Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 227: Featuring Adrian Aucoin

Episode Date: December 16, 2019

On Monday's episode of Spittin' Chiclets the guys are joined by Adrian Aucoin. Adrian joins to talk about his time playing with Biz, coaching his kids, his career and a ton more. The boys also breaking down all the Taylor Hall rumors and discuss teams he could possibly be dealt to along with the cost it might take to get him. The guys also talk NHL news and as always, RA wraps up the show with a (02:05:00) Gambling Corner.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 227 of Spit and Chickas, presented by Pink Whitney, the pink lemonade-flavored vodka from our friends over at New Amsterdam Vodka. What's going on, everybody? We had some big goings-on in the world of Boston going this week. We'll check in a little bit later. Let's say hi to the boys first on this Sunday. Mikey Grinelli, our producer. How goes it, pal? What's up, boys? Looking forward to seeing you this week.

Oh, yeah, yeah. We've got a big week week coming up. We got a big week coming up. We'll get to that in a couple minutes. Next, Ryan Whitney. What's going on, brother? What's going on, fellas? Pleasure to be here. And yes, we will be there in New York City. What day are you getting there? All right. I'm getting in tomorrow. All right. I'll be there Tuesday. Be there Tuesday.

Nice. And last but certainly not least, Paul Biznasty, Bissonette. What's going on, buddy? Nothing much, boys. Excited to talk about a few things. We got a great interview on deck. R.A., I'll let you treat everybody, let them know who it is. Yeah, Adrian Akoin.

We had him on before. This guy, outstanding interview. He's a beauty, man. I love talking to this guy. He's very candid. He's pretty funny, so I think everybody will enjoy it. We did try to have a live interview with that aborted Chicago show last year. So this is a nice second interview with them. But some big news in the Boston land this week, Biz. A lot of us woke up to a particular video making the rounds. Dave El Presidente, I don't know if he got leaked. I don't know if someone did him dirty.

But if someone's going to leak a sex tape for you, Biz, that's not too bad of a look other than the froggy style. I have so many questions for Dave Porto when I get to the Barstool headquarters this week. I mean, yes, one of them you raised. Did he have a hand in helping leak that video? Because it made him look great. And I would imagine he's probably getting a lot of DMs these days from new women that probably want a shot at the title.

And, you know, people start talking about the short man complex, right? Because he's a smaller guy. And that's probably why he took that stance and just went to absolute town doggy style on that poor lady. Froggy style. Froggy style. You love me. You love my froggy style.

Froggy style. I stand corrected. But, I mean, he has to just be on top of the world right now because, you know, Dave Portnoy loves content. And that's content. Right, Whit? Well, listen, this guy, the only man that's undefeated against the internet, bulletproof Dave Portnoy, gets a sex tape released, can't see his dick, that's number one.

Oh, fuck. He looks 10 times in better shape than he actually is, unless that he was able to doctor up the video and give himself pecs. And three, he's absolutely putting a beating down. He's just going to town, Froggy style, like you said. The ultimate, at the point where sex tapes are not even a big deal anymore, everyone's got a sex tape, it feels like.

Well, his comes out, and it's the most perfectly placed camera or camera work type view to see this guy just have nothing wrong with it. Like there's no, there's, you can't chirp him at all. All right, Frankie. Quote anything drives me nuts, drives me nuts. I mean, the fact that I guess your parents seeing you whack away is an ideal, but who, what does he care? Okay.

So that was one of the questions I had. Is he really embarrassed at the fact that his parents, I would imagine his parents probably haven't seen the video, but I've heard that there's a video. So I want to hear that interaction between him and his parents. That's one thing I want to, I want to find out how this thing got out. Now,

if they, if Dave may have had a hand in it, I wouldn't be shocked. Would I be, would I be mad at him? No. Cause I would imagine I want to sit him down and say, in a situation where you would have seen that video,

knowing that it would have hit the fucking internet, and you had the ability to stop it, would he have? And I think the clear-cut answer would be no. He's saying, get that thing out there, right? Do you think I'm right? Probably. I mean, he's like, what's the guy's name? American Psycho.

What was that character's name? Patrick Bateman. Yeah, he's Patrick Bateman. And let's not forget, the final finishing move of shoving a head into the pillow, I mean, that's getting him an extra 100 DMs because the roughness right there a lot of girls enjoy, I'm sure. So, yeah, it all came out. It all worked. Everything that happens to him ends up working out for him.

That's exactly what, and this is no different. Did he release it? Did he, did he not release it? God, I don't think we'll ever know. But like you said, there would be zero surprise if, if I did find out that he had a hand in getting that thing online. I'm surprised deadspin didn't take take a screenshot like i like when he had her hair head down it's a dave portnoy doesn't respect women it's been gone isn't it isn't oh yeah there is no more yeah buried them too he buried him like he buried that girl's head in the pillow they should put deadspin's uh uh whatever decal on her head and make a meme out of it.

Oh man. So yeah, that was, that was quite a thing to wake up to, but yeah, well I'm sure we'll be interrogating Dave later this week. Like G said, we're heading down there for the week with the Christmas party, not to mention some interviews lined up. What's up, bud? And here's the best part of all of it. Like considering he might not have had a hand in getting this thing released and probably didn't, it probably just got out there. He's the victim, and he looks like the hero.

So it's a great situation. And, I mean, you mentioned the dick part. It would just be devastating if a video got out of anyone in particular, and then there was a hammer shot, and it was a tiny hammer, because then you're just the butter jokes on them. You're dead. You're toast. You're toast.

If I ever had one of my cocks off, I'd be done. just, you're the butter. You're toast. You're toast. If I ever had one of meat in my cock soft, I'd be done. Yeah, you don't want a refractory period shot, that's for sure. But, hey, why not? Everybody knows the rules, Biz, right? Right, right. All right, let's take it over to the sport we cover here. No more fuck talk. We had yet another NHL coach lose his job this season

as the San Jose Sharks fired Pete DeBoer after four and a half seasons. They also fired all his assistants and goalie coach Johan Hedberg, the old moose. Bob Bugner was named the interim coach. DeBoer, I think he's one of these coaches that, you know, does four or five years and kind of guys get sick of him. He did lead them to a cup finals first season there. They got to the Western Conference finals last year,

but they were really struggling to get in gear this season. The goaltender's been pretty bad. Like I said, they fired the goaltending coach. They brought in Evgeny Nabokov to be the new coach. DeBoer probably won't have any trouble getting a job later down the line. But San Jose lost the first game. They won Saturday night to get off the schneidwit, which I take on this move, buddy.

I wasn't surprised just because you've seen the start they've had, how inconsistent they've been. Now, part of it is when you mentioned the goaltending, it's been so bad. You can't – you end up trying to make some sort of change. You fire the coach. We need to do something. Well, you can't really go get a new goalie right away. I mean, how hard is that to find somebody?

But until they start getting saves and getting guys that are absolutely like keeping the team in games on nights they don't have things going, you really have no chance. So you look at the firing, and like I said, I wasn't surprised, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they end up continuing to struggle if the goalies still can't make any saves. I think this team, when they went to the cup finals,

you're, you're looking at them kind of on the rise and things have changed since then. And, and where they're at now is guys get a little bit older. It's like, did they miss their window? Is it, it's just a,

it's a weird time. And you look at Burns hasn't had his best season. Vlasic hasn't had his best. Both of those guys have signed through 25, 26, the Carlson deal we've talked about, you know, he's definitely not struggling offensively, but defensively I think there's been times where he hasn't been great.

It's been an entire season of guys not really living up to expectations there, so the coach goes. But in the end, until the goalies start making saves, they won't win games. You took the words out of my mouth. I would have changed the goaltending coach before I changed the coach in this one. But, yeah, I mean, Martin Jones has really struggled. And we're talking over the span of like a good year and a half, two years now. They have not.

They have – I'm sorry to interrupt you. No, you're good, buddy. Jones is at 891 save percentage and Dell is at 893. Both guys. If you can get competent goaltending, they're getting into playoffs. And then, you know, who knows? Maybe one of them catches fire. But they got to address that issue.

And maybe a goaltending coach change will help that. Listen, Mike Smith camerizona when he was struggling and he had a great goaltending coach in sean burke and sean burke helped out numerous guys cory schwab who's now in arizona he got darcy camper and auntie rata and he's helped them out drastically we talked about uh the guy that trots always brings around. Who's his boy? The Whisperer. The name escapes me. We talked in depth about him. He's been with Trotz for 20 years. Yeah, so everyone's going to know. We talked

about it a few episodes ago. Mitch Korn. Mitch Korn, there you go. So how valuable goalie coaches can be. So let's hope the new guy gets them going and just even gets them to competent goaltending, then as I said, I think they can squeak in playoffs.

Absolutely. But tough year for coaches, that's for sure. And now the new thing is all the reporters had to clarify that the fireman was for hockey reasons only. It's like with all the shit that's going on. Yeah, we know, guys. The team stinks right now. Their goal differential is minus 25.

The coach didn't tell a player to go fucking get him a sandwich it wasn't anything like that now regarding pete deborah i could see him being one of the first coaches that got axed to get a job and laviolette might be on the hot seat boys i'm surprised you don't hear more about that because they they're not good either they're worse than than San Jose, I think, right now. I'll say this. I think if they lose two more in a row here or two in the next three, I think Laviolette's gone.

And nothing – I don't know him personally. I just think that they have far too good of a lineup to be doing what they're doing right now. As you said, they're more embarrassing than San Jose right now. Yeah, and he's one of those type of guys who you know has a shelf life after like five four or five years guys just fucking get sick of listening to him so yeah that's definitely a situation we'll keep an eye on i thought nashville was gonna roll this year i thought they were gonna be so good and it's weird because they started off really good and then since then it's just been a house of horror. So you just wonder,

you wonder if the GM there is willing to make a move. I don't necessarily think that that's been something he's done in the past. And, you know, Ray Shero too, he doesn't like to change coaches in the middle of the seasons, but you saw him do it. So I think that maybe two in a row more, Biz, you're saying maybe that's not enough, But if they continue to struggle into mid-January, yeah, David Poyle will have to do something. Okay. All right. Fair enough.

Speaking of coaching changes, we mentioned the Hines one. Elaine Nazardine came in Arizona last night and got his first win Saturday night against the Coyotes. Not a great game by the Yotes. I was a little disappointed they couldn't follow up that great game against Chicago. But we have to congratulate our old captain in wilkes-barre scranton on his first nhl win as a head coach elaine nazarene i went down to the locker room after the game just to

congratulate him and uh he said he's been listening to the show a little bit he i asked him if we can get him on he was not a fucking chance while i'm in this role. He had a good chuckle, but it was great seeing him and couldn't be happier for the guy. Nice. The other big story bouncing around, the Taylor Hall sweepstakes. It feels like it should be wrapping up soon. They've been holding them out the last couple games, and once you start sitting a guy, you've got to think a deal is almost imminent.

Arizona, Florida, Calgary, Colorado, St. Louis, the teams in the mix. I had a source tell me that Calgary might be the leader in the clubhouse. I tweeted out last night. I wasn't breaking it or calling it or a report, just saying I'm here in Calgary. He doesn't have any trade protection, so he really doesn't control his fate. But, guys, he can, I mean, I know technically it's probably illegal, but he can send word to various people and say, hey, if you trade for him,

he's definitely not going to sign here. Is that something a player would do? Like it known that he he would have no intention of i don't think he would want the public knowing because you gotta deal with that organizations fans just coming out you'd be like oh you fucking think you're too good for here and then the minute they go on a cold streak they'll just make sure they let him know uh i actually bumped into taylor hall in the press box last night because they healthy scratched him for the second game in a row just as precaution so this valuable asset of theirs that they're about to trade doesn't get injured.

I didn't even bother asking him, but he looked good. Funny enough, he had a Sedona red suit on, and I go, that's a Coyote suit. And he chuckled a little bit. He had those DSLs just fucking all lubed up in the press box. All those broad fucking shoulders, that big old body of his. Jesus, Halsey. I'd be afraid to have my old lady around him.

Yeah, no, he's too good looking. But, man, the fact that Arizona is in the conversation is such a comforting feeling, being an Arizona Coyotes fan and employee. The fact that we're now talking about potentially attracting big-name free agents or ones that are soon to be. I mean, we got Kessel this offseason. I think the Coyotes are on the rise. So adding a guy like Taylor Hall to the mix, man, all of a sudden,

I think the Coyotes become a contender in the West. Now, if Colorado gets some holy shit look out i've also heard uh we and we talked about it buffalo is is making a serious attempt to get them i just i don't know man no offense to buffalo or their fans we stroke them off all the time i just can't see a heart uh um a past heart winner and tay Hall wanting to maybe go to Buffalo and pay those types of state taxes living in Buffalo. Am I wrong here? Am I being an asshole? Well, I mean, they certainly would be able to sign him.

Imagine the Blues, though. The Blues are getting mentioned out there because they got the room with Tarasenko gone. We've talked about could they just wait until playoffs come back so they wouldn't even have to deal with his cap coming back. That's definitely an option. Colorado, you mentioned, and Calgary. What about Calgary, where he grew up?

I don't know. Did he grow up there? Halsey lived there for some part of his life. But still, the way that they've turned things around since Ward came in and adding him to that offense, boy. that they've turned things around since Ward came in and adding him to that offense. Ooh, boy. Now the question becomes which teams would be willing to give up

the type of assets that are going to be required in order to acquire him for who's going to maybe just do it for, let's say, a run, or do you think all of them has to be a situation where if they're going to get up what New Jersey's asking, there has to be an extension in place. Now, St. Louis is a type of team where they might be like, hey, man, even if he doesn't, he's not going to sign here long-term. Let's try to win it back-to-back.

And, I mean, yeah, maybe in the future we'll have to go through some growing pains and try to reboot this whole thing. Right? Am I wrong here? Because if you're going to give up a prospect and a first rounder and just to loan a guy it's gonna it's gonna hurt you a little bit moving forward right so which which teams of those would you think are are willing to to sacrifice those assets to maybe even only have them short term i could only see st louis being one of them i would say colorado is on too good of a trajectory to be able to give up that much to not be able to get him and then also have him resign.

Right. What about the Panthers? What about the Florida Panthers? They have, they have their first and second round draft picks the next three years. They haven't given any of those away. They pick Spencer Knight 13th overall. He's a stud goalie in the draft last summer.

Walt, they just signed Bobrovsky. Who needs a goalie? The New Jersey Devils? I don't know. Maybe that's an option. A high draft pick, a goalie that could be maybe the future for the Devils. Florida definitely.

And Biz, no state tax, brah. No state tax. How the hell are you? And it's a great point that you bring up the goalie situation because i mean i'm not starting any rumors and i don't i've not talked to anyone in our organization about this but we have we i would say we have probably the best goalie depth in the entire league we have two great competent goalies at the nhl level we have aiden hill down in the minors who i would imagine is ready to come up at any time to be a very good backup slash complement to maybe Darcy Kemper if we're available to move Ronta.

And we also have another, I think he's a Russian kid, down to the minors as well. So we have two really great guys in the pipeline and two up top. So that's definitely one asset that we would be able to provide them in a trade would be a starting goalie. I think Ante Ronta is a starting goalie in this league. And you mentioned New Jersey. Blackwood's okay.

I just don't know if he's an NHL starter yet. Right. And with this type of stuff, I tend to expect the unexpected. A lot of times you hear 17 different landing spots, and then a guy ends up going somewhere where nobody had him going, you know, because they do feel. Oh, yeah, we're going to go through the rest of the league. We just started off with those five teams.

The Krakens, the Totems. It's just so different in this one because of the will they get him re-signed. It kind of changes all the teams that are in the mix. Mark Stone was an example of how this probably will go down last year being the example. I'd imagine this is one of the hardest situations

because new jersey has to be happy with what they're getting in assets but then hall also has to enjoy that team and be willing to sign an extension and then who knows how long it takes out to work out the money situation but he has the upper hand because in the end they're gonna trade him so in the if he doesn't want to sign an extension like it doesn't really matter like dude you're you're either getting nothing from me or something you're gonna trade me and if that team isn't the team i want to sign with i won't sign with it's essentially a no a no move clause yeah in his contract by him not if he if he doesn't want to resign so we can move on from that i think we spend too much time

but uh it's good you but it's very interesting. You know it's going to break this afternoon, too, as soon as we get off the phone. Right, we hang up. Well, wherever Halsey ends up, he'll want to look good in his introductory press conference, so he'll definitely want to use Stitch Fix. Not all clothes are fit for all men,

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We got some absolutely terrible news out of Philadelphia on Friday as the Flyers announced that promising young Swedish forward, Oskar Lindblom, has Ewing sarcoma. It's a rare type of cancer that really affects the person's bones. He's not going to play for the rest of the season. And the family asked for privacy at this point, which is certainly understandable. You know, it's such a gut punch for, I mean, anytime a young person gets it, but you know, the Flyers, he's been having a bit of a breakout year, 18 points in 30 games. I think he was tied for the goal scoring lead,

18 points in 30 games. I think he was tied for the goal-scoring lead. But this is just such awful, awful news. I mean, I know it's a shitty topic, but what's your reaction, pal? Just my prayers go out to him and his family and starting this fight that's going to be the toughest of his life. But I can't imagine what he's going through. And the sense is, like, you lose a guy for the season, and for the most part in pro sports,'s like oh my god that sucks for the team oh well this one it's so different

like holy shit like this kid is now uh his life's changed forever but I I can imagine he's got positive he's got positivity around him talking to the teammates guys loved him and you're right all right last year he had 17 goals. This year he already had 11. So this is a kid that's on the uprise of his career. So such a scary time, but the whole hockey world's behind him. And I think that's what's great. And you see it's a small world. We talk about it all the time, but you saw all the messages

that went out to him from all the guys around the league, all of his teammates and fans. So talk about having a huge group behind you, fighting with you, and we're all there with him. So it's a really crazy, scary time. But what can you do besides send him your thoughts and prayers and think about him as you realize how easy your life is? Well said, Whit.

Yeah, it was nice to see all the teams, you know, send some love his way. The whole hockey community is behind it. So, yeah. So young. I know. It's fucking crazy. It's just shitty shit. Yeah, so hopefully, I guess it has a pretty high

cure rate if you catch it early, so hopefully things turn out for the best for him. Speaking of fighting, Drew Doughty had some interesting comments the other day. G, you want to tune those up for us? Drew, this, again, just like the game against the Rangers, total team effort here. I mean, the decor. Can you tell me a little bit about how everyone kind of sacrificed everything to help make this win happen? Yeah, it's not only the decor. Quickie made a bunch of huge saves

again. Fords played great. We sat back too much in the third, but I think the highlight for me is Dermot chucking him with Deloria. That was a great fight. Got us really pumped up and we were able to get the win. I know that that's kind of making its way out really pumped up, and we were able to get the win. I know that that's kind of making its way out of the league, but when you see a safe one happen like that, and just the energy that it brings the team, how much does that help the momentum? Yeah, it can't make its way out of the league.

We need fighting. I know people don't like it, some of you, but then you're just going to have all those meatheads running around, little guys being rats out there, and that's just the way it's going to go. So we need fighting. People need to be able to protect their teammates and themselves and um yeah when it's safe like that and no one gets hurt that's the best so biz it's pretty cool i think pretty refreshing to hear a player just come out and say yeah fighting's good for the league we like it and we want it here right well i mean when the players voted on it most of them wanted to keep it in and

and you know i know people are going to have their opinions and, you know, give them the old, oh, what a meathead comment. But, you know, he was speaking from the heart. McDermott fought Delorier. It was a very spirited bout. I don't know if people saw the clip online. Very cool. They went toe to toe.

Great job by Delorier. That McDermott's a beast. I play with him in the AHL with the Ontario Reign, and he used to just obliterate guys. Is that how you say it? Obliterate? Obliterate's a beast. I play with him in the AHL with the Ontario Reign, and he used to just obliterate guys. Is that how you say it? Obliterate? It's obliterate with a T. Obliterate.

Obliterate. There we go. All right. I like obliterate. Yeah, we can. Hey, you know, it's free roll. My version. Let's change it.

Yeah. And then right after when they were in the box, they acknowledged the hero of the game, which is usually a veteran or someone in the military. And both guys, after they were kind of talking to each other in the box, they both stood up and started clapping and were well aware of what was going on. So it was a cool little video. I don't know if you people saw it on Twitter, but I love it.

That one wasn't maybe necessarily as organic as I'd like it, where I was talking about the Ehlers and Getzloff fight. But if it gets a star player like Drew Doughty going, and it's going to elevate those guys, it's a play. And he said it got the locker room going. I'm all for it, baby. That DeLorea, he throws hammers too. I wasn't surprised by the comments.

I've said it before on this podcast. I'll probably say it again. The stage stuff, that was scary. And the guys who did that, I have so much respect for them, but I can understand that being out of the game. It is a physical game where if somebody hits you and slashes you and pisses you off, you're going to fight them. That will always be there.

I kind of think that's what Doughty's saying. And he actually mentions with the rats running around and things like that. There will forever, forever in this sport be fights. Take fighting out, there will still be fights. It doesn't matter what league it is, there's fights. So when it's allowed and someone makes you upset and someone does something you take offense to, you're going to fight them.

That's kind of what happens, and it will always happen. R.A., as a traditional fan too, and hockey does have a lot of them, I think it's nice to be aware of where the climate of everything is going, especially with the head injuries and stuff. I think Riley Cote, who sent out a tweet afterward acknowledging Drew Doughty's comments and that fight in general, said that i think four percent of all recorded concussions stem from fighting so it's way lower than compared to the

the hits that are going on and hockey in general needs to be care of how far they want to bring it and and tailor to the media and and people who maybe never played or are casual fans talking about the game. Because if you keep taking things away, eventually people are going to be like, you know what? Fuck this. This isn't what I started watching. This isn't what I fell in love with. There's a big time, too much of a pacification of the sport. I'm going to watch something else. I actually had a few people at meet and greets and stuff uh come over and you know how we

we usually get the hey i never even followed hockey but i started listening to your podcast i jumped on it i've met a few of them and they say i like the aspect of the fighting and how the fact that it's it's stayed a little bit more traditional than other sports where people have have stopped watching other sports because of all the other bullshit that's associated with it. So it's one of those things where I think we've found a good spot for it, excuse me, in the fact that we've taken out all the mutants like me where there's more so only guys going at it when they need to do it. I mean, how much is fighting down? Guys who can really play, too.

Yeah, exactly. Like Curtis McDermott's a solid player. That Delorier, I mean, you've got to think if he wasn can really play, too. Yeah, exactly. Like, Curtis McDermott's a solid player. That Delorier, I mean, you got to think, if he wasn't good enough, he wouldn't be in the league. He was in Montreal. I saw him play a couple times. I thought he was solid. Gets on the forecheck.

He's not a terrible skater. So, I mean, I like it. Yeah, and fighting will only go away if the players vote for it to go away. And right now, 95% of the NHLPA is in favor of it. And, you know, nobody has to fight if they don't want to anymore. So, yeah, it's not going anywhere. And it's kind of funny that when – sorry, go ahead, Biz. Oh, no, I would be interested to see the list and who were like the five

to ten guys in the league who voted take it out were. Wouldn't you be interested? It was me. I got a vote even though got a moment of the league. Hey, Brad Marshawn. But it did seem to be funny, the timing of it. It did seem like there were more fights than usual the last few days. Z fought on consecutive

nights. He fought Tom Wilson and then the big rig, Pat Maroon the next night. We had another fight. It was quick, but it might have been the best of the week. It was Borovitsky, the old borocop. He fought Josh Anderson during Saturday's matinee. Those two were throwing fucking bombs. I don't know if you saw it, Biz, but Borovitsky went to hit Sonny Milano,

and Milano kind of fell right before the hit. So it wasn't dirty. It was just shit time. And, you know, Borovitsky called for the trainer right away. I like both those guys' games. I like that Josh Anderson. I saw him play in the minors, and I'm like, this guy's going to be a stud up top.

Although I don't know how good his numbers are this year, but, yeah, he's a new school power forward. He's a machine. He's a big dude. He was in an NHL network once. I was like, Jesus Christ, look at this guy. Handsome fellow, too. Yeah, might have a turtleneck on or something.

He looked fun. That's what all the kids are doing now. I'd love to see R.A. with a turtleneck on in NYC. With his new shave job, it would kind of look like a penis. You call me a dickhead? And then he'd roll it up, and he'd be like a biz foreskin. Dude, I haven't worn a turtleneck since back in the day when you used to wear a champion turtleneck with, like,

a fucking sweatshirt over it. Oh, the Alexa Yashin? No, I'm talking about like one that like Drake would wear now with a gold chain on top. Kind of like The Rock in that picture when he's got the fanny pack, but a longer turtleneck. And well, speaking of concussions, Thursday, Tim Thomas met with the media for the first time in years at the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame ceremonies. You know, these are usually kind of just catching up with the media scrum. And it ended up becoming a very emotional and I thought very powerful scene with Thomas talking about just how bad things got for him.

You know, as a Bruins fan, I don't think we really knew how bad he was, basically anybody, because he got a concussion with Florida, maybe his last season or the season before and he started talking and he you know he said i didn't plan on talking about this i didn't want to talk uh i didn't want to tell the world about it and he was saw i mean got sobbing he had tears rolling down his face gee you want to want to play one of those clips when you're there but not there and you can't think and it's but you're watching everything and you're seeing your family you know suffer because you're suffering but you can't do anything about it and you can't even communicate which is I couldn't communicate with anybody for a few years I didn't call my dad

I didn't talk to anybody so there was a time period where I hated the game so to speak I didn't sit there and I hate it my rebound effect was like, this wasn't worth it. That's where I was then. Where I am today is past that.

And I ended up learning so many lessons out of the experience. It brought me tighter with my family. It brought me tighter with my family. It taught me a value for life. And a value for my brain that I've never had before. And I have appreciation for everything that I never had before. So I don't regret anything. Does an event like this make you think about all those things that you do appreciate about?

Yeah. Being welcomed back into the arms of the hockey family, so to speak. It's been great. It's reminded me of all the great people that I that I crossed paths with all throughout my career. So it's been very impactful. I think that was the original question.

How difficult is it just to stand up here and talk to us? I didn't want to talk about this. I didn't want to talk. I didn't want to tell the world this stuff. Not until I felt ready and I didn't feel ready yet. But here I am, right? Yeah, man, I mean, you could hear it in his voice. I felt so bad for him.

I mean, when he was in town and I covered him, Tim was never very comfortable with the media. So I can't imagine what was going through his brain having to talk to people about this stuff and, you know, real life, real world stuff. So hopefully he's doing good, man. He's always a legend in this town. And it's nice to see him get out and just, you know, catching up with some people and some old teammates, which he has.

Well, I'll toss it to Whit first, probably because you know more about him with the Boston connection. Funny Tim Thomas story. I'll go into what his comments after, but this will lighten the mood a little bit. Summer 2009, I think USA Hockey invited 40, 50 guys into Chicago for a camp of people who possibly were going to make the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics hockey team. Well, I got invited. So did Tim Thomas. and the camp went on. And the last night, we went out to a dinner, big dinner,

and then everyone went out and ripped it up. And the next morning, there were bus to the airport, and you got on your flight, you went home. Two people, two people missed the bus to the airport and missed their flights home, me and Timmy Thomas. So we'll go back, we go back a long ways in thinking that we slept through the bus at an Olympic camp together.

But I was really happy to hear him talk. And I know it was tough because he was breaking down and crying. And what I thought was really interesting was, as he said,

I didn't plan on doing this, but well, here I am. He mentioned how much he appreciated and enjoyed the time with Bergeron and Krejci and Chara and just seeing old teammates. I think

that there's a time for a lot of guys when they hate the game and they're depressed at how things ended and their health isn't there. And you don't really want to be around anyone. Little do you know that if you were around some former teammates, especially guys you won the Stanley Cup with, you reached the pinnacle, you did it. I think that that probably gave him so much more enjoyment than he thought it would. And that's just me guessing, right? I haven't talked to him. But just to hear him mention he talked to old teammates,

I think that when you get around guys, when things aren't going great, when you get around guys that you spent a big part of your life with, it just reminds you of the good things. I think that sometimes you're afraid of how it may be and how you don't like the game. But when you do see people and bring up memories that make you smile, I can't imagine it was anything but good for him. And I'm happy to hear him talk because that was a dark time he was talking

about that he went through. And he's someone that, all right, you said he's never really been comfortable, not just talking to the media. He's been a quiet guy just in life, I feel like. So what he went through is probably really difficult. And he's living out in Idaho, he said, right? Yeah, out in Idaho right now, yeah. Although he was comfortable with me after that Stanley Cup press conference

that one time. Let's roll that clip. Brian McGonigal, Boss Tool Sports. Question, Brian McGonigal, Boss Tool Sports. Back home. Do you have a message for the fans who have been waiting a long time for this? You've been waiting a long time, but you got it. You wanted it, you got it.

We're bringing it home. He's like, can I get that T-shirt you threw out in the garbage in the room, but they kicked me out and I couldn't grab it, please? Just give me the fucking T-shirt. Still got my empty Bud Light bottles from them with the fucking Cup champions, man. From inside that locker room? Yeah, well, they had the Stanley Cup champion logo on them already. So you grabbed a

bottle and brought it home. You are just... Tim, I saw you spit out that piece of gum. I actually went in the garbage. I grabbed it. Any chance you could sign the piece of paper I put the gum on? I kind of actually stretched the gum out. It looks like you making a save, but still, it was chewed by you. Your saliva's all over it. Please,

Timmy, give me a chance here. Sign my piece of gum. Can I just swab your mouth so I can get a DNA clarification, please? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Please, Timmy, give me a chance here. Sign my piece of gum. Can I just swab your mouth so I can get a DNA clarification, please? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. I mean, his career really is an unreal story of perseverance, though. I mean, he grinded over in Europe, doesn't become a star until like 31 years old. He ends up having

one of the best seasons ever. And yeah, it was sad to hear how it turned out, but I think ultimately it was probably good for him to get out and do that and, you know, talk to people and, you know, shed some tears like that. I think maybe he probably felt better at the end of the day. How did everything leave in Boston? Because I know he didn't end up going to the White House when they won.

Was there any type of – I mean, I just found it was weird that people were kind of like chirping him about how he just went away and was like living in a bunker in Idaho. And even I made a joke online at one point. Now I feel like a fucking asshole because I didn't know that he was going through that. That's why I wouldn't feel like an asshole. Well, I know, but like Jesus Christ, I mean, I don't think he has Twitter or nor does he give a fuck who Paul Bissonette is.

But I'm just saying is like, was he affected in any type of way leaving Boston? He just kind of walked away. I think after the White House stuff, I don't know. The reaction was probably mixed. A lot of people support him. A lot of people were just kind of like, just fucking go, big deal. And he left, and people were just kind of like, wow, what's going on? And then as far as him hiding away in a bunker,

well, now we know it was from the concussions but i think people just assumed he just didn't want anything to do with the media or anything so yeah there was an air of mystery around it biz because you know he went from the premier goalie in the league to all of a sudden just fucking walking away so off the face of the guy by the way probably made 50 to 75, like 10 bell saves in that run to the cup. It was. And the craziest one was overtime in the first round of game seven against Montreal, Brian G on to, they never win the Stanley cup.

Cam nearly gets fired. They make trades. If that didn't go down. So what he will forever be a Bruins legend. It's amazing how like saves like that can save guys jobs. Not like that, that game, you know, it's like the old legend. It's amazing how saves like that can save guys jobs. Nuts. Game of inches, you know? It's like the old movie. What's that? NFL movie? Any Given Sunday. Any Given Sunday.

What a speech by Al Pacino. I'd die for that fucking inch. I remember that game. Hal Gill had the fucking game on his stick at 1.2 in overtime. Let a bomb go. I'm not sure if it was that shot. I was about to go over the line. Dennis Heidenberg come in, swept in, fucking cleared it out of the crease.

And it was just so many of those fucking plays. But anyway, speaking of goalies, Montreal rookie Caden Premo got his first win for the Canadians the other night in overtime. It was actually a pretty cool scene. The whole bench went over to the defenseman, Cherot, who scored the goal. But Shea Weber went right to the goalie, you know, being a good captain. But then you could see Carey Price skate in the background, like across the ice. Well, apparently, Brady Kachuk grabbed the puck and took it with him. I don't know if he's buddies with Primo.

I know the Americans around the same age. I don't think they're on the same junior team. So I don't know if Kachuk was being a ball breaker or he was, you know, gamesmanship. But either way, Price went over and fucking was like sunk and fucking took the puck back for him so he can give it to Primo no what Brady Kachuk said afterward and this is why I get pissed off why some of these media members go on and drag guys named through the mud before they get the entire story when Brady was asked about it afterward he was like oh I was just gonna pick it up and give the puck to a fan. He's like, I'm buddies with Primo.

I didn't even realize that was his first win. So it was just a brain fart on Brady Kachuk's part. I think when Carey Price came over, he was like, oh, shit, okay, here. There was nothing premeditated about it. It was just a brain fart. So all of a sudden, everyone's fucking, oh, what a scumbag. Oh, my God. All the hyperbolic bullshit that

people love to fucking get going hyperbolic oh i use that word that's one of my word my business i got a lot of them i never really know that's that one elevate his play that's one of them what else do i always say um content content is content that makes people skin crawl now when I say that. So that's why I try to work it in once an episode. But I don't think there was anything malicious about that. That's just Brady Kachuk looking like a thumb out there and not knowing what's going on. Yeah, I mean, it would have been a pretty ballsy thing if he did.

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So get yourself, your dad, your brother, and your friends the best gift of all. The Manscaped Perfect Package 2.0. You get 20% off and free shipping with the code CHICKLETS at manscaped.com. Your balls and your lover will thank you. Once again, get 20% off and free shipping with the code CHICKLETS at manscaped.com. That's 20% off with free shipping at manscaped.com using the code CHICKLETS, C-H-I-C-L H I C L E T S clean up your nuts and make Santa proud this year. Okay. So regarding these clippers, Jan's FaceTime me recently.

And he's like, Hey, I heard about that ad, that ad on, on your guys' podcast. Can you send a bunch down to Florida for the boys? So I would imagine that they would do it. Right.

And I'm assuming the reason why he was attracted to that ad-read was the fact that you can use them and they're waterproof in the shower. I know I've talked about it before. I used to have my suit on leaving the rink, and Jans would force me to take my suit off and jump back in the shower just so he has someone to talk to and watch him shave his nuts with that one-blade Bic razor. So now he wants to use

these Manscaped things. You called them the lawnmower or the weed whacker? What was it called? Excuse me, the lawnmower. Alright, so hopefully, Vance, you're listening. This is me asking Manscaped. Hopefully you guys can send some down and maybe you get a picture of you shaving Bobbo's nuts in the shower so they

can use for their Instagram account. Just for a quick plug. Showed up to Keith, by the way, tied for third and D scoring in the league. How's that? Thank you. Yeah.

He's been on an absolute fire lately. And yeah, biz, you definitely want to do it in the shower, clean up. Hey boys, we had a pretty gruesome scene in the OHL the other night. Goalie Tucker Tynan of the Niagara Ice Dogs suffered an awful cut

versus the London Knights. It was an incidental contact collision, and one of the Knights' skates caught him right on the front of his thigh, and it shredded his quad down to the bone. Within seconds, there was a huge, horrific pool of blood spilling out from under his pads. Like many, I'm sure, I thought it was his femoral artery, you know, the huge artery in your leg, but it turned out not to be the case.

And they said if he didn't get immediate medical attention to that extent, he could have bled out in the ice. Doctors at St. Catherine's Hospital, where he got emergency surgery, told the general manager, Joey Burke, that the immediate attention definitely saved his life. The work of the on-ice staff, everyone in-house definitely saved his life. Maybe the worst scene I've seen on ice, I know Clint Milacek was probably the more, well, I'm not going to say popular, probably the wrong word,

but more notorious injuries we've seen. But there might have been more blood with this injury. It's just to see that much blood, especially with a young kid. Horrifying scene. Whit, you saw this, right, man? Oh, my God. And you understand completely why the game was canceled after that. They were saying there, you know, people, please donate blood.

And just so scary. And thank God that he's okay. And I imagine this is kind of open-ended to all you guys. He could easily end up coming back and playing, like, fine from this, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, thank God. Holy fuck.

A guy goes from, there's a chance he could have died on the ice, as scary as that is to say. And in the end, he should be fine to come back. Well, it's going to be a long time and a tough road to recovery. But, God, that could have been so much worse. But just the amount of blood on the ice was so scary. And, R.A., you said it, Clint Malarcha, he saved his own life by skating. He started skating to the bench, I believe. God, if he just laid there, who knows what happens.

I think Zitnik was the other guy, right? Is that how you say it? I think he was in Florida at the time maybe, and a skate came up and ended up getting him in the throat area. Oh, Zednik. It was Zednik. So I was thinking of Alexei Zhitnik. Yeah, Zednik.

I remember that i fucked up shockingly um you're a genius you know like boys that's kind of like the shittiest part about the fact that like skates are used in our sport like incidences like this are just going to keep happening and you hate when they come up and and god you hope like it i mean never results in anything someone said that kid didn't have like the pads that are i don't i actually don't even want to go on. I'm not sure if that's for sure. But you'd think that that's an area that would be covered,

especially goaltenders. Okay, so let's talk about this. When I was playing pro in Arizona, that's when the socks had been introduced that had the Kevlar in it. So guys can prevent from getting their Achilles cut. Didn't Eric Carlson get his Achilles cut by Matt Cook? Wasn't that one of the things? And I don't even know if at the time they said he was wearing those Kevlar socks,

but what they're meant to do, and I'm imagining they probably have more than just socks for goalies now. Maybe they even put them on their wrists, but it just helps stop the blade from doing as much damage as possible. So there's also a lot of people have said before, oh, well, they should allow you to kick the puck. And then that because you could have some pretty cool goals if that was allowed. But it's completely based on the fact that why have people in the crease kicking at pucks and shit like that? It's solely all about protecting people. Really? OK, that's a fair point.

I mean, if you start, imagine if kicking was legal and your stick's tied up and all of a sudden there's three guys in the crease kicking away and blades. See you guys doing bicycle kicks out there? Slip each other's throats. Yeah. You mentioned the physical recovery.

Well, you know, the kid's probably going to have a pretty big mental recovery. This is the type of PTSD type thing. Clint Malachuk was never the same after that accident. And the OHL did postpone Niagara's games this weekend. So the team, not just the player, the team can recover because that's a very traumatic event to be part of. And those kids, they have a psychiatrist on hand.

Well, yeah, your goalie comes flying by you on the bench, and you know right away this is not some run-of-the-mill injury. They have a psychiatrist on hand. Well, yeah, your goalie comes flying by you on the bench, and you know right away this is not some run-of-the-mill injury. I mean, you start thinking, is he going to survive? So I understand the team needing a couple days to just refresh here. And he did tweet out, Tucker, Tyna, he said, quote, just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the kind words. Truly, they mean more than anyone can ever know.

An unfortunate situation. Looking forward to recovering and coming back even stronger and healthier than before. End quote. Hey, Tucker, man, we hope you're feeling all right, brother. It's one hell of a way to get a chicklet shout out. I'll tell you that. So anyways, boys, I think it's time to send it over to Adrian Akoin. This guy is an absolute beauty. Always a great interview.

So without further ado, send it over to Oki. Folks, we got this guy back on the podcast one of my favorite former teammates um he started his own reality show kind of like meet the duggars because he's got about 27 kids um but i want to welcome back adrian a coin to the spit and chicklets podcast what's going on buddy glad to be here so we had the incident where we knocked on the door. He tried breaking the door down. Seriously, I thought the feds were coming back in.

Let me in. Let me in the room. Had to wake RA up. I'm calling you on Twitter, man. I know. I know. This guy, when he goes away, has a time. Yeah, I uncook it a little bit when I get in the road. I don't do it much anymore.

When I'm around these guys, it's like. Wait, wait. Are we talking about the fact the other day how he ate edibles and then he was posting on social media and TikTok? Do your kids have TikTok? My kids do have TikTok. What is TikTok? Do you even know?

Well, my daughter's got like thousands of followers because she's a goofball. No. Like, oh yeah. She gets like, one of her things has over 100,000 likes. Like she just- Wow, that's big. She goofs around. She's hilarious.

Really? Yeah. Maybe she could help us grow our TikTok. She probably could. We could do a little collaboration. She's got the younger crowd. Yeah, we can get the younger crowd. How old is she?

15. So we can get the 15-year-old girl crew. Like, hey, Ellie, shit, you got no chance now. We got the TikTok crew. Speaking of kids, we talked about your oldest son last time you were on. Now he's playing in the USHL preparing for his first year at college next year. Potentially. You know, college now, it's rarely true freshmen.

They'd rather wait, and sometimes it's better. You know, there's a possibility. He's playing pretty well, and he just got, like, ranked in the players to watch for the NHL draft this year. Nice. Yeah, no, he's playing well. Yeah, he's doing good. Where is he?

What team? Tri-City. All right, Tri-City. That's a good place to play. I remember playing there. Young coaches, they have a blast. They literally make me want to play hockey again. Have you been able to go to a bunch of games?

A couple games on the road. Okay. Yeah, so it's about a 10-hour drive. You ride the bus with them? I did. Remember last time you were doing it, right? Yeah, so it's about a 10-hour drive. You ride the bus with them? I did. Remember last time you were doing it, right? Yeah, I had to hold my pee in for like nine hours. Dehydrate yourself.

Yeah. You wouldn't go back to the bus? No. No. I bust his balls all the time, so that was his first time ever with the group, so I'm just like, dude, just have your fun. Yeah, go enjoy yourself. Yeah.

And he's like, yeah, I think they enjoyed that you were on there, though, Dad. Like, I thought it was all about me, but they seemed to like you more. He was kind of a little rattled, but he had a good time. What's initiation? Does that type of stuff still happen? So they had a rookie party. They went out to some small restaurant, and they all dressed up like women. And I guess the guy who dressed up the best didn't have to pay,

and two guys wanted. He didn't. Guess how much his rookie meal was. I was going to say. $600. Oh, I was going to say like $120. $73. It was awesome.

And they were stressed over it. They all got french fries and a burger from McDonald's. Sick rookie meal. I think that's what they paid for a round last night. They had a blast. Yeah. No, and then so one of their first road trips on the bus ride back was like three hour bus to get made the rookies get up and tell stories he's like dad

it was probably the most fun i've ever had in my life oh he was buzzing he was loving yeah like you know they just had to come up with stuff and the young guys and he goes it's always funny right because a couple guys who are quieter and they don't you know all of a sudden they get up on the mic and something happens and magic starts so So he was like, it was unbelievable. You see some people, you see like true personalities kind of come out that you don't really know otherwise. That's funny. Is your son a good storyteller? He's his son.

I was going to say, at team events, this guy would find the mic and everybody would be in tears. Team events or road trips or even trips down the Caribbean, whatever. It all works. Remember Joe Vanosky's Halloween party and then Oliver dressed up as Harry Potter? He looked identical to Harry Potter. He looked more like Harry Potter than Harry Potter looked like Harry Potter.

There was a little bit of drama at Halloween party. There was, yeah. We had all the decorations in the pool. It was a bit of a fucking sideshow. Is this when Biz brought the stripper and all the wives were like... Was it that one? No, that was when we did at... Oh, at that little bar?

The wine bar. Radoslav Kessler. So what, you brought a stripper to a female IT function? No, so I told the story on the podcast. Yeah, her titty was popping out and he's like, oh boy. And then the boys are like, that was unreal, Biz. So I brought this playmate to a Halloween party.

Awesome girl. She's actually married now. And she was – Get that in there. In case the husband's listening. That lucky guy. That lucky guy. So she was taking – she took migraine medication,

and the doctor had told her that you can't drink on it. So she had a couple drinks. Remember she got up and sang the rap song and she didn't even look at the karaoke screen and everyone was like, damn, this girl's fucking cool. And then she passed out. Like a blind date.

No, next thing you know, I look over and she pours a full glass behind the bar, just dumps it on the floor and I walk up to her because I saw it and I said, what are you doing? And she's like, not everything's about you. She puts her finger in my face to push push me away and i'm like what i'm like what the fuck has just

happened in the last 15 minutes like something's not right she got yeah like she's on drug well next thing you know she's running off and then we had to go get uh jack who was like our driver yeah nobody had arrived from the airport he had to go like find her i had to call her friend i had to like get jack to drive her over but But in the midst of getting all this chaos sorted and figuring out how we were going to get her back to her friend's house, she had this Pocahontas outfit on, and the string had fallen off, and her gorgeous fake bombs were just hanging out,

and all the wives were mortified. So they shift to the outside part. Oddly enough, the wives were more intrigued by her than the guys were. Well, they were more just like, and not one of them went over and was like, Hey, honey, your tits are hanging out. They're like, she doesn't know anyone, and look how she's acting. This is incredible.

So I felt mortified for the girls, because not often you get the whole gang together. And the next day at the rink, I came in, and I was like, Boys, I am really sorry. I remember Ray Whitney coming up to me like, Sorry. That was the most entertainment I've had in years. Besides the

Tico Torres dressing up like Derek Jeter. No, no, Jay-Z. Like the one Hispanic hockey player who is the least racist guy I've ever met gets burnt for being a racist because he dressed up like Jay-Z. He dressed like Jay-Z. And this guy tweeted it.

Time out. So, listen, my mother's half black. I didn't know, as naive as it sounds, I didn't know what blackface was at that time. I think a lot of people did. And now that social media is a thing, I think more people are aware of it. And of course, I apologize after.

I didn't want to be insensitive. I thought that it was a great costume, and he dressed like his favorite rapper. I saw no harm in it. Of course, lesson learned. Now his black agent had to go on TSN in order to defend him. Like he has a black agent. If that happened now, we'd have no spitting checkers anymore.

We'd be done. We'd get the Canadian prime minister involved. What? What? What? Let's not even go there. Okay, so one other thing I told the story to these guys last night at dinner

was were you around when Tommy Powers was around? No, he came right after me. Okay, do you know who he is? The strength coach, yeah. So Tommy Powers was the strength coach. He was in Florida for a little bit as well. He helped Yager, unbelievable guy. I think he's married to Phil Housley's daughter now.

Anyway, he played in the ECHL, and he was not very good. He played like a handful of games. So Yans being Yans, came in the rink one day, and we had a few sick D. Guys had the flu. And mind you, I'm in the dressing room. I'm warming up. If we need a D to go in. You used to play D.

I used to play D. So Yans goes up to Brad Treeliving and he goes, hey, I'm going to tell Tommy that he might be playing. And Treeliving kind of like went along with it. So he went up and was like, Tommy, we're down a couple D. You might be playing. So he's fucking in the hallway doing a dynamic warm-up. He's calling his family, telling them like, hey, watch the game tonight.

I might be in and we got fucking surveillance video of our fucking uh fitness guy our pt guy doing fucking the karaoke in the hallway so that was no but the funniest part was so i asked keith yans about this last night on text and he goes the best part was donor the next day was like are you fucking kidding me tommy you really think you can play in the NHL? Keith goes, Donor was legit, like, he goes, we work our whole lives to play in this league and you think you could just hop in and play? Biz was a scratch.

We would have played Biz. Wow. We don't want to just, like, crush his dreams. No, Powers is like, I've seen Biz play. I still think I could have got in the hole. Not challenging. Any funny Yan stories off the top of your head that you can remember?

Did I tell the one about the bread last time? I can't remember. So my oldest boy, you know, Kyle, you saw my, you'd come over, so you know all my kids, but my oldest boy, he'd come to the rink all the time. He literally, God bless him, we had what, like 31 kids on that team

between all the marriage? It was crazy. It was like romper room. So they'd all come in. They'd be goofing around. Even during the games, you'd see them in the suite. Kids would jump on up and down. And my kid would literally be the one, like, watching the game.

He loves hockey. He likes to have fun as much as anybody. So we'd bring them down to the lounge. Remember, we used to get their lunches catered. We'd get, like, an Italian thing one day, day and they come with that big baguette of bread one day yans walks in buck naked with a big baguette just like in his junk area yes and kyle looks over he's like oh he's like oh shit yans runs out and literally the next few years remember when keith had the bread on his penis?

Your son will never forget that moment. It was awesome. Even to this day, he's like, remember Yanz? And of course, Yanz, because now he's going to Harvard. Yanz is like, dude, when I retire, is he still going to be playing there? Or you're coming to Boston? I'm like, as long as you get the bread, we're good, man. Oh, fucking hell.

But the amount of stories. I mean, he was texting me the other day, and I guess he asked one of the kids to get magazines for, like, the shitter. He's like, dude, go get some magazines. And the kid goes, like, this is another player. The kid goes, I don't have a car. No. Yeah, and Jan's like, I didn't ask you for a fucking ride.

Like, go get magazines. I don't care how you get them. I was going to say, what are magazines? And Jan literally goes to me, he goes, if I would have said something like that to you guys, you guys would have beat the shit out of me. He goes, am I missing something? I'm like, it's a different game, man. Well, you were talking about seeing those.

You were kind of the old grumpy guy coming in because you thought the Flyers guys were just like, shit, tell the story. Yeah, so I come in the elevator. I come up the elevator to whatever the lobby is, and I see these guys are massive now. I'm like a midget compared to them. Well, you've also lost about 30 pounds from your playing weight.

And they're all wearing sweats. One guy's got a winter hat. Another one's got a hat on backwards. And I'm just like, I literally played for some coaches that we could not wear anything but our suit even on days off. So I had one team, Anaheimim Where days off we could wear jeans But like golf shirt, college shirt This morning we went to Starbucks

With Kevin Hayes He had on a fatigue hoodie With like joggers on And I was like You're allowed to be in the hotel None of that matters anymore Kenan was the first coach that I had Who said you can wear jeans on the road

And I remember even then Pat Quinn was like Oh geez We battled for like None of that matters anymore. Keenan was the first coach that I had who said you can wear jeans on the road. And I remember even then, Pat Quinn was like, oh, geez. We battled to respect all these years. So fucking Quinn he is. A suit's going to be a fucking difference. You said Pat Quinn? Yeah, he was our GM when I was in Vancouver. Really?

Yeah. I don't know if you've listened to the podcast. I've told some great Pat Quinn stories. Did you hear the one about when he was like i'll talk to the captains no so steve steos yeah ethan moreau and horcoff are in before the year in edmonton i think captain and the two assistants those three guys yeah and he's like pat um we're wondering for the dress code what the deal is we're going on the road tomorrow start the year and he's like let me talk to the captains I'll get back to you the Dustin Penner one's pretty good too

where he showed up in a suit on a practice day thought it was the game day yeah that was a great one he came in for a 10 o'clock meeting

before pregame skate with the lineup on the board in his three piece suit and we're like the game's tomorrow, Pat. He's like a mother. Yeah. Any fun ones about him?

You weren't around him as much, right? I didn't have as many fun ones because I was young and he was like, he literally was like a godfather. He came in one time and he pulled, you know, you've obviously heard the Scotty Bowman story about him having guys autograph. So Pat wasn't the autograph, but he did a similar thing, like just checking who came in. We had an afternoon game, and guys all rolled. Like probably maybe like eight or nine guys rolled in at like 2, 3 a.m., and we had, I think, a 1 o'clock game. Oh, I thought you meant after the game they went out. No, no, this is the night before, which guys used to do and play guilty, and some guys played better that way.

And we lost, and he literally punched a full Gatorade jug, and it went flying across the room. He was a thick dude, too. You didn't want to piss him off. And God bless him. He literally was like a dad when I came up. He would keep it simple. He barely talked to the players one-on-one.

He was more generalized. The one thing he said to me one time, he goes, you're a young kid. Don't ever fucking go to your backhand. All right. And walked away. Really? And he literally, because I remember one time

at the blue line, you kind of make a move, you go to your backhand. It's usually a disaster. Especially in your own zone. Don't ever go to your backhand. Well, we got to tell the story about the autograph The sticks though

Some people have just started listening to the podcast For people who don't know Scotty Bowman I don't know if he did it a lot or one time Lou Lamarillo as well So the move was that he'd pay the The bellman And as you came in he'd say Hey so and so can you sign my stick

I know you play for the Red Wings. And then he just had the guy ask people after midnight to sign the stick. So you're signing away your death notice. And back then, they didn't have curfew a ton, right? So it was kind of like if they had a curfew, it was like, don't fuck around. And then he, the one time I heard, he actually, the bellman actually wrote the time. When a guy autographed it, He would write the time down. What a fucking weasel.

At that point, you've got to come in at like 6.30 and be like, I just woke up and went for coffee. Grab a newspaper and walk in. I've done that a few times. I did it here when we ended up beating Chicago in six. I went out with Ray Emery at the time. We were out Dave Bowlin.

Oh, yeah. Sorry. Oh, go ahead, Eric. Speaking of Chicago, we didn't really talk too much about your time here. Last time we had you on, and I was just looking at the roster. We just talked to Duncan Keith the other day. Outstanding interview. He was kind of low-key personality, people think,

but he opened up quite a bit here. I want to ask you, did you know when you played those couple years and how good he was going to be? So he was, I believe, like a second rounder. Seabrook, the prior year, Seabrook was a first rounder, I think, that year. In the 0-3 draft. Best draft of all time. I was fourth rounder.

And then Cam Barker was like the next one. And Seabrook was obviously like the guy. I think, wasn't he like third overall? No, Barker was third overall. Barker, yeah. But Seabrook was high too. So Seabrook was actually supposed to be like the guy, and he was. He was really good, probably actually way more offensive than Keith was.

But Keith and the Miners had Trent Yanni, who loved him. Yeah, we talked all about it. Absolutely. And Keith, I mean, he earned every inch. Like he's a kid who went to college, didn't work out well, went to the Western League, and like battled. Like you'd see, like he doesn't fight who went to college didn't work out well went to the western league and like battled like you'd see like he doesn't fight off you see him fight he's like he jumped like some kid from columbus to one year who was like six five and beat the shit out of him i was just like out of nowhere we're like holy you know he's just got it in him yeah yeah so keith started playing

more and more and i'll be honest i didn't see him being as good as he ended up being but you knew he was going to be like a minute muncher because he would do like those VO2 rides and they'd kick him off the bike. He wouldn't stop. I forgot to ask him. I've been told it was Lance Armstrong numbers on VO2. And Lance Armstrong did all the juice. Before, when I was in Vancouver, we used to do the hard one, the mask.

The one where you're dying. Everything. They plug you in. Yeah, like a Top Gun pilot. So here in Chicago, they put us on a bike and said, go as long as you can. It got harder and harder and harder. Most guys averaged, let's say, anywhere from like 12 to 15 minutes.

He went for like 25 minutes. They're like, all right. Like I'm telling you, he didn't even ride the bike in the summer. I think he ran. Yeah. Because he's like, eh, I just think running is better. And so the odd thing about them so keith lived at my house for a little while he had surgery so i brought him into my house

seabrook back then we didn't need roommates because i was old enough i still had seabrook as my roommate just because the coach was like can you help absolutely he's a great kid um and i kept telling those guys it'll get better because our my two years here, by far the worst two years of my career. No fans. Everything. 4,000 fans. You literally yell at your kids across the building, sit down. Shut up.

Not on TV. It was no TV. That was fucking crazy to me. She's like, can you help me with these kids? I'm like, I'm working here. She's like, not very well. She's like, get off your backhand. Get the fuck back on D.

No, I battled injuries. We had, nor have I, we had a great group. I ran into the trainers. I rarely go down to the rink. I'll see them sometimes at the practice rink because that's where my kids play. And the trainers last year were like,

oh, we were just talking about you. I'm like, oh, great. Like, what now? And they're like, those years that you were here, we had so much fun because we included the trainers in everything were like, oh, we were just talking about you. I'm like, oh, great. Like, what now? And they're like, those years that you were here, we had so much fun because we included the trainers in everything. It was almost like the last couple years

of old school, right? Yeah. Where they would come to dinners with us. We'd have wrestling matches in a locker room. They would like, I remember one time Barnaby wrestled our equipment guy. We'd taped out an octagon

and we're betting on it. And it was just like, we just, we had so much fun, but our on ice product was pretty shitty i'll agree with that where i feel like there's way more of a disconnect between the players and trainers now where like i go in there and see stan you can tell he's like he glows when he sees the older guys because the interaction was just there like

if i walked in a restaurant or any any player did and the trainers were eating it was automatic where one of the guys was going to say hey yeah we got the tab like per diems like we used to get it you know in our little brown envelope right over chuck it to the trainers yeah and and uh i was actually talking to ray whitney recently and he goes it amazes me if i was a gm the number one person i would go to to ask about guys trainers yeah How are you treating the people that are helping you get the job that are quote unquote beneath you? And I say that with quotations as they're not.

They're the most important assets in the locker room. They're getting everything done. You see how certain guys, like I play this one guy, I'm not going to mention any names, he literally, they'd be at a bar

and they'd be talking to girls and the one guy would be like, he hangs my fucking jocks. Like, totally. Fucking douchebag. Talk about getting the shit beat out of them the next day in practice, right? I've heard of guys in the league making like five, six million and not tipping. That's crazy.

I played, one of my Chicago stories was we played with a guy like that, and unfortunately, that was the shit we dealt with when we were in Chicago because we sucked on – you know when you're losing, everything trickles down, right? And Trent Yanni, who was a good guy and probably – when he was in the minors, he developed almost all those kids that came up. But in the NHL, his plate was too full. Team wasn't good. He had to worry about shit like that, about having a meeting about a guy

not wanting to tip a trainer. And I'm like, man, Jan's like, I hate to say it, but our problems are bigger. Like, we need to worry about our on ice. And even though we'd work it, and I, being a captain, I would have to be like, you need to tip them. And they'd be like, I don't understand. Like, nobody helped me when I was a kid.

They're doing their job. And I'm like, Russian guys? Because they grew up in a different way. Well, it's also People don't understand The hours These equipment They don't have social

They don't even You don't So during the season You won't really sleep If you do It's on a couch In the locker room Half the time

And like you land And everyone goes To the hotel And sleeps Dude they have like Three hours left Once you land And they like

The grease and the gears Of the league And for the most part Like they say yes to everything. They're great guys. They love the players, most of them anyways. They just motherfuck the guys behind their back that they don't like. Some of them, right?

You know. Most people have seen those HBO 24-7s, like hockey fans. When we land in a city at 2 a.m. and there might be a game or practice the next day, we go to our comfy beds at a five-star hotel. like 2 a.m and there might be a game or practice the next day we go to our comfy beds at a five star hotel they go to the rink to to hang up our sweaty stinky gear until four or five in the morning i remember uh yuka god rest his soul he was our massage therapist and he would uh if it was like a fun road trip he would always pack uh beers in certain bags and then of course they would be cold by the time you got there because you were flying high altitudes.

So it would be like a mystery which bag would have a beer and they would crack beers and make the most of it. That was like old school shit. They're like a brotherhood, too, as you guys know. Those guys, man. They all have to work in tandem. They stick together. A lot of times the first call when a kid's traded, it's like trainer to trainer. How is he?

What's he like? Right away. What's he like? He's a prick. Cheap fuck. Motherfucker. It's kind of become a question, I guess, this week. We've got to ask you about playing, again, not that long here, but Big Buff.

He was young at the time. What was he like as a teammate? He was almost like a freak of nature, right? Because he's a big dude. I think at one point he was weighing over like 280. Literally. No, we're lying. But he literally still played like he was like 200 pounds.

There was a point when he got called up to Chicago. They had him on like B12 shots to lose weight and everything. And this is kind of when training started happening, but obviously it wasn't really in his repertoire. And Dale Tallon is literally at his training camp walking down Rush Ave here, and he's on the freaking patio eating like so that's the story fries and mayonnaise or something yeah like it's just like remember who had that story like literally like what he got sent down to norfolk when they tried

to call him up he didn't want to come up because he like norfolk was right on virginia beach or whatever it was beautiful they loved it no i'm It was beautiful. They loved it. No, I'm good. Yeah, and he loved it. But he came up here and we're like, this kid's really good. And he just, the poor guy. And Yanni was all over him because he had him. And he knew what kind of player he could be. So he was just kind of bummed. It was hard for him just to be that.

He's like, let me be this big and play. Stop. I'm good. Do it. Leave me alone. you know he's like let me be this big in place stop yeah i'm good and now so you know i think most guys who know him are 100 not surprised what's going on yeah because he's the kind of guy that would rather be in minnesota fishing yeah not to say that he doesn't love the game and love his teammates and stuff but i think it's it's just a lot for him i mean it's a lot for a lot you know every day showing up and being on time and working your ass off, it's not for everybody.

He's just got the God-given talent. I don't know if this is the case for a lot of guys, but in the course of a season, the amount of anxiety I would experience just from like you're always constantly, am I on time? Do I have a meeting? Am I missing something? Am I eating properly? It's just coming from a guy who sat out half the games i couldn't even imagine

yeah but i think you're i think that would make your anxiety actually a little higher yes because you have to do everything because you know if you mess up anything you're fucked whereas if you're a first liner you just get in a routine right it's harder for guys like you almost but still i would sympathize more for guys like a guy like Big Buff because not only are all those things added onto your plate, he also has to worry about playing in a Canadian city. He has to worry about the media. He's kind of the guy that everyone wants to talk to there.

And he's got to worry about his performance. Everything about it. I mean, you look at those. I literally was just driving in there talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs and they're saying how like Morgan R Morgan Riley, who's a rock star, the kid's so unhappy. You watch when he plays, he almost just looks down like he's in Toronto. Yeah.

It is a curse playing to me in Toronto. And I know that they're – Those taxes. Unless you go 60 and 22. 60 and 22, that's like the only option of it. And you're still going to catch some heat throughout that year. You make a lot of money and you deserve the money, but it's a grind. People think we probably sound like babies, but you don't understand until you play.

There's days you're just like, fuck, man, this is not coming easy to me. I mean, it was at Zaitsev who ended up just saying, hey, I just can't play. I mean, now he's in Ottawa, another Canadian market, not Toronto. But it's not Toronto. No, no, no. I want to ask you, how do you feel about Tip so far since joining Edmonton? I love it. Did you see that one coming?

I knew he wanted to get back into coaching, even though he had a pretty good gig with the whole Seattle thing. I thought he was not going to coach because he was just going to run everything there. He likes, even when he coaches, he runs more than people, for most coaches, right? You know that. He has a lot of input. Control freak. That was kind of the fallout between Maloney and the whole Arizona organization,

and I touched on that recently on one of the podcasts where it was a shame, but like there was, you know, one mind was going one way, one mind was going another. And as you said, he wanted his fingerprints on having, he didn't want to go through a few down years.

No tip wants to win. Tip is one of the most competitive people, one of the most prepared people. That's why I'm not surprised with the start they're having, but were you concerned at all about maybe his, style of coaching being being outdated um yes no no because he's all about team defense as we knew i mean like think about we three on three overtime who would he start at three d man no 2d and verne fidd bless them. Everyone was like, you know how many times Rabada and Whitney

would be like, what the fuck? Come on, we want to win this game. I'm like, no, let's go in the shootout. Let's just shootout.

Was it you who told the snapping turtle joke? Could you please retell it? So Vern Fiddler and Tip were like this and he loved his style of game. If Tip could create a player, it would have been Vern Fiddler.

It was Tip. Well, that was Tip. Tip was like a fourth line, awesome teammate, worked his ass off. But it was another rookie party story I'd tell all the time. I'd be like, you'd always pick the right guy. So it's like, I don't know. I always say, okay, so we're in Colorado, and we just lost a game we should have won.

And Tip comes in, and I would kind of mimic Tip because he'd talk like this, and he wouldn't really get all serious. And he would just literally go around shitting on every guy. And then he'd go, I'm coming back. So we're all sitting there. He brings back a box and puts it on the massage table right in the middle. And he's like, now we're going to see who's tough enough. I'm sick of you pussies.

You guys got to learn how to play the right way. And so he literally opens up the box, and out pops a snapping turtle. And we're all like you know you're trying like you're trying not to laugh but you're like he's like he's gonna kill me if he sees me smirking so all of a sudden he like unzips his pants whips his slong out puts it right in front. Blah! Just grabs on. He's like... Just like for like 30 seconds, just eyeballing us. Pokes a turtle in the eyes. Turtle like scurries back in the box.

And he's like, all right. That's what it's like to be a man. Is any of you guys not a pussy? If you have enough balls, I want to see one of you guys try that. And of course, nobody wants to raise their hand. And the joke was Vern Fiddler who's a good guy raises his hand he goes tip i'm gonna do it he goes just don't poke me in the eyes so it was unbelievable i didn't know where it was going because you're like did this really

happen but i would tell a story about a game that we lost that pretty bad that everybody would remember him getting so mad that to be like oh oh, shit, I remember this. And I remember like verbatim. He was like, God, I don't remember the turtle. He's like, am I forgetting this whole experience? I was a healthy scratch half the games. I'm like, what the fuck? When did he bring a snapping turtle? You guys never told me about this.

I'm texting guys while he's telling us. I'm like, when the fuck did this happen? So then he drops the punchline in the whole room fucking around. Nothing's better than when a guy and a coach are just boys and you can give it to them. Scud's and Terry, they weren't boys in that sense, but Terry just loved them so much that we started calling him Bobby Scud's for Bobby Orr. He would get so rattled. I'm like, oh, fuck, Bobby Scud's.

Go out there. You can handle this one. It's just perfect when you can bust a guy's balls. I was never a coach. So here we do a lot of alumni stuff. And Brian Noonan, who played with the 94. B. Noonan, yeah. Awesome. Awesome dude. One of the nicest guys. balls on that i was never a coach we have uh so here we do a lot of alumni stuff and brian noonan who played at the 94 yeah awesome yeah awesome dude one of the nicest guys i was when i was a rookie in vancouver i think that was the last team he played for so we hung out and taught me

but the funny thing is everybody would always bust his balls about being keenan's boy but he's like keenan never ever even talked to him yeah like keenan will almost shit on him but he played on like ranger chicago st louis he scored that couple in a goal that they gave to miss yeah yeah like literally keenan would trade for him everywhere but so noonan was so defensive he's like he didn't even like me well he brought you everywhere yeah like sign him a big ticket in st louis like it's just like you say it opens up a freaking door you're just like i'm gonna get tortured for this you see him a lot being new uh i used to but he just had another kid so now he doesn't go to the ring i skate on like wednesday as a bunch of old guys talk last

time about keenan on the team flights with you and cal was it in calgary uh calgary and vancouver but you said it was it got weirder in calgary right uh no but vancouver was probably the weirdest because he literally think about it the 94 ranger team won against vancouver so when he took over vancouver in like 96 and 97 that was almost the whole team yeah and he was just trying to fire sale every guy out of there he hated he hated treinden. He hated Marty Zellner, who nobody hates. He hated all the old D that were there. He just wanted to come in. He thought they were losers

because they lost to them. He couldn't beat our team. Absolutely. Only game seven out of the line. You're on our team now, man. Wouldn't he just go to the back of the plane and say the weirdest shit? Oh, maybe I did. He'd go down to the one time, Don Brashear. He goes back there.

He's like, you know, every prize fighter's got a nickname. We're going to call you Chocolate or something like that. We'd be like, what did he just say? And even Brash had an awesome sense of humor. So he'd literally look him in the eyes and go, get the fuck out of here. And Keenan would scurry back up. And Brash would be like, I can't believe I just told Mike Keenan to get. You know what I mean? But it was just, yeah was uh yeah we talked to stapleton the other day he

he really fucked with him over in russia he said oh really yeah yeah he figured out you know like america i'm both americans all over here the same place it was like nah it was like it was almost like the opposite yeah you gotta fight back yeah and he'll like he he i give him credit you know where you stand like he either loves you or he hates you. There's almost, like, no in between. When he took over Vancouver, I was injured. So he liked you? No. Oh.

He hated injured players. So I come back. The third game he's coaching, we just happen to be playing St. Louis, who he just got fired from. We lose something like 6-1. I don't remember. I scored the only goal. So I'm like, thank God, because I know he's going to come and give a shit.

He came in and freaking roasted everybody. Trevor Linden took the brunt of it. It was almost sad. It was bad. And then I play the next game. I play like 20 some odd minutes. Third game, I make one bad pass. Scratch.

Done. Played one shift. Done. Then I was in and out of the lineup. Wait, the one bad pass that game you didn't see the ice the rest of that game and scratch and then scratch the next game uh you had brian burke there as a general manager did you not and then you said he was unbelievable i love players love berkey berkey literally so another thing i just heard him they're talking

about phil kessel i heard you hear that saying on nhl radio yeah and i was listening to that he literally goes phil do you want me to go light a fire on these guys and defuse because Phil has taken so much heat in Toronto and Phil's like, why?

He's like, because they're all over you. He goes, I don't give a fuck. And he goes, that's why people love Phil and that's why people hate Phil. Because he won't acknowledge them.

He doesn't care. He doesn't give a fuck. He doesn't care what you think. That's the attitude you need in Toronto. People get so mad when people doesn't care. He doesn't give a fuck. Yeah, yeah. He doesn't care what you think. That's the attitude you need in Toronto. People get so mad when people don't care. Yeah.

They get like a, why don't you fucking care that I'm ripping on you? But Berkey was like that, man. He would like go to bat for his players, but he would never show up in the media. Like he was. Berkey actually is on Sportsnet now. He does the, he'll do that radio once a week. Okay. And then he goes Sportsnet radio and a a couple nights he'll do Wednesday, whatever.

He's pretty good. He's got so many stories, dude. He's unbelievable. He remembers all these stories. I think he's a 10 out of 10. I think some of his points are a bit outdated. I think that he's a little stubborn in his ways now. Oh, he's stubborn.

A little? Very little. I just believe it. When you have a resume like that, it when you have a resume i got a buck on you when you have a resume like that i mean i guess you can be and you've seen success and you've seen failures and he uh no like even when he traded me so he was like as much of a like he was kind of a bastard to play for like one of the worst but he knew the game and he was big on like this is like back late night he's like stick on

puck stuff you never heard of i'm like no you're supposed to break his wrist like the guy like like everything and he was like no just you know you don't have to rush and slam guys at keenan was like go after guys nail them like full speed and crawford was more detailed and my game at the time didn't jive with him and he was all over me so and my ice time started going down down down and berkey's like listen like what do you want to do i'm like i think at the time didn't jive with him and he was all over me so and my ice time started going down down down and berkey's like listen like what do you want to do i'm like i think at the time i might have been the highest paid d or second highest paid and i'm like i'm playing like number six here and berkey's like if i can get your ice time back will you be happy i'm like i love everything about the team the players coach everything well not cropper but staff vancouver

was great so the next game 25 minutes minutes, started just going down again. And there was one game where I played like 10 minutes, and Berkey literally talked me off the game. He's like, that's it. Do you want me to move you? And I'm like, yeah. And he traded me. He's the only coach.

Just like that. Speaking of intense coaches, we talked about Keenan a lot the last time you were here. I know you only had like a cup of coffee in Tampa, but did you play for Torts at all? I loved him. Did you? I absolutely loved him. He was different then, though, because that's when he was coming up.

Remember, they had Vinny, Marty. Yeah. And that's when Vinny was the only guy who really didn't like him that much in Tampa at the time was Vinny because Vinny was so good and wasn't used to being coached. And he made him play D. Yeah, he literally made him play the right way. And that's one of the reasons why they won the cup. So like a year later, we had a training camp.

A couple years later, I think I was in Calgary. We went to like Seattle for a game. And I remember seeing Marty and Vinny. I'm like, how's it going? They're like, I'm like, man, congrats on the cup and everything. And they're just like, oh, God. So torts evolved. But I always say if you can play your ass off, he'll like you.

He's pretty good like that. If you work your ass off, you have to be a younger guy or a really smart veteran to play for him, though, because most kids don't have the legs or the drive to play for him. He really seeks perfection. He's tough to play for and i know his you know he's got different tactics but do you watch do you watch a lot of regular season hockey now not a ton because i'm at the rink with the kids a lot but i try to you know i get home i'll always watch a little bit we got it we got a visitor oh this is my life this is 11 o'clock massage.

You say you're always at the rink. What is the schedule like for you? So I have my 10-year-old. One guy's out of the house. So here's the thing. My daughter, she's a freshman in Iowa. And she's having the time of her life. God bless her. Iowa's a freaking awesome school.

Oh, my God. Do they have a sorority or whatever? She just got into a sorority big time party school right big time yeah luckily she's like our rock because she's like I'll have to she goes she times it she's so scared she's like by nine I'll have two drinks and then I'll just kind of hang out and like she's super smart about it she's like the nicest kid in the world um or maybe she's got the wool pulled over my eyes. I don't know. Yeah. She buckled at three in the morning. Yeah. Pink lady. Girls going wild.

Flicking through their channels. Yeah. No, no. Listening to Call Me Daddy. Yeah. That's my daughter. She's going to have a scrap. So she left this year as a freshman.

My son left to go play junior. So we're like two out of the house. Should almost be like a little bit easier, even though my wife's like worried about them all the time. But now we forgot, like we want to visit her. Like next weekend, I'm going for dad's weekend. The weekend after, I'm going for parents' weekend. So it's going to be like, and you go to games.

Strike the tank. We're going to the quad. I'm streaking. So it added a whole element of even more shit that we had on our plate. And so my two little guys practice every Monday, Wednesday downtown. My daughter practices every Tuesday, Thursday. And then every weekend, at least one of them is gone. So I'm gone.

I'm literally, most of my neighbors, when I first moved back to Chicago, they thought I was avoiding them. But I'm like, I'm just at the rink every night, and I'm gone. And back then, when I first moved, I was working for the Blackhawks. Hey, they're getting pissed you didn't come to the potluck. And plus, you're a bunch of assholes. It's a key party. Oh, yeah?

Yeah, he's swinging. Potentially. Wow, this is a great neighborhood. When you were playing, did you ever play with guys who were swingers, and they were vocal about it? I did not play with any, but I've heard lots of swingers. I've heard of swingers. Yeah, I'm not going to name names've heard I've heard of swingers Yeah

I'm not gonna name names But I've heard There's a few 100% definite Because I know guys Personally were involved In some of the stories Yeah

Like What did you do What was I supposed to do One of those Yeah So I don't know I just blow them

That is so wrong Wake up Wake up I just don't know There's some guys Who literally Like this is Probably actually Before I even i just don't know there are some guys who literally like this is probably actually before i even came to league but there was like guys that would like bring their girlfriend on road trips because they flew commercial so they just buy an extra ticket oh

like it was like weird stuff and i've never played with guys that did that but i've heard stories and they're like confirmed stories that's wild so when you started in the league it was commercial because same with donor yeah so uh any that i remember at we talked to donor about like middle seats like you would stay at after every game so literally the entire team would go out right you had to and then it was the earliest flight the 7 a.m and it was just like help bags on the plane going through the airport some guys like g guys with puke bags on the plane. Going through the airport. Some guys like Gino Ojek, God bless him. He is like one of the nicest.

Like I was just thinking because of the whole Donald Brashear thing that came out. So I was thinking of the guys, the tough guys I played with in Vancouver and we had a lot of them. Gino would always fall asleep, didn't matter where. Like the big Indian, right?

He would just, so guys would take his shoes, you know? And then he wouldn't even get I've seen him Walking through terminals with no shoes on He's like fuck it I'm not even gonna like look like they're in like The overhead and roll 30 And he doesn't care no

The stories from those Donor told me the one about how sometimes guys Would wrap a dildo in tin foil Because they would have to go through like the And then the thing the alarm alarm bells would be going off and this guy whips out his dildo. Like, whose dildo is this? And they're like, ah, you got him.

Any other funny airport stories? It was more like a mad rush because literally some guys would be taking cabs there. It was just like, holy shit. The good news is if you missed a flight, you just book another one. So guys did puke then. Yeah, because we were seeing who was it. So it's all guys didn't puke at practice,

but guys would puke on the airplanes. Yeah, sometimes. Yeah, that's different though. Yeah, no, the flying, I understand. Another pit stop we didn't get so much last time, the island, Long Island. Another Massachusetts guy you played for, Peter Lavio. What was that like? Loved him.

Similar thoughts? Not as demanding. More of a players coach. He loved, like, go. Like, he wanted the D to jump up. He wanted the four to jump up. I mean, if you look at that roster we had there, you know, obviously we had Yashin who was making $9 million,

but he might have been one of our weaker players on the team because he was like, no, give me Puck. I want to score. That's what I want to ask about him, too. Yeah, like back check. No, you're paying me to score. He literally would argue over it. And I was just like, come on, man.

And then the owner who just passed away, him and Yashin were like good buddies. Yeah. And the owner, I had lunch with him, and he's like, it's your job to get him to do that. I'm like, you're paying him $9 million to be the best, and you're telling me? He's like, no, I'm paying him $9 million to score. And I'm like, dude, it's a hockey thing.

You don't get it, buddy. It's a hockey thing. You don't get it. And Yashin is one of the nicest. He's such a nice guy, but he literally just wanted to score. Did you play with Beatsy there? Cucka. We had Bates Pataglione, and I don't think he knew what the fuck this podcast was. No, he knew.

Sean Bates. Oh, I thought you were saying Bates Pataglione. He's probably pushing 400 LBs right now. I haven't seen him in forever. He was such a legend. He used to gain like 25 pounds the first couple months of the offseason and then work out three times a day to lose it all before camp. And he's one of the fastest players I've ever seen.

He's a legend in Boston. A great thing about Lavi was he – so I played against Lavi in the 94 Olympics. He was the captain of the Olympic team. Yeah, that's right. I didn't know that. He was like – you could just tell. He was steady.

Grinder. Yes. So when he took over, he loved bringing up guys like Batesy, like kind of borderline minor league NHL guys. And the one guy, I can't remember his name right now, but he brought up this good older minor league guy, and he's like, you're going to play against Jager. All right?

And I think Jager scored a hat trick in the first period. Like, it's like, what the fuck? But Lavi loved that. He wanted guys like the underdog. But then at one point, I'm telling you. So Pekka won the Selkie with us. And I think that year, Batesy might have been better defensively than Pekka. He scored a bunch of shorthanded goals, I remember.

He just did everything right. He blocked, you know, because he knew this was like his big chance, and Lavi gave him like the form to do it. He used to – so like the game would end at BU. I was always told this. Jay Panned off on Mike Greer. They'd say Parker would come in, say, four, five minutes after the game ended, even like three minutes.

Batey would be out of the shower and dressed in his clothes. By the time the coach came in right after the game with everyone else still in all their gear. Because on the bench with like a minute or two minutes to go,

he'd untie his skates, untape his pads, be sliding off his elbow pads. So he'd just basically like, boom, shower and be gone. Has there ever been a point where he did it and then... Yeah.

He told me one time, Parker's like, Batey, you gotta go out there. He's like, I can't. He's like, what? He's like, my skates aren't tied. We gotta get him on here. I think he coaches.

He might coach Medford High now. So he literally, if we had a day off in Long Island, like Long Island, I loved it. Everything about it. The people there were awesome. The ocean was there. The golf, like everything. It was like, you go in the city.

He literally, every single day off, would drive back to Medford just to party with his boys even if it was like for like two hours like you know it's like right that's hilarious he never slept at bu one night four years at bu didn't stay on campus one night went back to medford every single night one of the him coaching medford high is so perfect one of the kids one of the kids who I coached here my first year back in Chicago, and his younger brother plays at the Mission where my kids play. The dad's like, he comes up to me. He goes, like he knew he's from Boston. He goes, so you play with Batesy?

He goes, yeah. And he used to hang around with his, like, uncles and all that. And he goes, what a crew. What a crew. I guess they were, like, really rough, right? Oh, they're getting Donnie Brooks every night? Yeah, absolutely. Even when he was in the National League? No, they're getting Donnie Brooks every night? Yeah, absolutely. Even when he was in the National League?

No, no, not Batesy, but his family. No, his buddies and his uncle and his cousins. They were like the Bates brothers or the Bates family, whatever they were. They were real. He was so funny, the biggest ass ever, and he was the man the way he talked. And his one eye, so he was born with one eye that doesn't work as well. I think he's legally blind in that eye. So he has a visor down here.

So, of course, back in those days, guys didn't wear visors. Guys would be all over him. And he's just like, if I get hit in the other eye, I can't see anything. But when he would drink, his eye would just go, ah, just completely shut. And he'd start slurring. And he was just not a hygienic human being. One other name I wanted to bring up. Wicked talented guy.

I don't think people know how good he was. Mariusz Jarkowski. You played with him for a few years. He was on the Bs, right? Yeah, he was on the Bs. The rumor was when he came to Boston that he scored, he could do a backflip after. The Polish Prince. Everybody was waiting for this backflip.

That was his nickname, the Polish Prince. Everybody waited for this backflip that never came. He literally, so my 10-year-old team, one of the dads is Polish, and he literally just in Detroit came over to me, comes over with his Polish accent. Coach, good, so do you know Mariusz Trzaskowski? And I'm like, yeah. I'm like, you know him?

He's like, yeah. I'm like, oh, how do you know him? He's like, well, he's Polish. I'm like, oh, you're not buddies. No, no, but he played him and the other one was Christophe Oliwa. Yeah. So they're the two big Polish names. But Chow, Mariusz Czuchowski, one of the, you know what he is?

He's uppy. Oh, he's happy. I got to meet him then. No, I want to meet this guy. So when he retired, I think he started like being a TV guy, like a tv host over in poland i think he sang songs i think he's golfing now to the point where he might even be on like the polish tour so he's like a rock star but you know guys like that sometimes they don't jive with coaches yeah right because they're not because they're so laid back where they're like when they leave the rink

the last thing on their mind is hockey who's good who he was good buddies with in the island was Brad Isbister. So those guys would go around and just panic soup everywhere. You know what a prime example of that is? Tip wasn't the biggest Uppie fan. And Uppie's everyone's favorite player. And Uppie's harmless, but

it would drive me nuts as a coach when Uppie made a saucer pass across the ice. And then he started giggling about it. And then he's giggling and then he looks in the glass sometimes to like check himself out, which is like, it's Uppy. I mean, I don't blame him. I look at him. Yeah, I mean, he would do that. Yans would fucking laugh sometimes.

He'd be like, Uppy, get in the play. Quit looking at yourself. So he literally, we play in LA and I don't know if, it might say it on there if you Wikipedia him, but he was married to Isabella Skorupka. Yeah, the actress. Who was probably one of the prettiest women you could ever lay eyes on. She's beautiful.

Stunning. And they have a kid together. So we're playing in L.A., we get on the bus, and he walks up with his ex-wife, and we're all leaning on the bus, whatever, and we see her. She's beautiful. He gets on the bus, and I'm like, dude, what happened? How did you not? And he goes, okay, you know, you got kids, right? And he talks in that.

Like he's smooth. Oh, he's unbelievable. Let me tell you something. So he goes, you know how you like to hang out with your neighbors, and you have the backyard barbecue and stuff? I'm like, yeah, whatever. He goes, I don't fucking like that shit. He was dead serious. He wasn't.

That's the way he talks all the time. Fuck that shit. Like, hey, let's go to St. Tropez. Woo, let's go, man. I want the fuck horse. He is. But he's a genuine dude. And he was good.

Yeah. I think he was naturally, like you said, the backflip thing, I never heard that, but he's just naturally in good shape. He was just jacked. He's going to be working for Souk Desoleil now. He's just got so many talents. Who do you think you stay in touch the most with, the guys you played with?

Who's your closest buddy from? Because it's funny. It's so random. Because I put on so many teams. And you also play with the guy. I always noticed. I was like, boys with guys. You get traded no matter what.

You're like, if I see you, we'll have the best night ever. But it's just, we're not going to text each other. So I still talk to Donor quite a bit. You know who I talk to is Yans. Yans, like, he texts me randomly all the time. Just stupid shit. He probably takes an Ambien in this thing. So, okay.

Oddly enough, because of, probably not because of the bread story, but he always asks how Kyle's doing. He's always like, oh, man, I can't wait to watch him play. He gets all excited. There's a ton of just random guys everywhere. So your son, you said about players to watch for the draft. That would be his draft year this year. His draft year is this year.

Where is he committed again? Harvard. Harvard. Harvard. Is that good? I think I've heard of it. Why do they get some ridiculous classes lately. Yeah, you could get in there. Every year.

The Ivies are all getting better because the U.S. hockey system is just going like this. Really? Oh, geez. Geez, our college hockey guy. I also think that it's changing a little bit in terms of

kids would be before when the ECAC wasn't as good. You could possibly go to Harvard or Yale, and kids are like, they're not that good. I want to go to Merrimack. And I think people now are like, the chance of playing in the NHL, go to Harvard, go to Yale, go to Brown. It's completely changing now.

So he was drafted by Sudbury in the OHL, and they're still like every other week are calling like, come on, man, because they got this one stud, Quinton Byfield, who might be first or second overall this year. And they keep saying, oh, Kyle will get way more exposure up here. He could move up just because of all the scouts. And scouts watch everywhere now. Even like the other scouts I talk to are like how could you not send me harvard like come on you only need to be smart

because we had matt lannan on he was saying right right or matt land excuse me matt land is my grandpa's uh or my grandparents neighbor uh and he went to harvard no no i always get matt land you still have to get in though like. Like, that's the thing. Right, but he got in. Him and Noel Welch went. But he was saying he was finding girls on, what was it? Craigslist. And he would pound them, and they would do his papers.

Yeah, it was like payment for his papers. Can we not talk about that? Your son's going to be an engineer. He's smart, no he's gonna be an engineer he's smart so he's he's going I think one of the big things for Harvard liking him

is because they've seen his grades and he's already blown the SATs out of the water so thank God so that's lucky for them because they don't have to fight that's exactly what it is the other thing about

going to the O or whatever if you're good enough they will find you absolutely it doesn't matter anywhere you are if you're good enough

your time frame is longer if you go to college, too, because now you don't have to sign within the two years, so a lot of teams are actually liking these college kids because they can hold on to them for three, four years and they can come up whenever they want as opposed to the two years and be like, we need to sign him or he's gone. It's kind of cliche, but

Kareem rises to the top. Eventually, like you said, if you're that good, you'll get to the top. Put that on a fucking t-shirt. This is his real senior year. This is his real senior high school year. So he's said, if you're that good, you'll get to last. Wow, put that on a fucking t-shirt. So you're saying he is... This is his real senior year. This is his real senior high school year. So he's 17, turning 18 in July. So that's why it may be one more... All right, so high school out in Nebraska, what's he saying?

So how about this? So I was telling you, they've got awesome coaches. They have six players on a team going to high school together. Which isn't common in the USHL. A lot of USHL teams have zero. They might have two kids doing online. So they're having a great time. They're in school together. Which isn't common in the USHL. A lot of USHL teams have zero. They might have two kids doing online. So they're having a great time. They're in school together.

So I asked one of the coaches, I'm like, hey, have you ever had problems with any of these kids in school? He goes, one time. I'm like, what? He goes, well, the guy was hitting on the quarterback's girlfriend. Oh, wow.

In Nebraska. Oh, God, yeah. He's like, dude, come on. Well, I remember when I went to the national program and you're at school, Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor. So imagine, this is a huge school, like 3,500 kids in this high school, and all of a sudden, 20 of the best hockey players in the country come in. So these guys that have grown up with these girls are like,

what the fuck is this? And you know what? Now they split them up, the national development. They sent them to different schools now. Because now they moved. Yeah, they're in Plymouth now. But still, I just remember, obviously, I had zero wheels. But the guys who did, they were just like, yeah, this girl was dating this kid from middle school.

And I just came in, and she likes me now. This is amazing. Well, Michigan's a different beast than Nebraska. Yeah, Nebraska's football. Nebraska's football. Don't fuck with them. But they're having a good time. And so they go to school.

They get their three courses. I think they're done at 12 football. Don't fuck with them. But they're having a good time. And so they go to school. They get their three courses. I think they're done at 1230. They go practice every day. He's like, this is... And I think at first he was going to be like, how am I going to do this? I'm like, man, you just... You figure it out. That's the whole point of this.

Yeah. My wife was a little worried. Like, how's he going to manage all this stuff? And he's... They... It's not their first rodeo, right? Yeah. The coaches helped them.

Like, it's just... It's junior hockey. Who do I know the coach's name? You said they're younger. Anthony Noreen. So he was doing some stuff with Tampa and Toronto, and I think in the East Coast. And he actually coaches World Junior A Challenge for Tier 2,

not the World Juniors. And they won. So I know that he's been offered some pretty good gigs. He's sticking around there, which I'm happy about because he's really good for my boy. And their D coach is Ethan Goldberg. Actually, all three coaches are Chicago guys. And there's one Boston kid too, Troy Thibodeau.

But he's probably younger. I don't know if I asked you last time. Once your kids get a little bit older and things become a little less chaotic, would you consider getting back into hockey as coaching? I always thought I would. Like at a professional level or maybe a college level honestly and i don't want to say this the wrong way the game is so serious now that it i don't know how easy it would be i mean they you'd be a good assistant because you'd be i would be i think i would be but it's just you

want to travel you want to do the grind though though? That's crazy. It's a video they do. Video guys are doing it. It's hard. Well, now they have video scouts. Now they have, like, a video team to break everything down with the analytics. iPads everywhere. I remember, so when I talked to Todd Richards when I retired, and he wanted to be a coach in Columbus, but he was still thinking I could play one more year, and I was done.

And I'm like, you know, am I going to give up a couple million bucks to hang out with the dudes and spend an hour at the rink to take, like, who knows how much as an assistant coach and be at the rink for 17 hours? Yeah. You know, so I do love the game, and I, you know, I actually know more about the game now by coaching my kids. It's kind of scary because the development side of it

is taking over because all these young guys that come up. So I think I could, but I just don't. I don't know. I'm so much more interested. I really hope my son wants to play hockey. I'll put him into it. And you just hope that they enjoy it. Absolutely. Which is why I think guys like you are so lucky

that your kids get to see you play. That is the best. But for me, coaching pros, and I've never had any desire to. I've never thought I wanted to. But I think coaching 10-year-olds would be awesome because you actually, they're coachable. You get to the NHL, guys aren't that coachable.

Well, there's a lot of egos involved at that level too. These kids, when they're 9, 10 years old, they love the game. And you can see, like to be able to coach a kid, I bet you for you, you'd say to see a kid get that much better from August to March must be so cool. And I was a part of that it's it's crazy the development and i think that's one of the things where like i said i've learned so much more now it's not just okay here's the fortune you know what i mean like we were so like even though it's still we were so like you could still implement

like kids at the top level learn they'll absorb that but you got to work on skills you got to work on scale look at these got to work on skill. Look at these guys who come up. Adam Holtz is popping off right now. He's unbelievable. He's breaking things down like no one's ever been a genius. I think it was on your podcast that I listened to where his whole mental side was about the concussions.

Every guy who fumbles a puck, that's normally when they got their head down. 100%. He's like, if I work on their skill, they get more comfortable. I always tell the kids, I'm like, when you ride your bike, do you ride your head down? You get killed. You cross a street.

Do you look both ways? Or do you just walk ahead like that and just go right? I mean, you've got to have an awareness. You have to have it. Like everywhere in life. And if you just go and just play shinny hockey, it's like just work on your skills. And now you're not going to be able to make it otherwise. You have to be able to move and they're so much better they're so much better than like

even they're so good now it's scary kids on my nine and my 10 year old team and 12 year old team legitimately have better skill than i ever had like they do like it is crazy my older boys team when they were you 16 they all skated better than we skated like they're just it's everything involves all the time. Yeah, because I think a lot more time on the ice is just being spent on skill development where later on in career, then they start learning structure,

which should probably be the way to do it because, I mean, you want to teach fucking eight-year-old structure? A one-two-two? One-two-two! What is your opinion on now you don't hit until you're like 14? I would prefer 13.

It would be 13. I don't necessarily like that. A lot of people have given pretty good arguments to the other side of why it makes sense, but I don't know. All of a sudden, hitting's there, and you're like, nobody knows how to take a hit. Our 12-year-olds, we do full contact practice. Just because we were like, you have to be ready. You know what I mean?

We have a couple of studs on that team that are bigger, stronger. So it really actually, believe it or not, prepares the smaller kids for it. Because they've got to go against it. Like I said, our team is always a top-ranked team. So we have some studs on this team. So if our kids can play against those guys, they can play against anybody. So 12 years old, I remember when we played, we had a great team. That's the Quebec year, right?

Yeah. Whatever. There was hitting then. What is the game like now? If a guy's on the wall with a puck, the kid just totally stick checks? They can't touch anyone? You can totally bump. You can totally bump.

But it can't be a huge... As long as you're going for the puck, you can bump. So there's a little contact. If you come in with your stick up in the air and body check, it's a check and bump. Or if a guy's cutting across the middle, you can't. We were just up in Detroit, and one of the Toronto teams was down, and they thought we were the dirtiest team ever just because we were playing the body,

but angling and grinding on them. Yeah, that's a lot. And they're like, that's a penalty, that's a penalty. And I'm like, no, it's because he's playing the hockey. There's a bit of an issue going on in Canada, at least from what I hear. People have written articles about it, that hockey's becoming very expensive there.

And it's essentially weeding a lot of these kids out who maybe would have had better high-end talent than the ones who could just afford to put their kids. And is that the case around places like Chicago and St. Louis? Or is that why you think the U.S. program is continuing to get better where it's more affordable down here and those kids have more access to all these things? It is less affordable here,

but complete different demographics because not everybody plays hockey in the U.S. Right? In Canada, it doesn't matter where you are on the spectrum, you want to play hockey. Here, it literally is like white-collar families that are playing hockey.

Like, they are not really in your city so it's just kind of that's what you're saying you need money everywhere but in canada everyone wants to play so so many people are here like you know between baseball football basketball like most of the best best athletes in my neighborhood that i live in are playing like football and baseball whereas so when you get a good stud kid playing hockey, it's a big deal because everyone's like, oh, you should play football. Because a lot of the parents here never played hockey.

Especially in Chicago. Boston's a little different. Yeah, yeah. But Chicago, you know. Is ice time really expensive here? Oh, yeah. That's what would it cost for an hour. An hour, like some of these rinks now are like 600 bucks an hour.

Jesus. Did you see that graphic? Someone in Boston tweeted it out and tagged me in it, and it was an old picture of Frankie Brimshack. He was a goalie for the Bruins in the 30s, and it said, how much does it cost to outfit a goalie? And it was $135 for all the equipment he had on. And he didn't have a mask on, and they didn't point out the cup.

They actually called the goalie pads shin pads back in the day. $135 to outfit a goalie. Now sk back in the day. $135 is the outfit of goalie pads. Now, skates alone are $1,000. Yeah. Sticks. So luckily, you know, you always try to. One of my buddies who my oldest boy played with, his dad has always been connected with NHL teams from Buffalo.

And he started this company called Pro Stock Hockey. So they get, I think, all the unused equipment from something like 25 teams. I heard about this. It's unbelievable. I heard about this. So I buy all my kids' sticks there for $100, and they're like NHL sticks that are better than the ones you can buy in the hockey shop

for $260. They're Pro Stocks. No free ads. No free ads, Biz. Fucking straight. Biz is going to send him a bill. Delete that. Biz wants a stick from him.

Biz is going to be knocking on the door tomorrow. No, I literally was just there yesterday grabbing sticks for my little guys because he has a deal with Warrior too. So he just hit this little niche. I don't even think he makes a ton of money doing it because the margins aren't massive. It's just he's trainers trying to recoup their budget. So he just helps them out.

So he has tens of thousands of sticks pants gloves helmets everything in this warehouse and he's just like and it's kind of a side gig for him because he just loves hockey and loves the nhl he knows a bunch of trainers now but like all of most of my kids are like i sent him over there i'm like man go buy your stuff that you're saving like hundreds of dollars every time so there's ways to yeah kind of mitigate it a little bit but hundreds of dollars every time. So there's ways to mitigate it a little bit. I feel like you should... You've never had any desire to do any TV stuff?

Yeah, you would be unbelievable. I don't have a face for television. Oh, yeah? I want to be on TV, buddy. I want NHL Network. I got fucking ears that stick out. He just wanted to get his fucking... I just wanted you guys to...

Yeah, you're right. This old guy. You want us to blow your hairline. Yeah, fuck off, Ogie. No, but you've never, like, in between periods type stuff, whatever. Ironically, Donor and I used to always say we should do something because he's like, he loves to argue every point to the end of the earth. Yeah.

And I'm like the goofball that will, like, bust his balls every time. To get him to argue. Yeah, so we were always like, we should do something. And then I ended up moving. Then you had 19 had 19 he's got almost as many as me think how many long discussions shane don't have at the rink he would be in love he would be no it would be like 2 a.m after a loss and he would still be in there talking to somebody about something but one play during the game that's all we gotta have him back on he's so but he was so genuine like there's no agenda with him where some guys it's like an angle but he was so genuine. There's no agenda with him

where some guys, it's like an angle and he's just like, oh no, I know what you mean, but no. And he would just keep going. The only thing he got really stubborn about

were when he would legit do something dirty. Oh yeah. And never thought he would do it. He would never admit it. Yeah, he would admit it. Never.

He would do things on the, he was a bull, man. Yeah. Do you remember when we, so, like one of my, I don't have very many bad memories about the NHL, but the one I had, because a lot of teams I played on would get beat by Detroit because they were in their heyday.

And they literally... And I know this firsthand because when Chris Osgood came to the Islanders on waivers, he never said a word for the first two weeks. And then all of a sudden, he's like, what the hell's going on here i'm like what do you mean he goes why do we keep getting all these penalties i'm like dude you're not in detroit he goes not one of those would have ever been a penalty in

detroit like he's like legitimately because of you know eiserman shane like like all the studs right and scotty bowman special treatment oh yeah so then i don't know if you remember this but we had a meeting before one of our playoffs when we were in Phoenix in the league, and it was probably Daly or whoever comes down. Yeah, we played them back-to-back years in playoffs. He literally goes, okay, he had a list of all this. Don't.

You're not allowed to hit to hurt people. Oh, coin. You can't use your free hand on one-on-ones. Like, Detroit literally gave them a list of shit we did that was unacceptable. Oh, my God. And they're already fucking rigged game anyways. They're already stacked. And I would, you know, remember I would get matched up against their top line

and they had Holmstrom in front of the net. Every time I'd touch him, he would go down. I'd get a penalty. Yeah, we got bent over on the calls. Donner was human. And like I said, I don't think the refs are bad. I love NHL referees. It's the toughest gig in the world.

They're always scrutinized. Actually, good story. So Steve Walken, who's the head of in the world. They're always scrutinized. Actually, good story. So Steve Walkam, who's the head of refs, I don't know if I should tell this, but his daughter plays against my daughter. He's in Pittsburgh. And he was coaching for a while, and the next year he wasn't coaching. I'm like, what's the deal? And he goes, I just can't coach this all.

And our girls are like, you know, I think my daughter's team now, they're probably ranked like number two or three in the nation. Like, good. Like, almost every one of these girls are going to get a scholarship. Hey, you mind coming're probably ranked like number two or three in the nation like good like almost everyone of these girls is going to get a scholarship you mind coming in a cup before you leave I'm going to need some help

so he goes I couldn't do it and I'm like what do you mean he goes these fucking refs are so bad I'm like

dude you're an NHL ref can you even say that he goes I think that and I don't know if I get the story right I think one time he was chirping a ref during a game, and he goes,

maybe if you get good enough, you'll be able to coach boys hockey at some point. I'm like, you didn't. He goes, that's when I knew I couldn't do it. I can't quote him directly because it could get him in trouble, but I think that's what he told me. Well, the ref's like, this is ref on ref crime. Shut the fuck up. You're a ref.

Same guy didn't know Pat Kane scored the cup winner. But Walken, he's actually one of my favorites. He was probably, remember they took him off the ice and he became head of refs? Yeah. But he literally is. I thought he was one of the best refs. No, he was too good. They had to bring him back.

They brought him back because he talked to the players. He was very honest with them. That's what Kerry Frazier talked about when he came on. It's just that how early in his career he was more stubborn. Oh, yeah. Where later on he developed a relationship with guys because it was just that like how many how early in his career he was more stubborn oh yeah or later on he developed relationship with guys because it was it was just better communication took a shitload of heat but i like i loved him one time he missed calls i don't remember and i snapped and you know i didn't snap on referees that much i lost it and he was threatening to kick me out of

the game and i was like you're fucking too old you like suck you should be out of this game whatever next game he comes up to me come here and i was like, you're fucking too old. You suck. You should be out of this game whenever. Next game, he comes up to me. Come here. I'm like, oh, great. Here we go. I want to apologize,

first of all, for making the wrong call but never call me too old again. I was like, all right, I'm sorry. He goes, have you seen my hair?

He's like, we're even. I'm like, done. He was a pretty funny guy. What the fuck? We've covered a lot. What else you got, all right?

70 minutes, I think. What? Yeah, we've covered 70 minutes. See, that's what it goes by. That's what we're 20 minutes. I know. Okay, thanks so much, buddy. It's awesome.

And keep a lookout for your son. Hopefully everything goes great. Dude, when you come down to the Havre Mill, grab a beer. I 100% will. Even if he doesn't go there, I'm sure he's coming down. I'll take you on a murder tour of Boston. I'll show you some spots. You can meet Sean Bates.

I don't think he leaves his house, though. I wonder if he'd come on. I really hope so. I think I texted him one time driving through the town like years ago, and I never got a reply. New phone, new phone. All right, bud. Thank you so much.

All right. Thanks, guys. As always, a huge thanks to our buddy, Oki. He's a great interviewer. He's one of these guys that the more we talk to, the more you'll like. He's quite the character. I really, Okie. He's a great interviewer. He's one of these guys that, you know, the more we talk to him, the more you like. He's quite the character. I really enjoyed the conversation.

You too, Biz? Oh, he's the best. One of the funniest teammates I've ever played with. We would do team parties, and he'd be, like, grabbing the mic and, like, on it for an hour, and everybody would be in tears. But everybody had all their laundry laid out by him. He would just go right to the heart on everybody, specifically the single guys and guys who, you know,

weren't going to get in trouble by his comments. Yeah, he's pretty quick. He tells a good story, too, so I'm sure we'll have him back again. Meanwhile, back to the ice. Joe Thornton played in game number 1,600 of his career the other night, just the 12th guy in league history to play that many. And provided he stays healthy, he could end the season at number eight behind our boy Chelly.

He's got 1,651, does Chellios. And one of his teammates also hit a big milestone. Congrats to veteran defenseman Mark Edward Vlasic as the Shock played his 1,000th NHL game Saturday versus Vancouver. Pickles, great nickname, by the way, is one of those blue guys that might not show up in a ton of highlight reels, but he's the type of guy you win with. 32-year-old in his 14th season with the Sharks.

Whit, you must have played against him a bit, right? Yes, I did. What an underrated player. Quickly about Thornton. This year, staying healthy, knock on wood, he will pass Ray Bork. He will pass Larry Murphy. He'll pass Scott Stevens. He's going to pass Dave Andrichuk. So he's climbing up that list. He's 12 to pass Dave Andrichuk. So he's climbing up that list.

He's 12th all-time in games played now and only getting higher. What a career. And Vlasic, it's an awesome story because I was reading about him. There's a good article in The Athletic. If you're a fan of the Sharks or a fan of Mark Edward Vlasic, you could check it out. And it goes back to kind of how he started his entire career by Kevin Kirst. But he was a second-round round pick and he came into camp. And so for a second round defensive defenseman to

come into camp as a 19 year old, you'd never expect that kid to make the team. Well, they said every day he was just better and better and so sound defensively making all the little plays. He snaps it out of his own end well. Not great offensively. He still had a year where I think he had 40 points. But he made that team. That year he made the all-rookie team. He played with Scott Hand and averaged in over 20 minutes of ice. And he just came into the league and became the player right away

that he still is today. I mean, he's just consistent. You know what you're going to get. And I think this season's been a little bit of a struggle, as it has been for a lot of guys on San Jose, but this dude played, he won an Olympic gold medal. He won a world cup title with team Canada. So making those teams, you realize how good he is, how underrated he is. And, uh, he came from the, he played for Patrick Waugh actually, um, on Quebec. And that year was funny. They, they had an incredible team with Radulov and

Keith Yandel was on Moncton. Moncton beat Quebec for the regular season title. Moncton beat Quebec for the Quebec League playoff title. And Moncton was the host of the Memorial Cup. Well, what happens? Quebec beats them for the Memorial Cup title. So it was a pretty crazy year for those two teams. But that's where Vlasic's career really took off, gets into the NHL. And he mentioned that when he was drafted by San Jose,

he was shocked because he said the interview went so poorly. He said he left there going, wow, that was a waste. I guess they told him you're not any good. You don't do this. You don't get points. And a lot of times you'll see that guys grill people to see how they're going to react. And that certainly was the case with Flacic. He wasn't even at the draft.

He just checked online, saw he was picked high in the second round. And what a career he's had. So only 32 years old. He's already 1, the draft. He just checked online, saw he was picked high in the second round, and what a career he's had. Only 32 years old, he's already 1,000 games. He'll play many more, but congrats to him. Pickles. He's 32 years old. He's got to be one of the youngest guys to hit 1,000 games. I remember when he was like Jordan Stahl.

Remember Jordan Stahl had played like 500 games, and the guy was like 21. You're like, what the fuck is this shit? He's a robot. He shows up to the rink. You know exactly 21 you're like what the fuck is this shit but uh he's a robot you know he shows up to the rink you know exactly what you're getting every every night um an incredible player and as you said just one of those guys who stepped in and it's almost as if the game was easier because it was so much more structured he knew exactly where he needed to be in every single situation and and he's a big time professional and and this guy

this guy might even pass joe thornton for games fuck 600 more he's 32 he's slowing down a little bit i don't know that's tough dude okay so here's here's where i'm gonna say even though yeah you're saying oh he's slowing down there's another team coming in the league and and i was talking to uh to somebody recently about like, you know, what guys are going to sign for it. And, you know, being a – oh, God, I can't even talk. I'm struggling today too. Neither can I.

I'm a joke today. Everyone listening, this isn't being cut out. I suck today. I apologize. I'll be better on Wednesday night, Thursday. I've been brutal too. Accountability. Sometimes, guys, this is a little talk we're going to have.

Sometimes this is hard to do. I can speak i can't remember things i can't form sentences and if you just do this twice a week you think it become easy no sometimes it's like anything else in life you suck and i've had a shit bag day today and i'm pissed off about it you feel a little insecure when you get off the call don't you yeah just when we hang up here i'm gonna be like what the hell was that hey and then and then you're just waiting for it you get off the call, don't you? Yeah, just when we hang up here, I'm going to be like, what the hell was that? And then you're just waiting for it. You're like, who's going to fucking let me know tomorrow that I was shit? And I'm going to fucking snap.

I'm going to send him a receipt of my bank account, make myself feel better. It's all right, boys. I'll do my Nathan McKinnon impression and put you on my back. Okay, let's hear it. There you go. What do you got? I mean, by carrying is, I mean.

Oh, okay. Nice. Good little joke there. I like that. I just didn't get it at first. Shocker. We got another congratulations. Chicago Blackhawks trainer Mike Gapsky worked his 25th hundred game, man.

The longest tenured trainer in the league. Hell of an accomplishment, so we want to give him props for that. He's been around a lot of dirty, smelly guys and equipment. They could probably use some dude wipes in there, I would imagine, because dudes, especially hockey dudes, are stinky, disgusting humans. You want to check out the dude brand for all your hygiene needs on and off the ice. Dude has been seen on Shark Tank. They're creators of the infamous dude wipes,

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like Walmart, Target, Kroger, and on Amazon.com. And for our Canadian friends, Dude is on Amazon.ca and in sports check stores, or everyone can just go to DudeProducts.com for a special Chipotle offer. Use the promo code Hockey20 for 20% off your entire order. So moving along, a couple other items here. Kirby Doc is not going to be going to the Juniors. No surprise there. He's going to stay with the Blackhawks.

You heard his interview with us. There's no chance he's going back to Junior. Guy's like a veteran with us. No big deal. Yeah, he didn't have any rookie butterflies talking to us, that's for sure. Tampa Bay forward Nikita Kucherov, he took a John Collison bomb off the leg Saturday. He had to leave

the game. You could see him. He was struggling getting down the little walkways of the room. He was limping. Curious to see what kind of injury that's going to be. What do you got with? They stink. They stink. How much longer are you going to talk about the Lightning? They're going to figure it out. They're going to figure it out. They haven't figured anything

out. So I don't know what's going on there. I don't know how they're going to switch it, but it is a weird time. They got worked again Saturday night by the Capitals. Yeah. I mean, wonder if, you know, Coop has been there for what, eight years now, and they haven't won a cup yet. You know, you wonder if

things are going to get tighter for that guy, but we'll keep an eye on that. And, Biz, you mentioned the other day, you sent me that tweet Thursday, the Oilers were still advertising tickets for Saturday's game versus the Leafs. I guess they sold out their first two games, but they haven't really sold out any of the next 13 or 14. You've got two of the best players in the world on the team,

but it seems like the regular Joe is getting priced out up in Edmonton, Biz A. Here's how I feel about the old situation. I remember owners using the fans as kind of an excuse for the lockout and keeping things reasonable as far as ticket prices moving forward, and everybody had to quote-unquote sacrifice a little bit. This is getting obnoxious i think six teams now valued at over a billion dollars it's time for the owners to start giving back to the fans a little bit lowering ticket prices get people in the building and remember

these guys want to play in front of a packed house the fact that edmonton is playing as well as they have in the first half of the season here and they're not sold out tells you everything you need to know stop fucking gouging them. Let's make it reasonable so people can bring and grow the game. We're alienating people who are middle-class income, right? It's fucking ridiculous. It's impossible. You get in the parking, you take a couple kids, you get some snacks,

a T-shirt, it's $1,000. It's even more. It makes no sense. But Edmonton packed every single game when we were horrific. And now it's so bad. The prices are so high that they can't even sell it out when their team's good. That is not good. To even see that they're advertising for games is like, what?

Yeah, maybe with the Panthers or the Coyotes, no offense, but up in Canada, that is unheard of. Yeah, I mean, as a middle-class, blue-collar guy who used to have season tickets here in Boston, I got priced out before the podcast started. It's just too much money, man.

It's like, I don't have this much fucking income to burn to spend on fucking this many hockey games. Quick clarification, I just said Kirby Doc isn't going to the juniors. Of course, I'm at the World Junior Tournament, not the juniors up in Canada. He's not going to the World Juniors. Thursday also, too, we want to send get well wishes out to referee Tim Peel.

He fractured his ankle. I took a little Dixie in the Chicago-Arizona game. You know, we like to give props to everybody involved with the game, and the refs and linesmen are as important as anyone, and we hate to see these guys get hurt. They're tough bastards as well. So I don't know if you'll listen, Tim, but we want you to get well soon. Hopefully you're feeling okay.

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We got anything shaking? Just a quick shout out, Brian Rust. Oh, my God, guys. Penguins fans have seen this guy for a long time, make an impact on some really good Penguins teams, but what he's doing this year is pretty crazy to see. And he's got, I think, already this year,

he's at 12 goals in 19 games. 22 points in 19 games for this guy who's played a long time there, kind of as a checking center and a depth guy. And his career high in points is 38. Well, he's probably going to blow that away this year.

So you got to think with injuries, mounting for the Penguins, a guy like that, a great draft pick. That's a third rounder, sorry, back in 2010. That's why teams need to draft good to have depth. And so you got to shout out a guy who deserves it because he's lighting it up. No doubt about it. And let's shift it over the old gambling corner. Took it on the chin last week.

Brutal week. Brutal week on my posted plays. Three and seven with a minus 2750. Fortunately, Pauly Walnuts bailed me out with the late night Denver Nuggets Thursday. I know that wasn't part of it. Bailed me out too. Bailed out the Whitdog too. Yeah.

If you're not following, at Paulie Walnut's 99. My brother, he's been on a fucking tear with the NBA. But a couple of empty net fucking stories, man. Nico Hesha, he got tackled going in for an empty net Saturday, and he should have been awarded a goal. That's the fucking rule. But the ref didn't even call a penalty.

I don't know how many people actually had the Devils on the puck line Saturday, but if they did, man, that's a tough one. I mean, when a guy gets literally taken down, he's supposed to be awarded the goal, but the ref didn't do that. I saw probably the most impressive empty netter of the year with Detroit. They snapped their, I think, 12-game

losing streak when they beat Winnipeg. They were already up 4-2, but the defenseman there, how do you say it, Hronik, how do you say it,onic obviously uh dude about 195 feet behind the net flipped it up it didn't even hit the fucking ice it hit the net if i'm 195 feet out just an unreal empty netter so pretty cool stuff but uh meanwhile we're gonna head over to the pick so i should say pick i got one right now uh i'm riding the hot hand right now colorado avalanche they're buzzing. Nathan McKinnon,

for my money, I think he's the best player in the league today. I'm not saying in the world, but the way he's playing, you can tell he's got a ton of swag, a ton of confidence. And the Avalanche, they're in St. Louis Monday night, so they should have a pretty nice price. We're going to jump all over Colorado. I say we'll

take them a dime on the money line, and we'll do a nickel on the puck line. If they win, don't cover say we'll take them a dime on the money line and we'll do a nickel on the puck line. So if they win, don't cover, we'll still make a few bucks. So just one pick right now, Colorado. Again, they're in St. Louis Monday night. We're going to take them money line and half of the money line wage on a puck line. So how have you been hitting them, buddy?

Well, I caught fire after that Denver Nuggets bailout with the Bruins. I knew they were getting it done against the Panthers, had them money line puck line, and then also I had the Sharks money line puck line against Vancouver on Saturday night, which ironically enough, they made it 3-1 with Evander Kane's empty netter. Well, what happens? Vancouver goes and makes it 3-2 with like a minute left or 50 seconds left.

I'm like, no, we actually, to get the empty netter and then the team to still cover the puck line is so annoying. But Logan Couture buried another one. So we were still good on that. That's a double winner for both games. And now NFL Sunday is about to kick off. And hopefully I don't, I always lose NFL Sunday. It's about not losing too much.

I never win the NFL. Just look for a bailout Sunday night. That's all, yeah. NFL, the epitome of coin flip gambling. But yeah, that's tough when you do have the puck line covering and it's a backdoor. I was like, shit, there was only

25 seconds left. But like you said, LC came through, missed a clutch, fucking hooked us up. That's a three-dime fucking swing for it. You get 1,000 on it, you either lose 1,000 or win 2,000. All right, boys. I think that pretty much wraps up today000 on it, you either lose $1,000 or win $2,000. Alright, boys, I think that pretty much wraps up today's episode unless you had any final things you wanted to share.

We can call it a day. I wish everybody a wonderful week. I got nothing, dude. We got nothing right now. Like, this is just... We hope the Acoin interview did all the damage for you guys today. Yeah, that was a fun one. I was a 4 out of 10. Witt was a 2

and R.A. brought it as usual. Oh, I appreciate that. Penis head. Dickhead. Alright, everybody. Have a great week and we'll catch you Thursday and we'll be down. Yeah, Hall's getting traded in seven minutes, so we'll talk about that next week. See ya.

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