Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 190: Featuring Rick Tocchet

Episode Date: July 4, 2019

On Thursday's episode of Spittin' Chiclets the guys are joined by the Head Coach of the Arizona Coyotes, Rick Tocchet. He joins to discuss his career, coaching, Kessel, and more. The guys also wrap up Free Agency and tell their best 4th of July stories during the return of All Right Hamilton.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. Born down in a dead man's town The first kicker took us when I hit the ground Ended up like a dog, got some feet too much Till you spent half your life just covering up now Born in the U.S.A. I was Hello everybody, welcome to episode 190 of Spittin' Chicklets presented by New Amsterdam Vodka. Well, free agency died down a little bit. Things are quieting down, but we're still going to bring you an episode on July 4th.

Podcast don't sleep, so let's say hi to the boys for us. Producer Mikey Grinelli, what's going on, buddy? What's up, fellas? 190 episodes in the books. I can't believe it. And I was texting RA earlier, and with the SoundCloud episodes you guys were doing before this, that's over 200. So job well done,

boys. It's been a fun run. Thanks, man. Thanks, man. It's certainly flown by. Next up, our buddy Ryan Whitney. What's going on, brother? What up? What up? I'm just hanging out here right now getting ready to celebrate. It's the third. So next couple days should be a blast. And yeah, the

free agency stuff has slowed down, but there's still some really good players out there. So you're wondering when a couple of those guys will finish off and sign their deals and figure out where they're going next year absolutely and our third member of the crew a third host fourth member of the crew paul biz nasty business he's going to be joining us shortly he actually had a sit down with rick talker for about an hour and a half outstanding interview he did out in arizona so we'll be joining busy and talk it in a little bit. But yeah, what you mentioned, a few guys still haven't been signed. It just seems like most of them are probably going to end up where they already are or their RFAs.

I don't think anyone's going to have any big real surprise at this point to you. Well, no, but I mean, if you look like like the Zingle hasn't signed and Johansson hasn't signed, I mean, those guys were really good players last year, except for, I mean, Johansson was so good for the Bruins when he was healthy. I mean, he battled, and signed. Those guys were really good players last year. Johansson was so good for the Bruins when he was healthy. He's kind of battled injuries

a long time, but he could make a huge difference with the team. And then Jake Gardner too. Where's Jake Gardner going to end up? He's a guy who can get 40 points, plays 80 games. He's going to get you 40 to 50 points. So there's still some names out there. There's always that immediate upper echelon free agents that go on the four

or the first, excuse me, and, and, and figure out from there you know, where everyone else will slade and money wise and stuff. But the offer sheet we kind of hoped for, we, we, we ended up getting, but Caroline is going to match that one. The owners come out and said there was no, he thought there was no need actually. I think, I think he said it was a waste of time.real did that but still it was their best chance and i actually read some interesting things that montreal first had looked into and wanted to offer

she braden point in tampa um who has the same agent as as sebastian ajo but they ended up looking and figuring there was a better chance that they'd be able to get ajo um and it ended up you know not working either way but you look at the the two guys that they'd be able to get Ajo. And it ended up, you know, not working either way. But you look at the two guys that they're going after and you could tell they want some skill up front and they don't mind if it's an undersized guy. And I thought Don Waddell's comments were pretty interesting too. He thought the offer from Montreal was pretty low too,

which was what we said on the last podcast. Thank you. Yeah. You typically expect the officer to really blow you out of the water like what happened with Shea Weber a few years ago. And then obviously the interesting comment that our buddy Jeff Marrick had was that, hmm, you wonder if GMs did this kind of like not collusion, but sort of collusion, like to keep contracts lower. That was certainly an interesting theory.

But, yeah, there's definitely a couple names. I mean, Joe Thornton, he's only going to come back to San Jose. He's not going to go anywhere else. But you've got a guy like Justin Williams, man. You know, he still has something left in the tank, I think. I'm sure he probably wants to go back to Carolina where he's, you know, kind of built something special there the last season. But he's a guy, man, you know, he could latch on really with any contender.

He's, I think, a perfect guy to add for, you know, not really a role player, but he's Justin Williams, man. He's got that magic stick come playoff time. So I'm kind of curious to see where he ends up. Yeah, he said he seems confident or optimistic he'll return. The other guy that's kind of interesting is Nikita Gusev, who nobody really knows anything about. Could he be like Panarin and come over at a later age from the KHL and dominate?

But he's got a huge difference in opinion on what he should be paid with Vegas right now. Him and his agent believe that he deserves a lot more than Vegas is willing to offer. So now there's the rumors that he could get traded. But he is a guy who could end up showing up and being really good offensively. All of a sudden, if this guy's even a 60-point guy in the NHL, I mean, how much of a difference could he make to a bunch of teams out there? So I think the question is, if you're looking to trade for him, do you believe it'll translate his games?

He's played world championships. He's played Olympics, played on the best team, the best line in the KHL. So if you think it's going to translate over to here, teams may be lining up to try to trade for him, unless they really do think this kid wants way too much money. Yeah, definitely an interesting time. I know everybody gets caught up in the initial, like, for his day or so, but a lot of important shit can still happen after.

And you mentioned Johansson, man. If there's a guy who's stock and pay for next year, definitely went up in the playoffs, it was him. He was outstanding for the Bruins. What do you guys think? What do you think Johansson commands on the market here? I mean, I've seen some kind of big numbers thrown around for him. It's hard if you look at some other people who've signed.

I mean, off the top of my head, I don't really know. I think he had close to 60 games played and around 40 points last year. Is that even close? I mean, that's kind of my guess. The thing you worry about is he's had concussion problems, right? He had another one this year. Or did they say that

wasn't a concussion on the hit from Furland that he took right when he got traded over to the Bruins? I don't know if they ever officially come out and said it was a concussion on the hit from Furland that he took right when he got traded over to the Bruins. I don't know if they ever officially come out and said it was a concussion or some other part. They didn't officially say a concussion. So you had 58 games. You only had 30 points. Then the playoffs, you did have a great showing, 11 points in 22 games. You know, I think if your team, you could pay like four or five million for him.

Is he going to want that much more than that? I mean, does he deserve that much more? If you were to give him five million a year, do you think the fans of that team would be upset or would they be, you know, because at this point, five million, it's not even that much for a guy. If he's going to get you 45, 50 points. I mean, now granted, he didn't do that last year,

but if he was healthy, I think he would have. So you worry about health, you worry about how many times has this guy been injured before? Will he be able to last but you you can see when he is healthy, and he's going, he's a difference maker. I just don't know what the money will end up being. And the term will really matter as well. Yeah, he made just over four and a half million last year, he's going to be 29 when the season's the new season does start. And yeah, he didn't have $4.5 million last year. He's going to be 29 when the new season does start. And, yeah, he didn't have a ton of points even the last couple years because he was battling that bad concussion he got. But I think, man, I think not to steal an awful pun,

but I think he got his mojo back in the playoffs, man. I'd be surprised if he signs for less than $6 million based on his play in the playoffs. But I'd say maybe three years, 18, wherever he ends up. Yeah, I wonder. I'll make sure to see that number now. I also, it was cool because when we were with Sid McKinnon, and McKinnon got the news that that Burakovsky got traded to Colorado,

he was an underachiever, right? Like people saw great things for him in Washington, and it never really panned out. I mean, he was there for a Stanley Cup, and he was a part of some really good teams. But he didn't really take that next level in his play and kind of become that star that people think he can. So if he goes over to Colorado, say he gets a chance with McKinnon

or any of those studs over there, you could see him kind of take off. I know the stats haven't been there, but you're looking at 12 goals three years in a row. Can he all of a sudden he make that big leap? I don't know. But it was interesting that a former first rounder got traded and it wasn't mentioned too often. Yeah. And same situation with Galchenyuk going to the Penguins, man.

He's a guy who, you know, if he put him. What's he going to do? It was that one year in Montreal, he just teased everyone. It wouldn't surprise me if they put him with either Crosby or Malkin, he ends up getting 30 because, you know, guys settle up with those two and they have career years or a couple of career years and certainly get paid. But you mentioned Nova Scotia too, man. I just want to reiterate how much of a great place that was,

how much of a great time Halifax was. I was thoroughly impressed with, like, just the town itself, the bars, the restaurants, and, of course, the people. Everyone there is very proud to be from Halifax, but, like, not in that in-your-face way, in a very endearing way. So, again, Everyone there is very proud to be from Halifax, but like not in that in your face way in a very endearing way. So again, once again, we want to shout out Halifax, but I think we should send it over to Biz and talk it right about now. What do you think, Whit?

Yeah. And everyone, I think it's pretty cool that Biz goes and does these interviews a lot of the time by himself. So it's huge for us because there's many times like I got stuff going on or, you know, a guy can only do a certain time when maybe you can't already. And Biz travels and doesn't mind doing these interviews. I think he's gotten really good at them.

So without further ado, we appreciate you, Biz. But this is a great interview. And I know we got another one also with Sean Burke. So thanks a lot to Rick Talkett for joining the podcast. And Biz, we appreciate you being a complete savage. This interview is brought to you by Can I Brands, your trusted source for quality cannabis and CBD products that support a healthier, more active lifestyle.

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It's a calming, highly effective, all natural sleep aid that works to release the day's built up anxiety and restore your natural sleep cycle. With two different formulations in a sublingual oil and a delicious oral spray, there's a Can I sleep form formulation that can help you relax before sleep, fall asleep and stay asleep. So you'll wake up refreshed and feeling amazing to find out which can I sleep formulation is perfect for you and explore the whole range of can I brands active lifestyle products. Visit us at can I brands.com that's C A N I B R A NB-R-A-N-D-S dot com. And of course, use your Biz20 promo code for 20% off. Our next guest was born in Scarborough, Ontario,

where he grew up playing minor hockey for the Don Mills Flyers. He then moved on to play in the Ontario Hockey League for three seasons as a part of the Sioux St. Marie Greyhounds. After his second season in the OHL, he was drafted in the sixth round, 121st overall by the Philadelphia Flyers. He then returned to the OHL for his third and final season, and in 64 games, he put up a staggering 108 points and 209 penalty minutes. That was enough to land this guy a job in the NHL in his first year at a junior

on a very good Philadelphia Flyers team. He went on to play 18 seasons for six different teams, accumulating 1,144 NHL games, 440 goals, and 512 assists for 952 points. But scoring goals isn't all this guy did. He was one of the toughest customers around. He had a combined 172 fighting majors, 16 of which were in playoffs. After his illustrious playing career was over, he then jumped right into coaching where he started as an assistant with the Colorado Avalanche. Over the course of the last 18 years, he helped coach as an assistant and head coach for five different teams.

And he can now be found behind the Arizona Coyotes bench as the boss. Please welcome Rick Talkett to the Spittin' Chicklets podcast. Wow, man. You Googled that about an hour ago, didn't you? No, that took me about three hours this afternoon. Seriously? I'm a little slow in that kind of stuff. It's really time-consuming, and it really fries my brain staring at my screen.

Yeah, well, the hockey card, you get some of that stuff. Google some good stuff, some good, bad stuff. Hockey DB is usually where I do all my homework. Is that what it is? Okay. We have a lot to talk about because you had a long playing career. You're now coaching. And we also have some fan questions.

And I did a little dirt digging on you from some of your old teammates. Okay. That's good. Depends on the guy, though. Interesting. Well, it's all the fun ones. And we've had some of them on the podcast.

I guess I'll start out with this. And I asked Sean Burke the same question. What was your childhood like? Blue collar. My dad was a mechanic. My mom worked in kind of a daycare as a cook. Italian upbringing. The old dad came over on a boat,

sent for my mom a couple years later. You know, like a romantic story, right? And then born in Scarborough, Ontario. Grew up there and went to Wexford High School for a year or two and then went to St. Mike's downtown there. You know, got to wear the suit and tie at that place. Remember the all-boys school? And then I got drafted by Sault Ste. Marie.

So, yeah, I love Toronto. Great city. What round were you drafted in the OHL? Fourth round. Okay. Fourth round. you drafted in the OHL? Fourth round. Okay. Fourth round. So similar to your NHL draft, you weren't like a highly touted guy. Yeah, not an ugly, choppy skater.

I thought I got the job done, but not the prettiest guy. But I just kind of worked on my game. I took figure skating. I tried that for a year. Then I took power skating with a figure skater. So I tried to – because I knew my skating wasn't the best. So I did a lot to find my game to – you know, I always wanted to be an NHL hockey player.

But the odds of it are tough, right, as a Canadian kid? You played in the Pee Wee tournament in Quebec. Yes. What was that experience like? Unreal. I built it with a French Yes. What was that experience like? Unreal. Building it with a French family. It was great. Great time.

You know, I think that's the best tournament ever, right, for any kid. You know, taking the bus up there. You know, probably as a kid, the most you'll ever feel is a professional. Because they, you know, in the big Coliseum, I remember, you know, they had the, you know, that old-fashioned, you know, I i mean i ended up playing against quebec nordic so it was kind of that whole atmosphere you know like thousands of people in the stands you know you're you know how old yeah you used to these little rings oh my god it was great it was great you feel like a professional um so uh you ended up being drafted to the sioux yeah i was looking at the hockey db

of course you ended up playing with ron francis in your first year in the OHL. He didn't play very long. He played 25 games that year. So Ronnie Francis played 20 games. He got called right up to Hartford. I think he still was our leading goal scorer. He was close. He had 48 points in 25 games. I will tell you, that team, we didn't have a lot of scoring but we were tough and we uh we might have lost in the finals or something but we were one tough team and if you look at our stats we didn't have a lot of goal scores but we didn't give up many goals we had john van briezo well you know why they're probably too afraid to get too too far ahead in the lead and you guys would just start fucking throwing the fist well that's the old flyer way you know

we used to i mean we can, we can get into that, but that was the best. Dave Brown, I remember Dave Brown, my favorite story, we were playing Pittsburgh Penguins and they were lighting it up on us. And in the 80s,

they never beat us very often and he went to their bench and he said, if you guys score another goal, somebody's going to die out here. And Kevin Stevens said, what do you want me to do? Mario's giving me tap-ins.

And he goes, I don't fucking care. Miss. And they never scored another goal the last 25 minutes of the game. I don't even know if they got a shot on that because Dave Brown was that tough. That is old school. Yeah, we're going to have to get to that later. Your first year in the OHL, was that really your first time being exposed to the whole fighting and and you know that that

type of culture because you're playing minor hockey and all of a sudden you're in the mix yeah i mean i in midget and minor you know i was always a tough player you know hit and stuff like that you get your scuffles but there was really those fights um but in training camp i hurt my knee and terry chris and stan mcmaster said to me hey listen we're going to keep you around here um but i could have been going to tier two. And I remember when I was back, I was out for seven days. I said to myself, when I get back, I got to make them notice me right away. And I went after the toughest guy, a guy named Kenny Latta.

First shift in a scrimmage. Went after him, got in a fight, and then the rest is history. I made the team. Through that kind of positive reinforcement, I'm sure everyone loved it and was compliment rest is history. I made the team. Through that kind of positive reinforcement, I'm sure everyone loved it and was complimenting you after, did you kind of take that and run? Yeah, because you know what? He was tough for me.

I was a little nervous, but after the fight, I said to myself, it didn't really hurt. I did okay. And the one thing I remembered, even my brothers told me, when you're in the box with a guy, just say, uh, even my brothers told me, you know, when you're in the box with a guy, just say, Hey, you know, we might have to go again. And sometimes when you do that, the other guy, he looks at you and go, who is this guy?

Like this guy's crazy. And you know, hopefully those guys don't call you back out. So yeah, let's go again. You know, I like the guys that say, no, no, we're done. I'd rather the guy say that to me, we're done. But, uh, you know, he said, no, let's just play hockey. Well, you're going to find out a lot about that guy by asking him that well exactly but some guys call your bluff right you know i mean yeah he's like i love it let's do it as soon as we get out it's not even weird

for the puck to drop exactly yeah exactly and then you're like jesus you know like you know oh hang on a sec you know i gotta go and get my skates done or something but yeah that was something that uh i needed to do the first year for sure to get myself noticed. Well, then you added the goal scoring and playmaking to your bag in your second year. Were you disappointed that you went sixth round in the NHL draft? Or, you know, is that something you kind of expected? You know, that's a good question. I didn't expect anything.

I know when I went to the draft, this is a funny story. I went with my brother. We drove. And at the time, I had Don Meehan. And he had a lot of the first-round pick guys. And I was projected anywhere from fourth to seventh round, and I talked to Buffalo a few teams. And back then, they had the first round to the sixth round on Saturday,

and then on Sunday, they had the sixth round to the twelfth round. So it started getting to nitty-gritty. I think it was the last pick before the break, or the second to last pick. So I remember my brother said to me, he goes, well, we're either going to be eating steak tonight or we're going to be eating chicken tomorrow. And Terry Criss, I got to give him credit. He was in the stands.

He went to the flyer. I watched him. He went to the flyer draft table, and he was pointing at this and talking to Bobby Clark. Next thing I knew, I got my name. So he was the guy that got me drafted as Terry Crisp, my coach. That's your type of team too. You were excited when you went there?

Absolutely. Couldn't have been a better fit. 18 nights in a row, I remember getting picked up and I just going to that big city and meeting all the old flyers and all the tradition and the Broad Street bullies. And we had a really tough team. So it really helped my career for sure. Did you end up going to training camp before your last year at the ohl or back then was it just you just waited

till you were ready to finish your career yes when i so when i was done i went to my first training camp and then i you know i made the team and then uh back then so they had bobby clark billy barber all the old flyer guys were retiring. Myself, Peter Zezel, Murray Craven, Pelley Acklin, a lot of these younger. Scott Mellenby, a lot of young guys came up, and we kind of took their jobs. If there was an older team, I probably would have went to the minors, but there were some spots there, and they went young. Like I said, it worked out for me.

Before we get into the Flyer stuff, what was it like playing in the Sioux, just being from Toronto, maybe a bigger city, moving there, did you enjoy your time there? I loved it. They had a hell of a program up there. Small town, steel town, loved their hockey. Went up to be a man. I was a mama's boy, I was a kid.

I went up there and came back a man. It was really something I really cherished. People talk about the Sioux. I remember back then people didn't want to go play the Sioux. They're out of their minds. It was a great place to play. I played against Jeff Carter when he was with the Greyhounds, and they still had that old arena where it looked like it kind of dipped down a little bit. Yeah, they've renovated since then.

Well, they built a new arena. Yes. I haven't been up there to see it, to be honest with you, but the old one was just a – I mean, you didn't have – there wasn't many losses in that building. I mean, after the year I left for pro, they didn't lose a game. That was when Bob Probert got traded there. No way.

So they went 33-0. So he was probably going to other teams' benches saying, if you guys beat us tonight, I'm going to beat the fuck out of all of you. Well, yeah, he does that all the time, Bob. You know, he was – going to other teams benches saying if you guys beat us today i'm going to beat the fuck out of all of you well yeah he does that all the time bob you know he was probably was one of those guys you know god you know we miss him but uh he was he was a he was a great guy i love that guy even though you're scared of the guy so you had a ridiculous last year junior when you went to training camp was there anything being said to you or were you in the mindset i'm probably going to go there and i'm getting sent down um my the one thing that uh i wanted to be in great shape and i was a fitness freak even back then and i i really worked worked at my uh my fitness so i wanted to make sure so that was one advantage i had over a lot of guys is because back then a lot of guys didn't train as

hard like they do now um so I came into camp in unbelievable shape, and I came into camp ready to go. I remember the rookie games against Jersey. I mean, the national anthem didn't even start yet, and there was fights. Kenny Danico and all these guys. It was right away you wanted to be noticed. Bobby Clark in the stands, the famous Keith Allen. And then, obviously, you wanted to hone your skills. be noticed you know Bobby Clark in the stands the famous Keith Allen um so and then obviously you

want to hone your skills and Mike Keenan was it was the our first year coach you know tough kind of coach so yeah it's just kind of kind of progressed did you know going in you're like I'm gonna I'm gonna have to assume that role as well as try to become a player well I I did at first but I you know I came off the playoffs I had 20 something goal like I had a OHL record like I had 23 or 24 goals in the playoffs. So I came in and they thought, I'm a shooter, I'm a scorer. I remember my first game against Washington, I'm on a five on three. Keenan's got me on the point.

I've never played the point in my life. And I was nervous, I've got to tell you. I've never played the point. You're trying to impress your new team. And then I just kind of fit in. I mean, I wasn't ready for the big-time scoring type of thing, but then I knew, they put me on a line with Ronnie and Richie Sutter,

and we just were a checking line. And we, you know, good for checking and caused problems, caused shit out there. That was my role. There's a few legends that were there when you played there. Fuck, I wrote it down here. That's all right. Brian Propp and Tim Kerr. Yeah.

So there were a few older guys in Legends. Did those guys take you under your wing, or was it a little different back then with how old school it was? So Mark Howe, probably one of the best, greatest defensemen I've ever played with and the pleasure of coaching, not me coaching him, but any defense I've coached, he's probably one of the top three for me. Unbelievable hockey player. Him and Brad McCrimmon as a pair was probably,

they were the best in the league. I mean, you got, you know, you got Coffey and Huddy were right up there too, and Ray Bork and those guys. But I'm telling you, those guys were incredible. Those two guys were a big influence on my life in hockey. Taught me the ropes. Like how? How to be, how to carry yourself off the ice?

Just how to be a professional? Because you guys had some very good teams your first few years, your first three years, really. Listen, back then, guys liked to go out, right? And the one thing with Brad and Howie said, listen, there's a team meeting, and on the road, you go for beers and stuff, make sure you show it. Even if it's for five, you've got to show your face

because it's the guys that don't show that get it, right? So I remember any time we had a team kind of function or party or whatever you'd be there and then the next day of practice you better be the first guy in line you better work hard and i and i and to this day even as a coach i know some guys when they go out and i have no problem with that if you're a guy that hides behind the line but the guys you're i'm gonna have a problem with you or you probably won't be on my team the guy that you know i know the guy's been out you know and we all pick our spots which you know and I understand um I don't want a guy hiding that's my only rule for guys and I think that's something that those guys brought into me is back then is don't hide and don't hide in games wow uh yeah I mean you you played in a different era and I can't wait

to dive into some of this other stuff uh Mike keenan you mentioned him already um you guys did have good teams when he was there what was he like as a coach do you have any interesting stories you'd like to tell was he hard on you specifically yeah mike's hard on me we've uh we've had lots of numerous chance i love mike keenan um there's parts of my career i didn't agree with what he his tactics i didn't like him at certain parts of my career, but today I love him. He was a big part of my career. Story-wise, I got a million Mike Keenan stories. I remember playing Calgary after the first period. I might have had two shifts. I think it was my third or fourth year.

I was under my breath coming off, whatever, bitching a bit. He was behind me. He goes, shut your mouth, you fucking prima donna. And I went crazy. So I turned around and went after him. And Brad McCrim and Mark Howard were in between me. I was going at him, and he's backing away. So anyways, the next period, he starts me. And I ended up getting three fights that night.

We went four to three. So after the game, we win or whatever. And I remember I had the big hair back then. I'm blow-drying my hair. We're going to go to this bar called The Bank, and that was the big place down in Calgary. And after a win, you're feeling good. And there was a team. The whole team

was going. We had two days off. We were on a three-game winning streak. That's a green light if I ever heard of it. It's a green light, right? It's a green light. And Keenan come up to me as I'm blow-drying my hair, and he goes, he gives me, here's the team credit card. Take the boys out. And I grabbed the credit card, and I flinged it back. I said, I'll use my own cash. Because I was pissed.

You know, I don't care. You know, Keenan used to yell at me, whatever. I didn't like to, and he apologized later, called me a prima donna. It was just his tactic to get me going. But oh yeah, I flinged the credit card right back at him. He loved it. He loves that stuff though, Mike.

That gives me a little anxiety knowing how cheap I am. I would have, I might've went out and got an outfit too. You know what? That's probably what I should have done is just, you know, put about 10,000 on it. That's probably the better hurt. Paid off your credit card.

But I just, I just felt the pride factor, you know, I'll just, I'll eat it up. But yeah, so we need to say we had a good time that night and it was fun. We've said this a bunch on here and I've heard from other guys is when he challenged you

and you came back at him, he usually respected you and it kind of ended things like that. Was that the case with you and him? Yeah, yeah. I mean, respectfully, I never would be on that bench. I never did that. But we'd have a certain amount of arguments. I mean, we went out.

I have to tell you this. We went out to Lake Placid. We were all pissed off. We had four days off. So we had the Greyhound. But we're going to Lake Placid. We were all pissed off. We had four days off, so we had the Greyhound. We're going to Lake Placid. We're going to do a mini training camp. This is the middle of the season.

Oh, fuck. And we're pissed. And we go there. It's the first day. We go out there, and he bag skates us. It's a two-a-day, so that same day, we come back at 2 o'clock. It's a scrimmage. He comes on.

He has his equipment on, Biz. He comes in our room. He goes, well, boys, here's your chance. He's going to play in the scrimmage he comes on he has his equipment on biz he comes in our room he goes well boys here's your chance he's going to play in the scrimmage lindsey carson a good friend of ours who played back then with us um first shift just killed him with a check he went down he stood up practice our scrimmage is over we get three days off so we are three days off at uh in uh lake placid and they have a place i don't know if you've been to lake placid called the arena grill or arena bar and we were there for two three nights and it was just a shit show and now but

that was mike keenan's motivation and we had a i think we were the president's trophy winner that year those are the things he did he wanted to see a reaction you know he backskated the first day but the next two days we had off and we had a great time so just a mental warfare there's a marijuana yeah it was it was he wanted he would be challenging yeah mental warfare yeah exactly uh i want to talk about uh you guys made a cup run in your third year in the league with philly uh you guys lost to the edmonton oilers uh just talk about that run and maybe you know early in your career you're on a winning team and all of a sudden like in your, you know what it takes to be the best and how to get far in playoffs. And, you know, like how much of that impact you later on in your career and just what was it like being a young guy in the league, having that much success as a team?

Yeah, so the first year we lose five games to Edmonton in the finals. So then we lose out in the first round the next year, and we were once again top of the league. We lost to the Rangers. We were a huge favor over them. We lose. The next year we came in. We lost seven games to Edmonton.

And I remember in game seven, and I take this to now because I tell my players this and i had a routine you know whatever preparing for the game and i remember game seven the night before i didn't i didn't have i remember i usually have a glass of wine at dinner a couple glasses of wine have dinner at a certain time go to bed around 11 11 30 watch a movie well game seven oh no i'm not gonna have a glass of wine oh i'm gonna make sure i'm bed. I think I went to bed at nine o'clock that night. And I'll tell you, game seven, I wasn't good biz. I was horseshit. So I don't want to skip stories, but when I played with Pittsburgh and we went to the finals, we won the cup. That whole series, I had a great series. I remember I did the same thing,

routine and relax. And that's why I said, I was just, you know, I was talking to Craig the other day, they have a game seven coming up I said keep your players relaxed like it's game seven but don't play like it's a game seven where you're so jacked up and that's what I did you got all the great players know how to keep their heart rates down in those type of moments right and I

remember that time you know in 87 to 92 I remember learning that make sure that you're nice and relaxed. Yeah, when the stakes get high, you just got to kind of even keel. Got to be even keel. You can't be like all of a sudden change your routine. All of a sudden, you're going to bed at 9 o'clock.

All of a sudden, oh, I'm not going to have a glass of wine. Why? You've done your routine. Stay with your routine. Do the things that got you there. Don't change just because it's a one-day thing. You said the best players remain calm in pressure situations uh there was a story about how they had a heart rate monitor on joe thornton and his heart rate in the midst of a game actually drops when he has the puck on his stick

now that could be some urban legend but i know in my case when i used to get it on my stick it used to go to about 180 to 200 beats per minute. I thought I was going to have a fucking jammer out there. So, I mean, that just kind of separates the greats from the peasants. Towards the end of your Flyers career, at least in your first stint, you guys didn't have as much success, and then you end up getting traded over to the Penguins halfway through your eighth season, I believe. Yeah, so we kind of went through a rebuilding, and at that time I got traded.

I wasn't shocked because I heard some stuff. But I had a pretty good thing going in Philly. And, you know, I was well-known there. And it's something I didn't really, you know, did I want to get traded? But I'll be honest with you, when I got traded to Pittsburgh, I wasn't kicking and scratching, I'll tell you that. I'm going to Lemieux, Yager, Francis, Al Samuelsson, Kevin Stevens, Tom Brasso, Larry Murphy. I mean,

you're going to an all-star team. So, I knew if I had my best chance to win a cup was during this trade. Was it as big a rivalry then as it is now? Yeah, yeah. The rivalry has grown. In the 80s, I don't think they won in the Spectrum

one game. I think we went 55-0. I'm pretty sure that's the stat. I think we went 55-0. So they were just rubbish and you guys dominated. So it wasn't really. We slapped them. Biz, I hate to tell you, we slapped them around. I mean, it was embarrassing.

Mario, poor guy. I mean, you know, he got a few points here and there, but we slapped them around. But then all of a sudden, things started to change. Early 90s, they won two cups. Flyers have yet to win since that time. Now they get Crosby. And then they win three cups with Crosby right now.

There have been some intense battles in the midst of Crosby's run. Absolutely. Did it make you nervous going over to Pittsburgh, even though they were so good that they'd won the year before? You probably wanted your cup. Were you like, oh, no, these guys have already blown their load? Well, actually, when I got traded there, Craig Patrick made the trade because at that time they were just about 500 around February.

They weren't doing it. And I'll remember we had a meeting, and it wasn't – you know, Scotty Bowman was our coach. And, you know, some guys had some issues with themselves. I think Scottie's the best bench coach ever, but I remember Craig Patrick had a team meeting with just the players, and he ran around and asked certain guys, hey, what do you think, what do you think?

I'm just sitting in the corner, don't ask me, man, don't ask me. I just got here. Then he goes, talk, what do you think? I said, listen, I'm looking around at this room. I see Yager. I see Joe Mullen, Hall of Famer. I said, boys, it's on us let's go here and then you know i'm not saying that speech galvin but all i'm saying i just basically said

are you kidding me look at this team and we end up winning that cup that year i've i mean do you want to talk about it we could talk about scotty bowman first uh i heard stories of of maybe guys not letting him in on the ice during practice. Some guys had issues with him. Some guys didn't want him on the ice. I remember sometimes he didn't practice this for a while. They went through the stretch. So Scotty went home to Buffalo. We'd practice and then when there was a game

he came back. Come on. Yeah, there was a couple times that happened. I mean, were sometimes you'd sit in the stands and watch? Yeah, I'd sit in the stands, but then it was just a weird situation because some guys had some issues with him. I'll tell you what, Scotty Bowman, like, he played me. He didn't really, he didn't talk,

he talks to me a lot more now than he used to, but he didn't talk to me. But if my parents were in the stands, he'd go talk to my parents for three hours. You know, I'm in the locker room, and he'd go right, he'd walk right by me. That's just the way Scotty was. And I had no problem with that.

Everyone compliments him as a bench coach. Unbelievable. How? He started the pairs, which I like doing, like the pairs. We did this in Pittsburgh, too, or Mike Sullivan did, too. So you have two guys that I'm trying to think. Let me say you had Lemieux and Stevens, you know, they were a pair. He would just rotate. Now, when I got there, I was on the line a lot,

but he put Yager up there. Sometimes he put Joey Mullen up there. He just wanted to have, he always thought the third guy could be rotated out. You don't have to change the whole line. Just as long as you have a pair, you're fine. So if you had four pairs and the four other wingers can just rotate, Hey, you know, he might put a Jay Caulfield up, you know, who's a tough guy or a guy like you or something. He'd put him on our first line for a couple of shifts. That's what I liked about Scotty. He would put tough guys with our best players, which I like. A lot of coaches just have fourth line guys, fourth line guys.

I actually like that. Obviously, it doesn't happen anymore. You don't have those guys as much anymore. Well, that and social media, you get ruined. Well, yeah. Could you imagine the tweets if you put me on a line with like Kells and Chelsea? But think about it, though, Biz. But think about it, though.

And this is what Scottie did. He felt it energized the team. It energized the player. It might energize the best player in your team. You might think, hey, I'm going to try to get, you know, biz a goal here. I'm going to try to set him up or I'm going to, or whatever. Let's not get carried away. Well, whatever.

But look at Semenko with Gretzky and Curry. I mean, that was a hell of a line, right? So, Scottie did that stuff. You know, he's an innovator when it came to that stuff. Hey, and there's some guys who like playing with tough guys. I mean, i don't know specifically about lemieux or uh or gretzky but they like that added protection now definitely no one's going to take a run at them because samank goes on his line listen you know wayne

gretzky or mayor lemieux i mean if you had to ask him i'm not going to speak for him if they voted they wanted hockey fighting over hockey they're going to say no they think hockey should be or fight should be in hockey and that's just what you know i'm not going to speak for him i'm not going to speak for them. If they voted they wanted to fight in hockey, they're going to say no. They think hockey should be – or fights should be in hockey. And that's just what – you know, I'm not going to speak for them. I'm not saying that it should be like, you know, stage fights and all that stuff. I get all that stuff. Hey, but I have no problem, and those guys have no problem with, you know, somebody wants to take advantage of somebody, somebody's got to step in, and that's just the way it is.

The Stanley Cup and the and and just the overall experience walk me through it oh man um is this pg here no you can swear on this i know what i'm trying to think of uh kill stories on this i told the shitty cindy story the other day i don't know if you heard that one i'll have to send you the the tape was that the girl in the elevator who's that one who's the girl that dumped you no no people were tagging me in something because i told a story about how a girl ended up pooping the bed sure and there was a video that came out of a girl in an elevator who was obviously having diarrhea and she couldn't hold it so everybody was tagging me and asked me if that was shitty cindy ah there you go okay i got I got you. But it wasn't. It was not.

It was a different girl shitting herself. But back to the Stanley Cup parties. You know, we went... So we took the Stanley Cup to this bar in Pittsburgh. And there must have been, you know, I don't know. Say there's 1,000 people in this bar. There's 950 girls. You know, it's't know. Say there's a thousand people in this bar. There's 950 girls. You know, it's one of those, right?

And not to throw guys, I'd be like, you know, it was a fun time and, you know, then the couple gets passed around and we had house parties. It's a fun time. Don't get me wrong.

Were you there when the infamous... In the pool? In the pool? The year before. So what's the story? They just dove in the pool with the cup. And then ended up getting waterlogged and it sank to the bottom.

Yes. And they couldn't get it out? It's tradition now. So what happens is, and it happened as a coach, because Crosby had a party when we won the last couple cups as assistant coach.

Everybody goes in the pool. Now, the cup didn't go in, but all the guys. So, tradition is the whole team around midnight or 12. You're still partying. All the guys on the team jump in the pool, and that's just tradition. So, we're going to get to that point because you were coach on the second stint with Pitt

when you guys won the cups. In the offseason, you ended up signing with LA after your three-year stint with Pitt and when you guys won the Cups. In the offseason, you ended up signing with L.A. after your three-year stint with the Penguins? Yeah. Yes. Well, I got traded from Pittsburgh to L.A. You got traded. Okay.

Yes. Sorry, that wasn't on mine. That's all right. Yeah. For Luke Robeson. Yeah, I signed with L.A., and that was the time when the bankruptcy with Bruce McDonnell. I mean, you're too young for that stuff.

So it was in transition ownership. Gretzky was there. It was a miserable time. And not so much for me, but the franchise, which had really success, it started to go downhill, and there was that bankruptcy thing with Gretzky and stuff like that. But I'll tell you what, I became real close with Gretz and did a lot of the movie premieres met a lot of good people uh it was a fun time the off ice the fun was fun the on ice

wasn't as great well that's what i was going to ask you about and before we get to the off ice stuff you went from playing with lemieux to gretzky just i mean two of the the greatest forwards of all time yeah probably probably number one and two. What were the similarities that they had and maybe some of the differences where you were surprised by? Both very calm under pressure. Calm in the sense, don't get me wrong, they had the motor running and you could tell,

listen, in the playoffs and stuff, they're going. But I just remember there's certain situations where there's a high pressure situation, I'd watch them and there wasn't a lot of panic. Even the way they drank water was very calm. There wasn't a lot of anxiety to their game, and I think that's why the greats, Gretzky, Lemieux, Michael Jordan, all these guys, Tiger Woods.

They thrived it. Like you said, the heart rate goes down. They're like, this is it. This is what I've done. They can slow the game down before it even starts, and I think it just starts with their mindset. And I still don't know how they do it, but I've seen some big moments,

and those guys just do some terrific, like, unbelievable things. What were some of the fun off-ice things you did? I mean, they had a few crazy men on that team. Marty McSorley. Apparently, he was more popular in Los Angeles than Wayne was. Well, did Marty tell you that? Probably. He didn't specifically,

but maybe people... No, Marty was very popular, but Wayne was... Listen, I'd go with Wayne, shotgun at parties and stuff. I remember... I remember like... I didn't know then,

but Kevin Spacey, the great actor. Yeah, yeah. But he was there and he was like, hey, yeah. He was just really friendly, a good guy and stuff like that. Went to premieres. Best one was Janet picked me up.

Me and my time, a fiance. Hey, we're going to go see a movie. And I remember my girlfriend at the time, fiance, she had her workout stuff. She just worked out. And she goes, well, were we going to a movie? Yeah. I said, no. And she goes, you sure we are?

Yeah. We ended up going to a premiere. Elizabeth Taylor was there. Bette Midler. Henry Winkler, who used to be Fonzie of Happiness. These are older people. You probably, older listeners would know, like Elizabeth Taylor and stuff like that. Who else was there?

It was incredible. So we went to the house, and they get the movies before they come out. was there. It was incredible. So we went to the house and they get the movies before they come out. And this house was like you know, 60,000 square foot place. They have their own movie theaters. So we saw that part of Beverly Hills. It was incredible.

So yeah, so my girlfriend walks in and she's got her like workout stuff and these guys are all, everybody's all dialed up and she, you know. That's probably one of the reasons I got divorced. If you had gym shorts on, you wouldn't have been his face, but women get a little weird about that. Yeah, she was, yeah.

I don't blame her, but I didn't live that down. That's probably why we're divorced now, I guess. Wait, you want us to leave that in or do you want us to edit that out? What, divorced? Yeah. No, no, we're good friends.

She's cool. You don't give a shit, eh? You just, you're like me. You'll just talk and you're not like. I mean, what are you supposed to hide? You gonna get divorced i mean not specific to that but like the way you talk like people say we have a lot of similarities jane don't actually compared us to each other oh is that right but maybe not for some good reasons because he goes uh you come up and be like hey man how you doing and then in the midst of them telling how you're doing i would

walk away but not oh well not on purpose just because we're space cadets i'm not a space cadet but i do i will tell you what's on my mind you know like and as even as a coach or a player like that's the one thing i i feel players if you're just if you're just normal around like what's the big you don't have to i don't have to sit there in a chair and say i'm the head coach and you sit there and you know i'm this almighty yeah you know it's having a conversation. I play the game. I know the game. I think I know how to win. I think I like my system.

I like what type of players I'm on. I think I get communication. And you just work your way with a player that way. I think that's the best way. I don't think there's any other way of me talking down to a player. Okay, so transitioning that into a player, obviously where there would be conflict and stuff, was it frustrating for you when you had a teammate

who wasn't great at communicating and talking things through? Because it's, you know... Yeah, I mean, I wasn't a quiet guy. The four games I liked, even today, I hate, I'll be honest with you, today's player, the one thing I do hate, I love him, but the one thing I do hate is I don't like that freaking music going on right till you get out there.

Like, I don't understand, how do you communicate and i and i and i just turn a blind i let them you know i tell oh yeah i'm not going to make a big deal of it but before a game at least five times before you get out there i want to talk to my team hey boys let's be ready whether it's a joke like whether you're telling me they listen right before warm-up now right before because because when i was playing here with the donor would say guys cut the music off at a certain time where i would say about you know 10 to 15 minutes before we walked out the door to go for warm-up no music see i like see i would like that yeah but the players like it right to warm up and we did in pittsburgh they do it everywhere so i'm not gonna listen i i have arguments with other former players about this, that they're not coaches.

Like, yeah, you've got to be harder on this, and they should be doing this. And I said, I pick my spots in the fights. Do I really care if the guy's tie's not on or straight? I don't give a shit, Biz. I really don't care. These guys, you dress the way you dress. I mean, obviously, you don't want holes in jeans and stuff. Guys dress really well nowadays.

But I don't care if a guy's tired. I really don't care. But I want him to backtrack But I want him to backtrack. I want him to back check. I want to make sure he goes to the hole. Those are the things I'm going to fight. I don't care about the other stuff. I really don't.

You have things to worry about rather than ties and red jeans. Some somebody's appearance, yeah. Then it was off to Boston. Man, you played with so many legends. You had your Adam Oates there. Cam Neely. Cam Neely. You retired that year I got there.

I mean, just walk me through your time in Boston. I'll tell you what. We played on a line. We actually had a good game, and the poor Cam, he was done. Myself, Adam Oates, and Cam Neely were on the line. So I remember Steve Casper was our coach, and he said, do you want to play left wing? I said, damn right I'll play.

I'll play whatever to play those two guys. And I actually, when I got traded to Boston, I played with, and poor Nick Camp retired halfway through the year. But I played with Otsi. I scored like, I scored 31 goals in like, I don't know how many games, like 50 games. I had a great, really good year that year playing with Otsi. He really set me up a lot.

That was a fun time. So other than Gretzky, would you say he was the second best playmaker or Mario? Mario had a hand. Yeah. Yeah. It's Mario and Gretz. And then, I mean, both of them like one, one, one, and one, one. Right. And then after that, it's everybody else, but Otsu was good. Don't get me wrong. He was a hell of a passer. Uh, Ray Bork. I mean, he was a legend in Boston. Well, I mean, what was he like? He was a tank. He was a tank. He was just a, you know, he used to walk around. You know, I remember getting there, you know, it didn't really bother me.

He walked around naked to put his stuff on. He had those big legs and he used to walk. And actually, Steve Leach used to do an imitation of Croag Magnog Man or whatever. You know, when you form into a human being and you do this whole procession. I'd never seen anything like it. It was the funniest thing ever. But Ray was a bull, man. 30 minutes every night. Practice the next day an hour.

He was an incredible specimen for sure. That's one thing that I'm sure doesn't happen as much anymore in the locker room is guys ripping on each other. Yeah. Actually, I got to admit, what I like about the team I'm sure doesn't happen as much anymore in the locker room is guys ripping on each other. Yeah, it's a little. Actually, I got to admit, what I like about the team I'm coaching now, these guys are really close, and I feel the Japan, not to the extent that when we played, it was deadly back then.

Somebody told me a story recently. I don't know if you were involved, but somebody took a shit in a pizza box and put the pizza box in the stall. Yeah, I mean, that's normal. That was just par for the course back then? Yeah, I mean, one guy, he's in the shower, he pees in the air, he catches it in his mouth, and he spits it at you. Oh, my. I'm not going to mention the guy, but yeah, some of the stuff that went down,

yeah, it wouldn't happen nowadays, no chance. Oh, there'd be full-on, I mean, yeah, especially like bullying and all that type of type of stuff people take things very seriously yeah for sure um but but i can't spit urine in people's faces not nowadays no i don't think you know i don't think you want to be doing that stuff nowadays but no i i the japan biz um yeah not as not as bad as it used to be, for sure. And then it was off to Phoenix. Phoenix Coyotes, man. So fucking, we're almost at the end of your career. Kachuk and Roenick.

And, you know, Donor. I might as well dive into it now because those are a few of the guys that I texted. So these are their comments and maybe stories to tee up. Okay. So this is from Donor. Ask him about Brad Smith. They called him the bird dog.

Greg Smith. Greg Smith. Okay. So Greg Smith is bird dog. So Greg Smith, and that's this, so I'm with the Flyers. He was a rookie.

This is my seventh year. And Greg Smith, great guy. Rest in peace. I mean, he passed away, I think a year or two ago. But he, he was a tough guy, and we told him they have toll bridges going into Philly from New Jersey.

They have this toll bridge. And they said, hey, you're a flyer. You don't pay. What do you do? You just yell in the basket, you know, where you put the money in the baskets. You just yell flyers, and the arm will go up. So he's there, and he was with another rookie, and it's confirmed the story. So he goes up to the toll guy, I mean, to the manual thing, and the arm will go up. So he's there and he was with another rookie and it's confirmed the story. So he goes up to the toll guy, or I mean to the manual thing and yells in the basket, flyers.

Well, the arm doesn't go up. Flyers. So now everybody's honking. It's Philly, right? People are, you know, get the fuck going or whatever, screaming at him. You know, he's giving everybody the finger. Now he's causing a ruckus. Now the manager, one of the toll guys comes over and goes, what's going on? He goes, I'm with the flyers. Open this thing up. I just yelled in the finger. Now he's causing a ruckus. Now the manager, one of the toll guys comes over and goes, what's going on?

He goes, I'm with the Flyers. Open this thing up. I just yelled in the basket. He goes, I don't care who you play for. You got to put, at that time, a 75 cents or a dollar. You got to put a dollar in. He goes, what's your badge number?

I'm going to tell Ed Snyder, who was our owner, I'm going to tell Ed Snyder, who are you? He started screaming at the guy. There's a big ruckus. Bobby Clark had to call down to calm things down.

He was like, there's a big lineup behindus bobby clark had to call down to calm things down he was like there's a big lineup behind like uh you know uh he wouldn't leave until they put the arm up so anyways that's the jokes we used to do something like that so he came in the ring did he snap on the guy yeah yeah yeah he was a rookie he's not gonna snap too hard because we had dave brown some big guys there but uh yeah so that he's right donor that's a story i told the boys he also mentioned this when the time the the league added an assist to his total from like six years before. So when I got traded there or assigned as a free agent, Kachuk and Roenick, I'm sitting on the bench, and every other game it's like,

please add an assist to number 97, Jeremy Roenick, and number 7, Keith Kachuk. And I'm going, are you guys buddies with this guy? Like I'm looking at Walt. are you guys buddies with this guy? Like, I'm looking at Walden. Are you winking at this guy? So most of the games, I'd bust their balls, right? You guys lead the league in added assists. Like, what's going on?

Are you taking this guy out, the time-taker guy, for beers or what? So Walden, we get to embarrass himself. But I still think to this day they got Rich Nairn to say that the league called in and said, add an assist to Rick Tockett six years later. I think it's still a joke. They said it's not. So what they did is Rick Tockett got an assist added six years. I had assists like six years before that.

So that's what donors basically said. Did they actually add one on? They say they did, but I think they put Rich up to it. I still to this day don't know if it's true or not. Okay, so this one might get intense and you might not like it. He goes, ask him about pulling up his socks up over his pants. He might not tell that one on air, and he might be a little annoyed it's even mentioned.

Is that Donor? Yeah. No, Donor will never annoy me. I shit my pants. So what happened was I was with Kevin Stevens, a buddy of mine, his buddies. We were all out of the playoffs and you know so we went out went out all night drinking whatever uh eating

um and i remember at the time uh and i was sober at the time it's true so it's like 7 a.m i dropped kevin off those guys in ducksbury and he let he gave me his car because i lived at boston at the time and this is the 95 i think to Boston, whatever that highway is. And there's a lot of construction and there was no way to get off. And I had to go, Biz. And I had no other choice. So I told the boys, I rolled up my socks over my jeans, and I basically sat in my poop for a half hour.

And that's a true story. And I had to get to my condo somehow with all the work crowd coming through and I made it up, but it was embarrassing. I just think it's funny how you rolled your socks up over your jeans

as if it was going to come out. It's smart though, right? Yeah, I guess. Like think of it smart as bad that situation is. What made you think to do that? Well, I just, you know, I'm sitting there and I go,

I'm thinking of the worst possible thing. Don't get stopped by a cop. Don't get in an accident. Like, I'm thinking of the worst things. Pull your socks up, right? Keep the damage to the minimum. I don't know. I like that.

He has some great commercials he did in Philly. Yeah, I did. Yeah, I did a McDonald's commercial. Did you have the flow back then? Had the flow, yep. Were you seen as like a handsome guy, like a ladies' man? I mean, yeah. I mean, like, you know, I'm going to call myself handsome,

but, you know, I did okay. I mean, we had a young team, so there was a lot of young girl following our team back then, for sure. What's the scuba diving thing in Washington? Oh, Shane Doan. I'm a right-winger. Shane Doan's a right-winger. Donor's on the ice.

I'm following him. Well, Donor, for some, likes to take the long shifts. Oh, yeah. He can go forever. He can go forever. So now he comes off. I go on. There's a whistle.

I'm coming off, right? The whole line's coming off. So I was busting Donor's a whistle I'm coming off right the whole line's coming off so I was busting Doner's balls I go I call him Scuba Steve I don't know

there's a cartoon Scuba Steve and I did this whole scene of a scuba guy doing the you know going back and I did it in the dressing room

on a cooler and it's funnier the way I did it and the guys lost it before the game it was one of the funniest things ever so that's why Doner loved it did Doner go all red it before the game. It was one of the funniest things ever. So that's why Donor loved it.

Did Donor go all red face? Yeah, Donor was red. Donor was red. He kind of, you know, Donor that smile and laugh. He's so nice. He goes, talk. He's a nice guy.

Talk, I'm sorry. I'm like, you know, I'm joking around but I'm really not joking around because I'm a veteran there. I'm like, hey, Donor, get the fuck off the ice. You're out there for a minute. Like, let's keep at least a 40, 45 seconds.

Who ran the show in the dressing room? Who was always on? Who was the jester? Was Roenick the guy? If you're talking about japping, and Pittsburgh was pretty ruthless, but Murders Row, it was Keith Kachuk, JR, Dallas Drake, myself, and any time somebody walked in their room, he got it. Jimmy McKenzie, who was one of the toughest guys in the league,

Jimmy Mack was a great guy. Jimmy Mack, there was two doors at the America Arena. He would go in the other door, so he wouldn't want to make eye contact with us because it was a pretty good. Was he still young at the time? Is that why? Jimmy Mack? Yeah, he was young, but he was a tough guy, but he was still nervous.

He's the one who has an absolute massive wrench. Yeah. Like a donor told me it's like a baby's arm holding an apple yeah don't donor donor told a story in the pod uh i don't know if he made us take it out i'm pretty sure it got kept in but he like he like had to do a double take where he like faked the first time he ever saw he had to like fake to go back to get something to be like, there's no way I just saw something. That was like a shadow or something. Yeah, I mean, Jimmy Mack, that's all I can tell you. And then his daughter listens to the podcast and then ran into Whitney and goes, now I got to hear about my old man's wrench. Oh, man.

He mentioned one more thing about Bergdahl. Is it Greg Smith? Greg Smith, yeah. He had a tough couple years in Philly. There's a story about a guy pulling a knife on him. So actually it was him and Craig Berube. They were in Montreal, actually. They were coming home, and a guy pulls a knife on those guys.

And Chief, probably one of the toughest guys I've ever played with, who has a chance to win the Stanley Cup as a coach, great guy. He's with Bird Dog. Okay, okay, buddy, take it easy. We're out of here. He looks at Bird Dog. Bird Dog starts wrapping his suit coat around his arm, starts swinging at the guy.

Okay, buddy, you want to go? Let's go. And he's swinging his arm at the guy. And Chief's like, holy jeez, this guy's crazy. Oh, yeah, Greg Smith was swinging his thing, and the guy dropped the knife and ran. True story in Montreal. Was he as crazy on the ice?

Yeah, yeah, he was crazy. I mean, you know, he thought he wanted a lot more fights than he did, but he would fight. But he was a great personality for a dressing room. So we got to thank Shane Doan. He brought some heat there for me. That was a couple good stories. I like to bring some heat on Donor, but, you know.

Okay. No, I can't. Donor's a good man. Save it for the end. This one was from Walt. That bug-eyed bastard played golf with talk. He uses a hubcap for a ball marker. Yeah, I knew Walt was going to say that.

He says I marked the ball two, three feet ahead. That's big, Walt. Okay, so, which is funny because uh louis de brus asked uh or had you wanted you to tee up a story about golfing with jr and how he would always find his ball 10 feet jr found it you know jr would hit one actually jim i got him jr's a great golfer though he's a really good golfer but back then jr would be like he hit a ball you know from you know from north scottsdale to south scottsdale and he'd be like uh let'd hit a ball from North Scottsdale to South Scottsdale, and he'd be like, let me go find it.

We'd be in the fairway or whatever, and then we'd hear all of a sudden, found it! And he'd hit it at the same time he said, found it, and it was on the green. So that was the story about J.R., and he used to take a bad rap with that, the old throwing the ball down. Yeah, so that's where Louie's going with that one. It's kind of like the Hubcap ball marker yeah but that wasn't true though well i never marked the ball i actually ran into walt recently and he said he won't he won't play a golf round that's over two and a half hours if you're longer than that he won't golf yeah well if you if you if you set up

a shot or set up a putt more than like like 10 seconds, he'll walk right off the course. Yeah. Which is, I mean, that's like a, I need at least a couple practice swings. Well, listen, here's my thing. I played a lot of golf with Mary Lemieux back in Pittsburgh. Those guys play, we play a foursome. We play it three hours and 10 minutes. That's quick. Three hours and 10 minutes is quick.

And I think that's the way golf should be played anyways, me personally. I just don't like four-and-a-half-hour runs. I know where Walt's coming from. Plus, he wants to get in the bar. You know, that's the halfway house. Well, I'm shooting 120 shots, so it'll definitely take at least four hours. These ones are from Louis DeBrus. Since we're already on this topic before we get into your coaching career.

So Louis DeBrus fought you. Kelly Bookberger told him to grind him up all game. He was in pit playing with Lemieux. Bookie said he doesn't fight anymore. He's a goal scorer. He had 48 or 49 tucks that year. So I abused him for two periods, and he snaps first shift of the third. He hit me with so many lefts, I begged for a right.

Learned a valuable lesson that day don't grab a tiger even an older one that that uh by the tail yeah yeah it was uh it's a true story actually Louie came back though uh Louie grabbed me and he threw a good haymaker and kind of missed me we fell down but uh Louie's one of my close friend, great guy. But, yeah, he was all game, grinding me, grinding me, and I did snap. I snapped. And he also said to tell, he was asking about the special stick that you used to use on the penalty kill. A little bit harder, a little firmer stick.

You used to switch your stick? Once in a while. Was it a big wood one? Yeah. And you used to just cross check guys? That and a couple other things, yeah. Yeah. You know, yeah.

So you were going for the illegal curve stick to score. You were going for it. Well, back then you could whack a little bit more, right? You could cross-check a little bit more. So, you know, why not use that to your advantage? And, you know, you know what hurts? That cross-check right above the bicep right here. I have a cyst on my arm from a cross-check in that area.

Where the shoulder pad and the elbow pad don't meet. Exactly. And that's the area you wanted back then for sure, 100%. Some tips for you youngsters out there if they ever go back to the old style of playing from Rick Talkett here. You used a term this year that he really liked, and you actually used it on uh on air calling players sticky he's a sticky player what's what's the the background behind that um i just i just like that

term you go in the corner you know in that puck and you try to get it's it's just sticks to the guy you don't know how he's doing it but why is that puck always you know crosby's a sticky player like he's the ultimate sticky player like it finds it finds him. Jarme Jarger, sticky. Yeah, they know how to position their body. They know where the pressure's coming from. You know, even when the puck rolls off their stick, somehow it gets back on their stick. I like sticky players. We need more of those guys.

You know, you look at today's playoffs right now, the team that has puck possession usually wins the game, you know, or has most of the chances. You know, that puck possession's huge. Just don't throw that puck away. Be a sticky player. Come out of the puck with it or at least create some stalemates so you can have some help come in and help you in.

Interesting. I'm going to probably steal that for our broadcast. All right? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Anytime, man. I'm actually going to have them remove this part, and I'm going to start using it. And when you say it in an interview, I'm going to be like,

talk stole that from me. Last one from the boys. This one's from JR. Ask about when I hid in his locker and scared the shit out of him. Yeah, so JR was a prankster. Another great guy, like a great locker room guy. So JR would go in the locker. You know, you open your locker, you put your suit.

You know, he's in my locker. You know, he must have been in there for 10, 15 minutes because I remember I was getting a coffee. I was talking to the trainers, and he was in there for so long. He's like, when's this guy coming? Then he came out, and he just screamed. And he got you? Yeah, he got me pretty good. Really good, actually.

Scared the hell out of me. Would you give him a little shot? Well, no, the coffee went flying. Did Jared tell you? The coffee went flying on my suit. Oh, yeah. It went everywhere. The coffee went flying on my suit.

A little pissed off, but, I mean, hey, that's part of the hijinks in a locker room. So you ended up going back to Philly to finish off your career. Bit of a different scene there. All of a sudden, you had those big boys, like the Legion of Doom. Yeah. And, you know, what was it like playing with those guys? You know, all of a sudden, you're deteriorating. Was it frustrating not being able to accomplish the things on the ice that you had been in the past

different role right Ben's different role and I tell older players this so you come to a crossroads right I'm 38 Justin Williams Simone Gagne they're taking my job so am I going to be that grumpy veteran that's going to be an asshole to those guys or am I just going to

embrace it and go you know what boys you're going to have to take my job I'm going to work even harder to this day like Justin was a real close friend of mine or Simone Gagne like if you talk to those guys I hung out with those guys I remember took those guys out of my wing I love hanging with those guys and they took my job that's just the way it was but I had to be a different type of teammate you know I had to be that veteran guy if I didn't play I didn't play something I learned and I try to be a different type of teammate. I had to be that veteran guy. If I didn't play, I didn't play. Something I learned. And I try to tell these older guys that are maybe at the end of their career,

but they can still be a valuable guy. Don't be that grumpy, pissed-off guy, the rookie this, rookie that. Look at Char the other day. I don't know if you saw his interview. Oh, he's awesome. I mean, I really enjoyed that. And he's slowing down a bit. And we have to be a little bit critical on the podcast because we have to speak our mind and tell it how it is.

But, oh, man, just the comments about his leadership and how important everything else is to him. But he said, the first-year player, we treat him just like normal. And listen, you're going to have some young guys that are cocky and they don't know the rules early, and you might have to show them somehow. And I was taught in practice, you know, if a guy's cocky, this is where you can kind of make sure you're on those one-on-one drills, play a little harder against the guy.

That's the way you can teach kids. And talk to them, you know. But I do like Char, what he said. And I tried to do that rule when I was in Philadelphia during my career. Yeah, and he's setting a great example with the off i stopped working out how he how he eats just just everything he's a total package and and although he's deteriorating a little bit just having around just rubs off on all these younger guys where they're gonna end up taking in those habits and not to get into the coyotes just yet as far as the coaching standpoint but i feel like

jarmoson's that type of guy where, you know, he's got those experiences, those cups. He knows what it takes to win, but off the ice, he just like the way he dresses, presents himself, the way he speaks to people, the way he works out, how he – Very, very professional guy. Low maintenance. Low maintenance.

You know, 11 o'clock probably we're going to do it. Okay, this is what we're going to do. Now, don't get me wrong, and I've tried to – tried to and you know i think he was a little nervous around me maybe i intimidated him or something but i told him if you feel we can change something they like hey talk maybe we should have practice this time or can we do this i welcome that and he's he's been a lot better with that with me i think he's more you know like some trailers are scared to talk to you right because you maybe you're intimidating them. I don't know.

I don't want to intimidate them. I want them to come up with a good – if you've got a good answer or a good way of doing things, come up to me. I have no problem with it. Just make sure that you have good bullets. That's all I'm asking. Yeah. No, and that's probably nice to have some veterans around that you can communicate with because you need to know what the other guys want as well,

the guys who might be a little too afraid to come up and say something yeah of course um so you got right into coaching in colorado as an assistant did you did you always knew come know coming out of your career that you wanted to do that i didn't when i retired i want to take some time off i want to just do my thing and then about around january pure i i you know i you know i i need structure in my life and i just said i mean i i gotta do something so uh pier Pierre Lacroix called me, Tony Granato, in January, and I went as an assistant coach. Tony took over as head coach there, and, man, look at the team we had. Peter Forsberg, Joe Sackick, Alex Tange, Hayduke, Rod Blake, Adam Foote.

I mean, that team was a hell of a team. So I got to learn to work with some star players as a 39-year-old 39, I think, at the time or 40, whatever. So that really, I enjoyed that. That kind of helped me progress into the coach of learning how to deal with star players.

Man, that is crazy how many people that you've been associated with through your hockey career and coaching. I mean, like, just Patrick Waugh. I mean, like, just legend. Oh, Patrick Waugh. I mean, Jesus, Patrick Waugh was our goalie. Was it difficult keeping the separation of maybe not hanging out with these guys off the ice?

Because, you know, you were a player. They probably respected you. You know, you'd played over 1,000 games. They knew who you were. Did you hang out with them off the ice a little bit? You know what? It's not like I hung with them. Like if I was in a restaurant or a bar, at the bar or there,

I wouldn't run out of there. I mean, I'd have a beer with a guy or I'd talk to the guy or sit there for 15, 20 minutes. But it's not like I'm, you know, hey, boys, where are we going? I didn't do that. But I just don't, you know, I just think they respect you if you just become normal, if you're normal. I don't think you have to have that persona that you've got to separate the coach and the player.

Obviously, they understand. The players are smart nowadays. They know what's going down. So, yeah, I mean, I just was normal around players, whether as a head coach or as a player. You had a small stint as an assistant with Gretzky when he was in Phoenix. Obviously, you'd play with him. We don't really need to dive into that too much.

I'm more concerned about you went on to Tampa, you were an assistant under Barry Melrose, then he ended up getting fired early on in the one season, and you ended up taking over as head coach. Yeah, early on. That was weird. Oren Koul taking over as head coach. Yeah, early on. That was a weird time. Oren Koulis and Lenny Baer were the new owners there. It didn't work out.

The ownership didn't work out. It was kind of a little bit of a shit show there, and that was my first head coaching stint. So the one thing I did hang my hat on, I really enjoyed working with Marty St. Louis, a great guy, Steve Stamkos. My first full year as a coach, he scored 50 goals for me. I mean, he was great.

I actually put him, Steve Downey, and Marty St. Louis, that line was great for me. We were actually really, I remember at the All-Star break, we were seven games over.500 with that team, and I was really proud of it. And then some shit happened. We changed coaches. I had a little disagreement with Brian Lott and the GM. Things just didn't turn out well. Then I ended up

getting fired. Your relationship with Stamkos, he passed the milestone, I think, is what? Leading point for the Tampa Bay franchise. Sure as shit, Phoenix was playing against Arizona.

He ended up pointing to you. That relationship, being from For Tampa Bay, sure as shit, Phoenix was playing against him in Arizona. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he ended up pointing to you. That relationship, being from Barry Melrose, making those comments as the kid not being ready, and then you taking over, just talk me through that. What was that relationship like, and how did it grow? The hardest part for me was I did want Stammer to play every game. When I took over, I remember I said, you know what, and I had to sit him down.

He was a competitive kid. You know, he's a star player, right, all through his life. And I said, listen, I want you to play like around two of every three games. Some of the games I want you to work out with Gary Roberts. At Luxury, I had Gary Roberts on our team, you know, a guru, right? Another legend. Great guy, right? Rob's just a great guy.

And I talked to Rob's about this. He guy, right? Rob's just a great guy. And I talked to Rob's about this. He goes, I got him. I got him. And so I just, I remember Stanward play and he ended up scoring a bunch of goals down the stretch. He got stronger, his confidence, he scores 50 the next year. So I think it was a tough pill for him to swallow. I knew his dad back then too. He's a family friend. Great, great dad. Great guy. I love him. Great family, right? And you know, the rest is history. So we have a good relationship, me and Stan guy. I love him. Yeah, he's also a great family. Great family, right? And the rest is history. So we have a good relationship, me and Stan. I've lost touch, obviously, because you're coaching

and I'm doing my whole thing, but definitely one of my favorite players. Did you have any funny stories about Bugsy Malone? We have him on the podcast sometimes. He's a ladies' man, good-looking guy, likes to have a good time. Yeah, Bugsy likes to have maybe a little bit too much good time. I'll tell you what, I really like Bugsy,

and I don't think he really cares if I share this. I was hard on him. He played some games to me, and I'm going, man, this guy is a two-way. This guy's one of the best two-way players in the league for me. And I remember then some games he just wasn't there. Whether he was partying or not, I don't know. You know, to be honest, maybe he partied too hard, I don't know. And I remember I was hard on him.

And we went at it. He didn't really go back at it with me, but I went at him pretty hard. And I remember we had an alumni golf tournament four or five years ago, and I saw Bugsy, and Bugsy goes, talk, you were right. You know, I wish I'd listened to you a little bit more. Because Bugsy was a good freaking hockey player. I still think there was another level there, and I think that if he was just a little more serious,

I think he could have been a lot better hockey player than he is. But he is a good hockey player, and we had a little bit of a run in, sure. But I love Bugsy. Great guy. You had LeCavalier there, too. What a stud. Vinny, yep. Vinny used to have that Lamborghini parked out in front of the bus.

Then you, I mean, we got to talk about your time in Pittsburgh. I've gotten about 50 messages about asking about Phil Kessel, so we will get to him. You talked about the experience that you got early on as an assistant, coaching those stars and just seeing how to manage them because Bob Hartley was the coach at that time. I imagine that he was probably a little harder than what you would have been as a head coach.

But you go over to Pittsburgh and you have these teams that are just stacked and you have Crosby and Geno very similar to the Lemieux and Yager. Letang. Letang. What was it like? Probably one of the most, obviously, when you win two cups, it's unreal.

Mike Sullivan came as a head coach, good friend of mine. I really learned a lot under him. And then I learned a lot out of the players. I really think the players look at you and they test you, right? They're asked questions and they want you.

You better have some answers for these guys. Sidney Crosby asked you a question about a face-off play or this. You better have some legit answers. And sometimes I go, Sid, I don't know, man. I don't know about this. Like I go and he goes, what about this? He would text me or call me at night, 9 o'clock, and say, hey, Toc, what do you think about this face-off play?

And I go, Sid, I haven't seen it yet, but I'll make sure in the morning. I got there early, and I made sure I looked at this. I want to make sure I have an answer for Sidney Crosby. Fabulous guy to work with, by the way. I had an unreal time. He made me a better coach, for sure. Unreal guy. I really, really enjoyed coaching him.

Gino's a little different, isn't he? Gino, early on, I wanted to kill him. I didn't really get along with Gino early. My personality, I don't know why. He's an awesome guy deep down. So saying that, I remember, and I don't share this story very often, but he communicated, but not really much with me. And were playing florida and and four and four is man on man and the game before gino lost his man they scored a goal and it happened twice before on the road trip and we're playing florida same thing happened so sully yells talk will you tell him get him so gino comes to the bench and i and i don't yell as assistant coach i don't believe

assistant coach should yell that's for that you're more of a friend more friends with the well or just whatever i believe if the head coach is an asshole, then you can be a good guy. If the head coach is being a real good guy, then you can maybe be an asshole. Don't be the same as head coach. That's what I think as assistant coach. Anyways, Gino comes off, and I go to talk to him. And he basically MFs me in Russian, like basically snaps on me. Whoa.

I'll tell you what. I've never lost it in my life like I did, Biz, in all the coaching, 15 years of coaching. On the bench? I snapped at him. I'm not going to tell you what I said to him, but it wasn't nice. But my favorite part of this whole thing, I was snapped at him. He sat there

and I gave it to him. Sully goes, talk, take it easy. And I didn't take it easy. And then Kessel looks at me and goes, talk. I got him. Don't worry. Leave my center. He was joking around. Leave my center alone. I go, Hey, Kessel, you fuck off too.

And he goes, What did I do wrong? What did I do wrong? So he actually, Kessel did a good job of diffusing the whole situation. Next day, Gino come up to me. We were practicing. Hey, coach. Sorry, coach. You still talk to me.

I said, Gino'll i'll go to bat war with you man you're a hell of a player and since that day i love gino like it you know there's just a little bit of thing we had to go through but um man he wants him he played some great games for the penguins that kid he he's a bit of a bully but similar mentality to keenan where if you go back at him i think he has more respect for you i I believe that. And I mean, I got along with him very well. Yeah. Funny guy. Funny guy, too.

He does it in a comical way. He'll come up to the front of the line. He'll be like, get to the back of the line. Yeah. And take your puck away. Yes. He'll call you by your number instead of your name. Yes.

Now, I've also heard from other guys that they used to sit him down at rookie parties halfway through the year. True story. And then name the guy. He didn't know Connor Shuri's name. Brian Rust didn't know his name. I mean, we just won the cup the year before with these guys. And they had a rookie party.

Sid had them go up front. Who's him? What's his name? What's his first name? Connor Shuri. Shurzis. Shurzis. What's his first name?

I don't know. Rusty. Rusty. Didn't know his name. So he'd laugh. And, oh, Scherzies, Scherzies. That's it. What's his first? I don't, I don't know. Rusty, Rusty didn't know his name. So he'd laugh and, and, oh yeah. Um, he might not even know my name today.

Gino probably doesn't know Rick Talkett. He just calls me talk. I think it's funny, but yeah. Oh yeah. But great. Obviously, I mean,

he's a hall of fame. You know, he is a top hundred player. Come on. Um, but Gino's a great guy. Great guy. Uh,

your relationship with Phil Kessel. So many people want stories of Phil Kessel because you guys had a good time together. One story I got to ask you about in particular is before, I think it was game six or seven in the Washington series, and they were playing sewer ball. Oh, chin-ups.

Okay, so I'll let you take it over. Yeah, so I got my suit on, and I got my suit on. This is before what game and what series? Game seven, playing Washington Capitals, game seven. In the second series? Second series. You know, it was a hell of a series. It could go either way.

And guys were playing, doing their ball. Some guys are stretching. Some guys have their headphones. You know, where Washington's rink, there's a lot of action. So Phil sits on the trainer's thing. He's talking to me. He's giving it to me about something. What's the game plan tonight, Toc?

What's your coach's got going on tonight? What are we supposed to... He did that, right? Joking around and I said, you know, Kes, blah, blah, blah. I go, Kes, if I played nowadays, I'd just bury you. He goes, you're not that tough. You're not that strong. I said, I could, in my suit He goes, you're not that tough. You're not that strong. I said, I could, in my suit right now, do 15 chin-ups right now in my suit. And I go, how much?

I said, I think it was $300 or $500 or whatever. I said, whatever you want to bet, Phil. I'll bet you $500. So all of a sudden, he's going, come on, boys, get over here. Talk's going to do it. So all of a sudden, all the guys come around, and I actually did 16 chin-ups. Get the fuck out of here cold with a suit on. Suit on.

So Phil takes off, comes back, and peels off 500s. So I made 500 bucks. Went in the coach's room and went back to the power play meeting. And then you guys ended up winning the game. We ended up winning the game, yeah. Do you think that lightened the mood a little bit? I don't know. I mean, that's the stuff that I enjoy certain players.

That team needed personality, and Phil brought that. I mean, it was a very serious group before he got there. And Phil lightened the load. I've got to give him a lot of credit. He did bring a personality to that room. Do you have any other funny Phil Kessel stories? Because people were just absolutely begging for him. Well, Phil's, like I said, Phil, I'd come in the morning and, you know,

Sully would say, can you talk to Phil about something? So I remember, Phil, come on, let's go in the office, let's talk. And he hated going in the office and watching video. But don't get me wrong, very student of the game, you just had to approach him different ways. And I remember talking to Phil and, you know, he's bitching about something and he, I let him vent or whatever he was bitching about. And I'm like, well, you know, Phil, we got to make sure this, this and that. And he's going, ah, talk, whatever. And then all of a sudden I'd change the subject, right? I go, Hey, Phil,

I said, uh, you see that a world series of poker? Did you see that guy make that move? He had the aces or whatever on the flop. And I, he knows poker better than I do. And he goes, did you see that play? He goes, oh, yeah, did you see that play? He should have done this. He should have done it. So I diverted the tension to what we were talking about. And then I go, I got to go. Sully, we have a meeting right now.

And he'd get up. And then I go, hey, Phil, just make sure in practice we do this. Make sure in the one-on-one drills. He goes, yeah, yeah, no problem, no problem. And he'd walk out. So basically, Phil, if you talk about some stuff, he doesn't want to talk hockey 24-7. He wants to talk about some other stuff, right? But if you can incorporate the hockey in there,

you're going to get his full attention. So you talk about poker, then bring it back to the hockey, and then talk about something else. Yeah, yeah. But Phil's a student of the game. He gets a bad rap. Phil Kessel's not a bad guy to coach. Everybody thinks he's a coach killer.

He's not. Mike Sullivan's one of the best coaches in the league, and Phil Kessel's a hell of a hockey player. So they're both doing something right. So a lot of the stories aren't true, and some stories could be true, but I know for one thing, both those guys won us cups. I want to get to Arizona Coyotes. You get hired as head coach,

and maybe your first stint didn't go as well as expected were you were you nervous getting the job and then right away that your first season it was a rough start oh and 10 right you guys didn't win a game in regulation the first 20 20 21 games of the season or whatever no what are you talking about we see biz you didn't do the homework we whatever it was. What are you talking about? See, Biz, you didn't do the homework. We beat Philly in over – oh, you're saying over – In regulation. No, but we won after that. In regulation?

Are you sure? I think it was 20 or 22 games or something like that. Then I'm worse than I thought. Oh, my God, buddy. And talk a quick story here for all you people listening. So this is my first year doing radio. And, you know, I'm still choppy and I'm not great i'm not very polished sure and it's my first year separation from the game i still got a lot of buddies on the team well it was a tough start and i'm trying to stroke

these guys off as much as possible but there ain't much to stroke off about when you're when you haven't won a game in regulation 20 games in the year that's a tough job so we go into philly and it's like we're gonna get our first win in regulation. We're up 2-0. 3-0? No, 2. It was 2. You've got to maybe do your fucking Google homework.

2-0. Do you want to bet my 500, the Phil Kessel 500? I'll bet you 500 bucks. It was 2-0, and then they tied it, and we won 3-2 in overtime on an Alex Goligosky goal. Oh, I better not. They scored. You know this. Okay. So no bet? No bet. Goligosky goal. Oh, I better not. They scored. I'm back and off, and you know this.

Okay. So no bet? No bet. Your memory's better. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Wow.

I'll call the payment you coming on the podcast. Okay. So they score one, and I'm like, oh, whatever. There's no way they're going to score two. And they end up fucking tying it up with, I think, like 15, 20 seconds left. And I couldn't even call the goal because they started the season had gone so poorly and I I just froze up on the radio and I was like I go guys I don't even know what to say heater I I I'm freezing up right now and it was uncomfortable but lucky enough Alex Goligosky

ended up getting set up I think by Clayton Keller and we won the game in overtime so back to you in that start that must have been hell. Well, it was hell, but I give John Cheyke a lot of credit. After the losses were piling up, he came up to me after a game and he said, don't change a thing. I love your system. I love the way things are going. The results aren't there.

And I remember when he gave me that, usually GM's like, hey, we were losing a lot of games. Remember we'd be up 2-1 and they would score 2 goals? We would be out shooting teams by 10. And we'd lose, right? Because we just don't know how to win. We had a lot of young guys. I understand that. But when John said that to me,

Treyka, it really gave me a confidence boost to stick with it. GM could have said, hey, what are you doing? When we're up, go to 1-4, dump the puck out, do this, do that. And then you're questioning yourself. You know, why are you overplaying, start overplaying a guy. Don't play this guy. Don't play this young guy in these situations.

He never said that one time, and I think that was the reason why we have turned things around here is because the leadership group from up top, he's done a nice job of really galvanizing and letting me do my job was that communicated early on where where it's going to be more conversational because he's he's fairly analytical analytically based and even to to use this year as a reference when the um the trade deadline came up you guys had a conversation about whether you're going to buy or sell, and you like the chemistry.

So it seems as if, though, he's very receptive to your ideas and what you want to say. Yeah, John's a very, very level-headed guy. You know, analytics, big analytics, but doesn't shove it down my throat. I'm a little bit more of a heated guy after a game. You know, we're in the coaching room, I'm a little pissed off that we lost. You a game we're in the coach room a little pissed off

we lost, we gotta get this guy to do this and John, he sits there and very calm we might lose 6-0, it's a very calm guy, we win 6-0 he's not ordering the rings and I think that really helps the chemistry of our room

because you can't have all five rick tockets, I mean we're ripping the walls down after a game where you have to have those guys that have some common sense. So we talk about stuff. I probably talk to John at least twice a day just about, you know, he's always looking. He's always looking to get better. And he knows that, you know, sometimes he's got his hands tied, you know,

and I respect the fact he'll tell me, we've got to go this route, we can't do this route because of this, and I understand that. So I like the fact that he communicates that with me. Tons of success this year despite all the injuries. I actually voted for you for Coach of the Year. I put you number one. I mean, that's a little biased.

People probably retorch me online for that. All right, I'll give you the 500 now. But based on the man games lost, what we're spending towards the cap, the players you had available that weren't injured, just talk about the year. It was fucking crazy. Yeah.

Never seen anything like it. The knee injuries, and every day, the trainer would come up, well, this guy's out. This guy's three weeks. This guy. I'll be honest. I went home.

This was like, I think, who went down? It might have been Ranta. It could have been Demers and then Schmoltz. Maybe not the Schmoltz because this is what it is. Because Schmoltz came in. He was 17 games, 14 points. You're right. Finally, the power play was going because him and Kels had chemistry

and he had different options. You're right. Things were starting to pick up again. And then when he went down, it was just – I remember going home and I'm like, are you out of your mind? This is – like what the hell did I get? Like what's going on here? I'm like, really?

And I just remember from old coaches and old players and just people that – positive people that I've talked to, people that I talk to today is like, hey, man, get some energy in that rink. Get these guys to practice hard and see what happens. And I got to give – the one thing I get about this team I love is their energy level. Even if we get blown out 6-0 or we win, their next day of practice, I can't – that's the one thing when I came here, Biz, I didn't like the way these guys practiced. There was about a three-, four-month stretch.

I didn't like the way – you know, I told Oliver. Oliver – I love Oliver. We have a great relationship. Early on, I go, Oliver, I didn't like the way i'd you know i told oliver oliver you know i i love oliver we have a great relationship early on i go all i don't like the way this team practices i said you're one of those guys that have to start to pick up the pace um and to this day our team practices hard as anybody i've ever coached or played against for sure um i felt that you know when you started out as coach here um I don't know really what happened. I think Oliver thought he was going to get the C. Yeah. I don't know who wandered away a little bit.

I think that threw him off. Sure. He'd gone through a death in the family. Yeah, exactly. It seems like you maybe didn't have the outmost confidence in him early on, but a light has switched because he had an incredible year last year, played a little bit through injury, and was probably the one guy who did technically stay healthy

and in the lineup who led this team. Yeah, and you know what? You learn a lot about yourself as a coach, how you approach certain players. Oliver's a different type of guy. You know, he's not a yeller and screamer. He's like a chica. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Him and John are very close, so they have the same personality. When I got here, I just wanted to see what's going on here. I didn't want to give out anything, and I just wanted to see what was going on. I don't know if anybody promised. I didn't promise Oliver a captaincy. I don't know who promised him anything, and I think maybe that kind of rubbed the wrong way, and he got off to a bad start.

He wasn't good his first 40 games. We had had a tough time I didn't like the way he practiced and since Christmas of last year not this you know the year that just passed so you know you're talking the last 120 games he's played a very he's played excellent hockey for me and he's and what he's done his last 30 games he's become become the captain that I want. He's been very influential in a lot of stuff that I've got across with some players and I had a meeting with him at the end of this year. I'm not going to divulge into it, but what he said to me in the meeting,

I knew I'd go, this guy's got it. I got him. I got him. He said there's a couple of situations he wished he just did something different as a coach. And I told him, I don't think so. I think he did a good job. But he really believes they could have been forceful on something. And when he said that, I really, it just hit home.

It means he's at home thinking about it and he cares. He cares. And he's like, you know what they did with Oliver? Like, for the number one guy, the number 21 guy on your roster, I don't think a guy could say a bad word. Like, you know, I played the game. I mean, I'm sure some guys on the team had this freaking talk or whatever. It's like Shane Doan.

Everybody likes Shane Doan. Everybody likes OEL. But those guys have to understand. They have the power. Sometimes you might have to rub a guy the wrong way. You might have to tell a guy in practice, or you might have to, on a 1-1 drill, you might have to take this guy in front of the net play hard against him just to show that hey this this is unacceptable

and i think oliver's really got it he really has um you know as a as a worker of the arizona coyotes i'm excited to have you um this team's definitely going in the right direction uh maybe even get a few free agents in here and if you need a fifth line left winger, just let me know. I'll let you put you in contact with my agent, but I want to end things with some fan questions. Okay. Just some quick ones here. Well,

this one, we kind of went over, he said, we'd like to hear about his relationship and development with Stamkos. When Stammer had his TB franchise record goal this year, that's what it was. Yeah, he pointed over. Yeah. He pointed over to him on the opposing bench. It was a very cool moment. So we kind of went over that, but do you guys still

keep in contact today? If I'm in Toronto or something, I actually see his father more than I do Stammer. Because he's in Tampa and I got my thing going, you lose touch. But the good thing about these guys, when you see them,

it's just like you've seen the guy every day. That's one thing I enjoy about that. All right, the next question. Who's the toughest son of a bitch he fought? Well, I'll read it out. Toughest SOB he fought while in Philly. Probably Bob Probert. We've got to give the king there, you know, some kudos. He

was a one tough guy, very tough. Uh, this is kind of a follow-up question. How did he mentally manage to base his game to be physically and offensively beneficial with the point production to the PIMS? Uh, so I would try to use intimidation and there's different ways to intimidate right speed skill physicality fighting whatever and i knew that if i could somehow intimidate hey like i'm going to the net i'm going to be on top of you all night hey i might i might fight you i might do this i might get some extra room i might get that extra tap in or i might get that extra second with the puck um so i use that to my advantage for sure. Very interesting. Favorite memory of Mario and or Jager?

We haven't really talked about Jager much. Jager's a good guy. Jager's. Mario, coming back from cancer, first game in Philly at the Spectrum, heated rivalry, got booed every time he played. They hated him. Standing ovation.

I actually had tears in my eyes because I played in that building, and they're ruthless, right? Great fans, but they gave him a standing ovation. Damn. That's intense. I'm an emotional guy. I'm getting a little emotional right now. Yogg's?

Yogger? Yeah. Going to his 21st birthday party in Pittsburgh. I just got traded there, and I went to it. He invited me, and it was at was at the sports garden i remember that i don't know if uh it was i think the place holds a thousand people and there was actually 900 girls there 951 carls and me i was there um ask him about the time when they were taping Don Cherry's grapevine, him and Marty McSorley almost got into a fight, and it was in Don Cherry's book.

Marty is a good friend. I've lost touch with Marty, and I play with Marty. Talk about a tough son of a bitch. Talk about a great teammate. But Marty is one of those guys who knows everything, and I kind of called him out, and he didn't like that. I don't think it was too serious man it wasn't i wasn't serious but you know i don't think don dressed it up a little bit john dressed it up a bit yeah yeah um next one

why the hell did he wear a jofa bucket in pittsburgh for the money oh they were paying guys back there oh yeah you had to cover off that by the way i got some guys on the other team uh uh used to yell at me hey what are you warming you know you're warming up mario's helmet for Oh, yeah. You had to cover off that. By the way, I got some guys on the other team. They used to yell at me, hey, you warming up Marial's helmet for him? I used to get that a lot because Marial wore it too. So the guys would give it to me. But you know what? What would you say back?

Well, I'd turn around and usually the guy would be tying his skates up. I didn't even know. You never saw his head. He was under the bench. Oh, shit. But, yeah, a lot of guys had some good lines, though. Ask him about breaking his jaw with the pens in the playoffs and scoring two goals. Yeah, broken jaw.

Mario dumped the puck in, hit me in the face. I'll tell you what, Biz, that was painful. I got to admit, broken jaw is painful. And then I put a helmet on and played. So you know what Chara's going through right now? Yeah, yes. When you say hell, like what? Well, you can't chew,

and you're trying to get your nutritional stuff in, and you can't literally chew, so a lot of stuff's in blenders. I mean, for three weeks, my food was in a blender. Whatever I ate, chicken, broccoli, spaghetti, it's in a blender, and you're drinking it. Oh, God. It's a smoothie, man.

You drink it like a smoothie. Alright, sorry. I got a little distracted there. This one we might not keep in. I don't know how sensitive the subject is. What was it like to lose a teammate mid-season? The goalie Pele Lindbergh

in the 1985 Flyers. We lost Pele really hard on us. And Mike Keenan had the team over his house for two days straight. He made sure we were there all day and we talked about it. And I think that really helped therapy, the therapy of our team, because it really hit us hard. What happened? He had a Porsche and he crashed it in a wall,

going about 120 miles an hour. Oh, no, that's terrible. Yeah, yeah. Did you guys have to cancel some games? We actually had three days before our next game, or four days before our next game. It was coincidental that we had four days off. And for two days, we had, actually,

we hung out at Mike Ke keenan's house he had the whole team where his wife was instrumental too with you know we were 20 20 year old kids right yeah i was 19 20 years old and i just you know i didn't know what to do you know and it was it was it was a tough part geez um next one does he miss uh those long flowing locks flying in the breeze outside his lid? Yeah, I do. That's down the drain now, man. I actually don't mind the bald look. You know, I don't mind. I don't mind it.

I don't mind it. Makes you look tougher. But I do like the, I used to like having the hair. 87 Canada Cup with the boys. Oh, man, we don't have enough time to applaud Scott. I got to room with Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky. Get the fuck out of here. Mark Messier was my first roommate.

It was all Mike Keenan. Then I roomed with Gretzky the rest of it. And then Paul Coffey, I'm sorry. So the three guys. Today, Paul Coffey. I mean, I don't talk to Mark Messier, but Paul Coffey and Wayne Gretzky are one of my two closest friends today. But I got to room with them.

Actually, Wayne was secretly dating Janet Jones at the time, so I knew that. And he said, just keep it quiet. Like the papers didn't even know that yet, and I knew. Because she would hang in our room and stuff. Absolutely, yeah. Come by and say – One time she came in, I had to hide the Playboy. Because she was in it. Because all the pages were stuck oh oh hers yeah she was a playboy oh but you i tell her that i used to tell her that too uh today she knows that you actually

had the magazine i had the magazine because i was i'm room with wayne and he was out of the he was he was with her somewhere and i was in my room and i went down to the lobby i bought the playboy i wanted to see and she came him and her came up you know whatever I went down to the lobby and I bought the Playboy I wanted to see. And him and her came up, you know, whatever, a couple hours later and I had to hide it. It was on the nightstand. I had to kind of throw it somewhere. Does he know? Oh, yeah, they know.

They know today. Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah, she loves it. Yeah, she's awesome. Are you aware that you're the all-time leader in Gordie Howe Hattricks? Yeah. How many you got?

I think 18, I think. Jesus Christ. I think 18. Rick, is a hot dog a sandwich? No. Okay, that was some guy wrote that. Pretty much, it's just all Phil Kelsa questions. Everybody loves Phil, eh?

Everybody loves Phil. Love Phil. They want the crazy man. Thank you for doing this. This was awesome. Some great stories. I know it ran a little bit long. Anything else you want to say?

No. I'll tell you the reason I did this. One is you. I swear to God. And number two is my kid because he's a big fan of you guys. He loves you. He loves spitting chicklets. He loves Barstool.

He's a big fan. So when I told him, he was like, are you kidding me? He goes, when is it? And stuff like that. So he,

you two guys are the reason I did it. I would have done it with everybody. You know, I don't know Whitney that well. You know, I'm sure he's a good guy. I would have done it with him too. Oh,

it's awesome. He's great. But, Whit's a bit of a cake eater though. We're more trenches guys. He's more snapping around on the point. Just looking good. Feeding Sid back door. Oh, is he the perimeter guy what's a perimeter guy okay he wasn't much of a scrapper

but but man this is awesome people are gonna love it uh thank you for coming and best of luck next season and as i said before it's awesome having you as part of the arizona coyotes uh you're the man thanks buddy appreciate it biz fucking right that interview was also brought to you by Peloton. Why does Men's Health call a Peloton bike the best cardio machine on the planet? Let's break it down. Can't find a workout that keeps you engaged? Peloton is an immersive cardio experience

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Go to onepeloton.com and use the promo code Hockey to get started. Thank you very much to Rick Talkett. What a guy, what a career he had. Now he's doing the same exact thing, coaching. And, Biz, the only unfortunate thing about the entire interview was that it wasn't after he acquired his boy, Phil. I know, but it makes sense of how he talked about him, how much he liked him, that he helped bring him over.

Obviously, Chayka knew the connection there, and he thinks that he can help bring this team over the edge and provide that easy offense for this Coyotes team. So exciting times in Coyote land and looking forward to seeing Phil in the Kachina jersey. Easy guy to talk to though, talk. Like I bet you he was a complete beauty in the locker room. Oh, very easy.

I still loved him. And I was surprised at how open he was considering, you know, he's an NHL coach on the podcast talking the way he was talking. But, like, that's what people want. That's who he is. That's real and that's who he is. And, you know, obviously he didn't say anything bad. He spoke from the heart.

And, yeah, I was happy to get that one one-on-one in Arizona. I got a few other ones like that. I got Tyson Nash and Sean Burke coming up. Sean Burke, we did talk about dropping him on the 10th, which is coming up here, which will be when we go down to one episode a week. I know some people are upset that we are going down to one episode a week, but we need rest. We used to go down to no episodes a week back when we first started. So I think one episode a week is pretty good considering there's no hockey being played, not a hell of a lot to talk to.

Yeah. Oh, speaking of hockey, so I've been getting a little bit of feedback from my comments about the Rangers. And am I sleeping on the Rangers or something? Do you guys think that they're a playoff team next year? I think there's a chance that they could make the playoffs. I don't think they're winning the Stanley Cup, but if Lundqvist is awesome and then Panarin makes a huge impact

and they got guys that are playing big roles that weren't before, I mean, Trouba could make a huge impact defensively. I think that they could. If they made the playoffs, I wouldn't be shocked, put it that way. Okay. All right. Selfishly, I wanted them going to Colorado to see what they could do if they had offense spread out.

I mean, then you could break up that big line and put Breadman with maybe Landeskog on the second line or however they would have worked it. Maybe that was me thinking selfishly. I just didn't think New York was a playoff team coming up this year, maybe the following year. But Rangers fans, I'll concede, maybe you guys are a playoff team next year. I also don't think that – this is my opinion, but I don't think that Panarin choosing them had anything to do

with where he thinks they're at. Correct. He was like, I want to go play in New York. Are we supposed to be good? I don't know, but I'm playing then. Yeah, I think they've definitely become a trendy pick because they've had an outstanding summer when you look at who they've added and what they've

added. So, yeah, I think they'll probably make the playoffs. Have your sites have posted NHL Stanley Cup odds yet for next year? No, I actually looked the other day. I thought post-July 1st there would. Nothing yet. I think it's Iuly 1st there would. Nothing yet. I think it's – I remember last year it was like beginning a camp, beginning a training camp, something popped up.

My site's weird. R.A., you made it – I saw you had a tweet about the Florida Panthers that you would potentially throw some money on them after their off-season moves. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm sure everyone else is thinking the same thing, so they're probably down to fucking 15-1. But, I mean, their biggest bugaboo last year was not having a steady goaltend.

And, you know, Luongo was injured a lot of the year, and they went out and got Bobrovsky. So that's a huge feeling for them. That division is the best division in the league before the season, if you look at it. I mean, Boston, Toronto, and Tampa, they're not going anywhere. They're all going to be good. Florida's much improved. Buffalo looks They're all going to be good. Florida is much improved.

Buffalo looks like they're going to be better. Montreal should build on what they did last year with a lot of young players. So that's a very tough division to play in. Yeah, even more parity, it seems like. All right, boys, it is Fourth of July week, weekend, whatever you want to call it. Now we're going to bring back a little All Right Hamilton, a little summer-themed questions we asked.

We got a couple All Right ones, so we'll have a little fun today. It's kind of a slow day, so we're going to pop back a little All Right Hamilton, a little summer-themed questions we asked. We got a couple All Right ones, so we'll have a little fun today. It's kind of a slow day, so we're going to pop off a couple of these questions for the fellas. Let's go to you, Witt, first. This one's from James Seidel, 1620. He says, what's your best and worst 4th of July experience? And, Biz, you can answer Canada Day for this. I'll start to give you some time to think, Whit.

All right. I think I have my worst, but yeah, go ahead. Well, it's probably this Canada Day. I went on a four-day heater, and now I'm just not feeling great. I woke up. I thought I wet the bed. It was just me sweating, just getting all the demons out. So, no, but in all seriousness.

The Biz juice. i don't know i can't really many remember any bad experiences um i'd say my best july 4th experience was when i went to uh loophole's party uh in newport beach on his house right on the beach and uh and that that uh that was actually the day i met larry flowers oh really i don't often uh celebrate july 4th because usually in the summertime, I'm back in Canada. And it just so happens that I flew down there and celebrated with those guys. Must have been a lot of ugly girls at that party.

Yeah. They really, really, they usually run with a tough crowd. I wasn't jumping on any landmines that day, I'll say that. I don't know. I have so many bests. It's the best holiday. I actually like Thanksgiving the best. July 4th after that, everyone seems to be relaxed.

It's a day to celebrate our country, the United States of America. You're a resident in that country. The worst one I remember, though, is like when I was young, my father had like these bootleg fireworks. I probably went up to New Hampshire and got them. And he came back and he's like lighting them off. It was probably like nine o'clock in our front yard. And one of those bottle rockets went like 10 feet in the air

and took a 90 degree angle turn. And it just went rocketing into no pun intended into the woods. And he's like, Oh shit. And all of a sudden you just saw this little fire pop up. And we lived around like this could have been a huge fire. So he sprints into the garage.

He's like, Holy fuck. And he just fills up this bucket of water like as quick as possible. He's got no shoes on hops over the rock wall on our front, you know, front lawn probably getting prickles up his asshole as he's running through the woods barefoot, just like, ah, ah, ah,

and he dumps the water on this little fire that had started from his rocket that went flying sideways. Was that it for the fireworks? Yeah, I was like, okay, let's shut it down. He had cuts all over him. I was panicking for a second that our house was going to burn down. So I remember that one. We're not a family that can do anything like that. We can't build anything. We can't fix anything in the house.

We're not like handymen, fireworks guys. Like I'll blow my, my fate. I'll blow my hand off like that football player. If I tried lighting a firecracker, Paul, yeah, I'll tell you right now, I'm the guy that sits back, maybe has a beer and watches the guys on the barge, light them off. I'm not going near it. So I learned from my father the hard way. That's a good segue into my worst experience. I mean, my best Fourth of July, I guess it would just be the annual family party I did every year. I get drunk and eat lobster. I guess, collectively, that would be the best, but I had two for the worst. And you just mentioned fireworks. Back in the day, my stepfather used to own a waterfront property in East Boston,

and my brother was lighting fireworks. We were watching the big esplanade ones but my brother was off to the side lighting them and the thing went fucking backwards and it blew up like three cars there was just a bunch of people parked there to watch the fireworks and it somehow started a fire and one went up and then blew up legit like they started fighting i swear no bullshit i swear to god i'll get my brother around to verify like blown away too and like it was insane they started a fight. Shut the fuck up. No bullshit. I swear to God, I'll get my brother to verify. He's, like, blown away, too. It was insane. They started in, like, three cars, like, individually,

and then they had to call the fire department. And the funny part is I got blamed for it. Someone's like, Brian was over near those cars. Brian started a fight. It was typical because my brother would always start shit. I'd get blamed. Can anyone just light any, like, what's the max on the type of firework any civilian can just light up?

I don't know. There has to be a certain. Down in Scituate, we're recording on the 3rd. Tonight, they, like, everyone's on their own. The town doesn't do them, but you go to the beach and people, you know, decide to put on a little display. And there's, like, multiple people out there doing them. So you end up seeing some very legit fireworks. And I've said the same thing.

Like, can Mark from down the road just, like, get, like, full-blown Esplanade fireworks and shoot them off Minot Beach if he wants to? Is that, like, there has to be some sort of rule. Yeah, the ones you see, like, at the Esplanade or the big city ones, those you need special permits for. Those, like, everything's computerized to now. It's like NASA.

Yeah. It's, it's, it's pretty fucking elaborate. And my second worst was actually, it was 25 years ago tomorrow. It was July 4th, 1994. I remember vividly Ireland was playing the Netherlands in the world cup. And do you remember Patty Burke's in town? It used to be on four floors over there. North station.

What's it's like 11 then, but I know what you was like 11 then, but I know what you're talking about. I think I know what you're talking about. Well, I had drunk heavily the day before at my family party, and we went to Patty Burke's to watch the Irish soccer team, and all of a sudden I started seeing paparazzi lights, and fucking boom, boom, boom. I went down. I fainted in the bar.

I woke up on the sidewalk outside fucking the North Station, Patty Burke's, surrounded by like 30 people, like all Irish guys worked there. They're like, get them some oxygen. Get them some orange juice. They thought I was a diabetic, having like a diabetic fit. Turns out I got in a fucking ambulance. I had to take the wagon to Mass General.

I was more embarrassed than anything. When I came to, I knew I was fine. I was basically dehydrated. And I took a piss and come to find out this incident happened like three other times times i have this condition i guess with after i piss i fucking faint it happened on three separate games yeah yeah but like the ambulance is putting him in and all of a sudden ra's buddy's like bustling through the crowd he's like hold on hold on i know what he needs just a monster gator line of blow he's like i'm back oh shit the guy's like yeah where are you gonna take him he's alive yeah biz it's some weird blood pressure thing where it each time it happened it would right

it'll be right after i pissed but it's funny before we went to the bar i smoked the joint and i'll never forget the last thought i had when i fainted as i was going to the ground i was like oh no i'm gonna ruin it for everybody because i thought i was dying and i thought like the weed had something to do with it and i thought they were gonna realize i smoked the joint and died so i was horrified but so they would have been celebrating more fourth of july no well not a fucking weed was bad for so when i came to the ambulance guy was like he's like hey you all right i was like dude i smoked the joint he's like that had nothing to do with it i was like oh thank god i was fuck speaking of fireworks how about this uh little thing going

on between dundon and and sebastian ajo's agent yeah this dundon guy doesn't give a fuck and i'm kind of all about it we mentioned that real briefly but we didn't really go i just all i said that was was done and said what a waste of time that offer she was well though because then afterward there was a little bit more drama and he made a comment he said i could care less about sebastian ajo's agent it doesn't matter at all did you guys talk would we talk about this last episode no no and then and then and then uh and then uh sebastian ajo's agent just came back with like and then he and then he made a comment about him he goes i've i've been called worse and I'll be called worse in the future.

Like, I really don't care. And then people were sending the emojis of – or not the emojis. What do you call those? Gifts of the person on the couch wiping his tears away with money? Well, yeah. Like, the thought of Ajo really wanting to play for the Canadians didn't get out there until kind of after it all went down. But there was reports like he doesn't really –

I shouldn't say he doesn't want to play for Carolina, but he wanted to play in Montreal. So that's kind of what made sense. But still, Dundon, he doesn't give a shit. I mean, if there's an owner coming in and first thing he says he doesn't want to pay the scouts' cell phone bills anymore, he's certainly not giving a fuck what anyone else does to him. Yeah, I'm hoping more comments from this guy

so we have some more topics of conversation on the podcast. Boys, another one too is Chris Butler, a guy we spent some time with in St. Louis at training camp, ended up retiring. Did he? Yeah, he announced his retirement. He ended up playing 407 NHL games, including 58 with his hometown Blues. And that's all I got.

Yeah, he was a great guy to hang with during those camps. He brought us around town. I didn't even realize until I met him that he's from there. So it's pretty cool he got to be a part of that team as they go on to win their first Stanley Cup. Fred Elliott, we never got your answer. What was your best and worst 4th of July experiences? I'm about to pop my Jersey Shore cherry,

so I think I'm going to have my best and worst 4th of July this weekend. So you're going to nail a 9? What do you think the odds are you get laid as opposed to getting knocked out? Or cut himself or some type of injury. Yeah, like you actually getting after it or you getting dummied or cut or falling off of a wall. I'm not making any more bets about me getting laid because that backfired in my face last time.

So I'm sure I'll get knocked out. Fucking look at that one. We need to put incentive in front of you to not have injuries or drama. An injury happened one time. An injury happened just one time. I think there's many other times you could have been injured

and lucky that you weren't. No, that's very true. I promise I won't get injured this weekend. I was flicking through when you asked for the All-Ride Hamiltons and one of them was like what was your guys summer jobs or did you have a summer job just about to ask that one go ahead okay that's really that's really funny then we're uh we're in each other's heads but uh i started laughing right away because so i had a paper road that was like my first job i did i took used to roll

a braid around vernon road delivering the papers the patriot ledger which is like a south shore boston paper and then saturdays the paper would be thick as shit i used to hate it because you couldn't carry them all you'd have to go back and forth so i'd be chucking them i was fine at that but then i needed to make a little bit more money so i got a job as like a bus boy at this restaurant in cohassan uh what is the word it'll remain nameless just me not being able to remember the word remain is a tough start to this story but i was forced to go get a job you gotta make some money you gotta make some money okay i'll go down i drive my fucking bike i was like 15 years old drive my bike down to Cohasset. I start this job. I probably got there, I'm going to say 4 o'clock.

When I strolled back into my house at 6.30, I'll never forget. My dad goes, what are you doing back in the house right now? Well, what happened was I was so new. I didn't know anything about restaurant industry. I didn't know anything about working. I didn't know anything. Legit. anything about restaurant industry. I didn't know anything about working. I didn't know anything legit. So I have a huge tray of stuff that I'd taken off this guy's table, his family. Actually, that night, a guy I was, I was already represented, right? Say represented my family advisor, the or hockey group. One of the guys that worked there was at dinner with his family. I'm like,

I'm supposed to be this guy's like client future in NHL, and I'm serving him bread right now. What is this going on? So still, I walked in the outdoor, which apparently at a restaurant is a complete no-no, a full-blown disaster. Well, at the same time I was walking in the outdoor of the kitchen, there was a guy walking out of the kitchen with a tray with about four piping hot meals, a couple pasta dishes, maybe some seafood gumbo, a mussels ditch. Dude, I laid this guy out like Terry Tate, office linebacker. He went flying. The food went everywhere. I didn't go down.

I stood over him. I was like, Alan Iverson. But either way, this was like two and a half hours into my first day. The guy's like, get out of here. So I copped on my bike and got home. I lasted two and a half hours with my first real job after my paper wrote. So needless to say, I never worked again until I signed my contract. Oh, man.

That's Whitney in the hospitality industry. That was not an answer I was expecting today. Yeah, you're like, can you talk back to the people? No. Okay. I quit. I'm done. Biz, same question. not an answer i was expecting today yeah you're like can you talk back to the people no okay i quit i'm done biz same question this is from actual samuel schmrack i think that's how you say he's got a nice noah deeks lit on in his avatar did you guys ever have a job for the

summer when you were younger what was your job what did you do biz for a summer job all right um i've had a lot of jobs uh my first one was a paper route i've told the store i've I've had a lot of jobs. Uh, my first one was a paper route. I've told the store I've had, I had a weird, a few weird experiences, uh, um, delivering papers. Uh, when I first started out, I had to do it a little bit of ways from my house because I, I wasn't grandfathered in, and there was a person already doing my Crescent, like my block area. Um, so I would have to ride my bike. I would say about like 10 minutes and then start, which wit, you mentioned it. When you get the thick ones, it sucks because I would have to battle through it because I wasn't going to drive back another 10 minutes and then back out.

But one morning I had one of those farts that wasn't actually a fart. It was poo. Ended up shitting my pants. I was so young though and so stupid when i got i finished my whole paper out was with liquid up in your pants doors i got home and for whatever reason instead of just throwing the ginch out i fucking stuck him at the bottom of the laundry basket hoping my mom would like see it and then she and then she obviously was like yo what you want in the hole you didn't just ruin the basket.

You ruined the whole laundry room. They had to burn it. So that was a brain fart. Another issue when I ended up finally getting to come back over to near my place is they would make you do flyers too. And you wouldn't get paid for these things. And you had to deliver them. I don't know if it was once or twice a week.

And at one point, I'm like, fuck this, man. I get paid shit to go do papers in general. So I started ditching the flyers. Scumbag move. No, I don't blame you. I actually think it's a great move. You're not carrying those fucking flyers, too. Well, I mean, I know.

But people need their discounts. And that was part of the agreement. People love coupons, dude. R.A. has a million coupons. I remember going to his house when we used to record there. R.A. was the type of guy who would have been the person

complaining at the fact that he wasn't getting his flyer delivered. That's ultimately how I ended up getting busted. You know who complained was the guy who paid for the flyers, Paul.

That's the guy who complained. No, that's like an addition. You think they charge extra for that fuck yeah that's advertising brother that's fucking how they stay afloat i was young i was like 12 years old so so uh i think that one i don't know how it happened but i think somebody saw me where i used to go ditch them and eventually a pile uh accumulated and my i got home and my mom called me out on it and i was fucking shit in my pants um and and she made me she made me bring her to the spot where i ditched them and i had to put them all back in a garbage bag and throw them in the actual trash

and which i should have been doing in the first spot and uh and and luckily i didn't get fired but my mom was so mad because you know it's like kind of a scumbag move and it's a representation of her. So I had to like call the people from the paper, apologize, write an apology letter to all the people I used to deliver the flyers to and whatever. And so that was my first. How much would you pay to have him read that apology letter out loud right now if his mom still had it?

I'm pretty sure i asked her to help me write it and before we go any farther i want to talk to you for a minute about tommy john as summer sizzles do you feel like you're cooking in your clothes if you can't handle the heat you need new underwear and tommy john has the perfect solution tommy john's innovative cool cotton underwear for men and women is a summer must-have. It's like your own body on air conditioning. Tommy John's cool cotton fabric features breathable, lightweight fibers that keep you two to three times cooler and dry four times faster than regular cotton.

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is so sure you're going to love the fit and feel that it's all backed by their best pair you'll ever wear, or it's free guarantee. That means if you don't love your first pair, you get a full refund. Tommy John, no adjustment needed. Hurry to tommyjohn.com slash chicklets now to get 20% off your first order. That's tommyjohn.com slash chicklets for 20% off. TommyJohn.com slash checklists. What else did I do? I worked at a car dealership at one point. I had a friend pass away when I was younger, committed suicide, and his old man owned car dealerships, and he gave me a job at one of them.

What, like detailing and washing the cars and stuff type thing? No, just odd type jobs. But when he had, before he passed away, I mean, we were bad kids. We used to take out, we used to go to the old man's dealership. We used to take out Escalades and we used to go to Toronto

with him. Shut the fuck up. We'd be 16 years old. You'd just straight up steal an Escalade? Well, I mean, it was his old man's dealership. I mean, I wasn't headlining the thing. I was just the one like maybe putting back the dealer plate or whatever, not, and we've had, we had some fun nights in Toronto. We would go to like strip clubs and stuff. We were just beyond our years.

You know, could you imagine a 16 year old cruising into Toronto with an Escalade that you, like you said, I mean, technically it was stolen and cruising into Toronto with an Escalade, like you said. I mean, technically, it was stolen. And cruising into strip clubs, getting toony slides at 16 years old. I was, like, stoning my skates for fun at 16, just, like, relacing my wheels, ready for my next skate. God, what other jobs?

Nerd. Corneli, what did you do? I was a pool boy. Oh, my God. You little fucking rat pool boy. You're a pool boy oh my god you little fucking rat pool boy you're a first they probably had chlorine up to your eyeballs and the pools granelli was supposed to take care of no i'd go around to other people's pools and clean them oh really yes and i'd also put in pools in the summer like help build them i sucked at it i was terrible terrible job at my house right now

i also worked at a fish restaurant. That was terrible. I smelled like fish all the time, so I quit after two months. Nice take. I thought you guys, you would have cushier jobs just because guys you think are going to go pro or have a career, people usually take care of them. I know one former NHL who didn't live in the

city, but he had relatives who didn't. He used to use their address, and he used to steal a city kid cushy jobs. We won't throw him under the bus, though. I had the same job, basically, for 10 years. Remember the old red shirts? Yeah, like city workers. City workers, yeah. You guys did less than anything.

You guys did nothing. I know that whole scam. You guys did – you'd pick up three pieces of trash or clean some park from like 8 to 8.15 in the morning and then nap the rest of the day. That was the green shirt job. That was the former pro. I just mentioned he had the cushy job.

No, I had the red, red shirts actually work, man. We had to clean out all the vacant lots. I did that for fucking like 10 years. I did it all through college. Cause I worked my way up to the fucking became a,

what do you call it? A supervisor. And then when I retired from that job, I was basically the, um, I was, they had a newspaper, a newsletter call it? A supervisor. And then when I retired from that job, I was basically the, um, I was, they had a newspaper, a newsletter that came with your paycheck every two weeks. And it was a fucking two sided. I had two weeks to put together this newsletter. I was getting paid like 500 bucks a week. It was a racket by the time I finished that job, it was a racket. So it's funny. I actually know one of my good friends. He didn't have a job growing up, and he comes from an unreal family,

amazing work ethic, both of his parents. It wasn't for a lack of not needing a job and parents who don't make their kids get their job, but he was playing so many sports. He was playing all these different summer sports, and his dad was like, you're going to have a job the rest of your life when you're 18 and after college. Just enjoy yourself right now. And at the time, it was like it's unreal for him. But you look back, and now this kid's work ethic is great.

It didn't affect him at all, and it kind of makes a little bit of sense. I would say the reason that I appreciate my parents now is because they didn't force me to, but they're like, hey, if you want spending money, we're not just going to keep shoveling over money. And it taught me responsibility, and it did give me a work ethic paper oh you had to get up at five o'clock in the morning before school and go do it my no mine was an afternoon paper so i'd come i would i would at least get to do it after school but still it's like put in my contract i only deliver the evening edition i'm not getting up

early well um i mean i hope everyone has a great fourth. The Canadian listeners hope the first was great. Biz had a hell of a time. And everyone, enjoy your fourth. Let's stay safe out there. And, Grinnelly, I really hope that the good thing happens to you in Jersey. Actually, though, even the good thing there, you might want to wrap it up. That could be a terrible, terrible mistake on the Jersey Shore

from the show I've seen in the past. Cauliflower growing off your cock. I think that MTV show has their own strain of fucking STD by now. Alright, thanks to Rick Talkett. Thanks to Rick Talkett and Mikey. I'm hoping we have a story coming out of this. And Biz, thank you very much for doing that interview.

You were able to crush those by yourself. We appreciate it. Well, I mean, you haven't heard it yet. I know, but I know how good you are. All right. All right. Peace out. Have a great weekend, everybody. We'll see you next week.

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