Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 261: Featuring Brian Burke

Episode Date: April 13, 2020

On Monday’s episode of Spittin’ Chiclets the guys are joined by Brian Burke. Burkie joined (28:34) the guys while they were in Toronto a few weeks back to discuss his career, the Kevin Lowe fight, the draft process for GMs, and a ton more. Before Burkie joins, the guys open the podcast with some heartbreaking news that Colby Cave of the Edmonton Oilers passed away. The guys also talk about the Easter Bunny, Whit’s first playoff game, SNL, and more.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 261 of Spittin' Chicklets presented by Pink Whitney from our friends over at New Amsterdam Vodka here on the Barstool Sports Podcast family. We'll say hi to the boys in a second. This is a tough episode to start off. This is the awful kind of news we never want to bring to people, but I'm sure everybody's aware that Colby Cave, a forward in the Edmonton Oilers organization,

passed away Friday night after suffering a brain bleed earlier in the week. He was in a medically induced coma. Apparently, he never woke up Tuesday morning. Doctors removed a colloid cyst from his brain to reduce swelling. And his wife had posted a few Instagram posts, basically asking for prayers and that they needed a miracle. And unfortunately we all woke up to the news Saturday, just a gut punch to anybody connected to hockey in any way.

A 25-year-old guy cut down the prime, and then when you learn about his story, an undrafted kid who everybody loved, and he battled and battled, and he scored his first goal at the Bruins last year. You watch that clip, and you get reduced to tears because knowing how to play it out. We're all in mourning here.

I guess I will go to Whit first. I don't know if you reached out to anybody or talked to anybody who might have known him. Yes, Ari, that was very well said. Everyone's just heartbroken, and you wake up and you see that. It's just shock. So you want to say, you know, thoughts and prayers, and you're just thinking so much of his wife and his family,

and it just makes no sense. That's right. I mean, the guy, he's a machine, healthy as can be, fantastic athlete. I talked to – who did I talk to? Wags, Chris Wagner on the Bruins. As everyone else is just completely shocked and heartbroken. And then he said he was the best kid. He said he never complained one time.

And he, and so, you know, like just always had a smile on his face. And you think of, you know, what could have been. And it's just, it's a brutal thing. And hockey's like such a strong community. It's just like, it's close close-knitted and I don't even know if that makes sense close-knitted is that even a term but Jesus you you meet a hockey player and you you have something in common that just if you didn't play you wouldn't really understand I know that sounds crazy but you just it's it's a community it's a

it's a it's such a special thing at least all of us right most people who listen and so you just feel it right like it was same thing with Humboldt because it could have been could have been you could have been your buddy so you start rambling on but no other words besides heartbroken and and for his family and his wife uh we're thinking of you yeah um this is obviously fucking a kick to the nuts to the hockey community i'm gonna have a hard time speaking on this um i think everyone in everyone's life they've met somebody who's worked so hard and kind of been under underdog story to get where they are and it just so happens this kid who I didn't know much about before this happened um you know he got to live out his dream and then you hear about all these stories about how appreciative he was of even just being there

and he didn't take one day for granted and um you know and and he was just so kind to his teammates that there was a few tweets about when he would get called up, probably just like when he was getting sent down, he would go into the, say hi to all the arena people. And when they would have kids who were lined up on the bench before games, he'd always be the guy I would go over and make them all feel welcome, even though we had an NHL game to worry about. And all the messages on Twitter start rolling out,

and, you know, you all the the messages on twitter start rolling out and you know you just kind of lose it and then and then after um after his sister and his wife post what they did you just that uh his sister sent us a message did you see that i didn't know no yeah she um she said he was always so competitive a natural leader he would never hesitate to take a few minutes to chat and and from what she heard he was a character they called him farm animal in the dressing room which is suiting because they grew up on a farm so we we're thinking of you, right? I mean, I don't know what else you can say because it's really hard to tell stories

that you've read about them as you can tell listening to a stalk. But you just think of someone that's gone too soon and thoughts and prayers. Yeah, it's just a devastating thing. Life isn't fair, like you said, Whit. I mean, since we've done the show, I've lost a couple of close friends and do we ask these questions what why does it happen

there's no answer sometimes in life and you know just to piggyback what you said business is a kid who'd been up and down quite a bit you know a lot of guys get aggravated with that stuff he never bitched once he always appreciated it you know always was smiling and you know uh his agent did want to clarify the death was unrelated to the pandemic. I know people try to maybe make connections or whatever, but there was also an interview with his coach from juniors, Mark Lamb. And he was voted unanimous captain when he, when he was in juniors, unanimous, like every single guy on the team, you know,

voted for him to be the captain. And, you know, we were lucky to get him here in Boston for a little bit. He got his first goal here, like I mentioned earlier. So, you know, the fans got to know him a little bit here and everybody just fell in love with the guy. And like you said, there's not much more we can say is how heartbroken and sad we are in our deepest sympathies and condolences to his family, his wife and all his friends and peers. We can't apologize enough for it. If you guys had anything else you wanted to add, we can.

It's hard to move on from this. It is. It's not easy. It's not. It's not easy to do. You know, I think it's just only so much you can add to it. It's just fucking devastating. And we're all fucking heartbroken here.

We're all devastated. Okay, everybody, thank you for listening there. We just want to get the major important news out of the way, and now we're going to do what we do here and do our goofy little introductions and say hi to everybody and see how the rest is going in our course. Producer Mikey Grinelli, what's going on, buddy?

How's it going? What's going on, boys? I'm trying to keep a positive attitude despite the fact that I got shit pumped by Noah Hennepin last night in NHL 20 on our Twitch channel. Make sure to subscribe and follow us there. But other than that, like I said, just trying to keep a positive attitude. There you go.

Biz, how you doing? You got a little company there. You're smiling a little more these days, right? Yeah, it was a great weekend. Went on a couple hikes, went and worked out with my girl. We brought the dog and just, man, it's been fun having her here. I got my best friend back. Make sure you don't want to post any more pictures and you get all the crude comments.

Any more pictures moving forward, no comments allowed. Just eggplant emojis and stuff or just rude comments? I basically just have to put a caption if I'm going to allow comments just carving me in every which way. So it'd be like, yeah, I know i already said that

oh like um right here in the caption what's the movie eight mile when he says all those things about he's a rabbit i did go to private school fair yeah yeah an eggplant there's a vegetable not a fruit by the way not now that we're mentioning it yeah yeah that was a tough we should talk about that we had a family feud game which of course it was a an embarrassing showing um i got put on the spot right off the hop in order to sing the national anthem now i hope i don't get criticized for that because i i get nervous when i get put on the spot like that so i was unable to execute for from there there on out it was all downhill but some of these answers that they were coming up with guys this wit i'll throw it to you.

Oh, man. I just think we got screwed on the thumbs up. I thought the last one, Grinnelli won. If you never get the chance to really guess, how are you going to win? Those guys just, whenever they got it, they ended up getting all of them. The one time that we were pissed off at each other was – oh, I wanted to say strawberry but i was coconut anyway then the nose the nose one didn't one of them look like a nose or something and yeah just to explain that eggplant joke uh we played the bus and with the boys fellas on uh

family feud friday night it was it was fun it was a good time i was a big feud guy when i was a kid and there was a question relating to fruits and it said, what fruit looks most like a body part? Basically, that was the gist of it. And one of the answers was eggplant. It's like, eggplant's a vegetable. This isn't like tomato, or some people, you know, that's been a long time argument. Tomato's a fruit, tomato's a veggie. I've literally never heard an eggplant referred

to as a fruit. I've grown up with a ton of Italians, so we had a little bit of a dispute there, but we got our ass kicked either way. It was hosted by PFT as well. Bussing with the boys, I believe both of them still play in the NFL, correct? Or is Will Compton retired? I don't know if Will's currently with the team, but Tyler One's still with the Titans, though.

Yeah, and then who was the other guy they had on? He's an NFLer as well, correct? It was Dennis Kelly. He also plays for the Titans. Yeah, so these guys whooped us up and down, man. These guys are some beasts. They were getting beat down mentally and physically. We were just getting pushed back

all game. Had nothing. And that's the Whit Dog, Ryan Whitney, of course. What's going on, buddy? How's things with you, pal? Solid. Solid. How was your Easter? Easter Sunday. Quarantined Easter. So we had the, listen to this, it's like the neighborhood sends an email.

We're going to have a bunny come around, 20 bucks. You get a social distance picture with the bunny. Obviously we're doing that one. So the bunny shows up, riders going bananas. Stay away from me, bunny. Get out of my face. Scary. Losing his mind.

The bunny turns around. I'm going to say he's 35 feet from us. Turns around. So the picture's taken. We're like, what the hell just happened? The picture comes in. Sure enough, because you know the wife's waiting for the picture. Sure enough, the picture.

You can't even see who the three people are that is us. You only got the focus on the bunny 30 feet in front of us. So it's just been a gong show in terms of maybe trying to get another picture, talking about superimposing the bunny. Because listen, guys, you got to have Easter picture with the bunny, right? That's what the wife says. That's a wrap. You guys knew that. It's a law.

It's a law in the country, federal law. You have to have a bunny picture with a kid. I got the Christmas card. Do I get the bunny picture as well? No. You send those out. This isn't a card. It's for –

Well, can I subscribe for these photos? I'll send you it. All right, thank you. That's a racket too going to – 20 bucks. The guy made probably 350 bucks, stayed 35 feet from everyone and just sweated his back off in a giant bunny costume. The reason I say that is this kid might grow up to be some hockey superstar

because I saw you training him, taking one-timers in your Instagram story. I think he's a righty, which is crazy. I'm a lefty, but he's grabbing the stick, top hand, left hand, on the top of the stick, and he's whacking over there. I said, I think you're a righty. That means you're a righty, right? I mean, I feel like the top hand. Grinnelly nods his head.

I wouldn't take full confirmation just because Grinnell's nodding his head, okay? I would maybe backtrack this. I'm more asking you. I'm more looking at you. Okay. Well, that's out of my pay grade. Right? Whatever hand you hold the top of the stick with.

I hold it with my right. I don't know. Maybe, but that might be an early sign. You hold it with your right. You're a lefty. That's what I'm saying. Sure. We'll see.

All right. Moving forward. Yeah, before we get to that, actually, we want to let people know our next segment is brought to you by Bud Light Salsa, the great tasting salsa from Bud Light that comes in four delicious flavors. It's unquestionably good.

Bud Light Salsa is a proud sponsor of Spit and Chicklets and also a proud sponsor of the East Coast Hockey League Player Relief Fund Programs, a league that has near and dear to our pal Biz from early in his career. This support will help go to players, coaches, and all the staff that help to make this league a vital part of the hockey community. And a reminder to everyone to stay safe, stay indoors, and luckily you can get your Bud Light Seltzer delivered to you from Drizzly. First-time users can get $5 off with the code BudLight at checkout. Some restrictions do apply.

Again, we're trying to take care of our buddies in the old East Coast Hockey League. Speaking of hockey, Whit, there was an old photo going around the old Swift Twittersphere this week from the 2007 NHL playoffs. First round, Pittsburgh, Ottawa. I'm not sure who scored the goal, but a couple of Senators celebrating in the corner, and there's the old wit dog chewing on the mouthpiece. Looking like I'm in the middle of a five-minute story staring off in his face.

Probably put it right on the fucking Ottawa Senators guy's tape in the slot. A couple of statements I have to make about this picture. And I've talked about that game. I don't know what game. Do you know what game in the series that was? First game. Okay. I've talked about this game in the first period.

If you're a fan of the show, if you are a spitting chiclets, avid listener, as many people claim to be, you know what I'm about to say. Yeah. Game one in Ottawa that year, we'd been horrible the year prior.

Right? I mean, that was a big deal to hop it. Next year we're in the playoffs. In Ottawa that year, we'd been horrible the year prior, right? I mean, that was a big deal to hop it. Next year, we're in the playoffs. You don't understand what playoff hockey is until you get there. So we get into Ottawa, game one, and if at the end of the first period we had two shots, I'd be shocked. They had 20. It was the most dominating 20 minutes you could ever

imagine the ice was slanted right in the wit dog's face i was on my heels i wasn't a great skater to begin with my foot was already kind of really fucked up okay it was not going well at that point my heel was is feeling starting to feel real weird and they came at us so hard that I don't even know if that was a power play or an even strength goal. That not necessarily was a minus right there, guys. You got to understand, I was PKing at the time about the knob. I'm getting questions. The knob, the knob of your stick.

Okay, so I started shaving down the knob of my stick. I don't know why I started doing it. When I started doing it, what happens is you keep doing it too much, more and more, and it's getting smaller and it's getting smaller. And now the joke writes itself. I'm used to holding something that size, which is the truth. So I guess it's not a joke because it is a fact. That is not why my knob was that small.

I just got comfortable over time having a little bit less of a big-ass wooden knob in my palm. There's a joke in there somewhere. And listen, I ended up regretting it because over time, you're not going to be able to shoot the puck as hard if you're not holding on to a bigger area. Do you know what I'm saying? The smaller that is, the less leverage you have.

So it was a terrible knob. It was terrible style. What do you want me to say? It was my first playoff game. All right. My first playoff experience is like, I've never taken LSD, but I would imagine that if I did, it would be like the first time I stepped on an NHL shift

at a playoff game. Cause it was like, it was so much faster than regular season. And I had no, no business belong even in the regular season games. So it was like, everything was just happening and fucking hyper speed. I want to say it was against Detroit and they were just like,

you don't even remember your first playoff game. Well, I believe it was against the Detroit Red Wings. And then I had one against the Chicago Blackhawks and then I had one against the Chicago Blackhawks. And then or maybe two against the Blackhawks. And then one. Fuck off. I don't know. I don't remember my playoff games. Did you fight bowling when you played them in

the playoffs? I don't think that was my first one. That was my second one, I believe. Yeah. And then boom, one second played Gonzo. Sorry, Ari. Back to you. That's all right. I'm shocked that you've never actually taken LSD before, Biz. No. Just anywhere in life, not like recently or anything, just in general.

No, he just has it on Sundays. He's done it on Sundays today. That's one I would stay away from, I think. Probably a good time to mention our guest, the one, the only, Brian Burke. We got him when we were in Toronto for the second of our pond hockey tournaments. And he's Brian Burke, man. He's great.

He had some great stories. I wish we had asked him, you know, about that Thornton trade. That would have been a great scoop to get, but either way, he tells the legendary story about him and Kevin Lowe and the bond. So if you hadn't heard it, we'll allow him to tell it. But what did you want to add? Well, I think it's great that he's in the news. Unfortunately, we're not talking about the current Mike O'Connell beef

where he tried to fight another GM. But Berkey comes on and slings it with us and loves old-school type hockey. And I think everyone's going to enjoy this interview. Yeah, that's our demographic right there. It was awesome. Good chat with him. I could do that. I could have him on every episode.

Yeah. Yeah, and he's got a memory like an elephant too. Yeah, he certainly did. He's definitely not a guy you want to go against in a memory challenge for sure. We've got some other news to share with you as well. This one is per Simon Zemberg on Twitter. SC Bern, the Swiss hockey powerhouse. They get Europe's highest hockey attendance.

They named Florence Schelling, 31, as their new general manager. Schelling is the first female GM of a pro hockey club anywhere. She was also the first woman to play on a Swiss pro men's team. She went to school here in Boston at Northeastern. She's 31 years old. Like I said, first woman ever. So great. Good luck to Florence, man.

That's great for her. She's a pioneer. You know, we're seeing a lot more women taking front office jobs, I should say getting front office jobs at all levels of hockey. So the pressure will be on her. One of the hottest clubs in Switzerland. Actually, they've been struggling lately, so she's expected to turn around. So best of luck to Florence Schelling on the gig.

All about experience. And she's got it. How many times has she been to the Olympics? Or not Olympics. World Championships. I think 10. I think I the Olympics? Or not Olympics, World Championships. I think 10. I think I read. Yeah, that's what I read.

10 times she went to the fucking World Championships. So that's longevity too. So good luck to her. That's awesome. And that was a tongue twister off the hot bar, right?

So nice job on the read there. Holy cow. How could you ever argue too that a woman couldn't scout or be a GM? Because you can, anyone can find out and learn

who what makes a great hockey player right when you see him you know what i mean like such a stupid you don't even have to have been a good hockey player to be a scout my power skating coach when i grew up was nancy girl woman a woman out of the niagara region she's i know but that's a little different than what i'm saying yeah yeah but i'm saying it's like they fucking hey they knew by experience yeah i don't give a shit if it's got a penis or not the fuck is that yeah she used to cut her blade in half and if we weren't skating hard enough she used to fucking whack us in the ass dude she was like the she was basically like a lady from um matilda the cake lady we were like afraid of her and if you got caught talking in line dude she'd fucking embarrass you

she'd throw you out that you do the walk of shame you'd be cory perry doing it in front of all the parents pigeon tossed nancy girl thank you for everything sorry to change it up on on from from one female to another there no no you'll see anyone can learn the game but particularly when you're the first woman to play on a men's pro team in your country then i think you definitely got the credentials. Ten world championships. Congrats to her. Moving along, Minnesota Duluth, Scott Perunovich won the Hobie Baker Award.

The Minnesota native had six goals and 34 assists in 34 games played this year. The defenseman was St. Louis' second-round pick back in the 2018 draft, 45th overall. Won a couple of national championships. Gee, what can you tell us about this young man? Reminds me of like a Scott Niedermeyer type. He slows the game down a lot.

He can play both sides, offensive and defenseman. He's smaller, 5'10", but he's got some wheels on him. I think he's going to be like a Quinn Hughes-esque. I don't think he'll put up as many points, but I think he'll do really well. I think he'll step in and I think he'll do really well. I think he'll step in, and I think he'll do really well. No one's done more in college

hockey than he has the past few years. Two national championships and a Hobey Baker. You people can call G crazy, but he knows more about college hockey than I do, so I'm going with G. And if you can't let us down, though, we're riding on you, G. It's okay. I'll take that. So the Blues,

dude. The Blues are just... Another horseshoe out of their ass. Holy fuck. You guys are... Hey, Caruso, you like this guy coming to town at some point, huh? Seriously, this scout has been bang on, man. Mikey just gave them Scott Niedermeyer and Quinn Hughes.

Here we go. So he doesn't... You think they're re-signing Petro? That means he doesn't sweat. he looks like Grinelli. Our pal Chief had a pretty big scoop. The Blackhawks signed defenseman Ian Mitchell. He was the captain at Denver. Second-round pick from the Blackhawks in 2017, the 57th pick overall. He had 10 goals, 22 assists last year in 36 games.

So love to see the Boston boys getting some scoops. And not only that, to see ESPN give credit. It's a long way from a few years ago when ESPN wouldn't piss on us and we were on fire. Now first reported by Barstool Sports and no one was too pretty happy for us. Okay, so they recognize that that's a big deal in the game? Absolutely. I will say, too, though, their two primary hockey reporters,

Greg Wyshynski, a.k.a. Puck Daddy, and Emily Kaplan. They're very good people. They're good reporters. They're solid reporters. They know that's the way it's supposed to be done, and that's the way they did it. Hey, Wish goes at it. He doesn't – he is afraid.

He fucking gets in there. I love it. He's not afraid of – He's established himself as a character in the media, for sure. Oh, absolutely. He's got about 5% troll in him, which he'll gladly admit to mean we all do you know it's it's fun but no i'm a big wish guy he's yeah i'd be afraid to mess with him i think he's too smart for me yeah he wrote he wrote a book a few years ago too how to watch like the game of hockey away from the ice it was pretty

good pretty good did emily caplan not cover this story about um uh but the woman becoming the general manager um i i read this the story in the athletic becoming the general manager? I read the story in The Athletic, but Emily did write about it as well. She's a great reporter as well. Emily, she's a nice kid. What's their podcast? Puck Soup? No, that's his other one that he does with the other... It's ESPN...

We can move on. ESPN on ice. Oh, there it is. Puck Soup, and those are two of his. So congr on ice. Oh, there it is. Okay. Yeah. All right. Those are two of his, so congrats and fucking right. Snap it around. Snap it around. There we go.

On Friday, the Kings announced that defenseman Curtis McDermott agreed to a two-year, $1.75 million contract extension through the 2021-22 season. McDermott, he's become a regular on the blue line for the Kings this last season. Three goals, five assists, and a career-high 45 games thus far. Frequently teamed with Sean Walker on L.A.'s third pairing. He's got 13 points, 115 penalty minutes during parts of three seasons with the Kings.

He was an undrafted free agent who signed there back in 2012, and he spent parts of the last four seasons with the Ontario Reign. You're familiar with them, right, Biz? Yeah. I don't know if I ever told you guys the time I herniated my disc in the middle. the Ontario Reign. You're familiar with them, right, Biz? Yeah. Oh, I don't know if I ever told you guys the time I herniated my disc in the middle of a shift there. We talked about the video that they had of Teddy. We need to get the video from Mike Stothers of when I was back checking

and my back seized up because I herniated a disc, dude. It is fucking – it's hard to walk. Did you just go right up? Oh, right up, dude. I is fucking... It's hard to walk. Did you just go right up? Oh, right up, dude. I was in every little stride. It was like shoving a knife in my back. And I'm just in defensive zone, praying for them

to get this fucking puck out. I'm in so much pain. I basically crawled down the hallway. But sorry to fuck it. That just kind of sparked up in my head about getting shit. Hopefully we can get that tape of Teddy of him shooting pucks over the glass. Yeah, that was a funny story. We got to get that tape.

Hey, before we send it over to Brian Burke, we want to let you know the interview was brought to you by Dude Wipes. Dude Wipes are the original flushable wipes for guys. Everyone's stocking up on toilet paper with coronavirus. You need to be stocking up on Dude Wipes as Dude Wipes are better than toilet paper, and they're multi-purpose to use anywhere on your body. Dude has many products to stay clean and hygienic during this interesting time,

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What else do we got, R.A.? Well, we're going to send it over to Berkey, but actually we did have a couple of other notices we wanted to share with you before we do send it over to Berkey. We want to send our condolences to the family of Tom Webster. He passed away on Friday at 71 from brain cancer per the L.A. Times. The name might ring a bell to you. He coached Gretzky back in his LA days for a little bit.

He was, in addition to an NHL coach, a player, longtime scout who was very well-known by many in the hockey world. He was also one of the WHA's all-time leading scorers. I know a lot of our crowd doesn't know the WHA. They were the rival league to the NHL in the 70s. A lot of guys left and got paid for a bit. But Rod Brindamore, Paul Maurice, and Brad Treeliving, among those who spoke very

highly of him. Like I said, he coached Gretzky in LA. This is kind of a funny little tidbit. He got a 12-game suspension. He chucked a stick on the ice, and it kind of skidded along the ice and caught Kerry Frazier on the skate. Didn't hurt him or anything, but he threw a stick on the ice.

It's a pretty funny memory if you look around. Threw a spear at the ref. We've got to get Kerry back on to tell us about it. Yeah, so he got 12 games for that. But he's also a member of the WHA Hall of Fame as well. And finally, our sympathies to the family of defenseman Pat Stapleton. He played for Canada in the legendary 1972 Summit Series and also played for the Blackhawks for eight seasons.

He has a couple interesting hockey notes in his obituary as well. legendary 1972 summit series and also played for the blackhawks for eight seasons. Uh, he's, he has a couple of interesting hockey notes in his obituary as well. I mentioned he played in the summit series back in 72. And for the longest time, people have suspected he took the series winning puck when Paul Henderson scored the series winning goal over the Soviets. And he was always, he was always coy about it.

Ah, they say I have it. We'll keep that one going for a while. But about five years ago, he ended one of hockey's great mysteries by admitting that, yes, he did pick up the puck on the famous Paul Henderson goal that ended his Canada eight-game Summit

Series win over the Soviets. He said he got a kick out of the media and hockey fans asking to see it. Here's another cool note, too. He coached Gretzky and Messier when they played those 25 games for the Indianapolis Races before that team folded in the WHA. He actually coached Gretzky and Messier for those 25 games. Yeah. Pretty cool little story there.

So both these guys coached Gretzky and he's also in the WHA hall of fame as well in, in the Canada sports hall of fame. So a couple of like, you know, old guys who've been around for a while, they would have some interesting careers well-known for the game and we wanted to give them their proper do as well. So I think we should send it over to Brian Burke right now. Oh, yeah, and everyone should know about – you could blame Vancouver Canucks fans.

You're insane, you Vancouver Canucks fans. What the hell's wrong with you? When's Horvath? When's Horvath? When's Horvath? When's more Horvath interview? Are you dropping Horvath? So now we're not saying anyone we've interviewed. You're done. You ruined it, Canucks fans. You ruined it for everyone else. There's a joke in there too.

Every interview, you'll find out the night before who it is. No more teasers. Suck on that. Hey, listen, guys. I tried to give it to you, but then you give an inch, you take a mile. I tried to give you guys a heads up who's coming on. That's done. I'm done with the wins.

You know what? I was trying to snap it around. Guess what? They're being hogs. They're not with the wins. You know what? I was trying to snap it around. Guess what? They're being hogs. They're not snapping it back. So cut off. Boom. Benched.

Okay. Now, without further ado, Mr. Brian Burke. Our next guest is making his second appearance on the show. He's worked on a handful of front offices and executive suites over the last three-plus decades. He's been a big part of various Team USA squads, and he's one of the most respected minds in the game you can currently hear him opining on rogers media here in canada it's a pleasure to have you in person brian burke thanks guys thanks for having me on i thought he was going to get hater of the e-bug in the intro because you cannot stand the emergency backup goaltender well you got to fix it i don't like

the current format i think you need to have one but've got to fix it. I don't like the current format. I think you need to have one, but they've got to fix it. You can't have beer league guys playing in the NHL. Did you at least crack a smile when this 42-year-old guy went in? There are two different issues to me. Good for this guy. He seems like a great guy. It's a great story.

But if he got pumped for eight or nine goals, no one would be laughing about it, especially Florida and Buffalo that are chasing him. So I was astounded when they said the guy was 42 years old. This is a city of 5 million people. There's got to be 50 goalies within 2 kilometers of the Scotiabank Arena that could play that are under 30. So they've got to fix it.

And what I want the league to do is allow teams to carry a third goalie. He doesn't travel with the team, pay him $100,000 or pay him $250,000 because he's a union old squawk. But he doesn't travel with the team. So he can practice when one goalie's sick. He fills in for either team. It's got to be a guy of some level of competence and some level of youth. And then you're saying that so if you're on the road

you're going to have a guy from that town yeah and then that all right so and then that team in the town would have their own i mean yeah so say boston goes into calgary and they want to give tuka raska maintenance day the third goalie practices with the bruins so he stays in calgary him enough that he doesn't have to have another job so he's one in every city yeah so would you argue that maybe this person has more of an alliance to that hometown team, though? And that kind of was the argument with their situation. And the fact that he thankfully didn't get pumped,

because I agree with you, then there would have always been that suspicion, well, this guy's a local guy and he skates with them. There probably would have been an issue if he would have let up eight goals. It's the same thing, though. And if they do what i'm saying that's right it's going to be a goalie that practices with dallas and then would play against him he'd probably know the shooters better than anyone yeah that's true okay yeah all right that's very true i mean yeah for me it was even set up a little bonus structure for how they do if they do end

up getting implemented the game for me that immediately becomes the number one job you want around the NHL. The guy who lives in local cities makes $250 a year. I don't think so. If you're the third goalie, you're staying out until the last shooter's done. Being a backup goalie is a miserable job. Yeah, but if you're the guy that doesn't even travel, it's like... Think about this, though, Berki. The game is kind of losing its luster as far as like crazy

antics off the ice. I feel that these goalies in these cities can create enough traffic here and enough stories because they can party a little bit more than the boys. So wait, are you saying this story with Ayers is what's making

you think this? No, I'm saying what's making you think this are you thinking no i'm saying it's like all of a sudden you've implemented this backup catcher situation in the nhl where don't some of baseball's best stories come from you know backup big catchers i don't know i don't know the story i think they're on the payroll and they're making 250 grand a year and they literally just party and they tell the boys the stories i just said that it didn't it's happened so infrequently if it if it happens a couple more times then you maybe start panicking but you're looking at like well the next time that it happens in an effective playoff race why even why even get there this could have yeah to me and this is the beauty of the nhl it's murphy's law stuff happens all the time they never think it

happens so they can fix this there's a gm meeting coming up next week they can either put in stricter standards for whoever the e-bug is or do what i'm saying okay perfect example of that as far as when it's happening in the moment okay let's fix it now before it becomes an actual problem. The tough call on the Vegas Golden Knights in playoffs last year, do you believe that those types of situations should have been able to be reviewed that point moving forward in that playoffs, that whole playoffs last year? Yes, I think there's a rule to cover that. And I think they could have and should have stepped in and reviewed it.

I said this on TV. The NHL does almost everything right. And when they don't, they don't like being reminded about it. So, to me, they got a chance to fix this. It's not a playoff issue, thankfully, because in the playoffs you're going to have a third goalie there. But, you know, you could conceivably have three goalies hurt in the game and now you got a 42 year old beer league guy coming out do you think the toronto fact had a lot to do with it because we

had the kid scott foster in chicago now he didn't get the w but he came in secured the win there was nothing said about let's change this and then all of a sudden the guy beats toronto and there's this big hullabaloo like oh this can't happen again and like whit said it's only happened twice in 100 years so is the nhl looking for a problem with maybe there isn't one or no and the rules would allow like Kelly Rudy was telling a story the other day sometimes in LA when he didn't want to practice Charlie Huddy put on the gear and he said Charlie Huddy was a pretty good goalie and that's what in fact happens in a game if you have to continue someone else has to put on the goalie gear like a quarterback yeah so you're allowed to travel with three in the playoffs.

It's remote, but they can fix this. And I think the goalies need days off way more than the players do. I think that having a practice with one goalie sucks. It's the worst. You have to shoot a tutor in the end. Yeah, put a shooter tutor in there. And so this would have a practice goalie in every building every day. So when the Boston Bruins come here and want to give Tuca a day off,

or when Chicago comes and want to give Corey Crawford a day off, he can have a day off, and there's a competent goalie in net, and you can have a good practice. Now money's obviously going to be a factor at some point. Who is most likely to be, I guess, opposed to this? The owners, GMs, players, the union? Ultimately, it is going to come down to money at some point. Well, $250 a team a year?

I mean, it's still money. That's nothing. Well, it's not nothing. That's a promo code. Come on. Do a couple swipe-ups, Berkey. To avoid this kind of embarrassment, like I say, two of the first three shots went in.

And that's when the game changed for me because that's when Toronto thought, well, this is going to be easy. That's where Carolina said, we've got to dig in. I think the second half of that game, Carolina might have played the best defensive game I've ever seen in my life in terms of coverage, taking away lanes. They didn't get a snuff. They had it the whole time even.

They didn't get a snuff. Maybe they should come back with it. Weird time. I mean, you were part of the Leafs for a long time, and you've seen living here or being here for work. I mean, it's tough to believe that they could win a Stanley Cup any time in the near future, huh? Well, their top six forwards are tremendous.

They've got tremendous up-front ability. I don't like the way the rest of the roster is constructed. I don't think their D is good enough. Muzzin really helps, even though he's hurt right now. Yeah, it's a tough one. But I don't think their D is good enough, and I don't think they're big enough. Somebody reminded me online, you were the one to pick Morgan Riley, correct? Yes.

You had him pegged at number one. Yes. Really? Let's talk about why you were so high on Morgan Riley. I mean, he's a big piece to this team right now. Of course, they've missed him a little bit in the lineup lately. Well, his draft year he got hurt, and he didn't play very much. He played early and then got hurt and didn't play until the very end of the year.

He played like 15 games or 11 games or something. And we tripled up the coverage on his game. So we had four and five scouts watching all of his games, which is unusual. Usually you don't have more than one or two. And they came back, and we had him rated number one. So that was the draft that Yakupov went number one, and I think Murray went number two, and I forget who else. Galchenyuk went three, I think.

Galchenyuk was three, I think. So you're like, oh, my God. He's dropping to us. Yeah, we're sitting there at the table thinking he's dropping to us. We're going to get a shot at him. What a feeling that is, huh? Yeah. All right, so when that's happening and the third pick doesn't take him,

are you then thinking about calling the fourth if there's a chance that you think they may take him? No, we're pretty wired in that once Yakupov went, we knew Murray was rated higher by most teams, and Galchanyuk was rated higher by most teams and galchani was rated higher by multi we thought once yakupov went because he was the wild card because we weren't going to take him his draft interview is the worst interview i've ever had in my life yakupov was terrible oh geez because he was defiant and obnoxious and sullen and so i mean i thought i'm quick john lilly one of our one of our scouts you know those

i think right yep so john lilly almost fought him in the interview so it was it was not a good interview so but the thing with morgan riley is i had a video guy cut every shift that he skated that year which weren't that many he only played like i say 15 games i watched every shift he played twice on video. And I'm like, the scouts are right. This kid sees the ice. He skates great. He's a great kid.

He's thick, too. Big guy. It was fortunate for us that that went down that way. I was actually. Same thing with Cam Fowler when he got to Anaheim. He dropped lower than he should have. I walked over to Bob Murray's table. I said, you're going to get Fowler. And I couldn't believe he dropped that far. I know he could skate. Well, I was going to

ask you, you know, as a general manager, you're hearing this from your scouts and you said you added more to the fire. How many times did you get a chance to go see him live or did you completely rely on their word for it and the video? Just their word for it in the video. You try not to, if you're going to see Moose Jaw, you try to see them somewhere else. It's not a fun place to go to. People are great, but it's a hard drive in the middle of winter, so you try to see them in Brandon

or somewhere closer to Winnipeg, or try and see them in Calgary. You try and scout them in a better environment. I'm going to get emails and texts from people in Moose Jaw. The people are lovely and it's great in the summertime and wintertime. You don't want to be there.

It's hardcore. It's a hard drive. Okay. So that can't be very common that a general manager drafts a guy that high who has not seen him live. Correct. Very rare. Okay. I was,

I was kind of, I was digging for that. That's also just having a real trust in your staff. Yep. Um, it's funny the conversation led to interviews and i was already thinking ahead to ask without without i am putting you on the spot any but any interviews really stick out to you i guess you might have said yakupov being the worst

but any other ones where guys are really surprised you in a good way gabriel landis got yeah that's no surprise he finished his interview and we wanted to ask him to sit down Help us talk to the other kids I think I think he'll be a general manager In the league Really? Yeah I really do I really respect him

The no accent is just wild He's a robot He's too perfect You're not from like Adana Minnesota But going way back I remember when I worked for Pat Quinn He's a robot. He's too perfect. You're not from like a diamond in Minnesota. But going way back, I remember when I worked for Pat Quinn, Brad May was probably the best interview we ever did. And he walked out, and we couldn't take him as high as – our pick was much higher than he was slotted in.

He was slotted in around 10 or 12. And I think we picked second or third each year or whatever, so we couldn't take him. But he walked out of the room, and Pat Quinn turned to me and said, I got to get another first. Wow. Well, I was going to ask you, so we had Terry Ryan on, and he told a hilarious Mike Milbury grill story about his draft year.

Do you GMs kind of chuckle about some of these stories together? Is it like a, I don't want to say a dick measuring contest, but do you guys play like a little game? Like, hey, how about this interview? Well, you know what I try and do? These kids, it's all scripted now. The agents tell them, you know, who's your hero? My dad.

So you're not often getting genuine, deep conversation. No, so the guy comes in and I say, what kind of watch is that? So he's thinking, well, if I say it's a Timex, I'm cheap or we're poor. But I say it's a Rolex, I'm entitled. So now the kid's scrambling. I'm like, relax, I don't care what kind of watch. Or I say, what kind of dog do you have? He's like, well, I better say a Rottweiler, right?

It's Brian Burke. And I can't tell him we have a Pekingese or whatever it is. So the kid's all screwed up. Right on his heels. Now he's off the script. Yeah, you need him to get away from one of those answers he's off to prepared answers so i remember i interviewed uh casperitis and um he came in he had the sunglasses pushed up and he sits back like and i remember barking at him hey

pay attention here and i remember when we interviewed Thomas Vanek, we had like the sixth pick in the draft or eighth pick in the draft, and he's like, why am I even here? There's no way I'll be there when you guys pick. So he was bored. He was sitting back, and finally I snapped at him. I said, hey, listen up, son. Straighten up and start answering the questions.

If you know anything about me, you know I'll move up in the draft for a guy I like, and so far, I don't like you. He paid more attention after that. Sometimes you're like, I'll move up just to draft you and bury you. Fuck. You think I won't fucking bury you? Oh, shit. That is unreal.

So Vanek, all right. Well, he got a little pee-pee whack and he's back. And you know what? I like the rest of his interview. He's impressive. He's a good guy. Yeah whack and he was back in the... And you know what? I liked the rest of his interview. He's impressive. He's a good guy. Yeah, I like him a lot. The notion that why am I sitting here wasting a half hour with you guys

when I'm going to be long gone on the draft board. Yeah, I'm not going to lie, Bricky. I was like, please, please pick me. Please, Terry. I just find being so nervous. And you do have some sort of script. And when they go off of it, it's panic time. But hey, Vanek, i don't know if you remember

uh frozen for one of the most dominant performances ever when minnesota beat unh i think that was very impressive break you just mentioned the guy i wanted to ask you about last time we never got to it pat quinn uh how much how essential was he to you as your first few days in the as a front office guy was he like a real mentor to you you guys had a lot in common. Yeah, I've been lucky. I've had three. Well, my dad was, so I've had four. But my dad was my mentor and I idolized him. He passed away a few years ago. But I've been lucky. I played for Lou Lamorello for four years.

And you learn so much from a guy like that. That I worked for Pac Quinn and I worked for Gary Bettman. And all three of them, there's a major learning curve. They're all, Pac Quinn was one of the finest people that ever walked on this planet and he was smart and he was tough and he was fair like when I was a young executive I wanted to be Pat I remember that's why I wore cufflinks remember I went in one day and Pat says what's what's with the shirts and I'm like what are you talking about I had to tie like this and I had a black suit on and I'm like, what are you talking about? I had the tie like this, and I had a black suit on. I dressed like I did when I was a lawyer. And he said, what's with the shirts?

I said, what's the matter with my shirt? He goes, real men wear cufflinks. So I went back to my office and called the tailor and ordered a bunch of French cuff shirts. That's all I wear now. I wanted to be Pat. Everyone loved him, and everyone respected him. That is so cool.

What were some of the things he taught you about the game that you carried on forever as long as you worked? His big thing was you had to be fair to the players. You had to be honest with them and fair with them. They had to see that they were being treated fairly. And he said, and, you know, we say we treat all the players the same. No, we don't. No, we don't.

But the last guy on the team, and I was frequently the last guy on the team, right? I've got to see that I'm being treated fairly. Even though the stars are being treated differently, I've got to feel I'm being treated fairly. And that was his big thing was make it fair. We were very honest with players. Like when we sent players down, here's why you're going down. And Pat taught me, he says, positive, negative, positive.

So, look, you've had a great camp. We love you. But now the negative, we're sending you to Milwaukee. Here's the things you need to work on. And if you do, I guarantee you'll be back. So the kid walks out with some hope. Everything Pat did was about being fair to the players. Maybe having played himself, I mean, that kind of probably played a role.

What's the story? I wish I knew it exactly, but something with – did he have a serious injury? Did he give somebody a serious injury? Because he was known as the toughest guy in the league when he played, right? He took out Bobby Orr. He was Bobby Orr. Okay, so what is that? What is the whole story behind that?

Well, he stood up at the blue line and croaked him. Wow. And he told me after the game, his buddies took him across the street to the fours. And Pat went in thinking he was going to get in a fight. And Pat liked that. He was like, this is great. Maybe I'll get in a fight.

And he said the guys were like, oh, it's a good hit, you big Irishman. Have a beer. They almost respected it. But then Bobby got his revenge a little later. Twitter wasn't invented back then. So they couldn't really say much online or for work to read. But it was great. My first year working for him or my second year,

we had scouting meetings in Buffalo. And we went into Buffalo and beat him. We weren't very good. And we went to a bar near our hotel. We had like 14 of us. We had all our scouts there and everything. And I went in and used the washroom, and I got in a fight. A guy jumped a guy, and some small guy was peeing,

and this big guy started yapping at him and just drilled him, suckered him from behind. And so the guy went down, and so I pulled the big guy off him. I said, what's your problem? And he hit me right in the face, like right smack in the face. So I drilled him a couple times and cut him and knocked him out. And so I go back to the table. I got this guy's blood all over my sleeve.

I got a little sweat going and ties over here. Pat's like, what happened to you? I said, Pat, we have to buy this bar. I haven't even had a beer yet, and I got in a fight. We have to buy this bar. And Pat was like, a fight? He was out of his chair. No, it's over, Pat. He was so excited he was going to get to got in a fight we have to buy this bar and pat was like a fight he was out of his chair no it's over pat he's so excited he was gonna get to get in a fight did you buy the bar we did not buy the bar damn it hey we got it we just interviewed kevin bx go bx uh i always say

that incorrect and we everyone's everyone asked us to ask you about the time him and Fedor Fedorov had a little beef outside of – It's a true story. What is the back story here? Okay, so I drafted Kevin, and he played at Bowling Green. And he was a good college player, but he was a better pro, if you can imagine that. And we weren't sure we were going to sign him, so we had him come into Manitoba to Winnipeg,

where our farm team was on an ATO, an amateur tryout agreement. And after the game, they went to Earl's, and Dallas Eakins was our captain, and Federer challenged them to a fight. And we call Kevin Juice, right? His nickname's Juice because he looks like he's on the juice, even though he's not. He threw a straw or something over his shoulder. It landed on the table, and Federer was sitting there with Kirill Koltsav,

the other Russian player we had. And so he said, hey, sorry about that. And Federer says, we're taking this outside right now. So Juice turns to Dallas and says, you're the captain here. I'm here on an ATO. I can't get in a fight with a teammate. They'll send me home tomorrow. And Dallas said, go outside and fight him.

So he went out in the parking lot, and he one-punched him, cut him wide open, knocked him cold. Superman punch, Brian. And so he comes back in, and he said to Dallas, and Dallas didn't even go outside to watch the fight. He just stayed on his bar stool and drank his wine. And he came back, and he said, oh, they're going to send me home tomorrow. And Dallas said, you don't know our boss.

They're going to sign you tomorrow. So I get up the next morning morning and if there's a game misconduct or suspension or something i get a fax at the house right you used to have fax machines i still do my kids make fun of me they want to know if i still have a page or two and so steve tamalini calls me and i i'm in the office at 6 a.m tammy was at the game and he goes we had a problem last night no i said i looked at the game sheet before I went to bed. We didn't have a problem at the game. He said, we had a problem after the game.

I said, oh, no. Did someone get into it with the officials? Nope. Better than that. Someone get into it with a fan? Nope. Better than that. I said, did they get into it with the visiting team?

Because you know how you go down the runway. Back in the day, you'd have fights in the runway. He said, nope. Better than that. that i said i'm out of ideas i said no one had a fan right he said no he said kevin bx had gotten a fight with fedor fedorov in the parking lot at earls after the game i said what happened so he told me i said all right sign him sign him today so he signed him the next day that's a story. Imagine being told when you're a young kid, you're going to get a little amateur tryout in the minors, and you're going to knock out a teammate the first day you're there,

and you're going to get signed. Did you call him and tell him why? Or you didn't have to? No, he heard the story. But years later, we were playing them, I think, in the playoffs. I might have been with Calgary, and we were in the playoffs. And he saw me down the hall. He said, can I ask you a question?

I said, sure. He said, is that a true story? Is that what you saw him? I said, yeah, it's true. I don't tell stories that aren't true. I said, that's a true story. Did you not like Federoff? Or was it just because you like the spirit of BXA?

Federoff was drafted by Tampa Bay real high, like second or third round. And he was 6'4", 230. And much bigger than Sergei. And he was a great kid. Like, we really liked him as a kid. So scouts said to me, this guy's either going to be a star or he's never going to play. So we're swinging for the fence here.

We could be wasting a pick, but we want to try it. I said, okay. We had no problem with him as a kid. Coaches liked him. Everyone liked him. He just could not get it together as a player. So it wasn't his fault. No, he's a really nice kid.

I remember one time he knew I was going to be here in Toronto when he was training up here, and he drove all the way downtown just to say hello to me for five minutes. I didn't ask him to. So it was more a sense of had all the tools. All the tools, couldn't put it together. But no issue with him as a kid. He was a nice young man.

Speaking of fights, one that didn't happen, but I've got to bring up the Kevin Lowe Bond stuff. I know this is legendary. You know, you and Kevin Lowe had a little bit of a tiff. You basically offered him out to fight in a bond. No, no. He challenged me to a fight. Okay, tell the story.

So Kevin and I have been friends for a long time, and we're friends again. In fact, I'm going to go out and speak at their doing some big charity thing in Edmonton in August, and I'm going to go out and speak at it. So Kevin was doing an interview. So they signed Dustin Petter to an offer sheet, and it really pissed me off because I knew the player wasn't worth the money. And I knew I had Corey Perry and Getzlaff coming, and now I've got to pay them something north of there.

So I was really sour at them. Plus, I was sour. We were both in Penticton. He didn't even call me and tell me, hey, we're putting in an offer sheet. The league called me. So I ripped him. I said, I can't believe they're giving this player this much money, and didn't have the courtesy to call me.

And I said, I've got to wait the whole seven days and let them see if we're going to match or not. But I think we knew right away we weren't going to match. We didn't have cap space. But but anyway he was doing an interview in edmonton and he said uh he i was getting on his nerves i was a real jerk about the whole thing and i said he said brian burke this and i said anytime anywhere so i i don't i don't hear this but people start calling me right away. So I'm in Newport Beach, and I went out in the backyard,

and my wife was at the kitchen sink, and I thought she went upstairs, so I called Slats, and I said, that bastard just challenged me to a fight on a radio show. I said, I've never been challenged to a fight before. I'm not taking the challenge. So he's fighting me. I said, now here's how you challenge a guy to a fight. I'm going to be at the Holiday Inn in Lake Placid on August 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Have him get there.

I'll rent a barn. I'll kick his ass. I'll drive him to the hospital, and we can get this behind us. So I get off the phone, and I don't know this, but my ex-wife says, have you lost your mind? I didn't think she heard any of it, right? I said, I'm not letting him challenge me to a fight like that so i don't know if she called betman or slats called betman but gary called me about i don't know a half hour later he said

you are not fighting kevin lowe i'll suspend you both longer than your contracts if you do so we never actually had the fight um and now we never will now i'll tell you a little postscript um a couple years after that um i was talking to someone on the phone and kevin's name came up and i was like that no good bastard and and brendan my my late son said dad who you talked about kevin low and i said yeah and he goes didn't he used to be your friend didn't he go on your fishing trip one year i said yeah he goes well why are you still carrying on this grudge i said brendan we're irish i expect you to carry on my grudges after i'm gone and he said well i don't approve so after his accident i had steve tan when he called me and i said tell kevin

we gotta mend that fence yeah i fucking love that shit. That's like men being men right there. And I'm the type of guy where I got a girl now who can calm me down off the ledge. But yeah, if I get challenged, I'll be like, yo, let's meet in the back alley. Let's throw some hands and let's go for a pint. What I don't like about the story is it's been told as if Kevin wouldn't accept the challenge. Well, Kevin Lowe was not afraid of me. I know that. He's not afraid of anybody.

So this thing would have happened. It was two stubborn guys. Finding that rough and rowdy, two GMs teeing off. Now, some people are listening and they're like, yeah, you're tapped, bro. But I'm telling you this, I think you're normal because I'm just as tapped as you if that's the case. Well, it challenges me to fight. You're going to get a fight.

You could have always done a Rocky Apollo thing. Just the two of them show up. Nobody knows. That's very true. If you could take over an organization right now as general manager, which team would you pick? Well, it's the strength of the owner that gives you a chance to win. The best owners I worked for were in Anaheim, the Samuelis.

And they were just amazing people. They weren't super involved, right? No, no. What do you mean? Like when you were saying, hey, I think spending this money is really going to benefit us, they were usually stroking the check? Well, we spent to the cap. I mean, the cap, what was the cap the first year?

$37 million, $38 million? $38 cap the first year? 37 or 38 million? 38.5. 38.5. So the only time, Henry and Susan Samueli, obviously we had great success. The first year we went to the conference finals, and the next year we won it all. But they were just lovely people. They're supportive.

They love the team. They don't interfere. They're not cowboys that want to be in all the pictures and everything. So probably work for them again. But I don't I'm not going back to a team for one thing. And second, I wouldn't work on the West Coast ever again. It's just too far

from everything that we have to do. Too far from league meetings. Too far from GM meetings. Too far from scouting. So it wears you down faster? Yeah, even Calgary, that's an hour less on the flight. So Calgary to Toronto, the years I worked in Calgary, that's four hours going there and three hours and ten minutes coming back. That's a big difference from five and a half.

You must have like 10 million miles traveling by this time? I think I'm over a million miles for sure on Air Canada and I think on WestJet as well. What does that mean? You get to stroll in those lounges like you own the joint or what? No, they carry him in like Tyson carried all his flights. Challenging the wage versus the fights. I'm still zone two.

Zone two. I'm sorry. Oh, no. Go ahead, Ari. I saw a player survey recently that 85% of players basically ignore the so-called fancy stats analytics. I wanted to ask, where do you come down on these? They're an important tool for us in evaluating players,

but they're our third tool. So I gave a speech at MIT a few years ago. I said, okay, so you're a plumber. You go in and you see a leaky pipe. What do you grab? All these eggheads had no idea. I said, okay, so you're a plumber. You go in and you see a leaky pipe. What do you grab? All these eggheads had no idea. I said, a wrench, God damn it. Don't you know what a wrench is?

And I said, so for us evaluating players, analytics are the third tool we reach for. First is eyeballs. We watch them play. Second is our background checks. We spend a lot of time in the first three rounds trying to find out as much as we can about a kid, what makes our parents successful, you know, our siblings successful.

Do they stress discipline in their house? Little things like manners, you know, like if you're raised right, you have good manners, and if you're not, you don't. That's a big thing that was in the interview, is the kid have good manners. We try and talk to Bantam coaches, high school teachers, Billet family. We try and make as deep a dive as we can on the character of the guy. Big time. Do you think they get

overplayed in some circles? Like people overhype them? Like every time a trade happens, people evaluate the trade or some people strictly on that stuff and that doesn't seem like the way to go. These guys, what I admire most about these geeks is they've created an industry that can only hire them like this is think of the genius my only

issue with that crowd is is when they start questioning my eyeballs and my brain when i'm like bro i got i got a lot more hours into this industry than you so you can fucking shove those analytics up your hoop but i i do admire them because they they created an industry sure that can employ no one but their membership that's brilliant sure but there's a lot of things that you can't measure with the tools and you block you block a shot killing a penalty in the first period with your shin pads and you dive in front of one to save a game and take eight stitches in your lip and it's the same thing on the chart. It's one block shot. And there's a huge difference.

So what about the other night in that the Truba hit, and everyone says it's so dirty. Who was that against, Tarek, sorry? I was against the Islanders. Del Call? Yeah, Michael Del Call. Michael Del Call. We've had issues in that a lot of hits that were considered clean before

are now suspendable. But you look at that one, and if you're going to take that out, as Biz said, you pretty much have to take hitting out of this game. Would you agree? Yeah, we need that hit to stay in the game. We need that hit in our game. And where they've taken it out in the NCAA and in IHF rules, the game is so dull.

So as long as it's not the principal point of contact where you make that much body contact and there's incidental contact with the head, even violent incidental contact with the head, that was a great hit. But I love the response. I'm not a clean hit guy. I don't like clean hit fights. Like to me, if I hit you clean, I shouldn't have to fight someone. But I did like Pajot's response on his new team.

Went right after him. A guy much bigger than him, much tougher than him. Went right after him. He scored in a fight. That was a big-time first game. But that hit. So in the NCAA, that hit. Any contact with the head of the player is ejected.

It's not just he's out of the game. We need that hit in our game. I didn't know that about NCAA. I said, if that's NCAA. I just I said if that's not going to be acceptable we just have to take it out then. It's a full contact sport and these people forget that and there's no out of bounds on a

hockey rink. There's only two sports where there's no out of bounds. The slowing the tape down and dissecting it frame by frame to me is just mind numbing because they don't understand. It's like a car accident. they've never been in that situation so they're like oh yeah you're gonna hit me with the you never played line it's like yeah man that's like i got it's like it's talking to somebody who's been in a

car accident about the experience if you've never been in one when i was playing in the american league larry robinson's little brother blew me up like that i i reached the strap came loose on my helmet and i thought there was someone next to me and i kind of turned and he blew me up like that. The strap came loose on my helmet, and I thought there was someone next to me, and I kind of turned, and he blew me up just like that. It was a great hit. And no one fought him. When I got back to the bench, you know what my teammates were saying? Pick your head up.

Keep your head up. Accountability? Oh, I'm shocked. Not in today's age, buddy. None of that anymore. Then he wouldn't fight me later. I was mad at him. Do you think there's one major issue in the game today that

around the league has to fix adjust or is the league just kind of fine hum along as it is right now there's one big issue for me too many games okay but that but owners aren't going to say no to those gates though are they and players aren't going to say no to their 50 percent so and the second one since we're not going to get fewer games, the second one is the team travel. The schedule's brutal, and in my view, it can be done much better. And it causes injuries. There's no doubt about it.

It costs a fortune. It costs the teams a fortune. Like my last year in Calgary, we came here and played Toronto on a Wednesday night. It wasn't even hockey night. And then we went to Montreal and played the next night and then flew home. It cost us $300,000 in airfare to play two games.

So solution-wise, are you saying more games in conference? Well, I wouldn't mind that. I don't think we have to play in every building every year. Everyone says they want Pittsburgh, but they didn't want Pittsburgh before Sid was there. And no one wanted Washington before Obi was there. Take the good with the bad. I don't think you have to play in every building every year, but I think the league's kind

of committed to that. So, okay. So each team has to put in 60 home dates by November 1st. You got to give the league 60 dark building dates to do the schedule on November 1st. And I say, why don't you make it 80 dates on September 1st and do the schedule? And we've got a couple NBA buildings that would be problematic, but that's fine. Why don't you start doing the schedule earlier?

Because between September 1st and November 1st here in Toronto, they'll give away during that 90 days or 60 days, they'll give away 12 dates. You know, Madonna will book the building or whoever. So if they did it earlier and did it, so when we come east, so I'm in Vancouver, we come east, I'm in Anaheim, I'm in Calgary.

We want to play a minimum of four games. We'd like to play five. We'll play six. We used to get the odd six game road trip. Okay, fine with us. We'll get them over with. Or play a loop. So we'll go Winnipeg, four games in the East, and St. Louis on the way back.

We don't want to fly out there and play two games. The wear and tear on the players, the expense, that's what drives me nuts. So Winnipeg has a trip coming up, I think, where they go Dallas-Nashville back-to-back. They're going to fly a crazy amount. It's going to cost them a fortune to play two road games. Back to back.

And you look at a map. Dallas isn't anywhere near Nashville. I remember my last year in Anaheim, we had four trips when the schedule came out. We had four trips. The last one, we went out and played two games. It was like Colorado, Dallas, home. And then Dallas, St. Louis, home. The last one was Dallas, Minnesota, back to out and played two games. It was like Colorado-Dallas home and then Dallas-St. Louis home. The last one was Dallas-Minnesota back-to-back.

I'd come home. So I called Steve Hatzepatros, who does the schedule for the league, really good guy. I said, do you guys have an atlas at the league office? And all the kids listening are going, what's an atlas, right? It's a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Dallas to Minnesota, and then we've got to go home all the way back to Anaheim? I said, that's crazy.

We'll just forfeit the Minnesota game. Give them the two points, and we'll just go home from Dallas. He didn't like that. They said, no, that's not acceptable. We're talking about taking some of that money back again. I don't think they can ever get rid of all of them, but the less back-to-backs, the better. Yeah, and the only thing, we don't mind back-to-backs.

The teams don't mind them if it's not tough travel because you get more practice time. You play back-to-backs. The days off are all built around days between games. If you've got a back-to-back and then two days off, you'll practice harder and better. I keep getting tweets about trusillence. Truculence.

Truculence. Oh, trusillence. Jesus Christ. Truculence. I'm his translator. Berkey, don't laugh. I struggle with the words and the reading on this podcast. I'm not laughing.

You laugh. I am laughing. Truculence. Oh, so now you're blaming RA? Yeah. But it was after a game, and I said there's a lot of truculence in the game. I mean, it's toughness, aggravated, fighting, whatever. And Mark Crawford, who was coaching for me at the time,

he didn't know the word either. It's not a common word. And so there's a lot of words that used to be common that have fallen out of favor. Truculence. Like pusillanimous, which is one of the great words ever. It means cowardly, but it's fallen out of, stopped being used widely in the early 1900s.

So I use it once in a while just to get the reporters reaching for their pens like, what? What did he just say? So I said to Mark, I said, the kind of game I like, lots of truculence. And he said, I have to ask you, what's truculence? And I told him, he said, I like that word. So that night when he met with the press, he used it. He said, there's a lot of truculence and i told him he said i like that word so that night when he met with the press he used it he said there's a lot of truculence out there oh that's just me i like the game a certain way you guys know that yep my team's always played hard um and yeah truculence

is something that so not trusillance not truculence would you love as a gm like you said your team's played hard i mean that anaheim team would you love if they did lose one night at the end and they just started just beating the shit out of the other team? Not physically in fights, but more so just bullying them. Well, our attitude was we're going to play any way you want to play. Okay? So we're going to hit your guys. If you want to hit back, great.

If you want to fight, great. But you want to play a skill game, we can do that better than anybody. It was a top six bottom 16 the first line was annie mcdonald chris kunitz and tamu second line was getzlaff perry and penner and third line was moan uh paulson and uh robbie niedermeyer and the fourth line was george perry sean thornton and whoever played center mayday you still talk to you still talk to george a lot yeah i like george oh he's getting he's dealing with a lot there right well that job is thankless i mean i did that job it's

it's it's thankless because first off a lot of the people who watch an incident are fans of one team so they're never going to think you get it right so you're stupid twice one side thinks you let the guy off easy the other side thinks you should have given him life in prison right um and i found that out the right away and the job is like i thought well if i explain it they'll all get it no these are gms fighting for their lives and they never see it your way and that's why as a commentator i mean my son patrick works for player safety but as a commentator it's got nothing to do with my son, I give them plus or minus one.

So if I think it should have been four and they give him five, I don't say a word. If I think it's four and they give him three, I don't say a word. Because what drove me nuts was I'd give a guy three and someone would say, like, should have given him four. I'm like, oh, yeah, you were in the hearing. You looked at all the videos. I wasn't even valuing the general manager and coach position from it

because, yeah, nowadays, if you have a bad start to the season, how many coaches have they fired this hockey season? Eight so far. Yeah, teens. So the margin for error just isn't there. And, like, I mean, yeah, if you lose an important piece because they got the call wrong, you know, your job's over. Well, the best one was Peter Forsberg.ado was playing edmonton in the playoffs and colorado

was losing and i had the goaltender out and peter forrestberg was standing just outside the crease he's a left shot he's just trying to jam in a rebound and billy yerin's on this side of him he's a right shot he chops him on the bicep like we teach him, right? Just disrupt the shot. Chops him hard on the bicep. Well, the blade of a stick clips him on the cheek and cuts him for, I think, six or eight stitches. So we had an agreement with the NHL Players Association. Anything under 10 stitches is a shaving cut.

That doesn't count. It's not an injury. So I'm driving back. I did a playoff game that night in philadelphia i'm on the jersey turnpike i'm on the jersey turnpike and my phone rings is pierre lacroix the gm of avalanche and i said hey father pete because that's what i called father pete that was his nickname he yells into the phone it's worse than the kennedy assassination I said, what happened? He says, Bill Guerin just tried to behead Peter Forsberg. And I'm like, what? I said, look, I taped the game. I'll go back and look at it,

whatever. So now I start to sweat. It's the end of the game. Back then, you know what we had for recording? We had four VCRs. We had four. We could record four games. That's it. That's all we had in the building. And we had to start them late because the run time was two hours and 15 minutes. So if the glass ever broke or the Zamboni broke down, we missed the end of the game. So Glenn Adama was the broadcast guy. He would start the tapes recording at 720 because we never have a suspension in the first 10 minutes, right?

You never have an incident. Right. Rarely. And then we hope it runs. If there's overtime, no way. 7.20, because we never have a suspension in the first 10 minutes, right? You never have an incident, rarely. And then we hope it runs. If there's overtime, no way. And then someone's got to courier me a tape. So I'm driving back. I called Dave Nolens.

I think he did a game that night on the island. I said, where are you? He said, I'm on the Long Island Expressway. I said, we had a problem in Edmonton tonight. Get back, and you'll get back before I will. Call me and tell me what it is. So then Bettman calls. And Bettman never, ever once interfered on supplementary discipline. Not once. Never once said, you should do this or do that. But Pierre Lacroix called him too and said, you got to suspend Guerin for the rest of the playoffs. So Gary said, what happened at

Edmonton? I said, God damn it, Gary. I'm driving back now. It was the game in Philly. And of course, I got a raft of grief from Philly after the game, too, about the officiating. Bobby Clark had to see me and complain. So I'm driving back. I said, Gary, I'll call you. It'll be late, but I'll call you when I get back and look at it. So Gary was just the best boss ever. He was like, these owners would call and scream at him. You know, Brian Burke's incompetent. He screwed this up. And Gary would be like, ever like he was like these owners would call and scream at him you know brian burke's in company screwed this up and gary be like he's doing a great job he had your back the whole time so i get back and i said to dave no i didn't i got back right when he did and we're running the tape to

the end of the tape praying we got this right it's one of our four vcrs we might have missed it but it's on the tape the tape was on the runtime you see so i called pierre i said pierre what are you talking about he's trying to disrupt a shot he clips his face what are you talking about and he goes if you don't suspend billy you're in for the balance of the playoffs we're not we will not be satisfied it's well then you're not going to be satisfied and i hung up on him well play. And he didn't even get a game. No, it was nothing. And you probably thought you were going to go in and see a gladiator scene. You got calls from the commissioner coming in, and then you see that.

Did Gary watch it? Did he watch the clip? Oh, yeah. What did Gary say? He was like I am. He's like, what's the big deal here? Six stitches or eight stitches. Okay, I just thought about what Gary was thinking. No, Gary's fine.

You love Gary, eh? I do. He's great. Is he a funny guy behind the scenes? First off, he's really brilliant. Oh, yeah. We talk about smart. We used to say they're smart, and then there's Bettman smart.

So when he worked there, Jeff Pass started there, and then Bill Daly took Jeff Pass' job. These are all brilliant guys. So starting off, we'd be in some of these collective bargaining meetings with the players, and I could see Bob Goodenow wasn't keeping up because I wasn't keeping up. I couldn't keep up. So I said to Gary, you've got to slow down.

These players have to be – you have to walk them through it. They're not used to these complex issues. And I said, and besides, you're losing me. I said, it's not a good sign when your right hand hockey man is getting lost i i think the analogy would be when sid when sid say wait you gotta go over there and there i was like dude i don't see the game like you man you gotta so he's a brilliant guy i can see his frustration and having to answer these questions all the time because he's like me explaining it to everyone what i'm doing move for move is going

to take too much of my time and energy why don't you just let me do it and listen i think he's like, me explaining it to everyone, what I'm doing move for move, is going to take too much of my time and energy. Why don't you just let me do it? And listen, I think he's done a wonderful job. Some people are very critical of him. But ultimately, the proof's in the pudding. This league keeps growing, and the revenue keeps getting bigger and bigger. You were talking earlier in this interview.

You said the cap was $38 million one of the years. I think so. It might have been $37. That, though, the 24% rollback was the biggest joke. Listen, I think that the owners definitely won on the last one again. I think that the players deserve to have a little bit given back to them in this instance and or fans because I think that the ticket prices are getting a little bit crazy in how expensive it is to experience an NHL game.

But – Bettman is crushing it. But he's doing a good job. It's going to be $100 million cap in no time. It's not just the stuff, the revenues and what the players get and all that. It's the revenue sharing that carries those weak teams and keeps 23 jobs for you guys. So how does Florida stay afloat?

They get a $25 or $30 million revenue sharing check every year, and that's 23 jobs. It's the charitable side. They've turned into a force with hockey fights, cancer, and hurricane relief, and it's a major social force in North America. International hockey, the outdoor games, that's all on his watch yeah like he's done a brilliant job yeah he's trying he's a good guy people don't know him he's a good guy he's a very bright family guy good sense of humor like whenever i go to new york i try to go for lunch with him i just enjoy the time have you

ever been able to pick his brain about the experience over in China because that's got to be a move I think growing it globally yeah I never specifically asked him about that but I mean you know on it well yeah but it doesn't matter what I think there are certain topics that I feel my job as a sportscaster is to stay out of certain areas, and I'll leave that to them. Yeah, I don't know either. I thought maybe you knew more than I did. Well, it's a huge potential market, and in northern China, they do play hockey in the Harbin province,

so it's something we've got to keep looking at doing games there. But there's some real big political issues that I do not feel. Yeah, we can talk about that. Yeah, I have no interest in getting into it. But I will tell you, I was with Gary. So one of the big black eyes for USA Hockey was Nagano, when the players allegedly went on the rampage and ruined the dorm, right? Yeah.

when the players allegedly went on the rampage and ruined the dorm, right? Yeah. And so this is where some of these things like McSorley and Brashear and then Moore and Bertuzzi, I feel like Forrest Gump. I was at all these critical points, right? So Gary called me in the morning and said the U.S. team acted up after they lost and they trashed the dorm. So I said, let's go over there. So we went into the village they trashed the dorm so i said let's go over there so we went into the

village went in the dorm i could have cleaned up the mess in half an hour they didn't trash the dorm they sprayed a fire extinguisher on the floor there's a little puddle and there's a couple little plaster nicks in the wall like they talked about how they broke all the chairs and everything the first night they were there paul homegren sat on a chair and it broke. They built the chairs for Japanese men. And Paul was, you know, 215 pounds. He sat on the chair. It broke right away.

Like they had seven or eight broken chairs the first couple days from players just sitting in them. So I could have cleaned up. It was like Ikea minus a letter. It was trash stuff. I could have cleaned up the mess in 10 minutes. And I actually shot a roll of film which i have not been able to find since i've moved so many times but i took pictures of it because i said people won't believe me it was minimal damage no no big wreckage this big black

eye for usa hockey and it was nothing yeah who was blamed for that there was a bunch of names thrown around yeah there's a few players a full magesta so basically well that's kind of nice because i think a lot of what happens now is people like to hang things over people like and well the crime was they were across the courtyard from team canada who were playing the next day and they kept the probably kept some guys up that's what was the offensive part of it is interfering with other athletes' ability to compete. But the dorm itself, and again, if they trashed it, I'd tell you that too because I have photos somewhere. I hope I can find them someday.

Damn. We'll get Chicklets memes on that. Can we like TMZ and pay for those? You won't want them. It looks like, honest to God, it was virtually no damage. Because Gary told the Olympic Committee, if there's damage, we will find these players and we will pay for the damage. We'll take it right out of their pocketbooks.

And we never find anybody. All right. I want to ask you about one guy you acquired while you were here in Toronto, somewhat a character of the game, Phil Kessel. He obviously did great work up here in Toronto, but were there any moments that he had you shaking your head? Because Phil seems to do that to people in a good way or a funny way. Well, what Phil, what's aggravating, well, number one,

people should know is his conditioning when he comes to camp is superb. Like he does, he blows away a 68 vo2 max he can throw the weights around and then he pays less and less attention to it as the season goes on so and his eating habits aren't perfect um but he but i really enjoyed having phil on the team like and just there is a current of anti-americanism in Canada, and they didn't like Phil. They don't like big-salary athletes they feel aren't competing hard enough. Americans don't seem to mind what the money guys get in Canada. If you're highly paid and you're not performing up to the level,

they hate that here. They hate it. And so they felt he wasn't trying hard enough sometimes. And the worst part is Phil could care less what anyone thinks. And that aggravates people because they think he should care. They think, well, my opinion is important. So he was getting a real rough ride here. And I went down and sat next to him in his stall. I said, Phil, you want me to do a rant here and get these brush supplies off for a couple of days as only Brian Burke can do? He said, said berkey the only people i care about sit in this room i could care less what people think of me here and that drove people nuts so i enjoyed having him he's he's a he's a good guy he's got a

great sense of humor you gotta have you gotta have thick skin it's a tough place to play and that hot dog shit was basically proven untrue correct like there was a columnist wrote a story he got a hot dog every day and then it turned out there wasn't even a hot dog shit was basically proven untrue, correct? Like there was a columnist who wrote a story. He got a hot dog every day, and then it turned out there wasn't even a hot dog stand in the area. I don't know. Was it Steve Simmons? Yeah, you did. Probably. No, I remember we were chartering to play somewhere, and I got on the plane.

I'm sitting in the GM seat, which is up near the front. And Phil and Joffrey Luper are the last two guys on the bus, and they both have a bag from Mr. Sub. They stopped at Mr. Sub. They were about to get a four-star meal on the plane, and they stopped and got a sub at Mr. Sub. I said, what are you guys doing? Between you, you make $10 million, and you're eating at Mr. Sub. That's Phil.

So much for that promo clip, Mr. Sub. Well, you were telling me downstairs. A couple man rockets stole him and in loops just walking up there. Both good-looking guys. Yeah. You were telling me downstairs in terms of when your George Powell's job had a discipline that it was tough because you're going to the game and you don't have anyone to root for. You're just making sure nothing bad happens. You don't have to suspend anyone.

And it's similar now. You're in the media. But do you miss being in the game? Like, would you like to do it again nope so you're happy now you get a long run and now you just be in the media guys 31 years um if you if you count the six years i practiced law and represented players 37 years but from 81 till i till i switched out um and the deal i made when it's funny because this is a hotel where i got the Calgary job. I met with Ken King right here.

Come on. Yeah. How long is an interview like that? Sorry to interrupt quick. We talked for about four hours. We were friends forever. Oh, okay. So we did a lot of catching up.

Catching up. But he wanted me to come to Calgary, and I said, I can't possibly get to Calgary and not get spotted. So why don't you come here? So we met right here. So that's good karma. Bad karma is this was Team USA's hotel for the World Cup when we went over three. So I hate this hotel.

I hate it, too. The Internet's terrible. It's actually a classic old hotel in downtown Canada. I do like this hotel. But anyway, I couldn't stand going to games and not caring who won because I was in charge of the officials back then, and all I cared was that the officials didn't screw up and I didn't have to suspend anybody.

And I didn't care who won, and it drove me nuts. And so I came back from Nagano, and I told Gary. I'm thinking of heading out, and Gary said, you take Dave Nones and go down to Tampa for a couple days. They're playing at home see a game get some fishing in and then come back and tell me what you decide so Dave and Onus and I

fished together for 30 years so we chartered a boat and the guy called me the night before and he said it's too rough offshore we can't go so I said I don't care how rough it gets we're going he says no why don't you come around to the dock at 6 I'll fire up the diesel so you can breathe some fumes. I'll cut up some bait and throw it on you,

and then I'll hit your shins with a broomstick. That's what it'll be like out there. I said, okay, we won't go piss on that. But I came back and told Gary I wanted to get out. So when I met with Ken, we agreed here that at the end of each year, the team could say to me, we're ready to go without you, or I could walk in and say I'm going doing something else. So at the end of my last year there could say to me we're ready to go without you or I could walk in and say I'm going doing something else so at the end of my last year there Ken called me and said you

know they have faith in Brad for living and they had brought down Maloney on board too so they had a veteran guy there anyway so it was it was time and uh but I said right from there I went to the league and said do you want do you have any room for me in a senior position they said no which is you know they got good people now and then my next call was to sports net so i made a career change here i like what i'm doing i like the people i work with and i and let's travel right no virtually no travel yeah like i did the outdoor game in regina which was fun and then um you know what will you ever just stop will you ever just just go relax or you just you gotta stay i don't want to do that you gotta get that's my worst fear is retirement so you'll do it till they drag me out what's your favorite awesome what's your favorite kind of fish in

deep sea fresh water what do you prefer uh my favorite is i i go to a place called langara lodge which is up in the Haida Gwaii. So the chain of islands off the coast, off of Prince Rupert, northern BC. Okay. You can see Alaska from where we fish, and you can see the panhandle. So it used to be called the Queen Charlotte Islands. They renamed it the Haida Gwaii in honor of the Indian band that lives there, the Haida. And there's a lodge there called Langara Lodge.

I've been going there since I think my first year was 1990 and i brought a whole bunch of nhl guys up there gms coaches harry sinnen wednesday they're pat quinn kevin lowe kenny holland doug armstrong donnie maloney like a bunch of guys ke. Kelly Rudy's gone three or four times. So it's become a great best five days of the year. Stories galore. And it's big salmon. Well, I was going to say mostly salmon in that halibut. Right, yeah. So Jeff Sanderson I took up last year, he caught a 77-pound Chinook salmon.

Like, oof, that's a whale. What's the biggest you ever took down? Any type of fish. I caught a 55-pound Mahi Mahi or dolphin, dorado, whatever, in Florida. Are you able to skin them and do all the stuff yourself? I can, but I'm not very good at it. Yeah. No, you pay for that.

I have a guide for that. Go on. Well, I don't know. I was just asking what your survivor skills were. Come on, Berkey. I think I'd be all right in a survival scenario, but I'm past being interested in that. You're still young enough that that interests you i pay people to deal with stuff now before touche before he asked the fishing question i was

i was going to ask you is part of the reason that you want to stay around the game is that you feel that you you feel that you maybe you're still keeping the some of that old school integrity around? Yes. Does that concern you as to how fucking soft it's getting? Well, yes, it does, because I think that voice is important. And if you notice, Gary Bettman has always hired a hard hockey guy to do that job. So it was me, then Coley, then Shani, and then George, right? Did I miss anyone? No.

They're all hard hockey guys. They understand the value of hitting they understand the importance they've been in those situations so i i do worry there's some nights that we play flag football i do worry and and it does bug me but then i get hope there's a nice little spike the last couple weeks and big hits and a couple more fights and and i don't want the game to get away from we can't get too far from our dna this is devised as a full contact sport it's always tolerated fighting it's penalized but it's accepted and i don't want to get away from that and if my voice helps uh keep it on the rails then yes the officials have been uh under the gun i think a little bit the last few years.

And we're not knocking them. I know it's a tough job to do. Is there something maybe in the process where they're not maybe getting the best officials available? Is it there are too many out there? Why do you think there are so many alleged problems with officials the last few years? Well, I think when we went to the two-referee system, we had to rush a bunch of guys into the league.

We doubled the number of referees, so some of those younger guys didn't get the proper two years in the American League, no different than rushing a player who's not ready. And so to me, I think that's evened out nicely. I actually think the officiating's been pretty good. I think they get – it's a sport where there's so many close calls. Well, flagrant calls are easy i trip you i club you over the head any bantam referee can call it but where it's i make a little

contact i hit you hard and maybe your head hits the glass it's this what we call coin toss calls so if you call a penalty half the people in the building will say, yeah, it's a penalty. If you don't call a penalty, half the people will say, eh, it wasn't a penalty. And, of course, it'll never be like that because of the home fans. But hockey people will call it a coin toss call. Half the guys will agree with you. When I was trying to get the GMs to agree on stuff when I worked at the league,

what's interference and what's not, we would only show the worst call, the worst cases where you worst cases of interference, where guys were tackling guys, and we'd still have a split in the room. We took out anything we thought was close, and we still had a split in the room. So it's a very subjective thing. They do a great job. They're great guys.

They get some stuff wrong. But I think for a while there, it was really soft, really – there was some really poor officiating because we rushed these guys it's not their fault they didn't have the proper basis and education and experience but i think they've fixed that they've also done a cool thing where they're actively going at former players so like wes mccauley guys like that they're recruiting guys that don't make it in hockey that played major junior play college hockey they would like to start the game because those guys have a feel for the game yeah west is great it's the thing and then the playoffs happen and the pace goes up but sometimes it's hard for those guys the pace is even higher i think the one thing that i worry about a little is i see

actually more interference not being called like the picks kind of back you chip it by a d-man d-man's holding you up. Well, that was a penalty for a long time. Now you can kind of do it. I would rather call those penalties and not allow the interferences in the pick plays. Says a former defenseman. Exactly, exactly. Berkey just wants you to be able to run someone over.

At the end of the day, it comes down to the product. What do you make of this whole Toronto situation with the new coach coming in and all that? Well, I think if you look at his record as a coach, it's phenomenal. Before he got to the NHL, his winning percentage is unreal. In junior and in the Sioux and before that in Pembroke. I think he's a good coach. He won an American League title, the Caller Cup with the

Marlies. Now, you got to discount that a little bit because they spent a lot of money on that team. They have a big payroll, lots of one-ways. So you discount that a little bit, but I think he's a good coach and I think he's a good guy. I'm not sure the roster here is constructed properly, but let me go back to one thing you said about the product. One thing when you say, I want to keep fighting in the game, I want to keep it black and blue, people say, oh, you're a dinosaur. You want to go back to when you played. No, I don't.

We had three-hour games. We had six, seven fights in the game. No one wants to go back to that. But I don't want to take fighting out. I want accountability to stay in the game, and I want hitting to stay in the game. So, no, I'm not a dinosaur. The product has never been better in terms of skill level and speed.

We just can't turn it into flag football where there's a real high skill level, but no contact. We've got to keep body contact in the game. We've got to keep fighting in the game. But the game itself, these kids coming out now are doing things that stars couldn't do when I was playing. Like it's unbelievable. And there's still great young men that play this game.

They're millennials. You've got to coach them differently. You've got to explain more to them. But that's, you know, we're lucky. Wasn't it your cousin or someone sent you a video of one of the best 12-year-olds in Pennsylvania? Tim Conley, former fifth overall pick. Tim Conley coached the Syracuse Stars there.

Syracuse, that's right. Cole, I wish I had the kid's name. We'll get it out there, but I saw videos of this kid. What are you, 12 in Quebec? He's pulling in snapshots and just going bar down from top of the circles, 12 years old, looking like Austin Matthews. So they do do things that you can't even really fathom. It's because they're trying things constantly,

and they're not being hit, though. They're not being hit early enough. They don't hit until they're, what, 11? No, but USA Hockey changed that rule. They took hitting out until Bantam. So older than 11, right? Yeah, 13 or 14. But I'll tell you why we did it,

because I was still involved with USA Hockey at the time and at the board level when I worked at the league. This goes back 15 years probably. We had a drop-off. Kids that played squirt and then they went into peewee and there was hitting, we had a drop-off of almost 50% of kids that quit playing. We had to do that.

Take hitting on a peewee. Now we have a drop-off at Bantam, but it's not as pronounced. And so that's why we had to keep kids in the game, and that's why there's no hitting anywhere in Canada or anywhere below Bantam. Now, they teach hitting. They teach angling and how to take a hit and give a hit in your second-year peewee, but there's no hitting, no full-body contact. And I think that that creates skill because kids are trying stuff

and they're not getting run over. And it's keeping close to half or 40% of the kids in the game that used to drop out. So to me, I support that. What's the last thing you need to learn to play hockey? Hitting. And you can tell. How to take a hit.

You can see two kids on a playground playing you can tell which one's got higher aggressive aggression level where you watch five kids playing on an outdoor rink when they're kids you can pick out the kids who like contact that's not something that's learned or taught you either have some fight in you or you don't i completely there are very few players that develop. Blake Wheeler is a good example. Blake Wheeler was soft skill his draft year, soft skill at the University of Minnesota. He does have a bit of chip on his shoulder now.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Probably because he was told that's why Boston traded him and stuff. But he plays with bite now. We used him as an example at the scouting meetings. Don't think a leopard can't change his spots, but there aren't many leopards that change their spots. Usually a guy

who's soft and junior is going to be soft and pro i would completely agree that he he had he hit a level of where like he's got some snarkiness where if you give him a little slash he's probably going to turn around shimmy shake you yeah and i like that and he's a big and it probably helps now that there's not many guys around league that that are really his size, right? Yeah. He's like a bigger force now. I got one more for you, Brian. Next year, Seattle's coming to the league. We're going to have an even 32 teams.

I want to ask about franchise stability. Do you think there are going to be any teams on the move? I know Quebec, everyone talks about them getting a team. Kansas City has an empty arena. Do you think we're going to see these same 32 teams in place for a while? Yeah, I do. Because of the revenue sharing like people say you know how's this how's vinnie viola make it in florida he's made it so he gets a check for i think it was 27.5 or 30 million u.s last year so if people say he's losing 50 he's losing closer to 10 if he's losing anything. So that's why those jobs are stable. I think Gary, contraction or relocation

are both really dirty words to Gary. Right. He's convinced we can make it work. And if they'd had better products in some of those markets, it would have worked. So I don't see any teams moving, and I hope like hell we don't expand anywhere. We've got enough teams.

Yeah, 32 is perfect. 32 is perfect. We've got enough teams. I don't expand anywhere we got enough yeah 32 is perfect 32 is perfect we got enough teams I don't care if Kansas City's got an empty building I don't care if Quebec's got an empty building we got enough teams yeah do you think that um some of the richer teams will get sick of maybe supporting some of the I guess for lack of a better word poorer teams will that get old or will they just figure it's good for everybody the union's not going to agree to any change in that okay the union did a very smart thing they said if you're going to cap what we make and you've got to spread the wealth around up top union made that call it was a good call and they and it's it's really what sustained these franchises and kept these jobs so i don't

see that changing at all who was like the one agent that you just had a hard time dealing with constantly? I don't know how much time we got. Is there one guy? But like maybe even it's gotten to a comical point now. No, I didn't do – I don't think negotiating player contracts is a good use of a GM's time at all. You spend 20 hours haggling over a contract, someone else do it. Like I did all the contracts in Vancouver for Pat.

Pat never – he did two. He did Larry Adam and Kru Tov over in Moscow, but I did them all. And I went to Hartford, I did them all. My first year in Toronto, I did them all. And I'm like, so 20 hours a week that you could be on the phone talking to other GMs and trying to make your team better or going to watch a game, you're going to be arguing with an agent agent so Dave Nones did them all here with Claude Laisel um in Calgary uh Brad Paschal did them how long did it take you to figure that out or was that something that you

learned right away when you hopped Pat told me day one he said don't waste your time with that no Pat no Pat told me the first day I'm not wasting my time doing content yeah you're gonna waste your time that's all right you learned it shit rolls downhill I'm curious wasting my time doing content. You're going to waste your time. Shit rolls downhill. I'm curious to know now how many of these GMs actually do negotiate them. Very few. Very few. You might do a couple stars. I mean, you're involved.

You're quarterbacking the whole thing. You're telling the assistant GM what he can offer. Oh, you don't have that up to the intern? No. But, no, the actual get in the room, I find there's less hard feelings between you and the player if you're both out of it, even though he's still resenting the money or whatever.

And Witt knows this. I was never ashamed to tell players, you're going to fight for the money on my teams because we're spending the cap. I don't get to keep anything I save on your deal. I'm going to spend it on another player. So, yeah, you're going to scrap for the money. If you don't like it, go somewhere else.

Sure. Take a hike. Quick one, though. Who fleeced you for the biggest contract where you're like, fuck, man, he got me? Well, I love the guy, and he jokes about this, that I built this new house. But John Michael Lyles, he brags about he's got one wing of his new house he calls the Berkey wing. He's the best. He came out.

He's an awesome guy. He's a beauty. The Berkey wing. In T.O., right? Hey, I'm glad I asked that question. Colorado or something. Colorado. Pat me on the back.

I'm glad I asked that question. Hey, great job. Oh, actually, I apologize. It's my fourth time saying I have one last question, but somebody tweeted at us. What's the story? Did you ever give Trent Klatt that ride? Yeah, well, Trent Klatt was a free agent,

and he's playing with the Twins. And I said to him, Trent, this is a fantasy camp. You're playing with the Twins. You're going to get big points. They're only going to get better. Just stay here. And I think I offered him three years and the agent said, I think we're going to get four years from LA.

I said, well, if he gets four years, I'll drive him to the airport. The bastard got four years. I did not drive him to the airport. So he never got the ride. Well, that's wonderful. Well, thank you so much once again, Berkey. Thanks, guys. Huge thanks to Brian Burke for joining us, man.

Such a great interview. That's the second time he had him, but that one was in person. So you get a lot more in person, as we always say. We appreciate you coming on, Berkey. We'll hope to do it again at some point. And now here's a message from our sponsor, ZipRecruiter. Right now, we cannot be overwhelmed. We have to work to keep our loved ones Zip Recruiter. Right now, we cannot be overwhelmed. We have to work

to keep our loved ones safe and protect our communities. We have to work to stay strong, to stay connected, to stay focused. We have to work to inspire, to innovate, to build new solutions. But for all of this to work, we have to work together. At ZipRecruiter, we connect employers and people every day. But today is different. We are partnering with first responders, government officials, the medical community, the innovators, and the manufacturing, transportation, and food distribution industries to make sure we are finding the right people for the right jobs right now.

Let's work together. ZipRecruiter.com slash work together. Okay, boys. We got all the serious stuff out of the way. We can have a little fun and goof off a little. That's what me and Biz and Whit like to do. And G, of course. Biz, your latest appearance was on a porno website's

Twitter feed asking if you would be in a quarantine house with Biz. I'm off the market. You guys know, of course, Brazzers rubs that in my face. I got a woman. Brazzers just put you on one of the squads? I'm pretty sure we had Elson off the market too. With one of the guys who just punishes everyone.

I'm like, there's no way. I'm not even going in that house. By the way, it's house number six. Choose your Brazzers quarantined house. I shit my pants when I got tapped in By the way, it's house number six. Choose your brass's quarantined house. I shit my pants when I got a chance to miss it. G's got a girl now, too. I can't send him. Hey, Weird Al Yankovic has a gal, too.

He's in here, too. Yeah, he's also called Weird Al. I don't know how I got the nod for that list. I mean, Weird Al is like. I don't even know. I remember listening to his jams. I love those jams. Okay, speaking of...

I'm fat. I'm fat. You know it, you know, instead of bad. I had a few of his CDs. I lost on Jeopardy. I think I had the Jurassic Park one. Was there a Jurassic Park Weird Al Yankovic CD? No, that was probably a porno you're thinking of.

Oh, Jesus. Okay. Actually, since we're talking about social media right now, I had it in my... No, we were right before that, were we not? We were talking about... Browser's tweet. We were talking about Browser's

tweet, okay? Don't fuck me up, alright? I had this in my notes to talk about. Alex Killorn doing these doc talks. Have you seen this notes to talk about. Alex Killorn doing these doc talks. Have you seen this on Instagram? No. Alex Killorn, he's a funny fucker. Okay, so he's cruising around in his fucking jet ski down in Miami,

or not Miami, wherever they hang out, Tampa Bay, excuse me. And he does these doc talks where he talks about his teammates and stuff. So if you're on Instagram, give Alex Killorn a follow. It's pretty funny shit. And just in the midst of before I was going to bring this up, he texted me. He goes, you're going to give Doc Talk some love on chiclets with the wink face?

And I had it in my notes. So Cologne, I'm thinking of you, buddy. I think it's funny, and we're going to direct a little traffic your way, and hopefully the fans enjoy it. I'll have to check it out. Biz, just going back, just to let the listeners know how sick the quarantine house you're in, I don't even know half these people.

Autumn Falls, I'm guessing she's a female star, Grinnelli, the other young guy here. Autumn Falls? Yep. John Cena, the wrestler. Biz Nasty. Obviously, Cardi B, I know she's a singer. And Kieran Lee, that could be either a guy or a girl's name.

No, Kieran Lee's the dude. He's the one who messaged at me. John Cena, although he was saying like he said no idea who this guy is and I'm like yeah I'm a nobody like I got a small wrench I'm of no use to you uh other than I'll just be getting in the way don't worry I'm not threatening I can get you a warm towel I mean I can I can sell you something and make some money for you, but don't worry. Oh, fuck.

Now I forgot where I was. Oh, John Cena. I would be interested to have a conversation with him. He's seen, didn't he come from

like a, like a rough area of Boston? I think he's from North of Boston. I'm not familiar with his background. He's from Newberry.

He's from like, really like North Shore. Really, really North Shore. Oh, is that like fancy and uppity? No,

it's just not a tough area. Whatever. He's like a downer dude. He made it to the top. Lennon may be tough area in the North Shore. Long story short is I'm a John Cena fan. He always seems like a good dude. Some of these names are hilarious though. Like McLovin.

Brazzers coming up with Weird Al. I said Danny DeVito. Fucking Ryan Reynolds. There's some fucking... McLovin. Like fucking Brazzers coming up with Weird Al. I said Danny DeVito. Fucking Ryan Reynolds. There's some fucking fun. Was this insinuating that it would just be a fuck fest or is it just a house to chill at? It just says quarantine house so yeah. I mean I'm sure Brazzers would be serving

tea and crackers crumpets. Hey you guys Brazzers says un Crumpets Hey, have I You guys, I don't know They do all the Unreal croissants Their croissants over at Brazzers Are the best

Hey, yoga class, fuckfest We do some weight training, fuckfest Cyber bed, fuckfest We're in the kitchen eating cooking meals fuckfest. Oh, God. We are so stupid. Oh, fuck, man. Or I am so stupid.

Last night was the first time. I don't know if any of you have caught it. SNL did the first ever remote show. Everybody was in a different spot. Tom Hanks hosted from his own house. Oh, nice. Zuma, no Zuma. It still wasn't funny. I know it's fashionable if it has been

to beat up on SNL. I grew up on the show. I literally have been watching it since day one. It just... All that talent, it's just not funny. The writing... That's a show built on great writing. And they just have not been fucking funny, man. They go to the political shit all the time, which can be funny,

but it just either played out, it stopped being funny. It's just, I don't know, man. It's lazy. It's such a hard, buddy, and it's a hard line to walk nowadays. Now, I've got to ask you something, R.A., because this was, I think, around your era. Chevy Chase, right? I know that recently he's been critical in the news of how where it's gotten

i know he's known as being an asshole in the film industry because he was such such a big of an asshole is that why he was kicked off of snl originally no he left for his movie career okay but nobody was sad to see him go because he was he wasn't well liked he was known as being an asshole basically and you know he was doing a shitload of blow back then but even without that they said he was still an asshole and he actually got in a fist fight with Bill Murray when he I was going to ask was there any Donnie Brooks

him and Bill Murray got in one yeah because when Chevy Chase left SNL Bill Murray replaced him so Chevy came back to host like a year or two later and there was friction between them and they fucking, they threw shots at each other. Had to be broken up.

I feel like you got to be a real prick to get Bill Murray that mad. Yeah. He's, he's been known to be a prickly guy too. Not on Chevy Chase's level. Like he, I mean, he has that persona, bubbly,

goofy, Bill, Bill Murray, but you know, he's, he's not a woman, but it's hard, man.

Because like, if, if I don't know, I don't know Bill Murray enough to know. Like, I feel like part of it is a little bit of a shtick. At some point, it gets exhausting. If you're having to do that to entertain, like, you want separation from that. So, of course, anyone will, you know, have bad and good experiences.

It's kind of sad, man. Yeah, I just wish, like, the show was – it always was psychical. I mean, they used to want to get it canceled in the early 80s but it was really bad then eddie murphy came along and saved it and then you know they had phil hotman and will ferrell but now it's just it's just it's an creative rut man and it's like it's the ratings are still good though i think the more you talk about mental mental health it's like it's crazy that what some of these comedians over time have gone through just in order to try to entertain their audience it's like a drug right yeah it's and you know

especially when you get to that over that hill too it's like it's like hard to digest for some of them too so if it becomes your identity it's it's very difficult all of a sudden you're thinking oh wow these people don't think i'm like funny or don't enjoy what I'm doing anymore. It's probably hard. Yeah. It's a tough racket, man. Oh, fuck those guys. Plus, riding down the road, staying in a shitty motel. Then you get up, get two hours sleep, go do another 30 people you make laugh.

You must need so many drugs. Oh, God, yeah. Just to keep going, you know. Do you think, R.A., would you ever have the balls to go up there by yourself and do a stand-up comedy act? You know what, Biz? I would say if I did, I would have done it by now at this point in my life. There was a time I used to worship stand-up comedy and always want to do it.

And it was funny. There was one day we had a sleepover at the Boys Club, and I'll never forget. I was like, we were having a fucking sleepover at the Boys and Girls Club. It was like a co-ed sleepover but it wasn't like it wasn't a drink a party we were 15 16 but a bunch of us took masculine either nonetheless and i remember like i was standing up and i was holding a hockey stick and i was just like ranking on everybody in the place and like the whole place laughed and i remember it was like an addicting feeling like to have everybody in the room laugh at you and i was i always chickened out i never like went back for that feeling again but it was like holy fuck man when you have everyone in the room and you're cracking them up that's a high that you can't like get anywhere else these guys

are it's like i would now having to do this a little bit i would never be critical of someone who went that far like pat mcafee like good for man. He fucking opened up another – and he's got the jam to stand up there and let it fly. I think you're a different beast, man, and tip of the cap to anyone with a fucking sauce to do that. Yeah, in that same vein, Paul. And I always think about anytime anyone meets you, you're supposed to be funny for comedians, right?

Like I think if people meet Kevin Hart, Chris Rock, for comedians right like i think if people meet kevin hart chris rock different different comedians they're probably so many times that i don't want to say everyone's like say something funny but they're looking for you to say something oh man and so those guys are just probably at times they leave me alone right now who would you say the most desire is a crazy lifestyle who would you say the most desired like people want his attention the most on the planet right now? I'd say The Rock would be like everywhere he goes, people know who that person is. Him and LeBron.

That's probably, I wouldn't say probably The Rock. Tiger Woods. Probably right there. Tiger Woods is up there as well. It must be like, phew. Yeah. Thinking of you can't go anywhere, right? Shaq. Shaq shack's gotta be up there

and if even if you didn't know who shack was you're like this guy's seven three monster who is he's gonna find out in two seconds with a two hundred thousand dollar i had one of your shoes in in like fifth grade it was it was size i think 23 the one that said shack on the side no it was one from his Orlando days. It was a sick Reebok Orlando-colored shoe. I used to walk. I used to hop around because I put both my feet in and just bounce around. Probably what happened to my ankles.

No free outs. Were you guys old enough for Shaq when he played? Do you guys remember Shaq? Very, very. I don't remember the Orlando days as well, but I remember in L.A. and stuff. I remember the battle between him and Kobe, like the drama of that the most.

That was kind of like there was always like a back and forth. Yeah, he was so fucking dominant, man. He was unstoppable. Miami too? He won one in Miami, right? I don't know if he won one down there. I thought he won all his with the Lakers, Shaq. He played for a shitload of teams when he started breaking down,

but, yeah, he was as dominant as they come. Have you guys been watching? Blue Chips, great movie. Check out Blue Chips. Sorry. That's right. Nick Nolte. Have you guys been watching Dave Portnoy's unboxing videos at all?

He does everything. Isn't it crazy how people, like, the guy's worth $80 million, and people just send him fucking free shit? Oh, I've always said the more money you have, the more stuff you get for free. That's a fact. It is. And it's crazy. I also, watching those, it is, he might have to move.

What are they? As if being his neighbor. Packed with disgusting cardboard. How much is he greasing the bellman? I don't know, but he's definitely taking care of someone. The other thing I was thinking is everyone, everyone said, Oh,

you got to send him something. People should send him something, get his address. You got to send him something. You better make sure it's good because if you're going to think of free advertising and him like putting it on, if he looks at something, he doesn't like it.

He is a piece of shit and he chucks it. So you got to be confident in your product. I think you're sending them. Unless people look at it like any pubs, good pub and, and he chucks it. You got to be confident in your product I think you're sending them. Unless people look at it like any pub is a good pub and they don't care. I wonder how crazy it gets from here. Like

bull balls or something crazy. What would be the craziest thing? How long is he doing it every night? I've seen the highlight package. There's a newborn. The bellman's like, yeah yeah somebody dropped off their kid man like they said hey fucking unbox this bitch that's that's what it says on the note i saw he ate that brownie there's no chance i'm eating baked goods from anyone that was psychotic his mom texted him and said don't eat anything else or or or we're disowning you last night night was like, I think it was like three hours or close to it.

That was the – Oh, he's on that performance. That dude lives to make content. He is dedicated to the game, man. He's definitely setting the pace. I don't know how he checks in so much. I don't know how he has – I don't know how he keeps the energy up to do that for a guy in his 40s.

I do. Yeah, they're called – Technology. We mentioned earlier the Bruins-Vancouver game was getting replayed. Game 7 was on NBC Sunday. Are you guys a fan of watching old, not just hockey, but any old baseball, basketball, football games, or are you just all set with that shit?

It has to be a classic. It has to be a classic. I like watching the old ones. I love watching old baseball games. What year are you talking? A lot of the stuff, 70s, 80s, 90s. Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure.

And what's crazy? Imagine watching a good Game 7 of the World Series in the mid-80s. I'd watch that game. I like watching 70s hockey. There was one in the mid-80s. I like watching, like, 70s, maybe even 80s. Well, the Sox lost in Game 7, dude. The Sox lost.

Did you see how my brain just worked? I said, I'd do anything to watch a Game 7 in the mid-'80s. The Red Sox lost to the fucking Mets after Buckner in Game 6. There you go. There you go. How are you? That's a tough memory. That was a traumatizing moment.

When you watch hockey and hoops, though, in the 80s, the game, it's so fucking different compared to the games, both hockey and basketball. It's incredible, the difference in play and the style. I was going to say, I like watching those 70s, 80s games and being like, come on, I could have had that to the goalie. Come on, just slide, man. Like, what the fuck are you doing in there?

Why do you have a Boston Globe tape? Why is your Boston Herald taped around your shin pads? Yeah, but meanwhile, I would have got dusted then too. Hey, did you guys see that? It was going viral, the footage of that volcano. I think it was in Indonesia with fucking the volcano blows up and there's lightning cracking at the top of it and shit. You've got to check it out.

Sounds like an old computer screensaver I had. Yeah, over a crack of terror. I'll tell you this. Mother Nature is telling us something right now. She's saying, wake the fuck up. Clean your ass up. Absolutely, man. It'll tell you this. Mother nature's telling us something right now. She's saying, wake the fuck up. Clean your acts up. Absolutely, man.

It was pretty, pretty wild shit. Oh, and I got a DM, a defendant play play boy. I wanted to, I want to share with the, with the listeners.

It said, uh, catching up on checklists and just weighing in on the heat you're taking for reading play boy. It had a history of publishing serious journalism and fiction. They serialized Norman Miller in what became The Fight, one of the best sports books ever done. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, for fuck's sake.

Margaret Atwood, Hunter Thompson, Kerouac. The list goes on. If you think about it, at one time, it would have been the best of both worlds, words and chicks. I'm on your side for this one. So I just want to give a little other perspective. Playboy was a little more than a dumb titty mag.

All right, you convinced me last episode, man. Now you just really doubled down. little out of perspective uh playboy was a little more than a dumb titty mag it was all right you convinced me last episode man now you just really doubled down now i'm gonna oh i already got rider a subscription to hustler rares he switched me right oh is that where all their writers went he's not really they jumped ship he's not old enough a beaver hunt yet yeah all right i read i read fox magazine for the same reason. Come target, next page. Actually, that volcano, right? It's kind of weird.

It's called Krakatoa. And, you know, once upon a time in Hollywood, the Quentin Tarantino movie we talk about all the time, why I talk about it all the time, there's actually a movie in the background of that movie. It's called, what is it? It's called, I got it right here. Krakatoa, East of Java.

There's actually a movie in Quentin Tarantino's movie about that volcano that just exploded the other night. We need that gif of the guy's head going. The more you know. The more you know. Did that break your brain, Biz? No, I was trying to remember something that I wanted to say at the end here.

And I'm going to go back to this and I don't mean to ruffle feathers already but I'm starting to get to the end of episode two or not the episode the end of season two for Ozark and I'll tell you what I am very confident in my opinion that this thing's going to be better than Breaking Bad and from what I'm hearing from season three I stand firm on my stance that the acting is better and and the reasoning for the fact that you were confused or not confused your opinion was he went to mob boss too quick he was essentially running that same operation at the time he just didn't know what was being done for the cartel so it's not like he just he had to remain composed on i haven't seen i don't

all right oh am i spoiling it a little bit because Because we did talk about that. I haven't seen. I'm like one episode into season two. I'd shut it off before. I'm giving it another go. I'm saying this is I'm staying firm on that. You think it's better. All right. I still think you're a nut job.

We can cut that out if considering I'm giving away too much information. No, no. I don't think you gave away that much. All right. At least I hope not. All right, everyone. Thank you so much. Once again, thinking of the

K family and everyone try to stay positive right now we're grinding through this thing and we'll talk to you guys in a couple more days absolutely I just want to add too to our pals down in Sunrise Florida if you're down in that area and you want to help all the Florida Panthers territory territory trot virtual 5k

support and fitness charity and a sense of community you can take part in it either online, or if you're in that area, just go to the Florida Panthers website. And, uh, also this is a special note to a friend of the chicklets. She works at the two keys tab in Lexington, Kentucky. She wanted everyone to know in that area, they do have pink Whitney in stock. It's one of those business, one of those bars. That's also a package store, but of course bars are closed,

but she wanted everyone to know anyone in Lexington, Kentucky area. She's a big fan of the but of course Boz are closed. She wanted everyone to know, anyone in the Lexington, Kentucky area, she's a big fan of the show. Come on in and get your pink Whitney. You can say hello to the staff and say, check in with them if you haven't seen them for a while. I want to give a special shout out to my pal Mackenzie. Hope everyone will stop in and get some pink Whitney. Another thank you to

G, you guys and all the people behind the scenes are doing an unbelievable job of rolling out all this YouTube stuff. The fans are very entertained. We dropped scott gomez jack eichel this week uh a big reception for that gomez had some amazing funny stories about pepe and and his relationship with claude the mu and uh i think you guys should check it out it's it's fun to see him tell the stories ra i know i could see your reaction right beside him and you were having a blast. So you, memes, keep pumping out the fun stuff and glad you guys are enjoying that. And of course, thank you to all those sponsors

who are helping out the ECHL Player Relief Fund. That was a fun episode. I was a little chitter-chattery. And shout out to Chase as well, one of our new video producers. He's been a huge help as well. We're dropping Edzo on Tuesday as well. That's going to be a great one too.

Edzo, awesome. Okay, and's going to be a great one too. Edzo. Awesome. Okay. And then, of course, Adam Lebowitz, not Loubowitz. I fucking said his name right. He's one of the sales guys. The whole fucking team on the back end has done an unbelievable job of getting this done. So thank you to them for all their help. Okay, everybody. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

As always, we like to say thanks to our wonderful sponsors. So thanks to everybody over at New Amsterdam Vodka and Pink Whitney. Big thanks to our friends at Bud Light. Huge thanks to our friends over at Dude Wipes, keeping us nice and fresh. And a big thanks to everybody over at Zip Recruiter. Everybody, take care of yourselves and have a great week. Thank you. What would you think of me now? So lucky, so strong, so proud. I never said thank you for that.

Now I never have a chance. May angels lead you in. Here you meet my friends. Thank you.