Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 244: Featuring Jack Eichel

Episode Date: February 13, 2020

On Thursday’s episode of Spittin’ Chiclets the guys are joined by Buffalo Sabres superstar, Jack Eichel. Jack joins (56:34) to talk about this season in Buffalo, his new coach, Rasmus Dahlin and a bunch more. The guys also touch on a ton of NHL news, including Jay Bouwmeester, Shea Weber, the Jets and more. The boys also wrap up with a gambling corner (02:01:25) from RA.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 244 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here on the Boston Sports Podcast family. We got quite a bit to get to. We had a very serious incident we'll be talking about very shortly, but let's do our quick hellos first. Let's go to our producer, Grinelli. What's up, buddy? I just left you down here in New York City. Yeah, what's up guys? RA, happy to have you here in New York City. We got to do some skating today in Central

Park, so that was a blast and now I'm ready to do some podcasting. Yeah, we had some fun today. Whit Dogg, let's go to you next. What's going on? Well, we're trying to grow the game. People have to go to Central Park to watch RA skate. They'll never want to ever step foot on the ice. So four people had to run into that

muck and I'm going to tell you right now, guys, I'm furious. I was in a great mood. Well, I'm not in Florida anymore. So that originally pissed me off. And then I got sick as shit. Of course, you get sick at the end of vacation. So I already talked to Grinnelli. I'm fucking pissed.

I also had an issue on the plane. But my main thing right now I need to bring up is I'm battling through one of the hardest injuries you could ever deal with. And that is when the plane landed, my left ear popped and my right ear didn't. And I got this pressure sort of, um, what's the thing when you're dizzy? Um, vertigo, vertigo ish. Uh, I've been, I've been, I've been doing like a chewing gum. I've been opening my mouth. I've been doing any possible. One thing on

Google said, touch your chin to your left shoulder and then shut your nose and then swallow really hard. I've done that 600 times. So there's no more golf and there's no more sun. And I got vertigo and my nose is clogged. So just maybe maybe bear with me as I could be a little miserable throughout this recording. There is an exercise you can do on YouTube, but just Google one for vertigo. I did it before. It actually worked. You got to put your head in a pillow and shit. It'll be no more vertigo.

Okay. It'll be wit we go. And now I need that to happen. All right. Has this been the longest period of time you've ever gone with this? Yeah. What do I call it? You guys understand these monstrous satellite ears.

When they pop, it's like I get airborne. Sonic boom. I made sure I popped my ears when I did my vertical jump test at the combine because I got an extra half an inch. And so this has never happened. Yeah, it's always been a couple minutes after. But one went per usual. But the right one, because I was all stuffed up from the sickness

from the end of vacation sickness, has now been stuck. Yeah, I mean, I've experienced it where maybe by the time you get past the customs line, it's finally gone. Like if you're traveling internationally about that amount of time. We have to name this something because a lot of people that are listening have experienced the length of time you've gone with that ear being fucked up and i know your pain but i don't know what as long as but quickly i do want to you know what i want to get in a little better mood so i'll give a little um met some great people today and let me explain to you

what i mean on the way down um we had the window seat for rider the middle seat for my wife and i had a window seat somewhere else. So all I needed was to get next to them, right? I needed that aisle seat. I said, hey, sir, next to her, can you take my window seat? He goes, nope. I go, really, dude? All right, whatever.

So then the lady next to him, I said, hey, can you take my window seat so that asshole can take your aisle seat? She goes, nope. So no one would switch. So I couldn't sit with my family. I was like, are you kidding me? I actually get to watch a movie the whole time she dealt with rider but still hey you're giving them the thumbs up yeah i was like hey thank you don't switch don't switch no so then today i'm getting

on we didn't even ask him when i said forget it you got the same situation the guy sees me talking to my wife and getting into my row and he says you know what do you want my seats or i'll take your seat and i said thank you so much buddy so it was like to see a normal human kind of maybe maybe allow us to sit together as a family that was like a positivity but then my ear didn't pop i'll say this and it was funny because i was arguing online all day about plane etiquette i saw that very random timing yeah especially considering you have some plane talk now for those people who didn't want to move, I would be the type of person, yes, I would try to convenience a family. Okay?

That's where I would have been like, yeah. But I don't think those people should be shamed for not doing it. I guess kind of a dick move. No, they really – they honest to God shouldn't be because in a really particular way, people need aisle aisle seats and they're both aisles and it was a window so i understand that but if it were me i would i would switch and that's how i look at it so to me you're a loser but you're also you're also doing nothing wrong if that makes any sense yes fair enough and what i was arguing about today is people go on twitter and they're like oh this guy had the audacity to

recline his seat on my flight like what the fuck are you talking about i heard barelli talking about that earlier what are you talking about i saw you i saw you i i wish i could disagree with you biz but i agreed totally the seat reclines three inches i do it because if i sit at 90 degrees my back's gonna seize up so you're telling me in order to convenience you, I have to sit in an uncomfortable manner when the rules are I'm allowed to recline. Oh, well, I'm fucking tall. It's just like, dude, then fucking prepare earlier and get like an exit row where it's lengthened or buck up and pay for first class.

And people listening, like I'm not a fucking snob. I'm not like wit. up and pay for first class and people listening like i'm not a fucking snob i'm not like wit i don't fly first class everywhere i'm not that rich yet so i'm a principal guy and if somebody in front of you wants to recline their fucking seat and it goes three and a half inches hey that's their goddamn right and i'm not gonna fucking complain about it i feel i feel that it's odd that considering those are the rules and like dude like smoking inconvenience passengers so they took it away so if you want to fucking protest so you can't recline seats on fucking planes then do so i gotta be like go start a go change petition go change it go fucking shut down every bridge in your fucking major city because i know

that's what you fucking idiots do now. You shut down traffic to fight because you're not getting coddled enough. It's going on in Victoria, BC. How about this analogy for your situation? Or for the plane situation? It would be like if an army platoon had to run 10 miles, right?

And the platoon leader came over and said, hey, here, guys, there's some sick new Nike Air Maxes. They're really comfy to run in. You don't have to wear your platoon boots. And the platoon leader came over and said, hey, here, guys, there's some sick new Nike Air Maxes. They're really comfy to run in. You don't have to wear your platoon boots. And the guys who put the shoes on and ran got yelled at by the guy in the platoon boots. It's like, dude, if he said we could use them,

if I'm allowed to push the seat back, why wouldn't I use the comfy running shoes or sit more comfortably? Wait, wait, did you just think of that analogy off the top of your head? Yeah, just now. The only issue that I have with the analogy. I would say that's a pretty genius analogy. The only issue I have with the analogy immediately in my head is that the guys who did wear the army boots for the run that didn't have to are more thinking when we're in battle, we're

going to be in these army boots. So you're kind of being selfish because you're not preparing for battle. But I was more off the cuff of like, if I could be comfy while running, but I did, but you know what I'm saying? Now I'm kind of confused. I really liked the analogy,

but all right. I don't know how you feel about it. I feel that like, it's something that shouldn't, I shouldn't be shamed because I want to recline my seat. It's like, yo, that's my fucking right.

Where the reason it all got brought up is there was this lady who reclined her seat on a flight mind you i'm going to give you the whole story he was in the last row so he couldn't recline so he probably felt the right that she shouldn't get to because he gets fucked by the wall it's not her fault too bad so sad bud prepare more for your flight or you ended up getting i've i've been fucked in the hoop like that you eat it you gotta eat it once in a while i mean that's the phone that's what it's fucking there for you know i mean i i usually live look back give a little courtesy look like hey i'm gonna fucking slowly ease onto your lap here but i'm gonna utilize it you know

so so this dude was like punching the back of her seat. And her head was bobbing forward. Now, listen, I can laugh about that. I mean, I would never in a million years. She wasn't turning around. She was just taking it. She was videoing it. She was videoing it until she was over her shoulder kind of? It was happening.

So she got on her phone and moved it to the side and catches this guy punching the back of her fucking head first hey imagine if you heard more audio and he's like fucking ear please pop god damn it he was going through the same thing as me it was you yeah and i understand that i understand but uh he wasn't having any of that recline where it's like, yo, you're on a line, bro. And some people are like, exactly what I would have done. Bro, if you fucking do that to my seat ever in your life, I tweeted this.

I said, I'm going to end up on fucking what's the world star. I'm going to be getting tased and dragged off a plane because I would have taken your goddamn fucking head off. So don't be the fucking guy to get caught behind me playing games with me reclining my seat because I'll fucking go over the top ropes, baby. Anyway, how's everyone else doing today? This is the last member of our crew, Paul Biznasty. Biznate doing good, buddy.

We got a good skate in earlier. We had a couple scrimmages. Took a couple Dixies, but we had some fun out there. It was entertaining. What's a Dixie? You said that before we started recording. When you fall down. Why is it a Dixie? I don't know. It's just an old phrase. When you take a Dixie, it means you fell.

Do you just use phrases that you don't know what it means? Honestly, I got it from my dad probably 40 years ago. It's just one of those things that I got from my old man. He probably got it from his old man. So you guys were on the ice with glenny balls he was trying out skating for the glenny balls glenny balls was out there on the ice but he's a big big fella but he was he was buzzing him him and uh big ev they basically just bought skates in the fly and and either they didn't fit or they couldn't get a good fit so they just went out there with their

fucking sneakers on and you know we were playing i think four on four five and five with just those like little mini nets um some people who haven't been following closely what is happening is they're preparing and lead up to the pawn hockey here right i'm some people hopping out ra is going to be her brooks you're going to be the new fucking her brooks yeah i gave i gave vibs a lot of shit today because he i mean the jersey was cool it was the old cccp russian jersey but i was like buddy the anniversary is in fucking like 10 days dude you can't be wearing a russian yeah close to the anniversary i don't think you're gonna make the team yet you know well all right did they not just have um the 40th year anniversary did they do something with the penguins recently did uh did they drop the puck there i thought i thought i was reading something about that they were getting involved with the nhl because it's the

40th year i think aruzioni was at a game i know they were focusing on him but i don't know if they might have done a pre-game because the actual anniversary is i think i think 10 or 12 days so um heidi browning from the nhl reached out to me because he spoke at an event recently and he's definitely someone that we want to get on for you people we just feel that it needs to be done in person there is a chance with and you can answer this we can maybe work it out uh in between pawn hockey tournaments where we get them live in Boston uh if he's in town we're getting them we have a bunch of good ones in Boston lineup you guys You guys miss a little,

a little, little round to a Brendan Walsh. We got, we got, we got, I think Josh Hennessey is going to be kind enough to come on. And people who don't know that name Stapleton's really good friend. That's how I met Tim Stapleton.

Also played in rush for a long time. Very funny cat. Um, so we got a bunch more coming on, maybe a possible hall of fame legend. I am not going to give any names it's not or don't try to fucking you know get in your heads there but don't worry um so yeah i think you're using only if he's in town will be fabulous and i know i don't think

we've said his name yet or maybe i just blacked out there did cam neely not agree that he's going to come on is that i mean is that even that even that wasn't even who i was talking about. I forgot about Wham Bam Cam. Thank you, man. Wham Bam Cam. I thought you were teasing Cam. No, no. I actually was another guy I'm on the tails of right now. I just thought of another guy, too, who

played in Boston very briefly, but he lives in Boston. We can maybe mention it off camera who we should try to get. I got a couple of delayed shout-outs. When I was flying back from St. Louis, I was cut through the Cincy Airport, and Rudy's old team, the University of Denver was at the airport, and they pulled me. They grabbed me aside.

They're all big Chicklets fans, so I took a picture. I told them I'd give them a shout-out on air, and then about a week or two, I was walking through City Square in Charlestown, and someone was yelling toward me, and I just ignored them because it's a city. Who the hell knows what's going on? Then a bunch of other kids showed up. It was the Suffol in Charlestown, and someone was yelling toward me, and I just ignored them because it's a city. Who the hell knows what's going on? Then a bunch of other kids showed up.

It was the Suffolk University hockey team, and they had fucking – I don't know if I had a chick with a sweatshirt on or whatever. So I told those guys I'd give them some love on air. So shout out to Suffolk and Denver. It's always cool to get recognized by a college hockey team. Oh, I bet he's probably bringing you some dope too, or I guess you don't have to because in Colorado you are going to be – that's going to be your little play land this weekend. Yeah, thank God there's not a lot in the menu this weekend.

That's all I'm saying. Okay, so folks, R.A. and Grinnell will be going. I had prior engagements. Is that how you say it, prior engagements? Yeah, arrangements I would say. Prior arrangements. Subscription. I got to get a subscription to leave, man.

Yeah, I've had some bad ones recently. But Ari and Grinnell are going. So you guys will have a fun experience. If you see them, go say what's up. Me and Witter, sorry we can't be there. But we're going to have plenty of more events where we're going to end up in every town, and we're eventually going to make our way out to colorado um next year we mentioned minnesota so we got we got a lot in the pipeline where we're going to try to keep touching all these areas to get in better contact

with our fans because we like seeing you guys we like interacting we like hearing about what you really like about the podcast not so much about what you don't like about it but it's it's a little weird i don't really hear much criticism when i'm in person i usually get it online frequently uh but anyway but it's it's gonna be we have some good things in the pipeline so ra i hope you guys have fun yeah i'm very excited i've never actually spent time in colorado other than switching planes so i'm really looking forward to just the scenery seeing the rockies and yeah of course the shops i'm looking forward to that as well but all right I think we've done enough with the hellos, and we should probably jump right into the news. And we had a very scary moment Tuesday night in

Anaheim. I know everybody, sorry, it was actually on the national news. I just had ABC on. Veteran Blues defenseman Jay Bomeester collapsed on the bench after a shift. Just an awful, scary scene. I think Petranzo was the first one to get over, and he was frantic right away, waving over the medics. But I think the one fortunate thing, guys, is you have top-of-the-line staff and equipment just feet away, and people just jump right into action.

And they probably saved Jay's life. They said afterwards he was alert and responsive. ABC News just said he's going to undergo more testing. Whit, have you ever been around anything on this level on a bench when you played? No. Thank God. Luckily, I was never a part of anything like that. But what a petrifying moment when it all went down.

And, Biz, you know what I first thought of was sitting next to his brother-in-law at the finals. Yeah, same thing. And because it's like, I don't know what, just personally wise, you just forget about hockey. I was like, oh my God. Like, first of all, I've known the name Jay Bollmeister since I was 14 years old. When he came on the scene as this freak superstar,

he's going to be the next one of the best defensemen of all time. And the way he skated and the career he's had, and I knew I was the same draftsman. He was going to go first overall forever. He actually ended up dropping a little bit, but then what the career he's had. And I knew I was the same draftsman. He was going to go first overall forever. He actually ended up dropping a little bit. But then what a career he's had. So it was like all these emotions came running to me because I know him.

I met a family member of his. And then you see, like, the seriousness and how scared guys' faces were. And you realize that game gets canceled. And then the video came out of the slow motion of him collapsing. I don't know if you guys have seen that. It was tweeted out a bunch. And it just, it looks like he's like dies right there. And you think of Rich Peverly and what happened there.

And Ari, you said it, thank God for the doctors. What's also so scary to me is the thought of that happening in the middle of nowhere. It's like, it's just a it's just a freak freak thing that I think makes everyone realize right away. And we've talked before on this podcast, how fragile life is and thank God for the, for the medical staff of both teams. Um,

I mean, fuck, I, you broke that down. Awesome. When I guess all I say, I can say is we talk about him all the time on the podcast because this guy is a very special human being.

He's a very special person where, I mean, Witt, as far as guys in the league who come in every day, lunch pail mentality, not much talking going on and having fun because they need to get the work in. They need to produce. They would never in a million years want to feel like the person that's getting overpaid for what they're bringing as far as their work ethic and he just happened to have those world-class talents to match it he was a he was a special player from the moment we knew his name he was playing world juniors at a younger age he was in the nhl right away and to see that happen to a guy and i and i i i could i wouldn't be surprised if he fucking came back

because we saw what he went through last year and having the hip surgery and i know it's completely on a different level than what just happened but he he fucking showed up and he put what work needed to be done to put in to get him back to where he needed to be so i wouldn't be shocked if we see him again playing now if that's not the case that he's not able to get back to where he was that's it's just a shame the way it all had to end but tip of the cap on an unbelievable career, an unbelievable person. And that was a, that was a sad sight. Yeah, it really was biz. And, and, and I think you show the emotion of like thinking to teammates and, and you guys that you care so much for,

and then seeing one of them go down like that. And that's not a puck to the face. That's not, that's not like a busted up knee. I know that sounds crazy, but you're thinking like life and death right there. And you see the panic Petrangelo and what happens. And, and I'll tell you if Jay Bollmeister 18 seasons, and for people who don't know, maybe younger guys out there, you see him now and he's a stay at home D man getting the job done.

You see the first 10, 12 years of his career when he's in Florida playing 28 minutes in his sleep. If he felt like it 40 points, I mean, he was unbelievable from the minute he came into the league at 18 years old, and then to see all that, and then actually not even think about it, because it's like hockey didn't even matter for a couple minutes, and it still doesn't, because, you know, he's still getting these tests done.

But the fact that he's around at Doug Armstrong's press conference today made you feel a lot better in terms of the news and the testing that's going on. But holy shit, did that just put life into perspective and show how crazy it can be because he's sitting there getting ready for next shift and all of a sudden you look over and your teammates collapse like it's panic time and that's why those medical those doctors and those those trainers oh they are they are biz they'll they'll fuck every guy who every guy it's happened to they've been able to revive right they listed him off in a tweet fisher um and and and i don't want to think i don't want people to think we're glancing over even like the family aspect because

i i'm sure everyone knows by now they were doing their father's trip right so his father is there up there with the other fathers this is supposed to be an awesome experience you're you're all bonding and getting to see your boys live out their dreams and then that happens so now not only that element so the i i couldn't even imagine what the father's going through he's got to go down i'm assuming soon enough he found out that that everything like he was back back and things were okay. So, obviously, a big time relieving moment. But I couldn't imagine like the whole leading off.

Like that 30 minutes, that's hell. Yeah, it's an awful feeling to see someone get worked on. I mean, you couldn't see it playing his day, but you could see – clearly they were giving him chest compressions in the background. You could clearly make that out. And that's when you know it's all hands on deck here. So good job.

And the lead cancel in the game too. Like, obviously, that's the play. Like, sometimes in panic situations, people make wrong decisions. Everything was handled perfectly by everyone, including the media. Panger ended up having to hop in and obviously go through an emotional experience. And you could see he was, like, shaking. And he fucking stood in front of the camera

and let everybody know exactly what was going on so everybody could maybe sleep a little more sound. Yeah, I know. I think with a few of the other guys, what it turns out to be is a condition that these guys never even knew they had until the situation popped up. And then they realized, you know, they got to get something repaired here. Which is crazy because you do that EKG or whatever it's called.

So there must be some things that that can't see. The only way I could describe it is like everything's running perfectly, but these guys, like, I mean, I guess us at one point, but I mean, these guys are playing a lot more ice time for a long time. Like what their bodies are going through and how hard they're pumping. It's like a fucking Ferrari, man. Like if all of a sudden it's just one quick thing and it's like a fucking ferrari man like if if all of a sudden it's just one quick thing and it's like you couldn't catch it it was just like boom

and boom boom so we hope he's he's he's i i what's the latest do we know the absolute latest just for the testing i i just started on the abc nightly nightly news before i came over here all right so um but he's the last thing the thing, when I was talking about the trainers, I just was going to say, they're some of the best guys basically messing around. You're in the room, those guys are always joking around. They're in the middle of all the pranks. They know what's going on.

And then it just shows, they are ready at the moment it needs to happen, at the instant it happens, to go into full mode, life-saving mode, which is so crazy to say. but that's why those guys are the best. So shout out to everyone, and especially St. Louis and Anaheim, right? Yeah, Anaheim's crew came over, too. They all just, you know, they worked together and fucking saved a life.

Great job, fellas. By the way. I got a couple tweets. People are like, I don't want to be insensitive, Ari, but, like, what happens to my bet in this game? I was like, people are going back, returning back to normal this game? I was like, people are returning back to normalcy here. I was like, it's just no action. That's how they score it.

So, yeah, we're hoping J-Bo's all right, and everybody can get back to their normal routine soon enough when we're sending him our best. We've got another pretty big story we need to cover as well. Jeremy Roenick, of course, he appeared on this show and then was subsequently suspended by his bosses at NBC. He released a video on Wednesday in which he stated that he will

not be returning to NBC. Grinelli, why don't you play the clip? I'm very disappointed and angry today. I will not be returning to NBC. And though disappointed, I'm also grateful that I've had the opportunity to share my love, my passion, my knowledge of the game with millions of people, millions of fans. And for that, I thank you. Even though I'm leaving NBC, I will not be gone for long. I'll be back better and more motivated

to bring you the best entertainment and the best that I have for the game of hockey. I've seen all the support. I've read all the support. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It's overwhelming. And for that, I can't wait to see you soon. Okay, I mean, you heard him. He said he's very disappointed and angry today, and he will not be returning to NBC. What a joke. It did feel like the longer the suspension dragged out,

the more it was probably going to end this way. And then once they brought out the Reverend Lovejoy, the writing certainly appeared to be on the wall. I think a misconception may be that he's going to get fired for what happened here. But I think there was a prior history with him and his bosses. This wasn't his first rodeo with them, so to speak. So, you know, I think what he did, like I always say in the playoffs, don't give the refs an opportunity to blow the whistle.

And I think what J.I. did was he gave one of his executives or one of his bosses the opportunity to blow the whistle. And I think what JR did was he gave one of his executives or one of his bosses the opportunity to blow the whistle and kind of took advantage of the situation, so to speak. So we'll go to you first, Whit. Yeah, I understand JR's frustrations. The whole thing's kind of shitty how it's all gone down. I don't know if it's almost maybe NBC was already kind of planning on moving on from

JR because his contract was done, I think, after this year. Maybe there was another year. I shouldn't say that because I'm not 100% certain. But, you know, you see, I saw the Reverend Ben Lovejoy was on the other night. Sharp's in there. They're trying to maybe go a little bit younger. This was their reason where they can get

out of it and look like it wasn't even their decision. If you know what I'm saying, um, wherever Jr goes, he's going to be excellent. That's the thing. So I think he's so entertaining.

I think that there's plenty of people who dislike Jr and plenty of people like him. And when you're in, uh, media and on television, that's a good thing. I mean, he gets people talking.

That's kind of what I'm saying. And when, when he moved on, even from not necessarily always doing the hockey analysis play by playing in between periods you saw him before games kind of putting on shows in the vegas cup finals he did something um he did something pretty good last year i think where he's willing to kind of go into any aspect to do different things than just going over the period that was played and going over exactly hockey things. He's into a bunch of different ideas and I think he'll be great wherever he ends up

but it is kind of shitty for him to end up going out like that because he did a lot of great things and had a lot of solid years in NBC for a long time when hockey was growing in this country and that's kind of the way people are going to remember it ended for him. That's not necessarily fair to him. But he also said something when we kind of all agreed maybe shouldn't have been said

just because of today's current climate. So I don't know if that explains what I think, but that was my best at discussing it right now through my plug the air. So that video came out today. Obviously, he's upset. I reached out to him. I ended up talking to him. He wants to come back on and set the record straight obviously there's more there's obviously more to this story than then then maybe meets the eye for some i don't want to start talking

because i know people are just going to be like oh you said this you said like and arguing about what my opinion is on it i'll just let him and come talk. And then whatever gets said, if somebody wants to oppose that and call him out for maybe him being wrong, come on. This is an open platform. I got no sides here. Once again, I think that JR knew where he could take it with his relationship with Catherine. I don't think Catherine really cared about what was said. I think it was a fucking excuse that they used in order to fucking get him out of there. To be fair to JR, I love his personality.

I look up to him because he lets it fly. He'll do silly shit to make people laugh. He was nasty. It holds weight because he was so good. He was a fucking unbelievable hockey player. He has way more credibility than what we got

to what he's saying he's been there and done that so i he he's he's a triple threat i think he's a very talented guy he's willing to put himself out there and sometimes you know when you're not necessarily getting along with your boss and and under today's current climate you may say some things where you you're a fuck-up whatever man like we're fuck-ups i'm that i just happen to say it on this where i probably would have been fired for saying shit on this that i would on other platforms but he he to me he deserves to let it fly and and he with nowadays in technology he can create his own fucking platform like i want to hear what jr has to say i'll fucking watch it i was just talking about like kiprios on drager's podcast

as well i love i want to consume as much these guys are intelligent guys who know shit about hockey where like i could learn it and bring it to this podcast so fucking rights jr all the power to you buddy come on anytime and holy shit that i get rambling there yeah no we'd love to have him on and hear his side of things and he can kind of of fill us in. He's not obligated to NBC anymore, so he can say whatever he wants. We didn't mention our guest this episode, so we'll do that now. We're bringing on Buffalo Sabres superstar Jack Eichel. We talked to him out in St. Louis a couple weeks ago. We were there for the All-Star game.

I think this is the third or fourth time we had Jack on. We got a pretty good comfort level with him. As he said, Ray, we started on your couch four years ago, and now here we are at a suite at the Ritz. So things have really been upgraded. So we'll be bringing you that in a little bit. What was originally the first big story of the week buried down to the third story was a big trade. The trade deadline is a week from Monday, so we should have plenty more to dissect before then. But we had a fairly significant one Monday as Minnesota traded Jason Zucker to Pittsburgh for forward Alex Galchenyuk, defensive prospect Kalen Addison, in a 2020 first-round pick.

If the Pens make the playoffs, if not, the pick will be next year. This is a nice deal for Pittsburgh. Zucker's still got three years left after this one at a very team-friendly price of $5.5 million. Pretty cheap for a 40-goal guy. at a very team-friendly price of $5.5 million. Pretty cheap for a 40-goal guy. Alfred Galchenyuk, this is the fourth team he's been with on that three-year daily assignment with Montreal. Biz, let's go to you first on this one. What was your take on this trade?

I mean, I like it. I like it for Pittsburgh. I'm not going to rag on Galchenyuk because he might be a case where he just hasn't maybe had the reciprocated love from a coach maybe and I'm not I'm not making excuses for him some people might be like oh I've seen enough to him to write him off whereas like but I bet you a lot of people said that about Anthony Duclair and he's found a home so it's hard for me to be negative in it when I've seen it done recently he's he's he does have world-class skills.

Maybe he will find a place where he's comfortable doing it. And Minnesota, like Fiala's now popping off where we weren't sure what he was. So now that these guys are getting bigger roles, and that's going to be the team where he will get the opportunity to do it because they do need guys in those roles. Now, we're probably going to find out if it doesn't work out here. I can't really give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's just not an NHL-caliber player in his top six role

unless he's going to adapt to being a bottom six, but I don't know if I see that. I see him going over to Russia and making more money doing what a top six forward do and not saying a lesser skilled league but I bet you'd have more success offensively there so he needs to he needs to prove himself here because I can't keep would you agree you can't keep making excuses for someone to find their game if if it's another one yeah Yeah, fourth team now. This is how the first-round picks have more lives than others.

You just keep getting more chances, but at some point it kind of runs dry. Who knows? Maybe he does go find it and you bring up some good names, Biz, in terms of guys who you're wondering what's going on. Fiala, I like that. He's starting to play really well there. Ten points in his last five games. Bill Guerin said he's driven now.

Maybe Billy G had a talk with him. But this trade is great for Pittsburgh. Now, shout out to me. In the midst of all this, I guess I called this trade a couple weeks ago. I don't necessarily remember that exact moment in time in recording because we travel all over the place. Who knows where we were? But I loved it then and I love it now. And you just kind of see that's the exact type of player that Sidney Crosby plays with.

And I think that maybe Zucker has higher skill than Pascal Dupuy. Remember Pascal Dupuy playing with Sid, flying around, just quickness. And Zucker can create off the rush. He can score. So that's kind of what's interesting is that he's got three more years, five and a half each year. Sorry if you said that at the beginning, R.A. I wasn't exactly paying attention when you were introing the trade.

But he's now there for the long term. So maybe they look at their window. Like, who knows? Peak, Sid, and Gino, are you looking at three to five more years, right? Maybe that's off by a couple either way, but I think that he can immediately impact offensively a team that already can score and a team that going to the season, I think a lot of people had question marks,

and all year they've just been really dominant. Mike Sullivan's going to be up for coach of the year. Crosby, when healthy, looks as good as ever. Malkin was a beast when Crosby was injured, per usual. And now they add this guy. And per usual, I keep saying per usual because I'm an idiot with a clogged right ear. Jim Rutherford is making trades early. He always gets involved a little bit earlier than everyone else.

He has made some glorious moves. He makes deals maybe two, three weeks before the deadline. And then he gets to watch his team after that one deal and decide if he needs anything else when the deadline does come 10 12 days from now so i like it i think he's going to be great and we'll see what happens now yeah it's gonna be one of those upside oh i was just gonna touch on on what pittsburgh got i love the player they got zucker plays extremely hard i know that uh he didn't necessarily fare too well in that fight against for tannin but at least from the games i've seen him play he has a bit of he's got a bit little bit of a bite to his game he's not some little fucking skill guy out there he does have skill he plays a hard game he's willing to go to the paint and he's a type

of guy i think he takes himself and his game when he's at the rink very seriously he's very like you know like he's regimented like that and that's kind of how pittsburgh is like pittsburgh's not some wild party they kind of run their operation from the top down like the patriots like it's no not a lot of tomfoolery going around you're gonna have your fun but it's like yo we're what's what's that the tomfoolery, busting out the big fucking word biz. I love it. I smoked a good J right before this episode. I'm buzzing right now. But I like the trade for Pittsburgh, and this is definitely going to help them,

and I like his cap hit moving forward. And I would say three years is fair because, like Sid even said, his hardest part now is keeping up. These fucking kids are getting so fucking fast. They just zip around out there. They get up and down the ice. The game is going to get so much smaller as it moves forward. I still think that there's going to be more room

where defensemen aren't the massive defensemen anymore because you've got to be able to move and handle the puck. That's already starting. It doesn't matter if you can if you can move we've said it now the big guys that come in they actually move well they move really good so that's why they can be there but if you can't skate doesn't matter how what you look like because if you can wheel you can play like quinn hughes is the is the bar now let's get that little fucker who can zip around doing shit out there i don't even care if he can defend but he can and this could be one of those you know trades is the bar now. Let's get that little fucker who can zip around doing shit out there.

I don't even care if he can defend, but he can. And this could be one of those, you know, trades that benefit both teams. You know, from Billy Guerin's perspective, he clears five and a half million

off the books. He gets a nice prospect that kid Addison, he said to be a nice prospect on D. He gets a pick. And he also said, he said, I can promise you this,

if there is quit, I mean, quit on the team, there will be more trade. So I wholeheartedly expect this team to compete for a playoff spot. We're right there. And if there's any signs of anybody taking their foot off the gas, that will be an indication. And, you know, it looked like the Wild took his words to heart right away.

Tuesday night, they blanked Vegas at home for nothing. Yeah, it was a mighty performance after that. That was – it's crazy how much they've grinded their way back um i don't know if you had it written down already i know i sent it to you this is a follow-up considering we're talking about people adjusting their game when i was mentioning belchenyuk um we were talking about patrick liney last episode where i was reaching out to um to winnipeg fans just to give me an overall assessment i can't it's hard to follow every team like we got i got

so much shit going on with work like it's you know so i trust a lot of your opinions from and from what i've heard is defensively he's gotten a lot better he's starting to use his weight a little bit more his body language is better his production's obviously been good so i mean overall i heard from about probably 50 60 people and from about 58 of them were positive and they're really pumped about how his game has turned around and they'd be willing to talk like want him long term um I heard a couple ones that were saying that his body language was still poor sometimes but hey whatever hey he's and and keep in mind this is a kid who's still very young so that's promising that a guy that young's been able to just figure out like that.

Where early on, there was a little bit of pushback. He kind of probably wanted to do things his way and learn that and work with Paul Maurice where it seems like they've patched that relationship up. It was getting a little bit chippy there in the media, wasn't it? A little bit. Well, he better like Maurice because Maurice just to get a multi-year extension with there. He's not going anywhere anytime soon.

So he, he better get used to him. Actually here, we mentioned Zucker. He's still got three more years left at five and a half million per. So he can afford plenty of Duncan go twos because with Duncan go twos, you get a great deal on two of your favorites with Duncan go twos. You get a great deal,

like two egg and cheese wraps for $2, two bagels with cream cheese spread for $4, and two bacon egg and cheese croissants for $5. In my opinion, it's a pretty tough deal to beat, but that's just my go-to sense. You can take it or leave it, but you should probably take it. Dunkin' Go-To's, a great deal for $2, $4, or $5. Everybody knows America runs on duncan participation may vary limited time offer exclusions do apply and of course like we mentioned before duncan's going to be hooking us up at the old pond hockey tournament uh next weekend and the weekend after we're going to be in new hampshire and then in the toronto area specifically lake muskoka dunks going to hook us up with a little breakfast and donuts and coffee in the morning get everybody nice and

full before the games before they have their pink Whitney's, of course. So remember, where there's hockey, there's Duncan. And moving right along, we do have a suspension to report as well. Bruins defenseman Jeremy Lozon was slapped with a two-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Arizona's Derek Stepan. It didn't seem like one of those malicious hits. It just kind of seemed like shit timing more than anything. I was kind of honestly surprised that he got suspended, not being a homer. Just like I said, there was no maliciousness,

but the head still got hit. Whit, what was your take on that one, brother? I think it made sense. I thought we chatted about it. It kind of looked like, no, we were recording the night it happened and we figured he would get a game or two. Okay, okay. Well, that, we recorded the night it happened, and we figured he would get a game or two. Okay, okay. Well, that's what it was.

The suspension came. The news of the suspension came since we last recorded. That's what it was. Okay. Well, yeah. What about you, Biz, about what you expected? Yeah, it was against Arizona, and, you know, sometimes I can let some slide.

I don't want to be a biased idiot on here, so it's unfortunate that it was Step who caught one right in the face, but Hey, they're trying to set the precedent. I don't, I'm not going to bitch and complain that the game, the game for that. It was right in the head.

Yeah, I guess so. Here we go. Let me see. Oh, and last week, uh, biz Dallas stars,

the fine defenseman, Steven Johns. He scored his first NHL goal in almost two years. He hadn't played in that long. He was battling post-traumatic headaches for 22 months, and he said he was going through hell, not just himself, but his parents as well. They go to a shitload

of his games. They travel all the time. So he scored in the game. He was very emotional after, choked up, talking about his parents, but I read up on him. He's from this tiny little town in Pennsylvania called Wampum, population of about 700 people, and they said every time the Stars play, or whatever team he's on, the whole town like fucking tunes in and roots for the kid.

He's like the local folk hero. Yeah, yeah, he's a real small town kid. You know him at all, Biz? No, I just follow him on social media. I played against him. I think I played against him when he was playing with the Texas Stars, the team in Austin. That's where their farm team was.

And they always had some very skilled teams. And I don't think I played – yeah, I didn't play against them at the National Hockey League level. But just to hear the story, because I believe we talked about it like a month ago, didn't we? Didn't you mention it on here, Whit? No, I think we wanted to. Oh, okay.

No, I did – that was his AHL ahl that's when he right when he came back he was in the hl at the beginning yes correct so so now of course he gets to call up to the nhl and he scores and that's what makes it even more special so like you're thinking when this guy comes back from from dealing with that you never know if he's going to get back to the nhl level he came back to the ahl this guy's back in the show, puts one in the net, and of course it's emotional for him because, guys, he was living out his dream and it got taken from him all of a sudden. I'm not saying him getting to play in the NHL the rest of his career

isn't a nice-to-see bounce-back story, but this guy wanted to get back to where he was and what caliber he was. So congratulations to him, and that's quite the story. I actually really kind of thought of some personal experiences when I saw his interview. I did get a little emotional watching it when he talked about his parents, and you saw him look up to his parents in the stands. And I just remember when I knew I couldn't move anymore and skate,

I remember being in Edmonton my dad was visiting me and I was playing at the time but I was playing poorly and couldn't move and just knew it was like ending and we were sitting around and he's like he could tell I was just so like depressed and like he's like I just when you were growing up you were always so happy you're always smiling and he was getting emotional you know kind of showing me that he saw, like, when you don't have what you love and all you've done, like, it's so hard for a parent to go through that. I mean, imagine the kid and senior.

Like, we have Ryder now, and the worst thing in the world is when you see your child, like, suffering. And so I thought, like, him bringing up his parents and getting emotional, it just shows there's so much more to this game than like a player and in his career so much more goes into it and the thing about mine that makes his even crazier is mine was an ankle and and I was like you know mentally I was fine I mean yeah I was depressed but in terms of like this kid was dealing with his head you don't you don't even know i i was gonna be i was gonna be um living a normal life let's put it that way there was probably a

time when you see your you see your son like suffering and not even knowing like when his life will get normal again not even thinking about playing hockey and so that's why that was just a really cool thing to see because a comeback takes so much effort, blood, sweat, and tears, people say, and then it takes loved ones and friends and family, and that's what really helped him get back. And so to see him recognize them I think meant a lot, not only to me but a lot of people.

Yeah, his parents, Ray and Noreen, were in the house to see him score. Section 104, as he pointed out, it was definitely a pretty cool moment. So let's hope he has a healthy season. I did want to mention today, our show is brought to you by the good people at Thursday Boot Company, a bootstrap startup that makes the best handcrafted boots and sells them direct to consumer at some of the lowest mock-ups in the footwear industry. Thursday Boots tagline is highest quality, honest prices, because they use some of the best materials like full grain leather, supple glove leather lining, and gold standard Goodyear welt construction. Just like the legacy brands that charge four bills for similar styles. But Thursday Boot Company sells their boots at prices starting at just $149 with free shipping and returns. Because of the great designs, quality, and great value, Thursday boot company has been featured in all of the best fashion press from

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The cowboy boots? The cowboy boots Marty Turco was wearing. Yeah, if I'm actually going to buy a pair that I'd actually wear around all day, I just don't think I would ever wear cowboy boots enough to get a sick pair like that. Yeah, I think when you would ever wear cowboy boots enough to get like a sick pair like that yeah i think when you're in texas i think it's like a law down there you have to have a fucking pair of cowboy boots really no i'm joking just because you're gonna wear them once though you gotta get some nice ones i'm gonna get the ones that have the cobra heads on the end

hey you ever see those some people wear the craziest shit man i think i tell you i think charcoal i think his head like they look like a gator skin if i remember i'm just gonna be walking around fucking hey scottsdale arizona i could hey there's cave creek around here there's like uh shane doan's got a place there he's got a bunch of horses and shit i'm gonna get those ones with the coras on the end. Those are pretty wild. Buddy Elliott Friedman had a little bit of an Olympic update. Per Elliott, the IOC

and the IIHF indicated a willingness last week to address NHL issues to get players to go to the 2022 Olympics. This includes insurance costs, travel costs, and the ability to promote on their own platforms. As Elliott notes, this is a significant policy change and a reversal from what had been indicated months earlier.

Deputy Commissioner Bill Daley told NHL.com that the league still wants to tie Olympic participation into CBA talks, but the NHLPA feels it shouldn't be a factor because the current CBA extends past the 2022 games. I know it gets a little boring once in a while. Basically, both sides need to agree. There are more talks scheduled, but needless to say, it's a pretty big development. Olympic participation looks much better today than it did, say, a month ago. Yeah, I think it's fair. I think the deal that the Olympic committee presented to the NHL is is fair but from somebody who's trying to look at it from neutral ground i don't know how much the the olympics are profiting financially from having nhl players in it if i can if somebody can give me that number i can say

well that's not if they're making 300 million dollars and these owners are sending over players who are under these big contracts okay don't like somebody try to use the slave comparison like they're not slaves and i'm like dude they're under contract making high ends of money here okay so you're gonna send it off send them off to something to to play in a tournament that does not benefit them in any way financially at that moment i'm not saying the exposure won't grow the game, therefore franchise values get bigger. But for right now, they also have to look at it to please their own fan base. There may be people paying for Chicago Blackhawks tickets.

I'm not saying all of them that care far more about Chicago Blackhawks and Patrick Kane being healthy for their cup run as opposed to him going off to the Olympics with four or five other of his teammates. Well, that's at least how it went a couple years ago when they did go the first time, right? Because Taves was there. I believe Seabrook was – was Seabrook on Team Canada? Yeah, so they had a lot of guys there.

So as a fan, you're like, well, do I have any say? I'm paying for tickets, and I want to see this team be successful in order to support the NHL side of it. A lot of people say, well, fuck, whatever. It's the players' rights, and that's fine. But you are under contract for a league where you have been promised a lot of money. They don't want you going to get hurt at something that they're not

profiting off of. If they're making $300 million, I think stroke the owners a check for, I don't know, divvy it up. How many each guy goes from every team. And then there's also the inconsideration of the fact that they don't. The other players in that league have a say that the league has to shut down for two, two, three weeks or whatever it is. They may in fact like the break. I don't know. There are so many fucking variables involved to keeping everybody happy that I don't think it's just easy to say like,

oh, the owners are being scumbags if they don't let them go. Right? Am I crazy? No, not crazy at all. I don't think there's a group of people in the world. You could take all the diehard international best on best hockey fans and just put them all together. And they wouldn't want NHL players in the Beijing Olympics as much as the other players in the NHL who aren't going to be on the teams. Olympic breaks were the best thing of all time.

It was like 12 days. Everyone went to Hawaii. You could go wherever you wanted. Guys loved it. It was so much time off and everyone enjoyed it who wasn't going to the Olympics. And then the Olympics guys love going there as well. So it really is a thing that all players

love. I think that this statement or whatever came out that we're talking about, I think after seeing that that they're going to be there. That's my gut feeling. I think they'll end up being there. And I will also say this. This is the side that I'm on. I think that the deal that they offered as the nhl if that was going to be the final offer that they were offered i would accept it especially the fact that you're allowed to

promote it on your own social channels the the fact that i believe they're what's that they also said i think you can use i think i read that the NHL will be able to use the Olympic logos and stuff, which means then you can get it on the board. You get it on guys' jerseys. Like I'm pretty sure that it was, it was, it was agreed upon that they'll be able to use logos of all from the Olympics. Maybe it was just video I read, but I thought it was the kind of both. But right. You're getting, but you're also getting that national exposure.

If you're looking to grow the game. And as I mentioned, the franchise values going up, if you do so in other areas of the world. If it ends up expanding, who knows where it's going, right? We don't know. That's what the goal is. Get it big there just like basketball has, and now you've got a lot of billy goats on your hand. So I would say take the deal because I think overall it's going to be

beneficial to everyone if they do go with the deal in place right now. But I'm not going to – if they end up deciding, hey, this is as much as we're going to give you and the NHL says piss off, I'm not going to fucking hammer down on them for it. Yeah. Like we said before, we'd love to have them. Hopefully they do. But, you know, it's ultimately up to the owners.

But good reporting by our buddy Elliot. That's good stuff. And like you said, it looks better than it did before. A couple quick notes before we get to the interview. Grinnelli's stunt double, Quinn Hughes. Yeah, Quinn Hughes of the Canucks. He's the second rookie defenseman in NHL history to record four, three assist games in a season, joining Ray Bork from 79-80.

He passed such guys as Leach, Chelios, and Alexi Zhitnik. Between him and Kael McCart, man, I think it's going to be like basically these two guys going head-to-head for the NARS for the next 15, 20 years, it feels like. I'm biz. Oh, man, it's crazy. And since I tweeted that tweet, always when he gets like a point now, I'm reminded because I wasn't saying it to to offend canucks

or or quinn hughes what i said i think at the time was um was when's the last time we saw a rookie defenseman dominate this much and that really set them off they're like oh there's one north of the border you idiot so hey it's happening i'm gonna concede this at the time i would have considered mccarr the front runner for the for the rookie of the year i would say based on games played points and the fact that um you know analytically they're saying quinn hughes has more responsibility than mccarr at this moment in time in the season i would say it's a neck and neck race and maybe even minuscule advantage to quinn hughes so it's the race is on this is going to be fucking fun and now i believe elvis has even thrown his name in the mix would you guys agree on

that as well but i don't think he's going to catch those two these guys are having a very special season right now yeah this has been a full season been. If he continues to light it up the rest of the way, you could have a legit argument. I mean, the numbers he's – that stretch of games he had, if he continues that, it'll be the greatest goalie of all time. I don't think it's possible. Oh, really? If he continues his numbers now, he'll play –

I don't know. I've got to see his full numbers right now. I'm talking about during the win streak. I think it was – what was it, eight games? He had five shutouts? If he can give me another five shutouts and they can squeak in and he keeps his goals against at like 1.5, then we could talk about throwing his hat in the mix.

But doing what these two defensemen have been doing the entire season long, this is very special. This is cool, man. The league's in a great place. No doubt about it. Speaking of the Canucks Tuesday I believe it was they tweeted out an old goal I think it was Daniel Sedin when he when he uh went between his legs he avoided a poke check and went went fucking tops uh top shelf on a dude well that very night Matthew Kachuk's could basically the exact same goal like he pulled the puck back to avoid the poke check and went right upstairs.

It was just funny that the Canucks tweeted out the fucking video and then that night he scored the same type of goal. I didn't see the tweet. All right, do you remember if it was against Calgary? Doesn't even matter. I think it was probably the goal that – Yeah, you know what? It was Kiprasov.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the goal that won one of the Sedins. The scoring title, yeah. The scoring title. It was the last game of the year, and we asked Biecka about it when we interviewed him, so that'll be dropping at some point, but we talked about that game and that goal. But Matthew Kachuk, he's taken over quickly as between-the-legs guy in the NHL.

All-star game. Between more legs than biz. Every month this season, I believe he's been a topic of conversation, whether it's been Drew Doughty once, then twice, then the whole Cassian situation. The goal in Nashville. Was the goal in Nashville at the end of last season? No, it was between the legs overtime this year.

Beginning of the year? Oh, my God. It feels like that was like six years ago. God. Yeah, I see. CT works. year oh my god i think that's it feels like that was like six years ago god yeah i see cct works um but yeah it's he's been he's been like a a human highlight reel slash content machine absolutely uh gee we want to send a big thanks out to rob calton he's with on the pond canada.com

uh he's been absolutely huge for us setting up these pond hockey tournaments gee what do you got for us yeah this guy's been a rock star for us. He's doing a ton of stuff behind the scenes for the pond hockey tournament that's going to be happening in Lake Muskoka. He does run a website, like R.A. said, onthepondcanada.com, and that's where he runs his tournament. It's a small little tournament, but still, give it some love if you can, if you didn't get into the barstool tournament.

Again, this guy's been a rock star for us, and none of it happens without him. So shout out to Rob Carlton. And Scott Crowder as well. He's running the New Hampshire tournaments for us, so he's been huge behind the scenes as well. Thanks for everything you've done, Rob. And this interview was brought to you by Bud Light Salsa, the delicious hot salsa from Bud Light with just 100 calories and 5% alcohol.

Some of you might be used to drinking only seltzes in the summer, but if it's pond hockey season, it's Bud Light Seltzer season. And Bud Light Seltzer is one of the official sponsors of the pond hockey tournament happening later this month, sponsoring the hottest slap shot at the event and bringing a custom WWE-style belt for the champion. That's nice. That's a nice touch I like. Pink Whitney and Bud Light Seltzer is one of the signature cocktails at the event,

and we still need a name for it. A lot of people have been sending in their favorites. We mentioned the Fizz Nasty last week. A couple of other good ones that have been named since then. That's funny. That's funny. The Pink Fizzanette, the Fizzy Whitney. So keep sending them names in.

What about Cross and Sauces? That might be a good one. Cross Sauces. Keep sending them names in. What about cross and sauces? That might be a good one. Cross sauces. But anyway, so grab a variety pack today and see why Bud Light Salsa is unquestionably good. Call it the Russian gas. You don't take sauce crossing addition. Oh, we'd want royalties on that immediately. Oh, for sure.

Definitely. So, all right, boys, I think we should send it over to Jack. I go right about now. We are now pleased to be joined by NHL superstar, yes, I'll say superstar, a former Boston University Terrier, now in his fifth year in the NHL. His stats keep getting better every season. His play keeps getting more complete. He's had a dominant first half, all-star, Buffalo Sabre, Jack Eichel.

How you been? I'm good. How are you guys? I'm doing great, man. It's been a while since we chatted with you. Was it, when was that? Well, the first time we had almost three years ago on my couch. You know what I mean? Summer couch series.

I was going to say, we're in a suite at the Ritz. Long way from R.A.'s couch. R.A.'s couch, you bang it and smoke comes up out of it and just old joints. But I appreciate you coming back on, dude. What's the deal for the weekend? Do you know what skill you'll be representing? Fastest skater. Do your research, Wick.

Oh, shit. It's already out there? It's the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills presented by our pals at New Amsterdam Vodka. Got to get that in there for sure. Very true. Pink Whitney is our drink. Actually, Eichel's going to chug a whole bottle and then do the lap. Right?

Another chance. Yeah, just doing fastest skater and then uh then the shootout i think like everyone does a shootout against the goalies at goalie challenge so that's it honestly you just skate a hot lap and then you're done for the night you'll just be you'll just be chilling on the bench after that i know you should be the interview guy yeah last year i think i uh i don't know if i was miked up for that or this the actual game, but, yeah, there's a lot going on. I mean, it's – you kind of want to get a little more involved, but there's kind of a lot of pressure when you have a puck on your stick

and everyone's watching you. Like, everyone can skate a lap, you know. Yeah, that's true. Oh, I used to get nervous during warm-up. That's why I used to keep my helmet on. I don't want that attention. You know, people are staring at your stick handle and just you. Oh, yeah. That's true. I don't want that attention. You know people are staring at you stick handling just you.

Oh, yeah. That's true. No, I mean, it's like three years come in here that it's just skate a hot lap, and then you're done. Then you're done. That's what I was going to say. It's your third one already. You're what, 23?

Yeah, 23. Are there still guys you're still looking forward to going out, seeking out, maybe grabbing a stick, a shirt, or something like that? Yeah, I mean, whenever you come to these, you're with all the world so it's uh you know it's really cool to be around a lot of them and a lot of these guys i've honestly played with and whether it's uh the ntdp or world championships so it's just nice to see them again is there is there anyone that you would get nervous to go up to uh i don't know about nervous anymore like i think my first one when i we walked in the locker room in tampa and sid and ovi were there and like some of those like he just that that then you get a little nervous because i'd never i'd never met either of them before so that was kind of like

that was pretty eye-opening and then um i don't know you hang around them and and you know they're obviously really cool guys so you gotta get to know them a little more. Are you at the point now, have people been, has the trainer come over and said, hey, Ike, you've got to sign a stick for someone in the other room. Is that happening yet? Yeah, I mean, I think that there's always. That's big time. That's like year 10 they want the sticks. Yeah, I think, you never know, right, because so many guys do charities in the summer

and they're getting sticks. But, yeah, I mean, I think that there's some guys have kids that want sticks. I mean, I know in our locker room, like, we had Palminville the last few years. He's got a kid who's, like, old enough to follow the game, and he's a big fan, and he plays, and he's really good. So he's always asking Palmer to get other guys sticks on other teams for himself. So, I mean, I think that's pretty cool. As far as the fastest skater, any maybe steak dinners on the line anything of that sort nothing on the line

honestly i just gotta make sure i get a good warm-up before it don't want to don't want to hurt myself and uh yeah that would be my biggest fear doing that like just pop it gms hate that one yeah i uh i texted milsy your teammate i want to call her cup with him colin miller i don't know if i've told you guys that story. But I'm like, hey, tee me up for some stories. And he goes, I don't know Ike's that well yet. And I was surprised to hear that because he's such a great guy. Yeah, he is great.

Is he not cool enough to hang out with the Ike? I took Millsy to catch this year for the first time. He's never been to catch. You should have mentioned that. I took Millsy to catch when we were in New York City, actually. Him and Hutz were complaining we were going to a later dinner.

It was like 8 o'clock, 8.30. That's not late. Especially in your New York City. That's when you start getting a pulse at those restaurants. Yeah, exactly. That's what you're looking for. You like candy. That would even be early. You're eating at 10 o'clock if you want the action. I was going to say, yeah, usually you're getting in there 9.30 or so.

It's probably Millsy's girlfriend doing a little research being like, oh, yeah, why such a late dinner, sweetie? It's called catch. Yeah, no one's there. Don't worry. Don't worry. Yeah, seafood place, right? Yeah, exactly.

Now, Lutz, we talked about the awesome season you have. Did you do anything different in approaching this season, or is it just you think natural progression of your game um i don't know i think i just wanted to score more goals this year i think uh that was kind of one of my big goals going into the season and you know in the off season just trying to work on that and i can't really like say one thing that i had pinpoint on uh on success, I'm starting to shoot lower. That's really simple to say, but you talk to a lot of goal scorers, a lot of guys shoot low, and it makes it tougher on the goalie.

I don't want to give my tricks away to the goaltenders. Don't want to do that. Well, now it's going to cost you. I know. I was going to say, we were at the World Championships, and Patty Kane's always talking about how he always shoots low. He had 50 last year, and he's a pretty good goal scorer. Like we were at the world championships and like Patty Kane's always talking about how he always shoots low. And, um, so he had 50 last year and he's,

uh, he's a pretty good goal scorer. So, uh, yeah, I know. I just tried to shoot, shoot more pucks low. And I mean,

I don't know, like just chemistry with your line mates. Sometimes it clicks and, um, you know, our power play was good in the beginning of the year. It hasn't been as good. uh,

lately, but I can't really pinpoint one thing okay well you've already tied career high in goals 28 but was there a point when like you always had coaches telling you to shoot it more right your shots unreal but you're you've kind of been like a look to pass guy yeah but there must have been times as as last year went on when you're like dude how did i not shoot that like something finally clicked like enough no yeah for sure i mean i think i passed up a lot of opportunities in the last few years to shoot the puck so it's i mean it makes sense that uh you score more when you shoot so he'd be like dead slot like nobody knew he was

looking to give a guy back to a taffy your snapshots 94 miles an hour he's bringing milsy to catch he's probably putting team dinners on the board every night um probably a bitter taste in your mouth after the way last season went. You guys had such a great start. This year, you guys had another fairly good start. At least I did. Yeah, all because of Grinnelli. Come on, G.

But this year, you guys dealt with a few injuries, but with your play, you've been able to keep your team afloat. What's different this year? Obviously, the new coach, but just talk about that. Honestly, the coach is a huge, huge, like, huge part in that. I mean, he's so good. Like, you had him for – He's awesome.

I remember when he texted me this summer after him getting hired. Like, he gets hired and kind of no one knew anything about him, and then you just kind of hear stuff from other people. Like, I remember you texted me. There was a few other people that hit me up and said stuff about him and like everything was so good and then i met with him in slovakia at the world championships i think he was already in europe and he came over to slovakia and he was like you want to go grab a cup of coffee one day and we went for coffee and we talked for like an hour and then like we were just like you want to go to dinner and me and him

went we went yeah we went we ended up going to dinner right after and then we were just like, you want to go to dinner? And me and him went. Yeah, we ended up going to dinner right after. And then we had like a three-hour dinner. And some of the conversation was about hockey, but a lot of it was about like we talked about everything from like cars to rock and roll to vacations to politics. He's somebody who you just talk to about anything. He's like a professional in terms of like. He's like a professional in everything.

Like when he talks, it's like you're like, he's so intelligent and he handles our room so well. Like he never lets his emotions get the best of him. If we play bad, we have a bad game. And instead of, you know, the usual like come in and kick the trash barrel, let us have it. He kind of, he saves it, doesn't say anything. And, you know, he regroups with us in the morning and he delivers a really really good message and after he delivers that message everyone's like holy shit like yeah i'll go out and play right now if he wants you know what i mean so

he does a really good job of that and um i mean everyone like i don't think there's not a guy in the team i could say a bad thing about him just in edmonton, the year that he was there, it was the lockout shortened season. We had a chance at the playoffs. The trade deadline, we were in the eighth spot. Ended up obviously falling apart, and they fired him via Skype. It's well known. But you couldn't find one guy on that Oilers team to have said that he should have been fired. When do you see that when a team doesn't make the playoffs and a guy gets fired,

you're like, wow, that was not his fault. And so right away, I was like, he needs to get another chance. And then I was excited to see that it was Buffalo because I knew you guys would hit it off. And I just think the way he approaches, not the game, but life every day. Yeah, life, yeah.

He's like, good morning, Whit. How you doing, man? And you're just like, it's that new age of coaching that is so much better. So how loose is it in the locker room then? Is he chirping guys and stuff? No, no, no, not like that.

He has a very good presence about him. He demands respect and everyone gives it to him. And he's not that loosey like that. But he can definitely have conversations with you about other things other than hockey and he takes interest in your life and your family and i think that that's another reason why guys respect him so much is you can have some you can have a conversation with him about something other than hockey or what's going on in the locker room oh i was gonna ask um you know there's been debates going on about cal mccarr and quinn

hughes and who the best young defenseman is. And Darlene, a lot of people seem to think that this kid hasn't even been close to reaching his top potential. No, he hasn't. No, I don't think so. Obviously, he had the injury that he dealt with early in the year. He had a really good start to the season. I don't know how many points he had last year, but he didn't turn 19 until after the season was over,

which is pretty crazy. If you spend time around him or if you, like, practice against him, like, some of the stuff he doesn't practice is pretty absurd. And, like, even, like, he shows spurts of it in games. And, like you said, I don't think he's even scratched the surface. And, you know, D is a tough position. I think, you know, Quinn Hughes and Cal McCarr obviously have huge years. But I think when we see Rast meet his full potential,

he's going to be unstoppable. Like compared to who? Like a Lidstrom type? I think he's different. It's weird. He's different. Niedermeyer is a scary one because of what he did. But he can roam around like he did.

I was going to say, yeah, he's so skilled. He almost thinks the game like a forward, but he plays D and he'll finish checks. I call him the worm. He's so... Perry's like, I'll fucking elbow him. That's my name. Is that what his name is?

Yeah, Corey Perry's the worm. For different reasons. They're both slippery, though. He's just so loosey, and he'll just put the puck under you, and I'm like, God, I'm going to go over, and he'll be on the other side of you with the puck. It looks like he passes out in the middle of a move. The other day, he had a clip go viral.

He didn't even score, but it was just a ridiculous toe drag where you're like, that has to be a forward doing that. Yeah, he toeied the first guy, or he put it between the guy's legs and then he toeied the second guy he didn't even need to toe the second guy but he did just to do it and then he's uh you know he's unbelievable but uh yeah he obviously had the injury this year which is tough every time uh every time you get dinged in the head and you miss time it's never easy but he's uh yeah he's been really good for us i mean he's he's a tremendous player. He's only going to get better. You had an 18-game point streak earlier.

I don't care what the NHL says. It's not a 17-point streak. It's an 18-point streak. How do they say if I miss a game, your streak ends? That's kind of bullshit, isn't it? How pissing is that? Let's at least give your honest opinion. That's so stupid.

Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's frustrating that that was the reason that they ended it. Obviously, you can't go, you can't go, and that's tough. But, yeah, I mean, it's, I don't know, I guess it's the league rules. I didn't know that that was the rules. Well, it's obvious that you're, like, a little ticked off by it. Oh, yeah, for sure you are. I would be.

Yeah, it was. i don't think you're saying anything wrong and it was one of those things i thought maybe it was so a lot of people seem to think that they should have just kept it going where i thought maybe they were going to change their mind because they had to go to the panel on the marlo situation so i thought maybe they would reverse yours but uh everyone can probably understand your frustration i know you don't want to say the wrong thing and yeah no i, I could say I was ticked off about it, of course. You had the flu, right? Yeah, I mean, I had a couple things going on among that,

and I was dealing with some lingering injuries, and so I'll just leave it at that. What does the NBA call it when they sit guys up? Load Control League. Yeah, load management. It wasn't load management by any means, but there's no doubt about that. That was the only reason I used to get healthy scratch, but different load. We love Kruger, but he's going a little crazy now if he's bringing in the load management.

I've had a great ability to talk about these Swedish guys and what they come into the league. I mentioned Elias Pettersson, and he lit it up. Well, I talked about Olofsson all preseason. How about this guy's snapshot? It's insane. Did you hear when I had mentioned him and you were like, is Whit being foolish or is this now? I think he's third right now for the rookie of the year.

Yeah, probably, right? He's missed some time. He was taken off for a while there. The power plays. He had a really good start and then he like he we all kind of cooled off for a little our team wasn't doing well and then um then he just started taking off again like he's he's just the more confidence he gets the better yeah and his shot like you said it's like i told my dad this year before the season i'm like this guy get 40 in his sleep if

he wants i was like this is the best this is probably one of the best shots i've ever been on the ice. Wait, now we've got to find out. Where are you getting your Swedish information, Rhett? I played with this kid in Modo. I was over in Modo, and I told you I lasted two games, minus seven, retired on the bench after the first period. But this kid was on the team. I was like, who is this?

He was 150 pounds, and he had quick feet, and then he would take a snapshot from the top of the circles bar down it's insane isn't it like he comes in and practice and the goalies don't move yeah elbow in every time and then he takes a one-time rat them and it's just zipping right by their ear like it's crazy how he shoots the puck and is it does he walk around off the ice like your typical swede where he's just cool, he's dressed nice? Yeah, he dresses well and he's a really, really good guy. He's pretty quiet.

How old was he when he played with you? He was 18, I think. 18, yeah. And he wasn't even playing. Would you agree Swedish guys, when they come in the league, like Oliver Ekman-Larsen, I don't know if he said a word in the locker room for five years. They're just so respectful. Yeah, they are.

when larson i don't know if he said a word in the locker room for five years they're just so respectful yeah they are yeah i think it's well honestly we have a we have a lot of swedes on our team and and uh and they're all unbelievable guys like and it's great we have marcus johansson this year and he's kind of an older guy so um you know they all kind of look up to him and and he's able to like he's able to bring them along we have a lot of young ones but um they're all such good they're all such good guys like it's it's it's awesome having them in the room like you said they're so respectful I think it might have something to do with the fact that they played in the a lot of them come from the Swedish league where they have they're already in that professional setting and I think the older guys in that league do a really

good job of kind of teaching them the right way to go about things, and they're all so respectful, and they're all great guys. They're all guys you want in your room. And no disrespect, I know you're the captain of the team, but is he almost like the Swedish captain? Oh, yeah, for sure. No, absolutely. I think that he's so valuable to our team for that reason. Obviously, we have a lot of young Swedes,

but he's such a good voice in the locker room, and he's obviously a sick player. I was going to ask about the Bills run. I don't know if you're a football fan. Did you adopt them as your team when you moved there? It's a Pats fan. Yeah, I would say I'm definitely still a Pats fan at heart, number one, but I do love the Bills now.

It's awesome getting to follow them. Obviously, the city's so crazy about them. Kind of built a little relationship with the quarterback, Josh Allen. Just seeing what he did this year. He had a really good year. I'm definitely a big fan of them. I was hoping they were going to win that. Buffalo fans probably love that.

One of the best players, if not the best player for the Bills. And then the Sabres. They're out grabbing beers on the town together until 5 a.m. when bars close on Chip's trip. There's people on Chippewa Street just hugging each other. One person has a picture of Allen on his phone, and the other has a picture of Eichel, and they're just arm-in-arm having beers.

With a chicken wing hat on and a couple of bat blues. Dude, I remember my first couple years in the league, those Sabres teams, Drury, Brier, they were so good. And playoff time, it's going to be insane if you can get in. I know. Whenever Palmer would talk about it the last few years, obviously he was on those teams. So whenever he would talk about what it was like when they were in the playoffs, like all the people in the plaza and the game just a complete zoo.

You see it with the Bills. When the Bills start doing well, it's crazy how the city reacts to it. Yeah, I mean, obviously the same division as the Pats, but I was even rooting for them this year. They just became such a good story. But who do you like in the big game coming up? I'd probably say KC. Yeah.

It's tough to pick. Because he's got the same hairdo as Mahomes. How about we make you a promise? All right. If the Buffalo Sabres make playoffs, we will travel there in the first round, and we'll let anyone from your city power slam R.A. through a table. How about that? We'll put that on the board.

Holy smokes. Actually, we'll put Grinnelli in that wagon t-shirt when he cursed you guys, lying flat on the table, and then somebody can take R.A. off the top ropes. No, Grinnelli sits in a dunk booth, but it's not water. It's beer. It's acid. Biz, negotiate my fee. I'll give you 5%.

So, yeah, we're coming if you guys get in. Do you guys talk about Grinnelli cursing you guys in that locker room? Do you guys have a dartboard with his face on it? No, not at all. No, we don't. I feel like maybe a couple people mentioned it back home just because we have a lot of mutual friends, but that's probably it.

It was a good t-shirt. I'll stand by my boy on that. It was just a team that just didn't have it. This year is different. Hey, I want to ask, so you asked about players and the guys you're playing with, but I got a chance to also be coached by Steve Smith, your assistant, and he ran the D in Edmonton,

won a Stanley Cup, awesome guy. Have you ever seen a guy walk around with more swagger in the locker room? No, no, no. He's so relaxed. He's unbelievable. He's so relaxed, hops on the bike. He's like 6'4", great shape too. He goes every home game.

He's on the, I don't even know what it is. It's like an elliptical kind of machine, yeah, and he just gets on that and he don't even know what it's like elliptical kind of machine yeah and he just gets gets on that and he checks the golf station on he's just buzzing on it watching the golf station every day it's a lather he just walks back he just walks back to the locker who's this steve smith he's our d coach played in the nhl a long time great guy yeah golf not but i had because he's he walks he used to walk to the gym he's like, what's up, witch? Big old swagger hanging down. And I just figured he'd do the same thing nowadays.

Played on the old Oilers teams with Gretzky. People are going to be scalding me for that. I can't even remember guys' names that play for the Coyotes still. That's all right. Pretty much, I'd say, one of the classic rock guys of the NHL. Did you catch any good concerts since we last met? I went to the Stones this summer. Did you see him in foxborough yeah which yeah what you think i thought it was great i mean i get amazed at these guys in my father's age my father takes 10 minutes to get to the bathroom from here and these guys are ripping it up i was gonna say

yeah yeah he uh yeah they put on a hell of a show they were buzzing around the uh the stage and i don't remember how how long played for, a couple hours. But, yeah, they were unbelievable. Will you give me a little breakdown of, so say you have a game Tuesday night at home, and then you don't play until Thursday, whatever. So you guys finish the game. You obviously have a goal.

The next day, you have to go to the rink. What are you doing after practice? You going back? You a nap guy? Are you playing video games? how do you fill your time on the off days yeah i'm going home and taking a shot yeah just shutting it like full shutsy lights off in the bed like two three hours out cold yeah the best part of pro hockey it's unbelievable shane doan would never take a nap a lot of well a lot of guys doesn't. Didn't he have a bunch of kids running around? Well, but you would think on the road he'd want to catch up on sleep.

Oh, even on the road I was kind of taking it home. He just wouldn't nap. But now saying that, a couple times I didn't because I couldn't fall asleep and I just stayed up. They say when you nap, for some people, it just completely drains you for the rest of the day. Really? Oh, yeah. But I was one of those guys I usually like to take a nap. Well, that was probably because I was up until 3 in the morning, too.

Yeah, I mean, I love a good shut-see, but there's a lot of guys don't sleep. I think that's probably... I feel like a lot of the older guys don't sleep. They don't sleep at home because they got kids, and then when they get on the road, they're like, oh, I don't sleep at home. I don't sleep out here. Yeah, exactly. Do you have a girlfriend?

I do. No way. Oh, congratulations.'t sleep at home. I don't sleep out here. Do you have a girlfriend? I do. No way. Congratulations. Is she cooking for you? Are you cooking? Are you going out to dinner every night, wit style? I got a chef.

Oh! Oh! Fuck you. National League. Okay, let's get into the chef. Yeah, he's like, no, I just told you I had a girlfriend.

Oh, fuck. Okay, wit. All right. Hey, good knowing told you I had a girlfriend. Oh, fuck. Okay, Whit. All right. Hey, good knowing you. So long, Whit. Hey, I make jokes my wife would laugh at. I don't give a shit. She wouldn't give a fuck.

Oh, I love it. But hey, let's talk about it. I actually heard that. I heard that he picked up Omelette Guy from Pittsburgh. He's now in Buffalo. So let's talk about your chef. Yeah, he's unbelievable. That's nice. Yeah, he comes over on on game days cooks the boys pre-game meal sit at the kitchen table and then uh so you invite all the

guys over there's a couple guys that come over yeah a couple other guys use them like uh like rhino uses them a little bit um bogosian uses them a little bit now oki started coming over for pre-game meal and it's pretty nice like the boys just sit at the kitchen table, hot stove, shoot the shit for like an hour, and he just cooks up the pregame. We just sit there and watch TV. It's not bad. That's dream setup. And then you all snuggle in your king size upstairs for pregame.

Then they all drive home or go back to their house, and I stay at the house and shut it down for a couple hours. But, no, it's so nice just because you don't want to be going out to dinner every night. If he's not going to be at the house he'll just leave food there like he's he's in and out of the house all the time and um it's unreal like i i started getting really big into nutrition a couple years ago and um this summer i hired um i don't know if you know alan campbell like he's he wrote uh he wrote He wrote the TB12 diet part of the book. He was the person that kind of started Brady's diet with him.

So he's out of Boston. So I actually worked with him this summer. He opened my mind to a lot of different things with nutrition and what to do. I wouldn't say I'm as crazy as Brady is, but definitely try and be smart with what I'm eating. Connor Garland started using that diet as well. So do you get your blood tested and they figure out what maybe you're more allergic to?

How did you do it? So I asked them about that, and yeah, you would get your blood drawn, and then they would say what you're tolerant to or what you're not intolerant to, and his thing with that was your body's going to change, so what you might're tolerant to or what you're not intolerant to and his thing with that was like your body's going to change so like what you might be tolerant to now like you might not be tolerant to in six months so i'd ended up doing that i just kind of he just kind of we went over

like what i'm doing my training schedule um you know what i like to eat what i don't like and and um you know through that he uh like his diet's really strict in the summer. Obviously, you're not playing as much, so I find you have to eat a little bit better. Whereas during the season, you're burning so many calories during games and stuff, you kind of need to eat a little more. But both the chefs have been huge for me.

Did you take any good vacations since we last talked? Did you go to any funky places? I went to Meek and Earl's last summer. Oh, Greece, right? It's incredible. Yeah, it is unbelievable. Yeah, I would definitely recommend it. The potty scene, just the beaches.

It's everything you need. If you want to go out and mix it as much as you want, you can. If you want to mix it in the middle of the day or at night, you can. If you want to go hang out at the pool or beach, there's so many beautiful places to do that. If you want to relax, you want to mix it in the middle of the day or at night, you can. If you want to go hang out at the pool or beach, there's so many beautiful places to do that. If you want to relax, you want to go shopping, it's just everything and the weather's perfect. The water's nice.

The water's actually a little chilly, but it's clean. It's a great spot. The food's amazing. Was that a trip with the boys or was that with the new class? It was actually after the World Championships. Oh, okay. A bunch of the guys went down. A bunch of the guys went down. A couple of the girls went down.

It was good. I actually went with Noah Hannafin and his girlfriend. Yeah, it was a great trip. A couple of the boys were down there. We went to play Scorpio Mykonos. It's like a club on the beach. It's definitely a must-go if you're there. There's a lot of good spots. A couple of disco bits. Let's like a club on the beach. It's definitely a must-go-to if you're there. There's a lot of good spots. A couple of disco

biscuits. Business is just hopping on his phone right now, just Googling it. He's like, how expensive is this? How much does this cost? So are you hosting the Super Bowl party for the team or is there one? I'm just looking at the schedule here. You're off the next day. Yeah, I'm sure we'll probably

snap something together. Yeah, there we go. The chef's like, shit. Exactly. Maybe we'll go somewhere or have it at someone's house. Who's the court jester in the locker room? Who's the clown who's telling all the jokes, getting the boys going? And what the fuck is Reinhardt up to?

Rhino. Let's get on him. That's just like he has so many stories he can't tell by i know i know i wish i could i wish i could dive into a couple about his well pasha's good friends with a few of his brothers oh my god when they're all together two of the three brothers they're just it's yeah i well we lived together for a couple years. You had the tandem bikes. We had the tandem, yeah. He's just, you know how he is when he gets going. It's just, he's a treat.

But, yeah, I don't know. He's recently single. He's back on the market. He hasn't, so. Well, we're actually doing a. Oh, Rhino. We're doing a spit and chickle slash NHL bachelor, so he's going to definitely be one of the guys.

Yeah, it would be good to get him on there. That would be hilarious. You see this guy this season? This guy this season, he just makes out with the girls the whole episode? That would be Rhino. That would be Rhino. Rhino would be like, I'm not really worried about what you're saying. You want to make out?

We'll see if this works. I'm going to go with the make out again. We know he's comfortable in front of the camera. He was a star in Biz Does BC. I don't know if you've seen that. I watched it. When's Biz Does the East Coast? He's doing Muskoka. I'm going to have a fucking jammer

if I work any harder. I think I'm cranking out 90 hour work. I know. Actually, though, you don't stop. Yeah. Well, fuck. I'm just trying to catch up to you guys, man. It's impressive. I want to go to Mykonos. You do a lot. I want to see what Greece looks like. Nice. Yeah. No, he's like, I just don't want to be selling promo codes anymore.

That's my goal. I know. Seriously, swipe the fuck up. No, no. Go ahead. Speaking of movies, do you kill time on the planes watching movies, TV, or are you more of a cards guy? I play cards. Okay. What's your game? We play seven up, go ahead. Speaking of movies, do you kill time on the planes watching movies on TV, or are you more of a cards guy? I play cards. Okay, what's your game?

We play seven up, seven down. Good action or kind of weak action for how much money everyone has? Because you know what I mean. Who are their card players? So it's me, McCabe, Johansson, and Bogo at the table. Can you explain the game a little? I don't think I'm too familiar. It's tough to explain. Is it a poker-based

game? Yeah, so we play 13 cards. Everyone gets 13 cards. So, like, you'd have to call how many tricks you think you're going to get. And after you call, like, whoever the dealer is, you can't call the exact amount. So you'd either have to call one over and one under, and then you just

try and get your trick. Is it like Schnapps at all? It's very similar, yeah. It's a little similar, but it's a little similar but it's right it's like a rain man version of yeah it's more complicated like it was hilarious we we used to always play schnapps we always played schnapps and then johansson comes on the plane this year he's like well i'll play cards if we play 13 up 13 down or seven up seven down we're like all right well you gotta like kind of like refresh us a little bit on the game so he does the whole He's built the whole team. And he's just burying us. Every trip, we're paying him. His points are like 150 points further than the rest of us.

We're like, all right, here you go. Here you go. Just kicking him dough the whole year. No wonder you wanted to play this game. Then we play schnarps, and he stinks. It's like took a lesson to deal with Buffalo. By the way, Biz, when he played, he's like, I never got to play cards because no one would play war against me.

That's the only one he can do. Go fish. One-on-one. Hey, after Johansson's around, the boys are going up asking for advances on their first paycheck. Ike's like, Ralph, yeah, he's burying us back there. He just came in shooting fish in a barrel, taking all your money. Can I get that extra per diem pack that nobody picked up?

The card tables there on the plane have been pretty funny over the years. We get great pots. Yeah. Does anybody ever get ballsy and decide to deal blackjack? No. We haven't got the blackjack going. No. No one wants to do that.

I feel like, you know, like the older days, guys were playing for so much money. Pull. And, like, it was kind of insane. Like, I've heard some stories on this podcast and from other people about, like, the card But like the older days, guys were playing for so much money. And like it was kind of insane. Like I've heard some stories on this podcast and from other people about like the card games just getting out of control. It's like the contracts have gone up, but the pots have gone down. I'll put it this way. Walt and JR were basically NBA status at one point. Yeah, that's unbelievable.

That's hilarious to hear. Like you kind of love that. I think it's to think of an own teammate 40K is like, do you know who liked me at all? Give me 20. It's flattering to hear that you listen to the podcast because you mentioned that you heard a few of those stories before this interview actually started.

You mentioned Cam Jansen being one of your favorite guys that we've had on, which we just had on again, and he's even more electric. I'm going to have to listen to this one. I think he he dropped about three quarters of the amount of f-bombs so it's not too bad so you could probably let your kids listen all you people um who follow but uh what was it that stuck out in that interview to you and what what are some i just thought his stories and his energy was unbelievable like he was just buzzing the whole time and yeah like you said he every other word was every other word was the F-bomb. I don't know.

There was a few of us that listened to it together, and we were all howling over it. I thought it was hilarious. So I would imagine you liked Walshie from Boston. I did listen to Walshie's. I've listened to a good amount of them. If I can't sleep at night, I'll throw one on and just lay there in bed or something.

Or if I'm traveling or something, I throw it on a pretty good amount. I like podcasts a lot. Walshie telling – or Bergeron being like, wait, you're taking the police test? When Walshie missed pregame skate in the minors. Bergeron playing with a guy who's taking the police test during pregame skate. And the fact that they played on the same fucking team is nuts. Oh, my God. What other pods do you listen to?

I like Rogan, depending on who he has. Yeah. If he has good guests, I'll listen to it. Honestly, that's probably it. You guys and Rogan. That's a pretty good compliment. We'll take it. Yeah.

He's got some good people that go on there. Yeah, he gets some real interesting guests. He's a well-read guy. I'll listen to those two. Dude, it's pretty crazy seeing the comments of guys. I don't know if you've even read this, but McKinnon and Kane and Barzell and Hedman, they're all talking about you.

Barzell's calling you the best skater in the league. It must be wild to really understand and see that you have reached this superstar level and to see that your peers talk about you that way. How does that feel? I think it's a huge compliment. It's really humbling. It's the sort of thing where we talk about each other like that all the time. I find, especially when you get to these events

and you're around these guys and you're playing against, like, you're playing with these guys and against them all year. But I don't know. Like, you could run down the list of so many guys that you could just talk about for hours. Like, you know, Barzell, Edmund, like, you know what I mean? Like, these guys are, like, they're so good. McKinnon, I mean, these are guys that I threw on at home to watch, you know, every night.

So, I mean, it's a huge compliment. It's a little surreal, though. Same goes back for them. Yeah, of course it is. You know, the same goes back for them. Are you going to check out the women's game Friday night? I think it's going to be the most competitive thing all week. We have big action on this, me and Biz.

We're throwing two grand. I got America. Yeah, isn't it it's not uh it's not it's during it's not during the all-star it's not tonight they're gonna do it during the event during the skills right yeah yes yes so no i mean i'll definitely i'll definitely check it out i actually uh i know a pretty good amount of them um with training that mike boils gym in the summer a lot of the uh he had the olympic team for a while and a lot of the girls still train I know a pretty good amount of them with training at Mike Boyle's gym in the summer. He had the Olympic team for a while, and a lot of the girls still train there.

Going to BU, I've met a few of them. I knew that pooling from BU and doing some of the Bauer events that you do in the summer, you meet some of them. Right, right. Obviously, pulling for the USA. Yeah, of course. You always got to root for your country. What else what else you guys got what are we what do we got going on now we got the gaming thing i'm oh that's right i'm doing a nhl 20 ea hockey event ea sports hockey event and and eichel's coming over we got matthew kachuk uh who else is i think there's gonna be

jones he's going i talked to him yesterday seth jones will be there's going to be a couple. Jonesy's going. I talked to him yesterday. Seth Jones will be there. It's going to be fun. How about that Biz could make you a 99 in the video game now? Biz has control over giving guys ratings. Ratings adjuster? Do you play vids? Not really. No, to be honest with you. Someone told me yesterday. Yeah, I sleep, watch TV, huge movie guy.

So I watch a lot of movies. But someone told me yesterday I'm playing. I didn't really know what I'm getting into today. But someone told me yesterday that I'm playing against a professional gamer. Oh, yeah. Nasher. No, I don't think it said his name. So they'll beat you 100 to nothing if you don't play, though.

I don't play at all. I'm going to get whacked. We're going to stroke him a fat check. He's going to show up. He's going to kiss some babies, sign some autographs, and that's how she goes, baby. No, they should be having two gamers, and then you and another NHLer on a team with them

because they're just going to see you get roasted. Cam Jansen will just fist fight again at the front while they're playing the game. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to get smoked, but... Whatever, dude. I'm not really weird. Any other funny stories from this season so far that you'd like to share with our guests?

Off the top of your dome. What were you going to say? Dad's trip. Dad's trip? We just had it, yeah. How was that? It was good. You score?

I didn't. Oh, you're a loser. Jesus Christ. He's probably so disappointed. We went out in Nashville, though. That was good. After the game, we played Saturday, and we got to stick around. around actually i'll ask you this um which bars are you hanging out at in

buffalo like what are the places that are fun to go to and and you you're shaking your head probably like i'm not giving away our secrets but sometimes you probably want a little bit of a pulse yeah uh i mean your house is a restaurant and a club. Yeah. Honestly, my spots in Buff, probably my number one place to go would be Mother's. It's kind of like a little dive bar. You can eat food there all night. No one really bothers you. It's such a small city.

When you go out, you never know what type of crowd you're going to get. I like the clubby places. Just to kind of stay away from getting bothered, I kind of go to this place it's good like they play tremendous music and um it's usually a pretty good little vibe uh like a little craws and nate dog yeah um no like they play like they play like good rock or like 90s rock or like grunge or like they'll play whatever you want honestly you could just tell them to play it's your ipod on you you're in the kitchen making your own food you could do whatever you want bury a couple bodies there's a couple good places like a lot of people go to this place

the rec room um i don't know it's a little greasy like i might pop in there once or twice a year but not much there's just so many people in there and like you said, the bars go to 4 a.m., so you're just seeing people get dragged out in wheelbarrows. If you just make it till 4 a.m., you win. It's like the Mykonos. It's like you were training to go overseas because you don't show up till dinner till like 1 a.m. over there. Yeah, literally, though. Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

There's a couple places that a lot of people go, but I don't go out a whole lot in Buffalo. It's just for whatever reason. It's like a pissing contest. Like, there's the two drunkest guys at 4 a.m. just staring at each other to dance for, like, who's going to buckle first. No, I feel like if you make it until 4 in Buffalo,

your buddies are like, you didn't drink enough, man. That's unacceptable. Oh, really? No, I mean, I'm sure they make it a long ways, but 4 a.m.? Maybe I'm just old now. They have to numb the pain of the next morning going to the Bills game and getting suplexed

from the top ropes. That's what the thing is, though, is that people mix it so late and get so banged up on Saturday and the Bills always have the 1 o'clock games. Always. They're just still drunk. And then they're at the tailgate at 9, 30, 10 in the morning

and they're back at it. It's like by 1 o'clock when they're going to the game, they're at the tailgate at 9, 30, 10 in the morning, and they're back at it. It's like by 1 o'clock when they're going to the game, they're done. People get carried out before kickoff. It's crazy. For a 1 o'clock Bills game. But you missed the anthem again. It's a great atmosphere. I don't know if you've ever seen a game there.

It's kind of like going to a college game. No shit, huh? Yeah, at New Era Field, the way that the field's built, it's like going to a college game. Are these people who do these silly things at the games local celebrities? I know there's one guy who gets sprayed in the face. Sprayed with ketchup and mustard. What's his name?

I don't know. I think he might have hit me up this year, actually, and asked me if I would come to a game and shoot him in the face with ketchup and mustard. Yeah, there's a lot going on at those tailgates. There's so many different lots like, lots and parties. Bill's Mafia. It's like Gangs of New York. They all have their own little sectors, right?

And they're like, what's going on over there? It's crazy. Just different Bill's tattoos on your neck signifies which faction you're in in the tailgate scene. Yeah. You just mentioned you like the movies. You got any Oscar favorites or what? Anyone you're in in the tailgate scene. Yep. You just mentioned you like the movies. You got any Oscar favorites or what? Anyone you lean towards? I don't know.

I liked that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I don't know if you saw it. Did you guys see that? Yeah, I saw it twice at the theater, yeah. I watched it twice, yeah. What did you think? I thought it was excellent. I mean, it didn't have like a plot, like a typical Tarantino movie, but it was just such a good story to follow on.

I didn't know what to think of it after the first time I saw it, and then I was talking to my dad about it, and he had just seen it, and he likes Tarantino as well. We ended up talking about it for a while, and he's like, we just talked about that movie for 40 minutes. That's how you know it's a good movie. Exactly. Pitt and Leo were fucking both incredible. Yeah, I thought Brad Pitt was great in it.

I thought it was a good movie, but I don't know. What else is up for an Oscar? Well, I've been singing Parasite's praises since I saw it's a korean movie subtitled which i know most americans kind of like you think you're gonna don't look at me he sleeps all day he's gonna fall asleep and watch like home alone well any any anyone out there listening to know that's i think that's a favorite i think it's it's kind of a bit of an underdog story. I would recommend 1917. I thought it was the cinematography and it was excellent. I heard that's a good one. That's

the war movie, right? Yeah. Ford vs. Ferrari, dude. Check that one out. Yeah? You'll like that. Good soundtrack. The thing is, I watch the same movies I've already seen over and over. Yeah, I know, but then this will be right into the rotation. You'll watch this one over and over. That's perfect. Number one movie on your list?

If it's on, you're not churning the channel? I said it. Home Alone. Number one. Not even Christmas time. The one with Donald Trump or not? No, the first one. The first one's unbelievable.

I absolutely love it. I don't know. There's a couple movies, but that's probably up there. A lot of Boston movies I like. Big fan of The Town? The Town, Departed. I met one of Ari's co-stars yesterday, Jon Hamm.

Oh, yeah. That's right. I heard he's a celebrity guest or something. Yeah, he's a celebrity coach, I think, for the Atlantic team. Nice. I think we have the girl from The Office. Oh, Jenna Fisher. Pam? Yeah, Pam. Office is a great show.

You know a guy's going to be dropping the office line. She's going to be like by the second period rolling her eyes out. What is she coaching? She's going to bench them all. What is it? Is she on the bench? I think they're calling them like celebrity. Yeah, I think they might be on the bench like celebrity guest coach or whatever.

I don't know if they're going to be calling lines or whatever. Well, Ike, this is awesome, man. It's been pretty cool to see what you've done, and it just continues to get better and better. So thanks for coming on. Thanks, Wes. Appreciate it. Thanks, guys. Thanks.

My pleasure. Thanks, Jack. Go Buffalo. It's a huge thanks to our pal Jack Eichel. Like I said, he's been on a bunch with us. We get a pretty good comfort level with him now, so we always appreciate shooting the shit with him. He did mention one of his teammates, Sam Reinhardt, in the interview.

And Sam had a little tiff with one of the media members in Buffalo, Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News. He's no stranger to having some dust-ups with some players. And he basically accused Reinhardt of quitting, and Reinhardt refused to answer his question, and he was visibly pissed off. Biz, what was your take on this? I knew you had an opinion.

Oh, man, we don't really see as many of these anymore when you get the player media risks um i don't know the backstory between the interviewer okay and here here's my breakdown the whole situation sometimes some of these media members they're fans too i don't know if this guy is but they almost take a little bit personal when they feel like they're not getting the effort and things have not been going well there for a long period of time where this was supposed to be the year. They've imploded again, unfortunately, whereas they're playing the worst team in the league.

And on the second goal, so with this goal, it ended up putting Detroit up 2-0. And it was right at the end of the period. What the interviewer might not have known is Reinhardt was at the end of like a minute and 45-second shift, apparently. That's what I've been told. So I think they were buzzing offensively where it ended up being a break the other way, and he got caught as like the fucking kind of the last man back

on a two-on-one. I think sometimes when you're out there that long you just don't have the legs you're done you're toast and he also probably realized it was very late in the period and he could see the time winding down so he's pretty much in like not good decision making mode the legs are shutting down he's just praying that that fucking clock goes to zero before that puck crosses the line. And in a season from hell, all of a sudden, again, they fucking go down 2-0, end up losing that game in overtime to the worst team in the league.

And this media member's probably seen enough. And Reinhardt's situation doesn't look good. And he gets challenged. And Reinhardt, rightfully so, probably considering he's like, bro, it was a minute and 45 seconds, and you're going to fucking tee me up for that right now? Like maybe take a little bit of a deeper dive as to why the system shut down and the brain did too.

You got to like, but once again, he hammered him on it, and of course Reinhardt was pissed. But fast forward to Tuesday night against Detroit, Reinhardt gets his redemption, maybe too late for public opinion in Buffalo anyway, but he gets the game winner. So at least, you know, a little bit of redemption, I guess. He was straight-legging it. Straight leg.

Chopstick. Chopstick dance. And on video, it looks kind of bad, but I actually don't think he would have been able to do anything. Maybe a swing of the stick and he gets a penalty and Larkin doesn't score. That's ideal. So he could have maybe saved the goal,

but he had absolutely nothing chasing one of the fastest guys in the league. And he thinks, oh, my God, if this passes one centimeter of a way off, then the clock's going to end. And, of course, like you said, he buries it with.1 seconds left. We call it the chopstick dance. You can't really bend your knees anymore. The question, like, no former player or current player ever wants to get asked that right after a loss.

But I understand why the guy asked it. It's like he kept pushing it, like, the third or fourth time. He was like, why not? Like, dude, he's not going to answer the question. So I don't blame him for asking it originally. Once you realize he's not going to answer it, then he tries being, like, in an argument with the guy mid-scrum. It's like, bro, move bro move on dude he's obviously

not answering your question i would i would be very hot after a loss like that when that gets called into question if you're the guy like won't drop it he likes he's like chirping you he i mean he brings a cue or cue i mean quick i'm trying to eat my steak at earls in edmonton listen is there is there a couple buffalo fans that are like, fuck yeah, we need that, fuck him, we need to win. Hey, I'm not going to argue with you. You're paying for tickets and you're pissed off and I get it. So that's how I saw the whole situation.

It was just a cosmic storm and just another shit sandwich for the Buffalo Sabres. Yeah, more or less. Boys, we obviously give injury updates every week. This week, it's a tough one, man. There's a lot of big names. The Oilers are already in a big playoff race anyways. Well, the degree of difficulty just got a little bit tougher for them as they lost

all Galaxy Center. Conor McDavid with a quad injury. He's going to be out two to three weeks. There's no ideal time to lose Conor McDavid, but during the playoff rush, it's less than ideal, so Edmonton's got to stay afloat until he gets back. We got an update on a couple of other Oilers as well. James Neal was placed on

IR retroactive to January 30th as he continues to deal with the foot injury. He had a little bit of a setback per Kenny Holland, and Chris Russell began skating, and he's feeling a little bit better, getting closer to coming out of concussion protocol, but he's still in the IR. Over in Colorado, Nazem Kadri is expected to miss multiple weeks

with a lower body injury. It happened in Sunday's win in Minnesota. It's a tough loss for the Avs, losing your second center. He's obviously a key contributor on both sides of the puck, but I don't know, Colorado, they should be able to withstand his loss. Go ahead, Biz. Well, I just wanted to hop in on the fact that you know of course it's never good McDavid going down you

know Coyotes are in a playoff race with them as well like I want Connor McDavid in the lineup every night this guy's as you mentioned all galaxy shift the focus here to I'm sure that Dreisaitl is probably in the heart conversation I I don't know. I haven't looked that deeply into that yet. But if this guy's able to keep this team afloat and where they're at, if not even exceed them a little bit during McDavid's absence, he 100% has to be the frontrunner if he already isn't. In his first game without McDavid in a big 5-3 win over the Blackhawks, he posted his fourth performance with four-plus points this season

for the Edmonton Oilers, tied with McDavid and McKinnon for the most in the 2019-2020 season. So this guy is in that realm of MVP conversation. If he's able to pull a Crosby and a Malkin here where one of them get hurt, the other one just says, okay, guys, hop on. He's, to me, he's the heart candidate. If you want, if you're a hockey fan of high-level speed and super skilled setups, go check out the highlights from that game

and look at Patrick Kane's assists. It was a joke. But Edmonton came back and got a huge win. They were down a couple times, I think, in that game. McDavid, man, he's so fast. It's almost... Now, granted, this injury was totally fluke.

Run into a guy. The goalie's playing the puck or whatever happened right beneath the goal line. So it wasn't related to him how fast he is and if people are able to just catch a clip of him. But still, it's scary to think that he's kind of battling something again. And granted, it doesn't sound serious at all, but any time after you've heard what he went through this summer,

you get a little scared, right? We can't have this guy at any point being out for a long period of time. The game's too good with him involved. Dreitzel, I love what you say, Biz. Makes total sense to me. Dominant. I think if you're the coach of the team or the GM, you go up to him and you just say,

you've seen before what Crosby and Malkin do when one guy goes out. Like, this is your chance to just carry us. As insulting as it sounds, would you consider Dreitzel McDavid'savid's sidekick is that rude language in language because considering he's malcolm to his crosby correct okay yeah nobody will ever think he's well then no there are there are going to be people who think that dry tell is better than mcdavid and malcolm's better than crosby but it is not the majority. I'll say that. Is that fair? That's fair.

That's a fair statement. Well, I was going to mention another sidekick, Rantanen, and I don't know if you guys saw his goal against the Ottawa Senators. This guy, man, he's in that conversation where it wouldn't surprise me if one year he ended up in a heart race and if not winning it. He's that special of a player. So if you haven't seen that goal against the Ottawa Senators the other night, go check it out. That was,

that was Sidney Crosby, like backhand. There we go. Steve Stamkos is a little banged up. He said to have a nagging lower body issue, but Cooper hopes to have him back Thursday. And Seth Jones had to get ankle surgery. He's going to be missing 8-10 weeks.

And it's interesting that you pointed out that a trio of top-tier D-men in the Metro are missing while their squads have to battle without them. You've got Seth Jones in Columbus, Dougie Hamilton, of course, broke his leg for Carolina, and Adam Pellick had a freak Achilles tendon injury.

He's out for the rest of the season for the Islanders. It's crazy, man. I'm not going to blame it on this. Guys, I would like to see the schedule reduced a little bit just to maybe keep guys healthier. It'll never happen. I know. How perfect would 68 games be?

I would say 69 would be better. I would even say that. 72? Drop 10? 72? I would say 76 would be a very fair number. Oh, so you're just looking to gas six. You're just looking to start slow. It makes the world of difference. Yeah, I know.

If anything, it'd be adding games. That's the scary part. You know what people say? People say settle at no back-to-backs, which I think is a... But because of scheduling and money, I can understand why they don't do it. So that might take another bigger chunk of the escrow. But I just – I think it would benefit the league too

because the product would be better. Because these guys are – some nights these guys are just so fucking banged up. Now, ask them to take their salaries a little bit back. They'd be like, no, fuck you, biz. Shut the fuck up. They don't want to say goodbye to 10 gates, you know what I mean, or five gates or whatever. Yeah, well, if they keep shorting those seats up, they can do it in Boston. You'll be fucking sitting on people's laps.

You'll sell lap seats. New record for the fucking beanpot. They're like, oh, biggest crowd ever for a beanpot. It's like, yeah, because you've got fucking 17 fucking people sitting on top. Oh, what happened? Wasn't there a crazy game? Well, yeah, first off, the Garden also people sitting on top of each other. Oh, what happened? Wasn't there a crazy game? Well, yeah. First off, the Garden also announced that they're going to change the seats now.

They're going to change the seats in the balcony and make them bigger because everyone was bitching so much. But yeah, the B-Pot was fucking nuts. Last minute goal by BU. It sucks that Northeastern took it. Sorry, Whit. The worst. One of the worst penalty calls you'll ever see in double overtime, Biz. Oh, on a soft trip?

Dude. That wasn't even a trip. My buddy, Ryan Shea, captain of Northeastern. Great kid. Father Dan. I love you guys. But he was just falling over, and this kid Harper from BU standing next to him. And then all of a sudden,

two minutes on Harper, he didn't even do anything. And they scored Northeastern double overtime. Did you see McAvoy? McAvoy's words about it were pissed. He's like, this is typical hockey East officials just taking the game into their own hands.

Yeah, that's a tough, that one. So maybe, maybe at a reservation, maybe at a restaurant. It was already like own hands. That was pathetic. Yeah, that's a tough one. Maybe at a reservation. Dude, it was already like 11.30. It was a joke of a call. Maybe it closed at 12. Maybe you had to get out the door, but that's soft.

Double OT, I'm going medieval time dinner and tournaments. If you chop your head off, you're going to maybe sit for two. I'll maybe give you a minute. We'll cut it in half. What's interesting is for NCAA purposes, the game gets graded as a tie because it's tight. I mean, even though they got a winner, but they need to determine a winner to see who won the Beanpot, but technically the game goes in the books

for NCAA reasons as a tie. I got a handful of tweets. It looks like the Beanpot might have want some viewers over up in the Great White North. A lot of Canadians tagged in and said, hey, I never even knew about this thing. This is some of the best hockey I've ever seen. So pretty cool to get some college fans up north. I know Juniors

are the king up there, but nice to see people paying attention to the Beanpot. And hey, this year, the Sandbagger Invitational is brought to you by Boikies. I love you by boikies i love them this is that boikies b-o-i-k-e-y-s boikies makes the most delicious air-dried beef called biltong think of a healthier version of jerky with 30 percent more protein of course this is from our boy tim stapleton boikies biltong is often compared to a tender and flavorful slice of high-end prosciutto with ingredients that you can pronounce like red wine vinegar,

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You can buy Boyke's Biltong on their website at www.boikeys.com and go to Amazon and use the biz 20 promo code at checkout to get 20% off your first order. You can also follow him at Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at eat boy geese. Again, that's our buddy,

Tim Stapleton. So support Timmy, man. He's a, he's a great guy. He's made you laugh. So hook them up. And the,

and it is delicious man. Every time we're on the road, he sends us some, so it's good shit. Uh, it's not all bad for the oil is, uh, they did we're on the road, he sends us some, so it's good shit. It's not all bad for the Oilers. They did extend defenseman Don L. Nurse for two years, $11.2 million. The Oil locks up a big part of their future.

What was your take on this, if any? I like this guy so much because he's also maybe the toughest guy on the team. I mean, he can skate. I think he continues to get better, like watching him play, like decision-making wise. He, he, it's never been an issue for him like physicality or anything because he's so strong himself and he's so willing to fight anyone, you know, he's mean, he plays angry, which makes him that much better. And then he's able to add some offense. He's just,

he's a really, really good player. It makes sense. He was a high draft pick and I understand completely getting him locked up. You said it was two years, right? Yeah, two years, 11.2. Yeah, so a lot of money. I'm wondering if they talk long-term. I wish I did know that. I probably could have figured that out, but I don't.

So I'll still take it if you're an Oilers fan. He's such a competent defenseman, and to add that element of, I believe he plays penalty kill and even power play. He's got a bomb of a shot. To have a guy who's lugging that much time, who's also able to police your blue line, where if there's guys who go to the net and they come near the goalies, he's the guy who's going to give you a cross check and he'll say, I'll cave your fucking face in. And most guys guys in this league he can cave their fucking face in and he's also the type of guy where if he ended up fighting ryan reeves and they ended up tying i wouldn't be

surprised he uh i i want to say like well we we talked about him earlier in the show like a kevin bx dude he wasn't fucking fucking around he was gonna fight and he was fighting you you're not you're gotten you're not getting an easy route to the net. And to have a guy who's able to play to his caliber and also have that, that is extremely valuable. And I'm happy for him too because he doesn't spend money like a complete asshole. So that contract right there, he's set.

If you blow that money, Darnell, you're an asshole. You're set for life there, pal. Yeah, good move by the Oilers, no doubt. So far, there have been four members of the 2006 draft class to reach 800 points. Jonathan Taves became the latest, joining Nicholas Backstrom, Phil Kessel, and Claude Giroux, all four of those guys. I know Giroux did it a couple weeks back, so shout out to that class,

one of the best draft classes of all time. Biz, did you have a story about Saginaw that you wanted to share? Oh, I'm just going there for Valentine's Day. I'm going to drop the puck. I'm really excited to go back. Yeah, I'm going back. That was where I played junior. I was the captain of an OHL team, man.

That was cool for like the one year when it lasted. And then you're like, this guy's a psycho. And they stripped the sea. They stripped the sea and traded him. I fought like three fucking teammates that year in practice because that's how intense. I was an intense guy back then, dude. Yawker.

I was a bit like Pronger where – What do you mean? Are you not intense anymore? No, I'm – I meant at the fact that like I was like I could harp on guys because I was actually somewhat better than them, where I'd be like, yo, wake the fuck up. Let's go.

But I was usually the guy who was fucking up the drill, not because I wanted to at the NHL level. So anyway, going back there, it should be fun. I'll go say hi to the crowd and bring in my girlfriend because it's valentine's day this is like i haven't slept one minute boys and i'm the fucking best player out here what's your excuse no i wasn't drinking i didn't drink back then okay they're gonna have i was a part i was a bit of a hard-o guys i need some older brotherly advice uh i don't know what

to get my girl for valentine's day are you supposed to get him like an actual gift you just do no just bring her for dinner and get her flowers just like communicate if if you if you got a girl who's expecting like uh materialistic bullshit yeah i just want to spend time with my we'll go for a nice dinner but she like i'll get her flowers but unfortunately i'll be in colorado making content but oh well then you'll have to get her flowers, but... Unfortunately, I'll be in Colorado making content, but... Oh, well, then you'll have to send her flowers and say, baby... And especially Grinnell, if you get something nice, then it's got to be as nice or nicer the next year.

Like, don't, you know... Yeah, you don't want to set the bar too high. Don't set the bar too high here. Well, I know, I'm sure you guys can attest to this. I think the move is, and I've done this before. I'm sure what it has is you get her. I'll eat your pussy punch card and it's got 10 spots in it. And then she can use it whenever. So then if she, she uses it because you, Hey, I got the punch card.

And then you're like, I actually. Last year was the first year I did it, but it worked out good. So I'll do it again. And this may work for you, Grinnelly. I go downstairs and I lather my entire naked body up with honey and then I stick chocolate. Oh, yeah. Red chocolate flower petals that she can eat off me and lick the honey.

So it's awesome. I've done that as well. And then the house cleaner, Sonia, she comes in. And so I don't have to clean up the honey in the kitchen. It's awesome. Can I borrow Sonia? Sonia wants to get in, so I don't have to clean up the honey in the kitchen. It's awesome. Can I borrow Sonia? Sonia wants to get paid. She works for me.

She is an absolute workhorse. It's not like you're going to get for free. Another option, I'm sure R.A. has done this one, is you automatically assume they're like, oh, it's Valentine's Day. I want to be a little more frisky. So you call back pages, you get a hook hooker over and you blindfold her and surprise her. Just have her completely naked in the room there waiting and you'll blindfold your girl. You'll walk her in and surprise and you're going to have a threesome.

You'll have massages for the rest of the year, guaranteed. I'll report back how that one goes. All right. Okay. They should give out tie-dye shirts for like all when you're night in saginaw they should have the other team the team warm up with tie-dye fucking jerseys on they could raffle why is that why tie-dye a little because it's like the mushroom stuff you know like oh the kind of ties in well you get like a like a shoulder patch with like a mushroom fucking on the shoulder patch we should make spitting chiclets ones where patch with a mushroom fucking on the shoulder patch. We should make Spittin' Chicklets ones where they have the mushroom

on the shoulder pad area. Yeah, or like Dancing Bears, too. Yeah. Dancing Bears is good stuff. What is that, fish? Does fish do all that shit? Grateful Dead started the Dancing Bears stuff. Have you ever actually seen them?

Yeah, what's the story behind the bears? Why bears? The the dancing bears man if you're tripping good enough on mushrooms and you you get zoned out enough you'll literally you'll see those dancing bears they just they just do somersaults like endlessly somersaults you can i've seen the dancing bears before okay i mean they're not really there you hold so wait shroom i've never done shroom. If you do shrooms, you see dancing bears. It's like a known thing. Listen, there's a difference between what I do every day. Wait.

There's a difference between... Sorry, Biz. No, I was going to say, there's a difference between doing what I do every day and then a few times where I've actually gone like, whoa, yo, this is fucked. I got halfway there when we were on the golf course. I didn't get all the way there.

I didn't see these dancing bears. Now, mind you, the two times I have been really like on shrooms, having a blast, I've never seen the dancing bears. Yeah, it could be the environment too. I mean, like I used to, up school, you'd be in a room with like four or five guys and like if there's smoke wafting through the ears, that's where you could get the visuals. But yeah, they're obviously not there, but it's weird.

It's just like the bears doing like cartwheels. I mean, I'd love to. It's crazy, yeah. I'd love to see the bears. If you take enough of them in a controlled environment. The bears. The bears. Hey, did you hear AV announcing a start and goal the other night?

He dropped a car to hot during this presser. Then he kind of chuckled to himself. I don't know if the press guys got it or not. Hey, speaking of biz, I know you're all about the games, but what's going on with EA lately? We got the bumper slumps, okay? We couldn't use the word dump because it was a little offensive. It was a little rude.

I don't want to be hammering on these players. You know we're softies, okay? So we're going to bump up our boy Bennington, plus six, which makes him a 95 overall now. You come on the podcast, you get a little... Like you're eating the mushroom in

Super Mario Brothers. Another bump. Brady Kachuk, plus four, which makes him a 92 overall now. He's been getting some dust-ups. He's really developing that overall game. Chuck on the Knucks. And you guys know we're a little bit more old school.

And speaking of slumps, not dumps, slumps, Wierenski. We're going to give him a little minus five, which makes him an 86. And some of you Columbus fans are like, oh, what are you doing? He's playing awesome, you fucking idiot. Oh idiot oh yeah but he's dodging the podcast twice or what is that three times he's canceled on us to come on this podcast we got we got memories like elephants over here Wierenski okay and on top of that I should be a two-time Calder Cup champion but I'm only a one time because we ran into you in the Western Conference Finals the one year,

and you came out of nowhere, and you were silky smooth, my friend. So we're going to bump you down, peckerhead. And we said it in the Eichel interview, Biz has the power

to make someone a 99 overall. It may be the most, you know, powerful thing that Biz has in his arsenal. So send us over names that you think we should make a 99

because Biz can do it. Anyway, we can move on. What more hockey talk do we got? I did miss one detail in the Toronto LA trade last week. The initial report I read, I didn't realize there was a condition on one of the draft picks. The 2021 third-round pick, that will become a second-round pick if Toronto re-signs Clifford or the Leafs make the playoffs and Kimball wins six regular season games.

So there was just a condition on that trade I was unaware of. Going to do a quick gambling corner. I'm drawing back a little bit. Instead of picking three, four games, I'm just going to go one Thursday night. Columbus is at Buffalo. I'm assuming Elvis is going to be in the net, and we're going to go Columbus. Regulation only. I don't know what they is going to be in the net and we're going to go Columbus. Regulation only. I don't know what they're going to be in the money line, but I like this regulation only if I

just like a team to win. You don't have to lay as much juice. So we're assuming Columbus is going to be the favorite, so it'll be minus a half, probably like minus 110, sometimes even money, but that's the lone play. Columbus at Buffalo Thursday night. Regulation only, minus the half. So that's it for that. Columbus at Buffalo Thursday night. Regulation only minus the half.

So that's it for that. Biz, I played golf Monday with Jovo and Theodore at Adios Sick Men's Club in Florida, and it was so funny. I think at some point we might get both those guys. No promises, but you know Jovo's lines, man. It's just – I would have to get Jovo alive, and what I would do is I would probably play sacrificial lamb

where I would chirp him a little bit, and then he would start firing back the cocky lines to me, and I would be the sacrificial lamb, and we need Jovo being like just going after me. Because that's when he's at his best is when he's just chirping the poor guys. Or maybe we'll make already the sacrificial lamb. Just dangle a carrot. No, I'll take the bullet for the boys.

But what about Theodore? Oh, what a guy. I'd never met him. I know he's a great guy, but can you come on and let it fly? I don't know. I didn't even bring it up. So me saying that we might get him is just a complete guess, but maybe at some point.

Who knows? He's got some great stories. Even just busting out the Jurgens and listening to him tell about how he won MVP when he was with the Montreal Canadiens as their goalie. Like, that's fucking. You think that's legendary? Most handsome guy in the National Hockey League. Like, celebrities want to get at him and shit.

So that would be a cool get. We didn't really go into depth about Shea Weber. Yeah, interesting story out of kind of the hockey world and hockey media here in which Nick Kiprios, I think it was today, he tweeted out that he kind of had sources that said that Shea Weber's season, sources say Shea Weber's injury has his season likely over and his future in question.

Told the injury is related to the foot that was surgically repaired in 2018. While waiting for swelling to alleviate and further confirmation, surgery seemed unavoidable going into this week. Well, after that happened, it came out in a couple different reports that Shea Weber was pissed off to hear that his future was in jeopardy and that he thinks he's going to be okay. The Canadians come out tonight with a tweet saying Shea Weber expected to miss four to six weeks with an ankle sprain, in which Kiprios retweeted saying, that's hopeful for the Canadians. Shea fully recovers in four to six weeks. I'm sorry, that's what is hopeful for them. But I stand by

my story about that the Montreal Canadiens' concern going into this week was tendon-related and not optimistic for his return. Long-term questions, I believe, remain. Well, I'll hop in there. I believe he's flying to Wisconsin to meet a specialist, is the latest I heard. And it's the same specialist that did suitors foot surgery or ankle surgery a few years ago. Now, this may be false information that I read.

The doctor who performed the surgery on Weber's foot years ago is Dr. Robert Anderson in Green Bay. So Shea Weber's already had this done, I believe, on the other foot. So this is something that he's familiar with where, I mean, didn't you have to go through something where you had the both problems on, on, on each feet? Yeah, I actually, I, I'm pretty sure I saw that he saw Dr. Anderson in Charlotte, which is where I had my, all my surgeries done. Um, yeah, I mean, I had an osteotomy of my left foot. Then I had to get it on my right foot, which is they cut a piece out of your bone to like lower lower your arch i don't think that's any of the stuff that he's dealing with but it's certainly something serious enough where he's already had surgery and now there's questions

around like kiprio saint making that up you know what i mean listen i read that i don't remember where i got on twitter i'm not arguing with you i'm just saying that's the last i read oh no i know i could have been so i might be completely wrong i was i was just saying that's the last I read of it. Oh, no, I know. I could have been – so I might be completely wrong. I was just saying what I read. No, I just think that there's something going on there. I don't believe that – I think that if he is back at four to six weeks, things went as good as possible and that there was probably a chance, still right now I don't know, but definitely at some point

that it was really serious. So we'll see what happens. But without but without him i mean they stand almost no chance to make playoffs they're obviously also losing right now to david poshrock it's 3-1 him um with and and i guess the overall is if it is maybe remotely more serious just shut him down because like if if it gets worse than now it it could be career-threatening, at least from what I'm reading. But I might be getting mine from a fake Don Cherry account or something that I followed by accident.

I'm following Rick from Red Deer, and it's fucking tweeting all this nonsense out. Fucking idiot. Ron Strawberry. Currently eight points back of the second wild card. So, yeah, this could get away from him quick. And shutting him down will make him even worse and, in yeah, this could get away from them quick. And shutting them down will make them even worse and in theory

get them a better fucking draft pick. I got shit for R2D3. It's R2D2, right? Dude, I don't watch Star... I've never watched a Star Trek in my life. So how am I supposed to understand?

I knew it was R2D something, and then I'm catching shrapnel from all over the place that I got his name wrong. Yeah, I don't watch Star Trek either. Terrible. That stuff's terrible. Yeah, catching Alderaan shrapnel. Yeah.

No Star Trek over here. Okay, so do we mention Chara? He finally got his 1500th game stick and all these people are being poopy pants online because we already mentioned it happened in November. Seriously, do we have to notify every time they get a gift? Well, this week, Chara got a

rocking chair for his 1500th. Everyone has to know that. It's the same one Witt sat in when he played. It's like, yeah, we told you when he played his 1,500th game. We don't have to give you every fucking update for the silver stick and the fucking this and that and the other. I got a few positive things here, though. Jack Hughes scored and collected his 20th point of the season,

seven goals, 13 assists. Only three 18-year-olds have eclipsed the 20-point mark in a season in the New Jersey Devils franchise history. Kirk Muller, Nico Hichier, and Paul Gagné. So I just wanted to give some positive news. I know it hasn't been a mind-blowing first season for Jack Hughes. He is still extremely young, and I've kind of been dogging on the Jersey Devils a little bit so my apologies this kid's still very young I think he's gonna fucking pop off um I I got word from Mike Kelly who works for NHL Network a hockey analyst numbers guy Kevin Hayes has five breakaway goals this year more than 20 teams in the NHL.

He is just dominating the breakaway goal scene in the 2019-2020 NHL season. So shout out to our boy, KP Hayes. All right, boys. That wraps up another doozy of an episode, hopefully, and everyone enjoys it and has a great weekend out there. Take care, everybody. As always, we'd like to give a big hearty thank you to all our awesome sponsors,

and hopefully you listeners have taken full advantage of these awesome companies. First off, our friends over at Dunkin' for hooking us up at tryouts Wednesday, and they're going to be taking care of us at the tournaments as well. Big thanks to Thursday Boot for coming back and being a sponsor.

Once again, they got some great products. Do check them out. Boyke's Beef Jerky from our buddy Tim Stapleton. Thanks to them. I've tried this stuff. It's fantastic. Some of my favorite jerky. Of course, Bud Light Salsa.

We want to give a big thanks to them. They're going to be sponsoring us as well at the Pond Hockey Tournament. And a thank you to EA Sports as well, letting biz change everybody's rating and score and all that stuff. Plus, it's old school for me, man. That's my original hockey game, too, from back in the day. So score and all that stuff. Plus it's old school for me, man. That's my original hockey game too from back in the day. So thanks to all our sponsors. Once again, hopefully you all take an advantage of it.

Take care, everybody. Why?