Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 203: Featuring Roman Josi

Episode Date: September 23, 2019

On Monday's episode of Spittin' Chiclets the guys are joined by the Captain of the Nashville Predators, Roman Josi. Roman joins to discuss what it's like playing in Smashville, Swiss Hockey, wedding stories and more. The boys then do their Central Division preview, breaking down each team and what they expect from them this upcoming season. The fellas wrap up with some funny stories and the topic of calling Auston Matthews “Pablo”.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 203 of Spittin' Chickens, presented by Pink Whitney, the pink lemonade-flavored vodka from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka. Sorry for smashing your computer. We're coming to you from Manhattan this week for our biannual adventure at Bastille headquarters. Me, Biz Witt, coming down to play with Grinnelli for a bit.

We're going to take a look at the Central Division a little bit, and we've got a nice interview with National Captain Roman Yossi coming up. Enjoyed talking to the Swiss man rocket. First, let's do our hellos. Mikey Grinnelli, what's going on, brother? How's New York treating you? New York is treating me great, boys. Thoughts on my hair.

What do we think? Well, I haven't even seen it. You've had a hat on the whole time. It's better than I thought. The sideburns aren't an issue. We talked about that before. Right now, it is going behind the ear. Kevin Hayes would be happy. Yeah, you're still a little bit

in the in-between phase, but give it three weeks, a month. This is coming from someone whose hair grows straight up in an afro and is now not even really growing at all. So I don't know, but I'm thinking in a month, he'll look money. Well, I appreciate that. Like I said, I did it because you kept making fun of me for having a fade, so no more fades.

Dude, you were Jersey Shore. It was unbelievable. Interesting enough, Grinnelli gets a pop in his step when he sees us. He's here alone, not necessarily alone, but our whole crew isn't in the office every day. So we come, and I think he puffs his chest a little bit. He gets behind Biz, who knows he can do whatever he wants behind Biz. And we're happy to see you too, buddy.

Speaking of Biz, how are we feeling, buddy? You had a bit of a commute. I took the train down from Boston. Nice, smooth four hours. Did a lot of work on the way down. Pop out across the street. You weren't so lucky last night. No, I haven't gotten much sleep.

I've been having a blast. So I made a little Canadian swing. Went for a bar opening in Edmonton, Alberta. A place called Greta. Very cool concept. All high-end arcade games. Oh, you'll love this one. So they had bubble hockey at this place, right? So we did Pink Whitney drinks, introduced Canadians to that.

And like we said, hopefully we have some more answers for you later this week. We're getting them. On what's happening with that situation. But going on to the game situation is at one point, I love bubble hockey and I'm very good at it. Oh, I thought you said air hockey, didn't you? Did I initially say air hockey? Maybe I misheard you. So it's bubble hockey.

It was Canada, USSR. Oh, the one I beat you in down that Lower East Side last time we hit. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, well now since we've kind of sidetracked, me and R.A. played bubble hockey. I think puck possession was 95% in my favor, and he ended up fucking winning more than us. Well, his sweat was also dropping onto the bubble, too. Stop those fancy stats up your ass, Scorpio.

Let's do anything that counts, buddy. That's true. You did beat me there, but I'm a very good bubble hockey player. And R.A., you would know that by watching me play. I'm smart. I can snap it around. Snap. So all these Chicklets fans are like i want to show the title buddy i go fucking a nine in oh so that's pretty sick to show up there is the guy who's opening the bar the big name and then

taking on anyone and just dummying all nine and oh and then i had this guy who was helping me out um he was driving me around and taking care of me while I was there finally he was the last guy and he goes you know what let's just play 1-4 and he ended up beating me so I ended up going 9-1 but all the other kids that were there who were Chicklets fans I was just sorry about that one fuck I haven't gotten much sleep

I fucking dummied them so overall a very good launch ended up flying the next morning very early over to Saskatoon Saskatchewan. Went and dropped the ceremonial face-off with Wendell Clark at the Saskatoon Blades game. Legend. Legend. Did you apologize that you were above him on the banner for the advertising?

But how about this? He would have dummied you back in the day. No offense. He forced me to drop the puck. He was like, you drop it. And I'm like, dude, you played here for two years. You're a legend here. I'm biz. He only you're fucking, you played here for two years. You're a legend here.

I'm biz. He only played two years in Saskatoon. And I don't know if a lot of people know this about Wendell Clark, but when he was a defenseman in junior. Was he really? He was a defenseman. So when he played world juniors in his second year of junior, they had a stack forward or a stack defense squad. So they said, hey, we're going to move you up to forward.

He said, sure, no problem. Played forward three or four games at that World Junior. Ended up playing three on the back end. Then when he got drafted by the Maple Leafs first overall, he went to training camp, and they said, hey, we're putting you up front. And I said, was there any pressure? He drafted as a D-man, number one overall. First overall.

And goes to camp his next year and makes the team as a forward. And you asked him. He had no clue that was coming. No, he saw it on the, when he got to camp, he saw it on the wall. It was written down there that he was going to be playing up front. And I said to him, I said, was there any type of pushback? Could you imagine drafting a kid as a defenseman now? And then him getting to camp and trying to put him up front.

Darlene's on the left wing. The agent agent would be calling it would be fucking chaos right and he said hey man he goes they told me there was a spot for me up front i wanted to play in the nhl and i wasn't going to say no talk about the difference from then to now right and i thought that was uh very admirable and and pretty cool story uh regarding wendell clark now i'd heard that before i just didn't know how it all went down. So nonetheless, a very good experience. Met a ton of Chicklets fans. Ended up doing another bar appearance, and I slept about 30 minutes last night.

Shocker. It's been a fun ride. I love going back to Canada, God's country, but I'm happy to be in NYC here. It's going to be a big week for us, and we're going to bank some fun interviews. Wendell Clark was also probably like, well, I can punch anyone's head in forward or D.

So yeah, put me wherever. I'm fine with that. He would be a great guy to get on the podcast. He does do some work for the NHL, so I don't know how much he would come on and talk about. But I would bring up subjects, and he would dive into them and give his opinion. And it was nice to hear that old school thought mentality, too,

mixed with some new school. Because he's lived and breathed it. Yeah, he played in that era. He was a great player to watch. I love watching him because, of course, Toronto was in the other conference at the time, so he wasn't a rival. So I always rooted watching for Wendell Clark.

And one crazy thing he said, and I knew he'd been riddled with injuries through his NHL career, he said he missed 500 games in his NHL career due to injury. Wow, and you got scratched 500 times, so you had that in common. There you go, and I was fucking the one dropping the puck and not him. So great meeting Wendell Clark, great time. So thank you to Saskatoon Blades. Thank you to Hudson's Bar and, of course, Greta.

Cool concept. So that was a fun trip. Yeah, and obviously we see the Pink Whitney bottles there. We're having our release party Tuesday, the 24th. What's the name of the place again, Mikey? It's called American Whiskey. It's in New York City, kind of by the Empire State Building. It's going to be a blast.

We sold out tickets already online, but essentially the tickets really don't matter. If you show up early enough, you'll get in. All right. And one other note on the Pink Whitties. Listen, we see all your pictures. We appreciate it. But we kind of had to dial back tweeting every single picture. For us, it was the release.

It was, you know, now it's trickled out to everywhere. So we can't tweet every location. But we do see them and we appreciate it immensely. So if you lie about driving 30 hours to go get a bottle when you just cross the border and you tweet it to us, don't take offense if we don't retweet it. We see you. I'll like it. We love you. We appreciate the support.

We just can't tweet every single one because you guys have been fucking killing it and buying them all. And we've started two accounts now on Twitter and Instagram for Pink Whitney. You can follow them. It's at Pink Whitney on Instagram, at Pink Whitney on Twitter, and we'll be posting a lot more pictures there than the specials feed. Yeah, just updates of what we're going to be doing with it. We have a store locator, too.

We have a store locator on there. So if you click the link in the bio on our Instagram page, as well as our Twitter page, you can type in your zip code and it will find you a store near you that sells Pink Whitney. Yeah. And I think as this thing moves on, I mean, the drink's pink. I think there's a nice, strong correlation to be had with cancer and stuff like that. We will be doing... I thought you were going to say pussy. No. Well, I mean that well that too but i think as we move forward and yeah i think as we move forward it's it's no doubt that we will get

involved with stuff but these things do take time we are busy so just give us some uh i know we get we get tons of messages about doing certain things for charity and i will say one of the first things whitney said to me when i saw him today was I'm not leaving here until I find out what the deal is with Canada. So I think Canada people, we're trying. These guys really care. I think Canada really got pissed off when they saw Pink Whitney in fucking Hawaii, and they still didn't have it in fucking Manitoba. I can understand the beef there all the way out there.

I'm going to Hawaii in March. I said, this is perfect. I can't believe it's there already. So that should be some fun shows for the Wood Dog to check in from Maui. Oh, man. Nice. What's going on in the hockey world? Yeah, we got a couple stories before we get to the question.

Oh, quick. All right. Sorry, quick. I just want to tell everyone that we're starting the previews here. So after the hockey news, we're getting into the Central Division tonight. Because believe it or not, amazingly enough, four episodes from now will actually be the first day of the NHL season. I think it'll actually be the second. Okay, second.

So it's crazy to think that we've got four of these left. There's four divisions in the league, so we'll get it going here in a little bit. But sorry to interrupt you. There is some current news around the league. And it's nice, too, because I feel like some fans feel we don't talk about their teams enough. Well, your team's going to get talked about. You'll get two minutes right now if you're the Wilds. be wit bashing your team but at least they will be talked yeah

we're gonna bounce around we can't name every player we can't you know some guys up down draft picks you know we're gonna give a little synopsis of what's going on and everyone's gonna get mentioned so uh first though let's get to the nhl news ottawa defenseman thomas shabbat who's gonna going into the last year of his entry-level deal, signed a whopping eight-year, $64 million extension with the Senators. Even you math majors know that's an $8 million AAV. 22-year-old is a stud. It appears Otto views him as the next Carlson, more or less the successor. It's a huge commitment from the Quebec native.

He's basically saying, yeah, man, I like what you're doing here. I know we've picked on Otto. I know everyone else does. But they've got a lot of good young pots in place. They got a shitload of draft picks coming up. And I don't know. This is a huge fucking commitment from this kid. What do you think on this one?

I think this is an incredible deal for the Senators and for himself. I mean, he's set for life. And talk to me in four years when this kid's making $8 million. He's a freak. You saw what he did at the beginning of last year. His entire year was brilliant. And brilliant is not used lightly by myself. It was dominating.

It was puck moving. It was head up. It was just awesome offensive defenseman. And he's only going to continue to get better. He's young. The guys love him too, Biz. I've talked to a couple guys around the league. He's not like a hockey nerd either. He's one of the boys. Enjoys having a little time out once in a while, but also

as a professional. So I'm really happy for him. And I think that right now there isn't an Ottawa Senators fan in the world, if there's more than 100 left, that is actually worried about this deal. They love it. It goes without saying, too. I think when you're talking to the agent and you're just like, hey, we got all the leverage here. We're the stud defenseman. We want to lock up long term. And you guys got some cap space to deal with.

Am I your guy or am I not? Sign the check and let's go, baby. And this is one of those guys that you'll see this coming up in the next few years. So he'll be 28 or 29. Excuse me, I'm not exactly sure when this ends. I mean, this ends up being a guy who knows where the cap is in eight years. Could he make $125, $150 million?

He could be the next Roman Yossi. It's insane. Who knows how much money this guy is going to make in the end of his career. Yeah, Drew Doughty is an example where he got that. I think he signed seven times seven right out of his entry-level deal. Yossi is 28. No, but what I mean is like Yossi has been underpaid for the last few years, but Chabot might be so good with an $8 million in a few more years,

he's going to be way underpaid. Yeah, but I understand. And I meant $28 million is Yossi's entire deal. We'll get into that in the interview. So it's nice to have him on as well. Very, very subtle. Not subtle. What's the word I'm looking for?

Very humble guy. Sorry, it's been a long couple days. It's been a real long weekend for Biz. I don't know my word for Biz. I showed up to the office, and I'm like, Grinnelly, where's Biz? He's like, in here. I'm just opening the door. He's just snoozing. humble guy yeah i'm sorry it's been a long time a real long weekend for yeah i don't know my word i showed up to the office and i'm like where's busy he's like uh in here and just open the door he's just snoozing what are you guys thoughts in the new office you haven't been here yet yeah it's sick i said walking in you know first lap around you can't imagine portnoy uh ever

envisioned this when he was fishing raccoon shit out of a out of his mother-in-law's mailbox or whatever, or his partner's mailbox. So it's so cool what it's turned into. The amount of studios they have for us, because before coming to the office sucked because there was nowhere for us to sit. Now there's spots everywhere. It was just congested. It was kind of a transitional period, but it was still fun because all the guys were

around. It was good to see everyone. What's amazing is, I don't know if you, they planned on being in that last office for I think three or four years. No, it might have been five years. It was like that quick. That just tells you the growth of Barstool in general. I know sometimes we get a little bit of heat for being associated. They've been unbelievable to us.

Really, some have not – I'd say half of the growth is attributed to them. We have a ton of canadian fans who we brought over to barstool but i mean it's just a well-oiled machine it's been a great run and and they've set up a great infrastructure in us for in order for us to be successful in order for us to take risks and go out on the road and do things like the west coast wagon tour like those things are hard to put put together. Barstool has been nothing but good to us and it's been great to work with them. I tell every person, and occasionally

you get the people that'll complain that we're associated with Barstool. We are part of this team, dude. And I'm very proud to be part of this team. I tell it to everyone that we would be nothing without Barstool. I'll say that to anyone I talk to. Because our entire existence as a podcast, RA's connection to Barstool. I'll say that to anyone I talk to because our entire kind of existence as a podcast,

RA's connection to Barstool really spun everything. And then all of a sudden, if Ryan Whitney and Rear Admiral are doing a podcast and his coach and Barstool doesn't have it, nobody knows, nobody listens. So I'll always be forever thankful to this company and what goes on here. And being in this new office is pretty cool.

Now saying, using that example, Caller Daddy, before they came over to barstool did they get a lot of they didn't have a lot of people listening nope and then all of a sudden they came over here they're the number what the number one female podcast in the world on the planet yeah so there you go and then i guess that just kind of using the third person like i did last i mean that's the biggest dickhead move of all time, but I just felt like it fit in perfectly there. You were like SoundCloud rappers who made it. Yeah, you are.

Basically. Some unfortunate news, though, with one of our buddies, all right? Yeah, our buddy Uppy was released by the Stars. He, of course, was on that PTO. He played his balls off against the Avs in a preseason game the other night, but the Stars roster is really tight. So hopefully other teams saw him. He battled his ass off. Dude Avs in a preseason game the other night, but the stars roster is really tight. So hopefully, you know, other teams saw him. He battled his ass off.

Dude, I met him last year. He had the brace on his knee. He couldn't walk. I watched him on Instagram battling, getting back into shape. He's going to be 36 in a month. He fucking was the best player on the ice the other night for Dallas. So hopefully some other teams are like, hey, man, this guy can A, be an example in the room,

and B, really bring something for us because he's a great fucking guy. So when I went to camp with Biz in St. Louis, I was hoping to make St. Louis. We loved being there. We've talked about that a million times. But I ended up getting released, and what do you know? Florida signed me. It was a spare change deal, one year, one million.

I just chucked it in the trunk of my car. But it was really nice to know that because I'd played decent enough in the preseason games I was in, like Uppie has done, another team was out there that wasn't necessarily or not at all as deep as St. Louis, Florida in that sense. So maybe there's a team, and I know Uppie said in the quotes of the article I read, he really wanted to be a part of Dallas' team and was really close with a lot of guys there. Unfortunately, it's not going to be there, but maybe another team grabs him

and he gets his last year, what will probably be his last year in the NHL, because he deserves it after what he's been through and the rehab he's gone through. And he went last year on that PTO to Edmonton and suffered that injury, ended up having to take the year off. And at the time, Todd McClellan was there and then they got hitched, but Todd really liked him. And I think if it wasn't for that injury, he was going to sign there

because the guys really liked him. He had good camp oh he definitely was and and i saw it as a potential uh landing spot for him in the future because i mean mcdavid was a big fan now now that edmonton has won went out and got tippet i don't know if that would be a landing spot where he was probably more confident beforehand because i don't know if he was crazy about his style of play when he was in Phoenix. So hopefully he can find another team in order to jump on too because as you mentioned already, he did have a solid camp. And I'm sure teams will be a little worried if he can handle the grind of another 82-game schedule given what he went through all last year.

But I'm just curious to know if you if you would sign a two-way and maybe even start out in the american hockey league i so that year in st louis i was like i'll sign i'll sign a two-way go to chicago obviously who wouldn't want to go to chicago for the hl but maybe he'd do that i think that maybe that could end up being a beginning and he knows if i play well there's a couple injuries, I could be up. Either way, the way the league's gone, it's tough. It was an uphill battle. He knew that going in to try to get a deal. But I think there's a lot of teams that could use some veteran leadership in locker rooms,

and people say that's bullshit, doesn't matter. Well, I think it does, so I always will. So if you get a guy that's going to be in and out of the lineup on the fourth line, which would be Uppie's role on pretty much any team this year, and guys love him and guys love being around him and fans certainly like him after he's been on our podcast we've pumped his tires enough that i think people understand how good of a guy he is look at him yeah and ra still wants to bang him so it could work out great for him he does bring a locker room together and there's um i mean it's kind of one of those

things that goes unnoticed to maybe the media and they roll their eyes when you say you need a good locker room guy and a veteran presence. But I think he could definitely help out a few teams. And if not, what a run it's been. And then we'll just get him on fucking chicklets every month. Yeah, I'll just make him a new wingman, Biz, if he's done. Another roster update.

Dustin Buffen was suspended by the Jets for not reporting to camp, but it's not a disciplinary thing. It's actually more of a formality for them to cover their asses. As Uncle Bob said on Twitter, it's not nearly as ominous as it sounds. Winnipeg still wants Buffen back but needs to protect roster and cap flexibility until they know his intentions. They can rescind it whenever. They're just giving him his time and space to make his decision.

I believe it was the year after Anaheim won the Cup, if not a couple years after, where Scott Niedermeyer, same thing. He was suspended at the beginning of the year. The suspension is not a real suspension. It's please come back to us. We will rescind this suspension, but you have to clear the cap space. What's crazy for – we'll get into the Winnipeg situation before, but I'm glad you brought that up about Bufflin

because that is not what it looks like when you read it. It sounds so much worse, and, of course, there's always a few people online who are like, oh, it's so rude. You've got to stop reading Twitter too much. Oh, no, no. But, I mean, no, but people will have different opinions about it, and that's fine. I think anyone with common sense knows exactly what this is. He's welcome back with open arms. As you mentioned, they're just trying to fucking protect themselves.

It's a formality. That's all. And one other big note we want to get to before we send it over to Roman Yossi, longtime Ranger and Warhorse defenseman Dan Girardi from your hometown biz, never drafted, went on to play 927 NHL games, retired Friday after 13 seasons.

He was on some really great Ranger teams that just never could go over the hump. They lost to LA in the 2014 Cup Final. Beloved teammate, fan favorite, biz. I'm guessing you go way back with him. Yeah, I played with him a couple games in Junior B. He was a year older than me, but he was drafted by the Barry Colts, went off to Junior,

ended up getting sent down, I think, halfway through the year of his rookie year in the OHL. Came back, had a solid end of his Junior B career. Didn't mope, just kept working as he always did. After he went on to have a pretty fucking good junior career, he finished off with the London Knights when they had that incredible team,

ended up winning a Memorial Cup. He signed a two-way in the American Hockey League with the Charlotte, or no, who was it? The Hartford Whalers. Hartford Whalers? Hartford Wolfpack? Hartford Wolfpack, excuse me, Jesus Christ. And the Charlotte Checkers, I think.

And the Charlotte Checkers. So he went down and played in the Coast to start out. And he was pretty close to quitting and going back and playing for Brock University in St. Catherine's near our hometown and just playing college hockey, getting an education. And that would have been the rest. And he ended up getting called up to the American League. The next year, he was an AHL All- ended up getting called up to the American League. The next year he was an AHL All-Star, got called up to the NHL.

And then he goes on to have, what did he play? 13 years in the NHL. And I think the only- He made bank. 12 of the 13 years he made playoffs. And you guys know- Really? Incredible shot blocker, selfless,

putting his body on the line constantly. Kind of shitty the way things ended up in New York just because he was making so much Incredible shot blocker, selfless, putting his body on the line constantly. Kind of shitty the way things ended up in New York just because he was making so much and he kind of became the whipping boy. It felt bad, but it was nice for him to get over to Tampa Bay and play those last two years. He said, he goes, last year was one of the funniest years of my life, playing in Tampa and winning all the games that they did. Unfortunately, you know, the rest is history. They got swept four out, but an unbelievable career for a guy who was undrafted out of Welland, Ontario,

and proud of him and excited to see what's next for you, buddy. And coming from a person who experienced being the whipping boy, Dan, they can't whip you when you're on the golf course. They can't whip you when you're on your boat or, in R.A.'s case, on a jet ski. It's all over now, buddy. I mean, it was kind of a shitty ending, but you're right. He had a great career there. And I think of his entire career as, like, team first, blocking shots right away.

Everyone thinks of that. And then also, like, him and Mark Stahl, I think they kind of came into the league together-ish. I don't know if it was the same season, but had some great years for the Rangers there. So, happy for that guy and the fact that you knew him and his story and what he went through. It just shows that, yeah, man, it's not often that you go to the coast and you're going to play in the NHL, but it happens enough where if you are down there and you believe and you've got some skill

and passion for the game and have an ability to rise above being disappointed that you're in a shitty league and that the travel sucks, well, there's still a light at the end of the tunnel and for a guy like that he deserved everything he got because of what he went through early in his career um he's funny fucker too very self-deprecating good too on the one year the rangers played philly and uh and hbo did the 24-7 like he's he's a dude, no? Pretty handsome dude? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's handsome. He's funny. Although he does have a...

He's got a tribal tattoo on his arm. I know. But now saying that, once again, he's self-deprecating, so he'll rip on himself about it. What's it with these Welland guys with all these shitty tattoos? I don't know.

The pumpkin on your arm's awesome, though. That doesn't count. All right, let's move on. Halloween's coming up, though. It's his favorite time of year. Free cover charge if you're with me on Halloween, any bar in the world. A couple other notes on him I thought were interesting. He appeared more games than any other undrafted player in Rangers history, 754.

And since the start of the 05-06 season, his 1,954 block shots are the most of any player in the NHL. I know they didn't track them back in the day, but I don't think guys were dropping, blocking too many shots back in the 50s and 60s. So incredible stats. And one more thing, speaking of Rangers defensemen, Tony D'Angelo signed one-year deal worth $925,000.

He was an RFA. People want to know about that. So I think we should send it over to the Swiss man rocker, Roman Yossi, right about now. Decent player. A little bit. I've heard of him. This interview is brought to you by Mugsy Jeans.

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That's not per year. That's the total deal. The biggest bargain in the NHL. And one of the top defenders, like I said, Roman Yossi, straight out of Switzerland. Thanks for joining this Spit and Chickles podcast. What an intro. Thanks for having me. and Chickles podcast. What an intro. Thanks for having me.

I worked on it last night. I appreciate that very much. So, dude, what's going on, man? You getting excited for this year or what? And I'm curious. Do you go back to Switzerland all summer and you're back in Nashville now? What's going on there for your summer plans? How was it?

This summer I actually stayed inville for most of it uh i normally go back just return for two or three months to see my family my friends and stuff but uh this summer i was in nashville for most of it i was only back for like two or three weeks um the one thing people don't know and they kind of started learning when you guys made that run to the cup finals is how how great of a city n Nashville is. So how much do you love living there? And I can't imagine you'd ever want to be anywhere else with just how fun it is there. Yeah, it's awesome. I mean, it's growing so quickly right now.

They're building apartment buildings everywhere. There's new restaurants every day. So it's an awesome city. People are really friendly. There's a lot of stuff going on. So it's definitely a city. People are really friendly. There's a lot of stuff going on. So it's definitely a fun place to be. So you got there in 2011. How much has the fan base grown?

I mean, they've become such diehards. Was it that way right when you came in, or has the success made it even better and better? It definitely got bigger. I think that cup run definitely helped. I mean, I think before the fan base was really good. And, I mean, Bristol Arena was always one of the loudest arenas. But once we made it to the finals, everybody became a fan. So it almost feels like the whole city is behind us now,

and everybody's a hockey fan, and it's pretty fun. Roman, you had a busy off-season. I imagine part of the reason you stayed in Nashville was because you ended up getting married to your longtime girlfriend. It was a star-studded event too. I basically saw the entire wedding because I follow PK Subban on Instagram.

Oh, of course, yeah. He had a recap of the wedding after like 10 minutes after I got married. That's perfect. So how was it? And I gotta ask you, who's the one guy that you minutes after i got married that's perfect so how was it and i gotta ask you who's the one guy that you invited who just got the drunkest um it was fun it was a good party um i don't know who got the drunkest honestly um uh i mean it was a lot of guys that are we can go standing hard on the dance floor He seems like a guy who would rip up weddings. Yeah, it was funny because the dance floor was full of drinks spilled

and guys face-panted on the dance floor, and it was almost dangerous. Okay, you'll probably remember this one then. Not the drunkest, but who was the first guy to have their shirt off? That always happens when you get the boys together at the wedding. I don't know. One of my friends ripped his pants. So his suit pants were pretty much off. So he ripped his pants.

But he wasn't a hockey guy. He was one of my friends. I don't think anybody took his shirt off, honestly. Oh, no. And was that wedding in Nashville? Yeah, it was. Awesome. It was that wedding in Nashville? Yeah, it was. Awesome. It was like 30 minutes outside.

I read you went on to an African safari on your honeymoon. Is that correct? Yeah, I did. What was that like? And did you have any close calls with any wild animals? It was awesome. I didn't have too many close calls. It's pretty safe.

You're in the car, and they're pretty calm around the cars. But there was this one time when you're not supposed to get up out of the car because the animals only see the car they don't really see people in it so you're not supposed to move and the person behind me got up and there's a leopard like i don't three feet away just chilling and and it looked at a person i was sitting right next to the leopard, and it got up and started, like, hissing at me. And that was pretty scary. That's when you realize, like, they're wild, and they can really hurt you. That looks like La Violette after I have a bad shift. What the fuck's going on here?

I don't know what's scarier. What's scarier is the thought that he might not have you forever behind on the blue line. But, you know, you'll probably resign there. You'll resign there. But we were just chatting before you came on about how loaded your team is, man. So you get Duchesne this summer. It's got to be just so exciting knowing that this is still the complete window for you guys to get a Stanley Cup. Yeah, definitely.

I think we're really deep this year. And most guys are the course between 25 and 30 years old. And obviously adding Dushane, he's a huge addition. And just getting some more offense. And yeah, I think we're a really deep team. And we feel really confident about our team this year. Well, I mean, you guys wanted to add depth at the center ice position, of course, when you got Johansson.

And then all of a sudden you get Dushane. I would say before this season, I mean, the back end was kind of the strength. I mean, you had Subban, yourself, Ekholm, and Ellis is the fourth guy in there. Talk about losing Piquet. I know you guys were pretty close. He was another guy we mentioned that went to your wedding. But just to free up some cap space in order to bring Duchesne in and strengthen that middle of the ice even more so.

Yeah, I mean, we'll definitely miss Pique. Like you said, I was pretty close friends with him, and obviously he's done a lot of good things in Nashville on the ice and off the ice too, and obviously you guys know him. He's a funny guy to be around. His energy in the locker room is always pretty fun, so we'll definitely miss him. But like you said, just adding Duchesne and getting that,

having those two centers now with Johansson and Duchesne. I mean, we have two really good lines, offensively, offensive good lines. And then we have Bonino, Torres, and Cis. And I think our center depth is definitely one of our strengths this year. Roman, it's Ari. I wanted to ask about the guy that PK was traded for originally, Shea Weber. Your first few years in the league, he was captain of the team. What kind of impact did he have on your early development

and becoming a professional? A big impact. I mean, we're still really good friends. He's one of the guys who was at my wedding, too. And I remember the first year I came up, it was him and Suter playing together. Obviously, for a young defenseman, it's pretty cool to see those two guys go to work. Then the second year, when Suter left, I got a chance to play with him. We became really close friends off the ice, too.

Just watching him, he was such a leader. He led by example. He was the hardest-working guy every time we went on the ice too. Just watching him, he was such a leader and he led by example. He was the hardest working guy every time we went on the ice. That's definitely something that I learned from him. Given his role in the organization at the time, were you shocked when he got traded? I was, yeah.

Definitely. I remember I was in Switzerland when I saw the news, and I think it's a surprise for everyone. Roman, as a captain of the team, when a big move like that happens, do they call you to let you know what's going to happen? For instance, the PK1, or do you find out like everyone else finds out? I find out like everyone else. They didn't call me before,

so I just pretty much see it in the news and then obviously after you talk to the team about it so alright I'm so interested in Swiss hockey and you're a product of the Swiss national team and I actually played with a guy for a couple

games in Sweden Byron Ritchie who had a ton of success in Bern which you where you played before you went over to the AHL for a year and onto your career in the NHL. But how crazy is that atmosphere for that? I mean, I'm not talking Swiss hockey, just Bern in general. I mean, I've seen that. Doesn't the arena hold 15,000, 16,000 every night sold out?

Yeah, 17,000, yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. It's like a soccer game. Like there's chants and people are singing the whole game and it's literally like a soccer game and it's pretty fun in Bern like it gets loud did you win a title while you were there I did yeah that's awesome the last year before I left we won and it's fun because it's there's 17,000 seats but 10,000 people are standing so there's only like 7,000 are sitting the rest is just standing and they're and dancing and singing it's funny i was actually um reading that teams are like starting

to maybe think about you'll see in junior hockey maybe ahl about putting in like behind the net where it's standing room only similar to european style where people are just going nuts all game and i always thought that was cool because it's just such a different vibe when behind the net people are standing and chanting just like you said in soccer but uh the other thing i wanted to ask you about is as a second round pick i mean not often do guys think they're going to become one of the best defensemen in the league and even when you're over there in switzerland like i think you probably i'm guessing you believed you could play in the nhl Did you ever really think you'd have this much success? No, I definitely didn't.

I don't think I ever dreamed of being captain of the NHL at some point. Just by playing in Switzerland, I think the NHL is still pretty far. When you grow up, all you want to do is play in the Swiss National League. You don't really see much of the NHL. Then you get older, obviously

you get drafted. I always believed I could play in the NFL but I definitely didn't didn't think it would turn out this way. All right so tell me if this is wrong because I've kind of been told asking about the Swiss league that it's one of the fastest leagues in the world and guys have crazy speed and good skills but at times they're not known for having great hockey sense do you think that's unfair for people to say, or is that something that could be valid? Because guys are so skilled and fast, but you wonder why there aren't more Swiss players

that are coming over and having a ton of success in the NHL. I don't know. I mean, it's definitely really fast, and guys are really skilled. And I think in general, I feel like what makes a player better than the other players is mostly how he thinks the game, right? He's just quicker thinking the game. He's in the right spot. He makes the right plays, makes the right decisions.

But I think the Swiss league is really fast. And everybody, you're right, everybody coming out of Switzerland, they're pretty good skaters. And it's a really fast and everybody you're right like everybody coming out of switzerland uh they're pretty good skaters and um uh it's a it's a really fast league and i mean lately we've been having a lot more success over here too there's more guys coming over um i remember when there used to be probably when you played right with there was only mark stride playing in the nhl yeah and now we have like 10 guys so and a goalie too um who was the goalie? Gerber? Gerber. Gerber. Yeah. Abishir.

That's funny. That's why I wanted to ask you about Roman. You know, there's been a noticeable uptick in Swiss NHL as compared to 20, 25 years ago. I mean, you might have had one or two in the year then. Now I think there's 13 Swiss players in the league today. What would you attribute that increase to? I think it definitely started with Mark Streit. I mean, he was the first player, non-goaltender, that made it in the league. And I feel like it just kind of changed the mindset of Swiss players

that you saw there was a chance you could make it. Like I said, it always seemed so far. It seemed like impossible to make it in the NHL. And when he made it and just the way he made it, he really worked his way up and he didn't make it until he was 27 and he just worked really hard and I think that just changed the mindset

of a lot of young players. How popular was hockey in Switzerland when you were a little kid and what were the other sports it was in competition with? Soccer, for sure. I'd say soccer's probably number one. And then ski, skiing, tennis, sure. I'd say soccer is probably number one. And then skiing. Skiing.

Tennis, obviously. I played soccer when I was younger. Actually, I hear you're a very good tennis player, and Federer is your favorite athlete. He is, yeah. You must know. I'm guessing you know him as a guy? I do know him a little bit, yeah.

Wow. Great dude or what? Not like you're going to badmouth him on checklists. No, but, yeah. I wouldn't do that. But, seriously, he's the most humble guy you'll ever meet. I remember meeting him the first time I was 18. And he's the king of Switzerland, right? Everybody loves him in Switzerland.

And I was so nervous. But he's the most humble guy and takes time for you. And it's pretty unbelievable how good of a guy he is. I didn't expect that. What do you think of my comparison that Roger Federer and Nicholas Lidstrom have? I think it's a brilliant comparison. Do you agree with that? They kind of remind me of one another.

I agree. Thank you. Thank you. No, I do. The way they play, too, it just seems like... No sweat. Yeah, no sweat. It's not work for them.

They're just fun. They just play. So one guy I really wanted to ask you about isn't actually a player, but it's Ralph Kruger. And he spent time as the coach of the Swiss national team. I got a chance to play for him in Edmonton. I loved him. I thought he really got screwed over there.

But now he's the head coach of Buffalo. What are your experiences with him and getting to know him? And I'm assuming you played under him for the national team for a little while? I did, yeah. I played one World Championships for him. I thought he was great. He's so positive, and he's a great speaker. I played for him at the World Cup too, actually,

when we went to the finals for Team Europe. And I think he's great. He's a really smart guy. He's always really positive. He was great at the World Cup. I know him pretty well. I actually went to Southampton for a soccer game too where he was the chairman for a while there.

So I'm there too. So I like him. I think he's a great guy and he's a good coach. Speaking of coaches, you've had some good ones there in Nashville Barry Trotz he ended up going over to to Washington and winning a cup I mean have you talked to him since that and how close are you with him and then I guess we'll get into La Violette after that. I have yeah but just really short I saw him uh three year after he won and uh everybody was really happy for him in Nashville because he's such a respected person in Nashville. The people love him.

And he's an awesome coach, but he's an even better person. And he's done a lot here in Nashville in the community. And people were really happy for him too, that he won it. And I was too. I mean, he deserved it. And, yeah, I saw him quick and just said congrats do you think he maybe got the short end of the stick in uh in Nashville um I think it was I think yeah he I mean I think we had a different team back then

and then we have now um it wasn't it wasn't easy for him I I think the team was still pretty young. I mean, he was the first coach, so it took a while for Pratt to be competitive. I think it was a little different for him than it is now. He was a very structurally defensive-minded coach, correct? Maybe even a little bit suffocating in that regard? Yeah, he was pretty defensive minded. He emphasized

a lot on hard work and I remember playing under him our team always had a lot of structure and played really well defensively. Now shifting to Laviolette is he a little bit more lenient offensively where he lets things go more or do they have a lot of similarities as head coach? Yeah, I think Lavi is pretty offensive-minded.

There's definitely some similarities, but there's also some difference. Lavi really wants to play an up-tempo game. He wants to play with a lot of speed. And I think, especially for us defensemen, he wants us to jump in. He wants us to join the rush and escape with the puck. There's definitely some freedom in the offensive side of the lobby

and I think that's how he wants to play. So I don't know if it's the market you guys play in, but it kind of started with you being severely underrated. Now everyone knows how good you are. The guy I talk about all the time now is Matthias Ekholm, and you get to spend time playing with a guy like that. A monster year last year.

I think nobody knows he had over 40 points over plus 25. So what have you seen his game like? How have you seen his game change to become the elite defender he is now from when he came into the league? Well, I think he's always been really good. Like you said, I feel like nobody knows yeah kind of players kind of fly on the radar but he's i mean he's unbelievable i think he's he's one of the best defense like defensively he's one of the best defensemen in the league like he's he's he never

gets beat he rarely makes any mistakes and he's such a good skater he's so good in one-on-ones and I think people uh realized how good he is because he um yeah I mean the stats were last year he got more points and um the offensive side uh I guess um he did a lot more offensively last year too but I think he's always been one of the best defensemen and um I mean just seeing him this year in camp too he's going to have another great year and um yeah yeah, I know him pretty well. He's definitely one of the best. Roman, before you were in Nashville, you did a year in Milwaukee. How much of a culture shock was it to be a 20-year-old kid

to go from Switzerland to Milwaukee? How much did you drink? It was different, but it was honestly fun. Like, that year was so much fun. There's so many new things for me, but we had a young team, and you guys know what it is in the NHL. You hang out all the time. You go out together, and it was a lot of fun.

I mean, I loved that year. It was fun off the ice, and it was really good for me on the ice too because there's a lot of things I have to learn and realize how the game is different over here but I had a great year and Milwaukee is honestly it's a really cool city I know a lot of people probably don't know this about Milwaukee but it's a real fun city and I had a great year there what was the other than say the language what was the biggest adjustment to the states that you had to make? I don't know. People always ask me that.

That's just a slap in R.A.'s face. I love it. I feel like, I don't know. I feel like things are, it's easier to come from Switzerland to come to the States because things are pretty easy over here. Everything's a little easier

than it is from going from the States to Switzerland. I feel like it's harder to figure things out and everything. And I spoke the language pretty well. So it honestly wasn't that much of a difference. I actually wanted to ask you that. Is it similar to Sweden where you grew up speaking English from a real young age? Because it's perfect now. Like all the Swedesedes you can't even tell

yeah well they listen they watch tv in in english right we don't do that we for us it's german we speak swiss german but everything everything is in german but then we learn english in school but where i learned english was in hockey pretty much when I played for a pro team there, and we always had the imports and Canadian coaches. Did you ever make a trip over to play in Canada or the U.S. when you were younger, 12 or 13, with any teams? Or was it the first time you played was over in Milwaukee? No, I played under 20 World Championships in Saskatoon. Oh, I just came from there, Roman.

Well, Miz just didn't sleep there last night. I had a little bit of fun. Where were you partying at, Roman, or were you being a good boy? I don't know. We went to some bar, but I can't remember. That's like 12 years ago. Roman, I got to ask you something. I just remember going home.

It was freezing. Oh, it's so cold during the wintertime there. I've got to ask you some fun questions. Who's the one guy on the team that's just constantly joking around and pulling off pranks in that Nashville dressing room? I love hearing about these guys. Well, it was definitely PK last year, but Johansson is one of the guys who's always joking around.

He's a bit of a clown what are you gonna do if duchesne starts ripping the guitar for like first day in the locker room you're gonna be like all right dutchie like oh look okay bud keep playing i know i heard he's pretty good actually we actually have some other guys craig smith is good too like he's actually been to i don't know if you guys know about the Bloomberg Cafe, but he's played there and sung a song, so he's pretty good too. Oh, I was at the NHL media tour with Matt Duchesne, and I actually put him on the spot, and he's got quite the voice on him, not just the guitar skills.

Does he? Oh, I've never heard him sing, so I got to. You guys should get him going. Definitely get him on stage when you guys do a pub crawl or whatever you guys do. Tootsies. Yeah, get over to Tootsies. Yeah, I want to hear it. He's got to sing in front of the team for sure.

Roman, I'm going to go back a couple years. A guy you played a couple seasons with, Hal Gill. What kind of element did he bring to the locker room? He was a real cut-up, no? He was awesome, yeah. I mean, he's still here, so I see him a lot. He's on the radio team now, but he was, I mean, that was my first year, too, and I played with him.

We were D partners. I mean, he's just so funny. He just always has a choke ready. Every time you say something, you hear skills. You say something after. I mean, he's just a funny guy, and he's still like that. Like, we see him a lot because he's on the radio team. And he's an awesome guy, and he's definitely one of those guys

who's always choking around in the locker room. All right, Yos. Well, we've taken up enough of your time, dude. We really appreciate you coming on. Looking forward to a monster year Out of you And the Predators And I can't wait To just dummy myself When I see your new deal

Oh my god What a contract That's gonna be Have you guys started Talking yet a little bit Break news right now Yeah Well they've been talking

In the summer a little bit But Obviously with the wedding And honeymoon We kind of got away A little bit But They've definitely been talking

Okay Grinelli Put it out there They've been talking But they haven't been Saying. Okay, Grinelli, put it out there. They've been talking, but they haven't been saying the right things. That's what Yossi just said. Now, Yossi, I want to ask you one more question. I mean, you seem like a pretty relaxed guy, but does it get to you a little bit? Are you a little bit nervous? Is it at the back of your mind?

Or are you just going to let it all take care of itself and it doesn't faze you at all? Honestly, yeah. I kind of just let it take care of itself and it doesn't faze you at all um honestly yeah i kind of just let it take care of itself i mean there's um you obviously let your agent deal with it and um i mean for me it's kind of business as usual i'm just trying to get ready for the season you're in camp you're not really you're around the guys so you're not really thinking about it too much but um obviously yeah you like uh it's it's definitely a little bit in the back of your mind

but i'm not too worried about it but in all seriousness some guys say hey if we didn't get it done before the year we're done until the end of the year you are open to possibly getting something done throughout the season um yeah definitely okay um i mean i've yeah i've never made it a secret that i like it here. It's a great place to be in. And you're the captain. All right, buddy. Good luck this year. We can't wait to watch you guys play, and we appreciate it.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. See you, bud. Thanks a bunch. See you, Roman. That interview was also brought to you by Can I Brands. Chicklets fans, thanks again to everyone who signed up for the Can I Brands first-ever Feel Amazing Sweepstakes giveaway.

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contests and promotions coming soon. There might even be a contest being announced next week. So keep your eyes on Can I Brand's Instagram page for details. Can I Brand's, the company behind your favorite all-natural CBD creams, balms, sprays, and oils. Another congratulations to Zach and looking forward to seeing you down in Arizona. Can I Brand's, feel amazing. Big thanks once again to Roman Yossi for joining us for our preview episode here. Awesome defenseman, superstar player, so always great to chat with those guys.

But now, boys, we're going to take a look at the Central Division. First one we're going to look at, they had five of their seven teams make the playoffs last year, so we're going to go through them in the order which they finished last year. We're going to start off with the Nashvilleashville predators they won the division with 100 points but they lost in the first round of dallas 4-2 in that first round series very disappointing end to the season for a team with cup aspirations pecorine had a very rough series 309 905 those aren't numbers that you're going to win a cup with they made a few changes they brought in matt duchene he was the real big ad this year uh they said bye to cody mcleod wayne simmons pk suban those are the players of note that disappeared uh but the preds you know they're in they're in win now mode they just got to kind of

get back on the horse take another crack at it biz what do you got on the preds i mean poil's just done an unbelievable job every time that a move needs to be made and last year was a disappointment because they were one of the favorites coming in. And moving, getting rid of P.K. Subban's salary, I'd imagine that's to sign Yossi, who we just had on, and extend him and free up a little bit of cap space in order to get that top center that they've been wanting. I mean, I think Johansson's an incredible second-line center.

Those first-line center minutes are difficult and difficult to produce numbers with and i think matt duchesne does a good job of sliding right in there relieving a lot of pressure up the middle of the ice and i mean let's take a look at their lineup they have a solid goaltending they have a really good back end still even though they've lost pk stewman we talked about at home they got ellis and um and of course yossi. So they don't have the big four anymore. They've got the big three. But to me, when things don't go well and they're treading downwards,

making that big move and instead of having that four big defensive and only three, but having that big, big piece up the middle is what's it about. And, I mean, we talk about we always go back to Pittsburgh and how strong they are up the middle of the ice and they can control the middle of the ice, and that's how ultimately you win championships I think they've set themselves up very nicely in order to make a run this year and I mean it's not just that with they are stacked

throughout the entire lineup this team's sick I think they're a better team than last year and when you talk about the defense yes they lost P.K. Subban but if you look at what's going on with Dante Fabro, who was a first-round pick by them, he played at BU. Shout-out to the Terriers. I think he can come in and make a difference. Nashville has never rushed players. I think Poyle's smart not to do it, especially defensemen. We talked to Yossi.

He spent some time in the AHL. It's not something that they do. But I think at some point you'll see him make an impact. Listen, the way things went down last year after having that great of a regular season and getting balanced early, you look for changes. And I think they know that they really did need Duchesne. They needed that added offense. The whole ability for him to kind of take pressure off Johansson,

how much better will Johansson be now? Well, just the better matchups. The better matchups and the fact that he doesn't have to take on the entire burden of really carrying that team offensively. So you look at Philippe Forsberg. I think there's games when he's one of the best players in the league. I'm wondering if Laviolette would ever, he would never say it publicly, would ever tell his coaches that they need a little bit more consistency out of him.

I've seen the occasional game off. I've also seen him be so dominant where it's not a huge issue. I'm kind of looking for any negatives here in terms of their top end players when you're trying to figure out why they won't be a great team in the league this year. But it's an exciting year for them. And the other thing that people aren't really talking about is Michael Granlund. And that trade, I think it was a horrible trade for Minnesota. You feel bad dogging on a guy, but I'd rather Granlin on my team than Kevin Fiala.

So what type of year is he going to have on a team from the beginning? And anyone who's listening, I went through a bunch of trades because I was like, suitcase. But it's tough when you hop in. I mean, you have to deal with not knowing anyone, not necessarily not knowing anyone, but not knowing the vibe in the room and where you stand. And then the next camp, it's just so natural.

You go through everything. You go through a month with your buddies. You grow relationships, and you feel so much better coming to the rink. So that will only help Grandland. Also, looking up and down their roster, you've got to think that a guy like Craig Smith, he can have games when he looks dominant. And now all of a sudden, before, if he's not playing with Johansson, maybe he's not getting a top center. Well, now he's going to probably have Johansson or Duchesne, right? What can a guy like that do? Get 30 goals? I

don't know. I think I could see that easily happening. The whole team's, they're deep, they're hard to play against. And in the end, Rene and the net makes them so difficult to score on. So as much as the playoff sucks, I think they really improved themselves while also understanding this is kind of this window. It's not shut, I mean, but it's closing, right? I know Yossi's probably going to get re-signed and Duchesne just signed a huge deal. They're getting a little older. I mean, I'm not saying that this is one of the last year they could win.

But the one other guy that I have to bring up that I'm kind of not, I mean, like not confused about, but I'm interested to see what's going to happen is Tolvanen. And this is a guy who lit up the KHL and was a prospect that people were really excited to see come over. And he hasn't done that much yet. I mean, this is someone who has first-round talent. You've seen what he can do in other leagues.

That doesn't necessarily mean anything, but there's a lot of players who've proven they do it over there, KHL, and they come over and they can dominate. So we'll see what happens with him there. Maybe he's a rookie who has a huge year, but we'll see. One thing that definitely needs to get better, their power play. Oh, fuck, I was going to say that. I couldn't believe it was dead last, 12.9% last season.

There's just too much talent to not even have a middle-of-the-pack power play. Duchesne's definitely going to help there. they've actually been using four forwards on the power play so far in the exhibition season so that's got to get better absolutely it sucked the life out of them in playoffs and i mean if you if you can't figure out your special teams it's going to be hard to uh hard to make a run but uh another thing that i wanted to mention was that very fair fair deal on a guy who's not talked about a ton. Is that Colton Sissons? Crazy deal.

I remember we chatted. I think a seven-year deal at like two or two and a half a year or something. You don't see – it's a crazy – I mean, it's good for him. He gets the stability to know he's got that long of a contract. It's just not often you see seven-year deals for not bigger money. And with that, I guess the only question mark probably going into the season is where do you find Kyle Torres? And are they regretting that extension at that dollar amount? And maybe it was just a bit of an off year, but I saw some deterioration there where he just wasn't his dominant self

as far as the offensive production was concerned. Yeah, 23 points in 55 games. Need more. He wasn't happy with either his play or his usage, but yeah, he has to be better. And assuming they get to the playoffs, man, they're going. Need more. He wasn't happy with either his play or his usage, but yeah, he has to be better. And assuming they get to the playoffs, man, they're going to need more from Pecorine.

I know he's great in the regular season, but his last two postseasons have not been good. He's got to improve, though. Playoff team, definitely, I think so. What about your biz? Oh, easy, easy. No doubt. Before we actually go into more teams, I will say I wanted to say at the beginning,

this is the best division in hockey, and there are five teams that could win the Stanley Cup in my mind. I'm not the first person that said it. I've seen it written. I've heard it on another podcast. What up, Elliot Friedman and Jeff Merrick? There are five teams in this division that could win the Cup, and Chicago isn't one of them.

It's crazy how times have changed, but this is the best division in the league. Go ahead to the next club. And by the way, everyone, that's a pink Whitney. And I think we're all in agreement they're making playoffs yeah oh yeah they're in but like i said or a bunch of people are fired no shit all right next up we get the winnipeg jets they were second in the division with 99 points i should say tied for second with 99 points they lost in st louis the first round four to two a disappointing end to them as well. New players for them, Mark Letestu, Neil Pionk, Nathan Bolu, gone. This is where they're really going to be hurting on D.

They lost Ben Cherot, Tyler Myers, left free agency. Jacob Truba got traded to the Rangers. Kevin Hayes and Brandon Tanev ended up elsewhere. And Matt Hendricks retired. Not a very good offseason for the Jets. Not to mention, Dustin Buffen might not be back. They might have lost two-thirds of their fucking D from last year going into this season. You think they're an automatic lock for the playoffs.

Still got Hellebuck. Still got some great forwards. But, Biz, I mean, how much is this defense going to affect them? Are losing all this defense going to affect them? So, I heard a rumor or a comment made that Buffen was talking to someone recently, and he did say he was going to come back. I read that. I'm not sure.

So that obviously would be a huge boost for them. And if he does come back and does take some time, I don't think all this turmoil early on for this Winnipeg team is necessarily a bad thing because coming into the season years previous, they've been hyped up and one of the favorites where is now, they're not as expected to do as well. Might be underestimated a little bit. Right, where they could just focus and be kind of the underdog

and maybe that'll suit them well. I still think once they get Connornor locked in who is a stellar two-way player and then i imagine something's going to happen with line a and there is a lot of drama surrounding this team but i think they're going to be fine that they're going to make playoffs and and and yeah will the back end be as good no but and this is nothing against tyler myers i don't think that loss affects them that much i think they're going to have other guys step into that position making far less doing exactly if not maybe even more than what he did. But even if Buff does come back,

that's still 61-plus minutes of ice time per game gone from last year. I mean, even, you know, it might not be the perfect play, but those are tough minutes to replace for young guys. And I don't know much about their pipeline, but that is a team that has done a good job as far as drafting and developing. So let's see if some guys can step up and take the reins. Yeah, and if you look what they did get back from the Rangers, that Neil

Pionk, he actually had one of the goals of the year. I don't know if you guys remember that last year's end-to-end rush. So you saw a lot, and that was an almost positive undrafted player. So he could step in and make an impact. You know they're not going to go out and grab him a part of that Troubadour if they didn't like his game. The issue being, and I think it was

just last episode, so we kind of are repeating ourselves on Winnipeg, but just been a little bit of a crazy camp. There's a million questions out there without the Buff news. The Connor and the Liney stuff, and now the Buff stuff. And the issue being you can't even

really plan that Buff's gone to give Connor or Line A more money because they need him to come back. And if he comes back, you can't bump up what you wanted to offer those guys because then his cap hits back. So I think they make the playoffs. But as of right now, it wouldn't be shocking if they struggled this year to me. I don't know.

It's just the turbulence early on. Now, listen, if Connor and Laine sign in the next two weeks and Buff comes back, I'd change my opinion, which I've been known to do. But right now, there's just a million questions. The one good thing is that Hellbuck really came through last year and proved, not necessarily proved himself. I think that had been done. But he showed he's an elite goalie. He's one of the top end goalies in the league so they kind of have him to rely on if their defense does struggle with those guys being gone at the beginning of the year

I agree with your point about Tyler Myers because I think a little bit of an overpayment happy for him but I don't necessarily think that they'll miss him that much but Trouba had a huge year I mean 50 points as a defenseman you got to replace that that's no joke so on that team it's pretty easy to get points as a demon if you're getting power play time but nonetheless that's a lot of apples right there 42 all right i don't know if you saw the quote though because after all the line a drama uh paul marie's was asked if andrew copp's offense was making good case for a bigger role this year and paul marie's response did he tell you he wants to play with our best players question mark so he gave a little shot back

is he's a fucking walking soundbite that guy yeah and they said line a apologized to brian little as well for his comments and you know comments like that i i kind of take them when they're made through foreign press getting translated when you don't see and hear how the tone is i sometimes take them with a grain of salt like oh he buried the guy it's like well he said in a different language we didn't hear it so i think i've heard line a do interviews i'm gonna take that one with a grain of salt he's probably just fucking you know he doesn't really know what he's saying and then i think afterward he probably felt really bad that's why i gave him the phone call yeah and i mean if those two do come back you still got you know eel is like a whale. What's his name?

Fucking Shifley. I mean, they got a dynamic top six there. But I don't know. I don't know if the back end is going to kill him or not. As far as you just said Hellebuck, I thought he had a little bit of an off year. He started a shitload of rubber last year. I don't think he was as good as he was the year before. No, not the year before.

I think, what, he broke the record for wins by an American goalie or something? I might be making that up. But it was a sick year. I still think that my point being they have a backbone and net they can trust and know what they're going to get on a nightly basis. Right. As far as the postseason, I don't think they're going to make as much of a run for the division.

But, yeah, I definitely see them getting in the playoffs this year. Absolutely. And one last thing on Winnipeg. Ehlers, 21 goals last year. That guy can get 40. I mean, you see what he can do. It's speed, it's skill, it's vision. I think they want him to shoot the puck more,

but don't be surprised at all if he takes off. And he did miss 20 games last year. I think the whole buffed-up back end is such a myth because you saw what Pittsburgh did when they won the Cup the one year when LeTang went down. Their best fucking defenseman was Dumoulin. So the whole, if your goaltender's playing well

and your offense is clicking, boys, I think you're okay. And that power play at the opposite of Nashville, that power play buzzes. All right, well. Yeah, we did spend, like you said, we had a lot of time at Winnipeg last week,

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getquip.com slash chicklets. That's C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. Next up, the surprise of last year. I still kick myself in the ass that I didn't put fucking $100 on when they were 300 to 1 to win the cup in January. St. Louis Blues finished the season with...

300-1. Unreal, huh? 99 points they finished the season with. They beat Winnipeg, Dallas, San Jose, and then the Bruins, of course, in seven. They won the cup. So you win the cup, you don't really need to make too many changes. They made a few depth signings, nothing really major. Pat Maroon did go to Tampa Bay.

Mike DelZotto, depth defenseman, went to Anaheim. Like I say, why Tinka? I don't know how much stock you put in the Stanley Cup hangover, but the Blues did have a long, arduous road to the Cup. They played 26 games. The most you can play is 28. Then they celebrated all summer. So I'm curious to see how they come out of the gate with.

So am I. Questions that would come into my head when you're kind of reaching to think of what could maybe go wrong. Can Binnington be the same guy? I have no reason to think he can't be. But coming off a magical year where you catch legit. Lightning in a bottle isn't the right sense because I feel like that makes it sound like it couldn't happen again. But there was just magic. Anyone who witnessed that entire year, the whole season was magic,

and he was the main reason behind it. And then it's a short summer, and then is he comfortable? I don't know. But you wonder, all right, can he continue that play? Then you look up top. I love this team's up front units. And all about O'Reilly. You saw how valuable he was in winning the Conn Smythe.

Thanks for coming. So he's their leader. He's their leader up front. Pareko and Petrangelo on the back are huge. The whole team makes sense in not changing anything because of what they did. And what's really cool about the whole story is the fact that they didn't change anything in mid-January, really, when it was a disaster, early January. So they got a ton of confidence coming into the year.

The hangover, it's real. The thing being win, especially loss, but even winning, you're going into a year and it's been a short summer and you just know what it took to get there and how much you're going to have to give to get back. Sometimes that can be tough. I think with that leadership crew, I think Steen being there is their team's Patrice Bergeron, if that makes sense, where he's the guy everyone really looks up to, everyone trusts when he speaks, nobody else talks, everyone listens. He'll have a lot of say in how the season is approached. And even talking to Bruins guys, I'm sure the Blues camp is no different in that it's probably a pretty easy camp. You're getting guys back into the swing of things.

They're not going to be grinding your gears. They're not going to be killing you because they know how short it's probably a pretty easy camp. You're getting guys back into the swing of things. They're not going to be grinding your gears. They're not going to be killing you because they know how short it's been. I mean, I can't imagine. As a hockey fan and what we do for a job, it feels like yesterday they lifted the cup. So you can imagine those guys just being like, holy shit, we're back doing the peanut drilling camp right now? What the fuck happened? But it should be a great year. I think it'll be an awesome banner raising.

They deserve it in St. Louis. So there's not much to say besides if it continues the second half of last year, look out for them to win the division again. I'd say the most overlooked thing is these young guys that they had come in last year and slowly throughout the year make impacts. And now they have about four or five guys on that team that are still young, ready to take the next jump. I mean, I'll go through a quick list here.

Robert Thomas, Oster Sundquist, Ivan Barbashev. I mean, I'll even throw Zach Sanford in there. Yeah. Because he's a guy who, I mean, he only played 60 games last year, but then come playoff time, I mean, he was big for them, especially in that final round. Even a guy like Sammy Blais. Like, they got some young guys that could step up

and add some more juice to that lineup. Do I think that they're going to have an unbelievable start? Maybe not. I know they got after it pretty good celebrating, but I'm telling you, this is a good team with some good young players, and if those guys are able to jump up and elevate their game and kind of fill into the roles that they're expected to by Armstrong, then this team's going to be fine. And I could definitely see them repeating.

Yeah, I'm curious to see how Bennington pans out. He only started 30 games last year. He's going to have a much bigger workload this year. So I'm curious to see how he reacts to that. Not doubting him, but it's just... Yeah, no, that's interesting. And Robert Thomas. Did I forget him? No, no, no. You mentioned, I just wanted to piggyback on that. 33.70 games in a role that at the beginning wasn't where I think a lot of Blues fans wanted him to see.

Dude, could he not jump to 60 points? He looked unbelievable. Like 60 points is a lot. I would not be surprised. And I'm praying that Robbie Frabry. He's been through some shit, man. Yeah, we always love that guy. I hope he has a bounce back year.

I mean, last year only played 32 games, two goals, four assists. We saw him that year, dude. But I thought he looked like the next Johnny Goudreau. He was incredible. So I hope he can find his game that he had back at his first camp, and that will definitely add to that Blues lineup and a potential repeat. potential repeat yeah speaking of repeat only one team in the last 21 years has done it the penguins so that's going to be a tough mountain to climb on they know they have what it takes but two in a row is going to be tough one thing that looks to be different is we're not going to hit

gloria anymore i guess a few players remarked that it was fun and all but time to move on yeah they were probably sick of hearing it yp's probably probably sick of it. I think everybody else is. New season, new song. But Biz, do they make the playoffs? Oh, fuck yeah. Okay. 100%. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah, I think they do. I think they all... So did I say no one would have picked? No, I'm not saying no one would have picked. I say no. I say the Blues don't. You say the Blues don't?

Oh, wow. Grinnelli's a fucking... Grinnelli. So Buffalo hates Grinnelli. St. Louis hates Grinnelli. Time out. I party with those guys in Vegas. So Buffalo hates Grinnelli. St. Louis hates Grinnelli. Time out. I party with those guys in Vegas.

I know how they're offseason. Oh, okay. All right. Grinnelli said it. We could be hearing about him from him the rest of the year. I know of Braden Shan. A few of those other guys listen to this podcast. So Grinnelli just lost some friends. The few that he had.

Yeah, I think maybe a little stumble early. But yeah, there's too many good guys. Those guys know what it takes to win, let alone get in the playoffs. I think they're maybe a little stumble early but yeah there's there's too too many good guys those guys know what it takes to win let alone get in the playoffs i think they're too afraid of their head coach to have a slow start yeah chief yeah hey what a job he did man and take them from the doldrums all the way to the fucking stanley cup next up dallas stars they had 93 points last year they were a wild card team they beat nashville in the first round before losing to the eventual cup champ blues in the first round before losing to the eventual Cup champ Blues in the second round.

They got some new faces in town. Joe Pavelski, Corey Perry, Andre Saccaro on D. They said bye to Matt Zuccarello, Ryan Hoppin, both went to mini. Brett Ritchie, Valerie Nikushkin, Jason Spezza, Tyler Pitlick, and the Reverend Ben Lovejoy retired. Stars made some strides last season. They got to round two before losing the Blues, like I just said. The goaltending was great.

The D was really impressive. Miro Hishkin in on D and Issa Lindell. They were very impressive last year. I thought Jamie Bennet had a little bit of a drop-off, but Rupe Hintz was somewhat of a revelation. They did have secondary scoring issues last year, but I think Adam Pavelski and Perry should help that a bit. I can't wait to make a lot of money on this team this year.

I'm going to hammer bets on this team. I was talking to Merles and my boy Miggs. We were already saying this is a club that could do damage. And, right, we're kind of hopping on the bandwagon. Everyone's hopping on. But Jim Montgomery, what? You have a boy named Miggs? Yeah, Chris Migliola.

What up, Miggy? The best guy going. So, listen, Jim Montgomery is a great coach. This guy is an awesome hockey mind. First of all, he gets everyone on board. Players love playing for him. Good with adapting the personalities. He's all about it.

He wins it. He's won at every single level. He's third all-time leading scorer in NCAA hockey. I mean, this guy was a hell of a player. He knows the game, knows how to get through to guys and the additions they made in terms of Pavelski and watch out for Corey Perry. I mean, can he

skate at the same level as he did when he was younger as a lot of guys in the league? You don't need to when you got those two other guys on the back and just buzzing it up all the way up the ice. Just get to the front, Corey. Get to the front. And they added Pavelski and Perry, both guys amazing in front. Pavelski probably the best tipper in the league, if not the best one of them. And with Klingberg and Heskinen and these defensive guys who are just always getting pucks through,

dude, I could see a monster year from Pavs. So the whole team is just built to win now. They love their captain. He's an animal. And I think that he's probably pretty pissed off. And we went through the entire story last year with him and Sagan getting called out well it turns out you know you look at the stats from last year Sagan ended up getting 80 points 33 goals Ben didn't have a great year offensively this is 53 points in 78 games and I think that he's probably for sure upset at those

numbers we're also looking forward to this year by adding a couple elite guys. Let's not 100% say Perry's going to be elite, but Pavs is right there. You'll see a huge uptake in Ben. Who was the one who called him out? Was it the president? The chief financial officer? What was his name? Hicketts or something? I think it was the second in charge, the guy after the owner.

He said those comments and that team turned around. Call the guy whatever you want, but somebody need to light the fire underneath those guys' asses. He did it. And, yeah, I think that they're going to definitely be a playoff team this year, those two defensemen. And they still got more to show, too, that Lindell and Hiskanen.

I mean, they have three horses on the back end. Lindell is the same level of underrated as Ekholm, I believe, in Nashville. Kind of similar players. We didn't bring up Radulov, who is a complete psychopath. But we'll talk about loving the game, playing with passion. Go through his Instagram once in a while. I wish I spoke Russian, dude. Look at his Instagram.

I was going through it the other day getting ready for these previews just to get some laughs. Go to August 4th of 2018. That's about a year ago from now. He's holding fucking pork chops, fish. He's making a face at the camera like the psychopath he is. But he's awesome. I mean, he's been sick since he's been there. So they have a team that is built to win now that could do a ton of damage this year.

And Ben Bishop could win the Vezina too. So it's a wagon in Dallas. I think that you kind of touched on it right before or when we started, excuse me, Whit, is their depth is a bit of a question mark. If some of these guys can step up. The Faxas, that Rupe Hintz kind of came up. He looked great in the playoffs. Yeah, he did.

And if those guys can step up and help this team, and especially a bounce back year for Blake Como, only had seven goals last year. He'd been tripping it a little bit more offensively in previous years. So there's a lot of good things that could happen there. And I would not be shocked if five teams in this division made playoffs.

Yeah, once again, I mean, they're definitely a team on the rise. They were struggling for a couple of years. But if you're a Stars fan, you've got to feel good about what's going on. The D is sick, great forwards. And that fucking goaltending tandem, I mean, they're definitely a team on the rise. They were struggling for a couple of years, but if you're a Stars fan, you've got to feel good about what's going on. The D is sick, great forwards, and that fucking goaltending tandem. I mean, not only Bishop, but Hudobin. He's arguably the best backup in the league. What's up with Hudobin? He was in Boston at one point, correct?

Great backup. I heard he's a beauty. Guys love him, I think. Absolutely. He seems funny. Like, he'll give a funny quote and shit here and there. Which is odd, because you don't usually see Russians being good team guys. No offense to the few that there are.

I don't think he's Russian. He's like Russian. I think he's from Kazakhstan. Yeah, Kazakhstan. Borat. Okay, do you... I mean, is that... Do people say you're a fucking idiot for making the comparison?

No, no, no, no. No, you're just saying in terms of not often do you see a guy from that part of the country being like a comedian. Yeah, and he seems like he's always having a good time hanging out with Pierre Maguire between the benches. And I think that even bringing up Lindell Heskinen and who am I forgetting? Klingberg. Sequeira's a nice addition.

And Andre Sequeira. My old D partner. Was he? Yeah. Where? In Owen Sound. This guy. I'm pretty sure.

Was he pretty sick then? I'm pretty sure he was on the Russian gas. This guy used to take three-minute shifts. And never be fired. And I would be off the ice after about 30, and I'd be stuck in wind. And he'd come back to the bench and sit down like he hadn't even broken a sweat. Yeah, so he went to Edmonton, and kind of a lot was expected. Maybe they had him playing a little bit above the players.

He was $7 million a year. Yeah, they paid him big money. And then I think he tore his ACL. But getting that guy to come in, that's a great addition. So I really like this team. They're in the playoffs for me. And Game 7, the Cup champs, like you said, R.A., what a year it was for them. Absolutely.

I mean, they could have easily, I think, maybe won on a run if they fucking did beat St. Louis. I definitely got them in the playoffs. Biz? Yes. Absolutely. So we got four for four right now. Yeah, right now. Which, going back to your buddy Miggs,

do you ever say, Miggs, you stupid fuck? Do you guys ever say that to him? No, I would have said that. Silence of the Lambs. Remember the Miggs was behind of Electa's cellmate next door? Well, not cellmate. I got to stop saying yes to these playoff teams because I don't know how.

Hashtag Ask a Millennial. They don't remember that. I remember the movie. I just don't remember that part. He's the guy who throws the fucking jizz on fucking Clarice Stalin. He's like, Miggs, you stupid fuck. Sorry, it's kind of a popular scene. We went dark there.

Hello, Clarice. I was just going to say. Mix's name is getting raked through the coals. We got to slow down with the yeses because I think we're at four already. We still have a few teams. Yeah, they're all in for me. Yeah, I know. I know.

He's got three yeses. There's some teams in the Pacific, including Arizona, so make sure you save a yes for them, okay? Good point. Good point. Letting you for them. Good point, good point. Letting you guys know. Good point. What do we got? Next up, Colorado, another team on the upswing.

90 points last year, another wildcard team. They spanked Calgary in the first round before losing to San Jose in the second round, four games to three. That was a tough break for them on that fucking chintzy offside. But they had a lot of roster turnover. New faces in town there's m cadre andre burakovsky yonas donskoi uh p.e bellamere uh nichooshkin nichooshkin we always butch that one biz and our defenseman kevin connorton they lost kyle soderbergh

simeon volumov went to the islanders tyson barry went to toronto alex and alexander kerfoot patrick nemeth derek prard, all went elsewhere. There's a lot of preseason hype around the ads right now. They're listed as 12-1 on the cup, and that's even without Miko Rantham in the lineup. Doesn't seem like a legit line. And who knows how far they would have went without that chintzy call. They got one of the best lines in the league, as we all know. Tyson Barry's a big loss for them, but they do have two of the best young studs in the game on D,

Kiel McCast, Sam Gerrard. What's your take on this squad? I like this team a lot, but without Rantanen, it's not the same team. I mean, that's the dumbest thing I've ever said because it's that obvious. But you just wonder, and you look at the money McKinnon's making, and it's like, come on, bud. And the funny thing is, you look at Boston and they never really took more. It was like Bergeron was setting the pace and then it's changed a little bit.

But I don't blame Rontan at all, but it is frustrating to have a year that they had and building all that momentum and then right now they don't have him. And even when he comes back, we've seen it a million times, you're not the same at the beginning. It's impossible. They got money to spend, don they they have a ton of caps that's why i'm not i'm not saying at all that he doesn't deserve what he's going to get or what he wants i'm just

saying that right now a holdout doesn't look great the team right now would love to be beginning the year with him in the fold running the power play doing what he did last year, legit being a Malkin Jr. when he's on. I'll say this. If I'm Sackick wit, I say 9.5, sign it, or fuck off until Christmas. They have 15.6 in capsules. For eight years? Yes. 9.5? If he doesn't sign that,

maybe people say I'm a fool. I think he's crazy. How old is he? I think currently the team in Joe Sackick is offering him just under nine. 22. Which, listen, that's an incredible contract, but he's looking at it like, yo, they just gave Mitch Marner close to 11. That didn't help.

Very similar to what he did, and now you're telling me I'm going to take more than a million dollars less for him, and I still can't get there? I trade Marner. He's part of your engine that helps that team move i think that nine and a half and him signing it is a very team-friendly deal moving forward if if if hey listen if colorado doesn't want to budge sure but i'm telling you he ranting ain't the bad guy at nine and a half no no all right and i know this is immediately what we jump to when talking about this team, and there should be a ton of excitement.

But it's the huge story right now. So until that ends, there'll be questions, which are annoying. But if you look at losing Tyson Barry, what a year he had. I mean, 60 points, dude. 59, actually, which is my highest season. Thank you. But Cal McCarr comes in and... Am I saying it right?

McCarr? Yep, Cal McCarr. McCarr. Okay. Dude, you see that guy in the playoffs. We all saw him. What is he going to do? Is he favorite for the Calder?

Probably. I mean, there's a couple names up there, but I'm not going to say that they're not going to miss Barry, but having him come in is like... That makes it a lot easier and probably one of the reasons he's not there anymore. Do you have something to say that they're not going to miss Barry, but having him come in is like that makes it a lot easier and probably one of the reasons he's not there anymore. Do you have something to say, Vince? Well, I was going to say that I think that Girard has time to maybe get a little bit more ice time too. I think he's proved himself, and I think he's going to help fill up some of those Tyson Barry offensive minutes.

Great two-way defenseman. He's a little bit undersized and and for a for an offensive defenseman he's he's not that big of a liability in his own anyway he's pretty well rounded i at least from what i've seen one thing i did underestimate about this team last year after i said it and i regret it was their depth up front they got some guys that are not household names who can put the puck in the net and chip in offensively that jt comfor who even ended up missing i think close to 20 games last year um that kerfoot's a solid player he's gone wilson they're gonna miss him oh weird kerfoot oh kerfoot went to toronto that's right i just it's right i was gonna just say that 42 points dude you got to replace that that's a

solid year and soderbergh's gone and he when he came over to the Arizona Coyotes but they did got to get Codry in the middle of the ice Codry's awesome for them that's a great move by them to get him of course a playoff experience as well maybe he can keep it together when they make playoffs this year a little bit more but I think if they can resolve this situation early preferably before this season starts, in order to get him and McKinnon on the same page before it does start, I think that they're going to be okay, and they've got a lot of things to look forward to.

Good points, Biz. And, R.A., what is the goalie situation in Colorado? Yeah, with Volomov going to the island, the crease, it's all Phil Grubauer's now. He'll have a much bigger workload than the 33 games he started last season. He's number one. I mean, he was a great backup for Hopi, man. They made a good deal, I think,

Colorado getting him. Fucking tripping all my tongue tonight. He looked like the real deal in the playoffs last year. I mean, he was outstanding. He wasn't a liability at all, I thought, for the Avalanche and the net last year. So that looks like a good move for him. They're definitely a team in the upswing. Just a matter of going out and doing it. And yeah, Biz, I do think the five teams once again will come out of the central.

And I think Colorado is going to get back in there. Excuse my ignorance. Is this Pavel Frankou? Pavel Frankou, yes. Frankou, is he going to step in as Grubauer's backup? He's the backup right now. Yeah, he's – I don't know if he's – what is NHL? I mean, his two games played, he's got some pretty good numbers.

Yeah, I mean – That'll get you a contract. Good sample size. Yeah. I'd give him two games played, he's got some pretty good numbers. Yeah. That'll get you a contract. Good sample size. Yeah. I'd give him a seven-year deal if you're doing this. Yeah, I mean, be the way that they are set for their number one. I mean, and Volomov was there, what, eight, nine years? But he got supplanted last year. And like I said, that was a pretty smooth move they got when they picked up Grubow a couple years ago.

Actually, and the same deal with Dorpik, I think, too, as well, if I'm not mistaken. That's exactly what happened. They took him off the books, and then Washington ended up re-signing him? Yeah. They got him. I don't know if they bought him out. I forget the particulars. But anyways, what's your take on the playoffs? Colorado win or out this? You've got to save room for the Coyotes.

Don't forget. Listen, I just got this weird feeling that it's not going to go as smoothly as it went last year for Colorado. And I got to make room for my coyotes. So I'm going to say no. I'm going to have to say no. I think that was a great story in the league last year.

I just don't think this one has a happy ending. All right. Doug, what about you? Oh, man. You know what? I've always admitted my bias here. And for us to go and get a day with McKinnon, they're in the playoffs. I'm picking them.

That's true. Absolutely. Hopefully he gets 100 points. Yeah, fuck. Maybe he's going to be pissed at me for saying that. Eh, shit happens. All right. Oh, so you sandbagged him and you picked him to not make the playoffs.

Oh, speaking of... Oh, we'll have that conversation next year on the golf course. We got dinner. We got dinner coming this week. We do. Sandbag dinner. You ever heard of McDonald's? Yeesh. Hey, we'll have that conversation next year on the golf course. We've got dinner coming this week. Sandbag dinner. You ever heard of McDonald's? Hey, guys, real quick, want to talk to you for a sec about dude wipes.

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Or everyone can just head to Dudeproducts.com for a special check let's offer and use the promo code Hockey20 for 20% off your entire order. All right, a couple more squads to get to. These were the DNQs in the division last year. Did not qualify. First up, Chicago Blackhawks, 84 points. New faces in town include Zach Smith, Robin Lehner, Andrew Shaw. That's a new old face. Calvin DeHaan and Oli Mata to show up the D a little.

The Blackhawks said goodbye to Artem Anisimov, Marcus Kruger, and Cam Ward. And, sorry, what? Chris Kunitz retired, so no longer around. I mean, I know they still got Kane and Taves and Crawford, but these just aren't the Blackhawks of a few years ago that scared opponents. So I'm curious to see if they ever get back to that same elite level with Kane and Taves on their watches.

You know, guys like to brink it, and Strom certainly stepped up last year. If Crawford, you know, he's been having concussion issues. If he's not ready to come back, at least they went out and got Lehner. But I don't know. They're just not the same scary team anymore, Biz. I don't know. So here's where I disagree with you, because when Jeremy Carlton took over,

after he'd enforced the systems and kind of let these guys play the way that they're built to play, more so run and gun, they were hitting the overs, that's for sure, but they were winning some hockey games, and they're a fun team to watch, and I think they're in the midst of a bounce-back that you know i i think they're they're in the midst of a bounce back season they do have that one uh the kid they drafted third overall i'm

drawing a blank kirby doc kirby doc fuck i just talked to him on instagram the other god damn it kirby doc he's i think they're going to give him his nine games they're going to want to see what this kid's made of at the nhl level um they have some decent young talent. They got that one kid on the back end here. Eric Gustafson. He had 17 tucks last year. So listen, I think this is a very solid team. I think they just needed some new blood in there. I know a lot of people were pissed

off about Quinville getting fired, but they need a new voice in that locker room. And I tell you what, the boys responded for Jeremy Carlton. They really did. It's just the D. Overall, I don't think it's a playoff caliber D. The front being the fact that Debrinket is that good. He's only going to get better.

Strom, your boy, you called it the minute he went over there what he was going to do. And Kane and Taves, it's just weird. It's such a weird time for the Blackhawks because as these guys get a little bit older, it's just tougher and tougher every single year. So Duncan Keith, he's not the same player he was when he was the best defenseman in the league for like 10 years, it felt like. And Seabrook's taking a little step back. They're still good. They're not, you know, by any means struggling. Seabrook has had times where he struggled a little bit, but it's just in that division, it makes it even tougher for him I mean how many games do they have you play each division you play each team four times right so it's it's just going to be a tough season

for them overall I believe I could be completely wrong it's happened a million times but I don't I don't get that excited looking at that roster there's definitely some guys who could light it up and Kane's going to be the same, but I don't know. They're just overmatched completely in the Central, and if they make the playoffs, I think they'd have to consider it in an amazing season. Yeah, and like you said, they made a late run late in the end of the year. They finally kind of sat a bite into the system,

but it was a little too little too late, and they gave up the second-most goals in the league last year. I mean, modern at the hand, they'll help, but I don't know if they're going to completely overhaul that D. The other thing, too, is if Crawford is healthy, it's going to be an interesting competition. You're going to have two basically number one goalies. So that could be a good thing to having two number one guys

going against each other. But, like, I agree with you guys. They're just not that scary team right now. And until they get back to that level, they're not going to scare you. So I think same as last year, year man I don't see them getting How about Kane 110 points I don't think they take a dump like they did at the beginning of the year last year but

I factoring in the fact that they got most of their games they got to play against that central division I can't see that lineup competing against the rest of the division If Lane plays like he did last year that I would say is theford's not good, if Lane plays like he did last year, that, I would say, is the huge X factor with the Blackhawks. If he's like he is last year, then all bets are off.

Yeah. Because he, I know I'm really hedging here, but he was a complete force for the Islanders. And if he's like that again, they could actually steal enough games to get in. I just, I don't see it happening. All righty. And one more team,

the Minnesota Wilds. This poor team just gets smashed by chicklets. I know. 83 points last year. New faces, Matt Zuccarello, Ryan Hartman, Eric Fair was the only really big name gone. The biggest was over the summer was really firing GM Paul Fenton after just a year and bringing in Billy

Guerin. Last year was just another blah year for the Wilds. They don't play the most exciting brand of hockey. Their fan base is frustrated as hell because I hear it on Twitter all the time. They haven't been out of the first round in 16 years. Which I feel like we've been saying this since February. It's fucking 2016. They were seven points from a playoff spot. So it's not like they're a lottery team.

They're in the Philly zone. Like not bad enough to be a lottery team. Not good enough to be a playoff team. They were shut out 11 fucking times last year What? They were 27th in scoring Dude that's a tenth of the games pretty much for a math guy Shut out

No goal 11 times Coming in the locker room nobody had a point Showering up with everyone Hey how'd you do tonight? Oh zeros? Oh me too Oh same as him over there

Let's throw some Axe body spray on We'll get a post game kill Let's not even get Let's not even shower. Let's at least get on the score sheet tonight at a bar. That's a season, man. Well, that's happened in Minnesota.

11 times he got shut out. 27th in fucking score. Guys, we're getting negative. 11 guys on the bus going through the summary. Everyone pick. All you current players listening, you know, you click on that summary. Zeros.

Zeros across the board. 11 times. That's a little fun fact for you guys. Just listen. Now, is this a year where all the old guys, the replacements, the Minnesota Wilds say, hey, let's fucking let's rally. Let's get the old boys going here. wild say hey let's fucking let's rally let's get the the old boys going here and and and they and they make a stand for all this fucking negative talk that's been going on all summer about them i i the thing that you you if you're looking at positives not often do you think a gm can make an enormous impact right but that guy just his whole vibe and the aura around him i mean he's gonna

have guys positive he's gonna going to hold guys accountable. It can definitely change the whole culture in a sense, but you still have the same lineup, right? I mean, it's just, we talked about earlier with Nashville and them, in my opinion, winning the Grandland Fiala trade, but if Fiala goes out and becomes the player that people saw when he was drafted and stuff, that could be a huge get for them. Like you're saying Parisi. They got Dubnick.

They got a good goalie. Suter every year. Suter ain't an issue. You got a guy who can play 30 minutes. Wait, wait. Now back up. Spurgeon. I think that Suter was a bit of an issue last year. Really? Listen, the fan base started getting on him a little bit. He's slowing down.

And listen, I... Alright, go get your 50 points somewhere else. But I know what you're saying. I think it was an off-year form. I hope he rebounds. Now, another guy who had a great start to the year who they drastically missed was Dumba. He had 11 goals before Christmas last year.

Yeah, when he got hurt, that sucked. He was out of the lineup. Donato came over. They're not going to be a laughing stock. No, dude. No, they are not. There's like no laughing stocks anymore. We're talking about them like they're the Ottawa Senators.

Yeah, no. Well, they're in this division. I mean, this division crushes them, and that's part of the issue. Oh, what do we got our next seven? We got Nashville home and home. Then we play Winnipeg. Then we're going out. We're playing the Sharks. Oh, and then we come

back. We got St. Louis on a back-to-back. It's never-ending bullshit for these Wilds. But, like I just quickly mentioned Donato's name, Massachusetts hometown. He was awesome when he went over there. He was offensively great. That was never an issue in Boston. It was kind of the other side of the puck.

So I think that he'll be able to figure that out there. And Spurgeon, I quickly said when we were talking to Suter, it was great to get him signed. So no, it's not a laughingstock at all. It's just a team that's overmatched where they're sitting in that division. I'm saying right now I hope they make a run and just shut

everybody up. I hope that their rallying cries, those fucking morons. I'm too sensitive. I feel bad for them. Our prediction's not rooting against anybody. We're just making predictions. These lineups don't even fucking really set a lot of that. They got Dubnik, too. We're not picking on anybody.

We're just, you know. Right. Well, I mean, but, all right, you said it. That fan base, it's just like the team is kind of boring. Well, they agree with it on Twitter. They don't like, oh, you assholes. They're like, dude, you guys, thank God you guys said it. Yeah, they're the nicest people in the world.

But they're frustrated. They deserve a nice rally of a season to keep that morale high. 16 fucking years they haven't been out of the first round. And that's frustrating as a fan base. I mean, Patrick Wawa was still in the league the last time they fucking made it out of the first round. Because Andrew Burnett fucking ended his season. So, hey, so all you Minnesota fans listening, we're not ripping on you. We're hoping the best for you.

Great fans. But we're just calling it how we see it. We love you guys. You deserve it. Absolutely. Just like the Coyotes fans. I mean, we just said the top four, Suda, Dumba, Brodine, Spurs, and it's excellent.

I think the forwards could use a little bump. I think Zuccarello will help there. But Donato and Fiala, it's going to be interesting to see what they do. You know, new team, new deal. It's like you said, it's great on offense, but how's Donato going to be on defense? Dubnik didn't have a great year. I mean, maybe he got overworked. 67 games, that's like you said, it's great on offense, but how's Donato going to be on defense? Dubnik didn't have a great year. I mean, maybe he got overworked.

67 games, that's a lot to play. But his backup, Alex Staloc, you know, you've got a sub-900 fucking save percentage as a backup. That's not great in today's NHL, so you wonder if Boudreaux might have lost a little confidence with him and had to go to Dubnik so much. But, again, to reiterate what Witt said, with Billy Guerin in charge, the franchise is already on a better

track than it was before. He got those signings done right away where Fenton was kind of sitting on his thumb up his ass doing whatever. Guerin came in, he made those changes right away. So if you are a fan of this team, you're in a good spot with Billy Guerin in charge. It might just take a little time to get out of this morass you're currently in.

How nice would it be if you look down to April and this team's in the playoffs and you figure the worst thing that happened to us this year was the picture we put up of Billy Gannon when we hired him? How nice would that be? That picture was a nightmare. That social media guy should go away. That's what Grinnelli does with me half the time,

with pictures of me, Jesus, looking terrible enough, and then he buries me half. But listen. Billy G must have crushed the fucking PR guy or whoever. First guy he fired. The social media guy's old lady or something. Dude, it looks like I got stung by a thousand bees in that picture. Mixing a salad, Billy G.

So that's the Central Division, guys. It's a death march. It's a shit-kicking division. It's a come on down, strap your skates on, and get ready to play some rough and tough hockey in the Central. then shit kick chicago and minnesota and get your points there that's probably what it's going to end up being we sound mean but colorado could also be a team that really could like take off and do another run and not another run but take another step from last year or they could end up being kind of a team that's getting beat up a little bit as well. Who wins the division? Predictions.

Nashville wins it again. Fuck, I like that pick. Colorado. You know what? What? Wow. I think I'm going to go off. I'm going to say Dallas.

All right. That would have been my pick. That's a great pick. So they're what? Plus 425? I think them and Nashville are plus 400 to win the division on the side. Yeah. Well, I'll get to the gambling stuff. I don't have it already side. Yeah, well, I'll get to the gambling stuff.

I don't have it already. Before the season starts, I'll get some gambling stuff up, but I'm not revved up there. So that wraps up our central preview. Not too much other shit to talk about. I know I want to mention the Austin Matthews, Scott Sibber, and gift that was going around. Oh, God.

I mean, it's your comment. It's so funny. Time out. So let's go back to this. So Austin Matthews shows up to camp, obviously in the summertime when he started growing the mustache. Mousse? Mustache. How do you say it?

Mustache? Yeah. I think it's pretty normal. I think some people say it like you do. So the first picture that went viral of it was Austin Matthews sitting at a dinner table, Austin Matthews sitting at a dinner table, and he looked exactly like a photo, took it from the Netflix series in Narcos,

of when the, was it Pablo Escobar was sitting down? And he was saying the same. So Toronto Maple Leafs, a bunch of guys in the locker room, started calling Austin Matthews when he got to Camp Pablo. So I ended up sending out that tweet and saying, tell Pablo to show some respect to the depth players, which is Scott Sabrin of the Ottawa Senators. Play with him in the American Hockey League.

Tough motherfucker. And he was laughing about it. He was joking about after how Austin chirped him. It's all good fun, right? Well, I got fucking 30 lunatics coming at me online saying I'm racist for comparing Austin Matthews to another Mexican. Some people out of their goddamn minds. The team is calling him Pablo. He liked the nickname.

He's on the record saying, I love the nickname Pablo, which, listen, if I see a couple 34 Maple Leafs jerseys with Pablo on the back, I ain't fucking mad. I think that is a sick... So, for those Munsons who are saying that online, you can fucking lick my ball sack.

For the other people who enjoyed the tweet, hey, we had a good time. Thanks for giving me a like or a we tweet. Yeah. We tweet? We tweet, yeah. I thought you were going to be like, I'm kind of racist. I'm pot black. I thought I was waiting for you to shoot that one back.

I mean, if there's one thing I'm not, it's that. So let's fucking move on. But nonetheless, we had some fun. Yeah, it's fucking idiocy. That's why you don't even fucking pay no minds. Any other stuff? So I wrote two things down. First one just cracked me up.

I was at the Red Sox game the other night with a good buddy of mine, Mike Riley. Some people call him the Walrus Riles. Great dude. He told me a hilarious story that him and his roommate after college, they were living together in San Diego, and his roommate always bought Reese's Puffs, just a phenomenal cereal. The best. Phenomenal cereal.

Well, the kid would go out, and I think it was kind of like, you know, we're going food shopping. If I buy cereal, it's kind of for me a little bit. You know, when you got a roommate, I don't really know. I've always lived alone. So all of a sudden riley decides one day that he's gonna start eating this kid's reese's so this kid's coming home he's buying a box of reese's and half the box is gone half the time he gets home like two days later he's like

fuck i'll teach this kid a lesson dude he put he mixed in this dude mixed in a bunch of dog food with the reese's puffs get the fuck and then he would sit there and watch Riley crush it, and every bite of the dog food, Riley would be like, dude, there's a bunch of stale pieces. There's a bunch of stale ones in this box. He ate like 100 pieces of dog food, and the guys at Reese's Puffs just kept thinking they were like bad, bad puffs. So he's telling me that at the Red Sauce game.

I thought that was hilarious. And the other thing I wrote down was I talked to Keith Yandel. I talked to our boy Yance. Wait, wait, wait. Did he eventually tell him that he was eating dog food? Yeah, at some point. I think after he had nine boxes of mixed in dog food. He's like, dude, you've been crushing on...

He's like, I feel great. What is it? Chow? What is it? Papina? Puppy chow. Puppy chow. Papina.

What the hell is Papina? So talking to Jens, he says camp's going great. Guys love Quenville. They're looking good. And he's been like so beyond impressed with Bob. And he's like, dude, this guy works so hard. He's a great guy. Bobrovsky?

Bobrovsky. So he's looked great. He's looked awesome. And they've had a great time. It's a different team, different coach So he's looked great. He's looked awesome. And they've had a great time. It's a different team, different coach. Everyone's getting to know each other down there. Huge expectations when we talk about that division. Well, I mean, we talk about a locker room guy like Jens.

And they've got a few guys like that down there where it helps new guys feel comfortable. Because he's the guy in the locker room when Bob comes in the first day of camp. He's getting dressed or something. And he chirps his horn. So it just kind of opens things up for just know just like stupid shit it's silly where you feel comfortable and he's he actually told me he goes he is the hardest working player i've ever seen not goalie player and he's not bullshitting i mean he like keith is amazed at this guy's work ethic so he loves him so he shows up today pulls in the parking lot and um i love this

we're gonna be getting bobble stories he's bob uh getting out of a brand new lambo what do lambos go what are those 200 300 huge ticket he deserves it he's he saw it he's like this is unbelievable i love this guy he goes morning bob love, Bob. Love the new car. He goes, Bob's stone face looked at me. And he goes, yeah, happy birthday to me, Keith. It was his birthday. Went out and bought himself a Lambo. So Bob, looking to make waves on and off the ice this year.

Guys love him in Florida. Huge signing. One of the reasons that they're going to be a favorite and off the ice this year. Guys love him in Florida. Huge signing. One of the reasons that they're going to be a favorite to be a huge not surprise team, but a huge upstep for them. Upstep, whatever I'm talking about. We've got to end this thing. I can't talk anymore, but a couple stories there at the end

of the night. Well, two quick ones. Nice of Dan Girardi as well, I forgot to mention. Retired early so he didn't have to make his teammates buy him a thousand. I was waiting for that. 6,000 people tweeted at me that. How many games did he need? He played 927.

You like those guys. I respect the guys who don't cost the other guys money. This kid out of junior played for the Peterborough Peets. I forget his first name, but last name Merkley. I don't know what the story is here, but he was drafted first round by the San Jose Sharks last year. I don't know what the story is here, but he was drafted first round by the San Jose Sharks last year. I don't

know him personally. The word on the street is he's got a bad attitude. And he was supposed to be a high first round draft pick. Ended up dropping late first round. Well, there was an issue this year now with Peterborough. I want to even say it was last week that he ended up taking like a four minute shift and his coach was to kind of call him

off the ice and he's laughing at his coach. That's the story I heard anyway. And he got, I think, sent down by the team. They said, we don't really want him anymore, so he was going to go play in Junior B. Rumor has it now that the London Knights are trying to work out and orchestrate a deal, whereas this kid is so good, and he's not wanted even at the OHL level. So for those of you listening, I don't know what the deal is in this kid is so good, and he's not wanted even at the OHL level.

So for those of you listening, I don't know what the deal is in this kid. If you guys can tweet me and let me know to find out what the true story is. But just a great talent who seems to be going the Antonio Brown route, and we need to find out more about it. Yeah, first-round pick. I mean, that's sick talent, so hopefully he figures that out. Guys, before we wrap up, we do have a sale this week for Pink Whitney

merch because we do have the launch party on Tuesday at American Whiskey. So keep an eye out for a Pink Whitney sale. I think it's going to be 15% off all Pink Whitney merch. Nice. Alright, everyone. Enjoy the week. We'll be back Thursday with a peek at the Metro. Just want to say thanks again to our terrific sponsors and we hope you are using

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The promo code there is HOCKEY20 Thanks for supporting us Thanks for supporting our sponsors And have a great week all You don't have to talk all night I'm a man who can't say no You don't have to twist my arm Just point me where you wanna go

Take me to the action Take me to the track Take me to a party If they threaten in the back I've been working all night