Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 207: Featuring Nicklas Lidstrom
Episode Date: October 7, 2019On Monday's episode of Spittin' Chiclets, the guys are joined by Hockey Hall of Famer and Stanley Cup Champion Nicklas Lidstrom. Ryan's childhood idol joins to talk about his legendary career, the Avs.../Red Wings rivalry, hockey in Sweden, and much more. The guys also talk about some recent NHL news/signings and break down Sidney Crosby's recent fight. The boys wrap up talking about the Jack Edwards/Roman Polak situation and wearing sunglasses inside.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
Transcript
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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 207 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney,
the pink lemonade-flavored vodka from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka.
The season is underway.
Biz has a big shit-eating grin on his face,
although that could be the edible he had before the show.
We're getting neck deep into it.
Let's say hi to the boys before we talk about the first week of action.
Producer Mikey Grinelli, what's going on, buddy?
What's up, guys?
Big show on tap for today.
I know this is one guest Witt's been wanting to do for a while.
Absolutely, and we'll go to Witt's next.
Actually, Witt's, we'll give you the honor of announcing
who our guest is today, buddy.
Well, by now, I think people do know, but Nick Lidstrom.
Ever heard of him?
You guys ever? You know who that is?
Yeah, you want to talk about not knowing what color the puck was?
You want to talk about snapping it tape to tape?
You want to talk about never getting injured and just dominating?
Well, Nick Lidstrom did it all, And finally, we got to chat with him.
I mean, we had hoped that at some point we'd get to,
but he also doesn't do that many interviews.
So with the book, I think it's out.
It's out, all right, right?
Or coming out either way.
I believe so.
The PR tour is in effect for sure.
Yeah, the PR tour is in effect.
He was willing to talk to the boys.
So that was a thrill for me.
So we had a blast with that one.
Yeah, definitely a thrill for all of us.
I mean, you know, however you have defensemen,
our father, son, Holy Spirit
or Bork and Lindstrom, probably some
combination thereof. So to get him
on was a big thrill. Last but
not least, we're saving you last for a reason.
Paul, very nasty. Bissonette, what's up
brother? I mean, I've been
better. Tough loss for the Coyotes
against the Bruins. Yeah. What?
What do you mean, dude? I bet him.
I took him. I said, listen, I said last night, I said the Bruins had a huge win
on the road in Dallas, and they're going out to Phoenix.
Arizona, Biz says they're going to be just a complete wagon of a team.
They're going to make the playoffs.
Well, they got the home opener.
Bruins coming off a win.
I think Phoenix, Arizona will win.
They didn't even score a fucking goal, Biz.
I know, but they played really well.
They did play good.
First two games of the year.
I mean, Halak, he's got to be one of the better backups in the league.
Last year, he got some pretty good work in, close to 40 games.
He comes out hot, too, out of the gates.
Yeah.
Last year, the same thing.
He was just kicking.
You know, I mean, we don't need to go too deep into it.
Bees just came out very flat.
First period, they got dominated.
But they ended up walking out of it 1-0,
and that ended up being the lone goal.
I tell you what, man.
Bergeron just came out of the corner.
So nasty.
The puck kind of just squirted out,
and then he didn't even need to think.
He knew exactly where Marshall was going to be,
and where Marshall wasn't even there yet.
He kind of just went into that spot,
and it was just next thing you know,
it was in the back of the net and that was it.
Fuck me.
Trigger alarm.
Trigger alarm.
What was that concert you
attended?
Were you backstage?
I used to date.
We used to see each other.
Deadmau5 is now wife.
We're all from the same area.
She's a beautiful girl.
He's super talented.
He's from Niagara Falls.
She's from Fawn Hill.
We just kind of kept in touch.
She's a cool girl.
He was in town, and I wanted to see the show.
The show is unbelievable.
Production value.
I like Deadmau5's music.
You've got to be in a type of venue
like that for i don't just throw it on when i'm driving and i took some mushrooms so i had a
fucking oh so you're straight and mental state too i've been i've been pretty much on mushrooms
the last five days i've been i look great it sounds like i'm telling you right now and i know
that some people will be listening be like oh, oh, you're condoning drugs.
Buddy, I am never happier than when I take a little bit of mushrooms in the morning.
I'll take a little bit in the afternoon.
I guess the term is microdosing.
Microdosing, yes.
But, like, yeah, I just, like, I have them.
I just take a bite of some.
Does it affect your, like, hand eye and, like, motor skills?
Buddy, I –
Could I golf on mushrooms?
I am – Hit the one in the middle.
My mind is clicking.
I'm on it right now.
I feel great.
You feel great.
You look great,
dude.
You got like this glow about you.
Yeah.
People with depression issues,
the best they have used it as in a micro dose. And I,
I do go through a lot of that.
Yeah.
It's not,
it's not like trip.
You're not tripping balls,
like at a Tom Petty show,
but like,
you know,
you feel better,
man.
I think from all the, the head trauma I've sustained over my life that I just –
functioning every day, and especially at the capacity I have now,
how much I want to work and create and do things,
it just genuinely makes me happier, and I'm way more productive,
and I don't feel depressed.
And it's actually the perfect unintentional segue
because your old livelihood was back on the news quite a bit this weekend.
Lil' Krozz dropping the mitts.
Oh, yeah.
You hit my guy, Jay Kai, you're going to answer to me.
Him and Pierre-Luc Dubois went at it.
Might not be the top 10 hockeyfights.com fight ever,
but it was good to see him show up.
Biz, let's get your professional opinion on it.
Oh, I liked it early on.
I mean, they fucking dominated Columbus.
From what I hear from the game is, you know,
Columbus started getting a little bit messy and nasty
when they were going down, when they were getting outscored.
So, you know, I have no problem with Sid doing it.
I think that kind of sets the tone, especially after they lost the first game.
Now guys are like, oh, geez, this guy's invested in game two.
All right, let's get her going.
And they rolled Columbus 7-2.
So, I loved it.
More of a drop your mitts and make sure you don't get punched
or break a hand kind of fight.
But, hey, message sent.
Probert Domi, Vandenbush Bonveyvey Crosby Dubois I mean that's a tilt you can say what you
want oh it wasn't much of a fight Sid he got in there he wrapped him up he threw one overhand
right and then all of a sudden he was strong enough to just full-blown tackle him so I I
thought it was a hell of a tilt I mean what, what do you think? Like Sid knows how to chuck knocks.
He can score.
He can do it all.
So the thing is that Dubois gave him the cross check originally,
skating back into the zone.
Sid turned around, kind of pissed off, and was smart enough.
All right, I got to really get in here, tie up these guys.
That guy's pretty big, Dubois, and he can throw them.
So he was smart enough to get in there tight.
It was good to see.
I think the fans gave it a standing O.
I mean, actually, when Crosby gets in a fight, no matter what,
the Pittsburgh faithful are going to go nuts.
But Columbus looks horrific, guys.
Holy shit.
They outscored two games, 10-3, I think.
11-3 in the two games so far.
All right.
Was it originally Dubois who shimmy-shaked Gensel?
Yeah.
Yeah, it was Dubois.
He got him pretty high.
I believe they got him
on the original, too.
Crosby had taken exception to that.
Like Witt said, he crushed Jack Crosby
as well.
I feel bad for
everybody listening if we're going to glance over
your team or not even mention them, but there
are a lot of storylines in the first week.
We basically have a lot of 15 mini in the first week of the season. We basically have a lot of, I feel like we have like 15 mini little storylines
just around the league stuff.
It's just there was so much that happened, and some teams off to really quick starts,
whereas a couple don't look so hot.
And the one thing quickly when I mention how bad Columbus looks,
Panarin in New York, holy fuck, is this guy just nasty.
I mean, there's another guy in New York
Briz wanted to bring up, and rightfully so.
He can just walk a little cocky these days
with what it is called about Mr. Mika.
But Panarin, losing him, Columbus doesn't have him.
Duchesne looked awesome in the...
I watched a period of the Nashville game.
He had a nice assist, or maybe two assists.
So it just hurts what they're going through right now.
It's so different.
We said this could happen at least at the beginning.
Well, do you want to talk about New York?
And I said Zibanejad, most underrated player in the league,
and this guy comes out and gets eight points in his first two games.
An up-and-comer.
Remember we talked about New York and how they have all these young guys
and if they can excel their game.
That Bushnevish looks very good on that line.
He looks very comfortable playing in that position.
And that's a guy, you know, he comes over from Russia.
You don't know how he's going to pan out.
I mean, a high-end skill for sure.
He's going to get, you know, 15, 20 goals, 15, 20 assists anyway.
I think this guy is going to take it to the next level this year.
I agree with that.
The thing is, so Panarin scored the other night in Ottawa.
It was Saturday night, and Zibanejad, they were talking about his assist.
It was a really nice pass, but Bucznewicz made the original play,
and he, like, this little backhand perfect area pass to Zibanejad,
who made the sick feed to Panarin after that.
But those three guys buzzing together.
And I had mentioned in the preview about the Rangers in terms of them
improving,
none of us picked them to make the playoffs,
but can Shruba continue what he did in Winnipeg this year?
He looked awesome.
The first game of the year,
he had one on one.
So that,
that's,
I mean,
it's one game,
but you,
you could see that the,
he's the 50 points.
Wasn't a fluke,
even though we said he did it with some incredible players up front.
It looks like the Rangers' top-end guys will be just as skilled,
so power play could be lethal.
I know I could get bullied pretty easily,
and I remember when I said the comments about New York, I might be wrong.
These guys might be for real.
They might have one of these years where all these young guys
just fucking end up getting the job done.
So looking very impressive early, These guys might be for real. They might have one of these years where all these young guys just fucking end up getting the job done.
So looking very impressive early,
and then they got the handsome Lundqvist in net playing good too.
One dude who's probably got to check himself next time is, what is it, Elias Anderson?
He tripped over the plug coming out.
Oh, God.
That's not on him.
It's a legit nightmare.
That's on him, bro.
I mean, no.
Every other player just stepped over it.
Roy, I mean, I guess I'm unaware if they gave them the heads up
that it was going to be a cross.
Like, you're looking up and waving to the fans.
Why would you ever have a wire going that way
when that's the way they have to skate out to where they need to be?
That actually makes no sense.
It makes no sense. To his credit, he did jokingly retweeted a video of it himself,
which is good.
Get ahead of it.
And he made a joke about himself.
So it sounds like he had a sense of humor.
You can't take two L's.
You got to eat that one and make fun of yourself.
Absolutely.
The old double down.
And Biz, I wasn't done, too, with the fighting stuff.
Thursday night in Denver, in Milan Luc Lucic's first game is aflame.
He racked up eight minutes, 38 seconds in ice time,
and about double that in penalty minutes.
He got 17 penalty minutes.
I don't know if you saw it.
He absolutely fucking blasted Nikita Zdorov in the face.
Zdorov hit Austin Zanuck really high in the corner.
Lucic took exception, and it was funny because Zdorov was looking at the ref
waiting for the call instead of paying attention to Lucic.
Fuck you.
Lucic just fucking blasted him right in the face.
And here's a great note on Lucic.
In all four of his debuts for his new NHL teams,
he fought in his first game for all four teams,
Boston, L.A., Edmonton, and Calgary.
Wow, that's interesting.
One way to get the fans on your side.
That's a nice nugget.
Where'd you find that one, R.A.?
Eh, you know, sources. No, it was
all over the place. I started a tweet, read
in the story. It was out there a little
bit, but I thought it was pretty cool. Okay, so regarding the hit,
I thought that the, who was it?
It was Zarnik? Yeah, Austin
Zarnik, yeah. Yeah, I thought
he turned, and I didn't,
I think it looked worse
than it was, and I'm'm gonna put more of that on
zarnik than zadorov um i don't mind the move by luchik at all though in real time it did look
like you hit him dirty once you see the replay you're like i guess he turned but yeah show your
new team you're gonna bring that element and your team's not gonna be pushed around that's a door
off fucking lays guys out and this is i mean they they embarrassed them in
playoffs last year so it was luchic the new member of the team he's trying to say hey this is one of
the teams that that we got to go after because we're going to be fighting for a playoff spot
with them so i i like the move i know people who have have gone far uh anti-fighting we're like oh
good what if that's all you can do anymore fuck Fuck it. Love it. It's still hockey.
Don Cherry was saying, like, Zdorov just runs around the Western Conference killing people.
Killing guys.
It's like, that guy just runs around cross-ice hammering people.
So I could totally see it.
And Luchich basically gave him the chance.
He's like, hey, we're doing – it wasn't do you want to fight.
It was like, we're doing this.
And then when he said no, he's like, all right, I'm punching you anyway.
That's a bully getting after a bully.
You can look at the face when I punch you.
You can look at the ref, but I'm going to punch you one way or the other.
But watching a little bit of that in the highlights, especially Johnny,
I don't want no sushi.
Get me a ham and cheese.
Hockey, Goudreau, five points through two games.
Fucking buzzing around.
He looks incredible.
Monahan Lindholm himself, the exact same that it pretty much went last year.
I mean, unfortunately, it was a pretty horrific series for Goudreau
against Colorado in that loss.
So you could see that game extra fired up, and he was flying around.
And the Flames are going to be there offensively, I think.
Kachuk went on after hours.
I was watching that interview.
R.A., wasn't there some sort of chicklets pump for us on that?
Somebody do your ask.
Scott Oak, once again, he must be a big chicklets guy.
He referenced the interview with Matty Kachuk
and how his father come back after Matthew's career,
if you couldn't get in the building.
They're like, oh, some guy down here says he's your father.
He can't get in the building.
So they rehashed that story.
Actually, Biz, I want to go back to the Luchich stuff again.
I want to ask, like, you know, how much value is there
in what Luchich does in today's game where there's so less fighting?
Like, you know, even though it doesn't happen as much,
Gaisan is willing to engage.
How much value is there in still what he does
as far as the effect on his teammates?
I know we talked about Wilson last week.
I'll say this.
It's mental warfare, right?
So Luchich does that, and now he's got the upper hand where, yes,
some people think it's ridiculous where you're like,
oh, now he looks like a pussy.
Well, he got embarrassed in front of us.
It was in Colorado too, right?
I believe so.
So he gets embarrassed at home where all of a sudden he's been bullying
all these guys and hammering all these guys in the Western Conference.
Well, no one ever shimmy shakes him and says, let's go you want to be the tough guy let's fucking be a tough guy so now moving forward i think that luch is probably just going
to be all over him that might even affect sidorov's game when they're playing against calgary and who
fucking knows maybe they meet in playoffs and sidorov is a big piece of that back end i mean
he's i would consider him a top four
defenseman and and if he can get the mental upside on him which I think at this point in time he does
have that because because I'm telling you as as Zdorov as as being that bully and that guy who
you know you you know you want to be the alpha male when you get belittled like that it is a
little bit embarrassing if somebody never if
somebody ever called me out for a fight in in especially in my building i don't give a fuck if
it was if it was spider silva from the ufc and it wasn't a ufc ring i'm going i might fucking lose
but i'm not getting embarrassed to me getting would you not agree with if somebody like says
yeah but people but i, I don't necessarily agree
because if Lucic did that to me when I was still in the league,
I would not have fought him.
Yeah, but you're not running around trying to act like a tough guy.
Okay, so that's the thing.
I don't play hard or tough, but to Dora doing that,
it's almost the old argument like does he have to answer the bell,
and people will say, no, he doesn't.
But in a sense, if you're going to hammer guys,
you do deserve to get a little embarrassed.
Looch is like, all right, buddy, I'll punch you in the face.
What are you going to do?
If Looch went after like a Girard, I'd be like, hey, that's a little bad.
But if you're going after a guy who likes to poke his chest a little bit,
you can't all of a sudden start pointing the finger at Looch
saying you're a goon.
So it's like, no, he had another guy on the ice who likes to poke his chest out, who was trying
to be the alpha, and
he called him out.
Dude, it sucks.
For Avalanche fans right now, we've
had a few of them reach out, I guess because of some
TV rights dispute right now.
Denver fans, people in Denver, they can't even
watch the Avalanche on TV right now because
there's some...
It's one of those convoluted direct TV
fucking dish network.
They have Altitude, I think.
Basically, there's
some fucking big beef about coverage.
It's always about money and the fans
are suffering. They can't even watch their fucking Stanley
Cup contending team. So Avalanche games
are not on TV right now in
Colorado. That's what I've been
told. I think the only way people can get it
is if they have the NHL TV package,
which case they might still have blackout issues as well.
That sucks, man.
And, R.A., to go back to the Luchich-Zdorov thing
just very quickly,
there might be an element where Colorado's coach
told him not to fight Luchich,
knowing that something may have happened
because that's such a rivalry.
I'm not waving my finger
at Zdorov telling him he's a pussy because he didn't fight.
He's got that option. I'm just saying that
I'm also not going to
fucking tell Luchich he's a scumbag
for trying to go after him there.
Yeah, and the last thing I'm going to do is say anything
like that to fucking Luchich's face.
By the way, the next game
for Calgary, they had played
Vancouver, and Louis Erickson,
healthy scratch already to start the
year. So we mentioned his contract
last week, and hell, that's a bit of an albatross.
He's already starting the year as a health bond. That's
a tough one. Some other news
too, the Sens, they're going to retire. Chris
Phillips is number four later this season.
I mean, he's a guy you probably, a lot of
maybe younger listeners aren't familiar with,
but him and Wade Redman, they were rocks back there
for Ottawa's D for years, 17 years Phillips played.
You had some games against him as well.
What kind of guy was he like to go against?
I know you're a whole defenseman,
so you didn't see him a ton, but.
This guy was, he was kind of the model of consistency, really.
And what's funny is people argue or say that he didn't really live up to his draft status.
He was a first overall pick, I believe.
But he played for such a long time, and he played consistent.
He wasn't in a huge offensive threat.
But at the same time, he played 82 games a lot, especially middle of his career.
I just remember him being in
the lineup a ton as he got older. The entire
career was spent with Ottawa. That's pretty
impressive. The thing is
he had
some... I don't remember what it was.
He had some sort of...
It was a dirty hit or something. I remember
him being in the news for it. Other than that,
you didn't hear his name that often.
The way he played, that was what you kind of wanted mean he was just a guy you knew what you were gonna get
he played that long and for a while there it was him Redditt and Chara they ended up choosing uh
to kind of keep Redditt instead of Chara that was that was wild and when that all went down the team
um I don't think they nearly stayed as strong they had a little bit of a run but Chara changed
the Bruins as everyone knows but Phillips what a little bit of a run, but Chara changed the Bruins, as everyone knows.
But Phillips, what a career that was, a leader in that team.
And I think that anyone who played with him always has the utmost respect
for a guy who was able to do it for that long.
Yeah, so like you said, hell of a career for the guy.
17 years at one team.
That's pretty impressive.
And we did have a couple of signings we're going to get to in a second.
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Boys, yeah.
Hey, I just thought of this funny thing.
Well, it's the first part of it's not funny, and I wrote it down on my notes here.
So I go to the gym the other day, and I got those, you know those Raycon those earphone things they said yeah they're bluetooth so I work out in those
and all of a sudden I hear this big scream so this guy apparently he and he kept screaming and he
couldn't communicate what was wrong with him I guess like pacemaker blew out or something so they
ended up having to call the ambulance over. I ended up bringing over my water.
It was just like a spooky situation.
So in the time of like the 15 minutes, when you pause your headphones,
and I was listening to the Dr. Dre 2001, the Chronic album, whatever it is,
it'll shut off the Bluetooth.
So after that whole experience, I was going upstairs to ride the treadmill,
and I hit play and you know,
that song on that album where it's like,
Oh yeah,
fuck.
Yeah.
Goes on.
But my headphones and there was this lady right beside me and she probably
thought I was like,
you know,
watching porno while I was working out or something.
And I,
it was one of those days where that just happened.
I didn't feel like walking over to explain that.
It was like a song on an album and I'm not a creep,
but to the one lady, Snowball's chance in hell
that you listen to the Spittin' Chickles podcast.
Like that biggie song, you pickle juice drinking.
Dude, do you know what song I'm talking about?
I thought you were going to say you were listening
to the Dr. Dre, Jimmy Ivey documentary again. I was like, no. No, no, no. Here, I'm going to say i thought you were going to say you were listening to the dr dray jimmy ivy documentary again i was like no no no no here i'm going to try that oh and he's like oh no i
really start talking about it now too this one
oh so that was just pumping over the gym so i'm good yeah so like i'm waiting it for for the the
the song to come to my earphones
because I always play that album because there's a lot of bangers on it.
And if it's not a good song, you just hit next,
and chances are it's going to be a good one.
There's like eight good workout songs on there.
So that just happened to be the song, and this lady thinks I'm a creep.
Sorry, lady.
I know.
They don't make albums like they used to, Biz.
We did mention a couple of signs before that last ad about cabbage and loans and money old braden shen signed an eight-year
extension with the blues it's worth 52 million dollars it's going to take him through the 27 28
season average annual value of 6.5 mil and his two years in st louis he's been a key part of the
lineup and he helped the franchise captured the
first ever Stanley cup last fall.
Biz,
what's your take on this from brother?
You did an interview with him and his brother out in BC a couple of years
back.
Oh,
great signing.
I think he wanted to stay there bad.
I think that core group of guys just loves it there.
So I'm really happy for him.
I mean,
I,
from what I've read online,
like I, as far as what he brings to the table, I, from what I've read online, like I,
as far as what he brings to the table,
I think it's a pretty fair number.
I don't see any St.
Louis plan,
St.
Louis blues fans complaining about it.
I think the only issue you could see,
you could see some people having is the term and how long the deal is,
but he does bring a ton of different elements.
Like he's not,
I mean,
he had 70 points two years ago.
Other than that,
he's never had 60.
He's been pretty close,
but,
but it's more about how physically plays.
Like he's a power forward and you don't really expect him to get 70,
80 points.
You are looking at that guy as a 50 to 65 point guy playing hard for checking
hard.
He's good defensively.
He's just a,
like a real motherfucker to deal with out there.
So he kind of brings all these different elements in one that,
that make him worthy of that money.
It's just,
it is a,
it is a decently long deal.
I want to say he's like,
probably is he 29?
I don't know either way.
Like that deal say he's 36,
37,
37 when it ends.
Yeah.
Okay.
So maybe at the end of that deal it's it's he's not even
playing who knows that is it's a long time away but for now he deserves it and that's what happens
you win a stanley cup and you got to pay a guy like that you need to keep him around well yeah
a couple things he's a great guy so i'm happy he got paid he's won a stanley cup so i'm sure people
in st louis are okay with him being a paid because he was a big contributor in that and uh last thing
i say
this is not an insult to him i think he's i think he's really done a good job of stretching out how
much by the time he's done playing what he's going to make for what he's done what was the deal he's
coming off of do you have uh he signed a pretty decent one in in philly philadelphia deal he
signed uh it was a four-year $20.5 million deal.
He's going to make $80.
He's going to make $80 million.
That's a pretty – for what he's done and his body of work,
that's a little bit of an overpayment, but I always like seeing the fucking –
80 sheets.
80 sheets.
Yeah.
Congrats, Braden.
Estimated career earnings as of – well, right now in cap friendly, 25 mil.
So he's going to make five mil this year.
That's going to take him to 30.
And then he had the $52 million deal.
So, yeah, he's taking it over 80, of course.
Good for you, buddy.
I was going to send you some Pink Whitney's,
but you can actually just fucking buy some.
Yeah, you can buy the whole company.
He picked fifth overall seven years after yours truly.
I only made 30, so he's really doubled me up there, but congratulations.
Another thing, too, what's his average again?
Just over six?
AAV is six and a half on the new deal when the extension kicks in, yeah.
I mean, guys, once the new TV deal kicks in in like four years,
that's going to be like they gave him four million based on the average.
So I think it's fine. I think he's going to be able to they gave him four million based on like the average so i i think it's i think it's fine i think he's going to be able to get you know sustain 40 to 50 points and and like
you said bring that physical element to his game he'll fight too like he'll do anything for all
right i don't know if you had this one written down but did you guys watch that mvp uh basketball
that uh mvp the game trophy kind of thing. Every team does it. Like, they have the Broadway hat.
The Arizona Coyotes have a WWE Championship custom-made belt
that they hand out.
Yeah.
And they did the basketball because the Raptors gave them the winning ball
in order to pass it out.
And then Babcock, after their first one, gave it to Matthews.
And then Matthews just puts on a Harlem Globetrotter show
with the MVP ball.
How cool is that?
Oh, wow. So they're actuallyrotters show with the MVP ball. How cool is that? Oh, wow.
So they're actually taking an idea from the hoop team.
Well, I mean, Hawkins hasn't been doing it,
but never with a basketball.
That's going to make Witt's head explode.
Well, no, I think they did it because, like,
they're passing on the quote-unquote winning tradition.
Like, they said last year was our time, and this year it's your time.
They're like, we tried giving this ball to Kawhi, but he didn't want it.
So you guys can have it.
Oh, shit.
We're going there?
We're going there, are we?
Oh, man.
Well, I tweeted out the video.
I was watching.
Like, oh, baby.
Like, the first spin, he somehow spins it to get it rolled down his chest.
He looked like Pete Maverick.
Is that Pete's pistol Pete?
Yeah.
That was sick.
If I was a puck bunny, I'd
slob his knob just after watching that video.
Oh, God, yeah. The funniest thing, too,
is a bunch of people commented on the
video because Tavares
is doing some funny dance and he's laughing.
They're like, oh, Tavares laughs and smiles.
It's so funny because
you do see Tavares ultra serious,
ultra competitive guy
in a sense like Crosby,
where interviews are very serious.
He's quiet.
And people think, like, is he always like that?
No, these guys get in the room after a win with the music pumping.
He's dying laughing.
But so many people say they've never even seen Tavares look that happy.
All right.
I know he was announced captain before last episode dropped on Thursday,
but had the video of them telling him that he's going to be captain
with his wife in the room with his kid, had we talked about that last week?
No, I don't think it hit.
That was a very cool video that the Toronto Maple Leafs put out.
If you haven't seen it, guys,
you could just tell how much it meant to him to be named captain of the Leafs.
He's probably wanted it since he was, you know,
first laid down in the skates and very well deserved.
This guy lives and breathes it.
And I think he should have been named captain.
So check out that video.
I'm not sure what kind of face he made the other night
when Che Webber absolutely fucking labeled him.
What a hit that was.
Did you guys happen to see that?
I mean, it was clean, but.
Yeah, I saw it.
It was a hell of a game.
It was a really good game. I actually watched the whole
game, because what do you know?
I had fucking Toronto
money line. They're up 4-1
in the third period. They lose
the game. Matthews made that sick
little, like, dragon goal to tie
it up with a minute 15 left. I'm like,
nice. They still lose. Pricing
the shootout. Pricing... It was Matthews, Marner, Tavares.
They didn't sniff, even sniff.
They were all coming down shooting it,
and Price was doing one of those bids where he, like,
it looks like he doesn't move.
Maybe it was just hitting him,
or maybe he basically forces people to shoot into his pads.
But I was like, there is zero chance anyone's scoring on him right now.
So that was a tough loss for yours, Julia. I had the
over in San Jose, Vegas, first night
of the year. I lost that one. I lost
the Bruins. I bet against the Bruins.
Fuck, R.A. told me
early in the season, be careful.
I didn't listen, though.
It's funny, because I went 0-5
to start, and I was getting tripped left and right.
I literally just told everybody, October,
November, my worst two months, so if you can fucking follow me.
Yeah, if you haven't been fading him, you're an idiot
because he told you he's shit, you fucking morons.
That's on you.
This shit fade me.
Hey, I don't like to get negative much on this podcast,
but that was a tough start for the San Jose Sharks.
0-3 so far.
And I still think that Kane three-game suspension was bullshit.
I would have loved to have seen those two games with Kane in the lineup
and how much more intense they would have been.
Yeah, it has been a tough start for them.
0-3 coming out of the gate, an ugly loss, a couple ugly losses so far.
And we were hoping maybe a little chicklets bump would help
because their PR team used us, basically stroking them off
in their preseason hype video.
They played the other day.
You can hear all three of our voices.
And what happens?
They start off with three.
Jesus.
More like a chick that's dumped.
They start off with our voices, and then we have one,
and I think their goal differential is nine.
So, holy fuck, we're never getting used again.
12 to three.
Yeah, it's been a tough, tough stop.
You know, like I said before we started,
these are the little mini stories that people, you know,
these are the angles we take.
But these things get turned on their head in a week, two weeks later.
You know, a team rattles off three, four in a row.
I think the cream rises to the top.
And what is it?
Water finds its level at some point.
I wouldn't write the shocks off yet.
Having said that, you got to fucking get a W soon.
Well, you start panicking.
You start squeezing the stick a little.
I mean, I don't want to say panicking, but you lose the next one 0-4.
I mean, you realistically could play yourself not out of playoff contention,
but if you first 11 games, right, you go two and nine.
Do you know how difficult it then becomes to, like,
gain all that ground back?
So the starts really do matter.
Three games isn't anything, but you just want to get that first.
We're like, all right, let's just kind of get one.
We'll get going.
But until that happens, it is a little stressful, 100%.
Any team who hasn't won yet, they're going to be really trying to figure it out
and get a win immediately, if not sooner.
Because every practice after the loss, every practice until you win a game,
is kind of a disaster.
Actually, there was one other signing we want to mention before we send it over
to Hall of Famer Nicholas Lindstrom.
The Blackhawks extended Alex DeBrinckit with a three-year, $19.2 million deal.
That's a 6.4 AAV.
The season is the last year of his ELC,
so his extension kicks in after this season.
And we've talked about that third year of these bridge deals.
His third year is going to be worth $9 million,
so that sets him up for an awesome qualifying offer,
a minimum of $9 million that fourth year.
He had 41 tucks last year year just his second season in the league
uh it's crazy how many teams bypassed this kid in the draft just because he was small and he's
kind of putting it up all their hoops right now eh Whit oh yeah and he scored the first game um
over where were they check right uh so yep you know this guy I I think he easily could get 40
again Kane by the way in that game, are you kidding me, dude?
Just like easy three points.
Just no problem.
Cool.
Let's fly over.
I'll get one and two.
We'll fly on back.
That's what I do.
I'm Pete Kane.
Showtime, baby.
So I think as long as the print cat's playing with him,
at least power play especially,
he's just going to be one of the top goal scorers in the league.
It's a very fair deal.
It makes a ton of sense.
Yeah, boys.
Speaking of Europe, you know, Philly and Chicago,
they started the season over there.
I mean, 8,500 miles, that's a long way to go for two points.
I was wondering if you guys either, A, ever started a season in Europe
and what kind of effect it had on your team.
And if not, what's your opinion on doing that?
Like we said earlier, Biz, if they played two or three games maybe,
but 8,500 miles for two points, I mean, that's going to put a team
behind the eight ball to start a season, no?
I mean, the metaphorical eight ball.
Yeah, I'm curious to know how much it is about now.
I think they're just going over there to grow the game.
And when I used to do it, because I did it with the Coyotes
and I did it with Pittsburgh, is we did go for two games.
But maybe as far as the amount of money that it's pulling in,
because I know in check we didn't draw great,
whereas why would they risk taking two games out of –
well, at that point it would be one home game each, right?
You'd be taking one away from Chicago and Philadelphia.
Well, those teams are selling out and they're taking a lot of money.
So now that's why they're doing it.
But I don't even see why you're making these guys fly all the way over there
just to play one game.
It's a little bit ridiculous.
But, hey, if it's helping grow the game and they see a benefit in it,
I guess it's hard to argue.
I think that going over for one is stupid.
I think you've got to just play two.
They do play another game.
I think they both played pro teams in Switzerland or Germany
or wherever the fuck they were.
I was listening to Brian
Burke on the show
at the Sportsnet radio show, 12 to
1, and Jeff Merrick was asking him
about starting over in Europe and how it can be
pretty difficult because the issue is
he was actually telling a story when he was with
Anaheim. He was like,
well, if we're going to go, they were on the West Coast, obviously.
If we're going to go all the way to Europe, on the way back, I want to play.
I want to get three or four games out of the way on the way back.
So at least it's not like fly back to the West Coast.
Oh, yeah, that's a good point.
And I guess Randy Carlisle was like, what the fuck are you – what do you mean?
We're going to be getting everyone's home opener.
And sure as shit, they got home, and there was like three or four home openers.
They went one and three or something, or oh, four.
So it is tough when you come back over.
Hopefully those teams, which I'm guessing they will have a little bit of time off.
I don't know when they play next, but yeah, they got some time off.
I'd be curious to know what the percentage.
The good thing is, though, you love it.
What a way to get to be with the guys early in the year true i mean like no rules in europe well keep in mind though is like i didn't
have as many on ice responsibilities so i was like yeah we're going to europe like i'm thinking
about crushing chicks not like oh god who's my line match up or you know i'm sure kane was really
worried about the game he's like i'm gonna get three points and hop on the jet home fuck yeah
and then it happened.
Right.
Like those guys are, it's all business where me, I'm, you know, I got the tour guide.
Speaking of that game over there though, connect me.
Ooh.
Buzzing for the Flyers.
That team, we talked about them boys.
All my old coaches, Terry and Yosey getting it going in Flyer land.
So hazy.
I saw he played like 18 minutes in his premiere and his
first game as a flyer so it's pretty exciting time for them and it was a good game it was nice
to catch it and i was dying laughing because biz uh had a tweet where somebody asked him or
somebody i think sent a tweet i'm drinking pink whitney or something getting ready for the black
hawks and biz like can't wait for that game tonight it's the one i'm most pumped to see
and the kid goes it's going on right now.
Yeah, because I forgot they were overseas.
And I saw it on the.
Just the tweet was like, it's happening right now, Biz.
I was like, damn it.
Yeah, the Flyers actually play Wednesday and then Chicago Thursday.
So they got a couple of days to recuperate.
But what's up, Biz?
I was going to ask you, how good do you think percentage-wise teams are in home openers?
Even over the last— Oh, so that was brought up.
He said he wasn't sure.
I think it's 75%.
That was the number I think he said.
And he did say—I think he said, don't quote me, but he thought it was around 75%.
Somebody will send us the information.
Unless you're the Coyotes and Whitbats on you and Biz is your radio announcer.
Hey, the Coyotes have lost 15 straight to the Boston Bruins.
Yeah, dude.
I guess on the last time that they beat them.
I wish I knew that.
When we were in Prague, game one of the season.
I was at Taylor Pyatt at the ASU
hockey game today and I was
telling the story. I don't know how it came up.
And Paisley's like, yeah, I scored in that game.
So that was the last time
the Coyotes –
in 2010, the year you guys won the Stanley Cup.
Yeah, Bron's on the Cup that year.
That's crazy.
Is Johnny Walker still on ASU, guys?
Johnny Walker scored today.
I was there for him.
He just lights it up, doesn't he?
He was being a fucking rat.
And then he kind of interfered the goalie a little bit.
Might have gotten pushed in.
But right before a few shifts earlier, he got hit. And then he was, like, chirping at the ref a little bit might have gotten pushed in but right before a few shifts earlier he got
hit and then he was like chirping at the ref a little bit and i think because the ref felt that
he owed him one he didn't even consider waving it off he might even got an assist on that goal so
johnny walker man it ain't pretty but he gets the job done not a great skater takes long shifts too
i hope he listens to this and cheers me cheers me But he had a nice goal. He likes to get to the front of the net. He's just a scrappy little player.
I could see him potentially getting to the AHL
just because of how he just seems like the type of guy who just
finds a way. He might go to the next level.
He thought you were going to say NHL there and he's bummed now.
I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell,
which I've been saying that a lot.
Just his skating's not great unless he drastically improves it.
If you can't skate, you can't play.
Have you seen how fast it is?
It looks faster than last year already.
It's nuts.
Like the tic-tac-toeing playing going on, I'm like, holy shit, man.
I told some guy this week i said i i
think i it's like i played 15 years ago no seriously it's it's not even remote it was five
i think or six and it feels like it's a different world so yeah no offense johnny hey maybe he could
shove it up my hoop sandpaper finish if he doesn't make it um there was one reason why i mentioned
lundquist earlier and i didn't say it. I had to congratulate
him on that win there. They won the other night.
It was his 450th win.
Good for him.
Speaking of Swedes and guys
who never sniffed the AHL,
Nicholas Lidstrom. I think it's time to send
it over to this Hall of Fame interview.
Like Whit said, man, I knew he was your idol
growing up, Whit, but this is
one of these things we get to do and it's an honor to do them as as a journalism geek and a guy who made them
this shit uh this is the type of stuff i i hope to do someday so it's a treat from a nerdy journalism
level as well as being a fucking fawning hockey player too and we do bring up the book but it's
uh the pursuit of perfection he was called the perfect human we get into that so without further
ado we uh bring you one of the best of all time, Nick Lidstrom. Before we get to our interview,
just want to mention that it's brought to you by Quip. What actually makes a better toothbrush?
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our show and start brushing better, but you have to go-I-P.com slash chicklets. C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. Go right now
to getquip.com slash chicklets. Wow, everyone. Wow. That's all I'm going to say. We've done one
huge intro before. His name was Sidney Crosby. Here comes another one.
My idol growing up.
This is a man who's won four Stanley Cups.
Four.
He won seven Norris Trophies.
Seven.
Bob Yor had eight.
He got seven.
He dominated at his position for 20 years.
He won a gold medal in the Olympics.
A gold medal in the World Championships.
And in the Olympic gold medal, he scored the game-winning gold medal goal.
It's our absolute pleasure to be joined by legend and one of the greatest, if not the
greatest defenseman of all time and my childhood idol, Nicholas Lidstrom.
Thank you for joining the Spitting Chicklets podcast.
Thanks a lot, guys.
Thanks for having me on.
Oh, it's our pleasure.
When we heard that you had the book coming out, we could get to talking to you. We were as fired up as we've ever been. So first, I'd love to ask,
what's been going on since retirement? Amazingly, it's been seven years. It feels like it's been
two, but I'm wondering what life is like now. Yeah, time's been flying by. It doesn't seem
like seven years at all. But once I retired in 2012, we decided to move back to Sweden.
I'm living here now.
I've been involved with youth hockey over here and some other businesses
and just enjoying life.
So it's been good, but it's been a quick seven years for sure.
And you have four boys, is that correct?
So you're busy as all hell running around seeing those guys play hockey.
Are they all players themselves?
Yeah, they're all players still.
Yeah, I miss their. Dad right now,
taking the kids to their hockey and enjoying it.
It's fun sitting up in the stands
and just watching my kids play,
so that's been a blast.
I think, first off, I think,
I forgot you're calling it Smythe Trophy.
Did you mention that one?
I did maybe forget that, but I was very excited.
But I also could have brought that up later, R.A.
Thanks a lot, buddy.
Sorry.
Growing up in Sweden, when did you first think the NHL might be a viable career option for you, Nick?
How old were you?
You know, it started off just being a boyhood dream, like most kids growing up in Sweden.
But when I got drafted or I heard that I was, you know, they were here looking at me,
I might get drafted, that's when I started to, you know, to pay more attention.
And once I got drafted, you know, I realized you're one step closer to playing in the NHL,
which there's no guarantee you're going to play.
But at least, you know, they've got their eyes on you and you know you're being watched.
So that was, you know, that was my first big step to being drafted.
Nick, not a lot of people know this, but you were passed up on your first time
when you were eligible to be drafted, correct? Yeah, yeah, that's right. I wasn't, you know,
I was kind of a late bloomer. I didn't play on the national team when I was 15 or 16. I first
got a chance to play there when I was 17, and there was a lot of guys a lot better than me,
so I was a late bloomer, and I got passed out.
I think they had different rules back then, too.
You had to play a certain number of games in the big leagues over here in Sweden to get picked.
So I didn't get drafted my first year.
I got picked my second year when I was 19.
So that was a big thrill for me, just being drafted.
Well, so your first year over in North America, 91-92.
Crazy to think that it's been that long.
And just a quick little 80 games played, 60-point season out of the gate.
Thanks for coming.
What do you remember about that team?
And what's so interesting to me is that's before the Red Wings hadn't won in so long.
You come over there, Eisenman's lighting it up,
and it's just like, when are we going to end up getting a Stanley Cup?
There was a lot of years of kind of suffering, but who do you remember really looking up
to when you got to that team, and really who helped you out your rookie season?
Well, Stevie was the captain.
He had been a captain for a long time, and he was the franchise name out there.
But one guy that really took me under his wing was Brad McCrimmon.
The late Brad McCrimmon was, you knowrimmon was my partner every game our first year.
He took great care of me.
He was a stay-at-home defenseman, letting me join the rush and be part of the offense.
Even when some scuffles happened, he was the guy there backing me up.
So he was a great man.
He was my roommate, and he was a great man to play with, too.
So he really helped me out my first year.
Yeah, Nick, I want to ask about him and Vladimir Konstantinov.
They obviously played a different style than you,
but what are guys at that style able to teach you about being an NHL defenseman,
even though they're kind of more roughhouses than maybe you played?
Yeah, Beast, as we called Brad, he was, like I said, he was a state-hold defenseman.
But he told me to be part of the offense, join the rush whenever you can,
and I'll be there backing you up.
So he kind of let me play my style when I was a young player.
And, you know, later on he kind of helped me out on the PK
and how to play strong defensively in your own zone.
He was a great teacher.
You know, he was still my partner and my teammate,
but he was a great teacher as well.
And I think he helped Vladdy as well, too. Konstantinov, too, where, you know, Vlad and I came in the same year, and Vladdy played with Brad Marsh, and I had Beast as my partner. So I think
those two really helped us out as two young defensemen coming into the league and trying to
learn to play the North American way. Well, and for people who aren't necessarily sure of that,
Brad McCrummon was tragically killed in the plane crash in the KHL
with Locomotive.
It was 2011.
So I've heard from so many people how special of a teammate and person he was.
So it's great to know that you got a chance to play with him.
And you look at when you did come over, and amazingly,
you never missed the playoffs.
Every single season you made the playoffs, so just an incredible stat.
But for a while, it took you guys, just you couldn't get over the hump.
And I'm always interested in talking to guys on those wings team of what was happening early in your career,
the first four years, and finally you were able to break through and win a cup in 98, I believe, right?
97?
97.
Yeah, 97 was our first win.
And I think we had some great offensive powers.
You know, guys that could score goals, and we were winning games 6-5, 6-4,
you know, just getting a lot of goals.
But we didn't play as strong defensively.
And as you know, in the playoffs, you have to be real strong defensively as well.
So once Scotty Bowman came in, I believe it was in 93,
he kind of brought the team back a little bit, wanted
to have stronger team defense. We still
had the weapons up front. We still had the
Icemans and the Federoffs
and guys that could score goals, but he
wanted us to play more tight defensively
and he made some
trades. He moved some guys around to
get a team that he wanted and once we started
playing solid defensively, everything just fell fell into place but we added Brendan Shanahan in 96 for uh I believe
we traded him for Paul Coffey and we we added some some size and some goals with Shani coming in
but we also played strong team defense so just all the different pieces we had came together and and uh some strong goaltending
from mike vernon our my our first win and then you know chris osgood in in 98 so we had some
some real strong teams and then then all of a sudden guys wanted to come to the wings be part
of the wings and be part of our success so we later on added uh chelios uh brett hall luke
robert ties and some star players to our lineup.
You mentioned Scotty Bowman.
What is it about him that makes him such a great coach?
I think Scotty was a great bench coach,
just knowing how to match up against different lineups or different players and kind of moving things around.
He was an old-school coach.
He kind of kept his distance to the players,
but when it really mattered the most, Scotty was fantastic at getting the right players
on the ice at the right moments. If you're up 6-0, he can be screaming and yelling behind
the bench and wanting a shutout, and then in tight games, he's just quiet. Winning a
game, 3-2, he's quietly coaching everyone. So he knew how to kind of get the team going,
and he was so successful for so many years as well.
Did he ever have to rip you a new ass in the locker room?
No, I think he did it once.
I think once it happened early on when he first came,
and then he kind of let me be, and I thought I was –
I took that as a good sign.
He didn't talk to me a whole lot, which I thought was –
I must be doing something wrong because I'm being put out there
on the ice all the time.
So I just kept my mouth shut and kept playing the way I did.
Nick Lidstrom says, yeah, I was yelled at two times.
Once, Scotty Bowman.
The other year, I was 11 years old in Sweden.
I remember both times, and it never happened again.
The other thing that's crazy to me in looking over your stats,
over 1,500 career games played,
the numbers itself are mind-boggling.
And then you look at the games played,
and you missed under 40 games over 20 years.
And I just always wondered, not necessarily the most physical player,
but do you consider a lot of that luck that a you know, a random puck didn't hit your foot, broken foot.
It was just incredible how available you were every single season.
These are years you're playing 27 minutes a game, too.
Yeah, I think the only time I missed, my most time I missed games was my last year in the league
when I did get a shot off my foot and broke a ankle.
But otherwise, you know, I was fortunate enough to not have any major injuries.
And I think one of the keys for me was stay in shape in the offseason,
get ready for a long year.
I wasn't an over-the-fiscal defenseman,
but you still have to be strong to take all the hits.
And I think my positional play helped out a lot too.
And luck comes into it as well.
And on some of those games, I know late in the season,
Scott has said, you know what, you've got his sword growing.
You're staying home.
You're not going out to Calgary or Edmonton with us.
So he gave me some games off late in the year, too,
to get ready for the playoffs.
Nick, there's a few things with your stick you're famous for,
batting pucks out of the air when forwards are trying to dump it in.
And there's another one.
After the lockout, when they made those rule changes,
usually on one-on-ones you used to kind of push guys with your stick how did you adjust after
they started calling that a little bit uh yeah the reps were kind of on me before the lockout they
they kind of saw what i was doing because sometimes so you got a warning on me uh yeah
he told me no some of the guys told me no no, I can see where you're doing, you know, stop doing that.
You're like, no.
Until they start calling it.
So they had to tell the league on you.
Yeah, no, I used my stick to kind of push guys right by their hip flexors almost.
That's because if you were going wide on me, I'd put my stick there
and they couldn't, you know, I had to stop skating,
which gave me momentum too.
So after a while they started calling it,
so I had to find another way to stop players.
But as far as knocking pucks out of the air, as a kid I was playing,
always playing with a tennis ball and my hockey stick,
just shooting tennis ball against the garage door
and just playing, you know, with a ball being in the air all the time.
And I think that's where I got that from knocking pucks out of the air.
So you wouldn't have guys dumping them in on you after practice
and you would practice batting them down.
That was all childhood stuff?
Muscle memory?
No, I didn't do that.
No, I think it came from early on in my youth year.
You got a lot of grinders in trouble, buddy.
You got a lot of grinders in trouble.
I told the story in this podcast before of Bobby Ryan.
We were playing, you guys, when you beat us in seven the year Pittsburgh won the Stanley Cup when I was on Anaheim.
And he got tortured by Randy Carlyle.
He's like, and then Bobby had to say, Jesus Christ, Lindstrom, let me put one in.
But I talked to Danny Cleary.
And Danny Cleary, a teammate of yours, good friend of mine. I had to ask a couple things about you.
He says, oh, I got a good one.
He goes, Babs was all over me, all over me about getting pucks in deep one day at practice.
So first time in against, he called you sweet.
He goes, I put one in, he knocks it down.
Babs blows the whistle, starts giving it to me.
Jesus Christ.
I try again.
I put a little more steam on it.
Lidstrom.
Babs the second one down.
Babs blows the whistle, screams at him again. So Cleary says, you know what I do? I'm so a little more steam on it. Lindstrom. Bats the second one down. Bats, pulls the whistle, screams at him again.
So Cleary says, you know what I do?
I'm so fucking pissed off at this point.
I rip a clapper as hard as I can.
Lindstrom cheated on the clapper.
No one's coming.
Went back, got it.
Sent the guy in on a breakaway.
Just tortured teammates in practice and guys you're playing against.
That was just an insane skill you had that was always fun to watch.
Well, especially clear. So if you get a chance to, you know, get on his case a little bit,
especially with Babs yelling at him, it was even more fun, you know?
Yeah. So the other thing he mentioned to me, and I didn't know this about you, but
he said he would know exactly, all your teammates would know exactly what you were doing
at any time of any day during the season, whether it be
game or practice. He said it was almost robotic and he couldn't even believe how it was. So when
did that start in your life or your career of just always doing the same thing? I guess that's a
model of consistency, right? Yeah, and I think I started doing it after a few years in the league.
I started finding a routine that kind of got me ready for games,
especially on game days.
You always get into that routine.
Your mind is set that tonight's game or two hours until game time.
So that kind of gave me a routine to get ready for games.
And I stuck with it.
Whether it was playing bad, poorly, or things were going well,
I stuck with that routine I
had to to get ready for games and I was it was my part of you know preparing for games to to kind of
get into my routine. Nick the Colorado Detroit rivalry the mid to late 90s is one of the best
all-time in NHL history did you ever experience a hatred at that level for a team before or like
just have that sort of rivalry anywhere else before that no i can't think of any rivalry being that that strong as we had against the
abs uh you know when i first joined the league we had some good some good battles in the old
norris division with you know the blackhawks and and the leafs but not to the extent of what we
had with the abs and of course starting of course, starting with, you know,
Drapes getting hit from behind by Lemieux,
that kind of set everything off.
And then, you know, we were two real good teams,
two very skilled teams with some star players,
some great players that just disliked each other.
We didn't like them, and they didn't like us.
And it felt like every game in the regular season
was like a playoff game.
It was hyped up like a big playoff game.
And so those games were fun to play in.
But, you know, we had some great battles with the Avs over the years.
And I wanted to mention March 26, 1997 at the Joe, that famous crazy game.
What was going through your mind?
Because, you know, like we said, you're not really necessarily the fighting type.
But what's going through your mind?
Are you just like, like holy shit this is absolute
bananas what tell us staying on the bench tell us what that experience is like yeah i was actually
on the ice and uh i think i started off with forceberg going after larionov you know two guys
that you wouldn't think we're starting something like that but they started and then you know
things just got out of hand.
And Mac, you know, Darren McCarty saw his chance to get back at LimeU,
and no, he sure did.
So it was nothing that was talked about before the game in the locker room
or anything like that.
But you can sense that something was going to happen.
And Mac and Draper were roommates at the time.
They lived together. So that probably set it off even more.
But it got the whole team fired up, and Mac came back,
and I believe he scored the OT winner in that game.
He probably should have been tossed out,
but now he's just got a five-minute major and came back and scored the goal.
And somehow that helped us believe we believe we could beat Colorado they beaten us
the year before of course in that playoff series and it kind of helped us to knew that we could
we can win against them as well so it was a wild game but it you know it just poured more gas on
that rivalry too. I got some word that you were the first ever Swedish player to negotiate your own contract at the age of 40 years old.
I might be the first, yeah.
That's something I wanted to try.
You know, having had Newport and Donnie Meehan for so long, I felt that, you know, you know what?
I'm going to sit down with Ken Holland and see what it's like to negotiate a contract.
That must have been tough.
Ken, give me this.
Okay, nice meeting.
How did that go down?
How many phone calls back and forth?
Was there any bit of negotiation,
or did you just write a number down, sign it over, and you got it?
Yeah, it was pretty fast.
I think I mentioned to him, you know,
I started off telling him how many Norris Trophies I won,
and he said, geez, you'd have won twice as much.
So it kind of killed my spirit there.
But no, it was easy negotiations with Ken.
He's a great man and did a great job for the Wings over the years.
So like I said, it's something I wanted to do.
I wanted to sit down and see what it was like.
So it wasn't that tough of a negotiation to get a new deal done.
Well, let's talk about those Norris Trophies.
Your first one was at age 31. It wasn't that tough of a negotiation to get a new deal done. Well, let's talk about those Norris trophies. Seven won.
Your first one was at age 31.
So you mentioned being a late bloomer as far as getting drafted.
I mean, what was it like with that first one?
I mean, finally, just to get it off your chest.
Yeah, no, it was very special.
I think I would have been runner-up for three ones before I won it.
I think McInnes, Blake, and Pronger won previous,
when I was nominated.
So being there for that first one in 2001,
we're actually sitting in the bar before the award show starts
and sitting next to Ray Bork, and he says,
you know, this is going to be a landslide.
You're going to win this huge.
You just got to be ready to get your speech ready.
And I'm kind of looking at Ray Bork,
the guy that I've been looking up to for so many years,
and that's him saying that about me and to me.
That was very special that, you know, he thought I had a great season as well.
So, you know, that meant a lot to me
and probably even more having him say those kind words to me.
That's incredible.
So I'm looking also over at the amount of playoff games you played, 263, even more having him say those kind words to me. That's incredible.
So I'm looking also over at the amount of playoff games you played.
263, only trailing Chris Chelios in all-time career games played in the playoffs.
He's 266.
You had 54 goals in the playoffs in your career.
And there's just one, there's actually two that I'm really curious about.
The first one being 2002.
And I think everyone remembers this one, or all Red Wings and Canucks fans do, and you guys have a wagon of a team,
an unreal regular season.
You go down to Vancouver 0-2 in the first round.
Well, what happens in game three?
You bounce one in from the red line. Dan Cloutier ends up going 5-0.
I don't know how it ends up scoring,
but you ended up doing it later against Nashville in your career.
Whatever gave you that idea of trying to land it before the goalie
and end up scoring a goal from center ice on not just a regular slap shot
but an actual knuckle puck?
Yeah, well, the first one against the Canucks there in 0-2,
I think it was tied at one late in the second period,
and less than a minute left.
And I just gained the red line trying to get a shot off get a rebound
actually get shoot low on on Clutch's left side and I know Brad Hall is going down the right side
so I'm just hoping for a rebound for him to go and get the rebound and you know somehow the puck
went in I was probably just as surprised as everyone else in the building that that the puck
went in but the second one I scored against Nashville in the playoffs
was more than I was thinking about.
This was at my own blue line, and we're shorthanded.
I'm thinking I'm going to shoot it as high as I can
and make it bounce right in front of the goal and see what happens
because I'm going to dump it in anyways.
We're shorthanded.
And it took this huge bounce and bounced.
I think it was Ellis, and that might have bounced over his shoulder
right up in the corner.
And that was something I tried to do at that time.
The first one was just a rebound shot, but the second one was something.
No, you can try when you're shorthanded.
It just took this big, weird bounce on me.
Nick, when you guys went down 0-2,
and apparently when you guys were getting on the flight,
Stevie Y said to the brass, we're not losing this fucking series.
Were you aware that he was going to make those comments to him,
or did you hear about that afterward?
No, I remember Stevie making those comments.
And I remember, I think I could have been in the locker room when we got into Vancouver
the following day just for practice, telling us us you know we're we're a good
team we just won the president's trophy we're we're the best team of the regular season so
we're not going to lose this series we're going to go out and play with confidence and we're going
to show everyone how good of a team we are and you know we were that was tough losing those two
two home games at first and Hasek you remember Dominic Hasek in net for us?
Someone threw out his jersey on the ice at the Joe,
which wasn't a whole lot of fun.
But somehow we had that confidence within our group
that we could beat him being down 2-0 going on the road,
which is a tough situation.
We felt we were good enough to turn that series around, which we did.
We won four straight games.
Nick, the 98 wins are only one of two teams in the last 26 years to repeat.
What's the toughest part of going back-to-back for a team?
Well, the first one is once the regular season starts,
everybody wants to beat the defending Stanley Cup champion.
Everybody's gunning for you.
They know you're the team to beat.
You're the best team from last season.
So first off, you know, they want to beat you.
And as a team, you know, you've gone deep into the playoffs.
You're playing into June.
Your offseason is shorter.
Your offseason conditioning is not as long as for most players.
So it takes a while for teams to kind of get going again.
And, of course, you're so happy about having won a cup,
so you're celebrating a little bit more.
And that takes some time off your off-ice schedule as well.
But I think the combinations of those things that you have to – you know, you've climbed the mountain, and now you're back down.
You've got to go up there and do it again.
That's the mental part of doing everything again, which is really tough too.
What's tougher, the mental part or the physical part when you're doing that?
I think the mental part might be even tougher.
You know, you're tired, but you can fight through that.
But it's the mental part to get up for games, get ready for games.
And when the playoff starts, it gets even tougher.
And then as you get deeper and deeper, the more fatigued you get.
So I think the mental part is the toughest one.
We've had a handful of guests on that say that they remember the sting of losing a cup
more than the thrill of winning one.
But is that true when you win four cups?
I'm okay.
You know what, I would have loved to score
a goal there in 0-9
in the finals, and the puck
was on my stick with, I don't know, a couple of seconds
left. Scuderi blocked it, I think.
I think I hit Fleur right
in the chest.
He kind of dove back as a soccer goal.
But, you know, if you look back at your whole career,
you know, the Stanley Cup wins, realistic stuff,
being able to set up a goal in September
and reach that the following June with a group of guys,
that's what really you remember the most now.
What were your thoughts on the whole Hosa thing
when he ended up switching teams and missing out?
I mean, that guy's a legend in himself.
I'm sure you had to coddle him afterwards
because that was pretty devastating.
Yeah, Hosa was a great man.
He was a great player too.
So you kind of felt for him that when he switched teams
and then he lost out again.
But, you know, kind of everything evened out for him when he went to the Blackhawks,
and I think he was part of two, maybe three cups there.
So it kind of all came back to him.
But it was hard, you know, losing in 09, and you know that he lost to us last season before.
So that was tough on him.
I remember talking to Johnny LeClac um and they lost to you guys and
then your first cup 97 you guys beat the flyers he was a part of the legion of doom i was a fan
of the legion of poon but the legion of doom line they said they dominated their way through the
eastern conference finals and they get to the detroit red wings and they're paired up and
matched up or you're matched up against them with larry murphy and i was always so interested in
larry murphy as a player because an unreal teammate, just an amazing career,
but a guy who was pretty much booed out of Toronto.
And then you two get together, and LeClaire said it was impossible.
They couldn't get the zone on you guys, perfect sticks, perfect positionally.
So what was it like playing with him?
And do you even remember or could you even understand
how it went that poor for him as a Maple Leaf?
Yeah, I know Murph had a tough time in Toronto there towards the end.
And maybe some fans or some thought he was kind of washed up
that he was going to come to us for a trading deadline
and then finish off his career.
But I think Murph was a great partner to play with.
He was always available for passes.
He kind of, he always knew where to be,
and I thought we worked real well together, too.
And, you know, that series against the Flyers,
everyone thought Scottie was going to play Konstantinov and Fetisov
against their big line, but, you know, Scottie had other plans.
He wanted to play me and Murph against them, two puck-moving defensemen that, you know,
he wanted us to spend as little time as possible in our own zone,
just go down there, get the puck, and get it out.
And I think that's what we did.
We weren't going to try to run him over
or play overly physical against him because that wasn't our style.
But we were going to be those puck-moving defensemen
that kind of got us out of trouble.
And, you know, it worked.
It worked perfectly.
You know, we swept the Flyers that year and won our first cup.
So it was a good plan by Scottie.
Nick, I want to go back to early in your career once again.
You played with Bob Probert early in your career.
I know the game has changed significantly since then,
but what did having a guy like that in the lineup do for a team?
You know, when I joined the league in the early 90s,
there was a lot of fights going on and a lot of tough guys, you know,
matching up against one another.
And I knew Probe was one of the toughest, if not the toughest.
So it felt pretty good having him on our side.
We had some other tough guys as well, but Probe was probably the toughest guy.
But Probe was also, like, he was a good hockey player.
He loved to score goals.
He wanted to play.
He didn't want to fight all the time,
but once you got him mad,
the whole team, the other team, responded poorly.
So he was tough to play against in that aspect,
but Proby, he wanted to play.
He wanted to score goals.
He wanted to be part of the offense.
Nick, I should have probably researched this.
Did you ever get in an NHL fight?
You know, I think I've had one or two.
And once it happened in the mid-'90s, maybe, against Washington,
and I ended up with Mark Canorti.
And he wasn't the best pick by me, but
it was a 5-on-5 brawl, and they had
all their Berube, Hunter,
and those guys, and I think we only had Shanahan
on the ice that could fight.
It was me, Matthew
Dandino, and then it was Shani,
Federoff, and Eisenman.
And we were up, this was on the road,
we were up by two goals, goals with a couple minutes left.
And they saw who we put out, and they put out their tough guys.
And, you know, a big scrum happened, and I ended up with Tenorti.
I tried to hang on for a bit of life, and I think I did all right.
But I didn't get any cuffs in.
This is a two-parter.
Who was the biggest pain in the ass to ever play against?
And then who was the toughest guy to stop?
The toughest guy to stop was always hard against fast guys.
If you go back to the 90s when Pablo Beret was flying around,
he was always anticipating where the puck was going to go.
He always had a step or half a step on you,
and if he had that,
you were toast. You couldn't get back
at him. So you always had to take a step back
when you played against him.
It was always fun playing against Gretzky too.
Gretzky is a player I idolized
growing up. You took another
step towards your own net just
to make sure he didn't beat you.
So I had a lot of fun playing against him too.
The toughest guys were probably the ones that always finished their checks,
that didn't care if you were going to pass the puck
or looking where the puck's going to go.
They were going to finish the check all the time.
And Brad May was that kind of guy.
You know, I played with Macy when he came to Detroit.
Yeah, but he was always tough to play against.
And he was feisty, he was tough, he always played with lots of energy.
So he was a guy that I always knew when he was on the ice.
Well, I want to go to 2006, and that's the Winter Olympics in Torino
where you guys won the gold medal, you beat Finland,
your obvious rival in that game.
What a team, what a roster that was was you scored the game-winning goal i mean forsberg alfredson sundines the captain zetterberg the list just went on and on how special was that
whole memory and kind of give me the the thought process leading up to that tournament how you guys
figured out the lines and then how the tournament basically went overall i mean you were definitely
one of the favorites,
but to end up playing Finland in the gold medal game,
I can't imagine it was anything crazier than that in your career, maybe.
Yeah, no, we had some disappointments early on
when they first allowed the NHLers to go over to play in the Olympics.
We lost in the quarterfinals in both 98 and 02.
And in 06, we felt we had a great team, but so did the other teams, too. So did Canada, U.S., and Russia-2. And in 0-6, we felt we had a great team, but so did
the other teams too. So did Canada,
US, and Russia as well.
We knew we were up for a tough
tournament, but
Ben Gustafson, our coach, the former
who used to play with the Capitals back in
the 80s, he
had his mind already set up who was going to
play with who, and he wanted to
when he first started off the tournament,
everybody almost got the same ice time.
He wanted to make everyone sure to play on big ice again
and get used to one another.
But once we got into the quarterfinals and the semis and whatnot,
he started to play guys a little bit more, started to coach a little bit more,
and everything just fell into place for us.
We had Lundqvist in that that was unbelievable.
We had guys that, like second-tier guys, would be the Sedin twins,
which were stars at the time in the league.
But we had Sundin, Forsberg, Alverson, Sederberg, the guys you mentioned,
that were star players already.
So everything kind of fell into place.
And then when you play Finland in the finals,
that's probably the team you want to beat the most coming from Sweden.
We've had some great rivalries with Finland over the years.
So finally, you know, being able to go all the way
and win a gold medal for your country just felt like a huge accomplishment for our team.
Nick, we're talking about Sweden here.
I know Borya Salmon was your idol,
the first Swedish defenseman in the NHL, first Swede to make the Hall of Fame.
Did you ever become friends with him,
and what kind of impact did he have on your career?
Yeah, Borya was a guy I idolized growing up.
He came back to Sweden to finish off his career in Sweden,
and I had a chance to play against him for
a couple of years. And getting a chance to play against someone you idolized and you
looked up to was very special. And then I made the Team Sweden and Canada Cup in 1991,
and Borya was on the team as well. And I was slotted in as the seventh defenseman when
the tournament started, but one of the other defensemen got hurt,
and all of a sudden I'm in the lineup, and Boria's my partner.
You know, so I had a chance to play with Boria for a few games,
which was unbelievable.
He's almost like, you know, Brad McCrimmon became for me when I joined the Wings.
He was that state-owned defenseman, really reliable,
and kind of let me do my thing.
And, you know, I had a chance to get to know him better now after when we played
and after I moved back here to Sweden again.
And Borg is really a great guy and a tremendous man,
but getting a chance to play with him was just awesome for me.
You just rattled off a bunch of names on that Olympic roster, tons of Hall of Famers.
And obviously in Sweden the climate helps, but for such a small small country how does that country produce so many quality nhl players what
is it about sweden that does that yeah i think our youth program has been really strong over the
years that we've been able to to develop uh some some great hockey players and especially in the uh
the junior ages and world juniors we've had had some great players that we've been able to develop.
I think part of it is that if you're real good at 17, 18,
you can play in the SHL, which is the highest league here in Sweden.
So they'll let you play if you're really good at the young age
and they want you to get a chance to play a few games here and there.
So we've been able to produce some great players, even though we're a small country.
And I think that youth Swedish hockey is a big part of that.
So your book out now, Nicholas Lidstrom, The Pursuit of Perfection, with Gunnar Nordstrom
and Bob Duff, who kind of gave you the idea to do this?
I mean, did they have to convince you, or were you in right from the beginning on getting this written and kind of sharing your
whole career story? It actually started off with a Swedish company that wanted to
give out a book with me once I retired. And I kind of held it back for a couple of years. I wasn't really thinking a whole bunch of doing it.
But once I sat down with them and they explained what they wanted to do,
I felt that, oh, this might be fun.
It might be fun documenting my career.
So I started off doing one in Sweden,
which had a little bit more pictures in it than the one I did in the U.S.
and Canada now, where there's a lot more written in it.
But I wanted to document my career.
And, you know, Gunnar, he's a Swedish reporter living in L.A.
He's been following the NHL since the early 90s, so he knew my career real well.
And Bob, being from Windsor, across the river and from Detroit,
he's been a guy that's followed my career as well for a lot of years.
I wanted to document my career and put it into words in a book,
which is something I really enjoyed.
Well, the pursuit of perfection is play on words of you being called the perfect human.
I mean, how bizarre was that when you started getting called the perfect human
in the Wings locker room?
Well, it started off drapes and Aussie.
You know, Chris Osgood and Chris Draper started off drapes and aussie you know chris osgood and
chris draper started off with i forgot what we were doing we could have been playing cards in
the back of the plane but they they somehow started it called me that in the locker room
and one of the reporters heard it and all of a sudden it was in the papers but i i always
just laughed at it and it's kind of a fun thing but uh grapes and aussie they're those are the
the two brains behind that.
Yeah, I better fart in front of these guys or something.
They're going to think I'm too good here.
We've seen a lot of guys at the end of their career, Nick,
hang on and go from team to team.
What made you say to yourself, all right, it's time to hang them up?
You clearly had some game left, but you decided to hang it up.
What was it that made you do it?
Yeah, towards actually the last couple
years uh after when the season was over i i contemplating what i wanted to do if i still
had the fire within me to to go out and do another off season uh hard workouts or uh if i still had
that that drive within me and it uh i did have it in in 2011 but in 2012 i i decided that i i felt i didn't have
that push anymore uh the wings wanted to sign me ken holland wanted me to play another year and
same with babs to mike babcock but uh i decided i wanted to play at a certain level and i felt
that i couldn't reach that level again and i i knew I had to be honest to myself and and that's why I decided to retire it was was a tough decision was really hard and it was more emotional than I
thought it would be too but uh you know looking back at it now I thought I made the right decision
I I kind of moved away from the game on my own terms which is something I wanted to do.
So you said you were on the fence your last couple years there is it any truth that Kel Holland
told Chris Chelios to try to convince you to stay another year and that he did so well
paddleboarding? That is a true story yeah that happened in 2012. Chely took me out paddleboarding
and trying to convince me to play another year and you know he even mentioned you mentioned
Chely's got 266 playoff games he mentioned that you know you can you can have my record there's no problem just sit back and play
play it out of the air but i've already made up my mind uh when chelly took mountain and i knew
too i asked chelly i know who's who's setting you up i know kenny's kenny's telling you to do this
he's oh no no no i'm just asking you what you want to do so sure as shit you know a couple years
later he finally admitted yeah he yeah, he told me.
He asked me if I could do it.
So Charlie tried.
He did his best, but now he couldn't convince me.
Charlie's like, I'll drown you if you don't play.
So that's why we're out here.
As a D-man, the most incredible thing that I always watched you do
and was amazed by is just walking the puck to the middle
and never looking down and still just unleashing a rocket without ever looking at the puck.
And I talked to Mike Calmer once who had mentioned to me that you said
he almost had two, three, or even four different type of slap shots
when you'd walk the line.
Is that true?
Were you really approaching each shot differently
when you'd have your head up looking for tips or shot passes?
Yeah, I worked a lot on that back in my junior days in Sweden.
We were practicing a lot, walking the lines,
even if you're going backwards or moving your feet, going kind of sideways.
But I did have a few different shots.
If I had time, if I had time to aim, I knew I could take a full wind-up
or take 100% slap shot.
Other times I took half slap shots or a little bit different kind of slap shots
where sometimes I'm trying to – I know Thomas Holmstrom is going to be
standing there in front of the net anyway,
so just try to get the puck to him on kind of different shots.
That's what I want to ask you about Thomas Holmstrom.
Do you think he cost you more goals or got you more assists?
It's a toss-up. he must have tipped 40 wide yeah he did and some of them you you know that you can see the pucks going into the corner they're low and all of a sudden homer's leg comes up
and he knew it too he knew it right away because i i could be shaking shaking my head up up by the
blue line and he knew that he was he was in trouble for that. But you know what?
He probably helped me score more goals with him being in front.
Some of them he said, I might have touched that.
Oh, yeah.
Ryan Smith.
Yeah.
But he, no, Homer for sure helped me score more goals with him standing there.
Nick, what was the adjustment like going from a guy like Scotty Bowman
to a personality like Mike Babcock?
Nick, what was the adjustment like going from a guy like Scotty Bowman to a personality like Mike Babcock?
Maybe not that big of a difference, really,
because I think Babs is more hands-on.
He wants to be part of the power player or the penalty killer,
even though the assistant coaches are running it,
but he wants to kind of overlook everything.
And he was – yeah, Babs very uh prepared all the time he had his
teams prepared he knew uh you know he's been scouting the other teams for for uh in detail
that he kind of knew what the game plan was how he wanted us to play uh and you know Scotty was
intense and Babs is intense as well but I I think in practices, Scotty sometimes took a step back
and let the assistant coaches kind of take over a little bit more,
whereas I think Babs is more hands-on on everything.
That's his style of being the leader, being the coach,
and he's had a lot of success doing it too.
When was the last time you skated?
Is that part of your life over, or are you still on the ice occasionally?
When was the last time you skated?
Is that part of your life over, or are you still on the ice occasionally?
I'll play the odd charity game.
I'm on the ice maybe a handful of times every year.
It's actually still a lot of fun going on the ice,
but I don't do it as much as I thought I was actually going to do.
Do you miss the competitive nature of it? Could you see yourself getting in management
or maybe even coaching down the road if your kids keep going and maybe if they get into pro hockey
you know yeah i could see myself do that i was uh i was an advisor for uh team sweden uh during
the world cup in uh what was that 2016 which was a lot of fun it was a lot of fun kind of being
in the middle of things again being in a room uh know, poking at things in detail in the game.
So, you know, down the road, I can see myself, you know, slowly getting involved in hockey again.
Well, you're one of, you're actually the only guy I ever got a signed stick from.
So I'm sure you constantly had your trainer coming in.
Hey, a couple of guys in the other room want to sign Lidstrom's stick.
So when I got yours, you know, I look at it right away,
and I notice you got the sandpaper on the blade.
It was kind of like a rougher blade.
So I just said immediately, I texted the Easton rep.
I said, give me this.
Give me this.
I don't know what this is.
And I never really found out what that was.
So what was it about having the sandpaper finish on your blade? Because I just went right with it.
Yeah, I think I used, you I used Gordie Howe tape,
the old Gordie sticky on both sides.
I used that when I played, and it just stuck better.
But I think what got me switched over to it
was probably Stevie Eisman,
because he came in one day and said,
look what the guy did to my sticks.
He wanted me to try this, and he liked it,
so I ordered it as well.
And I started liking it too.
So I think I'll give Stevie credit for that.
All right.
Well, listen,
we can't thank you enough for coming on.
It's a pleasure to talk to you and that book I'm looking forward to reading.
So what an incredible career you had
and did a lot for the game.
So thank you very much for joining the podcast.
Oh, thanks a lot, guys.
I appreciate it.
Nick, how long
until it comes out
on audiobook?
Just curious.
Maybe we'll have
Whit can read it for you.
Yeah, in my Boston accent.
You already get sounding.
All right, Nick.
Thank you very much.
Thanks so much, Nick.
Real honor for me.
I appreciate it.
All right.
Thanks, guys.
See ya.
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And a huge thanks once again to Nicholas Lidstrom for joining us here on
spitting chickens,
man.
Great throw to talk to him.
Hall of fame,
mind hall of fame player was great talking about all that Colorado rivalry shit. Huge thrill. His book again, it's the
pursuit of perfection. It's by Nick Lidstrom, Gunnar Nordstrom and Bob Duff. It is available now.
Pretty sure it's on Amazon. Check it out there. Biz, what do you got going on, buddy? Did you
happen to catch that goal by Blake Coleman on the Devils versus the Jets that one hand of the
other night or what? Somebody said that he's done it
before. Oh, really?
Hey, you know who was unreal
at that? I don't know if he
ever did it in a game.
Fuck, I'm drawing a blank. Kovalev.
Oh, he would kick it, right?
Wouldn't he use his knee?
No. Kovalev had wrists like
Popeye. He used
to use a small warrior stick, and I think it wrists like Popeye, and he used to use a small Warrior stick,
and I think it was like 110 flex,
and he would literally just flick his wrist,
and it would go top corner with leverage.
I think there's a video on YouTube.
Yeah, there's that viral video he did with Warrior
of him just with like a ton of pucks, one hand, backhand,
just hitting the crossbar like every time.
Yeah, he's Popeye, and that kind of reminded me of that,
but it's just a beautiful goal.
There's been some really nice goals so far in this season.
Yeah, it's not even a weekend.
We're already talking about goal of the year candidates,
save of the year candidates.
It's fucking, you know, the NHL, it's peak NHL season right now, boys.
Every team has a play worth watching.
Every game is worth turning on.
What's up, Biz?
Well, when we talked about Crosby fighting,
we forgot to mention that sick apple that he had
that when the puck was coming from off the wall
where he deflected it to his skate, to his forehand,
and then no look scooped past it.
That is, that's world class.
He just knew.
He just knew the guy was over there.
It's just, that was so sick.
To do that all in one, like, motion,
it looks so much easier than it actually is
no it's crazy um another nice goal uh conor mcdavid had and i kind of wanted to touch on
the others a little bit tips in there smitty ends up getting two wins in a row they're two and all
right now zach kassians looked awesome so happy for him. That guy just comes in wicked shape now.
He's off the piss.
So congratulations to Cass.
And the real deal.
The real deal.
He had two last night.
Yep.
He had two last night.
So we talked.
Can he get 30?
Can he get 35 this year?
You get two in two games.
I mean, that's a hell of a start.
McDavid, it's like you forget over the summer when he gets it through the
neutral zone.
It was a joke.
I think it'd be a shame if we didn't.
So Grinnelli's been saying some things behind the scenes,
and sometimes he gets a little nervous to say on the podcast
because he doesn't want people chirping him.
But before the season started, he goes,
I got a really good feeling about Edmonton.
And you said that they're going to make playoffs.
Yeah, I like Edmonton a lot this year, boys.
So now they're fucked. So now they're going to make playoffs. Yeah, I like Edmonton a lot this year, boys. So now they're fucked.
So now they're going to go 2-80.
You just fucking buried them.
Hey, how do you think the Sabres look, Grinnell?
So we have someone helping us out on the Twitter account sometimes
on weekend nights and stuff.
And he tweeted out Wagon on when Samson Reinhardt scored that sick goal and I got like
30 tweets from people from Buffalo being like you don't fucking talk about our team this year
you rat fuck so that wasn't me and I'm still a Buffalo guy though I still I'm still rooting for
the Sabres dude how about the fucking Carolina Hurricanes they were down all three games so far
they come back to win I only know this because I bet were down all three games so far. They come back to win.
I only know this because I bet against them all three games.
And it's not like, oh, I'm betting against Carolina.
I pick the team I want to bet, and then I bet them.
And I got Carolina fans like, oh, you're picking against us.
Like I said at the end of the day, I'm like, I'm not betting against your team.
I'm fucking picking the other team.
Like stop crying.
But anyways, Carolina's been stuffing it right up my hoot with.
Yeah, and I talked about how even though he was hurt last year eric holla how how much of
a difference he could make he's got three goals in three games for the canes and and quickly
buffalo was mentioned i was laughing because grinnelli just crushed another team but dude
that team looks good and uh dalene scored an unreal goal the first game of the year they
beat pittsburgh in pitts, which is a huge win for them.
He just beats everyone up the ice.
He skates.
He's as good as it looks skating.
I mean, he's almost as fast as any other guy, any other defenseman maybe.
So he already has four points.
He's going to be a monster this year.
Even after last year was a quietly incredible rookie year for a young D-man.
And Olofsson, I talked about that kid from Sweden I played with, the sick
snapshot. He got a goal, if not two goals
I think. So Buffalo,
dude, yeah, the wagon, Chippewa Street, we won't
let Grinnelly bring you down. You guys deserve
more than Grinnelly. I love those jerseys too.
They look really good when they're playing. The jerseys are
sick. They definitely are sharp.
And I just mentioned gambling a second ago. I'm sorry
I cut you off. Oh, no problem. Grinnell,
well, it kind of factors
into the gambling side thing. There's one other
player that you said was going to have a pop-off
season, and he's had a good start. Who was it?
I said Rupe Hintz.
I said Galchenyuk.
And Verona. And Jacob Verona.
And Verona's got two, I think, already.
Yeah. Okay.
So, Grinnell,
maybe you're better earlier in the season
and R.A. isn't, and you guys are going to do a little flip-flop.
Yeah.
Well, I tore it up in the playoffs.
Speaking of gambling.
Speaking of the gambling corner, we're going to swing by the corner right now.
I don't have any picks yet.
A couple of early games this week that I haven't seen any lines.
I just want to get people up to speed.
We did have a couple of puck line Jesus moments
already. Big empty netter
in Colorado Saturday night. I had
the puck line minus one and a half.
I also had Colorado over
three and a half goals, so it was a double
bubble for me on that one. Oh, wicked.
It was about, you know, instead of losing two dimes
you pick up about $2,400, so it's
a nice $4,500 swing.
Five out of 13 games Saturday had at least eight goals,
and two of them had 11 goals.
That's why I bet those, you know, over 9.5 plus 500s plus 400s,
you pop one of those, it's a nice little number.
Games on Saturday night averaged 6.5 goals per game,
so a lot of scoring going on.
Just on Saturday nights, again, I don't like anything yet this week.
I will be back later in the week with some picks.
It's been tough sliding out of the gate,
but like I told you folks, October, November
historically have sucked for me.
So if you are tailing me,
you've been warned.
And don't quit. Just keep going, guys. It's okay.
We'll get all these losses back.
No, absolutely. If I did quit,
then I would have been fucking Friday night.
It's funny.
I woke up right before the games tipped off or kicked off, whatever, 7.02.
I didn't have time to tweet them out.
You woke up at 7.02 p.m.?
I took a nap.
I took a nap, and I woke up.
I either tweet my picks out or I actually get my picks in.
I ended up not posting them, and, of course, I had a good night.
But you guys see those ones.
Those are the ones I send you guys.
What was the other one you bet?
Did you already talk about that, the one you bet mid-game?
Oh, yeah, Winnipeg when they were down.
Four-nothing.
Actually, I got them when they were down three to one.
They weren't down four-nothing yet.
They were three to one.
I put 500 on the plus 220 to get back 1,100.
Was that the Jersey game?
There was no one.
Who would Winnipeg come back against?
I thought they came back against New Jersey.
They were down 4-0.
It may well have been business.
That's how much you got going?
You're a fucking degenerate.
I got my action all over the place.
I can't remember who fucking.
Well, Witt remembers all his golf shots.
Yeah.
Well, Biz, when you are gambling, one thing is certain in life,
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Boys, I got to bring this up.
I know we just mentioned Hintz because that was a guy.
He had two goals tonight against Detroit,
and that Anthony Mantha had four goals.
He's got five on the year already.
Detroit, what's Detroit?
Detroit's two and all.
I think a lot of us were ragging on these guys.
Maybe they're playing the underdog role this year.
So I tweeted out the gif of Nick Lindstrom,
like his number being raised to the rafters tonight
to kind of tease the episode.
Yeah, tease the interview.
And everyone from Detroit is gifing it back
with a Photoshop of Manther's number going up into the rafters.
So Detroit fans.
Hockey fans are fucked.
They love it.
How long would that take to do that it depends it could take five minutes or if like you actually don't really know
what i mean the game just ended like 10 minutes ago yeah so i bet i bet he already had it made
so these people are covering the banner racing with his name and they have two games bertuzzi
got two and two in the first one and then Manta gets four goals in the second one.
So those young studs, they need to be really good showing up.
You got to think, too, as an organization where you're like,
ah, we don't think we're going to be very good.
All of a sudden, if some of these young guys pop off,
and then you have a relevant team, of course they're going to be happy.
They thought it was going to be dog days for a few years.
Unless a few of you were optimistic.
I didn't see it coming in, but what the fuck do I know?
Mantha had fucking four goals
fucking Sunday night.
And Prince had two fucking four
fucking goals he had. He had all
Detroit's goals Sunday night.
I hope they call him Mo in the
fucking locker room, even though it's not his relative.
Even though Witts thought it was.
Hey, you know Mo Mantha was my coach in Saginaw, right?
Hey, Mo, was he really?
Yeah, he was my coach.
I couldn't believe how loose he tied his skates.
I think he told a story about one time in the midst of a game,
he was going around the net, and he was kind of getting forechecked,
and his skate got caught in the net,
and his boot fell off in the midst of a fucking hockey game.
Jesus, how do you skate that loose?
Oh, man, I couldn't believe it.
What's his name?
Dave Ribeiro did the same thing, right?
Yeah, I've seen guys.
You know who doesn't tie him very tight at the top is McDavid.
He wants that ankle mobility, and that benefits him.
the top is mcdavid he wants that ankle mobility and and that benefits him but like this guy could take his skate off without untying his skates like that that's that's insane what that's crazy
it's crazy that's what i should have tried at the end that's how it felt anyways when i pulled them
tight you should have had uggs boots with tucks on them that's what you should have i basically
was wearing uggs boots those fucking Easton skates I wore.
Those are trash.
17 pounds each.
No offense in case you want to sponsor the podcast ever.
We got to shut down as a company.
Oh, okay.
Well, then fuck them.
What happened to Synergy?
Just kidding.
Just kidding.
No, Easton still makes twigs.
No, they don't.
They're done.
Yeah, Easton's done.
Easton isn't a company in hockey?
No more Synergy. And what am I saying about how long we play to go in this league base we easton doesn't even make
hockey equipment anymore do they still make composite sticks no composite i'm saying in
general like no like like other companies like i said like bats there's some new material
not that i know of.
I was trying to make a joke in the fact that like our sticks still one piece
composite,
like what else has changed?
Is that,
is that what they are?
Is that what they are?
Composite.
They're on real sticks.
Are you fucking with me?
No,
I can't tell if he has arisen.
Same,
same,
same.
I think he is. I suspect he is.
Are you fucking with me or not? Just say yes or no.
No.
Okay, so it is a composite stick.
Yeah, composite stick.
Composite.
Biz, a little bit of controversy in your world.
The Booth.
Jack Edwards, not everybody's favorite.
I saw him yesterday.
That's your boy, man.
He's the Bruins TV play-by-play guy.
During the Bruins-Stars game, what was it, Saturday night,
Roman Polak was injured.
It looked like he was trying to give Chris Wagner one of those sort of
shove hits, and Wagner kind of turned last minute,
and Polak crashed awkwardly in the boards.
And right away, Jack Edwards kind of said, I think he said,
there was some, like, hockey calm.
And Andy Brickley said it was self-induced.
Right when it happened, of course, he was down for a little bit of time.
After that, they ended up stretching him off.
And Alan Walsh, the agent there for Polak,
I think he kind of put a little kerosene on the story.
Like, I'm not defending Jack Edwards.
He didn't need to say what he said.
But I think that it was, when it got tweeted out by walsh he kind of i wouldn't maybe maybe
misrepresented because after the fact you know jack was apologetic said he wished him well he
just kind of in the media in the immediacy made a comment didn't know the guy was hurt as bad as he
was uh yeah i think basically i think everyone kind of pig piled on jack edwards because they
don't like him and you know sticking up for his client i think he kind of pig-piled on Jack Edwards because they don't like him and sticking up for his client.
I think he kind of misrepresented a little bit the way it played out.
It's a bad look that he said it considering he got stretchered off.
Right.
I watched the clip.
Who was Polak going to put into the wall?
Was it Wagner?
He looked like he was riding him into the wall.
I don't think he was going to hit him from behind, really. Did you? No, I don't think he was going to hit him from behind, really.
No, I didn't think he was going to hit him from behind,
but when a guy's got his back to you and you're that close
and you're going in, it looked like Polak was going to put his hands
on his ass and kind of give him the old push to get the leverage.
That's a dangerous position.
Now, if he doesn't end up getting stretchered off
and he kind of goes into the wall and hits, you know, hits his head and, and, and, you know,
there's not much result in injury.
I think a lot of people are saying like, ha ha to a fucking dirty player,
to a guy who has, you know, done some dirty things in his career.
Yeah. He's played on the edge and whatever.
I don't think anyone would have felt sorry for him going to the wall.
Nobody wants to see him get stretchered off.
And that's everything that put Gastine on the fire I'm pretty sure he made did he make the
comment as it just happened and then didn't know the result yeah and he said it and like I don't
I should have probably pulled up before I brought up but even like they didn't misquote him but they
kind of took what he said and sort of put it out of context like oh this was hockey camera it was
like well he was kind of saying like if Polak know, was going to kind of hit Wagner at the last second,
which would have been a borderline hit.
I thought that that was his intention, and he lost his edge,
and he looked like the bozo.
That's what I saw.
Bingo business.
And that's how Jack interpreted it.
But, you know, because he was hurt and he was down for a while,
and Brickley, you know, he's a homer, too.
He's not as much a homer as Jack. He said it was self-induced not like oh you deserve it it's just that well
because the way you you know where you played the mid to play that's why you ended up getting hurt
uh i had a comment too about the stretcher i think i mean he clearly wasn't paralyzed i know
the stretcher comes out and people like get all dramatic and like you know the thing but he curled
up like he clearly when he feel, you go limp right away.
When Polak hit the wall, he clearly kind of curled up as if in pain.
It turned out he broke his strap.
So it's like, all right, well, the guy's not paralyzed.
I think that's your number one concern right away.
And he clearly, okay, he had movement right away.
And it was like, I don't know, everyone acts like the guy was fucking.
Well, let's just put it this way, R.A.
It's Jack Edwards.
I don't think anyone's looking for a reason to give him benefit of the doubt
because he is such a homer and he does say some stupid shit.
So it's everybody's opportunity to be like,
ha, fuck you, you are a piece of shit.
So there you go.
I wasn't offended by it.
Same thing with people online right now.
Did you guys see the thing they were talking about, the Uber comment?
I guess this pitcher used to drive Uber, so all the Yankees fans are like – people online right now do you guys see the thing they were talking about uh the uber comment i
guess this pitcher used to drive uber so all the yankees fans are like they're they're chanting
the uber chan or so they created a chant they're they're mocking the guy because he used to drive
uber well that's good sheriff actually yeah but every and all these people online are like how
dare you make fun of them for fun of someone for trying to make a living where it's like man the
guys in the bigs now making a million bucks.
Like, whatever.
We can all laugh about it.
You give this shit?
Yeah.
Rate this.
So, whatever.
What else do we got?
Let's see.
Oh, yeah.
Shout out to Philadelphia Flyers Twitter giving us a little love.
They dropped the not a big deal when they were tweeting out some highlights
for the Flyers.
So, anytime we have Team Twitter using our terminology, it's always flattering.
So shout out to Philly and San Jose as well for using our footage too.
Whit, I can't remember, are you not a Jack Edwards fan?
Yeah, I think he's terrible.
I don't know him as a guy.
I mean, as an announcer.
So what would be your take on what happened?
So you don't like him, so you're not coming from a biased standpoint. What was your overall opinion? Well, I don't like him as an announcer. So what would be your take on what happened? So you don't like him, so you're not coming from a biased standpoint.
What was your overall reaction?
Well, I don't like him as an announcer, so I hate the homerism.
It's just so overboard for me.
It was just stupid to say that, but in the end,
I didn't actually realize he said it very immediately after the hit.
It wasn't like when the stretcher came out.
Then he's fucking. That might get him gassed. after the hit. It wasn't like when the stretcher came out. He's like, this is gone.
Then he's fucking...
That might get him gassed.
If he was like, yeah, bring the stretcher out.
He fucking deserves it.
Ride that iron pony, you pussy.
Are you shitting me?
Go back to check, you fucking scumbag.
Oh, he gets traded to the Bruins.
And Rowan!
And Rowan Pollock!
What a game!
I always love that Pollock.
So, yeah.
I mean, you guys kind of said it all pretty perfectly.
A little outrage that probably got a little too much love.
It gave people a chance to pig pile on him, like Biz said.
And that's exactly what they did.
What else we got, Ari?
I think I don't have too much else here.
I don't know if you guys have something.
I mean, we got plenty of poll from if you from it. I had a question for Witt because, Witt,
I noticed that you do wear sunglasses inside a lot.
And I get there could be room for criticism there,
but you had a good explanation.
I want you to talk about the fact that you wear a lot of sunglasses inside.
I always have sunglasses on.
Well, especially, not always inside,
but I like wearing them because my eyes are very sensitive to light. So no joke. If I'm driving a car, sunglasses on well especially well not always inside but i like wearing them because my eyes
are very sensitive to light so no joke if i'm driving a car sunglasses on even if it's like
raining no joke i just need to have sunglasses on you know you end up squinting and you end up
kind of squinting when you get sensitive to light what happens from there is you end up getting a
headache so it drives me nuts so the only thing that that is a little i get some looks like
walking through an airport with sunglasses on.
People are probably like, who is this tall asshole?
But for the most part, I'm like, dude, I also –
every time I take them off, I lose them.
So it's one thing.
I won't lose them if I keep wearing them.
My eyes won't be sensitive.
I won't have headaches.
And I guess, yeah, if I'm a little hungover
or the eyes are a little bloodshot that hides that as well but overall
I can admit while doing it
wearing sunglasses like in a restaurant
you look like a loser but I just sometimes
have to deal with it. Is that why you turn
your light down in your room over there
so that everybody insults you on your YouTube videos?
I just like keeping it
keep people
guessing on like the tone of my skin
color for the day.
Am I really pale?
Am I not?
No, this dark light makes me seem just a little bit different than I actually am.
It's all about hiding, Biz.
You know what I mean?
Am I smiling or am I being a grumpy wit smile?
Which one am I giving?
You always get tripped for that, too.
You know who I am?
For the most part, look at my smiles.
I'm fucking sitting around like I'm just being a hell of a guy meeting people.
I have a big old grin on.
I don't deserve those chirps.
All right.
I believe that.
Believe me on that.
I know you're smiling.
People just, you know, they love to get on.
I don't like my smile.
And apparently, Biz, if we if we even respond, then we're rattled and we're triggered merely by responding on Twitter.
Oh, I did. I think I'm deleting Twitter and Instagram boys. by responding on Twitter. Oh, I think I'm
deleting Twitter and Instagram, boys. Did I tell
you this? Ooh, no, breaking.
It's time consuming. Takes
way too long of your time. No, like, so I
was talking to this dude, like,
I looked at that number on my phone.
Oh, how much time? I'm on my phone
fucking, it's like five hours a
day. And at this point,
I just scroll and scroll on instagram and
twitter and scroll and then i go back and i i'm like dude i didn't even my brain didn't even i
was just here and you don't even realize it you're like and the other day it was the biggest kick in
the kick in the balls and it made me uh decide that that they're going down at least for a while
but rider was like playing with all these
balls he got all these balls he just throws them boom boom boom just chucks them back and forth
back and forth back and forth and then he was like that that that that and i looked turned around he
like was just saying like want to play and i had spent the last 15 minutes just scrolling like
literally just scrolling my phone not even doing anything and i like, what the fuck am I doing? I felt like the biggest deadbeat scumbag. And I was like, that's it.
I just need to be like more present.
So I'm going to take a break from social media. It's just kind of like,
it's just been too much. Like I, even sometimes I'm like on it.
Like when you're just, you're, there's nothing even to read.
Wow. There's so I've gone to the point where I've,
I've considered maybe hiring somewhere to run it,
where I liked,
I like to stay authentic to my brand.
I like to keep,
you know,
messaging with,
with people that,
you know,
we,
we want to chat with online.
And I,
and I do like,
and I do enjoy messaging with fans.
Like I do,
I don't mind it at all,
but it just gets to be a bit much sometimes.
And like you said,
like,
like I feel bad when I can't reply to anyone in the dms
because i try to get to everybody but we like we need time to ourselves it's impossible paul it's
impossible i wish i could i wish i could get in touch with everyone and and give them my time but
i mean the fuck i gotta i gotta fucking run a tight ship right but when you when you try to
scroll down on writer's face that might have been the breaking point like all right i've done that
like try to scroll on a newspaper.
I'm not that bad.
You try to scroll a newspaper?
Oh, legit. I've done it a few times.
The newspaper's
this big. Dude, legit,
I'd have it open and it was just the instinct to
go down to the next thing. I'd laugh
at myself. You asshole, you just try to scroll
the fucking book. And as far as
the sunglasses. Look at our podcast.
We got one guy wearing
sunglasses in the airport.
The other guy's scrolling down our newspaper. The other guy
eating fucking mushrooms like their pets. And now we're telling everyone
to get off social media so we're not going to be able to
fucking have jobs.
No, I'll stay up on my NHL
knowledge. And you guys can tell me what's going on
on Twitter. That's another reason why I'm on it a lot.
Just following up with hockey. These insiders like that's why i was shocked to see bob
mckenzie sign another five years this guy's dedicated his life to giving everyone information
at all times like he bit no matter what time he's still working yeah it's stressful yeah but i think
there's like you can still be on it and just limit your hours
and limit your replies.
You can't answer every reply, but at the same time, we've got to get our news.
But, Whit, when you were mentioning wearing sunglasses all the time,
it reminds me of Jim McMahon.
Do you remember the punky QB from the Chicago Bears back in the day?
Yeah, go ahead.
I got a funny thing about him.
He used to wear sunglasses all the time indoors,
and people used to make fun of him because he thought he was like,
people thought he was trying to be Joe Cool, but actually what happened.
Huh?
Yeah, people think you're trying to be Mr. Cool Guy.
Right.
Which I know I'm not.
When he was a young kid, Biz, you know when you're like,
if you used to tie your sneaker laces or shoelaces,
and you had a fork to try to undo them?
Well, he was trying to undo the knot in his shoelaces with a fork and the fork went right into his fucking eyeball as a little kid so like
he had to get surgery so they told me he'd like to wear sunglasses are you kidding oh man that's
crazy and mcmahon put a fork yeah when he was a young lad yep i love when you bring that useless
knowledge to the pod fucking right wow that's a fun that's I guess that wouldn't be a fun
fact. That would just be a fact.
Factoid. Alright, boys.
Alright, guys. Well, it's
a pleasure to talk to you guys once again.
NHL is flying off
the start. The league could never be better.
It's really unfortunate. The most disappointing
thing I heard tonight is that
people in Colorado can't watch
their wagon running around
ranting in four points in two
games. McKinnon buzzing.
That's not good for the league, but other than that,
hockey is as healthy as ever.
Do you know exactly what the argument is
over money? No, it's always about
money. I forget the particulars. Who's
fighting over what? That was stupid.
It's stupid.
What I said was stupid. Of course, it's about money. Jesus Christ,'s stupid. So whoever's in charge. What I said was stupid.
Of course it's about money.
Jesus Christ, Biz.
Well, hopefully whoever's in charge is listening.
And the fans of the Avalanche deserve much better than the way you're
treating them, people in charge.
So take care of them and hook them the fuck up and let them watch the
hockey team.
There you go.
There you go.
It's going to get done now.
All right, guys.
Peace out.
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Have a great day.
See you guys. Hold on to that feeling Streetlight people
Don't stop believing
Streetlight people
See you later, people.
Don't stop believing.
Hold on to that feeling. See you later, people.