Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 136: Featuring Dennis Bonvie, Darryl Bootland and Jamie Rivers

Episode Date: December 24, 2018

On a Holiday Episode of Spittin' Chiclets the guys are giving the listeners an extra long episode to get them through the holidays and are joined by three guests. Jamie Rivers, Darryl Bootland and Dennis Bonvie all join to show to talk about their careers and tell some great stories along the way. The guys also talk about the holidays, World Juniors, some NHL news, and if OHL players should be paid.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 136 of Spittin' Chiplets, presented by New Amsterdam Vodka. We've got Christmas week on tap this week, so a little holiday festivities in the air. Let's go around the table and say hi to the boys. Let's go to the Whit Dog to start off this morning. Ho, ho! Ho!

Merry Christmas, guys. What's going on? It's December 23rd, so I'm getting fired up for my favorite holiday and also uh i love recording at this time for people listen usually record sunday night it's sunday gets a little stressful when you got to think about what takes you're gonna bring when we do the podcast but all of a sudden it's noon right now we're gonna be done watching football get loaded so how you guys doing there we go these ho-ho-hos ain't loyal next up uh producer mike granelli what's up by the man what's up boys back in boston and it's it's awesome being at my parents house it's great they're waiting on me hand and foot and it's amazing no rats either no rats yet and last but certainly not least paul biz nasty bisonette out

west what's up my man so boys, first of all, hello. And I go out last night. Rare where I get noticed when I go out in public in Arizona, just not a huge hockey place. And this kid from born in Arizona, he actually plays hockey at Western Michigan. He's back home visiting his family. He strolls up to me, and I think it's funny sometimes when people come up and they're like, hey, Biz, play hockey at Western Michigan.

Not a big deal, but they say it horribly. It's like so bad, but like, luckily I'm hitting my pen. So I think it's funny. So I'm like, okay,

cool. Western Michigan. Like I know fuck all about college hockey. Like obviously it's in Michigan. And then he's like, Oh, well like Andy Murray's our head coach. And,

and obviously we've talked about him on the podcast and he's, you know, he's you know he's got some weird weird shit that he does and i'm like is he still putting those notes underneath the door and he's like yeah that's why i wanted to come up and tell i tell you because they they listen to the pod obviously and they said they have one vet on their team that does the towel thing and rejects the notes that he slides under the door. So I actually got a good laugh after his butchered not a big deal. So Andy Murray is as weird as ever apparently. And then he was about to tee up a bunch of stories, and I'm like,

buddy, if you realize if you tell me these stories that you're never going to play another game at Western Michigan. So he's like, oh, yeah, good call. And I'm like, yeah, just save them and walk away. Yeah, better make them worth it. If he's going to tell you those stories, that's one where I'm like, hey, I'll sit and listen to a couple of these, but you better be confident in these stories.

Oh, buddy, if you fucking hit me with the quote-unquote, you hit me with the quote-unquote climax, and it ain't no fucking climax, I'm literally just pointing in the other direction, and you're fucking walking away. You're doing a lap, you're doing a loser lap, touching the end of the bar and coming back, and you're telling me a story that better make me laugh.

Hit with a climax. What are we back on? Call her daddy? Oh, yeah, here we go. Now, saying that, if I get one story and it's not good, I'm always saying, hey, I'll give you one more. Let's go. I'm not letting you.

If you need a sip of water, if you need to walk away, you need to take a piss break go do your thing bring it back i want to be fucking entertained all right gladiator style where'd you rip it up last night bottle blonde we went to this place called cost amigos in in scott so obviously i'm off the piss uh but the waitresses are fucking unbelievable. Cocktail's a sick joke. Oh, I think they have a monopoly as far as hot servers. Now, getting away from the smoke show servers, who I have no chance with because I'm a pathetic old man now,

and I just hit the pen and I'm like sleeping when I go out. The word monopoly, I used it with the Tom Wilson thing, and I am getting smoked online. And I'll be the first guy to tell you I'm a moron. I know that. And sometimes I say shit. I say shit on the Coyotes broadcast sometimes. I'm like, man, I want to crawl into a hole and die after that sentence

I just sped out. I might get canned for how stupid that was, what I just said. Now, I'll concede. What was the one I was using? Detrimental. I'll concede that. I fucked up. I'll wear that.

I ain't wearing this Monopoly thing. I said, Tom, go ahead. I need your backup, all right, because you're the word guy. Yeah, you did say Monopoly, and I thought, okay, yeah, you know what? He kind of does have a Monopoly on what he does. He can fight, and he can score. And, you know, we've said that frequently. Everybody would like to have him.

He's a unique player. So I didn't really think you misspoke. Some people thought you were trying to say he's an anomaly, which is like something that goes against the norm. But I'll side with you here, Biz. I mean, I'll give you grief when you fuck up a word, but I thought monopoly was a pretty good use there, and I'll stand behind you for it, brother.

I suppose both would have worked, but when you said Monopoly, I'm not exactly a thesaurus, a human thesaurus myself, but when you said Monopoly, I, I thought it made perfect sense because I thought it was great. I mean,

he has Monopoly. Like you said, all right, you know, fighting, he can fight, he could score. He's handsome as fucking hell.

And here there's, there's a group of people online. They love to be the guy to chirp. So if you're the one who chirped me for using monopoly, saying it doesn't make sense, you're just as big of a fucking moron as I am. And I'm going to read you the definition quick here. It refers to a sector or industry dominated by one corporation, firm, or entity. Monopoly can also be used to mean the entity that has total or near

control of a market and the point i was making is he has control of that fighter who can play market i mean lucic owned it for a while would you not agree he's fallen off revo's not the player tom wilson is tom wilson's the best at what he does at the nhl now he's a monopoly everyone's like oh you gotta pay five million that's fucking ridiculous even i thought so now ever since he's Tom Wilson's the best at what he does at the NHL now. He's a monopoly. Everyone's like, oh, you got paid $5 million. That's fucking ridiculous. Even I thought so. Now, ever since he's been producing more at a better offensive rate, man, this guy is worth every fucking penny he makes.

Ever since he scaled up? I don't know what you're talking about. I actually love the entire definition when you told me you were getting roasted i didn't even get why i don't know what anomaly means is that different yeah an anomaly is something that's like an exception to the rule basically something that's an anomaly isn't something that normally happens fucking right sorry yeah that's that we need this we needed you for this bad today. It's funny.

You sound dumber right now if we didn't have you. I was in Scottsdale like years ago when I was out of work. My wife had a conference there. So, you know, I went out to like tag along. What's that real nice resort? The Phoenician. The Phoenician. Oh, shit. All right.

Were you fucking doing well in the gambling category then? No, the old ladies were accent this out. So, you know, I went out early to basically get a vacation. I was out of work at the time just to go see Arizona. So we were supposed to go tubing on the Salt River. Have you ever done that, Biz? Oh, no, I've heard it. Awesome. Yeah, they take you on a bus.

Once again, a white trash activity. Oh, yeah. No sunscreen. A nasty ass like pumping beers off people. top so so me and the old lady before her work thing started we were gonna go tubing and then we both got a shit night's sleep and she and we get up and she's like oh i can't sit in a tube my back's healing me i'm like yeah yeah i don't blame you so i'm like i'll just go later in the week so like she

had to do a work stuff later in the week i i'm fucking like fuck it i want to go tubing so i drove to the thing you know you got to be. You can't bring too many beers because you fucking get rung up. Oh, yeah. You fucking die. So I'm driving to the fucking place. I pull in the park and there's like 10 girls like in bikinis slathering on like the fucking sunscreen and shit. I was like, oh, sorry, honey. Looks like you missed this one today.

So I dropped my tube in the water and there was like 10 chicks. And they're like, oh, where are you from? Like Boston. They're like, oh, we're a bunch. We're school teachers from our squad. You want to tie up your boat? Yeah, tube with us. I was like.

Get the fuck out of here. All right, so that's like Ashton Kutcher's going to pop out. He's being frank. No, all right. It's like, no, but there's a guy down there that'll tube up like Dumb and Dumber. No, there's actually a guy over there that was so low, and he's looking to tube up with a couple rockets that are oiling their titties up as well. So I was like, oh, too bad the old lady didn't make it.

So I tied up with them. But I could screw whenever I wanted. And like halfway through the trip, I just sparked one up. And like, Boston's got a doobie going. I got all these fucking school teachers blasted on the fucking salt river. Hey, what if R.A. would have finished that story with the fact that he teed off on all 10 chicks? It's like, then I crushed them all. We're just like, everyone's like, my computer breaks. that story with the fact that he teed off on all 10 chicks. Then I crushed them all.

Everyone's like, my computer breaks. It's like Babe Ruth. That story, him supposedly went to a whorehouse and said, how many women here? And they're like, 13. He's like, I'll take them all and put his money down and stayed until he did them all. At the end, he's like, origami folding his cock inside of the last one's pussy. He's blowing dust.

How's your refractory period? Actually, one girl at the end was like, hey, why don't I go on with you and we'll get away from the girls? I'd rather just kind of get to know you. And he's like, great. And then she wanted to roast him, but he gave her a recap of the deer hunter that took like three hours. I thought the wedding scene... I know what that movie is. Okay, bring me back to the girls. No, the wedding scene was integral

to set up the Vietnam portion, I'm telling you. Speaking of stories, we got a few old-timers to come on and tell us some stories. Jamie Rivers, Dennis Bonvey, and Daryl Bootland will all be joining us later in the show. Yeah, so those guys, a lot of fun interviewing some guys who are retired,

had some great stories for us. And this episode's a little different. We have three interviews for everyone, and also it's Christmas week, so we're kind of just taking a little bit of a rest. We're not scaling up this week. We're actually scaling back to one episode. So it's going to be a little different, so we just wanted to let everyone know we appreciate you maybe letting us take a little time off for Christmas.

Yeah, and obviously three interviews, more of a Christmas style style it's a longer episode hopefully it's going to last you guys the week we will not be dropping an episode on the 27th we are sorry for that but we believe that you guys will understand because it is the holidays we've been pumping out two a week me and wit have full-time jobs area has a full-time jobsnelli's a fucking lazy piece of sack of shit heading in NYC there. But the good news is, is moving forward, we have some very good interviews. We have two very good ones banked. We have Kevin Hayes, who we sat down with for an hour in NYC when we did also a little mini Cribs episode of video content

that we will be dropping as well in the new year. a little mini Cribs episode of video content that we will be dropping as well on the new year. Also on the 7th of January, we will be dropping the Vegas Golden Knights interview when they came in studio. Being in studio with those guys, if we could do interviews in studio all the time, obviously we don't have that reality,

but it was so much fun. It was so witty and quick. It was awesome. So we're going to bank some awesome retired guys as well. January is going to be a very fun month as far as interviews. I think all the positive feedback regarding the Cam Jansen episode is going to kind of help us go in the direction of we're going to have some people on.

Maybe you don't know their names and they're not household names, but we are going to get some juicy stories, some real life shit to talk about and not be putting young guys in a position where they feel like they need to entertain the hockey world when they don't maybe necessarily feel that comfortable doing it. So if you guys could just let us do our thing, we will fucking bring the heat. Yeah.

We're kind of, we're kind of thinking that the retired guys, and I think all the listeners know, I mean, you can just say more. You're able to let loose a little bit. That's very obvious. So we still like having young current players. You know, if you can get a big name, it's big for us. But I'm very curious to see if all the listeners,

I think that they will be on board with kind of leaning towards more retired and guys who will give us a little bit more juice as opposed to the dudes who really can't say shit because they're in the National Hockey League making millions and they don't want to jeopardize that. All these other retired guys, they got their money. They got their bank. They got their stories that they're willing to tell. So speaking of that, we had a retired guy that's been on this show that recently retired that had a hell of a puck drop in Philly the other night in Scotty Hartnell.

For people who didn't witness it, he walked out. And R.A., who's the wrestler? Is that Hulk Hogan? Yes. That does the ear thing? Yep, yep. So Hartnell went out, and he's doing that, and he's obviously dropping the puck between Nashville and Philly.

He played a big role on both of those teams. And for people who don't know, most ceremonial first puck drops, the home team automatically draws it back. That's what you puck drops. The home team automatically drops, you know, draws it back. That's what you let happen. It just happens slowly. But Hartnell made it clear he had $100 to whoever won the draw. So it was Roman Yossi going against Claude Giroux. I know the leader in the clubhouse in terms of pre-faceoff bets

would be Claude Giroux considering Yossi's defenseman. But just all of a sudden to see two guys bearing down and trying to win a draw with Hartnell dropping the puck was pretty entertaining. And Giroux snapped it right back. Hey, very similar to when I was in Stonewall and Selkirk when I was talking about Brent Seabrook and Nathan Horton going at it. That's how it was. But it was dead serious.

Oh, really? Oh, yeah. It was fucking nuts, man. A ceremonial faceoff. Like, come on here. That's how competitive that game was. Now, saying that, this one was hysterical. Scott Hartnell, he's just the man in Philly.

When he walked up. Like, he's considered a legend there. I mean, obviously, he probably won't be a Hall of Famer, my assumption, correct? No. I don't want to, like, disrespect the guy, but he ain't a Hall of Famer. He's way closer than we are, but he's not in. Oh, fuck. Yeah, he's like a cuss guy where you're just like wow that guy had a fucking hell

of a career yeah he walks out in philly it's just like it's i mean it's like eric lindros is walking out i know i thought the same thing it was like a guy who won three cups in philly and he's out there just absolutely hamming it up for the crowd and they were loving him so did he ever have any riffs with bossing guys ra like he was he was hated here because i mean like any team that went against philadelphia they hated hot now especially we played him in the playoff we bruins played him in the playoffs two years in a row the series they blew in 2010 uh yeah i mean hot now just always got under your skin i mean as for a particular incident that stands out not one he was just always mixing it up, just always getting into shit.

Yeah, I meant it more as, like, let's say the Penguin rivalry when he's, like, taunting their fan. Like, every time he's touching the puck, he's getting booed. Like, he had that impact against a few teams. I was just wondering if he had against Boston because, I mean, you're going to these games all the time. Like, as a Boston fan, did you genuinely hate Scott Hartnell? Oh, yeah, absolutely.

That's crazy to me. I think that's the ultimate measure of respect, though. You know what I mean? As his career wore on, I certainly liked the type of guy we always talk about all the time. The guy you want on your team you hate to play against, Hartnell is the epitome of that. I hated him as a flyer but uh

i grew to certainly appreciate what he did on the ice out there as time wore on guys like i've obviously i have been booed by away crowds before because like you know i mean in the american hockey league you know when you're a fighter i don't i don't necessarily think at the nhl level i've had that much of an impact like even if i fucking knocked the guy out or something but i don't know how if i could take it. I'm a little sensitive. It's like the whole crowd is booing me. I think it would throw me off out there. Dude, it would be an honor.

I was getting booed by the hometown. Try that on. I'd be a mental midget. Dude, you had your feelings hurt being booed by the away team. That was my dream. I remember telling one of my buddies at home, I'm getting booed. He's like, dude, people don't boo nobodies. I'm like, no, in Pittsburgh.

I'm not getting booed by the opposing teams that's like an honor oh was edmonton worse edmonton was way worse way worse but you know like i mean to get booed to get booed anywhere on the road you're you're feeling like a legend you know and by the way quickly on hartnell he was like a dominant rat in Philly and Nashville and Columbus. Like, he did it in a bunch of different places, and you could tell how many friends he has because he's got all these close buddies from wherever he played.

So I think the whole hockey community got a kick out of that puck drop. These clueless fans must be like, man, why does he have so many people tweeting that he's an awesome guy? Like, this guy has a piece of shirt on the ice. Well, it's funny because my buddy just last night um texted me oh no did the bruins play to when did the last time bruins played toronto either way either way he texted me about kajis that kajis such a fucking rat and this kid played hockey like at a high level played college and i was like dude you're a diehard Bruins fan. You played hockey.

Can you not like say I would love to have Kadri on my team? No, it's so weird how people can – I can understand if you never played hockey and you just despise somebody that goes against your team and gets under people's skin. But guys who play hockey, people who play hockey, you can dislike someone, but you should also be able to admit I want Scott Hartnell. I want Nazem Kadri. I want these guys on my team.

Like, R.A., when I read some fans, even Bruins fans go like, oh, Marchand's just brought it too far. I don't want him on this team anymore. Shut the fuck up. Like, what? Yeah. People say that they're moronic.

Moronic. Moronic. They think it's like a fucking might league with no hitting or something. As far as the, basically, Drew did, I'm sorry, Drew. Hartnell did basically the verbal equivalent of money on the board when the two guys lined up.

I guess he said $100 to whoever wins this one. Also, too, did you see the videos? They had about 10 different players come out, and Jagger come out and said, oh, I'm still playing it. I need somebody who's slower than me, Hartnell, so come play with me. Totally gassed him on the video. And when he was on the show with us he talked about being an entertainer hot now i'm like how he how he got into it so much and

you could see it last night because i mean not last night the other night when they did the ceremony it was kind of a rare ceremony wits like it wasn't a numbery time and it wasn't just a simple jumbotron video like they had this kind of night for him which you really don't see that for you know just an ordinary guy it's not it's not a typical thing that we saw the other night I think he embodied that city. Exactly. And it also Nashville was in town and, you know, he had a big part of there. So it kind of made, it made perfect sense, but you're right. You don't for, for a former player to come on and drop the puck. Usually it's a number of retirement or something. And it really wasn't, it just shows how, how well liked a Hartnell was so good for him. Also, before we move on to the next thing quickly,, I brought up Kadri, and I didn't even think to mention

Adam McQuaid. Did you see McQuaid throw him, Biz? Yeah, he did a little stone throw. It was shades of chara to Brian McCabe. I think it was in the same part of the rink, too. It was just a complete body chuck. So you could tell Kadri wanted no part of that

cheese with Darth Quader. There's another guy, because how undercover tough he is. Well, I guess he's not undercover tough anymore. He'd be the guy where like a middleweight would grab him and McQuaid would be like. Yeah. Did you ever fight him, Biz, McQuaid? No.

So I believe I just kind of missed him in like, I don't know, when we were playing Boston, you guys always had good teams. Like sometimes I was not in the lineup. Don't say you guys. They. Not you guys. You're talking about R.A. Lee. He was fucking first line center. I had a cup of coffee. Literally in the press box,

I had a cup of coffee. But I want to say McQuaid's the one who got Vitale. Joey Vitale. Did he not? Joey Vitale is a St. Louis guy. He's now the radio announcer there, but he played with the Pittsburgh organization up in the NHL a little bit with him,

and then he came over to Arizona and just kind of equates that one guy. If he lays out a teammate, you can't not fight him, or at least that's what he used to be because it wasn't luchich right he was like the middleweight guy and and fucking sure enough vitality had to go over in someone's defense and then boom boom career over he fucking he got fucking knocked

knocked hard like he fucked up his eye and he was in the dark room for like a while and yeah like that's the kind of guy mcquade is and i would say he's a respectable number five five or six defenseman correct he's like penalty kill a little bit no no power play probably like about 15 minutes a night is that the type of d is yeah and he also you know playing against him you knew how scary he was but then i remember the first time i met him he's like hey what's going on man man? The nicest, most down to earth. I'm talking one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Everyone loves him.

So friendly, soft-spoken. It's almost maybe the biggest example of meeting someone like, how is this dude such an assassin when he drops the gloves? And he stands in there toe-to-toe with people. He's just like, he doesn't even move his head. He'll eat them. Farmer tough. The type of guy like, yeah, if you saw him in a bar fight,

you'd be like, oh my god, this guy's out of the roundhouse or roadhouse. Is that the movie? Yeah, Roadhouse. Patrick Swayze. Double deuce. He's got a coif on his head. I got torched for that one. Should we send it off to someone? Sure. I think Dennis Bonvey's

up, so without further ado, let's send it over to Dennis Bonvey. Legend. Today's interview is brought to you by DHM Detox Hangover Pills. Just two capsules after your first couple of drinks and this natural supplement goes to work breaking down toxins and preventing liver damage so you don't wake up with a mean hangover the next day. Their key active ingredient is dehydromyricetin, a.k.a. DHM, a natural extract from a miracle plant. They use science to boost your body's natural response to alcohol and fight off all hangover symptoms. That means no feeling dumb with brain fog, no anxiety and no nausea. DHM detox is meant for everyone who likes to drink,

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if you have any questions. Guys, I've used this product. It's awesome, all natural, breaks down the toxins in the byproducts of alcohol, and check it out. Introducing a first-time guest. It's been far too long. A right winger, right shot, born in Anaganish, Nova Scotia.

Where the hell is that? Anaganish. Anaganish. This guy didn't even unpack his suit. Sorry, guys. It's Frankville, Nova Scotia. Oh, but I thought you'd tell people you're from Anaganish. I'm from way out in the country, 25 minutes outside,

Frankville, Nova Scotia, home of the Twin Cities, famous Minneapolis, St. Paul, Harvard Bushy, and Frankville, Nova Scotia. Well, I guess we'll just take this Goosebumps, R.L. Stine, choose your own ending hockey DB page right uh right off the hop here holy shit bones your suitcases or what oh five years i was pretty well i was in the same organization in edmonton and then it uh yeah it got a little hectic year after year absolutely we actually played uh junior hockey in the same home uh the same well that was my first team, North Bay Centennials. Awesome. Awesome spot. I was lucky. I got drafted to Kitchener.

277th overall in the 19th round. I was the sixth last pick. I think the janitor picked me at the end. I don't think anybody was left in the rink. I went in and tried out. My dad, I went up with him and

he's never been outside Nova Scotia at the time pretty much and we got up and we got picked up, went to the rink to Kitchener Odd the day before dropped my gear off, I was real excited and I went back and my dad goes son if you want to go home we can go home this might be quite a bit for you right now

and I told him, I said I'm going to be the toughest guy in camp and I'm going to stay here and you're going to go home this might be quite a bit for you right now and i told him i said i'm gonna i'm gonna be the toughest guy in camp and i'm gonna stay here and you're gonna go home in five days when your flight goes home i'm gonna make this team and he just kind of shook his head i don't you know and i don't know why it was like that but ended up i go in i fought a few times uh probably four or five times uh tried to make an impression i was there a month and they sent me home and i ended up playing i was still midget age and I played junior in Antigonish

for the Antigonish Bulldogs. And then I went back the next year to Kitchener. Did my thing again and months in I played I think two games there. Played against North Bay on a Saturday night. Not sure why they played me because I wasn't playing at all. They had no toughness. I ended up challenging

their bench at the same time. They had no toughness. I ended up challenging their bench at the same time. They had no toughness. Burt Templeton was in the middle of a trade with Joe McDonnell, a good friend of mine who was a GM and coach. They basically threw me in the deal. The next morning, I got traded to North Bay. I went up with another guy that I was

playing with, Jack Williams. I called my dad and my dad said, Dennis, this is enough of this. Come on home. I said, no, I think I'm going to go up to North Bay and try it out. I'll call you in a week when I get up there. And I just went up and went in to meet Burt Templeton. God rest his soul.

He was wonderful. And I just told him, I said, I'm going to be the toughest guy in this league. I just need a chance. That's all. So it started in junior. Now, alright, so then you just obviously fought everyone, especially that third full year,

no, second year in the O, 316 PIMS, right? So you leave North Bay after that. You get to Cape Breton, okay? AHL. Was it noticeably way harder in these fights or was it actually pretty similar to junior? How did that kind of transformation go?

It was weird. I went to North Bay to finish up that story, and I went and I told them. Listen, it sounds funny. I had trouble turning one way. I wasn't a great skater, but I was more than willing to do whatever it took. I worked with a figure skater,

stayed in North Bay for two years. I went to Calgary on a trial, two weeks, got cut, and went home. Was going to go back to North Bay as an overage. Got a trial with Cape Breton. David Andrews was the GM at the time. George Burnett was the coach.

It was more of a token trial. I ended up getting in an exhibition game as kind of a favor because it was a couple hours from my home. And I knocked out a guy. And they're like, oh, my God, we're going to have to play this guy again. Another game. Because it was in Cape Breton? Yeah.

It was in Cape Breton, two hours away. And then I got another game, and I knocked another guy out. Oh, my God. And they're like, oh, my God, we're going to have to keep this guy like a little while. And it just – I was supposed to go back and play junior or go to college at St. FX University in Antigonish, and I ended up staying there.

It was like – obviously somebody was looking over me the whole time. You might have been looking out for your health, though, because Steven Dixon told me that St. FX has the highest STD rate for a university in Canada. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Dickie might know that pretty good. I have no idea, but it's a wonderful school.

I know the ring they get is the third most recognized ring in the world with that X on it, so pretty popular place for small schools. And then you end up going back to Cape Breton the next year to start the year, but you ended up playing a few NHL games that season. Yeah, for some reason, the AHL season finished and the NHL season had like two weeks left. So I ended up getting recalled um and went up and it was a real funny story i i was in warm-up for about four times and i wasn't playing so every time i go for warm-up

the extra guy i really wouldn't prepare in the day because everybody was healthy and i'm going to be the extra guy but just ecstatic to be there. I come off, we're playing the LA Kings that night, and I'm in warm-up just floating around doing my thing, not expecting to play, and Ronnie Lowe comes up to me and he goes, hey, kid, you're in. Jason, aren't it sick? I'm like, I'm in. In my head, I'm like, I'm in.

Ten minutes before puck drop, I'm like, I'm playing. So it's my first NHL game, I'm playing the LA Kings and Wayne Gretzky. So I'm out on the draw, and I'm right next to Barry Melrose, the coach. I'm right next to Matt Johnson, who him and I had lots of – we tangled a bunch in junior a couple times a game all the time. And then I go to Matty. I said, let's get this done. And he goes, I can't, Dennis.

The coach won't let me. And I look over across the neutral zone, and Barry's like, goes, I can't, Dennis. The coach won't let me. I look over at across the neutral zone and Barry's like, no, you're not fighting him. And I'm like, oh God, I'm going to have to play. It's unbelievable. I'm like, for shit. Thinking you're going to show I go out. And the puck, we win the draw. We dump it in.

We start a little cycle. I look right beside me and there's Wayne Gretzky. They quick change. Got the top line. Obviously that's the fourth line. And I and there's Wayne Gretzky. They quick change, got the top line there, obviously that's the fourth line. And I'm right beside Wayne Gretzky on a cycle and I dropped the puck and I basically just skate off the ice. I'm like, oh my God, that's Wayne Gretzky. I can't be with him.

He was like surreal. I'm like, oh my God, he's right beside me. Bones, Bones, I love you, but that's a tough line matchup right there. Yeah, I was like, I shouldn't be out here. I shouldn't be out against Matt Johnson, not Wayne Gretzky. That's, Bones, I love you, but that's a tough line matchup right there. Yeah, I was like, I shouldn't be out here. I shouldn't be out against Matt Johnson, not Wayne Gretzky. That's, you know, the way it was. So that was my first game.

And then I ended up going in two days later. I think it was our last game of the year. We were out of the playoffs, obviously, and we played in Calgary. And Ronnie Lowe had come up to us, who has bonuses, and I said, well, I think I have another game, and I get a little bonus in my contract. A few guys had bonuses if they played or didn't play. Then I go out and warm up, and I think I was going to maybe play

Ruby or Alan Bailey. It's a couple guys in Calgary. And I go out after warm up. I'm going up on the bench, and Ronnie Lowe whispers in my ear, he says, sorry, kid. He said, I screwed up your name on the lineup card, and you're out of the game. No.

Yeah, it was really weird. I mean, I'm ecstatic to be there. It's awesome. I'm in the National Hockey League. And that was my year. And then I went back and obviously I went to Edmonton. So it was really weird. I was like, oh God. You should have snapped for the coach. That would have gone well.

I'm like, yeah, no problem. It's all good. Isn't it nice how back in the day coaches were aware of player bonuses and they'd help guys out? Because Tyson Nash tells a story about a minutes played, average minutes played bonus in the last game of the season. I think it was Quinville. Ended up playing him like 22 or 24 minutes of the game

so he could hit his average. So he ended up making, I don't know what the number was. It was probably fairly significant, at least 50 grand. And back then, that was a lot of dough. So Quinville pulled the most solid. A lot of coaches did that, but, you know, obviously, Quinville was a great players coach. So a lot of those coaches will be cognizant of that for sure.

All right, Bonesy. So, you you know we go forward a couple years here you're in you're a part of the edmonton oilers organization for what looks like four or five years all right because hamilton ended up being edmonton's farm team after cape breton right uh yeah okay so what i don't understand is you're second to last year in Hamilton. You have 522 penalty minutes. Then you play in 22 playoff games. You get 14 points. Like you're playing. I mean, that's just insane numbers.

You get some games the next year with Edmonton. And then, and also in Hamilton, you have another monster. You're 300 penalty minutes, 30 points. Why did you, they let you go? How did that end in being a part of the Oilers? I went in and I got picked up in a waiver draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. That would have been my sixth year. So there used to be a waiver draft and I got picked up.

But it's funny funny before that uh and we're actually on the circuit now on the scouting circuit Jason Fitzsimmons who was for Washington was it was a goalie in Cape Breton and then Hamilton and we were in exhibition going uh with the Edmonton Oilers going into Chicago and that's when uh Bob Probert God rest his soul he uh he was uh just come out and trying to Chicago so i had seen that in the summer and i told my dad i was out he was coming home from work he worked in a pulp paper plans and more right and i'm out there hitting a heavy bag working in the shed just working out doing my thing out in the country and uh i go dad the exhibition schedule come out and we're playing chicago

and he's like great like so it's all good like he has no idea i said i'm gonna fight that bob robert if he's if he's playing i'm gonna this would be a good chance for me and he he's like okay son that's great good for you and just went for supper and then we're going to the rink and ironically i'm in a push ahead a couple months i'm in with jason fitzsimmons who's a goalie like he's one of the goalies playing in the exhibition game. And he always laughs about the story. And we're driving. I'm looking out the window in the cab going to the rink.

And he goes, hey, Dennis, you know that Bob Probert? He's playing tonight. I goes, yeah, I know. He said, you going to fight? I said, absolutely. He'll fight me. I'm going to go after him. He goes, really?

I said, what choice do I have? And I said it to him. I'm like, you're either going to make me or break me. I'm either going to play another game or you'll never see me again. That's one or the other, you know? So I just, you try to seize the opportunity if it's there,

right. To gain the respect and, you know, get another game or another shift. Right. Did you end up going? Yeah. For a shift. Oh,

fuck. I was waiting for the cliffhanger. I want to hear about this fight oh sorry and uh yeah so for shift i went out and i it actually says a little different in the book it says scott parker said it in his book which uh but i go out and i said you're either gonna make me or break me uh probably we're gonna go he's what did you say to me i said you're either gonna make me or break me like you know i'm either gonna do good or that's it. I'll be done. And we had a good scrap.

Bones, do you get nervous going into fights normally, and was it amplified for that one? You never seemed nervous. No. No, I never got nervous. I can't explain it. I don't know. I never really did.

I just knew I had to do do it and that's it and um no so i can't really say i really got super nervous a lot of guys did and i know listen i understand and respect it was immensely but uh i just did my thing and then a week later i they came in chicago came into edmonton and in an exhibition and uh yeah, I think I fought somebody else for a shift and had a real good scrap of them. And then he came out again, Bob, and we fought again in a real good spirit of scrap. So you ended up fighting him twice?

Twice in a week, yeah. Okay, so how'd you do? I mean, hopefully there's no video so you can describe this no i know i did good first first both of them i did good first one it was really good uh you know for me as a kid growing up what i did watching watching it was an honor you know and i think you miss you can say the same thing when you when you when you fight the big respected boys and you hang in there it's it's a pretty good feeling uh in terms of in terms of gain in terms of gain and respect and uh and then and then the next time we kind of fought twice in the same

stoppage ripped our jerseys off went at it again and uh and then i ended up playing with him when i went to chicago is where i'm finishing up in the experience and that waiver draft i ended up playing with him and it was he was even better because he was such a great guy and such a great teammate. And he taught me so many things about just the role and great guy, great guy. Well, interesting. You're mentioning, cause learn, you know, learning about the role. Cause I'm kind of curious to learning about how it all began because when I fighting wise for you, because when I remember playing together, you just fuck around with me one day after

practice and you would with everyone. That was great. Literally teaching guys how to fight, how to defend themselves, how to tie up. All stuff I had no clue. It was almost like learning how to shoot a puck just to complete the opposite, but similar ways you coach and teach. How old are you when you started fighting? How did you figure

that out? Who taught you? Just kind of give me the backstory to that. Yeah, but why wouldn't you teach me the ups and teach me how to play? I tried to, but you wouldn't do the power skate with me after practice. Because I couldn't turn one way when I said that. I couldn't turn. I was too old for it.

Listen, I was too old. Honestly, it's, you know, like I said, I got a lot of breaks along the way. You know know I worked hard at it as everybody did that played the game and but I don't know I scrapped

a couple times in like a summer league where you were allowed to do it and I did okay and then I went and played my big year was in junior A in Antigonish where I was 17 still midget age and fighting some 19 20 21 year old players you know and did really really well if i didn't do well i never would have did

it i would have stopped i'm sure you know but i but i did well i hung in there i guess i had a knack for it somewhat right temperament to hold and it just kind of escalated from there it's it's really hard to explain i i didn't really set out to do that I guess I had that temperament I had you know that I it didn't bother me so much I kind of enjoyed it for you know for for most of it you know and when you start you're enthusiastic about it so uh that put that pretty well it just kind of happened what's crazy about my career was I wasn't a scrapper before they switched me to forward. And you were on the team then. You taught me how to scrap.

I mean, I fought a little bit more defensive. I mean, judging by my face and nose, you wouldn't have expected that. But I did fight a little more defensive with the jersey jab because I wasn't tough like you guys. But as far as the grappling and the mental aspect of it, I don't know if a lot of people know this. You were the one who taught me how to do it. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. We played. You were an awesome teammate. You got a break

and that's what guys want. They just want an opportunity for somebody to give them a chance and you got that and that was wonderful. Brian McGrath was the same way when he first started. When Binghamton, he'll tell you, he didn't do well in the first few. I took him out for lunch. I said, if you really want to do this, then I'll help you with it.

I'll help you get better at it, protect yourself, and then the rest is history. That was part of my job. It was. As an older guy, that was part of my job. I wasn't going to isolate somebody. Hey, they want to do it, then I'll help them do it. Oh, man. It was nice having a guy on the team who could take care of the big boys when I was just starting out.

Although I would have to fight Morasty because I think he just wanted the young guy and wanted to shred me to pieces. Do you remember that guy? I'm never going to forget that. We were in Syracuse, and John and I fought a couple times. And so he's out there. He's saying something to me.

He's ending it up. He's trying to get all these. He's like fight club doctor. He's trying to get all these ones organized. And Murat, he says something to me before the game, and I go, John, I said, have you had any effect on the game at all today? Do anything. Touch the puck.

Make a play. Anything at all, I'll fight you. So I played my odds. I said, he's not going to really get out there. He's not going to. First shift, he takes a run at you and hits you. I'm like, oh, God, now I got to go fight him for sure. So I go down the ice, and I go after him.

We had a scrap. I said, well, I promised I'd do that, so I can't lie to you. We had a scrap, him and I. And I remember, and then I think you might have scrapped him right after that. Oh, I scrapped him like three or four times. He broke broke my nose one time I think he was the first one to get the the nose broke at least that nose cherry it's now a potato yeah that's got it all going but I remember he used to just put his head down and I would get the first like four or five punches solid but by that point my my hand had gone numb because it was like punching a bowling ball and

then he would just take over. And I'd be like sitting there like, ah, my hand's broken. Then my nose is broken. My feelings are broke. Then I'd look over here. Yeah, it was a lot of tough guys in that league. Every team had at least two or three. Yeah, we talked to McGratton.

It was a really fun chat we had with him and we were saying, or he was saying that year of the lockout in the NHL, I think, what is it? Was it all four or five? That was that one of the toughest years ever for the HL. You think, especially the conference.

Well, well, so all these teams get to add an extra player on the roster, right? So you could add the extra player on the roster, right? So you could add the extra one. And every team pretty much added a tough guy. They already had a couple, and they added one. That's what they did.

And I was in Hershey at the time, and we didn't add anybody, just me. So every night, it's like going to the roster. I'm like, I got three or four. You just got to kind of keep them at bay, do it at the right time, make sure your team doesn't run out of the rink or no one gets taken advantage of. So, um, yeah, it was great. And then Dougie Yanks, uh, you know, it was great to me as a general manager. He comes up to me in February. I said, yeah, you've had a pretty good run here.

Do you think we should get some help? I'm like pretty much over now. We're getting into the haste. No one's fighting for the last month and a half of the year. Everyone's competing for a spot. So yeah, you should have come up to me in November and asked me I might have said yeah some help is good but it's like dude you threw me a you threw me a life raft when uh I was already drowned I was dead dude hey that was the year Bonesy that was the year and I've said this on a bunch of different things that the best fight I ever saw was remember you and Vandenbush in Wilkes-Barre that year?

Was that maybe one of the best of your career? Yeah that was we scrapped a few times in junior and then obviously in pro and in the NHL we fought and then I had scrapped them a couple weeks before that it was like 2-1 start of the third period

we were dead we had nothing going on I was in Hershey and i i kind of got the edge on him i dinged him up a couple times he wasn't happy about it i think i caught him at the end of the shift i i don't know uh so then i knew he was he was waiting for me when i come back to wilkes-barre he was kicked off you know you know everybody on each team so he's kind of looking down the bench and he's kind of looking when i come out so he's going to come out so i look at our coach i said can you just put me out and so i said just put me out yeah so out he comes he said are we going to go i said yeah for sure no problem we'll go so we squared off and we went at it and then i during the fight a few times i kind of slow down

i stopped i said are you done he's like no'm not done. So we go at it again. And I'm like, hey, is that enough for you? He's like, no, no, no. So we go at it again. It happened like four or five times. And it ended up being a great scrap. And he was one of the toughest pound-for-pound guys. He really was.

Super tough. It was over – I think it was over two minutes long. And going a little bit there to McGratton is – it's funny because he just recently passed your your penalty minute record of pro hockey because you used to own the crown of most penalized player ever correct yeah in pro hockey yeah yeah in pro hockey he beat he beat my single season record he beat that Brian McGratton oh really that was that was the one he beat yeah i had 522 and i think he had uh i'm saying like five over five over 550 but he would call me every game he goes

i'm gonna beat it and he went for like he went for like 12 games he never fought but he kept getting 10 minutes of his comics at the end i'm like like, he's got it. I think he's got it. So every night he'd call me, I'm going to beat it, Bonesy, every time. Hey, all right. I also want to get into you played 92 NHL games, and in those 92, you got one goal, and I love the fact it was playing for my hometown team, the Boston Bruins. What was the goal like?

Who assisted on it? You got to give me that back story. Funny story. So I'm out there, and I forget my line. I think it was Benny Hogue was my winger, and maybe he had changed. But anyway, I go down the wing. I think Gordon Murphy might have passed it up to me. And I go down the wing.

They're kind of caught on a line change. I rip a slapper. I'm sure it was RS over teacup. I don't think it was too flat. Went five hole on Chris Osgood. And I was like stunned. I was like,

and Benny Lobo's ball just scored. And he goes, what's wrong with you? I'm like, I never scored in the National Hockey League before. I'm like, I'm not sure. And I kind of froze. I didn't know, you know, I was like, oh my God, the National Hockey League before. I'm like, I'm not sure. And I kind of froze.

I didn't know, you know. I was like, oh, my God, I finally did it. You know, because after you get a few games on your belt, you don't score for a while, 50, 60, you're like, it's not going to happen. So then I scored. And I always tell the boys, I said, the next shift I went out and I fought Eric Cairns to get back into my comfort zone again. I played with Cairns. I play with guarantee.

He's a monster. Monster. Great guy. Great guy. He is bones. Yeah. I always laughed at that story. You told me about the,

the guy used to fight who, who used to have the huge head and used to just verbally abuse him on, when you were on the ice by their bench. And he was, he was a bad player. Cause if you're chirping him on his playing bench. And he was a bad player because if you're chirping him about his playing ability, this guy was a train wreck. Yeah, he was.

Who was it? I think it was Rob Scurlock. Yeah, that's who it was. He was a great guy. Scurley was a great guy. And he chirped me as much as anybody right back. Don't worry. He was a funny guy.

Real tough, real tough customer. But he had a big head. But, you know, so did I. I can't. I'm not going to go and isolate him. I had a big head. But I'd go to the bench. I said, hey, boys, what would you rather have, a million bucks or Rob

Scurlock's helmet full of nickels? And he'd lose. He'd be so mad at me. And then out he'd come and fight. We'd have a scrap. And I said, it's job security. As long as we're getting this done, then we'll always stay in the lineup. And he'd say, oh, yeah, I get it.

And away we go. So as long as they had toughness in the lineup, you know, you came in there and make sure you're playing. Because once they take him out, maybe I wouldn't play, right? Hey, what was the story about you talking the other team's coach into putting in their tough guy? I think it was him. He was upset.

He hadn't played in the first 10 games. When we came in, I said, how's it going, Scurley? And he goes, not great, not great. I'm not playing. Nobody's fighting me. When I was in there a couple times, nobody was fighting me. He said, when you fight, they start to fight you. Are you going to go in?

I said, well, I'll start and tell the coach to put you in. So, moreover, if I go well i'll start and tell the coach to put you in so more if i go come out start the game jeez they put him in they put him in the lineup so i'm like oh boy we're gonna have to scrap here he's in the lineup so he comes out he said you better fight me because if not i'll get in trouble from the coach i see you said you do that i said no no we'll do it so we scrapped and we had a pretty good scrap and i grabbed him after he goes thanks i appreciate it i said well as long as you're in the lineup, I'll always have a job. And then he, you know, we started laughing and it's banter back and forth, obviously. Bones, you weren't much of a prankster when we played. Were you throughout your career or who are the, some of the best pranksters you played with? I pranked a little bit, probably, but not so much.

I don't know who was – I have to think about that. Who was some of the – Bones, we had Jeff Gortnell on, and this guy is next level prankster. And I find there was a lot more of that stuff going on back in the day because even when I was coming in, I remember how much Witt used to prank LeTang. Oh, yeah. Oh, actually, you know what?

Before we went to a charity luncheon when I was with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the year they won the cup, not a big deal, a bunch of the boys, I think it was Rob Scuderi, had the trainer sew my pocket shut and my pant leg. And so my pant leg was like halfway up and then I couldn't get my hand in my pocket where my keys were. So I had to like get a ride from one of the guys.

And what do you got, Whit? Well, I actually had a question for you, Bonesy. Because I talked to Chris Keller, who was a mutual friend of ours that I play with in Wilkes-Barre and you play with for a long time. Kells is the man. He said, you got to ask him about the time in Norfolk when Brendan Buckley,

our good friend, now assistant coach at Boston College, put wine corks in all of our equipment. Oh, God. That was funny. We were... Yeah, we went out that night. I think it was Richie Perrant and myself. We were in the playoffs, I believe, and we go out and have a couple, you know, have someron, myself. We were in the playoffs, I believe.

And we go out and have a couple, you know, have some dinner, a couple bottles of wine and just get ready for the game. We get in there early. no, it wasn't.

I think it might have been just a regular game at this time. And, so, we're out there having dinner the night before, having a steak

and a couple bottles of wine, relaxing, having a good time. And, so, we go out the next day and for some reason, there's an optional skate in the morning. We had, of wine, relax, and have a good time. And so we go out the next day, and for some reason, there's an optional skate in the morning.

We had, you know, so obviously perfect. We didn't, a bunch of us didn't go to the rink. So we get there at night, and we're getting ready to go out for warmup. And I go, and a couple of us, I think it was Kels too, but myself, and I go to put my gloves on. And Brandon Buckley's got the cork from the wine bottle in my gloves, in my hockey gloves. So you can't put your hands in.

And I'm like, oh, my God, I'm going to be late for warm-up. I can't get the corks out of the fingers of my gloves. There's a few. And I look over at Kel, he's got the same thing. Two of them getting out. I'm like, oh, my God, we've got to get these out. They used to do that with the bubble gum. Yeah, the double bubble.

But a cork would be even harder to get out. have to cut your glove get it out you couldn't get it out it was stuck in there i'm like oh my god i gotta get the corks out of my gloves bucky buck was a funny guy could you imagine could you imagine your coach is like why are you out there for warm-up and he's like and's like, I got wine cork stuck in my glove. Yeah, I think we had Brad Smith, a shooter, legendary shooter in the American League, great guy. We were in Binghamton, and we were in Grand Rapids one time, and he had this old shooter. He still had his shirts when he was like 14 years old.

He had the old shirts and sweaters, and he was the cheapest guy ever. So we're there, and he's always having to chew. and didn't he have some chew down like his base sweater so you see his chew stain right in the middle so he goes out for for pre-game skate and i i'm with brian mcgrath and a couple of when i look at his shirt i'm like oh my god look at shooters clothes here so i take his sweater and i nail it to the stall. Like his shoulders are up. And I put like tape towards this big stain on the middle of his beige shirt, light beige shirt. And we're all waiting when he comes out of the shower after practice.

And he takes the nails out of his shirt, undoes it, doesn't say a word, takes the tape off that's pointing at the chew stain, puts it on and walks right into the rink and goes over for it. And Brian McGratton is on the floor rolling around. The boys are on the floor rolling around. He didn't care. Didn't even fizzle. Didn't get mad at anybody.

Just walked out of the rink. See you later, guys. Bones, and then, I mean, obviously it was probably sad to see it come to an end. What was the first thing you did right after? Did you jump right into scouting? Yeah, when I retired. I thought I'd get into coaching. I just probably thought I'd be maybe with Pittsburgh at the time.

It didn't happen. Ironically, the team I got cut for when I first tried out for Calgary Flames, their GM at the time was Al Coach. He was working in Toronto. He got a job with Toronto and Cliff Fletcher and Mike Penny, who I was in a guy from Kitchener, and they hired me with Toronto to do some scouting, which really at first you're not really quite sure what you're getting into, but it turned out to be just an awesome job and profession.

And then a year later, I got on with Chicago Blackhawks. I was there for six years, won three cups. And then Mark Bergeman hired me there, which was, and Stan Bowman, great opportunity. And then Donny Sweeney, who I played with when I was in Boston, called and, you know, offered me a little bigger role on the scouting department on the pro side. And then I went to Boston.

I've been there to start my fourth year. It's been great. So, Bones, you got three cup rings? Yeah, three Chicago Blackhawks. Not a big deal. Hey, if you ever run out of dough, you always got some backup, you know? Yeah. No, you kind of pinch yourself.

It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Do they give you the top tier ones? Yeah. Same as – Wow. Holy shit. Yeah.

Holy crap. That's unbelievable. Treated like gold. Yeah, he was great. I heard that. I heard the question. The whole organization. Very, very good.

It was awesome. So you say you're a part of pro scouting, right? Yeah. We're both with Boston now. How did you kind of decide that that was more your style than amateur? Was it just because you were on the pro game so long? Yeah, and that's kind of where they put me. I just started there, and it's a lot of networking.

Both of you guys would be wonderful at it. You know, obviously they're paid for your opinion, the way you see with your eye and the feel that you have. But, you know, you've got to network too. You've got to know people. And so it's just, it's been really good. You kind of set your own schedule for the most part. And, you know, it's busy.

When the schedule, when the season's on, it's seven, eight months. It's very busy, but it's great. Great up to it. Being an amateur scout would be fucking tough. For the simple fact that you're missing so much, and it's hard to evaluate talent at that level because it's such a clusterfuck. Guys are out of position all the time.

And, man, some games you go to, it's like, oh, this is brutal. Yeah, it's tough. And you're going to some tough games, and you've got to take that player out of there and kind of bank on, hey, four, three, four years down the road, do I see a good player in this player? You know, so it's not easy. You're right.

I mean, yeah, I just can't imagine trying to figure out if a 14-year-old, 15-year-old is going to be really good. That's a skill some people have. But I think I would enjoy the pro game scouting a little bit more myself. Do you ever come to Boston? Are you just kind of always, what are the areas you're doing and stuff?

No, I'm kind of all over the place. I do a little out of the Midwest, but a lot of those Western teams come East in the National Hockey League. But I'll have some trips out West. I'm kind of all over the place really at the end of the day.

Really an awesome opportunity I received in Boston. So it's been good, really good. But am I in Boston? Yeah, probably during the year, maybe between four and six times. We have some meetings. Thanks for the call. Appreciate that. I'll get your

number after we'll definitely we'll definitely uh oh yeah get that yeah not many crazy hockey stories anymore just because these kids aren't up to no good like we were in the past like looking looking back like are you like like what's the craziest hockey story you're like holy shit like if that happened nowadays like shit would hit the fan oh crazy i remember like i remember starting and like you in cape breton and when i went in a month in we had six guys in our team that fought bob throbert in his heyday and i wasn't one of them yet because i was just starting that's how how tough our team was. Nobody wanted the puck on the other team and none of us could handle a puck. It was quite a game.

It was like a complete keep away, but one team kept on purposely keeping it away. Yeah, nobody could get the puck and nobody wanted it. So it was, you know, we had some I played with Link Gates. I roomed with Link Gates for a little bit my first year. Did you? Yeah, I roomed

with him. That's a crazy story, huh? Oh, yeah. What's this one? He respected me. We have a lot of young listeners and, of course, myself who have never heard this story. Can you kind of describe it?

Was he a high pick? Link Gates, before he came down, I didn't know him, obviously. That was after he had gotten in an accident and, you know, he fell out of a TR, like out of a Trans Am, you know, and he banged his head. Oh, no shit. He was seriously injured and came back. You've got to give him a lot of credit for coming back.

But before that, in Minnesota and San Jose, this guy was legit guy was legit like one of the toughest craziest but could play the game pass the puck shoot the puck skate like mean mean mean defenseman and then you know people say now he would be a hall of famer well he would have been a three four million dollar defenseman type you know big steady stay at home and tough you know tough defenseman steady, stay at home. And tough as shit. You know, tough defensemen. Yeah, really, really tough. Yeah, so I had room with him early in my career. And actually, I was playing defense, and he was playing defense. You imagine. And we were in exhibition.

And listen, I had a tough time turning. He couldn't turn one way. And we're out there as defense partners to start in our first exhibition game. So guys were going around us. We were handing out first exhibition game. The guys were going around us. We were handing out tickets at the time. They were going around us so much. And he wanted me to stay in front of the net and defend the front of the net. He wanted me to go from corner to corner and defend.

That's what he used. He didn't want to leave in front of the net. Oh, my God. I think – Who was on the other week who was saying that? I think Brooks Orpik said Lyle Odeline was one of his first partners and said that he'd make him go from corner to corner. He got mad at me.

I'm like, Link, I got to play my position. I was getting right mad at him. He was so mad. I'm like, I can't help it. I roomed with him. I woke up one morning, and I'm i'm like oh i wake up at like four in the morning and it's pitch dark but i i sent something's off and there he is on the corner of the bed with his eyes open looking at me i said what's up he said i can't sleep i'm like

either can i now i can't sleep he'd go down and he'd get a cigarette get himself calmed down he'd get a cigarette and get himself calmed down. He'd come back up. I'm telling you, it was crazy. Yeah. Oh, Jesus. Crazy guy. What were some of the crazy off-ice stories? Like one of the craziest off-ice ones you can remember. Oh, actually, Kels wanted me to ask you about the Calder Cup Finals in St. John when we had like three days before game one is the text he wrote.

What's that? Kels said you got to ask him about the Calder Cup finals in St. John. We had three days before game one. Oh, yeah, we went early. We went early. You know, any time when the boys go early, they go have a good time the night before. So we had some guys who had a pretty good time the night before. And then we went over and we skated a couple times.

And Kels and I were always rooming together, so how about that? You know what Chris is like. Oh, man, he's a puddle. When he drinks, I've never seen a guy turn into a puddle. So, to say the least, a bunch of us had a pretty good time. That's all you got, eh? Can you give us a crazy – a crazy i know you're stopping at a certain point now he's a pro scout and he's a part of come on and it's a tight-lipped

organization i i'm actually i'm not even being smart i'm trying to remember actually what kind of went on i think we oh now you're blaming ct no. Now you're blaming CTE. I wouldn't lie to you. No, I wouldn't lie. Yeah, CTE, yeah. You wearing a helmet right now or what? I might be blaming it soon enough. Not quite yet. You're wearing your buddy's helmet or you picked the helmet full of nickels?

Yeah, I do have it. I do have it with all the stuffing in it. So, hey, where do you live? I live in Wolfsburg. No it with all the stuffing in it. So, hey, where do you live? I live in Wilkes-Barre. No shit. The mayor never left town. Why would you? Yeah, no, it's quite a spot. Very good.

A lot of people. Very, very good to myself. I love that. I love that place. It has so much change. Would I not even really recognize it? I haven't been there in 10 years. Or is it still the same?

Yeah, no, it's still the same. But, you know, obviously it's built up. You know, just a lot of stores, a lot of new businesses around, for sure. First Wegmans I've ever been in. Wegmans is a hell of a store, too. Yeah, wicked. Hey, remember when you opened that cookie shop up? How's that doing?

Is that still going? That is gone. No more cookies? I opened it up. No, no more cookies. I got four or five doctors that came in and wanted to use my name. We opened it up and gave it a crack. But as anyone knows, it's a hard business.

The food business is very, very hard. I didn't know the food business was a tough one to get into. Yeah, it's a hard business the food business is very very hard and uh i don't know and it's all about tough one to get into yeah it's tough it wasn't easy to get easy to get into tough to last yeah not too easy to get out of yeah so it's not even all the product hey this keep that down hey you know what mark bergevin told me when I saw him? I saw him in Vancouver when I first years in the NHL. This is when I was in Arizona. And he goes, hey, dude.

He goes, how you doing? He goes, did you hear about Bones? And I'm like, no, what happened? And he's like, he got in an accident. And I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? And he goes, yeah, he swallowed the airbag. Yeah, and check and guess who told him that one yeah he has gained a few pounds yeah yeah i gained a couple absolutely when i retired i

retired from everything oh fuck why wouldn't you body was drinking drinking i bet did you no i have a couple here and there. Just a couple. Knee was bad, hands were bad, everything was bad. When I was in Wilkes-Barre, I think towards the end, you just had, I think, your first kid, maybe your second kid. Second, yep. Okay, your second. But we would go over to Bones' house sometimes for, like, dinners,

and you know when a kid, like, hits his head on the dresser or something, he'll cry and shit? Oh, yeah. Bones' kid would smoke his head off something and get up and look at the thing and give it the flinch and be like, fuck you. I was like, holy shit, this is hereditary. Your kids were tough as shit, man. You didn't need to be a helicopter mom around those things.

No. Yeah, they got that from their mother. Oh, yeah, right, Bones. You playing Mr. Modesty. Hey, they came out of the womb challenging Probert. Yeah. You're either going to break me or make me. Yeah, exactly.

And then they would bite off the umbilical cord like Hulkster. Yeah, the first day, he would bite off his own umbilical cord and rip it off and shake it down. He would throw it into the crowd where the nurses were. Like a bouquet at the wedding. Hey, tell me about your charity golf tournament,

Anakin Ish. That thing is an absolute gong show. I would avoid that thing at all costs because I know we've got four days of anxiety. Oh, yeah. We've had it for over 15 years. At least half a million bucks for charity. It's been great.

My cousin, Craig McDonald, my second cousin, and myself, it's called Bonny V. McDonald Ranks the Links. It's a great event. We have probably 300 at the dinner the night before, auction off a bunch of items, raise some money, and have a golf

tournament the next day. We usually have about 36 teams to a whole. It's busy. It's a pretty good the next day. We usually have about 36 teams to a hole. It's busy. It's a pretty good boost. They have a good time. Well, hey, Bones, listen, we can't thank you enough for coming on. It's been great chatting with you. I wonder if there's any shout-outs you want to give

to anyone. We're actually, you wouldn't believe it, pretty popular in Nova Scotia. We talked about the Liquor Dome recently, which people love. We appreciate you coming on. If you got any last things you want to say. No, I appreciate it, boys. You guys were

great people and great teammates. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it immensely. The worst part about retirement, I'm sure you'll agree, is not seeing guys like you every day when you're just fucking around from the time you walk into the rink to the time after. It's just a lot of fun that we miss.

So thanks a lot, man. Yeah. Yeah, I miss it immensely. I'll always want to play one more shift like the rest of you, I guess, the same thing, but that's the one thing I miss. I miss the guys. I miss the camaraderie. If it's getting on an airplane or getting on a bus with the boys,

it's something I'll always miss for sure. You said we're a couple good guys. I was going to say Whit fooled another one. This guy's pretty tricky over here. Yeah, he's tricky. Thanks for coming on. Hey, buddy, thank you for teaching me to scrap and to protect

my face. You fucking helped me carve out over 200 games not a big deal in the nhl awesome man awesome you deserve it you work hard good job see you bud huge thank you to dennis bomb you for coming on and uh man this guy had so many stories in the locker room uh dennis Bombie taught me how to fight, which obviously led to my NHL career and me making a couple bucks, playing in the show, eating filet mignon at 30,000 feet.

Not a big deal. But just a salt-of-the-earth guy. One fucking tough customer. And I don't think his record of most penalty minutes in pro hockey will ever be beat. unless somebody did pass it. I just know that there was no person better at making fun of themselves and just kind of like having such a loose personality that he would just chirp himself,

and that way he was allowed to chirp anyone else, and he could have done that if he wanted because he was so much tougher than anyone, but just so funny the way he would kind of give himself shit while long, then chirping other guys. And there's a reason that he played for so long. And the fact that, I mean,

biz you, you did, you did a tough job for a long time and he did it for like 10 more years. Right. Oh yeah. Like 12 more years. I mean, he,

he's had, uh, he had an incredible career that was not easy to do and not easy to kind of figure out how to get by every game, I'm sure. And if anyone's wondering how tough he was, go on YouTube and get stuck in a Dennis Bomby wormhole. Is that what they call them, wormholes, when you get, like, in the deep YouTube, like you end up watching 100 fights or something?

Rabbit hole. Rabbit hole. I knew fucking R.A. was going to know that. It was a hole. It was a hole. There's always those who find the hole somewhere. Yeah. They'll be coming at me because they fucked up on the Monopoly one.

They're going to get me on that one, but that's cool. I'm Monopoly. I was right, you fuckers. Kiss my ass. Speaking of Monopoly, man, how much longer before Conor McDavid has a Monopoly on all the points records in the NHL? Last Saturday night, he became the fifth fastest player in NHL history to get to 200 assists.

Some pretty good company he got there with. Wayne Gretzky, you ever heard of him? He was the first guy. Sidney Crosby, which, you ever hear of him? He was the second guy. Mario Lemieux III, Dale Howichuk, the only four guys to get to 200 assists quicker than McDavid. Ronnie Francis also did it before he got to

22, but took him a little longer. This kid, I mean, it seems like every week he's already surpassing or meeting these legends of the game with another record. Well, not a record, but just breaking these barriers. I know we've been talking about Ovechkin making a swipe at Gretzky's goal record, but

I mean, how soon before we start talking about McDavid making a chase at some of these records Gretzky has? Well, unfortunately, nobody will ever touch Gretzky's assist or points record. That's kind of just is what it is, unless the nets get bigger or something else crazy. I like how you didn't say goals. Oh, no, no, no. Goals is now in play, Wayne.

Goals is in play by that Russian savage, Dr. Pepper Common. But I watched, for me it was last night, Saturday night, I bet Edmonton against Tampa. Obviously they lost 6-3. That was another loser win. But that game was so entertaining. And Tampa, it made me very happy to have my future bet on them with the cup because they, I know we've talked about them, but Edmonton went up 2-1,

and that's right when my buddy – dude, my buddy took them plus 1.5 when they went up 2-1. I'm like, dude, like 550 to win 250. I don't get why you make that bet. I never understand the plus 1.5 bet. So, obviously, he ended up losing. But watching that game, McDavid, anytime he's on the ice, and Dreitzel, too, they're the only two – they have no scoring depth in Edmonton.

It's like if those two guys don't score, they're dead. And they were buzzing, but just Tampa, oh my god. Kucherov, his points lately, he's starting to catch fire. The last time I looked, he was five behind Rontanen. So that team, the way they played, I think

Kucherov had three or four breakaways. He buried one of them. Stamkos had two sick goals. So it was a fun game watching McDavid buzz around. When he's on the ice, it's electric. But that Tampa team is not to be fucked with. All right. I don't know how you feel about it.

I got that feeling Tampa's, they're getting too good too quick. I think they're peaking too early. I think they're peaking too early. I think they're peaking too early, man. Like we're before fucking Christmas right now, before All-Star break. I know, but Biz, I know you just said, all right, I need to come in. Peaking too early, I don't get it. What are you supposed to do? Not like win?

They're playing good, sound hockey and beating teams they're better than. It's not peaking if you're just doing your job and dummying teams. What's the other option, though? Right, Biz? You know what I mean? No, right, boys. I'm not saying it like it's a negative and that they shouldn't do it. I'm just saying is, like, how often do you see that team that's fucking just

humming through the season and then they just hum through playoffs? Tell me one time that that's happened, and especially a team that's been humming this early. Like, you look at, you know, you look at, like, some of those cups. Like, I mean, even like Boston's. Like, they didn't have – they weren't fucking that good early in the season. I think the last time a team did it was the Chicago Blackhawks when they, like, opened up the season winning, like, 20 straight games.

And they were – from start to finish that year, they were the best team. Right, but they started the season like that. Then there was a dip. Chicago, I think all the years they won, it lost seven in a row at some point. Maybe that'll happen at Tampa. Dude, the doldrums are coming. The January, February doldrums, they're coming.

That's what I'm saying. Yeah, maybe they can come out of that. You've got to look at another thing. Other than their goaltender, they've remained fairly healthy. We're talking about one injury away from fucking shaking the whole lineup up. And now lines are changing. Everything's out of rhythm. Yeah, things are going nice.

I just think they're going nice way too early. I wouldn't pick them to win the cup for that reason. And I'm just like weirdly superstitious like that. Well, you don't like taking monopolies? Because I think the only worry, we talk about the Central being the best division in the league, but the

Atlantic, I mean, Tampa and Toronto has kind of figured out the top of that division. Buffalo's had this incredible year shadow to Grinnelli and him being told to bet them and now he's number one fan in Buffalo, so good for you. And also, the B's, R.A.'s B's got Patrice Bergeron back. Took him

a while to score. Right when he gets back, first goal of the game, they go up 1-0. They beat the Preds, and the move was filthy. I don't know if people saw it. A little cutback in front of the net, but the play was made by our boy Charlie McAvoy. I don't know if you saw it. He's walking the line. Guy's coming at at him and he just throws this like perfect sauce packs to kind of open ice right in the right in the slot bergeron's coming in it was such a um if you don't

know hockey you wouldn't really think anything of it you're like oh you know bergeron just got in front great move but the play mcavoy made to have the poise at the blue line to just chuck a little baby sauce and it was flat tomato sauce it wasn little baby sauce. And it was flat tomato sauce. It wasn't chunky meat, business sauce. It was flat tomato and just perfect dish. So the Bruins getting him back and him scoring. And also Bergeron and Marsh and Marshawn are playing together. Then they got Pasternak and Crecce,

who's Crecce's caught fire since the Bergeron injury. So if they could ever get those two lines, as opposed to just being top heavy on the top line, look out for Boston. So the Atlantic division has surprisingly been way better than people thought. Yeah, man. Shout-out to our boy, Patty Bergeron, 300th career goal. His first game back from injury, he missed 16 games.

You would have never known it. He jumped right back in. He makes such a huge difference for that team. I mean, they played pretty well in his absence. They're still missing Char. But to insert him, I mean, I think he was playing at a hot level before he got hurt. I mean, I think he was playing at a hot level before he got hurt. I mean, he's definitely been outstanding.

And only five Bruins in history got more goals than him. So Patrice Bergeron does so much for that squad. I can't wait until they get Chara back. They're going to be a tough team to beat. And like you said, with McAvoy, I think his last two games have probably been the best two games he's played all season since he got back from injury. He dummies the Predators.

I remember he scored last year against them. Also, Biz, would you agree with me that I think Bergeron might be the last player in the NHL that anyone in the NHL would ever talk shit about? Do you know what I mean by that? I don't think there's one player who would ever talk shit like even chirp him on the ice because he like sid gets in the guy's grills and can kind of like why i rarely rarely i don't think i've ever noticed bergeron getting in like a scrum and and him like him like ian leperiere and marshawn or whatever or was that was that bergeron that he bit his finger oh that was bergeron yeah bergeron no it wasn't his finger. No, that was Bergeron. Yeah, Bergeron. No, it wasn't Ian.

It was Maxime, not Ian. Yeah, my bad. But either way, my point is, yeah, there's a bunch of superstars in the league that players know. You don't chirp out there. They're so good. It's like Joe Thornton. No one says shit to Joe Thornton. Yeah, but Bergeron's like just like the way he carries himself.

The referees don't even say shit to Joe Thornton. Like he can literally, like, you know You know when a younger guy, the puck gets dropped wrong by the ref, and then the younger centermen's laying in the official, and the official will start yelling back, and then the ref will come over and be like, you shut the fuck up or I'm going to dime you up. When Joe yells at these guys, they probably

fucking cry in between periods. It was like the story... Was it Zach Sortini, and he was chirping Sackick or something, and somebody on the bench was like..., and he was chirping Sackick or something, and somebody on the bench was like, what? Sean Avery was chirping Sackick, and Brett Hull said, do not talk to Mr. Sackick like that. Yes, yes.

That's almost Bergeron. If some young gun comes up and he's chirping Bergeron, the bench just looks like he just immediately gets sent down. They're like, hey, you're done. Bag's packed. Go ahead. Go in the locker room. You don't chirp Bergeron.

Get the fuck off our bench. You're going back to the Always Hungry League. Have fun down there. You can chirp anyone in that shitbag league. Yeah. Joe Thornton, Gordo used to tell me that the ref would basically purposely drop it on his side. And I was like, oh, would you lose it? Because Gordo would always snap on fucking face-off guys.

It was crazy. He abused them because that was his one job. Like, Gordo got paid $3 million a year by the Oilers to win face-offs. He was legitimately – So he ate shots for breakfast and lunch. Ate shots for breakfast, and he was a repairman for defensive zone face-offs. And I was like, oh, Gordo, did you snap? And he's like, no, man, it's Joe.

It's just like you're losing that draw. You look at Tippett and you're like, but Joe Thornton. I remember when I was at BU, shout out to Dad's Diner. What is that called? McGreevy's now, Grinnelly? Is that McGreevy's on Boylston? Yeah, I believe so. When I was at school, it was

Dad's Diner. We had the whole bottom room. It was Boston University's bar. We ripped that place up. But Fortin would be there because he was on the Bs. And I was like, oh man, Joe Thornton, this is unreal. And then people started telling me, dude, he's younger than most of the seniors on the team. You got to realize. I'm like, holy shit.

Joe could be on the Terriers right now. How many points could he get in college? He had the presence. Just a tall, good-looking, handsome guy who was always smiling. Shout out to a buddy of mine I won't mention, I think I told you guys this, not on the podcast. We'd be at the bar. And one time we were sitting there, I'm not going to say the name. And he just started like laughing and like hysterically in my face. As I was telling a story, I'm like, what are you doing? He's like, dude, dude, dude, just look at these girls.

They're looking over here. And when you laugh, they just want to be a part of it. So all of a sudden we'd be talking, we'd see some eyes. You'd be like, I know, I know. And then all of a sudden they're like, what are these guys laugh that we got to talk to these guys. So all you young studs out at the bar, just start laughing, just start being loud, laughing fellows. And all of a sudden you'll attract the crowd. Don't you worry. People want to be a part of fun. Hey, uh, biz, didn't you have something you want to talk about with payments to juniors in college? I guess the question I had, and I want to open it up to college and junior, well, they had a ruling recently that they're not going to pay their OHL athletes.

Rules have definitely changed since I was playing in the OHL. When I played in the OHL, for every year you played in the O, you would get a year of university paid for by the team. Also, we'd be paid $50 a week. If you had a vehicle there and you drove guys, you would get gas money. It wasn't a lot. Like, boys, I was making $50 a week then, and then you would get taxed $10 of it. And, you know, I would have two weeks and $80 to spend.

It wasn't great. Apparently, it's gotten a little bit better, and $80 to spend. It wasn't great. Apparently, it's gotten a little bit better, and they've made improvements as far as the amount of money guys are getting per week. Also, they're starting to pay for guys' summer training in the OHL. So you just bring in the receipt from your – so now you're getting a proper trainer. I believe they'll pay for some

supplements uh but considering what these some of these franchises in the ohl are making i thought that you know maybe paying them minimum wage and giving them more money is a bit extreme just for the simple fact that now here's why is because but i also think that they should be on the hook for college even if a player signs a pro contract because if a player signs a pro contract they lose all the the the money for school as soon as the day he signs that contract i'm saying there should be a five-year window where if you start using that university package because let's say you go play your entry-level contract and things just don't work out now you have the option to go back to school which is going to be paid for by the team which wit like that's good like you know nowadays like to go off to university it

might be 10 000 15 000 bucks a year like that's a lot you know you know i'm saying i mean in in the states it's even crazier like canada is not as expensive as college uh in college in the united states but but i like the fact that they have to pay for training i think that maybe they should pay them like 200 250 a week which is a reasonable amount of money because they're also giving their billets money who are feeding them so i don't think it's a situation where people should be like oh no fuck them like they're getting an opportunity to play hockey and like their equipment's paid for. And it's just like, right.

But it's also a business. And a lot of those teams are making money and their franchise values are through the roof. I think that there's a middle ground to be met as far as what they're going to get paid. I completely agree. I got a couple of thoughts on this subject. One, I'll go first to the United States part of it.

U.S. college hockey, where I think you're crazy if you don't play unless you're going to be like the first overall pick. So I got a full ride to BU, not a big deal. And if I wanted to go back and finish the one year I have left, or I left after my junior year, but I think I have like two years of school left. I was struggling. I can go back and my scholarship is still honored, okay? That makes total sense.

You were given a full scholarship that will forever be paid for. It didn't matter how much money you made. Didn't matter how many times you tapped it into the empty net. Cause it's Sid and Gino. It doesn't matter. They'd still pay for my school. It is a joke, an absolute joke that major junior,

if you sign a pro contract, they don't then cover your school. That is insane to me because plenty of guys go and try to give it a shot. That's great. But when it doesn't work out, you're telling me these kids can't go back to college after you said you'd pay for it. And I do think that they should make minimum wage. I know your points, Biz. I'll say that I don't think college hockey players should be paid. I think basketball and football college players should end up making something because they're making a ton of money for schools. Hockey's on a different level in the

NCAA. You're getting a full ride. You're making a ton of money for schools. Hockey's on a different level in the NCAA. You're getting a full ride. You're getting an education. I understand that. Junior hockey, dude, you're a pro, man. You play in the OHL, WHL, Quebec League. You are a professional athlete at that point. And for them not to be making, I mean, I like the training money biz.

I didn't know that. And I think the lawsuit's still going to try to get minimum wage. Is that over? Do we know? Has that already been settled? Well, that's why I brought it up because I believe that they ruled that they were not going to pay its players. Now, I don't officially know if it's over, but David Branch had released a statement.

Now, I'm a little confused as to why you think that college athletes shouldn't get paid. Maybe not more so hockey because I don't know how much money hockey's taking them. You're talking about the football side of side of things no they should i think they should i think the amount of money they're making in television and all that like you can word it however you want but like it's far more lucrative in ncaa yes they're giving them a great opportunity as well but like with the amount of rules like oh you can't sell merchandise with

your name on it like you can't sell it yourself. Why? Dude, no. And in hockey, hockey's very, it's not enormous in the NCAA. It's getting bigger. But if you play for Ohio State and you wear number 10 and there's 7,000 number 10 jerseys at Buckeye games, come on, dude. Whoever number 10 is, that kid is obviously good enough where people are buying his jerseys. Yeah, this kid may go to the NFL, but dude,

they have to figure that out because those kids are making way more money for their schools than a college hockey player or a college baseball player. Or even make it fair and spread it out over all the players, but all the merchandise being sold for that team and especially jersey sales

should be spread out amongst the players if you're gonna be the like oh it's not fair if one good player is getting all this money like what they do is they like he's the he's the i don't know right but but i but i'm i'm once again i always meet in the middle okay they're gonna use the excuse that it's not fair that he's gonna be making you know hundreds of thousands and the player he's playing next to is not making anything what i'm saying is why not just pool all the money in jersey sales and other merchandise with players numbers on them and divvy it up between the players where they're at least making let's say you know a couple hundred dollars a week or or a thousand dollars a month like these guys should get money so they can like some of them don't come from great families

and and they don't they don't have a fucking pot to piss in. And when all of a sudden the cafeteria is closed where the players have access to, they can't afford to go get something to eat, man. It's like, fuck off. They're an athlete. They need to fuel their body. No wonder they're taking big, like, envelopes of cash under the table.

I would too. Sure. The one issue I definitely agree with the players is when they're using their likeness. The numbers, different guys are going to wear different numbers. I know they're making money off the sales of the jerseys, but when you're talking about using a guy's actual face and his picture

and his name, and he's not getting a cut of that, that's the horseshit, man. That's the thing guys should be getting a cut out of. That's pretty much wrapped the junior talk. We're going to go to our second interview of the show right now. Daryl Bootland, I think this was a solo interview you had, right? It was, and he reached out on Instagram. Awesome guy, and he's got some crazy stories.

Unfortunately, I felt like he held back a little bit. And he's probably got to worry. I think he's obviously married now, and he's got some wear i think he's well he's obviously married now and he's got some kids so he's probably got some shit to worry about but this guy was like a a known savage back in the day like they had a cake for him on the bus in portland that had 500 on it because he got 500 notches when he's playing in the american hockey league so if he hears this and now he's getting divorced sorry buddy but at least he'd come back and tell the stories out in full yeah it happened before then.

It doesn't count. All right, without further ado, once again, let's go to Daryl Bootland. This interview is brought to you by Eagle Energy, the all-natural caffeine inhaler. It's awesome. We've been talking about it forever on this podcast. A great, great coffee replacement if you don't want to get gut rot or you just don't want to be dehydrating yourself. These all-natural caffeine inhalers are awesome.

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It's got an unbelievable taste to it. Eagle Energy. You can go to eagle.energy in order to purchase Biz20 promo code for 20% off. Of course, they always hand me the promo code. And if you do Biz21 promo code on the 21 Savage collaboration they just did, you'll save 21% on those if they haven't sold out by the time you listen to this ad.

So Eagle Energy, check them out on MyEagleEnergy on Instagram. Eagle.energy website, website. Great product. Biz20 promo code. 20% off. I don't even know how to introduce this guy to the fucking podcast, Grinnelli. This is going to be a one-on-one interview. Witt tapped out.

He said, I heard enough about this guy. I don't want to fucking interview him. He used to terrorize me in the Ontario Hockey League. Played one year with the Barry Colts and four with the Toronto St. Mike's Majors. This guy could do it all. He was a human piece of garbage on the ice.

Just over 100 penalty minutes three years in a row his last three years as a junior, but this guy could score 24, 32, and 41 tucks in his last three years a junior almost hit the 100 point plateau and then right into pro hockey it was it looks like a looks like a map on national treasures with uh nicholas kate this guy was fucking everywhere daryl brookman welcome to the sp and Chicklets podcast. Hey, thanks, pal. I appreciate it.

Holy shit, dude. I'm looking at your hockey DB and I mean, I might just let you talk like Terry or Ryan because you got to have some stories. Oh, I got a few, pal. I got a few good times, man. Wouldn't change it for the world, you know? Do you want to start out in junior and how you lasted four years at a private school in Toronto? You weren't going to class. Come on. Pretty proud to say that I was the first and many followed. And I joined Monsignor Percy Johnson at school in Rexdale. I had a friend the first day.

He got stabbed that night. He never came back to school. Itdale. I had a friend the first day. He got stabbed that night. He never came back to school. It was a great experience and best grades I ever got. So thanks, Mr. Brady. Wait, so they won't even let you go to the St. Michael's College school? Not even a sniff. I got

traded at the deadline with old Burt Templeton. And yeah, Newport Sports was the old agent and they knew what to say the nine player deal for keith and jefferson or dan i was i was actually the first one in the office to burt because i had a no trade clause what was burt templeton like i heard he was fucking nuts he was the only coach who used to sit at the back of the bus, so every player had to pass him. And he brought his wife on the road, didn't he?

Oh, yeah. If he played bad, you had to sit beside him. It was unreal. Would his wife make him cook meals and stuff and bring him on the bus? No, no, no. Just for him. So obviously you guys were doing the old cough and crack a beer going back then would you oh in front row with the old bussies i was every bus bussies best friend you gotta you gotta take care

of your bussies you know that minor pro yeah but you were you were a rookie that year in barry so you were probably sitting close to him right because it would it would basically be the reverse where the vets would sit next to the bus driver. Yeah, yeah. But I burned Daniel Kachuk pretty quick when we got locked in the old bus bathrooms. Remember those sweat boxes? Wait, wait. So you guys got initiated on the Barry Colts bus as rookies. So Templeton was watching all this.

He was right front row center. Oh, yeah. He moved to the front of the bus for the vets on that day. Okay, so he was a bit of a throwback. front row center. Oh yeah. He moved to the front of the bus for the vets on that day. Okay. So, so he was, he was a bit of a throwback. So he liked that kind of stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But old Danny Kachuk got drafted first round of Calgary and so did Rico Fata. And,

uh, you had to tell a joke to get out of the, out of the shitter. Right. And of course I piped up cause Fata made the team and, you know, Kachuk's girlfriend's in Calgary going to university because she thought he would make the team. Yeah, he wasn't my friend after that joke.

Oh, no, no, no. You made a comment. Yeah, that's not good. That's probably why you got killed. Oh, yeah. I wouldn't be surprised. Story of my life is Mouse is getting me in trouble, all we've thought.

What was playing for St. Mike's like in that small barn for four years? I had Matty Ellis. He was unknown in junior, but the Buffalo Sabres, Matty and I played four years together there, and then we ended up playing our first six years pro together. So we played 10 years together.

He's from my hometown, well in Ontario. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's an unbelievable human being. He's a class act. He's the type of guy you want on your – I mean, he played a long time in the American Hockey League. He ended up getting a decent amount of NHL games.

But just a great example for the young guys, does everything the right way. Oh. So the complete opposite of you. Yeah, well, that's the thing we were road roommates so i didn't last much longer in pro he's he's in bed at nine you know on a strict diet you're fucking sneaking in girls at 1 a.m yeah old jen's great great wife there and she uh she got rid of that one pretty quick it didn't. I think we had our first training camp in Traverse City together. Yeah, I don't know how many stories got out,

but that was the end of our hotel nights together. Oh, that's right. So you guys played junior, and you guys were both – well, you were drafted by Colorado, but did you get traded over to Detroit? Actually, old Jimmy DeVolano in toronto all the time back when i was an overager and uh he was maddie ellis signed his free agent and he was uh you know booty worked his magic and made sure he'd get more money if he didn't sign with colorado

after my overage year so he took care of me and yeah we actually ended started in Toledo together. And then we both made Grand Rapids the year after. And, yes, 10 years in a row with that guy. Tell him to call me when you see him, all right? Yeah, I think he's got 20 kids by now. I'm pretty sure he took Peter's job in Buffalo, no? I don't know. I have no idea. I don't know i have i have no idea i don't know how that i think he's doing player development there but uh yeah holy fuck dude you got the

giggles tonight hey you eat a couple animals before you came on or what i i i'm uh i'm running on two hours of sleep just watched four surgeries today uh it was security at the downtown orlando last night at the underground. Boys working hard, man. We're going to get into your post-game, your post-career stuff after all the fun stuff. Oh, for sure. So you started with the Detroit organization playing pro. You ended up playing 28 games total, but just talk about your time in Grand Rapids. That must have been a fucking awesome town to play in the American League.

Oh, it was, yeah, it was the first year after the IHL folded. So it was my first year in Grand Rapids. Well, it was the first year in Grand Rapids in the A, and obviously the relationship with Detroit and them, obviously. I mean, it's just a great spot. And Travis City, you get the training camp every year. You know, it's a great place. you know I grew grew to love Michigan it's a it's a part of me you know my brother's still there he uh he he ended in Kalamazoo and he's coached the the wings there for almost 10 years now you know yeah the bootlands are getting old buddy oh man well I

mean I'm with you but uh I want to read off your stat line in grand rapids in in the five seasons uh i guess well actually we'll do the four seasons uh 2003 2004 you had 54 games 12 goals two assists or no sorry yeah yeah 12 goals two assists and 175 penalty minutes the year after that you had 78 games played 14 goals 20 assists uh 336 penalty minutes 77 games a year after that 27 goals 29 assists 390 penalty minutes and then you finished off the year after that with 222 penalty minutes so you toned her down finally and that was in 68 so you were getting you were getting it done You were like the fucking perfect AHL player. You were chipping in offensively,

and you were just scrapping probably every other night. Yeah, it was good times, man. Well, you got Valtteri Filippula and Thomas Kulpeski as your line mates for actually almost the full season I was their line. You know, we were like the third line, too. Holy shit. You know, we got the scrubs was their line you know we were like the third line too holy you know we got the we got the scrubs and you know we'd have vanamir go fight all the heavyweights and i'd get the next toughest guy and you know the last he comes out so yeah i was uh so i mean it was like my college life i was 20 to 26 you know might have ran out of girls in grand rapids

and had to go visit my brother a few times. To Kalamazoo? Oh, yeah. I'd go up to the Seagate and watch him play there. Anywhere you go in Michigan, it's a good time. You were doing it with no Bumble or any of these date naps. It's not even fair.

It's not even fair. People thought I was an alcoholic. People thought I was an alcoholic because I had to go get girls at your alcoholic oh i won't because i had to go get girls at the bar i didn't know where else to go yeah it wasn't like i was drinking but i was wheeling yeah well trying anyway square wheels uh come on you play with i bet you i got you i got you i bet you do you probably got cauliflower oh married now but three kids now but oh yeah okay well there you go so you took a hey what was playing oh yeah yuri hudler like oh some of some of the funnest times of my life man he's uh he's a walking story that gentleman he uh he sure did it right, both on the ice and off.

I mean, he couldn't skate, looked like a penguin on the ice when he was skating, but he had four points or three points every night. And then, yeah, he's pretty big in Czech over there. He's in those magazines, the People of Czech magazine with the tennis star. Oh, yeah, he was a tennis star and, you you know the volleyball player and the actress and he'd be in all the you know and those he'd bring them over and show us it was us we had cron wall we had cron wall we had we were sick hey the last time i saw uh yuri hudler was uh at grand prix in montreal and he just popped his head in for one night and he looks like he he

looked like he'd been on a heater and we were at this place called it was like a supper club and he comes in he I think he ordered two or three bottles of champagne and then he just and then all of a sudden Houdini didn't put it on uh Teddy Purcell's tab Teddy actually wasn't as pissed as I thought he was I think it ended up being like a $1200 tab and then Teddy Purcell's classic line take a couple breaths he goes

just made it back my favorite one is you know he's probably in check now so I can tell this story but he had a friend from Rochester didn't speak a lick of English, getting arrested downtown Grand Rapids, and he comes up to me and he's like, I gotta go, I gotta go with him, I go, I go, I'm like, Huds, just stay out of it, stay out of it,

he doesn't speak English either, right, and sure enough, I turn around for two seconds, and he was taking a leak on a police officer's foot. Oh, God. Just so he could go with his buddies. They get so wasted. They get out of control wasted. It's going to be their last time to ever drink. That's how drunk they get.

That Russian sauce, and you mix those two things together, you go cuckoo. Oh, man. So, I mean, I don't even know where to go from here, man. You played a lot of places. I mean, what was your time in Austria like? You were there for, I mean, half a season it looks like in Salzburg, and then you were in Vienna for only four games.

I mean, then you probably ended up coming back here to the ECHL. Well, we had a good playoff run there. We ended up getting the semifinals in Vienna and frigging losing. We were up 3-0 and we lost four straight. And so we, but we just kind of went in at the end of the year for playoffs. But I mean, what a time, you know, it's not a little of a rink and you got the sniffles and they want to send you home. And it's not the bootland kind of game that I loved.

I remember my first game. I got a penalty and it said on the board and had me in a jail cell picture and it said, number 47, Darryl Bootham hitting too hard. Two minutes for hitting too hard. Oh, it's just weird over there. I mean, Austria, the fish are probably junk too, but it's just a different world as far as hockey. I'm not good with big circles.

Too big of ice for my legs. Oh, well, I went over and played in Cardiff. I noticed that, but it was a good way to stay in shape during the lockout. Your time in the ECHL must have been wild because I saw a bunch of clips from the Colorado Eagles. After games games you guys would do these weird celebrations on the ice and get the fans interacting and stuff you'd be doing doing the eagle dance on the ice correct oh yeah it was uh I mean I was the first time I ever did

it was kind of a joke just being dumb and I was messing with the radio guy and telling him to call to the eagle and he didn't believe I was gonna do it and sure enough i mean their fans are dancing every time and calling for it and after you know we had made the playoffs one year we did the whole team went down in the flying b we're flapping like eagles it's a different different atmosphere there man i'm i mean it's like you're in europe almost it's so loud and it's so exciting to play there like i mean it honestly it brang more career more years to my career just being there with that crowd like it was uh you know i still have very good friends from that from you know the all the eagles fan pages and stuff it's uh you really don't hear much about that fan base well probably because it was in the echl but now

they've moved up to the American League in the Western Division. They should start making some noise and get more headlines. Oh, I think so. That's a great place for hockey. I mean, someday we hope to move back up there. It is just an unbelievable atmosphere. The mountains and golf in February, and you can snowboard the next day. It's an amazing life out there I

would say if somebody you know held a gun to my head and said you have to live in one city the rest of your life and you can never move and or in the United States at least I think I would pick Denver oh yeah it's so clean there's they got a little bit of an underground music scene uh it's it's you get the most sunny well one of the most sunny days per capita i know calgary's up there too in north america but just a beautiful place to live booter do you smoke a lot of dope hi you know i got a couple bulging discs in the back and a little bit i look keen i'm kidding i hit a few uh i hit one uh one nice little bus ride little tour and you go back to a hotel and everything's edible in the whole entire place so your whole every meal you eat everywhere you go so my my buddies came from

canada of course we had to they wanted me to take me to a special spot and that's where we ended up but it was uh it's it's amazing how how well of a well-oiled machine that state is based on all the money and taxes they've been charging for the medical marijuana and i think it's recreational too uh but just like the amount of money that's going towards good shit there that that you know here is still they still haven't established it in arizona at least because it's not recreational the schools and the downtown that the counties that are actually selling it are are beautiful now they've read on all the stores for these people, like all the time. And you know,

the store owners paying 25%, like it's unbelievable. So it's, it's a great system. And I mean, I hope the rest of the world catches on. Cause obviously, you know,

look at Canada and beer and cigarettes. So, you know, Canada's not in debt because of that. You know, why wouldn't the States pick something up like that? But, you know,

it's an amazing state, man. But that crowd base, you ever get a chance to catch an HL game up there? I mean, it's a rocking building. Booter, I want to hear some wild stories from your time in the ECHL because we all know that those are the leagues where, like, the shit that happens, you're like, what the fuck? You're like, how is this even allowed to fly? Like, is there one story that pops out to you?

Well, more in the Central Hockey League, right? Because there's only 12 teams. Well, you played in Allen. Yeah, you play each other 14 times, and there's no rest on the ice, basically. So, yes. We had a guy get banned for life from the league. For doing what?

Old big penner alex penner he took out a guy's legs and everybody else started a line brawl and then he grabbed the same guy and i guess he just couldn't stop he was a little angry but uh yeah they kicked him out of the league man and then he went to play in the quebec league and they tried to stop that. Yeah. I mean, we called it the Circus Hockey League. I mean, I played against him. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I played against him when he was in Guelph.

Is he related to Andrew Penner? The goalie? Yeah. The goalie. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's his brother. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Did you see what he did in the CHL? Like, was it worth getting a lifetime? It's on YouTube. Yeah, my assistant coach from last year is John Snowden, and he's hanging over the boards, and his coach has got him by the collar. He's trying to get in and stop him because he knew Penner, right? Yeah, I mean, Penner's one of the nicest humans, greatest guy ever.

Wires crossed? Yeah, I just made a mistake that night, and, you know you know he had to pay for it it sucked because we missed him man fuck hey uh grinnell do you mind popping that video up and giving it a watch i want to hear your breakdown yeah it's like for fort worth brahmas alex penner or something brawl and when you're looking at it it's got the netting in front of it because they the league asked all the fans to post it on youtube because they wanted to see the angle of what happened they couldn't because it's a certain hockey league we only got one camera and it's some fat hey so give me a crazy uh chl story like like maybe like a bus breaking down or or something that happened where you the craziest pro hockey story you got.

I mean, coming home from Wilkes-Barre on the bus, I was with Portland actually in Pirates that year. So we couldn't get a sleeper in playoffs. And it was the semifinals. You know, we were up 3-1 or something like that. We ended up losing. We beat you. We beat you.

I was on that team. No, I saw you. You had a good press box, right? No. Yeah. I had a second-degree MCL sprain from the first round, and I was just coming back. I didn't end up playing another game.

Blame it on the back. That was a year. Baby. Alcohol. Always fun going to Wilkes-Barre. That's for sure sure I remember I had a night with Carcillo there I think I put my pants in his Hummer so what happened on the sleeper bus or the non-sleeper bus well so yeah we we get two buses right well we end up losing seven so you know being the nice eight-year veteran I was I made sure sure which guys got on which bus, right?

Oh, yeah. One's usually stacked to the ceiling with beer, and the other one's for all the ones who want kale salad and want to watch a movie. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we asked if we could smoke cigarettes on the bus there, and Bussie said, fine, yeah. And, you know, we came up after the cigarettes,

and the suitor, I went to Woodstock, bro. He's like, you better have some air freshener back there. That's what the bussy said? Yeah, yeah. I went to Woodstock, bro. So this guy's never seen a condom in his life. Oh, God. It was priceless.

Yeah, we got back into Portland and the other bus, everybody's getting off, waking up and we're wheeling off and beer cans are flying out the door. Oh, yeah. We had old Kevin Dineen there, Coach, and it was some good times. I played with a Denver guy the last couple years in Colorado, and he says, well, do you remember my first day of pro hockey? And I'm like, man, sorry, I don't remember mine, you know?

And he's like, well, I got called. I finished at school, and I came to your team in Portland there, and I came in the locker room, and you and Coach, they were yelling at each other. It was priceless. It was priceless. So, holy shit, your edibles are really kicking in now. Two hours of sleep, man.

I'm telling you. Hey, I've been waiting for this call all summer, man. What's the word? I've been waiting for this call all summer. Come on. Yeah, I know. No, you got the giggles. It's cool, man.

You like your own story. So do I. Hey, what are you doing now? Are you retired? Are you shutting it down? Cheater. I had to shut her down halfway through last year in Orlando. Yeah, the old back wouldn't hold up.

She had enough bulging discs in the back. And, you know, four surgeries later, I got a metal plate in my throat. You know, I can't feel my hands anymore. Yeah, luckily I haven't really had any, you know, concussion issues because, you know, I can't even tell you how many I've had. You know what I mean? Yeah, it doesn't sound like it at all. Yeah, exactly.

You know? So, don't go changing on me, Mox. Good reference with that varsity blues. Yeah. Love that shit. Billabob. Things change, Mox. You're the starting quarterback now.

Hey, big change, Max. You're the starting quarterback now. Hey, so you were talking about going through surgery or watching surgeries? Oh, so, yeah, recently my boy Adam Pino, old teammate of mine from the All-Americans, he's a Boston boy. He was pumped up. He listens to the show all the time. Oh, fuck people who listen will be jerking off to that.

You've got a real Boston following. That's awesome, yeah. Well, him and Jimmy Sherrill are down here right now. So they both live out in the Daytona Beach area, and I'm in just North Orlando. So got snuck into a couple surgeries the last two weeks trying to just work with him. You look like you would live in the state of Florida.

Oh, yeah. I know. It's not a bad spot, man. You look like you're part of a NASCAR booster club. I went to Daytona, man. Brought Alan Boynton up there. You know Alan Boynton? You remember him?

I don't know, but Bud. Pro sports concierge.. Pro sports concierge. He does sports concierge. There's a lot of shady shit going on in the state of Florida, is there not? You can't even turn the news on, man. It's nuts down here. What's the biggest problem going down in Florida right now? Oh, man.

A guy got shot yesterday downtown Orlando. Another guy got shot up. It's nuts here, man. When you hear all the serial killers, where do they get caught? They're from Florida, man. Yeah, it's true.

You guys are getting a high batting average of serial killers. Jesus Christ. Isn't it crazy? Because you're Canadian. Like, what's it? Oh, yeah. Fuck, man. It's a war zone.

You hear about, even in Arizona, you hear about people getting into it. Road rage. One guy will just pull a gun and pop somebody. Oh, yeah. They do the fight on barstools. Two guys got out at the toll booth and just went toe-to-toe. It's A. It's like if you don't get a courtesy wave

here you're going to get capped yeah if you don't fight a guy at the football game you're not normal I guess you don't get the courtesy wave you look down you get a red dot on your chest yeah always on the lookout man you got to get that gun license

have you ever eaten alligator or anything like that oh yeah i tried it all my wife's from texas so she loves that cajun stuff we go down and you know her family's got the crawfish bowls and i mean i've you know kind of fished for everything around here already and bobby yeah oh yeah that's my wife yeah eating squirrel you're eating squirrel you can do it boots anything else you wanted to tell on on the pod i mean people people are gonna be like who's this guy and then they're gonna be like oh you're gonna be the first person on hockey db when uh you're gonna be rated number one because everyone's going to be like,

who the fuck is this guy? Oh, I love it. Give me some Instagram followers, buddy. I got to sell some stuff. Oh, really?

What are you, oh, what are you trying to sell? Oh, I've been selling diamonds now for about six years. I got a buddy that works at a dollar.

Who the fuck would buy a diamond off you? Hey, some East Coast hockey players got some very beautiful hey i sold i sold rings to the eagles owner man sell it all that's why you got probably probably yeah he sent his goons after you he wouldn't he wouldn't give me the ring deal on the on the championship rings selling the guy rings for three years.

You're in Colorado, won the championship, and you try to sell the rings to the owner for the fucking rings. 100%. Can you imagine that commission? Can you imagine that commission? Oh, yeah, baby. JP Valk, JP Valk, Diamonds Incorporated, biz. Let me know when you're ready to tie the knot.

I'll get you a ring of cough. We'll sell you a couple of ad reads on here. There you go. And never hear from you again when it's time to get the bill cleared up. I'll send it in the mail, man. Your Instagram will be on private or never existed. Hey, so you talked about the knee replacement stuff too. Are you dabbling in that?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's what Adam does. Yeah, we're with Dupuis. And, I mean, we were right in the surgery. I watched four hip surgeries today. I kind of look around sometimes and wonder what the heck I'm doing in there. But, you know, it's all who you know, right? I told you I could sell anything, brother.

Well, I mean, yeah, especially if it's legit, unlike these diamonds. Yeah, for real. 100%. Look them up. I'm telling you. J.P. Volk, Diamonds Incorporated. All right. My boss, they're working with him.

I met him. He's from Calgary, and he lives in Dallas now. So I met him playing shinny hockey and told him I'd be his muscle. I'd deliver for him. So that's what I did for when I, after practice, you know, when you got three kids in Central Hockey League, you know, you need other ways to work it. I did it all.

How does it work? How does it work for you vets? What do they do? They pay you cash and then they pay your mortgage? Yeah. Yeah. Well, just during the season, right? So did you buy a place in Colorado while you were there and they would pay the mortgage on it? Yeah, yeah, well, just during the season, right? So did you buy a place in Colorado while you were there

and they would pay the mortgage on it? Yeah, right, buy a garbage can for $100,000. It's like New York up there. Oh, really, where you were in Colorado? Yeah, oh, yeah, we were just in the Fort Collins area in Windsor, Colorado, and it's crazy, man. Yeah, we were trying to get a spot for the whole time I was there, and it's wild.

Were you smart with your money? Because, I mean, you played a long time. I'm not going to lie to you, brother. I didn't know my kids or my wife, you know, when I was 20 to 28, and I partied like I was Kid Rock. So, you know, now I'm a working man. Signing bonus up your nose or what? Oh, no, not that bad.

I was smarter than that. But, yeah, I had a condo up in Ontario for a while, you know, got into the jet ski. Oh, yeah, now you're a realtor too. Yeah, went into the Harley after that. And then, yeah, so now flowed down a lot, pal, yeah. Three kids now, beautiful wife from Texas, been married eight years. That's awesome.

Two little girls, two little girls praying for lesbian hockey players like every other man. Yeah, yeah. Oh, whoa, did you see lesbian hockey players? Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, 100%. What's the statistics on that? Do you know if there's an actual stat on that? I dated a University of Guelph gopher, I believe they're called.

I dated one there, and she told me there was two straight girls on the team. Oh, two? Only two? Only two straight and two that shaved, she said. Yeah. It's so awesome, though. I mean, you're probably liberal just like me. It's kind of nice that they can just come out and enjoy themselves and not have to worry about walking around in society judging them eh oh i have more fun on sunday nights downtown orlando when i'm working

you know right there's a big gay population there yeah just flaming sunday nights and it's uh it's hilarious man they're all good people i you know as long as they're not touching me i don't give a shit what they do you just gotta be i mean yeah i mean that goes for anyone right even even if you're not homosexual but uh one of the funnest nights i've ever had in vancouver was during gay pride parade on a sunday night it's a place called celebrities fuck do they know how to have a good time. They do, man. They know how to party better than anyone. They're just having a – no, they're not judging anyone.

They're just fucking there having a blast. I walked out like a Sunday morning downtown Montreal when we were like 17, my boys and I, Bradford crew, and we walked out. We were right in the middle of the Gay Pride Parade. I mean, we rocked it. We rocked it. Had a blast, you know? I'm an exit-only guy, but they can tell, right?

Oh, for sure. I'm so happy that society is where it's at now with that, and people are a lot more open-minded. But, hey, Boots, anything else you want to say before you go, man? I love chatting with you, buddy. Well, I wanted to rebuttal on the old Brad Mayday story. Remember the guy who talked about he hammered Zetterberg in the next fishing game.

Well, I was the one that Babcock kicked in the back and sent him on the ice. Oh, you played for Babs? Yeah, yeah. One year with Babs and I had Dave Lewis the other years. Okay. So what were your thoughts? Listen, I've never had a bad experience with Babs.

He takes a little bit of heat on this podcast. Commodore wasn't a big fan of him. Sopal had some harsh words for him, just about one situation in particular. What was your assessment? I mean, I got called up at the end of the year to let the big dogs rest for a bit and walked in the training room. And I was six years, obviously, at that point. And I was on the training table.

I never talked to him. It was the only thing we've ever said to each other. And he walks in, he looks at me, and he goes, did you just get called up? And I was like, yes, sir. And he said, what the hell are you doing on the training table? I said, well, Babs, six years in the minors is 12 years in the show. Didn't you know that?

And, you know, just being dumb myself, just first thing that comes to my head. And, you know, he giggled a bit and he walked out and the whole room like stopped. Like someone, you know, everybody's just looking at him like, what's going on? You know, they're like, you made him laugh. Like, you know, so I like, you made him laugh. Like, you're all shocked, you know? So I don't know much about him. I just, obviously, he's a very intelligent man. Oh, yeah.

He's a very talky mind. Yeah, for sure. I mean, he comes from a good background and, you know, he's got pride in his hometown. I got to respect that. You know, I got to respect for all you big dogs, man. I worked at, you know, when you start at the top and then you go to the bottom, you realize uh what you guys put into it oh i'm proud of you bro

oh i appreciate that it's unreal it's unreal man you know what i'm gonna say is is i wouldn't change the way my career went for anything i i love that i got to spend time in the echl and at the time i was bitter because i thought I deserved to be in the AHL. But looking back, man, those are some of my funnest stories. Like our buses breaking down and us having to swap buses with the booster club just to get in time, just to get to the game on time, to fucking throw on our gear and go right into the game. Like shit like that, man.

And like you said, it's like double the time because you're not flying around eating filet mignon oh yeah yeah my first year pro you know i come in big free agent signing for the red wings think i'm you know catch me out i get sent down to toledo and i pulled into the back of the rink and it was the oldest rink at pro hockey at the time the portable was the team office in the back of the rink i pulled up in in my brand new, I was like 2002 Denali, you know, Bayou, smart guy. And I pull up and I started crying. I thought that my life was over.

You know, I was crying because I'm looking at this portable. Like, I got to play hockey in this shit box. Oh, you're talking about Toledo? Sports Arena, yeah. Oh, buddy, I played in Toledo. So I played with the Wheeling Nailers, and we would go there. Grinnell, they had like the second Zamboni ever made.

This thing would break down every single time we played there. How old was that fucking thing, Booter? Man, it was Maple Leaf Gardens was older, I guess they said. But then when Maple Leaf Gardens was gone, that was the oldest one. It would break down every single time we'd play there, so we'd always have delays. Grinnell, you had to walk through the concourse, upstairs into the crowd, and then down to the bench,

and you were basically sitting beside civilians, and there used to be this guy there with a megaphone, and he used to lay into me every game. But at that time, I was dominant in the ECHL, not a big deal. Big time. Big time also. I'm not sure if that's a good thing. Did the ECHL, not a big deal. Big time. Big time also. I'm not sure if that's a good thing. Did they get big props there?

Oh, yeah. It was the thing to do. It's Toledo. What else are you going to do? Yeah. Man, I would hold guys up to the glass. The glass was half in the middle of the rink. The glass –

When you went down the boards, you would tap the fans and then tap your bench right after you scored. Well, I would grab guys when I was fighting them, and I'd put them up against the glass, and the fans would sucker them in the back of the head for me. Yeah, that's the type of shit that was going on, G. So, like he said, when I was standing up on the ice, the top of my head was where the top of the glass was,

in the neutral zone and into the zone a little bit. And this guy had a megaphone, and he used to lay into me. And finally, when I was sitting on the other bench one game and he kept going at me, I go, is that your girlfriend? He goes, yeah.

And I said, I wouldn't fuck him with that guy's dick and pointed to another guy who was like a big fat guy in the crowd. And like everyone in the section just went, and my coach was like, all right, biz, that's enough.

And, like, everyone in the section just went, and my coach was like, all right, Biz, that's enough. This guy didn't say one more thing out of that megaphone the rest of the game. I had Claude Noel that year. Because the girl was – it was so rude because I would never say that 2018. I just – boiling point. I'd be in the penalty box. People would be coming over, like, telling me how big of a piece of shit I was

and how they bent my old lady over. And, like, face to face. Because I told him to say that yeah well probably probably anyway we had claude noel there that year as a coach i remember carrying him off the bus on the sleeper bus and down in pensacola florida i mean it was the best year of my life no the stories from the echl well you said the CHL stories were better but you haven't really told one that's better so I don't know I think you're kind of I don't know if you've heard of the legend Steve Martinson

no I haven't so let our fans know Steve Martinson I played in the show he holds the record for most fights in a year in the AHL he's old school man how many? he's nuts I think he was like in the AHL. He's old school, man. How many? He's nuts.

I think he was like in the 50s, man. Oh, man. 900%. Yeah, he's over 50. I had back-to-back 30 fight AHL seasons, and that was hell. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You can't believe it. You're telling me this guy did 50.

I think it, yeah. I don't want to go over it, but I want to say it's 62, I think. Hey, his hockey fights page looks like your hockey DB. Yeah, yeah. Well, I've seen him knock out a coffee machine on a road bus. Six in the morning, he knocked out the coffee machine. Hey, did you even unpack your suitcases when you played pro or what? I mean, I learned from Eddie Campbell, the Campbell family, man.

They just bring your toothbrush in your suit pocket, right? I don't know. You tell me. Fuck. That sounds like the type of line of a Canadian that would find his home in Florida. Shelburne, Ontario, buddy. You want to go back to that town? There's only 3,200 people there when I grew up.

I was there in Downey. I would say that that place makes wherever you're living in Florida look like it's Beverly Hills. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Pretty much. Booter, thank you for coming on. Hopefully the next time that the other two can join us.

But this is fun. For sure. For sure, man. Yeah, I got some Boston stories for the boys. Hey, and on a serious note, get some fucking sleep, dude, because if you talk like this every day, man. Oh, no, I'm going to bed, bud. You sound like someone who belongs to live in the state of Florida.

Tomorrow. What happens in Florida stays here, bud. All right, buddy. Good seeing you. All right. Appreciate you. Once again, thank you to Daryl Bootland for coming on. You know, a great guy, fun, a lot of jungle stories, and even –

what would you call the the echl the tropical rainforest if if uh hl is easy to come hard to leave cheese toast league yeah but it's got to have like a like an exotic place name the sahara because there's everything's dried up the money the fucking any anything of relevance what's the the place? Siberia. Is that tropical? No, that's hell. But alright, we got some

hockey news. Yeah, a little bit of maintenance here to keep people up to date on injuries, suspensions, whatnot. What's his name? Zach Hyman, Toronto Maple Leafs. He's going to be out at least three weeks with a sprained ankle after he hurt it Thursday night versus New Jersey. Tyler Ennis broke his ankle last night versus the Rangers. He's going to be out for a significant time.

A couple of forwards missing from the Leafs, probably going to bring up someone from the A. In Minnesota, Matt Dumba is going to be out for a, quote, a significant time, end quote, due to an upper body injury that's going to require surgery. This is probably the wrong kind of chicklets bump. I know, Biz, we were talking about abusive officials. Maybe

Ivan Provorov was listening a little too much. He got a penalty the other day and on his way to the box, he gave the linesman, Ryan Daisy, a little bit of a shove. He only got a 10 minute misconduct. He apologized after the game. He actually called the linesman again the next day to apologize again.

So there's going to be nothing further there. Linesman's like, hey, dude, you're kind of like stalking me a little bit now. Yeah. You stop calling me like my wife thinks I'm cheating on her. And Eric Carlson, a guy who's not known for really getting in trouble, he's got a phone hearing today with the Department of Player Safety, not to be confused with the Department of Podcast Safety. He's got a phone hearing today from the legal check to the head

of Los Angeles' Austin Wagner. Basically, it was similar to the hit that Tampa's Danik Martel threw at Vancouver's Troy Stetcher last week. Guy got hurt. It looked like he was trying to come and get him from the side, but Carlson might have got his head first. The head might have been the principal point of contact. Wagner did struggle to the bench, was forced to leave the game. So

Carlson might be looking at a fine. We'll know a little bit later today. So that's really about it going on around the league. Our buddy, our world junior slash college expert, Mikey Grinelli. He's got some hot takes on the world junior, right brother? Not necessarily hot takes, but

give you a little preview. There's two big names, boys, heading into this World Juniors. And Jack Hughes, we've talked about him, 2019 potential top overall pick. I mean, he's probably the consensus. And actually, now we have 2020 top overall pick, likely top overall pick, Alexis Lafreniere, who's going to play for Canada. Lafreniere was actually – he was originally told that if everyone was healthy enough to play, he would not be sent to the World Juniors, being that he's 17.

The LA Kings just announced that Gabe Velarde would not be available for the tournament. So now the 17-year-old, he's poised to be the ninth youngest player to ever shoot up for Canada at the World Juniors. Boys, here are the other 17-year-olds that have played for Canada at the World Juniors. Shout out to are the other 17-year-olds that have played for Canada at the World Juniors. Shout out to Barstool Jory for pointing this out. Wayne Gretzky, Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Eric Lindros,

Paul Correa, Jason Spezza, Jay Bollmeister, and Mike Ricci. And now we have Alexis Lafayette. Mike Ricci, dude, remember his snout? But apparently he was like a sex symbol in San Jose. Yeah, he got voted sexiest guy in the state of Colorado. Oh, it's Colorado? Colorado. And he makes your nose look like Michael Jackson's

before he hit the can, dude. Like, he's a snout. We have this weird relationship, in a sense, where I never played with him or do i know him but when we like met each other for the first time he just had this like big grin like what's up biz and like like now when we see him we're like we're like boys and it's like kind of like i wear it like a fucking badge of honor because he's fucking the man yeah and he's still with the st louis organization so he i actually saw him after right after that my last game where I blew my other ACL,

where my career was over. And he came over right where both rooms were. And he's just like, hey, fuck, hopefully it's not too bad. Good luck, dude. And that was one of the memories I had of my last game was running into him afterward. Well, one of the memories I have of some of my favorite is World Junior. So I love this time of year. I think

the best most NHL guys too. I mean, you just get into it. At some point, USA plays Canada. Everyone's got action on that within the locker rooms. It's just kind of a joke. I understand why it's in Canada because they sell out every rank, but God, it gives them a little home ice advantage

of the crowd buzzing. So I think that tournament's going to be a lot of fun to watch. I hope Hughes just lights it. Yeah, I was going to mention Jack Hughes. I mean, this kid is going to be a stud. I mean, he led the U17 World Junior team to a gold medal last year, and he's actually going to

be playing alongside his brother, who was the seventh overall pick for the Vancouver Canucks, Quinn Hughes, probably one of the top defensemen in college hockey, probably outside of Kale Maker. But he's a little smaller, puck-moving defenseman, snaps him tape-to-tape, as Witt says. But this USA team is pretty good, boys. I mean, Canada hasn't gone back-to-back since, like, 2010.

So it's been a while. So Canada's going to be buzzing. But I really like this USA team this year. What are the odds? They haven't come out yet because the rosters aren't finalized. So once the rosters are finalized, I'll have a blog on all that. I know, like you just said, we don't have the odds yet, Mikey, but do you have any sleepers that you might be looking at?

I know you're going to be loading up on the USA, but any, any teams that, you know, might be worth a nibble here or there. So I thought I was thinking Russia just because last year was the first time that Russia didn't place in like seven years, seven, eight years. Russia didn't place at all, didn't even get a medal. I was thinking Russia, but then I looked at their roster and you don't really know any of the names on the roster. Usually Russia has a couple of guys where you're like, oh, he's going to be a top overall

pick. He's at least going to be top 10 or just some like nasty kid in the KHL. But no, I would say maybe Sweden. all pick he's at least going to be top 10 or just some some like nasty kid in the khl but no i i would say maybe maybe sweden uh sweden's always sweden's always got their money you know loaded and then finland i mean finland ever since that 2016 finland team i mean that was like the best finland team i've ever seen i mean that was they had uh i mean it was patrick line a miko ranting and sebastian aho uh casper cappin and Ole Huvalov, however the fuck you say it. I mean, I like Finland as well, but I really like USA this year.

How about Grinelli bringing the hockey talk? Holy shit, I might lose my job. Bobby McGrinelli. I think the Russians need more players with Harry Knuckles. They got plenty of them. They got with Harry Knuckles. They got plenty of them. They got plenty of them. Oh, hey, boy. So Harry Knuckles, I saw him yesterday, and he listened to the pod

because obviously people have been telling him. And apparently it's been going to his head a little bit around the fucking locker room. No. Yeah, now he's showtime now, man. Harry Knuckles. He's got his fingers off a little bit more. Oh, yeah. He's fucking, man. Harry Knuckles. He's got his fingers off a little bit more. Oh, yeah.

He's fucking grooming his knuckles and shit. Just half-assing the knuckles now. He's showtime. Harry Knuckles is showtime. He makes an appointment for the hair restoration. The guy's like, let me see your hair. He's like, no, no. He just sticks his knuckles in his face.

He's like, can we get these hair here? The guy's like, get out of my face right now. Go back. Fuck. All right, boys. On that note, we're going to take it to our third and final interview of the show. Jamie Rivers, longtime player for the St. Louis Blues. I know he played for Peoria for a few years back when the league,

I'm sorry, the IHL, AHL, and NHL were full of face punches. So he definitely had a few scraps back in the day. So now I'm going to take it to Jamie Rivers. This interview is brought to you by Herbal Active, the all-natural, 100% hemp-based CBD product I've been using. I use the drops, which are for mental clarity. Personally, right now, I'm using the Level 3. Mikey Grinelli, our producer, has been using it.

All the rest of the guys have been using it. I've started becoming more active now that i'm retired i'm getting back in the gym uh my muscles are sore my joints are sore because i'm fucking old and worn down i have horrible knees i rub the balm on my legs constantly uh there's a hundred milligram version there's an extra strong version that's 200 milligrams. The bomb is incredible. It is an amazing product. They also have dog treats for dogs that are common with having seizures. They help with that. They help chill the dogs out with obviously separation anxiety when you leave the house. They have mints for situational purposes. Like when you're flying herbal active.com, uh, you can find them at herbal active on Instagram. Ask them also on Twitter,

any questions you have about this product. I had somebody asking the other day about, uh, um, what's the gout, whether it helps gout. I don't know the answer to that, but the owners of the company, if you message them, will. And any other health benefits it may be able to provide you, ask them and they will let you know. It's helped out me a ton with mental clarity, helped out with my anxiety and depression a little bit. And I mentioned the bomb already.

So Herbal Active, herbalactive.com. Check it out. Biz20 promo code, of course, 20% off. Enjoy this product. Love you guys. And now it's our pleasure to welcome to the show a longtime NHL veteran, played defense for a number of teams, including St. Louis, Ottawa, Florida, Detroit. Jamie Rivers, welcome to the podcast, man.

What's up, boys? I'm wicked pumped to be on here. I guess you are a listener. So where are you these days, boys? I'm wicked pumped to be on here. I guess you are a listener. So where are you these days, Jamie? Where are you living these days? Home for me is St. Louis right now, until they kick me out of here anyways. St. Louis seems to be one of those places, man, where all the former players stay. None of them ever leave. It seems like they all make their homes there.

You know what? It's an unbelievable hockey town. And what happens is it's a big little town type thing. And the hockey community is pretty tight. And so when you're a player here, it's amazing your relationships that you can make with people who are from the city. And so you guys know with biz, like once you're done with the game, like you really, unless you've made some connections, then you're just sort of sitting there with your thumb up your ass.

And so to come back here was a great opportunity for me. My wife's from here. Obviously my kids are born here in St. Louis. So a lot of opportunities for me to keep doing stuff away from the game after I was all done and washed up. Riz, yeah, a lot of the retired guys go back there. Like Arizona now, that's why the kids are coming up and they're starting to produce some NHL talent.

I know Arizona's not quite where they are yet, but you get all these guys retiring here. Well, they're coaching their kids and their friends. So the talent's going to keep getting better and better with that kind of coaching. Yeah, it's been crazy. And, you know, I talked to a couple of guys that are down in the Arizona area, and, you know, they're probably like 10 years from where, like,

St. Louis is now. And, you know, guys like Big Walt, I know he's one of your guys you had on, good friend of mine. But, you know, when he retired, he started coaching. Jeff Brown, former player, he was coaching. Basil McRae, a lot of guys got into coaching here. And it really accelerated the development of the kids around here. So, yeah, I mean, Arizona's obviously with guys like Austin Matthews

coming out of there. It's pretty impressive to see what they're doing down there as well. Well, Jamie, looking at your career here, I know one and you you you were in the nhl about 800 games and on paper you only played 454 so that tells me that that tells me one thing you were a fucking great guy because they kept you around a long time even though you were playing so let's hear some of these stories buddy i know there's got to be a bunch in there yeah my middle name was healthy scratch i mean i tried to avoid the coaches after pre-game skate like they had herpes i'm telling you yeah they come by give me the tap and then i'd have to go put on my fucking lance armstrong outfit and get on the bike i mean it was uh no it was a good run uh played for obviously a

lot of teams r.a ran out of breath trying to name off the teams that i played for that's like being on a podcast with r.a but uh yeah biz did you know that i played in arizona uh i uh i mean i'm looking at your hockey d and there's not many teams that didn't play for you, fucking suitcase. The funny thing is, I actually that year, like, long story short, Gretzky had – I played with Gretzky here in St. Louis when he got traded here for that cup of coffee. And he was an awesome guy and got to know him. I was, like, really young. I him i was like really young i think i was

like 19 or 20 at the time and you know you're just fucking enamored to be with the great one let alone playing with him and so good relationship that kind of over the years got better and better and through brett hull who's a mutual friend of ours lo and behold behold, I end up where... Yeah, no big deal, eh, boys? Not a big deal. Heard of him. Rivers, Ritz, and Hall. What's wrong in those three words? Exactly, right?

Trust me. One's a party planning liaison. Dude, I'm telling you, that's what it was pretty much. It was my job to be like the cruise director. I was like the Julie McCoy from Love Boat. You were coughing every time so they could open their beer in the back of the bus. No, what happened was I would take the beer, open it for them, be the sacrificial lamb, and then hand it to them.

So every time the coach looked back, it'd be me the one holding the beer. Perfect. sacrificial lamb and then hand it to him so every time the coach looked back it'd be me the one holding the beer perfect but uh i was in detroit and uh things weren't working out with with me and mr babcock at the time and so i kind of asked kenny holland to get a trade out of there and it just wasn't really materializing until trade deadline day. And then on trade deadline day, I was supposed to play that night. And, you know, I get the tap on the shoulder. Hey, change of plans, get a little extra today. And, like, at that point, it's just a kick in the nuts. I mean, I'd been healthy scratched a bunch that year already. And it was just one of those days.

And Stevie Y happened to be coming back from an injury. And so he's like, come on, let's just go grab a skate, you know, like kind of shrug it off. And for whatever reason, I couldn't shrug it off that day. And I remember assistant coach Paul McClain was skating us, and he's yelling at us the whole time and just rubbing me the wrong way. And then, you know, Coach Babs comes out and pokes his head out from the runway at Joe Lewis and kind of looks like to make sure that I'm touching the boards

or getting my foot across the line, basically making sure I'm skating hard enough. And that was like the last straw for me that day. So as soon as he tucked or stuck down back the tunnel i grabbed a puck and just fired one into the bench now not necessarily at him now it wasn't necessarily not at him but in that direction and that thing rattled around on the bench and off the glass and uh he poked his head back out and didn't look very happy about it. And about two hours later, I was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes at the time. And Gretz had talked to Holly a little bit,

and Barry Smith was there from when I was in Detroit before. So it was kind of a good fit. Is that when you turned into Darth Vader? Yeah. Pretty much, yeah. But I got traded like a half hour before the deadline. And I remember my wife and my kids, I had newborn twin boys, and my oldest daughter was in kindergarten.

And I'm trying to get my shit together and grab the kids and I'm on my way to the airport which you guys know the airport in Detroit's like 45 minutes away from anything and you know Gretz wants me in the lineup that night in Columbus so TSN is calling me on the phone while I'm driving the kids are crying in the background my brother's trying to beep in because he sees my picture on the thing on I'm driving the kids are crying in the background my brother's trying to beep in because he sees my picture on the thing on TSN and they're trying to talk to me and they can't even get a word in because I can't hear squat kids are going nuts and then we get to the airport there's no way I'm making game time for this at all but I fly into Columbus

and when I land there's a guy that looks like he's pissed off to see me. I forget what he, he might even still be there. I think his last name's O'Neal. He's like the security guy. Yeah. Yeah. Him. He's waiting there and he's like, let's go grab your bags. I'm like, okay. Like, I think we're just going to the rink. He's like, no, he's like, we only have five defensemen. You're, you're going to the lineup. I'm like, okay, like, I think we're just going to the rink. He's like, no. He's like, we only have five defensemen. You're going to the lineup. I'm like, Jim, the game's starting right now. He's like, yeah, it doesn't matter. Wayne wants you to play.

So I'm like, holy shit. So we get in the car, and obviously this is the power of the great one. I've got a police escort. First time in my life where I didn't break the law that I had a police escort, one cop car in front of me, one cop car behind, and they're whizzing through Columbus to get me to the game. And I'm like, guys, you realize I've been a healthy scratch half the year. Like, I'm really not this important.

But I guess they wanted me in the lineup. How were you? Well, that's where it gets funny. As we get there, and Stan, the the man is trying to sew my jersey together and grab me some gear and a pair of pants. And I didn't have any gloves, so I had to wear the bright red gloves from the Red Wings that I had. And then the NHL, a different team's glove.

Oh, God. It was awesome. I wouldn't even do that in the post. Having a coffee. It was awesome. I won't even do that. Having a coffee. Barry Smith is trying to, like, come and see me at the first or second TV timeout.

And he's like, are you ready to go? I'm like, I'm drinking a coffee. I think I'll be ready to go. Then the next TV timeout comes and Wayne comes down, a little hallway in Columbus, and says, let's fucking go. So apart from Shane Doan and Tyson Nash, I had never met anybody on that team before, like in person. And so I'm coming out to the bench and I'm like glove off,

like shaking hands with guys, you know, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Barry Smith was like, get the fuck on the ice and warm up. So now I got to pull a whole, like a complete bender move where I'm jumping on the ice and literally almost doing side boards in the middle of a TV timeout just to get warmed up. What's so funny about it?

I literally fucking did that every game. Are you saying that's a bad thing? I'm in the same boat, buddy. I feel your pain. You think you're better than me because you won't do boards to boards every game? Well, I think I'm better than you because I can cross over. Yeah, well, fuck. Well, then you got me there.

That's why I would go boards to boards. I wasn't fucking doing loser laps. Straight ahead fast. Hey, you're like, hey, I'm Jamie. Be right back. I'm from Ottawa. Be right back. I just gave a quick back'm jay be right back i'm from ottawa be right back that's exactly what it was like and i get i'm getting chirped by tyson nash at the same time because we had played together in st louis and he's just giving it to me and ron haines he's

playing for columbus at the time and now he's chirping me it to me. And Ron Hainsey is playing for Columbus at the time. And now he's chirping me because we have the same agent. And he's laughing because I got the bright red gloves on. And he's like asking me if I bought them out of yard sale on the way to the ranks. And their coach is even laughing. And I got to go out there and play. But, boys, but this is where it gets better.

Go out, get an assist. We win the game. No big deal. Head back to Arizona. Sit by the pool the next day, right? Oh, wow. Hey, that's a nice little – and then fucking ride into the sunset, would you? Oh, I loved playing there.

Go ahead there. Is it true that on the cross-country flights with the Coyotes, Gretzky would just have a Magnum bottle of Grey Goose, and then you'd land and be gone? I cannot confirm or deny this. Okay. He's the great one. He could probably have me squashed without anybody ever knowing.

I know. Isn't that fucking crazy? If we said one negative thing about him, like, we would be, we'd fall off the face of the earth. We'd never even existed. First of all, he'd have to Google and try to figure out who I was again. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Same here.

But, uh, nah, yeah, look, Gretz was a big fan of, you know, the game. Everything that came with the game. I love it. Which was your teammates, having a couple of good cocktails, hanging out with the boys. Certainly, he never got mad at the guys for hanging out, only if it affected your game.

When we had Big Walt on, James, he talked about Chris Pronger being a real prick, just in general and particularly in practice. Do you have any, like, Chris Pronger practice stories that come to mind where he was a real prick, just in general, and particularly in practice. Do you have any Chris Pronger practice stories that come to mind where he was a real savage? Yeah, well, nobody was safe. Even assistant coaches that would try to skate through the drill and collecting loose pucks to get fricking hacked behind the legs by Prongs

to hurry up and get the fuck out of the way. I mean, he was just a guy that it was always like that cat that you pet the wrong way like every time you talk to him or go near him he just has something snide to say to you or you know in practice chop you but you know he wasn't a bad guy like just that's just who he is and you know i live with prongs when we were when he first got traded from hartford to st lou Louis it was a tough deal because the Blues sent Brendan Shanahan who was a huge like fan favorite here to Hartford so Prongs being a young guy and people in St. Louis didn't really know him all that well

you know he wasn't popular right away so we got to live together for a little bit and hang out and try to get you know know, acclimated with the city. And, of course, I was more than happy to escort him around and show him the finer establishments around the city and make sure that he got introduced to everybody. Yeah, he's, I mean, he's obviously a hell of a player, you know, but has left quite a legacy. But I was just looking at your DB page. Now, you went to Russia it looks like in 07-08. Tell me something about

Russia. 19 games. I knew it was going to come in on this one. What was that? Did you get hurt or did you just tap out after 19 games? What was the story there? But you get a Russian like disease. Dude, I'm telling you, I couldn't get out of there fast enough. It was like I was on fire and

looking for a fucking fire extinguisher. I mean, it was the first day. For first impressions, R.A., think about this. You land at the airport, and your brain is playing tricks on you because you can't recognize one word that's written anywhere. Now, you think you should be reading it properly, but it's just like hieroglyphics on the wall. You have no idea what the hell you're reading. And then you have no idea where

he's supposed to go. And so I'm standing there and this guy just walks up to me and takes my bags. Now, I don't know if he is robbing me or if he's supposed to be taking my stuff. Turns out that he wasn't robbing me. He was the driver. We'll put it that way. And he's supposed to be taking my stuff. Turns out that he wasn't robbing me. He was the driver. We'll put it that way. And he was supposed to be my translator, but didn't speak a word of fucking English. So that was a little tough.

And we, on the way back from the airport to the rink, like, wait, you'll remember this. Like the lines in Russia for like traffic, they're optional. It's literally like every, yeah, no rules, right?

So when the light turns green, it's like the guns start at the Boston Marathon. It's like just go as fast as you can and find your spot and try to elbow the people beside you. And that's how they do with their cars. They just go and Rubbin's racing over there. That's how they do with their cars. They just go and Rubbin's racing over there. Like, if you're not losing a mirror every time you whip through the highway, like, you're not trying hard enough.

And go ahead. No, no. This was before the KHL, right? Yeah, this was called the Russian Super League. Yeah, that's when Malkin was there. Malkin was there. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that's when Malkin was there. Malkin was there. Oh, really? Yeah. Dude, because I'm looking at your roster, and you didn't forget having another American or Canadian. You didn't even have a Finn or a Swede. It was you and Russians.

Dude, nobody spoke English. So, like, I get there. You're an alien. You're on a different fucking planet at this point it's like being put in an insane asylum because like it's not whether you're going to go crazy it's how long it's going to take you to go crazy jesus well let's get away from this well the best part is they brought me to live at the rink biz so when i get there the guy brings me to the rink i think i'm dropping off my gear. We walked down this long, dark hallway and there's like two giant wooden doors. It opens one and there's another wooden door staring right at me again. Open the second one. There's a massive

hot water heater that's in there, like the rink's hot water. And then a couple of beds and a TV. And he's like, here you go. Like it's the Ritz Carlton or something. Like proud of himself to give me this room. And I'm like, holy shit, I'm getting shanked tonight. Did you tip him or what? Did you tip him? No, I didn't tip him.

Cheap fuck. Cheap fuck, are you kidding me? If I pull up my wallet, he would have tried to take the rest of my money. Oh, that's right. That's right. Good move. Smart guy. Hey, I want to talk about your rookie season.

Your first year in the NHL, 95-96, you played three games. So I'm assuming that you didn't have a rookie party in that period of time. When was, in fact, your rookie party? The next year, you only played 15 games, or was it the 97-98 season? No, my official rookie party would be my my third year i think in 97 98 year where was it i was up it was in vancouver buddy okay let's describe the night well jeff courtland was on the team and obviously he was a veteran from the Canucks days and knew the city pretty well. And I think he might even live out that area still.

But he set it up. And I swear to God, I can't remember the damn restaurant we went to. And that's probably because I was already blacked out at that point. But I was just of the belief that night that i'm paying for this anyways so i'm going to get the most fucked up out of everybody here and it was great i mean we went out we ate um you know some guys obviously we uh we frequently did the, what's the freaking strip joint there? Not the French maid. Brandy's, that's it.

Yeah, French maid with Calgary. Forgot about that one. So you've heard. So I've heard, allegedly. But yeah, we went over there and I forget exactly how much it was. It wasn't that bad though. And I forget exactly how much it was. It wasn't that bad, though, because the year before, I was up for it. But I didn't have to pay.

And the guys got soaked. The young guys got soaked for like $25,000 each. And, you know, this is not the time. This is back when guys aren't making. Rookies aren't making $700,000, $800,000, $900,000, or a million dollars. Rookies are making like $250,000 at the time time so that was a bit of a kick in the nuts and i remember some of the older guys saying you know my year that you know they weren't going to run up the tab just to have some fun and whatnot and i just remember giving a blank check to grant fear and saying just let me know what the amount is but

you know let's have some fun. It was awesome. I loved my rookie party. You played on that team with Tony Twist. Was he the toughest guy you ever played with or one of the toughest guys you ever played with? Twister was scary, man. Out of all the guys I played with, I played with some really tough guys, and certainly I respect the job tremendously

just because I can't imagine having to do that i mean it's just it's a tough job but twister was a whole other level like he got to the point where when he stepped on the ice it's like roaches when you turn on the light wherever they all scatter like he got on the ice and even tough guys would scatter. Guys knew, and guys still fought him from time to time, but they were not excited about it at all. Was he on the juice? Was that ever talked about? You know, lightly discussed, but –

Did you ever shove a needle in his ass? I never personally shoved a needle in his ass, but you didn't want to ask him for fear that he may just have a moment and turn and rip your head off just because you asked him the wrong question. But, no, Twister was an amazing teammate. And you know what? Like, I got to play. Usually I was third D pairing,

and we always had to play against the other team's tough guys. And so when he would come on the ice, like, I had balls the size of church bells out there. Like, I could barely skate because my balls were so big. And we were night in Chicago and they had Proby. They had Vandenbush. They had Reed Simpson. They had some tough dudes in the lineup.

And Dougie Gilmore was there. And I lined up Dougie and hit him pretty hard the shift before. And then there's an offside, like right in front of our bench. And Chicago has last change. And so I'm on the ice. And my partner at the time, I think it might have been Mark Bergevin. You know, Bergevin's a pretty tough guy, strong guy. But he's not in Pro B or, you know, any of their league.

And so their coach sends out like every tough guy that they had every guy that could bash my face and got put out because i guess like doggie gilmore should have been hit which in hindsight probably shouldn't not but it shouldn't have done that so i'm sitting there shitting my pants because they have last change so i can't even i there's no hope of having twister save me at this point the puck gets dropped goes back to the dougie's molek and he goes to dump it in because obviously they want to run the shit out of me we shoots it into our bench so there's a whistle so now i'm'm like, whew, thank God. I'm out of here. Like, no way Coach Q doesn't realize these guys are out to kill me. Well, he leaves me out there.

And at the last second, I don't even know if Quenville told him to go or not. The twister just crawls over the boards. Like, throws a leg over. Like, not a pulse, not even elevated. And he stands there and this was at a time when he had kind of given it to probie like two or three times in a row and so he had you know he's pretty confident at the time and he stands there and stands straight up and looks at like all five blackhawks players he goes any of you guys want to fucking fight?

Nobody says a word and they all have a real finesse shift. Nobody's bumping anybody. Now I'm skating around like I've got potato sacks under my arms. I am the toughest guy in the league. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Nobody wants to fucking fight. Jamie, tell us

a story about the one with Halsey when he passed Marcel Dion. Oh, Jesus Christ. All right. This is a great, great story. Holly and I had played together here in St. Louis, and then I signed with Detroit after he had been there a couple years. And obviously knowing each other, we hung out quite a bit. And then we couple years and obviously knowing each other we hung out quite a bit and then we lived about three blocks from each other in Michigan Birmingham which is a great area in Detroit and you know I had like somebody's pool house is what I lived in

and Holly lived in this like palace where we called it the pink penis, but he had these neon lights that went up and it looked like a giant pink penis around his window. And he was renting the place, which, you know, it was just him and his wife at the time, but it was built for like 25 people. I think his place was massive. And so after the game where he scores the goal to go ahead of Marcel Dion, put them in like third time, third place all time for like goals. Pretty big night for him personally. Well, I'm just a wingman, of course. And we're hanging out in the locker room or the wives room at Joe Lewis after

the game and we're drinking. And then he looks at me, he says, you know, let's, let's get out of here. And I'm like, okay, well, where do you want to go? Like, this is your night, Holly. You just, you made history. So what do you want to do? And we get in the car. And he's like, let's just go back to my place and get fucked up.

And so I'm like, well, Brett Hall wants me to go get fucked up. I'm going to go get fucked up. So we go back to Holly's house. And we have a couple of cocktails a couple of stiff drinks and then you know there may or may not have been um we'll call it some therapy of the herbal nature okay it came out okay yeah it's a little sunday good action a little dubinsky a little brendan a little bit of's a little Sunday goods action. A little Dubinsky. A little Brendan Dubinsky. A little something, something, you know. Yeah.

Before the kids were around. Yeah. I may or may not know what you're discussing. We were trying to treat injuries, and so we brought out the cannabinoids, and we made sure that we had a couple each. Oh, they were edibles. No, no, they weren't edibles, no. That was too high tech.

You had a couple joints each? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not, you know? You got RA high. That's right. Exactly. All right. We're at that point.

And like I said, Holly has this big house. And the floors were all like that. I don't know if they were marble. They probably were. But there's no furniture in the place. So we're just sitting there. And he had all this stuff. Holly just had shit sent to him by all these companies all the time.

this stuff they holly just had shit sent to him by all these companies all the time and so we decided that we're going to put on rollerblades and skate around his house and you know that's how big it was and wide open well then we're like well fuck it let's play hockey and so you know his wife is there and she's telling us this is a really bad idea and we're like no this is the best idea ever so we grabbed the sticks we got a puck like a real hockey puck because we don't have a roller puck so the night that uh brett hall passed marcel dion and total goals for his career you guys smoke a couple jays put the rollerblades on threw the gear on and decided to have a fucking floor hockey game inside of the house yeah i exactly and i was just trying to give him some tips on how to score his next 700.

Oh, that's okay. You've got to drop a knee a little bit better. Did his wife play net that night? No. She was just trying to stay out of the way before she became a casualty in there. Hey, we should get this guy on the podcast because we've been hearing a lot of good stories. You think he would come on? He's awesome. I think he would, guys been hearing a lot of good stories you think he's

awesome i think he would guys honestly he really you know he's an awesome guy loves to joke around loves to laugh and tell stories i think you guys can get him on i'll throw him on let's do this let's let's make you uh our agent where you can go and recruit him and uh we'll give you guys a little we'll give you a little cut, and that would be much appreciated by us and I know the rest of the guys, and we want to thank you for coming on, Spittin' Chicklets, Rips. Anytime, boys, anytime at all. I've got stories for days, so it's my pleasure.

Big thanks once again to Jamie Rivers for coming on and telling some old-school stories. Of course, Brett Hull, one of the most popular guys in the league, always some great stories, and we have confirmed, right, Biz of the most popular guys in the league, always some great stories. We have confirmed, right Biz, that he's going to be joining us at a later date. We just wanted to straighten out some details, but Brett Hull, hopefully he'll match the stories people

are telling about him because he's certainly a character. Speaking of characters in the NHL, Keith Yandel, man. I mean, great friend of the show. One of Wood's best friends in real life. We can't talk enough about him. I know fucking Red Wings fans are loving him this morning.

If you didn't catch the clip yesterday, the Red Wings are having a huddle right before the face-off. I mean, it almost looked like a football huddle. And Keith just skates over and just makes some space from right at the huddle. Dylan Locken took exception to it. They started mixing it up, going at it a little bit. Absolutely hilarious. There was another clip, too.

I think it was before the huddle where Keith gave a little cross check to the back of Dylan Locken. A lot of people are crying about that. But Witts, man, he just likes to mix it up and do goofy little shit like this. Oh, yeah, it's nonstop. We also, Grinnelly, did Chicklets Instagram put the thing of him spiking the ball after he got the award or whatever? So that was classic.

And then later on in the game, I don't think Keith was happy with Dylan Larkin giving him a little shot for breaking up the huddle because he came in with one of the most vicious cross-check. Oh, that cross-check was after the fact? Yeah, that was later on. That was later on in the game. Oh, because some media member posted it and was like, this is

absolutely classless yeah shut up if you're throwing a listen i love larky too we're gonna get him on the pod as well we love you as we love all these guys but ben you're having a huddle on the ice man like there's no fucking rules about having huddles on ice like i can fucking go over to your huddle and be like hey what the fuck you guys talking about over here yeah if you're gonna draw up the annex annexation of puerto rico like talking about over here? Yeah, if you're going to draw up the annexation of Puerto Rico like little giants, shout out to Icebox, you're going to get a little Keith Yandel head right in the middle of the pile trying to figure out the play.

Hey, hey, maybe he was just wishing them a happy holidays too. Like, fuck, we don't even know what he said, right? He went on and said, hello, everybody. He said, hello. He's like, what are you guys doing after? Yeah. But no, but I assumed that that cross-check was beforehand. He was just really getting underneath his skin.

But I'm not down with that cross-check, so we're going to have to get them to apologize to each other on the pod because they're both great guys. Yep, star American players. We got Tom Wilson and Ryan Reeves. We're trying to kind of simmer that feud a little bit because they're both fans and guests of the show. Now we got to worry about Larkin and fucking Yandel.

We're like the United Nations peace treaty over here. I love the peace. People like, you know, well, chirping at me. Oh, your boy, he's trash. It's like, dude, you know how many uncalled crosschecks there are in the average NHL game? I mean, you could probably call crosschecking 50 times in a checking 50 times in a oh you slash a guy in the hand now and people are fucking asking to be thrown out of the league these nut jobs let's talk about moronic again

but uh oh i got a quick question boys before we get any more any to any more hockey talk um ra specifically you what is your favorite chocolate bar because i feel like christmas is more of a chocolate bar dessert time then let's say like thanksgiving for like pie what is your favorite christmas chocolate wow and that goes towards you and wit and grinnell i want to hear your guys answers oh man i'm a you know what i'm a big dove chocolate dove i've gotten into the last few years i grew up obviously on hershey's hershey's old school american candy bar but uh i've gotten into the dove last few years huge dove chocolate guy it's a it's a a lot better than hershey and it's uh i'm a chocoholic man i could eat fucking 30 of those little ones wrapped and wrapped in

the oh we know we have eyes i know i'm a big chocolate guy. Chocolate cake. I love chocolate cake this time of year. Like, chocolate cake, it's got to have the chocolate icing on top. I love it. And then chocolate chip cookie. Yeah, but are you having that after a Christmas meal? Yeah, absolutely. Oh, really? Yeah. Have a nice warm chocolate chip cookie.

Yeah, that's a good answer. Chocolate chip. The Christmas meal disappoints me because we're kind of like a ham family. I think ham's so trash. Dude, I hate ham. I hate ham too. I love the name ham. The name ham disgusts me.

It's like, forget the fucking pink meat and it's chewy. It's just called ham. I just never liked it. I wish you had turkey again for Christmas. Maybe this year my mom will do a roast. I could crush a roast. I don't really like chocolate ice cream. I like chocolate shakes, chocolate fraps for people in New England.

You know what a frap is? No. It's basically a milkshake, maybe a little bit thicker. I like them thick. So I'll do a milkshake, but I don't do chocolate ice cream on its own. I don't do chocolate cake on its own. I don't really know. I'll crush a Snickers bar with the best of them. Milky Way is

number two. The answer is I was more... I don't eat those. I had milk duds at the movie the other night. I saw the mule. You've literally named every fucking thing that has chocolate on the planet already. Are we back to the Seattle jerseys now?

Seattle skill-ups. Dude, I... No, 100 grand's money. 100 grand's money. Okay, can I fucking chime in here? It was more of a question about... For you to be able to answer it? What?

You asked a question, then you were just like, I just can't wait to get back to me. Well, no, I'm hopping in because I'm kind of not hearing the answers that I would expect. Like Ferrero Rocher, those ones that are wrapped in gold foil, those are like a chocolate gift that you would give out at Christmas.

That's more of a Christmas chocolate. Where like Turtles, like Turtles are more of a Christmas chocolate to me. I got a turtle head right now. Like a Toblerone is something you give out at Christmas. To me, Toblerone is the best Christmas chocolate. Yeah, like if you show up to my house with chocolate and it's not from Switzerland, like get out of my house. I don't need a Hershey's bar like R.A.'s talking because it's American-based.

I know. That's why I was very surprised. It's very American. Yeah, you got to like upgrade it like a Porsche. You're not giving like a fucking like a Chevy. No, like I said, it was –'re going to give them the Porsche of chocolate or the Mercedes of chocolate. Yeah, I'm saying, well, I grew up on it.

You know who's got fucking fantastic chocolate is England. They have, I don't know what they do different than America, but my buddy's married to an English girl, and when he goes over, he picks me up like a Cadbury bar or something, and it's off the fucking Well, yeah, they brush their teeth with the chocolate. That's why their teeth are so mangled. Oh, so I played in Cardiff during the locker room, man. Oh, yeah. They brush their teeth with the chocolates. That's why their teeth are so mangled. Oh, so I played in Cardiff during the lockout in that EIHL.

It is amazing how advanced they are as a nation regarding – they're one of the smartest nations. I would say they're top 15 in the world. In what? Smarts? As far as intelligence. How is this – Give me your top 10. Give me your top 10 of intelligent countries.

Like their education system and how many doctors they're producing. They're a smart nation. They are. That's non-negotiable. They're ranked. I could probably pull it up online. But I'm saying it's fascinating how poor their dental is, considering how they have dental like they're a fucking second world country.

The whole country can eat corn through a tennis racket. It's fucking insane. I'd like to defend my fellow English people. My grandparents are from England. My mom is basically from England. I live there. I saw it. Their teeth are fantastic. You have summer teeth.

Yeah, I do have fucked up teeth it. Their teeth are fantastic. You have summer teeth. I wonder your English. Yeah, I do have fucked up teeth. Now I feel like shit. Great back either. Wish I didn't step in there now. I got some English in me. That's the pale. That's the ugliness. That's the ears. My teeth are great though.

Neither me or any of my brothers ever needed braces. Look, these things are fucking straight i mean these got knocked out so i guess they've been a little affected this is tough radio right now but still i mean english people's teeth are a nightmare so maybe they should lay off the chocolate i don't like the ham slant that we heard earlier man i'm i'm a big ham guy that doesn't surprise me all right do. All right. Do you floss? Oh, my God.

Religiously. Religiously. I've gotten into the floss game in the last two years. The dentist is like, dude, you got to start flossing. You know they tell you to floss every time. I finally got the sit down. You can't go yet. The whole dentist office came in, including the sex workers. You got to start flossing.

Dude, it's the best feeling now. The stuff's popping out like on Dumb and Dumber when there's just, like, or the toenails. Either way, like, I just, I couldn't get through it before because I would bleed every time, but now there's no blood because I'm just flossing, like, that much. Those little things that they invented that you can hand, the things that the plastic things.

Yeah, those are money. Yeah, with the strings already tight. That thing must be a gazillionaire. They're, like, probably up there with Amazon, an Amazon guy. Nobody flosses must be a gazillionaire. They're probably up there with Amazon guy. Nobody flosses their teeth with normal floss anymore. You're a fucking pigeon if you do. Those things are so handy. You can put them in the car.

We should get a fucking ad read for them. Yeah, they should chuck in with us, especially because our teeth are all mangled. Yeah, they were talking a few weeks ago on Boston Radio. It was like Clancy, Liz, and they were like, oh, I never floss. I was like, why would you fucking go in public and tell people you don't floss your teeth? I'm lazy about my flossing, but I do have those things, but I brush my teeth like a fucking

maniac. Every time I brush my teeth, I'm doing it for like seven to eight minutes. I'm getting every square inch. Really? Oh, I'm a nut jaw when it comes to hygiene. You have good jibs. Did you have braces? No, I have fake teeth. I got to get a bunch of when it comes to hygiene. Yeah, you have good jibs. Did you have braces? No, I have fake teeth. I got to get a bunch of new fake ones too.

Yeah, mine's loose, the front one. Yeah, I'm doing mouthwash too. I wash my face every shower. I have products. Now, I don't have Avery products. Sean Avery has products. He has 50 eye creams for fuck's sakes. But any other hockey talk? We kind of got off the rails there again.

I had a little update on the gambling corner. Just want to chime in for a little bit there. You're hot. The ham stuff. I know you guys love Simpsons quotes. It's like, Dad, all those meats come in the same animal. Right, Lisa. Some wonderful, magical animal.

That makes this argument about who makes ham, pork, and bacon. And Lisa in our home had a classic, classic Simpsons episode that you guys obviously didn't see because you're uncultured swine. I'm just like, fuck, I want to get it. But I just, like, my brain hurts. Nah. All right. There's obviously no games the 24th, 25th, 26th this week

because the NHL does not make their players play on Christmas. Bullshit. Change the CBA. These guys should be entertaining us on Christmas Day. Actually, you know what? I was wondering, is that something the players negotiated a while back? Yeah, Shane Doan did. Yeah, they're like, hey, we ended up having to give him a cap,

but we got Christmas off. Yeah. Big win. Hey, but no, Shane Doan was specific about what they wanted off as far as days in the next CBA when they were negotiating the last one, and one of which was the fact that you have to guarantee them four days off a month. You get three days over Christmas.

I don't think you can travel on Boxing Day, which is weird because, you know, as a guy who's single and doesn't have a family, I would have never thought to ask for those requests in the CBA. I'm like, hey, can we get some discounts at Marquee? Or like, what the fuck, man? Like, can we get some free rubbers in Seattle sent to the house? Like, can we negotiate a deal here? But, you know, he's a family guy, so he's, like, concerned about his family time,

which, you know, more guys are probably like that than, you know he's a family guy so he's like concerned about his family time which you know more guys are probably like that than you know savages like me chewing on z-packs after every trip so uh good job by by shane don't uh getting that for all the families and fuck man these people can do without hockey for three days they can listen to our fucking podcast absolutely and i think another thing too business you know it also means that you know ushers vendors security guys bartenders and tons of other jobs can spend the day with their family because you know all those people when there's an event at a big venue like a you know a td garden or something all those people got to show up for work that day man that sucks for them all right how insensitive of me that's a great point to bring that up those people who

work at the arenas as well give them some fucking time off exactly thank you yeah that's why i mean i know wits loves sick league nba they have five games that day and i always think all those poor people have to go to work on fucking christmas because the nba can't give you know players a day off and also to the nhl should get credit for doing the roster freeze they do every year where players can't you know can't get moved you know a little bit before the holiday it's a little bit after that way their guys aren't getting fucking traded at christmas time you know there's a little dose of humanity we don't get all we see bit before the holidays, a little bit after. That way their guys aren't getting fucking traded at Christmastime. There's a little dose of humanity we don't always see in pro sports, so it is nice to see it in the NHL.

Having said that, a couple teams to keep an eye on coming back after break. The National Predators have been struggling lately. They were probably waiting to get to Christmas. The Bruins beat them yesterday 5-2 in Boston. I'm sorry, Saturday. Their first game after break is going to be at home Thursday versus Dallas. I'm going to be looking at Nashville

on the puck line there. The money line is probably going to be a decent price, but I think a little bit of rest is going to do good for them. I think they're going to come out firing Thursday night. I'm going to throw something on the puck line. Check on me on Twitter just in case the line is a little too out of control. Also looking at

Saturday, we're going way ahead to here because again, there are no games for a few days. Toronto's at Columbus on Saturday. If Freddie Anderson does get the stop for Toronto, which he probably should after the break, I like Toronto on the money line. They're just a wagon man. I mean, they're unbelievable

on the road. I've been making tons of money on the Leafs, betting them on the road, so I like the Leafs if they start Freddie Saturday. I mean, they're unbelievable on the road. I've been making tons of money on the Leafs, betting them on the road. So I like the Leafs if they start Freddie Saturday. Also Saturday, Pittsburgh is at St. Louis. Again, another team that's been playing well lately, the Penguins. They've been humming along nicely lately, especially on the road. St. Louis, just a team that doesn't scare anybody. So I like Pittsburgh on the money line Saturday as well.

And one other quick note. Me and Witts talked a few weeks back. There were a couple instances where guys were going in on an empty netter this year, and they had a penalty committed against them, and the referee didn't award the goal. They're supposed to award the goal if the guy was going to score. If the

penalty didn't happen, the ref's supposed to award the goal. Well, lo and behold, was it Nikolai Ilis? I think it was Wednesday or Thursday night. He already had two goals. He'd just come over the blue line he didn't even have possession somebody I forget it was who tripped them and they gave him the goal it was kind of crazy because he didn't have possession there been a few other times this season where you know guys had a fucking automatic empty net obviously it cost me money that's the only reason I fucking noticed because it would have been the you know the uh gave teams the cover It helped me out the other night, but it was just interesting that they finally award a goal on a penalty

and the guy didn't even actually have possession. Maybe Ref had the puck line. Yeah, maybe he's a listener. I'm telling you, how many people do you think we turned into fucking puck line degenerates on this show, Wits? Yeah, I know. Our podcast lets people enjoy long rides, but then unfortunately causes like divorces and money loss because they become degenerate gamblers and start talking about whacking everything they can. Please call this number at the bottom of the page if you have problems with gambling. And really, I know you said you're home for the holidays. One thing to keep an eye out on Twitter.

This is absolutely hilarious when people do go home to stay with their parents on for the holidays. They find stuff in the parents house house that's been expired for, like, years. It's like a little game people play on Twitter. They'll find, like, find the oldest thing that you can in your parents' medicine cabinet. Oh, that's kind of funny. It is. It was trending. I don't know if it was trending, but on Thanksgiving, like, people, they go through their parents' shit.

I'm talking like. What was the oldest thing? 1986, a bottle of Tylenol. It was like Tylenol from 1986 because I was like, holy shit, that might still have cyanide in it. Obviously, you guys don't remember that. You guys are too young. It was in Chicago, the Chicago area in like 1982, 83.

Somebody was buying Tylenol, like taking them apart, putting cyanide in it, and then putting them back on the counter so whoever bought it would get killed. They killed a bunch of people. What? Yeah, and that's the reason why they started making childproof safety caps. Before that, there were no fucking childproof caps on

shit. Yeah, but an adult with cyanide could still open a child's cap. That is fucking crazy that somebody was doing that. Maybe that's when they started putting the cover that you have to unpeel, right? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's what he's saying, yeah. Oh, I thought you meant the actual cap in terms of you can't open it. Well, the whole system.

Right, right. Before people started killing people with cyanide in their Tylenol, none of that was in place. And then afterwards, they're like, all right, we have to fucking start taking measures here to protect people. Yeah, so a little Tylenol, cyanide killing to fucking get you in the holiday spirit. Imagine buying some Aleve. Imagine buying Aleve.

You just buy Aleve, you open it, it's just open. You're like, perfect, give me three of them. The fact that people weren't actually opening tight shut. It's like, oh, I have the worst hangover. Here, take some Tylenol. Everyone's dead. Holy shit. Thanks a lot.

Ultimate cure. everyone's dead like holy shit like thanks a lot ultimate cure we're getting a little insensitive but 86 and that's a little i think there's a that that's not too soon um what are we gonna ask you about christmas biz i am gonna bounce around town just uh we'll go visit some friends and uh yeah maybe go stop by my ex's place and, you know, say hi to the kids. And fuck. All of them. More depressing talk.

Oh, I wanted to say we haven't talked about shows in a little while. I started. I think I'm through the fourth episode. This escape from Dannemora. I don't know if you guys heard of this on Showtime. It's about the story a couple of years back when two inmates were crushing a lady who worked at the prison and she basically helped them escape. I think it's in upstate New York, but the show is phenomenal.

Is it Benicio Del Toro's name, R.A.? Yes, that's him. Benicio Del Toro, and then I don't know the other actor's name, but everyone would kind of recognize his face. Phenomenal. This movie is so good. It's a show. I think it's six episodes. Oh, okay.

And then it's over and it'll never keep going, correct? Yeah. I like those. I like those type of shows. And it's a true story, obviously, and it's just like, it's incredible. This woman's disgusting, too. I mean, I guess when you're in prison, it doesn't matter what they look like, but a crazy story. She's twisted what she gets into,

how they figure it all out, how they decide to escape. But I highly recommend it to everyone. Have they found, have they found the people? I actually, you know what? I'm sure they've been found.

I don't even, I just remember the story breaking that like these two guys escaped and they were banging. I remember when the story broke. Yeah, but I don't know. I mean, I'm assuming they're either dead. Could you imagine like somehow mustering up a kill from one of the guards like you got wheels? Yeah,

you're like it's the last thing you're expecting. You're like, I mean, get the shit beat out of me by these guards. Next thing you know, you're tapping one of them. I know guys who couldn't get laid into like a female prison and this guy's getting laid by a female in a men's prison. That's smooth wheels right there. Yeah, I think Ben Stiller either directed it or he produced it.

He had some role behind the scenes. Yeah, he was director. Yeah, that's on Showtime, correct, Wits? Yes. So, yeah, Wits telling everybody to escape from Dannemora, the upstate New York prison story? Like I said, the guy was knuckling one of the prison help. She helped him escape.

It's a pretty wild story. And like everything gets turned into a TV show, a movie. One thing I'd recommend, I recommended a while back. It was actually on HBO this summertime. It's called Succession. It's ostensibly a drama, but it's more like I said before. It's like a dark comedy, like a black comedy about a family whose father is about to probably pass away soon. He's a big media, um,

matriarch patriarch and the family's all kind of jostling for position to see who gets the money. Uh, but it's got a great cast, great writing, get on that. If you haven't seen it yet, succession, it's on HBO on demand, easy to find. Definitely highly recommend that. So that, uh, that pretty much wraps up today's episode listen everybody we can't thank everyone enough out there who listens all uh all the support you guys give us it's the end of the year another successful year with chicklets we want to wish everybody a merry christmas uh happy hanukkah crazy kwanzaa tip-top tet solomon dignified ramadan

or whatever else you might celebrate celebrate it enjoy it, and we'll see you again soon. Boys, any parting shots? Yeah, just a little parting shot from me is that thank you, as I already said. I love hearing from a couple of buddies of mine. I think of Billy Ryan, my boy Billy Ryan, absolute stallion. He's an amateur scout for the Panthers. One of Keith Yandel's best friends as well. He says it's great for the car rides.

A bunch of scouts get together. They could throw on this. So that's awesome that that kind of makes some traveling a little easier. But we appreciate the listeners. And we will be in Notre Dame and Chicago for the Outdoor Classic. So we're trying to figure out maybe a little bit of live show action somewhere in Chicago on the 31st. We will definitely be at the game tailgating at Notre Dame Stadium.

There'll be a big-ass barstool van, so we're going to rip it up so anyone at the Outdoor Classic, swing on by. We'll be hanging out, having a couple beers, just shooting this shit with a couple of hockey fans just the way we are. Biz will probably be telling you about all his kills. And we just hope that anyone comes by that can. So if you're at the Outdoor Classic, look for the barstool van and look for us and uh also thank you to our sponsors who are sending us their nav new amsterdam vodka why the fuck you laughing because i'm the promo guy i'm the used car

salesman it's awesome i love you we gotta thank our money i i know it sounds lame guys but like our sponsors and and you know the money they they give us to do these types of things are the reason we're able to provide you guys with this content. They're paying for the flights. They're paying for the hotels. So New Amsterdam, Vodka, thank you. They're giving us the credentials, and we're going to try to give you as much behind-the-scenes access as possible. We're trying to get you guys some interviews banked with legends, some current Blackhawks players.

If we're lucky, Grinnelli's got to get on the hammer and ask our boy Stan Bowman. Of course, thank you to Eagle Energy. They'll be there as well with us. We're going to throw some swipe ups from them on the main Barstool account. And of course, SeatGeek, who we've partnered up with.

And guys, I've been getting a ton of messages about the SeatGeek. I don't buy sporting events tickets on SeatGeek because I don't buy tickets. Is it super easy and you save money? Dude, I got front row dead center. When I was down in New York a couple weeks ago, I went to that Mike Birbiglia show, the new one, legit. It's so simple, man.

I used to sell tickets years ago. I kind of was on the fringe of the scalping game a little bit. I'm shocked to hear that. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Least surprising thing ever. You are a scalper. He scalped tickets while eating ham sandwiches? While booking a flight to Florida?

Dude, Florida's only like the number one destination for vacation. But no, SeatGeek, no, it really is. The site, the app, it's so simple to use. Like I say on the ad, they give you all these sites. They shop around for you. Tell them what you want to spend. It's simple. That particular show, they must have just dropped seats in biz.

I got front row, dead center. Can't beat it. All right. Do you get a better value on those tickets, of course, because it's last minute and they're so easily accessible? Oh, absolutely, man. I'm not sure what the face on them was, but if I went to the box office or I bought them off a scalper out front, it would have been way more money,

no doubt about it. So SeatGeek is the most competitive one, and also do we have a promo code for everyone? So this is basically an ad. People keep asking me what the promo code is. Checkouts? The promo code? No, the promo code is. Check it out. The promo code is Hockey, H-O-C-K-E-Y. And that's $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase using the app.

Just want to get the fine print on there. You can't use it over and over again. But if it is your first time on the app, put in that promo code. You save $20. $20 goes a long way. Promo code Hockey. Hockey. Check it out, man.. Promo code Hockey. Hockey. Check it out, man.

That's how people remember it. No bullshit. I use SeatGeek all the time. It's fantastic. Like I said, it looks at all the other sites, puts them in one spot for you. You tell them what you want to spend, and they'll tell you, hey, this is what we got for this price. So, you know, if you're on a budget, it takes care of you.

If you've got money to burn like the wit dog, it takes care of you there too. So SeatGeek, promo code Hockey. Promo code Hockey. The best sport in the. So SeatGeek, promo code hockey. Promo code hockey. The best sport in the world. Sometimes my wife says, I hate hockey. Oh, yeah? Well, everything you have is because of this sport. And we're drinking Caymus because of this sport.

So don't dog hockey. Don't dog the best sport on the planet. And come on down to Chicago and meet the boys. Meet the Chiclets fellas. I promise. She said that? Yeah. Sometimes she's like, I hate hockey.

I'm like, oh, yeah? Oh, yeah? Do you like those shoes? Do you need a guy? I can call a guy. I don't Yeah. Sometimes she's like, I hate hockey. I'm like, Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Do you like those shoes? Do you need a guy where I can, I can call a guy. I don't see no ring. Fucking banging around. I don't need that.

All right. Love you guys. Oh, and you know, what's infuriating before we finish is that someone's going to tweet me or Instagram me. What's the promo code for seek geek. Even though we've said it's fucking hockey 10 fucking times.

So fucking tweet me what the promo code for SeatGeek is, because we've said it now 11 times. Hockey 12. Hockey is the fucking promo code. Let's end it. It depends. I'm watching it go Lots of people around Baby, please come home The church bells are down

All ringing so What a happy sound Baby, please come home They're singing deck the halls But it's not like Christmas at all I remember when you were here And all the fun we had back then Three lights on the tree I'm watching it shine Thank you.