Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 224: Featuring James Van Riemsdyk & Brian Yandle

Episode Date: December 5, 2019

On Thursday's episode of Spittin' Chiclets, the guys are joined by James Van Riemsdyk and Brian Yandle. JVR joins to talk about his career, playing in Toronto with Kessel, being a Stoolie and a ton more. Brian Yandle joins for a new segment the guys are trying out where BY joins to talk about all the funny that comes with coaching youth hockey. The boys wrap up with a Gambling Corner from RA and some NHL news talk.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 224 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney, the pink lemonade-flavored vodka from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka. What's going on, everybody? We've got an action-packed episode for you today, a couple of interviews.

One guy who's a legend in college, another guy who's a pro player. We'll be getting to that in a little bit. Let's say hi to the boys first. Let's go to the wit dog for us. Mix it up a little. He's got one of our guests alongside of him. What's going on, guys?

Yeah, we just had a great little segment with Officer Ross Yandel, everyone's favorite Yandel. Sorry, Keith. We do love you, even with your teeth missing. But it's a pleasure to talk to you guys. It's nice to be here. And I think we have a nice jam-packed episode for everyone. Does Brian want to say hi to the crowd out there uh hey how's everybody doing he's still here nice next up no way next up producer mikey granelli what's going on buddy

you've been selling the shit out of all this fucking merch you made good job with everything pal it's all looking good man thanks all right I'll keep it short and sweet because I think we all want to get to Biz and hear how his night ended last night. Okay. And last but not least, Paul Biz, Nasty Bissinet. What's up, buddy? Oh, you guys want me to dive into it? Like you dove into her.

No, I didn't get a kill last night. I was a good boy. I went and worked out, and I went to a place called True Food after in Scottsdale. And I don't know if I'd mentioned on any prior podcast, but Bugsy Malone was here celebrating his 40th birthday. It was a surprise, actually, and how they surprised them. Commodore, Teddy Purcell, Kyle Quincy ended up coming.

Mark, who's Bugsy's brother, was one of the guys they all came to arizona to scottsdale on a golfing trip and they got shooter mcgavin to send him the message to that cameo app so shooter was shooter was being shooter like he wasn't happy go more that guy gets loaded too oh yeah he he was unbelievable The cameo was like three minutes long. He was congratulating him on his kids. Like he didn't skip a fucking beat. So Shooter McGavin delivered that and, of course, the message that he was getting surprised with a 40th birthday party in Arizona.

But then it started raining here yesterday, and they wanted to golf today. So they said, hey, let's go get a private jet over to Vegas and go party a little bit. So I get a FaceTime at about 9.15 at night, and it's Teddy Purcell. So I answer it, and he's like, what are you doing? I said, I'm just finishing eating and then going home to bed. And he goes, no, you're not. You're coming to Vegas with us.

So I sure as shit, I go home. I pack my stuff up. We hop on the PJ, grab three bottles of Pink Whitney, and we get fucked up on the way. I took so much rooms last night we ended up going at club omnia and i know you love shrooms oh you're so happy on them and stuff oh buddy this you should have seen the rat pack we had okay let's let me start off doing this crew here okay quincy's a funny bastard he has a very good sense of humor so that's all i'll say about him bugsy

was being bugsy he was on the top ropes dancing shirt they were they were playing a lot of like classic old suit old school tunes so him and commodore were definitely loving that bugsy's brother oh marcus this guy is the fucking tasmanian devil man he he is everywhere when he's drinking he spit he spilt on my shoes about five or six times i was gonna lose my mind he was he it's like he was just uh he was just like spinning with his arms out in the in the booth um he had this other friend who was a little guy who um who was just dancing up a fucking storm i was actually very impressed he was a bit of a peacock and then uh, uh, and then

Teddy Purcell was probably the drunkest guy on the planet and he had stains all over his white shirt in the club. So a good fun night boys. I, I was soon reminded why I hate going to nightclubs now. It was fucking brutal. Clubs suck. Clubs suck. Um, you know, you, the odd time you go and have a good time, but what, what was fun is the eight of us just being clowns in the table and getting fucked up on shrooms. Well, me anyway. But, boys, this is how much this podcast consumes me. For about 45 minutes of me at the club,

I'll just be like standing there pondering about what I'm going to say about the next important subject on this podcast. Is that crazy? Is that fucking crazy? Certifiably insane. Man, it consumes me. And I felt like guilty. The way you're trying to think of what your stance is going to be kind of

or how you're going to say it. Yeah, regarding all this social stuff, like the more importantly like the coach is going down right now it's easy to just ignore one side of anything like there's people who are just going to be like oh what a bunch of fucking pussies quit crying like he just told you to fucking work harder and give you a kick in the arse where it's like well yeah like i mean that's that's your experience in dealing with that and getting should we just hop into the Crawford stuff now? Sure. Yeah, if you want.

I'll give a quick coaching note before that just so it segues in. The NHL had a third new coach in just a few weeks as the Devils pulled the trigger and fired John Hines. Assistant Elaine Nasruddin was named the interim coach. Hines went 150, 159, and 45 in his five seasons in New Jersey. They made the playoffs once, lost to Tampa in five. You know, this guy, like, I don't feel like he had a great team. He never had a contender that he couldn't get over the hump.

The team's fucked. They've been in the lottery, I think, two of the last three years. So I'm not saying he got a raw deal. I just don't think he had necessarily necessary roster that was going to contend. And clearly things have been struggling there lately. Whit, you got any intel on this one, buddy? Yeah, I felt bad. I've mentioned before that I know John Hines from when I was younger,

14 years old. He would help coach Massachusetts hockey stuff, and he was a great guy. So you hate seeing somebody that you know and really respect get fired. But it's also, I mean, it's not much of a surprise. I think he's 150 and 159. I mean, he's under 500. Dave just looked so bad

this season, and the game against the Sabres the other night was just horrific. I mean, that was like what the hell happened? You were all over Buffalo gambling-wise. Good call that game. The interesting thing is if you look at Ray Shero's comments, he talked about, paraphrasing,

not only are none of the players on the team at the level we thought they'd be at, not only are none of the players on the team exceeding their level of play that we thought they'd be, they're not even where we'd hope they'd be. So he pretty much called out every the players on the team exceeding their level of play that we thought they'd be, they're not even where we'd hope they'd be. So he pretty much called out every single guy on the team, which you have to do while firing a coach. You can't just let them kind of get out of it scotch-free.

Is it scot-free or scotch-free? Scot-free. I thought it was like scotch-tape-free. Stay hot. So, yeah, you understand the firing, but you also look and see that there isn't much there. We'll see what happens when Taylor Hall does end up getting traded. I believe that'll happen, as do a lot of people, and they'll go from there. They got Heash here.

They got Hughes to build on. Goal tending's an issue. Defense is an issue. It's kind of a weird time if you're a Devils fan, because even though you got rid of a coach that a lot of people that root for the Devils complained about, how are you going to be now? Quickly, not to take too much of your Thunderway biz, Elaine Nazardine gets named the interim head coach. Interestingly enough, I knew John Hines. I know John Hines. Well, Elaine Nazardine was my first pro captain when I left school, captain of Wilkes-Barre. And then the next year I played with him up and down in Wilkes-Barre and

Pittsburgh. Couldn't be happier for him. What a, what a warrior this guy was played 15 pro years. I'll never forget. And I've told the story before. He played a game in, in Montreal and he must've been for the penguins.

He must've been 35, maybe, maybe a little younger, but he'd, he'd, he'd played in the minors for 10, 12, 13, 14 years. He'd pretty much been there, and he gets called up and playing in Montreal, his hometown, and he's skating around before the natural anthem and had tears in his eyes.

I'll never forget appreciating that. This guy just lived out his dream. So I'm happy for him, and I root for him. I think he's going to make a hell of a head coach too. He'll hold guys accountable, but people really like him. He he's a funny guy I know it's different when you're the head coach but good luck to him but it's a weird time if you're a Devils fan I'll be quick I see the New Jersey Devils is kind of like the Cleveland Browns of the offseason they made all these moves they got a big pick and I thought they were going to be a playoff team and they just have not even

as Witt said came close to expectation and and you go from a team and a fan base with a lot of optimism coming in to we haven't even hit christmas and they're already talking about unloading you know their their heart guy their heart trophy winner and and and thinking about the future still a great little core group they got there and some assets so i i think they're going to be okay they got got to figure out goaltending. That's number one. That was the big question mark coming in. Not saying it's on the goaltending simply, but they can't keep the puck out of the net.

That could be attributed to the team defense or whatever it may be. But, yeah, not good, but they'll be all right. What was the other thing? Were we going to go back to Krah? Yeah, I'll get back to that. And that's a good point about the goaltending. He only really got top-tier goaltending for every one of those years he coached and went down the hill a little bit.

So, yeah, let's get back to the coach stuff. This is stuff we have to talk about. It's NHL news. Sean Avery, our buddy, he talked to Larry Brooks of the New York Post and basically told the story that he also was kicked by Mark Crawford, which in turn brought up Brent Sopel's old quotes from when he was on the show. So what happened after that? The Chicago Blackhawks pulled Mark Crawford from his duties as assistant coach for the Blackhawks to investigate it and do a deep dive on that. Patrick O'Sullivan, who was also on our show before as well,

he tweeted that basically he wrote this in his book a few years back and nobody seemed to give a shit about it, that Crawford physically abused him and mentally abused him as well. Just to refresh your memory, if you didn't know, Patrick O'Sullivan, his father physically abused him for years, and he said that Crawford would use that sort of against him in the room, which, you know, that seems to be particularly cruel. So right now, basically, Crawford's getting investigated.

And the other thing, Shelley, yeah, Shelley, on the other day, he talked about Johan Franzen getting tortured by Mike Babcock. Well, in turn, the Swedish media, I almost said Swedish mafia, Swedish media outlet Expressen went and talked to Franzen, and he said, quote, I get the shivers when I think about it. The incident against Nashville in the playoffs, it was coarse, nasty, and shocking, but that was just one of a hundred things he did, the tip of the iceberg.

From 2011 on, I was terrified of being at the rink. So this thing just keeps clicking. Go ahead, Biz. Well, that's why I said that I was wrapped up and thought about it is there's just so many different elements, and then people are going to start grouping each guy in the same category where you've got to take it case from case. I mean, we'll briefly go back to Peters where, you know,

there's some things that he did that are disappointing. I don't have any ill will towards a guy, and I wish him well. If I saw him, I'd still shake his hand. I mean, if we sat down and had a beer, I'd probably bring that up first. And I'd say, how did it all go down? And once again, no ill will, but just a very nasty thing. Going to the Babcock stuff, same thing. The reason why I'm not going to group Babs and Crow in the same category

is it seemed that Crow would go right at you as opposed to play these mind games behind the closed doors. So I also talked to Soaps who wanted me to let everybody know that when he initially came and told that story on our podcast, that was a quote-unquote war story that he was telling where he's like, this is how wild it was back then. This is like how fiery it was in the locker room and how the quote-unquote passion was so high.

And he goes, I don't think if for Crow I play 500 games in the NHL, which that's, I think, what he had underneath Crow. And he goes, I loved him as a coach. We had a love-hate relationship. And if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have been the player that I was. And he went even far as to saying that he doesn't think he ever would have won a Stanley Cup. So I also talked to Avery, who mentioned the kicking incident.

He said he loved Crow, too. I talked to another guy who played under crow in ottawa who said that he was kicked by crow and he goes biz i had beers with him afterwards like i love crow so a lot of guys say that so here's a lot of people that really like this guy and basically what the consensus i was from talking to these guys was that was a motivating tactic he used where he thought he was bringing the best out of you and he was very one-dimensional in that sense where it's very hard for me to give him the pass where knowing Patrick O'Sullivan's past and hammering on that it's like crow come on man your moral compass was just non-existent. Like, what the fuck were you thinking? And once again, it's nothing ill will.

I just got to ask that question, dude. Like, was hockey that important that you thought you had to go there? And going to Patrick O'Sullivan, you know, there's been some comments like, oh, this guy's just coming back on the limelight, blah, blah, blah. Guys, for you to discount a guy who went through mental and physical abuse as a kid, if you want to try and even remotely dismiss his comments and his feelings, the only way I would say, okay, I'll take your word for it, is if you're someone who dealt with that physical and mental abuse from a parent growing up, and still would be like oh whatever suck it up it's

like okay well that would be your opinion but a lot of us haven't gone through that type of upbringing and I play with O'Sullivan it's funny that that his name got brought up because I mentioned that story recently about my my grandparents and my mother being in attendance when I scored that goal me and Patrick O'Sullivan nearly had a fist fight in practice that morning. Patrick O'Sullivan was a fairly negative guy, and he was really grumpy. And maybe I didn't understand it as much back then, even knowing his past at that point. After that game when I'd scored the game winner from my grandparents,

who was the first guy to greet me in the locker room when I got in there? Patrick O'Sullivan. He gave me a hug. He goes, I'm so happy for you. He, despite our, and then, and then even after he retired and he ended up reaching out randomly, he goes, Hey, I just wanted to apologize for some of the stuff I did where I'm like, dude, I couldn't, I, I think I couldn't possibly fathom how I would be as an

individual if I was verbally and physically abused by a parent, my entire upbringing where man that that can turn anyone really dark right so we're kind of veering off into all these little sectors of this entire story so when it relates to Crow I've heard a lot of like good things obviously his methods to today's standards are very outdated and unacceptable. From what I hear, he's a fairly good guy, but he obviously fucked up with the Patrick O'Sullivan situation and some others, and let's hope he can learn from that. Let's hope he reached out to Patty and maybe apologized

for what he put him through mentally. Very well said. I mean, Biz just went on a, is it salient rant? Is that the word already? Yeah, salient point, yeah. And shifting to the Babcock stuff, and I hate to go back on it, but I saw that Franzen video for the first time. That's hard to watch, man.

That was before all this too. I remember seeing that. Right, so that had already been out, right he's uh i mean when they were mentioning back cock this guy couldn't even get words out without crying and people were like oh what a fucking pussy it's like i don't know man i watched that video and that's someone who's in a lot of fucking pain and for you to for you to watch that or even know that and dismiss it i know, man, you need to fucking figure shit out. So I'm done with that. Also, just because you're talking about a video in Sweden, I saw Chris Johnson with Sportsnet did a special story on Patrick Berglund.

I saw it on YouTube. It's about 10 minutes. Maybe we could tweet it out. Awesome. Good to see him feeling well. And he goes through what was going on in his life when he decided to leave $10 million on the table and then quit playing in the NHL. It's a great 10-minute video. So good job, Chris Johnson, and happy to see Patrick Wuerlund,

who's a hell of a guy, funny guy, from our time with him quick at campus in St. Louis. But glad to see he's doing well. And one other point that i talked to sopal about was he doesn't want to be the victim in any of this he he said that he told those stories as i mentioned for the reason that i thought he was telling him to make us laugh i i remember that it was like we were joking around but but he also said that's my personal experience with it he said i can't speak on others where others might not have been okay with that and they would have went home and sucked their thumbs. So Sopal really dove into it nicely, and I thought – I said, hey, I think you're getting a lot of respect at the fact that I'm going to communicate

that you're not looking for that sympathy and not trying to capitalize off it because that's genuinely – you didn't feel like you were slighted. So regarding Crow, I mean, what do you guys think? Is he done? I don't think so. I think that of all the news about all these coaches, he's had the most guys step up and say they really liked him. I mean, Burroughs, we'll talk about him getting retired,

his number retired or in the ring of honor. He talked about love playing for him. Yeah, including current head coach Jeremy Collin. He said his experience has been nothing but excellent working for him so far. And I don't think he's going to get fired to it, and not just because it happened with different organizations before, but he didn't

call a player a racist term to his face or use them. And I think that's a huge factor here. You know, because you can say, well, the guy kicked a player 10 years ago or 20 years ago and it wasn't right. Whereas what Peters did was not that long ago. And, you know, the world's different, and you can't have a guy behind the bench who used that language.

And if you're going to be bringing black players in your organization or black employees, it just doesn't jive with the current day and age. Correct. But, R.A., in the same breath, I would ask you, would it be okay for someone to put hammering down on someone about being mentally and physically abused or someone that has? Because the way you read it off is, did you say Crawford would go at that aspect of it or he would just hammer on him knowing that he'd been through that?

Because did you not allude to the fact that he chirped him about it? I believe Patterson said he would give him shit specifically about that. Knowing his background, he wouldped him about it i i believe patter said he would give him shit specifically about that knowing his background he would needle him about about that which so yeah that's a good point is you know it's that's that's tough and and i don't know if that exactly is the case so don't quote me on it that's the way i i perceived it when you read it off it's it's it's still it's still ugly it's still it's still nasty there has has to be some type of apology and hatchet buried there, unless they'd already done it beforehand. But that's a fucking – it's nasty, man. Yeah, it can get murky and complex.

I'd rather get kicked in the back. I'm just glad that no one's attached fucking gate to this. You know, anytime there's a media story, they always put fucking gate on the end of it because of Watergate. Yeah, no, I know what you're saying. We didn't need a gate on any of this. No, I know they didn't. Compared to Me Too, maybe Me Too Minutes for Assault.

Does that work, Biz? Hashtag Me Too Minutes for Assault. Sure. No. All right, Biz. Trying to fucking bring a little levity here. Anyways, boys, after covering the story, man, I feel like I need to freshen up,

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order when you use the code red at oaskincare.com. Once again, that's oaskincare.com for 15% off your first order when you go to OASkincare.com. Some other facts about the product, it's a Men's Health Award winner. Aloe helps reduce the puffiness while the caffeine promotes micro-stimulation, which also helps reduce darkness. So give it a try. One more time, that's OASkincare.com and use the code RED. And moving on, I think we should probably add a little more levity to this right now. So let's bring on Brian Yandel.

This guy's a character. And now we're pleased to be joined by a reoccurring guest and a guy who is, we're looking at his own segment possibly, boys. You know, maybe once a month we catch up with this guy, one of our favorites. We're thinking about calling it The Rink Shrink with Dr. Ross Yandel, who coaches three different youth teams. And we can go over how crazy youth hockey parents are and basically how Officer Ross's life is in general. So welcome on Roscoe Sankness.

Rossy Beach. Happy to be here, guys. How's everybody? Brian Yandel was on the IR, but he's back. He's fresh to talk about these crazy fucking parents that are ruining minor hockey. Now, should we tee it up with a quick funny one? Well, so this came about, a couple of our buddies were all like, you got to get Ross on, talk about some of these things he witnesses

with these crazy hockey parents. And I started thinking, like, that's actually genius, one, because it's Ross, and two, because the whole, like, youth hockey thing has gone so out of control. And the fact that you get stories from this guy who coaches at three different age groups, it really shows you that some people are tapped and have some unrealistic expectations.

Would you say that's right? Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing. I mean, I coach at this age group. I coach a Bantam team, a square team, and a Mike team. All three of my boys play. And, you know, my kids, the best players by any means, not even close. But they enjoy the game. They have fun.

And that's what it's all about in my eyes. You know what I mean? I think I was raised and obviously I grew up playing with Ryan. And, you know, we developed a passion for hockey and we love it and we've made a life of it. And that's where all of our friendships have come from. And it's a, you know, that's what we've used as a tool to become good people and good hockey players. And I think a lot of these parents have unrealistic expectations where they're, you know, their thought process is, oh oh i'm going to use this as a scholarship someday or i'm going to play in the nhl someday when everybody sitting here really should should

know that do you know how difficult it is to make it to the nhl to get paid to play hockey i mean it's it's incredible it's it's you know it's a once in a lifetime uh you know whatever say one in a million one in a zillion one in a zillion, one in a trillion. Even going to play college. To play college hockey. It's crazy. You get a better chance of walking down the street and getting struck by lightning. You know what I mean?

It's insane. What's the biggest thing? Do you find that they're harder on the kids or harder on the coaches, you know, relating maybe to their ice time or maybe their development or just with their hands in a cookie jar regarding any type of decision the coach is making? Yeah, I would say it's a combination of both. I think there's a lot of expectations on the kids because a lot of parents, especially, you know, in the States, and I know, Paul, you've talked about it before in Canada, it costs a lot of money. So parents are looking for that instant gratification. And it's just not there. And if the coach is maybe not, you know, playing their kid at the end of a game

or they're not getting the results they're looking for right away, then we blame the coach. You know what I mean? And it was funny. I was down this weekend at a tournament and we ran into a couple guys, former teammates of Ryan at BU, Chris Diamond and Pat Offiero, great guys uh former teammates orion at bu chris diamond and pat off here great guys they coach at the islanders legends uh unbelievable guys and coach and play great play they were great players too national development team you know bruins draft

pitch just phenomenal phenomenal hockey guys and a crazy drunk mother comes walking into the hotel as we're sitting there and she starts just tearing into this coach and Chris Diamond looks at her and she's like, I know so-and-so. I don't recall the name. She's like, he's a great guy. And he's, you know, how old's your son? Oh, he's 13. Well, what's the problem? Like, and we start asking her like, what are you really looking to get out of this? And she couldn't even answer because she's so caught up in thinking that her kid should be, you know, out there toe-dragging and, you know, getting college looks already at 13 years old

when it's just unrealistic. Let's hope, you know, she should be hoping that her kid goes and plays hockey at Bill Ricka High School in Massachusetts someday and has a good time and makes some friends, you know what I mean? Maybe gets a kills out of the deal. So, so then go Ricka. What do you say? So Tommy G.

Well, look, I remember the best thing about buddy and O'Brien and Keith's father, obviously is like, you'd go up, his kids were the best players and you'd say, you'd go up and parents would say, oh, great game by your son, Brian. And Buddy always said, ah, he sucks. And it's so nice to have a parent who isn't going to, like, brag about their kid.

And I think now you run into people – I run into people, and all of a sudden they're telling me how good their kid is and what he did this season. I'm like, how old is he? Where does he play high school? Ah, he's nine. Uh, what, dude? They keep stats when you're nine years old?

We never did that. So the fact that you have to see this with three different teams, it must just be like, well, what about other coaches? Are any of them crazy? Yeah, I think that, I mean, absolutely. There's coaches that are crazy. And one of the things that, I mean, all of us coaches, we all volunteer at times.

Most of the guys, at the very most, they're getting a free tuition for their son or daughter to play on their team. But you're sacrificing a lot. You're doing emails, phone calls, talking about the team, dealing with scheduling, all that type of stuff. So, you know, you're not truly getting compensated for all the time and effort that you're putting into it behind the bench. And, you know, a lot of these they get they just get caught up in in in

you know the coaches um thinking it's so serious thinking that it's it's so serious and and you see it that they get they end up you know getting so frustrated with kids and yelling and screaming and being negative when it's like you're what we're trying to do here is, you know, we want these kids to love coming to the rink, you know what I mean? And develop a work ethic. And I'm not going to lie, as a hockey coach, you know, I'm hard on my kids. I'm a pretty vocal guy. I'm pretty loud. You can hear my rink. I'm sorry, you can hear my voice, you know, echoing through the rinks. But, you know, I'm not screaming at kids it's it's more just trying to get their attention and make sure that they're focused and ready to play hockey

and and you know i'm coaching go ahead ra are the parents the worst part of coaching by is that the biggest headache i wouldn't again it's hard because i've met some unbelievable parents some unbelievable parents like great unbelievable parents, like great. You know, I would say that the three teams that I coached, the court, all the parents on the teams are phenomenal and their friend. Hallway beers in the hotel? A hundred percent, a hundred percent. And that's what it's all about.

You know what I mean? But for every. Are the kids still playing mini sticks in the hallway or do you get put in prison? Oh, the ambien, the kids and then they split a 30-pack. Yeah, kids, there's a little Jesus juice going to sleep. Biz, just to – all right, I'll finish that question. But for every 15 good hockey parents that you meet,

there's that one that can just suck the life out of you. Literally can just suck the life out of you. Literally can just suck the life out of you. And I'm not saying I don't deal with it on my teams because we've moved on from that stuff. And, and, and, and we just don't have it,

but. Well, you'll just cut a kid. It's just not worth it. It's not worth it. What are you going to do? Help me win an extra game. Like I coach 140 games a year.

So I, you know, whatever, like, do you think I care about my record? Like, I coach 140 games a year. So I, you know, whatever. Like, do you think I care about my record that much? So you're saying the shitty parents are more than likely doing way more worse than good just based on the fact that the other coaches and teams don't want to keep them around because of their parents? So they're more susceptible to get cut, obviously. In some circumstances.

Selfishly, for me, yes me yes well think about this right for for how crazy the odds are that you're going to make it to the nhl times that by 10 if you have like a crazy parent right if you're able to have a psychotic hockey parent and still make the nhl you are just a complete freak of nature. But for a lot of kids, the way your parents are, they can really shape you not only as a hockey player but as a person. So if you're this unbelievable player and so many different teams want you but your dad or mom just turned into a headache everywhere they go, at some point that's going to really hurt the kid. And that's what's sad about it when you hear stories that kids that are so innocent

and all of it get completely ruined because of a lunatic asshole parent now i've heard a few i don't have kids that i know about anyway ra you don't can you give specific examples to something that you're like this scenario happened and and i want to see if my jaw drops that it's that crazy or is it just like little things every day i would say it's more just little things every day. I mean, I can't think right now. I mean, obviously, it'll come to me as we move on in this rink shrink little segment here. We're going to put your email up. So people email you their stories and you tell them. You got maybe Joe Hopp on the call with them.

RossiBeach at AOL.com. I actually just started a Twitter name, Beach underscore Rossi. Oh, really? Yeah. What made you get on Twitter? I got off the Instagram stuff. I was just tired of just watching videos of people's kids shooting a ball. Boom-bang style fucking.

Yeah, it was just too macho like i mean i'm gonna call out some nhl guys right now like posting videos of yourself working out in the summer like that's your job i'm not posting videos of me putting handcuffs on somebody or driving around the cruiser you know what i mean? You should. It's just – that's your job is to work out in the offseason, right? I mean, that's what you did. I mean, when I was playing in college and pro and whatever, that's what you did, right, Biz? Yeah.

I mean, I would argue that some of these kids are just trying to brand themselves so there's more dollars on the way out of their career. I mean, I wasn't exactly posting workout videos. Did throw up a few i did i did one one time you were trying to get a kill out of it exactly uh or kill a or just a contract ross i want to ask what's the most obnoxious thing a parent has said to you you don't have to say too specific so they'll know it's them but the worst things call them out um no i mean there's there's been a couple times where literally eight nine year old kids parents looking at me you know i really think this kid has what it takes you know i think he's got the passion he's got the uh he's got the focus

and and he's got the dream and i'm like he hasn't even had a wet dream yet. Like, and we're talking about his dreams, like of being a, an NHL player. Like he hasn't hit puberty. He hasn't been checked before. Um, he hasn't had a, he hasn't had a drink before, you know, there's, there's so many variables that are going to come before this kid that are going to change his life. So let's settle down with the dreams. That kid might be asking his parents if he doesn't want to play hockey anymore at the age of 11. It's delusion.

Especially with the pressure that's being put on him. I was going to say, if I did have a boy or even a girl, excuse me, if I put them into sports, what I want them to learn is just how to be good in group settings. Cause it helps you be a teammate. How, because I, you see or hear about a lot of situations where people work in offices with other people and they just like, don't work well together because they never played sports growing up.

So they don't know what it's like to share, or they even, maybe they're an only kid and they didn't play sports so there's just you know it's it's it's such a big element where where you know people you know kind of like oh sports like i'm not interested in sports like well fucking taught me a lot more life lessons than it did fucking teach me fucking playing hockey as far as skills i mean that's that's pretty obvious well well biz you hit the nail on the head and it actually made me think of it last. I think it was the last episode, maybe the Chelios episode, when you were talking about your work ethic and what you learned from all your coaches throughout

your years playing hockey and all that stuff. And you wouldn't be where you are today if it wasn't for that. Right. And that's what it's all about you know what i mean that's that to me is what it's all about is being a good teammate being a team guy you know learning that work ethic and and having fun with your friends you know what i mean we to get back to what you said earlier about the mini hockey sticks and all that type of stuff there's some of these parents they're taking these kids to these tournaments year round and every night it's go up to bed at eight at you know at eight o'clock and they're massaging their calves and and all that type of stuff getting them ready for the game and it's like the best part of being a kid is running around that hotel room playing mini hockey and having fun and crushing. Hey, nine year old, any nine year old using can I brands on the, on their cat?

I'm sure it'll get there at some point. But I mean, we, like I said, I was at a tournament last weekend and the kids like they're running around. They're having a blast. They're in the, in the pool.

They're playing mini hockey and that stuff. Like that's what they're going to remember. They're going to remember that for the rest of their life, not whether they lost to the whatever, New Jersey something, 3-2 in the game on Friday afternoon at 6 o'clock at night. You know what I mean? Can we have more details about this game? This fictional game?

Yeah, that was just a phantom game. I know. You're struggling on the name. You couldn't find a name for the New Jersey team. I was going to go, like, express. I was going to have R.A. list off all those options that they were going to give Seattle. We're going to help you out.

We're going to offer a new promo code, Biz20Jr. Exactly. What do you think the correct answer is, or what do you say to a kid who comes up to you and like your son or daughter says, I want to, I want to be a professional hockey player. Like, what do you tell them? I think it's great to have goals and, and just enjoy having fun, make friends, work hard, work hard and, you know, put in the effort.

What I try to say to, to, to all my players is, you know, there's, I look at it two ways. There's, there's kids that play hockey, right. Which to me is the kids that, you know, this, they play on a team, they go to practice every day, they play their games on the weekends and then that's it. And then there's hockey players, right? There's the, they're the Ryan Whitney's that are on Vernon Road, down his basement, taking wrist shots and snapshots all hours of the day, all hours of the night, doing push-ups, doing sit-ups, doing squats, doing those things away from the rink that are going to help you get to that next level. Those are the kids that, you know, I look at and those are hockey players.

Those are kids that really want it, if you know what I mean. That's when you at least say that they have a chance. Yeah, they have a chance. They have that really want it, if you know what I mean. That's when you at least say that they have a chance. Yeah, they have a chance. They have that work ethic. And, you know, there are those, you know, one in a million kids that just have that God's gift and get it, you know what I mean? But if you don't have that work ethic, especially nowadays with all the competition out there, and thinking mass i'm sorry in the united states

alone all the different hockey markets that there are now we go to tournaments and we play you know teams from florida and california and they're very good i mean look at look at the nhl now look at arizona or obviously austin matthews and guys like that i mean there's great players everywhere in the country now and and never mind you know it's so much harder overseas and everything yeah yeah you mentioned the you mentioned the variables too and like i guess i gotta use my own example not to toot my own horn but before when i was younger i i was getting up and going to work out where my parents didn't have to tell me shit they didn't my parents were never once did they say hey did you go to training what no i was fucking hey was fucking, hey, mom, can I get the car?

Can I go at this time? I didn't drink much during my high school years. You're making up for it, though. I'm fucking definitely making up for it. You've earned that. But, yeah, but like you just said, like there could have been kids who have been maybe even more gifted than me, but then, you know,

they didn't want to give up the social life with their friends in high school. And that was more important to them than actually the sports. And that's what derailed them. Or, yeah, or the fact that they just didn't want to go work out and they didn't like that aspect of it, kind of like you, Brian, with that milk bag body of yours. Yeah, but he actually worked hard. He just couldn't do anything about it.

We were both born with some sort of dad bod function button where you just, it was pressed and you couldn't turn it off it got stuck on hey but look like what you were saying the stuff that we all did brian the same thing as as you and i biz looking back i was like wow i was working so hard but not once i was just loving it yeah i would i would i would i remember getting home from school and being so fired up to bomb down basement and just put on music and shoot pucks for hours so you you're working so hard but not for one minute do you consider it work so that's i think the difference and well and i would i would probably attribute that to the fact that your parents weren't telling you to do it either if you didn't want to play hockey your parents probably

said well fucking don't play hockey then yeah save us money right it can't be forced upon you you know what i mean and to speak to that like when we were growing up i used to spend every weekend it seemed like at the whitney household and we would literally go down his basement shoot pucks and be like you know literally play games like oh i'm gonna hit the crossbar and if i hit it wit would be losing his mind you know what i mean usually probably run upstairs and cry in his cheerios and and all that type of stuff i'd have so much sugar on the cheerios but he'd come right back down and be like all right two out of three and all that type of stuff you know what i mean and that's that's that's what we we did and we enjoyed doing we we worked hard and had fun doing it because

our coaches didn't put pressure on us our coaches didn't put pressure on us. Our parents didn't put pressure on us that we had to go get us a scholarship or something like that. You've heard the stories about my brother and stuff like that. It was, you know, when Keith told people he was going to go to Moncton, my parents, he wanted to go to Moncton and play juniors at 18 years old. They're like, all right, well, good luck. You're probably not going to play in the NHL. And when you don't, you're going to come back and go in the military.

So, you know, make the most of it. What about now? What would drive me nuts is if kids are laying down faking injured. Is that an issue? Because I just remember being told if you lay down and then one of your legs or foot isn't broken, I'm going to break it. So it was more like get up. But now I think kids are just laying down just hoping somebody comes out and helps them out even though nothing's wrong. It absolutely drives me insane. Parents, I think this, what I tell my parents and my wife's a nurse in, in, I say it to my,

I'm sorry. I say it to my, my, my kids on the team and my own kids is if you lie down on the ice and you're really, really hurt, your parents are scared, right? Like they're scared. They think that something's wrong with you. If you get up and you at least make the effort to get to the bench or, or whatever, um, at least, at least mom and dad know and your coaches know that everything's okay. And you know what? Yeah. Maybe you just got hit with a shot in the leg and, and you know, yeah, you're going to have a bumper, a bruise,

but I don't have too much of a problem with it. You see this, there's a few kids that, um, you know, like the cellelio story was unbelievable about the the claude lemieux lying down on the ice and the coach told the train is not to go out there that's something i would do i i you know in in the past um i will i'm for most of my teams i'm i kind of stay in the middle of the bench but i'm not the guy that's going out there to to pick you up that. That's for damn sure. Unless you're really hurt.

You're really hurt. In today's society, we're like fucking attention deficit. Do you have a hard time keeping these kids' attentions because they have so many more distractions than our generation did? Or is it once you're in the room, they fucking, they focus on you? You know, there are distractions. I mean, one of the biggest things, especially as the kids get older, is, you know, we don't allow cell phones and stuff like that in the locker room.

Not only just because of the, you know, the distraction of it, but also if kids are posting pictures or something like that, and God forbid, they put something up on Instagram and a kid's got, you know, Ross is putting his jock on in front of the kids. Like, dude, Officer Ross, come on. None of that stuff goes on. You have to be careful with social media and all that type of stuff. And one of the talks we give the older kids as they start playing is college coaches

and high school coaches, that's the first thing they're looking at is their social media accounts. You know what I mean? So you have to be very careful with that. So we try to eliminate that. I mean, obviously kids, I mean, I i would say that and this isn't a by any means a a backed up stat scientifically or whatever but i would say probably statistically nah that's how keith talks right now too uh eight out of ten kids that play hockey probably have some for from biz i mean god

you're the poster child for it but like add and that type of stuff but i think hockey players once they get on the ice they're focused i mean that's something they love doing one of the things that a kid that has any type of attention deficit disorder, when they really focus on something, they're really into it. You know what I mean? And I think for the most part, I mean, yeah, there's always the kids in line that, you know, maybe screw around and push and shove and stuff like that, especially at the younger ages. But, you know, I just try to, as a coach, I try to enforce just, hey, guys, you know, when I'm talking, your eyes are on me, you're focused on me.

There's no pucks getting banged against the board. When I blow the whistle, we're skating right in and that type of stuff. You know, you ever have any fresh bricks to talk back to you? I mean, I'm not kids. Yeah. For the most part, they, I mean, kids, if you demand respect as a coach, I don't care what level you're coaching at, kids respect you. You know what I mean?

There's always kids that are going to kind of screw around once in a while. But, I mean, I haven't had to deal with much of it, you know, and it's very easy. If you're going to disrespect me, you can just get off the ice. You know what I mean? I give you – hey, you're going to focus and pay attention while you're on my time here on the ISO. Oh,

get off. Threaten to lock them up. Should we, should we transition the talk to Keith a little bit? How's he been ever since he lost 19? Today we talked to Keith. He actually just FaceTime, not even knowing he was here for root canals and a tooth pulled this

afternoon. And then tomorrow he's going right back at it. So it's hell on earth the only positive thing is i besides the snout like i'm i quickly got upgraded to the best looking yandel brother yes you did you know what i mean congratulations that's that's the good thing yeah um um that's what no he's doing he's doing well he uh you know obviously he's in some pain but he's he's he's battling through it he's a hockey player and he's not gonna lie down when uh when when the puck hits him in the face and and fake like he's in what's the nicest thing he's

ever gotten you an ed hardy t-shirt yeah i was kind of kind of, I'm, I'm the older brother, but I get like hand-me-downs. So I just get like, I get like jeans and like stuff that he's sick of. So it's, no, no cause Keats. Very good to me. He's a very, he's a, he's an extremely generous person. That's for sure. And you know that biz and, and obviously Whit knows as well, but yeah, Keats, Keats the best. If, if, if I needed, if, you know, whatever I need, Keith, Keith, Keith's a good man. That's for sure. Hey, when we were on the bus in San Jose biz, do you remember the story? Did I tell the story of, uh,

one of the parents from Brian and I's team growing up with the old car? Did I tell you this story? Oh, so this is one of my favorites. So this guy used to drive up this old drive around this old beat old car. Did I tell you this story? So this is one of my favorites. So this guy used to drive up this old, drive around this old beat up car. I mean, this thing was kind of like falling apart. I remember one time he was driving us to the game in Montreal as a tournament.

And the, the, the passenger side, like what, what blocks the sun? What's that? Yeah. The visor.

So that thing was like basically the ability to stay up on its own had like broken like it was so old that it would just fall down and so he drove to Montreal from Weymouth yes so he had some duct tape on there dude this dude is driving like 95 miles an hour switching lanes every three seconds just having to put it back up he'd reach across put it back up reach across put it back up my dad's like ah holy shit so fast forward a couple months bunch of the dads they uh they see this guy's car and and it's a newer version just like maybe three or four years uh but but not too expensive it's just be a nice upgrade your car's taking a beating it's time to move on but this is the same thing

you're comfortable well they went to him and said hey we got this car over here see it's perfect for you he goes yeah this is unbelievable i'll buy that and put the parts from that one into my car. They're like, no, dude, you're going to keep that one. Oh, this guy was a legend. And then what happened years later? You saw him. So I'm playing shinny hockey, a pickup hockey, one like Thursday night at this rink. And all of a sudden, there's nobody in the rink.

Like I used to work in the hockey business so i i used to do like a three on three or four on four skate so i get this guy screaming at me i'm the only person in the rink i'm sorry he's the only person in the rink watching he's like yeah no you're gonna shoot that you're sticking on too much and i'm like who is this guy i'm like why is he chirping me right now and i'm like what is going on i walk outside so i i say the guys i'm like does anybody know who that guy is like somebody's grandfather here or something guys like guys i don't know who that guy is so i walk outside afterwards it's the same guy so obviously obviously we sit around, have beers in the locker room. The guy's sitting in the parking lot.

He's like, Mr. Yandel, how you doing, buddy? I haven't seen you 20 years. But again, those are the memories and the friendships and what hockey's created for us. It's all going back to the minor hockey, baby. B, going back to Keith taking the puck off the face, did he lose sight of the puck there? Was he looking away?

Did he tell you how that went down? I was curious because when you're watching it, it looks like he might have just been looking at a different part of the rink. Honestly, I didn't even ask him, but I think it was one of those things that just happened in a split second, and it looked like it hit the stanchion off the boards and just popped out and hit him. And we all know from his goalie background uh as as a kid and i can get into that after this story that uh normally

keith would have would have stopped that puck if he could see it he did brian didn't even he's like oh yeah how are your teeth oh cool you might have sent me some more clothes you can't even fucking see it yeah exactly you got any more teddy bakers dude laying around without blood on them hey uh grinnell you're gonna ask a question yeah you were talking about youth hockey do you have any good stories about keith from youth hockey oh oh keith um well and and that goes back to what i said with the goalie. You know, Keith was the youngest kid in the neighborhood. We grew up, obviously, in Milton with a bunch of great people and great parents, and he was always the youngest kid.

So he was always the kid that got thrown in the net, right? So as we started playing hockey, as he started to get on teams, he used to literally play the first half of the game in net and then, you know, up until squirts. So, you know, 10 years old and would my, my father had have hockey skates on my father would take off the pads, put on shin pads and had played the rest of the game out in the second and the goalie would go the rest of the game. But he was just, you know, he was naturally gifted and he was into it, but Keith was just,

Keith was a ball of energy as a kid. You know, he was extremely passionate. He was obviously, you know, he was the emotional train wreck. And, you know, the youngest kid, he always thought he was getting picked on. But he was competitive and he would literally, you know, you would beat him playing mini hockey or something like that. And he was the kid that was going to, you know, you would beat him playing mini hockey or something like that. And he was the kid that was gonna, you know, that that was gonna hit you over the head with a stick or something like that. He was that type of kid. He, you know, he was just a passionate kid and love sports and compete no matter what he did. You know what I mean? I think his best story ever. So he was, he was playing baseball with us as like an 8-year-old.

So it wasn't T-ball, but it was basically the next step. Like minors. Like minors or whatever. So I was probably 8. Keith was like 5, 6 years old. I was 9 and 6, whatever it was. And this kid, at that age, obviously, it was the first year kids pitched. So Keith gets up to bat. He's 6 years old. This kid starts firing that age, obviously, it was the first year kids pitched. So Keith gets up to bat.

He's six years old. This kid starts firing the ball, right? And he has no idea where it's going, but he's got a decent arm, right? So the first pitch whizzes by Keith's head. Keith's rattled. The second one goes behind his back. Keith's like, you could see him. Now he's crying.

He's getting fired up. The kid now beans him. Keith charges the mound with the bat. He's swinging the bat at the kid. The kid's running in the L field at Elliott Park in Milton, running like an animal. Mel Feeney, this guy that grew up across the street from who's the nicest guy in the universe, is like, Keith, Keith, stop. You can't swing your bat at the kid. But he just, you know, he always had that fire and that passion.

And, you know, did we know that he was going to eventually play in the NHL? No, we had no idea, and we had no expectations of it. But he always had, you know, he always did. He was a competitive kid, and he always had that passion to go out and compete. What about when your father's team got in the brawl? Oh, that was awesome so my father at the time was coaching canton high school um and they were in the state tournament they were playing somerville right around your neck of the woods ra and uh slumaville yeah and uh so it canton canton high ends up beating them in, you know,

whatever Massachusetts State tournament game that it was. At the end of the game, an absolute brawl breaks out, a rumble. And Keats at Walter Brown Arena, which is where BU used to play. The stick boy? Yeah, Keats is the stick boy. So he's probably at the time like 12 years old. So there's a an absolute melee ensues and ensues on the ice the referee and the captain of the Somerville team

are like squared off just in a full-on brawl so my father's in meetings because obviously there was bench clear and they had two of my uncles PY and uh RA's boy and uh and my uncle Mike they jumped the glass at BU because they think that my father's now going to get in a fight and the townie mentality comes out. So they jumped the glass, but as the fight's going on, so now my father's reviewing the video and my father's obviously trying to keep track of his own players at the time. So Keith walks out of the runway at Walter Brown Arena and there's all the sticks and gloves laying on the ice. So there's the captain of Somerville High and the referee in, like, a brawl.

You see Keith from the corner of the video walk out. He picks up a stick and just two hands. The kid that's fighting the referee in the back of the leg, Keith's, like I said, 12 years old, drops the stick and just walks back out of the runway and just like it never happened. So my father's in front of like the Massachusetts, you know, high school hockey association going, yeah, you know, my father's trying to justify

not getting any of his players suspended. And they're like, and who is this kid that just walks out of the runway and just two-hands the guy? The other one I like, Keith was playing lacrosse at Milton High. I've heard this story told me from other people too, and they got in a huge brawl. I want to say it was against Newton or something like that.

Well, turns out, same exact thing. They ended up reviewing the video. At one point in the fight the video is zoomed in on keith who is over a guy he's got his knees on the guy's arm so he can't move and braveheart style shoves a lacrosse stick dead to his chest and the video of it is mel gibson killing an english guy on the fields of scotland be back to the parents do Do you think a lot of them are trying to live vicariously through their kids? Maybe they sucked when they were younger, or they were good and thought they should have got a better shake?

Yeah. Yeah. Good question, I think, definitely. Yeah. I think especially in Massachusetts, you see a lot of people that have had success and gotten scholarships and stuff like that and there are those kind of unrealistic expectations of of people that are kind of living vicariously through their kids one other thing

that that that I would bring up is you know it you know and I can speak for Massachusetts hockey and I'm sure it's all over the place, but the refereeing, you know, they don't get enough credit. And obviously we all know, we all played, we all tortured referees, right? It's a thankless job. But there's a shortage of them out there, and there's not enough kids and parents that are, you know, and former players that are out there volunteering their time – not volunteering, but that actually want to do it

because of the abuse that they're taking from parents. You know, and I think that's a major problem. It's that bad. It's that bad. And parents are just – you know, they're up in the stands and they're screaming and yelling at referees about an offsides call or maybe a missed penalty and something like that. And one of the things I start off all my meetings with parents is,

you know what, hey, guys, we're not going to yell at the referees. You know, whether we're coaches or parents, if anything, I'm going to call the referee over. I've never seen a referee change his mind after he does make a penalty call, so it is what it is. But, you know, if a referee sucks, he sucks both does make a penalty call. So it is what it is. But, you know, if a referee sucks, he sucks both ways. He sucks for both teams. There's no parent. I'm sorry. There's no referee that's walking into a game for a youth hockey team and be like, oh, I really want

to give it to Braintree today or to Milton or, you know, whatever that, you know, the Boston Junior Terriers or the South Shore Kings or whatever teams may be playing. Like, oh, I really want to stick it to them and their bond. You know what I mean? Like these guys are going in, they're trying to make their 25 bucks an hour or 35 bucks or whatever it may be, and they're just trying to make some extra cash so they can have drinking money or do whatever they want to do. And, you know, the abuse of the officials is unfair in what's happening. And now there's such a shortage, especially when high school

and colleges and all that stuff is going on. There's so many leagues around here that people don't want to do it, and it hurts the game. It really does. There was that clip on Boswell a couple weeks ago. It was in baseball, but the umpire left the game. The parents were like, the guy was like, oh, Mike, they were ranking him because he was short.

And the guy was like, fuck this, man. He just up and left. And, like, you can't blame him. Like, one thing, the kids are going to give you shit, but the parents, it used to be, I think, probably the parents used to side with the refs. Like, again, when we were younger, it was like the old guy. But now it's like the parents side with their kids. Like, they always take their kids' side instead of saying, hey, man,

you fucked up. Like, you know, face the music here. Right. No, exactly. Instead of making it a learning learning experience you know what i mean so you know a perfect example is my son's 13 years old it's their first year hitting last week that they're playing a game he he he goes in the corner and tries to you know makes a body check on a kid at the last minute and I watched the whole play the kid turns his back and he ends up getting a 15 I'm sorry a major penalty for it not a major but a misconduct so he gets a two minute penalty and he gets a you know a 10 minute misconduct so he's got to sit for for 12 minutes so he comes back to the bench he's like dad I didn't hit him you know the kid turned his back on me I didn't hit him from behind and this, that. I said, you know what, Brian? You see the numbers, you got to pull up.

You know what I mean? That's the bottom line. I know it's a bang, bang play, but that's it. What am I supposed to do? Do you want me to be like, yeah, you know what, son? You're right. He shouldn't have turned his back to you. You know what I mean?

No, it's a learning experience. You learn from it. You know, believe me, I didn't want to be at the game or coach the game and not have you playing it for, you know, 14 minutes or whatever it ended up being. But you learn from it. And, again, R.A., you know, you say it's that old school mentality, but that's the right mentality, you know?

Two things. One, we need a you-know count. He's been unbelievable with them. Two, we need to hear from Grinelli how it all went down today when we were talking to, or he was talking to Ross about getting a mic. Now I need everyone listening at home to know he's one of the only people, I'm going to guess in the last like 25, 35 years, that's gone four years in college. He never owned a computer. This kid, he never owned a computer in college. How do you do that? So Grinnelli, why don't you fill us in on how it went,

trying to help him get some technology in his life. Well, it kind of starts and ends there. He doesn't have a computer. So, I texted Witt. What was his response? I texted you like a few days ago, and I'm like, hey, how good is BY with technology? No answer.

So, I'm like, fuck. He got crickets out of Witt. This is going to be bad. This is going to be bad. I saw that, too. So, I texted BY this morning, and I'm like fuck this is actually got crickets out of way this is gonna be bad this is gonna be bad too so i texted you i texted by this morning and i'm like hey man uh if you if you have a mac you need to buy a usb converter if you don't have a usb converter you should be all set and he goes like i know what that question mark goes i haven't had a computer since college what are you talking about i don't know what you're talking about no i didn't have a computer in college yeah yeah i used to have to sign into foals as we were foals the the text assassin we were roommates all four years at at unh and i would have to log into his computer or whatever you do to to do instant messenger and all that type of stuff when that

when that first started coming out i'll be handle 33 all right well great great great session here i think we'll end it with parents just let your kid enjoy playing hockey don't put added pressure on them don't try to live through them you're going to meet great people along the way and it's about having fun trying to win some games and more than anything making friends that are going to last a lifetime so the ring shrink is here and the ring shrink will be back. Thank you. Now, now moving forward, are we going to have to have specific stories if we're going to turn this into a segment about anything in life? But yeah,

cause we can have that conversation every time you come on about how ridiculous some of these parents and kids are. Yeah. We got to, we might have to start calling some people out. You have every, but everybody's been put on notice. Maybe we can get people telling us some stories via email or something, and then we can give our opinions on what went down and who's correct and who's in the wrong.

If we can get some emails and stuff, that'd be perfect. And that way we can at least comment on stuff. You know what I mean? Alright. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Ian Obertuzzo. Thank you very much to Ross. That's going to be a fun segment.

We're going to figure out things moving forward, and we'll get e-mails. Grinnelli, we'll figure out. We can get e-mails. You can tell us crazy hockey parent stories. You can ask for our opinion on stories. We can get all these forward to Ross, and that's how we'll figure it out. So, Grinnelli, what do you think? Just e-mail you?

Chicklets at barstoolsports.com would be the email. Send those, too. There we go. And we can forward them to roscoe at AOL. So, R.A., what else do we have? I mean, around the league right now. Yeah, Whit, unfortunately, your old team, man, these guys keep dropping like flies.

The latest one, Brian Doomlin, he's going to be out eight weeks for ankle surgery. It's going to be interesting to see if they can keep chugging along. What do you got on that one, Whit? Well, it's crazy right now that the injuries that Pittsburgh is dealing with, they got Bugstad out, Crosby out, Dumlin's now out, Schultz is out, Hornquist is out, Rust is out. I mean, that's six guys right there that play huge minutes, let alone the best in the world.

So the fact that they are still holding that second spot in the wild card shows they're getting some great play from deaf guys. That Lafferty kid, Lafferty Daniel, he's played awesome. He local guy. So that's cool. So he had another beautiful goal the other night,

but you got to think at some point these injuries could catch up to him. So as long as Malcolm stays healthy, they'll be able to hold out, hope that he'll light it up. But that is wild to see that many important players out at one time. No doubt about it. Some other news going around.

Tuesday night, Alex Burrows joined the Vancouver Canucks Ring of Honor. This kid was an undrafted free agent. He came up through the ranks, played in the Coast, played the Always Hungry League, went on to play 13 NHL seasons, 12 of them in Vancouver.

Had a career-high 67 points back in 2010 playing with the Sedins. You know, he's obviously beloved in Vancouver, but I'm curious about his legacy outside of Vancouver. You know, I think he's the only guy we know of who actually bit someone during a Stanley Cup final, and that became, I guess, part of his law. Biz, how much do you think this is going to, like, factor into telling his history

going forward? Is it going to be the first thing people talk about or is it, you know, going to be kind of down the list or what? I'm telling you what, when I think Alex Burrows, I don't really think of that. And that might be because you're a Boston fan.

I mean, I remember the situation. I remember him signing one of the worst deals in fucking NHL history. I think he signed a four year deal for 8 million, and he was playing with the Sedins. He had fucking 30 tucks a season. He knew, though. He knew. I mean, he could have got way more money,

but he's like, I'm going to just probably keep scoring with these guys. It was crazy at that time. Fair enough, and commend him if he left money. If he knew he was going to leave money on the table in order to tuck close to 30 every year, or over 30, I should say, with the Vancouver Canucks. But no offense to him, I didn't realize how many games he'd played with the Vancouver Canucks. Well over 800. And just a great, hard-working player.

I know he was a bit of a rat, and he got underneath guys' skins. Skin, excuse me. But Taylor Pyatt said he was an incredible teammate, great guy in the locker room, and a honey badger on the ice. Kind of a perfect example of somebody who every single fan hates him of opposing teams, but then you hear why guys would love him on their team. You know, you saw Biekska. Is it Biekska or Biekska?

Bieksa. Bieksa. God punched my head in two. But he came right out, talked about how much he loved playing with him, as did many other guys. So as much as you hated watching him and you hated some of the antics on the ice, you got to respect. Going through the East Coast League undrafted,

I mean, it wasn't just a quick stop in the East Coast league undrafted. I mean, that's, that's, it wasn't just a quick like stop in the East coast league too. It was, it was two full years. It's not three. So happy for him. What a career it was. And you saw a pretty emotional moment when they, when they, you know, took pulled back the curtain and he saw, you know, his picture out there. And it's kind of cool. It's in the corner. So it's, it's not straight up and down. It's more width, and it looked awesome.

So happy to see it. That playoff run when they lost Game 7, he was awesome. Nine goals in that playoffs and just a pest hard to play against. So congrats. Wow, I didn't realize he had that many. He's the seventh player named to the Canucks Ring of Honor since the award was created back 2010-2011. Previous

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The Canadians the other night, Tuesday night, they ended their winless drought, but I thought that was kind of secondary to the other story. They had their 110th anniversary. I mean, no one loves celebrating anniversaries more than the Canadians, but we actually got a really cool moment out of it. They brought 11 former captains on the ice before the game alongside current captain Shea Weber. It was just a really cool scene to see all those guys

with the crisp white jerseys on. And the only one who couldn't make it, unfortunately, the legendary Henri Richard. He's battling Alzheimer's, so he's not able to make these type of events anymore. He got a nice applause when they showed him on the Jumbotron. But we always talk about guys, you know, short players, little players. This is a guy who probably should have put this argument to bed 60 years ago. 5'7", played 20 seasons, won an NHL record, 11 Stanley Cups as a player.

But unfortunately, we're still talking about little players. Any comments on this? This is a nice thing. Well, you're talking about little players. I believe Max Domi fell over, correct? Did you guys see that? Yep. That was awesome.

I mean, you've got to laugh if you're just falling over and putting all these legends. Did Shelly pick him up? Yep. There we go. Yeah, I mean, quickly about the team. Wow, have they looked bad. I mean, people started talking about Julian possibly being fired.

That team is – when Price doesn't play awesome, without a true number one center and their lack of, like, size, it's just a – I don't see that team making the playoffs. And I know I've said that before on here. But still, yeah, you got to forget about what they're dealing with to think about the history, the best history in the league, that entire franchise. I was so fired up I got to go to a game, the last game at the Forum with Ross.

We were up there for a tournament, and that was like – we must have been 10 years old. That was like a dream come true. But to see how many guys there were, that was sad news. What an awful disease Alzheimer's is. But the Pocket Rocket, that was his nickname, right, R.A.? Absolutely, yeah. The Pocket Rocket, what an awesome, awesome player.

And to think he did it at that size then as well, he must have been a tough bastard. And our buddy Chelios was there too. He talked about heading up there the other day. And it's interesting, when you look back at all the Canadians' captains, up until, like, I think it was maybe Koivu, all their captains are always like 30, 32 years old when they started becoming captains.

They always had older fellas because, you know, they were so funny. You had to earn it there. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Boys, we kind of buried the lead a little bit here because we brought in Ross, so we did things a little different. But we didn't tell people we were bringing JVR on yet, did we? No.

Chances are they would have already read it because of the link click, but what's that? He said it's the second most famous UNH guy on the podcast tonight. All right. I do. On that note, let's send it over to James Van Riemsdyk, Philadelphia Flyer. Our next guest is currently in his 11th NHL season already in his second go-around here in the city of brotherly love.

The Flyers drafted him second overall way back in 07. Did three seasons here. Then he did six up in Toronto before returning to Philly to get paid as a UFA. He's cracked 30 goals twice. He averages about 23 tucks a year. Welcome to Spitting Chicklets for the first time, James Van Reamsdyk. Thanks for having me, boys. Appreciate it.

Wow, we got to give stick taps to R.A. for that wonderful intro. Thanks, guy. That was very, very impressive, R.A. Good reading skills there. Appreciate it. You hit it written down. That's solid, though. Appreciate it.

This is a long time coming, we said to JVR already. I mean, this is a guy who has been a fan of Barstool for as long as I can remember. The first goalie challenge ever? First goalie challenge. Correct. Where, you know, that moron Portnoy is like, who else could I get in JVR's night? I was like, what about Witt? What about Witt? He goes down here and then he went on

to chirp me saying I wasn't in the league anymore. No worries. But still, you've been a fan of Barstool for a long time. Yeah, I remember actually the first time I got exposed to it was my recruiting trip to UNH. Kevin Kapstead, I'll even give him a shout out. I was at the Yellow House, the hockey house at UNH. I was up there.

We were hanging out a bit before. That's like a CSI crime scene, eh? Fucking Yellow House. The DNA test. I'm pretty sure that thing has been told those since. But anyway, yeah, I was there hanging out with the with the boys and they were talking about this this new england website as it was then and it's become obviously much more than that now but uh kind of been a fan of it ever since so that that kind of brings us back to the beginning

we usually go in chronological order while jumping around i'm sure you've heard a couple of these but start at the u.s national program that's where i played thanks a lot how do you end up going to unh i mean they've obviously they had a really good run i think lately they've struggled a little bit but you were wanted by everyone so what ended up making that decision for you yeah you know i think uh just going through that recruiting process uh i wanted to be a little bit closer to home after being in arbor for a couple. So growing up in New Jersey, my parents were much easier to be able to make the ride out to New Hampshire. It was like six hours. And then actually on my last recruiting trip there, I'll never forget it.

It was like, I think it was like a Sunday morning. It was, I was there. I think my brother had played a game there or something. I can't remember what we were there for before. But anyway, I get there Sunday morning. The coaches are walking me through. We walk up to the press box, and I'm like, we're out there. We're chatting.

He's talking about what the team's going to look like, all this stuff. All of a sudden, the lights go out. I'm like, what the hell is going on here? Oh, blue chip style? What's going on here? So all of a sudden, they start playing two-step, and anyone who's played at UNH knows that that's when they kind of start playing that before the team comes out.

And then all of a sudden I see what I found out later was a very hungover. One of the student managers comes out waving the UNH flag like they do in the intro. So they gave me a little preview of the intro right before I'd ever been to a game there before. So I had no idea what this was all about. So I thought this was incredible. Oh, you hadn't even seen a game yet. I didn't see the game yet. You said your last recruiting trip, as in that was your last school to visit?

Yeah, my last visit. Yeah, exactly. So they saved the best for last. I visited a few others before that. And then, like you said, I got a chance to go. That was my last one doing that. And then after that, they did a pretty good job. So a night out there and then that little blue chip special.

Yeah, well, yeah. That was – They teed up with these skunks or what? That scene in – what's the scene in – Oh, yeah. Jesus Shuttlesworth. That's blue chip. Oh, no, no.

That's how he got game. He got game when he got the two tens. You know what? I didn't even get – Whoa, whoa. Spitting Chicklets Meme is going to put JVR's head on Ray Allen's body and we're getting the fucking he got Game scene with JVR at UNH. You're welcome.

Jesus Van Riemsdyk. So I actually have a quick UNH story. So they play two-step. Dave Matthews coming out when it's all dark. It's sick. Do they still do that? They had the last time I'd been there. All right.

Well, the other one they play is that life is life. Great. Thank you for those singing skills, Mom. So this song. So we played UNH In UNH Friday night We lost 6-5 I was minus 6

Dude this is my Freshman year So I'm like Are you kidding me What the hell That might have just That might have just Cost me 5 draft spots

So the next We get back home We're playing them Saturday night in Boston So I wake up And I get You know Going know, go into the shower. This is after pregame nap. What does my fucking roommate do?

Brian Miller, New Jersey kid. He throws on Life is Life, the jam that they played when I was dash six the night before. I came bombing out of the shower, butt naked. I go, what are you doing, dude? Because I love this song. I always listen to it before games. I don't care. You're minus six.

I just clipped it off. He goes, fuck you! We got in a fight. It was our only fight as roommates because he's playing the song that I was dashed six to the night before. So that's my UNH man. You weren't exaggerating. Actually minus six? Minus six in a 6-5 game. Also, it might have been 6-1.

That explains why I love you so much. I actually remember there was always a sign when we played against BC. BU, BU. No, but BC they had Joe Whitney. And they had on the sign, it said, BU's Whitney was better. we played against BC. BU, BU. No, no, but BC, they had Joe Whitney. And they had on the sign, it said, BU's Whitney was better. So they must have been referring to that. No, no. You want to know why?

You want to know why? Another UNH thing for the wit. My sophomore year, we're playing them in the hockey's final. Who's the interviewing who here? Did you take over the interview, Jamie? Sometimes I talk a little bit too much, but you'll appreciate that. So sophomore year, fast forward a year later, the only thing that happened in between the minus six and this is I was picked fifth overall.

So that night at the Hockey East Final, which is packed, and UNH, I mean, dude, they bring 12,000 fans. They're wild fans. I don't know if they still are, but overtime. Double overtime, I think. Tyson Toplitsky's going wide on the D. He throws one on net. Off my stick, top shelf, lose the Hockey East Championship to UNH. I scored on my own net.

Next year, junior year, I'm skating around in warm-ups. There's three guys with Whitney UNH jerseys on in the front row laughing at me. So that's why they say the BU's Whitney's better because I was the one that helped them out every time. Oh, for Christ's sake.

All right, we can get back to interviewing you. Was it UNH's zoo? Was it a big party school when you were there? I remember my cousin was fucking insane up there.

Yeah, it was definitely fun for sure. I got the full college experience at least. Did you play with your bro? I missed him. So he was there. He took two years

after high school so he went in as a 20-year-old freshman. So I think it was like 2011 he ended up getting in, and I was out of there in 2009. Not often do guys who take two years out of high school before college end up making the NHL. And, like, that's a pretty impressive run by him after. He just kept getting better? He had kind of a crazy sort of route and story. I mean, after his senior year of high school, it was kind of, he was thinking, okay, do I just go play D3 somewhere?

Like, what am I going to do? But he ended up deciding to go play a couple years in the EJ, started to get some interest. He just kept getting better. Yeah, kept getting better, went to UNH, and then the rest was kind of history for him from there. Oh, shit. So two years was enough for you, though. Then it was time to sign you two dominant seasons,

and it was ready to go to the show? Yeah, from there, I think I had wanted to go back for that second year. I thought we had a good chance at the World Juniors and thought we were going to have a good team at UNH again next year. Unfortunately, we kind of fell short in both of those. But, yeah, I definitely don't regret it. I think I became a much better player and more complete. Leading scorer in that World Junior, though, weren't you?

Yeah, we had some good individual. Yeah, I didn't include that one. Yeah, I forgot about that. I got a question about college. Never went to college. Yeah, I didn't include that one. Yeah, I forgot about that in the intro. I got a question about college. Never went to college. That may come as a shock to you. But I know Michigan had a crazy initiation process.

Was there an initiation process at UNH for all you rookies? I don't know if it's still intact to what it was back then. I'm going to guess no. It was a week's worth of stuff. They canceled it from cancel culture stuff we got it we got into there but uh um at the end of it like it's it's sort of kind of funny because at the start of it it starts with the upperclassmen kind of being a little bit uh hard on yeah exactly to all the all the freshmen and then at the end of it you're all like boys so it was like i ended up being i thought a good team bonding yeah sort of thing but uh but yeah i'm not sure how much of that

goes on anymore yeah it's almost like a frat i don't know i mean i only went to a d3 school but they were like fuck with these kids like guys it's d3 man settle down like he's not going anywhere after there used to be stories of like in in junior b like 20 years ago where they used to tie a rope to your cock and then they they'd tie it to a pail and they'd throw it over like a pipe like on the roof. Are you thinking of the movie Old School? That's Old School. Yeah, but time out.

No, but people copied that. Oh, yeah. Okay. Old School would have copied them, but yeah, I mean, I think everyone knows it from old school. Like, I don't know necessarily if that's still happening, right? No, dude. Back in the day you they used to ask you like multiple choice questions and shit and every time you got one wrong they used to throw a puck in the bucket so i'd be tugging on your cock that was something that old school probably stole from like back in the day that

was like a thing that was there was always enough leverage where your cock wasn't getting ripped off and you well dude it was puck so it would just So it was more for like how silly it was. And guys, man, the vets are standing there. They got guys with ropes tied around their cock. It's over the pipe and then their bucket's there. And they're answering questions and they're throwing pucks in the bucket. Let me tell you about this guy named Flounder I went to school with. That's a movie, biz.

All right. Now, were you a Flyers fan growing up? This is what I want to ask you about. Like, where's the line of demarcation between Devils fans and Flyers fans? Yeah, I grew up probably about, like, 30 minutes north of that line where it definitely becomes more Philly fans from where I was from. But I was a Rangers fan growing up. Oh, you were a Reds fan?

Oh, okay. Took the train into the garden all the time to see games and stuff like that. So that was always a special. It still is one of my favorite rinks. Well, I guess we've got to ask, who was your favorite player? Favorite player was Adam Graves growing up. Really? Oh, yeah.

I'm glad, too. Yeah, he was a vicious player. He was. He was, I think, again, some stuff that I've tried to take into my game, just get around the net and stuff like that. And I actually got a chance to meet him, what was it? I think right after the draft I got a chance to meet him, and I've crossed paths with him a couple more times in Toronto and stuff like that,

and he's just an unbelievable guy, just a great person. Your draft, you're second overall, correct? You might have mentioned that. I'm sorry if I missed it, but any memories from that draft? Was there any, like you knew it was going to be second for a long time i mean how did that all go down yeah i remember going into the whole process uh meeting with philly and they told me that if i was uh there that they were going to take me oh they said that right too yeah pretty much told me before that was gonna well that was their decision and uh

actually at the draft it was pretty funny i had like 15 or so buddies that have come to some big events like whether it's the draft or world juniors or whatever, my first game. So they were at the draft and they were enjoying themselves in the crowd, like all the festivities and all this stuff. So when Dale Talon's up there picking for the Blackhawks, he's like saying, Oh,

we're proud to announce, proud to select. And one of my buddies screams out and you're going to pick Reamer. And you see him stop and he like looks up right to where they're standing. And he goes, and we picked Patrick Kane of the London Knights or whatever it is. He actually him stop and he like looks up right to where they're standing and he goes and we picked patrick kane of the london knights or whatever it is he actually looks up though he looks up you can see it in the video right to where they're sitting like right in the upper deck there but uh it's fun to have all those guys there with me and they've been at some uh

other events over the course of my career and stuff too so that's been a lot of fun i don't really remember that like leading up was kane consensus one or no uh shockingly enough probably not as consensus as he should have yeah I mean he was so undersized that I don't remember it being like a lock and shut case that whole year I remember even going into that year I think uh into that season he was maybe not even ranked in the first round which was crazy because I was played with him he was a year older than me at the U.S. program so you saw him breaking all these records and literally just toying with guys out there and how sick he was.

And then I think at the World Juniors that year, he pretty much cemented himself as the top guy. That was kind of at a time where size was still a factor, where people took that into consideration, where they're probably looking at him like, this guy's a man-child. Yeah, for sure. At least going into the years.

It was switching over a little bit. It was. But, like, Hughes doesn't go first overall without Patrick Kane, I don't think, or Johnny Goudreau, right? I mean, it's changed things a little bit. Right, 100%. You're right, you're right. And even maybe a guy who probably got bumped back this year

was a kid who went to the Canadiens. Is it Caulfield? Cole Caulfield, yeah. He is really small. He's tiny, but he's found a way to... And he's lighting it up already. He's lighting it up. A lot of...

Oh, sorry. No, go ahead. A lot of front offices are like size queens. You know what size queens are? No. The girls who only like big wrenches. That's what they call size queens. They want the BBD.

Yeah, exactly. So we've been asking guys recently, well, I guess since we started, draft, when you go to the draft, you sometimes have these meetings with these teams. So we've been asking guys recently, well, I guess since we started, draft. When you go to draft, you sometimes have these meetings with these teams. You probably didn't go to many teams because you knew you were going so high. Any, like, crazy questions or any guys challenging you in the room? I'm trying to remember.

I think the two things I remember were the Islanders had, like, a very long, weird, like, I, I think it was like a personality test or something. I remember that being a little bit weird. Nothing specific about that. Like a written one? Yeah, like a written one, like super long and super weird. And I was asking my agent, like, what's the point of this? What do I say to this one? Yeah, I don't know.

But that was one thing that I really remember. And then I remember my meeting with the Blue Jackets. One guy I really loved watching growing up was Rick Nash. So obviously they drafted him, and he turned into a hell of a player. And they were just talking to me about that. They're like – so it was like – because I think they were picking maybe seventh that year. They're like, what do we do if we want to get you?

And I'm like, I don't know. What do you mean? Because I was expecting to go a little bit higher. And they're like, well, Rick Nash told – we asked him the same thing, and he told us to trade up. So we traded up to one to go get him. So like that – You're like, well, Rick Nash, we asked him the same thing, and he told us to trade up. So we traded up to one to go get him. You're like, well, I just failed that one. I just failed that one.

That was kind of a funny story. Is that a true story? Yeah, that was my draft. He did say that to them. So, I mean, they can't expect you to necessarily. Right away, they're like, cross him off the list. No confidence. Yeah, but no shit.

If you said trade up to get me, they'd be like, you're not good. Hey, you took Columbus one question for fucking islanders you had to fill out a whole brochure they do right away to the point so you're a rookie with the fly as you walk in chris pronger i imagine that's his locker room is was he tough on you what did he bother with you did he like how's he how's he treat a rookie like you first time um yeah you? Well, his first year in Philly was my first year in Philly, too. So I think at the start, he was kind of. He wasn't going to be completely. Completely. Wrong.

Took him a game. Only a half a dick. He was great. I remember before that season, too, like I was just getting there early for camp and stuff. And he had me over to his house for like a barbecue or something. But yeah, there's definitely times I remember. Because my stall was right next to him. He was number 20, I was 21.

So in the change room, my stuff tended to leak over a little bit onto his. Nope, JBR's lazy. So he gave me a few warnings, and then one time I found a pair of shoes in the hot tub, but they were just a pair of training shoes, so it wasn't the end of the world, but a message was received. How about when he clips his fingernails in between periods too? But they're just a pair of training shoes, so it wasn't the end of the world.

But a message was received. How about when he clips his fingernails in between periods, too? Clips his fingernails in between every period. You're like, prongs, there's nothing there to clip. But yeah, I mean, he's just a dominating presence. We've talked about him a bunch. I wonder if that's because his skates were so small. Yeah, he's got small feet.

Right, but maybe he liked them so tight Where he had to clip them Every period Maybe that little Not his toenails His fingernails Oh his fingernails Yeah yeah I don't think he was

Doing his toenails I thought you said Pedicure not manicure Did anybody sort of Take you under their wing A little bit You know show you The ropes a little bit

Yeah well a guy like him Was great too I mean he used to Before practices and stuff Like he kind of He'd take me out there And he'd start Wiring slappers at me He's like you're gonna Tip all these So like him was great too. I mean, he used to, before practices and stuff, like he kind of, he would, he'd, he'd take me out there and he'd start wiring slappers at me. He's like, you're going to tip all these.

So like that was, he helped me really develop that part of my game. And then we had guys like, again, like Scotty Hartnell was there my first year. He was incredible. Just the best teammate. Couldn't ask for a better guy to kind of learn the ropes from.

I'm trying to think who else you had, Danny Breer, Mike Richards, Carter. Oh, man. Me and G live together at a – right after they told us we made the team, we're thinking about, okay, are we going to live together? Are we going to live close by? What are we going to do? And we're talking to Paul Holmgren just about getting a place,

and G asked him, hey, so can we live downtown? Because a lot of the guys live downtown then. And he goes, if you guys want to live downtown, you can go live in downtown Glens Falls, which is where the HLT was. Well, they're coming off the loop's upbeat crew of, like, let's chill on the downtown young guys. So we ended up after that in a 55 and over condo community somehow. Near the practice rink.

Near the practice rink with one of the assistant coaches living to check up on us every once in a 55 and over condo community somehow. Near the practice rink. Near the practice rink with one of the assistant coaches living to check up on us every once in a while. So it took definitely a little turn of direction there. Hey, what do you think of Giroux's new teeth? He likes smiling now. Oh, doesn't he? He does. Those jibs are nice.

Has he changed? Because, I mean, you lived with him your first year. Is he more confident now because he's got his new grill? He's smiled way more since he's gotten those new teeth, and I've definitely noticed that. I don't know how many years has he had those now for. Well, because you went away to Toronto for a little bit, right? And you come back, and all of a sudden this guy's a movie star in the locker room.

It's like, holy shit. 100%. He's the same thing. I remember Bozak did the same thing. He got some fresh pearly whites, and all of a sudden they're the most smiley guys ever so that's a guy you played with in Toronto he loves the action I heard

Bozy he likes the golf course all the sports gambling I gotta get to know that guy whatever he can get his hands on okay what's what's the craziest bet that he's made since you've since you were a teammate with him? It was him and Phil, like tag team.

Yeah, you know what? That would be a better question for Phil because I know those guys were kind of partners in crime. It was basketball. I think they were crushing basketball. I remember going over there when they lived together. Phil had basically the setup. He had the one big TV with the three little ones on the top to catch all the games that he needed to catch, keep his eye on things.

So I know those guys are pretty into it. He was a big gamer, too, video games. Yeah, Bozy, he was on there a bunch, yeah. Were you playing with him, Tiger Woods? They were playing Call of Duty and stuff, I think, by the time I had gotten there, and I was never really into that one. Good for you, nerds.

Kids are bringing their councils on the road now. Any guys on the Flyers bringing them? No, that was getting big in TO, though, when I was there. A bunch of the guys were bringing them on the road. So definitely a little bit different from my first year. I remember coming into the league, and I actually was talking to Aaron Ashton a couple days ago, and it reminded me of this. But before my

first camp i'm like like wide-eyed just going in there trying to figure out what the hell's going on like with all these new new guys new teammates and remember one of the first things he said to me was uh hey kid you want to be an nhl or you got to start drinking like one that was like these words of advice before i started my first year so So that means you played in the day. You played in that day. Yeah, the game's changed a little bit since then, but he was another guy. Again, he was a great teammate and someone who always had my back out there on the ice. I just want to meet him and GX. He had some good chemistry my first year.

The playoffs, your rookie year, the huge comeback against the Bruins down 0-3. Were you ever part of anything like that at all before? Going down to mites or anything? No, nothing to that level. That was insane. I think that was such a crazy year just because, again, it was my first introduction to pro hockey. And I remember before that year we were the favorite to basically

getting picked by a lot of people to win the cup. And we came out of the gates really slow and were, like, last in the league by, like by maybe a little after Thanksgiving. Then we have the coaching change, and we're kind of battling it out. We end up getting into the playoffs on the last day of the regular season in that shootout. Yeah, your team. Boosh with the big save, and then the Lundquist fist pump he did after

with the save. Then, yeah, just that rollercoaster ride. I think we had a few goalies get hurt and go down, and then we just kept finding ways to win. So even though we were down 3-0, it felt like it didn't feel like that was how far apart the series was. So, again, we had that. I think we had a couple overtime games in there.

Maybe game four was OT to keep pushing it along and then get to game seven and we're down 3-0 right off the hop. So I think there was like five or so minutes left in the first. The La Vie a Lek called the timeout, and we were able to get one. I remember Gagne was so good in that game. That guy was filthy. And he was struggling with injuries, I think, at that point. Concussions, wasn't it?

Yeah, right? I think he had – He came back. He had something – I think he broke a bone or something like that at that point of the season. But yeah, no, he definitely was battling through some injuries over the course of those couple years. So that's your rookie year, and you played every playoff game, right?

I missed a couple of them. I think I... Yeah, in the final, I maybe got taken out of one. So what line... I was going to say, what line were you playing on? I was mostly playing with G and Asham. As like a third line? Yeah, I was a third line.

But then you could create offense too. Like Giroux, right away you must have been like, oh my God, this guy is going to be just ridiculous, huh? Yeah, for sure. Because Breer is so good at that point, you're like, he can do the same thing and he's so young. Exactly, and just the stuff that he could do. And again, I think then it was even a little bit different where like he didn't he had to earn every bit of

the extra power play time and stuff like that like they weren't like now i feel like it's a little bit different where yeah get a little more you get a little more opportunity a little bit earlier on to almost show you can't uh you can't do it versus the other way around. But, yeah, I mean, obviously from right away, G came in, and he pretty much, yeah, he was fun to get a chance to play with then and now. I was going to ask about that offseason when Carter and Richards were traded. Like how fucking shocked were you? That's belief in you and G right away, right? That's immediately what people are saying.

Yeah, I think that was the year. So I think those guys guys got traded i think i actually ended up signing like an extension at the end of that summer so obviously they were thinking of moving in a different direction but um i was actually listening to richie with you guys the other day he's great huh yeah he yeah he was uh he was awesome but but no i think we had such a uh a good group there with that and obviously they wanted to shake the boat up but um yeah it's one of those things where definitely shocking like obviously your your pillar of your friend of the franchise at that point it was signed for another 12 years and i think arts are just signed for 11 years or something and then they ended up deciding to go a little bit different direction but uh but yeah i mean at that point it pretty much wakes you up to the

business side of it you realize that pretty much realize that pretty much anyone has a price for anyone. You mentioned you listened to the Richards interview. Did you sense the tension between him and Laviolette a little bit? Again, I don't know if I was just so oblivious when I was that age and just not aware of it. You're just a hockey nerd. You're just like, I don't know what's going on. I just want to play. I was not really overly. I didn't sense any things like that.

I feel like early in my career, I had no awareness for that at all, as far as if there was any tension with that sort of stuff. I mean, now, being a little bit more experienced, you kind of notice things a little bit more now and see the different dynamics that go on. But I feel like then, it's like I had – the sky could have been falling down in front of me i probably wouldn't have even known what was going on are you in uh carter and richards you guys still

keep in touch because sometimes maybe the fact that they maybe moved on from them i wouldn't say there would be resentment on their standpoint but like they thought that you guys were maybe the new guys who could get it done and get them over the hump when you know they you know there's a lot of pride involved at this at this level right yeah no for sure i think i for both those guys i've i've kept in touch with them a little bit over the years richie was actually at one of our games the other night so i got a chance to catch up with him so happy to see he's uh doing well enjoying life uh out of his uh place in canora and down in florida so uh so, it's good to hear he's doing well. Karts I haven't talked to in a little bit longer.

But, yeah, they were both really good to me when I came into the league. You just mentioned the extension you signed. Then a similar thing happened to you. They trade you less than a year after the extension. How bummed out were you? You felt like you were part of the future here, and then they ship you off to Toronto. Yeah, you know what?

I think it was a weird sort of year the from that point after I signed the extension I think I that that next year I dealt with some some different injuries and stuff like that and it just didn't seem to the fit just didn't seem to be it wasn't clicking or whatever and I kind of was thinking that something might be happening around the draft was with my agent was telling me and just what was kind of going on and that sort of stuff. So when I finally ended up getting the call that I was going to Toronto, I wasn't necessarily completely shocked. I mean, you're obviously shocked to some degree,

but I wasn't completely caught off guard, I wouldn't say. You went from Philly to Toronto, so you're probably used to crazy fans. Was it to another level when you got to Toronto or what? Yeah, I think definitely playing in Philly was a good, I guess, warm-up. A good primer. Yeah, to deal with. That was pregame skating. Yeah, to deal with T.O. and just the passion of everyone up there.

But, yeah, no, it was certainly a hockey market for sure. Now, you were wearing number 21 when you got there, and then they ended up retiring. It was Borja Salming's number. How did that all play out? I mean, I know normally there's a negotiation, but did you just, you know, here you go, buddy. You were on there.

No, they're like, hey, you don't get to wear this anymore. Where's my watch, bitch? No, well, that summer I remember I was back home in Jersey, usually not there too often, so I was there with my parents, and I saw a couple missed calls from Brendan Shanahan. I'm like, where are we going? I think it was maybe before the last

year of my contract, so I was maybe thinking something might be up, and he ended up calling me and telling me what was going on, and obviously, again, so much history in Toronto with how many good players and teams they've had there over the years. So obviously honoring a guy like that, it's a no-brainer to do something like that. Didn't cost them a rollie.

He handled it the right way. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, you're a fellow thespian as well. You were in the movie This Is 40. How'd that come about? Was somebody buddies With the producers? What is thespian? What's a thespian?

I'm glad you followed that up With what that was Because I had no idea What that was It's a thespian An actor Just a fancy word It's from an old

Oh come on R.A. R.A. Come on It's from an S.N.L. It's an old Saturday Night Live Skit with John Lovitz He's like I was merely acting

That's where it's from The thespian Fair enough Okay It's a Saturday Night Live Alright So with John Lovitz. He's like, I was merely acting. That's where it's from. Fair enough. Okay. It's a Saturday Night Live skit. So anyways. 5,000 of our listeners will be fucking on the floor laughing right now because they get RAs. Do you get paid for that? I still get actually

some residual checks. Get out of here. It's like 100 bucks or so every year. You say residual kills? No, no. Checks. How long do you want to check for all day? Do you have the option? Do you get to check the box for the option? Well, that was, yeah.

So the scene in the movie is probably like 40, 30 seconds maybe or something like that. And I think we were there from like 5 a.m. to like 3 the next day. So it was like almost a 24-hour day. It was pretty long. Was it worth the $100 checks? Cross it off the bucket list. So it was like almost a 24-hour day. It was pretty long. Was it worth the $100 checks? Cross it off the bucket list. Yeah, absolutely. What were your thoughts when you got to Toronto, right?

Because with all the pressure comes, the expectations are there. The team's starting to get better. You never really could get over the hump when you guys were in the playoffs. What did you just take away from being there and the teams that you did play with? Yeah, it was incredible, I think, just the whole experience of it.

You did like being a player up there. Yeah, it was awesome. I think just I remember right away after I talked to Brian Burke, he told me that I was coming to Toronto, and then next call is an unknown number, and I don't usually answer those. And sure enough, it's Dion. So now I know every time I get a call from one of those unknown numbers,

that's Dion. That's Dion on the phone. I better answer. So he called me and was, I mean, as far as being a good teammate, he's got to be up there as one of the best. I mean, he was so, he's just so welcoming to everyone and really takes guys under his wing and really just shows them how to be professional.

His rep's phantom. His rep is a little bit phantom. People don't realize how good a guy he is. He used to get shit on in Toronto like crazy. Between him and Phil, those two guys took it on the chin for a long time. No, for sure. They definitely did. I mean, yeah, I think because of all that,

some of us got the fly under the radar a little bit. Oh, that's nice, dude. You had some real nice years there, but I don't remember you ever really catching any heat. I'm sure there was times. Yeah, it's always funny there. I mean, it's a little bit different. You get it, yeah.

A few games go by, you haven't scored a goal. You definitely, you're aware of how long that is for sure you know you're reminded of that but uh but no i think again that uh playing with that little degree of uh spotlight and pressure i think that's something i really enjoyed and had a lot of fun uh with all that was uh we'll get coordinating parties in toronto or what we Oh, man, he was awesome. Yeah, he'd be the guy on the night out. We wouldn't see him, and then all of a sudden, at the very end of the night, he'd be at the place.

What's up, boys? How you guys doing? Where you been, Loobs? He's like, places that you're not cool enough. Balls deep. That's where I've been. Balls deep. No, yeah, he was great. He was a fun boy.

So what's the story we keep getting tweeted about, about Kessel chirping you when you got traded? Like, don't forget who made you or something like that. Oh, man, that was great. So it was my first, I think, or no, the first game after he got traded to Pitt. We're playing them in Pitt. And, yeah, we're out there lining up for the opening faceoff, and I'm, like, smiling at him.

And, like, I give him a little whack on, like, the the top of the laces just to fuck with him a little bit. He looks over at me and he goes, James, don't forget who made you a player in this league. That whiny little voice. Oh, man, it was awesome. He's always good for those one-liner, those little jabs like that. He's classic. Could he be the most undercover cocky guy in the league?

I don't think it's that undercover. Phil knows how good he is. Well, I think the public perception is he's just kind of like, eh, I don't really give a shit. But he's just like... Oh, yeah, for sure, yeah. He's confident. Yeah, very confident.

Well, what about, like, I love the clips when they show it, and you saw it in Pittsburgh with him, and he gets on the bench, and he's like, God damn it! You must have caught that rap with him. And he gets on the bench and he's like, God damn. You must have caught that rap one time. Move the fucking puck, James. Yeah, me and Bozy sitting there looking over at Phil. He'd be having a meltdown.

Two sticks would be snapped over the boards. It was unbelievable. He'd be yelling at the trainers about the sticks. But, oh, man. It was awesome. He was so classic. And he was the sticks. But, oh, man. It was awesome. He was so classic. And he was so good. God.

Seriously. The way he could score there was sick. One of your current teammates, we've got to bring him up. Cata Hatt. We were talking about this before the interview started. And apparently they tweeted out Cata Hatt on Twitter. Yeah. And that's how it all came up.

And JVR, what'd you say about the boys in the locker room yeah every time before we go out on the ice all the boys are saying it just like i don't know if we could do it as well as ra does but giving him a nice little he's not even doing anything he's just saying the guy's name it's hot i said to my wife like i was like if i actually say carter heart i sound like a fucking asshole you know what i mean like well you don't have to say it like this just turned into a western movie or what say it out like that just say like carter heart carter heart you're such a thespian now say it like you say it kind of hot there you go who's the best at it hazy probably he just says it too yeah he can't get it past his teeth

what about coming back to philly i mean that's it was free agent signing He just says it too. G can't get it past his teeth. No, G can't get it out there. What about coming back to Philly? I mean, it was free agent signing. So how many teams were in the mix? Did you know this is where you wanted to be? How did that all go down? Yeah, I think just going into it with Toronto telling me before going into that free agency period that I wasn't going to be in the plans going forward.

I think that kind of helped me go into that piss you off a little, um, in the sense of, I mean, obviously it might, I love my time there and all that stuff. But, but that being said, I think it was better that it didn't get dragged out where I were at the end of the day, you have to make maybe more of an emotional decision where you can make a clean decision where you're clean, clean. Yeah, exactly. So they told me going into that. So I thought it was good. It kind of helps you make your closure with, uh, what, what had happened and then try to have your best frame of mind going into obviously a pretty big decision for the next uh stage of your career so i think again going into it that way i think uh obviously after getting traded you don't necessarily

think you're gonna end up in the same place twice i know and someone told me before i signed that contract i was like well you've only signed deals with the flyers in your career like my obviously my entry level and the other two but uh but yeah so just going into it just seemed like uh a good fit as far as uh the kind of the the way the team was uh set up and uh the way they're trending lots of youth i think on the way and stuff like that and then obviously it it didn't hurt to be close to home, because I know my parents love being able to come down to the games, and that's maybe not necessarily a reason, but it's a nice perk to have to be able to share all of it with the family

and stuff like that. So, yeah, those are some of the reasons, but mostly obviously the hockey ones, like I mentioned, won out as far as just thinking the fit was good and liking the direction of the team. Does it feel different in the room this year? I mean, as an observer and a degenerate gambler, it seems like you guys got a little more pizzazz this year than last year. Yeah, I think, again, obviously I think just the way we've kind of started games

has been way better for whatever reason this year. I think just we're not chasing games as much so I think it becomes a lot harder to play that way I mean you can't you just run out of steam at the end of the year I think that kind of caught up with us last year we went on a little run there and kind of January February and ended up just at the end of the year just not having enough to obviously make the final push but certainly this year it seems like again we're we're getting off to better starts. We're putting ourselves in better positions to win games based on that

and just setting ourselves up to be successful longer because of all that. I'm guessing Alain Vigneault has a lot to do with that too, right? Yeah, he's been great. I think he's very progressive as far as just kind of things about how he views around the game. So he's doing a really good job as far as helping us of things about how he views around the game so like where he's doing a really good job as far as helping us uh be recovered in between games and really smart about when we practice and how we practice pre-game skates are done pre-game skates are pretty much done now so i think that's again another thing it's like he's using all the science and the data and trying to

help us uh give us the best advantage we can to feel good every night which is sometimes difficult for those old school coaches and i mean let's go down the list here you got michelle terrian too listen i love terrian i guess he's the man as the assistant is he really hazy said he's been great he's still ripping darts different as an assistant coach you can be the best guy in the world you don't yeah i i definitely you know what i think that like you said that when you're the assistant you're not uh you're not you don't have to be you don't have Yeah, I definitely – you know what? I think, like you said, that when you're the assistant, you're not – You don't have to be the hard ass. Yeah, you don't have to be that guy.

So I think certainly for him, he's someone who was a head coach as long as he was. I'm sure it's a little bit of an adjustment to do it a little bit differently here. But I think he seems to be enjoying it. He's joking around with guys and stuff like that. So, yeah, guys uh really liked him so far you guys got yozy too don't you yep exactly he's been great too i think again like you said another guy's been a head coach for a while now for the last what six seven years or whatever it was maybe even longer yeah uh before that but yeah he's definitely seems like he's enjoyed kind of the

the things about coaching i think that would be fun is the relationships with guys and more of the one-on-one stuff that you get to do as an assistant, I think, than you can be as a head. I feel like Yosey was the perfect assistant too because he's a guy's guy. He was tough as nails, good team player. We've got to talk to you about State and Liberty. I didn't realize you'd invested in that. And they've done a little bit of advertising on our podcast.

Great dress wear that stretches. It's hockey players, right? Well, I guess I'll let you describe it. Yeah, so it started, I think it was like maybe five or six years ago now. And one of the guys was a Michigan hockey player, Lee Moffey. I had grown up playing against them, and we had the same agent. And it was probably like four years ago, maybe a year after they had gotten into what they were doing. Those guys approached me about maybe getting involved a little bit

and stuff like that. Again, I was always interested in just trying new things out, and maybe it's something to, I don't know, when I'm done playing hockey, getting to something a little bit different. Who knows? Have these guys, I mean, I can't imagine they ever thought it would be like, they are growing at a rapid pace. Yeah, they're doing a great job.

So at the beginning, it was something that was kind of a pipe dream, I'm guessing. And now it's like, holy shit, we've really turned this into a business. Yeah, for sure. I think, again, just how it's grown year in and year out has been from just, again, obviously just someone who gets kept their breast from afar of what's going on. You're just like, when am I getting my checks? Oh, he's got the movie checks coming in.

He's got the state of liberty checks coming in. 200 bucks a month right there. Clothing for athletes, I should probably... Oh, fuck. You guys should do a photo shoot with RA in your clothing. They're like, it's not photo. It's not clothes for Zamboni drivers. He's like, wait, so it's not supposed to zamboni drivers like wait so it's not

supposed to fit three times big i think they cropped your ass off sir it's like i know i left that in the womb oh what's that what about gritty what's the feelings about gritty in the room he's in the room right now voracek he's fucking staring at us that's why he's getting paid so much he's double dipping voracek just showed up in the hotel room here. He's on deck right now. What should we ask him? I heard Voracek just rips up concerts pregame. He just loves music.

He's got some great tunes. Being a Jersey guy, he's got some Bruce Springsteen going on. So some of the guys, I don't know if they're into that classic rock, but I can definitely appreciate it. What else should we grill him about? Well, I actually wanted to pump his tires. I like bringing up people who get... Oh, you're talking about Voracek?

I was talking about JVR quick. Okay, go ahead. No, because I just remembered I didn't bring up before in the move from Toronto back to Philly. This is one of those guys' career year in the contract. Oh, you fucker. I did it. He did it.

That's what it's all about. How great was that? You just knew... If there's ever time to light it up wait wait the time is now and voracek just goes and i did it to me so so we'll get into yours too we're gonna have to save that but just the time would you have 36 goals yeah that was yeah for sure i think uh going into that year obviously you want you yeah because it's anxiety yeah you got a little bit of that because you don't know what's going

to be coming next uh and want to put yourself in as best a position as you can so obviously you get off to a nice little roll and start feeling good and then uh boom yeah exactly i think down the stretch i had a couple uh couple two or three goal games and then just you start feeling good to change to change yeah exactly every single one. Add $100,000. Add $300,000. And it's like, take 25% off of sales tax. Take 25% off. Yeah, not when you're signing in Philly. You're getting bent over.

No fucking lube, no spit, sandpaper finish. But anything else you guys want to ask him? No, dude. I love watching you play. I appreciate that you've listened to our podcast For a while now So I want to say thank you for that And thanks for coming and seeing the boys Well I guess we got to end it with

Some people who listen don't know what the goalie challenge is Because it hasn't been going on for the last year Year and a half probably right It's been a while So the goalie challenge is what Best out of ten So when he first started it, I remember it. I'll never forget it.

He showed up. I think it was KFC, Prez, and Feidelberg. And they all showed up. We literally met at like this. I was training at that time in like Stanford, Connecticut. And they just showed up at this like random, I think it was like a tennis court or something. And I see them with like a street hockey net in the back i'm like what the hell am i gonna get myself into so i made sure i tried to disrespect him a little bit i showed up wearing like a pair

of flip-flops just showing like whatever just to get him rattled and he got dave got a little oh really about it but uh yeah serious they didn't he didn't know what he like what we didn't know what we or what it was gonna uh as, like, he's like, yeah, maybe you do some breakaways. Maybe you do some shots from, like, far away. So it kind of was very, like, loosely. Wow. So Van Riemsdyk's saying, yeah.

Ten more feet, please. Van Riemsdyk's basically saying Prez cheated. So I feel like. Well, I will say this. In fact, he was a little more – now if you watch him, because I did it again like a couple years ago. Oh, you did? But he's learned how to cut the angle down.

Well, he was also 100 pounds heavier. He was like Vladikov in the commercial, just stuck in between the posts. Now he's a skinny bastard. The walrus one that's on NHL Network. They're chucking him. I can't score. They're chucking him Adderall instead of the fish in the commercial.

Well, thank you for coming, Matt. Thank you so much, buddy. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Thank you very much to JVR. What a great guy. That was long overdue. Nice to see him playing for a team he grew up so close to. So that was great. Thank you again.

I want to give a congratulations to Miku Koivu. Played his 1,000th game the other night, all with the Minnesota Wilds. The franchise leader in games played, plus minus, name a bunch of stats. He's been a legend there. He actually scored the game winner in the shootout in his 1,000th game. Of course, of course I bet against him that night. What an idiot. I didn't know it was his 1,000th game. Of course, of course I bet against him that night. I didn't know it was his 1,000th game before and then obviously at the shootout

I go, this is a loss. I played against him growing up because he's an 83 birthday. Once I started playing in international tournaments at 16, 17, he was always the best player on Finland. Him and Tuomo Rutu, Joni Pikkinen was an 83 Finn. Some incredible games I saw. This guy was a man when he was always the best player on Finland him in Tuomo Ruto Yoni Pikkinen was an 83 fin some some

incredible games I saw this guy was a man man when he was 17 years old always so strong in his feet incredible balance couldn't push him off the puck and he's I mean he's had some really really solid years in Minnesota I mean a guy that is probably, you know, not the best offensive player, but defensively was fabulous. One face-offs still, I mean, over 20 goals, three times, but it's more about the consistency and the leadership and people appreciating him as, as their captain. I think he's been captain for close to 10 years. He started as they used to alternate between a couple of different guys,

I think, but congrats to him. Cause that's a, that's a hell of a run with, with more to give. Very well said. You're buzzing right now. Thank you. Guys, I'm not sure if you caught the Ottawa Senator's Twitter feed the other day. Well, Mark Borowitzky, I guess he witnessed a car break in Gastown.

I guess that's a part in Ottawa. Gastown's in Vancouver, yeah. Oh, it's in Vancouver. Okay, there we go. Oh, he was on the road when this happened. Yeah, Gastown's in Vancouver. Man, I told you guys I'd get my car broken into, unless there's a gas town in Ottawa.

I was going to say, yeah. Either way, he closed on the guy when he tried to take off on his bike, held him until the cops came, and the bag had passports in it, so he really saved a couple of people of some huge fucking headaches because it's not much worse than losing your passport. But you've got to check out. We'll tweet it from our account too. The Senate is one of the people in their office made a Robocop video,

but with Borovitsky. They call it Borocop. It's some pretty good shit. We'll send it out. Yeah, I was saying every summer I'd get broken into, my truck would. And I'd get my window smashed. And it's brutal downtown Vancouver because, I mean, unfortunately, it's the homeless population and they need to feed their drug habits,

so they've got to steal. So, shitty, shitty. Well, just feed themselves in some cases. All right, boys, just a couple quick notes. We talked about the Arizona Cardinal, Josh Shaw. He was suspended by the NHL, NFL for all of next season because he violated the league's gambling policy. Well, we got some new details.

I was wrong when I said somebody probably dropped the dime on him after they got stiffed. But in kind of a roundabout way, Shaw sort of dropped the dime on himself because he was filling out the application for a betting account with Caesars, you know, when you get the players' cards. He actually listed on his fucking application professional football player. Like, that's like the number one rule you can't fucking break as a football player so right away the casino flags him and then when he placed the

bet which i'll get to in a second seizes uh then then informs the nevada gaming control board then they let the nfl know and i'm i've heard the fucking bet wasn't even all that big it was like fucking maybe a couple hundred bucks and on top of all that he bet against his own fucking team when they played tampa bay it was part of a poly and he ended up losing it so i i guess karma prevailed even if the cardinals didn't uh but this wasn't some like inside info thing he just fucking told him he's one of the dumbest humans alive it would be like robbing a house and then spray painting your name on the wall as you left he's a complete mor moron. Did he say afterward he wasn't aware that they weren't allowed to gamble?

He bet against his team, right? You said that? Yeah, he bet a three-team second-half parlay, and one of the teams he bet against was the Cardinals. Now, he hasn't played all year. He's been on the fucking sidelines all year. Not that that matters, but, yeah, he bet against his own team. It matters a little.

I didn't know that. I didn't know if he played or not. I mean, it sucks, but he's not throwing the game. Well, right. There's a little difference there. There was no inside info, especially with a poly. He bet against his own team? What?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. What is going on here? A second. Now he's sousied for a year. Brian, a three-team second half fucking poly, too. Like, he's in the locker room, like, with his bookie. Yeah, because he doesn't have a coach like you. Brian, a three-team second half fucking poly, too.

He's in the locker room with his bookie. Yeah, because he doesn't have a coach like you. No phones. Coach Yandel. Hey, the coach comes in to make adjustments. He's like, we're fucked. So anyways, yeah, we want to do a little follow-up on that story because it's not every day players get suspended. But again, he basically dropped the dime on himself.

He fucking told the casino he was a pro football player. And this ain't like 30 years ago when Vegas was running the show. It's a different can of worms now. So anyway, speaking of gambling, boys, BetMGM is the new home for spit and chiclets. It's the new home for sports betting all year. The same guys that bring you the world's most spectacular casino resorts and top-notch entertainment have a new sports betting app in New Jersey you can download the app deposit and check out lines from anywhere in the world but

you need to be in new jersey to place all of your bets this week we've got an offer another offer for new customers on the bet mgm sports app when you use the bonus code chicklets they're offering new users a hundred dollars in free bets when they make their first deposit of $10 or more. That means if you deposit $10, you'll have $110 to bet with. You got to make sure to sign up with the bonus code CHICKLETS to take advantage of the offer, however. That's C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. And we're going to swing it over to the corner right now. Let's see.

Last week, we had a pretty nice week. I believe I went 5-1. We were 5-0. Thank you, buddy. Dallas a pretty nice week. I believe I went 5-1. We were 5-0. Thank you, buddy. Dallas blew a late lead. I ended up gagging that away, but it was still a profitable week for the people who do follow the Gambling Corner. Not to be confused with my normal Twitter pics,

which sometimes suck. But looking ahead to Thursday night, we do like the Avs there in Montreal. They actually just beat Toronto a few minutes ago, but the Avs are riding high, man, right now. They're a tough team to bet against. So we're going to jump on the Avs Thursday night in Montreal on the money line.

And we're going to put half that wage on the puck line as well. And another team I like Thursday night as well, Marc-Andre Fleury. If he is back Thursday, he had been away from the team while his dad passed away. He was attending to that. If he's back Thursday night, take the Vegas Golden Knights on Long Island, again, for the money line and half of that wage on the puck line as well. So, again, Thursday night, Colorado in Montreal, take the Avs money, half that on the puck.

And if Marc-Andre Fleury is starting for Vegas on Long Island, same thing, money line bet and half that on the pocket line. And once again, remember, BetMGM is the home for chicklets this season. If you're a new user, sign up with the bonus code CHICKLETS and you'll get $100 in free bets after making your first deposit. Bonus paid in free bets. Must be 21 or older.

Must be New Jersey to place bets. Restrictions apply. Visit BetMGM.com for the full list of terms and conditions. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Bye,ions apply. Visit betmgm.com for the full list of terms and conditions. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Bye, Sarai. You're buzzing. Boys, we got a tweet Tuesday from a listener named Dustin Conrad. I'm going to read it aloud.

Christmas came early. I beat testicular cancer. Not a big deal. Thank you to the Spittin' Chicklets and Rare Rad Bees blog, our ad reads for helping me catch the cancer early. Boys, this is probably the best tweet I think we've ever got. I mean, we've got people stroking us off and this and that, and you killed my time during work, but to think that this guy listened to our show and then went and got his nuggets checked out and caught this stuff early, it's humbling.

That's the word that comes to mind. It's extremely humbling. And I was pretty moved when Grinnelly pointed out the tweet to me Tuesday. I was so happy to see that. And I remember when you said that, you said, guys, no, we can joke around, but check your nuts. And this kid did. Thank God he did.

So that was great to see. I saw, Biz, you got in touch with him or Mikey. You got to send him some merch. Good for him. He deserves it. Yeah, absolutely. And, well, like we did the same thing with Edzo. Early detection is key.

And we'll repeat what you said. Just get your stuff checked, guys. I know guys are particularly stubborn about things. So if something feels out of sorts, just get it looked at, man. The worst the doctor will say is, no, you're all set. I shouldn't say the worst. But, you know, if you don't get checked out, man, it can get bad. So, by all means, if you think something's off, get it looked at.

Anything else, boys, we want to share or what? Pond hockey, guys. The pond hockey tournament, it's chugging along. We'll have more information that's coming out in the next few weeks. Registration, it's likely going to be December 16th around noon. That's not set in stone just yet, but a lot more info is going to come out. And again, if you want to be involved, just shoot Chicklets an email, chicklets at barstoolsports.com.

And everyone, you got to stop emailing me to reserve you a team. I can't reserve you a team. Well, I was going to say everyone needs to stop messaging me about merchandise. Message Grinnell. I don't reserve you a team. Well, I was going to say, everyone needs to stop messaging me about merchandise. Message Grinnell. I don't do merch. Now, I don't know if we went into detail at the beginning, but I've been getting a ton of compliments on that not a big deal line. Eh?

I can't believe how comfortable it is. This is not us blowing smoke. I know people have complained. The interesting thing to me is it is a little expensive. Don't get it. Don't buy it, bro. I mean, what the fuck do you want me to say to you? It's too expensive.

It's too expensive. Buddy, fuck. It's really nice stuff. No one's making you buy it. I don't know what to tell you. There's plenty of stuff, and we appreciate anyone ever spending $1 on anything with making you buy it. I don't know what to tell you. There's plenty of stuff and we appreciate anyone ever spending $1 on anything with chiclets on it. It's like still amazing that it happens, but the too expensive, fuck off. I mean, you don't have to buy it. It is noticeably

more expensive because it is noticeably better quality and it's really, really comfortable stuff. And Grinnell did a great job. So I understand that it's out of some people's price range. Well, fuck, go shoot some more pucks. Ignore the negativity on social media too, because I mean,

the not a big deal stuff was our best seller for black Friday. So yeah, there's a lot of negativity on social media, but like you guys said, it's great stuff. Yeah, let's do it. That's it. Yeah, one last shout out. I gave him out the other day.

My brother has been fucking red hot on Twitter at Pauly Walnuts 99. He gave the Celtics again Wednesday night. It's looking like another winner. He's Celtics. What are they? 20 and one against the spread. Yeah. Well, hey, check out his other weekend.

He had a six and one weekend. I'll post on Twitter. He's making a lot of people, a lot of money. So give him a follow. So when I shit the bed, you can use my brother's pick. All right.

Walnuts. Thank you very much. All right, gang, everybody have a great weekend and we'll see you Monday. All right. Peace. And as always,

we'd like to give a big thank you to our awesome sponsors, including oats and Alps. If you want to check out them, go to O acare.com and use the code RED. For ZipRecruiter, you want to go to ziprecruiter.com slash chicklets. That's C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. Also, we want to give a special thanks to Hinge for helping our buddy Rudy find true love out there. And for BetMGM, you want to download the app and use the code CHICKLETS, C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. Have a great weekend, everybody. Thank you. Don't mind me