Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 188: Featuring Stephen Dixon + Brandon Segal

Episode Date: June 27, 2019

On Thursday's episode of Spittin' Chiclets the guys are joined by Stephen Dixon and Brandon Segal. Dixon joins to talk about what it was like playing with Biz and living with him on the road while Segal joins to tell some stories about playing overseas. The guys touch on some NHL as well, including Brooks Orpik and Roberto Luongo retiring and William Karlsson signing in Las Vegas. The guys also recap on their trip to Newfoundland with Terry Ryan and Terry Ryan Sr.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 188 of Spit and Chicklets presented by New Amsterdam Vodka. We're in the dog days of summer, free agency not quite here yet, not a shitload to talk about, but we'll still entertain you needless to say. Let's say hello to the boys today, Mikey Grinelli, what's going on, where are you right now, it looks like a hotel room you're in. What's up boys, I'm on the beautiful island of Newfoundland and I was screeched in as a fellow Newfoundlander the other night, and I had to kiss a cod, so we'll have some crazy video coming out of that. So it's been a good trip so far. Probably the hottest thing you've kissed.

Oh, you should have seen him go to town on this thing. He threw his fucking tongue in the little fish's mouth. Oh, I bet you he's the grossest kisser, just shoving his tongue down a girl's throat. I guarantee it. I guarantee you have no finesse in your kiss. I needed that cod. I needed that cod. Actually, no, I'm a good kisser just shoving his tongue down girls' throats. I guarantee it. I guarantee you have no finesse in your kisser. I needed that card. I needed that card. Actually, no, I'm a good kisser.

I guarantee you girls will tell you. Kiss. Honk. Swampbuster. Honk. Next up, my boy, Paul Bissonnette, Biz Nasty. What are you in a room next door to Grinnelly up there? I am.

It's been a great time here. Looking forward to pushing out all the content. Been hanging around with Terry Ryan, who we've had on the podcast before. He's an electric factory, but not as crazy as his old man. His old man is him times 10. We had him on the – where did we go? We went whale watching with him, and he was having beers on the boat, and he went to another another planet so that was

very entertaining got a ton of stories from the old days again uh from him one thing is like when i first met him i'm like do i have to filter through these stories or half of them lies and and whatnot no we ended up going down to his basement this guy's got autographs from gretzky bobby hall i mean he was a hell of a fucking hockey player. He's got some stories from Elvis. He's met Elvis. Wow. This guy is –

Elvis Presley? Yeah, he's done it all. So I'm very interested for you guys to see all the content we got. We're actually going back over to his place this afternoon to go through all of his album collection and some other artifacts in that crazy basement of his. But it's been a good time. We're going to try to show everyone outside of Newfoundland what it's about

and the great people that are here. And they just like to have a good time. They like to drink. They like to tell stories. They like to sing and dance. So, yeah, that's pretty much it. Yeah, they picked up Cradley with three bottles of rum at the airport, so I guess they do like to potty. That was the craziest thing that's pretty much it. Yeah, they picked up Grayley with three bottles of rum at the airport, so I guess they do like to potty.

That was the craziest thing that's ever happened to me. I was just waiting by baggage claim, and there was three newfies that just showed up, and they were like, hey, are you Mike Grinnell? I was like, yeah. And they're like, well, we got you three bottles of booze. There's no better way to welcome you to Newfoundland. And they were like, I was like, hey, where do you get a taxi around here? They're like, oh, no, no, no, we'll just drive you to your hotel.

So they drove me to my hotel. Wow. No shit. And then? And then, yeah, no no no we'll just drive you to your hotel so they drove me to my hotel wow no and then yeah no no good guys all right and last but not least our buddy ryan whitney what's going on with dog not much guys i'm in just a fabulous mood right now i'm not gonna lie to you this is like peak golf season it's just vacations coming up weather's been good i mean i couldn't be happier. I really couldn't. You know, this is a light episode of NHL News. We're waiting for the free agent frenzy to come to us July 1st. But still, for now, we've got some fun stuff to talk about.

Biz, I have a couple questions for everyone, actually. Biz, are you still off the piss? Have you boozed there? No, I'm off the piss. You're in Newfoundland and not boozing? I've survived Vegas for four days. No booze. Then I went to Vancouver for the Hotel Belmont opening

where there must have been 1,000 women in there. It was a joke. I've never seen so many hot chicks in one place. Oh, yeah, you really have to booze to just grab a girl, but that's really not all. I've done all right on the road trip so far. Shocker. Four or five.

But still, it was a party atmosphere. So I've done all right on the road trip so far. Shocker. Four or five. But still, it was a party atmosphere. Then on the Friday night in Vancouver, we ended up going to some house party. My friend's parents bought a beautiful brand-new condo. They had a fucking pool on top of their deck and shit. Anyway, then I survived a Saturday in Vancouver. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday in Vancouver. Then we came Friday, Saturday, and then we came out here on Sunday and survived one of the biggest drinking cultures for the last few days.

You must think you're a pussy on the rock. No. No? I've been on edibles and joints the entire time. I don't think I've opened my eyes fully since I've been here. Yeah, they got a pretty good dispensary scene there. I checked that out already. Well, okay, so you're allowed to fly with it in Canada.

So I bought all mine in Vancouver. Oh, so you'll have stuff for me in Nova Scotia? I have three joints left. I have some edibles and, yeah, Indica edibles and some Sativa edibles. We'll be all right. Yeah, but we can just stop by a dispensary up there, though. It's all right. Other question.

Mikey, what do you mean? What else happened when they drove you home? Nothing. They just gave me a tour around town. They showed me where George Street was. And that's it. What do you think? Well, I don't know, because they said and and then you like sort of laughed.

And I'm like, I'm not going to be the fucking guy that doesn't know the story. That guy's the worst. Like I was doing it. I'm waiting. I'm waiting to hit the Cotton Club today. Do you know where's my car? And I was like, and Dan? And Ari, do I have anything for you?

No. I got one thing here. We have to make a rule. If you have a good story and we're in the midst of hockey talking and you say, hey, I got a story but I'll tell it later, we have to start telling it right right away because last episode you told us you had a crazy russia story wit and you're like i'll tell it later and then we never reminded you to bring it up so oftentimes that happens so i say from now on when we say we have a story we have to tell it yeah because our brains are just mush half the time okay so i went out to dinner with a guy uh good

friend of mine name won't be brought up a couple of us at dinner and this kid played in russia he played in europe for a long time and he's like dude i never told you the story of the reporter and when i was on star tech i was like no what are you talking about he's like buddy because we were just telling the old russia stories he's like dude we showed up to the rink one day and you know i put my gear on i get out on the ice i'm doing you know the daytona 500 laps ripping a couple in the empty nets waiting for a russian practice to start which will take four hours and i look in the corner and you know how the media occasional reporters they just kind of sit in the seats at the at the practice you know there's this this older Russian guy and he's sitting there, dude, and he's like

asleep. Like he's, he's completely, you know, not awake. I'm like, geez, that guy passed out. Well, it turns out he was dead. So this reporter dude had a fucking heart attack or whatever. I don't know what happened, but he's lying there and he's in the stands and he's dead. So once they realized that he was dead, was like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. So they throw a sheet over this guy and they start practicing. The guy's feet and hands are hanging out of the fucking sheet and he's just laying there dead with his body and face covered. And so he's like, oh, my God.

Oh, my God. This is fucking insane. What is going on right now? He's like, I would not go into the corner. We were doing drills where you have to go in every single corner. I wouldn't go in that corner. I'm not being that close to a dead guy. So what do you know?

All of a sudden, the fucking paramedics show up. The Russian paramedics. These two guys. And the reporter was a big man, I guess. These two guys go to pick this guy up, dude. And what happens? They drop him. And the players are watching as this dude's rolling down the fucking,

what is the stairs called where you sit? The aisle? Rolling down. The sheet comes off, and then boom, hits the boards. And they're like, ah, they run down. They cover them again. Turns out they ended up needing to bring like six, seven guys who had to carry them out.

Big guy. But sure as shit, practice was never canceled. Everything was going on as this was happening. The players finally stopped to watch like near the end, and the coach blew the whistle. Get the fuck over here. Continue practice. That's like my Russian-Mexican accent. So that was just a normal day for this kid at practice seeing a dead reporter in

the stands who's then dropped trying to be picked up and transported to the morgue oh yeah i don't think i would have been able to practice dude the kid said he couldn't he was just like what is going on why aren't we stopping practice why aren't we getting off the ice that's a dead body i could see his right foot from underneath the fucking sheet. It was just, I was like, oh, my God. So, obviously, we pile up with these Russian stories, and they're going to keep coming out because, you know, it's Russia. Because that's how shit goes down there, which is fine.

But there was a comment recently that you texted the group chat, and one Russian guy basically said, tell Wit tell wit to never come back to Russia. Cause it's gotten so bad. And so public over there. Yeah. This is what's crazy. So I was told this, I'm like,

what? Like really? Well, one, I ain't going back. Witty ain't going back. There's no way you would ever go back to Russia. Not one chance.

Not even. No, he has a price on his head in my life. No. Dude, no. But here's the thing. I've been critical of Russia, but I've also been very complimentary, right? I mean, I said there was a lot of smoke shows there. Also, ugly ones.

You're forgetting the first point. I said New Year's Eve was fun. New Year's Eve's a lot of fun there. I said New Year's Eve was fun New Year's Eve is a lot of fun there I said that I said that I had a great driver Remember Vadim we showed the picture

Me and him in the hot tub guys I had a great driver We have picture evidence of that too Yeah we do And I also have said It was great to leave When I was leaving it was great to leave. It was fun. You know, when I was leaving, it was cool.

So I don't really understand the whole hate towards, like, wait, don't ever show your face in Russia again. The only chance – the only thing I ever worry about – I ain't going there. My wife ain't going there. Yeah, it's true. Say Ryder plays hockey and ends up, like, good. Oh, he can't play in the K. Don't ever send him there.

Hey, I was thinking, like – Like juniors. I'm thinking, like, if he ever, like, good. Oh, he can't play in the K. Don't ever send him there. Hey, I was thinking, like, I'm thinking, like, if he ever, like, became a good hockey player and, like, made a team and there was a tournament in Russia, I'd be like, hey, bud, sorry, you ain't going. Yeah, what about world juniors? You'd have to have security around them the whole time. That Whitney name is never going back to Russia. The Whitney name was there, and it's's gone and it's never coming back.

You'll have to borrow Portnoy's fucking Superbowl disguise with the mustache so you can sneak in. Hey, are you sure that dead guy wasn't just Bugsy? Oh, that's true. That's true. You could have thrown Bugsy a sheet over Bugsy. It's his St. Cloud state fucking recruit. Since we're on the Russia subject, I actually checked out that television show Chernobyl. Great.

Did you say it? Chernobyl? Chernobyl, yeah. What did you think? Excellent. And I'm happy that they didn't do it in Russian and then have the subtitles. Once again, that's not a shot at Russia. Keep wit on your hit list and I'm off.

But very, very good. I mean, just sad. That is a crazy fucking story. No, but only 36 people died i heard i heard that russia was actually really pissed about it and they're actually making a a series in russian oh basically said it's all the americans fault yeah they're gonna say the cia had a hand in it well that's what happens when you you know you get fucking the dictator and propaganda is a fact but yeah it was very well made biz what they decide and you've seen this with other like english productions is they would rather have the

english actors or swedish actors because um one guy was swedish they rather have them talking their natural accent instead of doing a terrible fake russian accent or even trying to speak russian and just totally butchering it so they just do it in their natural language but yeah it was it was pretty good stuff and i and ra I think we said this before, and it's because so that in America or Canada you're watching and you still think of it as international. I don't know how I'm trying to say this. They want you to be able to picture it happening somewhere else. Do you know what I'm saying?

But not have the corny accents. Yeah. So it's like having the English accents still shows that it was away from America or whatever. I don't know. Yeah. No sense. I think once you get used to it, like they're Russian,

but they just have English accents. It's pretty easy to deal with. You had a biz moment there, Whit. No, dude. Something's happening to me where I can't talk anymore. I think doing this would have made me a better talker. Now I fumble fuck words. I can't complete sentences.

I'm talking in like slang and just like, it's like when I came home from Russia and I was like, Ryan hungry, by the way, have you seen those asshole social media influencers who are now going to Chernobyl and like girls taking pictures and thongs sticking their ass out like Chernobyl? What's that?

How's your fucking ass cancer from doing that? Absolutely foolish. Ass cancer, Jesus. Well, I mean, people go to this place. They think it's like a tourist stop. It's like, this is the most fucking radioactive place on the planet. Like, why would you want to go there? Because you got to get the likes.

Yeah, exactly. In the show, they said it's going to take 100 years for it to not become radioactive. I would imagine that even after that, they don't go there and revamp it. No, definitely not. They'll just leave it forever. But speaking of HBO, I don't know if you guys caught the HBO Real Sports segment on Tuesday night on Boston. Anyone

able to catch it? No, but one of the guys online was lying about it, saying that there was no females interviewed for it, and then obviously no interviews came out with females. But Erica, who was in the thing, who was a female, who was the CEO, and then Rhea was also interviewed for an hour, but they didn't put anything in it.

The fellow who wrote that recanted and apologized for that. But, yeah, Rhea was kind of pissed. They did interview her for an hour. They didn't use any of it. They also interviewed a guy who hates Bosnian for an hour. I guess they didn't use any of his either. But I think it wasn't a't a hit piece i mean i've seen enough bosnian hit pieces over the years i think it was very slanted uh i don't think uh soledad o'brien cared much for dave i mean she basically called him a vile person afterwards but uh you know i think she slanted like when you call him like he like a third world dictator like those

that's when words matter like that's putting a spin on it you're you're implying the guy's a piece of shit because yeah that's not news that's your opinion exactly and and i like even it was funny so before they went to the segment like this is not for the faint of heart i'm like you fucking kidding me literally two segments later they had a guy getting bit by a shark bloody gore all over the place and they never gave a warning about faint for the heart faint for the heart that was fucking kind of funny but i thought it was pretty fair just slanted but it wasn't like a hit piece like we've seen in the past by any stretch interesting i didn't i didn't consider it a hit piece i didn't think it was very good and i will say this that brian gumbel can suck my dick because if you're gonna fucking think about something and you're gonna say at the end of that fucking whole goddamn wasn't an episode.

It was like a little segment. He asked that woman if that was the most unpleasant, unpleasant thing she's ever covered. Let's go over what she's covered. This was a tweet from a barstool kid, Jack McGuire. This woman has covered Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. War veterans suffering from PTSD, the 2012 Aurora school shooting, and the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. Aurora, I'm sorry, it was a movie theater.

Either way, she's covered some of the most horrible things in the world. And he asked her if covering Barstool for a fucking week was the most unpleasant thing. Are you fucking soft, Bryant Fumble? And how much plastic surgery has that guy had on his face? Jesus Christ. I just, like, it's like you have to use your brain. And when people start talking about Barstool, reality goes flying out the window.

It's like the worst things in the world about, like, buddy, dude, it's a comedy site. Like, you're really going to try to compare this to covering an earthquake? Thousands of people died? Fuck off. Brianrian gumbo who the fuck is that i'm trying to look him up dude he's the he's the host of the show yeah he's a he's a pretty pompous dude so i can't stand him but it's typically a pretty good show it's kind of like the 60 minutes of sports like i just couldn't believe that the most unpleasant thing you've ever covered? Dude, have you looked at her resume, what she's covered for your show, you fool?

Yeah, he's saying it sounds like a lot of angry white males or something like that. She's like, oh, I went to one event, and it was pretty overwhelmingly white and male. It's like, yeah, you went to a Boston Bruins watch party in Boston. I want to talk about a fun subject. Ryan Hartman being completely off the grid right now. I'll let you tee the story up here, R.A., but I'm going to read off Hartman's tweet a few days ago before the draft.

Heading off the grill till next Saturday. If you need me, leave me a voicemail. Peace, world. Yeah, that was on Friday and Monday. The Fly has sent Ryan Hartman to Dallas for Tyler Pitlick. peace world yeah that was on friday and uh monday the flyer sent ryan hoppin to dallas for tyler pitlick uh and because the stars didn't extend hoppin a qualifying offer he became a ufa or he'll be he'll be a ufa next week so basically he got traded and pretty much released uh and he still doesn't know this his mother tweeted out ryan you need to call your mom lol on monday she was

replying to media requests wondering where he was. So as of last night, at last check, he still didn't know what had happened to his career, and his mother was trying to track him down. This is funny. I've never seen anything like this before. I'll say this. He's probably the happiest guy in the world right now, not having his phone on and just enjoying life.

And it was a picture of what looked like a cottage area. So, hey, let him go decompress. He's going to find out everything after. I imagine that he's going to have a nice clear mind after this week long, and he'll be able to accept this information and digest it properly. He might have the closest example of the Homer Simpson gif or whoever the Simpsons gif when he walks in the bar, literally turns around, walks out of the bar,

because he might get off the boat, pick up his phone, turn it on, and be like, are you fucking kidding me? And put the phone down and get right back on the boat. Because to come back and think, all right, well, back into reality, get in touch with people, see what's going on. Oh, my God, I've been traded and released. What has just happened? The only good thing is he's a UFA, so maybe he signs for a little coin.

I mean, I don't know what's going on. If they decided not to sign him back up, maybe that's not a good thing is he's a ufa so maybe he signs for a little coin i mean i don't know what's going on if they decided not to uh you know sign him back up maybe that's not a good thing good sign for him but still it's uh it's pretty cool that he's able to put the phone down i'm guessing without knowing him he's a guy that's really into i don't know about nature but you know living free and having a good time and good for him to take a little break from social media sam cosentino style i mean he's had a hard time sticking places i mean in chicago i thought he was him to take a little break from social media sam cosentino style i mean he's had a hard time sticking places i mean in chicago i thought he was going to be a perfect mix because he's got that high-end skill or at least he's a rat he seemed to have a little bit of high-end

skill where he could muster in that line what do you mean he's a rat like he plays like a rat like i think he is skilled and as times he hits he'll fight he's like i've seen him play some very good hockey where he is tough to play against and as far he hits, he'll fight. He's like, I've seen him play some very good hockey where he is tough to play against. And as far as him not finding out, I mean, it doesn't really matter whether he found out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, because, you know, UFA doesn't start until next week, so he really can't do much of anything anyways.

And that was Abe Simpson in the Maison Derriere episode when he walks in the whorehouse and does a 180 and walks right back out. Oh, I thought it was a bar at the whorehouse. Yeah, it was, yeah, the whorehouse episode when Bob got a job working the door at the Mason Derriere. One of the probably top 10 Simpsons episodes ever. Shout out to the Simpsons fans out there. Speaking of that real

sports segment, they actually did another one last night on Don Nelson, the former NBA coach. He's actually a Hall of Fame player and a Hall of Fame coach. And just to piggyback your dead guy story, he told the story last night. He never smoked his joint his whole life. He said after he retired, he's a wicked stoner. Willie Nelson got him stoned.

He became a fucking grower, all that stuff. And he hosts a poker game every night. And he said they were playing poker. And one of the dudes, like, they looked over, and the dude just fucking died. Like, he had a heart attack. He died sitting up. He said they just kept fucking dealing the hand until the coroner got there. And when he died, they cremated his ashes, put it in a cigar tube,

and he has a little space in Don Nelson's man cave. It was pretty fucking wild. Is he related to Willie Nelson? No, no relation other than Budd Brothers. That was so bad. That was bad, I know. Waka, waka. All right, let's get to the Hall of Fame stuff.

Tuesday afternoon, the Hockey Hall of Fame announced the 2019 inductees. Get right to them. We had Jim Rutherford, Jerry York, Haley Wickenheiser, Sergei Zuboff, Vaklav Nedermansky, and Guy Cabanau. When you took a look at the eligible players, there was really only one no-brainer guaranteed to get in this time, and that was Haley Wickenheiser. I mean, she's in the conversation of the greatest ever player

in the women's game. She symbolized Canadian women's hockey, even Canadian hockey for 20 years, racking up goals and goals. So she was a slam dunk. Then you figure you take a look at Rutherford. He joined the Whalers back in, I think, 94, had a 28 career with them, won a couple of cups. He's a builder, correct?

He went in as a builder. So he was, you know, all right, no beef with that one. Jerry York, winningest coach in college history. That alone gets you in. Then when you add in all the national titles, frozen four trips, all the players that, you know, went to the NHL under his tutelage and kind of a no-brainer. I thought Sergey Zubov, it was his seventh year of eligibility.

I mean, he was among the best power play quarterbacks of his era. And he basically had to wait his turn because of this, you know, eligibility stuff. I mean, the guys who got in right before him were, I got it right here, Chelios, Niedermeyer, Blake, Pronger, Lidstrom, and Housley. So he basically kind of had to wait until all those guys get in. The only one, like I said, I really had sort of an issue with, I guess, was Guy Carboneau.

He was a great player, three-time Selkie winner, three-time cup winner. My issue was, though, there were seven separate times there were Hall of Fame classes. They're allowed to induct four males each year, four male skaters or players. And there were seven years where they only inducted two or three players. And there was actually one year, 2010, where they only invited, I'm sorry, inducted Dino Cicerelli. So basically, I guess what I'm saying is if Guy Carboneau was a Hall of Famer,

they had eight other chances to put him in. They never did. And now he gets in in kind of an off year for first year eligibility. So what's your take on these ones, guys? Go to you first, Whit. I was very surprised Guy Carboneau got in. If you're going to look at the Hall of Fame resumes

of players, I understand completely that he's a three-time Selke Trophy winner. I mean, 88, 89, 92. One of the best defensive forwards of his generation. No doubt about it. But 1,318 games,

663 points. Hall of Fame? Defensively amazing, but that's like so off from normal numbers. And Mogilny's not even in yet, correct? Nope, he didn't get in. That's insane. So now maybe this is like, you know, this guy, he won three Stanley Cups.

He was, like I said, he was a huge part of those teams. The fans in Montreal loved him. He went to Dallas. The team loved him there. He's had a lot of success. But if you're looking at the Hall of Fame, man, I just, I don't see that. I don't see it at all. I know he coached the Canadians and then, you know,

he was up for the Jack Adams one year. But still, it's not at all what you expect when you look at the resumes and what people have done to get into the Hall of Fame. I know it seems like we're kind of dogging. Instead of pumping up the guys who are in, it's just we're more questioning. Well, this has been a lot of people are questioning that pick. I didn't watch him during that era, so I wouldn't be able to say. His stats do not jump out at you.

Keep in mind, back then, the Selkie was handed out to guys who were more very defensive and not necessarily as offensive. I mean, nowadays the standard is, I would say, minimum 70 points. I mean, Kopitar won it two years ago. I think he had 100 points, and he had an unbelievable 200-foot game all season long. So the standard of the award has been elevated. You know, I was reading some tweets about him.

Pierre Lebrun obviously congratulating him on his Hall of Fame induction. Somebody tweeted underneath that their favorite Guy Carboneau story was him telling Coach Demers he'll take on Gretzky after their Game 1 loss when it was Montreal against the Los Angeles Kings. He ended up limiting Gretzky to three points in the next four games, and then Canadians ended up going on to win that Stanley Cup in five games. And that was consmite material right there. The numbers don't jump out at you.

I'm just going to chalk it up to the fact that when you do win league awards, it does help your case to get in. But if he's getting in, there are a lot of guys who are getting snubbed right now that that deserve to get in and you mentioned alexander mcgillney that's definitely a guy who should be getting into the hall of fame the most points carbino ever had in a season's 57 it's not that's not i had 59 one year i can't even cross over like, yeah, you can't have 57 points as your career high and be in the Hall of Fame. I'm sorry. Congrats, Guy. And in the end, who gives a fuck?

Because in 20 years, you say, hey, I'm Guy Carboneau, NHL Hall of Famer 2019. And they say, holy fuck, I get your autograph and a picture. So who gives a shit? But if you're some other guys, that's more what I'm thinking about. Like, pardon? Yeah, that's it. And we're not. I'm not

ragging on him i never even watched the guy play i mean he's got three selkies done more in his career than i did um the the one where hey it was about time with sergey zubov for me oh yeah yeah he's like every guy you talk to is like yeah he's probably the best defenseman i've ever played with and that's coming out of guys like yarmir yager's mouth. And I have a quote here from him. If there's one thing that I would ever reproach Mario for is that he got rid of Sergei Zubov. He was the best defenseman I've ever played with. He was especially great offensively.

He was able to get the puck in the offensive zone. Oh, fuck, sorry. He was able to get the puck to the offensive zone and make another play once being in there. He was irreplaceable on the power plays. He would receive the puck on the blue line, hold it for a moment, and if got attacked by a forward, he would never worry about beating him one-on-one.

He never panicked and was always capable to set up a scoring chance for brutal. And then I get nervous knowing that I'm on the fucking clock. I'm not even done. There's some more here. No, no. We scored a lot. Fuck you, wit. We scored a lot after his plays.

The trouble was it was always Mario who was controlling his power plays. He stood on the left side and everything was centered around him. As soon as we would make the defense start moving a bit, someone would feed it to him and Mario would shoot the puck on the net. But Zuby used to play his way. He wouldn't worry about passing the puck to the other side where Mario was standing.

And the latter was, of course, angry about it. Zuby was too big of a personality, and Mario eventually lost his patience. He came on to Craig, and they traded Zuboff to Dallas for Kevin Hatcher, who is no... Sergei Zuboff. Who is no doubt a very good player and would become one of our key defensemen, but he would never replace Zubov. Who is no doubt a very good player and would become one of our key defensemen, but he would never replace Zuby. Fuck me.

A couple things. One, I think that couple minutes right there will go down as some of the funniest reading I've ever heard out loud in my life. That was like so good. I screenshotted on text, so the font is like this. I know, but I think it's like your voice too was like so good. I screenshot it on text, so the font is like this. I know, but I think it's like your voice too makes it so good. Zubov in the ladder. But I will say that guy was a freak.

He carried the puck up the ice with his head up the entire time. He just walked the blue line with ease like silk. He had his head up for every single shot, shot passes for tips, shot for rebounds. When he was trying to score, he'd just go shell from the back end. It was just perfection. And I know that we've talked about it a million times, but him and Leach on that 94 team for the Rangers was a joke. I'll never forget the game seven goal. I think it was game seven. Leach scored. Zubov went D-D-D to him, like, down low in the offensive zone. Just an incredible

player that should have been in before, but R.A., you mentioned it. A lot of D-men before him that had to get in, but this guy was a Russian superstar, and I think he smoked cigarettes at the intermissions, which is incredible, too. Wouldn't be a surprise for a Russian. Interestingly, he led that 94-ranges team in regular season

scoring 12 goals, 77 assists, and, and i mean that was a pretty fucking stacked team so that gives you an indication of how good he was and just another quick note on cabno again we yeah we don't want to like seem like we're besmirching the guy my only point was you know if he was a hall of famer he should have been in in one of those other years and what i think is something to look at is the selection committee that's really the only thing that changed in his 16 years of eligibility and what i think happens is a lot of these guys they're familiar they know a lot of the uh guys who are eligible eligible to be inducted so i think they kind of maybe let those biases seep in not on purpose but oh i know him and you know maybe with 20 years ago he didn't get voted now all these people know him there's a familiarity with him so

they may be more inclined to vote for him because they know him. Because like I said, there was the year that. I don't think we need to keep going on the Carbondale thing. We're beating the dead horse here. Like fucking fuck everyone's opinion. We made it very clear. On baseball, though, you run out of years to become eligible, I think. I think there's like, is that not true? All right.

Do you know? I'm not sure on the baseball. I thought you like had like it was like your last year to try to get in. I think you're right on that, Whitney. Hockey, it just never ends, I guess. We've got to pump up Hayley Wickenheiser. Oh, what a fucking player. She just retired last year, right?

So she was essentially first ballot. Oh, yeah. This is her first – She's as first ballot as any woman who will ever be in any Hall of Fame. She played men's hockey in finland uh towards the end of her career as well so i mean i would say probably the most decorated female hockey player of all time easily easily is there an american that kind of comes close to her cammy granato cammy granato probably in the conversation but at that point uh when when

hayley wickenheiser was going through her prime, Canada was the one who was dominant. Yeah. Right now, I feel like the American women have taken over. So that kind of puts Hayley Wickenheiser on that pedestal because they weren't losing back then. They were just dumbing the American ladies. I saw a thing this morning that she – I think she has 24

or right around 20 more points in the history of women's Olympic hockey than anyone else. So she, I mean, she has been as dominant as you can get in women's hockey. She rightly could have got in a four-time gold medalist in the Olympics, a seven-time gold medalist in the world championships. Her record in the world championships, she actually has seven golds and six silvers. So it was early when they were winning golds, you know, mid-90s, early 2000s. And then lately, like you've said, Biz, it's changed a little bit. But still, I mean, for her to play in the Olympics in 2002 and then 12 years later in Sochi is just incredible. So good for her. I think that she, with the rise of women's hockey,

I'm assuming it's rising at the same rate in Canada as it is in America because I know in America it's the fastest growing women's sport is women's ice hockey. I'm guessing in Canada it has to be the same. And this woman has a lot to do with it. I really think she does. I mean, she proved that she could play with men like you said, Biz. She proved to every single person that it wasn't just a flash in the pan. She did it for

frigging 20 years and she's deservingly going in. I'm sure she'll have a great speech. I've seen her talk before. She's had some awesome things to say about the game, about her career and how she went about things. I've never met her, but congrats to you because that's, that's an incredible career and you deserve all the success and accolades you're getting now. She's actually in medical school right now. She was taking an exam yesterday and couldn't look at her phone.

She could accept the phone call for her induction. Go ahead, Ari. You can take that over. Yeah, if she answered her phone during the... I think she was taking a final. She would have actually failed it had she answered her phone so she couldn't get the traditional phone call. What a hero act that school is. Sorry,

I got a call. I got in the fucking Hall of Fame and you're going to fail me? You never know. Christ. Lenny McDonald could be reading off some answers when he's calling. Lenny's like, what are you studying? The hot, honey? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got some stuff on the hot. One other quick note.

We got two guests today. We have Brandon Siegel and Steven Dixon. These guys, they had some minor league international careers. You know them, a couple of characters. We'll be getting to them in a little bit. But I want to get to the Nedimanski fellow, Vaklav. I wasn't familiar with him, and I read up on him. He was the first player to ever defect from an Eastern European communist country to play pro hockey in North

America. I know the Stastny's came over in the 80s, and of course, McGilney defected from Russia, but this was the first guy to actually defect from communism to play in North America. To me, that took a tremendous amount of balls to pull off. He's a pioneer. He risked life and limb to do it, so this guy is definitely

in the Hall of Fame. He should have probably already been in just by dint of that accomplishment. Yeah, I don't know anything about him. I know nothing about him. Good job, IRA. That's great work right there, knowing that. That's fucking how much you've improved. Getting a lot of info on a guy we knew nothing about, because that's pretty interesting. First one to ever do that. That's got to be scary as shit. Yeah, and he was the first Euro to lead teams in scoring and stuff. He had a huge list of accomplishments for a Euro, and yeah, it was interesting. I'm surprised

they hadn't heard of him because, you know, like I said, when we think of Defector, we think of Stastny, McGilney, and Fatisoff, and all these kind of crazy subterfuge stories. So, you know, congratulations to him. Last Hall of Fame thing? That's it for the players, right? Yeah, unless you had any other stuff you wanted to share.

Okay, so Jerry York, Boston College coach. I hate BC, but congrats to you. You're in the Hall of Fame as a builder. Rutherford as well. We saw Jacobs get in as a builder. Why isn't Don Cherry in? Yeah, he's another guy who's on the list. Don Cherry's not in the Hockey Hall of Fame,

and we got fucking Jerry York in there? What? Yeah. Am yeah taking crazy pills Don Cherry say what you want every time you like tweet something now it's just like old man yells at cloud and people like can't stand them but that guy's a enormous part of hockey every Saturday night no matter what people are tuning in to see

what he says now for like 40 years he's not in the Hall of Fame and Jerry York's in there. Yeah, I think this is where like politics might come into play. You know, like I was saying a few minutes ago, I think that sometimes people are voting on things other than accomplishments. And, you know, you guys know you guys have been in hockey forever. There's a huge element of favoritism, nepotism and, you know, basically politics where people take care of people and maybe someone else deserved it more. So it could be that in play as well. What about you, Biz?

Any other notes on the Hall of Fame before we send it over to Mr. Dixon? No. Me neither. Hall of Fame is great, though. If you ever have a chance to go visit, Drew, up in Toronto, downtown TO, really cool. I don't think I have like – Oh, I do have one thing to talk

about. I messed up the icing rule last episode, apparently. I said that you couldn't ice it on the penalty kill. I think they meant, like, first off, if you do ice it, it ends up going back in the defensive zone. I don't know. People have been tweeting me about it. I've been sick. I've been traveling

and doing content. Like, I personally don't give a fuck about that rule change. I just had to mention it because it's the Spit and Chickens podcast. Yeah, we'll cover the rules changes a lot more as the new season starts. We're not worried about that right now. But let's send it over to Steven Dixon, man. This is a good chat you had with him, Biz. This interview was brought to you by Raycon.

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One more time. BuyRayCon.com slash checklist. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm doing a solo interview and my next guest was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, known as... Hollywood.

Apparently I've heard that Bubbles, what's the Bubbles Palace? It used to be Bubbles Mansion. Yeah, it's closed now. Who is one of the characters from Trailer Park Boys. So I don't know if you American listeners will know what we're talking about. But this kid played his junior hockey for the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles of the Quebec Major Junior League.

Played actually with Marc-Andre Fleury during his junior career. Was drafted in the seventh round of the 2003 NHL entry draft. One of the greatest drafts, if not the greatest draft of all time, where I was drafted three rounds ahead of him. Thank you very much. I played with this guy in the American Hockey League after he signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

But shortly after that, with another stint on another American League team, the Portland Pirates, this guy spent a ton of time overseas and we better have some good stories lined up welcome to the spit and chicklets podcast my former roommate steven dixon thanks for having me biz nice it's ticky baby ticky baby let me tell you a few stories about this guy oh boy this guy was so hungry for for servers in wilkes-barre you this guy would get a hundred dollar a tab and and he would he would look at he would look at me making 80 spending 100 wasn't that's when you're making 80 grand spending 100 and he would tip the girl 400 bucks i said no no not that much was it oh really the one night we went to that place out in scranton mind you

keep your mic up here. I already told you that. Don't fuck around with my interview. I got it. I'll get down. And you tipped $400. I believe it was a $100 tap. And I'm like, Dickie, what are you doing?

And he's like, I do it because I can, busy boy. Oh, jeez. Those were the days, weren't they? We mentioned living together, or I mentioned it. We live with Dan Carcillo, the three of us, where these guys would pay me 50 a pop to stand about 50 yards away and you guys would never forget that paintball guns right on me yeah and i think you used to have the speedo on too didn't you i i used to

have a nice speedo or the thong one of them and we i think danny boy would have the old control the gun there and uh yeah you'd run back and forth. I think it was $100, actually. Well, yeah, well, $50 each, Dickie. $50 each, yes. Quick math there. Jesus Christ. You're in school now, by the way. I know. I should know that.

We'll get to that later. So I want to talk about your childhood, growing up in Halifax playing hockey there. Obviously your parents were big influences on that. Yeah, it's, you know, Halifax, the whole east coast of Canada is a very cool, cool spot to grow up, right? It's the hockey community is very small. You know, everyone knows each other.

And, yeah, no, we had great times. And, you know, my parents had the old outdoor rink and we had all that. No way. Yeah, so, yeah, it was a a real it's a real community atmosphere the whole the whole hockey world out there so it was yeah i had a lot of fun growing up there now and you know being from there it's nice to see you know you see marshawn crosby mckinnon i think it's so good for the for the next generation coming through well i was just gonna ask you when you were growing up there who were the guys that you looked up to that were the locals well we didn't you know being from halifax there wasn't too many too many star guys like that right

we had you know Colin White and John Sim were uh were from down in New Glasgow you know guys like Bonvey too Dennis Bonvey who I got to know pretty well Donnie McLean like some older guys like that but uh you know no real stars like the, like the kids have now, you know, with Crosby and these guys. So you ended up getting drafted to the Q, to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. Were you, were you a point guy when you were playing minor hockey? Were you, were you a first line player? I think we all were, right? Yeah. So it was always, yeah, I was always, you know, putting up points, putting up numbers, and, you know, tried to carry that into junior, yeah, up to Cape Breton. Cape Breton, you had a

great career there, played four years. You played for two world junior teams during your time in junior. Yeah, it was, well, first of all, Cape Breton was great. For me, it was nice to be able to stay. Not that I didn't want to go to other places, but being in high school, I could do English high school there. Communication, man. Some of these places were in the queue. Even French Canadians don't know a lick of English. Yeah, and I knew people going down before that. A lot of Cape Breton and Halifax

growing up, we were always playing down there. I knew a lot of people. I really loved my time down there. It was great. Like you said, I was very fortunate to play those two world juniors. That was a huge honor. It all started, I think, with the under-18s we had, right? We did. You ended up making the team that went over to uh Yaroslav Yaroslav that was the world championships I was actually talking with Brendan Siegel about that and how we had Getzlov and Perry yeah and and and did you play in the summer one as well it was the Holinka then yep I did that too that was in uh that that was in Piusani slovakia yeah that was when dion fenef was sawing my sticks

before the press i remember that how fun was that team that's both of them oh man it was that whole group of 85 guys it was just such a good group of guys right there were so many characters you know you had guys like yourself it was just it was just so uh you know you look forward to these tournaments and those events because it was just such a good laugh. I feel like I'm selling Dion Funef every time I talk about him on the podcast. You had a firsthand experience. Oh, I loved it. This guy was a Western League.

I was competing for a spot on the team with this guy, and I just gravitated toward him right away. Owns the locker room. Oh, yeah. Constantly ragging on everyone. And you're an easy punching bag because you actually like getting ripped on. I didn't mind it. I just kind of sit back and giggle at everything and you know for me i think i was maybe the only guy from out east there right so there was you guys all kind of knew each other right so for a guy like me like you said i kind of gravitate towards you or fit

up for those guys and you know sit there and get a good laugh at everything right so i had a great time yeah i want to go back to the world junior experience now you won a there and get a good laugh at everything right so i had a great time yeah i want to go back to the world junior experience now you won a gold medal and a silver medal um the year where you won the silver was a year where the the infamous goal by patrick o'sullivan happened where flurry shot it off him and it went in and it was you know you guys were expected to win you guys had a stacked team and it was a bit of a colossal meltdown. Yeah, it was. I mean, you don't even, when you're there in the moment,

you don't even realize actually how big the World Juniors is. It sounds crazy, right? But you're just over and you're in another country, and there was no social media really back then either, right? So there's, you know, you're just there. You're enjoying it, and you're having so much fun, and then, you know, just the way we ended up losing. It kind of hits when you get back to Canada and you get on the airplane. Wait, so the goal when Fleury put it off Patrick O'Sullivan,

did that not happen in Halifax? No, that was in Helsinki. It was in Helsinki, excuse me, okay. I thought it was on home soil, which would have been even more colossal, and in your hometown. Yeah, but it's just one of those things. I mean, it was just a bad bounce, right? But you don't, like I said,

you don't really understand the magnitude of the tournament until you get home and, you know, you're on the airplane. Like every paper is the front page. You're like, whoa, you know. This is huge, right? Right, of course. It sounds crazy, but, yeah. And then people are spinning into you

know will he ever recover from this well you know how will his nhl career go on to look meanwhile this guy's going to be a easily a first ballot hall of famer what was it like though because you were playing with him in junior yeah so a lot of these guys saw the impact that had throughout the country via media but did it linger with him going back to junior? Oh, not at all. I think it was just a bad bounce, right? Well, I know, but some people like to take it a lot too seriously. And you know Flower too.

Like he's the best guy going, so he shakes things off. But no one ever – I don't think anyone ever thought it was – you know, that's what caused it, right? Like it was just such a bad, bad bounce. You know, we tried it a thousand more times. I don't think it'll ever happen, right? Exactly. But, no, he was a great guy.

We ended up, we actually roomed together that tournament, and then we went to Wilkes. He was in Wilkes when we got there, too. So I spent a lot of time with him when I was younger. Yeah, great guy. You ended up signing with Pittsburgh, and we spent some time together in Wilkes-Barre. When you got to the American League,

I feel like your pro game kind of changed from junior, where maybe you relied a little more upon offensively, where you adapted this checking role, and it fit you to a tee yeah it was uh and it's kind of similar role you had on the world junior team yeah yeah for sure that's uh you know it's one of those things where you know you're asked to to do a different role and you know i didn't mind doing it and when i uh yeah when i turned pro i was kind of asked to do that too and you know i enjoyed it and kind of I kind of do whatever they want. The one thing that sucks, though, is you've got to block shots

when you're killing penalties. Well, that's the thing. I remember actually Dan Balsma, who was great. He was really good. But he used to bring me out and they'd have tennis balls, right? And I'd be like, oh, man, those tennis balls. I think it was you and Carson would be on the bench laughing. And Bonvey, I tell Bonvey, I'm like, man,

I hope he doesn't shoot those tennis balls at me today. And the tennis balls that come out, the boys that come out and laugh. No, it was great, though. It was great for me. He was a great guy. A little fun fact for all our listeners. Steven Dixon is the only player in Canada world junior history to play two years of world championships.

Or sorry, excuse me, not world championships. World juniors and not score a goal? I said that. One day that might be a trivia question, right? Oh, it already is. It already is. I don't know if you got the memo. Hey, listen, I would have liked to score one.

I wasn't doing it on purpose. You were great with us in Wilkes-Barre. It was sad to see you go. You ended up getting traded over to Anaheim. Over to Anaheim, yeah. In the last year of your entry-level contract. Yeah. What do you think the reasoning for that was,

and did you enjoy your time in Portland? I mean, you never know when you get traded, right? Like, who knows? And, yeah, I think I went for Timmy Brent. Me and Timmy got traded for each other. And then, yeah, I spent the year in Portland. I love Portland. Portland was great.

Portland, Maine. We had Kevin Dineen was the coach. He was a great guy I love Portland. Portland was great. Portland, Maine. We had Kevin Dineen was the coach. He was a great guy. We had a great group of guys there, too. And we ended up playing Wilks. We actually lost. In the conference finals.

I think it was game seven in the conference finals. I think, you know who had a big game? Timmy Brandt. Timmy Brandt, the guy you got traded for. Shoved it right up your fucking hoop, buddy. Yeah. But I remember we had our goalie. I think it was J.S. Obam. And he broke his ankle playing two-touch.

Oh, no. Yeah, and then he came back, but he had like a walking boot. He still played good, though. It was incredible. But, yeah, it was just funny the way that happened, you know, to lose to Wilks. I was happy for you guys, though, to move on. Okay, since we're on the sewer ball story, which is a soccer game you play before every game,

or at least most teams do, is I stopped playing when Curtis McClain, a guy who played in Wheeling, West Virginia, who'd gotten called up to Wilkes-Barre, this guy played Division II hockey. I think it was D3. Oh, excuse me, it was D3, you're right. And I believe D3 was better than D2 in college anyway,

so I wasn't trying to insult him even further. But he was playing D3, ended up signing a coast deal. Maybe it was an AHL East Coast two-way. Got called up to Wilkes-Barre. This guy made it all the way to the NHL with the New York Islanders, and he ended up, I think, rupturing his Achilles playing sewer ball. Sewer ball, yeah. And that was the end of his NHL career, I believe, after that.

He ended up going and having a nice career overseas, but that's why I stopped playing. So, I mean, you hear another horror story like Aubin, and you're trying to make an excuse as to why it cost you guys game seven of the conference finals. No, no, no, he played good. But I actually never played two-touch just because I don't really like soccer. So I never got into it.

Yeah, you're not much of an athlete. I'm not bad. I was a good baseball player, but I'm not... I didn't get into the soccer. Before we get too far here, so I mentioned being roommates with him in Wilkes-Barre, him and Dan Carcillo, and if I had a dollar for every time the bathtub and sink got clogged up, because Stevie Dixon, the

hairiest man on the planet would would shave a v-neck into his chest hair so when he wore his v-neck deep v-neck shirts you love the deep v-necks i got a little one on today i don't wear them as deep now but yeah thank god if you did i wouldn't even be interviewing you right now he would have the dog chain hanging out a composer but uh and he would clog up the sink. So we'd have to go get Drano, but even it got to the point where the Drano won't work, and we couldn't even shower at home anymore. The bathtub was half filled up.

It happens a lot. And I had the shaver on the coat hanger too. Do you remember that? Yes. Well, you can describe that one. Yeah, I should have patented that. There's actually a tool like that now. I used to tie the clippers to the end of the coat hanger so I could reach all the way down my back.

You used to trim your tricep hair. Oh, everything. Yeah, biceps, triceps. Oh, another thing we used to insult them for was your shark teeth. You still haven't gotten those fixed. I know. Is that your trademark now? Well, it's funny.

I was saying when I'm done, I think I'll get them fixed. And my girls are like, no, I like them. It adds character. I said, oh, geez, it's funny. I was saying when I'm done, I think I'll get them fixed. And my girl was like, no, I like them. It adds character. I said, oh, geez, that's all right. It does add character. And then it also brings morale to the room. Like when guys like Dennis Bombie say his teeth are so bad, he could chew corn on the cob through a tennis racket. Oh, I know. The boys used to give me a hard time. It was actually, I never really got chirped too much on the ice, but I remember I was in Germany, and I forget who we were playing, and me and this guy were going back and forth,

and he just stopped, and he looked at me and goes, oh, my God, man, do you still have your baby teeth? I just started dying. I said, that's good. I got nothing else. I just came to the bench, told the boys, and we were all just dying. Oh, man, you're a punching bag. You love it. It was funny.

Okay, well, you mentioned Europe. Let's get right into it. So I'm looking at this sheet here. It looks like David Linger. Linger was actually my captain in Russia. Oh, no way. Well, he came on the pod recently. He was a little timid. Oh, he's a good guy.

Oh, he's a great guy. Yeah, I only heard a little bit of it. good guy. Oh, he's a great guy. Yeah, I only heard a little bit of it. So, I know this. You got sent a qualifying offer by Anaheim to re-sign with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. You never played there, as we mentioned. You played in Portland

with the Pirates, but right away, which is weird, a lot of guys don't want to give up on their dream to play in the National Hockey League, but you were probably like, you know, screw this. I want to go and start making some significant money, and you went over to the del no i started sweden first sweden excuse me well great look i'm a fuck up but uh yeah it was a pretty awkward position because you know growing up your your dream is playing the nhl right so i played three years and you know you don't get a

game and i got qualified and i remember at my end-of-the-year meeting, they were talking about some guys going to Europe. I said, oh, no, like, I don't want to go to Europe, you know. I kind of thought I never really wanted to go to Europe anyways, right? And then I got qualified, and I was talking to my agent. And it was just, you know, they're talking money or whatever. And then all of a sudden, it was kind of like August, and I guess

they were still talking then he came with uh with an offer in the Swedish league and you know it's pretty good money then and they were giving you kind of a uh not a bonus but like half of it up front type of thing so I was him and Han and and considering you're you're you're making 80 spending 100 all those years in the American league you're're like, wait, maybe I can catch up here. Maybe you can get back to even. But no, at the time, though, I thought, you know, the Swedish League's a pretty good league, right? And you were seeing guys come back and stuff like that.

So I thought, you know, big ice, you know, work on my skating, it'd be good, this and that. Yeah, I ended up going over, and here we are 12 years later, right? So it's, you know, sometimes you think, you know, what if you stuck around a bit longer? But, you know, the way things have gone, I'm pretty happy that I made that jump. I believe it was in your first couple years where you ended up meeting a girl there, and her father was one of the owners of the team, right?

I don't know if it was an owner but yeah no oh you got a little shy there no no no i put you on your heels at the girl comment no no no no no yeah we that's like you talking to them in bars dicky you get all nervous you make you made me and carcillo do all the work for you uh take your leftovers no No, yeah, I met a girl there in Sweden, and it was actually, I was super lucky in my first year when I went over, because a lot of times in Europe you can end up, you know, on older teams, and a lot of guys married with kids, and I was only 23 years old, right, and I was the only import, and I got over there,

and we had such a good group of young guys on the team, like Jacob Markstrom, Limback. You played with Markstrom? Markstrom, Limback was there. Like, we just had really good young guys. So it was – you were never just sitting in your apartment by yourself. You know, you hear those stories, but we were always on the go. You're always doing something. It was – you know, they brought me in, and all those guys in Sweden were so good to me, right?

Just being a young guy. You used to go on your fun trips. I used to see pictures. You'd go to, like, Dubai during your breaks and stuff like that. We used to go around, yeah. I used to try to. Would you go with Marky and all those guys? No, not then, no.

No, I didn't do too much then. It was more later in the years. I still do. Whenever we get a break, I try to go check something out, right? That's the good thing being in Europe. Yeah, I mean, we were surprised to see you go over to Sweden. I was even more shocked that after your first two years in Sweden, you ended up getting a very nice contract and going over to Russia.

Now, you talked about not sitting alone in your room when you were over in Sweden because you had all these younger guys on the team. Now what was that like in Russia? Well, Russia was fun because, like I said, David Ling was the captain, right? So I knew Linger, and he's hilarious. So I got over, and I knew Linger already, right? So that was hilarious.

Then we had Brett Skinner was there. Jan Denny was the goalie. So we had, like, a good group of import guys, right? So same thing. We were doing stuff every day. Now, what was the team called in Russia, sorry? Khabarovsk, Amur. Amur it was called.

Like the Amur River, A-M-U-R. Where was this located? So that was over by China. So there was a sign. It was like 30 kilometers from China, the border, right? And I looked it up one day, and this is so crazy. It's almost the same distance from Halifax to Moscow as Khabarov to Moscow. So you could imagine, like, we're doing this flight quite a bit. So basically, imagine going like Halifax to Moscow, play a couple fly back to Halifax that's basically what we were doing the travel was insane like our closest game

when I think was a four like a five hour flight maybe and you're changing all these time zones yeah I think there's seven eight time zones there right like it's just crazy so so did that wear on you by the end of the season you you know, I was pretty tired. You're just not used to it. But as a city, like, they had great fans there, and it was a nice city. Like, I didn't even mind it, right? Because at the time I was young, I was there by myself, right? So the thing with Russia is, you know, sometimes you might have to worry.

A lot of guys do it, though, if you have a kid and the communication. That could be the only thing I could see. But, I mean, when you're there by yourself, you're just kind of taking it all in. And you're flying everywhere, right? No Netflix back then either. No Netflix, no. How would you do to occupy your time? You know what?

I think I had, like, five movies saved on my computer. It was, like, Tombstone, The Hangover. It was like very generic movies, and I would just re-watch them, like on flights. That's what I did. That was about it. Oh, they didn't have the portable DVD players back then either. This was like Flintstone age. Jeez, way back.

So I'd imagine that after one year in Russia, you're like, I've got to get back to Sweden. Well, you know what? I didn't mind it. Like, I probably would have went back. And the funny thing with that year was we didn't make playoffs. So I was home February 15th, right? So that's pretty crazy. Like, that's a real early time.

Yeah, hockey playoffs haven't even started over in North America. Not even in junior. And you can't really start training then, right? mean you could you could but we know your off-ice habits well no it's just it's more of the thing with me is i can gain weight very quickly right so being done mid-february was not good for me so i i ended up i put on a ton of weight i remember going back because i mean i, I took February, you know, I took a couple months off. And then all your hockey buddies get back from their seasons and they're going through their benders or their all-inclusive vacations

and you're joining them. So I remember I said, oh, this will be a great summer. You know, I'll train. It'll be great. And then, you know, you take that month and a half off. And I went in and stepped on the scale. I was like, oh, my God. So it turned out

like I had it to be the best summer it turned out to be the worst summer after that because I had to eat I ate like a rabbit all summer right because I had to lose probably you know 20 25 pounds so but anyways after that I ended up going to Finland to uh Pori okay yeah so I spent two years there and in Finland and Finland's a great spot. I ended up spending four years there. I love the Finnish people. Just their whole culture is so cool there. I had a great time there. Not much sun, though.

Does that affect you at all? Not really. I know you like to tan. Yeah, I like to tan, but it's good for naps. I mean, you can just close the blinds. What do you think it's like for women from there who end up getting with you? They're not used to the hairy men. Do they like it?

I mean, I don't know. I guess it would be different because the Scandinavians are very – Yeah, they don't have much hair on their body, blonde hair, blue eyes. I'm sure it's definitely be something different. And then back to the cave for a little bit, but you didn't end up lasting long there. Yeah, I left partway through the year, my second year in Pori. I went to Yaroslavl.

And same thing there. We had a great group of in Porca. Which, ironically enough, is where we ended up winning the under-18 gold medal with Ryan Getzloff, Corey Perry. I believe Brent Seabrook was on that team. Still the same rink, too. Oh, yeah, it has a bowling alley in it, some shopping places. Nice little setup.

We were talking about Russia in the Brandon Siegel interview and how everything is just like poverty and then the arena is immaculate. Even the apartments. The apartment we stayed at, it was, you know, the outside of the building might not look the best. Yeah, there's not a blade of grass. You get into some of these apartments, they're like beautiful,

like the nicest places I've seen, right? So it's pretty weird there how it's, you know, like you said, a lot of, you know, variation. Is that when you were spending all your off time in Dubai? What's Dubai like? Those are only breaks. Dubai is awesome. Yeah, I love it there.

Because you would use some of your breaks to travel around a little bit. That is one advantage you do have playing overseas. And my girlfriend, her sister was living in Abu Dhabi. And she was an accountant with Etihad, the airline. So she had passes too, like flight passes. Oh, wow. So, yeah, that was great. So we'd go over to Abu Dhabi, Dubai.

I think we got over a couple times. And even before that, I used to, like, go over. The thing is, when you're in Europe, it's not so extreme to get there, right? No, it's like an hour flight. Yeah, it's fine. But I think it's just such a cool place it's always warm so you got to experience the swedish league the finnish league the khl and then you even spent some time in germany two years in germany germany is probably the most north american of all those places oh for sure yeah you know we had uh i think we had

nine north americans then you get the guys with the North Americans, but they have the German pass, right? That's a good thing to have. You can get one of those passes. Right, because then you're not an import, and then you can make more money. Yeah, so like I said, there was always probably 12, 13, 14 North American guys. Yeah, Germany's a cool place, man. They love their hockey there.

They do the soccer chants. Yeah, it's just that soccer atmosphere, right? Was it like that in Sweden and Finland as well? Yeah. Not to the same degree? Not to the same degree, but you just don't realize how big hockey is in those countries, right? I mean, the second place I played, Tapra, great city, Tomperow it's called, great city. But they have two pro teams in the same city,

play out of the same rink, they both have great fans, and it's just remarkable, right? Because I mean, the city it's not like a two million people in the city, right? But no, they just love hockey and basically all sports there, and they develop their players now so well,

it's remarkable to watch some of these guys coming through. When you look at it, they're not big countries, right? Sweden, Finland, those places. It's unreal. And they're starting to pump out tons of talent. We're actually recording this during NHL draft week in Vancouver. So I'd imagine there's going to be some more Scandinavians coming out.

They do develop extremely well. Last season, you ended up playing for my old team, the Cardiff Devils, going to the English Elite League. Apparently, it's gotten even better since then. When I was there, and slowly but gradually, just getting to a more competent league overseas, and they offer to get your Masters. Yeah, so it was your legend there, too.

Your legend everywhere you go, but I saw a bunch of Bissonectures, he's up there in the stands. But, no, the league itself is really improving. You're starting to see a lot of good players there. I think there was always good players, but, you know, I think being in Champions League really helps the, you know, helps get more notoriety to the league.

And, you know, teams can compete now, and I think it's just going to keep getting better. Yeah, and Cardiff, they're a great organization. Todd and Lorto, they run it really well. So a businessman out of Calgary, or a business group out of Calgary, able to buy in the Cardiff Devils. When I was there, the guy who owned it was very nice. You could tell they didn't have the type of budget that they do now, but it's like a well-oiled machine.

They got Lorde, who's I guess you could say he helps scout as well. He's the head coach. Is he still playing as well? No, just head coach now. So at the time when he first got there, he was kind of like a Reggie Dunlop? Is that the name from Slapshot? Like a Ryan Lannan.

That's like a Ryan Lannan. We had him on recently too. But, no, they definitely have a lot more money than some of the other teams. I think when the other teams catch up, that'll help really grow the league a lot. Yeah, and I think the big thing there is you see so many guys stay for so long. There's guys you played with however long ago was that. Josh Batch is still there. Is Luke Piggott?

Piggy's there. Piggy was player assistant coach this year. So Luke Piggott, I've talked about him before on the podcast. This guy, when I was playing there, I ended up going to take a piss on one of our road trips. He's got one of the only lights on in the bus, and he's reading a fucking thesaurus thing. He's a doctor, too. Yeah, three, four inches thick.

And I'm like, what are you doing there, bud? And he's like, oh, I'm just doing some homework. And sure as shit, he was becoming a doctor at the time. And he had helped discover, this is before I got there, a cure for breast cancer which actually slowed down like the cell reproduction of the the breast cancer incredible and this kid was fucking playing hockey and i felt bad the one game because he ended up taking like three stick minors in like the first half of the game and i came in between the second buddy if i have to fucking kill one

more your your minor penalties. And he was like, we had three lines there, and he was a fourth liner. He was playing like three shifts a period, and he was taking all these minors. I go, bud, I ain't killing your fucking penalties anymore. I play fourth line of the show. If I took three minors in a game, I think Dave Tippett would ask me to take my gear off in between periods. But nonetheless, very cool. A lot of different stories over there. I always talked about the backup goalie there.

He was working at like a car rental place. I ended up leaving my sneakers for him because they were paying this guy 50 pounds a week. And I don't even know how these guys are surviving, but I think you can make a little short TV series out of my experience there. Oh, how nice is the city too? It's such a great city.

Like you get the rugby games coming in. The city's just crazy, right? Hardcore drinking culture. Oh, they like to drink. Now in your full season there, how many people would you see passed out at the bar?

Oh man, it was, I mean, if you go down around 4 a.m. down to Chippy Lane there, you know where they sell the chips and stuff? I mean, it's just, it's hilarious.

It's just something, you don't see too many other places, right? It's just, and it's not young people either. It's just something you don't see too many other places, right? And it's not young people either. It's like people my parents' age, right? Everyone's all banged up. Oh, man. But, no, they like to drink.

They like to have a good time. Great people. I got to hear this Seagull story he was telling me about. He teed me up for this one. You were playing in Portland at the time, and you guys had an afternoon game for all the school kids, and it was Super Bowl Sunday the night before, so I'll let you take over.

Well, it was funny. I think we might have had some money on the game, you know, betting on the Super Bowl. I think we were playing Bridgeport the next morning. I think it was 10 or 11 a.m., and I was talking to Seegs. He said, oh, let's go down. We'll just check out the – Watch a little bit of the game Have like a couple beer

At a local bar Cause you want to see a little Couple chicky poos And I think a few of the other guys came in on the other team There was a few of us and then You know one thing led to another Shots started going around I lived probably

15 minutes outside the city. Wait, you lived in a hotel? Hotel. Hotel where they would make your bed every morning. And you were paying a premium. We talked about you spending a hundred. No, it wasn't really a premium, actually. Because it was rent in Portland.

You're going to laugh. But rent in Portland was pretty expensive. And I came in the room one day. And in my mailbox, I think it was the Marriott, what do you call that, long-term stay? I don't know, comfort suites or some shit. Yeah, something. And it was $1,100 a month, all included. Like, did your laundry, cleaned your room, and you had continental breakfast in the morning.

So I was like, man, this is unbelievable, right? So you were about 15 minutes outside the city. I was 15 minutes outside the city. But that just goes to show you listeners how fucking lazy this guy is i had to be on my own after living with you in cars i need a little space oh god we'll get to that after this you peckerhead so you end up going out and having beer shots and you got this fucking 10 a.m game the next day well yeah it just turned i mean it wasn't too crazy but i couldn't get home so i'm like like, okay, Seegs, I got to crash at your place, right? So I end up sleeping on his coach.

Like, I'm in a deep sleep. Seegs, like, wakes me up. He's like, man, we got a game. I'm like, oh, that's right. He made this big breakfast. He's like, come on, you got to eat this breakfast. And I'm like, I felt so bad about, you know, about myself, kind of. I'm like, I can't even eat, man.

I can't eat anything. So I didn't eat anything. And then we have to go to the game. And Seegs is a lot bigger than me, right? So I'm like, Seegs, I've got to wear a suit. So his suit's probably 10 sizes too big. I put his shoes on. It looks like Ronald McDonald's shoes.

They're probably five sizes too big. And we've got to walk down to the rink like this i'm dragging like the heels are dragging the bottom of the suit and i walk in one of the guys looked at me like whoa yeah like i'll be in the steam room until the game starts well i'll talk to you after right i remember me and seags like grabbed our sticks went up taped our sticks in the stands, and kind of freaked it out, right, because we're like, why do we do that? Like, this is so dumb. Anyways, we went out that night. We had the best game of the year, both of us.

I think we won, like, 2-1. We had a gold assist. We were playing on the same line, and we were just like, you know, after that, and then we started, like, just dying laughing after. Like, I can't believe that happened. But, I mean, I was – the whole week, the rest of the week, I was just toast. Seeks to – we were just dead. It takes so much out of you mentally and physically, right?

Oh, the anxiety you're dealing with pregame. It's nice to get one-on-one playing guilty like that. I had so much anxiety. Like I said, I couldn't even eat. I didn't eat before. What do you remember most about living with me and Carsey? Other than shooting paintballs at me for money. I just remember it being hilarious.

Like every day there was something going on. Like I'd go to bed at night and my ribs would be sore from laughing. I think we all just had such different personalities, kind of, you know. We mixed pretty good, right? The craziest thing about Dan Carsello is he could have his alarm set. His alarm would be blaring in his room on his phone. The phone would be right next to his ear, and he would sleep through it. Oh, I know.

How many times have we, come on, let's go, let's go, let's go. But, no, you were very, very clean. I remember that. I was a clean guy. You like your stuff. You have nice stuff, right? Yeah. You like keeping your stuff clean.

You're very organized, right? There's no – And you and Carson, you were basically the complete opposite. Yes, I was a bit different. You probably couldn't see my bedroom floor at the time. It was just closed everywhere. One of the reasons you went over to Cardiff to play was to get your master's, going back to school.

Now, you're not exactly the biggest school guy, well, from what I know. What the fuck is it like being back in a classroom? Man, it's, I remember the first week, and I had Ben Tavolio was with me. Yeah, I played with Sean Tavolio and Wellen Tigers. Ben Blood was there. He left, actually went to Finland. So we had three of us,

and I mean, we're visibly older than everybody else. That's the first thing you go and everyone's like 20. We're I mean, I'm turning 34. I think lingers 35, 36. So first of all, you're visibly older, right? You just look older. And then the second thing is you're I mean, we've been out of school so long. you don't even know how to use the computer, really, like to process a paper, like PowerPoint, this stuff. Like, I didn't know any of that, right? You're going in at like a, you know, grade nine level probably, right? But once you get the hang of it, you're like, it's all confidence, too,

because you get there and you automatically think like, oh, my God, everyone's so much smarter than me, right? But once you get in there and you realize like, hey, I'm pretty good at this, I'm good at that, you realize what you're good at and, you know, you don't realize how much you learn playing hockey either, right? Because a lot of it was HR classes, leadership classes, group work. You realize... Where some of these people can't communicate. Exactly, yeah. Like you could be super smart, but I mean, if you can't talk in a group or, you know, how are you going to do stuff, right?

So, yeah, I really, like I said, you start to realize how much you actually learn in hockey. And, yeah, I was saying earlier, like, I thought I was a good speaker. Like, public speaker. I can get up on stage and throw out a couple words, right? Until you have to do a class presentation, and you're sitting there in front of, like, everyone in your class, and you have to go up and talk about. Well, especially when you went out the night before.

Probably didn't study like you did before that 10 a.m. game. No, no, no. But, yeah, you go out and, or, sorry, you go up there, and you're trying to, you have to like give facts about like school stuff. It's not like stuff you know off the top of your head. Sure. So I got up there and I remember my first presentation. I'm like, I'm going to nail this.

I got up, I was all confident. Then I started talking and I couldn't get air back in my lungs. Like I was literally at the end of the presentation, my teacher was like, were you going to hyperventilate? I'm like, I think I was. Yeah, I think I was literally at the end of the presentation, my teacher was like, were you going to hyperventilate? I'm like, I think I was. Yeah, I think I was. I'm like, oh, my God. It was like the most stressful thing.

And I'm like, why? So you got through it. Yeah, I'm like, why was I so stressed though, right? But you learn off that. And the next couple I did, you get better and better and more comfortable. But I remember that first one, I literally leaned up on a table. I thought I was going down. Like my legs were shaking.

Get the fuck out of here. And I was so like. That'd be like me taking a penalty shot in a game. No, I'm serious. All eyes on you. Unless it's something you're comfortable doing where when it was fighting, that's what I did. So I was like, that was my time to be a showman.

Where, I mean, that obviously wasn't your time. Just kind of like now, and you just put your arm up. You got the biggest pitters I've ever seen. Well, you know what happened? I told you, I was waiting for a taxi. It took 20 minutes. It didn't come, so I hopped on one of those little bikes there. Oh, the Moby's.

The Moby's. Oh, Moby's, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I had to rip down here on a bike. That's what started this. Oh, that's probably the first pit exercise you've gotten since you started your off season. What's next for you, Dickie? Well, I have to do

a dissertation this summer. What the fuck is dissertation? Like a thesis. What do you write your thesis on? I don't know yet. That's the thing. I have to let them know within the next... You know what you should write it on next week you should write it on uh what what hockey has provided you for life

skills yeah that could be good look at that right there i just thought of your thesis yeah how maybe you you know you didn't have all the knowledge of the in-class experience where you you more so went backwards where you have the field experience coming in. That's a good idea, yeah. You just have to find something that you want to talk about or want to learn about, but right now I don't know what that is. We never really talked about your relationship with Sid, because you guys are fairly close. You were training with him back when you were in Halifax, and he was just going into junior with Rimouski? Rimouski, yep.

I mean, what was he like early on? We got an interview in a week here coming up, but then this might actually air afterward. But what was he like? Sid's just a great guy, right? So growing up, he would always, some of those, you know, the provincial teams, he would jump up, you know, two, three years, play with us.

So I've known Sid since, yeah, since we were young, really young. And, no, he's just, he just carries himself so well. You know, he remembers everybody at home. He can remember, you know, if you're with a buddy, he remembers that guy. He used to play against Novice or Adam, right? Why do you think that is? I mean, obviously he probably comes from a great family. Yeah, they're great.

Was his father maybe like hardening him about it or he was just naturally, genuinely just a great person? He's just always just been a nice guy. He's always just loved hockey. You know, he pays attention to everything. He's very aware of, you know, just people around him and, you know, how he handles himself. And, you know, how he handles himself.

You know, he's funny too, right? He's calm. Oh, he's a funny guy. Play with him, right? Yeah, he's got this persona because he doesn't give the media anything, that he's like a nerd. He's far from it. He hangs around with all the cool guys off the ice. Oh, no, he's funny.

What I'm amazed at is how low of a profile he can keep being as big as he is. You know, and it's, I mean, good for him too, right? Because, you know, there's one thing, even with you now, when you go walk down the street, everyone. No. Like I've been in Canada. But I'm also a little different where they know they can come up or I'm going to be like, give a little bag tap or something.

Well, yeah, you never think about, you know, imagine if Sid was just to walk somewhere. Can't do that. You know, you can't. Yeah you know, imagine if Sid was just a walk somewhere. You can't do that. You know, you can't, yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy. What's next for you? Like, as far as playing, are you done?

No, I'm hoping to go back to Cardiff. Oh, you're going to go another year? Yeah, we're kind of. Is Bent DeVolio still playing there? I think he wants to go back, too, yeah. So they've got a good group there. And, you know, as you get older, it's kind of – you know, it's fun to keep playing, actually.

You know what I mean? Well, yeah. Now when you know, like, at any time, if they were to try to take it away from me, you'd be like, yeah, I knew it was coming. Yeah, you kind of appreciate it more, really. Like, you know, going to the rink and stuff like that. What were the craziest things that you experienced in Cardiff?

Because you're going from playing on teams that, you know, have way bigger budgets than Cardiff would, even though they're in good shape now. Like what, the day of travel? Was it, you know, just maybe the post-game meals or something? That was just more of a shock to you. Do you know what? I was actually very, very, very – I shouldn't say surprised

because I heard how professional it was, but even compared to all the other leagues I was in, I mean, we would go day of, but only three, four hours. Which it's not a requirement in that league. Yeah, we'd bus. But, I mean, when we were going to Scotland, we'd fly. When we would go to Belfast, we'd fly. So basically our longest trip was like three and a half four hours i mean everything else besides that was

great like you know apartment car great meals you know food at the rink all the time it was very professional man like really have you have you been able to figure out how to drive on the other side of the road because it took me a little bit. Steven Dixon didn't have his driver's license until what? Your second year in Wilkes-Barre when you would have been 21? Yeah, it was after my second year in Wilkes-Barre I got it. Yeah. Which is pretty fucking insane because like your parents basically.

I used to have to bomb rides with you. Yeah, you were a bum. You didn't have your fucking driver's license at 21 man i mean how pathetic it was funny when i got it i actually stayed longer after the year to get it right right and in the u.s there was a thing where you could you didn't have to if you're over 18 you can write the driver's test and then just go do the you didn't have to do that six month beginners right so i did that and i couldn't oh my god like i couldn't drive really and everyone was gone so i think i called colby armstrong and mel was there so i took mel's jeep it was like a jeep cherokee or something

i'll never forget this i went and it was uh one of the fans was the was the driving instructor one of those one of the wilkes-barre penguins fans yeah and they said uh all right steve like let's go and i get in the car they're like let's parallel park i said okay and this is right in front of the office right i go in man the car was sideways it was sticking out sideways. He's like, okay, let's just get out of here, man. I'm like, yeah. So we drive up. We get on the highway.

We did like a U-turn around a cul-de-sac, came back, parked the car. He's like, good job. Gave me the license. And I still couldn't drive. I was so bad. I didn't even drive much for a year after that. I still don't even like driving. It's not my thing. I couldn't drive. I was so bad. I didn't even drive much for a year after that. I still don't even like driving. It's not my thing.

I don't know. I just don't enjoy it. Unreal way to end the podcast, Dickie. We've gone about 45 minutes here. Well, 42 if you take out my six fuck-ups at the beginning. But what a pleasure having you on. You're actually less nervous than I thought you were going to be. Just the school presentations, man. That's the only thing.

I'm okay with this stuff. Well, thanks for coming on, and I'm excited for people to hear this one. Thanks. I'm surprised we actually – wait, should we talk about Dennis Bonvey a little bit? You know what was funny, actually? You'll like this. So I go meet Bonvey yesterday because they're here for the draft. That's right.

So I went down to the Fairmont, met Bonvy for a beer. Guess who comes in? Chris Kelleher. Oh, God. So we're sitting there. That's the fun thing with hockey, right? You don't see these. I haven't seen Kelleher in like 10 years, right?

You sit there. It's like a day hasn't gone by. Then I woke for dinner last night. We went down to Yale Town. We were waiting for a table out on the patio. We walk out. Who's two seats behind me? Nazine elaine he was our captain for the wolfs bear scranton so man we i saw him same thing like nothing changed we sat there talking you know 15 20 minutes he was actually talking about the uh

remember that station wagon yeah that we bought off nazardine with the wood panels and everything so we were dying laughing about that. We were actually trying to figure out what happened to that station wagon. Well, I think someone might have stole it or it got left somewhere. We had some wild times in Wilkes-Barre. Actually, Elaine Nazardine brought us to her rookie party in NYC that one year. That was good. And then was it Alyssa Milano?

Yes. She ended up coming. There was a connection there. And the boys told me to get up and dance for her. And she was completely unimpressed. And I remember her lifting up my pant leg and saying, Hey, honey, never wear white socks with jeans and shoes. And that was the last time I ever did that.

So a little tip for you guys listening in your fashion styles, don't wear white socks with blue jeans and a nice sneaker if you're going out. Especially in NYC. Especially in NYC when you're trying to impress. She was an MTV host at the time. Yeah, she was all over the place.

And then, I'm not going to say who, but one of the teammates ended up talking to her a little bit and was traveling back and forth and hanging out with Richard Jefferson. This guy was sitting courtside at NBA games playing in the fucking American League. We were hanging out down at Mayflower Crossing in the night. He'd come into the dressing room like, oh, man, I was at this party last night with Derek Jeter. I'm like, what? Unbelievable, man.

You're hard to live in the light. You're like, I shot Biz in the hoop with a paintball gun. Anyway, that's a good way to end it. Thanks for coming on again, buddy. Yeah, man. You're hard to live in the light. You're like, I shot Biz in the hoop with a paintball gun. Anyway, that's a good way to end it. Thanks for coming on again, buddy. Yeah, thanks, Biz. You're a beauty. Thanks. That interview was also brought to you by Roman.

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And when you choose a monthly plan, if you choose the link, GetRoman.com slash chicklets you can get your first month of swipes for just five dollars and when you choose a monthly plan if you choose the link get roman dot com slash chicklets once again that's get roman dot com slash chicklets big thanks to steven dixon uh great seeing him in his shark teeth um it's funny we just had bomb beyond now we got him they were uh very close friends uh i think their families knew each other when uh when they were growing up and stuff so uh moving on uh this this has been deleted off twitter i thought it was one of the funnier things that surrounded the draft was capo caco in nyc for the first time and then they had him do a message saying how he loves NYC. And he must be a robot. Is he a robot? Why was that deleted, man? Every time he scores in that fucking MSG. They should play that on the big screen.

They should play that. Exactly. It was so funny. The kid is new. English is a very new language. And it was perfect. I mean, it was hilarious. What the fuck deserved in that to get

deleted i don't yeah i don't know if they were getting too many people making fun of him but i thought it was funny it was something innocent about it you know oh wow new york what the city you know every city it was funny but i went to look at it again and yeah the fucking range is deleted it so i i guess i don't know i can't imagine he read all the comments and figured them out so maybe it was his agent or something. Can we play the audio? I just arrived in New York. Wow, it's a nice city.

Well, there you go. You guys heard it. I think it's great. I think it grows the game, gets a little humor involved, gets people engaged socially. Absolutely. I can't wait to see what that kid fucking does on the ice. That's for sure.

Oh, speaking of social media, I ended up posting a picture on instagram uh when i was at that hotel belmont opening and with my one of my good friends jackie the alien probably my best friend as a girl and man i got some nasty ass followers they're all like oh did you dump a load in her do you fucking you know do you fuck her like oh nice kill like this is my one of my best friends as a girl and her boyfriends obviously luckily she's a good sport and so is her boyfriend like they went home and they were in bed and reading off all these like there must have been 200 nasty messages i was sitting there like deleting them all on on a thursday night when i got home after that hotel belmont opening

if if you guys if i post a picture with a lady, can you be a little bit more respectful? Go open my page and go read some of the shit some of these people are writing. I try not to read comments. Guys, don't be sad. I have another thing.

We tweeted out that we got the new merchandise, Mikey, with the bathing suit and the sandals. And there's a response to the tweet. I just checked my phone randomly. S. Coughlin, C-O-G-H-L-I-N. Is that Coughlin? Yes.

S. Coughlin, you fucking loser. You're a fucking joke. This kid writes me, hey, Ryan Whitney Sixx, golf guy. The British Open is in Ireland this year. Actually, it's in Northern Ireland at Royal Portrush. I've played the course. No shit, dude. I know that.

And it hasn't been called the British Open is years. I think you meant in years you've done fuck. And I know it's the Open Championship. We're talking on a hockey podcast, and I said British Open. Big fucking deal. For you to take the time to tweet me to try to tell me where the Open Championship is this year, I know. Believe me.

I know more than you. And then to try to tell me nobody calls it the British Open? Who gives a fuck? You loser. Don't send me tweets like that, you little rat. S. Coughlin. I see your picture too. This is the guy with the back picture of his backswing, which looks terrible. Waterloo, Ontario.

Fuck you. You're trying to tell me about golf, dude. I've played the course, and it's Northern Ireland, so you're wrong. You can't spell. And I know people still call it the British Open, buddy. Don't worry about it. I didn't even know it wasn't called that. British Open this weekend?

Maybe it's not technically called the British Open. What a loser to say that. No, that's like the guy who, when someone says, like, yeah, I went to the soccer game, they're like, oh, you mean football? It's like, no. It's like even worse. You know exactly what I was saying. It's soccer.

You know what? I know you call it football, but there's a league in North America called the MLS. Yeah, like, oh, it's in Ireland this year. Yeah, dude, I fucking striped a drive on the first hole there and then hit one to six feet and made birdie. I know where the fucking tournament is, dickhead. Yeah, Twitter went

reading and writing. Yesterday, I said about the voting that Wickenheiser, she was the only slam dunk, and I got a bunch of tweets, oh, what, you don't think Zuboff's in? You never watched Zuboff play? I'm like, I didn't say Zuboff. Oh, all right, I saw that. I was like, no. That's reading comprehension, though. Exactly. It's definitely lacking on Twitter, for sure. Biz, do you have

a lot of platonic friends? Platonic female friends? I'm gonna say no, Biz. You're gonna end up crushing them all. You're gonna end up crushing them all. Jackie the Alien's like the one that's that, you know, she's kind of like a dude to me where we can talk about anything. She's cool. But no, the answer would be no.

I've had a bunch, but then I end up crushing them, and then what happens next? I'm not friends. Yeah. That's funny. Actually, we had a couple of deals to catch you up on as well. First off, the Blues officially ripped the interim tag from Craig Berube's title as the cup-winning coach signed a three-year deal to remain the bench boss in St. Louis.

No real surprise since GM Doug Armstrong said he had a list of one back in May. Berube, of course, went 38-19-6 in the 63 games after taking over from Mike Yeo when he was fired back in November. That included a 30-10-5 stretch from when they were in last place on January 3rd. So congrats to Berube.

No real surprise there. Also on Monday, the Vegas Golden Knights announced that they signed William Carlson to an eight-year $47.2 million deal. Comes out to 5.9 mil per year. It keeps him from testing unrestricted free agency. Said he loves it there. He wants to win a cup there with that core in place. Of course, he had the 43-goal season in 2018 where he had a crazy 23.4 shooting percentage. You had to figure that would drop down. It did last year. He went down to 24 goals. Shooting percentage went down to 14.2.

But he's been a great player in this two-season Vegas, 67 goals. He's the only Knight to appear in every regular season and playoff game in their two-year existence, 191 games total. He's a big part of that team, and they have him locked in at a pretty nice price for the next few years. I'm biz. Yeah, they do. They're running into a little bit of cap problems, though.

I saw a lot of responses were like, where are they getting this money? Well, they're over it right now. I think they're going to have to deal Colin Miller, seems to be the rumor. But regarding Carlson, great signing. I don't know what he could have gotten last year, and even if an eight-year deal was the offer, because I know that they were like, oh, this guy came in,

lit it up for over 40 tucks. We're going to have to give this guy a big boy deal, but they were fortunate enough where he was restricted. They did the one-year thing and didn't play up to what he had the year before. Nonetheless, I think everybody's happy in this deal. Eight years for him, he gets to stay in a place where they're going to have a nice winning team, I would imagine, for a good four or five-year stretch here minimum

if they're able to figure out their cap situation. But just a good fit. And I mean, that team has really done a good job of locking in some players at decent numbers. I know some people say that Stone might be a little bit overpaid, but I think for what he brings, his overall package, team has really done a good job of locking in some players at decent numbers. I know some people say that Stone might be a little bit overpaid, but I think for what he brings his overall package, that's right around the number.

And if he would have went to free agency, he probably would have been the biggest free agent available, maybe other than Matt Duchesne. So happy for Vegas. And I think when they're relevant, it's a good thing because they have one of the strongest fan bases in the NHL I know they're new to hockey but hey they're selling out they're fucking cranking in the dough

and things are good in the desert there and I do think that after his crazy year in 17-18 we had 43 goals I think if you ask him and the team they both knew he wasn't going to get back to that and part of the reason you look at the numbers and realize this is, is it an anomaly, R.A.? Is that the word?

Yes, anomaly, yeah. When something happens out of the ordinary. Yeah, it was an anomaly because his shooting percentage that year was 23.4%. That's crazy high. No one could ever, you know. You have to sustain that. Sustain that. And his average is

about 14%, which is what it dropped back to this year. So then, you know, he gets his, what was it, 24 goals I think this year? So you knew he was going to drop back, but it's not even about him being like, or you're planning on him being a 40-goal scorer. It's about he's so good defensively. I mean, this

guy is playing against the top lines. He's so good at eating up minutes. He's great five-on-five. In the Corsi stats they talk about, I think he's great up there in terms of, you know, being over 50% team. What is it? What are you? Possession when you're out on the ice.

So a great signing. I think the money's fair. I think he's set for life, and the team gets a great player on a good deal, and they realize that they couldn't pay him what he probably wanted or thought he deserved after the 43-goal year, but everyone knew that was going to come back down to earth a little bit. Absolutely, and Biz, sorry, I saw this. Fucking Boston, so this is constructed every day, 24-7. Sorry for the background noises. Biz, yeah, Vegas, man. Last year, it was obvious they were a top-ten market

because their team went to the final. But they were a top-ten team again this year for a TV market, both regular season and playoffs. So Vegas, it's two years in, but they're a bonafide hockey city, no doubt about that. One other signing, too, before we go to our next interview, defenseman Steve Campbell will stay with the Bruins organization. He signed a two-year deal worth $1.6 million.

He was a depth guy for them all year this season. He did a good job whenever they needed him, particularly in the playoffs. He had, I think, three games, his first three career playoff games. Scored a big goal in that first game versus Carolina. And with Kevin Miller and John Moore dealing with lengthy recoveries, the sign gives the Bs, now the right-handed shot on D. You know, and at this stage of his career, he's going to be 31 when the season starts.

He got a nice little raise. He's got some financial security, and I'm sure he didn't really want to go anywhere else. He could have been unrestricted as well. So congrats to Camper on that deal. What do you got on this one, Wits? Not much. Good depth signing.

I thought he did a real good job when he was in the lineup this year. So it makes a lot of sense. Doesn't have to move 800 grand a year. There you go. Thanks for coming. How are you? Anything on that biz or should we send it to Brandon Siegel? Let's send it to Sieg.

All right. We're off to Siegel. Let's do it. This interview was brought to you by Zip Recruiter. Hey, gang, you know, I waited a long time to finally go full time at Barstool. So I know it's tough to find a new job. It's a lot of work. It's a pain in the balls.

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and let the power of technology work for you. Don't wait. The sooner you download the free ZipRecruiter job search app, the sooner it can help you find a better job. Our next guest was born in Richmond, British Columbia. He played junior hockey for the Calgary Hitmen, and after getting drafted by the Nashville Predators and finally signed there, went up to the Milwaukee Admirals

and then bounced around the American Hockey League a little bit. He ended up first getting called up to the NHL in the 2008 and 2009 season by the Tampa Bay Lightning. He went on to play 103 NHL games with stints in Los Angeles, Tampa, of course, Dallas, and the New York Rangers. Then he finished off his career overseas, and we're going to get all into that fun stuff. Welcome to the Spittin' Chicklets podcast, Brandon Siegel.

Hey, guys. Thanks a lot for having me. Nice intro, Biz. Yeah, way better than the first time we did it. Oh, guys. Thanks a lot for having me. Nice intro, Biz. Yeah, way better than the first time we did it. Oh, seriously. Well, you just want to know all the stories before I was married, so I got a little nervous, right? So he's gotten married since I knew who he was. He played for the Portland Pirates with Steven Dixon, who's going to be on this podcast as well. Keep that in mind, Brandon. And this guy was a ladies' man. He looked like a nicer, younger version of a sexier Dane Cook.

You kind of got that Dane Cook look to you, don't you? Oh, God, I've heard that so many times. It's not even funny. And then you used to absolutely demolish pussy. Now, times changed, so we won't talk about that. But I want all these listeners to remind yourselves that this guy was a ladies' man, and this is not the real Brandon Siegel. So let's get started here. Well, hold on, hold on, Sieg.

I have something to bring up, and ironically enough, you and I first met. We didn't really meet, but we met on the ice, I should say, when you took me down. You took our team down in the Calder Cup Finals, man. 2003, 2004, I leave school, I go to Wilkes-Barre. We go all the way to the end, and we run into you in Milwaukee. What the hell? That team was a joke you guys had. Honestly, it was unbelievable.

That team was just stacked. I mean, I was playing fourth line. It was me and Ray Desivines and Greg Collasin was their fourth line. Me and Ray DeVinans and Greg Collison was their fourth line. That team was unbelievable as I said. Going into Wilkes-Barre and winning in fourth straight was awesome.

Suck it, Whit! I had a hurt wrist. Jason McDonald buried me from behind. Fucked up my wrist. The man I need to ask about is the Pcus, Tony Hercus. If you're a true hockey fan, I feel like you know who this man is. The former North Dakota superstar went on to have an incredible pro hockey career, but how sick was that guy?

He was like 45 years old then, wasn't he? He might have been. To be honest with you, I don't even know. He might have been. To be honest with you, I don't even know. He might have been around 40. But that was the best thing about playing back then is that I got to learn from him. I got to learn from guys like him. And even Wade Flaherty was a goaltender at the time and Brad Tiley. I got to learn from the older guys.

And it's a little bit different nowadays where, you know, they got the veteran rule in. And, you know, they didn't have that back when we started in the American League. So it was nice to have a lot older guys to learn from. And I tell you what, like, that was such a great process for me to go in there and obviously winning my first year pro was just great.

And then learn how to wheel post by Scotty Upshaw. He was on the team too, so you were getting it from all angles. Yeah, that's the best thing. I learned on and off the ice from the guys, right? So, that's part. Dude, some of the guys on this team, it's so funny. So, you know Shishkinov,

that Russian, I ended up playing with him in Sochi. That's right. Well, yeah, I remember playing against you in Sochi, and I remember hitting you behind the net. And you just go, come on, man. Are you fucking serious? You're just giving me this bullshit right now? And I just get up the ice.

I'm like, yeah, you know, I get it. We're in Russia right now, and it's like we're far from home. I get it. You know, you're trying to live off the Russian gas. I get it. I just remember being like, fuck, Seegs. You ran me around in fucking pro hockey in North America for 10 years. It felt like, just leave me alone.

We're in Zagreb, Croatia right now. I'm hungover. That's so true. You know what? I might have been the exact same way as myself. So I totally understand. Brandon, Biz just mentioned Uppy. Now, it was your second pro season with the Admirals.

You had Upshaw and Tutu on that same team. What were those two animals like that season? Were you just like, holy fuck, is this what pro hockey's like? As I said, it was an unbelievable team. Those two guys, they lived together, so I tried to hang out with them as much as i could and i mean i those guys were studs like they were great hockey players they're good teammates um they did everything right and but you know they they went out hard they they did it you know

they did off days as well and so i tried to take along as much as i could and you know they're you know we became pretty good friends and you know i i tell you what like we had some really good stories between us and uh i mean i can't tell them all but i'm sure i'm sure you heard from upshall many times did you ever see tutu snap anybody's i'm in an arm wrestling contest no i that's the funny thing when he was mentioned that uh you know the last podcast he was on, I witnessed him just dominate guys when we were at Rookie Party. I just saw him just dust off about 10 guys in a row. So yeah, I've seen it firsthand.

And the guy's a legend. So you were born in BC. You ended up getting drafted to the Western Hockey League by the Calgary Hitmen? Yeah, that's right, in second round. You ended up playing all five years there. Well, halfway through your fifth year. We'll get to that in a bit.

What was it like playing there? I mean, in NHL City, you guys must have been drawn well. There's some babes around. It must have been a good time playing junior. Yeah, it was a great city, a great spot to be. We always had good teams and some awesome players that came out of there. And, you know, I mean, fuck, because you look at the lineup I had my last time there,

I was line mates with Gethleb and Ladd. So, I mean, those two guys have done pretty well for themselves, probably Hall of Famers. But, you know, I got more Calder Cups than they do. Oh, suck it. It's probably because they're making, you know, north of six figures their entire career. So, it must have making, you know, north of six figures their entire career. So it must have been, you know, probably that.

Hey, so give me a Ryan Getzlaff Jr. hockey memory. And this is back when he had that long flow. Frosted tips. Hey, he had that flow, though, too. Getz, he loved his hair for a while, and now it's gone. I love him. He won't come on. He said he will, right, Biz?

We got to get him on. But what do you remember him about in junior? He was probably just filthy in the WHL. He was unbelievable. He was 16 years old and he was an absolute freak. And he's one of those guys like you talk about. He's like Povolsky. This guy is good at everything.

He was a great volleyball player. He was this great player. Like, it just made you shake your just, like, you shake your head. Like, what aren't you good at? And – Nuts. But as they said, he was – yeah, exactly. He was – but he was a great teammate.

And, I mean, look what he's done. He's had – he has a Hall of Fame career. And, you know, I can't say enough about that guy. In your third year, you ended up having your breakout season, 43 talks. That's fucking ridiculous. In the Quebec League, that's like 80. That's how they used to compare it because the Quebec League was so soft. No offense, guys, from the Quebec League.

How was your draft year? You ended up getting drafted fourth round. I mean, you know, what was that experience like in just that year in general? Yeah, so I didn't get drafted my first year. I wasn't playing a lot. I was kind of playing third line. And then the next year, it was kind of my time to shine. And I went out there and I just said, you know what?

Fuck, I have a little chip on my shoulder and I've got to make a name for myself. And I went out there and just had a year. And it was nice. I made the all-star game, made the top prospect game. on my shoulder and, you know, I got to make a name for myself. And I went out there and just had a year and, you know, and it was nice. I made the all-star game, made the top prospect game and, you know, kind of wrote my own ticket from there. When was the moment that you said to yourself that I could make a living playing this game? You know, probably during the top prospect game.

I said, you know, I, you know, I was having a good year, and I was like, you know, I could get drafted. I was rated around second round or something by midway point, and I made the prospect game, and I was like, you know, I'm playing alongside of Jay Bollmeister and all those guys that were drafted in 2002, and I was like, you know what? I can be part of this. I can be one of these guys.

So it was kind of that time. And especially maybe after I was drafted that summer, I went to Team Canada's camp for World Juniors in the development camp. And I really shined there. And I kind of really was like, you know what? I can make a career out of this. That must have felt good. Finally, you became a bit of a was like, you know what? I can make a career out of this. That must have felt good. Finally, you became a bit of a household name, right?

I mean, that's a breakout year where you're starting to get respect from all the other guys in the league. And then you go on the next year to have 31 goals. So you've pretty much solidified yourself as a great WHL player. But then you ran into a little bit of issues in the summer and ended up getting the contract. They ended up kind of low-balling you a little bit in Nashville, right? Yeah, so I went to camp, and they were like,

look, if you have a good camp, we'll maybe talk contract and see where you're at. So I went there, had a good camp, and they were like, okay, well, we like what you did. We want you to go down to Milwaukee. And that was back in the day where you know wet biz you guys were part of it where you had like a month-long training camp it was you got there beginning of september and it was right till the end of at the end of september beginning of october it never oh my god it was right yeah that's like two months old.

That's even longer. And so I went down to Milwaukee, and, you know, Claude Noir was our coach, and he was like, you know, I love what you did. We want you on the team. It's just a matter of you figuring out your contract. And we couldn't come up on a contract, so I ended up going back to junior

and ended up having a great start to the season. I think I was there for about two months, and it was around Christmas break, and I ended up signing my entry-level deal. Okay, so here's where it gets a little tricky. Are you comfortable telling us the number that they offered you? And I'm thinking the reason they lowballed you is because they got you a year later than they were supposed

to get you because you didn't get drafted the first time you were eligible. You ended up becoming a fourth rounder. Now, I was a fourth rounder. I know what I signed for. What did they offer you? Was it a lowball? No, it was just, to be honest with you, it was just an American League deal. Oh, they didn't

even offer you an NHL tour? Not even an entry level. Oh, fuck that. Yeah, so I was like, listen, I'm going to go back to junior and I'm going to tear it up and I'm going to sign with somebody else. But eventually everything worked out and I ended up signing with Nashville on December 24th. I think it was Christmas Eve.

So they came to their senses. I'm assuming maybe they didn't have enough contracts available at the time, but then did you end up finally getting a signing bonus and what you should have gotten paid? Yeah, I got everything. I got a good signing bonus. What was your bonus? What was the bonus?

It was six figures for sure, you know. Oh! It writes me! Oh, my God. For the rubbers now. Folks. Yeah. And that was, you know, it's first-round money now, which rides me. Oh, my God. For the rubbers now. Yeah. And that was, you know, it's first-round money now, which is great. That's true.

I did pretty well for myself being drafted in the fourth round. Well, you end up – so, you know, your first stint in the NHL, you got a couple games with the Lightning in 08-09, which, by the way, Ryan Malone was on that team. Bugsy. Just a quick visit with him. But I'm wondering, the season you played 25 games the next year with L.A., and you score your first NHL goal.

So I'm thinking, like, who's that against? What's going on there? Like, is there a background to your first tuck in the National League? Yeah. So it was actually, I remember the date it was january 9th and uh it was on chris mason st louis and church stole game of the past went uh tried to take a slap shot it went off the d-man stick and you know it looked like it went top corner but you know the d-man kind of helped me i think it was was Johnson at the time, Eric Johnson. He kind of

helped me get the top corner there, but it was pretty special. Yeah, you're like, luckily that was before kind of that slow-mo instant replay, so it just looks like I went shelf. It looked like it went shelf, and it went barred down. I was quite happy, obviously. Bryn, before you call up,

you had been in the Minus for about five seasons. You're probably hitting your mid-twenties Did you ever start to think, ah shit, I'm never going to make it to the show Or did you always keep your confidence up? You know what, you're right At one point I remember calling my dad And it was like, hey look, fuck I'm grinding out in the minors, I'm doing okay

Making a pretty good living But I'm like, fuck, I really want to get there And what am I going to do if like maybe this season doesn't work out like and i don't get a contract next year he's like oh you know you can always be a police officer or something like that and i was like you know fuck i don't know if i can i don't i don't know if i have the stamina to be a police officer so and i've grinded out and ended up getting traded and worked out with when I was in Norfolk and had a career year and ended up getting my first call up and it kind of just blossomed from there.

Yeah you had a nice couple years stretch. I want to go back to Portland you ended up playing with Steven Dixon a little bit we were telling some stories with him he told the story about how when he had to wear your suit when he was hung over the one time do you have any good Steven Dixon stories that he would be too embarrassed to share himself on here? Oh, God. There's too many Stephen Dixon stories. You know, Biz, fuck you, hug it

out. Did you live with him in Wilkes-Barre? I lived with him. I mean, some of the things that I forgot to bring up with him, he eats ketchup with ketchup. He puts ketchup on everything. I think he wears a ketchup outfit every single Halloween as well. Yeah.

That ketchup outfit, you're right. Fuck me. So, but Dickie, he's a great guy. That guy, he's one of a kind. And that story that I'm sure he probably told is when uh when him and i were having a few pints the night before a game and you know things kind of took off and about four in the morning we finally stumble home and he's he's like just fuck and i i i put in the bed and uh it was one of those games the next morning where

you know you remember the kids used to come you know the you know all the yeah the field trip day they'd be in spongebob square down seven nothing on the road fucking spongebob square pants fucking 30 times a. Jesus. So, anyways, we have to wake up at probably, like, you know, 8 in the morning, maybe a four-hour, three-and-a-half-hour sleep at best. And this guy is just absolutely two sheets of the wind. And I have to drag his ass up. I try to feed him some food. Maybe I had some, like, corn pops i just try to throw in front of his face

yeah this is yeah this is old school hockey and that's what that's kind of my my shtick is being old school and uh so gather him up i i he doesn't have anything he's got this clothes from the night before i throw him in one of my suits, which is at least three sizes too big for him, and throw a tie on him and get to the rink. We actually had an unbelievable night. I think I won that game.

Are you kidding me? Come on. You couldn't write a better script than that. We used to have those panty soup t-shirts when I was involved with sauce hockey. I'm sure the term was invented before Dickie said it to me, but long story short,

I'd had a girl over and she left her panties behind and Dickie was teasing me with him. And he said, we should make some panty soup is, and he got a pot of water and he, and he fucking boiled it and he threw the panties in and he got a pot of water and he fucking boiled it and he threw the panties in and he presented me with the bowl of panty soup and I started drinking a little bit of panty soup with the undies in the bowl,

like a French onion kind of thing. Jeez, that's unreal. He's a special breed, man. He couldn't do anything for himself. He was used to it. I just remember him when we were partying and he would get uh your buddy bubbles on the phone and we're like you know absolutely crushed and we get bubbles on the phone and he started chirping yeah she started chirping them the whole time so that

was awesome oh he used to have a buddy from halifax who used to call up nails and he used to have another like a voice like this and this guy could rip phone books in half with his bare hands. And he was a smaller guy. I don't want to say midget because that's offensive. He was one of those smaller peeps. You know what? Seriously, he's a legend. This guy is one of a kind.

If you never met Stephen Dixon, you have no idea what to expect. I think one of the funnier Dixon stories, I think it was Christmas Eve, he ended up going out in Halifax. He was going home for Christmas in the American League. And he ended up wheeling some girls, and he brought them back to his parents' place. And they were up to the wee hours in the morning,

and I think his parents walked down, and whatever might have been going on in the kitchen area, it was fucking Christmas Day. So his mom just loses her mind. The dad was talking her off the ledge. Like this guy, he's like Adam Sandler from Big Daddy.

He's just completely useless. Oh my god. Do you remember Crystal? That chick that he has? That was his mom. So he started dating this girl named Crystal. She was beautiful. She was in Wilkes-Barre.

She was. She was really good. Whit's making a gesture to me, telling me to keep it down. I'm not saying any pounding stories, Whit. It was his girlfriend. But she used to do everything for him. She used to drive him around because he didn't have his license. And then finally, she ended up filing all like the type of like paperwork you need for like insurance and and helping him out that's what that's how he was able to finally get

his his driver's license obviously armstrong had lent him the car to take the driver's test the story's told in in the podcast in his interview he the only reason he passed his uh his driver's test was because it was a Wilkes-Barre booster who was the driver instructor. He couldn't even parallel park. He couldn't even drive. I'm not even surprised.

I'm not surprised at all. He's one of a kind, as I said. I would have him on my team any day. He's a fucking great player. He's a great dude. He's one of a kind fuck we kind of got off the rails there we got i mean you wrapped it up in north america in 2014 then you ended up going over to khl for your first year yeah i mean we always ask guys about khl stories and like you know is the shit actually true were they offering you

stamina drugs or you know were they trying to actually true? Were they offering you stamina drugs? You know, were they trying to put needles in your ass? Were you crushing hookers? Just kidding about the last one unless you really want to answer it and ruin your marriage. What's Coasa like? I heard it's sick. Murrow's loved it.

Oh, man, it's unbelievable. Murrow's, oh, that guy is a beauty. Is he not the best guy of all time? He might be one of my favorite guys I've ever played with in my life. He was my roommate in Nuremberg when I was there on the road. Oh, my God. That guy is an absolute legend. How about when he's like, seek, hold on, get me a water.

I'm hungover. Got to make sure my legs are going. My legs are so tired. My hip is so tight. How many times are we Got to make sure my legs are going. My legs are so tired. My hip is so tight. I mean, how many times are we going to lose to this team on the road? Oh, my God. He complained about everything. It was great, though.

But he also loves it. Oh, he loves it. But he would be the best captain for the boys, but he'd probably be the worst captain for the coaches because he would complain about everything. Oh my God, the fucking sauce is on the wrong side of the spaghetti. This is

horse shit. Who the fuck is running this place? So he sounds like a lesser version of Phil Kessel. Complaining about it. I don't know, Phil, but I tell you what, Merle's is unbelievable. Every Sunday, Merle's is like, all right, NFL pool, boys.

We don't need any cheap guys on this team. Pay up. Get your final pick in. Tie breakers to Monday night points. Come on, boys. Yeah. And it's all about cards, too. And he's like, oh, my God, I'm a fucking mush, man.

I've been fucking losing that card the whole fucking season here. Jesus, this is horseshit. You had quite a bit of North Americans on that KHL team though, so that must have been a good transition. Dixon talked about that as well how having all those boys around is not necessarily a bad thing in the K.

You know what? That was one decision that was huge for me. I had an opportunity to play in Nobu's Kuznet. Remember that place I went? was, was huge for me. I had an opportunity to play in, uh, Novo Kuznet. Remember that place, uh, went, that place was a fucking shithole. Oh, you're going to be on the hit, the Russian hit list. Yeah, exactly. Probably. But I mean, that was the, that was the city that was like hooked on a crocodile crocodile, right? Yeah.

Yeah. And so I had an opportunity to sign there. One of my teammates from Hershey the year before, he signed there. So we were line mates and they wanted both of us to play together. And I was kind of skeptical. I'm like, look, I'm going to bring my wife and my kid. And I was just a little nervous about going over. And then the Zagreb deal came up. And actually, you and I were skating in the summertime together

when this kind of came up. And I was kind of hemming and hawing about it. But as you guys said, it was a lot of North Americans on the team. And it was a great place to live. And it was outside of Russia. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to give this a shot. And you know what? I don't regret it.

It was awesome. Great city, great fans. And as I said, it was outside Russia, so you didn't have to point at everything if you want to communicate. It was easy to get around, so I loved every minute of it. I know basketball is pretty popular in Croatia, but how much does the country love hockey over there? You know what?

We were sold out almost every night. I mean, it wasn't the nicest-looking rink. It was kind of small. It was kind of a fun atmosphere, though. Yeah, exactly. It was an awesome atmosphere. You know, it wasn't like playing at Sochi there when you only had like 400 people in

the stands. And it, but it was, it was awesome. As I said, I enjoyed it. A lot of like a lot of old teammates I played with and you know, it was just unfortunate kind of whatever happened to Zagreb.

I don't think they even exist anymore. Even though the team wasn't located in Russia, did they still offer the Russian gas in the locker room? No, that's the problem. I wish I got offered. I probably would have tried it. You know, fuck, I wouldn't mind something to take the edge off. You'd still be playing.

Yeah, exactly. No, but I heard you guys talked to TJ the other week, and he was saying that he got offered the Russian gas all the time. We didn't have anything. We'd hop on the plane, and out you go. You ended up finishing in the DEL. Well, not saying you finished playing hockey. You haven't announced any type of retirement.

But the last four seasons in Germany for the Nuremberg? Am I saying that right? Yeah, Nürnberg. The Sabo Ice Tigers. What was that like, man? I've heard nothing but unbelievable things about the nightlife in Germany. Seriously, it was awesome. I had a chance, actually, and I was going to sign in Modo,

and then they decided to take this D-man instead. I can't remember his name i think his name was ryan whitney but uh yeah i got your i got your import spot yeah so i retired after one shift yeah exactly but uh because bill thomas ended up going and and uh my agent was talking with moto at the same time. So I was, you know, contemplating whether I was going to sign a Nuremberg or Moto. And I was like, you know, maybe I'll try Sweden for a year. And all of a sudden they said to my agent that they wanted a D-man instead.

A puck moving D-man, they said. A puck, sorry, a puck moving d-man that you know crispy crispy passes all the time i appreciate that thank you yeah and uh so i ended up done in the nurburg and to be honest with you it was uh it was one of probably one of the best decisions i made um it was it was awesome there um you know a lot of great players that came through that team for my four years there. It was unfortunate. We had a great team. We just couldn't win the championship.

But it was memories I probably won't forget. What's something awesome about playing in Germany that people probably aren't aware of? The Wiener schnitzel? Yeah. Honestly, the beers and the schnitzel yeah honestly the wall the beers the weird the beers and the schnitzel are fucking unbelievable i mean i i love german food i love obviously love german beers and um it's it the league is awesome like it's it's from top to bottom i i mean i don't really i haven't played in every league in uh in europe but i played against them but i see from top to bottom. I mean, I haven't played in every league in Europe,

but I've played against them. But I'd say from top to bottom, the league is probably the best out there. You know, it's almost like it's very North American. You're allowed to dress nine in ports. And, you know, the teams this year, the Mannheim who won it, oh, man, those guys are unbelievable this year. Oh, what about the fans? I mean, every game it's like soccer style.

They're just up and chanting. After you win, sometimes the guys bring their kids on the ice and stuff like that. Basically, it's like the storm surge every game. No, you're right. They're soccer hooligans. That's the best part about it. And it's not just one team.

It's every single team. And then you go to the big teams you know like berlin and manheim and cologne where they have nhl rings and you know you got 18 000 people doing it at once you know our our rank was about you know 7500 but those guys were so loud and it was a great atmosphere every single night and no I as I said it was it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Seags um you know it's fairly North American style over there and it's it's fairly physical still a lot of fighting going on like did you get any scraps last season? You know what I never got any scraps over there I got two in the in the cage out and then when I went to the DL I you know I never got any scraps but there. I got two in the KHL. And then when I went to the DL, I never got any scraps. But there are scraps for sure.

There's actually lots of fighting. And we have Prutzy on our team, and he beat the shit out of a few guys when I was playing. Oh, is that when he was bitching about officiating the one year where you guys got completely hosed? Oh, we got hosed. Actually, it was him and I on the same play. Or not the same play, the same game

though. And he posted them online and they were threatening him to take it down. He's like, fuck you guys. I'm not taking this shit down. Like, clean it up. You think there was payments going on or was it just bad officiating? I just think that the, you know, I don't want to say too much, but

Let's go, baby. Yeah, yeah. You know, the officiating needs a boost. And they brought in this year, which was good. They brought in a couple North American guys who were kind of, you know, veterans of the American League. And they brought those guys in, which really helped. And they kind of, they're trying to, you know to adjust that because they know that it's a concern.

It's only going to make the league better. It's only going to make the hockey better, you know, if they can get a few shows and know what they're doing. You're absolutely right. That's what you need. You need, to be honest with you, there's a reason why the NHL is the best league in the world. You need guys from there to help you out.

And that's what they did. They've gone over there, they asked for help, and I think it's going to be good in the future here. Got one last one for you here, Brandon. When you were in Dallas, you played under Mark Crawford. We've heard he's a bit of a madman. Did he ever kick anyone while you were there? I never witnessed it. Actually, you what Crowe was was great for me um I think he he I've heard a lot of crazy stories before but uh you know when I when I played there he was he was um

pretty mild and I feel like if you worked hard and you kind of did everything he said that he kind of left you alone and and we had a pretty good team in Dallas at the time so he was I think he was pretty he was pretty good for us well hey bud that was awesome so happy to have you on and glad we got to redo that one on a day we were both feeling better I think you needed the wit and the mix and all right yeah no I hey I did 100%. I really appreciate it, guys. Love it. Thanks for joining us, Bud,

and thanks for bringing us the Dixon stories as well. Yeah, thanks a lot for having me, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks for coming on. Big thanks to Brandon Siegel for coming on. Another double interview episode, just trying to give you guys a little extra content considering we don't have much hockey to talk about. Yeah, it's quiet this week, but of course, free agency just around the corner. There should be a lot of money tossed around and some deals to go over, but there were a couple

deals we hadn't gotten to yet. And one year after signing defenseman Calvin DeHaan to a four-year $18.2 million deal, the Hurricanes traded him to Chicago, along with forward prospect Alexi Sorello, sent him to Chicago in exchange for a pair of restricted free agents goalie Anton Forsberg and defenseman Gustav Forsling Carolina is definitely not bringing back both of last year's goalies so they dealt for Forsberg he's probably going to contend for a backup role there and whenever they do sign they'll still have saved a couple million off their cap because they do need to sign restricted free agent Sebastian Ajo and every dollar counts as for the Hawks they get another solid defenseman who should help clean things up

in their own end uh with dog what's your take on this one i think it's a great deal for the hawks i think when you look at look at the deal as a whole uh the hawks needed to get better on defense right i mean seabrook's older keith's getting. They need to figure out a way to get these top four D-men in, and DeHaan's solid, man. That guy, he played a key role in Carolina having a really good year. He's a good player. He can move the puck. He's steady, stays at home, does his job, and it's just what Chicago

needed. So I think Forsling showed some... Is it Forsling or Forsling? Am I adding an L? Forsling. Forsling. The L was correct. I think he shows flashes of being a great player, but I don't think he's as good of a player overall as Calvin DeHaan, and that's why Chicago, I think, wins this deal. That was kind of the popular opinion, but still, in the end,

it's all about getting Ajo signed. That kid's an up-and-coming superstar, so they did need to create room, and I think even if you ask the GM of Carolina, he says, we might have lost out a little bit on this deal, but we needed a little bit of cap room so it makes sense. And in the end, Chicago becomes the winners in my mind. All right. I'm checking my phone.

I just got a tweet that apparently some fucking loser is listening to an old episode. Did we say that Columbus fucked up picking Dubois instead of Pooley Harvey in that draft? I think we fucked up picking Dubois instead of Pooley-Arvey in that draft? I don't know. I think we fucked up on that one. I mean, I didn't see that. That would have been episode, what, 40?

Yeah, I thought. This guy's like, listening back, loved it when you guys said Columbus screwed up by taking Dubois over Pooley-Arvey. Hey, Phil R., what did you fucking know when the draft was going on, buddy? Shut up. I'm curious to listen to that. I don't know if we said they screwed up. I think it was a – Post-grad Phil, dude.

Post-grad Phil. Sick Twitter handle. I'm so sick of people coming at me on Twitter for shit that I can't control and that they would have no idea about either, except for I can't control. I know where the fucking Open Championship is being played this year, and I know you could still call it the British Open. Fucking S. Coughlin. Oh, man.

Biz, did you have anything on the DeHaan trade? Are you familiar with him at all? No, other than they're loading up on D back there. I know they had a couple of young prospects on the back end. We'll see how they come into camp. But things in Chicago should be interesting, especially the way they finished in the second half of the season last year when Jeremy Calton was able to get full control of that team

and finally implement his structure and his systems or lack thereof because he just lets them play. He wants that high-flying offense, and they just need the guys in the back end to be able to get these guys to puck a little bit sooner, a little bit quicker, a little bit faster, get it up there, let them snap it around, and let them do their thing. So I don't know where they're at. Where are they at on the cap situation?

They're always right around the number. Yeah, actually, they got about 11 in projected space right now, but they still got a couple guys. I think they might have a restricted free agent or two, but they got a little bit of cap room, but obviously they got a couple of huge hits between Kane, Taves, Seabrook, Duncan. That's fucking $32 million right there between those four guys. Yeah, Debrinket's going to be a big one.

I'd imagine he's, even if he's restricted. Back up Debrinket's truck trucks to the Brinkett household, but don't bring any beer. I would say seven and a half, eight minimum. Yeah, it's going to be interesting. What if he gets 48 this year? Well, he's restricted, and he's not going to get a bridge deal, but I would say that in the eight million category is a fair number.

I mean, if he's going to get greedier than that, they're just going to be like, bud, we can't fucking sign you. Maybe post-grad Phil will have an opinion on that one. The Marner money that's been projected by some of these people online is getting out of control. You'd think it was Tyson Berry's agent setting the number.

That is funny, too. Yeah, post-grad, like fucking people on Twitter, give a fuck that you went to school after you graduated once again. One last deal to get you up to speed on the Colorado Avalanche. Sent Carl Soderbergh to the Coyotes for defenseman Kevin Connaughton in a third rounder in 2020. Both players are in the last year of their respective deals. Soderbergh's going to make 4.75 mil this year.

Connaughton's on the hook for 1.75 mil in Denver. Soderbergh coming off a career-high 23 goals. He's an excellent penalty killer. He also plays on the second power play unit. The Avs now have about $39 million to re-up their six RFAs with Nico Rantanen being the most important. And expect them to be very active in free agency. Biz, what can you tell us about Kevin Connaughton?

Kevin Connaughton's an awesome guy. He does the bachelor reports with me. I had a really good year two years ago. I ended up scoring 10 goals. Just one of those years where he played out of his mind. Struggled a bit offensively last season. Wasn't where he was the season before. Well-liked in the locker room. Great work ethic. I think he's going to be a good depth defenseman um over in colorado and help them out on the on the back end which i mean they do have a solid back end but uh you know never hurts to have some guys back there who can who can kill and lug the shit minutes um talk about taika making moves man i man. I know Soderbergh. Is that how you say it, Soderbergh?

Soderbergh. Soderbergh. You know, a little bit older, a decent-sized cap hit, but never hurts to have some depth at the center ice position. So he's going to help out the Coyotes. They do have a lot of centermen right now. But, you know, Chayka just trying to get a lot of hardworking players and put a lineup together that can get in the playoffs. I think this deal made a ton of hardworking players and put a lineup together that can get into playoffs.

I think this deal made a ton of sense. And it's similar to the Carolina traded DeHaan where Colorado needs cap space. And Soderbergh had a great year for them. And Phoenix has plenty of room. They have plenty of money available to spend. And that's why they get a forward. I mean, I'm not going to say average forward, but the years before, you know, last year was a great year. We'll see what he does next year.

And then Colorado gets a little cap room, which they need. So understandable trade to go down there. And Connaughton, yeah, I mean, that's just depth right there. He could play a good role for the Avs, no matter what goes on their entire decor. I mean, whoever's back, I don't know what's going to happen, but that's a good trade for them, And, and it gets some room for, uh, for Colorado as well. Yeah, it's incredible. Basically the salary cap pretty much factors in every trade. It's almost

the major factor on half of them. It seems like, so, uh, moving on, we have, uh, one pretty big retirement announcement to make Brooks Orpik retired after a damn fine 16 season career. That's how I'm when cups in Pittsburgh and Washington. He said it was a pretty easy decision, given the issues with his knee and the pain he went through last year. He's a beloved teammate wherever he played. He helped change the culture, the loser culture in D.C. that had fested for years.

He come in, he really changed the attitude in the locker room, and now he left there a winner. He's going to now finish up getting his degree at B.C., and this also probably explains why the Caps haven't got Gutis to replace what Orpik brought to the game. What's your good pals? You've known him for a long time. What do you have to say about his retirement?

So happy for him. What a career. I texted him yesterday. I said, listen, dude, congratulations. All your teammates absolutely loved you and all your opponents despised playing against you. I mean, is there anything better you could say about a career? Two stand, reached the top of our profession twice and, you know, did it just being a warrior, being a professional. We've talked about

it a lot. We had him on the podcast. We got to have him on again. Now we're going to have retired or pick on because we had playing or picks. We got to get the retired or upon, but he told me, oh, thanks a lot. lot wait i'm so excited to just give my body a rest and when he says give his body a rest it's legit because he has been working out like a goddamn savage for fucking 20 years so now maybe he'll just chill a little bit hopefully plays a little bit more golf he's a member of old sandwich golf club as well maybe we'll get out on the links a little bit uh But man, it's crazy to think that it's over and what a run he had and I'm very happy

for him. Just second what you said. What a great teammate. He gets ripped on a lot for maybe some of the hits he's made over the years and some other shit, but all in all, man, everyone who played with him loved him and a two-time Stanley Cup champion

with rivals too. and and a two-time stanley cup champion with uh with rivals too yes berg and washington uh but uh yeah i'm excited to get him on and and get the stories flying with retired orb and then when they won it in pit they beat washington in seven games and when he won it in washington they beat pit i'm pretty sure i don't know if it went seven it might have gone six they know they beat him in six that year so it's kind of funny how that worked out but um washington hate him hated him when he was on pittsburgh and then the penguins hated him when he was on the cap so it makes total sense his work ethic is one thing that really stood out after the joke it was ridiculous he'd be in there doing like an nfl player workout just chucking weights around after he lugged 20 minutes. His post-game workouts were way harder than any off-season workout I ever did. Yeah.

Think about that. He's a mutant. They actually did an article in one of the major papers. It might have been when he was in Washington about his grocery shopping because he's all organic and very healthy. So they took him around and just showed what type of foods he's putting in his body. So just the ultimate professional. He's the guy at Whole Foods who's like,

is this saturated fat, sir? And the guy's like, buddy, you're 6'3", 220, shredded. Can you just go check out? Exactly. Just take the nuts and go fucking check out. I know you're going to eat fruit for dessert. Is this trout wild duck? was it caught in the ocean? Is this farm salmon or is this from Alaska?

Oh, man. After 1,044 games played over 19 seasons, one of the more colorful goalies the league has ever seen tweeted out that he's decided to take his talent to a self-petri time at home. Yes, Roberto Luongo ended the speculation and decided to call it a career, and it was a hell of a career. He wrote an open letter to the fans. He referenced basically the beating on his body has been too much,

and he said he actually found himself, quote, dreading getting back into his routine. So he's all done. He finishes with 489 wins, which is third all-time. GAA of 2.52, a safe percentage of 9.19. 77 career shout-outs, pair of Olympic golds. I mean, unreal career, which you played against them.

What do you have to say about Luongo? And just a tip of the cap, as much as you could give someone a hall, he's going to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. And if you've seen the reactions of this guy retiring today, you've realized how much that he meant to teammates and friends along the way. I mean, people have said some incredible things. Even the media have said what a joy it was to cover this guy. He wasn't boring.

He gave you a quote. He gave you an honest opinion. He told you how he felt. He was a hell of a player, not just a hell of a player, a dominant player for many years. And it's funny he brought up that he never did win the Stanley Cup and that that's obviously something tough. But I thought that his way of announcing the retirement

with the pads hung up on what would look like a phone line was just too good. It was the perfect picture. And then I think that everyone should do themselves a favor. And even if you're a fan of Luongo or not, if you're a fan of hockey, read his letter, his open letter. It was on NHL.com, I believe, about his retirement. The part that really stuck out to me was when he was talking about

how he told his daughters that he was going to retire. It's funny because I remember, I've told this on the podcast, when I decided to retire, I called my dad and I broke down. It's like you just think of all the memories and everything you've done growing up. And, you know, my dad was the guy that was a part of it all and made it happen. And I can't imagine how much harder that would be, that conversation to have with your own kids whose entire lives all they know is your career. And he mentions how his wife's the rock of the family, like every NHL wife is. I mean, they keep everything going strong when guys are on the road and, and how much his daughters, I think, I think they're both

daughters. If I'm wrong, I apologize, but he said how much they loved going to the games. And, and so to have a discussion with my dad is one thing to have a discussion with your kids and like how much they love it must've been so tough. And he writes, they cried, I cried. And it was, I was getting emotional reading it, but an incredible career. And in the end he didn't he didn't win a Stanley Cup but you're never gonna sit and sit around and say he was the reason that that didn't happen so he'll be in the Hockey Hall of Fame forever and congrats to him great personality in the game well you uh you said that very well uh one of the I mean I knew he was an unbelievable guy. The one moment for me where I was like, holy shit, man,

how the fuck did he just do this, was when there was that high school shooting in Florida. And before the game, he had to go on the mic and address the fans. And he basically took his political stance as far as he could without making it political. He just basically said, listen, I don't care what side you're on of this argument, but something needs to change.

If things like this are happening, he got up and talked before the game. And then I think, I don't, I don't know if he had a shutout that game or he played, he stood on his head and I couldn't even imagine having to talk and do that, especially with having kids and,

and them being in that area and him being able to hold it together. And then talk and do that especially with having kids and and them being in that area and him being able to hold it together and then not only do that but play a game so he's just a class act uh unbelievable hockey personality i'd imagine that he gets tons of requests to do media uh he he'll have the pick of the litter of whatever he said leave me alone in the letter he's like yeah i'm all set for the next little while. I'm going to relax. I know he loves playing poker. I would imagine he's a golfer as well. To him and his family, congratulations on a wonderful career and I hope you guys

get to enjoy the retirement side of it. The last thing I will mention, the Vancouver Canucks, that's a shitty day for them. If you know how these contracts work, when you deal with these players that I, I don't know the exact how it all breaks down,

but I know that by him retiring, the Vancouver Canucks are going to pay a penalty. I think they get a $3 million cap at the next three years and the Panthers have a million dollar hit. And so if he had gone on long-term IR, it wouldn't have happened. But he was, he wasn't going to just hang around and say he couldn't play

and collect the money. The salary went way down this year to around 1.5, but he actually made it official by retiring, which really kind of fucks the Canucks for three years. Yeah, actually both teams, Whit, are going to incur the cap recapture penalties for the next three seasons for Florida. It's going to be just over a million a year for the next three years. For Vancouver, it's actually going to be over 3 million for the next three years for Florida. It's going to be just over a million in a year for the next three years. For Vancouver, it's actually going to be over 3 million for the next three years.

That's tough. I know it makes you – yeah, it does because, you know, a lot of guys – And then they just traded a first-round pick for fucking JT Miller too. I don't know if we've mentioned that 10 times on this podcast already. First-rounder. I know it makes you sick that he still had three more years left, but his career earnings of $93 million probably made it a little easier for him to swallow it.

Here's another little note, too. He had, between playoffs and regular season, 64,174 minutes in the crease. That comes out to 44 1⁄2 days of his life in an NHL mat, which is pretty wild. How many days, excuse me? 44 1⁄2 days of his life he's spent in an NHL crease. In games. Yes. That's not, yeah.

22 years ago, the guy got drafted. I mean, 22 years ago, like right now, that's fucking crazy, man. He's been in the mix for a long time. A long time. Yeah. Franchise leader and wins for two organizations, too. Well, yeah. Congrats to Roberto.

And, yeah, he also mentions that they're moving into a new house. I imagine that's a complete fucking weapon of a house. The Mayflower Crossings, where me and Dixon used to live. Well, we're moving into the left wing on July 30th, and the right wing will be finished in 2021. Perfect. Oh, man, that wraps up all of our stories. What else?

You guys got anything else going on? You been watching anything good? TV, movies? Oh, all right. I started watching The Wire again. Oh, yeah. What a show. I watched it about 12 years ago.

So now I kind of forget a lot of stuff, and the show is just incredible. If you've never seen it, it's old school, but one of HBO's best. And the funniest thing about them is like Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell. I think the whole premise is that these drug dealer gangbangers, they're actually so fucking smart. If they use their brain for something better,

they could have been great at anything else because the way they run this drug game, at least in Baltimore in this show, it's like they are smart fucking people. They're just putting their brain to an illegal use. I can't talk. Oh my God.

They had to make do with what they had. Also, when you watch it for the second time... Putting their brain to illegal use? Is that that sentence? What the fuck? Dude, Mikey, stop laughing. It's not funny. Whit, you mentioned you have another story.

You said your buddy brought it up yesterday. You tweeted the group chat. You said you had another funny one, other than the Russia story. Oh, my God, boys. Oh, this is funny. Redemption time. Okay, so, yeah. I start golfing in, what was it, 2007.

Yeah, 2007. I joined a course, local course in Boston, public course, Granite Links. It's public-private. There's members there, but it's also a public course. So at the time, I was a 16 handicap, and my good buddy, Foles, was an 18 handicap. So we sign up for the member guest at this course. Now they flight you based on your handicap. So I'm going to explain this so that even if you don't understand golf at all, like biz, I'll explain it so you understand. So on member guests, what they'll do is they'll take both the member and the guest handicap,

they'll combine them and they'll put them in a flight with other people who have similar handicaps, right? So we, those are two very high handicaps, right? So we still are like, all right, we're going to be in one of the lower flights, but this is great. You know, you go win your flight and you can win a bunch of cash. The flight usually consists of about six teams. And then you play nine whole matches against all, all the teams. So say there was, I think there were seven teams in each flight. So we show up the day of, and we're all fired up. Me and Foles are competitive bastards, and, you know, we love playing golf, but we're not very good.

But we show up the first day and get there about an hour early, we want to hit some balls, maybe get a little swing juice in in the mix. And I get down to the clubhouse, and I see our flight listed. And it's got the teams. It's got Ryan Whitney, Brian Foley. Well, underneath that, what do I see? Barbara so-and-so, Gertrude so-and-so, next team, Lisa so-and-so. It was all women.

Dude, we were in a flight with all women. I was like, oh, my God. I go, no, I'm not playing. I'm not playing. They were all old women. It was all women. Youngest woman was 40 years old, me and Foley. I'm in the NHL, dude.

I'm like, no. I'm like, I'm not playing. I'm not fucking playing. So the pro comes up. He's like, wait, you'll fuck up the whole thing like you have like you'll you'll literally ruin the whole flight though all of them won't even have a match to play when they're supposed to play you i'm like how do you not tell me it's all women in my flight dude are you fucking kidding me he's like dude you have to play so i'm like all right

fine so we bomb up to the first seat Now, we end up going to get drinks. I'm furious. Foley's just laughing. He's like, are you kidding me? So we're just like, all right, well, we got to dust these women. We got to dust them. Who cares now? So, dude, I get to the first tee, and they had taken my bag

and loaded up the bags and the carts, and we go up to the first tee. I unzip my bag to get golf balls. Dude, the guys at the shop had put in 400 pink golf balls, tampons, fucking a skirt. I'm like, you motherfuckers. This is unbelievable.

So what do we do, though? We go out there and dusted every team. Dude, we were winning matches, rolling over. I mean, dude, I'm not lying these women were hitting 160 yard drives and at the time like i was brutal but if i connected with one it would be like a great drive so we're hitting it 190 yards past these ladies and then buzzing by them in our cars we're playing music playing again one of the woman's names was gertrude suck on that

grandma so we ended up dusting it was it. It was just hilarious how it all went down. But we won our flight, and we went to the shootout. And, Foles, you're not going to like this, but I have to bring this up. So the shootout is every flight winner then goes and plays a hole as a par 3. Basically, they put you in the middle of the fairway, and you're green. And we're the lowest flight, so say we hit from 110 yards, and then the first flight has to hit from like 180 yards. That way they don't have to do strokes

and that way you get an overall winner of the member guest. So we go first. Dude, I hit it to an inch, but it's aggregate. So it's my buddy and my score combined. Oh no. Dude, falls. Fuck. Falls. I know you'll never forget this there was about 80 people

watching oh yeah i would i would have shanked it falls fucking ended up hitting like 17 shots and we don't bounce yeah even with my two but i'll never sorry falls still love you buddy i'll never forget though getting to that tournament and and seeing on the board uh flight seven ryan whitney brian foley and then uh five other teams of women and then we dusted those women one of them actually dude so then one of them in the match this lady called like a rule she called the pro out for a rules uh violation buddy i hit like a sky high pop-up and it was wet and so the ball plugs you know when the ball plugs in the fairway, if it plugs anywhere, you get like free.

I don't know about anywhere, but free release. Yeah. Yeah, dude. So my ball's half buried. And this lady, Barbara's like, ah, you don't get a drop. I'm like, yeah, you do. It's plugged. It went up in the sky, dropped straight down and plugged in the ground.

I get to pick it up. I actually get to clean it. And then I get to drop it. She's like, no, you don't. You have to hit it. I go, what are you talking about Barb Called her Barb she didn't like that And sure enough the pro comes out

I'm like you're going to make this guy come out He bombs out he's like yeah you get a drop Barbara She's like oh okay sorry I didn't think so And then I just fucking hit one onto the green I think I was getting a stroke off or two That was my experience No mercy hit one onto the green. I think I was getting a stroke off or two. That was my experience at the end. No mercy. Hey, equality.

You got to play your hardest against no matter what, right? I think that story was funnier in my head, but still, I just get a kick. No, I liked it. I enjoyed it. I get a kick. I like the Witt golf stories. Yeah. All right.

Does that wrap things up for this epi? I believe so. That's all the stories, all the details we had. Yeah, like i said we already talked about chernobyl um have you been watching big little lies what season two of that uh actually uh my wife was watching it and so i said well i don't i can't just hop in right so i started watching season one the other night watching episode one season one pretty good i'll definitely finish season one and then see what's going on in season two yeah i already know

what kind of happened based on seeing what, what just happened in the episode. She was watching season two. Yeah. I already know something that will happen that I, that I haven't seen yet, but it's still good. It's one of those shows that the acting just carries it.

I mean, you got, you know, some of the handful of the best actresses in the game, you know, Witherspoon, Laura Dern, who's fantastic.

Shailene Woodley. She's great. And this year season two, they brought in the biggest heavy hitter of them all, Meryl Streep. And, you know, Witherspoon, Laura Dern, who's fantastic, Shailene Woodley, she's great. And this year, season two, they brought in the biggest heavy hitter of them all, Meryl Streep. And, you know, if you enjoy acting, man, it's some great performances. So check that out. City on a Hill, that new Showtime show about Boston, have you been able to check that out?

No, I didn't even know it was out yet. What channel is that on? That's on Showtime, season two. I'm sorry, episode two just dropped the other night. It's basically set in Boston in 1992, right after the Chuck Stewart case happened. In case you're not familiar with that, it was a guy who

shot and killed his pregnant wife, blamed it on a black guy, and the police in Boston basically upended all the black neighborhoods looking for a ghost because it wasn't a suspect that didn't exist. There was a big commission that happened. A lot of guys got in trouble. This takes place right after all that when racial tensions were in the city

where it wasn't worse than they usually are. There's also an armored car crew from Charlestown robbing banks, so this all kind of ties in. It's pretty good. I know people are kind of getting sick like the whole Boston crime stuff and it feels like it's done before, but I think a lot of the other things, they never really covered the racial aspect and this show is going to cover

that. It appears so. I'm curious to see what they do for that because they kind of tackle that a little bit so so far so good i'm giving it a whirl all right i'll check that out guys and real quick next week we will be dropping episodes on tuesday and thursday just because monday is the start of free agency so no episode on monday episode on tuesday and an episode on thursday all right boys i think that wraps it up for this episode everybody have a fantastic episode on Monday, episode on Tuesday, and an episode on Thursday. All right, boys. I think that wraps it up for this episode. Everybody have a fantastic weekend, and we'll be back early next week.

I'll work on my reading. I'll be back. You said you loved Like the wild Man, you left me So sad Well, some things you can't Say away But the heart