafted, you fucking have a big summer, you go to training camp, and then all of a sudden you're at least a 40, 50 point guy. Or as a defenseman, look at Charlie McAvoy's first year. He was noticeable out there. You're like, wow, if this guy scales up this much more,

like another 10%, 15%, we got our guy. We got a respectable top three defense in the NHL. I would say that by the time he's said and done, he's going to be a one. I agree with that, but I also think that it's almost foolish the way we do. And I just brought up Nolan Patrick and, you know, not maybe living up to expectations. That's in quotations because it's so early. I brought it up.

But you also – guys are so young, and still not every guy is going to rip it up at 19, rip it up at 20. It's going to take people a little bit longer, but, Biz, like you said, now it's brought up and noticed more for guys and just carving the league up right after he's drafted. So you do have to be patient with guys, and I think a lot of teams are better than that than others. And speaking actually about some of these former high picks, we had a trade around the league involving Biz's wagon of a club,

or he likes to call them a wagon, the Arizona Coyotes acquiring Nick Schmaltz from the Chicago Blackhawks in a trade for Dylan Strom. People are saying that Chicklets bumped to get traded to Chicago, maybe play with Patrick Kane. And also Brandon Perlini, correct, Biz? You give me some info on these guys and what Chicago can expect, what Schmaltz can do in Arizona, et cetera, et cetera.

It's funny that we transitioned right into that because it's, you know, Stromer was third overall pick for the Arizona Coyotes. Perlini was a high pick as well. We'll have Grinnell get up when he was drafted overall. I believe he was maybe around 20, the 20 mark. But, you know, here's how I feel about the overall trade. You know, obviously, Dylan Strom went down in the AHL last year. He dominated.

He got called up a few times. Didn't have a ton of success. At the end of last season, he got called up, and he had a really good run there. I think he had eight points in his last 10 games. And, you know, he came in this year. You know, we got Galchenyuk, so Galchenyuk's been playing up the middle,

and so has Derek Stepon. I feel that he needs to gain a step his skill level and patience is there like because he can make plays and other than and then Keller I thought he was like the second best playmaker on the team go ahead Grinnell uh he was 12th overall oh shit Perlini was that high sorry I should have came a little bit more prepared uh but I think he just he lacks that motor to bring him to to like maybe be a top two line center now I he's such an unbelievable guy and you can't teach that patience I hope he gains that extra little step and has success in Chicago mind you he was he had one and one uh in the game against Vegas last night um and and regarding

Perlini one of those guys, his motor is unbelievable. He can skate like the wind. Some games his hands can match it. Others, you know, he disappears for a little bit. I thought his wall work wasn't up to par for NHL standards, and so much of the game now is played against the walls. You look at a top-end player like Sidney Crosby. How good is he along the walls? Can't get the puck from him you can't get the puck from him it's all puck protection

guys are too good defensively now and you got to play to the outside and you got to find your holes and and win the walls so now they traded both those guys and I hope they go there and have success what what they got back and Nick Schmaltz is a kind of a combination between those guys he has a motor. I don't think it's up to Perlini when he gets going as fast as him. And then he also has that skill set that Strom has. So I think in return for those two guys that Arizona gave up, they got a guy who has a combination of both. And Schmaltz has put up over 50 points in a season in the National Hockey League level. So you're just hoping that you can find that again. In 2017-18, he had 21 goals, 31 assists for 52 points. This year has been a bit of a

disappointment to Chicago. He had two goals and nine assists for 11 points in 23 games. And hey, I think kind of like the Max Domi situation and Galchenyuk situation, they're hoping that, hey, a switcheroo is going to benefit both teams and that's that. Now, Stan Bowman got two guys that if one of them scales up and ends up being what they could potentially be, then I think they got what they wanted from that trade. And I think the same about Schmaltz. I think he can come in and make an impact.

And that's all I got to say about that. I'm just going to update the contract info. Schmaltz is an RFA at the end of this year, so Arizona's going to have to sign him. Obviously, he's not going to walk as an RFA. Perlini is an RFA as well, but Strom does have one more year left, so the Blackhawks will have him for at least another year after this one. He's still on his rookie deal because he had the entry-level slide there.

So, you know, Nick Schmaltz, I presume you think Arizona's going to have a hard time signing him, Paul? Shouldn't be a relatively easy signing, no? Well, I mean, that's going to depend on how the rest of the season goes. You know, Chayka's a big fan of him, and I think they reached out to try to get him earlier than this. And I want to say Chayka mentioned that in some comments he had post trade um and you know if he scales up a little bit and ends up being what he was last year and he's a 50 to 55 point guy you have a very solid second line

centerman and uh and hey that's a that's a big trade for for the coyotes if that can happen and you know and and i'm not in, shape, or form knocking the two guys that we sent off because Pearls is an amazing guy. So is Strom. The lack of consistency with Perlini was a concern to me. And if you're going to be a top six at the NHL level, you can maybe have an off night one in every five games. But it's just like if you go missing for four games

and then come back for four and then go missing for four, it's hard, man. And if you're not adding any of those other intangibles like killing penalties or as a centerman winning face-offs or a shot blocker or a guy who adds physicality to your lineup, I just – I don't know. Hopefully he can go find that though. And a lot of Chicago fans, not big Nick Schmaltz fans. I mean, it's funny. They questioned his effort.

You hear a lot about just taking games off. And there was a quote that Schmaltz said about joining the Arizona Coyotes. He said, it feels pretty good knowing you're in a good organization. I mean, Chicago Blackhawks are a good organization. So right there, it's a little bit ridiculous. Well, yeah, but he probably just said it, and now we're stretching his words out. Well, here's the end of the quote. That wants you to be here, and that wants you to succeed.

So obviously he felt slighted in some way, whether it was Quenville, whether it was Bowman, whether it was the entire Blackhawks organization, teammates, but he felt like they didn't want him there. And so you wonder if he's going to go to Arizona and start ripping up because there are times he looks dominant. He can skate, he can make plays. He was obviously a high pick for a reason, but the inconsistency is there.

And if he wants to get paid a lot of money, which is kind of the rumors and that Chicago wasn't gonna be able to resign him, he's going to have to really bring it the of money, which is kind of the rumors, and that Chicago wasn't going to be able to re-sign him, he's going to have to really bring it the next, you know, three quarters of this season that he's going to be there. To touch on that, I haven't watched him enough in Chicago to know if he's been put in the situations in order to succeed this season. He's had 23 games, so that was a decent sample size. If he was getting his reps, if he was getting his PP time, if he was getting his reps if he was getting his pp time if

he was getting his proper ice um i'll say this i believe perlini was given the fair shake and the sample size um because of the the the guys in front of strom at center ice it was difficult i would have liked to have seen him get like a solid 10 to 15 games at second line center with a little bit more skill on his wings to see if he could have scaled up in that time but hey man there's pressure to win now they got a few guys ahead of them that are proven and and are one and two centers at the National Hockey League level I mean Stepon's had over 50 points the last five seasons before this one so I mean he's proven They know he's going to get the job done. I mean, the history is there.

But at the end of the day, I think this hopefully is going to benefit both organizations. I like the guy we got back for the Arizona Coyotes. And, hey, I wouldn't count out Strom. I wouldn't count him out. Yeah, it's not an earth-shattering trade for either franchise. That's more than a maintenance trade, tooshattering trade for either franchise that's a little more than a maintenance trade tool they're obviously giving strom another location this is you know the first

trade farm you hope he doesn't get trade again but he like you mentioned before biz he's he is in that you know that top draft class that he's going to get constantly get compared to these guys it seems like he's able to forget about it when we talked to him a couple weeks ago well all right that's a great point and is it is it more more psychological getting drafted in the top five picks and not making it out of camp? How much impact does that have on these guys moving forward? We talked to Stromer about it. It's got to fucking –

Oh, who can answer that question? Oh, I could. Oh, yeah. Hey, Ryan, how did you feel about it? Fifth overall, I was pretty upset. I was pretty rattled. But I went and ripped it up in the minors. Thanks for coming. And then I got called up, never looked back until I got put on waivers

and ended up in San Antonio playing golf instead of taking naps before games. Not bad. Speaking of golf, we got a guy coming on who loves golf. Yes, we do. We're going to bring in Jeremy Roenick, one of the best American-born players of all time. JR made his name as a Chicago Blackhawk first, stopped in Phoenix, stopped in Philly, stopped in L.A.,

just ripped up the NHL for a long time. I think soon enough you'll see JR in the Hockey Hall of Fame. But we have him joining us, and he's not only ripped it up as a player, he also has turned into a top broadcaster with NBC Sports. So why don't we go to JR right now? This interview is brought to you by Eagle Energy. You guys all know what it is. It's the caffeine inhaler we've been plugging forever.

It was in my mockumentary this past summer. Not a big deal. Nicotine-free, no sugar or calories. Eagle Energy, they're the caffeine inhaler sticks uh of course we mentioned the guarana the ginseng and the taurine all the natural products it has in it way better than coffee you don't get that that uh rotten gut after you're not going to shit your brains out like fucking grinnell does on his dates uh when he brings girls to fucking Applebee's. But special promotion, the 21 Savage collaboration is kicking off Friday.

They're a little bit backed up on their regular sticks right now. So what I want you guys to do on Friday, go to the website. They're going to do their 21 Savage launch with the collaboration with, of course, Eagle Energy Caffeine Inhalers. And it's going to be a Biz21 promo code.

Not Biz20. It's always Biz20. It's a special promotion. Biz21. Basically, I'm collabing with 21 Savage. Maybe we'll fucking make a tune, hit it up on iTunes and all that. But yeah, you guys killed it on their sale on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday. That's why

they're a little bit backed up not as backed up as that munson on twitter chirping me today he didn't order it two weeks ago he ordered friday eagle energy caffeine inhalers they're unbelievable i do them all the time yes great coffee supplementation instead of the coffee nicotine free eagle energy go get them biz 21 on friday not thursday friday it drops 21 savage fucking rights and we got a very special guest and you know when i'm doing the intro it's somebody that i think so highly of a local guy a boston guy. Not only that, played at the same high school I did, or I should say I played where he did for Jack Foley at Thayer Academy. Former superstar in the National Hockey League,

current talking head at NBC, and one of the most well-known names in the game of hockey, Jeremy Roenick. Thanks for joining, buddy. That was awesome, Witt. Hey, you know I was getting there and there. I'm telling you right now, I can tell you guys are getting really, really good at your jobs. Not to mention all the millions of followers and whatnot now.

That's gracious. You even have me go to the radio listening to you guys. And then that, geez. A little cherry on top for you. Found your calling. I love it. JR, you set the way for us, man. You're one of the fucking founding fathers, man.

I mean, as far as personality and hockey in the same sentence, you're it. I mean, maybe Don Cherry. Well, I think, you know, I didn't know what I was doing back then. I was just a little arrogant little prick, you know, didn't know what i was doing back then i was just a little little arrogant little prick you know and just just playing the game and you know thought i could never be touched and you know all that crazy stuff that you think about you know but uh you know i never knew that i was carving away for a path for after hockey you know and tv and how big it's going to get but you know to be honest and to be forthright

and not pull any punches people want to hear the truth right they don't want to hear all the same you know mumbo jumbo that uh you know the cliches that you hear all the time i mean they want the real thing they're not going to tune in just to hear cliches and hear oh yeah we worked hard we gave it a hundred percent you know it was a a team game. Sometimes they want real raw emotion, and that's what I gave them, and that's what you guys give them on a weekly basis. It's great. JR, so you kind of mentioned you didn't know this was going to transfer to after hockey stuff.

At what point were you like, you know what? I think I want to do this past my career. You know, I really didn't think about it i i had a when i got ready to retire um in the summer of 2009 i was literally sitting across the the table from doug wilson who was the gm of san jose at the time and i was thinking about playing one more year i said i can i can pull off one more year my body is beat up but you know i love the game so much maybe i can play one more year and uh so i was getting ready to tell um doug wilson you know i think i want to play another year and he said to me you know what jr it's been a good run i think you're done you know one more hit to the head

one more hit to the head it could be lights out for you it could be you know dangers and life life-changing things that happen to you i think you're done you had a great couple years here you gained respectability back and i said doug what the hell am i gonna do you know hockey's my life i mean what am i gonna do he goes you're gonna have your choice of whatever the hell you want to do you have have so many choices, you're not even going to believe it. And I didn't believe him at the time. Three months later, NBC came knocking at my door. I signed a 10-year deal for them. I was really lucky to just get right into the TV world

when I didn't think I even wanted to do that. So it was pretty unique. Doug Wilson was right. Wow. I never knew that right when you retired, NBC came and it was pretty unique. Doug Wilson was right. Wow. I never knew that right when you retired, NBC came and it was a 10-year deal? Yeah.

Like Mike Milburn was a deal. NBC signed a 10-year deal. We signed two five-year deals within that. But it was weird because Peter LaViolette who was supposed to do the Olympics in Vancouver for NBC, he got hired by the Flyers. So they needed somebody to fill in.

So my agent calls him, right, and NBC, the head of NBC, Sam Flood, who is a great boss and is really supportive of us, kind of pushed back a little bit. He's like, you know, we can't have JR. He's really out there. He's really brash. He's really emotional. Why would you want that on TV? Yeah, he's maybe too controversial. And, you know, I pretty much had to lay it on the line with Sam saying,

I promise I'll represent Peacock as good as I possibly can, you know, be the good soldier as it may. And I think not with opinions because I'm still very opinionated, but it's, you know, it's making sure social media is clean. You know, I had my own podcast. I said, fuck, one time, and I got the call. Can't say fuck. Oh, my God. I'm my own podcast. I said, fuck, one time and I got the call. Can't say fuck. Oh my God, I'm talking about... I'd be in prison.

I'm talking about girls blowing ecstasy at my ass through a straw music festival and I ain't even getting in trouble. Just kidding. That doesn't bode very well for NBC. I've been pretty lucky to be involved with a,

with a great company. And, you know, I think, I think we've expanded the game of hockey a lot with the way we've, we've aired it. You know, the different styles and personalities that we have,

you know, Mike Milbury and I going at it all the time is always. I was just going to ask that. Like, I love the different personalities in hockey. Like Babcock, to me, he's a personality. Pierre Maguire, he's a personality. You, of course.

And I rip a little bit on Mike Milbury, but I fucking love listening to him because you never know what's coming. No, not at all. But to tell you the truth, he doesn't even know what's really coming, too. So, you know, Mike just doesn't give a shit about, you know, what you think. You don't think about what he says. Nobody takes a beating more than Mike. It's so funny because every time I'm in that airport, everywhere I go, and I swear to you it happens all the time,

I get somebody from wherever, St. Louis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Dallas, L.A., and they say one thing to me all the time. Why does Mike Milbury hate our team so much? And I'm like, hey, listen, if you're not a Boston Bruin or anybody, he doesn't like you anyway, so who cares what Mike Milbury says? He's going to give you the honest truth, right? So that's why he's so polarized because he'll just tell it like it is and if you don't like it,

which a lot of times seems to be every team in the league, but Mike is very, very smart. He's an extremely good hockey man and he's passionate about the game. Again, he's a Boston guy. If you tell it like it is, there's no bullshit.

If you don't like it, you know, take your ball and run home. See you later. So he's took in the evil role in media. Like, he's embraced the evil guy. Yeah, but I still don't think that he likes the attention that he gets when he's in the arena. Oh, really? So he's a little sensitive, right?

You know, I just think he thinks he's unfairly judged. And maybe that might be. Do you guys go eat on the road together? You know, you take Mike out of the studio. You know, I kid that we love to hate each other. And we go after each other all the time right and uh you know we have very different

different types of of thought processes of how we see the game you should see us watching the game we complain we yell and we argue with each other about plays right in studio right and the kid takes it onto the onto the set but you get him out of the setting you get him in a restaurant you get him in a social environment guys he is one of the most fun one of the best storytellers and he will have you laughing we gotta get him on the pod then you think absolutely 100 he would oh you're kidding he would love it i kind of want to let him lay into me because i because i took a shot at him on twitter one time saying if that guy can have a job out of hockey, I'm fucking set.

Oh, see? That's perfect. It's a perfect leeway into the show. You'll have an hour's worth of content over the yellow and the green. I'll just throw the plot and get him going like you do on television. Yeah, but we can all deal with that.

We've all been punching him out a few times and give some punches back, but it's not personal. It's all good. Hey, we better be able to, um, Jr.

I got to get as, as great as this post playing career has been. I think people sometimes maybe forget how incredible your playing career was. And I'd like to go into the beginning of it only because a local guy, I mean yourself, Tony Amante, it's kind of like you were the kids my age idols. You guys were starring in the NHL from Boston area.

So your career was just incredible. And going into Chicago, you know, you were this highly touted prospect. Who were some of the veterans on that team? I can't even imagine the names of guys that were at the end of their career when you came in that you'll never forget your first few years. Oh, there's no question question. It was really weird. I went to Boston College for five minutes and then learned

what a syllabus was at 18 years old. Smell you later, B. B. Pigeons. See you later. School was not my bag, baby. It was not my bag, that's for sure. I go to Chicago. The first guy I walk into in Chicago is a guy named Dan Ben Salat. Okay.

Dan Ben Salat was a third liner winger, but, and he was, he didn't have any clothes on. And I'm telling you, he was the hairiest man that I've ever seen in my life. He had, he had so much hair Sasquatch to take pictures of this guy. Right. That's, that's how, that's how hairy this guy was. And he had a receding hairline and no teeth. And I swear to God, I said, this is, this is the, this is where I'm coming to play.

I mean, this guy's looks like he'd eat my kids and spit them out. You know, and I was like scared to death. I didn't, he had more hair on his chest than I had on my entire body and scared the shit out of me. I wouldn't get dressed in the locker room. I took my clothes bag and we changed in the bath, in the bathroom stall. Literally.

And I, I, I was so intimidated. It's weird how a donor talks about it too. When he came in as a rookie, he would walk out and use the public restroom. Cause if you just didn't want to walk by the vets because they would just start ripping into you.

Dude, I was 150 pounds. Swear to God. 150 pounds. I mean, you know how embarrassing that is? That's how small you were then? Yes. 155 pounds my first year. Dude, you know how embarrassing that is standing around?

I barely had hair on my nuts. These guys are going to look at me like I'm on their number one draft pick. I'm going to come save this fucking team. Come on. It was like, that's intimidating, man. That's an intimidating situation to be in. And I was like, I mean, Doug Wilson was my first roommate. Kind of now it goes back to what the story I just told you earlier about retirement.

Dennis Savard and Steve Larmer shared an ashtray in the locker room when they'd smoke in the locker room. And, you know, we had Al Seacourt, I told you, Steve Thomas. I just had a lot of good guys. Steve Thomas and Doug Wilson and Keith Brown and Savvy taught me how to play cards. They taught me the wrong way. They took so much money off me as a rookie and laughed. And, you know, I've lost money ever since.

It's been 30-some odd years now. I think it's great because they took advantage of me as a young kid and it's haunted me ever since. JR, do you want to talk? I heard some rumors about some legendary card games in Phoenix on the plane. We were a bunch of degenerates. There's no question. I won't mention all the names that were involved,

but we got into a time in the mid-'70s. I mean, 97, 98. I was going to say 97, but I think it was 98. We were playing card games and you wouldn't come on the, on the plane or on the trip without at least 20 grand in cash on you. We would start playing, you know, you know, dealer's choice. We're playing guts. We play it in between. We're playing a game of guts.

And I think the ante was 500, and it was the, if you lose, you have to match the pot. Now, guts, we played a three-card guts, poker style. So if you got, you know, three of a kind, best hands, straight slashes, all that stuff, it's left a lot of, you know, there's a lot of possibilities there. Well, we had four or five match pot losses. So it goes from five, it would go from 2000 to 4,000 to 16,000 to 32,000 to 74,000. Next thing you know, we're in the game and there's $102,000 in the pot.

And, um, I think I had a, I had, I had a, uh, I had a straight, uh, like a nine 10 Jack and I'm like, you know, now I'm shaking like a leaf. And I think it was, uh, I think it was our captain had, uh, you know, when, you know, now I'm shaking like a leaf. And I think it was, I think it was our captain had, you know, when, you know, all of a sudden done one, two, three drop. It was me and the captain in for the 102,000 and we're bullshitting. You know, what do you got? No, what do you got? No, tell me what, shut up. What do you got? None of us wanted to show the hand.

Everybody's like screaming at us to show the hand that was both of us was so afraid of losing the pot $102,000 match pot and uh so the captain being the captain you know says listen we'll we'll split it and i said done and all the guys start screaming you can't do that i mean, the fight and the yelling and the match that went back and forth. Oh, I bet. Yeah, the scream. And so, you know, the captain put a big stop to it. He goes, listen, I'm the captain.

It's not your money. It's our money. We lost the last two hands. You know, shut the F up. You didn't have the balls to stay in. Shut up. We're splitting the pot. And I was like, thank God. So we did flip the cards over. Well, the balls to stay in. Shut up. We're splitting the pot. And I was like, thank God.

So we did flip the cards over. The captain had a flush. I had a straight. I would have lost. I'm like, thank God. Thank God he got a little nervous. Oh, man. Yeah.

Holy. That's pretty crazy. So another fun one is I heard about you was the time it was Super Bowl and you had the pilots announcing the wrong score just to fuck with everyone tell that one oh yeah yeah well you know again we're we're a lot of gamblers a lot of gamblers right so um and i know you know a couple of us were a little bit bigger than others and um there was let's just say there was many thousands of dollars that we know, but we're on the plane during the first, first half of the football game.

And, and I said, and I went up to the pilot and I said, listen, we're going to, the guys are going to come and ask for updates. Just do me a favor, just whatever you do. And I think it might've been the Patriots that were playing, make sure the Patriots are losing every time that you say something, make it sound like really bad. It's so funny. We had an update from the Super Bowl. We just called

down to the tower. I don't know who it was. Patriots are down 14-0 late in the first period. You hear the guys and the gamblers scream, the screech that went through the airplane. Mother!

You know, screaming, what's going on? It's too, you know. And we're like, don't worry, it's early, it's early. Second quarter comes around, it's 28-10. So now it's like, now it's 18, not 14. Like, how's there so many points being scored in the Super Bowl? How could they be – the guys were losing their minds until we finally got down and they got serious

and they could finally see what was going on with the games. And I was laughing. I'm like, you know, I've played a lot of good practice. Well, some of these guys probably had 20K in the game and you're just playing with their emotions like a little puppeteer. Are you kidding? 20 grand? That's on the latest.

That was the first half. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh, fuck. You guys were playing like 50, 100? What the fuck is wrong with you guys, man? That's insane. I want to hear my best gambling story, which is terrible.

Yes, yes. Right now? Yeah, this is a long time ago. You know how you get these tips and everybody says, oh yeah, these guys have injuries, they're not playing. I got this tip a long time ago.

This is like 2001, 2000. You know, University of Manhattan is going to win. It's going to win outright. They're getting seven points, so on and so forth. I'm like, oh,

yeah, dumbass that I am, you know, taking a tip from some Joe Blanc down in Florida. You know, it probably tells me one thing and tells 10 other guys

the opposite thing, but I didn't know how to solve this game work i was just a dumb dumb 25 year old or dumb 30 year old anyway so um i take this basketball team this university of manhattan and i parlay them with every team that was playing that night. It was like 25 games. So 25 times two with one. I had like 50 bats all on one game, which was Manhattan. So if Manhattan wins, I'm cleaning up.

No problem. Well, it just so happens that with about five minutes left, they're up one and up losing by 10. And I had this thing parlayed $2,000 to every team that was playing that night. Just because that one team lost, I lost everything. That's kind of like a gambling story. Vegas liked me a lot then. That's for sure.

They liked me at that time. It's kind of a gambling story of like Vince Young when he found out guys were flying private and he thought that that meant you had to buy every seat in the plane so you could fly by yourself. Have you heard that story? He went to United.com and got every seat on the flight. Yeah, and I heard there were two people. I heard there was like a couple on there like, what the fuck?

Sir, can I see your tickets? He's got 100 tickets. That's so good. I'm just taking his tickets away. Hey, JR, I heard one of the Jeremy Roenick stories that I've always heard was that there was a time like, you know, you have a Sunday matinee game and there'd be a TV timeout in the third period and the NFL scores would be, you know, going around the building.

All of a sudden, Jeremy would be like, fuck, the Redskins are down. That happened nightly, nightly. Every time there's a commercial, a lot a lot of us a lot of our eyes tend to be uh to scoreboard upstairs ajr you're you're you're smiling and laughing you're minus three of course what the fuck are you smiling about you just threw a pizza last shift and you're like yeah buddy but i'm up a fucking hundred g's babe put me out there. Let's go. Oh, this, you know, they listen to the dumb things that we do as kids, right?

Yeah. Well, like I said before, you know, I, I had a, I had a big, big ego and,

uh, I didn't think I could be touched. Nothing, nothing can go wrong in my life. And obviously I was not very smart, but, uh, you know,

you live and you learn. And that was definitely some learning experiences for me. JR, what was it like playing with Chelly? Like, you got any good Chelly stories for us that he'd be okay with you telling? I'm telling you, if you want to talk about a guy who lives and breathes hockey, I've never seen a more passionate guy about the game. I've never seen a guy that loved the game more. I've never seen a guy who wanted to be around it more. Always the first in the locker room. And I swear to God, he would

work out like a maniac. He had our trainers bring a television into the bathroom. And in our bathroom, we had our sauna. And he would ride the bicycle in the sauna and put the television outside and ride it for about 45, 50 minutes. He would ride the bicycle in the sauna. And, you know, never seen a guy drink more beer and eat more chicken in my life and be shredded from, you know, from head to toe. And still today is probably in better shape than most players, but we call him captain America, man. He is,

he is the ultimate leader and the guy that will stick up for you. He's the one guy really that, that didn't care who you were. He was going to, he was going to make sure everybody was on the same page. He talked to me and would, would written me down. If he saw me, you know, I'm saying something I shouldn't act in the way I shouldn't. And he wasn't afraid to confront me. When a lot of people were at the time, to tell you the truth, that's a real friend, man.

He's the best. I've actually always heard that not only the bike and the sauna, but the boys would be out and be a late night. And no matter what, it was like 6.30, 7. He's at the rink doing that. Like it never missed. Yeah, that's incredible. A hundred percent. There's two, two captains that, uh, I just, um,

I thought were the epitome of, of, of true leadership. And that was Keith Kachuk and, and, um, and Shelly, um, Keith Kachuk would always be, always be on the bike in the morning, but everyone, and you know, when young guys would come into the locker room, he'd be riding the bike. He would give them shit saying, you know, how come the captain scored 50 goals, is riding the bike, and you're just getting to the rink now? You know, he'd play guilt games with these guys.

I mean, he would make sure that these kids were accountable, took care of the trainers better than anyone on the road or at home. And, you know, you talk about being tough and play the game the way it's supposed to be played. Walt was just a monster. So I'm looking through your hockey debate. It's insane to see some of these numbers. I don't know the backstory on after eight years in Chicago. I mean, you came on the scene

300 point seasons in a row, became a superstar in Chicago. What was the exit there when you went to Phoenix? Was it free agency? Was it a trade? I just don't remember. Yeah, it was a trade. I got traded for Alexei Zamnov.

First round pick. The guy named something Mills. I don't even know what his first name was. Usually not a good sign. Not a great sign for them. Yeah. Some money. And I think that first pick turned out to be Cleary.

Dan Cleary, who played for Detroit for a long time, had a really good career. So there's three or four players for me in 96. You know, again, you know, it goes back to my attitude and and you know um you know i wanted a contract hawks didn't want to pay me as much as i wanted and you know and i didn't didn't handle it the way that i should have and you know you can't you can't fight you can't fight a a team so to speak, and think you're going to win, especially back then. It was a different mentality.

The owners run their team the way they want to, and I challenged that theory, and I lost. I look back at it, and this is one of the things that I regret, is having that confrontation being the way that I was and ultimately led me to be traded out of, you know, one of the best cities in the world, Chicago. So again, it's that live and learn sort of aspect that, you know, it humbles you, but you always sit back and say, what if this, or what if that? And I find myself doing that a lot. Well, then you came over to Phoenix and man, I think a lot of people have a bad picture

of their fan base and stuff, but when you guys came here and you were downtown, that fucking place was rocking. Dude, we rocked it. Are you kidding me? We had 16,500, 16,723 to be exact. The reason I know it is because it was on the screen every single game. We sold out. We had to be exact. The reason I know it is because it was on the screen every single game.

We had the right out. We made the playoffs for much of the year in Phoenix. We had some dynamite teams there. Phoenix can be a really, really good hockey market and I think it will be again. Hopefully

their team is a little better this year. They got some really great key pieces into their lineup. I still live there. I'm passionate about it. I would like to see that. Well, you know what's big too, JR? You know what's big too? We were awesome.

Is the fact that all the other major sports right now are struggling. The football team is not very good, and neither is the NBA team. So if we can pounce on this opportunity, and now that we're're on the rise i think it's going to help out a lot um very true and and speaking of them rick talk at the coach oh my god that guy is the best i can't even i i there's no there's not enough adjectives for me to uh to talk about talk i played with Toc. The reason I chose to go sign in Philly was because of Rick Toc. And I played with him in Phoenix, then I followed him to Philly.

Heart and soul guy. Probably one of the toughest players ever to play in the National Hockey League and could score goals. And he is the perfect guy to be running that team. He's not going to let anybody get away with any shit. He's going to tell them what it's all team. He's not going to let anybody get away with any shit. He's going to tell them what it's all about. He's not going to pull any punches. And if he doesn't like what you're doing, you're not going to play.

And he can look you in the eye and say it, and no one can look at him and say, ah, what's this guy saying? He never did it. When that guy's telling you to fucking do it, what are you going to say back? Oh, yeah, you cannot say nothing. And by the time they grasped that new system, second half of the year last year,

you could see it, man. Shit just changed quick, and it was good. I was happy for them. Yeah, they lost the first pick because they kept winning hockey games. Yeah. That's true. Right? Yeah, I love Toc.

Toc's the perfect guy for that team. So, give me – I'd love to know because I know you were involved in all this shit, but your number one prank you ever pulled on somebody because you were dishing them out for sure. Have you guys ever heard of this practical joke I played on Torrey Mitchell on Devon Sedecky's team? Oh, is this the trip? Is this the trip?

Oh, to the desert? Yeah, to Vegas. Dude, I got to hear this. Torrey Mitchell told me this in person, and I was blown away. Yeah, this is a good one. You got to deal with me for a second because it's kind of a lengthy one,

but it's a good one. As long as you talk clearly into the phone, I'm happy. I'm going to tell before you start, listeners, it's it's long but at the end are you shitting me yeah i'll be i'll try to keep it a little bit quicker and get to the point so i was a big fan of of uh scare tactics you ever seen that show scare tactics where their friends set up their own of their friends to get they get pranked by you people, by literally Hollywood real special effects people. And it's

believable. I mean, they scare the shit out of people. I love this show. Go on YouTube and just type in Scare Tactics and watch videos. You can watch them for hours. So I called Scare Tactics and said, I want to play a practical joke on a couple of guys on our team. We're going to go to Vegas before the season starts.

I think this would be a great team bonding thing. Well, Torrey Mitchell, Devin Sedecucci were two of the young guys in the team. So I set up, we got to Vegas. I set up a guy to sit at a blackjack table with us. So we're playing blackjack and he starts talking about this party. You guys know the parties that you see on television where there's hot girls running around with just their bikinis on some not with the bikinis on you know drinks everywhere pool party you know that kind of type of look well this guy who talks up this party like it's one of those so mitchie and seto's eyes just just light up they're like

we got to go he's like well if you want to go you know here's the parents here's the address go i'm like guys we can't go or you know we can't leave the boys behind and settle them but we got to go just for a little bit let's just go at nine o'clock we'll be back by 10 30 we'll meet the boys out like okay so we get in the limo we go outside the city to this mansion so they hired they hired and rented a mansion in vegas and they set this thing up to the nines we walk walk into this mansion and these two big security guards, I mean monsters stop us at the door and say, what's the password? And we said, the password was Dakota. So they let us in.

We go into this big, uh, we go into, into the living room. It's a big living room. There's people mumbling around. It's weird music being played. We sit on the couch and automatically right away um mitchie goes jared this is not the party i thought it was going to be we i don't feel very comfortable we got to leave i'm like leave we just got here we just i'm not going to leave when we you know we just rolled up and you don't even know what kind of party this is it's like all right so i say i gotta go to the bathroom i go into the garage i have this production team puts a a blood patch, a blood jacket on me underneath my, underneath my clothes.

Okay. Go back in. And so now we're starting. Now I have these, this, the lights go down and the head of this party brings out this girl. Now, everybody stands at attention in this room. The music goes down, and the leader of the party says, here's our feature of the night. It's Yolanda or whatever her name was. And she's going around the room, and all she has on is a pair of her panties on. That's it. No top, no nothing.

Everybody's looking at her and touching her and feeling her. And she's going around and everybody's smelling her. And they come around to us and Sato's like, what are we having, a 30-something or something here?

What's going on? And Mitchie's like, I'm not touching her. I don't know what's going on. So Mitchie's like, listen, Jer, I'm really not comfortable. I'm a good judge of when I get uncomfortable, we've got to leave. We've got to leave right now.

I'm like, dude, just settle down, man. Don't want to draw attention to us. We're not even supposed to be here, right? So all of a sudden, the waitress comes around with trays of shots. All this red, and in the shot glasses was like red, red, red liquid. And I wanted to make it look like blood, right? So we take it. And Mitchie's like, I don't want one.

I don't want one. And I'm like, what is it? What is it, Settle? What is it? And Settle tastes it. He goes, oh, my God, dude, I think this is blood. I swear this is blood. And Mitchie stands up and starts running for the door. I'm like,

Mitchie, get back here. Now you really don't want to leave it. That's blood. And there's a girl running around this place and all these people are looking at us. We can't leave now. And Mitchie's like, dude, I'm swear to God right now. I'm going to cry. I'm so scared right now. I got, I got to get out of here. I was like, well, just give i was like well just give me a second just give me a second let me just you know i will leave in five minutes right so so as mitchie sits down and all of a sudden the this the music just starts blaring the lights go down everybody stands up in the room and puts on these suits of some way masks you know, the ones with the big noses and the feathers coming out, the real freaky, freaky,

freaky. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody starts humming. Right. And in through the two, the two doors,

the two opening doors, a table is rolled into the middle of the room. That's covered. And Mitchie's like, dude, what is, what is that? What what what is going on in here what's going on and the leader of this group they all gather around this table and the

leader pulls the blanket off of the table and it's the girl okay obviously with special effects and her whole stomach was cut open exposing her wholeides, blood and her organs and everything that she's laying on the table with her total stomach cut from neck to her belly button, right? And everybody's hovering over the table and the leader of the group grabs a piece of like part of her liver, what looked like it was her liver and bit it and said, and said, it tastes like chicken. And everybody dives into her and starts eating, eating her. Right.

Like taking pieces out of her and eating her. So it was like one, it's like, it's like one of those, um, like one of those zombies parties or whatever, you know, like the eyes wide shut where it's just,

it's just weird. So I, so I freak out. Okay. And Mitch,ie's standing there, sees me freak out. I start running for the door. The two guards that met us confronted me and started stabbing me with the knives. Now, remember, I had the blood patch on. They start stabbing me with these knives, and now all the blood starts popping all over my chest

and bleeding all over the place. I fall to the ground and pretend that I die in the middle of the room. Right. And everybody's looking at, at Mitchie and Sato and, and Mitchie screams, they killed J.R. They just killed J.R.

And he runs, runs and jumps on top of the bar. Cause there was an 18 foot, 16 foot bay window in this living room, okay? It was one of those big bay windows that had dividers in it. Mitchie jumps on top of the bar and runs full speed and jumps into the window, trying to jump through the window, and he gets bounced back. It's a pretty sick window. And he tries to do it again. He runs back, runs to the window, dies into the window, and gets thrown back onto the bar. And everybody's looking at him, you know, now looking at him standing up on top of the bar.

And he's screaming at him, stay away from me, you vampires, or whatever he's saying. He's yelling, calling them vampires. You're not going to eat me. They killed JR. And he's screaming at me, right? Stay away from me. And he's screaming at me right stay away from me he's screaming at these people and they're like they still have the masks on and they're like trying to settle them down so mitchie looks through the house and then across across the house he sees

um blinds metal blinds so you know you think you see metal blinds, window, window, escape. Mitchie jumps off the bar, runs through the house, past all the people, and doesn't slow down a bit and goes headfirst through the blinds, right through the window, headfirst. You know, you guys have seen The Wizard of Oz, right? when the when the when the lion runs down the runs down oz and jumps out the window that's what that's what mitchie did jumped right through a double pane window with all blinds on it and then gets up runs runs jumps over a fence jumps over another another fence, actually jumps into Wayne Newton's backyard and starts running through Wayne Newton's yard where all of his horses are.

And these horses start running right next to him and he's crying, he's screaming. And all we hear is, we got a runner. We got a runner. All those studio producers, right? And so it took us about an hour and a half until we found Mitchitchy um you know trying to get out of wayne newton's backyard to let him know that i really wasn't dead and that

these people really weren't going to eat people and that it was just a big practical joke meanwhile he had you know cuts all over his body luckily nothing major happened it could have been backfired big time but um i remember we were playing cards that later that night and every time he wanted to hit he would he would put his hand on you know the hit and his hand was still shaking two to two or three hours after the after the practical joke it's yeah scared to live and live in daylights out of them i remember it wasn't tory mitchell i think ryan clow told me the story and i the funniest part about it was that he said that tori's like jr's fucking dead jr's not dead jr's not dead i saw

him die yeah and the whole time but the whole, Seto is standing there frozen solid. He's so scared. And all Seto was saying, all I got to do is eat her. All I got to do is eat her. If I eat her, I don't die. All I got to do is eat her. If I eat her, I'm not going to die. You guys have all the audio on this?

Yeah, I got all the audio. And I hear, yeah, I got the audio. And all I hear is Seto saying, all I got to do is eat her. All I got to do is eat her body part. All I got to do is eat her body part and I won't die eat about right now i won't die i'm not gonna die i'm not gonna die and uh no mitchie mitchie said you know when i was growing up my dad said if there was ever if i was ever in trouble get out any way possible i saw i saw blinds hey means window i was gone you mentioned it too like fuck have they ever done this where someone seriously injured themselves? No, that would have been bad.

I mean, think about it. What if he jumped out of a two-story window or something? I said that. I remember. Doug Wilson, your old roomie would have wanted you dead. Yeah, I know. I know. Again, looking back, stupid things that we do, things that you learn.

Yeah, but I have the video at my house. Again, looking back, stupid things that we do, things that you learn. Yeah, but I have the video at my house. One day I'll show it. One of the last things I wanted to ask you about, Jara, was you got to play in San Jose with Joe Thornton, Marlo, that older group of guys. I mean, Pavelski was a little younger at the time, but just fucking some legends there.

Yeah, Joe Thornton, I think, still is probably one of the most favorite teammates of every single person that plays with him. You talk about a guy who loves life, loves hockey, loves his friends, loves being in the locker room, that loves being on the road with the boys, has the most happy-go-lucky personality, talented. He is so looked up to and so revered in that locker room in San Jose. He's a god. And there's not one person that I've ever run into that has not met Joe Thornton that doesn't think that he is absolutely the best the best guy one of the best teammates that you can ever have awesome um to back that up wit I was in Vegas one time and this is when I was playing in the

American League and sure enough he was at a club that I went to. It was my first ever time to Vegas. And then I heard from my buddy who was a host that Joe Thornton was there. So I went up and said hi to him. I'm a nobody. He doesn't know the fuck Paul Bissonnette is. He invited me into his table and, like, gave me a drink. I think his brother was there too. And I was like, holy shit, man.

Like, there couldn't be a nicer guy. Like, he fucking invited me into his table to grab give me a drink and i was i was playing in the coast at the time yeah he's it doesn't matter where you are who you are you're uh you know joe thornton's gonna treat you with respect and love man there's no question about it you know we've all had great teammates right you guys have had great teammates you know i wasn't uh i never had the uh the uh the pleasure of playing with both of you guys, but I'm sure I wouldn't say the same things about you guys. Being a hockey player and being in that locker room is a special thing.

There's some guys that are just way more noticeably passionate and fun than other people, but still, it is such a close family in there, isn't it? Yeah, and you've been around a lot of athletes um you know and all the you know celebrity golf stuff you type do and i still think hockey players and maybe it's because we're biased we are them but they're the easiest guys to get along with and i think that's what makes it makes it so special but we've taken a lot of your time uh we've taken a lot of your time before hey before i go before i go wits yes um so i was

just having dinner with katherine tap and i told her i was coming on the show with you with you guys and she got pissed she goes why the hell am i not on that show she said i got ryan whitney his job but he owes me he owes me he's gonna have me on the show i said i'll make sure that's a that's a known fact she got me my job at NHL Network. Yeah, so she says that you owe her. And what she wants for that job that she gave you is she wants to be on Spittin' Chicklets with the two best. She was on my podcast a couple years ago when I had my podcast. She was great.

She's a lot of fun. She'll have some fun with you guys. And she knows the game, too. Trust me. She's the best of fun. She'll have some fun with you guys. And she knows the game too. Trust me, she's the best. Yeah, she is. Alright, JR, you have to promise you'll come on again this year? You guys call me whenever you want.

Whenever you guys want to call me, if you have something you want to do, you have my phone number, you can call me anytime. You guys are the best. Alright, that means a lot. And JR, I think 2019 hopefully is the year to bow time the Hockey Hall of Fame calls. Check them out on NBC Sports. And thank you so much.

Thanks, guys. You guys are a continuous success. Listen to everybody. My son, by the way, you guys are like gods to my son. He listens every week. Tell him to get your credit card and buy some merch. Let's fucking go, pops. He probably has already.

I wouldn't put it by him. Trust me. All go, pops. He probably has already. I wouldn't put it by him. Trust me. All right, JR. We got to tee it up soon. Awesome. Sounds good, Wits. Be good.

We'll see you soon. Yeah, see you, JR. Thanks for everything, buddy. That interview was also brought to you by SeatGeek. Buying tickets can be complicated and confusing, but there is a simpler way to buy with SeatGeek. SeatGeek is the smartest, easiest way to get tickets to every type of live event. Whether you're catching your favorite musician on tour, shopping for the perfect gift, or searching for a last minute deal to see your favorite NHL team,

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I used SeatGeek the other day. Again, my nephew hits me up every week. It seems like the Berlin's tickets, and I'm going to be using them for Rolling Stones next year. They're coming to Foxborough. Bang, SeatGeek is going to hook me up, and they're going to hook you up too. So make SeatGeek your go-to app for finding the best deals on every type of ticket, from sports and concerts to comedy and theater.

Best of all, our listeners get $20 off their first SeatGeek purchase. Just download the SeatGeek app and enter the promo code Hockey today. That's promo code Hockey for $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase. SeatGeek, right seat, right now, right from your phone. Right seat, right now, right from your phone. Holy shit. Did JR bring the thunder with that interview? And we need to talk to Devin Settiguchi and Tori Mitchell at some point because I think for everyone at home who listened to that story,

they need to hear the opinions of the man who thought JR was dead. That's the craziest story I've ever heard. I need to see the video. Yeah. We need to do a behind the scenes on that prank, like just completely dive into just trying to get the clips. I'm wondering if we could ever get it done. But in moving forward around the league, some current happenings,

a former teammate of JR in San Jose, who actually him and Roenick had a little bit of a beef. I would say Roenick made some comments, but then, you know, clarified what he thought about. Patrick Marleau, who just played his 1600th NHL game with Toronto Maple Leafs. Two franchises, 1600 games. The guy's been doing it. He wears wheels older than my nasty Eastons. He's got those terrible Reeboks. By the way, people are sending us pictures all the time. Hey, he could have mine. I'm still rocking these things.

So the fact that Marlowe's buzzing around the league 1,600 times in skates that guys are wearing at some junk men's league game on Tuesday night, that just shows this guy can do it with anything. So to clarify, I don't know that story between him and Marlo. Can you elaborate? Some of the listeners might not know that story. Yeah, you know what? I don't remember the exact quote, but JR was a little hard on Marlo,

I believe, during one of the San Jose. Like basically not being a winner? Yeah, yeah. Something about those lines in one of the San Jose flameouts. JR's an outspoken guy. I think that's what people love about him. And it's also, you know, I've brought up before, it's kind of hard.

You have to toe the line of playing with a guy or being a former player, but also calling people out when they haven't gotten the job done. So I just remember that, but it was just kind of hopped into my mind when I brought up how they were teammates. That's the worst part of doing media now

is I don't want to be critical of anyone, but you got to keep your credibility. I try to not go at guys at all. I just try to be honest about my opinions and if anything, be on more of the non-confrontational side. I know some people might be like, ah, just say what you fucking really think. But man, I sucked.

I'll be in prison. If anything, it's helped me that I really sucked at hockey because I'm going to be like, hey, man, like, yeah, you didn't have a good year, but it was still double as good as mine. My best. R.A., I got to get your thoughts on this Mikko Rantanen kid. Dude, he's unbelievable. Let me just give you a couple quick notes on Patrick Malo first.

Oh, okay. If he completes this season and plays all 82 games, it'll be the 11th time he's played all 82 games in a season. I never did it once. He hasn't missed a game since April of 2009, and he's only missed fucking 30 games since the start of his career in 1997.

Think about that. He's only missed 30 fucking games in a 20-something year career. Lidstrom had something similar to that in that, how do you not just get, like, a puck off the foot, broken foot? Like, it's just crazy to think that you've got to be in this amazing shape and you've got to be one of the faster players and you've got to be more than anything lucky, though.

And I think Patrick Marleau would admit that in escaping injury and missing time in the NHL for that long, there's a lot of luck that goes into it. And speaking of that, Keith Yandel is also still going, too. They had him on the TV the other night talking about how he's got – Knock on wood. Oh, is it? Three times with your right hand.

Three times with your right hand for KY. Keep this thing going. Sometimes I don't like bringing it up. I don't like bringing – I've never brought it up to him. Well, we just brought it up with the Marlowe. Exactly. Well, Marlowe – but Keith right now has the record for current players. Oh, okay.

Marlowe's behind him, but still. Keith has the Ironman streak. But just to finish up with Marlowe, if he does complete the year, he'll basically be fifth on all-time for NHL games played after Gordie Howe, Marc Messier, Jeremy Yeager, and Ron Francis. Pretty impressive company. And one other thing, too, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marlow have combined for by far the most regular season games played by the top two picks

from the same draft year. You know what I'm saying? Holy crap. That is crazy. 3,109 games they've combined. The next guys on the list, Mike Medano and Trevor Linden, played 2,881 combined games. And they played together.

That's amazing. Yeah, a little trivia. What an amazing career he's had, and1 combined games. And they played together. That's amazing. Yeah, a little trivia. What an amazing career he's had, and congratulations to him. And, boys, before we keep moving forward, I know you guys were unavailable yesterday, but I had a chance to talk to Nick Niedert, the kid who won his first ECHL game in over 1,000 days. This guy has been everywhere in the minor hockey –

or not the minor, the minor leagues minor leagues i should say he's played in leagues i've never even heard of and it was interesting to hear his story and how he got the call up to the echl from his uh his regular job on on black friday and uh we're going to send it off to him real quick for a surprise interview so hope you guys enjoy yo yo guys hang up for one second i just want to talk to you guys about 23 and me for a second um did a few other advertisements father maria well i signed up for this thing i sent my dna and i'm just waiting for the results if you haven't heard of it you want to check it out at 23 me 23 and me they're going to have dna kits on sale from now through december 25th this stuff is incredible 23 and me it helps you understand what your understand what your DNA can tell you about you and your family history. I'm sure we all have different, maybe ethnicities of what old ancestors of ours

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23andMe.com slash chicklets. That's the number 23andMe.com slash chicklets. Again, that's 23andMe.com slash chicklets for 30% off your DNA kit. Do it today. Guys, before we move on here, I got a special guest I want to bring on. We talked about it last episode. This goalie playing in the jungle, the tropical rainforest, more like it. Not even the AHL, the fucking SP, the ECHL, the IHL, the AAHL. Where the fuck is that? He won his first ECHL game in over a thousand days after he went to

Reading and signed what I assume is a PTO. I want to welcome Nick Niedert to the podcast. Nick, what's going on, buddy? How are you? Thanks so much for having me. Appreciate it. So Reading, the Royals' Twitter account was posting about you. Obviously a very cool story. It had been a while since you'd won a game at the ECHL level. I looked at your hockey DB, dude. This thing is – I don't think Nicolas Cage could have figured this thing out

in National fucking Treasure. Holy shit, dude. Yeah, it's longer than the average one i'd say yeah uh so you so you're from iowa correct yes hudson iowa you're now 36 years old born in 82 you actually started playing pro uh the year before i did you started out for a while there in the SPHL man what is the SPHL like yeah that was uh the first lockout year so um I went to uh I started out went to camp in uh Fort Wayne they were in the U-Haul then obviously they called it the U-Haul because it was the United hockey league but they

had some they had some trips um so obviously there was a lot of trickle down you know you you know about uh motor city you know chelly was playing there hatcher you know they smolenski they had a ton of uh show guys playing in detroit uh jackman was playing down uh in st lou Louis. Salvador was playing there. There were some great players in the league. Obviously, you know the Danbury Trashers. Everyone knows the history of them that's been around the minors. They had a lot of NHL guys as well. So I went down to the Southern Pro. Didn't really know what to expect on my way down there. Unbelievable towns obviously for the most part a lot of old echl towns but uh the hockey was it was tough it was uh it was a lot of fun but uh yeah it was it was definitely a lot tougher than than it is now that's for sure well your first year you bounced around to four different

teams i mean so was it the trickle down effect because of the lockout why you couldn't stick with the team, you think? No, no, absolutely not. I started out in Macon. Great group of guys. This is, you know what, when I signed, my coach brought me in. He's like, all right, we're going to keep you for now. I'm like, oh, shit, here we go. And then I know it was, you know, I was on borrowed time.

And I stuck around until after Christmas, you know, got some experience there. I got to get my first start in the minors, you know, with the team. It was somewhere that, you know, I'm always going to be fond of in my career, obviously, with my very traveled career. But then, you know're coming out a junior into this it was it was tough to do because um I came out you know you come out of the North American League and you're going into you know professional hockey where this these are people's jobs like this is their job they're not a bunch of idiots like this is

their job this is what they were doing and i'm coming out of junior you know i'm young um you know not really i you know you hear about the lifestyle but you know basically i was just a fucking idiot for the most part to be honest with you and that's why i bounced around no it's just you know if I didn't feel like doing something, I'd be like, oh, fuck that. I'm not doing that. I'm not, you know, I don't need to be doing something. Like, little stupid shit.

Like, you know, practice would be. What were you getting paid, though? That's another good point. Not very much, to the point where I probably could have said, ah, fuck this. I don't need to do this. Okay, well, like, give me a number. Give me a me a number people want to know i mean that that was the year my rookie year oh my rookie year i was making 200 bucks a week that was before taxes that was

before taxes so they give you a place to live uh do they give you like gas money and shit like how do you like how do you survive on 200 bucks a week before taxes? Uh, well, you know what? I left home young. Um, you know, you learn to budget money. Uh, so I basically learned to live like that for years, you know, and instead of going to, you know, get a nice meal out, you're finding a way to cook something at home. And, you you know there's little things like that but um no that there's a lot of places in town obviously all these towns in the minors there's a lot of places that take care of you you know you get 50 off at some restaurants or whatnot um obviously you know you know how to budget your money but yeah money was pretty scarce at that

time um so then you it was a lot of week you – It was a lot of week to week. It was a lot of week to week. So in that first, I guess you could say, five years pro, which you – a majority of it you spent in the SPHL, and then you were in the EPHL. I don't even know what that is. And then the AAHL. I think they're just making up these leagues.

What was, like, the craziest story? Like, what is some of the craziest shit you saw because obviously it's like not as professional as i mean even the echl where i played and and fuck even then there were some crazy stories that's true um you know what there was one team uh i took i was a starting goalie uh my second year and i'm like oh shit that was my fourth year um all these years just fucking flow together it's been 15 what do you expect um i think it was uh my fourth year i was playing in the league we didn't get paid for like a good amount of time like a good amount of time

and i was just like holy christ and this is ridiculous but like some of the things that we had to do it was just we were on a good streak. This is when I was playing in Indiana, Pennsylvania. And we were just holding on for dear life, basically. And obviously the league folded. But there were a lot of things that come into it. Like, you'd be surprised some of the people that you meet along the way. I've met numerous great people, but i've met some absolute just degenerates

do you get a little uncomfortable um like talking about it as far as maybe bringing some of those up because i noticed some guys get a little bit uh a little bit filtered because they don't want to throw anyone out of the bus but is there any like particular story where you're like this was absolutely like ridiculous and and you're kind of the're kind of saying it oh no i don't care um my so my first year we're talking about you know getting bounced around and whatever okay remember like a few weeks ago you guys you were talking about a guy with a ton of penalty minutes i played with this guy that in junior he had 653 penalty minutes what on what team i was in uh this is my second this is my first year second team this is ashville north carolina ashville aces yeah which what was

his name uh mark andre uh wah he was a french canadianadian guy. Real tough customer. Obviously, if you have 600-plus PIMs, you don't fuck around. Oh, my God. He played for the Bécomo Drakar in the junior league. 653 penalty minutes. Oh, my God. Yeah. I remember seeing – first off, we're at the hotel. We go across the street to this Applebee's, and my coach, Jeff Br, we're at the hotel. We go across the street to this Applebee's and my coach,

Jeff Brubaker at the time, we're walking over. He's like, hey, we're going to meet this new guy. All right, whatever. And no big deal. This guy had the Rick Vaughn leather jacket on, like with the sleeves cut off. We meet him at this Applebee's. He doesn't say a word.

He's got a Mohawk gauge earrings before they were cool, like in that very short span where people have them. Before? Yeah, they're cool. What are gauge earrings? No, not really. The ones with the big holes. Oh, like hoop hoop?

Yeah, they got big holes. Oh, yeah. Oh, like punk rockers have yeah yeah they make an actual hole in your earlobe oh jesus so yeah so go to the south of these here's this guy he's got the leather jacket like no sleeves on it i'm looking like down the table i'm like holy fuck you know i'm you know young kid my rookie year'm not going to say anything other than I'm going to be extremely nice to this guy. So, you know, whatever. So, we get on the ice the next day in warm-up,

and he is just patrolling the red line. I don't think he took a shot on goal. I don't really know. Oh, during the warm-up before the game. He just stretching at center, just eyeing guys down, licking his lips. Oh, excited as shit. Just ready to go. I'm sitting – by the way, we didn't wear visors until like my fourth year,

I think it was, maybe fourth or fifth year in the minors. So it was just buckets. No buckets in warm-ups, obviously. So he is just patrolling. And I'm like, Holy Christ, look at this guy. I go in the locker room and you know how you get the, the pregame pamphlet. I'm looking through it and I see 600 plus penalty. Holy Christ. I cannot see, wait to see what this guy does. Goes out first shift. He buries this guy into the second row of seats like he put him through the glass like it was unbelievable crushes this guy goes into this i'm sitting there like thank christ we

have something now because we weren't very good you know on the stats and whatnot we weren't very high in the standings we were out of playoffs by quite a bit and this was uh i think it was somewhere in february so it's like all right you still have time to you know make up some ground like god i cannot this guy's unbelievable this that and the other he three and outed that night and there was a guy his name was craig stall played for columbus he was a he was there for years uh played in the coast central league there southern league you know to end his career there um great great guy native guy tough as nuts and craig put his hands on him to say the least like he put his hands on him and it didn't go well for our guy but he three and outed he he did his

job he was he was incredible but the biggest thing was the sleeveless leather jacket. Unbelievable. Just looking at his HockeyDB, so he was there for six games he played, and he had 117 play minutes. So he made a quick run of his time there. Earned all of them. Any crazy shit off the ice, like buses breaking down or guys getting arrested or anything crazy?

You know what the funny thing is no no ah that's a long story um no i never got arrested but uh the funny part is the bus breaking down is urged starting on fire yes and that is something that you and i have ties to it happened in wheelingeling. No, whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out. Did you still have the sleeper bus when you were there? Yes. Oh, my. That thing used to break down every other road trip. We used to have to swap out with the booster bus and take the regular coach bus, and then you would have to wait until ours got fixed.

So that's right. You played with the Wheeling Steelers. I played there, and it's quite the town. It's interesting. Oh, it's unbelievable. I have a couple of funny things about buses with Wheeling. First off, when I played for Wheeling, we were playing on Chicago on I think a Wednesday night, so we left Tuesday.

And we were just getting on the interstate, you know, where you drive down outside of West Banco, the rink. But you're on the interstate and the rink is to your right and the casino island's on the left. Right there. What was the strip club called right there? I couldn't even tell you.

Don't pretend like you don't know the fucking name of that strip club. I don't know the name. I swear to you, I don't know the name. We're going to have a bunch of people tweeting it at us. Because after I left, there was a group of guys who used to go. Apparently, there was this rich kid who played for the team after that where his old man was worth a boatload.

But he just wanted to play pro, and he was pretty sick apparently. And they used to just go fucking chuck ones every night and get shit-faced and had a blast. I'm going to get the name here. I'm going to dig it up while you're talking. That pisses me off. He wasn't on my team. He was not on the team. I was on there. I would have known about that. No, he wasn't on the team. You guys were throwing dollars,

but you had it attached to the fish line and you'd reel it back in. The fish line. Exactly. You had to do it on a budget, right? Exactly. Absolutely. So we, uh, we pull around there and all of a sudden the smoke comes rolling in and i was in the back of the bus not in not in like the marriott part where the door closes and you have like the the sweet part of the bus right i was the last bunk in the middle part so i the door opens and i get like do you smell that? And I look back, holy shit.

So I scream to the front of the bus. I'm like, pull the bus over, there's smoke. And then all I hear is like all the grumbling, like what, what? I go, pull the fucking bus over. We're on fucking fire. All of us grab our shit. We run out of the bus. We're all in our road tuxedos still.

Like no one's geared down and jumped into their bunk yet. So we're all standing on the side of the interstate. Billy Higgins, one of the best equipment guys ever. I talked about him last episode. Yeah, he gets out with the driver. They have one of those like kitchen fire extinguishers, you know, the little ones that are like the size of a bottle of water. Sprays down.

We had a little bit of an electrical issue. They put the fire out. Billy gets a roll of Renfrew black hockey tape, tapes up the wires. Driver's like, all right, we're going to go. We're driving from Wheeling, West Virginia to Chicago. Did you guys make it? If you were good. Oh, absolutely.

If you were good in fifth grade social studies you know that those two like towns are not close together so yep there we go go over all the boys we get in our bunks we still have our road tuxes on we still have our shoes on all the guys have their belongings on their chest for like the first two hours like all right we're just waiting to catch on fire here then we're just gonna get off again so yeah it's pretty remarkable so second thing second bus story i'm playing for reading our transmission blows in the wheel our transmission blows we weren't staying at the mcclure we were staying at uh some resort not too far outside of town can't think of the name of it uh really nice place

actually really nice place uh because the manager of the hotel he's like don't worry i have a bus for you you guys are fine so but this was uh saturday morning pre-game skater transmission goes so coach uh larry corville's like all right you guys we're gonna take a bunch of cabs back grab all your shit off the bus so all the boys are grabbing their blankets and all their stuff we jump into a bunch of cabs drive to this resort this guy's like don't worry you're good i have a bus it wasn't even a party bus it was one of those party trolleys that you see like at uh at the holidays so here we come barreling into the rink in a trolley that i think top speed was like 35 miles an hour. Like a duck boat.

Yeah, pretty much. We get off the bus, going into the rink. We all have our belongings and everything. Billy was at the doorway, you know, like, where the fuck have you guys been? And he's just looking at us, just shaking his head. Like, you know, Billy's seen everything. Oh, he's seen it all. He's been there for probably 15 years.

Yeah, he's seen everything oh he's seen it all he's been there for for yeah he's seen everything but he used to he used to play uh he used to play like guitar hero and shit in between periods like he would have his full gear on because he would have to back up if like a goalie got called up like last minute and he had to dress but he he loves wheeling oh he's he's the best there he is he's the best he's he's a staple there he's been there for years my first game i ever played in the echl my equipment guy was the backup for elmira and billy was backing up uh patty colleen no shit you had two backup goalies they were both the equipment guys same whistle media timeout both goalies get off the bench, go,

you know how like the doors are in the same end? Yeah. Both goalies go to the doors with one skate, with one fucking skate, both of them, buzz a pair of skates, come back to the doors, next whistle,

both goalies come back on with one skate in their hands. It was absolutely hysterical. Because they had to go sharp. They had to go sharp with a skate, yeah. Yeah, I was telling them. They had to do their job. Oh, my God.

Hey, and you know what? They only used to give him 50 extra bucks when he would have to back up. You know what? Billy's the type of guy to be like, yeah, I'm not doing equipment manager then. I'm just going to play goal. Or one or the other. I will say this.

He gets a little grumpy sometimes, but he was always good to me because I treated him great. I used to, like, give him my old skates and, like, he could do whatever he wanted because, like I said, he was awesome to me. The one time we kind of got into a little bit was when, like, I was an ECHL all-star and not a big deal back-to-back years. I'm sure you've heard. I'm sure my jersey's up on the rafters in the wheelhouse.

I think they took it down just to clean it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. There you go. So the, at the time, the, the RBK seven K's were like the best sticks. And that's what I was using when I was an NHL trainer. Were those the ones with the holes in it?

No, no, no. The one before that. So there were the white and blue ones. So, uh, yes, yes. Okay. I know what you're saying. So the, the, because now it was down on the coast, they were responsible white and blue ones. Yes, yes, okay. I know what you're saying. So because now I was down on the coast, they were responsible for buying my sticks.

They didn't have to pay my salary because Pittsburgh was in control of that. Yeah, you just go against the cap like 500 bucks or something. Yeah, exactly. So they gave me the 6Ks, and I'm like, yo, no, no, no, no. I was an all-star last year. I'm a fucking playmaker down here. Get me the fucking 7Ks. And Billy's like like ah like the owners are you know they say and i was like but so then i like about four or five days later sticks came in and they were the seven k's but

they were the fucking six k's with a seven k sticker over it and i go billy come on here like come on so he goes biz you got to talk to owner. So I go down to the office down on the main street there. And I go in. Yeah, by the little pizza spot. Yeah, I go, boys. I said, this is fucking unacceptable. I said, get me some fucking RBK 7Ks. Or I said, I'm not fucking playing power play anymore.

Imagine me threatening a team not to play power play. Could you ever imagine? And sure enough, they said, all right, we're going to said all right that's some real millennial shit right they go they go but it was a man i couldn't even shoot with these things i might as well have gotten gas station sticks so i finally they're like all right we'll get you six and then by the time that i'd i'd gone through the six i finally gotten called back up but that was the only time me and billy added up button heads but other than that man great he's an unbelievable guy and and uh you know he's fucking he's a legend in wheeling let's talk about your your first win in over a thousand days uh getting called back up they

had an injury and then you just get called back up yeah um you know what they called me on friday and uh you know just asked um, hey, can you dress tonight? It was Friday afternoon. I'm working at my job at the hockey store in Connecticut. I'm like, it's Black Friday. There's not a goddamn chance I'm going to make it there just because of all the traffic and everything. And I have to drive over, you know, just outside New York City. It's going to be a nightmare.

I'm like, it's not possible. They said, no worries. I will be a nightmare. I'm like, there's not, it's not possible. I said, no worries. I will be there tomorrow. So, um, you know, talk to the coach after, I'm looking at the box scores and night goes on on Friday. I said, Holy shit, there's a chance I'm going to have to play tomorrow. Just because, you know, it didn't go well for the guy. He was getting, uh, you know, they, they were losing a little bit and then they were losing more

after the second and you know naturally they lost uh friday night didn't they didn't go very well for him so i get a text from uh the assistant coach after the game he's like uh yep you're still good to come tomorrow but um gonna sign you which means basically they can use me if they need me you know what i mean like when you're an emergency, you cannot go in unless there's an injury. So when you sign, it's like, okay, you actually have a much better chance of playing, I guess you would say, well, then the alternative. So driving up Saturday afternoon, assistant coach calls. He's like, hey, you know, how do you feel?

I'm like, I'm fine. You know, he's like, where are you? I said, I'm on the Taconic. I'll be there in about an hour and a half, two hours. He's like, all right, good. How do you feel? I'm like, why do you keep asking me? He's like, well, because you're going tonight.

I'm like, where the fuck am I going? Oh, shit, I got to play tonight. He's like, yeah, yep, you're going. And I was like, all right. He goes, how do you feel? I'm like, does it really matter right now? You don't have a lot of choice. So we asked you how do you feel about 60 times is what you're saying.

Yeah, he was a little nervous. Mike was a little nervous. You know, that's a – I mean, fuck, imagine being a coach or an assistant coach. You're like, all right, I have three goalies on my roster. One's banged up at the moment. The roster one's banged up at the moment the other one's banged up at the moment and the other one is in the american league you're my fourth guy on the depth chart today like you're gonna be nervous as shit playing him after losing that home eight to three like you know that's just the way it is. So I got, let's go.

We've done it before. Like, let's do it again, I guess. Why not? So drive up, meet the coaching staff, uh, the equipment staff, training staff, they were there ready to go. Uh, you know what? I had a couple minutes just to kind of on the drive, just to kind of relax. You know, I made a couple of calls, you know, my family and told them I was playing and like, of relax you know i made a couple calls you know my family and told them i was playing like oh you know i think i have 60 minutes left in the tank so just gonna let it all out and see what happens all the guys when i got when i got to the rink you know they were coming

in shortly after they were staying uh did you ever play in adirondack on the road or anything yeah yeah it's a dump yeah you stayed though at that hotel like a couple blocks away yeah i'm pretty sure it's haunted yeah oh 100 so you know those guys were walking in any minute all the guys were you know hey how's it going good to see you again supportive and whatnot so it was good though yeah everybody he was uh he wasn't nervous but he wasn't exactly excited let's put it that way the staff but you know it ended up working out at the end it was good though yeah everybody he was uh he wasn't nervous but he wasn't exactly excited let's put it that way the staff but you know it ended up working out at the end do you want to fucking talk about the game at all

like talk for 10 minutes about your drive in oh fuck here we go all right so yeah got on the ice for warm-up everything felt good um you know i i wasn't as nervous as i normally am for games well yeah just because who cares you're fucking working at a department store a day ago hockey store fucking matter what are they gonna do yeah they ended up winning in the cut anyway good point uh yeah sweet, sweet spit and chiclets bumped, by the way. I fucking waved after you guys talked about me. Jesus Christ. What do you mean? Oh, you got the opposite.

You know what? I got brought on the show even better. You got chiclets bumped off the roster. But I got bumped on the show, though, so that's huge. Oh, there you go. There you go. Hey, you put 50 bucks on the board though. So that's huge. Oh, there you go. There you go. Hey, you put 50 bucks on the board.

Did you end up paying that? I, I fucking trying to get ahold of somebody's Venmo. Nobody ever was like, you know what? Don't worry about it. You got it. Yeah.

Fuck that. Look, he's coming up. I'm paying. I'm paying. no, no, no.

You don't have to pay that. You got snipped. You say, screw you boys. You fucking could have kept me up for another day's pay and got it. So go out. Everything's good good go into the first period um you know what the fucked up thing though is the guys didn't treat me any differently and then i've ever been treated when i've played on a team it was just the transition was seamless like I walked in if the guys made me feel like I've been there since day one of training camp there was no issue

you know I had a guy go elbow in on me in warm-ups and he's skating by fucking any league bud so it was just like you know just the little chirps and everything and just the the the uh it it's hard to put into words just when you're on a club you know you're on a club you know you've been there you've gone up and down and then there's a just a break-in period there was no break-in period the guys were great they were they were chirping with each other they I was getting involved. It was no big deal. So that actually really helped. So game goes on. They score a goal after the first media timeout.

They scored a goal. A guy from the point fired one just threw a set of bodies, and he buried, obviously. And then we score on the power play. We go into the first intermission 1-0, or 1-1, sorry. And then we go, we score on a power play. We go into the first intermission one, nothing or one to one, sorry. And everything's good. You know, attitudes are good. We get into some penalty trouble in the second and Adirondack's a very good team. They have, they're very well coached, very well prepared. They are just snapping it around.

Absolutely snapping it around in the second. Mind you, I've not played a pro hockey game in a year and a week and that was in the federal league so it's not even close to the speed of this a year and a week and i threw up twice in the second period in my mouth and had to swallow it or spit it into the uh into the net oh that's how out of shape I was. It was terrible. These guys were fucking snapping the puck around. I could barely keep my shit together. So I'm just trying to keep up with everything, kind of hanging on by the seat of my pants.

After killing the penalties, we go into the locker room. It's one-to-one going into three. I'm sitting there doing my thing in between periods, taping my stick, and coach comes in with about 10 minutes left on the clock, gets the boys going, he's fired up. I mean, in hindsight, when you think of it, you have a goalie that's playing right now that has no business playing in the UCHL. And you guys are one-to-one going into the third,

like against a very good hockey club you know all you had to do was fool them for 20 more minutes that's basically what i was saying in my head when we were walking on the ice i just said to myself i'm like i just gotta fool people for an hour that's all i gotta do what were the shots on the ice but what were the shots in the third? Third, let's see. They had 15 in the third. I know they had 15 in the third. Second period, I think they probably had. Oh, we don't got to go back. Fuck.

No, I think they had double digits. They had double digits in the second. But, I mean, the guys were, like, the D zone was unbelievable. The PK was phenomenal. they they did a bunch they had a bunch of seam passes guys were getting sticks on them so i mean when when guys are getting sticks on pucks and whatnot it's it's keeping you out of harm's way basically and they the guys basically kept me out of harm's way for all those rallies got the job done for you you had 38 saves and uh and it was at the most emotional victory of your entire life yes more yes because you saw how hard these

guys were working like these guys were working apparently not very hard they gave up 38 shots didn't they yeah but i was thinking about it i probably had probably had three or four saves where they were they were good saves like they weren't routine like i probably had three or four pretty good saves um i got lucky a couple times a guy snipped me pretty good but it got a piece of the bar and it went out to christ but um yeah short side too that's never good but um the d were they were unbelievable unbelievable i swear to you i think they blocked maybe 35 40 shots the players did forwards just laying down just wearing them i'm like you guys are fucking nuts you guys have a quarter of the padding yeah you're making 200 that's what they wanted to do bodies on the line

um yeah that's awesome. And then obviously after the game, the boys were probably super pumped for you. And then what? You went back to Reading and then one or two days later you got snipped? Nope. Nope. Drove my car right back to Connecticut right after the game.

And that was it? That's all she wrote? That was it. But you know what's the cool thing about the whole thing? All of it. The best part about this i used to i grew up in iowa obviously i watched scotty cleminson who is now working with the devils adirondack is a devil's team um i looked up to that guy my whole life basically he's uh i think he's a 77 so he's five years older than me when i was first starting to say you know what i'm i want to do this pro hockey thing.

He was doing the Boston College. And then obviously he went on to the Devils. But he's working for the Devils. He came down after the game. And we talked for about 15 minutes. And he was a guy from Iowa that I looked up to. I was so happy that I played well, obviously. We got a win.

But I was the most, the best part about the whole thing was scott came down and talked to me after the game and that was a guy that i looked up to you know as a kid and he came down to tell me i did a hell of a job it was just that was prop that was hands down the best part of the whole ice and on the cake was yeah a hundred percent a guy that i looked up to my whole career came down to say hey great job and i was like holy shit that was that was 100 the best moment awesome buddy that's uh that's a pretty cool story obviously from the spit and chiclets crew we uh spit and chiclets crew we congratulate you and uh thanks for coming on and giving us your time to talk about that cool moment hey thank you so much for having

me and uh you know what you guys do a hell of a job um all the guys in the minors are listening to you i know that much and by the way um with whitney he always talks about playing for the national development team i fucking could not stand playing against them Is that a little bit of a humble brag? No. All the kids, they have their full cages. I was 20 years old my last year of junior, and all these kids are 16, 17 years old. They're all on full boats.

Ah, okay. You know they're going to college. They know they're getting drafted. Just running around. For those wondering who are listening, full boats means they have full rides already in place the scholarships yes they are all on full boats they're all with cages running around doing their thing playing for the development team getting whatever they wanted i fucking could not stand place but you know what a couple of guys actually were pretty pretty good couple of guys could chirp pretty good though a couple of guys could chirp pretty

well I would have absolutely just from listening to Whitney on here I would have hated playing against him he would have just been one of those ruthless people just ruthless I mean hey man he had the skills to back it up back then. Exactly. And all those kids, they were so talented. They could basically just tell us we were fucking losers and they were going to play in the show and we were nothing. And we just had to sit there and say, oh, yeah, you got to play. They're like, you'll be making $200 a week in the SP. Bud, thanks for coming on.

We appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Good luck with everything. Continue what you're doing you guys are doing a fucking hell of a job well there you have it guys i know you guys couldn't join me but i thought it was a very interesting story i always love hearing stories about the the the tropical rainforest as i like to call it as opposed to the ahl jungle um you know obviously he was excited and uh and uh hockey uh hockey's a wonderful game, man.

It's awesome. But what else we got to talk about here, boys? R.A., I know that you're a huge fan of this Finnish kid, the Mikko Rantanen over in Colorado. He's continuing to light the lamp. He is. He's the first player in the NHL this year to get to 40 points. He had two assists versus Nashville Tuesday night.

He did it in 24 games. The only Avalanche or Nordique player who has been the first in the NHL to 40 points in the season. Only one other guy has done it in the franchise. A fellow by the name of Peter Forsberg. They're back in 97-98. This Ranthony, man, he's unbelievable. I don't think he arrived at the NHL with a lot of fanfare

like some other foreign players did, but he's been outstanding. One of the top players in the league. You got to think he's probably going to get some hot nominee, hot trophy nominations, probably a votes. I should say. I was doing a little dig into only seven right wingers in the history of the NHL have won the art Ross trophy. Gordie Howe, boom, boom, Jeff Freon, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Jeremy Yager, Gila for who i just mentioned martin st louis patrick kane and jerome mcginla i mean obviously there's a lot a long way to go here but uh he's uh he's probably at the top of the list right now and he's got another fucking guy on his line who's who's probably in the running as well um and and what's even crazier is currently the nhl has four right wingers in the top ten in scoring right now. So Marner, Kucherov, and Pasternak are the other three. And, man, it's the days of the playmaking right wingers. Yes.

And those names, I mean, are you kidding me? I do think Rantanen, I keep saying it, he has moments when it's Malkin, Malkin-ish, where he's buzzing up the ice. He's so big, but he's flying by people. It doesn't even necessarily look like he's going that fast and then can use the body to protect the puck. So Colorado's got something cooking in that organization. So I mentioned, I think a few weeks ago,

I played against him in the minors, and it's crazy how much he scaled up because he was dominant in the AHL, but never like, whoa, why the fuck is this guy in the minors? Yeah. And then he got up to the NHL. And then last year a lot of people were saying like, ah, you play with McDavid.

Of course he's going to put up those numbers. He's his own fucking player. And they came in the other night and they had a really good game against the Arizona Coyotes. I mean, hey, off night for the Yotes. Fucking off night. It's been a couple lately. It's been a couple lately.

No, hey, big comeback last night in Minnesota. Man, not a big deal. But he's got a bit of a mean streak to his game too. He throws some cross checks. He's finished. Yeah, but he's a gamer. And it was a pleasure watching him the other night. And I've gained a shit ton of respect for him

and just how he's rounded out as an overall player. And that one two punch is nasty and then they got lannis gog as the as the other guy so i think they're over 100 points combined already right now which is is by far and above the best in the league guys before we go any further i just want to talk to you for a moment about mugsy jeans man they sent me a pair a few months back i've said it before i'm I'm going to say it again. The most comfortable jeans I've ever worn. I've never worn jeans before. I thought I could go to the gym and work out, but I do with Mugsy jeans.

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They're so comfortable, you don't even know you have them on. The Muggsy jeans are designed specifically for the athletic group, so you definitely want to try them out. They got high-tech materials like synthetic silk, a bunch of other technical stuff you don't want to get bored with. But you definitely want to try it out. It's so flexible. I can't stress that enough. They're like stretch jeans. Usually when you get home from work, the first thing't want to get bored with, but you definitely want to try it out. It's so flexible. I can't stress that enough.

They're like stretch jeans. Usually when you get home from work, the first thing you want to do is take the jeans off, put the pajamas on. But Muggsy's, man, you could sleep in them. They're that comfortable. Men's Health called them the best jeans for athletes. I'm not much of an athlete, but they're great for guys like myself too. If you want to try it out, definitely give it a whirl right now because Muggsy is extending their Cyber Monday deals to stoolie listeners through the end of this week.

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possibly taking Chippewa, Mikey Grinnell, who's become, I guess, Sabres fans' favorite member of this podcast for riding them from the beginning. They're at 10 in a row, and you tried telling us you have some sort of deal for us. What is this you have cooking up there? No, it's not much of a deal for you guys. It's just I have a

proposal, per se. If the Buffalo Sabres make the Stanley Cup Finals, make the Stanley Cup Finals all the way Cup finals all the way to the finals, they don't have to win, but if they make it there, I will get a Buffalo Sabres tattoo on my ass. What? Not even for just making the playoffs?

No, if they make it to the Stanley Cup finals. That's a fair bet. I will get a Buffalo Sabres tattoo on my ass, and maybe we'll let the fans choose a little text that goes below it. But there's also the matter of fact that you have a Plymouth State tattoo on your ass, so obviously it doesn't even count. Well, he's going to cover that. Oh, no, no.

Wait, time out. You have two cheeks. They're both a blank canvas. One is empty right now. One is not. So I have a blank canvas that I am offering up to Buffalo Sabres fans, and I'm saying if if they make it to the finals i will get a buffalo sabers tattoo on my ass that's that's a fair bet

i i think it's uh i mean wait you said just the playoffs like i think they're gonna make playoffs i think like at worst they're gonna get a wild card spot um boys let's just talk about that sports town in general one more time briefly here. There was that kid online who posted the video after the game. He said that he would let Skinner fuck his wife if he re-signed with the team. Talk about fan dedication.

Who said that? Some kid on fucking Twitter. He posted a video. He's like, obviously he was pumping the team's tire and he's like, Skinner, if you re-sign there, I'll let you fuck my wife. I bet he's not even kidding either. I bet he actually would let Skinner fuck his wife. Best fan base in sports when they're winning, man.

I'm telling you. He's taking pictures and asked Skinner to sign it after. The whole team's bukkakeing his wife, and he's just, like, kissing a cup and taking pictures. They're nuts, man. Skinner's like, hey, hey here let me at least give your your wife some money i just signed 45 million it's like no no dude we're good we're good just sign my pic of you hitting my cell phone case i was on the fence but now that you

mentioned it yeah i'll stuff your wife and then stay in buffalo that's a strange offer at the signing bonus like or at the the conference when they're introducing it. So, Grinnelli, like, so what's the other side of the bet? If they don't get to the cup, what do you get? I don't know. I think you just want another tattoo on your ass, personally. I don't because I'm not a tattoo guy. I'm not a tattoo guy at all. And I only got that one tattoo when I was really drunk in college.

So, like, that's that's kind of like a wash. So this is it's like starting from scratch here. He's also thinking ahead of us, their first round series for a live show and being like, hey, you know, maybe he's a little cold streak. Maybe he's not. He's living in New York City. I would hope not. Maybe he's like, hey, listen, do you know that if the Sears make it to the cup, I'm going to get a tattoo on my hoop. And then all of a sudden he's just wheeling something. So I know I know how your brain works, you little weasel. And, you know, and, you know, that's of city you can actually get laid in because they're all –

Oh, yeah. I mean – A little gritty. I don't know. I feel like I wouldn't appeal to the women in Buffalo. I'm a small, scrawny kind of guy. I feel like they like – Oh, yeah?

You couldn't even break a table. You couldn't even break a table. No way. I actually got a funny story. So I got laid at Rookie Party there. Stalker. But the next day I went to the rink and the boys were obviously like, hey, did you go home with that one?

I'm like, no, I didn't go home with her. But she came over after and everyone kind of had a giggle. Well, apparently one of the other guys took her home first and then afterwards she came over to my place. So I'm like,'m like oh god really so obviously the morale in the locker room was pretty high we ended up winning you're welcome and uh yeah i ended up getting sloppy seconds can't marry her now i'm busy yeah i know i was like hey um i don't know if you guys noticed uh or saw my hit of the week around the nhl lately

was did you see the collision between dust Bufflin and Jamie Oleski? Awful. Oh, my God. That is, I mean, what is that? I'm going to say at least 500 pounds colliding. And you saw Bufflin. He had the Bambi legs going, but he came back. I'm pretty sure he came back to the game.

So just to see a collision like that, I mean, you don't see hits like that at all anymore, let alone the two biggest guys in the league. And you know that guy's hurting if Buff's going down. Oh, yeah. He went down too, I think. Boys, one thing we kind of skimmed over was Ristolainen's celly after the OT winner.

Oh, my God. To me, that's the best current celebration. What was he doing that dance? Yeah, and someone tweeted at him, welcome to the crew or something. Grinnelli, are you up with that pop culture? The Millie Rock. The Millie Rock. What is the doing that dance? And someone tweeted at him, welcome to the crew or something. Grinnelli, are you up with that pop culture? The Millie Rock. What is the Millie Rock? The Millie Rock.

You know, a little Millie Rock. I don't even know who Millie Rock is. Is that bad? No, it's a dance move. I don't think it's anyone. Who made it up? I don't know. You know how these rappers come out with these new dances?

No, no, no. That was Tredavious White. That was the safety for the Bills. That was the safety for the Bills who came out, who fronted as the Sabres goalie in that video. Ah. Oh, all right, all right. Now I know.

He was like, I got you. We milly rock in. And, boys, we got to shout him out for the Budweiser Canada Selly season. I mean, to me, that's the best one so far this year. So we've been getting a lot of messages about it. Congratulations to Buffalo on 10 in a row. Grinnell, you're going to finish this one off?

Yeah, timeout. Can we make this a full bet? If they make the Stanley Cup, I will get a tattoo on my ass. If they don't make the playoffs at all, you guys have to do something for me. Pretty vague. I mean, what the hell am I getting out of that?

I get to get tattooed the Buffalo Sabres logo. Yeah, but do you know how much more likely it is that they get into the playoffs as opposed to actually get into the finals? Well, yeah, that's what I'm saying. So it's one or the other. So I'd have to do something for you? Let me sleep on this one. Let's take it up on Monday's episode.

I got some thinking to do. How funny was it that kid was like, dude, I ordered my Eagle Energy two weeks ago. You guys want to talk about that? Looked up how to get his name. Okay, so let's talk about this. So every time somebody messages. You little lying piece of shit. So I'm associated to Eagle Energy, and my buddy runs it.

And, of course, I'm promoting it. So anytime there's anything negative that comes online about it, like someone not getting their shipment on time or, or maybe one of their pens didn't work. I screenshot it and I sent it right to them and they're on it. Like their customer service is unbelievable. So this kid says, I ordered it two weeks ago. I haven't got it. And so I screenshot it, sent it to him and it has the name. So the guy writes me back, he goes, dude, he goes, that guy ordered it on Friday. And I'm like, are you kidding me? I said, screenshot it and send it to me. So he did. And then I said, and I wrote him back. I said, that's weird because this order says you ordered Friday. Hopefully you get it soon. And if not message me again, please be honest about when

you order next time though. And I didn't think it was going to catch fire like it did because I replied to him. I didn't put it on my main page and oh man it's it's already up to like 1800 likes and i just fuck dude don't waste people's time because that guy had to that guy was working and then and then fuck you wasted my time too you asshole so i appreciate anything yeah he's like oh i'm getting lit up online and i love it and it's just like all right man well if you want to be a scumbag and love it then be a scumbag so shout out to fucking eagle Energy for getting on, uh, on the customer service train. And, uh, and if you do have problems, message me, we'll get it

handled. They're just, they're good people. They're working hard. I don't want, I don't want them to have to deal with that bullshit. Hey, what about the, uh, Jeopardy boy? The, the, someone, one of our listeners tweeted a picture. They said it looked like a, like the nerd child of Whitney and Grinnelly. And you look at it, and it looks exactly like you two had a fucking kid. It does look like you guys had a baby. I'll tell you what. I bet that kid. I would never go either.

I bet he passed some tape to tape, and he wheels at the bar. I'll tell you that much. And it pays for everything. So what part of you is in him? I don't see any of it. That's the point. I was going to say it looks more like him? I don't see any of it. That's the point. I was going to say it looks more like you. I don't see me in it.

Yeah, it's definitely a little gritty. I forget the list who sniped it, but it was a fucking fantastic call, whoever made it. Boys, quickly, I think we should talk about that Matt Duchesne goal, which ended up being the winner for Ottawa against Philly. Also gave the Ova six and a half in that same game. Well, that's what we talked about. All right, let's go to the gambling corner, R.A.

You take it off, buddy. Wow, R.A. Well, Duchesne's goal, yeah, that was incredible, knocking out of the year. Dude, I put the four or five, actually five picks, and I thought it was four, but which reminded me that I said to bet Vegas on the puck line, and he said, no, you went five and O, and he texted me before the night started. He goes, I loaded up on all your picks,

and I was like, oh, fuck no. I'm like, now I'm going to go four and O and four. I'm going to O and five. I'm not going to hear the end of it from Witts and everybody else out there, and then I was watching all the games at once, like one come in, then two, then three. It was all up in the air.

I had people out there, first once, like one come in, then two, then three. It was all up in the air. I had people out there, first off, do not fucking congratulate Betts in the first period or the second period or the fucking third. Well, I was willing to congratulate that Vegas win at the end of the second period. I waited until then to text you. But I had people saying great picks. I mean, it's fucking a one-goal lead in the second period, man. You're not even close to a win yet. But so I had I had, you know, I'd put in all your picks and it was such a win win for me because I'm like, this is great.

I'm going to make an absolute shitload of money tonight or I can just torture him because these picks were so awful. I mean, I'm this is perfect no matter what happens. The only thing I did, I actually money. I actually money in puck line, Vegas and Carolina. Carolina missed an empty net at the very end. Guy on the backhand put it wide. But other than that, I mean, that's a 5-1 night for the Whit Dog

because of URA. And just look at you. That was Sunday night, too. You were picking out these Tuesday games. So, shout-out to you just padding the wallet. Thank you. How many people were messaging URA and thanking you? A lot, right?

Yeah. I mean, I would venture to say that I made dozens of people thousands of dollars collectively last night. I mean, I was getting, like, DM slides, Twitter messages. All kinds of people jumped on the mail wagon. So they're going to be really fucking disappointed. The same guy who offered his wife up to Skinner offered his wife up to you. I just think it's crazy that you and Witt are essentially betting the same

amount of money. Your blood must be boiling. You hammer these bets. Yeah, well, everyone thought I loaded up on all of them. I was like, no, that was just my four picks that I happened to pick. I didn't really go overboard on every one of them, but I did pound the over in that Philly Senators game. I thought

there would be 10 goals in it. I did have two times. Okay, when you say pound it, like what's pound it? Because to me, if I bet $300 on a game, like I'm nervous. If I pound it, it's anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000 if I say I pounded it. So I had two Gs on that over. Now, I don't know if you were watching. What? Yeah, it was 3-1, and our boy Brady can check.

He got two goals. And the thing is, if you bet an over-under of 6.5, Paul, once the score is 3-3, you're guaranteed a winner because there are no more ties in the NHL. So once it's 3-3, you're fucking golden. You hit your bet. So Brady tied it up. Maybe a winner.

I mean, it didn't matter. So a shootout win, that's going to count as a goal towards? Oh, wow. I didn't know that. I thought that didn't count. Yeah, it doesn't statistically, but for the sake of the victory and gambling purposes, it's a win, yeah. And for those gamblers who are looking forward to R.A.'s Gambling Corner,

keep in mind R.A. just doesn't do them every episode. He does them when he's feeling them. So he's feeling it. And technically, the first couple times you did it earlier in the season, you were saying, hey, if these goalies start, make the bet. But those goalies didn't end up starting. So, therefore, you weren't really going to place these or recommending that people don't either.

Now, transitioning out of that, by the way, congratulations. One thing I wanted to talk about is Carey Price threw a hit on a player oh yeah in the last game okay and everybody was laughing and chuckling on on twitter and i fucking love carrie price but here's my here's my problem with this is if if you touch a goalie everybody's up in arms suspend them throw him out of the league he's a sc, blah. Oh, and then a goalie hits a guy because he eases up, and now everyone's clowning him online. Well, I'll tell you what. If a fucking goalie, if I slowed up for a fuck and made me look like a fool,

well, I'm going to make sure I get him back because that's bullshit because I'm not a hypocrite. So all you people laughing and joking around about Carey Price throwing that hit, yeah, he didn't fucking smoke him, but he eased up, and then he didn't even end up getting the two-minute minor. It was just like nothing happened. So I'm going to say, like, what?

The goalies can't be open seasons if they fucking start throwing hits? Hey, man, it's like if you're going to chuck a hit, be ready to get one back. I mean, I think that they do a pretty good job of staying out of the way, knowing that if they don't do anything to anyone, guys should treat them with respect. But if you're going to throw a hit, I wouldn't be shocked at all to see someone

just completely snap and try to dummy a goalie. But still, Carey Price, it gave for a little entertainment. I'll say that for sure. Yeah, it definitely feels like a double standard though. I mean, if there was no whistle, it looked like it could have been interference at a minimum but you're not going to get that call in fucking montreal against their goalie for sure that's not going to happen uh i was a little

frustrated by it i'm just like hey like it's a goalies are like the quarterbacks now the nfl just and then and then all of a sudden this guy interferes with a guy and then everyone's like like it's funny online it's like oh? Wait till I fucking run him next time. He's not clowning me again. Austin Matthews is back, boys. He must be hitting up the herbal active or something. Toronto's up 1-0 early.

Tavares go to 16th as we're recording right now on Wednesday night. I think that probably... Actually, one more thing. It's quick. I just want to give a congratulations to Rick Middleton. We talked about him earlier in the episode. Number 16 for the Boston Bruins. He's getting retired Thursday night.

We didn't talk about it. That was with Burr. Sorry. Okay. I know we didn't talk about it on the episode. But Rick Middleton, he's getting number 16, retired at the Garden on Thursday night. He retired 30 years ago, so it took quite a while for this to happen.

Eight guys have won his number since. But congrats to Nifty, man. I know you guys probably didn't see him play as much as I did, but he was a dynamic goal scorer back in the day, probably similar to, I guess, maybe a Pat Kane today, if we're going to compare him to a modern-day player. But Elva Bruin. What?

Just as far as a goal scorer, a dynamic goal scorer, yeah. I would say that as far as making people jump out of their seat with breakaways and shit like that. Nifty. If your nickname's Nifty, you made some cane-like moves. I'll give you that. You backed it up. And also, a shout-out to Ryan Miller. He got his 373rd win. He's one behind John Van Biesbroeck on number one

all-time among U.S.-born goaltenders. Shout-out to Ryan Miller for climbing that list. And boys, before we wrap up, any more word on Nylander? I know he skated today over in Sweden. They're saying they're close to something. I'm just digging for – I hear they're close, but I also – I just don't understand the fact –

and I don't understand the people who argue, all right, well, listen. Posturnok and Goudreau are severely underpaid now, so he should get more money than them. It doesn't matter. He has not done what either one of those guys have done. He hasn't even done what either one of those guys have really – he hasn't come close to either one of those guys. So, yeah, you can look at Goudreau and Postranok and say,

wow, man, they signed and now they're underpaid. Well, they're still plenty well off. They're going to sign another big deal, God willing. And Nylander to try to say he should get more than them right now, I see Toronto's side of saying no, you shouldn't. So both sides right now, before the deadline

December 1st, are saying we've moved a lot. Both sides think we've moved a lot off our original position, and now it becomes that standstill of we're not moving anymore. So it'll be very, very interesting to see what happens. The Leafs could use a D-man. And you know what's hurting them too is the fact that Marner's been playing so well,

they're going to have to pay that guy. And they know they have to pay him. And obviously more so than Nylander. So the better he keeps playing, they're like, holy shit, man. I mean, what would you say Marner is if he keeps going? He's got to be, what, a $9 million guy? Yep. I mean, he's top five in points right now in the league, I believe.

So there comes a time when you realize, all right, well, with Matthews and Marner, that's going to be – it sounds crazy, but Taves – 12 or 20 million. Yeah, yeah. So I don't know. It's just crazy. You know, the Toronto – the fact that this is happening with the Maple Leafs too up there, it's just, it's perfect drama for the hockey media.

And the soap opera that usually kind of goes around the Leafs. But final thing before we leave, Grinelli? I was going to say Austin Matthews just scored. Oh, there you go. There you go. Check out Spump. You're welcome. Thanks for coming.

Put it for me on the signing bonus. He ain't giving you shit. He's already bought you like five dinners. Mitch Marner's fifth in points right now, and that's not including his assist tonight. But, all right, well, I don't often bring up the personal life too much in this, but I figured since we're recording tonight, it is my son Ryder. Ryder calling Whitney.

It's his first birthday. And people always ask me, like, you know, you guys talk a little bit, you know, rough around the edges. Like, you know, will your son listen? What's it going to be like when he hears? So who knows? Someday, hopefully he listens. But I would like maybe he'll hear this episode long,

in a long time, in the future far away. But he'll be listening and knowing that, you know, I love him so much. So does his mom. And it's been the best year of my life. It's funny. I used to rip it up, Biz. We ran wild. And a lot of people say, oh, do you miss going out?

And I don't really miss anything. You know, you have him. You grow up. You get married a little bit. You have a kid. I would have never gotten married if I was still playing in the NHL. But it all ended, and it was time to get going in life and start in a family. So it's been the best year of my life.

And, you know, having a son and being lucky and, you know, God was there to give us a healthy baby boy. It's just been an incredible year. So hopefully someday he hears this and knows he's changed our lives for the better in so many ways. He's the only chicklets baby, all right? You don't got any kids, right? None that I know of.

And with that, we're out. Peace out. Thanks for listening. May the good Lord be with you down every road you roam. And may sunshine and happiness surround you when you're far from home And may you grow to be proud, dignified and true And to want to worry about you