Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 16: Featuring Jeff Marek

Episode Date: February 2, 2017

In this week's episode, Sportsnet's Jeff Marek @JeffMarek from The Great White North joins the show to discuss Ken Hitchcock's firing, the #NHL100, and what's going on around the league. For a change of pace and in honor of #BarstoolRundown week on Comedy Central, RA, Whits, and Grinnelli open the show to tell their respective stories of how each discovered and became involved with the Stool. The fellas also answer #AllRightHamilton questions from listeners and, once again, discuss a questionable Brad Marchand collision.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

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The code is SPIT200. Give it a try. Hello everybody and welcome to episode 16 of Spit and Chicklets Brought to you by world famous Barstool Sports Good morning Ryan Whitney What up, what up Good morning Mikey Grinelli Good morning R.A. Good morning my friend

Good morning Ryan Kicking off today we're going to do a little bit different I know hockey is the podcast topic we always have, we're going to do a little bit different. I know hockey's the podcast topic we always have, but we're going to talk a little bit about the company that brought this podcast on board, Barstool Sports. Huge week in the history of the stool. They just finished their second night of doing live at midnight on Comedy Central, doing the rundown, the show, the internet show.

The Barstool's done every day. They kind of do a roundup of all the blogs, all the internet topics. Well, thanks to the new ownership the last year, things have really gotten taken to the next level and Bastl's been on Comedy Central all week. It's a huge opportunity for the site to really, I know it's kind of a cliche

at this point, to take it to the next level, but the ratings after the first show come out and they pounded Skip Bayless' ratings and they came pretty close to one of those other crappy shows I don't watch. They pounded Skip Bayless' ratings, and they came pretty close to one of those other crappy shows I don't watch. They pounded Skip Bayless, and they almost beat First Take, and that's not including the 100,000 views they got on Facebook Live. Right.

It's incredible. And then, you know, I mean, the Simmonses only pulling, I think, 200 in an episode on HBO. Blew them away. So the numbers they're putting up are great, but it's just been great to watch, you know, Barstool. Like, Dave, obviously I've known for about 10 years now. Big Cat, Kevin, I've been friends with for years. And to see them guys on TV, live TV, doing the content they've done, it's been unbelievable.

Well, you're the longest tenured blogger on the staff, aren't you? Besides Dave, of course. Yeah, I'm number one in tenure after Dave. I mean, because Jerry would be, but Jerry left and came back, so that's not how tenure works. Sorry, Jerry. Well, you, all right, I saw your name. They put your name on the credits, so that's a nice little shout-out to you. I almost shit my pants because I saw them coming up, and I saw a couple names that I didn't expect to see.

I was like, oh, that's an old one, and then I missed it at first. And then I hit the DVR button and I saw my name. And yeah, it was pretty fucking cool. I'm not going to float smoke up your ass. Nice feel of appreciation there. Exactly. It was nice, Mikey, to look up. And obviously, I'm not down there. I mean, I'm not part of what they're doing down there, obviously.

But to see my name on the credits of a Comedy Central show, a network I've been watching since day one, it was pretty nice. So how did you get involved with Barstool? It's funny, man. Like a lot, like every kid in the area, I started reading the paper, just to refresh people's memory. It started off as a four-page, basically a gambling rag. Hopefully not too many people listen to the gambling suggestions on there because they're mostly Dave's.

Shout out, Portnoy. I love Dave. So, yeah, they start off as a four-page gambling rag. You know, it was kind of Dave was handing them out in, you know, train stations and whatnot. And then I think it was like, oh, I don't know if it was 06, 07 there. They took it to the blog. You know, everyone out there started making websites and putting things online, and Dave started doing that.

And then, you know, one of my friends said, hey, have you seen their website yet? And I just started kind of clicking on it. It was funny. Now, I never was a big internet comment guy. I was kind of a little older than a lot of probably guys who were doing that stuff, chat rooms, which just wasn't my thing. But I used to get infuriated with people commenting on basketball, so it was the very first place I got a comment login.

And, of course, I was signing up, and I said, well, geez, what's a name nobody really knows me by other than a few of my friends? I'm like, oh, Ray Radmell, my old college nickname. So I used that because I figured, well, only about 15 people know who this is. So then when they're reading the site, they'll know it's me commenting.

It was almost like an in-joke for me and my friends more than anything. You know, so for a fast... Like PFT. That kind of, right? I mean, I guess. Was that always... Is that how he got started? Well, so for a fast... Like PFT. That kind of, right? I mean, I guess. Was that always... Is that how he got started?

Well, he was a nickname, was the PFT commenter. Yeah. So, I mean, did he get PFT nickname from college sex? No. Okay. Well, actually, I don't know. Yeah, we don't know that. So, yeah, basically, Dave, you know, they had a kid right in the Bruins,

and, you know, I've told the story before. He wrote a blog, and he referred to Glenn Murray as a playmaker. Exactly. Grinnell, he just made a, like he just got a lemon in his mouth, a face. And basically, the comment section revolted against him, you know, because, you know, you call, Glenn Murray was a lot of things, but he wasn't a playmaker. So the comment section kind of revolted against him. Dave let him go, and he did, you know, one of those blogs, calling all cars cars we need a new bruins blogger um i sent in a sample blog never heard back a

couple days later boom there's my blog up on bostel and with my rare admiral was my name he never asked me if i want to use my real name or any other name and he just slapped up rare admiral and then that was it i was the bruins guy that was i want to, nine years ago. It was basically the same season Claude was brought in. So it was about nine years ago. And he never asked me, do you want to use your real name, whatever. I just kept Rare Admiral. And then at one point, I almost wanted to use it, my name, just trying to get my name out there, whatever. And all my friends were like, no, man, you've got to keep Rare Admiral at work.

So that was, like I said, nine years ago. It's just crazy how it's taking it off it's just like i remember i think it was i thought it was 2006 but maybe it's 2008 i had i had a good buddy i played college hockey with kid brian collins i wonder if he's listening hi brian but if he he told i was like hey what do you read on the internet like i used to go to espn.com i'd read Simmons' column, which used to be awesome. And he was like, oh, there's this new website, BarstoolSports.com. It's unreal.

It just has rockets on there and then sports takes, and they talk about gambling. I was like, oh. So I checked it out immediately like anyone else who's a fan. It's just like naturally you just – it's just funny stuff. It is – the whole term of by the common man for the common man which he's no dave's no longer the common man but at the start it was so perfect because it was the same stuff everyone else was doing you're drinking beers watching

sports going out and it took the way it's blown up and what's cool for me and i often wonder for people that like just start to read barstools like i know all the history and like when like big cat came on board and then feidelberg came on board you remember like how funny it is because you've really seen the whole thing grow i think that's what makes it so special as a fan who's jumping into barstool now it's so different because i can't imagine not really understanding everyone's relationships and how dave and kfc hate each other you know the hate in quotations, and just little things like that. But watching these first two shows, I couldn't be happier for those guys, and they deserve, you know, every little bit of success

that they're getting along the way. So I'm just – I'm great to see. I was nervous at how it would go. The first two shows I thought had been great, really funny. They've had some perfect internet clips to kind of show in there. But, I mean, this is going to be a great week. I know Grinnelli's heading down to Houston. You've got to get to that party, Grinnelly.

It's going to be some smoke show. Oh yeah, I'm pumped. We got Grinnelly hooked up. They got me in. So I found out about Barstool in the funniest way. I don't know if you guys remember when Sonic came to Massachusetts

in 2008 or 2009. The hedgehog or the food place? The food place. It was a huge deal, though. Oh yeah, traffic on Route 1 and shit. came to Massachusetts in like 2008 or 2009. The Hedgehog or the food place? The food place. Sega Genesis? It was a huge deal though. Oh yeah, traffic on Route 1 and shit. The line and PB down Route 1 was crazy. So I was parked in line.

I just got my license or something. I was with all my buddies and some guy comes up, knocks on our window with like a crappy little camera and says, what would you do to get to the front of the line? And we'll videotape you and we'll get you to the front of the line.

And we're like, well, shit, we want Sonic, so we'll do anything. And my buddy was like, we'll strip down to our boxers, run around the building one time and is that good enough? I don't know if it was Dave,

it was an older guy than us. Was like, absolutely, that will do. So we stripped down to our boxers, ran around the building one time. The guy videotaped the whole thing. We get back in the car. The guy goes, I'm sorry, we can't get you to the front of the line, but thanks for the video. Go.

Go. Go. Was it Dave? See, that's the thing. I don't remember. But then he said, check it out on barstoolsports. No. No. Was it Dave? See, that's the thing. I don't remember. But then he said, check it out on barstoolsports.com

and for weeks we would check barstoolsports.com. I think it got up there, but I'm not actually sure. Are you sure this wasn't a pedophile, Mike? No, it definitely

could have been a pedophile. Like I said, I was very cute and vulnerable back then, so you never know. Mike's like, now you're just vulnerable. Fuck me. I didn't bring that part up, though. Yeah, so you never know. Mike's like, oh, yeah. Now you're just vulnerable. Fuck me.

I didn't bring that part up, though. Yeah, no. Yeah, he tried to sneak it in the back door. But like I said, the growth is what's really blown me away because, you know, I obviously have a small role there. I haven't had the, you know, career investment, I guess you'd say, the other guys have. But to kind of watch it and, you know, not have, like, my career tied to it, it's been amazing to watch, like I said, a free newspaper. And in that time that we've gotten, we, I can say we, we've gotten this big is how many other things have fallen by the wayside?

I mean, you know, like Deadspin. Deadspin, they may still exist, but they were like the big guy on the block when Barstool started. Now they're basically, they're there, but they're dead. I mean, their company's broke. They're not nearly as relevant. I mean, they're basically irrelevant. That fucking site, The Cauldron, who, you know, slandered Barstool.

RIP. You see Sports Illustrated. You dropped them today. I mean, they haven't done anything in a year. They got dropped today. Thankfully, that's karma because they ran that hit piece on us, which is so, I mean, I'm all about whatever. You can write anything, but that piece was so fucking slanted, it was so, there were, like, mistruths in there, just taking jokes

and spinning them, and other people still read that, like, the USA Today writer, you know, was writing about Barstow, and today, I think they're funny, I know they're not for everybody, but this is something they have to overcome, and he includes the length of the story, and I'm like, buddy, that's not even a writer, that's some kid who fucking didn't get paid, he volunteered to slander us and made us look like the assholes. They knew it would get clicks. Exactly. So we're still fighting against that.

So when those things fall off and die, we love it, man. And, of course, going back to Simmons, now, I don't have a rivalry with him. Dave and Simmons, they've always had, I don't know, a rivalry, a beef, whatever. I think during the Deflategate thing, I think there may have been a bit of a thorn maybe between Bostel and Simmons, not necessarily Dave and Simmons because I think he retweeted Feidelberg one time. It was kind of that like enemy of my enemy shit going on. But, you know, he's lost his show. I mean, he's still making the money with HBO.

But, I mean, Simmons kind of has fallen off a little bit. He still has the podcast and all. But, I mean, his TV show went. His stock has probably fallen. And Bostel was just going up and up and up, man man and i know i'm sounding like a braggadocio but just to watch it where it's at i mean you know if this show is successful you you do wonder if the you know these guys gonna be on tv every sky's the limit right now it really is and you know comedy central is you know taking taking a risk putting us on and the other thing is great is you know these guys swear that by the way by the way, the FCC doesn't apply to cable.

Everyone makes a big deal about swearing on cable. You could put fuckball on. You could say fuck at 8 o'clock on Comedy Central if you want. They don't because it's bad for advertisers. But the FCC doesn't even apply to cable. Wow. Yeah. You learn something new every day.

The more you know, Ryan. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Well, you know what? Before we get back to hockey, I do think it's just, it would be smart of us to just say that Dave has pretty much stuffed everyone in the locker that's ever come out.

And it continues, and it's good for him, and it's great for us because it's all about the content. So we're just happy to be part of the Barstool podcast family. Absolutely. The team, the team, the team. All right, that's enough Barstool chat for now. We're going to be bringing our first guest. He's from the Great White North, eh?

He's our only guest, though. Yeah, he's our only guest. One of the great hockey journalists from Canada. Ladies and gentlemen, now we're going to bring you Jeff Marrick. We now welcome in my good friend, my favorite vegan that I do know, NHL insider and host of Sportsnet Hockey Central, Jeff Marrick. Jeff, how are you? Thanks for joining Spittin' Chicklets. How many vegans do you really know, honestly?

Wait, we didn't approve a vegan on this show, Ryan. I'm sorry. We got to stop. Roll tape. Cut it over. Exactly. Like, what a vegan. I actually only know you, but still, you're the best.

So, I mean, you're my favorite vegan. It'll always remain that way. Hey, didn't you play in the American League with Mike Zygomanis? Were you with Pittsburgh when Zygo was there? Ziggy was with me in Pittsburgh. He was all ripped up. I think he was still eating meat then, though. Was he? ziggy was with me in pittsburgh he was all ripped up i think he was still eating meat then though i think the vegan has has been i think vegan's been since i knew him and played with him but maybe he was because he was jacked and and now if you see i mean you like matches off the guy he's

like like i'm i'm vegan but he's game seven vegan like it's like a whole new level when it comes to mike zygomance and these guys i mean the guy is an inspiration to a lot of people, but he's really next level with all of the diet. It's not just health for him, but it's also spiritual and mental and how it affects various diseases in your body. This guy is next. Put it this way. If I had time, was independently wealthy, and didn't have a job, and I could just do whatever I want, I'd probably be a lot closer to that. But this is about the best that I can do. Yo, R.A., you there?

Yeah, I'm right here, brother. Dude, it is a treat to talk to you. I was mentioning off mic a couple of seconds ago, when Witt and I get together in Toronto to do Hockey Central and Sportsnet, we talk about you like nonstop. I got to ask you, I know you're hosting the show here, but I'm going to turn it around and I'll start hosting. What is your background?

Because you were like one of the most fascinating podcasters I've ever heard. I'm just a Boston deadbeat who worked various job to job to job. And then I happened to meet Ryan Whitney and we started our podcast. And my life got a whole lot better since then. Actually, my life was good before then. I'm not going to lie. But it's been a lot of fun. Yeah, I've just been your regular working class Bostonian.

Excuse me, me and Ryan stumbled into this about a year or so ago, and then we got picked up by Boston, all the major leagues, I guess, and then we picked up a super producer to really take the show to another level, and it's been going good. We've been having a lot of fun, and it's particularly great when we have guests on. And today we have you on, Jeff, as big news broke this morning. Kenny Hitchcock, the Undertaker, has finally been put six feet under in St. Louis. What's your reaction?

Well, I mean, he was either walking the plank by himself at the end of the year or he was going to get turfed. Again, it's another head coach that falls victim to having bad goaltending, right? Exactly. I don't know too many coaches that get fired while their goaltenders are playing well. You can probably count them on one hand if they even do exist at all. But when I look at the St. Louis Blues, I just keep coming to the exact same conclusion. They just needed a save.

That's it. Jake Allen's having a horrible year. Carter Hutton at times looked good, had that nice little three-game run. But if they don't get a save, know if they don't get a save they're going nowhere and you can say that about every single team in the nhl there is no there is no tighter association in the nhl for performance more so than the goaltender and the coach the old saying is true show me a good goalie i'll show you a good coach no one has won the jack adams trophy as best head coach in the nhl without having good goaltending so you can see this one are a sort

of sort of coming a mile away when you're not getting the save that's when the coach gets really nervous and it's interesting they they opted to let brian elliott go off for the for the money up in calgary um and you know they went with the alan hutton well it's been a disaster lately of course brian elliott really hasn't been great. He's had a rough adjustment to Calgary. He had a nice little stretch for a couple weeks there, and then he kind of faltered back. And now you look at St. Louis dropped all the way to the last spot in the West

and they're tied with Calgary. So a little bit of irony there as far as the goalie they let go is right next to them in the stand-in. So, I mean, do you think they hang in there and make the playoffs? St. Louis? Yeah, if they can get a save. I mean, really, like when you look at their save, I don't think the save percentage stays that low.

Like it's like that's embarrassingly low. I know generally the line to make the playoffs is your goaltenders have to have a 9-15 save percentage. They're nowhere close. But I still have a hard time believing that Jake Allen is this bad bad like i just don't believe that that this is who jake allen is i know there's a lot of new pressure that comes along when you go from being the backup where you can be nice guy eddie and hey the wife and the wife and i are having a barbecue this weekend why don't you come by and you're the nice guy oh yeah bucket of pucks after practice no problem

i'm there for you we're all there's a lot of difference between being that guy and the stress that comes along to being the starting net minder and having to you know do all the heavy lifting i i understand that but when i've looked at jake allen before when i think you and i talked about this a while ago there's a really good goalie in there and i'm convinced that the goalie we're seeing now is not the real jake allen the same percentage has to turn around i i think it will for this guy yeah and i i went to training camp with the blues two years in a row and it's just like this team that you're like this team's built to win a state and the cup up front they're deep they got a great defense and jake allen was this young goalie coming up and elliot was still there when i was at camp but i was like this kid's gonna be a stud like whenever elliot's gone whenever

they let him go this kid's the future of the of the blues and a future possible top goalie in the league but obviously like you say when when things change and you become that number one guy it's just a totally different mentality and then you get the pressure on you of the entire team you think they're looking at you they're really not and then we talked earlier this year Merrick about they they sent Jake Allen pretty much home they just got on the road and they said just stay back home and kind of it was like a mental like a break and and that's what I couldn't even I couldn't believe that because goalies are fucked up enough if you send one home from the team he's just sitting around like at least send him down to the minors and have it be a conditioning state playing hockey making saves so i think he's gonna i think he's gonna be great and i saw devin jubnik uh not just look like he was gonna be out of the league

he was out of the league after being traded two or three times ends up in the ahl so look over he is now so i definitely think there's a future of jay callan being elite um but i also want to ask you it's a little bit changing subjects but who was your biggest snub in the nhl top 100 oh oh biggest snub in the nhl top 100 i mean i can go can i give you mine okay i go for it can i get you yeah go for it can i give you mine first and nobody really mentioned this one uh was mark recce oh i said that i said that yeah i mentioned that in a show i was on the other day sorry i cut you i cut you off check when i heard mark recce we get excited when we hear his name in boston after that 2011 12 12 12 all time in nhl scoring and now granted this has been like this argument that that's all there is to talk about

since the all-star break but 12th all-time in scoring. He wasn't one of the top 100 players. Joke. Joke. I know, and three Stanley Cups as well, too, with three different teams. Recchi is an interesting one, eh? Like, he's almost that completely forgotten guy. I know. He's become a hitchhiker with every team that he's been on.

And then you look at the entire body of work and you say to yourself, holy smokes, what a career for this guy. Because when you look at it and you break down mark recce hall of fame numbers bro i guess that's hall of fame numbers for mark recce and and not just in the nhl but i mean internationally as well as junior hockey numbers playing uh with the blazers and in the western guy had like from day one from the drop of it mark recce he's always you know in every league that he's played and he he's always been amongst the elite. I know. That was a shocking one to me.

But did anyone else stick out to you that was just like, how the hell is this guy not on this list? Yeah, Chara. I know. I don't know how you don't put Zidane O'Chara's name in the top 100 players of all time. Easy. What's that?

Sorry, go ahead, Ari. You put Serge Savard instead because those lists are always so damn political. There's loaded with Maple Leafs and Canadians. It's absolutely ridiculous how many Maple Leafs and Canadians they put on those lists. I mean. Here we go. Here we go. Here goes Ari.

Shots fired. Shots fired. Shots fired. R.A.'s not wrong. Honestly, R.A.'s not wrong. You see this every... Go look at the 1967 Toronto Maple Leafs team. The last Maple Leafs team to win the Stanley Cup.

Look how many of those players are in the Hall of Fame. It's insanity. It's a joke. It's nuts like from that 19 those out the man and that team was an old team that caught fire uh at the end of the season and through the playoffs i mean the coach had a heart attack right and he punched had a heart attack and he couldn't coach for it was an old team that was frustrating everybody they caught fire at the right time saw chuck and

bauer were outstanding and they won the stanley cup but if you look at all the players on that team that made it to the hall of fame it's stunning and it further backs up what ra is talking about as well and i don't mean any disrespect when i use this one person's name but i can't believe that dick duff is in the hall of fame yeah and he got voted in like 40 years after the fact right like yeah because he's you know friends with a lot of the people on the board and you know right is that correct that's for the american perspective anyways strongly believe that it was that it was jim gregory lobbying for him yeah right yeah i mean listen it's happened before i mean geez bob polford although polford's on that 60 17 uh as

well i mean bob polford's in there you know there's a lot there's a there's a lot of there's a lot of people in the hall that sort of make you raise your eyebrow. But to the point of the top 100, I mean, there was one, man, you always sort of look for the perfect season from a player or as close to a perfect season from any position. You know, you look at, you know, there was one year Darcy Hordachuk with the Nashville Predators had, as their enforcer, Darcy Hordachuk had 60 minutes in penalties and 12 fights. He didn't take a single minor penalty. He cost his team nothing. It was the perfect enforcer season of all time, right? So, like, when you look at, like, okay, how do you measure enforcers and how do you measure, like, what they do on it,

Darcy Hordachuk cost his team nothing as a tough guy on that team. It was, to me, the best enforcer season of all time. There was one year with the Bruins, it might have been the Stanley Cup year, that when Chara and Bergeron were on the ice, the possession numbers were berserk. Like nobody else touched the puck. No one. No one on the ice touched the puck when Chara and bergeron were on the ice together he redefined the position uh for for another i mean he should have multiple norris trophies

um but for a number of years he was the one who was um moving the puck out he was shoveling the snow in front and i still maintain this guys i still as much as I think that Zidane O'Chara should have won, you know, a handful of Norris trophies, I think for every single year he was in the league, he should have won the Lady Bing. And I'll tell you why. You're a sicko. You're a sicko. We got a hot take coming in. For what he chose not to do.

If O'Chara decided to waste everybody on the ice he could have he could have just he could have maimed people okay and he chose not to he could have destroyed guys ended careers stretchers body bag all of it chose not to that to me speaks lady bing more so than a guy that just has high points and low penalty minutes i'm giving char a lady bing every single year not for what he did but for what he chose and had the ability well i i actually i actually agree with that in a sense that he when when nhl players at least when i was still playing when you would talk you know you're just shooting the shit who would you least want to fight in the nhl every single single time, the argument started by saying, not including Chara.

Because it was so obvious that the guy is 265 pounds and he's 6'9". Like, I don't even – he fought – the only time I've ever seen him really, like, not want to fight, he fought George LaRock in Boston. And he went down he it looked like he kind of fell down because i think george was the one guy who could have maybe like caught him with one of those lefts but i'm looking i'm actually looking at his numbers right now starting in like 2005 the first season after the uh the 0405 lockout for for nine years or for eight years he was by far and away the most dominant defenseman in the league. He was getting close to 50 points, 100 pims every season, playing 28 minutes.

And for him not to be on there and to have Duncan Keith on there, who I love, I think Duncan Keith will be in the NHL Hall of Fame. But at this point, to have him and not have Char, it's totally that whole Blackhawk kind of have 19 outdoor game bias. I'm taking Char every single day of the week. I mean, the Boston Bruins, I mean, you guys know this, live in there, have been blessed, you know,

going back to Eddie Shore. I mean, the Bruins have always been sort of generationally blessed with generally having either the best or one of the best defensemen in the league, in the lineup. Eddie Shore, Bobby Orrby or brad park i think cord clusack if it weren't for the knees would have gone down as one of the more dominant defensemen of his era raymond bork and then zidane otraro was the next in that line um and listen going away from me that guy's got to be in the top 100 he's got the hall of fame you know numbers the hall of fame credentials and if you if you believe and i do that intimidation um is part of what goes into making

a hockey player like it's one of it's one of those things like skating and passing and it's one of those things that exist between your ears doesn't exist on the ice to your point where i can't think of anyone more intimidating than zidane ochara and i remember the larocque fight too and george george had this freaky grip strength yeah when george grabbed because we used to always see it george was because george never led with a punch george grabbed you and he shook and then got you off balance that was always george's first move and then you're off balance and then he started feeding you. He had, like, farmer strength. He'd break Charlie Hodge, crush an apple with your bare hands.

He would grab you. Danny Hodge, rather. He would grab you and shake you. And remember that Chara fight? The only other time I saw Chara caught. You see that Winnipeg Jets fight against Chris Thorburn? Yeah, I remember that. That was the only time.

Of course. That's very true. They would have had plenty of room for him. To circle back to my bitching about the Canadiens. Now, nobody has more a healthier respect or vengeful respect for the 70s Canadiens than I do because they abused my childhood. But, you know, and obviously Ken Dryden, no-brainer. Larry Robinson, no-brainer. Gay LaFleur, no-brainer.

Okay, three guys from that team would have been enough as good as they were. Okay, and alright, throw one of the pocket rocket in too, because, you know, he finished in the early 70s, but Jacques Lemaire, Bob Ganey, I mean, that's a little redundant. I mean, Bob Ganey, yeah, he's a model, selkie, trophy-type player, smart, two-way, blah, blah, I get it. Jacques Lemaire, hell of a player. I know he won

two cup-winning goals, but first of all, I would have had Steve Schutter ahead of both of those guys, just from personal memory. I mean, it's been a while since I watched the 70s Canadians. But to have six guys on that from that team

going back to Serge Savard too and then not have Chara and I mean, wait, you're telling me Jacques Lemaire is better than Mark Reckie or Dale Howarchuk? No way.

It's total bias. Was Dale Howarchuk not on that list? No, Dale Howarchuk wasn't. But Bob Ganey was. Yeah. I didn't know Dale Howarchuk not on that list? No, Dale Howarchuk wasn't, but Bob Ganey was. Yeah. I didn't know Dale Howarchuk wasn't. I know.

It's a joke. Oh, what country? Sorry, no disrespect to our neighbors to the north, but what country is Dale Howarchuk from, Ryan? Oh, he's American. Oh, no, he's American. He's Canadian. Dale Howarchuk's American. No, he's from Orangeville, Ontario, bro.

Wait, who am I thinking of? Who am I thinking of? I'm thinking of, which Chuck am I thinking of? Why do I think Dale Howitchuk is American? You're thinking of Keith Kachuk. You're thinking of Andrew Chuck? No. Dave Andrew Chuck?

No, Dave Andrew Chuck. All right, Jeff, we're going to cut this, and we're just going to start over. We're going to forget that. Hey, R.A., R.A. Hey, R.A., I actually think the guys are from the wrong countries all the time. That could happen. You brought up an interesting thing, too. But still, Dale Howitzer should have been.

I'm glad you hit on this, R.A., because no one ever wants to talk about this. I'm glad you did, because it opens a door here. Nobody ever wants to talk about Bob Ganey. We think of that classic New Year's game against the Soviets where people say it's one of the command performances they've ever seen

Victor Tikhonov, the old Soviet coach that's the best hockey player I ever saw they started this Selkie trophy after what Bob Ganey was doing on the ice, oh Bob's so damn good at this one skill, we don't have a trophy that reflects it, let's create this trophy at this one skill. We don't have a trophy that reflects it. Let's create this trophy for Bob.

But let me ask you guys this, because my answer to it is no. If Bob Ganey, as a defensive forward, doesn't play on the Montreal Canadiens, who are an offensively stacked team, are we talking about Bob Ganey the same way? Let me put it a different way. If Bob is playing on the Buffalo Sabres in that era and not the Montreal Canadians, are we talking about the same guy? Because you look at the line, you look at Bob Ganey and you look at Doug Jarvis and Keith Acton, they didn't want to go anywhere near the puck in the offensive zone.

That was someone else's job. That wasn't their job. If you take that same player and put him on another team, are we still talking the same way? And my argument to that is no. Of course not. Of course not.

What are we getting, a little feedback? I see, you know, when I go away, people just come in and bust on my podcast. That was just this version of this week's getting busted in somebody else's room. Nice. No, I agree with you, Jeff. If he was on Vancouver or basically any other team than the Canadians,

of course, they were a dynasty. Yeah, he was a solid, excellent, smart two-way player, but was he one of the best 67 players in the last 50 years if you're starting a team? I doubt it. And, by the way, I realize how I screwed up. It wasn't – I got my former Winnipeg Jets that began when the 8s screwed up. I was thinking Phil Housley. I know he's a defenseman, but –

Oh, a defenseman, yeah, yeah. Housley, Howard, Chuck. I screwed it up. I used to be a big Jets fan back when Kachuk played for them years ago. So, mea culpa. My bad. Dude, dude, that's okay. All good.

All right, man. Don't worry. All good. Don't worry. It's cool, bro. Hey, Jeff, getting back to more current league stuff, who do you think a team that we maybe wouldn't expect has a big second half? I picked Dallas. I think Dallas can get going.

They're a team that needs to get some saves. But do you see any team that's kind of been just where they shouldn't be that might take off and make a run here? Are you sick of me talking about Carolina yet? Ah, there we go. I knew he'd bring up his canes. You see him last night? You see my boy Sebastian Ajo light up for a hatter?

5'1". 5'1". That kid is going to be unreal. You see, I don't know how, of all people, you, Ryan Whitney, don't love the Carolina Hurricanes with the All-American defense. I do. I do really respect that D. I mean, but, you Whitney, don't love the Carolina Hurricanes with the All-American defense. I do. I do really respect that D. I mean, but, you know, we got our boy Slavin now.

Slavin. And we figured out how to pronounce his name. Yeah, Jacob Slavin. Well, you know, the funny thing about him is when he came up and no one really knew who he was. I mean, dude's from Denver. But everyone looked at him and said, oh, looks like a European name. And so instead of Jacob Slavin, it was Jakob Slavin. It's like, no, Jacob Slavin from Denver. But everyone looked at him and said, oh, it looks like a European name. And so instead of Jacob Slavin, it was Jakobsloven. It's like, no, it's Jacob

Slavin from Denver. Jakobsloven guy. Do you think Dougie Wade, since he's taken over for the fired Jack Capilano, he's been like a miracle worker down on the Islanders. I don't think they've lost a game since 5-0-1. 5-0-1 since Dougie Wade's jumped behind the bench

to just three points back of Philadelphia for the eighth seed with three games in hand. I think they get in. It would be a hell of a story. And, I mean, the difference in style of play, I mean, this isn't the Jack Capueno, you know, lob it in and go play fetch. I mean, this is, you know, when you have players with skill,

you want them to hang on to the puck as much as possible. And, you know, it wouldn't surprise me if now under Doug Wade, a player like Ryan Strom that I've liked for a long time uh ends up improving you know had Alan Quine score last night against the Washington Capitals big win against the Caps yesterday uh the thing that's curious to me is with Doug Waite behind the bench and them them playing more of a possession game as opposed to a dump and chase game, I wonder which players, I mean, you know Tavares well, but you wonder which players will excel under the new style of play with Doug Wade, with Jack Capuano gone.

It would be, listen, man, it would be a remarkable story, right? Because these guys were left for dead. And I was one of the people that buried them. Like, I was like, yeah, Islanders are done. Like, let's talk about them like the Coyotes and the Avalanche. Screw this. I was like, yeah, Islanders are done. Let's talk about them like the Coyotes and the Avalanche.

Screw this. But, man, what a hell of a story if these guys can claw their way back. And it shows that a lot of times people say, why is the coach getting fired? It's not his fault. But in times, it's just you need a change. And you can't trade a bunch of guys. So when you need a change, you fire a coach. And this is what can happen. I saw it happen when Terry got fired in Pittsburgh,

how Dan Boswell, they went on to win the Stanley Cup in 09. It's all about just getting a different voice in there, and it makes Jack Kupwana look like a way worse coach than he is. But at the same time, this team obviously right now has just found something where he was saying or doing things that they didn't like or they weren't buying into and when a team kind of quits they don't you know do it obviously but you can just censor around the room when a team quits on a guy there has to be a change because after what this team did last year i'm sure i was shocked to see how it was going earlier in the year so i think they could make the playoffs and it helps that that the east i

mean there's like no i don't think any teams are really out of it right now it's just uh no the parity yeah no it's jump ball right now in the east and further to that point too i've always thought that this was one of the great skill sets of a coach and you know i don't i think there's like a handful of great coaches and then there's just everybody else like i i don't think that it's a league that has you know you know a dozen or 15 elite level coaches but i've always felt that one of the one of the things that that goes really unreported where you can talk about this as a player let me know whether i'm bang on or eating space cake on this one i've always felt that a good coach lyddy ruff was like this with buffalo still with dallas

a good coach knows when the team has heard enough of him and he needs to back up and let the assistants talk so every day it's not the same voice it's not the same guy you know banging on the nail a good coach knows when to back off and let the assistants do some of the heavier lifting let them do some of the talking am i on the money about that or am i out to lunch on it with what you're on the money and you know what it all comes down to is ego so a coach who doesn't have a huge ego is willing to say listen I got great assistants here I'm going to trust them for the next day this practice they're going to be the voice we're going to get a little bit of a change guys with big egos no they don't want Randy Carlisle never ever wants to hear his

assistants do all the talking because he wants to hear himself speak and it's just people who kind of refuse to give a little power to someone else to get the team you know a different viewpoint or you know change them change of attitude they just want to keep grinding away with their same stuff and in the end that's what ended up killing them so you gotta you gotta kind of be able to change with how the team's feeling and how the team's playing and just get your assistants to do their job because a lot of times i think you'd be shocked at how i'm not going to say how little assistants do because they work so much video and stuff like that but a lot of times the team's assistants are just there and they're the guy that after the coach sells at you they say all right you know what you're fine

you're fine you know just just move a little quicker stuff like that so yeah i think it all depends on on ego the and that brings up an interesting point about Doug Wade as well, because very seldom, I mean, it happened in New Jersey with Larry Robinson, but it very seldom does the assistant coach move to the head coach position and have some success, because you have to change, you know, because as the assistant coach, it's like a backup goalie, right? Like, you're the nice guy, you're the buddy. Hey, no, no, hey, I know the coach was heavy on you,

but here's what he's trying to get at. Hey, come on. Let's go have a beer and talk about it. But then when you become the head coach, all of a sudden like, Hey man, this guy's changed. Like last week, you know, we're breaking curfew having a couple of beers and now he's bag skating me. Like what the hell? Like this guy, because he's sort of looking, I'm like, he's a fraud. Like this isn't the guy that we've had here for two years.

So it's sort of, it's, it's, it's a tough adjustment to go from the nice guy assistant coach to the tough ass head coach. I'm curious to see how this Doug Waite experiment plays out on the island. Jeff, staying with Brooklyn, what's going on there?

Are they going to continue to play there? I read something that they could potentially build a new rink in Queens. They could go back to Long Island. What's the whole situation there? I wonder how much of this is just sort of posturing to redo the deal. I mean, when you start to see these sort of trial balloons out there set about, oh, maybe getting kicked out of the building and, oh, we'd make more money if we had something. I wonder if that's not just sort of some gentle public pressure to indicate that this deal may not be working for us right now.

We would like to open it and create something a little more favorable to us. I'm not, I mean, I didn't react hysterically to it because I think that this is more about negotiation at this point than anything else. So I'm not, I'm not one to say, oh, yeah, the Islanders are running back to Nassau Coliseum anytime soon. To me, this one looks more like this is contract posturing and agreement posturing more than anything else. If they have to go back to Nassau,

that would be like some dude marrying a really rich girl and her making him sign a prenup and then she divorces him and he's got to go back to his shithole apartment. That would be awful. Yeah. Sorry, guy.

Sorry about your luck. Having said that, I mean, we all know, I mean, there's, like, numerous problems at Barclays. Like, if I'm a player. It's awful. With that ice. Like, I'm sorry. The problem is you can't rip it up during the year because that's an

extensive process, and you're going to have to do something with the piping underneath. And it's going to be significant, and it's going to take, you know, a good chunk during the year because that's an extensive process and you're going to have to do something with the piping underneath and it's going to be significant and it's going to take a you know a good chunk of the off season to do it so you just got to sort of plug your nose but i mean how difficult i mean if you're if your team is trying to attract free agents i mean part of the cell is you know the arena the practice facility is another one as well but part of it is you know the rink that you're playing on and if i'm an nhler and i'm you know worried about my you know safety my health i don't want to play on that

and i i don't i can't believe that that when they i've we've bitched about this before jeff on the show that they they built that rink and like how do you build a modern day arena and not have it built for hockey as well i mean if i mean just a pragmatic point, okay, we're going to build an arena, we're going to rent it out for different functions. You would want every single type of thing to be there and have it perfect and have the ice. Yeah, versatility. Make sure the ice

is good. Make sure the sight lines are good. The first time they put hockey in there, it was like, who the hell would come up with this idea? As far as the Islanders, I hope everybody in the townhouse, all the coaching staff lives together. I hope everyone's getting along now that they're all under the same roof. But enough of the Islanders.

We're going to wrap it up a little bit. We've taken enough of your time, Jeff. We've got one more big question for you. We've got two. I've got one more, and then Witt's got one more. Toronto, unbelievable season they have, and surprising a lot of folks. Do they get into the playoffs? They just lost their second in a row yesterday against the Dallas Stars. I think they do, and it speaks more to the Atlantic division

than it does to the Maple Leafs. I mean, they're playing in a pretty weak division, and they've got five games in hand on the Boston Bruins, who they're chasing for third right now. I mean, Boston is in a flat run out of games. Excuse me. The interesting thing about Toronto is it's going to come right down to the last month. April's vicious for them.

They have six games and nine nights to conclude the season. So if I'm the Maple Leafs, I'm trying to stay above water and then get to that stretch where i mean you'd like to be tucked away by then but if man if you look at that even though mind you the first two are on the road and the remaining four at home so that might be a little bit of a blessing but that's a lot of hockey right at the end of the schedule so i think they i think they do get in but that's mainly because you know tamp Tampa's bowed out, Florida's bowed out, two teams that we thought were going to be there as well. Boston's had their challenges.

They may just flat run out of games. Detroit's taken a step back. So that may be more about the Atlantic than the Maple Leafs, but I do think they may get in. So, Jeff, I know before we let you go, the story you told me that people need to hear this, and I'll preface it with a lot of times coaches will kind of or at least terry and i remember he threatened me once he

said i'll fucking bury you i buried i'd fucking bury doug gilmore you don't think i can bury you so in in a way they always say you're right over there yeah no no i'm just like the fumes of a cold here i gotta switch i gotta switch brands of cigarettes these are making me cough so uh but you actually are able to say for the rest of your life that you buried an nhl owner can you just oh yeah explain that can you can you go into that all right wet mike no matter what i do in hockey, ever, there is nothing as far as leaving an impression or as far as magnitude of action like what I did before I got into the industry as a broadcaster. owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of the more controversial owners of all time, who had this love-hate relationship with the fans, with the media, with players. Certainly, I mean, Daryl Sittler ripped the sea off his sweater in protest once upon a time. So he passes away in the spring of 1990.

I just finished my first year at university. I was going to Guelph. And I come back, and I get a job at Park Lawn Cemetery. I ended up working there for four years. Loved it. Listen, if broadcasting is over for me tomorrow, I'm trying to get my job back at the cemetery. I love everything about it, Whit. Everything about it.

My first day on the job, I don't't know i'm just there with a cup of coffee and you know some some pants and boots and a shirt and they hand me a shovel and they say we've only got one backhoe today we need to dig seven graves once that funeral up there on the hill is done you know we just take the flowers off and throw the dirt on the coffin this is harold ballard you know this is apparently oh i'm like you gotta be kidding me and like no kid this is harold i'm like you gotta be kidding me and like no kid this is your initiation you're burying harold like no way and first of all it takes a while to bury someone dude like it doesn't take like five minutes and most of us will never have this experience but i had it you know hundreds of times working there there is nothing that compares to the feeling you get

when you first throw dirt on someone's coffin, knowing that you are the final punctuation in someone's life. You are the period at the end of their sentence, you know, and see, done, the play is over. And as I was telling Whit, everybody in Toronto always complained about the old guy, but only one person did something about it. And that was me. So no matter what I ever do in hockey,

my crowning achievement will always be, I was the man that threw the dirt on the coffin, on the grave of Harold Ballard. That's hilarious. I think there's a bunch of former Leafs players that would love to shake your hand, but I really appreciate you coming on, buddy.

Fans and business owners. Yeah, R.A., anytime, man. I love this podcast. I can honestly tell you I have not missed a single one. I think I'm still howling from the Mike Commodore appearance. And Biz Nasty was fantastic. And just when I was in Quebec City on the weekend, I listened to the Patrick O'Sullivan one. And, I mean, the Colby one was great.

But that's Army., but that's Army. Yeah, that's Army. That's Army. This podcast has become required listening for me. So you boys have a good thing going, so don't F it up, all right? Thanks a lot, Jeff. We appreciate having you, and thank you for the kind words. And that interview was brought to you by Blue Apron, the number one fresh and green delivery service in the country.

So here's the deal with Blue Apron. Their mission is to make incredible home cooking accessible to anyone and everyone. And as we all know, fresh, high-quality ingredients make a huge difference. So it's important to know where your food comes from, and Blue Apron helps you do just that. So for less than $10 per person and per meal, Blue Apron delivers seasonal recipes along with pre-portioned ingredients to make delicious home-cooked meals. Choose a variety of new recipes each week or let Blue Apron's culinary team surprise you. And for someone as indecisive as myself, that's really something that can't be beat. Blue Apron has special delivery options so you can choose what fits your needs and what you want to eat.

Check out this week's menu and get your first three meals free with free shipping by going to blueapron.com slash chiclets. And trust me when I say this, you're going to love how good it tastes and feels to cook home incredibly cooked meals. So that's blueapron.com slash chiclets. Go get your free meals now. Blue Apron, a better way to cook. And once again, a hearty thank you to Jeff Marrick for joining us. Great guy.

He's a big fan of the show, a big friend of the show. And it was a real pleasure to have him on. Very knowledgeable guy. Definitely go follow him on Twitter. I know a lot of American audiences may not be familiar with him because he's not on our networks down here. But he's certainly a worthy follow. Definitely a very educated fellow in the sport of hockey. Now we're going to a weekly segment of listener questions.

All right, Hamilton, what do we got, Grinnells? All right. I had to make this one number one. Captain Cons. Oh, boy. From our sister blog, ZeroBlog30. Very good blog. Check it out.

So he asked, stool chicklets, what are the top three hockey movies of all time, and who are the top three hockey movie coaches? Ryan, you want to go first? Yeah. You go first? Yeah. You go Slapshot. You go Youngblood for me. And you go Mighty Ducks. And then in terms of coaches,

I feel like coaches haven't made a huge impression on me in movies. Maybe I'm kind of blacking out here right now. But you just think of Gordon Bombay immediately. Gordon Bombay, quack, quack, quack, dude. Driving the limo out onto the frozen lake in Minnesota like the guy was a G before there were G's around.

Remember, he went on to play some pro after the Ducks beat the Hawks. That guy was a stud. Okay, my favorite hockey, obviously, number one. I mean, fucking duh, Slapshot. No brainer. I'm surprised you didn't say this one, Ryan.

Miracle. Pretty good hockey movie, if you forgot. That's another one. What is that about? I don't know. About this scrappy team of underdogs. They played, I don't know, some red umpire or something like that. I don't know.

Nothing really happened after. It didn't really change world events or anything, so I didn't really pay much attention to it. I'll probably put Youngblood third. You know what's funny? True confession, a Boston confession. I didn't see the Mighty Ducks until about three or four years ago. No bullshit.

Which one? I remember seeing the first Mighty Ducks in the theater with my father and a couple kids I played hockey with. I was probably 10 or 11, and I said to him, do you think our team could beat the Hawks? And I remember his face just was like, shut the fuck up. He was just so disgusted. I asked him if we could beat the Hawks.

He was just like, what am I doing at the movies right now with this kid? That's my memory. It's like, what am I doing at the movies right now with this kid? Yeah, I was late. That's my memory. I was late to the Docs just simply because when it came out, I was early 20s, and it just was a kid's movie. I got around to it. It was good. I enjoyed it.

But I guess Slapshot, Miracle Youngblood. And as far as the best hockey coach, I mean, fucking Reg Dunlop. I mean, player coach Reg Dunlop, Paul Newman, one of the greatest actors of all time. And he actually said that of all his movies that he's done, and he's done a bunch of them, Slapshot was the most fun he had making a movie, and the one he looks back the most fondly on, so that's my answer. Grinnell? So I'd probably go

Miracle, Slapshot, and then I'd probably go D2, The Mighty Ducks. I'd go D2, just because you know, the whole phrase, Iceland is green and Greenland is ice, that really changed my mentality on the whole global geography. Also, I want to give a special, it's not technically a hockey movie,

although it has elements of hockey in it, it's worth mentioning, The Cutting Edge. Oh, I thought you were going to say MVP, the most valuable primate. No, I didn't go there. Cutting Edge, D.B. Sweeney, Moira Kelly, about the Olympic hockey player who, he can't play hockey anymore, so he becomes a figure skater. Did you see that, Ry? I did. I remember he, like, I don't know if he gets hurt or he's in the Olympics

and then he sees her at the Olympics, right? She was good looking. And then he goes on to be like a figure skater with her. Yeah, exactly. Oh, and this is one other one I forgot to mention. I know I already gave my three, but I'd be remiss if we didn't mention Goon, which is a cult classic. It's your good buddy. Yeah, my buddy Jay Baruchel, who I've been trying to get for the show.

I haven't been able to pin him down. Sounds like a good buddy. Goon's a classic. I mean, it has elements of Slapshot, obviously a little bit of Rudy in there too, but I just didn't want to not mention that. All right, Grinnells, enough of that question. Number two.

All right, so Jay Richards asks, do hockey players play NHL video games, and is it competitive? Let me go in and quickly tell you a story about me in the NHL playing video games. The year I was traded from Pittsburgh, I started the year hurt, and Alex Goligosky, I think he started that. He's currently with Phoenix. I think he started that season in Wilkes-Barre, but it was obvious he was going to be on Pittsburgh at some point. point so he got called up and we were living together this is while i

was still hurt and i think he wasn't really playing that often or if he was um he was still just really good guy that loved video games like me so we started playing nhl at the time it was nhl 08 or nhl 07 we're like all right let's play a game then i'm shutting it down we played 30 games in a row this was the first night we started playing then we started like taking ambient and then playing we we would have scores to games waking up the next morning having no rec toronto pittsburgh we'd have no recollection of even playing the game but we just remember like oh well i was the team on the right side the whole game, so I must have won that one.

We were playing for a couple hundred bucks a game, and it just was the most fun I think I've ever had playing video games. So I was swearing at NHL guys I was playing against that night for not burying a goal on fucking PlayStation 3 for me. You wake up with, like, a fistful a fistful of hundreds and naked after the NBA. I'm like, oh, did we play Sega Genesis last night? NHL players play a lot of that. And I remember with Hall and Eberle,

we would just do big-time Nassau's for Tiger Woods. That was our video game action. Love that game. I mean, I've always played. I specifically remember my father screaming at me for playing NHL 95 too much on sega remember when you could get their heads to bleed oh yeah you could make their heads bleed in one of the years and then they they brought the then they brought the the game in when you

could press start and the player did a special move like sergey fedorov did the cut back and lemieux had like a sick backhand toe drag like that's probably my favorite shit remembering growing up is playing NHL video games. Yeah. As far as I didn't play in the NHL, Mike, so I don't have any locker room stories. Yeah, me either. But I did play a shitload of Sega 94 in college though. There we go.

All right. Next and final, I believe it's our final All Right Hamilton question. Yeah. So I thought this one was kind of funny. Jared Greer asks, or Jared Gear asks, Stool Chicklets, what's going on with Claude Giroux? Is he finished? All right, Hamilton. No.

Finished. Finished. No, no, no, no, no. What, with dinner? Like, finished? Like, was he born in Finland? Oh, is he finished? No, no, no.

You're playing off that stupid question. Okay. Sorry. Sorry to all listeners. All right. I mean, no. Yeah. I love Claude Giroux.

I mean, I don't think he's's i think people probably expect it a little bit more um what year was it he had a huge year i think it was two years ago yeah and he started off real slow that year yeah he did and then just went crazy i mean i love i actually i love the way he plays because he kind of doesn't get enough credit for like how hard he plays. He's a prick out there, you know, and he has moments when like he'll. I don't know if you remember. He buried Crosby at the beginning of a playoff game against Pittsburgh. And it was one of the probably the hits of the year just because you never see Sid get hit like that.

But as a player and a captain, I mean, I know his teammates love him. He's got 40 points in 51 games this year. So obviously a guy making $9 million, I don't think he's happy with that. He'd probably want to be around 50, 55 points. Last year he had 67 points. His career high is 93. That was actually back in 2011, 2012. So, I mean, I think that maybe his career is kind of somewhat on the downhill,

but it's the very beginning of it. He's 29 years old. I don't really know what he means by finished. I mean, 40 points through 51 games is making $9 million. I wouldn't say that's finished. I'm really fucking finished. He's not done. All right, so that'll do it for this week's All Right, Hamilton.

Thank you for the questions, as always. Get some more in. Real quick before we're going to wrap it up, Brad Marchand last night, Brian, looked like one of those accidentally on purpose Steve Urkels, did I do that? Looked like one of those inadvertent but maybe vertent trip, slew foot. Does he get a game or what after just getting

discipline? I talked to Twitter. I talked on Twitter about it last night. You can tell I think it was on purpose but it looked so accidental. That's how good he is at doing shit, I think. If he didn't get a game for Cronwalder, I would be shocked

if he gets anything for that one. That almost looked like he made it look like two guys colliding. The problem was one guy was skating backwards, and he knew where he was going. But, I mean, I don't really see that being a suspension if the other one was. The other one was ten times worse than that. This just didn't, like Grinnell said, I guess they're not going to discipline him, I guess, where he just trickled over the Twitter wire. He just hates Swedish defensemen.

He just hates Swedish defensemen because that was on Strahlman last night. Right, you're right. Strahlman, Kralm, Salo. Elliott Friedman tweeted that hearing no discipline for Brad Marchand going towards puck not seen as intentional like Kronwall play from last week.

Oh my god. People who don't like Marchhan are probably just losing their fucking mind right now. They can't get a suspension. Can I go ahead with my blog? Because I honestly thought he wasn't going to get the benefit of the doubt. I figured they just gave him $10,000 last week. But I think like you just said, Ryan, it was enough of it. Well, we can't prove he did it on purpose. I mean, he was cutting up ice.

But I don't know. If you watch the replay and just watch his legs, it's tough to think it was enough of it. Well, we can't prove he did it on purpose. I mean, he was cutting up ice, but I don't know. If you watch the replay and just watch his legs, it's tough to think it was accidental. So, yeah, just so... Hey, quickly, though. I know our boy Grinelli is heading out to the Super Bowl, so have fun out there. Can we get your guys' score predictions?

Well, let me just say that I am on record as to calling the exact score and final outcome of the last Super Bowl. The last Super Bowl win for the Patriots. I used to do a Patriots pregame show for a radio station up in New Hampshire and I went on air right before the show.

I said, 28-24 Patriots. I bet the Steelers have a last minute drive. It's going to come down to the wire and Patriots are going to stuff them on the goal line. You said that. I'll send you the video. I'll tweet it out from the

Spittin' Chicklets account. Do you have a nasty North Shore haircut going on too? Is it gel? Do you have your hair really gelled and shit? Yeah, absolutely. Might as well talk about deceased children if you're going to talk about

using gel in hair, guys. Have a little respect, please. But I got 35 24 Patriots. Alright. Sorry, boys. That's right. I got I think the Pats offense is going to go through Atlanta's D all day

whereas I think the Pats can throw a little monkey wrench in Atlanta's offense. I got Pats 45, Atlanta 28. I take mine back. I got 34, 31 Patriots. All right. Well, I've hammered the Patriots' money line every single day since Sunday, so I just keep getting more confident.

I don't see their offense getting stopped already. I agree. I think they're going to get 35 points, and I think Atlanta's going to get like 24. You know what, I'll tell you, there's some good MVP odds out there. I know Brady's the chalk at 150 because quarterbacks win them all the time, but I'll tell you, someone

like Amendola is like 60 to 1. I took Deion Lewis $4, wins you $140. Bingo. Stuff like that. Because, you know, Deion Branch won one of the MVPs. If a wide receiver, basically, you know, if a wide receiver has two, three touchdowns and a shitload of yards and the only touchdowns of the game, you know, like Brady has a decent day but not great,

a very good opportunity to, you know, like a Chris Hogan or something, there's some definitely opportunities to, definitely opportunities to maybe make some good money if somebody you don't expect wins the MVP. So those are always worth throwing a few bucks on. All right. And Grinnell, good luck at the barstool party. I mean, if you're single, you better have a story for us. Oh, I definitely will.

I'll be ashamed if I don't. Just rapid. Okay. You guys got to shame me if I don't. I want the shame. All right, boys. Real quick, Ryan, you forgot. This date in NHL history, your former boss, Mario Lemieux,

becomes the second player in NHL history to score 50 goals in less than 50 games. He did it in his 40th. Oh, good one. He did it in his 44th game back in 1989. Of course, somebody from around here would join him a couple years later. Cam Neely did 50 and 44 on a half a leg. Of course, he had to work that in. So, all right, that'll wrap it up for today's show.

Good job, boys. Any plugs, anything else, Ryan, you need to let us know about when you're on TV again? I'm not on TV for a couple weeks. So I'm playing golf at Calusa Pines tomorrow, so wish me luck. Oh, tough life. Ah, wish you luck. We wish you luck. All right, boys.

All right, buddy. Step on throats, baby you luck. Alright, buddy. Step on throats, baby. Step on throats. Hashtag step on throats. Alright, buddy. Everybody, have a good weekend. Once again, thanks to Jeff Mara for coming on. We loved having him. We'll do it again. Enjoy your weekend, everybody. Peace. © transcript Emily Beynon