Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 164: Featuring Andy O'Brien

Episode Date: April 4, 2019

On Thursday's episode of Spittin' Chiclets the guys are all in Boston to record in person. The guys are also joined by Sidney Crosby's personal trainer and Director of Sport Science and Performance for the Pittsburgh Penguins Andy O'Brien. Andy joins to talk about CBD, all the things he is working on with Sid, some hilarious stories about working with the Penguins and a bunch more. The guys also touch on some NHL news, the upcoming playoffs, and the Red Wings and more.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 164 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by New Amsterdam Vodka. Coming to you from a lovely hotel suite here in the back bay of Boston. Biz, welcome to Boston, pal. Red Eye. Have you slept? And a connection flight.

So I flew into Atlanta and then Atlanta to Boston, but hey. You can get a red eye from scottsdale to boston they don't have that i apparently not but uh you know i tough coyotes lost last night we'll get into that in a little bit but uh yeah me and mikey traveled in and uh before i pass it over uh just a quick update on the the jimmy john's front with the with the mustard packs that's the gate so it went from me not knowing why they wouldn't just put the fucking mustard on the sandwich to then finding out it was because of allergy reasons and people were tweeting that in because mustard's pretty high on the allergy scale, similar to peanut butter.

Well, then more news. Did Jimmy John's get in touch with you? No, but a former employee did. Disgruntled? Just a former employee did. And he directed. Just gruntled? Just a former employee. I'll leave it at that. I'm not going to give his identity, but he DM'd me via Instagram.

And he wrote this. Hey, Biz, about the Jimmy John's mustard policy. They disguise their cheapskate practices as allergy awareness. That's a bold statement. I worked for a jj's franchise for years the frugality is literally ingrained in the company i remember reading in a policy manual to take the pen from the bank when you're making a deposit because why buy pens they say it's an allergy issue but it's really just some bullshit but wouldn't that be laziness as opposed to saving money?

Oh no How are you saving money If you're not putting Either way the guy hates Jimmy John's He had an accident I want to actually DM him back and say What happened to Jimmy John's Why'd you get fired after you were 7 time employee of the month

And you actually loved Jimmy John's Now you despise him. I'd rather host Ryan Whitney, the wit thug. What's going on? This is such a pleasure. I told Doug Grinelli, I said, I'm so fired up. This is old school. I used to drive in.

I used to go to the gym, not do anything. I did that today, and then I'd drive into RAs a couple times. He was sleeping. I love throwing that in there. But most of the time, we got on the couch and did this. Now we got biz here. Mikey traveled. It's a pleasure. How mad, before we introduce Mikey,

how mad were you when you drove into Boston and were knocking on Ari's... I think I bring this up every time. I was so mad. But Ari was very apologetic. So I gotta just... What else are you gonna do? He's always apologetic. What else are you gonna do?

It was just so funny. I the day i'm like i called mikey i'm like it's 11 fucking 30 we don't record at 6 15 in the morning and people are eating chipotle right now nobody eats that till it's the afternoon fuck me i couldn't i couldn't hear i was dead to the world i couldn't hear fucking shit but now we're in. I couldn't hear fucking shit. But now we're in a suite. Yeah. This is in town. And yeah, we're living. We've scaled up, you might say.

And our producer also had to travel in. Yeah. Took the train in. It sucked. But you got to do what you got to do. 6 a.m. train. There's some characters at Penn Station at 6 a.m. I can't imagine.

Absolute characters. Do they let people sleep down? They can't. Like two in the morning, can a bum go down there and hang out? There's bums everywhere. There's bums just like you go in the bathroom, there's bums on the floor. I wonder if they try to kind of shoo them away, but then they just come back. I'm cute and vulnerable, man.

I'm very cute and I'm very vulnerable. Someone will grab me quick. This reminds me of a sex trafficker. You can't defend yourself against a guy who hasn't had a meal in like three weeks. Mikey's going to be the kid in Basketball Diaries. Leonardo sucking on the weans to get some blow. What's his name? I think we talked about that one day if that was a basketball movie or not.

Yeah, I said it was one of my favorite sports movies. I was like, that isn't exactly a sports movie. Swifty, what are you doing? Swifty, Swifty, what are you doing? Oh, is that the coach? That was the coach's name. He was trying to blow him. Yeah, he was.

Oh, my God. That was when he was not wanting to get blown. Later in the movie, he was and he was trying to blow him yeah he was oh my god that's what down that was when he was not wanting to get blown later in the movie he wanted to get he was blowing the guy for for money speaking of blowing blowing his load have uh have you seen the new joker trailer i haven't watched the no no joaquin phoenix i'm kind of fucking like joke it out a little bit yeah i'm batman and time out i'm like i i agree and then then obviously after Heath Ledger's performance, it's tough to ever consider anyone playing the Joker. I watched the trailer.

I love Joaquin Phoenix. He's one of my favorite actors. I was like, I'm not even into the Batmans that hard. I didn't even see the Joker one in full. I've seen clips of it. The Heath Ledger one. Oh, really?

But I will watch the Joaquin Phoenix one I'm a big Joaquin Phoenix fan as well But like I said I mean I love Batman Superman Grew up reading that shit But it's just saturated now

It's just so fucking much No I agree I'm not into that stuff I like the Christian Bale Batmans Yeah But after that Like these Avenger things I saw the thing

That people couldn't buy a ticket Yesterday morning They're already It's like they're gonna break records I don't know I just have no I've had no desire ever These Avenger things, I saw the thing that people couldn't buy a ticket yesterday morning. It's like they're going to break records. I don't know. I've had no desire ever to get into that stuff. Speaking of our Batman, our last guest, John Hamm, is supposedly going to be the next Batman. Oh, maybe give him the chicklets bump? Yeah, that's what I've been hearing.

Maybe he needs a new Batman cup, though. Hey, I'm confident that I could out-act him live if we had him for some content. I think he would dummy you. I think he would flip a switch and you'd be like, what is happening right now? I feel like this is like boiling his blood right now, the fact that you're saying that. An Academy Award winning actor. Do you have confidence in your co-host? Buddy, do you realize if this guy did an acting thing with you, he would flip the switch and be don draper and he like wouldn't ever smile at anything you're doing and

you'd have no clue what just happened yeah and you'd be like oh there's 20 promo code oh yeah and then i'll michael scott him and pull out the gun great episode pull the gun it's like you can't keep pulling out the gun man i will tell you being on set that day, it was impressive as hell. I mean, I know people say, oh, acting, that's real hot. But to see a guy go over and do the same lines, he must have did them 20 or 30 times because they got to cut it from different angles and shit. I don't think he flubbed one line. Okay, here's a question. I think that I'm not going to say it's not hard.

I'll describe as I bet you would be exhausting. Yeah. I think mentally you got to be on off, and I think that would be like a wear you down. That's usually why on big productions like that they only do a few scenes a day. That's why I go method you know so then you stay in that zone the whole time. Okay well I wanted to ask you a question. So when in

between like takes does nobody talk to him other than the director? I didn't because I do. R.A. was. R.A. was like hey you want eggs with that this fry is still on oh that place is disgusting the legit roaches at that bar behind that bar that thing the legit roaches back there but no i just stayed out of his way i don't i don't think he was that type of guy but i knew he was in between scenes but i i saw other people like directors

and stuff talking i don't think he was i don't think he's a method guy basically but blake lively same thing she was she was aces, too. People right now are like, is this Lights, Camera, Barstool podcast? Sorry. When we're together, I'll tell you, you just start shooting the shit. Exactly. That's what happens. We got more familiarity going on here.

By the way, I told Grinnelli when we checked in, this hotel used to be Boston Police Department headquarters not too long ago, actually. Oh, so they made the old police department into this and they made the old jail into the Liberty. Yeah. Typical for Boston, having cops and robbers, themes even at the hotel. There you go. Yeah, actually, next time when you leave the building

or come in, you can still see the words engraved on the side of it. Speaking of robbed, I think Connor McDavid feels like he's been robbed of a full year of his career of his true prime yeah man and we got some crazy games from tuesday night but first connor mcdavid mikey play the clip yeah it sucks obviously just uh it's not good enough uh all year you know we we uh let streaks drag on we let uh you know uh you know times where we couldn't find ways to get wins, drag on. You know, you've got to find a way to stop the bleeding quick.

You know, it's a slim margin of error in this league. And, you know, there's a lot of teams that are right there. And, you know, we did our best to stay in the fight. Just a little too late. It was funny because as bad as things went, it was there for you almost. I mean, it's been an insane season. Coaching change, team change, good times and bad times. It's been a roller coaster. It's been emotionally challenging.

It's been hard mentally to kind of keep on going but we were always kind of right there we were close and then we'd drift away and sway close Your frustration level is probably fairly high? It's really high

it's really really high it's frustrating we want to play in the playoffs as a team,. We want to play in the playoffs as a team. I personally want to play in the playoffs. I'm not happy about it. That's just frustration, being

disgusted. Actually, after having one of the greatest years in not hockey history, but right. He's had three years where it's been outstanding, incredible talk where we're saying, like, possibly this guy could be the best player ever to play hockey. Right. And I don't think he gives a shit right now about those personal numbers. And I don't like I'm not saying that I don't know him well enough to say that. But it just strikes me as I want to win.

I see all these great players on good teams, and what is this worth if I'm dominating everyone, getting 120 points, and we suck? And you can just sense from his vibe, and I don't blame the guy. Yeah, it's tough to watch, man, because maybe because we got to meet him, we got to see he's a genuinely nice kid.

I think we root a little more for those guys, but it looked like his fucking dog got ran over, man. His puppy got ran over. You could see the sadness in his face, and he's frustrated. And I think the real frustrating part, Wits, is there's not a shitload of hope right beyond the horizon. It's not like, oh, well, next year we got this coming off. These salaries are coming off the books and this, that.

There's not a lot of fucking great hope right in the immediate future. So you've got to say, shit, man, is he wishing he fucking waited out and went RFA and maybe fucking didn't commit to such a long time i mean i know he's making great money but i mean this fucking franchise is in major disarray right now and the signs are on like pointing to oh yeah it helps around the corner it's like fuck man we're still in the fleck and lurch here they don't sorry but they just they don't have their gm or their coach for next year so i think part of it was yeah hopefully hopefully they can hire someone that, paraphrasing, knows what he's doing.

So, yeah, it's a good point. I got a lot of shit. Remember when I said that the Ken Hitchcock signing was a terrible signing? I got a ton of shit for that. Do you guys remember that? I think I was pretty spot on. He was a good patch job because I don't think he wants to keep coaching past this year. Yes.

And it was just, you know, they want to see if he can go in there and flip a switch. He has a two-year deal, and I don't know if they know next year. I think he's going to be in hockey ops somewhere. And this year, he's a guy who in history had flipped teams around. So I don't think it was a bad move. It didn't work. The team isn't good enough. he's lost some of his touch. I mean, you've got to say the team.

They've had plenty of coaches who couldn't get the team in the playoffs. So I don't think it was a terrible move. It just didn't work out. I do believe they would have been a lot closer if he would have been coached a lot sooner. I think they waited a little too long. Yeah, maybe they start the year with him and it's a whole different story. I mean, sometimes you get middle of the year. It's hard to switch.

It's like that team is who they are. Yeah, exactly. And good coaching will only get you a few more extra wins. I think the 100-point seasons, the luster is going to wear off. He would probably sacrifice 20 of those points to have a competitive team. Not like he would need to because he'd be even better with better players around him. But there's just no light at the end of the tunnel right now. That's got to be where the frustration's at.

And we don't need to keep ragging on Edmonton. But, I mean, the star player is getting a little sick with the way things have been ran around there. Yeah, it's tough. And, you know, they're a capped team too. It's not like they can just go out and fucking start spending the money the money's just allocated in a piss poor way so you know hopefully they can turn around because we want to see this generational talent in the playoffs man playoffs obviously better with mcdavid in it meanwhile tuesday night was a fantastic drama in the nhl we still have a couple wild card races going on especially in the east

um three games going on at once i had the boston columbus game going on, especially in the East. Three games going on at once. I had the Boston-Columbus game going on. You were watching, what, Tampa-Montreal? I watched Tampa-Montreal most of that game and then kind of watched the rest of the Avs Oilers. So those were, and then our man Biz. Biz, all year. It was Coyotes, Coyotes that last night. I mean, what happens there?

That's a must-win game. You guys want to talk about the East games or you want to go west to the East or you want to talk Coyotes right now? I want to hear about what happened last night. I mean, what happens there? That's a must-win game. You guys want to talk about the East games or you want to go West to East and you want to talk Coyotes right now? I want to hear about what happened last night. First of all, fuck you Jack Campbell. I actually texted him last night. I said, I wrote, fuck you. That's all.

I get a bonus if this team gets in, Jack. Hey, Jack, if you guys are listening in that LA locker room, you guys put that fine fun together, and you guys are going to pay me 20 Gs for my playoff bonus that I missed out on because you decided to have a career night in Gila River Arena. First off, 49 stops. Congratulations.

He's a great guy. I played with him actually in Ontario with the rain, and that's when he turned his career around. He came over from Dallas. Yep, and he was a high pick, I think. He was a high pick. He was a first-rounder. And just, I don't know, whatever, just didn't seem to do well there.

I mean, they also play a little bit more run and gun. Yeah, not anymore. That's why they're good. But yeah. Well, in the minors they were. They would win games like 7-6. And he was getting hung out to dry. Came over to Ontario.

Had an unbelievable year. Ended up getting nominated to the All-Star game, went there, and the rest is history. But the Coyotes played an unbelievable game. They limited them to 24 shots on net. They had 50 of their own. So it was domination. It was domination right from puck drop.

18 shots in the first, 18 shots in the second. They ended up having 14 in the third. So, I mean, very consistent with their offense throughout the entire game. Dude, they were up 1-0. They had the game in complete control. Tyler Toffoli ends up getting a shitty pass with, I don't know, like two seconds left in the second period. Backbreaker.

And he just kind of tees himself up and does like a little spinorama and just gets it off. Not a Tyler Toffoli shot, but he gets it off. And who else? Kyle fucking Clifford tips it in the net. Had a fight too earlier. 0.2 seconds. Three minutes

into the third period. So now all of a sudden the Coyotes are going to the locker room like, fuck, dude. We've been dominating these guys all night. Now we're 1-1 off a cheap one. It was 0.2 left? 0.2. Did they're 1-1 off a cheap one. It was.2 left? .2. Did they review it? Yes, they reviewed it.

Oh, that sucks. Yeah. Anyway, that was devastating. Three minutes into the third period, Kyle Clifford goes in on the forecheck, disrupts it. Loose puck pops out to Trevor Lewis. He ends up going to the backhand scoring. And after he scored, he gets tangled up with the defenseman.

His stick goes right into Darcy Kemper's cat eye. Pokes him right in the eye. Darcy Kemper. Dude, I didn't know any of this. Is he okay? Is he okay? I wanted to ask you. I saw that late.

Hopefully, he's going to be okay. I believe so. I mean, he's been their MVP, especially in the second half of the season. He might even get consideration as a nominee for the Vezina. I mean, to win it, it might be tough. He doesn't have a big enough sample size.

But now he's down a night. Picard came in and did an unbelievable job. He shut the door until they ended up scoring their empty netter. But just couldn't end up finding a goal. 0 for 6 on the PP, though. The PP kind of wore dry at the end of the season here for the Yotes. And then we start the pregame.

It was 2-0 Edmonton on Colorado. So we're on top of the world. We're like, fuck, we're going to win this one and now we're going to be tied in points. Swings on a dime, man. Colorado, 6 unanswered. The Yotes basically have to win out and I don't think Colorado can get another

point. Basically, the Kings, just to get the audience up to speed, they beat the Coyotes 3-1 Tuesday. Arizona, basically, they're four points back with two games to go. They would need to win out and Colorado have to lose out. What's Minnie? They're done. I was going to get to them in a little bit.

Minnesota is absolutely toast. Arizona did make the Wilds' bed, though. So they do a little consolation going into the season. Also, I saw just the bottom line. I didn't realize how nuts that game was, but the bottom line this morning, all of the recs went to Larson. 29 minutes, 50 seconds played, eight shots on net.

I was like, this is just me calling out him. I've been eating that since at the games he's played. Actually, him and Drew Doughty are the only two defensemen to have at least 44 points. I believe that was the number, and 144 hits. Really? So he plays physical too, yeah. So he's brilliant.

He's a stud. It's funny, I've seen the responses to me saying that have kind of been 60 40 like that i was wrong but there is a lot of people like no they go to the plus minus which i wasn't talking about i just more had a sense of him as a player which you you disagree well somebody actually sent the the giveaways to uh somebody somebody wrote uh takeaways and giveaways did you see that number? And compared to Brent Burns, where Brent Burns had 120 or 150 giveaways this season,

but he had 50 takeaways, whereas Oliver only had 50 giveaways but 15 takeaways. Let me tell... So if you're giving the puck away over a lot less and you're playing those type of minutes, to me that just shows how consistent you are. For anyone listening, So if you're giving the puck away over a lot less and you're playing those type of minutes, to me that just shows how consistent you are. For anyone listening, pro hockey player, minors, college, junior, high school,

if you ever have stats taken of giveaways, and we did in the NHL level, I would always read it and I would see my name pretty high up on the giveaways list. And every time, this is what I tell myself, so please, I want to let you know, this is what you can tell yourself. People who have the puck more are going to have more giveaways. 100%. People who have the puck more are going to have more giveaways, so don't worry about that number getting too high.

When you're maybe 30, 40 above the next guy in the league, that's when you start worrying. Right, and you're talking about, for instance, an Eric Carlsonlson where people are like oh he has like two or three giveaways a game yeah i know but he he sets up 10 guys back door like he like the like the good is far superior to the bad uh so quickly about that game though did clifford get the assist when he disrupted the four check and get the gordy how because yes of course of course clive clifford gets the fucking gordy how hatcher hat trick. Fuck you, Cliffy. Piece of trash. I'm going to slash your tires.

Is that Lawson Krause's weight range, or is that him fighting off? Well, Krause is 6'4", 220. Yeah, I know, but does he fight guys as tough as Clifford, I'm saying? Right. I was going to jump on that after. I would consider him a light heavyweight just based on his fighting experience. Clifford has farm boy strength. He knows exactly what he's doing as far as tying up.

Cliffy's the type of guy, he's never going to give you a knockout. He doesn't have knockout power, but he's giving you a scrap every time. You're like, what is this, a UFC MMA training round here? Give me a fucking break. I got cauliflower here at the end of my flight with Clifford. And then Cliff, you'll go bail some hay after the penalty box. Piggyback on that point you were just making about giveaways. It's similar to when

a team gets out hit. That doesn't mean your team was a bunch of pussies that night. It just means they had the puck a lot more, so they weren't needing to throw it. Are they talking to teams getting out hit a lot? Don't worry. For more reason than one. Another note on Jack Campbell, There you go, buddy. Great point, R.A. R.A. talking to teams getting out-hit a lot. Don't worry. R.A.'s buzzing today. Don't worry. For more reason than one.

No, another note on Jack Campbell, man. Like you said, Biz, he had a career game, 49 saves he made. And, you know, the Kings are the second-worst team in the league right now, points-wise. This kid, I mean, he's had his record 913-01 on a shit team. But most impressively, 2.28 goals against and a 9.27 save percentage with two shoutouts. For the second worst team in the league, those are some pretty impressive numbers. I think it's safe to say this kid finally found himself.

I'm happy for him. The guys really like him. He's a quirky guy. He's got a weird sense of humor, but the boys really embrace it and he's a good change of pace. I think he met a girl in LA too, so he's on top of the world right now. I'm happy for Campbell. Love you, Jackal.

Just for schedule purposes, the Coyotes are at Vegas Thursday night. Then they host the Jets Saturday. Colorado finishes at home versus the Jets Thursday. Then they go to San Jose Saturday. Like I said, Vegas, they need a lot of help to sneak in the playoffs. Back over the east, Whitney, who was

entertaining you last night with your game? I told you, Montreal, Tampa. This was a hockey game. Yeah. Have I not mentioned many times before about how cool it is when the Canadians are in the playoffs? Yeah. Because that barn, dude, that place was rocking last night, and it was a great game. It was a typical reminder of how great Carey Price is.

And it's funny. They're battling with Columbus. They're battling with Columbus, and Bobrovsky's been insane. I think he was 4-0 last week. He was first star of the week. Second star of the month. In his last 21 games, Bobrovsky has seven shutouts. That's insane.

He leads the league with nine. But Carey Price last night, when Bobrovsky just sucked against the Bruins, you see Carey Price, who was insane and made some saves in the third period in a 2-2 game that were just mind-numbing if you're on the Tampa Bay Lightning. And now they're playing hard. They're trying to break that record. I don't know now. Maybe they can't.

Whatever, the all-time points record. I don't know. Either way, they're playing hard. It was a great game. Tampa Bay actually came out early and got a real lucky goal. Shot it from, like, the all-time points record. I don't know. Either way, they're playing hard. It was a great game. Tampa Bay actually came out early and got a real lucky goal. Shot it from like the corner almost. Hits Domi's knee in front and goes in. And you're just like, oh, fuck.

So you're saying the Coyotes won that trade. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, I mean, I'll say the rest of the night, Montreal battled back. They were playing fast. They were playing loose. They ended up, so it was 2-2 going to third. Price made some huge saves. Huge

saves. And then they go down and Lekkonen gets a nice goal. That Victor Mete, who's a nice player, that kid moves out there. He's young. I think he's 20 or 21. Played with the London Knights. I didn't know what league he was from junior,

but yeah, he moves around like a little water bug out there and he's making plays. He got a puck to net, Leckanen buries a rebound, so they go up 3-2 and then Domi

gets a breakaway chance or maybe not even a breakaway, but he ends up burying a beautiful shot to make it 4-2 after having the shitty bounce off his knee earlier. So it's nice

when guys even that one up and the place was buzzing, dude. That song, when they win, it's like, I got to think of the song. I can't think of it right now, but I'm going to tell you, we're going to play it right now, Granelli. That song buzzes.

That song buzzes. I tell you, it's like in French, but it's like techno-ish a little bit. Guys are loving life. There's rockets in the stands. Guys are ripping cigarettes. It's still out in Montreal in the arena. It was like, I can't wait.

And they're probably going to play the Lightning. And now, realistically, do they have a chance? Because of Carey Price, I'll say, yeah, I'm still picking the Lightning, and I still think Vegas will have a minus 270. I don't think anything makes my dick harder than when you played at the bell center and they play the streets have no names before the game no it's not it's cold play and it's um oh well they used to have the streets have no names by you too that was their old come out song they'd have the flame laser light show it was like it was like Cirque du Soleil on acid. I remember Noah Welsh, who played in Pittsburgh with me, Harvard guy.

He'll remember this. I'm sure they switch it up. Yeah, but I know now it was Fix You by Coldplay, which might not sound like it's sick, but that place gets buzzing, and all of a sudden I was skating around, and I looked at Noah. Sorry, buddy. I think you were scratched that night. He was standing near where the goalies sit in Montreal, and and I looked at Noah sorry buddy I think you were scratched that night and I just like looked at him he's like this is incredible like we just made eyes you could tell

how sick of it was great arena to play in and and I think that that was an enormous win I mean they're playing Columbus is at home they get the bees you know they've been playing great and they gotta have Tampa Bay coming in so still still some games be played, but it was a fun game to watch. I lied. That's the second thing that makes my dick the hardest. A 20-milligram Cialis definitely makes me a little bit harder, but the chemicals, we don't need to get into it. Fair enough.

What else is up in the NHL, Ari? I already watched the game. Yeah, talking about Montreal, I had the iPad on, the iPhone, I had everything going. Three big games at once. Just going back to Montreal, Nate Thompson was the guy we mentioned at the deadline. Face-offs. Spit out junior. Face-offs.

He scored a huge goal for them. I mean, he's a role-player veteran. He jumped in. He scored a big goal for them. Tied it up. Tied it up. I think it was in the first period still. And also it was pretty cool.

Tampa started 28-year-old Eddie Pasquale. He was in for Louis Domingue, who was out hurt. Only a second career start. He comes in. He plays it. It's got to be awesome. A Canadian kid playing in Montreal for his very first start. His second career start. 41 saves. He played a hell of a game, the kid. I mean, he's

not going to be stealing anybody's job, but just for him to kind of get a spot start like that. Did you see Louis Domingue doing the bouncer at the club from their home game biz when they got their 60th win? Oh, well, do you want to get into that now? I thought that was hilarious. And yeah, that's just great morale.

Did he not let somebody in? Was there some pitch? He kind of had his own, what is it called? Storm surge? Is that what they were calling it in Carolina? Yeah, I think so. The storm patrol, whatever the fuck it's called. He kind of had his own little one,

but it was off the ice, and it was to get the morale up after games. I remember talking to a couple guys from the canucks team when they ended up winning the president's trophy and guys were saying when they would come in the locker room like it was just like it was like they were expected to win it wasn't very fun yeah you should celebrate every win you should celebrate every win and it's nice to see that tampa's like really enjoying and embracing this year man like What they've done is fucking insane. I know to now go on and win the playoffs as well, that's the greatest talkie team ever, right?

You could make an argument, yeah. Especially in today's NHL with the amount of parity going through this battle of playoffs. They also are going to have to earn it. Earn it? We'll talk about that more in the playoff preview that's coming up, but they are going to have to earn it. We'll talk about that more in the playoff preview that's coming up, but they are going to have to earn it this year.

If you guys haven't seen the clip, I'm sure you can find it online. Lee Deming, outside the locker room. He had the black suit on with the black tie, white shirt, looked like a security guard. Earpiece. Earpiece, like a security guard outside the nightclub, and he was working the red velvet rope

for the guys coming off the ice uh there was a few funny ones and then especially stamkos's reaction when he shows him the inside of his wrist where the usually the glow-in-the-dark stamp is so i've already been in but i was just having a dart yeah i had to let a few girls in yeah he tweeted he said it was the 60 winwin club private party. So it was pretty clever, pretty good stuff that he came up with. It was Monday night that Tampa beat Ottawa, became just the third team in league history to win 60 games. The 96 Red Wings, of course, did not win the Cup.

The 77 Canadians also won 60 games. They did win the Cup. So, you know, like you said, Wits, they got a big battle ahead of them. And even if they tie with the amount of wins and then go on to win the Stanley Cup, considering it's the cap era and this has to be done by making smart, intelligent moves and staying up to date, that's why I say it would be the greatest hockey season for an NHL team ever. I was just going to say, and don't any hockey historians come at me for this one, but do you know how much easier it was for the 77 Canadians to win the Stanley Cup

than it would be for the Lightning to win it this year? I mean, let's be serious. So if you're going to try to say that they're not a greater team than the 77 Canadians, you're crazy. Crazy. Oh, and quickly, before we move on to the Bruins game, you mentioned the Storm Surge. Was that what it's called? Storm Surge, Carolina. I forgot to mention last episode. I had it written down on my phone nhl network in the states shows the um sportsnet

radio like at noon every day it's noon to one it's uh jeff marrick david amber kind of hosted it's like brian burke colby armstrong mark savard's on there it's pretty good for an hour every day burkey was on burkey's on he's like it was the day that justin williams sent the tweet out that the storm surge he's like started the show he's like i just don't know how i'm how i'll go on now that i saw just the only tweet that the storm surge is over like berkey style the tie isn't tied he's just so disgusted making it so like obvious that he's like i got no time for what i what i respect about uh him he doesn't give a shit right and cherry obviously is that

they know that it's gonna piss off a lot of people and they know they're gonna get tons of negative messages and people telling them to go fuck themselves but they still do it i i remain on the like oh i see both sides because I don't want to deal with the bullshit. I don't want to deal with it. I mean, Grinnelli sees me on Instagram. If I get one comment and I'm in a bitter mood, I'm fucking going. I'm shedding the myths every fucking time. I had to text him the other day and be like, dude.

Let me defend myself. Basically, he has full blown strangers putting his mind in a pretzel. And hear me out. Hear me out, guys. I need you to hear me out on this. And also the listeners. So I fucking travel in the midst of my NHL season to go to NYC to bank some interviews and fly on red eyes and do whatever it takes in order to keep our listeners happy.

This ain't about me. This is like a drug. I just want to make you fuckers happy. That's all I want. Are you bolded? We could do an entire podcast of me trying to fix you on this. You know you'll never make everyone happy. Sure.

I agree. I agree. Right. But that perfection is what drives me. It's in me. It's like a drug, and I need it. So anyway, the first fucking comment I read after the Carrie Frazier interview, which, by the way, I was nervous for, and I don't do interviews on my own.

You're getting good at them. And it went well, and I was happy because our viewers and listeners were going to get a good bit of content, and it would probably take them away from their daily routines and maybe, in some cases, people's miserable lives. First comment. Oh, Carrie was a good speaker maybe he could tell he could give ra and biz speech lessons and oh i didn't need one and i'm like and i'm like buddy i'm french canadian i'm i i've been punched in the face my entire career the fact that i can even speak is is a miracle and and i just wanted to get some positive comments

but i'll say after that, I feel like a lot of people knew where I was coming from and I got a ton of positive messages. So for those who sent them, I fucking love you because I needed it. The flights and the travel and the two jobs. Hey, Biz, I will say I think that you, I think I respect that you are being just like open

and saying I need compliments sometimes. I actually really respect. Like, well, who doesn't want a compliment once in a while? Because when I'm, you guys know, when I finish a pod and I'm bad, I'm like, fuck me, boy. Sorry. Like that one's on me. I was bad. And if people rag on me online, I'm like, I know I got to do better.

Do you think that at the end of the Frazier interview, you thought in your head, I'm not sure how I did there. So the first few comments will kind of tell me. No i knocked it out of the park okay so then then then but it was your work on you not giving a fuck what some stranger says and i think personally sorry i'll let you go i think personally that me being the complete whipping boy of every coach i've ever had has really trained me mentally and physically to be able to handle the online abuse that i occasionally receive because I think I'm finally like man I've been getting shit

on for fucking 30 years now by coaches some random stranger named Ricky Valley 14 with an egg as his picture on Twitter I don't give a fuck about in yours in my shoes is I've spent my whole life fighting so the minute you're about to challenge me I'm saying fuck and I spent the life of

just cowering when people challenge me. So it makes a lot of sense. Love it. What's up with the Bruins? Go ahead. It's good to get some good feedback on occasion. But I think sometimes you overemphasize the feedback you get, especially when it's negative. You can't let that bleed into you too much, man.

It'll drive you crazy. Well, more so part of me likes to have the last word. And I like right and when i know i'm right well online yeah so easy to get the last word online we gotta get back to some hockey talk i'll bring the locker room back why are you dressed like a 1950s gym teacher right now this is his outfit for the road trips people always say like business in suetinos i'm like yeah they're expensive and he looks great. Why wouldn't you wear him? And everything right now, I don't give a shit about what I look like. I care about comfort in order to give the product

that you guys deserve. This outfit costs more than your shitbox, huh, Ray? Oh, he's like, I don't have a car. You said it was the locker room. Just bring the locker room back. Yeah, you mentioned the Bruins, Biz. Dude, Columbus, man, every game for them is a bigger must-win than the previous game. They had the biggest must-win of the year.

Bobrovsky gets fucking pulled. Gives up four goals. I will say it wasn't really all his fault, but Columbus, man, they just didn't match the intensity of a team who's already had a playoff spot for two weeks. I was expecting a better game out of them. Gives up, what is it, four goals on 23 shots. He did make some big saves. There was a couple bad tips or whatever.

But I think the fucking Columbus did answer the bell, man. I just don't think the team collectively matched the intensity of the Bruins. Yeah, I agree. I watched a decent amount and I had kind of seen how good Columbus had been playing leading up to that game. And I'll say this.

I'm so bad at gambling and picking and i know if reeves is listening wit you suck you suck why do you even gamble you lose every pick i bet against the bruins six times this year they're five and one and and why haven't i learned my lesson like this team is costing me so much money it's like i've never really believed in them even though i know how good they are it It just shows how stupid I am. But they came out and they were up 2-0 right away. DeBrusque is flying around out there. That kid's a

creature. I was told, by the way, he only drinks Coke or Gatorade. He literally has never had a water. He's a complete savage. He's flying around out there. They're up 2-0. My boy Wags, who just won the 17th Player Award presented by Nesson. 17th0 My boy Wags who just won the 17th player award Presented by Nesson 17th if you're Wags

But no I was happy for him He's involved in another assist on a line That really kind of gets my blood going With little Wagner Wagner and Coyle With Johansson on the line And he's got some skills So he wasn't up with Krejci

They put that kid Carlson Kuhlman up there who looks good. Let me tell you something. Coyle's from Weymouth. Wagner's from fucking Walpole, right Grinnelli? Wagner, by the way, I told him, he'll be selling pictures of him getting the 17th player award. He'll be selling

pictures of that at a bar in Walpole in 20 years playing Keno. I know that kid. And Coyle will be sitting next to him, too. And if they win a cup this year, they'll wear their cup rings everywhere, those two. But it was a fun game to watch. And they're just Marchand, by the way, getting his hundredth point. He gets his hundredth point. He grabs the puck on his own. What a legendary move. I've never seen someone get a goal or an assist as a record or a meaningful thing and get the puck themselves. It a legendary move. I've never seen someone get a goal or an assist as a record or a meaningful thing

and get the puck themselves. It was the first time I've ever seen it. That's incredible. And then he goes in there holding his 100-point puck. First time in 17 years, I think, too.

Since Thornton in 2002, 2003. Maybe they'll trade Marshawn next year. So, Marshawn gets in. He's going in the pile. I love you guys. I love you guys. So, the clip went

a little viral, I think. I retweeted it. How much did that make you miss being in a goal pile? Like, those are like everyone's just pile. I love you guys. I love you guys. So the clip went a little viral, I think. I retweeted it. How much did that make you miss being in a goal pile? Like, those are like the, everyone's just like, I love you. I love you. More than anything. I think I miss more when I see the clips of what Biz was saying earlier with the lightning and Keith Yandel in the locker rooms.

I think the locker room after you win with your win song bumping is the best thing in the world. Guys are just yelling at each other. Hey, nice dish there, buddy. I just missed it. Oh, fuck. Turn it up a little bit, are we going tonight hey the best is like usually like i would say like fuck i wasn't very good tonight everyone's like no you were awesome

business meanwhile they know i was shit but everyone's so happy because we won and then people are walking around the locker room so you go sit to maybe your next ud party like buddy sorry i left you hanging there in the first like no dude we're good we got the win we got the win how about that empty that plus he's like i might even get the day off tomorrow you're hanging there in the first he's like no dude we're good we got the win we got the win how about that empty net plus he's like i might even get the day off tomorrow you're just like that is what i miss that's yeah i'm telling everyone at home now so i never got a chance to talk about the bruins uh going to your bet uh ridiculous bet considering they've got beat six three by uh detroit game before i thought for sure they were going to be like boys we need to fucking we need to figure this out before we're going into playoffs.

Let's prove it against this other playoff team, which I would consider Columbus a playoff team based on their roster. Regarding Brad Marchand, I don't know if you have this written down. He's the fifth player this season to reach 100 points. You want to take it over? No, you go. It's the first time in 12 years since 2006 2007 five or more players have reached 100 points they got nikita kucherov mcdavid kane dry sidle and now

marshall there's a few other guys at 97 um that i would imagine could potentially reach it uh johnny goudreau and nathan mckinnon are right now sitting at 97 with two games left. I'd imagine that that 100-point plateau is important to them. Now, if Colorado does clinch, I would probably sit McDavid out the last game of the year. McKinnon, you mean? Sorry, did I say McDavid? Yeah. I meant McKinnon. Sorry about that one.

I don't know if you said it before, but right then. No. If he gets it next game, I would imagine they should sit him out in the last game for the simple fact that Lannis was out there for a bit of a stretch, and so was Rantan, and him and Tyson Berry said, hey, hop on, boys.

McKinnon's been on fire, and I mean, not easy when you're playing with two good line mates like that most of the year, and obviously everyone's like, oh, it's a sick line. And all of a sudden you've got to do it on your own for the biggest time of the year where you're playing the most meaningful games where other teams, for the most part, are at their best.

So credit to McKinnon, dude. That guy's a beast. That goal? Did you see the goal? Oh, he's ridiculous. Oh, my gosh. I almost said the wrong word there. But funny that when we were talking, not to completely shift over to Colorado,

but Tyson Berry just texted me. He goes, thanks for the plug on Chicklets, brother. Who do I make the check out to? So Tyson Berry is going to have to write me a nice one for getting him a minimum of $7.5 million on his next deal. This is like, yeah, Paul Bissonnette, $20,000, and you can actually text the guy in the Kings because they might reimburse you. It's their fault. Like Whit said, it was the first time in 16 years the Bruins had a 100-point guy.

I was surprised how few they had for a franchise that old. How many? He became the 10th guy. Pretty select company. That's a lot of points, though, dude. It is. I would have guessed they had seven. I wouldn't want to play how many can you name.

That'll be bad radio. But Bobby Orr, Johnny Busek. Let's do it. I mean, guessed they had seven. I wouldn't want to play How Many Can You Name It? That'll be bad radio, but Bobby Orr, Johnny Busick. No, let's do it. I mean, we did the Seattle teams. The Krakens, the Krokens, the Walkens, the Workens. Orr, Busick, Espo, Oti, Middleton, Ken Hodge, Barry Peterson, Joey Junot,

and Joe Thornton. Barry Peterson, man, nobody knew how good that guy was. He was nasty. He works in the Boston now. We've got to get him on checklists. Sure. Also, one other note on Marchand. He took over the franchise lead for shorthanded goals. He passed Rick Middleton.

That's a pretty big feather in his cap as well. And he's still got another, what, 20 years on his deal? He's playing as long as Char. Suck it. A lot of time left. Boys, we hadn't mentioned yet. We are going to be bringing on Andy O'Brien. He's Sidney Crosby's personal trainer.

Biz, you interviewed him down in New York last week, correct? Yeah, that was another solo one I did. So hopefully my buddy on Instagram doesn't chirp me about my speech impediment. Speaking of the Penguins, you know what? They still haven't nailed down a spot yet. They could potentially get squeezed out. They finish at home with two. They got the pesky Red Wings, who I said Sunday, they're a great bet.

They're 2-0 since then. They got the Wings Thursday and the Rangers Saturday. If they lose those two games and Montreal or Columbus wins out, the Penguins fucking won't be in the playoffs. We'll see with that. But the reason you're mentioning the Pittsburgh Penguins is Andy O'Brien is not only Sidney Crosby's personal strength and conditioning coach, does a lot more than just a workout. So a diet, everything.

Mind coach. Andy O'Brien also works with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He, prior to that, worked with a bunch of Olympians. I believe he still does. And then before that, he was in Florida with the Panthers. So this guy is extremely intelligent. He gets talking about a CBD company that we've actually started together. You're going to get an ad read about that.

But he is so knowledgeable in every aspect of just coming the best athlete possible. Not just specific hockey training. Not just anything skill-related towards hockey. We're talking about movement we're talking about you know getting your mind prepared for season we're talking about uh mobility and and there's a reason why Crosby's able to do what he's done it's not only because he's he's God's gift to hockey or one of them but he's surrounding himself with the best of the best and I hope you guys really like the interview it's very informative and for those crosby haters you may gain a newfound respect for sid was he with the

organization when you were at the same time he was he was not no i think yeah his actually his first year you're going to learn this in the interview was the the the second stanley cup that sydney crosby had won after the the lull there for a bit. And keep in mind, that first year that Andy O'Brien joined the Pittsburgh Penguins was the year where Crosby came out of the gate and he was not Sidney Crosby. For the first 20 games, I think he might have had 10 points, and he just didn't look good. And everyone's like, dude, is Sid done? And remember, that was after all the concussion stuff, right?

Right, yeah. So he talks about the difficult times and how, I remember, he flipped the switch in January and the rest is history, back-to-back cups. So I don't want to spoil the interview at all, but I hope you guys enjoy it. Let's go to him right now and hear it right from him. This interview is brought to you by Can I Brands. I mentioned to you guys recently that I started a new company with some friends of mine where we'd be introducing CBD products for your overall wellness and being.

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They have Instagram at Can I Brands. And unfortunately for right now only, they will only be shipping to the United States until they figure out the border issue. And once that is resolved, we will let you guys know ASAP. In the meantime, enjoy the interview with Andy O'Brien, one of the creators of can i brands and he's going to help break down what cbd can do for you guys it's an unbelievable product i recommend

you try it i'm very excited to launch this and as time goes on we will be introducing recovery drinks and pre-workout drinks and the sky's the limit what cbd can do and we're excited to launch this company, Can I Brands. Woo-hoo! You know, I was just saying, time to introduce a new guest to the podcast. I'm a little nervous because this is kind of a professional-style interview. Normally, I don't know if you listen to the pod, we talk about some weird stuff on here. I'll keep it pretty classy for you because currently you're working with the Pittsburgh Penguins. You've been training NHL hockey players for over 20 years, more notably guys like Sidney Crosby, Nathan McKinnon, a couple name drops there, watch your feet. But welcome to the Spit and Chicklets podcast, Andy O'Brien.

Thank you, thank you. Great to be here. Unbelievable show, I'm a huge fan, this is cool for me. You listen to the show? Yeah, I do, yeah. Okay. So maybe we can get a little weird looking over at my producer. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. It's definitely over my head. Get you fired so you start training the Spitting Chicklets crew. You think R.A. could do an Andy O'Brien workout? I mean, imagine me.

If he could get me an Andy O'Brien workout, I'd be a 10. Just do wrist curls for about six weeks to get those bitch wrists going. Yeah, I need to get bigger wrists. If you can help me get bigger wrists, then I'm sold. He's not a miracle worker. Born in Charlottetown, PEI. Yeah, that's it. PEI guy.

So you must have crushed beers. There was a point in my life where I did crush some beers. I don't think you could be from PEI without having that at some point in time. Anyone I've met from that side can slam them back. But you played a bunch of sports growing up. Yep. Hockey? Hockey, yeah.

I played until I was about 20, so I just played like Tier 2 junior hockey. I mean, that's a Canadian kid. It's hard to get away from that. Yeah, I was pretty serious into it for a while. I mean, it took me a few years as a junior to realize that wasn't going to be forever. It wasn't going to have much of a career and started to dabble in some other things. I was into track and field, competitive weightlifting, that kind of stuff. Okay, so you always took your off-ice seriously.

Yeah, yeah. It was just something I was always really interested in. Like, I was always interested in training as an athlete. So I love the training side of it. And when I branched out of hockey into some other sports, like a sport like track, for example, you're doing a lot more training than competing, right? Whereas in hockey, you're just playing games most of the time. So, I mean, I think I remember, I mean, it was different when I was growing up.

I played AAA midget. We had a 28-game schedule. I think we had one practice a week. Like, it just was a different type of an era. So I was really into, like, the weightlifting and the sprinting and the training and stuff. It was just always interesting for me. You had to keep in shape because you only practice once a week. Yeah, exactly right.

You started your career as a strength and conditioning coach at 18 years old? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, when I was pretty young. So I did that as basically like a summer job when I was going to university. So I think I was just at a point where I was interested in learning myself. I was still playing and I was kind of reading, writing to people. It was a little bit pre-internet. Like the internet was just coming around.

So you had to kind of like dig under rocks to find info. And you'd get like an NHL program manual from someone and it was like gold. You know, you'd have to save that stuff and pass it around. So, yeah, I was just into that. And then as I started going to school and learning it, you know, I started training some other athletes and basically just doing what I was doing myself. And being from a small town, there wasn't anybody really doing that. So I worked with a couple of minor pro guys and some guys that were like sort of AHL, NHL, back and forth guys my first couple of years. And, yeah, just kind of worked my way up, got some interesting clients, kept learning, and the rest is history.

When I used to come home from junior and I used to have a pamphlet, all the junior B guys would ask me so they could photocopy these workouts. And back then it was like, like power back squats, bench press, you know, four times six. And it was pretty basic and things have come a very, very long way. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's changed a ton. I mean, I actually, um, I laugh, um, because I've seen some of my old programs and I was like a maniac. I'm like, how was I expecting anybody to ever do any of this stuff? But I think just like anybody, you start, I mean, I knew a fraction back then of what I knew now. But I think if you just have a passion for it, you enjoy it, you know, you can have some success with it. Where'd you go to school to study for this?

Or did you just take courses? Yeah, I went to University of Western Ontario. So, yeah, London, Ontario. Another place where you can have some good times so uh i went to frosh week one that one time when you're there oh boy that was my first ever college experience i batted a thousand andy it's a pretty good time yeah i could imagine western would uh would treat you pretty well it's i had tears in my eyes of the day i graduated and had to leave that place but um definitely a lot of fun like tons of friends that are still my friends today. So like great experiences at Western and went, yeah, kind of just started training people.

I was doing a little bit of work for like the Canadian Sports Centre, just working with some provincial team athletes and ended up after Western, I ended up in Toronto and then I got my first job with Florida Panthers. And yeah, just kept working and kept growing. And, you know, now I sort of have a little combo of the private business with the team. I dug up a little more info on you. You used to exchange VHS tapes

with other trainers in order to learn. You said there was no internet access back then. Well, like to the point where it is now, like YouTube hadn't been created yet. Yeah. And you used to have meetings with like training gurus. Yeah, yeah, 100%. Yeah, with like training gurus. Yeah. Yeah.

A hundred percent. Yeah. It was, it was a different era back then, but honestly it's, I liked it in the sense that you had to think through stuff on your own. I mean, you just didn't have access to information. So the, just, I think that, that helped me become a problem solver. And I think that's kind of where I've carved my niche is if somebody has a question, that's not that easy to answer. I like that process of trying to figure it out whether it's an injury uh whether it's something where just that the run-of-the-mill

everyday stuff isn't working for them or they need something a little more customized that's a little trickier you can't just necessarily youtube it right so um so that's where that's where i really enjoy it and i think having started early enough that there wasn't a lot of info around it kind of taught me to think that way uh and one of the other interviews i was watching you said that uh watching rocky four was your first introduction to sports on the science side when drago would be getting shot up and he'd be testing all this strength in rocky 4 yeah yeah i mean i fell in love with the training montage of that movie i mean i was pretty young but oh i just remember watching it over and over and i would play it and then go work out and then come

back and watch it again. And, I mean, I'm sure everybody has a story like that when they're watching Rocky. But particularly Rocky IV where you had all the science side of it. I mean, I thought that process of kind of outthinking your opponent and discovering something that might give you that competitive advantage was pretty cool. Sort of equaled with the perseverance of Rocky and being that underdog story. That was pretty cool. Yeah, I would definitely throw in a few push-up pyramids after watching Rocky 40,

maybe go for a jog. You met, said, when you were helping train at a local hockey school? Yeah. Yeah. I was doing, so there's a hockey school that I grew up going to in PEI, a pretty well-known school called Andrews Hockey School or Andrews Hockey Academy. A lot of NHL players came through there, anybody from the Maritime certainly. And yeah, eventually I became an instructor and got to know everybody really well. And there was one summer where when I started taking the strength and conditioning side seriously, they thought maybe that'd be good to have me come in and maybe just talk a little bit or do a couple of classes. And that's where I met Sid. Yeah, he kind of saw my approach and saw what I was doing. And, um, I had been hearing about him. He was, he was a guy people were talking a lot about

as a 13 year old, he was playing with guys older and whatnot. And, um, you know, at that time, my passion was less on the hockey side. It was more on the training side. Right. So, um, yeah, we, we had a real, uh, you know, we ended up connecting this through just so happened. My, my brother, uh, was working in the same office as his dad. And Sid was real interested in meeting me, maybe doing a few more sessions. And we kind of got acquainted and realized there was a bit of chemistry there in terms of what he wanted to do and my style. So, yeah, then we started working together. And I think that first summer that I worked with him full time, I had started my business in PEI and I moved to Halifax.

And Halifax is kind of like the big city in the Maritimes, you know? So everybody kind of goes there. And that first summer, he was my only client. So I honestly, I think his parents would drop him off at like eight in the morning and they would pick him up at like two. So we ended up having a good friendship.

We hung out a lot. We spent time together between our workouts and talked a lot about training, go eat together and stuff like that. So, I mean, it's a great way to train somebody because, um, you know, there's a real education process that goes with that. As you know, that the first process of just learning about everything, learning about the muscles and the body, why you're doing what you're doing. So it gave us a lot of time to dig into that stuff. Oh yeah. And you're just constantly sharing information on how to tune up. It's like, it's like be like a car engineer talking to the driver.

How do I fix this problem? I'm feeling a little bit sluggish on this side. I need more power in this glute. Yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, I remember when I first – it was interesting. When I first started training as a hockey player, to me it was just about getting after it. Anything that was explosive or anything that was intense, I loved it. just about getting after it, you know, anything that was explosive or anything that was intense, I loved it. So I started out with a lot of plyometrics, Olympic lifts, a lot of things

that just seemed ballistic to me. And my personality sort of favored that a little bit. But honestly, I'd run into everybody every once in a while, and they'd be like, dude, slow down, like you look terrible the way you move, you know, your biomechanics don't look sound. And I sort of learned as an athlete myself, you know, there's the movement efficiency side of it's really important. And so when I started with Sid, that was in the front of my mind. I want to make sure when he does things, he does it properly. And I also didn't want him to get injured. He was a guy that obviously was this highly touted guy, a lot of attention. I didn't want to be the guy that broke him down or injured him. And so balancing off that ambition

that he had to be a really good player with not breaking him down and getting him injured it focused it made me focus on like the attention to detail and we just spent a lot of time coaching technique and making sure we did everything flawlessly so it's a real cool journey for me because it it made me better at my craft just being in a situation like that so and he's he enjoys the land training more so than the weights correct um you know what a little bit early on he definitely did i think he's he's the land training more so than the weights, correct? You know what? A little bit early on, he definitely did. I think he's the kind of guy that, I mean, you know him. He's a big, strong guy that can put on muscle pretty easily.

He has to change chutes in the off-season compared to the season because his legs get so big. He's got huge legs. Strength has never been really an issue for him. I think that part comes relatively naturally. I think working on foot speed, acceleration, speed endurance, that's a little more in his wheelhouse and he just responds better to it. So it's not that he doesn't necessarily like weight training. I think it's just more about what he feels he needs as a player. And he was always real intelligent as a young player to know how many 13 or 14-year-olds can sit down and say, look, this is the kind of player I am. This is my game. This is where I see myself

going. This is what I need, you know? I was eating my own burgers at that age. What? Yeah, I know. Right. Like at that age. So yeah, I mean, he was just to, to be able to have that kind of conversation with it, with a kid like that was really cool for me. So, um, and then I think just, you know, him understanding what he needs, but to be honest, yeah, there's been times where we've gotten back to strength and strength has been a little bit more at the forefront of what he's been trying to do. The game has changed a lot. Uh, so much as you know, it's, it's been more of a speed game lately, uh, very much so, but there's been pockets in his career where, you know, maybe he feels like when the playoffs are rolling around and, you know, guys are leaning on him or the way teams are playing him,

he needs a little bit more upper body strength or he needs to play a little heavier. So there's adjustments that in-depth about opponents and matchups? Yeah, constantly. I think it's just always a reflection on the previous season, constantly trying to make adjustments. And so the training program, honestly, it changes every year. Jesus.

And it needs to. And so, yeah, I mean, it's a nice problem to have when you're at the top and you're constantly trying to get better, right? But, yeah, he's a pretty cool guy. How long after you started working with him did you start getting that recognition where you were being more respected in your field? Because obviously you're the new guy on the block, and I'm sure some older guys are like, who the fuck is guy yeah for sure i mean honestly it's i mean pretty good guy

to build your business around not only is he an unbelievable player but known for his work ethic uh classy guy like he's done you know he's done the game i think a lot of good so i've been so grateful to be a part of his journey but but to be honest as a strength coach it's actually harder when you come in that way because a lot of other established strength coaches think, oh, well, here's somebody who probably doesn't know what they're doing, but they get all the accolades just by their association with somebody who's really good. So yeah, I got knocked a little bit in the industry. I had some people that maybe felt that any recognition I got or any accomplishments I have were all on the basis of that association. So I had to put myself out there, talk a lot about my philosophy.

You know, I would give some presentations and some lectures and build relationships with people and establish my credibility that way. And yeah, it took a while. I mean, you definitely get attention, but I think I've noticed from every good player, they have their own process. Like most players that are at that level already at the NHL, they have their own process. Like most players that are at that level already at the NHL, they're their own person. And they're smart enough to know that just because something's worked

for somebody else doesn't mean it's for them. And so, yeah, I think there's always a process of connecting with every athlete, making sure it's a good fit. There's a lot of good trainers out there. There's people that maybe work better with me than other people or vice versa. So, yeah, I think it's a lot about fit and less about, you know, that kind of, you know,

star celebrity trainer thing. It gets old, right? Yeah. And then you started gaining more players and started coming in the off season and you guys would be based out of Halifax at that time? Yeah, I was based out of Halifax and then we spent about four, I think, full years there

and then I ended up getting the job in Florida. So I was in Florida in the winter, Halifax in the summer, which is a cool gig. I mean, good weather all year round. Then I started taking on, when I was working at Halifax, we had a handful of guys from the Toronto area. So I kind of had a few guys in Toronto, and they had friends and other teams. So I started just having a little bit of a presence in Toronto. I had a few chiropractors and therapists there that wanted to refer guys to me and eventually ended up working in Calgary. So after I was in Florida, I was based in Calgary for a little while, but I always had this presence in Toronto and there's

just so many players there. It just made sense. Eventually I ended up moving there and opening a business and working there full time. And then you get the job in Florida and your first general manager is Mike Keenan. Yeah, Mike Keenan. He was an interesting guy. I mean, obviously as a young kid growing up in Canada, when you hear these big names, you know, Mike Keenan, Jacques Martin, it was a big deal. Keenan was a very interesting guy. I remember my first ever training camp.

He ended up, I think it was Nathan Horton. He had a grade one MCL, so it wasn't even a major injury. Yeah, I played with him growing up. Yeah, yeah. So he would have been in your area, right? So I remember not knowing anything about the landscape, the culture, nothing. I mean, I'm not coming from a minor league team, right? So I played a little bit of hockey, but didn't really know anything about the way the locker room works and the culture and the general managers.

And I remember him just seeing me in the hall and he goes, hey kid, are you going to be working with Horton? And I said, yeah, yeah. I think I start with him tomorrow. You're all excited, all perked up. Yeah. You know, general manager's talking to me. He grabs me by the collar, pulls me in real close. And he goes, you make sure he never wants to be injured again.

You know, just make his life a living hell, right? And so I was like, oh geez, you know, this is a good start, right? So, but I mean, in hindsight, I look back. I mean, I understand. And actually it's not a knock against Mike. hell right and so i was like oh geez you know this is a this is a good start right so um but i i mean look in hindsight i look back i mean i understand and actually it's it's not a knock against mike is mike i really like mike i thought it actually he was like oh he treated me really well great guy um and and i i had a good experience with him but but actually you know that culture like that i was coming in at a time where that was just shifting yeah but there was this old school culture of uh you know you want you want people to feel a little bit uneasy yeah right you want people to be a little bit scared and so you know that that immediate

assumption that okay somebody's injured he's obviously faking it we want to get him back out there we don't want him to get comfortable right um that was a little bit of a shock to my system to you know get rattled like that and i got rattled a few times man i made the horns like this guy's a fucking asshole yeah what's with this guy right andy guy get him out of here oh yeah we we had a prospect actually who was a goalie uh who came in overweight one time and i remember keenan like literally the guy came in and he weighed in and keenan saw the weight and and he started barking at me he's like is is there a bike around here somewhere?

Like, what can, can we get this kid? And so I said, yeah, I think we can get one. So it was literally about five minutes after the weigh-in, we had him on the bike doing something, trying to, trying to trim down. But there was an emphasis on the messaging around, you know, just be ready. Don't take anything for granted. And that was, that was pretty interesting for me to come in at a time like that and then to see it change so much in the last 15 years. I mean, it's come full circle with the way players are

treated now, the way the culture is. But I actually, that old school culture is pretty interesting to me. It was cool that I had a little taste of that. And on the flip side of that, Ed Balfour was there his last season. Yeah, yeah. Ed Balfour was a real interesting guy, became a great friend of mine. And so I've got some interesting Eddie stories for sure. I mean, anybody that knows him knows him to be a great guy and lots of stories. So I heard a story about him at Leafs training camp. I don't know if it's true. It was his turn to do testing, and they went and grabbed him.

And he said, hey, it's time for your bike test. And he looked at him and he goes, there's no bike in my crease, and walked out. And that was the end of it. So I don't know how much he took his off- off by seriously you know what it's pretty interesting the people that are close to ed know that he actually was like really into it like so crazy prepared uh certainly at the stage of his career where where um i met him um really focused uh total fierce competitor like just really and i mean i remember one day he came in and said, you know, my neck's a little bit stiff

and I was trying to figure out maybe it was the way he was sleeping or like what's causing his neck. And he goes, I think it was because I was sharpening skates till two o'clock last night, you know? Oh, he used to sharpen his own skates, that's right. He just sharpened his own skates. And I remember times he'd bring his pads in

and, you know, he'd be looking at the pads and thinking about the colors and creating like deception to players' eyes when they're looking at the pads and stuff. Like very detailed, you know, he'd be looking at the pads and thinking about the colors and creating, like, deception to players' eyes when they're looking at the pads and stuff. Like, very detailed. Would never, like, if I told him he had to work out four hours a day, he would do it if he believed in it. He was really into it. But one of the funny stories, I remember I used to text back and forth with Matt Nick a little bit who had him in Toronto.

And Matt was like, all right, you're in for a treat. Really, really interesting guy. But same as me, Matt would speak very highly of Eddie. And, you know, he came down. And I remember the one thing, we had a conversation just about his posture and about the position of his spine, you know, when he's doing various lifts. And especially as a goalie, I thought that was important. And from that point on, he literally was shirtless in all his workouts because he wanted to see himself in the mirror to make sure he had the right posture. So I remember texting Matt and going, hey, you know, Eddie loves training with no shirt, you know.

And he goes, oh, because that's actually a new thing. He goes, I've never seen that before. But pretty funny, lots of cool stories. But a great guy. We had, that year when I was in Florida, we had the oldest team in the league, three 40-year-olds, I think, Gary Roberts, Joan Ewen Dyke, Ed Belfort, Marty Jelena was there, Roberto Luongo was there. We had some real interesting people.

If you folks see Eddie Belfort at your local YMCA working out with a shirt on, you can thank Andy O'Brien for that one. But I wanted to shift that focus to Gary Roberts. Yeah. Because now, like you, he's become a guru in the, well, I mean, I guess all athletes, but specifically hockey trainers, he's one of the names that comes up. Him, Matt Nichol, yourself, and there's a few others. I know Gallagher's old man out in BC does a good job with a bunch of guys out there. But he was obviously crazy into fitness then because that was post-neck surgery

and he'd made his comeback, which is a remark, one of the most remarkable comebacks of all time. Ended up playing, I think, over 1,200 games. Did you guys establish a really good relationship when you played there? Yeah, we did. Honestly, I feel really lucky that I had Gary as a player. I've known him a little bit after as a trainer

and with his business and whatnot, but having him as a player was a real treat, I think, for a couple of reasons. One, I was a young strength coach, and he came in and provided a lot of leadership to our team, just the way he carries himself. And he was like a second strength coach in the way that he mentored other players and got them to buy in, and he supported me a lot. That helps.

It was huge. You're a young guy, and then old guys are stuck in their ways or, like, you know, looking at you like, I'm not fucking doing that workout on the wall. No question. And some of the older players were the toughest, but had like these great veterans that were there uh you know robs jelena um joe newendijk one of the nicest people you'll meet so uh but but gary was ultra serious um he he covered every detail whether it was his blood work his nutrition his supplementation, his recovery. Really dedicated and legitimately impressive with what he did late in his years. I mean, he was a good player, you know, right into his 40s and had suffered all kinds of injuries.

And he was the type of player that looked at, you know, paying money to have good experts in their lives as an investment. And, you know, probably one of the real pioneers that had done it that way and got other players thinking about the same thing. And so, yeah, no, it was really great to have that experience as a player. I remember when I was in Florida, Gary got traded to Pittsburgh. And I remember texting Sid and being like, oh, you know, you're in for a treat. Like, wait till you see this guy. And he texted me after a practice once and said he was doing jump squats in the hot tub today. It's the first time I've seen that, you know.

So he goes, I went to take a hot tub. Rob was in doing jump squats. So I just kept going. That's what all the guys, there was a point in time when people were doing jump squats out of the pool. Yeah, right. Posted to social media. So maybe. I think because Gary used to want to be warm, right?

And that was the thing is like sometimes as an older player, you get cold. And so. You're talking to a guy who sat on the bench all game and then the coach would say hey go get a shift yeah exactly right so yes sometimes he would get in the tub and do like some some warm-ups and some leg swings and you know all all just game face you know the whole time it'd be pretty funny uh so there's a story that when gary roberts got there he tried to get a lot of the guys on a nutrition thing, on a specific diet. And I guess he caught Sid

eating a piece of pizza at one road trip. And he texted the trainer, the nutrition guy, and ratted Sid out. And Sid had to deal with the backlash of the fact that he ate a piece of pizza. That's how intense Roberts was.

Oh, for sure. Yeah, he probably texted me too and was trying to get me on him. It's a picture of Sid eating the pizza, paparazzi style. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That sounds about right. So after Florida, did you kind of take some time off?

Because, I mean, you didn't transition right into the Pittsburgh job, did you? Yeah, I took – so after Florida, I had this opportunity to go to Calgary. And actually, I had signed a sort of longer term contract with Florida, but this opportunity came up and it was just the right opportunity for me. I was in Florida. There's a bunch of pro athletes in different sports. So I was working with a relatively well-known Olympic swimmer named Dara Torres. I shouldn't say relatively. She's, she's one of the more well-known female swimmers ever, uh, did some cool things.

She, she swam in Beijing as a 41-year-old. She was like 15 years older than the next oldest swimmer in the team, won three medals and broke a bunch of records that year. She did some cool things. And then there was some football athletes, track and field, baseball, just down in Florida.

It's a hub for a lot of athletes. So yeah, I just, I kind of got the taste of like wanting to break, you know, branch out a little bit and do some other things. Great learning experience for me to start doing things outside of my comfort zone. So I was looking for an opportunity to do that. And this opportunity in Calgary to go work at a sports academy kind of afforded me the flexibility to be there and oversee things, but then come and go. Whereas at that time, having an NHL job, it's pretty restrictive.

Like you kind of have to be where the team is and wherever they want you to be, you got to be there. So yeah, it was a, so I was in Calgary for a few years after that. And then I think I ended up in Toronto around 2013. Well, and not only that. So at that time, how many, how many NHLers had you accumulated as far as your guys? Probably 20? Yeah, probably about, about, I'd say a dozen to 15 maybe at that time that I was working with.

So over the course of a season, let's go back to Florida. So you're training all the guys day to day. So you got to worry about them. Then you got your guys calling you who are at this time all around the league looking for tune-ups in the midst of the season, need your undivided attention. And then also you need to keep up on, on updating your, your, your knowledge because every day it's evolving, whether it's, you know, you're learning about yoga and recovery or strength here, uh, you know, mobility here. So it's just like, like how much, how much, uh, free time do you have? Oh man. I think there was one point in time in my career, I think I worked, uh, two and a half

years without a day off. It was just, but it doesn't really feel, you know, I say that to people and they just sort of look at me cross-eyed like, why, you know, like, what are you doing? But, but to me, it's, it's never felt like work. So I've never had a day in my life, in my career where it's felt like work. I enjoy it. And I think the best thing for like, to your point, the best thing I've ever done was I've worked with some high profile people that have a lot of pressure on them. So as a strength coach, you just, you just have to get results. And, you know, that puts pressure on me, but it made me read those articles. It made me talk to people. It made me make sure that my craft was, uh, was delivering on, on the responsibilities I had. So that's a recommendation I have to any young strength coach. Like put yourself in a situation

where it's, it's not easy. Challenge yourself. I was lucky, I think, that once you work with one or two high-profile players, they talk to others and people might want to try things. I was out of my comfort zone my whole career, always with somebody that had some kind of an issue that was a problem or some kind of challenge that was new for me that had some kind of an issue that was a problem, uh, or some kind of challenge that was new for me that, that had to make me better. And I'm sure you practice what you preach

and that probably helped you kind of stay in line and were able to, to execute that two and a half years. Cause I mean, I'm sure there's some times where if you, you would have been partying or having a little fun. Oh yeah. Yeah. No partying or fun for me. I've got the, you know, I, I, my logo should be the fun with the circle and the line through it. That's, you know, I think fun for me is my career, you know. But if I'm training somebody in the morning, I'm in bed early, mindful of, you know, being fresh and ready for that session. And that's just, I mean, that's how I enjoy myself. You know, I had my fun when I was younger and career rolled around and that's fulfilling for me.

Then you get the job in Pittsburgh. Yeah. And I want to say your first year there, you ended up winning the stanley cup yeah we did yeah yeah man that's i mean it was pretty cool yeah it was pretty cool i mean at that point i'd been working with sid you know 16 17 years and that was just cool to kind of see that side of it because i'd never worked with him in season before so that was really neat and he actually had a tough start to the season that year i was going to bring that up yeah i was i was i was worried about him yeah this guy's not the same player and then all-star break hit and then after that he went on a insane tear yeah it was really like

i think right around christmas you know he really went on a tear and and i mean i i think i think that's it's probably one of the best stories in his career. I think, obviously, he's overcome a lot of things. His concussion, he's had a lot of people doubting him since the day he was really young. But I think that was a really cool one just because I saw the struggle a little bit. And I kind of saw full circle what that environment's like. I mean, I think most players, when they come to Pitt and they're on that same team as Sid, the first impression is, man, like the stuff he deals with, the media,

the stuff he's got to deal with on a day-to-day basis, the responsibilities he has as a captain of that team, you know, trying to be compared to all these other players. And just, there's a lot of haters, man. I mean, there was so many people. There's people cutting out pictures of him, putting them in urinals at Flyers gates. It's insane.

Yeah, it's insane. It's ridiculous. I think to have that and just to see him work his way through and get in the zone a little bit and have some success. I still believe he's got potentially some of his best years ahead of him. I think his all-around game is as good this year as any other season, maybe better. We stroke him off on this podcast we're big Sid fans yeah yeah he's he's uh he's just been a real privilege to observe over the years I mean he's he's an incredible athlete I think you know the greatest athlete and and

certainly that I've ever worked with and a good human being too and another reason I'm sure for this year's success is last year is really the first year he hasn't won any league awards or a championship. So I'm sure he took this offseason pretty seriously. Oh, yeah. Like he always does. But this one, I've heard through the grapevine that he was extra amped up to get after it this offseason.

Yeah, there's no question he always is. It's pretty interesting. The one summer that was uh he's had a couple of real big summers where he just you know it everything's clicked or gone well for him but the the one summer was real interesting is between the two cup runs and then you had the world cup it was it was neat because you know he finished so late it was almost and the world cup was kind of starting early it's like why not just like turn this into all one big season? Really? So it was almost a different type of a summer. And I think he had a real springboard coming off that one.

But it's a lot of hockey. I mean, we played as a team more games than any team in history in those two years. And then the guys that are at the World Cup are adding games on top of that. So it is a lot of hockey. And so I think that following summer was a challenge, trying to unload the body a little bit. And last year, it was good because we finished a lot of hockey. And so I think that following summer was a challenge trying to unload the body a little bit. And last year it was good because we finished a little bit earlier. So it was actually a time to take that summer and just kind of really get after it and use the time that he had.

So he certainly did that. I felt that last summer going into training camp, it was the best physical condition I've seen him in. Probably the leanest. And I would say probably the best overall physical condition of his career last year going into the season, in my opinion. We've talked a lot about Sid and what he's accomplished through your help. But this is from Rick Talkett, by the way. Your single biggest accomplishment was getting Phil Kessel to stop drinking Coca-Cola or Pepsi or whatever he drinks. Oh, man. I think, hey, listen, every bit as privileged as I have been to work with guys like Sid,

I mean, being on a team that Phil Kessel is on, that's a treat. That's a treat. I mean, that's, you know, I wouldn't trade anything for that. Phil's, I love Phil to death. I mean, he's an unbelievable guy. Entertaining, as you can imagine. He's always whining and complaining, but it's kind of his shtick, too, right? Yeah, of course.

He plays into it. Of course. Honestly, I really like Phil. I think, you know, and obviously Rick had a great relationship with Phil, too. But honestly, you know, Phil has this reputation, but I think he's a little more dialed than people realize. You know, I don't think he likes to advertise it or announce it. There's been a few incidences where it probably doesn't look great. Like the hot dog situation at the Olympics.

Yeah, exactly. Just wrong time, wrong place, wrong time for Phil Castle. Yeah, for sure. Well, the best Phil story about the Coke was when we were, I mean, we had tried as a staff. We said, look, if we just eliminate, you know, Pop, I mean, this is kind of, this is what we, you know, this is our goal. And I think, honestly, it lasted like maybe one and a half games, like maybe four periods.

And then he's just like, you know, I don't think I like this. And I think he literally, he decided to have a Pop, and he scored on his next shift when he went out there. So we were done. But, no, I think, honestly, he decided to have a pop and he scored on his next shift when he went out there. So we were done. But no, I think honestly, he's been pretty mindful, man. I think he works with Gary Roberts in the summer. Gary's had a really good influence on him and that's really helped us. And I think we have a good environment for him.

Like we have a lot of healthy options around. And no, just a great guy. He's been really fun to work with. And actually, you know, I think he's done pretty well on the off-ice side of it. I've got to go back a little bit. You're with Steve Monador in Florida and ended up establishing a great relationship with him. You know, a difficult story. He ended up passing.

You guys kind of created this summer camp in Vail. I want you to dig into that a little bit. Yeah. So the camp we've been doing for quite a while now. I think the first year we had nine players. Now it's a good portion of my clients, but we get requests and probably have a waiting list every year of elite guys. So it's been a really cool camp.

It started actually, the two guys that kind of got it going, the concept was Marty Jelen and Ed Belfort actually. And the whole idea was, you know, it's a bit of a shit show around the rink pre-training camp. Like everybody's there. It's just, it gets a little watered down. The quality of the skates aren't great. It's not overly organized.

Uh, families are getting back in school. So, so just wanted to go away and just isolate yourself and, and, isolate yourself and just focus, get ready mentally and physically for the season. So we decided to pick someplace high altitude to do that. And Steve was the kind of guy where if you're doing something, he's in. And that was the cool thing about Steve. And if we needed tee times, he's got them. And if we need extra guys, he knows who he can bring. He's the glue guy.

He's the glue guy. And he was, yeah, dinners. I mean, stories at dinner. Like, it just, he was the perfect guy for a camp like that. He just made, everything was fun when Steve was around, and people gravitated to him. And, I mean, he was a bright guy. Like, we would, I remember we went to visit one of Eddie's friends who was this, like, you know, billionaire guy up at the top of Bachelor's Gulch, a really cool area up there. And Steve is talking economics with him.

And, you know, he could rub elbows with anybody. Very charismatic guy, very caring. And it just kind of became what the camp was about, you know. So, you know, unfortunately, when Steve passed, I think we've tried to honor his legacy a little bit, you know, his relationship to the camp. So we have a trophy named after him and stuff now. And, yeah, I've worked with Steve probably for about 10 years.

Super fit guy. One year in Vail, we had this, we did a hike a few years, actually. And the one year we drove up to the top of the mountain and hiked the flat part because we thought it would be a little easier. But we were hiking around a lake, and the hike got, you know, a little bit competitive. A few of the guys started running and actually, you know, kind of racing a little easier, but we were hiking around a lake and, and the hike got, you know, a little bit competitive. A few of the guys started running and, and actually, um, you know, kind of racing a little bit. So Steve was way up at the, at the front. The only difference with him, he had this big backpack and nobody else had a backpack and he was right at the front. And then he had this,

this camera on him and he saw a bear and he actually went off the trail for a bit, probably five minutes, you know, to try and get a picture of this bear. Came back and then he was at the back of the pack and then actually went back to the front and still won that kind of hiking race that we had. So there was a point in time where, man, I would put him right up there against anybody in terms of the best condition player. Really? Yeah, for sure. How many guys towards the end or even now do you have? About 20, 25 guys going?

Yeah, we can only have like 24. And I think that works out to be perfect. We end up having 12 guys plus two goalies per team. And that just ends up being the right numbers. We've established like a rule book for the camp and it gets real competitive. And now it just kind of ends up being that's our number now. Have you ever had to kick anyone out because they're not taking it as seriously as you guys would like? Usually the opposite.

Usually we've got to try to calm people down because there's legitimate players start hating each other at the camp sometimes. So I've seen some one-on-one battles between Marshawn and Sid, and they end up getting online. Were those taken at the Vale camp? No, actually. Marshy's never been there. Yeah, I don't work with Marshy, but I know him really well.

He's in Halifax, and my brother coached him and stuff. Obviously, Sid and Nate and those guys in Halifax skate with him in the summer, but he's not an athlete that I worked with. We have done a camp in Halifax. We've done a couple camps there. One of them was a World Cup kind of prep camp for the last World Cup, and so Marshy was at that. We had some good players down there.

So it might have been at that camp that that was going on yeah the chirping gets elevated when marshy shows up yeah yeah yeah it does uh i want to ask you who's been the most rewarding athlete you've had the the opportunity to train where maybe you got a hold of them and you're like oh my god this is this is a mess this is like an old car. I got to soup up from scratch. Yeah. In terms of that, I think, honestly, there's definitely, probably, I think any strength coach will tell you that it's not necessarily the most talented athletes

that you enjoy working with the most. It's the ones that are just the best people, the ones you form really good relationships with. And if somebody can be vulnerable with you, so they can let you into their struggle a little bit and let you just be that role for them, I mean, that's kind of what it's all about. So honestly, man, it'd be hard to single one out. I've had many.

I think just a guy like Steve Monador stands out a bit because he had some struggles, and there was a lot going on in life and hockey. And I think he went through some things where he used his training to sort of springboard a healthy obsession and uh his training and his nutrition kind of became that thing that was his new kind of focus and and that uh that helped him in different stages of his life and he was real open about that and so so yeah anytime you can form relationships with people that way i think it i think it makes a big difference but yeah there's definitely some athletes i've worked with that maybe a lot of names people probably wouldn't even know just uh weren't nhl players but but great people and if their goal was to get a

scholarship or their goal was um you know just to overcome something that they've had i've worked with some athletes major major injuries that maybe nobody thought they would they would get back and they ended up getting back so yeah there's a bunch of standout but money money's name probably goes to the top um you you briefly touched on the the period of time when sid was out with the concussions uh being that close to him and kind of maybe being even a little bit helpless how difficult a time was that for not only him but yourself yeah um i you know i think i was definitely i definitely felt for him you know i definitely i wouldn't say necessarily hard on on myself but um i mean i think the hardest thing uh for me was just knowing like like hockey is this guy's life right and i mean he loves the game and so you know, that,

and I don't think he ever felt this or certainly never said anything to me, but I think just being in that state where, I mean, there's that injury is, there's so much uncertainty around it. So I think anybody that goes through a concussion, I mean, you know, that's on your mind. And when you're not skating and you're not training

or you try to do that and it's not going your way, I mean, it's a heavy thing to go through. And actually, when I went through it with Sid, that was the first time I'd really gone through that. It was a big educational process for me. I'd travel with him a bit and talk to some different experts and learned a lot about just neuroscience and brain health and concussions and how they work.

But then since then, I think, because I'd been through that with him, I'd had different people reach out to me and just say, hey, I'm stuck, I've talked to everybody, can you share with me your experience? And that's kind of become a little bit of a niche of mine, just talking to people and help them sort through the various experts that are available and maybe how they can tick a few boxes to make sure that they're covering all their bases. So that was an interesting process. The media is everywhere.

So, I mean, there was times where we, you know, we went down to L.A. for a while to train just to kind of get away, you know. But honestly, you know, there's some – so I remember this time and, you know, I'm sure Sid doesn't love me telling stories, but this is one I think he wouldn't mind. I remember there was a time when we were working together during his concussion and my sister was getting married. So we were in Halifax and we had to go over to PEI. And I was, you know, he didn't really want to miss his workouts. And he's got family in PEI. And so I said, look, I'll go over. We'll do our workouts there while you're there for a few days it's all good so

so we drove over and uh i remember i was staying at uh at one of my buddy's cottages and uh we went and did a workout in the beach and then we're getting ready to drive back over to halifax and i had to like jump in the shower and i had something to do and i came out and he had cleaned the place that i was staying in like had tell, like did all the dishes and got everything done. And I was just like, man, you know, this guy's like about as humble as you can get. You know, he's just about as regular. Salt of the earth. Salt of the earth, dude.

He's just my friend at that point in time. Right. And to do a gesture like that. I mean, so many, it's so easy, I think, in today's world with social media and things to let things get to your head and to develop an ego. And I understand with a lot of athletes, they have so much pressure on themselves, they got to worry about themselves. But I remember actually, like, as well as I knew him, taking a step back and be like, man, I'm so grateful for this guy's friendship. And, you know, he's in this stage where he's battling through this concussion, he has the time to think

about other people. And I remember being excited about my sister getting married and and thinking that was really cool and stuff so so anyways yeah i i think the the thing i noticed through that experience was i felt for him for sure but i just it made me appreciate just the character he has and the quality person he was damn that's that's deep maybe maybe some of our flyer fans listeners might start appreci appreciate it. Maybe the boos will get lower just a little bit. They'll come around a little bit. Oh man, I went to that outdoor game this year

and they just want them so bad. Oh, they're vicious. We talked about how you have to constantly add to your bag and learn about all these new advances. CBD is a new one that's on the scene. I got introduced to it probably about six months ago,

and it's helped me a ton. I've obviously suffered some concussions. I don't know if you ever watched me play. Not much stick handling going on, just more eating punches. But just not only for the mental side of it, but I've had both my ACLs torn, and I've been using it. And I guess we can take the time now. We've actually teamed up and we're going to launch a brand called Can I Brands. And it's going to be a CBD and THC

company that's basically implemented into products that can benefit your lifestyle, whether it be sleep aids, whether it be recovery products, we're going to go as far to develop recovery drinks and those sort of things. So if you could just touch on what CBD does and where we're going to go with it. Yeah, for sure. Well, it's been a little process for me, I think. My interest is always on the science behind stuff and why it's working for me, the curiosity that I have is always to understand things. So, you know, for me, it's like, okay, well, something's working, why is it working? You know, what, what's going on? And so the process to understand that, whether it's a piece of equipment that you have to look at, whether it's a training concept or a modality

or a supplement or nutraceutical product or something like CBD is, you know, you start by hearing certain things and then, you know, it's, you want to have a, a, a read on, on maybe the science, the physiology behind it. You want to talk to people who've used it. There's this whole process of trying to learn that. And it's not always just about the research. That's a part of it. Um, it's a big part of it is, is honestly talking to people and their experiences. And I think as a strength coach over the years, you have to have this really good intuition on how to sort through what is legitimate and what isn't. And when you start to hear multiple people,

you know, talk about a product, you know, it forces you to take a look at it. And so it just, it came on my radar. And I obviously am aware of what's going on in the industry and that a lot of really credible companies are putting a lot of money into this. So they're doing their homework and their due diligence. And then I start talking to people who are using it. And then I started using it myself. And, you know, then it's okay, well, now I need to learn about the endocannabinoid

system and understand, you know, why it works and what are those theories and then read the existing research that is there. And then I got to understand the sourcing and then I got to understand the dosing. And so it honestly, it's just, it's a deep dive, right? If we take a break here, my head's going to explode. It's kind of this one step after another. And so what I can say, because I've had people ask me like, why this? You know, what are you doing? I never affiliated myself with a product before in my 20 years,

but I've been involved. I love supplements and I love product. And so probably the reason is as you start doing these deep dives and you go into research and you look at the anecdotal side and you start trying things, honestly, most products only get so far. So you will find some, okay, well, there's some research and theory, but honestly, it doesn't work or it only works at this dose and that's not a real realistic dose or it only works for a short period of time.

You know, it was the first thing that just, it kind of passed every stage that I got to. And the more people started to try it, the less it was hype and the more it was legitimate. And so I just realized, okay, this is something I need to understand. And getting involved with a company like Can I Brands, not only is, you know, it's fun to add some value, but it's also a great opportunity for me to learn because it gives me connected to product formulation and gets me connected to other experts and people who've been around the product and so um so right now i mean that the typical thing that comes across my radar players

will say look i i want to try this you know i've heard other people say it works um from what i understand it's safe and so i just i want to try it but like where do i get it which product do i buy and how do i dose it right Right. Because most players are like inflammation, check, sleep, check, energy, check,

focus, check. I want it all. Right. But how do you dose it? The way you dose it for focus might be a little different than the way you dose it for inflammation or the way you dose it for sleep might be a little bit different. And then the things that you combine it with might be a little different. And then the way one person doses,

it might be a little different than another. So, so I think having all those conversations, you know, to really try to understand it and try it is kind of where we're at right now. But as far as it being an effective product, there, and there's a lot of information on a scientific level. But the research is still mounting, but the anecdotal evidence is through the roof on this product. I've never really seen a supplement or a nutraceutical product that quite compares to CBD in terms of- And it covers so many-

So many different things. It's so broad. I mean, you're talking about guys using Ambien, you know, to fall asleep after like a long flight and different time zone change. Or, you know, maybe they're having a little anxiety and they can't get to sleep because they haven't been playing great. And they just got pee-pee whacked by the coach, right? Of course. That's a term we use on the podcast, pee-pee whack. I don't know.

Heard that one once or twice. I don't know if it's up to 2019 standards. But, you know, I use it for sleep and for a sleep aid. I mean, I was telling people on the podcast that I've been sleeping so well, sometimes I even wet the bed. And when I wake up, I'm like, well, I didn't even wake up halfway through the piss. I actually wet the bed. I had to get plastic sheets.

So this stuff's actually costing me some money. Should we add bed wetting to the list of side effects or is that? I mean, that's not a bad side effect. I mean, it's an expensive side effect if you don't have plastic sheets. Right, Grinnell? You can get it. Well, actually, Grinnell had the leak in his roof, so he actually needs plastic sheets as well. Well, and one thing I can chip in on the CBD oil.

So let's say you just take sleep, for example. That's a primary spot. I mean, obviously, the hockey players, any hockey player will tell you, playing games at night, the stress you have, the stimulation of your central nervous system at night, it gets difficult to sleep. And there's a cumulative effect of that. And the more you get wound up and the more it affects your circadian rhythms, the worse it gets.

But then honestly, just talk to anybody, not a hockey player. Just like a lot of people have issues with sleep. So the one study that had been done, um, with CBD and sleep, they,

they looked at a couple of different things, quality of sleep. And they looked at, um, the sleep architecture. of sleep, and they looked at the sleep architecture. So the different basically stages that you're in. And they looked at three different doses, 40 milligrams, 80 milligrams, and 160 milligrams. And what they found was in all three doses improved sleep. And they found that as you increase it, it increases the magnitude of the effect on sleep. So that's called a dose dependency.

And then it also showed that it increases the amount of deep sleep that you have. So when you have these stages of sleep, you have light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep. And when you deplete somebody of REM sleep, a lot of people, so surprisingly, some of the sleep experts have found that this doesn't do a whole lot. Like it doesn't inhibit your cognition. Like it doesn't have as much of a profound impact, but when you inhibit deep sleep, it's a big problem. So a lot of the sleep experts nowadays have put a lot of emphasis on deep sleep. That's where you get a lot of your repair and regeneration. So that's where some of the positive stuff about canabrans. And then of course, the fact that it has been used as an adjunct or a replacement from some of the traditional pain meds and anxiety meds and

different things, you know, they're using it with people that have a diagnosed illness, and they're finding maybe it's a safer, better tolerated thing and better sleep just seems to be this sort of secondary consequence. But if you talk to me to, I mean, my dad, um, um, you know, had, uh, had tried it and used, uh, and found that he slept through the night. I mean, it was five, uh, I think he'd, he'd said usually wakes up a little bit more, but slept through the night with it. Um, you know, I've had quite a few people that aren't athletes that have just shared like great experiences with it. So, um, yeah, pretty, uh, pretty neat. Um, And that's just the sleep category. That's just the sleep. We got way more than that.

Inflammation. And I mean, the endocannabinoid system, probably the best way to explain this, most either supplement, not all supplements, but most drugs, they're going to bind to a receptor and do something very specific. That's the mechanism. This is actually not binding to the receptors in the endocannabinoid system. It's actually facilitating influence. So the best way to explain it is it has the ability to assist your body do what it's trying to do. And so it is not going to necessarily knock you out and make you sleepy. But if your body's circadian rhythms are trying to wind down, it can facilitate that.

And that's how you're getting a product that helps with sleep and wakefulness, right? Because if you take it during the day, it can enhance your energy. Oh, I find that sometimes I don't even need to eat as much. Yeah. Has that been a common? Yeah. Well, I mean, that endocannabinoid system, I think the scientists are, I mean, certainly I don't tout myself as an expert. This is how I explain it.

But a lot of people are still understanding that system, but it affects immune function, sleep, circadian rhythms, appetite, all kinds of different things. So we know it's facilitating influence on that system and the effects seem to be really positive and safe. So I think we're going to learn a lot more in the next couple of years, I'm sure. Appetite suppressant is the word I was looking for. But that's outside of my word range. Oh, Mikey's got a question. I do. So in regards to the recovery aspect of it, do you think that CBD is something we'll see in NHL locker rooms heavily in the next five or so years? Whether you see it in the locker rooms, like right now we have a mandate to use only NSF certified products in the next five or so years? Whether you see it in the locker rooms,

like right now we have a mandate to use only NSF certified products in the NHL. That's how it works. So it's not something that we can supply our players. So it's something that if players, you know, choose to want to use it, they can, but they sort of use it at their own risk and they use their own discretion.

I think that's why it's important for companies like Can I Brands to emerge that are credible and you know what's in it, you know where the sources are coming from. Do you think the NHL will change that rule, though, going forward so they can? It's hard to say. You know, it's hard to say. There's no question I think the value is there for them to take a look at it. I think that right now, because the NHL crosses so many different states, you know, there's,

you know, I don't know who's making these decisions necessarily on behalf of the NHL, but they different states. You know, there's, you know, I don't know who's making these decisions necessarily on behalf of the NHL, but they have a lot of things to consider. And so, you know, in terms of all these decisions, but we know that CBD oil has been approved by WADA. So sort of the international Olympic level athletes are able to take CBD.

It's been approved for use in sport. So when you get something that's sort of got the green light at that level, typically it does transcend into the team sports and it kind of gets approval. So CBD, you know, kind of exists in that side where it's getting looked at pretty favorable in sports. And I do think the application is huge for hockey, both from a performance standpoint and from a player health standpoint. So we'll see where it goes. Well, I think we can wrap things up, but I want to thank you for stopping by, taking time out of your busy schedule.

I know you guys just had a game in Dallas last night. It was a big win in the third period. How about that pick up, McCann at the deadline or close to the deadline? Great guy, great player. Yeah, he's fitting in really well with us. He's been awesome. Great.

His goal last night was pretty sick. Any other funny stories about Penguins guys right off the top of your head? You got any talk-it stories? All kinds of talk-it stories. Man, this guy's pretty interesting. I mean, watching him on the ice giving players tricks on how to practically injure other players and get away with it. Oh, no. He's like the master at that.

Well, they got face-offs. Oh, man. Shane Doan used to teach me these little tricks all the time just to maybe get the guys focus away from the game for a second and that's really all you need for sure but like honestly the those little tricks of the trade that players had in his era like how tough would he have had to have been to be the type of player that he is i mean it's it's crazy. Well, that's why I mentioned Gary Roberts. I mean, before his injury, he was probably set to be the best power forward of all time. I mean, he had over 200 minutes in penalties and he had over 50 goals in one year.

Yeah, exactly. And he was doing that pretty consistently. But yeah, back then, it was medieval times dinner and tournament every game. It was a rough game. So I have full respect for those guys that played those roles. And it was cool how you got to experience both sides of it as you said when you came in it was still a little old school and now you get the new school mentality yeah totally different game and the training's

become a big part of it because there's just so much skating in the game now and then there's so much parody on the physical side so yeah it's been uh it's been cool to see the differences there well i'm excited to be business partners with you. Can I brands is the company that we're starting. How long do you think before we're able to actually launch these recovery drinks and stuff? Probably a good six months. I think that, you know,

from my understanding, the way the industry is going is, you know, everything's as soon as the better because there's just so much demand there. But I think, you know, in,

in working with the people at can I brands, I've noticed they've been pretty careful. They want to do it properly. Quality is a big piece for them, getting the right formulation, getting the right products. But they've got such a wide variety of products. They cover everything.

If you want it in a balm, if you want it in a spray, I mean, that's the big thing. It's not everybody likes to take a capsule. Some people like the tincture. So, I mean, there's just so many different varieties. I like the way that they're launching a wide variety of ways in which you can use it,

different doses. I think that's been one of the real strong points of the brand. They'll be advertising on the podcast from here on out. We'll make sure to let you guys know about all these awesome products that they launch. We'll have an Instagram page.

You'll be able to answer all your questions on Twitter. And maybe we'll even see a few modeling shots from Andy. Maybe a couple shirtless pics like Eddie Belfort or what? Yeah, I don't know, man. I model. I'm not. I'm actually, this is a cool show for me because everyone used to always tell me I have a face for radio. Buddy, I've been getting that since I started.

That's awesome. All right, awesome. All right. Awesome. Thank you for coming. And, uh, that's pretty much wraps things up. That interview was also brought to you by Stitch Fix. I just put a, my Stitch Fix order online. It was so simple to use in case you're not familiar.

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O'Brien what a guy I went out and trained with them one year before camp in LA and they do these like you know really nice warm ups before their workouts around on a football field like in Santa Monica and I bought these new shoes for the workout like by the end I had the worst shin splints

I had to sit down and like cross me work off and all these studs were out there training and i was sitting down watching them so we didn't talk about this in the interview apparently his his warm-up routines are like 45 minutes to an hour long oh yeah and guys who have never trained with crosby who go like like for instance like you go join them and they oh, yeah, and the warm-up. And by the time the warm-up's done, they're lying down. No, warm-up's done, and you're like, great work, all boys. Knocks, knocks, knocks. And Sid's like, we haven't started yet. We just loosened our hips up there.

That was a loosened sesh. Yeah, you're not going to make that tea time, Whit. Oh, speaking of a loosened sesh. Oh, sesh. I went back to that motherfucking dealership, boys. I saw. Okay. I saw the tweets.

I saw the responses to you about how people are like, dude, you got screwed. There was like 15 in a row. You got fucked. You got fucked. And then I was like, what's he going to do? Obviously, I should know. And you were going to go guns a blazing back there. All right.

So I'll take it from the top. So I had no plans waking up that morning that I was going to go to the dealership, okay? I was at peace with the fact that I knew I got fleeced a little bit, but I wanted the peace of mind that my car was going to be exactly how I needed it. Well, Grinnelli posts the clip of it, and all these people start making comments, and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to tweet out the bill because I want to know what car people might think of this bill. I post the bill, Witt and RA.

That's when I saw the responses. People are sending me the memes of the guy throwing money into a furnace, which is funny. That was actually a NASCAR driver that follows me. And then all these people are like, buddy, these people are making up terms. And then they started sending other funny meme videos of them making up the Obama fluid. So I'm having a good old laugh. And someone commented like, bud, you could legit send that in to the business bureau. And they would get fined for that.

Oh, it was bad. So I said, fuck this. I get my, I tweet, I tweet out. I said,

update. I'm heading to the dealership. I want to flip the place upside down. Oh, I get there. I, I, I obviously,

cause I dropped that cause of the Avery comment. So I walk into the dealership. I asked the guy, I said, do you like, where's the service manager? They bring me to his office and I say, listen, I said, where's the service manager? They bring me to his office and I say, listen, I said, I'm on his podcast. The other day I came in here. They told me I needed

this 30,000 mile package. I'd already gotten some stuff on it. I told him to take it off and I would purchase the package. I came back. Some of the stuff that had already purchased was back on there. He tried to pull a fast one on me. I ended up getting upset, but I still paid the $500. I met you on the podcast. Now my followers, who I love, got my back. I love you guys. You know that. And they're sending me these messages.

So I start showing this. That's how you get it? You're showing them your phone? I show this 60-year-old guy my Twitter following, and I'm scrolling by all these messages. I say, you see this emoji of this guy throwing money into a furnace? That doesn't look good for you. Now this is what can happen. You guys are like, if you have a bunch of followers, why do you have an iPhone 5 still?

Why is there a bar graph on a Microsoft Word doc? Oh, you have Snake on your phone still? Anyway, Zach Morris phone. Timeout. So I said, we could do this one or two ways. I said, you can either refund the whole amount or I can turn this into a very fun content piece. Here we go.

And I will flip this place upside down. I said, your receptionist is going to have a very difficult few days. Like, I'll come back with a cameraman. Yeah, well, I mean, the phone calls and just me naming the dealership oh yeah okay you're right but i would assume we they would get a thousand phone calls yeah probably and and it would ruin the day of their business so at first he pushed back and he

said i gotta look out for my guys and i said you know what sir i completely respect that and i'm a team player too and if it was my guys i'd probably be sticking up for them but you're the only guy who can fix this problem and you know this was a screw job and you could tell by his reaction he knew this was bad news. So he goes, all right, refunding the full amount

and then I went back in the office after I said, sir, I appreciate you doing that. I'm going to thank you on the podcast without naming the place so I can't really thank him, I guess. Well, yeah, I mean, if you thank him, I guess. Well, yeah. I mean, if you thank him,

then it's out that they were trying to rob you. Were there people behind you in line or did you ask to see the manager? No, no. It was in his office. I wouldn't have done that in line. I kept it classy. And even when he said I had to look out for my guys,

I understood the team mentality. Dude, that's crazy. They said they were making stuff up? Your response, you said that some of them were i said how much did i overpay and people were like 500 the whole thing the whole and keep in mind they charged me for the oil change in that they weaseled the oil change and tire rotation in there i've already paid for it dude i'm not trying to be a hero but every time mine's like 1600 Imagine what they're giving to me. Steal a shit, man.

Because like, yeah. We should get the webcam set up in your car and do a live. I'm never going to say to anyone, I recommend getting a Range Rover. It looks like a sick car, but it sucks. Yeah, they're in the shop quite a bit. Same with like the Mercedes G wagons. Yeah, those don't look that comfortable to me. But either way. They look pretty bad But either way, I'm getting... Biz, this is eye-opening.

It's eye-opening to me that a legit place would make stuff up. Oh, you know what I forgot to mention on the last podcast, too? Every time I go in there, I give all of them free tickets to the Coyotes games that I pay for. I bought eight season tickets to support the team. I give these people tickets because if I know that I don't have any friends in town, I want these people who work everyday jobs to take their family of four to a game would cost them a week's pay.

And the lady inside the place, she was very apologetic about it, but she wasn't the one who tried to rip me off. And she's like, i'm so sorry and i and and and i she goes you know i know you give us tickets and stuff i said i'm still bringing you in tickets you didn't try to fuck me hey uh i can't believe that you had to deal with that i'm sorry i just kind of interrupted you i just had the best segue coming to my mind she's gonna do it right now let's go so as we're speaking of cars, let's make our way to the Motor City where did you see the stat in Detroit last night about Tyler

Bertuzzi? Unreal. He's the first Red Wing in history to have three or more points in four games in a row. And I was like one, I couldn't believe that. Federov never did that or Eisenman when they played the Sharks. You know, they got the Sharks, a couple other shitty teams back in the mid-'90s.

Yeah, Gordie Howe. Fuck, I wasn't even actually thinking of him. I was thinking of the offensive days. But that's incredible, and I asked a couple people. Apparently, Tyler Bertuzzi's hockey IQ is off the charts. I guess that he's just one of the smartest players out on the ice. So the fact that he plays with an edge but also is really smart out there and knows the game, I think that means that they got a real good one in Detroit.

And Manta's had a great year. Manta's good. Anthony Asiyo's got 30. Anthony Asiyo's got—I know you hear about, like, is there attitude issues? It's kind of always been out there. He's got first round—he's got top 10 talent. You've got to draft in the top 10 to get talent like that. He's got first round, he's got top 10 talent. You've got to draft in the top 10 to get talent like that. He's worth the

price of admission. What he's done this year has been great. I'll say to Detroit fans, it's cool that this is happening, but it's also terrible for you. You're really ruining the tank job. Buffalo, they're tanking. They're going to make sure they do the best they can

to get the first overall pick. Detroit, you don't need to win these four games you've won in the last couple weeks here. It's like, I know it's probably, actually, I don't even want to say I know it's cool for Detroit fans to watch their team win because I bet you every Detroit fan right now is like, just get us Jack Hughes. And regarding that tank job comment, and R.A., I want to get your thoughts on this. And, R.A., I want to get your thoughts on this. Shane Doan echoed somebody's statement about how there should be a point system in place for teams that are bad that aren't purposely tanking. So based on the amount of wins you get after a certain amount of being statistically eliminated or whatever it is. I don't know what the formula that they would use is, but basically reward teams that aren't purposely tanking.

And I think that that's a great idea. Hold on. Because it keeps the integrity of the game, and it's not other teams just like, oh, let's just throw all our AHL guys in the lineup, have an AHL squad, and get hammered so we finish last place by 15 points, and then their fan base has to

watch unsufferable hockey well i don't understand though so so that would hurt the teams that are like just losing because they're bad like that are playing like all their guys and they're losing and then all of a sudden a team that is winning like would get favor over them well i mean they would reward listen i don't know the exact formula and how it would be set up but it might be after you're statistically eliminated how well you do after that but i think to to keep the the integrity of the game i think it's something that they should definitely uh consider it's a huge issue in that shitbag league the the National Basketball Association League. Yeah, sick league.

All right, what do you think? I mean, I think that's what the lottery's there for. You can't watch everything. Exactly. I mean, you already have them sort of on an honor system. Okay, you're not going to fucking absolutely tank because it doesn't guarantee you anything. It's not like when Pittsburgh,

like that might be the greatest tank job of all time for Mario. I mean, they were so bad. It was so obvious they would tank. And it was worth it. I mean, it saved the fucking team. It changed history, literally. But just now, it's, you know, the lottery's in place now. I don't know that you want to change the point system after a certain point in the season with a new formula.

It just seems way too convoluted. I mean, you just, like I said, finishing the worst doesn't guarantee first. I mean, you know. Well, and Detroit right now has, I think, nine NHL players in their lineup, and they're winning. So, I don't know. That's the thing. It just sucks.

If you're looking to really make sure you get the best chance, it's like winning games. Maybe they should be rewarded for that. I just kind of wanted to open it up as a roundtable discussion because I think it's very interesting. I definitely like your perspective on that, R.A., where that's why they have the lottery in place

and then also you too, Whit, what are you going to do with the teams that are just actually that shit? And I think too, tanking in hockey is basically just playing minor leaguers and guys who might not be top tier NHL guys, but if they're still playing hard, they're still going hard, they might win games like we said with Detroit.

I mean, I said it last week. They've been actually one of the best bets in the NHL for the last few weeks. And that Bertuzzi-Lach and Mantelion has been fucking absolutely insane. And it's funny. I think it was about three months ago we were talking about them. Are they going to fire Jeff Blaisdell? They announced yesterday they signed him to a two-year contract extension. Apparently he's a very intelligent coach, very well liked by the players.

I believe he was in Grand Rapids before he came up, correct? Yeah, I think he was as well. Andy Mealy had nothing but wonderful things to say about him. I believe that Mealy might have even had him when he was at Miami of Ohio as well. I heard he's just a great guy. Someone said he cares about his players as much as any coach in the nhl there you go so i'm happy for the guy so uh you know usually when we hear things like that through the grapevine it usually turns out to be true and then on the flip side of

that if you hear stories about coaches that might not be the best coaches and you hear a lot of them that's probably usually the case hey uh oh go ahead. It's just the number that jumped out, and it just shows you how much turnover there is in the coaching ranks. He's currently in his fourth season as the head coach, and he's the seventh longest-tenured coach in the league. He's only been there four years, so a lot of turnover in that one. Hey, guys, I want to chat with you for a second about body armor. Body armor, you've probably seen everyone drinking it down the office.

It's the new official sports drink of the NCAA and the upcoming Frozen Four tournament going on at Buffalo. Grinnelli, I see you slurping on this stuff all day. How is this stuff? Tell the audience. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. Body armor fruit punch might be my favorite drink of all time. I saw it in the office.

We have that body armor fridge, so I went up, tried it, and it's honestly so good, and it's unbelievable for a hangover as well. I mean, it completely refreshes you. So Body Armor Fruit Punch is my go-to. There we go. I don't miss the hangover days. I'll tell you that. That means Body Armor Sports Drink is going to be hydrating the next generation

of elite hockey players as they face off to determine who will be national champs. Shout out UMass, still hanging in there. And I'm like, yep, the zoo. Unlike some other outdated sports drinks, we see you G-Raid. Body Armor contains natural flavors and sweeteners and potassium-packed electrolytes. Body armor is the more natural, better sports drink, so don't be a pigeon. Head out to your local retailers today and grab a body armor. I was saying to someone the other day that I hate talking on the phone, Biz.

I hate text. I hate talking on the phone. But do you think I should start making phone calls and getting some sources around the league so I get some sources for the podcast? Do you think I should put aside a day a week where I just make a bunch of calls? Do you think there's guys listening out there that'll give me some scoops occasionally?

I think you should get buckled and do it like Kami does. I think that would be hilarious. You think? Just get buckled and start texting the guys. That's just like initiating an enormous drinking problem if I'm having to get blacked out to make sources calls. Yeah, I just thought of that when you said, when we're hearing things,

when me and you are hearing things, it usually comes out to be true. So maybe we could hear more things if I start making some calls. If I say on the podcast, I've heard, it means somebody legitimately on the fucking team has told me. Okay? But I'm not throwing them under the bus.

So chill out there. Oh, one thing that we have to do. We have to thank Mike Caruso of the St. Louis Blues. He's the one who got us Jon Hamm. He's the one who got us to get Bertuzzo before playoffs. Actually, by the way, going back to that dealership story, the true story about it is I actually played the interview of Bertuzzo, the you know part, over and over and over.

And finally, the guy just gave me back my 500 bucks. But back to Caruso. We want to thank him for getting a ham. And Bertuzzo, you're awesome. He's the PR guy in St. Louis. He's been there a little bit. I think he was there when me and Witt were there. So love you, Caruso.

Thank you very much. Give me a ham on white. Hold the mayo. Hold the mustard bits. What else we got before we wrap this thing? A couple other notes. We actually didn't get to Carolina-Toronto. That was the other game Tuesday night. Thank you, R.A., for putting that money in my pocket. R.A. saved me there.

How much did you put on it, Mikey? $200. There we go. Nice $200. Go them back up. It was $7,000. Now it's $200. You've got to start somewhere. Units have lowered a 200 bucks. Build them back up. It was seven grand. Now it's 200. Gotta start somewhere. Units have lowered a little bit. Here's what's crazy. Mikey went nuts betting on basketball. When I told him, I said, you got that Buffalo ticket.

Start betting against the Sabres. The Sabres have not won a game in regulation in the month of March. I would have won you a fucking gazillion dollars. You'd be living at Scott Gomez's penthouse in NYC. He's actually won for one this year. You gave me the Leafs goal line that night, and they won 4-2, remember? Yeah, and then the Boston pick. I knew they were going to fire back on Columbus.

Biz is low-key a good gambler. I know. Until he starts putting his money down. Everyone's good until you start putting your money down. I cut R.A. off there, so my bad, R.A. It's all right. No problem. Grinnelli's excited, and he's tooting my horn. Everyone's good until you start putting your money down. I cut R.A. off there, so my bad, R.A. It's all right. No problem. Grinnelli's excited, and he's tooting my horn.

I gave another winner out as well. I love these idiots, too. I give four picks out on the gambling corner. Colorado lost in a fucking shootout. It wasn't a bad pick. Right away, they're on Instagram. Oh, nice pick, R.A. It's like, fuck stick.

Still got two more games to go. Well, yeah. In R.A.'s gambling gambling corner it's usually bet what you say based on the full body of work correct exactly i give you four picks don't don't chirp me after the first one loses wait and see how it turns out and not to jinx you but how many times have you been below 500 on on an aria's gambling corner i had the losing one a couple weeks back but honestly i'm probably around 700 i think you've only had the losing one a couple weeks back, but honestly, I'm probably around 700. I think you've only had one losing for social asset. I think you've only had, since we started putting those out, I think you've only had one losing social asset.

So, yeah. So, if you guys want to complain about the Gamma, you're just fucking not listening to his full body of work. Yeah, actually. He's like a Mona Lisa. We should segue right into the corner while we're already halfway through it. This week's Gambling Corner is brought to you by Robinhood. in a while. We're already halfway through it. This week's Gambling Corner is brought to you by Robinhood. Robinhood is an investing app that lets you buy and sell stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptos, all commission-free. While other brokerages charge up to $10 for every trade,

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of about two units, maybe 1.75 units, depending on what you got for a line in that Carolina puck line game. Like I said to Grinnell, he said, he's doing a camera corner. I said, it's the last episode of the regular season. Of course, I got to give these people a couple fucking more winners before the season's over, right?

So, and again, don't go fucking nuts because it is the end of the year. Crazy things happen. Having said that, Thursday night, Montreal at Washington. Must game win for Habs with Carey Price in net. That's all I need to hear. Again, I'm assuming Carey Price is going. I can't imagine he won't start. Price in net in a must win game.

So I'm taking Montreal on the money line for a unit. Jump all over that. And my second pick, Columbus at the ranges. I believe that's Friday night. This is as must-win as you can get for the Jackets. I think because they laid such an egg versus Boston the other night, they're going to come around with a much

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slash chicklets. Here's a prediction for you. Here's another hot take of mine. Who does Montreal have next game? I believe that Columbus is going to make playoffs. I don't want them to because I like being right more than I like them winning

and getting into playoffs. I think that they're going to beat New York. But I have a feeling that when they're going into Ottawa or they play against Ottawa last game of the year, Ana's going to want to play spoiler to do Shane and the other guy. If that happens, it would be incredible. Now, could you imagine, and I'm sure that the boys will be a little fired up to win that one. Am I wrong?

I'd say it'd be incredible for them not, the storyline of like the Senators finally have something good happen. They keep the team out of the playoffs. Well, hey, we talked about the shift of the momentum. Yeah, the guy chugging the beers. The guy chugging the beers. All of a sudden, Brady Kachuk, now the youngest teenager goal scorer in the organization's history. Do you see how this wave gets going? Yeah, there you go.

See the momentum? There you go. It's like a little snowball right now. Right now, it's like a puddle that's kind of leaking into one of those storm drains. Storm drains. And then all of a sudden, if it goes down below, it starts rumbling and bumbling, and they knock the chain off. And it goes right by the sewer rat, Marchand. That's just a joke, Marchand.

I love you. You know that. Yeah, and then all of a sudden, they got the last game of the year against Columbus, the Flint, Michigan Mega Bowl, and who knows? Yeah. No, it's one note. Columbus Rangers, that's a Friday night game, the pick I just gave it. And what's pretty wild, too, is we could potentially have Montreal versus Toronto

with playoff implications Saturday night. Because obviously, let me give you the rest of the schedule. Columbus plays the Rangers Friday, then at Ottawa Saturday. Carolina is at Jersey on Thursday, at Philly Saturday. And the Canadians are at Washington Thursday and at home versus Toronto Saturday. So depending on how those games shake out, it could potentially be Canadians versus Maple Leafs with the playoff spot on the line. That would be

some fantastic fucking drama and a great way to end the regular season. I hope so. Absolutely. It reminds me, I remember Flyers getting in on the shootout and then they went to the finals. A little bit of Leaf drama. When I say that, it's like their fan base turns any little thing into front page news.

And here's a prime example. So Patrick Marleau, he's slowing down a little bit. He's not the same player he used to be. While there's three games left in the season, maybe two now. Did they play last night? Yeah, they did. They lost to Carolina. Yeah.

They lost to Carolina. So he made a comment like, like no i want to play the remaining games of the season because i want to keep my iron streak going and leafs fans went well some of them went crazy they're like oh oh like is this about his iron man streak about us winning a stanley cup because like this guy needs some rest before playoffs and like fans like he's played 1600 of them maybe that he knows what he's doing and he wants to win the stanley cup while also keeping his streak going well yeah and maybe he's trying to ramp it up himself before playoffs where he might be getting some more prime minutes because other guys are getting rest so maybe he's trying to get his in-game conditioning back well didn't you say as a nhl player so you don't like to take games off well no because you get out of rhythm, right? It's just like all of a sudden,

depending on when the playoff starts, for instance, there's going to be a three- or four-day layover. At his age, maybe he doesn't want that. So that's just a prime example of the type of drama that gets created in big markets where maybe some guys don't end up signing in places like that because it's just like every little decision they make it gets blown out of proportion yeah that's especially in a market like toronto a couple other teams we hadn't mentioned just

dallas is officially in i don't think we mentioned that yet uh no surprise uh also minnesota is officially out uh they had made the playoffs five straight years uh and they never got past the second round they lost in the first round the last three playoffs, combined 4-12 record, no playoffs this year. It's a franchise wits. I feel like we've beat up on them a lot. I don't feel too bad on them because when I talk to their fans, they beat up on them way worse than we do.

It's a very frustrated fan base. Oh, Minnesota's fan base, very hard on their team. I think, honestly, like last night I said, I'm going to check out Wild Twitter. And they were almost indifferent. They were like, we expected this. And that's the worst thing I think you could have for a team is for your fans to be indifferent and not even almost care.

How do you check out Wild Twitter? Oh, you just hashtag it or type Wild? Hashtag what? Wild? Or even just type in Wild. But that means that you'd only see tweets that have a hashtag wild with them, right? Right. Well, that's the point. That's why you call it wild Twitter.

But then... I know. I'm just like, does everyone send... If you're a wild fan, are you tweeting out hashtag wild at the end? Or it finds every tweet with the word wild in it. Oh, okay. All right. That's what I was wondering.

It's usually a good jumping off point. You'll find one thing, and then that'll lead to, like, another account and another conversation. Technologically moronic. Oh, but it's good for you at NHL Network. If you need to know about a team, just get in the team name, and boom, you'll get some info. Here we go.

Here's my prediction. I don't think Bruce Brujo gets fired. And I'll tell you why. They owe him way too much money right now. I think they give him one more chance. I think he gets to come back next year. Now, saying he's taken some heat too, where it's like, man, they've made some moves there

in signings that are going to affect this team for some time here. Like, you know, they got some guys making 10 sheets. On 12-year deals. On 12-year deals. So, you know, that's still high based on where the cap's going like that wasn't like a cap friendly deal down the road uh and that's a kind of like a schmaltz deal we'll get into that later but uh yeah so the the weight shouldn't fall on

broudreau thank you all right also they got this kaprasov and he's over in the khl he's sick he's a young stud and i think he's to be over there like two more seasons. I think I read that last year. It was three more years or something. So that's a team that really could use a young, talented scoring forward, and they're stuck in no man's land, as you said. It's like a franchise malaise that they need to come out of. Maybe change the unis. Yeah, you of them. Maybe change the unis.

Yeah, you don't like the... You're not a fan of the... I don't know if I'm in the minority or the... Let's think of some new team names. Those uniforms suck. Let's think of some new team names. I don't mind the name, the wild. The McCrackens?

The Crankers? The Christmas colors. I don't know. I was just going back to the Seattle joke. We beat that one up. Sorry, guys. That's all right. By the way, Tyler Bertuzzi is not Todd Bertuzzi's son.

I think we said it before, but every time this kid gets mentioned, everyone thinks it's his kid. It's not. I just had to mention that. Michael Kempney, who we mentioned a couple episodes ago, he got successful surgery on his torn left hammy, but he's going to be out four to six months. Big loss.

He won't be with the Capitals for their playoff run. And, Biz, you just alluded to Nick Schmaltz. He signed a seven-year deal, a seven-year contract extension with the Coyotes, worth just a hair below $41 million. A 23-year-old was in the last year of his entry-level deal. He's going to get almost a $5 million raise, not too shabby. He's going to have a $5.85 million cap hit and the average annual value. He's been out since the end of December, Biz,

but safe to say the team liked what they saw in 17 games, huh? Yeah. When he came over, he was almost at a point of game before he went down with that knee injury. Him and Keller had great chemistry. He really helped out the Coyotes' power play, which we've seen down the stretch has really been lacking and probably the run reason they won't't get into if they don't um but uh john chica he's

he's really made some moves and and and ones that if they pan out this organization is going to be set up where they're got guys on very fair contracts. And what I mean by that is, like this summer, they had Dvorak who hurt his back and who missed the majority of the season. Then he ended up tearing his pec when he was coming back. Yeah, he had a tough year. He basically missed almost the entire year. Well, he signed him in the summer to a long-term deal without knowing and seeing what he could do

in his final full season of his entry-level contract. But he got him at a number where if Dvorak gets to where I think he's going to get, it's going to be a very fair deal. He did the exact same thing with Jacob Chikrin. Yeah, early deal. He's doing early deals. And keep in mind, Chikrin had a couple of knee injuries.

He hurt his shoulder coming out of junior. His last year junior, he had a shoulder injury. So he was dealing with... He's banking on himself. I mean, he's banking on him believing these guys are going to turn into legitimate studs.

And Chikorin's a freak of nature. He healed quickly and fine. And he's got all the athletic ability in the world. And if he turns into, once again, the player that Chika and we all think that he could be, you got him at a fair number. And then he did it again with Schmaltz. And who's the other one that I'm missing? Oh, and then he gave a very fair one to Garland,

who's been incredible, a rookie this year. He got 750. So I like the Schmaltz deal base off of what I saw. What's tough for me is maybe the precedent it sets with the other guys saying like, oh, if you just get one good year under your belt, you're going to get a big ticket here where we don't necessarily know what we have because we haven't seen a big enough sample size of it. So if the risk pays off, he's a fucking genius yeah it's a it's a gamble a gamble the injuries are a little scary both guys you know have have had pretty

legit injuries right i mean that kind of like scares some people off but and and that's one of the that's one thing that scared me and was like wait let's see how they do when they come back from these but once again if these guys play to where they should get to kind of like remember when i said i see strome as a as an elite second line center well what is he now yeah i said whole time in chicago he was that i i said i said i i i don't think he was being put in the opportunities where he could succeed at what he's good at and look where dylan strome did with chicago so now saying that i hope it all pans out for the Coyotes. I think it will, and once again, we're just going to be a wagon

just like we were this year. And before we wrap this up, I just want to tell you, I just checked Twitter, and I got a little mention here from this guy, Mike Henschel. What up, Mike? Hey, that guy, Giordano, has four shorthanded goals this year, should be mentioned. It's another reason he should win the Norris.

One more shorthanded goal and he does something number four Bobby Orr never did, which would be five shorties for a defenseman in a season. Four is already incredible, so that's a pretty cool stat that I wasn't aware of. And I guess we should end it off with the Rangers and Devils fans joining in harmony together with the We Both Suck champ.

So that was a nice touch. I respect that. You guys both do stink right now. We both suck. That reminds me. Actually, I'll get into that next episode. One quick note. We didn't mention it last show because we talked about him so much

in the lead up to 50 goals, but Ovi did officially get his 50th goal. We sucked him off so much before then. We forgot to mention it when he actually did it, so we're doing that now. We're swallowing now.. Yeah we're keeping the change. Boys great fucking episode. I love like I said when we do it old school me and Whit start off like Wayne and Goth and now we're

in a fucking suite over in the back bay. Things have really scaled up so everybody have a great weekend and next time we come back we're going to have some playoff previews for you. Peace. Maybe I'll just have to move to Boston three times a week. Come over to Southie.

Down by the banks of the river. Thank you. Along with lovers, muggers and thieves Off their cooties But I love that dirty water Boston, you're my home