Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 276: Chris Snow + Craig Berube

Episode Date: June 25, 2020

On Thursday’s episode of Spittin’ Chiclets the guys are joined by Chris Snow and Craig Berube. The Flames assistant GM joined (28:55) to talk about his time in Calgary, how he turned a job as a writer into an NHL front office gig, and his ALS diagnosis. The guys are then joined by Stanley Cup Champion and Blues Head Coach, Craig Berube. Chief joined (1:08:09) to talk about his playing career, the Blues, some funny stories and more. The guys also talk NHL Hall of Fame, Chiclets Cup, and Whit wraps up with some Golf Talk (02:09:03).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 276 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here on the Barstool Sports Podcast family. What's going on, everybody? Another week by the books. Let's check in with the boys.

Say hello. How's everybody doing? Mikey Grinelli, our producer. What's new? What's going on, guys? Actually just got done reading a blog on BarstoolSports.com. Don't hurt yourself.

Written by R.A. over here. He seems pretty pissed off, boys. He seems pretty pissed off about the team selection. So I'll let it get... Whoa, you're actually rattled? I didn't... Yeah, we'll get to the Hall of Fame stuff in a minute. We'll say hi to the boys for us.

We like to do a Phil Donahue. Say hi to me. Yeah, let's go to Biz. Paul Biz Nasty. Biz is in the desert. How are we feeling, buddy? Say hi to me. Say hi to me.

I had to turn my volume up a little bit after that intro. Was that a low? Hello, everybody. Was it low? Get my Barry White on a little bit. Okay, you're going Mariah Carey on us, hitting all the notes, eh? Things are good, guys. Things are great.

You know, the week goes by, and it feels like I haven't talked to you guys in a month, and I wasn't on yesterday's Chicklets Cup, so I've been really missing you guys. Absolutely, man. I get, like, anxiety on Sundays because I'm, like, my body's so used to getting the show ready. I have to, like, fucking have a couple drinks to chill out. That could be a blow too, but who knows? What's up? Last but not least, our boy, the wit dog,

our golfing buddy, Ryan Whitney. How we doing, buddy? Golfing, buddy. I respect that. I'm doing fabulous. I'm doing great biz. I mean, I don't know if you've heard Mikey. Have you told him about what happened to our man Matt last night yet? I haven't. We haven't talked about it yet. I don't know if you've heard. Mikey, have you told them about what happened to our man Matt last night yet? I haven't.

We haven't talked about it yet. Do you know anything of what happened last night during the Chicklets Cup biz? Well, I was watching. I was tuning in a little bit. But then, of course, the Matt guy was on. And the next time I hopped on, he wasn't there. So you don't know how it went down. Okay, let's hear the fucking story.

Let me tell you something matt was the uh the perfect description in terms of like um how how great it feels when people love the show right because like you hear people they're like the big we're the biggest fans like the best feeling in the world you're like thank you thank you yeah this dude loves chiclets and he gets on he's all fired up. He's ready to go, and Mikey texts me. He's like, yeah, dude, he's got two kids. He's a fan. So I get on.

I'm like, do you have any chance? Because he's playing Nasher, right? I'm like, you're probably going to get smoked. This guy's the best gamer in the NHL community. He's like that kid from that movie with the glove and shit. Yeah, I got the power glove. What's that movie called? We're probably dating ourselves.

I don't know. Fred Savage was in it. All right, you got to know that shit. Come on, all right. Oh, he's stumping R.A.? Give me the, who was it again? The plot detail? The power glove.

Fred Savage, he had a little brother who probably looking back was autistic. The kid was autistic, I think, but he was a gamer and this gamer and they were bringing him around for the big competitions around the arcades. And then the guy that was a good looking cat and he was like, yeah, he was. And he had he was an asshole. I'm not going to give the movie away, but he ends up having a glove that any kid in the world will want to chop the tree down to have back in the day. That thing was so sick.

It was like a cell phone before there was even computers. So my story, let me continue. This dude gets on and he tells, I'm sorry, I asked him, do you have any chance? Any chance? He goes, I've been playing this game 12 years. I think I have a great chance. And it was quiet and confident, and it was his night.

I swear to God. And next thing you know, the invite sent out from the game. This guy's chomping at the bit. He loves being on the show. And you know what? Grinnelli tells him Big Cat's coming on. He's a barstool guy. So he's got the superstar coming on.

He's going to be asking free cat questions. What do you know? He gets the invite to the game from Nashville. He presses start, accept game. It doesn't work. Mikey tells him what to do. It doesn't work. It doesn't work again.

Man, we gassed him. He didn't get to play at all. He restarted his Sega, his PS4, and it came back on to no avail. And he is like, no, no. And all of a sudden, Mikey's like, looks like I have to play. I'm like, oh, this dude's face was devastated. We probably have the video of the stream. And we had to boot him off.

So my only thing is I didn't want to play at all. I was, I'm an, I'm a marketer defensive. Well, I had these two biz. Listen to this. You know, I, I'm a Massachusetts kid. I grew up, I was a puck moving defenseman. I had, I had an idol growing up. He was from situate Massachusetts played on the Olympic team. He played on the Olympic team, played for the Oilers, played for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

And I'm just getting verbally harassed by my idol while I'm trying to play a video game throughout the whole game. This is revisionist history. He's just harassing me, just telling me how bad he wants me to lose. All right, you were there. Yeah, I was there. Yeah, I'm getting a chuckle. All right, let me ask you a yes or no question.

When Grinelli found out he was playing, was he, I guess I can't say A or B, was he an arrogant asshole? Was he an expert marketer? That's what I was because if I jumped on the stream and I'm like, oh, God, here we go, Nasher's going to kill me, we lose half the crowd. But I'm like, oh, guys, I've been practicing. I've gotten better. I don't think Nasher's going to kill me. We lose half the crowd. But I'm like, oh, guys, I've been practicing. I've gotten better. I don't think Nasher's good.

Grinnelli, I don't know if people have tuned in to the Chicklets Cup. I was on fire last night. Just discussions. My brain was firing on all cylinders. I had a million questions for everyone. The viewers would not have gone down if you had a little bit of humility at the beginning. And that's what stuck out with me when you got roasted.

I'm just trying to get some Twitch subscribers. Paul's trying to make us confident people see right through. So I know some of you are not really down with the Chicklets Cup and the whole video game world. But it's been fun and it's been keeping me entertained during this quarantine. And it's a little bit of drama. Can we get him back on? Hold on. Do you mean they're not down with it as in they hate it

or they're not down with it as they just don't watch it? Well, they probably have no idea what the fuck we're even talking about. Oh, yeah, but hey, tune in. Yeah, I mean, there's certainly a Venn diagram crossover between listeners and, you know, the video game people, but it's obviously not everybody. And the movie, by the way, was The Wizard with Fred Savage. No, believe it or not, I didn't see it. It was one of those

ones that I didn't use until back in the day. I was already 18 years old. It was a kid's movie. I just never went with it. I was born February 19, 1983. Let me guess, that movie was 92 or 93? 89.

Fuck me. I was only 6. That's how much of a gamer i was at six even though i actually thought you nailed that you loser before we get to the hall of fame so i must have seen it when i was 10 yeah maybe maybe i didn't watch it right when it came out i came out it was a big dinosaur so probably hit video in 90 you you know, and then another couple of years after that. But anyways, before we get to the Hall of Fame stuff, I do want to mention our two guests today because we tend to forget them sometimes. We have Calgary assistant GM Chris Snow on. He talks

about his very inspirational journey from the last year. And we got our Blues Stanley Cup winning coach Craig Berube on a little later. So we got an interesting pair of interviews for you folks. But first, like I said, the Hall of Fame announcements were made today uh i live streamed them off my instagram like to about 107 people because i did it's per the moment and jerome again marion hosa kevin lowe doug wilson went in as players uh kenny holland went in as the builder kim saint pierre uh she

went back to back to back olympic gold medals medals on the Canadian women's team. She was elected as well. I obviously had no issue with, again, La Hosa. I was almost shocked that Lowe and Wilson got in. I know there was a late campaign for these guys. Actually, one was in his 20th year of eligibility. Lowe was – Wilson was in his 25th year of eligibility. I guess my problem, guys, with the voting is for the last 25 and 19 years, these guys weren't in the Hall of Fame. They get a late rally. The media kind of presents these cases for them. And then they get in and you're like, all right, Alexander McGillney was the first

fucking Soviet to defect. He risked his life to come here to play hockey, to get paid to play hockey. He didn't know if the KGB was going to come slit his throat in the middle of the night, kidnap and take him back to Russia. None of that stuff. And he was fucking on top of that, a fantastic player. And it's not the NHL Hall of Fame. It's the Hockey Hall of Fame. And that's just one example. You could pick seven other guys who should have get in. I just think that the voting, and I'm not attacking anyone's character.

I care for what I say. I wrote it on Boston. I think sometimes people just get. Go at someone, all right. Pick somebody. All right. Come on, all right. Make some news.

There's nothing going on. You know, you're talking about an 18-member selection board with two-thirds of them are Canadian. You got one Swede, one Finn, one Russian, and I think that just that representation for other parts of the world and other foreign players don't get in there, and guys tend to go with their biases, and they don't

do it on purpose. I'm voting for my buddy, but I think they make up a case in their head, well, if we don't get him in now, he's never going to get in. And meanwhile, other guys aren't getting in that maybe deserve it more. Let's go to you first, Whit. Fucking right, sorry, by the way. Thank you. Great argument. I mean, a passionate case. I'll say if you look at Mogilny's career numbers over a point per game, 990 games he had over a point per game. And what he did in coming over, as you brought up, is just, it's a shame he's not in.

Just a complete snub. And you want to see hockey in some of its finest form. Find a way to maybe get in touch. And the Sabres could use a little love, I guess, right now. Find a way to get the highlights of the year that he had 76 tucks, 92, 93, and watch these clips along with his overall career and his overall performance and his Stanley cup. Correct. All right. If I'm wrong. Yes.

That was his Stanley cup. How, what are you doing? You gotta, you gotta get this guy in. It's just – I think that at some point he will, like you said, but it is so odd to see as it's true. I mean, guys get older, and here's the thing. People immediately think of Kevin Lowe. I don't think of Kevin Lowe and think of a Hall of Famer. I think of him as a –

I put him in the same category as the Guy Carboneau. Yeah, I think he's like a champion. And it's just when is it all about cups? That's the only reason he's in, right? But what an incredible reason to even have the argument over. He's won six Stanley Cups. So what is the criteria? Are you on an amazing team and you were kind of a key cog?

You were not like top of the pyramid of that amazing team, but you were there. Is that the Hall of Fame? I don't really think so. But I said the guy, he was a legitimate champion. So it's kind of like what do you describe as a Hall of Famer now? It seems to be with the Carbino biz as well, the tides are changing. Yeah.

No, I mean, that's a great argument. And, R.A., to go back to you, I don't put enough thought into it like you do. You're a little bit more old school, and you know how it all goes, so that's why I don't even begin to bitch um i was surprised no theo flurry and that's another name that kind of pops up in the mcgillney category like you you talk to a guy like ray whitney and ray whitney's a guy who probably won't get in but he's like one of those guys like where you look at his stats and how long he played for and the longevity and how small he was and he'll tell you and he's been around every era he was a stick boy for the Oilers when they were winning their cups you know I'm saying and then he played every which way with all these

different Hall of Famers and he said it all he said Theo Fleury paved the way for every little guy who was drafted and who could play after him and he fuck and and and over a point of game in regular season over a point of game in playoffs and a stanley cup champion that guy that guy is the epitome of of a hockey player especially during those times and there'll be a small fraction of you that say yeah but his politics online i'm gonna say i don't give a fuck about his fucking politics online okay what that guy had to overcome from from a from a life standpoint to do what he did afterwards and to accomplish what he accomplished he should be in the fucking hall of fame whatever i digress because maybe they're just saying yeah there's plenty of more years where

he'll be able to get in. Fine. But, yeah, I guess I get a little bit surprised when maybe McGilney and a few other names that are popping up more frequently aren't in, and then certain guys are. But, hey, listen, I'm not going to take anything away from Kevin Lowe because that guy has more fucking skill in his pinky toe than I did in my entire body during my entire career. And that goes to more of what you were saying with. Yeah. His teammates love, love them. You know, it's, it's, it's like,

you end up chirping a guy who had this amazing career just cause you say, you don't think he's necessarily the hall of fame. I will say, I want to go over to two of the decisions that no brainers asked, asked about these guys with five years to go in both their careers. How many years did Hossa play after they won the Cup in Chicago? Well, I digress. We knew Hossa and Jerome McGinley were first ballot.

And just getting the chance to play with Marion Hossa was one of the biggest treats I ever had in my life. This guy was a joy to be around. He was a legitimate tank. You couldn't even move him. I saw this guy first night. He's 230, 6'1",

230, rock. And he's flying around. He actually came to Pittsburgh in a huge trade when we lost our buddy Colby Armstrong, our boy army, him, Eric Christensen, um,

Angelo S. Bizzito, draft pick either way. It was a huge trade and he came over and he got hurt right away. First game, like, like MCL sprain. Like I think he was out two,

three weeks, you know, that sucks, right? You're getting dealt over in a, in a team that's trying to make a run. And all of a sudden you're sitting out, you don't know the guys that well, but everyone just knew how good he was. He came back and was the sickest player, like defensively. You were just in awe of him every night. He never got tired and he would play both sides of the puck. He'd get in a goal

and an assist. He'd be perfect defensively. And the the whole time he's just the nicest guy in the world doing it so somebody who lost the cup in pittsburgh goes to detroit to win the cup then loses to his old team then goes to chicago that third year and gets it done and then gets two more so deserving so happy for him and i would love if we could get him on he'd be such a good interview just because he's like he'd make us feel good about ourselves. You know what I mean? Busy might give us a couple of fake laughs. Oh really?

Oh, he's just that good of a guy. I'd love a fake laugh from hosts. Call him up, man. I could use a few. Um, I'll talk about,

I mean, Jerome again, like you said, no brainer, uh, Dimitri Filipovic. This guy's always got some awesome tweets oh yeah great twitter jerome mcginley's run in calgary was epic here are his stats there from 1996 to 2013

9 1219 games 525 goals 1095 points and just under 4,000 shots. Here's the second-best total by a member of the Calgary Flames in that same time frame. 826 games, 123 goals, 308 points. Martin Gelina. Probably, yeah. But he carried a franchise for over a decade. And talk about a guy who could put the puck in the net but when things got

dirty he could handle his own fucking business and that like it when you're living in calgary that just the embodiment embodiment of being a calgary flame and i think that that he was an absolute no-brainer and he did an interview today that i watched and he's just like smiles so humble he said he couldn't sleep the last couple nights either. So you could just tell how much it meant to him and very well deserving. He actually played recently at Old Sandwich Golf Club where I shot 66 last week. We'll get into that later. And he's behind me. I think he's with Brooks Warpick.

I didn't get the chance to see them. We were separated, but I would love to talk to Iggy. And let me ask you a question, Biz, just friend to friend. When you think of Jerome again, though, what's one of the things – give me the first two or three things that pop into your mind. Just from what guys say about him, how awesome he was. No, any particular on-ice or off-ice, like, storylines. He liked to cheat a bit offensively.

No, you're way off. You're not even close to what I'm trying to say. I think of Jerome McGinn, and I think of that fight with Vincent LeCavier in the finals. Dude, two big dogs in the NHL, squaring up toe-to-toe in the Stanley Cup finals. Game 7, right? No, they didn't fight in Game 7.

I don't think. It was the beginning of one of those games. You said, talking about handling his business, he was terrifying to play against. I got to Edmonton, I'm like, this guy is on my ass every night. First of all, if you

turn it over to him, he's burying it. His snapshot was a joke. Just be in the slot one time or done. And then he'd run you over and then he'd talk shit after and be in your face after a whistle. Like just a complete animal. I have respected the hell out of him and he was so deserving of getting in. So you feel bad talking about guys who maybe didn't deserve to get in

or get snubbed, but you've got to remember the players you can't even argue about no matter who they are. Do you want to go a little into depth about Kim St-Pierre, R.A.? Because, like, I mean, back in the day when Canada was reigning supreme in women's hockey, I mean, she was the net miner. So shout out to her. Congratulations. That's awesome.

And, you know, she paved the way. I love it. Like I wrote on my blog, she has more gold than Fort Knox. I mean, she went back to back to back, not just played. She was the goalie for Team Canada, women's team, three golds, plus all the world championships. I mean, a stellar resume. You know, they've been adding more women to the Hall of Fame lately,

which is nice to see, and she's certainly well-deserving. I just wanted to go back to Aginila for a second. I mean, you look at his stats. By the way, that fight with LeCavalier was Game 3, not Game 7. How about my answer, cheating offensively a little bit? Jesus Christ. Can't wait to hear from everybody online about that one. Yeah, he cheated his way to 1,300 points.

I wasn't necessarily leading you in the right direction, but that was one of the funniest moments for me in a long time. Oh, shit. Yeah, cycles the puck sometimes too much. Uses too much clear tape on his socks. That might have been worse than the time you asked me how many games it took Henderson to get that many points, and I was like, 400.

games that took Henderson to get that many points. And I was like, ah, 400. Or it was as bad as me thinking that the Wizard was 93. Gendler also, I mean, he was part of a trade that rocked two franchises. I mean, Calgary loved him. He came with a piece of tape of winning a cup up there. And, of course, they traded him for Joe Newendyke, who won the Conn Smythe for Dallas back in 99.

So that was a huge trade when it happened. I mean, Calgary doesn't regret it, but they came oh so close back in 04, game six. What do you mean a piece of tape? That was a goal. Calgary won that series in six, guys. Yeah. Did you see the overhead angle? Hey, Rick from Red Deer.

In your mind, they have a Hall of Famer and they have a Stanley Cup. I agree with you, Biz. I mean, they've gotten screwed on a couple of different instances here. Who got screwed harder, the Calgary Flames or the Buffalo Sabres? That's a fucking toss-up. Throw that up on the, what do you call it? What do you call those, Grinnelli? Twitter polls. Twitter polls. There it Twitter poll Twitter polls there it is Twitter

polls all right boys so yeah that's if the Hall of Fame obviously Kenny Holland I mentioned him too it's funny I had a couple Red Wings fans complaining about him like he didn't do it it was Jimmy Delvano and Scotty Bowman and he gave out bad contracts I'm like buddy fight with the committee here I'm just fucking I'm just a messenger here I had no problem

with Kenny Holland going in as a building. People don't think Ken Holland had anything to do with those teams. Dude, they might be the... That's like saying Ryan Whitney has nothing to do with spitting chiclets. Like, what the fuck are you talking about? Yeah. Four cups, you'd think they'd be grateful. I tell you what, if you could do it to Edmonton, give him the Hall of Fame for fucking Christ's sake.

If Edmonton wins the cup in a non-corona pandemic year, just name it the Hall and Hall of Fame. That was so bad. It was good. Oh, Doug Wilson, by the way, great career, but also, fuck, he could get in as a builder as well for what he's done in San Jose. If they can win a cup, he should get in for sure to sustain that greatness for so long. Doug Wilson.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. And honestly, I probably could have clarified more on the blog. I have no problem with Lowe and Wilson. They were good players. Wilson was a great player. He was your prototypical offensive defenseman. He won uh norris by dig 82 the great player but like you said when you're watching him and low it wasn't like oh these guys are on the way to the hall of

fame and you know i was like i said it's no diss to them or their career or what their accomplishments were i was just surprised that they got in on these late ballots compared to other guys who didn't get in okay so for doug wil standpoint, because maybe the criteria will be winning a Stanley Cup in order to get him in there as a builder, I like that he's in there as a player given the full body of work, but I know they're going to tell you, no, that's not why we voted him in, right? But as somebody, if I was voting,

I would consider that a criteria where I'd be like, yeah, why not? Check them off the list. Yeah, it's interesting. If you look at the selection committee, like I said, there's a lot of personal relationships for decades long. Oh, you have somebody you want to bury. No, I honestly don't. It's just like a who's who of hockey on there,

and they're all good people. I just think that people get swayed sometimes by personal biases, and they don't even know they're happening. It's just kind of human nature. But anyways, moving along, phase one of the 2020 draft lottery is set for Friday night, tomorrow night, 8 p.m. They'll be drawing for first, second, and third picks. The seven non-return-to-play teams are Detroit, Ottawa, San Jose, L.A., Anaheim,

Jersey, and Buffalo. And, of course, Ottawa has two picks because of the Carlson trade. They have San Jose's picks. Phase two might not even be necessary, depending on how phase one plays out. So again, eight o'clock, I think it's going to be on NHL network and I'm not sure what station I've been Canada,

but I don't have to tell you folks. So we'll see who's going to be the first draft pick. Most likely if the balls dropped the right way. Also Bob McKenzie had dropped the story since the last episode that Tampa had multiple players and staff test positive. The club had to close the facility, but it's been reopened. Phase two groups are allowed to go up to 12 players. Any players who did test positive, we don't leak names here on spit

and chiclets because we think people should have their privacy, so we don't do that stuff. But hopefully any guys who did test positive are resting well and they do get better. But, you know, Tampa Bay's back up and running. So what was the story a few days ago uh basically they're back to normal there and biz you know whenever these guys do get back to skating they're going to need some of my favorite death wish coffee to get oh my goodness it is right through the fucking boards oh i'm off and running baby you know especially when you're trying working from home but thanks to

the big the good people over at death wish make is the world's strongest coffee you can stay caffeinated to get your workouts in when you got to start skating again. Death Wish Coffee. In my golf rounds that I mentioned last week, that was a huge success. I actually got up at 4.30

both times and I crushed a Death Wish coffee on a walk, on a mile walk, and I flew around the rest of the morning and qualified into these tournaments. I am on board with Death Wish coffee on a walk, on a mile walk, and I flew around the rest of the morning and qualified into these tournaments. So I am on board with Death Wish. Guys, send me more of the sweet, semi-flavored, I think vanilla, semi-flavored, the ones in the can. You put them in the fridge, you dumb me.

The cold brews? Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I need some more of the K-Cups. You know, you can get it, like I said before, whole bean, ground, death cups, cold brew. The cold brew has 300 milligrams of caffeine per can, so that'll get your day going right. And we want you to up your coffee game because right now it's pretty weak. We want you to get the hell off the couch.

When you go to deathwishcoffee.com slash barstool, you can enter to win a bike, a deathwish cold brew, barstool sports merch, and an entire year's worth of deathwish coffee. That's deathwishcoffee.com slash Barstool. I could use a few more K-Cups if anyone's listening. All right, hey, boys, speaking of return to play, I had a little birdie tell me that Vancouver is going to be the second hub for the playoffs. I tried to get a couple more sources before I ran with it,

but the person who told me, I certainly trust their word. I've read it isn't. I read it isn't. The guy who told me, I certainly trust their word. I've read that it isn't. I read it isn't. The guy who told me about Nigel Dawes, you're saying it isn't? I've read that it isn't. Okay. Where did you get this? This could be just a stupid report, right? I don't know, man.

I don't know. Let me chime in here. I feel like it changes every week. I don't even know. Vegas is the east. The east is going to Vegas. I was going to say, I think it's stupid that they're not doing both in Canada. And the reason I say that is because of the exchange rate and if money is such a big concern at this point and also safety. I feel like some places in Canada have next to no cases.

The only issue would be then infrastructure. But Vancouver would be a genius choice given the fact that they shut things down basically right away there are few cases and they have like burnaby eight rinks like they have facilities where these guys would be able to practice and get regular practice time so yes vancouver would be a very wise choice and like i said before i think both both hub cities should be in canada and it's not for the reason of being biased towards Canada. I just think they're the safest option. And it's saving money.

Yeah, with no crowds, all you need is a sheet of ice, 200 by 85, and you can play fucking anywhere. You don't have to worry about all the audiences and shit. And this fellow, Yoki Nevelainen on Twitter, he said that Finnish NHL is renting their own plane and they're heading to New York City on Friday. He didn't give any names, but, you know, I'm sure those guys are probably getting a chatter or whatever.

And Cap Friendly, they said they heard the NHL and the NHLPA come to a tentative agreement on basically extending contracts. It's more or less for visa reasons, just so, you know, people are used to the season. And then in June, this is just paperwork to extend everything until the season actually does end. So it's more formality than anything else. So I don't know.

I feel like we're slowly getting there. You see other reports in other cities that maybe bring a little negativity up, but I feel like we're chugging. I feel like we're slowly getting there, Biz. Yeah. No, this is – I mean, the positivity train is rolling. Yeah, absolutely. All right.

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Dude has something for everyone with your everyday hygiene needs. You can pick up their stuff at Amazon or Walmart or use the code Hockey10 for 10% off at dudeproducts.com. Going back to those Ninja Dust bombs, those are unreal for road games. If you're going to a girl's house and you've got to take a deuce, boom. The worst. If you can't, you've got to hold it like you're at the movies on a date or something.

And the wipes must be great for guys on the golf course. I mean, come on. Yeah. Right now, it's been 90 degrees up here in Boston, man. Just to give yourself a nice little douche. It makes you feel good, freshens you up a little bit. I don't think they meant bathing them. Well, I read their ad.

I think they're going to be fine with using that word. All right, boys. Hey, you know what? I think we should send to be fine with using that word. All right, boys. Hey, you know what? I think we should send it over to Chris Snow, man. This was a very important interview. I think people should listen. Obviously, if you're not familiar with the story, you will be very shortly. But Chris's positivity was incredible for what he's going through right now

and for it to come on and shoot the shit with us and have some fun. It was fun for us, and I hope it was fun for him. So without further ado, we're going to send it over to Calgary Assistant GM Chris Snow. Well, I'd like to welcome our next guest. It's been a minute since we had a front office person on. This guy was a beat writer who switched over to hockey operations with the Minnesota Wilds seemingly overnight back about 12 years ago. He's since worked his way up to Assistant General Manager for the Calgary Flames. Just over a year ago, he was diagnosed with familial ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease,

and has since been a huge inspiration to the hockey community by courageously facing it head on. It's a pleasure to welcome to Spittin' Chicklets, Chris Snow. All right, that's the best intro I've ever had. I'm bringing you with me everywhere from now on. Wow, I'm flattered, man. I'm flattered. All right, hes loving life now. If you can crush somebody's intro, you're just riding high the rest of the show. I did Crosby's, and I might as well just retire right after it.

Well, it's funny you say retirement, because this is my second podcast ever, and I've gone right to the top, so this could be it for me. You've got to leave on top. I know teams are getting ready to start back up. They're ready to play. Stuff is starting up. So where are you working from right now?

My son's bedroom. If you ever see me do a Zoom call or an interview, there's a basketball hoop over my shoulder, and that is not my office or my room. But I've been home since, geez, March probably 12th, 13th. And, you know, I could go in, I suppose, and work out of the office. But, you know, given the ability to have family time at any given time and being productive at home, home's a good place right now. Absolutely.

We were talking before we brought you on that you're a fellow Mass hole like everybody else on the show, but busy. You're from Melrose Mass, correct? Yeah, I am. I was thinking about that beforehand in the accent that I could devolve right into at any moment. Every time I go to a Boston-based movie, I walk out and my wife in the car right back says,

who are you? I can't even recognize this guy. Stop dropping F-bombs every other word. Well, I wanted to bring Boston. Drop the letters on that. I wanted to bring up Boston because, you know, you were working at the Globe. You probably had a dream

job for a journalism guy working on the Sox beat hometown team and then all of a sudden seemingly like I said overnight you're working for the Minnesota Wild front office how the hell did that happen and transpire yeah that anniversary was actually a week ago and it's been 14 years which is harsh for me to believe and that transpired over really a relationship with Doug Reisfeld, who was the general manager of the Wilds when I covered that team as my first job out of school in 2003. And that was a year and a half. And I went to Boston and covered the Sox right in between the two World Series

championships. So 05 and 06, and they won in 04 and 07. And the second year, I got an offer to go to SI to cover baseball and an offer to go to Yahoo when they were starting out with original content to cover hockey and I was kind of paralyzed because I felt really loyal to the globe and one of the people I checked in with for advice was Doug Riserell and he said well what if I give you a fourth option of coming to work here and you could learn the business and contribute with some really at that time the the analytical movement the idea of using data was new in

baseball and the ux team had just you know won the world series as gm of the red socks and hockey had none of that so doug for some reason thought that this unqualified journalist who had been on the very outskirts of that to come in and maybe you know add a little bit of unconventional thinking and ask unpopular questions and that's kind of what I did for a few years at that time how popular was analytics and hockey or was there any at all there was nothing the very first day I was with the Wild was free agency in 2006. And the team was going from being really a team that was in development, expansion team, to really winning.

And they signed probably four, five, six guys and spent, you know, over the duration of those contracts, $70 to $80 million on that day. And not a single number was mentioned. Not even ice time points, anything. So it was definitely, I think, the seminal moment for all of that wow so it was basically just a happenstance thing you didn't have any desire to work in a front office or even for a hockey team and just what your relationship with the gm led to that that's crazy i i had never thought about it and when i was leaving covering the wild doug had me over for dinner. And I always refer to that dinner as being much like the George Costanza scene where you want to spend the broadcasting. And Jerry said,

that's generally for people who were ex-ball players or in broadcasting. And Doug said to me, so you can't coach because you never played, but you're a sharp guy and you're inquisitive and you're hardworking. So maybe someday there'll be a place in management. And he planted that seed that day in 2000 and probably late winter of 2004. And, you know, after a year and a half of talking to him periodically, it became something. So I'm wondering your, your kind of opinion and where you stand when you hear the argument of

analytics versus hard and in character and, you know, the battle that kind of wages between these two sides. And I personally think you've got to have both. But is that kind of where you lean as well in terms of, like, you can't just look at the numbers, you can't just look at these advanced stats? Yeah, the idea is you want to make the most informed decision possible, right? And so that includes, hopefully, very thorough coverage by a scout in whatever player's area it is that you're talking about.

So if it's in the Boston area, whoever your Boston area scout is, you want him to know that player inside out. And you want to apply as much data to that decision as possible. And you want to dig in as hard as you can on the player's background. You know, how does he respond to adversity? Who are the influences in his life? On and on and on. And ideally, those three points of information will intersect.

And if they do, you feel really good about the decision you're going to make to add that player or to not add him. And if they don't intersect, then it sends the other one or two pieces of information back to the drawing board to say, okay, why are we having a lack of agreement? And I think that's when you really learn and get better. So in your opinion, what do you think the most important advanced stat is, whether it's Corsi or Fenwick?

And can you kind of explain why you think that way? Well, a lot of the advanced stats that are public, that are available on any given public website, are often just shot-based. And so those are those that you're talking about, which are Corsi and Fenwick. And at this point in time, we have access as a team to really every single touch of the puck, offensive or defensive. So, you know, defensive, you're talking about using your sticker body to break up plays, to limit scoring chances, you know, to recover pucks. Offensively, you're talking about your ability to pass, to skate with it, to protect it, to create, to do all sorts of things along those lines. And so we really look for what skills are independent of who you play with

and the team you played on. And because if you acquire a player, he's not coming with the players he's played with and he's not with and the team you played on. Because if you acquire a player, he's not coming with the players he played with and he's not coming with the team he played for. And so over the years, we've come up with, in our opinion, an understanding of what skills are transferable. And ideally, you find players who they may not be producing at a high level. A player like Elias Lindholm with us in Carolina, he's a very moderate 40, 45-point player.

And he comes to us, and he did a lot of things that we felt would help Johnny Goudreau and Sean Monaghan. And all of a sudden, 30 goals, 78 points. So I think the analogy I always make is if you looked at public analytics, there are about 300 data points that the league produces off a game. If you look at the event by event, you're talking about 3,600 or so. The analogy there is if you scouted a game and just off NHL data,

you'd be like the lights are on for six of every 60 seconds. And with the good data, the lights are on for the full minute. So I think that the public discourse about it is, you know, it limits and probably undersells exactly what I think of it. Now, did you play at any level growing up? And I'm not calling out receipts because I was the worst skater in the world, but were you just a big hockey fan? Like, I was just curious how you get into the game so much.

Yeah, just a fan. My dad and some of his friends had season tickets in Section G, row one at the Garden, which was right behind the goal judge. And it was like, wow. I tried to get the goalies to look at me and make eye contact. I think Glenn Healy did, and he was the only one ever. And I skated on the ponds in Melrose and up on Mary Meeting Lake up in New Hampshire where we spent a lot of our family weekends.

And really, my parents didn't want me to play because they wanted me to do that. But I did actually, my start kind of in hockey was actually at BU, where it was, because my dad helped Jackie, Jackie Paca, Jackie's daughter, to get a teaching job. Jackie was a teacher. My dad was the assistant superintendent of schools in Somerville. job. Jackie was the teacher. My dad was the assistant superintendent of schools in Somerville. After that, the

BU Sports Information Director paid us back with the press pass to all BU games. This would have been 96, 78. The team was good. Chris Trury was there at his peak. I would go to every game

that was a home game and write about it for a publication involved and that didn't even pay me and uh it was funny i couldn't drive at first so you'd have chris trury and jackie parker and me and then the globe or herald writer and then my mom or my dad right in that post-game press conference room and i had no idea how uncool that was. But at the same time, I knew how cool it was because that got me going around, you know, athletes who are real athletes and understanding how to behave and how to talk to them. Hockey is such a small world.

There was probably 30 games we were both at. I mean, we're the same age and, you know, we didn't know each other. But that's also Malden Catholic Party. We didn't know each other. Also, Malden Catholic Party, they've turned into quite the wagon. All these Super 8 title state champs in Massachusetts. You can at least say, listen, I was a legend there in the media game.

Yeah, I keep getting waited to be inducted to the Sports Hall of Fame there for writing, but it hasn't happened yet. That was before R.A. got his media pass. I'm curious how many times you had to kick him out of your seats. Chris, I was actually wondering, being such a big Boston guy, what brought you to Syracuse University? I think that Syracuse probably had the reputation of having one of the top

three journalism schools. I think often it was Syracracuse uh northwestern in chicago columbia maybe in new york and uh yeah probably those three so syracuse was the one i could get into of the three and uh i think northwestern just lost my application along the way and so i went there and and it was it was terrific i worked with guys who are now covering all the major pro sports, working at ESPN, working at SI. We really taught each other kind of how to write. And in a lot of ways, I credit the kids I went to school with

as much as the school for the success we all ultimately had. You mentioned Theo Epstein and, you know, working so closely with him. What's like the one thing you could take away from your time with him? I mean, he's made quite the name for himself in the baseball world as a general manager. Yeah, I think he surrounded himself with people who were very intelligent, had great interpersonal skills, and had a real capacity to make a difference.

And he didn't care where they came from. His assistant GMs and directors of baseball ops when I were there, one went to school for Russian studies, one went for history, one had been working in an admissions office at a small college in New England, Jed Hoyer, who's now the GM of the Cubs. So I think Theo had a real understanding of, you know, finding talent and empowering talent and stepping back and letting it work. You find that maybe, you know, hockey,

that's been maybe a problem in the past of them kind of keeping it in house with people that have always been associated to hockey. Whereas you just mentioned that Theo really didn't care where you came from or your background. He just wanted smart, intelligent people around him. I think it was definitely the norm. Certainly when I came in, I was the ultimate insider. But I would say that in the last probably handful of years,

there's been a significant change. When I, about three months ago, just before COVID and all of us got sent home, I reached out to several teams to look at what is their spending on staffing in the analytical area. And I found that what would have ranked you second three years ago now had you sitting outside

of the top ten. So you see teams with, yeah, four, five full-time people, whereas three years ago, if you had one, you were probably ahead of the game now saying that i believe calgary was one of the first teams to hire a full analytical staff correct i think we were i think we were teams are pretty quiet about it but i think tampa probably had the first guy and then i think we were probably second And then we've all very quietly built our staffs. You know, we don't really share within the support what we're doing

or how big our staffs are. So we have recently, because I think we find that if you share that, you've got a better case to go back and make a pitch for your own budget, you know, to be bigger than it was before. And I would not be surprised to see those grow and grow and grow as that tracking technology comes out. We walked into, which I did a couple of years ago, the Los Angeles Dodgers front office. They had 16 full-time people, cubicle after cubicle after cubicle.

So they're being analysts for just like the FTC. And that's, you know, I don't think we'll go there. But I do think the data is so good now, it's demanding more people work with it. hundreds of thousands of dollars. And that's why we wanted to have you on as well, not only to tell your story and to get some more donations for you. So we want to, you know, basically if you can kind of take us through your journey and I think you were working out and you said you realized right away what it was because of the family history. Yeah.

The family history is, is long and painful. My, my first uncle passed away in 2004. He lived in Wilmington, my Uncle David. And then in 2013, my Uncle Brad, who lived in Lynn, he passed away. And maybe the most painful of all, my 28-year-old cousin, my Uncle Brad's son, in 2016 passed away. And then my dad, who was the oldest of all of them, died at 68, 67, passed away at 68 two years ago this August. And we basically have a gene that you have a 50-50 chance of getting from my family. And if you have that gene, it's called SOD1, then you have a 90% chance of developing a disease at some point in your life.

And it tends to show up later than it had with my cousins and it has me but there's very little understanding of you know why it activates or or doesn't because some people it won't and so i i was last year in the playoffs in the hotel in denver and lifted a weight i could just tell that i didn't have the right amount of strength in my right hand and so i went through after the playoffs the process of elimination diagnosis. So I had an ultrasound on my, let's see, my elbow and wrist, and then I had an MRI because they were hoping it was my neck. And as these tests came back, unremarkable, that's as my concern started to rise and finally someone who does nerve and

muscle testing did two rounds and he said to me in in june of last year i think this is is als and at that point that's when we moved into the process of going to see the doctor who we thought was the leading expert in the u.., someone who my dad and cousin had participated in research with. And he was great in that he went through the whole exam. We did a great deal of research. And then toward the end, you know, he diagnosed me and he said, you got to do two things. You have to do what brings you joy and you have to enroll in this clinical trial.

the things you have to do it brings you joy and you have to enroll in this clinical trial and because the gene i have was the first uh discovered to cause the familial als it was the first to get the scientific research community behind it so i have really like the bad luck of having a gene that causes only two percent of als cases but it's the only genetic cause for what's the promising trial right now. That is such good news to hear. And I think, interesting guy. I mean, actually everyone across the country is aware of Pete Frady's and what he did for this disease and Steve Blee's in the former NFL. And you're now that guy in Canada, saw an amazing thing on sports then just to hear your positivity throughout this and the clinical trials. So what does that kind of entail?

What is this doing certain things each day, each week? Can you kind of take us through that? Sure. And a note on that, this community is so small. Steve Gleason, the former New Orleans Saint, he is good friends with Theo and a big Cubs fan.

So Theo connected with Steve and Steve and I have actually been texting for the last couple of days. Just a really neat guy who has zero use of his body, none whatsoever. And yet he had a baby in the last, I think, year or two, and he's raised in excess of $10 million through his foundation. So this trial itself, I actually go this Friday. It's every four weeks. It's about a four-hour visit.

I go through a number of physical tests in the morning to test muscle strength, breathing capacity. What else do they work on? That'd be most of it. And then a neuro exam where the neurologist comes in he kind of goes head to toe you know he's looking for any issues with reflexes and uh with weaknesses and i don't really you know like those tests because uh you know on the one hand they can really reaffirm that you're doing well but the whole time you're sitting

there waiting for them to say something to the effect of, okay, we noticed this progression somewhere else. But that said, the muscle tests the last few times, the people here have said when they try to push down on my arms, legs, feet, and wrist on the good side, because my right hand is no good, they can't kind of break that plane when they push as hard as they can and they said that they've never seen that in somebody who's come through their doors so that's that's terrific and then the last part is the medication is given through a spinal tap through an injection in my full back and i find that to be honest the easiest

part of the whole time there. Because as I always say to the doctors, they'll apologize for the simple pulling off of those EKG stickers. And I tell them the physical part is nothing. The test, the poking, the prodding, I don't care what that is. It's just the emotional part of dealing with how am I. That is a challenge in those days. Chris, I watched, of course, the Sportsnet piece with Elliot Freeman and your wife Kelsey was featured in it.

And obviously family, extremely important during difficult times like that. Just go over what she's meant to you throughout this whole process and dealing with what you're going through. My wife has been incredible. I actually met her at the Globe one summer. She was a Globe intern. And this is actually a funny, embarrassing story. I got together with a bunch of Boston friends and a guy who I went to Syracuse with. And my wife was living in a place with him and a couple others for their intern summer. to uh the white horse tavern in alston and i'm looking across yeah and i was like i live two blocks from there and i'm looking across at him and we're talking and talking and i said uh i said hey adam any hot interns this summer and he puts his arm around her and he says you mean

besides kelsey i was i mean that's a little game i had at that point in time, I guess. So I was really fortunate to recover from that by the end of the night and the end of the summer. But she's been the person who has researched all of this. Even before we were formally diagnosed, or I was, she already knew of the trial that I'm now in. And she was prepared if the doctor didn't bring it up to go to that place and bang down their doors. She was prepared if the doctor didn't bring it up to go to that place and bang down their doors. And in the 12 months since then, her blog that I think Kelsey writes.com, she's written, I think, 12 entries that's really chronicled the raw aspect of this, which is really the emotion. You know, the physical loss of my hand and forearm really isn't a big deal.

physical loss of my hand and forearm really isn't a big deal. It's just what it could suggest and what that could mean for my kids who are five and eight and what it could mean for her. And so to have her tell that story in a way that she's a good writer, but when she feels emotionally connected, she is a world-class writer. So this has brought out the very best in her. And, you know, that's a record out there that allows us really to communicate to people close and distant how we feel, how we want to be treated, and what the disease really looks like. Chris, you mentioned the trial, and I want to go to your tweet from last June 17th. I was given

12 months to live on 6-17-2019. I should have lost the ability to walk, talk, eat, and breathe. And then in the clip, you're booting a field goal like Adam Vinatieri. So I know with clinical trials, some people get a placebo, and you seem to have responded well to what they've given you so far. So, I mean, it's pretty clear you think that you didn't get the placebo? Yeah, they told me in the summer last year that I would probably know by October if I was getting the placebo or not, because they figured that by then, either the disease would have shown up somewhere else or I'd have at the minimum no ability to lift my right arm.

So we got into the fall of September, October, I was coaching my son's hockey team and able to shoot pucks fairly well off the heel of the stick because my shoulder was really what was doing that as opposed to, you know, leaning into it and using your wrist, which I couldn't do. I felt really confident. And then as the months went by and every single visit, I walked into that hospital in Toronto and then walked out.

I felt like I was on a high because I had anticipated being maybe on the placebo. Maybe the drug wouldn't work, and I might be wheeled down that hallway, not walked out. And Chris, one other thing I took from the Sportsnet piece was that it's very underfunded because of how rare it is. I would assume that a reason for the trick shot challenge and the ice bucket challenge as well is to not only gain awareness, but to create funding in order to find a cure for this disease.

Exactly. The, the, the scope of the disease is only 20,000 people. They're about North America. So pick your NHL arena and that's 18 to 20,000 seats and that's everybody. So there is more funding coming, but I find that the disease has needed and continues to need private funding. And we're really appreciative of foundations and funds that help people who are already sick, but we're after a cure. So every single dollar that we raise is going directly to research at the best universities and hospitals we can find.

And while research can sound abstract and far from a cure, the drug that I'm on was created at a small university in the Midwest, and then it was scaled from there. So that is legit that that is where those solutions begin. While we're talking about it, Chris, what site should people go to in order to donate? Right. So calgaryflames.com slash snowystrong is a place you can donate.

It's a place you can find a link to my wife's blog. You can find a number of encouraging videos that we've received from some of the top players in the NHL and the hashtag trickshot for snowy the number four is where you could find any videos that people have done during this uh challenge that we've done in the last really the last two weeks which I can get into that right now if you want me to absolutely Absolutely. Yes, of course. The Flames came to me in late May and had an idea for ALS Awareness Month,

which I think is mainly in the U.S., but it's doing up here. The idea is to do a trick shot of any kind, athletic or otherwise, post that, challenge two people, and make a donation. It can be small. As I've always said, we need a lot of donors.

We don't necessarily need big donations. And so we've, in the last two weeks, raised about $33,000 off of that. We've had more than 200 videos. We've had NFL players. We had the U.S. team to challenge Eddie Vedder, who is a good friend, going back 17 years, I think, and David Ortiz. And Eddie was in right away, told Theo, I've got something planned, and it is wild.

So I'm looking forward to that. And right now I've been reaching out to general managers, assistant GMs, agents in our league, and I think that over the coming weeks you'll see a number of the top players in the sport participate. Well, Snowy, I think I might have blown my load on the Ice Bucket Challenge, but I'm going to see what I can do in order to create a nice, fun one for you and create some more awareness. You set that bar awfully high.

Yeah, the helicopter now. What am I going to do now? Get a fighter jet? You got to, like, jump out of it or or something and do something midair, I think. Maybe a hot air balloon biz that you can bungee cord out of. Hey, Snowy, seriously though, I think the jam you're showing and the positivity and listening to you speak about this, our listeners are loyal.

I think that we'll be able to help out a ton and i'm really glad to hear that because all i've ever heard about you is that you're a stand-up great person and i really appreciate you coming on with us and telling us your story because we're here with you man we're praying i'm very grateful about you i'm very grateful for those comments and for the fact that you guys and the Canadian media and the U.S. media, they've stepped up to be interested and tell our story and encourage people to donate. And this is how we cure disease because in 2020,

nobody should walk into a hospital and be told, there's nothing we can do for you. Get your affairs in order. And I thought that was exactly what Ivy told me. Yeah. Well, Snowy, I got to ask you one thing before we let you go. How are the Flames looking heading into playoffs here? You liking your chances a lot?

Yeah, I think so. Well, it's hard to handicap it because we didn't play Winnipeg indoors once all year. Played them outdoors in Regina back in the fall. But I think, as you guys know, there's teams that you play real poorly against and teams you play great against and then teams you just play even up with entertaining games. And they've been that last bucket. So I would expect, you know, it's five games, so I don't know if I can call it a long series,

but I would expect those to be good competitive games with both teams feeling very good about their chances. So we'll find out who's conditioned. We'll find out who's been kind of getting their mind ready for this. And, you know, we've never lost in August, so what can go wrong? Chris, I just want to say, man, you're an incredibly brave and inspirational person, and we thank you immensely for coming on. And we know our listeners are going to definitely donate.

Again, go to the Calgary Flames website, hashtag trickshot4snowy. That's number four. And hashtag snowystrong4als. Anyone listening, go out and donate what you can. And, again, we thank you. And Keith Batlin, brother, you're a hell of an inspiration to everybody. Really, really appreciate all of that, guys. We want to give a huge thanks to Chris Snow for joining us.

Like I said to him, it's just such an inspirational story for what he's, with the hand he's been dealt and the way he deals with it. I don't know where he gets this well of positivity, but he does. And he's a great kid and we're pulling hard. And if you can, I know money's tough these days and times are tough, but if you can donate, please do, because this is a debilitating, horrible disease. And any research we can do to eradicate it would be awesome.

So, boys, good job with that stuff. He is a great person and a huge inspiration. So I'm fired up. I got an unreal text from him. He had a little pink Whitney, and I couldn't appreciate that more. So we got to be really thankful for having that guy on, because he's a special person. And I got to thank Brad Tree Living for putting me in touch with him.

And we're going to get out one of these trick shot videos. We just got to try to think of something creative and create some awareness. Going to have to get me to a mini golf course if you want to see me do a trick shot. But I'll do something, anything to help the cause. So thanks again to Chris Snow, and we're wishing him the best. All right, going to move back to a couple details here. Per our pal Elliot Friedman, he said it was previously been reported New Jersey coaching candidates were Alan Nezradine,

who's the incumbent right now, Gerard Gallant, Peter Laviolette, and John Stevens. And there was a mystery candidate who was apparently New York Rangers assistant, Lindy Ruff. Devils are not in any real hurry right now to name their coach, so we'll obviously keep you updated as that breaks. It was great to see Philadelphia flyer Oscar Lindblom back on the ice with his teammates.

His treatments are almost over for his Ewing sarcoma. He won't be playing in the playoffs, but just to see him out there having fun, snapping around tape to tape, it was awesome to see. Yeah, feel-good story right there. I talked to Hazy about him. He kind of first told me how good he was.

Like before, you know, before this, this, this tough battle he had, he's been fighting started. He was lighting it up. He's leading the team in scoring. He's playing unreal and everyone loved him. And Hazy's telling me, hey, Biz, he's one of those guys got perfect, perfect style. You know how the Swedes are the nicest guys with the sickest gear? Yeah. Just just one of those guys got perfect perfect style you know how the swedes are the nicest guys with the sickest gear yeah just just one of those guys so he it was devastating and then now to see him out there and i so i was asking him like what what's he like as a guy he's like dude he loves my he loves my joke the joke i tell his favorite joke i'm which one? And I can't even tell you what the joke's called, but I'll tell it. I'll do my

best. He says that, what did the nut say to the other nut when he was chasing him? You know? I'm a cashew. So his cashew joke, I guess I guess that Lin Blum

just loves that joke. So, you know, seeing him back with the boys laughing at Hazy, telling the same joke over and over is just gold to me. Tamakashi. I'm just picturing him saying it to make it even ten times funnier. Definitely. Like, big doggy. Yeah.

We want to send our congrats to Chris Thorborn on his retirement. That's why I'm laughing too. Like big doggy. Yeah. All right. We want to send our congrats to Chris Thorborn on his retirement. 16 years of professional hockey, 801 NHL games. And, of course, he was on the Cup winning Blues team last season. So congrats to him. Hopefully he enjoys retirement. One of the all-time salads of the NHL as well. Biz, he's a buddy of yours, correct?

He was my captain and junior. He wouldn't even swear he would say frig him a donor i had two captains who wouldn't swear could you believe it what are the chances i would have two captains i would swear but he was a great player and junior and a type of guy where he adapted his role when he got to the nhl uh started fighting more beloved by his teammates and you see exactly why last year ends up spending the entire year or most of the year, excuse me, with St. Louis, ends up getting a chance to lift the cup.

And what a way to go out. And, yeah, Thorby was an incredible guy, born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, comes from an awesome family. And I couldn't be happier for him on a wonderful career. So, Thorby, thank you to everything you've ever done for me, my friend. You're a great leader and a great mentor. Nice. Well said, Biz.

And for just a few minutes, we'll be bringing his coach on. I got to play with him, too. Oh, did you? Oh, jeez. I did. In Pittsburgh. So, he came in. I mean, he gets that noise in there, dude.

Oh, wow. He's just difficult to deal with in front of the net, one of those guys. Every day he was playing to get into the lineup, stay into the lineup. You know what I mean? And he played a long time. You know, I kind of sense that he was grinding a lot of the years he was in the league biz, right?

Like you thought for the second half of his career, hey, maybe this might be a guy like that's last year years kept clawing his way through clawing his way through couldn't can't get much oxygen around him because he's got a big snout me and him me and him fought for the oxygen in the locker room that's what we fought for congrats to him like i said we'll be bringing his coach on in just a few minutes uh one other note, I know you guys saw this. A Conor McDavid rookie card sold for $135,000. What?

Yeah, it was a 2015-16 upper deck. It was a special version, the Cup Rookie Patch autograph card, and I guess there was like 99 of them made, and this particular card was number 97, which is his. So the value went up. Honestly, man, I was a former card collector. I had a bunch of them. They basically were worthless.

The market bottomed out in the 90s when it got flooded. I think it's insane that people still pay this much for fucking cards. It's crazy to me. You know who bought it? Is the market coming back up? You know who bought it? Some guy who collects stamps? No, the guy who built his house.

With all that extra money he charged them yeah and do this the fucking sale price had a 20 percent bias fee too dude you know there's a guy or i don't i don't know if it was a guy but somebody paid three sheets for a honus wagner card i mean that was playing like 1905 yeah that's three million dollars on that yeah it's crazy like i mean the only people the only people who spend that money are the collectors it's not like it's gold where you can you know pawn it off at a fucking high value at some point it's crazy but anyways biz whoever did buy that card they're gonna want to keep it safe so they're definitely gonna want simply safe what's the number one sign of a bad home security system a home security system that is so complicated you never use it.

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My brother got one. You don't have to be running Radio Shack to get it done. It's real basic. So head over to simplisafe.com slash chicklets and get a free shipping and a 60-day money-back guarantee. That's simplisaiSafe, that's S-I-M-P-L-I-S-A-F-E.com to make sure they know that our show sent you. Want to protect the homestead, biz.

Yeah, all right, and if I could just jump in real quick. Funny story, my parents actually, they have SimpliSafe, they love it, and they didn't know that they were an advertiser with us. And my dad was actually listening to a podcast the other day. And he reached out and was like, oh, my God. I didn't know you guys advertised with SimpliSafe. We just got it. We love it.

They love it. So I'll let you guys move on. But I can give you the Grinnelli parents vouch for SimpliSafe. But, Biz, what were you saying? I didn't really get to chime in on the the mcdavid rookie card situation but as silly as it sounds the card market has gone up it's rising again it's being popular again like it used to be and ra i agree i don't i don't really understand it but there might be a correlation between the fact that sports aren't being played right now.

And there's like a lot of collectors who are major sports fans where that's where they're getting their fix. I don't know. Maybe that's driving the market up. So who knows? Maybe what do you think? What do you think a Ryan Whitney rookie card would go for? Whoa,

man. Honestly, like five bucks for 99. Somebody's paying. Here's the thing. If Chicklets can get my rookie card to be sold. Let's see if we can get above McDavid's. No. For $100, I consider my post-playing career to be an absolute shocker.

Dazzling success. $100 rookie card for me, but I had a great year. I had 38 points in 68 games. After having 14 in nine games in the AHL, to force them to call me up is, you know how you just got to force their hand? That's what I said to myself when I went down that year. I gotta do, I can't even

give them a choice. I did it the other way. I had them send me to the coast. They're like, I'm gonna show them how really big of a shitbag I can be. Do you have the car you're str stream ski with the long

sideburns? Hey, Biz, speaking of sending it, I think we should send it over to Craig Berube right about now for our second interview. We're being silly

tonight. Yeah, it's nothing wrong with that. All right, without further ado, we're going to send it over to Chief Craig Berube, head coach of the Stanley Cup win in

St. Louis Blues. Our next guest was an undrafted free agent who became one of the toughest guys to ever suit up in the NHL. He played for 17 seasons for five teams, racking up over 1,000 games. He's also seventh on the all-time penalty minute list with 3,149, making him one of only three guys to play 1,000 games and earn 3,000 penalty minutes in the NHL.

He's presently in his second season coaching St. Louis, and he won a Stanley Cup in his first season, bringing St. Louis its first Cup ever. It's a pleasure to welcome Craig Berube to the Spitting Chicklets podcast. That's when you're supposed to hop in and say thank you for the intro, R.A. That was wonderful. Guys, thanks for the intro. That was very nice.

I appreciate it. Probably bought him. Probably bought him. Yeah. Oh, did you put him to sleep, R.A.? No, Chief was like, keep going, keep going. That can't be it. Probably bought him. Probably bought him. Yeah. Oh, did you put him to sleep already? No, Chief was like, keep going, keep going. That can't be it. Yeah.

Yeah. That's about it. So what are you doing at kill time? Where's all the goals and assists? You guys don't want to talk about them? Well, I figured, yeah, you're one of three guys to play 1,000 and have 3,000 penalty. That's a feather in your cap.

No pun intended. Yeah. A little bit. I'll take that. There's a couple years your cap. No pun intended. Yeah, a little bit. I'll take that. There's a couple years where you had donuts though. No goals. That's like, you know when you're a plug when you can't even put one in the back of the

net. And that's, hey, and this is being spoken by a true plug. You only had one year. We only had one with no goals, Biz. Don't go on the map. Are you sure? One year. One year. One year, Hexie outscored me. He got two and I got one.

Ron Hex saw the goal. He scored two in one year. Yeah, we've heard of him. That's beautiful. He actually might be crazier than you. He was at the time as a player. He was crazy. You should have seen him in the dressing room between periods, man.

It was something to see. Would you go high on him in practice? Oh, yeah. He would come after you, though, a lot. Like, you know, he'd shoot pucks at you. He had a good shot, as you guys know. He'd fire pucks at you, come after you a little bit, you know, if you shot high on him.

But in between periods, this guy would just rock back and forth and chew his nails. And then he'd blurt something out in the room, like yell something. I didn't even know what he was talking about. And he was just – he was really intense, very intense. Like random words? Were they related to the game of hockey? Yeah, related to the game.

Yeah, related to the game of hockey? Yeah, related to the game. Yeah, related to the game. It was all about the game, but he was just an intense guy. Was he calling guys out? He would at times. Not a ton, but he would a little bit. Yeah, for sure. I just wanted to get into the beginning. When we do these, we try to kind of start from the beginning,

youth hockey, all that. But, I mean, what a career you ended up having as a a player and then to go on and be the only coach to ever bring a team from last to the cup it's just been a wild ride would you ever have imagined this when you were 14 15 years old and even when you become undrafted signee you couldn't have pictured what would have happened no and when I was 14 and 15 honestly guys I wasn't even thinking about playing hockey and junior or in the NHL or whatever. No shit. I'm living out in, yeah, it was like living out in Calhoun, Alberta.

I mean, there was like, you know, we're playing obviously hockey junior B and junior C out there. But, you know, I just didn't really, I didn't really think about it that much or even actually, I don't think I cared a whole lot about it to be honest with you at the time you know but then i went away and i uh got a call to go play in williams lake bc um i don't know if you guys remember a guy named bill laforge um he actually was coaching junior out in camels at the time they were called uh camels oilers do you guys remember that name at all no i think junior coach i know the coach yeah he coached him vagina and stuff he was actually friends with uh our family and he actually made a call uh to us about um you know williams lake bc junior 18 looking for some players so me and a couple buddies went out there we ended up making the team and you know i played that year out there and got a little bit of action up with the blazers with

i mean it was the oilers at the time canvas oilers with bill laforge and and next year i ended up playing uh major junior whl out in new westminster bruins played a couple years there had good years at my centerman was cliff ronning so I actually got a lot of points. Because he was so good, I would just go to the net or touch the puck at one point and get in the fist. I finished my career out in Medicine Hat, playing under Doug Sautter, who was the coach, and Russ Farwell, who was the GM, who were pretty tight with the Flyers

at the time with Bobby Clark and that organization and they actually came out watched me a little bit and offered me a contract and I saw him I said sure signed it and that's kind of when I was I realized you know I have a chance to go and play pro hockey now you know that's really what it boils down to I really wasn't you know one of those guys that was like wow I gotta make it I gotta get there I gotta do this I got I just played I had fun I mean I just and I got lucky and ended up getting a contract and here I am today. Chief did you scrap a lot off the ice as a young kid like does that something you always liked? scrap a lot off the ice as a young kid like does that something you always liked i don't know if i liked it but i grew up on a farm with uh my dad had six brothers and a sister that all lived

in that area so there's a lot of cousins there was a lot of fighting going on to be honest with you i'm not gonna lie to you guys you know you're outside you're you know doing you know hanging out and doing stuff you're getting in scraps here and there that guy in Williams Lake BC when I went and played for him John Van Hardik he's the one that really kind of you know taught me how to to box taught me how to you know fight on the ice what I needed to do to play and he's the Yeah, he's the real reason I'm here today. He actually had me fight in amateur fights during the year, boxing. No way.

I went to Sawyer. You got me into Sawyer. You think you're tough. That summer, I did that. He was probably keeping the purse after you won it too, wasn't he? There wasn't much money. I'm going to make some money off this guy.

You were like doing UFC before UFC. Exactly. And then, you know, so I kind of – he really introduced me to all that and said, listen, if you want to have a chance to play one day, this is what you're going to have to do. And he was right. You know, I was lucky to have a guy like him. And when I turned pro and I went down to Hershey,

I had a guy named John Paddock, who you guys know probably who he is. He coaches Regina now, junior hockey. But John really helped my career down there in Hershey and really got me off to the right foot, looked after me. And I ended up, you know, I got called up that year to the Flyers. And we actually went to the finals that year against Edmonton, and I was part of that team. Yeah, so there's so many questions I have from those Flyers days.

But I think it's pretty well known you and Rick Talkett are real good buddies. And you must have gotten to the Flyers and you spent two years kind of up and down. But when you saw him not only play with that edge, but also be like a point per game guy, I mean, he must have been someone you looked up to immediately while also becoming good buddies. Yeah, definitely. He took me under his wing, I would say. You know, I live with him and just kind of like taught me the ropes, to be honest with you. What you got to do up here, how you got to play.

And we became obviously very good friends and still are um i had a bunch of good real good players in that team that really helped you along dave brown was on that team scott mellenby and i are good friends uh you got dave poolins mark howes brad mccrimmon the late brad mccrimmon was on that team those guys were such good guys and great locker room guys. And it helped me to be on a team like that. I'm not kidding you. I'm not sure I would have played as long as I played. And if I wouldn't have got, you know, taught by players like that early on in my career, to be honest with you.

And Mike Keenan was our coach, so I had to deal with that, too. And, you know, I got a lot of help from those guys. And I like Mike. Mike was good to me, actually. But, you know I got a lot of help from those guys and I like Mike Mike was good to me actually but you know he's tough to play for he can really be an intimidating coach at the time when you're a young player I was gonna say he the way you played and what you're doing fighting that off and he must have really respected you though I think it's probably a little different for guys that maybe played like like the way did, where he's a little harder on the softer players. Is that true?

I would say yes and no. Like, he was hard on us, too. He was hard on – he was actually tough on Tocantin and Brownie and, you know, and myself, too. Scott Mellenby was really hard on. He actually – he was hard on the role players quite a bit, but you're right. If you were a soft – like a softer player, he probably, you know,

really probably got on you a little bit more and maybe didn't quite have the use for you. He wanted hard guys on his team. He wanted guys that play hard. But he did get on us a lot. He was tough on us, you know. I remember he'd come in the room after a loss. I think it was to Detroit or the Islanders, one of those two teams.

And he went around the room and he pointed to, like, seven of us. And he goes, see you at the rink at 8.30 tomorrow morning. Got on the ice and he just blew a whistle for about 45 minutes. We went up and down the ice. I was a rookie and I was skating my ass off. And, you know, Brownie was ready to kill him. And blew a whistle, brought us in. He goes, I'm just getting you guys ready for playoffs.

See you later. And that was it. He did that kind of shit. Wow. Crazy. You didn't mind it. You didn't mind those type of – Well, in some cases, we find that they're maybe mind games.

I mean, maybe for guys that are a little bit more stern like us, we can handle it. But word on the street is he didn't really, as Witt said, go after those types of guys as much. No, he didn't. No, for sure. And I think he – if he – he would read out guys that he didn't feel could help the team that was basically how how it worked with him oh and you know he put a lot of pressure on the general

manager to you know make moves or get rid of guys or whatever like he if he didn't think he could help the team he'd read you did you ever see any scenarios where a guy was like no i i'm fucking part of the solution i'm'm going to be around here. And then he actually won him over? Well, to be honest, yeah. A guy like Scott Meloby, who I'm very good friends with to this day, he really was hard on Scotty for some reason. I'm not sure.

To this day, I still don't know why. And I'll tell you what scotty went through a lot with this guy and scotty won him over eventually because he just worked he worked and he kept working and kept competing and ended up being obviously a very good player for the flyers for a number of years uh before he was traded but you know scotty there was a prime there was a good example of a guy that could just quit or just said, you know what, you got to get me out of here. Because it was that bad, to be honest with you.

But Scotty was tough, and he stuck with it, and he worked, and he kept competing hard and eventually won it over. And, you know, that's just a good example of a guy that was willing to put up with a lot of stuff from Mike at the time. Chief, you mentioned the cup run when you first broke in with the Flyers back in 87. You only played seven regular season games. Then all of a sudden you're in the heat of the playoff battle. Was that sort of like the ultimate baptism by fire you can get in the NHL back then? I would say so. I think I came up there in them seven games and I proved myself to Mike and the team.

You know, I played a hard game. I scrapped. I did whatever I had to do. And he kept me around like he kept me around. I think I only played maybe five playoff games, but I was around the team and real good introduction to the league and the NHL and being around playoffs. It was a great experience for me at the time. Yeah. Fifty seven penalty minutes in seven games. That'll endear to the guys in and being around playoffs. It was a great experience for me at the time. Yeah, 57 penalty minutes in seven games. That'll endear you to the guys in the room for sure. You saw that Oilers team, I mean, up close. What do you remember about just Gretzky, Messier,

those guys and how dominant they were? What was the final games in that series? It wasn't seven games. I think we lost the final game. Was it 4-3? I'm sorry. I meant the series. Yeah, we lost in seven games.

We ended up losing the final game. I think it was 3-2 in Edmonton. Close series, though. We had some bad injuries. That's no excuse. Every team's got injuries, but a couple key guys were really banged up and hurt on our Close series, though. We had some bad injuries. That's no excuse. Every team's got injuries. But a couple key guys were really banged up and hurt on our team. We weren't as deep as the Oilers.

But we competed hard. Hexy was excellent. He won the cons might as a losing goaltender. He played great. But the Oilers were just, like you said, they had so many weapons and and good players plus the best player to ever play the game in my opinion was on that team and Mark Messi was not far behind him I mean that's a great one-two punch down the middle of the ice

and you know legendary goalie Grant Fuhrer who you know made big saves at big times to win hockey games and you know just I would say an average defense core to be honest with you you know, made big saves at big times to win hockey games. And, you know, just I would say an average defense core, to be honest with you. You know, other than Paul Coffey back there, who was a dynamic player, the rest were pretty, you know, pretty regular type players, to be honest with you. It wasn't a, you know, it wasn't a real, real strong D core, but good enough.

You know, they had such great forwards that scored so much and did so much other stuff. There's a story, and I could have sworn it was you involved, and you were fucking fired up, and somebody ended up flicking the puck over the glass to get somebody out of the penalty box so you could end up fighting them. And back then, there wasn't that delay a game. Was this not in Calgary?

Yeah. We were losing. Well, how it started was we were getting beat out of the bad in Calgary at the time by Anaheim, and I ran the goalie. And nobody on the ice from Anaheim did anything. So I think I punched the goalie in the head, too, and ended up getting like a four-minute penalty. And there was barely any time left.

Like there wasn't a ton of time left in the game. And I got a four-minute penalty, and there was barely any time left. Like there wasn't a ton of time left in the game, and I got a four-minute penalty. So I'm in the box, and they line up, drop the puck. They're going to drop the puck, and Bob Bugner, who was on our team in Calgary at the time, he just beelined for another, on the face-off, beelined for another D-man. I forget the D-man and the other

team and started a five on five uh melee right so they go at it and they fight and all this there's five all five guys get kicked out of the game new five guys come on the ice they're playing remember kevin sawyer yeah i think that was his name he ran mike vernon over in that so that started another brawl so dave lowry at the time so they're out in the ice playing again he intentionally flips the puck over the glass so i could come out of the box right like come out of the box i looked over at the benches there's like three guys in each bench right right? And I think Gilbert was the coach at the time. He weighs me stay on the ice, so I go and line up. I think it was Jeff Friesen.

Remember him? Played a little bit with – Oh, yeah. Yeah. Fast guys. He looks at me and he goes, Chief, I think enough's been enough, right? You know? And I looked at him and I go, I don't think so.

I don't think so. I decide that. Yeah. The puck drops. The puck drops and I go to grab him and he takes off. And he's a fast skater so I had to hunt. Yeah. I had to hunt him down.

I ended up getting him and, you know, I punched him a few times. He's not a fighter. I ended up getting them. And, you know, I punched them a few times. I'm not a fighter. I didn't want to fight them. Punched them a few times, and that was it. Kicked out of the game. And out of all that, I'm the only guy that got suspended for three games. Oh, you got – how much did you get dinged for? How much was that?

Well, I – I don't know. I wasn't making that much probably, so I don't even remember. I got a 10-game suspension. That was a costly one. A 10-gamer. That hurt. You brought up Tauket and Mellenby and how close you guys were. Later on down the line in all your guys'

careers, did you ever fight either one of those? Of those two? Not really. Just shoving and pushing matches more than anything. Didn't know you were squared off. No, we never squared off with either one of them. Or Dave Brown. I'm pretty happy about that, to be honest with you.

Brownie and I actually, we ended up grabbing each other a few times over some stuff going on the ice, but we never fought. We were pretty tight. I really didn't want to fight him, to be honest with you. He's pretty tough. Chief, when you played, you certainly instilled fear in a lot of your opponents, no doubt. What role does fear have in today's NHL, do you think?

I think it has a little bit still. When you go into Vegas and you play Vegas and Ryan Reeves is on that team, he's an intimidating player, in my opinion, and has an impact on the game. You know, with his physicality, he's a good skater. He can get there. He plays the game. But he just has the physical element with him out there. He still has a factor in the game, in my opinion.

But there isn't a lot of those type of guys that can do what he can do, you know. He's a special player, in my opinion. But there isn't a lot of those type of guys that can do what he can do. You know, he's a special player, in my opinion. Now, you know, you did the drop for 17 years. After, you know, 10, 11 years of being in the force, did it ever become like a grind, like having to get up for games as your career went on? I think I went through, yeah, I think i went through spurts of it where um you know you get tired of it for a little bit and then you know i went to a different team so you know

you're you're you're trying to win your teammates over and your team um and the organization so you know that you get back going with it again and you feel good about it for a little bit and then it goes away again but my last few years in the league to be honest with you guys i was had no interest in it i was i was done with it probably the last two years yeah it gets hard like you just after a while you're like it's just you know you're you're faking it you're faking it at that point right because you're just like man like i'm getting older and like i'm still trying to do this thing i wouldn't call it a shtick but like it takes a lot out of you having to be a fucking asshole all the time yeah it does for sure and to just go out there and you know you're not even

mad anymore when you're doing it like you got to have a little bit of anger oh yeah and you got to be pissed off a little bit otherwise you know you're not going to do very well and. And when you don't have that in you, like you're not getting angry anymore, you're not getting pissed off enough, then you just kind of lose interest, right? Yeah, and I was going to ask you because you kind of went through that phase of the NHL where the real old school style where guys weren't really moving around teams much. So that hate was even built up because, like, you didn't really know these guys. But then the league, you know, teams started trading more and more teams.

You know, like, would you not agree that, like, it's progressively became more and more of a tummy sticks league, like where everyone's buddy-buddy out there? Well, yeah, nowadays I think, and you're right, and it started a little bit when I played too, and that's the NHLPA does a little bit when I played too, and that's the NHLPA does a great job of getting all these players together and on the same page, and they end up all getting to know each other really well, right?

And, you know, and so you're on the ice together. You're friends with these guys. You know them. You know what I mean? When I played, and you guys too early on in your careers, if a coach saw you being buddies with a player, that wasn't allowed. That was frowned upon.

Nowadays, you know, all these players know each other. They're all friends off the ice, and it's hard. I think it changes in the playoffs, to be honest with you. I know with our team it did. I thought our team was very physical in the playoffs. They played hard. I mean, we got a few guys got suspended for some questionable hits and things. But you have to play that way to win, in my opinion.

Especially our team. Don't say anything you're going to regret on here. We don't want you getting fined or anything. We don't want you talking about those questionable hits. No, they are. I'm saying we know they're questionable hits. The league suspended

a couple guys. It was probably the right call. It was the right thing. But you just don't see it a lot in the playoffs. But with our team to be successful in St. Louis, we've got to be a physical hockey team. We've got to play a hard brand of hockey. Otherwise, we're not going to be

successful. We're not the most talented team. We've got good players. We've got hard-working players, and we've got to be physical. It's funny. I've said a bunch that you guys were the 2011 Bruins. You just bullied everyone to win in the cup. It really reminded me of that team. But before we get into that, I have a bunch of stuff about this past season. But I wanted to get back into Calgary because I

got the chance to play with Gary Roberts. And I just I would ask him so many questions. I love them. Love that guy. And he would tell me stories. He said, you guys were great friends. And you got to see him play, I mean, 50 goals, 200 pins. That was his best season. And you were there. And you guys were pretty close off the ice, right? Yeah, definitely. We lived right around the corner from each other.

And I trained with him, actually, all summer. The guy trained, you know, how hard he trained and worked. So it was great for me to be around a guy like that that worked that hard and trained that hard he was good for me in my career um he was again he was an exceptional uh hard-working guy on and off the ice and I saw him that year and he scored 52 maybe 51 or 52 goals probably yeah he had a couple hundred pims he was a hard-nosed player we ended up scrapping and uh when i was in toronto and he was in calgary we went out at one time in a fight pretty good fight but anyways uh yeah i was i was lucky to play with gary i really

enjoyed my time with him taught me a lot on and off the ice hard work and things like that and yeah he's a great great player for a long time. And he's got a great business now with training players and does a great job with these guys. So I thought he actually wasn't keeping in shape and then everything changed when he hurt his neck. When you were with him, he was already an animal in the gym? Animal.

Oh, okay. So I thought that happened later. Probably too much, to be honest with you like running running out running and biking it was non-stop i was exhausted for the game yeah exactly and so he was working hard he the whole time i knew him he was intense and worked hard all the time intense in practice you know i remember time. Intense in practice. I remember there were fights in practice with him and things like that. He's got an insane motor on him.

It's crazy. Yeah, he does, nonstop. Chief, you mentioned being traded three times in less than eight months, and then later you were traded for – you brought it up for us, sorry. Then you got traded again a fourth time, but that fourth time was to Washington, and you stayed there for. You brought it up for us, sorry. Then you got traded again a fourth time, but that fourth time was to Washington, and you stayed there for quite a while. Was there something that you changed in approach or anything

that got you some stability finally? No. I mean, I think the trade from the Flyers was a new GM coming in and stuff. Bobby Clark was let go, and he made some moves, traded myself, Scott Mellonby, a couple other guys. He kind of just was changing the look of the team maybe in Philly a little bit. And I went to Toronto there. Scott Mellenby and I went to Edmonton.

Everything was good there. I had a great relationship with Glenn Sather and the coaching staff there in training camp. And Glenn made another trade. And he told me, me he goes I didn't want to trade you but Toronto wanted you and I got to get some I got to make some moves here and get some new players and I got caught up in a couple trades so I go to Toronto and everything's going well there I was actually playing real good hockey there and you know I thought I was taking a, you know, a different step in my career, you know,

not just fighting in that role, but actually playing the game and doing well. And that was all going well in Toronto. And then that Doug Gilmore trade happens and I get caught up in that trade. So I go to Calgary, you know, it was just kind of like I got caught up in some trades, I think more than anything.

And, you know, spend a few couple, two, three years in Calgary, and then I went to Wash, and I spent, I think, eight years there maybe, I guess. So, you know, found a home there. But I don't think I really did a whole lot different, to be honest with you. I think it was just I got caught up in some trades. Like I say, it just means four teams that wanted you. That's all, right?

I guess, yeah. I guess they wanted me, and then they didn't want me. We were just talking about fear a few minutes ago in your era. Was there a guy or guys, I guess, who instilled fear in you as an opponent when it came to fighting? I mean, there's a lot of guys. I guess every game – not every game, but there's a lot of guys in the league I can look back on where you're always thinking about it before the game and and you know you know you're gonna

have to probably fight these guys at some point during the game you know i remember going into detroit or playing detroit and they got pulbert and kosher like if you're not sitting there thinking about those two guys and you're not worried about it then you're not human i don't care what anyone says i mean that's just an know, it's an intimidation. I'll tell you a quick story. We played Detroit at home. We had a home and home with them. And I thought Pearl would be right off the hop.

Good fight. I go to the box. Kosher comes by the box. There was no glass. I don't think then. He goes, I'm next. I went, oh, man. I got to sit around for five minutes thinking about that. kosher comes by the box there's no glass i don't think then he goes i'm next i went oh man i gotta sit around for five minutes thinking about that got out of the box ended up fighting kosher so

that game ended uh go to detroit i think we had a day in between maybe and after warm-ups in detroit i'm sitting there in the room and Keenan walks in and scratches Dave Brown on the lineup. And I look at talk and I'm like, are you kidding me? What is he doing, man? Like, we're in Detroit and he scratches Dave Brown. Right away, out of the box, I fight

Proby once and I fight Proby again. I was like, man, I was wore out after those two games, I'll tell you that is that is wow so you were obviously one of those guys that like to get it over with right away well I mean I don't know about that so much I mean early on in my career I think I did but as a year as years go along you know um you get a little bit older and more mature you know there's there's always young guys that are they come up to you you right away. Let's go, let's go, let's go.

I'm like, you know what, if you want, I'd say, you want me to fight you? Like go and do something or make, make me fight you. You know, I just not got to drop my gloves with you right now. I'm going to play the game. But that was me when I was young, you know, I was like looking to get after it right away. Was there one guy who would get underneath your skin, but he wouldn't fight you, but he would just you? He would just lip off the entire time? And then that was going to transition me to my next question about the fact that you're kind of now coaching with a guy who played like that, Steve Ott.

We'll get to him later. There was probably, well, I'll tell you, Washington Capitals back in the 80s, and it would have been more of the 80s. I thought that team and Flyers, there was a lot of battles with that team over the years, and there were some guys in that team that really got under my skin a lot. You know, Dale Hunter, Jeff Cortnall was one guy there, Dino Cicerelli, all these guys, and they played hard, and it was always a battle.

It's not like they were fighters or anything like that, but Dale Hunter and I went out a lot between stick swinging and other things, and I ended up getting traded to Washington and became best friends. And, you know, we were on the ice doing all that stuff together. But that team at the time, I think, was, you know, there was a lot of guys that get under your skin on that team, for sure. Now, when you were with the Caps, Chief,

you had a second cup run there. Capitals lost to Detroit in four games that year. But you were teammates with Adam Oates for a couple years. Talk about how good of a player he is. I think sometimes he gets lost in the shuffle. We mentioned the greats of the game. Yeah, he was a great player for sure, both ways, defense and offense. He was very good defensively.

People probably don't realize that, but he was. Great face-off guy. And just real intelligent all around with playmaking ability. But if you look at his stats, he scored a lot of goals too. And it's something I kind of use a lot with players, like a guy like Robert Thomas on our team. He's like, you've got to get to where you're shot and is intimidating and you can score goals because

that's going to open things more up for you right if you're just a pass pass guy all the time you know players are smart enough they'll take that away eventually but when you can score with your shot then you're kind of you know you got two options and Oti I thought was one of those type of guys where he could shoot and score and also obviously make plays as good as I've seen in the game. His passing was remarkable. A very intelligent player. He was a good guy to play with. That Caps run, the game was actually on NHL Network yesterday, the final game.

Hell of a team. I couldn't believe some of the names I saw. I forgot how good Gonchar was, forgot some of the great players that the Capitals had. But that Detroit team, it was just like running into a freight train, huh? Well, they were good. And we had an opportunity early on in the series. The game, I think game two, we were up 3-1.

And Tinkerton, he beat the goalieie I don't know I just shot the puck wide for some reason I don't know it's just kind of a fluke play but it would have made it 4-1 we probably would have won that game uh that would have really changed things I think but they came back and tied it up and I went to a couple overtimes and they won that game and it was it was an uphill battle for us. We obviously weren't as good as them. You need some breaks. You need breaks to beat a team like that.

Otherwise, it won't happen. Chief, I want to transfer over to coaching for a little bit. We've been talking about your career for a while. Is coaching something you always wanted to do, or did it just kind of be a happenstance thing? Yeah, I think I go back to them Washington days with Dale Hunter we'd watch hockey all the time and you know even after our game we'd go back and hang around have a couple beers we watch the west coast games and just talk hockey all the time and I think that really kind of got me interested in coaching a little bit um after my career what was I going to do you know

you're thinking about it later on in your career. You know, and it was probably something that I wanted to get involved in because I really liked the idea of – I liked the idea of being around a team and being around the rink every day. And I love that. I love that. I miss that more than anything right now. It's just being at that rink with the guys and being in that mindset and being in that room.

And that was something that I wanted to continue to do after I was done playing. And what better way can you do it than by coaching, right? I wanted to get on the coaching side of things. I mentioned Steve Ott earlier. You know, you take over for that team. When was it? In December of last year? November.

Early November. Okay. We're not good with the stats around here, but around that time. Oh, that's all right. of last year? November. Early November. Okay. We're not good with the stats around here, but around that time. That's all right. And all of a sudden, you know, you start getting your system in place and this thing starts turning around. Like, what's it like taking over for a team at that point in the season? And, like, how long did it take them to fully buy in to what you were

trying to sell? take them to fully buy into what you were trying to sell? Well, it took a while, but, I mean, you've got to kind of narrow things down, I think. You can't just – I didn't really change a lot of system stuff right away. It was more my mindset was to change the locker room. And, you know, I really wanted to change the mentality in the locker room. I didn't feel we played for each other, for each other as a team on the ice enough.

There was a few new players that year with O'Reilly, Bozak, Maroon, maybe one other new guy. So there were some new faces there. It wasn't meshing well, right? So I wanted to get the locker room fixed before I wanted to change our philosophy and how we want to look at playing the game. And, you know, it took a little time to change the locker room. There's been guys that have been there for a long time. They had good success there.

You know, it just took some time to get it through to them. But once we got that mindset, we're playing for each other and putting the team first, things started to really turn. And the other area is just being aggressive everywhere. I'm an aggressive guy. I want to play aggressive hockey. What I mean by that is I want to attack all the time. I want to be an aggressive forward-checking team.

We don't have the puck. I want to be aggressive. I want our defense right the time. I want to be an aggressive forward-checking team. We don't have the puck. I want to be aggressive. You know, I want our defense right up tight, gaps. Don't give teams time with the puck. It just took a little time to get that all in place. And, you know, I think once Bennington came in and started winning some hockey games too for us, that really gave our team a lot of confidence and belief in him.

And we just took off from there. Chief, I know head coaches generally don't talk to players. team a lot of confidence and belief in him. And we just took off from there. Chief, I know head coaches generally don't talk to players. Biz just mentioned Otter a couple minutes ago. Wow. How do you feel about assistants chirping guys in the ice? Otter does a little bit. He still, you know, thinks he's playing sometimes. But Otter's great.

He's a great coach and brings a lot of energy to our team. Like, you know, in the locker room at times when we need it or on the bench, I think he's a real good influence on our players. He obviously played with some of those guys there, and he does a great job for us. You know, Otter's going to be a good head coach one day. You know, he's got a couple more years yet, I think, to learn and prepare himself for that but

he's a hell of a coach and you know real good guy and he's got a lot of energy as you guys know when he as a player when he played and the way he played and he still brings that fire on the bench at times whether he's barking at somebody on the team other team or at the referees when you say he's got like a few more years left, like what areas do you think he needs to grow in in order to become a head coach in the National Hockey League? Because I mean, his come-ups have been unreal. Yeah, no, like I said, I was very impressed with the first year

I've seen him as a coach and how he handled himself and how he handled just meetings and meetings with players individually and meetings in front of the team. He's very, very good at it. He's very at ease with it. You know, I was impressed by it because it takes some time usually. I know it took me some time to be that comfortable as a coach to get in front of a team and do meetings or, you know, really sit down with a player and be very honest with them.

You know, that's not an easy thing to do. But he was very good at it right away. And I'm just saying, like, he's a young coach still, and you still need just need time you need um more experience maybe but that's not saying he can't go be a head coach right now he probably can be uh if he chooses to be at some level I'm not saying he can't be but um it's always good to get a little bit more experience that's all I'm saying I couldn't agree more with that uh I don't know if you know,

a couple of years ago, Biz and I were loaned out from Ringling Brothers Circus to go to a blues training camp on a tryout. And we, both of us had no idea, one, how good of a player and two, how much of a leader Alex Steen was. So, I mean, I get into camp, holy shit, this guy, his work ethic, what he does on the ice, just didn't know about him, even being around the league for a few years. Now, as he got older, he's got over 1,000 games,

so it kind of turned into where last year he was playing a fourth-line role to win the Stanley Cup. Was it hard to – I don't think it was hard for him to accept that, but was it hard to even talk to him about how that was going to change? Well, it's always hard to – I think it's always hard to um you know see a player that was at his level and you know things change you know people guys get older and the roles need to change but hey listen it all worked out because he accepted it and he said no ego when i went and talked nothing when i went and talked to him at that time about it, that conversation was 30 seconds.

And I'm not exaggerating. I talked to Steiner. I said, listen, our fourth line needs an identity. You need to go and give them an identity. He said, no problem. Walked away. And never heard one word from him. And that was it.

And he never changed his work ethic, his attitude, or nothing. He put the team first. And that's all we want with everybody is to put the team first, and he did. We ended up winning the Cup. And I use that fourth line as much as pretty much anybody in the playoffs. I mean, they played lots of minutes every night for us. I'm a four-line guy. I wanted shifts short from everybody all playoffs.

I wanted to keep the minutes down with everybody. I wanted, you know, you know, keep everybody fresh all the time. I used everybody. And all right, before you go ahead, I'll say that's a, that's a, that's a sign for younger kids to know you don't have to call your agent. You don't have to flip out. I mean, you know, it's just different now with younger players and panicking. If get put on the fourth line he shows that you just got to take it like a professional but all right go ahead uh as as a player we mentioned you were on a couple of cup runs uh came up just short as a coach what lessons were you able to take from those runs and

able to use last year during the cup run yeah yeah i think i you know i took lessons from 2010 too we uh i was assistant coach with that flyer team we lost to chicago in the finals in six games you know i i'm not sure there's one or two there's not things that you know i look back and i go okay well this is going to happen here this is going to happen there you know everything going to happen there. You know, everything's different, right? Every run is different. But I go back to that 2010 team that we had in Philly, and we were very close to winning that cup. We obviously lost, but it was a tight series. And again, I just talked about using everybody

and making everybody part of it all. And I think Labby did that in 2010. He was a four-line guy, used everybody. Everybody's involved. I mean, I took a lot of that to last year, what we did. You know, I learned a lot from Lavi, being an assistant coach with him and how he looked at the game and his aggressive style of play. It really opened my eyes as a coach working with him.

Chief, I got to ask you. So we were listening before we hopped on with you. We were listening to the speech you gave before Game 7 in Boston. Walks in the locker room, goosebumps. You nailed it, okay? Now, that's your, like, you know, Disney moment right there. Do you know you're stepping into that and what you're going to say and you've been thinking about it all day?

Or is that just off the cuff? Did you just go in there and say, ah, and spit it out and let's fucking go? Yeah, it's all off the cuff. I'm not a guy that thinks about speeches and what to say you know I'm very honest and what comes you know just comes naturally to me I'm a I'm a gut guy go off my gut you know at that time after game six at home the way I looked at our team in the coming into Boston how relaxed they were morning skate guys ready. I felt guys were really ready. There wasn't a lot to be said other than, you know,

I wanted to just, I wanted them to know that we're here for a reason because we're a real good hockey team. That's why you're here. Otherwise, you wouldn't be there. And just go get it done. We're going to come home with the cup tonight. I just wanted to get some, instill some confidence in them before the confidence that I had in our

team before they went out there and played. You know, and it worked out. But it's all off the gut. I don't think about it too much during the day at all, to be honest with you. Chief, after you guys lost game six at home, had an opportunity to win there and didn't close out and had to hit the road for game seven, what was going through your mind at that point? Well, you're obviously like a little bit.

I was, you know, when I had game six, I pulled up to the rink, I think around 3.15 or something that afternoon. And I was like, wow, the people that were out there already and everything that was going on, I'm going, our team's going to be under the gun a little bit tonight. I was really worried about game six to be honest with you because you know all the pressure right you're at home you know you can close it out tonight and it's just that's a lot of pressure for a team that's never been there before um you know

and i was i obviously had did not have a good feeling going into that game six and you know obviously you guys know what happened in the game and the score and everything it was not a good feeling going into that game six and you know obviously you guys know what happened in the game and the score and everything it was not a good game I think game seven like I thought that our team after that and just talking to our team in the locker room after that they were like it's almost a relief to be honest with you like and I felt good about going into game seven because they were relaxed our team was relaxed they felt good we had the game seven because they were relaxed. Our team was relaxed. They felt good. We had the best record in the league on the road in the playoffs. We were a very good road team that playoffs.

And so I wasn't worried about, you know, going into Boston. We won two games there already. Yeah, it was a hell of a run. That's for sure. I did. I just want to go back to Philadelphia. You know, you mentioned you were an assistant there. Of course, you did end up getting a head coaching gig a little later.

You know, you did two assistant there. Of course, you did end up getting a head coaching gig a little later. You did two years there. You got fired. Were you surprised Philly didn't bring you back for a third season? Did you think you had earned it? Yeah, a little bit. But, you know, listen, Homer was the GM. And after my first year there, we had a good season. And we ended up losing to the Rangers in seven games.

The Rangers went to the finals that year. They had a good team. He made a switch. He just took over the president's job and gave the GM job to Hextall. And, you know, I just felt like, I don't know, you know, I think Hextall wanted to rebuild the team. He wanted to go younger, obviously.

I think he just wanted to bring his own people in there to work with him. That's what I honestly believe. It just didn't work out. We missed the playoffs the next year, and he let me go. That's the game, though. That's the business. That's the way it works. I just kind of said, all right. So I moved on. I just moved on from that. What am I going to do? Nothing. I mean, yeah.

Would I like to come back? Yeah. I would like to, I would like to come back and, and you know, work there, but that's the way it goes. Yeah. Cause it was about three and a half years before you got behind an NHL bench again, as a head coach I think you interviewed with a team overseas If I'm not mistaken

Were you ever worried about getting another crack At an NHL head coaching job? Did you ever start doubting yourself Because it was taking so long between gigs? I don't know I wasn't overly concerned with it To be honest Because I really like coaching

I'd go coach in the American League again because I did it in Philly here for a few years and I liked it a lot. You know, I got to know Doug Armstrong. He ended up calling me and I did some scouting for him for the World Cup team. He was the general manager. I did a bunch of scouting for him and we became friends

and I went and scouted his team. The Blues did some scouting there, watched his teams play, his minor league team play. And we became pretty close. And he offered me, he says, listen, I know you want to coach in the NHL. If you get a job, great. If not, the American League job in Chicago is yours. So I always had that in the back of my mind.

I interviewed for some jobs, didn't get them. And so I went and coached Chicago Wolves. And we had a great year and it was a lot of fun coaching. I coach a lot of those guys that I coach up in the NHL now. So I coached a bunch of the young guys there who I coach now. And I ended up moving up with the Blues. And here we are. Chief, okay, this is a will be a long one here.

So obviously with you guys having an opportunity to make another run in it this year, not knowing what's happening in the future, okay, it sucks because you guys have that pretty much that exact same group together and a chance to hoist it again. If that doesn't happen and the chance that, I don't know, Alex Petrangelo, if that's how you say his last name because I always butcher it, with the salary cap issues and, you know, what he's probably going to want in free agency, there is a chance that maybe you don't get him back.

Do you think moving forward that you guys will be the same group if you were in fact lose him as a defenseman? Well, you won't replace him. He's a great player. We all know that. And, you know this it is what it is like he you know he's going to be a free agent um at some you know i don't know what's going to happen obviously but we love him back we all you know we all know what a great player and leader he's been a great captain for us too uh you're losing a lot there for sure he's like i said he's been a great captain um great player uh person um can you

replace him well no one guy just can't come in and replace him but i you know we got a good team we got good players we got good d um you know we got some we got some players coming up that are younger guys that are going to be good players so you know i i can't i can't uh answer that question you know what we what are we going to be like without alex petra angelo you know we're going to have to wait and see um you know hopefully we do we can sign him and we he stays here and we move on, but there's a chance he might not, but again, we've got a good team. Like I said, we focus on the team

side of things, not individuals. We've played the whole year without Vladimir Tarasenko and we're number one team in the West. You've got to look at things that way, I think. Like I said, I've got to look at things that way, I think. And like I said, I've got nothing but good things to say about Alex all around. And like I said, you can't just come in and replace that guy like that.

He's too good of a player. And if you have to move on, you move on. You've got to figure out a way to get the job done without him if you have to. Hopefully we don't. Checkmate, Biz. I was teeing it up for him. That was a great answer. Hold on. You were the first coach to have a Stanley Cup party,

and I'm told you had it on Indian Reserve, and there was a very special guest that you didn't know was coming that showed up. Well, it was not on Indian Reserve because our hometown's not a reserve. It used to be a long, long time ago, but it's not anymore. But I grew up, you know, not far from a reserve, Alexander. I grew up with a lot of those guys, played hockey and baseball with all those guys. Then the chief came by and did a little ceremony and gave me a nice, you know, piece made out of, they carved out of soapstone,

which was really nice. And it was really nice that they did that for me. Chief, being from a different era, do you ever get frustrated at times dealing with the younger players in the league? Yeah, at times, I guess, you in the league? Yeah, at times. I guess, you know, I'm used to it now. I think that, you know, you really got to almost think like those guys

and you got to understand their thinking and how they work. Because if you don't, you'll never, ever get the best out of them. You know, you can't expect them to change. You got to try to work with them and get the best out of them. So I try to think like that a little bit more and try to work with them that way. And I think I get better results that way out of them. Plus, I think our leadership and our veteran guys

and our hockey team really do a good job with all our young guys, helping develop them and making sure that they're doing the right things for the team. So I'm lucky that way. I've got great guys in the locker room with, you know, Shens, O'Reilly, Schwartz, Steens, Tarasenko, and, you know, all these guys, you know, that have been around a long time

and play the game the right way. You know, Bo Meester when he was playing for us and Petro and, you know, a lot of good veteran guys in that locker room. So does that mean you're going to be opening a TikTok account soon? I'm going to be what? Going to open a TikTok account soon

to relate to the younger players? Oh, I think I got to do something like that. I laugh and watch these guys on their phones. Chief, do you know what that is? Do you know what TikTok is? Yeah, I got a daughter that's 11. It's all she does.

It's fucking crazy where it's gone, isn't it? Oh, I know. It's unbelievable. I know exactly what it is. Is it annoying? I got a daughter that's 11. Yeah, it Is it annoying? I got a daughter that's 11. Yeah, it bugs me. And I got a son that's 11.

They're twins, and he's playing Call of Duty. And it's like drives me crazy. And now with everything going on, that's all they do. Well, make sure you have them follow our Twitch accounts and our TikTok accounts, though. It's been chiclets. They're going to be on there. They're going to be watching our shit.

Hey, Chief, one more. and our tick tock account stole chiclets. They're going to be on there. They're watching our shit. Hey chief, one more, one more before we let you go. I really appreciate you. I don't, I don't know if this is like a wives teller story. I was told that isn't true, but I heard you had,

you had a couple of teammates and you got in a fight in Calgary and these two guys, you happen to be fighting one of their best buddies and you knew that these guys were rooting for him against you and then you ended up telling them after that that you'll kick their ass if you ever find out they're rooting against you. Is that true? It is true by that laugh.

I know it. Yeah, Strudrick was the player, Struddy, and he was playing for the Oilers then. And it was Niedermeyer, Robbie Niedermeyer, buddies with him, and the goalie, McLennan, right? That's his buddies with him. Those two guys. And they're cheering for him in the fight.

That's a no-no for you, Chiefs. I've never seen that before. Do you think you could take Tuckett? It'd be a good fight. Tuck, Tuck.? It'd be a good fight. Tuck's tough. All right. Tuck's tough, man. He's tough.

I've seen Tuck fight a lot of tough guys. He can handle himself very well. He had some good scraps over his career, boy. Fighting a lot of tough guys. It'd be a good fight. So did you. So we really appreciate you coming on, like we said, and congratulations on the cup last year.

Hopefully we get to see you coach again this season. We'll see what happens, but have a great one. Yeah, guys, I appreciate you having me on. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks again, okay? Good luck with everything. Take care. You too.

Stay safe, brother. We want to send a big thanks to Chief Craig Berube for joining us. Always great to talk to some of those old bruises from the 80s and 90s. And, of course, he's a coach nowadays, so it was interesting getting to chat with him. What's going on, Biz? You all right there, buddy? Yeah, I'm great.

You put me on the spot. Listen, I follow this Tom Segura guy on Twitter, and he just posted a video of this dude who somehow tucked his balls into his ass, and he comes in frame. And before you know it, this guy shits out his own balls. And it's too late. You've already watched it. I just sent it to the group chat.

So, Whit, what do you think? Oh, my God. That's disgusting. I feel like i'm on like mushrooms or something what the fuck was that i know it's crazy it's like you can't be sending that around to people i'm gonna watch it after i want to get through the show before i what the devil's all done for the year for nico he's gonna take the opportunity to fulfill his mandatory military service back home in Switzerland.

He's going to be in the Swiss Army for a bit. It is a little bit different than maybe the American Army. Elite athletes get preferential treatment in what Nico called the Army for Athletes thing, which is pretty funny. The 21-year-old, he'll do 18 weeks. Then he needs to do three weeks each year until he reaches 245 days of service. Like I said, it's a little different than America. Each time he plays in the World Championships, that counts as two weeks to his service.

So a unique setup in Switzerland. But, of course, Switzerland is a very unique country. He could have gotten out of it because he lives mostly abroad, but he opted to do it because that's what his fellow Swiss do. So give him props for that. And from April 14th through August 14th, he'll eventually be promoted to a sports soldier. So it was an interesting read.

Just, you know, we talk about armies in different countries. You have different perceptions. And the Swiss Army, they got cool knives, and they do a little different for their athletes as well. That's got to be one of the most peaceful countries in the world, right? Well, they're neutral, man. That's Switzerland. That's the whole thing.

Like, you guys can all fight. We're just going to sit here and let us know if we need fucking pistachio or chocolate, you know? We're just going to ski and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Fucking be nice. We're just going to sit here. Let us know if you need fucking a chocolate, you know, we're just going to ski and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Fucking be nice. It'd be really, really nice.

Exactly. Boys, we tweeted this one off from the chick. Let's count the Tyler Bertuzzi face mask. He's missing a chicklet up front. And he had, I think, him and his girlfriend.

I'm not sure if he's married or not. They both had it on. Absolutely fucking hilarious. What did you see that? Yeah. Where did who who made that or where did they get that? That's absolutely fucking hilarious. What? Did you see that? Yeah. Who made that? Or where did they get that? That's custom, baby.

Yeah. It's called the Detroit line. The Detroit line. And they're a Detroit merchandise company. Did he just tweet out or put that picture out on Instagram out of nowhere? The D line, the Detroit line posted it on their Twitter account. Yeah. It's gold. Yeah.

He's got a good look on him as a hockey player. He looks like the, he looked prototypical. If it was the other front tooth, we could sue him for copyright infringement, but unfortunately it's the other tooth, but Hey, you know, we need protection on more than just our mugs these days, guys, you need them for our cars too. So you want to check out car shield, computer systems and cars have been the new normal for a while for electronically controlled transmissions to touchscreens to dozens of sensors, but you can't fix these yourself.

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They also offer complimentary 24-7 roadside assistance in a rental car while yours is being fixed. Once again, for as low as $99 a month, you can protect yourself from surprises and save thousands for a covered repair. Call 800-CAR-6000 and mention the code chiclets or visit carshield.com and use the code chiclets to save 10 that's carshield.com the code chiclets a deductible may apply it's not the worst in playing in case shit is what do you think a car what do you think a car shield wet well i think they're necessary i'll tell you that because uh i'm driving along the highway the other day and there's a big dump truck up ahead of me in the left lane and i watch in slow

motion as this uncovered dump truck has a eight foot piece of plywood go flying in the air and i'm watching in slow motion coming right at my car and it smashed the entire right side of my car i was going like 60 miles an hour it was slow motion i'm like this thing's fucking coming right at me boom thank god i mean nobody was in my passenger seat thank god but even if they had been it would i they would have been okay because it's just a big dent on the side and the windshield wasn't smashed but car shield that's who you call after that say that scary it was a little scary voice i could just picture your face up and looking at that wouldn't be in like this motherfucker's gonna

this i go this thing's out the back of it oh oh this thing's in the wind this is coming right at my car don't i thought i did a great job kind of steering the wheel and getting. It's not worse to it right before the moment, right before an accident, when you know it can't be stopped and you're just like that. Let's talk about our YouTube video. YouTube. Grinnelli has been doing a bang up job, keeping our YouTube busy. We dropped Matt Murley and JB Spiso interviews. They're available now along with everything else on there.

How we've been doing on that G getting a lot of hits or what? Stuff's going great, and we're also starting another interview series coming up with DHM Detox. A lot of good interviews, all the ones we filmed in Boston and Toronto, so a ton more interviews coming on the YouTube page. And we have our Chicklets Cup update as well. We got Daddy Padre versus Nasher in the finals, correct? No, we have Daddy Padre versus Frankie Borelli playing to go to the finals against Nasher.

So Nasher played against me in the final four, and then it's going to be Nasher versus, again, the winner of Daddy Padre versus Frankie Borelli. And Frankie Borelli, I'd say he's the Barstool champion. A lot of people say Marty Mush is the best player at Barstool, but I give it to Frankie Borelli. He's real good. We'll see. I mean, I think that it's been destined to be a daddy Padre versus Nasher for the

title in, in them being both professional gamers, but Frankie, if he pulls it off, I all the credit to him. I'm looking over your left shoulder and getting real thirsty. I'm almost about to run to my fridge to get my chilled pink Whitney that I always keep in the fridge for special occasions like Monday,

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Take the edge off. It's going fucking crazy because it's quarantine. I brought those little nips over. Oh, the nips. I was just bringing them up. They're so nice. They're so nice. The guys who

I bring my car wash to, I give them those. I just say, hey, bring them on the golf course. Oh, see, I just chuck people bottles. I just chuck them the big bottles. So, I mean... Well, I bring bottles too sometimes. Okay, fair enough. But the nips, dude. I was actually in the store the other day and a guy

in front of me, he's got four of them right at the front. I was like, I didn't tell him, and a guy in front of me, he's got four of them right at the front. I was like, I didn't tell him. I said, that's my drink. Like, what a loser. What an asshole I would have been to say that. But I got a huge kick out of it. Pink Whitney is amazing.

Did you have any on the course when you hit? What did you shoot, a 66? Yep, yep, yep. So, no, the podcast isn't over. I go at the end. Oh, fuck no. I go at the end. I go at the end. 19th hole.

We'll talk about that at the end. No, this is the end. Oh, fuck no. I go at the end. I go at the end. 19th hole. We'll talk about that at the end. No, this is the end. Oh, okay. Perfect. I was wondering how long we were going to continue to go on tonight. So, everyone, if you guys want to talk, see ya. And listen, you're a dwindling. You're a dwindling.

There's only a few of you holding on. And one of them is in this blue tie-dye shirt, RA. That's why I love this. RA can't stand it. Brendan Smith doesn't like him either. So, Brendan Smitty, Smitty doesn't like him? Take a hike. Shut it off.

Podcast over, Smitty. That's it. All she wrote, all you're getting after is maybe an ad and RA shooting the shit. This is it. So I had that week, just a phenomenal week where I got into the mass ham backdoored tough back nine got in. And then I took a day off and I got into the new England am one under, we went over those. I won't rehash them as much as I'd like to. Well, then I took Thursday off and Friday I met up with three of my best buddies, three of my fellow golf junkies.

You know, we all love golf. And go down to Old Sandwich. Now, I don't know if I've described Old Sandwich on this course, on this before. Have I, Mikey? Hole for hole? I'm only doing one round. You haven't.

You never have. I've never described Old Sandwich. Old Sandwich is a core Crenshaw. People who't. You never have. I've never described Old Sandwich. Old Sandwich is a core Crenshaw. People who know golf know these guys. Ben Crenshaw won the Masters. I think Bill Core is his name. They designed world-class tracks. I can't even think

on the top of my head where they are. Bandon Nunes, they got one maybe. I'm not even sure. I'm not good with that stuff. I'm only good with the numbers. This is a beautiful course. So I go down with my buddies. It's an incredible spot. You're in Plymouth, Biz. Who landed on Plymouth?

The Pilgrims. Stay hot, Whit. The Plymouth Rock, the most overrated, worst how do I describe this? Landmark. Landmark in the the country people travel across the world to see this rock plymouth rock where the pilgrims sailed in you get there biz it's a stone it's a stone you could pick up like the world strong man they would chuck 15 of the plymouth rocks around

so plymouth is still a gorgeous town. I don't know how I just got on that. And you feel like you're in like North Carolina or something. Great, just great people. So we go down. I'm just trying to set up this setting. Oh, you are. Top 50 in the country.

Well, it's just heaven. It never rains down there. Even when it rains, it's the best place in the world to get rained out. So we go down and we have a day and we haven't all these four guys hadn't been together since at least the beginning of quarantine. And it's, it's just, I'm it's I'm so loose. It's not metal play anymore. You know what I mean, boys? It's, it's out there with your buddies. You're not grinding over every over, over every score. If you make a double,

you pick your ball up. You know what I mean? It's like, dude, you're just out there having some drinks, gambling. Well, I start off on the first hole. It's a beautiful par five. It's just you got to hit kind of a tight tee shot. And then if you hit a good one, you're like 250, maybe 260 out. Hit a great tee ball.

I'm like 260, 265, maybe rip a five wood right up the fairway to it, just in front of the green. And I'm just sitting right in front of the green with this big slope. So it is – the pin's right over the slope. So do you putt it? Do you chip it? My hands felt great. Didn't hit a range ball.

Range isn't open there yet. They're redoing it. It's going to be incredible. I flip a 60-degree just like just perfectly clipped. It lands on top of the hill, checks releases to a foot tap and bird. Great start. Here we go.

I go to two. I pound driver. There's a huge bunker in the middle at about two 50. I murder driver right at this bunker and it's skinnier over there. You left the safe shot and skinny area to the right is a little more risky. There's trouble left and right, but it's a better angle to the green. I'm confident that I'm just going to hit this cut, starting them at the middle bunkers and fade five yards.

And this is how insane golf is. I do it. Boom. I'm 125 yards out and I hit a perfect, perfect pitching wedge to 10 feet below the hole. I get up there, miss it, you know, just good putt, just miss it on the right edge, no worries. I get to three, this amazing par four.

Oh, this thing is a beast. There's a speed slot on the left side of the tee, woods to the left. But the fairways are big at Old Sandwich. They're big, and the greens are tough. The second shot golf course. I rip driver, pound it, and the greens are tough. The second shot golf course. I rip driver, pound it, hit the speed slot. I am 115 yards out, maybe 120, just like right dead center of the fairway. And I hit an awesome, awesome little punch pitching wedge to about eight feet.

Get up there, miss it. All right, no worries. Great shot. One under, you're hitting it nice. Four is this par three. From the back tees, it's 230. And then, you know, you go up a little bit more and it's like 215, maybe 210, depending on the pin. The green is huge. And I rip a six iron and I actually pull it a little bit, but it was, in my mind, a bad miss. It didn't feel good, and I look up.

It's like 40 feet left of the pin. Not a great shot, but on the green, I'm like, what a miss, Whit. If that's your miss today, are you shitting me? If that's your miss, what are we going to do today? And it's still a tough putt, but but I hit a great pot to the top of the slope and then it all rolls down and the green, the pin is kind of front, right? And it goes to a foot tap in nice little two pot move along. The next hole is crazy. And I retweeted this guy links jam. He takes pictures of golf courses. I retweeted just the other day. Uh,

he has pictures of old sandwich in the fall and it's beautiful, but you'll actually see this whole, because what looks like a huge carry is actually only like two 30, but if you don't hit it two 30, maybe two 40, you, and not two 30, you are gone.

Like ball is gone. It's a hill that goes down 80 feet. I said one time, a caddy, some guy sent him down, go look for my ball. The dude rolled all the way down. No shit. But, like, you're not going to send a guy down there,

especially when all the plants have grown. It's like re-tee. And I just hit an awesome drive with a draw that goes to the hole. It is a dogleg left. And there's all trouble left. And it goes down to like 50 yards so i'm 50 yards great great chance for an up and down at birdie i hit it to about 12 feet above the hole not a great shot i thought it'd come down a little bit i missed the putt fine no worries go along par five coming up next par five is up the hill dog leg left then it kind of comes back to

the right monster number one handicap hole if you're playing strokes and i pound driver i'm about 250 out i would say about 250 out and i started saying i'm done going for this green and two because you have to hit this perfect shot and you can't miss right it's all bunkers if you pull one left it's legit shit you're probably screwed and hitting another one and there's just a little area. So what do I do? I went for it. I don't know what I'm thinking. I said the day before, the last time I was there, I'm done going for this green in two.

I did it. But I go up in the right bunker and I actually hit a pretty good shot to like 25 feet, like maybe 30 feet. It wasn't bad. And I two put it, get out of there. Could have been way worse. Could have been a lot of trouble. I get to seven, the signature hole. It's a par four.

It's down the left side is all this long heather grass. Looks so cool. It's separating that and the 14th fairway. I get down there, and the prior three rounds at Old Sandwich, I'd hit hooks left into the shit. And you get up there. Hopefully you have a lie, but the green is an island green. It's all surrounded with sand.

It's just beautiful. I got a picture. I got a painting coming of it. This dude did a painting of it. I'm going to hang it up when I do my office for chiclets. Signature hole. I'd hit them. And it's a big ass fairway.

It's probably like 390, maybe 400 overall. I'd hit him into the shit. I'm like, stop hitting hooks here. I take a three iron instead of a five wood and I ripped this thing. It rolled out like 250 yards. It was just perfect up the left side, closest to the pin. I'm like, dude, what a shot that was. It was actually a little too close for comfort. I still wanted to be farther away from that, that Heather, but still I get up there. I hook a fucking 50 degree wedge into the bunker i'm like oh bad swing right there bad swing i go up there dude i hit this bunker shot to a legit half an

inch the thing one more rotation it's going in it's like like, oh, a little trouble today? Your short game's here. Up and down, we move along. Number eight, I hit a, it calls for a little bit of a cut. It's a short par four, but it's a cool hole because you kind of have a blind uphill approach into this green that has a couple different tiers, but it's short. And I hit my five when I'm left side of the fairway, and it was kind of left again, a little hooky again. I'm like, get away from that. And I thought to myself over this ball, I thought, keep your lower body stable. Just be balanced, dude. And turn your shoulders and just hit this thing. Like simplify less body movement, man. Look at Fred couples. You see this guy just picks the club up and hits the ball. Like, slow it down.

And I take this 50-degree wedge, and I hit this thing. And as I make contact, we could have these guys on. I go, found something, boys. Found something. I'm one under. But just the most purest, dead-flighted-at-the-pin wedge to a legitimate inch. No. The ball mark is touching the cup, and it just sat there.

And we get up there. I'm like, told you I found something. And now we didn't. I knew it was good, but it's blind. So until everyone walks up there, and I drove up there first. No caddies can carry the bags yet. So I get in the car. I'm going, oh, I tap that in tap that thing in get it to two under and then par three part

of the ninth holes of par three it's just this sick hole man it's like 120 yards nowadays they make these par threes 230 you can have a championship par three that's 125, 130 yards. If you miss on the wrong spot, you're in a bunker, you're dead. There's trouble long, trouble left and right. It's a cool hole. I hit it to 20 feet, we move along. Par, two under on the front. I get to the 10th hole, which is an awesome par five.

You got to hit it up 320 yards to the bunkers. From there, you got 200 yards in. I hit driver four iron, just right at the green. I actually hit a pitch. I actually hit a pitch that just ran a little bit too far. It hit into the slope. Instead of checking, it released to 25 feet. I was like, damn it.

But still, whatever. I mean, it wasn't a bad chip. And I canned the putt. Just when you expect you're going to run away with a par, I canned the thing. Okay. Three under. Here we go. The next hole is a 250.

It was playing where we were. We were playing at 215 yards, not the back tee, which is 250. Played a composite. Had to make that clear also. Did not play the back tees for this round. You play a composite of the backs and the one-ups. Make that clear. This one's playing

215. Hit four iron. Lands just on the right side of the green. The pin's left. It's a tough uphill shot. You've got to hit it high from a long distance. Goes into the bunker. I got this thought about the seventh hole. I hit the bunker shot to about five feet past the hole. Uphill putt.

Good leave. i can it run out of there take that par and run right up and down sick yeah two two for two today uh the next hole oh i love this hole number 12 just a long par four a little dog leg left hit driver hit it really well was hitting it on the screws dude jesus right in the center of the face swinging slow and easy and this thing goes maybe 120 and i hit it to like 10 feet just missed this pot just missed but man oh hitting it nice the next hole is the 13th hole it's the my favorite par 5 in the state of massachusetts it's built into the earth it goes downhill and there's this like natural amphitheater where it isn't there's a picture of this on the links gems not an amphitheater where people would sit there's

like kind of like like areas you would never want to be you'll lose your ball which turns into flowers in the fall apparently i mean talk to me in the fall sounds like heaven sounds like heaven heaven golfing heaven never rains down here at Old Sandwich. This par five, okay, you hit a great drive. You got like 280 in, but it's real downhill. So I hit a really good drive. I hit this five wood. For people wondering, I will do a what's in the bag.

I hit this five wood, and the thing probably travels. I probably hit it off a T250, 255 off the ground, 240, 250 if I smash one. It's got a three-wood shaft in it. Titleist, my company, the best. I pound this thing down to about 40 yards short of the green. Not a bad shot. Maybe 30 yards just to the right. Not a great shot either.

And the pin's kind of front right. I'm a little short-sighted. Hit a beautiful pitch that lands just on the front of the green and releases to like eight feet. Can it, birdie? Four under. Wow, things are going nice. The next hole was one of the most satisfying feelings I've ever had on a golf course since I've started this journey to try to become good.

I got to the next hole, which slopes the fairway slopes right to left. So try to stay with me here, biz. So if you hit the ball with any sort of draw right to left spin for a righty, it's going to hit the fair. It's going to go into the rough. Do you know what I'm saying? If it comes down at that angle. So to hold this fairway, you have to hit a cut. You have to hit the ball left to right into a hole, into a hill that's going right to hold this fairway, you have to hit a cut. You have to hit the ball left to right into a hill that's going right to left and obviously it hits and it'll meet up and it'll stay in the fairway. Yeah, gravity.

I've been hitting draws all day. That's naturally what I play. I have a shut club face. I think I have my wrist surgery caused. I can't hinge my wrist correctly, but I've been playing draws all day, trying to make that less because of the hooks I chat about. I said on the t to bill maharis my buddy i said dude i'm gonna hit a little butter fade into this fairway and

hold it and he goes the kid's been hitting draws all day and he's calling his shots and i hit the smoothest 265 maybe 70yard fade that hit the fairway and bounced a little right to a perfect flat area 100 yards out. And I called and saw this shot in my mind. I hit this shot with my mind. I'm not even kidding you. It was my mind that did it. My mind put my hands and my body in motion.

It was an insane feeling. That's unreal. It was orgasmic. And I hit a great shot into the middle of the green. I missed the putt. Whatever. Get out of there with the par. The next hole is an unreal par three.

Just a phenomenal. Put it on another poster. And I hit a nice little into the middle of the green two-putt par. Like, no big deal. 16 is a monster tee ball. And then it goes downhill about 50 yards to the green i hit a sick drive right i pounded this drive i then hit it to about 25 feet and my buddy chris donnelly who's been straping around i'm playing against him in maharis it's me and bunzo burn who figured it out on the

back this kid i got a quick thing about him after. Sorry, guys. Donley's stroking, so he's got a putt for 3-2 inside my putt. He's probably 15 feet. I'm 25 feet. At this point, we are one up in the match. We're in a dogfight of a match. And one up on the back. We tied the front.

This dude is all set, and I'm i'm like i gotta make this putt and i fucking roll this thing in and now he has to make it to win the hall right now his 12 footer feels like a 30 footer oh yeah he didn't think i'm gonna hit mine i got two putts from here boom put the pressure on. Walked it in, too, like a real prick. He misses. Four for three. He picks up a tie with us. So we're still one up. This was a hell of a match. We go to 17.

A par three is $1.90. Awesome hold. Different tiered green. Can't be short right or left, really. I hit a five iron to like probably 35 feet. And it was a tough part. Went downhill, then uphill. This pin was perched on this little shelf on the front left of the green. And I hit it up there.

And I had about four feet. And in my head, I'm like, dude, you don't have a bogey. You've never had a bogey free round in your life. You know? No way. You're five under par right now, nestle this thing and i went up and just four footer can't fucking a feeling best feeling fucking a like just center center cut and 18 is just a monster par four it's about 460 maybe 450 what's your thought process going into

this one like are you still very confident? You know what I said? I'm going to hit the same exact shot that I hit on 14 with that fade. Well, you thought it through? And the ball, and this hole calls for a draw. It's a little dogleg right. I mean, a little fade, excuse me. And if you hit the ball, it's a little fade.

It'll run down the hill. You get a little more distance. It's a long par four. And I said, you're going to do it again. I stepped up and I absolutely smoked it. Same exact shot, probably 10 yards further. No. If I could grab myself and just throw myself around this room right now

to these thoughts of imagining golf shots and perfectly pulling them off, I would do it because it is just the sickest feeling. It rolled all the way to the bottom of the hill, like five feet in front of a bunker that's probably 315 away. I don't know, maybe 305. I've been throwing myself around it for 20 minutes. Yeah, dude, and I'm like, finish it off. And I kind of was pissed off looking back that I didn't say shove another one in there and shoot six under, but I, uh, I hit like a pretty

decent shot to 20 feet below the hole and hit it up there to a foot and knocked it in for 66, five under bogey free. First time ever. My, my other high was 68. Now this isn't a tournament. So a lot of tournament golfers are out there. Talk to me when you're doing it in a tournament. And I just played in the tournament today and shot 80. So you got to be real. Golf, I got to come back and tell the masses I had an 80 today. I had a triple and a double at New England Country Club. And the first round missed the cut of this invitation.

So sick field, disappointing. That's golf. So I got to now translate these these rounds which is a unreal feeling and and inspiring for me i gotta translate this into tournament play where you know it's just different like i mentioned and bunzo burn i gotta shut him up before we last thing this dude is he came into the round he wanted to play well i think he was all jacked up too fired up he told me and every first five six holes he was out of it he was hitting bad drives he was he was rattled never seen him rattled really on a golf course and finally he

steps up to the eighth tee and he says oh fuck it i gotta have some fun what am i doing and he pounded a drive about 310 yards perfectly and the 11 holes, he played five over par after playing the first seven. And I think 14 over par. Wow. For 12, whatever. So it's pretty cool to see. That's another 30 minute golf rant.

There's probably more. I forget. I will say that my today was humbling. That might be my favorite. That might be my favorite golf. For you to say that on my career low, that is, that is means a lot, Biz. You kept me engaged.

I'm sure you'd love it. I'm still here, buddy. I didn't go anywhere. Ray took a little walk. He went and smoked a joint. He went and picked up his neighbor's dog shit. I texted Grinnell. He said, I'm still here.

I'm just stretching my back. I've been sitting here for a couple hours. Well, we probably went a little long for this one, boys, but I need this. Oh, and the Harris shot 75 and lost 400 to me. 75's a sick round at this track. I took up on 400. Caught me on a career day, beef. Oh, goodness.

All right, well, we love you guys. We hope you enjoyed this episode. It was a doozy. And I did forget to mention that whole time, I had a Pink Whitney on Ice on the Rocks. We love that drink. So thank you, everyone. Worst comment of Canada, too.

Golf talk. All right, peace out, guys. Great chatting with you guys again. Once a week right now is working good. As always, we want to send a big thanks to our awesome sponsors. Hope for you folks are taking advantage. Of course, our buddies over at New Amsterdam and pink Whitney keep getting it done. Thanks to them. Huge. Thanks to death wish coffee.

Been getting some great results each episode. They keep me fueled up. Big thanks to everyone at dude wipes, especially up here in the sweaty Northeast. They've been taking care of us big time. Big thanks to everyone over at car shield. If you need some coverage, be sure to check them out, especially for those little computer problems your car has. And a big thanks to everybody at simply safe for keeping everybody safe from If you need some coverage, be sure to check them out, especially for those little computer problems your car has.

And a big thanks to everybody at Simply Safe for keeping everybody safe in this current climate. It's always good to have your house with a little extra security. Have a great weekend, everybody. Let me run with you tonight. I'll take you on a moonlight ride. There's someone I used to see But she don't give a damn for me Well let me get to the point Let's roll another joint.

Turn the radio to loud. I'm too long to be proud.