Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 133: Featuring Geoff Courtnall + Riley Cote

Episode Date: December 13, 2018

On Thursday's episode of Spittin' Chiclets, the guys are all in NYC for a week of content and are joined by former NHLers Geoff Courtnall and Riley Cote. Geoff joins to talk about his career, some of the pranks he pulled and a few more funny stories and Riley joins to talk about the hemp/cbd movement and what he is doing to try to implement it into the NHL. The guys also go around the league and touch on some league news as well. 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 133 of Spit and Chicklets, presented by New Amsterdam Vodka. We're doing a little long-distance chat with the boys today. Actually, all three is actually Whitney, Biz, and Grinnell. You guys are all down in New York City. I'm meeting up with you tomorrow on Thursday. What's going on, Biz? You've been there all week? It's been awesome. I love this city. That's pretty much all I've got to say.

Boys, I drank for the first time in 15 weeks. I had a few pints with Grinnell. We got chatting. It was fun. We had a fun night. Yeah, we had a great time. And just talking about how we can make this podcast better. Every fucking day we don't sleep, we just make this fucking podcast better.

So that's all I got to say about that. And then Whit Dog got in today. Wasn't happy about his shoebox hotel room, though. No, I mean, listen, I'm in an absolute phone booth. I have to, like, get skinnier

to get between the bed and the wall to the bathroom. And I don't like getting out of the left side of the bed. I'm a right side guy. That is ridiculous.

Dude, Biz, to come in here and hear, like, people are like, why don't you come to the offices in New York City more? Because every time I come here, I'm on a bender. It's two in the morning

and me and Grinnelly are crushed talking about the podcast. I can't come there that often. So I come in this time a couple days before Christmas just trying to relax and I hear that Biz is on the booze again. So this is two nights. The next two nights will be very interesting.

Very interesting. Buddy Grinelli, you going to say hello there, bro? Yeah. Yeah. Fuck, all right. You didn't make that awkward or anything. Yeah, geez. So, no.

Yeah, boys, I'm excited for the Christmas party tomorrow. I think that's going to be fun. Oh, geez. Me and Biz have had a blast the past couple nights. I went on Instagram Live at my house. I don't know if you saw. I showed everyone my mouse traps. Oh, really? Yeah. He He went on Instagram Live at my house. I don't know if you saw and showed everyone my mouse traps.

Oh, really? Yeah. He deletes his Instagram Lives. I know. It's a special treat. Drives me crazy. I know. You've got to be there, though.

It's like a one-time thing, you know? I went on the Call Her Daddy podcast today. I don't know when that's going to air. They were asking me some pretty aggressive questions.

I told the house in no return, but the Coles Notes version. They opened up the podcast and the first question, can we see your dick? Throughout the whole podcast, we're like, no, seriously. Can we see your dick?

You're not going to show up to a podcast and just whip your wrench out. You can't. Especially if you don't get a chance to fire up a little bit. I told him. It was kind of like when I talked to Lupo about the ESPN body issue that he did when you're on all set all day, you don't know if it's going to be cold and shit.

You don't know who's going to be there. If I would have known, I would have popped a Cialis, at least got a little blood flow in there before I'm whipping it out. I'll be the first guy to admit when mine's completely soft, it's not aesthetically pleasing. It's not very large. It's kind of gross looking. There's all that extra skin hanging off.

Well, that's what I'm saying. That's the issue. Got the old beef jerky on the end there. A little double bubble. R.A., so you get in tomorrow. What's going on in the hockey world, though? Yeah, getting in tomorrow morning. Speaking of hot stuff, fucking Edmonton Oilers, man.

Hitchcock with 8-2-1 on the big hitch. A lot of people talk on the wagon i don't know how many wagons we got in the nhl there but uh right now it looks like the oilers are the latest one yeah too many wagons we got to tone down the wagon talk obviously arizona we have them jets are away arizona okay we'll go we'll get back to that but how about granelli saying oh what a terrible hire for hitchcock he had to go on Twitter and backtrack and be like, oh, I fucked up. My bad. It's been a lot of backtracking for Grinelli lately.

I don't make many bad predictions. That was one of them. I feel like he's kind of a curse. Well, fuck, he put out that wagon t-shirt. At least the Sabres won. Quickly about the Oilers, though. Hitch, I mean, Hitch does this for a living. He comes in and fixes wounds.

The repairman. He comes in and just fixes things up, throws the old lines in the blender, gets guys buzzing. He's playing McDavid like 26 minutes a night. Why wouldn't you? And they, I mean, when he's going that good, and right now Dreitzel is playing good. Shout out to the filthiest backhand sauce pass I've ever seen this season. Dreitzel threw the neutral zone to McDavid against Colorado on Tuesday night. What's today? Wednesday?

By the way, also shout out to my boy Jay Driscoll. I've mentioned him before. All over the over in Colorado Edmonton. Right before the game, I was like, oh my god, I'm gonna miss it. Ten goals. Thanks for that. Also, R.A., your gambling corner we'll get into. Good job. But the Oilers are fucking fussing. Yeah, no doubt

about it. Again, I'm a big goalie guy. Mikko Koskinen, man. the guy, I'm not sure he came out of nowhere, but I think he's been as much of a factor as Hitchcock has been. He's been lights out in between the pipes, and that had been an issue for them. Cam Talbot wasn't giving them the goaltending they needed. Koskinen's come in, he's given them that. Again, I mentioned it before, but in combination with Hitchcock, man, they're like a new team.

It'll be determined whether it'll last for the whole season, but right now they're flying high. Like I said, 8-2-1 under Hitch. Pretty impressive thus far. Yeah, I think he was the perfect candidate for that job. And he's from Edmonton, correct? Yeah, that's what I think. It had always been, when's Hitch going to coach here?

I mean, it was a matter of time, I feel like. Yeah, and I kind of get the feeling he's kind of toned it down a little bit. I mean, we always say that, and maybe he's rejuvenated himself to fit more to the younger guys, but we know the longer he is in places he likes to get on guys, like, come on, come on, Connor. It won't be saying Connor's name because he's playing 26 minutes. I think he'll say anyone's name.

Yeah, that's true. Hey, before he thought he was going to be retired and done and he was done coaching. And then he figured he was going to come back. He's like, I guess I should start listening to this Chicklets thing. Is this what the younger crowded hockey? This is how much guys go out and stuff? What the hell's going on? I thought this was a new league.

Yeah, asking guys how big their wrenches are in team meetings to draw up plays. But, yeah, no, he's done an unbelievable job and uh i don't know do you guys do you guys think that they can sustain this by with playing connor mcdavid 25 26 minutes as a fucking forward that is insane yeah that's like 34 minutes for a d-man. I was trying to compare the two. I don't think over time it would be smart because that's how they get in the playoffs. Right now he probably could. I mean, the kid's a freak. He's the best skater in the league. The game comes so easy to him. But, I mean, if at some point you want to try to become a more well-rounded team,

you can't have a forward play in 26 minutes a night. Maybe you get into the playoffs and you try to run with that, but over time that won't be a successful kind of recipe to make a team compete for Stanley Cups. Yeah. And R.A., you got some other news that you sent us about the Edmonton Oilers. Yeah, Andrew Ferns, he was on the 31 Thoughts podcast. That's hosted by friends of our show, Elliot Friedman and Jeff Marrick. Great show up they have up in Canada. Caused quite a few ripples in Edmonton.

Andrew Ferentz, he really ripped on the Edmonton Oilers squads that he was there. Wits, I think you guys didn't really overlap. Did you overlap at all? I believe Witt was on the team when he was there. No, I was never on the team with him. He never would have made those comments if I was there. Partying must have started when I left. Well, the reason I say that is because a lot of people were tagging you in the comments he made

because somebody wrote a few articles about it. And your name, Ryan, you were getting tagged on it. I'll say this. Actually, Ari, why don't you get into the article, and then I'll comment afterward. Yeah, it was actually the quotes. I listened to it last night. He said basically the kids didn't respect what he was about. He was trying to kind of bring the winning formula,

winning attitude from Boston. He was the captain in Edmonton, and he said they really weren't absorbing it. He said that it was, in his quote, was, quote, too cool to try hard. He said that players had derogatory terms for players who tried too hard in practice. He said that was the culture there. Yeah, they're called try-hards. Yeah, they're called rooties. Yeah.

Easy, Rudy. Whitney set up this whole culture in Edmonton. I didn't set up this culture. Fuck off, Grinnelli. I was fucking, this isn't my fault. Hey, go ahead, R.A. Are you done or do you have more to say? He said a lot of shit. He said the lifestyle to a lot of these guys

was more important than the game. He said, and he quote, it really pissed me off because it's a waste of their years as an NHL player. He was pissed at them. He said another quote, it was ridiculous. He basically said these kids were all about potty and he didn't mention any names, but you were there, you know, right before. So, you know, what's your take?

Was there too much partying going on? Was it average for the NHL? Do you agree with his sentiments or what? It was no more than any other NHL team going on the road a little bit. Also, you're in dead last place. I mean, I don't know. For him to come out and say that, I think is bullshit. I'm assuming he's going on the fact that this was his last few years in the NHL.

And I don't know if he's upset that he considers his years being ruined by guys partying. I mean, I'm looking at his stats. 71 games played, 18 points. That's a solid year. He's not overly offensive defenseman. The next year, 14 points, and then that was kind of it. I mean, he wasn't dominating by any means. And for him to kind of come out and just – I mean, he's not naming names,

but he pretty much is. I mean, you look at the roster and you think about guys that were there then and apparently were partying to him. It's just not a good look, I don't think. I mean, what are you getting out of ripping guys and saying they were partying when you were playing there? What did it cost him? Well, I'll say this.

Andrew Ferentz is a very healthy individual. Good for him. He eats all organic. He's all about supplementation. And he was a true professional. He woke up every day. He breathed hockey. He was concentrated.

And he was the ultimate professional. He woke up every day, he breathed hockey, he was concentrated, and he was the ultimate professional. Some guys can go and booze and have a good time. And I will use the first Stanley Cup that Los Angeles won, I believe it was in 2012? I don't know. Grinnell, need your help. Yeah,

2012. Was it? Yes. So, they got the eighth seed that year. They ended up knocking off Vancouver in the first round. That team liked to have a good time. They went on a two-day heater after they won that first round in Hollywood because they had to wait so long. Because I believe they beat Vancouver in five games. So they had to wait for the next series.

Then they ended up winning their next series. And then apparently they went on another two, three-day bender. Then they ended up beating us in the conference finals in five games, went on another bender, and then won the Stanley Cup. So don't correlate the partying with not having a winning culture because I know guys on certain teams who have... Man, when we went to the conference finals that same year, we had about seven or eight guys on the team that were going out regularly.

Even for my first three years in Arizona. We had a very young team, or at least half the team was, that would like to go out. I'd go out with Lori Korpikoski. Dan Winnick was one of the guys who went out. We had Sammy Lapisto, myself, Taylor Pyatt, because he was single at the time, and then he'd met his girl

halfway through my first year. And Scotty Upshaw was there. We had a fucking blast. And we would go to the rink and tell all the older guys about what we did, and they lived vicariously. We were probably partying just as much as those guys at Edmonton were. It was just the fact that they had a shit team.

The guys in Edmonton weren't partying. It was nothing that any other team doesn't do. And if you're going to come out and say that this culture was just that toxic, he's not just saying they partied too much. He's saying practice sucked. Name some names, dude. I mean, you're going after the entire team. Why don't you come out?

Like, this is bad enough where if you're on that team, like maybe you're, and you didn't act like that, you're probably like, what the fuck, dude? If you're going to come out and sewer an entire team, why don't you maybe name who you think, I mean, obviously this guy doesn't care, so why? No, no, he doesn't give a shit. That's what I'm saying.

And that's his right, and if that's how he feels about it, I'm totally cool with that because ultimately he was being a true professional yeah he was nothing against that but don't tell me that's why they were losing they were losing because they drafted poorly they lost because they fucking developed poorly they had people in certain situations in the organization who shouldn't be in those situations like is it not common knowledge that edmonton was a fucking boys club? And you know what? They have done so much for that city in winning all those cups. Fucking give them those jobs.

But to blame it on the fact that they were, like, going out and having fun on the road? Hey, man, I've been on winning teams that have done it. I have been on losing teams that have done it. And then a prime example was that first fucking Stanley Cup that they won in L.A. I heard stories about that run, and it was magical. Yeah, I think that you said it best in that, all right, Patrice Bergeron and Zidane O'Chara practiced one way. A bunch of teams won Stanley Cups practiced in a completely different way.

And for you to go out and just say that they weren't like the Bruins, I mean, dude, no shit. Did you see the rosters? The 84 Oilers weren't the 84 Oilers because they just won a bunch of games. They were because they went out and fucking got it done off the ice and got it done on the ice. Yeah, like the 1997 BU hockey team wasn't the Holy Cross hockey team. Like, you know what I mean? There's totally different rosters.

And this isn't throwing anyone under the bus. The Calgary Flames, they have a very fun team this year. Real deal. And they like to go have a little bit of fun. And how the fuck are they doing? It's just kind of a hard-o. It's kind of a hard-o comment for me. It really is.

That's how we can end it at that. And keep in mind, we're a type of podcast where our following is more down with the, hey, let's have fun in life and do those things maybe the people that don't would be like oh he's absolutely right i love the fact that he came out and said it and called them out it's just like hey i'm down with what ference is saying and and i and i can say yeah you were a true professional and you lived and breathed it like that so you can bitch about the guys who are doing the other stuff just a tough look when you're blaming the losing culture on that. There's a lot of fucking other things that

contributed to it and a lot of people are fucking mentioning Hall's name. Wow, he went on to fucking win a heart. He's the MVP. I mean, he ain't hurting your squad. I mean, I can look at his hockey DD right now. He's not the issue.

So anyway, R.A., we kind of rambled on on you. How do you feel about it? Yeah, I mean, I think you guys might want to listen to the whole thing. It wasn't like he just came out and bashed them. You know, he was getting questions. I think there was a little bit of context there. But, yeah, he was basically saying it was a kind of a culture shock for him. He came from a winning atmosphere in Boston that was a little more professional.

It's a basically, you know, paraphrasing, kind of babysitting the clubhouse who really wasn't interested in what he was preaching, basically, because he said, I'm not a star. I'm a four or five defenseman. You know, I don't think they were basically appreciating what he brought to the thing. One quick note, too, we are going to have on Riley Cote and Jeff Corton, a couple of retired guys we're going to bring on a little bit later.

I wanted to mention that. Yeah, great fucking plug there, R.A. And another point I wanted to bring up, too, is I had friends that played on that team with Dallas Eakins, who is another guy who's very into fitness, very into nutrition. And he was also trying to change a culture there. But he was very bossy about it. Apparently, media members weren't even allowed to have donuts in the thing anymore like in the in the press box or whatever i know guys that played

there during his coaching tenure where these guys if they played a certain amount of minutes during the game let's say 12 minutes after the game they'd have to do like a 20 mile bike ride and they had to do bike tests like four different times during the season. And it got a little bit controlling and crazy because he went like overboard with it. So there was a lot of shit that some of the players weren't down with where they're like, man, I want to fucking go out there and skate, work on my game. I'm not a fucking cyclist. Why do I have bike rides every day? on my game. I'm not a fucking cyclist.

Why do I have bike rides every day? And another fucking thing is if you talk to Matt Nichol and some of these other high-end hockey trainers, they don't want you on the bike, especially during the season because all it does is tightens up your hip flexors. We don't need those tightens, huh? When you're in New York, you don't want to tighten up your hip flexors. I don't want those fucking tight hip flexors. I'm going to have to put them to work. Well, it's also –

But we're talking about a guy now controlling the fitness aspect and how guys' bodies are reacting to certain things off the ice. Guys are at that professional level for a reason. They know exactly what they need to do to go out to peak performance. If you're telling them, yo, 20-minute bike ride or 30-minute bike ride after playing 12 minutes in a game, and as I just mentioned, there's consequences to that because it's been studied, and that's why Matt Nickel and Andy O'Brien and some of the other high-end NHL trainers

are high NHL trainers because they know this type of information. Matt Nickel got, I don't want to say the main reason he got canned from the Maple Leafs when he did was because Berkey brought in his own guy because he was all about the bike, and Matt Nickel was like, hey, I'm not down with that. And they butted heads and then he ended up getting pigeon tossed. Matt Nichol's the fucking man. He's the man. So Matt Nichol.

Two things. Two things. And him and Gary Roberts as well. Like that's where Connor McDavid's training. That's what Tyler Sagan's training. These guys know what the fuck they're doing. Two things. Tyler Sagan's training.

These guys know what the fuck they're doing. Two things. Dallas Eakins, the worst thing you could ever do is take away media members like donuts and stuff. That was a terrible first move for a head coach. I mean, you want the media on your side, you're taking away their donuts? Oh, oh, oh. R.A. dropped the fucking Homer Simpson donuts. We knew it was coming. Second thing, second thing, vote Ferentz quickly.

It's almost like religion in a way. I don't care if people are really religious. I don't care at all. Just don't preach it on me. Don't constantly. And it's the same thing with how you prepare. He prepared a certain way, but don't preach it on other guys. So end of story.

The Oilers lost because they stunk, not because they ripped it up occasionally on the road. And once again, to clarify, I have no problem with him saying what he did. Or Matt Nichol. What do you mean? You have no problem with Matt Nichol. No, I love Matty Nichol. He's the man. He's the man.

He's the fucking man. But it's a fair statement, but I'm saying there's a way broader conversation to be had about that losing culture. Not just fucking them going out and having a few fun ones on the road. Yeah, it was a good interview. And also, if you're a Bruins fan, he talked about the 2011 season, so it's worth checking out for that as well.

Oh, yeah, you were stroking yourself off that. And 31 Thoughts has an awesome podcast. Shout out to Merrick and Elliott Friedman. Just stroke them off a quick second. Two great guys, two great guys up north. Speaking of teams in disarray, Blues had a little practice skirmish the other day. I feel like these were a little more common back in the day. But Robert Bortuzzo and Zach Sanford made the rounds on social media.

It was a couple of quick punches. And ironically, Steve Ott played the linesman. He came in and broke it up, which is absolutely fucking hysterical. Biz, you must have had a couple of these in your day, no? When I played for the Saginaw Spirit, I believe after 10 games in my first season there, we were 500. I think we might have won three more games the rest of the season after that. I think I had three or four practice fights that year.

I felt that there was a lot of pressure back then to win. And there always is. And when things aren't going well, you could say I was a bit of a try-hard in practice back then too because I knew there was bigger things down the road for me. Some of these other

guys might have been like, hey, this is my NHL playing junior hockey. Like, that is completely healthy. And I bet you Bartuzzo and Sanford had a laugh afterward because I know the guys that I fought in practice. I fought Steven Dix. He's from North Bay. He was on my team in Saginaw.

He broke my nose. I fought Jesse Jenish that year. I fought Chris Thorburn, our captain that year. I fought Thorbyby i fucking loved them afterward i went up to him and we had a conversation like grown men things get heated we're competing every day at practice things have not been going well in games for the the st louis blues yeah and the frustration mounted that's that's 100 healthy i hope they go on a 10 game win streak now and for people thinking that there is anything wrong with that, there isn't.

I agree. I agree. I mean, the only thing I'll say is, like, I don't think Sanford really had his gloves off and he kind of hit him with that last uppercut. And I'm sure Bortuzzo felt a little bad about that only because at the end, you're like, oh, fuck, dude. Like, we're losing. Wires cross.

And I think everyone understands. But then he looks. He's like, oh, dude, I didn't mean to buckle you. Because he was kind of, like, buckled a little bit but you're right. Dude, me and Army fought in practice once. Oh, he talked about it. Did he? Let's hear the story. I don't really remember the story. That's what sucks about Mushbrain. I don't really

remember. I remember fighting him. I didn't know he talked about it but I don't remember like how it started. I remember fighting a kid in college, Greg Johnson. We had cages on. We're throwing punches with cages on. Like, stay hot. I got a scar right beneath my lip for that one. Looks phenomenal, though, in certain lighting that I can get in.

I think that means we need to send out the Army bat signal, and we have to have him on a podcast soon. It's a little weird about it now. Yeah, he gets scared. We're going to make him talk about stuff he won't want to talk to. But speaking quickly about the Blues. We won't talk about sex parties in Wilkes-Barre. You saying that you're hoping they go on a win streak.

Dude, they had a fucking four-goal third-period comeback for a win last night in their first tilt since the thing. Actually, Keith told me that you said you tried fighting them in practice. He's like, dude, I'm going to cross-check you in the face if you come near me. In my first month with the Coyotes, R.A., I compete like a bastard in practice. Yeah, your wires cross. I'm a fucking nut job. I used to get the Rudy comment

and a lot in junior and I'm like, I don't give a shit. I'm going to fucking be in the show and you're going to be washing my fucking car through the drive-thru. Of course I'm fucking

going hard in practice. Wait till you see me in the gym afterward too. I'll be riding the bike like Dallas Eakins. Wait, but Matt Nichols said it's not good to ride the bike. I know, I didn't know it back then. He's the man. I didn't know it back then. I'll be riding the bike like Dallas Eakins. Wait, but Matt Nichols said it's not good to ride the bike. I know. I didn't know it back then.

I was throwing four plates aside on the squat rack to keep the change. Christ, I forgot where we were. You were talking about... The Blues. Yeah, and I didn't even know that they came back, but that's completely healthy. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you gotta think they're probably a little frustrated. They did get the win Tuesday night.

They might rattle off a few more, but they were among one of the busier teams last season. They haven't gotten anything close to the desired results, and they're tied for the second-fewest points in the NHL. Only Chicago and L.A. have fewer. They made some big splashes last year. Conversely, Buffalo, one of the teams they made some trades with, has kind of had the opposite effect. So, yeah, guys getting a little frustration out, and it happens.

I think with social media now, there's just more talking about it. All right, before we send it off to this interview, you kind of went glazed over it. I mean, when's the Blackhawks' chicklet's bunk going to kick in? Oh, jeez, boys. Oh, yeah. Did you see the clip of Colleton in Taves' ear? He's like right.

You could smell his breath for sure. He's just like, dude, please get away from me right now. You could just tell the body. Chicago might not get that chicklet's bump this year, boys. No. Yeah, we'll tie the Blackhawks in with the Gamblin' Corner in a little bit. But first, we're going to send it to Jeff Cortnall right now. This interview is brought to you by Eagle Energy, the all-natural caffeine inhaler. I have an announcement on their behalf. I know orders have been slow to go out. They had a

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So they're doing that. These things are unbelievable. They taste awesome. I bought a bunch for the people in the barstool offices. Fucking PFT's begging me for them. Although Big Cat insults me for fucking plugging them because he's a fucking asshole. But hey, enough about Big Cat. insults me for fucking plugging them because he's a fucking asshole but hey enough about big cat eagle energy uh on instagram on twitter eagle energy.com go check them out uh biz 20 for the

non-21 savage ones uh for 20 off eagle energy.com check it out eagle.energy.com. That's my bad. Fuck. Holy fuck, what an ad read. Our first time guest, he is from Victoria, British Columbia. This player was undrafted and ended up going on to have a very, very long NHL career. Played over a thousand games. Even more importantly, played

156 playoff games. So this guy was a winner. I want to welcome to the podcast Jeff Cortnall. Thank you. Nice to be on the show. That's not a bad little introduction right there. I mean, over 1,000 games? Holy shit. You know, we like to say not a big deal once in a while on this podcast.

Yeah, no, I was pretty blessed to have a great career so i had a lot of fun and uh enjoyed the competition while it lasted for sure i'm just shocked to see how are you not drafted i mean even the year before your last year in the whl you had 70 72 games with 92 points. When you were playing in the fucking Western League, that was a man's league. Yeah, it's very interesting. My last year, 19-year-old,

I had a great year. The head scout for LA came and met with me in the summer and he said, okay, listen, you only had about six penalty minutes. You got to start to play tough guys think that you're scared so i and at that time i was only 160 pounds so i i gained 20 pounds that summer lifted weights took boxing um basically went back and had russ played with me that year so I ended up basically saving his life almost every game and uh fought a lot and at Christmas I could have signed with any team in the NHL so

ended up signing with Boston so that's how it kind of went and for those listening wonder he mentioned his brother Russ who is three years younger uh he he had a pretty decent career too I mean if you're into getting drafted seventh overall and playing, of course, over 1,000 NHL games, and he had quite a few playoff games as well. But we're not here to talk about Russ. We're here to talk about Jeff. Go ahead, Whit.

No, I was going to say, so, you know, you're three years older than your younger brother, who I'm guessing was a little bit of a phenom growing up. He ends up going seventh overall. So when you're playing together that year, I mean, are you kind of stacking up against him, even though he's three years younger because of how high he's been drafted? Had that not even happened for him yet? And was it ever hard to see, you know, when you're younger, your younger brother have all this success

and not actually sure what you were going to do, you know, having not been drafted? Well, I was used to it because he basically, he was pretty much the best player in BC his whole life growing up. You know, he always had a lot of points. And the year we played junior together was great. We played on the same line. And obviously growing up together, we knew exactly what each other were going to do.

And that's why we had such a successful career as far as that year. Then he was drafted in the first round and then was the captain of the world junior team and then played on the Olympic team and went right to the Leafs from there. So I think that next year, I think he only played like, I don't even know how many, 20 or 30 games. So I was never jealous of him. We competed against each other, you know, growing up, which is probably what made us both

so good yeah um so we're going to fast forward quickly you know you spend a little bit of time in the ahl your first year pro you also get five games up same thing the next year you play most of the nhl most of the season the nhl 64 games only nine year nine games in hershey what i'm curious about is the next year, you played 64 games again, but you actually started in the AHL again. Is that what I'm seeing? I don't understand how after two years and a couple big NHL seasons, you were back in the AHL the third year.

Yeah, well, you're only going to be – I can't remember who they hired as a new coach that year. But yeah, at the beginning, they sent me to, I think, Moncton, where we shared a team with Calgary. And Terry Crisp was the coach there. And, you know, I think it basically came down to a lot of teams were trying to trade for me with Boston. And they just called me back up. They had two first round picks that were left wingers and so they were trying to make those guys work and then you know I got called back up

and that was the last time I was down there. Hey Mike Milbury was your assistant coach when you were in Boston. Yeah I played with Mike so yeah I played in my first year i broke in there i mean i played with milbury o'reilly um rick middleton john retell i mean i it was uh you know that's quite an experience gila point was my centerman which is funny he was a defenseman in montreal and uh he was we were on the fourth line together and and that guy was the ultimate prankster. So that guy taught me a lot of the stuff I knew. Which is, we're going to get to that. And I've had friends texting me all day about some of these pranks,

and people are in for a treat. I'm more curious about Ray Bork. We don't really talk about him, surprisingly. We're mainly a Boston podcast because all these degenerates live there. Yeah. Well, Ray Bork at that time was probably the best player in the league. You know, I had the pleasure of playing with him for basically four years. And, you know, he would log like 30, 40 minutes a game,

and the guy was like a horse, like he was just a machine. You know, the guy, he was such a great player, great teammate. So I have nothing but great things to say about Ray. So is this at the point when you come in, and I'm looking at that roster of your rookie year, or not the year you played five games, the year after that. So I see Rick Middleton, who actually is getting his jersey retired by the Bruins this year in November.

Do you think of him as just a – was he a wily old veteran? Was he grumpy? Was he a great guy? Because obviously his career has been – was an incredible one. Yeah, no, Rick was just an amazing guy. I played on the line with him and barry peterson and uh he was probably one of the most yeah he was one of the most skilled talented guys i ever played with like the stuff he could do in tight and and the the uh ability he had with the the puck was just amazing but he basically you know i mean he got hit in the head with a puck in practice,

and he didn't wear a helmet. Then Nevin Marquardt hit him with a slap shot in the head, and that really didn't help the end of his career. Oh, geez. So I wanted to get to the pranking stuff. Did this start when you were in Boston? I mean, you're a young guy coming in the league. You don't want to be fucking with the vets because all of a sudden you're in hot water.

You might be finding yourself more down in the American League. When did all this begin? Well, those guys tortured me my early years in Boston. I was basically, oh, God. I mean, you know, my first flight from Boston to L.A., you can picture this. I took my shoes off and slept most of the flight. And when we got to L.A., I couldn't find my shoes anywhere. And everyone got off the plane. I looked in every overhead, couldn't find them.

Walked through the L.A. airport in my socks, got to the baggage claim, and my shoes were going around the baggage claim. So those guys thought that was funny, but that was just the beginning. They, you know, would do everything from cut my tie if I fell asleep on the plane to nail my shoes to the bench, cut one leg off my jeans. Like, it was just nonstop. And Gord Kluzak and I, I believe it was he and I that got home. We were on a flight from Montreal, and he had a Jeep. And we got to the Jeep. It was about 20 below, and somebody had stole the doors off his Jeep.

So we had to ride home all the way out to Danvers. And it was, God, it had to be about 20 below. I think we both almost got pneumonia. But, of course, that was Gila Point who was, you know, so those guys, you know, that was back in the day when to stay loose before the game, they would just screw around with guys. I'm sure they don't do that now. But that was something that I learned

and did it throughout my career. And when did you start bringing it to the next level? Because I've, and then it started heating up and some of this, some of these stories I've heard, I'm like, damn, man, that must've took some time. Yeah, we, so Mark Bergevin and I, I mean, I was doing a lot of stuff in Vancouver too, but Mark Bergevin, he is one of the best.

And so when we played together in Montreal – or not Montreal, what am I saying? St. Louis, he and I basically we tortured – he tortured me, then I started torturing him, and then I think we said, okay, let's just get everybody else. And so one of the best pranks ever is, uh, Mark Bergevin, Jamie Rivers got traded. He was playing with McInnes. They were showing them and that was Bergevin's partner. And he was pissed off that Rivers was playing with McInnes and they traded

Rivers to the Islanders. So I called Bergevin and said, Hey, have the media got ahold of you? And he said, no, why, what? And I said, oh, well, one of the media guys just called me and said that they traded Rivers to the Islanders because of you, and you were jealous of him and making it tough for him to play here. And he was going nuts on the phone. Well, I had already phoned McInnes and told him what I was going to do. So Bergey called McInnes right away after I hung up with him and said, and he said, yeah, same thing. They called him. And so it went from there. Then I got the newspaper writer to interview Bergie the next day, basically telling him that whole story.

So then I had the coaches go up to Bergie at practice on the ice and tell him, hey, you got to meet with Larry when he gets back, who's the general manager, about rivers and all this stuff. So Bergie comes off the ice in the shower. He's yelling at me going, he's getting it. When we play the Islanders, he's going to get it, on and on. So then about four days later, Larry Plo comes back from his road trip, and there was about four of us hiding in the closet in Larry's office, and he calls

Bergie in there Bergie's yelling at him going Larry I never said anything you can go ask the coaches and they're screaming back and forth and Larry's going to Walmart I don't know how we're going to fix this and then we came out of the closet well Bergie chased me around the St. Louis arena for like about 15 minutes yelling at me that he was going to kill me so that was one that was one of the that was just one of the ones that we we did that take time so there's how are you convincing the coaches and GMs to get involved well Joel Joel Quenville was probably the greatest coach ever because he was a player and he loved that stuff so he got involved and he actually sold it to burgee like so well before practice burgee probably couldn't sleep for about three days oh hey burgeon uh because the guys when i played in pittsburgh they talked

about him they got him for one year they said it was every day though he was was nonstop. Every day. Nonstop getting guys. And so it just never ended. Okay, so Bergie's still so bad. Last year when they were here in town, we went out for dinner the night before the game, and we were at Joe Forte's. And so anyways, I get up, and I put my coat on. I get outside, and I'm reaching for my keys, and I go, oh, Jesus. Well, there's a cup saucer,

there's cutlery, everything in my coat. And the manager, he's, he's friends with us. He's following us out on the street and I started handing him all the stuff out of my coat and Bergie's like on the ground laughing. And I said, Bergie, feel your pockets. Cause I filled his pockets. That's unbelievable. So I can tell you like bergy this is bergy's classic so guys would you know he'd bring donuts in in the morning right and he dipped them in the wax that we would put our hands in and then he put them all back in the box and put them out

the paraffin wax yeah yeah yeah so guys would bite into these donuts, and it was like basically their teeth would be stuck in the wax. And he would put holes in all the coffee cups, so you'd be sitting there drinking your coffee, and coffee would be leaking all over your shirt. Hole. It never ended. You could write a book on the stuff Berge did for sure. Oh, my God, yeah.

But he was busy in Pittsburgh. I heard he was busy in Pittsburgh carrying Mario's bag everywhere. Yeah. No, he was acting as a trainer slash defenseman. That was the contract. He was the real gesture. That was a gesture role.

Oh, it was hilarious. Cause I used to text him and go Bergey. I hope you're, uh, Oh, I'll tell you another one. I got Bergeygy on that was classic

too after i retired but uh um i used to text bergy all the time and ask him if he cut mario's lawn today and if he got the garbage cans out but i entertained myself with that but so another one is i moved back to uh victoria in 2001 2000 2001 so I registered Bergie's domain name and so it was classic so we got the police, the St. Louis guys who would always come into the room before the season started

and I got them to go in there and what they did is they got all the guys in the room and they started going, hey have you guys listened, there's a problem have you guys all registered your domain names and so you know, a bunch of the guys are all going, yeah, oh, yeah, we did. And McInnes goes, yeah, I registered mine. And they're going, okay, well, we should check out your guys' names. So they brought the screen down that they showed all the highlights on

and typed in a bunch of guys' names and nothing came up. So I had registered Bergey's name and I put a porn site on it. So the guy goes to Berge bergy did you register your name and he goes no no i go well he goes well you should let's check your name so he checked it and up comes this the white house porn site well bergy almost jumped out like al said it's the funniest thing he's ever seen bergy's like sprinting around the room going what what shoot do that again do that again, do it again. So they answer it again. The porn site comes up.

Bergey calls me. He goes, listen, I got the FBI. He goes, they know that you've got my name registered. You've got to turn that site up. Holy shit, he got the FBI involved? That's what he said. He's full of shit. Hey, I need to ask you, because you're talking about that St. Louis room.

That sounds fun. But you had a little time, 12 games, I believe, in the regular season with the 87-88 Edmonton Oilers, which Wayne Gretzky had 149 points in 64 games. Mark Messier, Yari Curry, Glenn Anderson. What was that like? Were you even talking in that room? And was it a loud room or just pretty chill yeah it was a pretty serious room but there is there was a lot there were some

guys that Marty McSorley Kevin McClellan they kept that that room pretty loose they were Marty was always joking around but when you know half an hour before game time they would they would play you know I mean play ping pong in there, and they were pretty loose but pretty serious. I definitely didn't do any pranking in that room. But, I mean, that team was so good. I mean, I thought I was in great shape until I got there on the ice, and the practices were so fast.

It was unbelievable how fast those guys practiced. And I think that that's why they won so many games. And, you know, I was fortunate enough to play with Gretzky when I first got there and Curry. And my first game, I got a hat trick and I was like, oh, yeah, this is pretty good. But that was great. Won the Stanley Cup.

Beat Boston, who traded me in the finals. We beat them four games straight. The fourth game, they turned the power off, so we had to beat them a fifth game straight in Edmonton. That's interesting that you say that locker room was so serious. I'm sure there's a few reasons. Well, at that point, they were kind of not pressured to win the Cup, but they had such a good team that they had to follow it up.

Do you think it got to that point where all of a sudden there was more pressure to win because of the team? Yeah, I think so. And also, you know, I think they were probably thinking that maybe they weren't going to be together forever and they wanted to win again. But Mark, you know, Mark and Wayne were unbelievable leaders together. I think that that was a pretty good one-two combo.

And, you know, Grant Fuhrer was unbelievable back then. And I played junior with Grant, so I knew how good he was. But, yeah, to play with that group was pretty amazing. And the interesting thing, you said how practice, how it was so hard. They had a bit of a reputation as far as how much fun they like to have too. So was it kind of like a work hard, play hard situation or had things calmed down at that point? No, it was, yeah, work hard, play hard.

But, you know, there was definitely no partying before games. There wasn't a lot of partying. You know, after we'd win a series, they'd party, you know, they were, there was definitely no partying before games. There wasn't a lot of partying. You know, after we'd win a series, they'd party, you know, one night and then pretty serious back to work. And I think that's why nobody beat us. I think we only lost two games that whole playoff. But those guys were, I mean, when you came down into that dressing room and that rink for practice it was uh it was it was pretty intense that's for sure i mean practices you know that's where i

learned a lot for for me from i coached a couple years in the dc junior and i think that i learned so much from so many great coaches but practicing there was just all flow, and the flow was like high, high speed. All right. So it's pretty incredible. Congrats on the Stanley Cup, by the way. Yeah, I didn't even know you won a cup. Yeah, pretty lucky. Hey, kind of funny how that comes around, eh?

You're cutting Wayne's grass, and all of a sudden you're joking around with Benjamin about cutting fucking Wayne's grass and all of a sudden you're joking around with Bergeron about cutting fucking Wayne's, or sorry, Mario's. Yeah, exactly. All right, so I'm curious. 90-91, you get traded over to Vancouver and you go and have a great run there.

And I have a bunch of questions about the 94 finals. But right away, did you see that that Vancouver team was set up to compete because they made the playoffs every year you were there uh obviously you know you made at least the second round most of those years so was that a shock when you got traded or were you more excited to go back home uh I was I was I was not really shocked because I knew St. Louis were trying to get it if they thought we were first overall so they were trying to get a defenseman and I know I had heard that they were talking to a bunch of different teams I didn't know

who but I was I was shocked that they had made the trade they did you know four guys off the team for one and and well Quinn was in sort of included but Butcher was the guy they traded us all for and so when we got to Vancouver I think it was just so many different pieces to what they had there that we brought so much that the team I think when we got there the team was definitely out of the playoffs and they were down and we just went on quite a run and just got into the playoffs in the last game. And then from there, the team just got better and better. And then we got Bure, which was unbelievable.

And I think that that was pretty fun and exciting to play with him. Oh, I was asked to ask you about some Gino Ojek and Pavel Bure stories. Yeah, Gino's probably, I mean, I got tons of Gino stories, but Gino is like, he's the most, he's probably the best teammate I ever played for, played with that knew his role and really knew how to protect star players. And, you know, I think that obviously in the old days, you know,

before every game or at opening face-off or whatever, guys would tell us they were going to kill us and do this and do that to try to slow you down. And Geno knew how to go and basically tell their other players, hey, listen, if they touch Bure or whoever, I'm going to come after you all night. And so we were given lots of room playing with Gino, and, you know, he was a lot of fun.

I mean, I'm sure we had lots of interesting stories of jokes that were played with Gino where I'm sure he wanted to kill me a few times, but he didn't. But Pablo and I took him for sushi. First time he'd ever been to sushi in San Francisco. The first tray comes out and I go, Chief, try this green stuff.

It's unbelievable. So he grabbed the whole ball and put it in his mouth. He ran into the back of the frigging kitchen and he grabbed a jug of water. He came out and his face was like beet red and he's yelling at me going I'm gonna kill you tomorrow at practice I can't believe you told me to eat that

stuff so yeah Gino was and I used to cut his sticks the old wood sticks they had the deckle on him down at the bottom I used to cut him about three quarters of the way through and then he'd go out and they'd snap off at practice and then he chased me around so oh god we I was the last one of the last guy to use wood sticks and he would he did that to me

under 18 world championships yeah that's not the humble i did it to gino yeah so you know that one did it to – we had a skills competition in Vancouver, so I cut both Gino's sticks of the deckle. So he was in the hardest shot, so he skates up to the puck to take a slap shot, and the blade falls off. The puck didn't move. He came back, grabbed his other one, flexed it, goes out there again. There's 10,000 people there.

He skates up to it to take another shot. The blade falls off. He comes back to the bench and he goes glinner give me your stick well i'd cut his stick too so he grabs his stick flexes it skates up and goes to take a shot three tries the puck never moved he came back he freaking chased me around the dressing room for like half an hour trying to kill me and i was laughing so hard he couldn't catch me but it was pretty funny. Three in a row. How did you know he was going to go to the other guy's stick?

Well, Glynda was taking the shots too, so he was next. And then he grabbed his stick that I had cut, so it was pretty funny. So what about Buray when he showed up? Did he have like a Russian mafia crew with him? He's got some presence to him even off the with him he's just uh he's got some presence to him even off the ice you can just tell he's someone even when he's not in his gear yeah he uh no he when he showed up here he already spoke a word of english i got him his apartment i set up his cable his phone i set up his bank account i set up everything for him because he didn't

hardly speak but he learned really quick and he was just an amazing teammate great guy like i mean he used to get me to he thought it was so great when i would goof around and play tricks on guys he was always coming to me in the morning going okay yeah you got to get this guy you got to get that guy and then he'd laugh would he uh would he be in the clear oh yeah no yeah i didn't i didn't do anything to him because i wanted him all i wanted him to do was score 60 that's all him him and gino were pretty tight were they not like the genome basically everywhere yeah they were they were roommates on the road they were inseparable gino basically was with Pavel all the time, and they became great friends. But whenever a new Russian kid would come over, like, we had three rookies

and they didn't speak a word of English. So, like, he basically would always get me going on those guys. So we had lots of fun with those guys. Oh, go ahead, Whit. No, I was just going to ask. I was going to tell you, the 94 series i was 11 and that was when i really remember becoming completely obsessed with hockey that series was so entertaining unfortunately i hate to admit i'm sorry i was rooting for the rangers which is kind of pathetic but i love brian leach but i i had to ask you about one thing. I remember this as clear as night, or as clear as day.

I don't know, Bruno. I fixed that. Game six. Game six, you guys were up late in the game, and you scored a goal. They didn't know it went in, and then the Rangers went back down and scored, but it ended up going in. Can you take me through that? Because that pretty much put it away and forced the game seven, right?

Yeah. So the score at the time, I think, was 3-1 for us. And I got a breakaway, scored, and I saw it hit the back bar, and it came right out and went the other way. It was a great picture in Sports Illustrated, actually. It was a great picture in Sports Illustrated, actually. And Messier set up, I think, Glenn Anderson, or he scored, one of the two. And then they blew the horn and reviewed it,

and they saw that it had gone in when I scored, so it made it 4-1. And, yeah, that game six was insane. I mean, the whole city of Vancouver were going absolutely crazy. I can remember driving downtown to eat after the game, and there was people everywhere waving the white flags and the Canucks jerseys and everything. And when I got home that night, I lived out in White Rock, and there was like 150 people in my driveway. It was like insane.

But, anyway, game seven, it's kind of an interesting series is that, you know what, it took us until game three to realize that the team was Brian Leach. He was so sick. I told everybody. Oh, he was sick. He would basically set up everything. You know, he was the power play. He scored. He set up set up everything. He was the power play.

He scored. He set up all the goals. And it's funny because after game three, I said to the guys, listen, we have to start making it really hard on him. And then that was when we started really aggressively hitting him whenever we could to try to wear him down. But I think, you know, if we had one more period in game seven we definitely would have beat them because we were lafayette hit the post with like a i don't know

two minutes left and we were coming on strong but uh they uh it was it was a great series and uh i i would have been nice to win that one another crazy playoff story we kind of passed over was when you knocked out the goalie in L.A. Yeah, I'll give you the true story, which is the first time I've ever told it. Breaking news, Grinelli, put the horn in. Yeah, and so what happened was in St. Louis, we beat them in the first game. I think Facette was in goal.

I can't remember in the first game. I think Facette was in goal. I can't remember who the starter was. But anyway, they put Storin in game two in the third period, and he shut us out. And then in game three in L.A., in the first and second periods, he shut us out again. So after the second period, you've got to remember, like you said, where I came from in the early days goalie was definitely in play and uh guys I played with in Boston and Dale Hunter in Washington you know our rule was

in the playoffs a goalie's never going to beat you and so I said to Hully I said shoot it close to him and he goes what do you mean I said just bounce it off the board so he's got to come out and play it and i'll hit him and he goes no he goes serious and i said yeah and he goes really i said yep so he got the puck at center and he shot it just to the end of the right corner goalie came out to block me but i was going full speed and i hit him and he hit his head on the crossbar and was kind of down and out and then their whole team basically dog piled me and they got we we had a five on three we scored and right away made it three one scored again to make it three two then I when I got I got two minutes when I got out of the box I set up Dimitri he tied tied it up 3-3, and then we beat them. And I can remember that, well, my mom was there,

and my brother was on the L.A. team, and my mom was giving me heck after the game going, I can't believe you did that. That's so bad. I was sitting with that guy's wife in the wives' room before that happened. And then Russ was pissed off at me because obviously all the guys on his team were going, what the hell was that? Oh, my God.

Did anyone go after you later in the series? No. No, that was it. I got beat up like frigging broken ribs and you name it. I had everything. They beat the crap out of me there behind the net. But, yeah, no, that was – and the best was Bergie and I were standing in the hallway when – I can't remember who it was, Rob Blake or one of the other guys walked by

and said, that's fucking brutal. And my brother walked by and said that too. And Bergie goes, you can't teach that. Oh, fuck. that oh fuck hey did like he said it back where they could hear it oh yeah he said it right back to them oh for fuck bergy's just one of a kind man um what's the corvette story who bought the new corvette you mean you messed with them oh oh j Jose Charbonneau in Vancouver, and we tortured that guy too. Yeah, and so we basically jacked his Corvette up on blocks and then another time had it towed back to his house while practice was on. But the funny thing was when you towed – or sorry, when you put it up on blocks,

you only did it so it was like half an inch. So when he was trying to accelerate, his tires kept spinning, and he couldn't figure out why his car wouldn't move. Exactly. Put it in drive, nothing. Put it in reverse, nothing. We were all sitting in the parking lot watching, like laughing our asses off. Okay, so you were pretty good with the car pranks.

Tell me the one about the Suburban, too. Somebody was bragging about their suburban this one's fucking unbelievable oh shit well that guy wasn't a player he was a friend and he and he fucked with my truck at a golf tournament and i said that is not a good idea so he had a brand new denali uh whatever yukon i don't know what they were called back then so I went to my buddy's tire store and I got a whole bunch of the weights and I put them on the inside of one of his tires and so this truck's brand new he's driving it home on the highway at 60 and he thought the steering wheel was going to come off so he basically took it into the dealership and they couldn't figure

out what was wrong with it because obviously uh it took a while for them to figure it out but he thought he was gonna have to get a new truck oh oh he didn't trade it in oh yeah he traded it in oh oh wait before he figured out what was wrong with it yeah no no no no there's something wrong with it. It's like brand new. You got to give me a new one. And then I – oh, the same guy. I just got that guy again a couple years ago, which was pretty good. All the tears.

Odd. We went duck hunting to this duck club, and after we were all duck hunting, his cowboy boots were sitting in his room. Like they have the – in St. Louis, they have these huge duck clubs. So there was a dead mouse laying there, so I put it in his cowboy boots were sitting in his chain in his room like they have the in st louis they have these huge duck clubs so there was a dead mouse laying there so i put it in his cowboy boot well he just finished building a brand new house and i guess he didn't put his boots on and i did so i didn't know and so he told his brother that he did something to me again at the duck club i can't remember and he told his brother he goes oh i got cordon all again and he goes oh yeah what what and so my buddy said to him oh yeah what's what's going on and he told him and i can't

remember what he did but nothing major so about two days later he comes into his office he goes oh my god he goes i i put all my house must be infested with mice i put my cowboy boots on and there's something in the end of my cowboy boot i took my boot off and I had blood all over my foot. So I was walking around on the carpet. I got to get new carpet in my master bedroom. I got the fumigators coming. He goes, there must be some mice or something that got in the house. And my buddy goes to him, oh, Cortino got you. Someone did that to me. Dead mouse in the shoe must be an old school trick a couple of the best ones i heard though were on on callahan o'connor one of my best friends his old man used to pull some ruthless ones on to the point where you almost gave him a couple

heart attacks yeah it's his wife's fault because she kept she kept playing tricks on me in Victoria when I moved home because I lived two doors down from them so the one year she did something and uh we watched for two weekends her husband Benj he was setting up all these Christmas lights a Santa reindeer this whole big thing and it was a Saturday night and we were driving to a hockey game. Both my kids were on the same team. I saw them. He was in a tux, and she was in an evening gown. Basically, I knew they were going out for the evening. On the way back, I brought three more guys on my team,

and we went to their house, and we took every Christmas light off his house, all his extension cords down. We took the Santa, the reindeer, everything everything and we set it up at my house and so he brought all these people home from the event to see his his house with all the christmas decorations and when they pulled up it was pitch black and so all these people that showed up they're going well i thought you said you had all these christmas decorations so he called the cops and the cops came to my house and they said uh excuse me uh some neighbors down the street said that you stole all their Christmas lights. And I said, what are you talking about? We were watching a movie. And the guy goes, well, come out here and look. And I go, oh, this is crazy. There was an extension cord coming out of my garage out to the

front to the Santa and the reindeer and the lights were all over my front gate. And I said, oh, someone's screwing around. is crazy that's not my stuff and so the cop left and benji and karen came around the corner of my driveway and i said payback's a bitch and hey and then the worst one to me was the boat one when cal yeah that was cal hit a little bit of a reef coming back in and like they were gonna have to get it fixed or or or just it just bumped it to where like they maybe thought there was a lot of damage so my brother was having a dinner party and there was like i don't even know how many people were there but probably 40 and so i

called his house and i pretended that i was the uh harbor master in victoria and I said yeah is this the owners of the Irish Times or whatever their boat was called I said and she goes yes it is and and but my parents aren't home I said well you better get them right away because their boat's sinking so she went over to Russ's house opened the front door and started screaming going mom dad the harbormaster just called and the boat's sinking. So Ben automatically thought for sure the boat was sinking. So he called the Coast Guard, the police, the harbormaster. He called everyone that he could think of, and they had the Coast Guard there with the pumper boat. They had everything there by the time.

He was driving 60 miles an hour downtown Victoria. He got there. There was nothing on the boat. That was the one where he almost had a heart attack. His sister came in crying. And this guy was just on the phone in the other room calling in the prank. And then she runs over to the dinner party and he's just licking his chops, laughing at this while Benji's about to have a jammer.

My brother called me later. He goes, you ended my dinner party. Everyone left because friggin' Ben was so freaked out. Oh my god. Hey, it's gotta be stressful. You're one of those guys that you always gotta be on your toes. You have people gunning for you too.

Yeah, exactly. You just gotta get them first. I guess that's the way you live. Yeah. Do you still, I'm curious. Do you still skate at all? I always wonder about when guys retire. No.

Me neither. I skate twice a year, the Gretzky Fantasy Camp, which they didn't have it last year, and he probably won't have it again. And the hockey from the home of – How much do you pay to attend that? How much do you pay to attend the Gretzky Hockey Camp? No, he cuts his grass extra. I'm serious.

No, no. Yeah, it's not cheap, but that was always a great time. What else are you up to now? Like what's on the – are you working? Yeah, I'm working. I have a mining company in Peru that i've been doing for eight years we've got a gold mine there and we just started production so i'm busy doing that and then i'm involved in lots of real estate on vancouver island well that should be doing well for you well

we uh we don't want to take too much more of your time that was uh that was unbelievable i'm sure a lot of our fans are going to appreciate those old pranks on the guys. And, yeah, especially some of those legends. And next time we have you on, you can tell us some more about Cliff Ronning because apparently you had some good ones on Cliff Ronning. And even during that 94 cup run, you were still pranking him in playoffs. Oh, yeah. No, I knew how to. Cliffie was my roommate, so I tortured that poor guy.

But it made him better. Give us one quick Cliffy one before you take off, just to give the fans a little taste. Okay, so we're – basically, Cliffy can never have any black tape anywhere in his stall, on his stick, anywhere. It's like he's allergic to black tape, so he only used white tape. So after a game where we're going into overtime, I put a whole stack of black tape, so he only used white tape. So after a game we were going into overtime, I put a whole stack of black tape in his stall,

and he came back to his stall, and he went absolutely ballistic, and he was throwing the tape at me going, you're a fucking asshole, I can't fucking believe this. And I said, well, just fucking get out there and do something. And he scored the winner in overtime. Oh, unbelievable. That's how to get a guy to go home, just straight towards it. Yeah, but Cliffy, he didn't like the number 13,

so he wouldn't do anything. Cliffy was the most superstitious guy I ever played with. When did you spray paint his parking spot? Yeah, that was in the playoffs too. So that story is like before every game, there was a parking lot for the owners and

the coaches' wives. And it was right next to our door where the dressing room was. So before the game all the time, this guy would come in and go, who's parked in the stall up there in Pat Quinn's wife's parking spot? They got to move their car.

So one day I was in my sweat stall. I said to the guy, show me the frigging car. So I went up there with him and I saw it was Cliffy's car. And I said, I'll fix it tomorrow. And he goes, really? And I said, yeah. And what it was is it was stall number seven. So he was unsuperstitious that he had to park in this stall,

and he wasn't telling anyone because he said every time he parked there, he scored. So I painted – I got the guy from the P&E to paint the stall number 13, and he almost blew his transmission the first time he pulled in there and never parked there again. Oh, my. Hey, well, listen, we thank you for those stories. And I bet you some of our old school listeners are going to like those ones

because they can relate to all you old geezers. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, awesome. Thanks again for coming on. Okay, you guys take care. Thanks for having me on. Talk to you later.

Anytime. Anytime. That interview was brought to you by Fuego Box. Very good news for all you listeners. Barstool has teamed up with our favorite hot sauce company, Fuego Box, just in time for the holidays. Everyone's done all the standard gift items. Clothes, cologne, a nice bottle of liquor, done, done, done. We don't need that stuff.

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I love the different personalities that come on here. Have we had any other pranksters other than JR? Who was another prankster? Oh, Donor was a bit of a prankster. I was not a prankster when I played. Were you? Oh, Flurry. We did have Marc-Andre Flurry on. He's a prankster. He's the ultimate when a prankster when I played were you oh flurry we did have

the ultimate when he shoe checked my dad uh I think that I I mean I like to prank but I I was getting pranked a lot early and then I started being like dude if I prank you get pranked back and I know it's such a vicious cycle I got enough going on up in my head yeah like I would be like nervous for a game or nervous that my teammate was going to retire and then say I partied too much and, or, and then all of a sudden, like, you know, I'd be getting like a fucking, my hotel room put in the hallway. So, uh, do you guys remember when I made the year I made the team and we had that lunch in and then you guys sewed my one pant leg. So I looked, so like one side was like a short and one side was a pant and then they

stitched my uh my car keys into my pockets like so i couldn't get my hand in my pocket so i had to like bum a ride to wherever the luncheon was and i showed up and obviously scuderi's fucking loving life and and and mac andre he's like oh what happened and it was probably that motherfucker um me and malone like uh sewed LeTang's pants shut like before Christmas break or something. He was losing his mind. Hey, you guys prank LeTang a lot.

I'm nervous about there being like a hit piece coming out on you guys. If LeTang hates my guts, like I don't blame him, but I think actually if we ran into each other, it'd be friendly, but there was a while he was like,

I hate your guts. Yeah, you weren't vicious to him. We're not talking like stuff that's going to get you in trouble on the road. No, once I started realizing how nasty he was going to be, I was like, oh, this kid's going to be incredible. I can't against him. He was going to get you your next contract. He was like your next-

He's going to be the main reason you get traded. You might want to stop pranking him. Didn't you guys nail his Prada shoes to the floor, too? I don't know. There was a lot of stuff going on. A lot of stuff back then. His fault for buying Prada shoes? Biz is pulling out his chest hair. shoes to the floor too. I don't know. There was a lot of stuff going on. A lot of stuff back then. His fault for buying product shoes. Pulling out his chest hair.

We have this on camera. No, I'm combing it. Weirdest thing already. I can see he's making faces at me. Yeah, I can see it. Okay, so there's one thing I want to talk about and I got in a discussion with a few of my buddies who work at the NHL.

And we were talking about the next CBA, and because the owners have gotten what they've wanted the last three CBAs, now it's kind of turned its course where now it's going to be the players demanding something in order to get a deal done. Oh, yeah. What are they going to get, though? Right. But what they want is I think they're going to want olympics and that's been talked about and i might get ridiculed by players about this i'm on the nhl side about not letting players go because fuck the ioc you know how much money they're making off nhl players to go play in the

olympics it's 100 100 the highest grossing sport at the Winter Olympics. There's not even a question. Right? Are we all in agreement? Yeah. Yeah, I mean... NHL doesn't see a dollar from that. They're not even allowed to use the fucking footage from it.

That's fucking bullshit. I remember that being an issue. TJ Oshie goes and scores that goal, and then afterward, he's like, he's like, you're an American hero he goes, no, the people in Camorra are a hero fucking, what a legend if I was American I would beat off to that quote, bald eagles

fuck, I would get them tattooed on my nuts fucking, whatever 4th of July shit, you guys get the point and I'm saying is, if the IOC would buck up and say hey, this is what type of revenue we're going to make off the players let's get a 50 50 split here or something where where owners from the league got a share in that why because your players are going over there and risking you know

what if they get hurt what if you have two star players players in the Olympics, you're making a playoff push, all of a sudden those guys get hurt over there, and now you don't make the playoffs, and now you're not going to see that playoff revenue because you agree that they can go play in the Olympics to quote-unquote grow the game? Oh, really? If the IOC was so down with growing the fucking game, they'd let you use the clips on the NHL network to grow the game. So stop using that excuse. Let's find a number that's going to satisfy everyone.

Because let's say, for instance, let's say Ovechkin goes in place for Russia and gets hurt, and now he can't make that run last year with the Washington Capitals. At least that team has been compensated financially for the playoff games they might have missed because they either didn't make the playoffs or they didn't make a run as far as they could have. Am I wrong here?

No. No, go ahead, R.A. I'd say the IOC is basically a gangster organization anyways. They shake down everybody. They basically hustle everyone. They're not an institution with a lot of morals. They don't give a fuck about the nhl or nhl ratings or whatever they just want to make whatever money they can get everybody their bribes in fucking pillager city and then uh 10 years after the olympics all

the things they built for the olympics are still standing there unused so the ioc is a pack of dirt bags you can't really trust them at all they don't care about the nhl they're gonna do what's best for the ioc not the nhl uh having said that, yeah, I would prefer to have the Olympics because it's a great treat to have. Absolutely. I want them so bad. Yeah. I mean, the owners deserve... Well, there has to be something to do with the TV rights. You have to figure out the highlights. That's the first thing. You can't have them go if you can't use the highlights. That's true. But it's just so much bigger than all the money

and all that stuff you're talking about. It's just how great it is when players are in the Olympics. It's the best part of the season and it's also the best part of the season for the guys who aren't going because they get 10 days off. This is a win-win for players and if owners are wanting more money fuck, give the players some of the money.

It's a huge issue because I think it is incredible for hockey, but I do understand the injury part because if you lose a guy like Tavares, knees fucked up, boom, you're furious. But still, it's just so great for the fans. Well, regarding that, another one's going to be they're going to have to lower the escrow number and set a price. Players don't want to pay, I think, what they got it listed at now, over 10%. And what escrow is, for those asking, it's basically taken out of the player's money.

At the end of the year, they figured out what they paid in what age? It's called hockey-related revenue. Hockey-related revenue, whatever, formula, blah, blah, blah. And then whatever that the the owners lost from that, they take out of the players' money, and then let's say there's 3% or 4% left over, then the players get that money back. Well, a sneaky way of hiding that and those numbers for some teams

is some teams would leverage concert tickets and suite tickets for concerts with Toronto Maple Leafs tickets or Chicago Blackhawks tickets and then they would work out like alcohol deals where it was getting paid through a different filter so money being spent at games wasn't actually going into the kitty so I mean these owners are smart people they're business guys they know how to hide money they got good good financial guys so that that's another thing where they they want to hammer a number down say hey we're not going above five percent or not above four percent so yeah should the players get paid from the whole olympic experience sure but it would be

maybe they could work it out where it comes back in hrr gee gee it's so convoluted man you feel like you need to smoke a joint after to relax your brain and speaking of uh our next guest is probably the perfect guy to talk about such a situation uh riley cote he come on to talk about uh cannabis and cbd oil and all the cannabinoids and and all that particular stuff he's an ex-player who's been uh he's been beating this drum for a while and he's been having some success for it he just won an award from the cannabis business cannabis business awards he won an award from that place. So let's send it over to Riley Cote right now. This interview is brought to you by Omaha Steaks.

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Order today. Guys, that's fucking pretty good value. $49.99 for $195 worth of meat. Great value and also great reading. And now we'd like to bring on to the show a guy who was famous for a few years for punching faces for the Philadelphia Flyers from 2007 to 2010. And now he advocates for the use of CBD oil and hemp-based products for players in their post-career. I'd like to welcome to the show Riley Cote.

Riley, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me. Absolutely, our pleasure. So I see you have a pretty big presence on Twitter about the hemp and hemp-related products. Tell us exactly what you're into and what you're doing and what your purpose is these days. Yeah, for sure. I guess, if that dates back,

when I retired in 2010, I kind of had an awakening. I came to the crossroads of my career and my path and retired. And I kind of took on this different way of living and started cutting out shit that was destructive to my health and know, my health and my wellbeing. And I started incorporating more,

you know, natural, um, um, and then plant-based type of foods and herbs. And, um, I really started to discover the nutritional profile of the hemp seed and

started understanding the non-psychoactive cannabinoids and healing properties and became passionate about all that. And really kind of saw myself entering this space, not only from an advocacy standpoint, but in a business standpoint. So I just kind of educated myself and created a foundation back then called the Hempfield Foundation. And actually, my advocacy efforts have evolved into the sports side of things, where I helped co-found an organization called Athletes for Care, really kind of normalizing cannabinoids through sports and using the platform to really show the value on the recovery side of things,

CBD specifically. But, I mean, THC is also a healing compound as well, and you talked about a positive attitude. So, eventually, my advocacy efforts kind of transitioned into the business world and growing hemp and processing it for CBD and fiber and a whole bit. And then, you know, just trying to get in on the dispensing side of things, on the medical side of things in Pennsylvania too. So I just really believe in the plant and what it can do for not only just,

you know, the healing component for the individual, but what it can do outside of that as far as local economics and for the environment. So I dragged on on that one, but that's kind of the long and short of it. I'd say a lot of our listeners are probably familiar with cannabis and or THC, but what's the most misunderstood thing about hemp? I think people hear that and they think like 1960s hippies or something, but what's the most understood thing about hemp? Well, hemp has to be grown below 0.3% THC to be legally deemed hemp. So, you know, the THC amount is insignificant as far as creating a high. So everyone's kind of concerned about that.

And, you know, that's kind of the stigma against cannabis as a whole is that, you know, it's psychoactive. So it basically equates to non-psychoactive cannabinoids. So you get the anti-inflammatory properties, you know, you get the anti-anxiety, promotes sleep, neuroprotectants, the whole bit. But again, without the psycho activity and um and all healing benefits so it's it's um you know it's interesting it's uh the laws are are wacky and people have kind of found ways you know in between the laws to kind of uh you know dissect the cannabis plant

and you know most of the healing properties lie within you you know, the CBD and the minor cannabinoids and not the THC. I mean, THC is important for certain things, but, you know, on the spiritual and the adult use side of things. But as far as, you know, on the healing and the medicinal therapeutic side, I think the CBD is, you know, one of the most important compounds. Well, Ryze, besides all the things that you described and how beneficial I believe that it could be for athletes, I got to ask you that, you know, you've been pretty vocal about this

for at least two, three years now. Was Philadelphia a little weird about that when you were part of the organization? I know you were a coach during the time where you became an advocate. Was there any conversation there considering, you people's some people's outlook on it uh yeah i think there eventually was i mean i actually started speaking publicly about this in the 2010 i really kind of walked on the line of talking about him from a nutritional standpoint they're really not talking about you know just talking about the industrial components and the building materials and the fuel, the biomass and the whole bit.

But eventually, I just couldn't hold it back any longer. I mean, I've been consuming cannabis my whole life. And it's just like within me, I just had to come out and say something. I mean, it's just like I'd be a fool not to acknowledge the other side of cannabis and be honest with it. So I think a lot of guys are like, what the hell are you doing, Ralph? You're sacrificing your corporate sports job and all this shit. Eventually, I just had to.

You know what I mean? I just believe in it so much that I just know that it's not a negative thing. It's a positive thing. I speak about it in a positive manner, and it just needs to be talked about more and people can be enlightened. You know what I mean? We're just kind of conditioned to think that this is poison and it's bad for us.

And you know what I mean? And meanwhile, we're sucking back darts and those corn sows and all this other shit. And we just like, you want to talk about public health? It's like, we just need to kind of shift our philosophy. And when we talk about, you know, Mother Nature, really, it's simple.

Well, I think people on the other side of the argument are going to be on the wrong side eventually, and they're going to know that. Now, based on maybe some of the pushback that you were feeling from the organization, is that maybe what ultimately led to you not coaching for the organization anymore? Well, yeah. I mean, so the simplest way I can explain it is like, I've been vocal for some time.

They all knew I was speaking about it, but eventually I actually got, I got the platform at one of their annual alumni meetings before the golf tournament, before the golf tournament. And I actually presented with, well, Anna being my business partner, but also Lindy Schneider, who's the daughter of Ed Schneider, who owned the Flyers and founded the Flyers back in the 70s. And we basically got in front of 45 alumni and presented Cannabis 101,

just kind of like separating industrial hemp versus medical cannabis, you know, talking about the state laws in Pennsylvania versus New Jersey, because that's where most of the guys live. And just kind of laying it out there and just kind of being honest with the conversation about guys. You're all in pain. You all got anxiety. You all got sleep issues.

You all got something going on that cannabis or hemp-based products can help you with. So I actually gave them all samples, CBD samples that night. Probably half of them consumed them and tried them out. But the next morning, I had at least seven or eight guys come up to me and said, you know probably half of them consumed them and tried them out but the next morning i had like at least seven or eight guys come up to me and said you know i slept better you know my joints feel better but just general well-being is still better and i was like fuck it man it's like this is it like you know like this is exactly what i'm trying to accomplish

and it's uh you know and with no and with no negative side effects, mind you. Yeah, exactly. Just general well-being and just sustainable wellness. And then the next day, actually, Hexy called me up and we had a conversation for 25 seconds long. It was just like, you know, he never specifically said. He's like, you know, we've changed our minds on this direction this year and we're going to go a different direction. I said, well, what's changed

since the last time I talked to you? He said, three weeks ago. He's like, you know, you're just kind of like humping hard. He said, we're heading in a different direction. So I was like,

after seven years of coaching or whatever, you know what I mean? It's like, I think they're just, I land up being a liability. I see it. I put myself out there. I do what I was doing. You know what I mean?

I just believe in it so much. I just feel like we're failing our guys and our players if we can't even talk about honest ways to recover when we're swinging opioids and sleeping pills and the rest of this shit around. It's just like... It's kind of amazing. I don't mean to interrupt you, sorry, but it's kind of amazing

how when you're maybe getting fired or let go for the right reasons, how little you give a shit. Yeah, exactly. I'm doing the right thing right now. I don't mind if I go down swinging because eventually you're going to probably come up to me and say, fuck fuck dude, was I wrong about that one? And I didn't want to jump in and ask you a question. I just figured I should chime in on the end.

No, I, uh, so I, the first time we ever played against each other was a Oh four Oh five. It was the year the entire season was canceled. And, and you, you know, you ended up becoming a Calder Calder cup champ with the Philly phantoms. But, but in looking at your hockey DB and kind of looking back into the, the player you were, I never even realized, you know, you left, you played four years in Prince Albert, the WHL. And that first rookie year, you're not only, you know, you,

you weren't in the AHL, you weren't even in the coast. You spent the whole year pretty much in the CHL, the central hockey league for people who don't know, the Memphis River Kings, 241 penalty minutes. So you were pretty much aware that, listen, I'm going to make it to the NHL by fighting. Is that kind of how you went into it? Yeah, that's exactly it.

I mean, I wasn't drafted. And, you know, a couple of years in Prince Albert, I put up some, like, you know, decent years in Prince Albert down where I put up some like you know a decent number and I got things I knew I was I was never I was never gonna put you know I never was never gonna make it as a goal scorer and I just kind of you know I was competitive guy and I said you know like at least I knew I could teach myself to like you know just to fight and just be all in and take on this role and you know create this new identity and that was that was kind of like my I just just what it kind of consumed me.

And that was the only thing I knew. Just like to work hard, get after it and be physical and get in your face. It was just like the same role in every league. Down in the central hockey league, it's just like, what the hell?

Freaks of nature coming out of the woodwork. You know, just like two stops, two fours. Freaks of like, you know, it's just like, what the hell? These freaks are coming out of the woodwork, you know, just like two stops, two fours, like freaks. I was like, you know, it was really just, I was like, what the hell did I sign up for? But, you know, at least I was able to find my way out of that mess. And, you know, eventually doing it in a different league, but it was a grind, no question.

And the crazy thing is, and I don't know if you know the answer to this, I'm kind of just like spitballing here, but I can't imagine that many guys who played, you know, basically a full season in the Central Hockey League ended up playing over 150 NHL games. And I don't know if you know of any, but I'm guessing that you're one of Schlemko. Schlemko played in the city as well? Schlemko played in

a city that was right on the border with Mexico, man. Schlemko came from Sicario. Not many people get that joke, Whit. That's an RA joke because it was a movie, wasn't it? Yeah, it was.

Sorry, Raul. Sorry to cut you off there. No, you're good. So, yeah, so like Wits just said, you're another guy. We've had a couple guys on who were never drafted. They managed to fight their way into the show. And, you know, you had some nice scraps for yourself. Pura, I was just looking at

hockeyfights.com. 65 NHL fights and 156 NHL games. Hey, look, average 2.63 penalty minutes per game. That's a pretty nice average. Who's the toughest guy you fought in all your NHL scraps, Riley? Jesus, there's so many of them. But, I mean between Donald Bashir kicked my ass pretty good one time

and George LaRock Colton O'Hara there's gotta be at least you know 70 super legit guys

but everyone's dangerous but it was never an easy night it was certainly a challenge I mean

actually the first couple years fighting, I kind of really enjoyed it. It took a role. It just, like, events me when it's like, especially when, you know, they played my first year and then each other was like, holy shit, I got to go do this again next year. You know what I mean?

It was just like, what the hell did I sign up for? That's amazing that you say that because when basically I switched from being a defenseman to a forward, I knew that that was now going? I signed up for it. That's amazing that you say that because when basically I switched from being a defenseman to a forward, I knew that that was now going to have to be my role. And I would say in the first half of the season, there was such a rush to doing it a lot for the first time. And the amount of praise that you would receive from your teammates

kind of made me really want to do it. But halfway through that first year, I think I ended up fighting like 30 times that season. I was like, fuck man, I have to keep doing this. So it's all of a sudden that you're, you're doing that now there's no going back.

And, and I mean, fuck you had 65 fights in your NHL career. What's even crazier to me is to think that Ty Domi, who leads the NHL and he has the NHL record I think he fought fucking what was it 133 times I think that's the NHL record

maybe it might even be 333 times that's just the NHL and doesn't include preseason games either like you know it doesn't include juniors no that's regular season man like fuck and and we're at first you said you were okay and you embraced it did it eventually

get to a point you're like i fucking hate putting this mask on every night oh yeah yeah yeah it definitely got to that i think you know when i first started doing it i had some success like early like you know central hockey league i was just young, full-piston very year. Won a championship and had a little momentum. Went to the East Coast League. I actually had a shitty year there, but the following year was the lockout year. I went from

signing four PTOs to winning a Calder Cup championship. I was just riding this momentum. Eventually, after my first year in the NHL, the momentum was kind of like well you know I was uh I was playing less and and it had a couple injuries and it was just like that and it was just like you know having to prepare to fight the same old dudes and it was just like you know I mean it was just like eventually it was just like I felt like I kind of like got to where I needed to mentally like you know I played in the NHL I

fought the toughest dudes and i great like fear but then it was like it was hard mentally to sustain that that like i don't even know that that that emotional high like it's like this comic state of anxiety almost like as you know man it's like it's yeah it's bad it's just like it's it's bad you know what i mean like performance anxiety and it's like am I gonna even play anxiety am I gonna fight the toughest dude

in the league anxiety and it's like holy shit it's like you build up and it's just like you amp yourself up for this anxiety

you know what I mean it's a wild thing and before I pass over Whit I just wanna chime in there I still enjoy the fighting naturally like if it happens

where two guys are going at it in front of the net and it happens, it's, it's like the more of the thinking about it before fucking pregame nap and all that shit that just adds up and the anxiety and that just builds and it builds and it builds. You can't just, you can't wait for the fucking off season. So sorry about that, buddy. I just want to know.

No, no, no. Uh, coach, I was just curious. Um, kind of a two part question. The first part being, how is your head now in terms of the post-concussion type things? Do you notice any issues like that or are things pretty good? And I know for a fact that CBD stuff can help, but I'm just curious, now where you're living, how do you feel health-wise? Yeah, so I mean, I feel unbelievable. It's honestly the best thing I've ever felt. That's awesome. And I really attribute to my CBUs. And that was one of the big things is like when I retired and started discovering non-psychological antibodies like CBD and learning about them and learning about, you know, this prohibition and learning about, you know, the U.S. government holding a patent on cannabinoids as a neuroprotectant and antioxidant or it's like

kind of like it started all making sense to me i started making sense of it like this is you know this is you know a real healing tool but high anti-inflammatory only protect the brain um you know promote neurogenesis and as i learned more like the Israeli army has been using it for 25 years for any sort of you know brain trauma you know in war and all that stuff so it's like it's kind of like wow I'm like I have I have to be you know using this for my you know I basically kind of like mitigate my collateral damage but this like this has to be my mission it's kind of like mitigate my collateral damage. But this has to be my mission. It's kind of using cannabis to be the, not the solution, but a big part of the solution

for the concussion epidemic that we talk about. You know what I mean? Protecting a guy's brain. I mean, everyone wants to make the helmet thicker and all this nonsense. And it's like, we can protect the brain from the inside out. And it's been studied. There's research on this stuff.

So I'm obsessed with the brain now mainly because of you know me getting punched in the face for years and if you're in the central hockey league and discovering this because uh i was seeking something viable and sustainable because a lot of these humans guys are just dragged to the mud guys on valium and all those other garbage to treat the concussions that's you know that's not the way you know yeah that's, so that kind of goes into the second part, and I think I can guess where you're leaning, but it's more a question about where do you stand on how everything was approached in those years before we kind of realized what was going on?

And forget the 80s and the 90s. God, I'm talking even, you know, 05, 06, 06, 07. Those years when you were playing, you're fighting a lot. And, you know, the league pretty much did turn a blind eye. And some people say guys knew what they were getting involved with. And some people say, well, they were told they have to play if they're healthy. So are you upset looking back on how the league treated guys and how team doctors treated guys?

You know what? No, I'm not. And I don't think that they were equipped with the proper tools i mean you know i think we live in an archaic archaic times with you know medieval treatments in a sense where we'd rather you know prescribe a you know synthetic heroin than you know use use cannabis and you, we'd rather wash it down with alcohol than, you know, to endorse, you know, spring water or something like that. Like, we're so confused on our messaging with what we're trying to do.

Like, I'm more mad at, like, how we got it so wrong and why we're doing it, you know, how we're so far away from really truly doing the right thing. But as far as signing up for it, I mean, I knew what I was getting myself into. Yeah, I mean, I'm accountable. And that was kind of the thing I came up, you know, kind of figured out when I was retiring is like I was at a crossroads, you know, mentally, physically, you know, career-wise.

I was like, what the hell just happened? I was like, what am I trying to live my childhood dream of playing in the NHL? And I was coming to a halt. My physical body's broken down. Mentally kind of broken down. I had a like, what am I trying to live my childhood dream of playing NHL and I was coming to a halt. My physical body's broken down. Mentally kind of broken down. A concussion shit. I was like, where do I go with this? And it was just like this was it.

I mean, this was the path that made the most sense and... I think the smartest thing Bettman could do, especially with the amount of heat he takes, is implement all this stuff.

No-brainer for the league. Grinnell, our producer, actually wrote an article. You talked about it, right, Grinnell? Yeah, I just kind of wrote an article saying that, I think, kind of echoing a lot of the stuff Riley said and you know that he's been doing and you know basically that I'm just a a big fan of everything that he's been doing and Riles uh I now reflecting on the that NHL career uh I know we're kind of talking about a little bit of the dark side of it uh any fun fun stories you can share with us about the boys or you know any of your of your funny encounters maybe at rookie parties?

Oh, Jesus. Part two of the podcast coming up. Probably on the spot. There's so many of them. I mean, you know, one of the ones that sticks with me the most, and I don't want to sue anybody here, but we were out in preseason in Carolina late night at a hot dog stand rocking our suits.

And I'm going to have to throw him under the bus. My buddy, a good buddy here in Ashram. Oh, fuck. Guys behind us, lipping off to probably his girlfriend or some other girl. Wrong door, buddy. Oh, yeah. Next thing you know, I look over.

The guy's in a puddle. Ash pinned him down in a suit in a puddle swinging. And then all of a sudden, the girls go crazy. We're calling the cops. You know, I think the other guy was with us, got a hot dog. We wound up running to a cab. The cops

come and escape somehow. And without any Wow, swept under the rug. Wow. Swept under the rug. Then we get back to the hotel and the coach is delivering a foot massage to Salim at 3 a.m. And our game was at 3 p.m. that day. And we rolled in and busted him,

giving a woman a massage right in the lobby and people, he busted us. And it was more of a, let's just keep quiet. Oh yeah. Hey, so is this a true story that, so we were playing you in Philly when I was with the Phoenix Coyotes and I

was like, oh shit, I got to fucking fight this guy tonight. Like pregame nap, dog shit, get to the rink. And then in warm-ups, I believe you were on the ice, but you weren't playing, thank God, because you torn like a rib muscle in warm-up. That did happen. That happened in Ottawa, actually so i was out

for it was uh the torn oblique i was out for like seven weeks with this goddamn thing right but i believe you yeah so then like towards the end of my rehab i was like trying to try to get back and if anybody's had a core injury i mean you know i don't bleed terror and ab terror core injury um hey but but you were out there for a while and i was shit i was like fuck he's he's back he's playing he's and then and i think up he came up to me he's like no no he's not playing he like tore his rib or something and i was like, oh, I thought you did it in warm-up. I was like, oh! Like a fucking

message. Did you two ever fight each other? Fuck no. No, we never did. You know what the best thing about playing the Phantoms was the fact that you had other tough guys so I could go after them

instead of you. They had a bunch of middleweights always. Yeah, fans always had stacked tough teams. I'm trying to think who was in a row. Was Grant around when you were in the Myers-Garrett? I think we played against each other in Pittsburgh, and you were with someone else there at the same time when we crossed paths with Goddard, maybe. I think it was.

Hey, what's even crazier is me and Gratz played on that same Calder Cup team when we won in Manchester. And we actually had another kid on our team named Scott Sabrin, who was a lefty. And he was probably fucking tougher than me and Gratz. That was our fourth line for part of the year. In the American League in 2015, teams wouldn't even touch our guys. That's insane, eh? It was nuts.

It was awesome. Yeah, I know. I'll never see that again. Ryan, you play with a fellow I'm a big fan of down in Philadelphia, Scott Hotnell. Oh, yeah. Word around the campfire that he's packing heat down about his knee. Can you

confirm or deny on that? On his knee? No, he's packing heat down about his knee. Can you confirm or deny on that? On his knee? No, he's packing heat. He's got a wrench down about his knee. He's saying he's got a big cock. The rumor on the street is he's got a big cock. We do a lot of cock talk on this show. Yeah. I mean,

I would say he's well hung. I mean, I played junior hockey with the guy. I played the Flyers with him. He's at my wedding party. I mean, I can well hung I mean I played junior hockey with the guy Played the Flyers with him He's at my wedding party I mean I can honestly say I've been around the dude since he was 16 So I mean he's He's definitely above average

You gotta give it to him A guy I would actually love to have on this podcast One time that doesn't get talked about And shitty way to kind of how his career ended, but you played with him is Mike Richards. Yeah. Can you kind of go in? Because I remember, I don't know, he joined your guys' team with Carter and you ended up winning the Calder Cup.

I just remember being like, this fucking kid, he's like Bobby Clark. He's like a young Bobby Clark. And I always heard he was a great teammate. What type of guy was he to play with? Because he doesn't really get mentioned as much as he should for the career he had. Yeah, you know what? I love Richie.

He's a good buddy of mine. I think he's just one of those dudes that just wants to play hockey and not deal with the rest of the bullshit. You know what I mean? He didn't want to talk to the media. He didn't want to answer questions. He just wanted the guy to just, like, when it's time to show up and play hard,

like, he'd show up and play hard, man. He's one of those guys that was, like, it was amazing to watch. Like, he came out a junior and, you know, helped us win that Coler Cup. I just like to see him compete, you know, after that and play with him when I was at the Flyers and see how he competed.

And, um, you know, he, he, he has the ability to turn it on and be, you know, a game changer, you know,

it's tough to see what happened with him, but he was, I love Richie. I mean, I thought he was a great leader. He was a quiet leader. You know, he was one of those guys that just go about his business.

Do you guys keep in touch? Not as much as I should, but, um, you know, every, every couple of months or so. Well, you guys keep in touch not as much as i should but um you know every every couple months or so well you guys uh when you were there you guys had some pretty fun teams and scotty upshaw was there and there was a story that ended up getting on the radio or something about uh a porn star like i don't know she was hanging around with the boys and did you remember that one yeah gina lynn yeah yeah gina lynn can you yeah we were yeah we became friends with her yeah she's a friend what part what part of the story well i kind of want the whole story like how do you guys

get hooked up with her i believe that that, one of the guys ended up crushing her and she had a boyfriend, and then all of a sudden it got on the radio and they were, like, battling on the radio. Well, no, I mean, we became friendly with her and actually her husband, who was a porn star as well. I mean, I'll be, you know, hung out with her. You know, he was there and a couple of the boys did too. So, I mean, who knows what the hell happened.

But I don't know if there's any truth to it, but I think it landed up getting on the radio just because they were seen out together. But she was around, you know, she was, she was around for a while, yeah. And him, and the husband too, believe it or not. What was Peter Nedved like? Oh, Nedved was awesome.

And I only played with him for a few months when he got sent down, but honestly it was comical. He rolled into the locker room when he got sent down there. Nothing even happened. I think he was still collecting 2.2. Hey, boys. He's been on

the team the whole time. He worked his ass off showing up at the Halloween party with the goofy mask and had a good attitude. I thought he was a class act for his situation for sure. Coats, I heard a story from, well, I'll just say,

I heard it from Scotty Upshaw. So Scotty Upshaw is heading down to the bus before the game. I would say the 5 o'clock bus for the 7.30 game. And, uh, he, he was walking down the hallway with his luggage and he just hears someone going to town, just a sex fest in room, let's say seven Oh five. Well, he goes down to the bus and,

and all of a sudden it's like seven Oh five and the bus hasn't left yet. And he's like, what the fuck is going on? Well, I guess Ned's had texted the PR guy or whatever to and the bus hasn't left yet. And he's like, what the fuck is going on? Well, I guess Ned's had texted the PR guy or whatever to hold the bus and all of a sudden Ned's comes on late and his hair's up and fuck, a mess. And up he's like, what the fuck was that?

And he's like, was that you crushing in the room? And he said, yeah. He made the bus wait because he was finishing off a pregame kill. No way. Bud, that is legendary shit. That is legendary, yeah. So he was a wild man.

Coach, I know we talked a lot about the hemp, but we didn't actually get into the bud much. I just had a quick question. Are you a vape guy, a ball guy, a oney, or do you prefer your classic J? Yeah, I'm more of a bond guy. I cany, or do you prefer your classic J? Yeah, I'm more of a bond guy. I can't get away from the dry flower. I do

vape for convenience in certain situations, but dry flower when the time is right. There you go. Well, hey, Riley, we really appreciate you coming on, and for someone that's into what you're doing now, I would have never guessed it when you were fucking breathing like a farm animal trying to kill me in the corners.

Just an absolute savage. I'll never forget your fight against Ryan Vandenbush in the lockout year. Oh, my God. But thank you so much for coming on, dude. I'm really happy, even though we've never met, that you're doing well and feeling good and happy where you are in life. So we appreciate it. Thank you.

I appreciate you guys. Yeah, that's awesome. Thanks for the platform. No problem. Thanks for coming on, Coach. That interview was also brought to you by 23andMe. Now through December 25th, that's Christmas, the 23andMe DNA kits are on sale. 23andMe helps you understand what your DNA can tell you about you and your family story. It's named for the 23 pairs of chromosomes that make up our DNA. RA has 22. A 23andMe DNA

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23andMe.com slash chicklets. Thank you very much to Riley Cote. Some very interesting thoughts. I can only imagine RA, your speech if you ever won a cannabis award. They'd be hooking you off the stage with an old cane by the time you were trying to get through with all your points. Hey, Davis, is this thing on?

I love to win a weed award. I probably feel like I should have already won some sort of Weed Award by now. For how much you sold on the streets. Come on, guy. It was in college. I needed beer money. Oh, Rear, you want a quick funny story? So we were going to get that content piece with Sean Avery.

I spent three hours interviewing him yesterday, hanging out at his apartment. He's basically American Psycho. Oh, yeah. Sociopath. An incredible one. He's basically American Psycho. Oh, yeah. Sociopath. An incredible one. He's the man. I love him. I know how people feel about him.

Whatever. I don't give a shit. So on the way, we see a girl on a phone conversation, but she had a Boston Bruins shirt on, and Grinelli goes, oh, go ask her if she knows Rear Admiral. And I'm like, oh, okay, cool. The cameras are around. Maybe she knows who rear admiral is so i go up and i i asked i go do you know who rear admiral is and she goes

hold on a sec to like tell the person on the phone like give me she takes her earbuds out and she's like what i said do you know rear admiral and she goes can you get the fuck away from me so offended so so offended and then it clicked in i i didn't realize how offensive your name is like imagine going up to a strange woman and say hey you know who rear admiral is he's in the navy well i mean you didn't you say you got the name because you went went down the the brown highway in college that's uh yeah so is he college sodomy-related nickname? Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to take offense about. Hey, you think

they'll take R.A. on the Call Her Daddy podcast? Imagine hearing R.A.'s sex stories. There's a puke covering the windows. Nothing grosses wits out the idea of me actually having sex. I think seeing you in your element on the couch in the sweatpants. What's favorite position all right oh dude no nope nope nope nope nope

moving along all right in a recliner with the remote control oh but but but nonetheless like like your name almost cost me getting maced and kicked in the nuts on the streets of new york city so but but sean avery did give you a jet get out of jail free card which is confirmed it works but he gave Sean Avery gave me this card and it's it's like a what's like what's the name of it PBR card no clue but a sergeant gave it to him where like let's say you get fucking pulled over like speeding over like 50 and you just hand this over and and they kind of like look at you like with like disgust but they take the car and they say all right right, get on your way. It's not like they find it on you. You actually go here, dude.

That sounds like Russia. He made it sound like if I was in a back alley in Brooklyn getting a blowjob from a hooker while I was doing a fucking key bump and the cop knocked on the window, I'd just give him this card out the window and he'd be like, all right, have a nice night. And I was like, come on. He'd be like, oh, can I have a song, please? You're like, yeah, sure. Then leave me alone. Got one more of those? Tag him in.

Oh, man. R.A. Oh, do you want to talk about R.A.'s gambling corner? How he killed it again? I would just do anything to see you be like, oh, officer, everything's fine. Here, take this card. He's like, put your fucking hands behind your back. You're under arrest, biz nasty, you douchebag.

And no, I don't want a bump. Well, here's the thing. I questioned it. So I went up to a cop while we were walking. And I said, do you know what this is? I held it up. And she goes, yep. And I said, is this a get out of jail free card?

She kind of looked at me like, yeah. And I go, can you give these away? And she goes, no, I'm not a sergeant. Wow.

So it was legit. All right. I'm obviously not going to test it out with the hookers and blow. I'll actually hand it off to RA for that. Hey, I love that Grinnelli's going to be like, oh,

I'm with Biz. I got the get out of jail free card. And then he's like, Biz, Biz. And you're just like wheeling some broad. He's like, oh, fuck'm with Biz. I got the get-out-of-jail-free card. And then he's like, Biz, Biz. And you're just like wheeling some broad. He's like, oh, fuck. All right, all right.

So you're gambling corner. Hot, hot, hot again. I'd say eight and one is hot for my last nine picks. Dude, you're making me money. I like you. I like you a lot. You know what? The Toronto call thinking back against Carolina, that was money.

Oh, yeah. 0-2 with Nylander was a guarantee. You know what? The Toronto call, thinking back against Carolina, that was money. Oh, yeah. 0-2 with Nylander was a guarantee. That was money. Coming off an ugly loss, Carolina sitting at home after a long Western trip. It was too easy. I said, make sure Freddie Anderson started, and he started. I told everyone to take the money line.

I hope they did take the puck line as well because it was a gorgeous price, plus 220. I picked up a few dimes not a big deal uh my second pick was pittsburgh they're actually playing wednesday night so obviously we won't know until the episode comes out how they did uh i i had a pretty good return on toronto so i'm not like gonna double down on pittsburgh but i still do like pittsburgh to play in chicago obviously by the time people hear this it already played but i did give the same pick sunday so hopefully pittsburgh will get us to nine and uh nine and one because they're playing the Blackhawks. Black Blackhawks have lost eight in a row for the second time this season.

What a stunning fall that they've had been NHL worst minus 34 goal differential. They're only three, 11 and two on the Jeremy Colleton. I had one of our listeners. He tweeted me last night. He tweeted at me. He's a Hawks fan. He bet every possible thing against them last night. He went 10-0. He took Winnipeg first period, Winnipeg over, Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Winnipeg. Legit went 10-0 in all his bets. Wow.

All right. I'm not down with you not saying the number you won. How much money did you win? A couple of dimes, he said. What the fuck does that mean? He said a few dimes. Biz doesn't know. Biz doesn't know.

Maybe one of the future episodes. Dimes a thousand, nickels five hundred. I'll give a little cute twirl. It doesn't make sense. He's lost plenty. He's lost plenty. He's still way down in life, dude.

Don't want you. Very true. So, R.A., who do you have this week? Like I just said, I got Pittsburgh playing Wednesday night. I gave that pick out Sunday. But, you know, I was going to wait and see how I did. I don't have any picks yet for the next few days because we're still kind of doing Sunday's Gambling Corner. So, I don't have any.

Hey, buddy, it's your show. You're not feeling it. You're not feeling it, buddy. They need to beg for you now. You're not feeling it, buddy. They need to beg for you now. But to answer your question, I picked up four dimes on Toronto because I had two dimes on them flat to make $2,000 just on the regular and win the game.

And then I had $1,000 on the puck line, which got back $2,000. So I picked up four just on Toronto, FYI. A couple quick notes, too. Bob Cole, I think he had his final game in Edmonton. Obviously, the big standing ovation. Bob Cole is a legend. I love listening to him. Louis Dabrowski ended up getting a new color.

He was awesome. You know, that's a big deal for him. He tweeted out about it. Louis the man. Louis the man. That guy is salt of the earth. Salt of the earth guy. So congratulations to Bob Cole on his final game in Edmonton.

He's doing the tour. Can't even imagine what it's going to be like in Montreal and Toronto the last two games there. Holy fuck. Oh, Bob Cole on his final game in Edmonton. He's doing the tour. Can't even imagine what it's going to be like in Montreal and Toronto the last two games there. Holy fuck. Oh, Bob Cole. I might cry. Because he's the best. He's the voice of hockey, for my generation at least.

And another quick note, midget hockey is now offensive. There's people now wanting to take the word midget, even though it doesn't mean. is now offensive. There's people now wanting to take the word midget, even though it doesn't mean... Oh, I thought you meant you can't call a small person like midget hockey. They're saying like the league when you're 10? When you're a certain age and that's midget hockey, they don't want it called midget hockey anymore

because it's offensive to midget... Get the fuck out of here, dude. What are they going to find to complain about next? That's my question. Christmas songs. But if they do, Biz will bring it up. When we hear about the complaint, we'll hear about it from Biz. All right.

That's pretty much it. Yeah, we're going to the Christmas party, so we'll have some news on that, I'm sure. And we're in the office, so there'll be a bunch of content coming out. Biz is crushing this place. Just a couple other quick ones. Kevin Shad and Kirk out two to four weeks, separated shoulder. Love you, Shaddy. Love you, Shaddy.

Biz, you guys lost your goalie most likely for the year. other quick ones. Kevin Shad and Kirk out two to four weeks, separated shoulder. Love you, Shaddy. Love you, Shaddy. You guys lost your goalie most likely for the year. Auntie Ranta had a lower body injury. They went in to do a procedure. It was worse than they thought. He'll be back in better shape, but probably not until after the season. But you have Adden. And one other note, guys. We missed this a couple weeks ago, and I think we should acknowledge. Mick

Magoo, who was a referee from 87 to 2008, he passed away November 23rd after suffering a stroke, who was a referee from 87 to 2008. He passed away November 23rd after suffering a stroke. He was a well-liked referee by peers and players, his peers. Everybody in the league liked him. And I grew up, you know, obviously watching him. You guys did too. So we just wanted to send our sympathies and condolences to the family, friends, and, you know, peers of Mick Magoo. Great referee.

Great guy by all accounts. And we just wanted to, again, extend our condolences. R.A., great mention. And, guys, when we forget to mention anything of significance like that, it's not because we just didn't want to. It's just because we forgot or there's a lot of things that we're doing and busy. So thank you for bringing that up, R.A. You're usually good at bringing up the sentimental stuff,

and we appreciate that you bring that element to the pod, buddy. Love you. And remind me to tell you the story next episode of this woman on the train with me. I'll tell you. I mean, this fucking lady. All right, everyone. Peace out. Thanks for listening.

Have a good one. Don't worry about a thing. about a thing