Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 284: Featuring Dave Hanson

Episode Date: August 10, 2020

On Monday’s episode of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Dave Hanson. Dave joined (01:06:15) to talk about his hockey career, his role in Slap Shot, working with Paul Newman and a ton more. The guys also recap the entire Qualifying Round and give their predications for the next round of the Playoffs. The fellas then break down Victor Hedman’s injury and what is next for the Toronto Maple Leafs.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 284 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney, for my friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here hearing the Barstool Sports Podcast family. Well, Saturday and Sunday afternoon, we got to come up for a little bit of air, just a little refractory round-robin session. The real games pick up again tonight, Sunday. We're going to recap everything in a minute, have some predictions, but let's say hi to the boys right now.

I'm sure everyone's a little tired after that first week, but we got a lot more to go. Producer Mikey Grinelli, what is up? What's going on, guys? As you know, 8-7, August 7th, was the one-year anniversary as to when we dropped Pink Whitney or made the announcement for Pink Whitney. So I had a couple of Pink Whitney's the other night, and I was begging Kevin Hayes for forgiveness and ended up texting him

that if the Philadelphia Flyers win the Stanley Cup, I will get a picture of Kevin Hayes tattooed somewhere on my body. Oh, okay. Your other ass cheek, baby. Maybe on my other ass cheek, I'll let him decide or I'll decide where, but I'll let him decide what actually goes on. That's how I'm doing, boys.

The Flyers are looking good. The dude won't clap with his lacrosse teammates, but he'll get a tattoo of Kevin Hayes on his forehead. Crazy, crazy character, Mikey Grinnelli. It's all about the clout, guys. Come on. 2020.

Biz, so I haven't even brought this up. You're back on the sauce, huh? Just having a couple beers here and there? Just a couple here and there. Good for you. Nothing too crazy. I thought you needed that. Maybe just have like two or three while recording.

It's just a nice feeling. I just noticed that, so I was about to bring it up. How is everyone doing? Actually, I've been on a 14-day heater. I went down to Tijuana. Slept six minutes in the past week. Yeah. Things aren't going great.

Thanks for bringing it up. Not going too well over here. No, no. Things have been good, man. A little lubrication. Hockey hockey playoffs are back i'm excited it's nice to have hockey to talk about and these fucking games have been awesome we're gonna get into it but uh couldn't be happier the yotes are moving on have we talked about that yet since the last podcast no we only one series had concluded since our last show but obviously there's and Whit, the other fellows on the show.

Yeah, you want to get into the dogs for us, Biz, or what? So this will be a three-hour podcast, an hour dedicated to Darcy Kemper, an hour dedicated to Coyote Special Teams, and then maybe we'll finish off with Talk It for the hell of it. No, you know what? Let's not start out with the Oats. Let's maybe talk about a few other teams first, and then we'll get to the Oats.

Just a full disclosure here. We're going to be doing most of the recaps and previews, but we are taping Sunday afternoon. Some of us had familial obligations. So we're going to be taping the rest of the show later. We're going to add it on later. Instead of making Granley be a crazy editing genius, just to give you a heads up,

a couple of predictions in results are going to be in a little later in the show. Full disclosure. That's all. But mainly because the Leafs, full disclosure, but mainly because the Leafs have forced a game five, and it's tonight. And we have to give our thoughts on what unravels as this is far and above the craziest series so far.

I mean, the two swings like that from game three to game four, you had Milbury basically writing the obituary for Tampa during the game. I'm sure all takes exposed. Probably got a million dollars in advertising money. You said for Tampa. I think you meant for the Leafs. I'm looking at Toronto when I say Tampa. I got dyslexia with C's and T's in hockey.

That's okay. Minus one. That start. Turn it over. Turn it over in the first. There's a lot of hockey left, R.A. There's a lot of hockey left. Remember, Biz?

Minus one first shift. Hey, winner. Sorry, buddy. A lot of minutes left to get that back. All right. You're now feeling the pressure a little bit early. They had a 99.3% chance of winning game four per evolving hockey. Obviously, it didn't pan out.

You've got to give credit to the Leafs coach, Sheldon Keefe. He rode the hot hand. He had the same lineup on the ice for all three goals. Sometimes, you know, some coaches throw the different lines out. He rode the hot hand that worked out the best for him. This was an interesting stat too, Biz. The last time the Leafs came back from down three goals to win a playoff game in overtime was 1993.

The winner was scored by Mike Foligno. The other night it happened with his kid in the penalty box. I thought the call, it wasn't what you expect to see in OT. Biz, what did you think of that call? Well, first of all all you hop back over the boards your next shift made a nice play apple now you're back to even no he threw a check dude he didn't get an apple yet I mean he just threw stats and cleanly all right all right fine he threw a nice hit got the boys going we're gonna get the goal back now um I I thought it was cheeky

and I thought that you said it best when he came out of the penalty box uh i thought one one of the four maybe even a linesman was going down because he was fucking fuming and as far as the call concerned wet i'll toss that over to you if he had killed a ref which which it really i said a ref dead thought, let's tweet this. There's going to be a dead ref. Let's put it this way. He wouldn't even get murder one or whatever the worst murder is. He'd get manslaughter because that call, if that call happened to the Toronto Maple Leaf fan base,

there would have been a never-ending shitstorm of puss bag whining and flipping out. And it went against Columbus Columbus and all of a sudden it's, hey, the Leafs fans, that was a penalty and even if it wasn't, blah, blah, blah. Horrendous. Come on. I think the refereeing overall has been

pretty shitty. Also, these guys are coming back, dude. It's not easy for them either. Not looking to just shoulder blame on all refs, but that call. And Foligno, to be that upset, I totally understand what's going through his mind. We had this series locked up. We were moving into the playoffs.

We were moving out of fake world playoffs into the real deal starting next week. And it was taken away from them. Now, granted, the Leafs, what a comeback. I couldn't believe it. I actually will admit when it was 3-0, when they made it 3-0, I think there was six minutes left. Whenever there was six or seven minutes left in the third, I just shut it off.

Time for golf, primetime golf all weekend. And I saw on Twitter, 3-2. I just didn't even see the first one. I checked 3-2. I said, boom, back to this game. And to see the tie, how about Bieber's celebration? I saw that. He's a diehard.

So I love to see Toronto do that because with what they've been through, I'm not even saying I'm rooting for them, but just for that to happen to them and then the entire world shit on them. That's the Toronto Maple Leafs. This is the Toronto Maple Leafs we know. Grinelli had a great little post that things feel normal again.

The Leafs are blowing 3-0 leads. That's them now. They were listening to it. They got these young guns and they're listening to maybe they're not, but there are people out there questioning some of these guys, and then they do it to Columbus the next night to stay alive. So if they go on to lose – oh, shit. I can't mention that, can I?

Like if they go on to lose because – or should I? Yeah, because we're going to conclude it later. They know right now we're recording without knowing the result of game five. Oh, and they're going to get to hear the end of the episode. Okay. Okay, guys. So I'm going to be able to – so you're listening to myself right now, and we're going to be able to hear, like, my own reaction to myself,

which could be really fucked up because sometimes in my brain I think of some whacked out things. So I'm hoping it's not too bad. But if the Leafs lose this game, what a waste of a legendary night because if they win, it's like, holy shit, maybe that's what they needed to do. And we'll be talking in a little bit about that. I shouldn't get ahead of myself.

The way I was describing the Leafs before we started recording when I was on with Jessica Grinnell is I was watching their elimination game, and at the point that they'd gone down 3-0, I'm like – I tweeted out, I said, what are you guys seeing? I don't watch much of the Leafs during the regular season. In an elimination game, it was unsufferable. It's like the – what do you call those? Bowl restrictors?

That's what the Columbus Blue Jackets were. They were strangling their death before they swallowed it. And it was just like – I was like, oh, my God, they can't even muster up like a good sustained pressure in the offensive zone for fuck's sakes. And then all of a sudden, something clicks. And it's the most beautiful thing you've ever watched on ice. Just every single pass is connecting.

They're fucking spinoramas. Everything's hitting each other's stick. They're recovering every puck. Nothing could go wrong in those like that four minute span and and it happened at the blink of an eye but in the same breath you go back to uh to game three and the reason they found themselves in this situation to begin with when they were up three nothing and and they they scored they allowed two goals and it's three two and2, and I'm thinking, okay, now you've got to at least tighten things up and don't make a mistake in order to give them an opportunity. Make them just go through you to earn it.

And if they do end up tying it, tip of the cap. So they got the puck in the offensive zone, and I think what Dermott makes is a great play because you're trying to keep him in the offensive zone. Wait, time out. Let me finish what I'm saying. He had his check. That was the forward.

He stayed in front of him in order to keep the puck in, knowing, looking over, Kapanen's the F3. He's the high guy. He sees him. He's like, perfect. He's above his guy. They got nobody coming with speed at this particular time seeing the play develop.

And then even when the puck squirts back towards the defensive zone, Kapanen's still in an unbelievable position. It would have been a two-on-two. Ideally, do you want a forward in that position? No. You played D. You played D. It was like never trust a forward.

And ironically, I was a defenseman who the forward said never trust him. But you know what I'm saying? It's like not even worth it at that time. Why even pinch there? It doesn't even make sense. Just let him get it. And Biz, when it was 3-0, they still kept trying to create offense. It's like, can you guys just shut it down?

Sure. Can they actually do that you guys just shut it down? Sure. Can they actually do that, or is it not possible? And much like being in the elimination game, they shouldn't have even been in that position to begin with either. But that play specifically, and okay, I can agree with you on the fact that, hey, just let the D play D there. But Dermott made the – Kaepernick also fucked up.

Kaepernick basically stopped skating and took a whack at the puck. And the minute he missed it, then the guy was beat. All he had to do was take two strides and open up and take a whack at it. And worst case scenario, he would have, it would have been a two on two and he would have been skating backwards. And don't tell me that a kid of that skill level can't skate backwards and

take somewhat of a two on two down the ice. You're telling me you're not working on that at least a little bit in practice. No, I do not think I, I agree with you. It's just like, well,

then you're not a well coached team when you have a one goal, when you have a one goal lead in the, in the playoffs. It's like, maybe that's not the time though, to like give it a shot. But I'll tell you this. You ain't winning any type of hardware.

If you're, if you can't rely on your f3 forward and you and you play on a championship caliber team caliber team excuse me you're telling me that patrice bergeron wouldn't open that up and been the right guy to the left oh no chance yeah he cappin and cappin and made uh that don't have him on the ice dumb and lazy decision. He completely, completely fucked that play up. I was just talking about the beginning. But, Biz, oh, quickly, I want to remember to ask you, before I ask you the question about the Leafs, I got to just, this Pierre-Luc Dubois, people scoffed when they took him that high in the draft.

Yep. Who's this guy? I remember thinking, like, you're leading up to the draft. You're here in the top 10 guys, you know, I'm not that in tune with the prospect system and who's coming up, but I also know the names and nobody knew his name and they scoff. This guy is an absolute weapon out there. First of all, he'll fight.

He plays hard. He's in your face and his skill is just getting better and better. So that game, that the winner the just to get it on your back and not even have to go to your your forehand just keep it on your back and shelf that it was sick but but the Leafs you're all in huh this is like I'm seeing on Twitter Paul Bissonette like let's go Leafs Leafs forever all right let's go to that right now some people are like hey you work for the C coyotes yeah they're signing your checks that's a little weird i don't know it just kind of happened organically like i feel bad for these guys getting living their lives where they can't go outside with oh the fucking leaves are ruining my life uh you make all this money like i don't

know i feel like they've suffered long enough when When the Boston Red Sox won the world championship, I was emotional for the Sox. It was fun beating up on them for a while and laughing about it. Oh, my God. And then you see the guy let the ball go between his legs, and he can't even go to Boston anymore. So at a certain – Bill Buckham passed away. Right, but after that happened, he went away for a long time.

He moved to Idaho for a while. That's what I'm saying, right? So at a certain point, you're like, oh, my God, I think these guys have been through enough. I kind of want to see them at least make a little bit of a run. So it's nothing against Columbus because I love their organization. I think they do things the right way. They've got a great team.

Wierenski's a stud. They've got a good back end and a good foundation, what I think at this point, in order to be in a couple of years, adding a few more pieces, but I don't know. I just kind of all of a sudden rooting for the least, but let's go back to Dubois. He's, he's an absolute stud. He's getting the recognition he deserves. And it goes back to, uh, I believe it was game two where he had a little bit

of a pee pee whack on the bench. Fuck. Nothing like an old fuck you match to get the boys going, right? Him and Torts were going at it pretty good there, boys. Yep. That was good stuff. But I think Torts knows exactly what type of guy and player he is, and he's getting in his face probably thinking maybe this is a guy who needs this.

And I hate saying that because people always said, you know, some guys need to be screamed at like maybe that's the case I'm sure they don't like it though but he just bounced back after that game and the disagreement and the little drama to do what he did it was sick so I mean I don't want to keep talking about this because we have to address

game five later so let's move on one other note though we do want to mention Jake Muzzin is skating again which is good news to hear after he was you know taken off the ice on the stretch the other day. So nice to see he's back on the ice. He won't be back for the qualifiers in game five tonight, but it's possible if Toronto moves on, we will see him again. So nice to see him doing well.

And one last note was the Jason Spezza scrap seemed to spark the Leafs. A lot of people are talking about it. Talk about, you know, doing anything you can in order to stand out. And now that he's getting limited minutes, he did so in a different way. Absolutely. Different ways to lead, and he showed that. Definitely didn't expect to see it, but it worked. All right, moving along to another series.

The biggest dogs of the qualifying round, the Habs beat the Pens. What was it, four games? Holy shit, the Pens looked rough out there, especially their defense. There's speculation Crosby's hurt because he did get hurt in the small training camp. People didn't think he was 100%. Carey Price was Carey Price. Exactly what people were kind of expecting for the playoffs. 9-4-7, it's a percentage, 1-6-7 goals against and a shutout.

And, of course, Shea Weber. I mean, we kind of forgot about how much of a force he is because we haven't seen him on this platform for a while, but he was incredible too. Whit, let's go to you first on this one. I was dead on in saying Montreal had a chance to win this series if Carey Price played great. Do you guys remember?

What are you laughing at, Biz? You're a piece of shit. Did I not say before the series that if Carey Price played unbelievable, they could beat the Penguins? You're a piece of shit? Yes, you did say that. Thank you. Okay, so that's exactly what happened.

No, the Penguins, just so many different issues you can talk about. And congrats to Montreal. Enjoy not getting the first overall pick and losing next round, but congrats. The Penguins. First off, the series started. I don't know why Tristan Jari isn't starting that series.

I mean, he was better than Murray this year. It was kind of confusing to me. Murray wasn't great in the games. So you wonder about that. Crosby didn't look like himself, so I think it makes sense. And he battled that injury. He lit up the beginning of the season, and then I think he went out in November. I'm pretty sure that's what happened.

And you know what? Malkin had times this year when he dominated in both those guys. I mean, you didn't really see much in terms of, like, the usual dominance that they usually take over and win games with. But some weird decisions. I mean, it was Jack Johnson and Schultz were playing together, and you read Penguin's writers or you hear about their team, and it was like Jack johnson was way better

with marino and and peterson or patterson sorry guys never get that either one works he put he he would play with schultz but they kept johnson and schultz together and they just had a tough series man it's like you hate dogging guys but you know you look at you look at the games you look how they played out and it was just not just not their best hockey by two really skilled guys who've had sick careers. So the Penguins, you're wondering where they're at because at some point, you know, the run kind of ends. I mean, this year they put together a nice team,

and I don't think like you're like, oh, the Penguins couldn't win another Stanley Cup because especially with how this year went, and I mean, it's August. You're playing playoff games. You're playing the play in games. It's very hard to judge teams losing in this style, in this new playoff scenario. So I don't know how Rutherford approaches this offseason, but I do know that it was surprising to see the Penguins just have nothing going, especially in that last game.

Tanev had a tough turnover that led to the game winner, and it was kind of all she wrote, which you feel bad for that guy. Tanev was a great signing. They got him for six years too, so he is not an issue in Pittsburgh. But they have plenty of things to question in Montreal, Petrie, Weber, Price. Just they were dogs. They were tough to play against. They did exactly what they had to do.

I think, R.A., you'd agree. Cole Julian, he's a good coach. I mean, he can get a team with not that much talent to really compete and play well. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I said that in my prediction for the series. It's almost. Well, yeah, so we're all over. I don't remember.

It's more as if, though, maybe players who are okay sacrificing their numbers because they're not you know they're not point of game guys where they'll sacrifice and battle defensively in order to get the job done as a team yes he's done an exceptional job with that lineup uh going back to your goaltender comment i think you're out of your goddamn mind given the fact that there was the four-month layover he's been better than murray murray i'm out can i can i talk yeah you can i allowed to talk yeah and i think coming off of that long period of time you're going in a situation where it's a different beast in it being playoffs you got a guy where if you look at your cabinet he's helped you win two rings

and you say you know what let's see what he's got. Because they got to make a decision on him. So you might as well throw him in the fire and say, all right, here's the reins. We don't even think maybe you've necessarily earned it, given the regular season numbers. But now it's yours at the cost of what we're going to do in playoffs here. And I don't think he was terrible. I think the goal off Petrie is going to be the defining moment.

The goal by Petrie, everyone's, what a snipe, what a snipe. That's not a snipe. A snipe is if the goalie's down there and you pick that corner above his shoulder beneath the crossbar. He buried it off his shoulder and then it went upstairs. That's not a snipe. Sorry, guys. Learn what a snipe is

check out uh ryan whitney versus auntie niemi yes that is so i think that that was kind of the defining moment like uh maybe they should have gave jari the net off the top but you can't do it going into the series i think it played out exactly how it should have and they ended up on the wrong side of the win column. I don't think Montreal necessarily deserved to win that series. I think there was a few things that happened in their favor in order to allow them to do so. I mean, they didn't score a power play goal. They went 0 for 12.

They got outshot and outchanced in, I think, every single game. What they did do a good job of is they played to their strengths. They tried to suffocate Pittsburgh's offense, in which they somehow managed to do, giving up more shots and chances. Carey Price, the guy you paid $10 million, plays to what he's being paid. Weber was an absolute beast. Petrie, you mentioned it, he was a beast. And they beat the shit out of the Penguins while doing it.

They out-hit them 171-108. They had over 50 hits in one game. They were just slugging away. They weren't carrying the puck. Every chance they got, they wore them down. And by the fourth game, man, I think it wore down the Penguins. They had 22 shots in an elimination game, 0-2 on the peeps. That's not the Penguins we know.

I think they just were so discouraged and so banged up and were like, ugh. The fourth game, they'd been worn down. And they did so in a very greasy fashion. I think that you are right in saying that the Montreal Canadiens should not win this series because it'd be better off getting a shot at first overall pick. Because based on what I saw, there's not a chicken dick's chance that they go on to win the cup and I'm in agreement with you

and even if does if Carey Price does keep up those numbers you're looking a little weird there Whit I'm just thinking that you're kind of making me sound like a genius like you're telling me Whit I agree with everything you're saying. Great job. I appreciate that from a co-host. Yeah, and I don't want what I'm saying to take away from Montreal's accomplishment. It's just like it was like you didn't necessarily outplay them. You out-goaled them, and you were very opportunistic, and you found yourself in a situation where I think,

who are they playing next round, R.A.? Montreal's playing Philadelphia Flyers. Yeah. Yeah. That could be a shit-kicking, guys. That could be a shit-kicking. To steal a line from Montreal. Montreal could win if Price plays good.

They could win that series if Price plays unreal, you guys. Clint Eastwood said, an unforgiven deserves getting nothing to do with it. Yeah, exactly. Hey, listen, we know everybody's been out there glued to their TV all week. What happens? You're going to get hungry sitting there, and you're going to need to eat. And this week, you can get 20% off

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So we're getting some new streaming equipment. So this week, the streams are going to look a lot better. First, I'll be in Barstool HQ streaming, but Tuesdays and Fridays, and they're going to be feeding me Italian subs while I do it. So tune in, Spitting Chicklets Twitch. Will they be putting the mustard, the yellow mustard on for you, though? Do you have that much say at Jimmy John's? Because that's the only thing about Jimmy John's where I'm just like,

just put it on the sub for me, please. I think I do have that kind of pull, so I'll make sure it happens. Shit. And going back to Pittsburgh, too, I don't know if you mentioned it. All right, they've won one out of their last 10 playoff games and given the fact they're not going to the round of 16 this is technically the first time they haven't made playoffs since 2006 wow interesting note yeah it's kind of weird that whole people playoffs they're not playoffs but they're keeping the playoff stats it does get kind of confused i was trying to explain to my mother all week up vermont

like she's like is this a playoff game like no like no it's not like trying to tell her like the Bruins can lose and they won't get knocked out it was fucking give me another cocktail I need another drink all right swinging back to the qualifiers the Isles handled the Panthers in four games uh Bobrovsky probably not what you're wanting a 10 million dollar goalie 901 safe percentage 307 GAA he would give up an early bad goal he'd be lights out for the rest, but he'd always have that one or two bad goals. And I mean, when a series this tight, that's a huge difference. Simeon Volomov, no surprise there, put up some outstanding numbers. The Isles played trots, hockey, grinded out goals. They just kind of wore the Panthers down, Biz, no?

Yeah. Just another team that just kind of suffocates you playing very tight in the middle of the ice. You know none of their F3s are getting beat and taking risks offensively when they're the high guy. But, yeah, they did a great job. They were very professional about how they handled their business. This Polak kid, is that how you say his last name? Holy shit.

He just keeps getting better and better and better. And it's like they're back end, there's not any household names, him and that Tabes kid. I think they each had four points in that series. Their back end can fly. And they did a tremendous job of helping, chipping in with that secondary scoring. And that's what you need in these types of situations.

And to me the the secondary scoring was really everywhere from the islanders they had everybody involved in the offense i think like eight or nine guys with like three points or more we mentioned jordan eberly uh off to the hot start he's had as well uh barzell came to life in that last game this pavilion i know the first one and that kind of summed up the series as you mentioned mentioned, R.A., for Bobrovsky. Elimination game, Bavillier throws a bit of a weak one on net, and it goes in. You could have drove a Mack truck through the five-hole of Bobrovsky when that thing went in the net.

And he ended up scoring another one in that first period. Barzell made some beautiful plays, and they were light in the lamp. Just you mentioned when he came over, although when he came over, he struggled a bit, and then the shutdown happened. Peugeot, he's been lights out that round too. So right now, man, it's going to be tough to pick against the Islanders. They stay so disciplined. They're fairly good on special teams, especially on the PK.

Their goaltending's playing well now. They're limiting high-quality scoring chances, and everybody's chipping in. And I just read that Boychuk's coming back now too. So that's another boost to the lineup. And he adds that championship experience along with Letty. They each got their cups. So I don't know, man.

I keep betting against these guys, and I don't even know how I found myself in this hatred with Islanders fans. I think you dragged me into it, Whit. No, it was Tavares. It was how they treated Tavares on the way out, and you started despising him when you realized how stupid most of them are. Islanders, credit to them. They know how to win.

They play a certain style. It's boring as shit, but they know how to win. And I don't think I'm going to be picking them against the Capitals because I never picked the Islanders. But it'll be competitive series. Capitals aren't going to walk through them. Right? I think that they'll get it done.

I mean, they haven't even looked that good either in these round robin games, though. Man, talk about really just not mattering I don't know maybe I'm on the maybe I'm on the in the minority in that but watching them and seems like guys playing them it's like

holy shit Philly being the exception they have looked so good like firing all cylinders but I don't know it's really hard to get down on some of these teams who haven't even played a game that's truly mattered yet. Also, one other note, our friend Andy Strickland out in St.

Louis, he tweeted out that Dale Town is going to be on his way out in Florida. There's been no official word yet, but that's what Andy Strickland... Alright, Florida needs to blow it up because the Bobrovsky contract's horrible. Horrible.

He's given out some bad ones, and I think that this one is – it's kind of like the goal I mentioned on Murray. I think that's the nail in the coffin right there. And so tomorrow's – you're listening Monday. Tonight's the draft lottery. It's not even like is Dale the GM or not. You don't even know what's going on down there. so they got they got some tough contracts there that they might need to address and try to figure out what to do so you're saying that could be a potential rumor part what no like

oh no it just hasn't been made official but a lot of people are saying it's a it's done he's done okay so it's not official but okay all right yeah yeah it hasn't been made official from the team but andy strickland i don't I don't think he's making it up. He's the one who seemed to have gotten the scoop on it. It just hasn't been released as official news yet. Also, we're not sure how the Trocek trade is going to play out either. I'm not saying that's a major contributor to that, but overall, outside of Huberto, Hoffman, and Barkov,

I mean, Jans did have three assists but other than that they had nobody chipping in offensively like no one had more than a point other than that and that's just not going to get it done this time of the year especially when you're not getting timely saves yeah again and there's no need you had to go spend ten dollars i mean if you're spending ten million dollars for the goalie position you should probably have two goalies not just, but we'll keep our eyes open. Can I mention a few more stats here? Sure. Now that I have the chance, because they're going to get swept

in the next round. They limited Florida 25 shots on goal in game four. They put 38 up of their own, and that's an elimination game they came to play. I mentioned that offense from Polak and taves uh polak had six blocks and tate had taves had five in that last game so like that's not only

getting it done offensively for the squad on the back end that's also manning up and eating some fuck uh some pucks along the way in that game they had 31 shot blocks as a team. That's a lot of rubber, boys. And then I mentioned the 2D with four points and six forwards. It was actually with three points or more. So just overall, great team right now. Islanders. Absolutely. Next up, the dogs beat the cats as the Coyotes took care of the present. Your boy, Dossie Kemper, great work in the crease, Biz.

I thought it was a team effort offensively for the Yotes. They got 11 different goal scorers. Yossi Saros, that was the big story in Nashville. He came in for Rene. Didn't fare much better than Rene the last couple years. Outside of Forsberg and Arvidsson, the Preds just got five goals from the rest of their lineup. Biz, well, you're the cats expert.

I'm sorry, the dog expert. Let's go to you on this one. Okay, let's start with Nashville. Yossi looked awesome. You're buzzing, Biz. You're buzzing, buddy. Yossi just looked like Yossi. His ability to control the play when he's on the ice is crazy.

He'll just skate up the whole ice with the puck, and then sometimes he'll, like, ladder play it, but he ain't stopping and holding up. He'll keep going on offense. He'll get a chip he'll be below the goal line you're like holy fuck this guy is absolutely everywhere but in the same time does every other little thing you need to do in order to be a tremendous player and he was very fun to watch for four games um as i mentioned ellis made a huge play in game four to put that to overtime. I don't know if you saw that play at the blue line. Up front, you mentioned Forsberg.

That guy is a fucking mutant. Unbelievable player, one-on-one, wins his battles along the wall. He's just a mutant. Arvidsson, after having a tough regular season, I think he battled some injuries. I think he only had 15 goals this year after, I think, having 41 the year before. Or maybe it was 31. But he looked good.

He looked like his old self. But to me, that defining moment was when they were supposed to go up 2-1. And the goal ended up getting called back. And then they score. And then all of a sudden, fucking, you know, they got the series ahead 2-1 when, you know, the Coyotes aren't necessarily playing a good one coming from behind. So goaltending from Darcy Kemper, I told you guys coming into playoffs, this guy's in the last. The real deal.

He's the real deal. Holy field. Other than Carey Price, he might be the best Canadian goalie in the world. I don't know who else you would pick at this point in time. I mean, Binnington, of course, because he's proven, and he's got the championship under his belt. So he's on Canada's Business 2022 Canada Olympic team? I think that if things stay the same and he plays the way he's been playing, yes.

I think him, Bennington, and Price. And there might be one other name I'm forgetting. Let's record this, Mikey. Is Holtby Canadian? Holtby is Canadian, yes. Okay, well, maybe not. People are going after Holtby. People are going after Holtby now saying he's no good.

Haters everywhere. Haters everywhere. Yeah, haters. And they're proven. So whatever. Oh, you Muppet fans. You stupid fans. Hating some of your best players, you dummies.

You know nothing about hockey, half the people that are watching hockey. It drives me insane. But overall, I thought the team played well. They were very opportunistic. The Stars came to play. Hall was big. Kessel was big. And the Coyotes are going on to play the Abs.

So I'm excited. Anything you want to add, Whit, on the yoga spreads? Well, Biz just mastered that series. He's watching it from the arena doing his gig with his suit and tie on. He looks phenomenal. But I just watch it, and I just, like, wonder. Nashville's – I feel like they should be better than they are. I know you're mentioning some of these guys they have, but I don't know.

It's like going into the year, you look at the roster and what Nashville has, and it seems like it's a severe disappointment. I mean, we're not talking about them as legit cup contenders, and then they couldn't get by, you know, Biz's Yotes. No offense, right? You guys are playing a, you know, dog-dog style. Dog-eat-dog style. No pun intended, I guess.

But I just – Nashville's disappointing, man. It's just – what's going on there? And they got the new coach and maybe a full season and a training camp next year with Hines and maybe making a couple changes. They really can give it a shot. But is it fair to say that Nashville's kind of window is closing?

I mean, Rene's getting older, and he hasn't been good in the playoffs to begin with. So Saros is nice. What's his contract? Do you know? I believe they both have one year left next year combined. That would be an interesting decision. Six and a half mil or something, yeah.

Congrats, Buzz. Congrats. But I couldn't agree more. A very disappointing team in nashville as far as like the i think like what is it three or four years ago it went stanley cup finals to loss in the second round to loss to the first round and now they they couldn't even get into the round of 16 2017 when me and grinelli took our self-financed trip down to nashville to promote spitting chiclets on our own dime remember that dude that was some fucking wild times and what's uh what's crazy about it too is like he uh poils made some

significant good moves like he's kept the team relevant and and you know kind of gotten younger players with with fair deals and i don't know it's just they just can't find the to me they're maybe like the st louis before they were able to find the right set of players before they made an actual run. But their window is not getting any bigger, that's for sure. They've got to get it done soon. Speaking of the Coyotes, I want to let everybody know we've got a couple of Coyotes T-shirts for sale.

We also have a Vancouver one for the lotto line. Finally dropped. So we've got a nice bubble hockey shirt with looks like chicklets means in bubble hockey form. Check out our Twitter feed. Check out Barstool's store. We got some nice new duds to check out. Right, Grinnelly? Barstoolsports.com

slash chicklets. We're releasing new shirts like every day. Check them out. All right. Yeah, I was halfway through my Elvis one during game four of Columbus, Toronto, but I got to send that back to the reworking room, depending on game five tonight. Although Elvis' estate, I think, has every possible Elvis thing with a copyright on it.

Have we mentioned that our guest? No, I had him teased, but let's do it right now. He brought it up. Oh, my. R.A., how did you set this up? I had talked to his son a couple different times. We kind of, well, phone tagged basically via DMs about getting him on, and then it kind of fell by the wayside, and his son rekindled it recently.

And we're very, very happy to announce tonight's guest is Dave Hanson, a.k.a. Jack Hanson from Slapshot, the greatest sports movie of all time, definitely the best hockey movie of all time. Like I said, when we talked to him, it was like interviewing han solo or luke skywalker to me because i watched snapshot so much growing up so this was just uh an outstanding interview we're going to be bringing to you in a little bit but uh very exciting one to do boys awesome so much insight into how the movie was made and he was uh so good at elaborating i felt like there. Yeah, yeah, we got into the process somewhat a little bit busy. Is that what they call it in the industry?

Yeah, is that the term in the industry? Yeah, I just made it up. All right, what else we got? A couple more series to recap here. The Flames knocked off the Jets in four. As we suspected, that first game when they lost Shifley and Liney was just too much to handle for the old Jets. Also, Cam Talbot was excellent for Calgary, 9-4-5 SP,

1-5-1 goals against Connor Hellebuck. I thought he struggled a little bit, but I don't know how much of that was him and how much was that of a condition of not having the same defense he had last year. Either way, let's switch our take on this one with Dalg. It just – when game one went the way it did, it was foregone conclusion. I don't think there was anyone out there who thought that the Jets could get that done. Great effort and just a shitty first game coming back from what everyone dealt with in that break.

To see Scheifele get injured and Leine's not playing. It was just an awful scenario for the Jets and all their fans. So I think that Calgary deserved to move on, But, I mean, you outmatched them. I mean, Kyle Conner can only do so much. And that team is – they had a nice little run there this year for a while, especially the goaltender they have who's young. So I don't think that they're in any sort of panic in terms of like we have to win now because there's a lot there to grow

and really become a better team. But they were just outmatched. And Calgary, when Calgary's all going and Goudreau's playing the way he has his entire career up until parts of this season, and I think Kachuk's their most valuable player. I think everyone hates him. He also produces. I think he's so important.

Some of their D are awesome. I love Girodonor as a leader, as a guy who's been around for so long. I would not be surprised at all to see Calgary go on a little bit of a run here. It's all about the goaltending, but Talbot, how good did he look? His numbers, what were his numbers? I'm sorry if you just read them. I was reading something. That's all right.

A 9-4-5 save percentage, 1-5-1 goals against and one shutout. That's funny because I know you were pumping your own tires at the start of the episode. I believe you said about Carey Price, but it was me who said, I think Calgary's going to win this series, and I think the difference is going to be in net. Can Talbot match Hellebuck's effort? And he did, and I was right, and it feels unbelievable.

Great job, Baze. That's just phenomenal work by you. Blind squirrel finds a nut. The clock always is – what's that saying, R.A.? The clock is always right twice a day. I was way off on that one. The Flames are playing like a team who really wants to win. It's time they prove what they can do.

The Stars were playing like stars. The the grinders luch looked good fought fought off the hop of the game in game four credit to that bull your kid is that you say his last name oh that yeah that was uh that's not an easy one to hop into that kid's tough yeah and you know i think that he felt that his team was maybe being bullied a little bit too much and he's like you know what fuck this you know, I think that he felt that his team was maybe being bullied a little bit too much. And he's like, you know what, fuck this. You know, we got to stand up for ourselves here. And it was just a team that was going to beat down the Jets. And unfortunately for Winnipeg, they lost two of their big boys off the hop. They just didn't have the back end to match.

And that top nine all of a sudden didn't look so good for the Jets once they lost two of the big pieces. And, you know, credit some of the top boys for the Jets, though. They swung in there, but overall they were just outmatched as far as overall team mentality and physical play by the Flames. And I like the Flames moving forward, man. That's a good team, good solid team right now. Yeah, Biz, Calgary's moving on. They're going to be playing the Dallas Stars,

who knocked off St. Louis on the final round- robin game on Sunday. So we'll be getting to our previews in a little bit, but Calgary will be moving on to face Dallas. A couple other series we want to mention as well. The Hawks beat the Oilers in four games. Like I said, Edmonton's D, I thought they were an issue for the squad. They just didn't have that one guy who can kind of get the puck and move it out of the zone. Corey Crawford, if you look at his numbers, they weren't anything spectacular, but this is very much a 1980-style series, and he made some huge stops when they really needed them.

As a fan, it sucks that Connor McDavid is out already four games. He had nine points. He's just a specimen. Every time he comes on the ice, it's great to see. Also, Edmonton might want to work on taking the goalie off for an extra attack of drills next time so they don't end their season in such ugly fashion. Let's swing it over to you, Biz.

What do you got on this one? They just got to find a way to not get scored on when Connor McDavid's not on the ice. That's literally all they have to do. The numbers speak for themselves. He was on the ice for 11 of Edmonton's 15 goals that were scored, and when he wasn't on the ice for this series, they were outscored 11 to 4.

Like, want to go deeper? And these stats are courtesy of Ryan Lambert on Twitter. I found these ones. That guy, biz. Regular season, McDavid was on the ice for 123 of their 223 goals scored when he wasn't on the ice they were outscored 138 to 100 so then this ryan lambert goes deeper because people are like ah sample size that he goes okay since the 2017-18 season mcdavid is a plus 113 in goal differential, and the team is a minus 180 when he's off the ice. Find a way to not get scored on the ice when he's not,

and you have fucking four more Stanley Cups in a row like you did in the 80s. It ain't that hard. Get solid goaltending. It's not going to be easy to find that defenseman, and they've been looking for him forever, and they thought they had it. Adam Larson, Taylor Hall, heads up. One for one. One for one.

Find a D, although that Ethan Bear has been a nice surprise for them. Yamamoto has been a great surprise. Nugent Hopkins continues to deliver. Mind you, the fan base at least wanted to trade him for a period of time way back when they got him Dreisaitl and McDavid to build around add a few more pieces

just figure it out I don't give a shit how you do it don't get scored on the ice when McDavid's not on the ice and you win a Stanley Cup yeah Clef Baum wasn't good but you have to actually give chicago credit here because like caves keith these vets they they really um and you wondered how the layoff would affect older versus younger teams but it seems like the vets in chicago i don't know if they needed that or

just really caught fire because like that was some of the best hockey that that these guys have played in a long time i mean i think that the the clinching game duncan keith played close to 30 minutes it's taves four and three in the series just just taking it to the other you know the other team's best players and now mcdavid obviously you can't stop him there's like no matchup that that you're gonna win on that side. But if you can shut down the rest of the team and force the rest of the team to try to at least play better defensively and have it in their zone, which Edmonton struggles in. So Chicago State can listen when McDavid is on the ice and just get it in their zone. And it worked because they don't have a team that's

nearly deep enough to win a Stanley Cup even with the two guys you mentioned up top and and Koskinen and Smith I think Smith's UFA so he's probably gone but they got to figure out goal thing I don't know can you win a Stanley Cup with with with Koskinen it's it's just there's a bunch of questions and I don't think Edmonton's in a horrible spot like they were and have been the last 10 years but there's still like ways to go here before they are a Stanley Cup contending team. Yeah, I agreed on that. I mean, you look, they have so much talent up front and then the rest of the talent isn't

just on that roster where you need it to be. So we'll keep an eye on that going forward. Well, the good news is, is they might get the first overall pick again. That's true. And we're going to like find out tonight, like the Wooddog said. Let's see. The Canucks beat the Wild in four. It looked like we were going to have another five-game series there,

but the Wild blew a late lead. Canucks tied it late, and Tannev's wrist with 11 seconds left. That was when you go for a pee or a beer, you miss the frigging result. This was series, I don't know, I guess it played out kind of how people expected it. It wasn't the most thrilling at times. Minnesota doesn't play the most, I don't know, exciting brand of hockey, but I don't know. They had a chance to bring it to five. They couldn't get it most, I don't know, exciting brand of hockey. But I don't know.

They had a chance to bring it to five. They couldn't get it done. What would you go on this one? Game four was one of the best games of the playoffs so far. And you said 11 seconds left. It was actually 11 seconds into OT. I know. I'm fucking kidding.

Yeah. So back to minus one. Another turnover. It's now the third period. It's now the third period. You're sitting on the bench. Grocery stick-based style. But what a celebration for the Canucks in that room after when Tanev came in.

A great shutdown defender. Not many people talk about. Guys love him. He's a respected leader. Everyone really, really loves playing with that guy. And so for him to get that winner and to come in and see that celebration for a team who, I mean, they're all trying to grow together. They're young.

They're thinking there's Stanley Cups in their future. They got these guys. I mean, Horvat tied it. And you just saw the look back to, I forget who dished him the puck, but all game they're down. I mean, they're down 3-2 when Quinn Hughes scores and ties it up. So it was just no quit from a young team that you've seen them play like that all year.

They surprise teams. They have nights where they show how young they are and maybe how not lacking in depth they deal with a little as well. But their fourth line plays hard against people like Beagle. What an addition that guy is. I'm glad Vancouver's moving on in terms of excitement. Minnesota can bore you. But game four was anything anything but that so congrats to the Canucks it was Pearson who passed in that puck and he's been another great addition and he's had a hot start to these playoffs but

let's talk about the young buck on the back end Quinn Hughes averaged 22 minutes as a rookie defenseman coming into the playoffs for the regular season. He was the NHL's leading scorer on the back end after the All-Star break. I think he had 19 points until the shutdown. And this guy's now got six in playoffs, and he has not skipped a beat, and he's continuing on this trajectory. I hope I said that correctly, to be a multiple Norris winner. And it's – what a showing.

And I said last episode it's going to be hard for the Canucks because the Wilds, a big, heavy, experienced team, and I feel like they're going to try to beat them down and demoralize them into maybe giving up as opposed to going and winning the series. And they overcame that, and I couldn't be happier for this young group of guys led by Bo Horvat, who was tremendous in that game four that you mentioned. And I don't know how well they're going to do in playoffs,

but it was good to see them at least get over this little hump. Did you guys see the video of JT Miller that went viral of reading off the names before the game, getting the boys all pumped up? Yep. So I just wrote, have him read the lineup before the game, getting the boys all pumped up. Yep. So I just wrote, have him read the lineup every game and they'll fucking run through a brick wall. That was some good shit.

I wish I seen the edited version though. You need swizz from the locker room. I was very critical of them early on and the move to bring him in for the first rounder. Now I'm going to stick to my guns and still say I wasn't crazy about giving up that first rounder, but if they could pull off the next series, I'll concede.

And who do they have? Vancouver is going to be playing St. Louis. Thanks to the result of today. Good luck. They've been playing the meaningful games. They've been playing the meaningful games. All is different this year. It's just way...

No one knows how to expect this first first real round is going to go. But the good news is they're going to experience what it's like to play in another series with even a better team who's playing that rough and tough style. And if they're going to be able to get over that hump, then you know you've got a real deal on your hands. And, of course, the series uh we talked about last episode the cane swept the range is three nothing so we already uh analyzed that one but i do got a note here spitting chickens listeners know that one of the great long-running subjects on the show

has been playing hockey in russia well there's a new documentary out called red penguins and it's a crazy story i watched it over the weekend definitely want to recommend it i managed to squeeze interviewing between all the games this weekend. It's written, produced, and directed by Gabe Polsky, who also directed the excellent Red Army documentary about the history of hockey in Russia. Red Penguins tells the story about what happens when capitalism meets post-communist Russia.

It's pretty wild. Back in the early 90s, the owner of the Penguins invested in the Russian national team that was on the verge of bankruptcy. He was hoping to build a pipeline of Russian players to Pittsburgh. He brought in this wacky marketing guru to help out in a land where basically gangsters would become the guys with serious power. And like I said, things get wacky, crazy, ridiculous. I think what we also see where there's a precursor to all the KHL stories we hear,

like why are things so crazy? Well, this kind of set in place everything that was crazy and hockey in Russia for the next 20 years. And what's interesting too is also hearing the different versions of the story from the Russian side, from the American side. It's kind of like it was the truth in the middle. It's kind of got a real funny quality to it. But the common answer seems to be that's Russia.

So watch Red Penguins at home now on iTunes, download Red Penguins now on iTunes, see the full documentary Red Penguins now on iTunes. It's good stuff. now on iTunes. See the full documentary, Red Penguins, now on iTunes. It's good stuff. I watched it myself. You know me. I don't recommend it unless I really like it. It's a wild, wild story, though.

Okay, well, one of the things I saw in the trailer was a bear chugging a beer. Was that correct? That was very accurate, yes. They were bringing beer. A beer would come in and serve a beer to another beer, and then the beer would chug the beer. Wait, beers serving beers? Or bears serving beers?

Beers, gas, and beers. I can't do us. But then I got to wonder now, it's getting so silly with all this footage you see out of Russia, is just us seeing their version of Tiger King? They're probably watching Tiger King over there with subtitles being like, look at these idiots. Like, this is what's going on in the States.

Like, is that their version of it? I mean, yeah. Is it weird that it's happening at their top professional leagues? Yeah. It is a bit. You know, it looks like a scene at a semi-pro when he's wrestling the band. No, they'd probably be like, Carol's a rocket. Yeah, when you get – well, basically the version of Ice Girls

doing a strip tease between periods and after the game that was like the real eye opener there's some it's crazy because russia on board for that i'm looking forward to catching this yeah communism just fell so like they didn't know what freedom or capitalism was and then you had this you know bunch of people trying to invest to make money but meanwhile russia was just getting taken over by gangsters so there's all these different elements going on it's definitely interesting certainly if you weren't around back then like many of our audience wasn't so definitely check Russia was just getting taken over by gangsters. So there's all these different elements going on. It's definitely interesting. And certainly if you weren't around back then, like many of our audience wasn't.

So definitely check it out. Red Penguins, good stuff. All right. Like we mentioned a little while ago, Philadelphia won the round robin in the East. Vegas won the round robin in the West. Both of them are the number one seeds. So we're going to get some predictions from the fellas right now. First round, Campbell Conference, the Western Conference.

Let's see. Vegas, the number one seed going against the Chicago Blackhawks after their upset of Edmonton. Whit, we're going to go to you first. What do you like on this one? I don't know. I would have felt way more confident if Edmonton had moved on. Do you know what I'm saying?

I didn't picture Chicago doing this. So I'm going to stick with the Hawks, though, because I'm not betting against a group of guys who've won three Stanley Cups together that looked the way they did the last time they won a Stanley Cup in that first round. I'm on the Hawks, and they take care of us. We've got

a great relationship with the Hawks family, so go Chicago. This is a Hawks podcast now. We've been interviewing so many of them. How many games? Go ahead. I'm going gonna go seven okay i got hawks in seven two and the reason i say that as really the reason i say that as i think patch ready's coming back and sometimes i can like you know get a guy back and kind of the feng shui's off oh no the you know it's not clicking like it was before and yeah i just like you said it's very hard to bet against a group of guys like that who have been

rejuvenated and have some of those young bucks going but kirby doc looks unbelievable yeah sometimes it's it's nice to be forced to pick third like Like, that landed in their lap. I think that guy's going to be a stud. So, anyway, I got Hawks in seven. That's against Rebo and the boys. God, we might look like fools here. Not me. Maybe you two because I'm going with Vegas in six. I think they're a little bit deeper.

Also, we have the added fact that they picked up Robin Lehner at the trade deadline, and it gives them a two-headed monster between him and Marc-Andre Fleury. I think they could throw either guy out there. It might not be too much of a difference. Vegas could easily win this series, Spence. Vegas could really easily win this series. It could be like a four-to-one type series over in five. But I want to sound cool.

Hawks. Crawford's been playing pretty good too. And now a, one other thing we didn't discuss is Vegas has two goalies, right? So it's a bit of a mind fuck for the coach. Like what happened? If Fleury doesn't play well in game one,

if he gets the net, then you go back to Leonard or, or do you stick with Fleury? Like, how is it, you know, you know, and then if he doesn't have a great start,

what the fuck we do? Well, I know Leonard and Leonard, you know, he's playing against his old club. You know, I know some of these guys coach put me in. Yeah. I want to play over the flower. We'll see. All right.

Next up. We're creating internal drama. Yeah. Colorado Avalanche, the second seed. They'll be taking on Biz's Coyotes, Arizona 1-0 1-1 versus them. Yotes are going to have their hands full. Let's go to you first, Biz. I know what you're

going to say. Just the number of games. You already did. Yotes in four. Okay. I'm going to go Colorado in six. With Colorado in six. Yeah, I'm actually going to go Colorado in five. I think they're stacked i think they get advantages pretty much all over the ice so i'm gonna go colorado five you're an advantage

all right next up uh i would have taken the yotes last round but i didn't want to agree with biz so i that should count as a win for me swear to god all right all right next up dallas stars versus calgary flames this is an intriguing matchup no no doubt about that. Whit, what do you got one on this? I think this could be a barn burner of a series. I think you could see some exciting physical just overall great

hockey. I'm having a tough time picking against the Dallas Stars, but I'm going to do it. I think Calgary stays hot. I think they just got some mojo going right now. And I don't know if this is, but this is one of the tougher ones, but I'm on the flame.

So flames fans, sorry guys, just still, please welcome me with open arms someday when we can go to the stampede. I'd love to check that scene out. I got flames in seven. I think it's going to be a great series. Talbot's playing well. He's got

Bishop at the other end. Dallas has a solid back end. A couple of young studs. It's going to be a good series. Really looking forward to it. Flames in seven. You had Calgary in how many? I'll go six

just because I don't want to be the same as Biz. It'll probably take seven and a half games for them to win. I'm not putting a ton of stock on the round, Robin, like I said in the get-go. I don't think Dallas or St. Louis was particularly great, but I'm going to go Calgary in seven as well. Next up, St. Louis versus Vancouver. This is another intriguing matchup. Let's go to you first, Biz.

What do you got for a prediction on this one? Which one did you say? St. Louis-Vancouver. Yeah, I can't bet against St. Louis. I think it's going to go six games, and they're going to turn it on for playoffs. I don't even think they played Bennington in the last round-robin game. So let's go, yep, St. Louis in six. I think the the vancouver

canucks are going to get some valuable experience here and it might be valuable experience and shoving up my hoop once they upset the st louis blues the uh the blues i think get it done handily maybe five or six games it was it's almost like your first experience in the playoffs i was on the penguins who got worked by ottawa st St. Louis, I think, gets it done. But that first round or play-in series win against Minnesota, that will really serve those guys well. But I do not think Vancouver wins against the Blues. So I'm going Blues.

What did I say? Five or six. Pick your poison. I'm not saying an exact number. All right. Let me see. It's a tough one this asshole you're an asshole why am i an asshole i don't know it's tough to pick against the defending champs like i said i

think they're kind of in snooze mode right now waiting for the real games to matter but i'm gonna go st louis and six as well uh with that one and now we're gonna flip it over to the wales conference over in the east first game our first series philadelphia versus montreal this is gonna i don't know man this is gonna be interesting i know philly wanted that home home ice they played their balls off all right but what do you got on this one with philly and five i was gonna say philly's a wagon that that goal that call couturier when he chipped it up the wall on purpose, like he like shuffleboarded it up the wall. Oh, I forget who it went to. And then he snapped a one-time pass over to Faraby and just shelved one.

I'm like, all right, this team, they are just feeling it right now. They look like a dream team right now. The Harlem Globetrotters on ice. I got Philly in five too. All right, Whitbiz, you both like Philly. I'm going to stick with the Habitons. Les Habitons on another upset. I know it's unlikely.

Philly's looked unreal, but it's a whole new season. These are the final 16. I've seen Montreal. I've seen what they can do in the past, even with maybe an inferior squad. They just play better in the playoffs. Price, if he continues to do what he does, I don't know. I'm going to go Montreal in seven. I know it's unlikely, and I haven't pissed off the Philly fans for a while.

That's usually Witt's territory, but I got Montreal on seven. Nice. Good reason. Okay, next up, let's see. We got the Washington Capitals versus the New York Islanders, an old Patrick Division rivalry, a little Easter reunion from back in, I think, 87. Barry Trotz versus his old team as well.

Wittdog, what do we got on this one? If I'm not incorrect, isn't this the Dale Hunter-Pierre Turgeon series? Washington Islanders? That too, yep. When he didn't know he scored. And there's 14,000 Islanders scumbag fans jumping up and down. But I think, like I said at the beginning when we were talking about the Islanders, that they're going to play so hard and they're not going to make it

easy, but I think Washington gets it done in seven games. Islanders in six. Ooh. Islanders in six. Really? I feel like, yeah, I feel like they're buying in. I feel like this is a very tight group. I feel like all of them want it.

And I mentioned the depth scoring between the top three lines. They have one of the most reliable fourth lines in hockey, and they got some guys on the back end who are contributing. And now they got Boychuk coming back, and Varlamov's playing out of his mind. Yeah, I think they're going to shock the Washington Capitals, and I think they're going to beat them in six games. Trotz knows the Washington Capitals. He managed them forever. them in six games. Trotz knows the Washington Capitals. He managed them forever.

That's the words out of my mouth, man. If anyone knows their weaknesses, Biz, it's Barry Trotz, and that's a key reason I like the Islanders. He knows how to beat them probably better than anyone. You mentioned Volamov. He was outstanding on the qualifiers. I'm going the Islanders in seven. I think it's going to be a tight team.

You guys are both going the Isles. For instance, I heard that Trotz put in an order, and this was done by Lou Lamarillo, of course, only one sauce at pregame meals in the bubble. Well, how the fuck are we going to be crossing sauces at the pregame, Whit? How's he going to be tickling the twine with no crossing the sauces? You don't think Alexander Ovechkin has a hookup to be able to cross his sauces?

Alexander Ovechkin has a hookup for anything and everything you could imagine. If he needs it, he's getting it. I don't care if he's in a bubble or in a spaceship. It's Ovi. He's fucking getting whatever he needs, and whether it's marinara and a bunch of disgusting... What's the white... I'm not an Alfredo sauce guy.

I think you're gross if you eat just Alfredo sauce. Maybe the second sauce is mustard packs from Jimmy John's. Oh, shit. Mayo really disgusts me, though. Mayo. You're just going to make me puke when I want to talk. Boston and Carolina, an old Adams division rivalry.

The old Whalers and Bruins match up. The Bruins, awful in the round robin. They beat Carolina once in one game this season. Same teams as the Eastern Conference Finals last year that Boston swept. As a Bees fan, they can't say they inspired a lot of confidence in people, but like I said, I think this team is just waiting for the real games to start. There's a lot of veterans on that team. We'll see what happens.

I'm going to go Bees. Carolina's going to give them a better series than last year, but I'm going to go B's in six. Biz, what do you have? I'm going to throw it over to you first. So my brain is saying the President's Trophies winners, who are the fourth seed, that they worked Carolina over last year. This year they look just as good, if not better, at times.

Yes, Carolina's improved, but this is the Boston Bruins, and they get it done in five or six. But my heart, after watching Carolina in that first line and just the whole buying into Rod Brindamore and playing like their head coach played and everything I've said before about them, that makes me think Carolina's going to beat them, coupled with the fact the Bruins were pathetic in every game they played.

So yeah. Can, can, can you just turn it on? I don't, I don't think that's going to be that easy. I'm still going to Bruins, but it's going to bring me up to seven games for them to get it done. I just nailed that biz.

You might not be able to go. I'm still very torn on who I'm picking here. And it's such a 50-50 coin toss because the Canes have made me look so stupid. I got Joel Edmondson and Trocek and a couple other guys on their team trolling me. Really? The Birdman. Yeah, they're liking all the old posts about me saying there's no way

they're going to even win on the play-in series. I'm going to pick Carolina in seven. They're just such a hard team to root against, especially going against a team who doesn't really have their shit figured out and you want to blame it. Oh, the games weren't really worth anything, blah, blah, blah.

I just feel like they really have their shit together and they're getting goaltending right now all of a sudden, and they know how to manage games, and they all play for one another. So I got to go with Carolina on this one, guys, in seven. All right. That's a nice little roundup. And, again, we'll be bringing the – well, the winner of Columbus-Toronto

versus Tampa Bay. We'll be having that as an addendum to the show. But first off, I want to let you know it's summer. The weather's warming up. Sports are back in full swing with the NHL playoffs now underway. That means you need to stay hydrated with our favorite sports drink, Bodyama. I'm a big fan of the fruit punch and watermelon strawberry myself.

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or order any of their flavors at Amazon right now, and they've got tons of great flavors to check out. Like I said, Fruit Punch, Watermelon, Strawberry, can't go wrong there, but you'll definitely find something you'll like. Once again, drinkbodyarmor.com, or go to Amazon and check it out there. Boys, I think it's about time we send it over to Dave Hanson of Slapshot fame. No more predictions to make? Nope. All right. No, I predict you'll enjoy this frigging interview, though. Well, it's a huge thrill for me to welcome our next guest. He played professionally for a decade with stints in the NHL and the late WHA.

But you know him from the big screen and his iconic role as Jack Hansen in the best hockey movie ever made, as well as one of the funniest movies ever made, Slapshot. It's a great pleasure. So welcome to Spit and Chicklets, Dave Hanson. Thanks for joining us, Dave. Hey, Ari. It's great to be with you. I've been a fan from the first time you and I met back at the old Goon premiere.

Oh, wow. So it's good to hook up with you again. Oh, I'm surprised they brought you guys in for that premiere. What a shocker. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I'm surprised they brought you guys in for that premiere. What a shocker. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I usually don't fanboy this much, but this is like interviewing Luke Skywalker

or Hansol for me because I've watched Slapshot so many times. I love it. It's such a big presence in my house, so this is a true honor for me. So, how you doing? Are you still in the Pittsburgh area these days? Yeah, still out here trying to navigate this COVID stuff that's flying around. I'm actually in the Pittsburgh area these days? Yeah, still out here trying to navigate this COVID stuff that's flying around. I'm actually in the sports facility business.

I've got a complex here that's got a big indoor golf driving range and outdoor track and field complex. And I've got four rinks and a bunch of other stuff and just trying to figure out how to keep these kids on the ice and on the rinks and out playing without getting shut down and staying healthy. So it's certainly a long cry from just punching somebody in the nose, something you know a little bit about,

and then just going to the county box for five minutes. Or getting punched in the nose. Yeah, I took more than I gave, Dave. I used to get piss pumped, especially in the American Hockey League. Those guys fucked me up. But thanks for coming on. What's the name of the complex? A little quick plug for you.

It's the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center. So you guys are probably familiar with the Swickly area. I'm sure that's where you lived when you were here, right, Biss? Oh, is that where the rich guys lived? Yeah, that's where Crosby and Lemieux lived. So they didn't allow Biss and I in the rich guys lived? Yeah, that's where Crosby and Lemieux lived, so they didn't allow Biz and I in the town. Yeah. Yeah.

So we're literally across the river on an island in the Ohio River, and it's a pretty good place. It's a 32-acre complex here, and I've got a lot going on, so it's a lot of fun, or used to be. So, Dave, you were born in Wisconsin, but raised and grew up playing hockey in Minnesota. Is that correct? Yeah, I grew up in St. Paul, which everybody knows Minnesota is a state of hockey. And I grew up in St. Paul. Came up through the, you know, back then in those days it was pretty much high school hockey for U.S. Paul. Came up through the, you know, back then in those days, it was pretty much high school hockey for U.S. kids. And so I grew up playing my high school hockey, did my sports there. And

old Herbie Brooks saw something in me and recruited me to come to the University of Minnesota his first year there. And I lasted about a year and a half there I don't know if I was either you know too dumb to uh to hang in there or just kind of got frustrated with college hockey because it wasn't my kind of game and ended up playing a little bit of junior hockey and then signed pro a couple years later no so that's crazy you got the chance to play for the legendary Herb Brooks rest in peace and well I mean granted it was just a year and a half. But what was he like then? Because you watch the movie Miracle and you hear all the stories about how demanding he was.

I couldn't even imagine college guys. It must have been, you know, even worse. I mean, at least those guys were maybe a little bit older in the movie Miracle and that year. But he must have been a really tough guy to play for and really kind of always in your face, right? Yeah, well, it was pretty unique. You know, again, you're coming out of back then, you know, nobody really went off and played juniors for a couple years. It was pretty much right out of high school,

a true freshman at 18 years old going off to the U. And so certainly you're not used to the kind of regiment that he instituted. You know, He was quite the guy that demanded quite a bit, but really was doing some unique things that was kind of foreign to the world of hockey, at least here in the States. So, heck, we were

out there with the weighted vests, running up and down the football stadium steps, and then going right from there, hitting the ice, and just getting your, again, the legs beaded out of you because he was a big proponent of conditioning. He felt that if you weren't going to be the most skilled team on the ice, you were going to be the best well-conditioned team on the ice.

And just when it came right down to the line of who was going to etch it out on two evenly matched teams or even a little less matched team, that you were going to etch it out on two evenly matched teams or even a little less matched team that you were going to wear them down. And so he just constantly busted our chops and busted our butts on being in condition and then having unique practice sessions with a lot of stuff that nobody really knew about and was kind of really foreign to us, but it really made a difference. And like I said, I made reference earlier, I wasn't necessarily the skilled guy.

I was the football player on skates. But he took a lot of the Minnesota kids. And back then, everybody that played for a golfer had to come from Minnesota. He didn't have any outside players coming in. So, you know, he took a bunch of kids and eventually won a couple championships while he was there with that group. Dave, I mean, these young kids,

they'll never know what a true bag skate is. And even I've been through some. But, like, how many with, with our Brooks, like how many just where you were like looking at each other after, like, is this guy insane? Well, and I don't know,

Paul, if, if, you know, if you were at a point in your career at any time where the bag skates were called Herbie's, uh, because he coined it.

And just as in a movie, it was red line, blue line, red line, red line, red line, far blue line, red line, far red line, red line, blue line. And it just kept going. And then you get to the end and you think you're done. And then he'd say, what are you stopping for? And he'd blow the whistle and you'd go right at it again. And it was incredible.

And to your point, yeah, kids nowadays don't know what a bag skate is. And going back to the Minnesota hockey, was it as big as it was back then as it is now? Now they rent out the Minnesota Wilds Arena. They got all these kids skating up to the blue line with their funky haircuts. I don't know if you've been paying attention. Yeah, well, of course, back then they didn't have all the divisions they have now. Now they've got a class for almost every level, which is a great thing.

They've got girls playing hockey out there, too. But back then, everybody was pretty much lumped into one. So you had the small schools, like up in Moor Road with Minnesota, where someone like Henry Boucher came out of. But Henry Boucher was the only one to come out of War Road. And, you know, it was very small, northern Minnesota, backwoods type school district and school would come down and play someone like Edina, which is a huge metropolitan area, you know, outside of Minneapolis. And yet most of the time,

these little schools would come down and beat the big schools. And it was back then, it was the Met Center where the old North Stars used to play, and it was televised, and it was the ticket. It was the place to be, the place to go, and if you won the Minnesota High School Championships, you were king of the hill. Oh, yeah, get the varsity jacket on. Oh yeah. Strutting around the hallways. Walking through

school, taking kids' pizza slices off their plates like, what's that movie? Not Paris, Billy Madison? The bowling movie. Oh, Kingpin. Kingpin, yeah. Love it. The record stops, they're like, dude, who are you?

Give me my pizza back. Sorry. All right, what do you got for them? I know you're drooling over these slap shot questions here. Absolutely. But first, we want to start off with your career. You were with the Johnstown Jets. Now, they were the old North American Hockey League.

Would they be equivalent to today, Dave, like the East Coast League maybe? Yeah, but the East Coast League is even now, the way that's gotten, that must be like the NHL for us back in the North American League. But if you ever read any of the old books, you know, like the John Brophy played, Don Halls, you know, even back with Eddie Johnstone and Jockman, or not Jockman, but I'm blanking out the goalie from the Boston, the old Boston Achievers.

Harry Cheever, is that right? Yeah, you know, they played in that league, which was called the Eastern Hockey League, and the next year I got there, they actually just changed the name and maybe got rid of a couple different cities, but it was still that brand of hockey that you see in Slapshot, and that's what Slapshot was written about. The movie Slapshot could almost be considered a documentary if it wasn't, you know, some of it didn't get, you know, stripping at the end of the game and some of those, you know, weird things.

But that's the way it was. You know, everything that pretty much happened in Slapshot happened in those two years that I played for Johnstown. I was going to say, you weren't pro all that long before your life would change forever. It was obviously from the movie. I want to get into how that all started, how the producers first got in touch with you, and how you became one of the triplets. Well, the short version of the story is we had a player on a team, Ned Dowd, who, just to put a face to a name, he was Ogie Oglethorpe in the film.

He played for us. He was a Boston boy. Here you go, Ryan. He went to Bowdoin. He's a Massachusetts boy. Actually held the record for years, the scoring record for Bowdoin University there. Wow.

Signed with St. Louis and was sent to Johnstown in the farm team there. But his sister was a screenplay writer out in L.A. And the story goes on one late night when he had a few of the adult libations. Pink Whitney's. He had a couple of Pink Whitney's. There you go. And I was talking to his sister who was out in L.A. and just started saying, you can't believe where I'm at.

I'm in a steel mill town. The mills are closing. You have to see this. I'm in this league. All they do is fight. You have to see these three brothers that are playing. They're all ready. You know, it just went on and on about everything.

And he says, you know, and the mills are closing and they're talking about selling the team. And she says, well, who owns the team? Like there's the line in the movie. Who owns the team? And he says, I don't know who owns this team. She says, well, I'm coming up. I don't believe it. So she actually came into Johnstown and spent a few weeks riding the buses with us,

sitting in the bars with us, coming to the games, hanging out at the guys' apartments. She went back and wrote the screenplay. Universal Studios bought it. Ned Dowd, who was the sister of Nancy Dowd, the guy that was on the team that was telling her about it, he gets hired in the summer to come down and try to start helping them

find actors that could skate well enough to play these roles in the movie. They had Nick Nolte, Donnie Most, John Travolta, on and on and on. You know, these A-listed actors coming out, and he's trying to teach them how to skate because they were all people that they wanted to have play these major roles, and none of them could skate.

One of them broke their ankles. One guy broke his nose falling into the boards. I mean, you said it was a mess. And so finally they got so frustrated, Ned suggested to Nancy and to the director, George Ray Hill, why don't you go back to Johnstown? Why don't you let these guys, most particularly the Hanson brothers or the Carlson brothers, Jeff Jack and Steve Carlson,

who was playing with us, and then, of course, myself, the Carlson brothers, Jeff Jack and Steve Carlson, who was playing with us, and then, of course, myself. Why don't you let them see if they could be the guys to play their own characters? And that's kind of what they did. They came back. We were in the playoffs. They took us in the hotel room one night, said, read a few lines here, guys.

Let's read this. Surprisingly, I think they were surprised we actually could read, and we read them. And in spite of that, they still said, okay, let's give it a shot. So the plan was then that Jeff, Jack, and Steve Carlson were going to be the Hanson brothers, and Dave Hanson was going to play Killer Carlson, which were kind of the roles that were written after ourselves. But Jack was up in Edmonton then. He got called to the playoffs. They wanted to start filming, so they just threw me in as a third brother. And ironically, Hanson became a Hanson brother,

and they brought in Jerry Hauser, an actor, to play the Killer Carlson role. So that's kind of how that all developed. Dave, was that hotel scene, the cars, the toys? Yeah, yeah, the hotel scene. Well, and again, you know, just talking about the real thing. So we used to, I don't know if you have never made a trip to Johnstown when you were here in Wheeling. Oh, yeah, I made a few.

All right, so, you know, you know what it's like. There's not a hell of a lot to do in Johnstown. So when we did have a day off, which was typically a Sunday and the bars were shut down, the Carlson brothers and myself and the guy that played Pretty Boy Billy Sharowal,

we all lived in the same apartment, same house. It was a three-story house with the landlords on the main floor. And then the second floor with the Carlson's, third floor was Guido Tannisi and myself. So we went and bought a race car track set. And we would push all the furniture aside, set up the race cars, and we would have race car races. And it started out with just a couple of us. And then eventually, you know, the whole team started coming over.

And that's what we did all afternoon. We used to play with our cars, with our race cars. So she just took that a step further and, you know, then we took it on the road with us. Were you guys gambling? We brought our frigging toys. He really did bring your fucking toys. Were you guys gambling on the races? Oh, yeah.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. That's why I got so pissed off when Steve broke my car. He broke my darn car. He wouldn't let me play anymore. So I threw it at him. Oh, absolutely, yeah. That's why I got so pissed off when Steve broke my car. He broke my darn car. He wouldn't let me play anymore, so I threw it at him. Oh, man, unbelievable. So what was the reason that the third Carlson, not Carlson, what was the name of the Carlson?

Yeah, Jack. What happened to him? He ended up in Edmonton. He was with the Oilers, and they were in the playoffs, and they wouldn't release him, and Universal didn't want to hang on for however long they were going to have to hang on to start filming. So that's why they threw him in as the third brother.

Hey, no residuals for you, buddy. Those checks are probably still rolling in, eh? Yeah, yeah, I get $50 every year. That's before taxes. Oh, nice. Yeah, that'll get you a case of Pink Whitney. Yeah, exactly. Well, I don't know.

That stuff's pretty expensive. We'll hook you up. We'll hook you up. We'll get you a few bottles. We have a connect. Oh, hey, I'll send you a free bottle if you tell me about the story when you first met Paul Newman. Okay.

You're up for that. So actually, Universal Studios studios the whole production company everybody they actually came into town while we were still in the playoffs we're playing uh i think it was the philadelphia flyers in the playoffs and and you know we didn't really know that they were a town or not we just kind of heard whispers because theyispers because there's no reason for them to come out up to us or anything. So anyhow, it's a pre-game nap, game day, and I'm sleeping, and

there's a knock on the door, and I wake up, and what the hell is going on now? Someone's at my door, and of course my roommate is not getting up, which happened to be Bruce Boudreau of all people. He goes to sleep and nothing wakes him up.

He's got a barbecue sauce on his chin too, I bet. Exactly. He's got a belly full of three steaks that he ate before pregame. So I'm up, and I fling open the door, and I'm standing there in my underwear with my dirty socks on, and I'm looking at this guy, and I'm looking down in my underwear with my dirty socks on and I'm looking at this guy and I'm looking down at him because he's a shorter guy and he's also on a step below because he had to walk up into my apartment. And I'm just looking at him and he's looking at me and he says, are you Dave? And I says, yeah. And he puts his hand, he says, I'm Paul Newman.

I says, yeah, I guess you are. He says, well, geez, I'm sorry. Again, I'm standing in my underwear, nothing but my underwear and my socks. He says, geez, did we wake? I says, yeah, I got a game tonight. I got this and that. He says, oh, geez, I'm really sorry. I says, okay, so what's up? He says, well, I got a couple guys here from the art department. They'd like to know what a hockey player's apartment looks like. Do you mind if

we come in? I said, no, you know, I don't mind at all, but I'm going back to bed. Just, you know, make sure you close the door when you leave. And he says, well, okay, no problem. He says, by the way, do you got any beer in the fridge? I said, yeah. He says, do you mind if I crack a beer and sit down and watch the race on TV while these guys are looking around. I said, no, go ahead, drink as much as you want. You know, I'll catch up with you later. And that was kind of it. That was my first meeting with Paul Newman. Just as nonchalant as that.

Just a real, like a guy's guy, huh? Seemed, you know, didn't seem cocky at all or anything. No, not at all. In fact, the first day we were on set together, you know, he's walking in with his iced coffee and blue jeans and sneakers and a T-shirt. And right off the bat, we just hit it because he was a real prankster to begin with. And we're in a hockey environment. Keep in mind, everybody pretty much, we're all professional movie people.

The actors trying to act as hockey players, and Newman and this and that. So this is a job to them. For us, it's a summer vacation. It's something to do instead of going back to Minnesota and playing softball and drinking beer all summer and then waiting for training camp to open up. So right off the bat, he's popping beers with us. He's farting around. He's pulling jokes.

And we're thinking, wow, this is right down our lane. And it just gave us a full reign to pretty much do whatever we want and intimidate everybody as much as we wanted to. So he was right in there like a dirty shirt with us. Yeah, Noam was already a huge star, too. I mean, Kool-Aid, Luke, The Sting, Butch Cassidy. That was before that, all right? This was Slapshot was after

all those. Wow, so that was a big... To get him was huge. Right at that point? Oh, yeah. Well, they initially had, I think, Pacino earmarked to play that role, to play Reggie Dunlap. Pacino, or who's

the other guy, the other... De Niro? Lobster. De Niro. No, it was Pacino or who's the other guy? The other... De Niro? De Niro. No, it was Pacino, yeah. Joe Pesci, Johnny Boudreaux. Yeah. Oh, no, Witt, come on. Oh, they're just both small. They're both nasty. Yeah, yeah.

But Pacino was the guy that initially was, they had casted to play Reggie Dunlap. And when they hired George Roy Hill who ironically is also another Minnesota guy and George Roy Hill started talking about well do you know how to skate and Pacino says well no not

really you know we'll figure it out we'll try to work this all out and George Roy Hill wouldn't go for it he pretty much canned Pacino and right to Newman who he had done you know I think, Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid with, and knew Newman could skate and pitched the idea right to Newman right away, and bang-o.

Newman didn't blink. He says, I'll take it. Is that the two twin sisters that were following around the one guy, the playboy on the team, is that based off a true story, or was that just written in there for the smoke and mirrors? Oh, yeah, that's never happened in hockey, Biz. Well, I don't know. Hey, having two smoke show blondes as boosters ready to follow you around all season, I don't know.

That seems like a pretty good setup to me. And the last time I saw that was maybe a D-Dot game. Oh, the Sparkle Twins? The Sparkle Twins. That's what they were called, the Sparkle Twins. Yeah, they were sparkly. Yeah, they were sparkly, not even as much with themselves as they were with other guys. It was quite the act they had going there.

Not that I would know anything about it because I was engaged at the time to my wife, who was from Johnstown. But, you know, I don't know if, I got to tell you, I don't know if that was the writer's imagination or another story that was told in the back room at some point in time or on the iron lung. Dave, did Newman hang out with any of the players extensively to kind of get into the role more? You always hear about cops jumping, I mean, actors jumping on a cop to do a ride-along. Did he do anything similar to that to prepare for the role?

Well, I don't think he did it to prepare. You know, he would sneak out when he was up back in Connecticut at his home and would sneak out down to the local ice rink and skate in his nap. But the thing was, you know, when he came on set and he was with us, you know, you could see that he could skate. I mean, he wasn't a great skater, but he was a fair skater. But where he really struggled with was having a hockey stick in his hand. He never played hockey, you know, didn't, didn't even do any shinny hockey or anything like that. And, uh, so he was struggling. And so he would spend some time with us. He'd come out and say,

Hey guys, you know, what do I do with this thing? And, and we would pass the puck around with him, stick handle with them. And, and so, you know, here's the things to work on, this and that. And he'd go off, you know, in the corner and work on it. And he was a pretty good athlete. You know, he learned quick. He was, you know, really focused on that role and doing it right. And I think the other thing that really helped him get into character, though, was that he did, you know, when we weren't shooting, you know, he would hang with us. And then that he did, when we weren't shooting, he would hang with us.

And then, of course, when we had a wrap, we would hit the bars right away and he'd come right along with us as well. Dave, you go from being, I'd say, a regular player at that time to now where you're essentially a hockey icon. After that, was it hard to adjust to all that fame as you kept your career going and then even afterward, or was it pretty seamless? Well, it's funny. Think back to the difference between back then to how it is now.

Back then, you didn't have cable TV. Back then, you didn't have VCRs. So when a movie came out, it just went through the theaters for a couple weeks or so, and then it was gone. So I'm trying to think. I went back to WHA, and I was playing for Brophy down in Hampton, Virginia. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. Virginia. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. And the premiere came out February, at February and 77. And so it hit the theater. So, you know, right during the latter part of the hockey season, you know, the movie was

in the theater. So, you know, I'd be going, getting up in a face-off down in Dallas, you know, and I'd be going and getting up in a face-off down in Dallas, and I'd have a guy come up, a player come up next to me, and he said, hey, buy you a soda after the game. I go, what? He says, buy you a soda after the game, and then I realized it's a line from the movie. So the guys, you know, from the other team, obviously were busting my balls constantly, and even the fans. You know, I remember specifically, and it was in Dallas,

skating around my warm-ups, and of course, I didn't have a very good reputation in the opposing rinks to begin with. So I got a whole section of fans just yelling at me, screaming at me, and I'm paying no attention to them. And finally I come around, I look up, well, the whole section's got the glasses with the nose on, and they're just laughing their balls off and cheering at me so during that hockey season it was it was kind of like status quo other than guys just

having a lot of fun with the line so and then after that you know the movie went away so there really wasn't anything more about the movie much other than every town I went into, you know, the local newspaper would do an article about it, and they would interview me about it. And that was kind of it. But I've got to tell you that the one thing it did help me with is my next year, I signed with the Detroit Red Wings because Ted Lindsay was the GM, saw the movie, and said, hey, we've got to get this guy on our hockey team.

And he changed the whole slogan of the season for the Detroit Red Wings to aggressive hockey is back in town, which is a phrase right out of Slapshot. So the only thing it did help me do was get a good, solid three-year NHL contract out of the deal. Oh, that's awesome. There you go. So I'm not done with Slapshot by any means, but you mentioned quickly you played for Brophy,

and we actually had a guy, Brendan Walsh, who had some classic Broph stories. Anything come to mind in terms of how nuts that guy was when you were playing for him? Well, Broph was one of my two most enjoyable coaches I played for. That's awesome. The other one was Glenn Sonmore, which were both cut out of the same cloth

and actually was a coach together. But everything you hear about John is not only true, but probably ten times that. And one of the great stories that I always remember was was I'm on the ice we're down in Hampton and we got a young player on a team and John and I are talking after on the ice after practice and and this young player comes up and he says hey bro I need to ask you something he says yeah he says will you will you teach me you know what do I do if do if I want to fight a guy and he doesn't drop his stick? He says, what do you mean?

He says, well, you know, what if the guy doesn't drop his stick? And John says, what should I do? He says, okay. He says, here's what you do. He says, drop your gloves. The guy drops his glove. Rolf whacks him right over the head with a freaking stick. The guy goes down in a heap. He's cut in his gloves. The guy drops his glove. Brofe whacks him right over the head with a freaking stick. The guy goes down in a heap.

He's cut in his head. He comes up. He's kind of all wobbly. And he says, don't ever drop your gloves and your stick until the other guy drops his gloves and his stick. The guy says, oh, great. Thanks, Brofe, when he skates off. That was typical Brofe. Dave, I want to go back.

We were just talking about the classic lines. There's so many of them in the movie. Were all the lines in the script, George Roy Hill, I used to go back. We were just talking about the classic lines. There's so many of them in the movie. Were all the lines in the script, or did George Roy Hill, I used to ad-lib, did you make up any of them on the spot? How did that play out? Yeah, we actually, you know, especially with us, I mean, the script was outstanding. You know, most of the lines, you know, in the script are a result of Nancy Dowd and her creativity in writing it

and understanding the lingo and the jargon of the game and of the players. But one of the first scenes that we were shooting, when the Ants Brothers first got in front of the camera and we actually had to do some talking, George Roy Hill kind of says, okay, quiet on the set, action. And we go to say to our lines, we say our lines, and he says, cut. He says, let's give that another try. So we went through that, cut, let's give it another try,

probably about four or five times, and you could see he was getting frustrated as we are and really aren't really understanding why. We're thinking we're doing a pretty good job, and he's fine. He says, let's take a five-minute break, gang. And he sits down next to me and says, look at boys. He says, I got to ask you, he says, you know, the setup here, you know, we're in the locker room and you understand what's going on. He says, so what would you do

other than these lines? Would you say something different? What would you do? And we're kind of going, well, I don't know. We, whatever we felt like at the time. He says, okay. He says, let's keep that in mind. He says, we're going to shoot this scene again. He says, say whatever you think comes to mind. So he says, action, here we go. And we rattle off these lines. He says, that's what I want you to do from now on. He says, you know the lines, but if you don't think that's it just say whatever you want do whatever you want and in all likelihood that'll be the the best thing going

and that's kind of how we approached it and uh because he finally finally realized that you guys shouldn't be acting your hockey players do what hockey players do do what hockey players say so that's kind of how we approach it we knew the setup we knew the lines and you know the thing like crossing ourselves when we did that uh in our first right before our first shift that was ad-libbed wow it was like okay it seems the thing to do let's do it we did it and he loved it so that's how that went call the pizza man um going back to Brofen and his advice, did you drop your sticks and gloves before you fought Bobby Hall?

Bobby Hall started that one. He hit me with an elbow. Was that pretty standard? And how'd the fight go? Was that pretty much it? Well, I guess I had a little bit to do with it um we were playing i said i was i was with the birmingham bulls and we were playing winnipeg the first round of the playoffs and they just had an incredible hockey team you had hall anders hedberg golf nielsen

schuberg you know the flying swedes i mean they just could, you know, we had guys like myself and Jills Bilodeau and Steve Durbano and, you know, a couple other lugs as well as some pretty darn good hockey players. But I figured, well, you know what, I'm going to set the tone. We're in Winnipeg. You know, we're not expected to win anything, but, you know, we're going to battle. And I'm going to really set the tone so I'm going after the big guy right away. I'm going to step into him, knock him on his ass, and get all the guys fired up and let everybody know we're in this game.

So the opportunity came up. I stepped into Bobby, and, you know, Bobby was a shit brick house to begin with and just plowed me over, went in and scored a goal, and I put the stick between my legs and scooted over to the bench and sat down and felt shame. But, you know, I was determined, so the next opportunity came up to hit him. I hit him, and he took exception, and I don't know who dropped the gloves first, but we both started going at it, which was surprising

because I think at that time Bobby was kind of like anti-fighting because I think he took a pretty good shot from Gassoff one game and said, that's enough, I'm not doing this anymore. But we started going at it. Typical fight, frenzy, crowds going at it, this and that. And then all of a sudden we stopped, and I'm looking at him, and I'm thinking, Bobby doesn't look the same. And I looked down at my hand, and I realized that I pulled his rug off. I have his frigging wig in my hands.

Oh, my. He couldn't have been happier with that. Well, I threw the toupee out into the ice. Bill Friday was the referee, legendary Bill Friday. He gives me two minutes for roughing and five minutes for fighting. Bobby doesn't get a penalty. Bobby goes in, grabs a Jaffa helmet, comes back out, continues to play the game. And

of course, you know, I just get it from the fans. So later on, latter part of the game, I'm at a face-off next to Bobby and I say, geez, Bobby, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. And he looks at me and says, kid,

I had to get a new one anyhow. So it doesn't end there. So the game's over with. I'm skating off the ice, and I come up next to Bill Friday, the referee, and I says, Bill, why don't you throw me out of the game? He says, for what? I says, for hair pulling. He says, what are you talking game? He says, for what? He says, for hair pulling. He says, what are you talking about?

He says, it's a gross misconduct, pulling hair. You should have thrown me out of the game. He says, yeah, if it would have been real hair, I probably would have thrown you out, but it was all fake hair. There's nothing to do. Gross misconduct. That's classic. That is golden.

I mean, you're like, hey, Bobby, can you sign this? But it doesn't end there, guys. I mean, there's still more to go. So here we are. I pull Bobby Hall's wig off. Everybody hates us because we're trying to physically intimidate and run the Jets out of their own rink. Of course, we lose.

But we're in the locker rooms. A bunch of us are showering. Now, earlier in the game, Steve Durbano got thrown out of the game. He was another whack job. I'm glad you had him on the team, but, boy, be careful if you're playing against him. You never know what's going to happen. So all of a sudden, a bunch of us are in the shower, and Glenn Sommer was our coach.

He comes running in, and he says, Durbo's in trouble, they're attacking Durbo. Well, if you've been in the old Winnipeg Arena, the bus used to drive down underneath by the locker room. But also, that was an exit where all the fans could go out that way as well. So a bunch of the fans came down and started jumping Durbano. So here, Glenn Sommer comes rushing into us, yells at us, we're all in the shower.

So we all go running all bare-ass naked, flipping and flopping around, and we're fighting fans bare-ass naked in the balls of the Winnipeg Arena. And the next day, headlines in the bowels of the Winnipeg Arena. And the next day, headlines in the paper shows a picture with Bobby showing his bald head and Ulf Nielsen pointing at the wig and is saying, is nothing sacred. It's like painting the mustache in a Mona Lisa,

and then it goes on about the goon Dave Hanson ripping off Bobby Hall. Unbelievable. Yeah, yeah. Those are the good old days. Speaking of the fights and, like, the on-ice assaults in the movie, how did, like, were they choreographed? Like, did you have, like, a specialist to come on, or did the director just kind of tell you just to wing it,

and did it take a lot of takes? How were those scenes done? Well, some of it was choreographed. The neat thing about it is that other than the major speaking roles, a lot of the guys we played against were real hockey players. And so everybody kind of knew how to punch and throw fights and make it look real. But I've got to tell you, another good story of the antics that went on. So here I am. So the Hanson brothers are doing their montage.

We're hitting the ice. And if you recall in the movie right at the end where we start the big brawl, there's a player that skates down the ice. I grab him from behind i spin around i hit him he falls down i jump on top of him and start punching him and then they cut the other scenes of the fight so so george ray hill is telling me okay dave this is your part of this scene here this is what we're going to do we're going to put the camera over here the guy's going to skate down in into the frame of the. You come skating in with him, grab him from behind. And the camera angle is going to be at such that when you make the

swing at him, I'm going to tell him to fake like he's hitting you, like you hit him and he'll fall down. But, you know, you can miss them. And, you know, just because of the camera angle, it'll look like you hit him and then just jump on him and continue to pound him. I says, okay, I think I got that. So we're getting ready. I look over and the guy that is the guy I'm going to hit is somebody that I played against in the regular season and I hated him. I just hated him. He was one of those guys that, you know, we all hate, right, Bessie, the yapper that you can never catch.

He's always yapping, just sticking you, and he's never willing to drop the gloves and go so I'm thinking myself action he comes skating in I come grab my spin around I turn them and I clock them I nail them right in the jaw knock them out cold he goes on like a pile of sack of potatoes I jump on him and everybody's going, cut, cut, cut, medic, medic. And he rushes over to George, rushes over to the director and says, what the hell did you do? What'd you do? How come you hit him? I said, George, I've

never done this before. This is the movies. I don't know how to act. I just miscalculated. Unfortunately, the guy was okay eventually, but at least I got a little bit of a payback. One of my favorite scenes is when Paul Newman and Reg Dunlop is just all over Hanrahan, the goalie,

and finally just reminds him that he knows his ex-wife or wife loves pussy, and he skates out at him and goes bananas. Had that happened? Was that a real-life event that had happened? Or what gave that whole story a go in the movie? Yeah, I don't know. I'll be honest with you. I don't know if I can tie that into a real-life event.

But there is a little funny part about that. Chris Murney played the goalie, Tommy Hanrahan, for the, what were they called? The Ducks? The L.A. Ducks? Or Long Island Ducks? Yeah, Hanrahan. Yeah, hey, Hanrahan for the, what were they called, the Ducks, the L.A. Ducks or Long Island Ducks. Hanrahan. Yeah, hey, Hanrahan, your wife sucks. So anyhow, the funny thing is, you know, if you think about it, those two fight,

and then Paul goes off, Reggie Dunlop goes off into the penalty box, and then Hanrahan escapes from the linesman and spins around and skates and jumps in the penalty box. Well, Chris Murney was so short and with the goalie pads on, he couldn't jump up over the boards. So the first time he did, he tried to jump. He just slammed into the boards. He couldn't come skate in a full blast and bam, couldn't do it. So they actually had to build a ramp for him to be able to skate and kind of skate up the ramp and then jump over the board to get into the penalty box.

So it was pretty funny for all us hockey players to watch all of that. Yeah. He had some good velocity. Because it's funny, every time I watch that scene, the ref seems to get really close to his skate plays there. It's almost like, gee, lucky that someone didn't get cut up in that scene. Yeah, yeah. Did you ever end up playing men's league after your career?

Well, I kind of did when I retired. Well, the funny story I've got is when I actually moved to Pittsburgh, one of the reasons I came here is the Penguins asked me to come out and manage their practice facility that they built over in South Point. In fact, you probably skated over there, Biff. And even you, Ryan, I would suspect that's when they had, that's where they might have still had their practice facility. So I came out to run it.

I was the general manager. So we had to start up men's league games, our men's league. And one of the things I had to do is I had to help put together a team and get a bunch of other guys to join in. So I had to play, thinking I had to play to start and get it going, so forth and so on. So, of course, one of the first games I'm playing against some other team, some guy, you know, wants to be a bit of an ass and is chopping me here and there.

And I said, come on, just settle down. It's just, you know, we're all going to go to work tomorrow. You know, let's have some fun. I'm trying to be the conciliatory nice guy. And he's going, oh, yeah, tough guy, Hanson, brother, tough guy. You know, I said, okay, I get it. You know, let's just keep playing. So he does it some more. And I said, you know, if you keep doing that, I said, you're going to regret it. Oh, yeah, tough guy. You know, I said, okay, I get it. You know, let's just keep playing. So he does it some more.

And I said, you know, if you keep doing that, I said, you're going to regret it. Oh, yeah, tough guy. What are you going to do? Put on the foil? Come after me? He says, yeah, you know, I just might if you don't knock it off. Oh, yeah. Third time he did it, I dropped my gloves.

I hit him three times, knocked him out cold, broke his nose. And I'm thinking to myself, oh, my God, I'm fired. I'm done. I'm sued. They're going to get, you know, there goes my life savings, the God, I'm fired. I'm done. I'm sued. They're going to get rid of me. There goes my life savings, the house, everything's going, this and that. From that time on, I have never played another men's league game. You don't need that.

No, don't do it. That's a hard-all right there. I'm glad you gave him the business, though. So he never came after you financially? He took his lickings like a champ? Oh, surprise. No, in fact, his teammates later on, you know, because of course

he kept the league going. I just wasn't a part of it. And his teammates later, you know, I asked the guy, guys later, you know, next time I saw him,

I kind of said, you know, hey, is the guy still on your team? What happened? He says, well, he hasn't played

for a couple games. I says, well, you know, is he okay? He says, oh, he says,

it was the greatest day of his life. He got beat up by a Hanson brother. That's like the scene out of Semi-Pro where the guy wants you to, you know, cuck him, come home with the old lady style. He's just like, couldn't wait to get beat up by Dave Hanson. That's a little creepy, isn't it? Well, it worked for this guy, fortunately.

He didn't sue me. A lot of our listeners aren't very familiar with the WHA, the World Hockey Association, just because it's so old. We've had Derek Sanderson on. He's one of our guests. I want to ask you, how good was the WHA compared to the NHL back in the 70s? Well, you like to say it was on par because you think about, I mean, you had some great, great players come on over, you know, Bobby Hall.

I mean, he was still on his prime and, and Frank Mahavlich and, you know, the list goes to Paul Henderson, Napier, you know, it goes on and on. Especially, you know, when I first started with, we had the Minnesota fighting saints, we had, you know, Mike shaky, Walt and John Garrett was in goal. It was great. But I think in looking back, you probably had where maybe the first two lines could compete with any line in the National Hockey League.

And it's kind of like even back in the old NHL days when you had just the six teams and then you had the American Hockey League. A lot of those players and all those teams could have probably played in the National Hockey League. But once you get into the third and fourth lines, that's kind of where the drop-off is. But it was just a fun, colorful real rebel

type of league that gave a lot of guys opportunities because they couldn't get in the National Hog League mostly just because of numbers a limited number of teams and they had the opportunity in WHA to play at that high level

and make good money as well as develop. And then when the leagues came together, I had an opportunity to continue in the National Hockey League. I mean, we know now that hockey in the South works, and it works quite well, but what was it like playing for the Birmingham Bulls in Alabama in the late 70s? What was that atmosphere like? Well, you know, if you know anything about Alabama,

especially back in those days, you had Bear Bryant was the legendary coach of the Alabama Tide football team. So, you know, Alabama was smash-mouth football. And so, you know, John Bassett, who was a legendary Toronto owner of the Toronto Toros, he started up, and then when they moved to Birmingham, he got told by pretty much all of the sports enthusiasts that, you know, you want hockey to make happen down there? You want people to come here?

It's got to be just like football, smash-mouth football. So he literally told Jules Leger, who was our GM, he says, listen, that's the kind of hockey team, he says, I don't care how many games you win, you've got to put this kind of brand on the ice. So he went out and got guys again. Steve Durbano and I were under contract with Detroit Red Wings. We were the first players to ever be traded from the National Hockey League to the WHA for two WHA players, which was Tim Sheehy and Vasco Agnetamonsky,

who became all-stars in the National Hockey League. But the purpose was you get Durbano, who was a big, tough, wild, crazy guy. You get Hanson in there, who kind of fit the mold. And then you had guys like Gilles, Bad News, Bilodeau. Frank, who started out as never beaten, went to Frank, seldom beaten, to Frank, often beaten. Frank beaten. You know, and Serge Baudouin and, you know, Kenny Linsman came in

and created, you know created a hornet's nest whenever he stepped on the ice and so forth and so on. So that was the brand of hockey. It was the Broad Street Bullies times three on the ice in Birmingham, everywhere we went. And they filled the arena. It was a great atmosphere. They used to play, instead of the National Anthem,

they used to play, I'm trying to think, the old Leonard Skinner Alabama song. Sweet Home Alabama. Yeah, Sweet Home Alabama for the National Anthem. It was unbelievable. Yeah. Big Ned, Vlachlov Nedermansky mentioned Big Ned. He just got in the Hall of Fame, not this past class,

but I think a year or two ago. Did you actually play on the same team with him? I couldn't tell if you were traded for him or not. No, I didn't. Again, we basically got traded for each other. But when I went back to Detroit, when I signed the contract with Detroit, I actually went back after the WHA folded or merged and Birmingham folded and went to the Central Hockey League.

I went back in training. I went back to Detroit. They brought my contract back. So I was in nothing more than training camp with him. And I think the year that I played there, which would have been my first year signing with him, he was still in the WHA. So, no, I didn't play.

I never really played with him. Dave, we haven't talked about Christian at all, your son. He ended up having a pretty good career for himself, played some NHL games. What's he up to now, and how was it being a hockey dad? Well, he's working for a firm out of Toronto, Sutton Insurance, which pretty much handles much of the specialty insurance for NHL players. So he heads up their sports insurance department,

able to work out of the Pittsburgh area and be mobile from here. So he's been doing that for quite a few years, enjoys it a lot, still has his fingers in the game that way, and is doing pretty well. And then you talk about playing men's league. I mean, he's doing the men's league, and then I know he used to shoot down when you guys used to go to Las Vegas all the time and play in Brockheimer's tournament. Oh, man. Yeah.

Those were a blast. We'll keep those stories off the podcast, though. Yeah, that's what he said. He says, don't bring those up, so I won't. One other act I actually wanted to bring up, I don't know if you hung out with him at all. He's still working these days. He's close to 90 years old.

He's Emmett Walsh, who, of course, played Dickie Dunne in the movie. Did you have any experiences with him on set? Yeah, other than, you know, he was pretty quiet i mean he you see how old he is now he probably wasn't well 40 years younger but he was he was still pretty old but yeah i didn't uh really didn't interact with him didn't have much scenes i think he might have had one the drugstore scene with him when he was, you know, said he captured the spirit of the thing. But other than that, yeah, it wasn't like Paul. I mean, you know, with Paul, you know, we hung out quite a bit with Paul and even, you know, like Ned Braden, Michael Onkeen, who played Ned Braden, you know, he was a really good hockey player, but he was also a little different. He didn't,

he actually kind of was like the Ned Braden in real life, kind of kept to himself. But pretty much everybody else on set, we had a good relationship, had a lot of fun with. But Emmett wasn't one of them where we really spent much time with him. Now, when you're on set, I know sometimes in movies, it's a lot of sitting around and, you know, scenes don't take all that long to film. But was there any sense during or after filming that you guys were really onto something special there that this was going to be, you know, lasting 45 years later? Well, not certainly not when we started out with because, you know, you guys know the routine of hockey players. You have a real rough season, especially in the minors where you're riding a bus. You don't get to, you know, have much of a social life because you're either on the bus or you're playing hockey games or

you're sleeping when you do get home. You know, so when the off season comes, it's time to really unwind and have a lot of fun and get ready for camp. And, you know, here we are, you know, it was kind of, it was certainly a unique and kind of a fun idea that, hey, we're going to be in the movies. So let's sign on. We'll do this for a couple of weeks and then we'll be able to go back home and get back to softball and beer and onion rings. But it got to where, you know, we would have to be there at six in the morning, get in the makeup, you know, get into uniform if we had the uniform that day, and sit and wait until they called us to shoot our scene. And then oftentimes, you know, very often we'd be sitting there all day long, and all of a sudden it'd be 8 o'clock at night after sitting there all day long. and all of a sudden it'd be 8 o'clock at night after sitting there all day long. Certainly you can go to the craft food court as much as you want,

but you weren't allowed to go outside for fear of getting a suntan because then in one scene you'd look like you were at the beach all day long and the scene before that you have your winter skin on. So they didn't want to have that contrast. So you literally got stuck sitting around waiting and waiting and waiting. And then come eight o'clock, they'd say, okay, that's a wrap. We'll get to you guys tomorrow. Well, that went on and on for quite a while. So we got to the point where we'd be sitting there and we'd be waiting and we'd say, okay,

hey, what time is this? Twelve o'clock. Oh, let's, let's crack a beer. So we'd crack a beer and sit back there. And the next day it was like, hey, what time is it? It's 12 o'clock. Oh, let's crack a beer. So we'd crack a beer and sit back there. And the next day it was like, oh, what time is it? It's 12 o'clock. Well, let's crack a couple beers. So it went from a beer to a couple beers to suddenly a big washtub of iced beer.

We would sneak into the locker room. And so there'd be a couple scenes where we'd start that day off at 6 in the morning, and then they'd get around to us about 4 o'clock and say, okay, let's bring the Hanson Brothers on, and we'd go out and we'd get ready, and we were so shit-faced that George would say, all right, that's a wrap. We'll kick this thing off tomorrow. But it got to that point where we had an instance where we were finally fed up. We said, you know, after a month and a half of doing this routine, Jeff, Steve, and I said, we're just leaving.

We're taking off. We got to get away. And we did. We just left. So I went down to the D.C. area. Jeff went out to some other part of Pennsylvania. And the next thing I know, we're being tracked down by Steve's calling us at our places on landline phones. We didn't have cell phones then.

And he says, you guys got to get your butts back here. We said, why, what's up? He says, they're threatening to send the state police after you and bring you back here and then sue you if you don't show up in two days because of what you're doing to the movie to the to the production line of this you guys got to get back so we got back and you know we continued on but to your directly to your question is no, we had no idea that it was going to be what it was. We were just hockey players making, I think we're getting $700 a week, which was way more than what we make in $200 a week playing. And when shooting was all done and we were ready to go back to our hockey careers, that's what we did.

In fact, we were so smart. When the filming got done in July, when August rolled around, all three of us got approached by Universal Studios saying, we want to sign you guys to a seven-year, seven-movie deal because we really like what we see here. We think there's something special. And we pretty much said, what? We're hockey players. We don't want to be movie stars. We're hockey players.

Well, that was a brilliant idea in hindsight. You're still a movie star. That's true. Could have been a rich movie star. Well, hey, Dave, this was a blast. I mean, so many good stories. And I was really pumped to get to know your son throughout the run of pro hockey and great career he had.

You raised a great kid. So we thank you so much for coming on. R.A., don't you have a little? Yep. I did talk to Christian. He did want to make a note to let people know thank you so much for coming on. All right. Don't you have a little. Yep. I did talk to Christian. He did want to make a note that to let people know that you are not on social media. So anyone purporting to be you out there,

it's, it's not really you and you are on cameo, however, and if anybody wants to hit you up for a cameo or reach out for any public, public appearances or whatever, a cameo is Dave Hanson, 16 in the email. If you want to get Dave for any, like I said, appearances, it's

DaveHanson, that's H-A-N-S-O-N, DaveHanson16 at gmail.com. So if you want to hire him, hire a gun, have him out. He'll snap the foil on him, sure, right? Yeah, that Cameo thing, just quickly, Christian was bugging the heck out of me to do that. And I figured, you know, come on. I looked at it and I says, nobody's going to want me. What do I want to do with this?

Next thing I know, I'm getting bombarded with, you know, happy birthday, happy Father's Day. You know, tell this guy to put on the foil and beat him up. You know, it's on. It's actually turned into be a lot of fun. I mean, the response that I've gotten is that I've made somebody's day by just doing a little cameo. So that's been pretty cool. That's phenomenal.

I'll take a cameo of you playing with the race cars at some point. How about that? That'll be a deal. That'll be good to me. All right, Dave. Thank you so much. We appreciate you coming on. That was a blast. We'll talk to you soon. All right, guys. It's a pleasure,, thank you so much, we appreciate you coming on That was a blast, we'll talk to you soon

Alright guys, it's a pleasure, always Thanks so much Dave Next time we'll get the story about when you came down From the press box with your suit on and fought a guy in the game Fucking goon Yeah, that's when I was throwing javelins Yeah Look forward to it

Alright guys, take care Take care Huge, huge thanks to dave hansen man that's that was a definitely one for the highlight book for me a definite throw to interview a guy at a movie one of my favorite movies of all time i know you guys had fun doing it biz wit it was unreal it's the best sports movie of all time for me so that was cool to hear all those side stories and what a great time. Absolutely. And these days, everybody can use their quarterback. There's no doubt about that.

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Visit earnest.com slash chicklets for more details, terms, and conditions apply. Earnest student loan refinance loans are made by Earnest Operations, LLC, NMLS number 1204917, California financing law license number 6054788, 303 2nd Street, Suite 401, North San Francisco, California, 94107. Visit earnest.com slash licenses for a full list of licensed states. That is a mouthful. And we also got a mouthful from- That's why I was laughing. That was like insane. How you rifled that off. I had a double check with Steven chair.

Cause it said, read the bolded parts, the highlighted yellow parts. I'm like, dude, do I get to read all this? Like license? Bravo.

I think it's legal. He said, you know, you can double check. It's taken us a year to finish. Oh God. One, one take.

Don't mind. Don't mind me. Yeah. Put me through. I'd rather do an Iron Man than have to read that. You can really fuck it up, really. An Iron Man. Would you rather do R.A.'s

laundry for three weeks or do that ad read? My laundry for three weeks is one load lately. That's what I'm worried about. That's what he's thinking. A bunch of crusty old disgusting R.A. socks. Bacon strips.

I can see you having white gaunch with the bacon strips in it. Straight up tighty-whities with a slight little skid mark. No, fucking tighty-whities. I was a lazy wiper when i was young me hey actually no way white so it's white that's the motto oh yeah i wasn't yeah white on my ginge dude like dude wipes i forgot to talk about my other haircut that i i had i got braids one time and they were down to like my shoulder i've seen a picture easy. Easy. I don't even know if I could post it because people might get upset about it.

I had all of them. I still got the picture. I'll send it out. I'll give it to Tim. Send it out. Give it to memes. Give it to memes. All right.

Listen, boys, this is the addendum. We returned to finish the show because we had to wait for Columbus, Toronto. And what a game. I mean, hats off to Copa Sala. Incredible game. 3-0 shutout. Made that huge save on Janssen late in the third.

Still fucking anyone's game. But I was saying a bit. Five on five Toronto the last almost eight periods, no goals five on five. That's pitiful when you're spending that kind of money, $33 million for a line. And Columbus 11 forwards with $34.3 million, of course. Dimitri Filipovich with those numbers as always.

Biz, are you shocked? Heartbroken? You just jumped on the Toronto bandwagon. You're off it. No, I mean, it was a quick ride. Someone threw up on the ride. They just shut it down and clean it. Hey, no wonder they call them the boys in blue

because they got fucking blue balls. All that excitement, nothing. You know? It's like getting the HG in the basement when you're in high school and then your mom comes down and, like, starts doing work and you haven't busted yet, you know? And then you're left there with the blue balls. No, I was just reading Playboy then.

Oh, yeah, exactly. I was doing it myself. But, oh, God, it wasn't even – it was an okay performance. I thought JT, I mean, he got a bunch of chances, couldn't execute. You know what? I don't want to put salt in the wound here, but it's the type of series I would have liked to see the least with Nazem Khadri in the lineup. And I think that that was a – and, you know, I guess you'll have your arguments about the past and how it went

and maybe how he wasn't able to control his emotions, but I feel like he at least had some sort of impact on that series. You know, when it mattered, they just – they didn't have it. I mean, it came down to that. They'd given themselves a second chance at life, and they just couldn't figure out a way to do it and get it done. a second chance at life, and they just couldn't figure out a way to do it and get it done. And, yeah, I still think it's a young group,

and there's still a very decent window here for them. I think they are what they showed us they were. They just couldn't get it done. Yeah, I want to shout out Columbus, my guaranteed Coach of the Year winner. They do the voting before the playoffs, but this is just another example of if you waited, you might even have a better winner, and he would have stayed the same. I mean, Tortorella was awesome.

When it goes from what we said earlier, when he's giving it to Dubois, and then he comes back the next night, has the hat trick, and then his game plan in game five which is basically just unreal goaltending and just packing in the house and every single time the Leafs shot it, if it was even getting through, there wasn't much traffic in front

and then so many shots were being blocked, every blue jacket just goes to the front of that. You know they shut people down, Wierenski comes back in, gets that goal. I don't know, did shut people down. Wierenski comes back in, gets that goal. I don't know. Did that hit something? Is that still his goal?

It was still his when I checked before the show, but I wouldn't be surprised if they changed it. I think it hit Tyson Berry's shoulder on the way. It definitely hit something on the way in, though. Or maybe it was Dermott. Yeah, I mean, then the Leafs have tons of chances. That post by Tavares, there's a wide open net, hits the post. It's just, it's the same old shit.

I can't believe that picture I just saw on Twitter or TV. The Leafs last 15 seasons. Is it 11 missed playoffs, four losses in the first round, and then a playing round? Yeah. So you're now looking at a tortured fan base. So you're now looking at a tortured fan base. I mean, you can say that, like, people can't stand how much discussion goes on about the Maple Leafs, but they move the needle.

It's so crazy to see them spend money and have this talent and just not win. I mean, 67 was their last cup. That's – there's a team every year that's kind of supposed to compete and be involved and they can't get out of the first round. Maybe if they get out of the first round, all of a sudden they go on a run. And these guys are really young, but like you talk about the cap and how much they make and then what it creates around you in terms of players that you're playing with and players that are trying to fill out a lineup that can win a Stanley Cup, not necessarily just light up, you know, offensive battles throughout the year.

So I don't think they played bad at all. I thought they had a good effort, man, in game five. Columbus was right there, shut them down. And the Leafs, Barry goes out, right? And people are all over Barry. So people are just going to pick and choose which Leafs they want to go after. But I was really, really surprised that Johnson went back in. And, you know, he was fine.

I didn't see anything bad. But he hadn't played a game in six months. And that save that Corpus Allum made on him, that was it. That was right after they made it 2-0, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And to talk about the Toronto mental era on the second goal, Lamfutti there, I mean, three guys peel off the change.

He walks in the zone. They forget about him. I mean, that's a tough goal by Anderson too, but he also gave himself a good angle because nobody was on him. He had so much goddamn room down there. Well, he actually didn't have a good angle. That was a horrific goal. It was an awful line change that was just like you look at it like what was going on one guy always has to stay you can't all go on the change there's got to be one dude who's

like all right i'll just chill as those two go for a gatorade but biz that goal you gotta stop that you gotta stop yeah that's a tough one and going back to the first one like i'm not here to pick on anyone i was talking about captain and the fact that he was the f3 and you know if he would have just stayed above his man it would have been on two on two you you tend to believe that dermot shouldn't have pinched whatever regardless is it they always seem to not get those plays made and then the first goal tonight i'm not saying it's neil andrews fault but you know i think like matthew kachuk i think he gets in front of that puck i don't think it gets through i think he finds the lane and those are the little details that end up adding up they're gonna matter over

the course of like getting up to the getting to the stanley cup and that's not even guaranteed that you're gonna win it so like they're they're they're right now they're unable to even figure out how to get and solve the first problem and there's going to be more hardships and more you know bumps and bruises along the way where like those little things you're going to need more of them and your special teams is going to have to be executing at the perfect time and you're going to have to be having guys committed to blocking shots and staying on the right side of the puck and i just like think overall they're just like not very close right now so there's still like a lot of work to do i would i would compare it to early on washington capital days but at least they were getting they were getting against the penguins and

putting up a fight in the second round like these guys they haven't been out of the the organization hasn't been out of the first round since 2004. And now you've got a team that's loaded with weapons and you still haven't been able to figure out a way to get – I mean, in this case, this scenario – and look at it from the JT perspective. Both years now, the Islanders have gone on to have more success. And that's like the, you know, the extra little story. That's the whole, like, man, it's just, you are better off with guys with a bunch of good players making 6 million.

It's, I mean, look, look at, look at Edmonton, look at Toronto, then look at the Bruins. Now granted, they're lucky that they got those guys deals. They did, but the Islanders. Yeah. I mean, they're a better, they're a better hockey team than Toronto. They're not nearly as fun to watch. They're not nearly as exciting.

But when it comes down to actually winning games, the Islanders are better. And it's probably because they spent the money they would have had to give him on three, four different guys. And it gives you players in depth that nowadays in this league, like you talk about two goaltending system, man, you've got to have four good lines. You can't be top heavy with nothing going on at the bottom. And you need D.

So the offensive stars are great. And actually, you know, you call out them not showing up in an elimination game. I thought Matthews was dominant all series. I think Marner probably didn't play his best hockey, but he still had moments. Nylander, I didn't see much at all there.

I don't know. Versteeg's on his Instagram. Chris Versteeg, he's great on Instagram. He'll just talk about games going on. He says he's bringing up too Spezza. They can't get anything going. I don't know. Throw him on another line. Guys get skilled. He just sits on the fourth line all day it was a good point by him so yeah it's weird but but the blue jackets do deserve a lot of credit because that team they just go out

and make it difficult on you so you want to talk about um another no what am i gonna say affect another team that another team that's affected by all this, the frigging Tampa Bay Lightning. These guys, another season where they did start off slow, but they really picked it up, and everyone loved them going into this different type playoff we have. And they get the worst news possible that their star defenseman, Victor Hedman, Norris Trophy winner legend, this guy's injured. And you saw Cooper's press conference.

I mean, that body language is, I think that this guy's out for a little while. It looked harmless. I know, but those are the worst ones sometimes. So I saw the clip, and I'm like, like oh maybe he looks like he might miss a game might even come back like you know to start the next game and then i i look at cooper's press conference and i'm like i know body language and this guy seems like deflated like this might like i would say there's no way he's back in in less than a week unless cooper was just being very dramatic about the situation now the way he acted on there it might be something that might last a month so not the ideal time to lose your norris type defenseman going against a team who embarrassed you last

year there's already that added pressure right and we just saw it you know toronto succumbed to it now are we done with toronto because i guess the point you were kind of getting at there was paying the high-end players a lot of money has not been a proven formula yet, and I don't think it's possible to win at this league if you're paying a certain number of guys too much money, and we're seeing it more and more, and I think there's a fine line and fine balance but there's uh and with the cap not going up you know things don't necessarily look like uh they're they're going to be that much brighter yeah Columbus they're I mean they're a

roster full of grinders good grinders they don't make a ridiculous amount of money but they got some skill and when everybody buys in for Tortorella man we see the results and I like we said moving on to Tampa Bay that's a rematch from the first round last year. Of course, Tampa Bay had the game lead, I'm sorry, the lead in game one, ended up blowing it. Columbus come back, swept them, and you got Vasilevsky. He's obviously

a Vesna candidate. He was 0-4 last year in that series. 8-5-6 save percentage. 3-8-2 goals against you. Is he going to be able to get past that? Is Columbus even in his head to start with start with i mean they're not going to quit coming now you mentioned no headman we don't know if stamp coach is going to be back yet either tampa bay to me looks vulnerable here once again with oh they do and it just it just proves the the the fact that if you look at uh all success in sports individual team team-wise, actually success in life for the most part, there always is luck involved.

You need to get lucky to win championships. You need to get lucky to win fucking Wimbledon if you're a tennis player. There's always something that comes along, whether it's big or small, where luck's involved. And that's why you look at Tampa and you look at what happened last year and then this year, all right, this is it. Well, if he is out long-term, I don't think they can win the Cup. He's one of the most dominating presences in the entire league.

Is presence a word or is it presence? Good enough for me. Thanks, buddy. RA is probably judging me, but whatever. People at home, you know what I'm saying. You judge me on the good end. So how do you do it without that guy? I mean, I think saying that he could be up for the entire playoffs

is a little bit of a rush, but you say it looks innocent. Those are always the worst injuries. It's the non-contact when you're alone in the middle of the field of the rink when you just go down and you buckle and that's when you're like oh boy that isn't good let's hope that's not the case yeah and and i think it happened last year didn't he get injured uh in in game game three of the playoffs last year yeah he did uh he was hurt the whole time i think he was hurt like the whole he like was playing injured the whole and i think the point we made last year was like you know when when a guy's playing that many minutes for you kind of throws off the whole mechanics of

how you're playing that guy's usually the one making the plays to the centerman up the middle or the guy along the wall and his timing's on because he's been doing it there all season long and that's why the the machine is running as well as it is. And now you take that out. Now it's a different guy making the play. Maybe he's on his offside because that's the guy you had to put with that D-man. It's just irreplaceable, and now you're getting a team like Columbus. And the reason why I wasn't pumping their tires too much is I agree with you, R.A.

I think Tampa's very vulnerable, and the way Columbus is playing right now just seems like they have this energy about them and they're going to be tough to bet against. I'm going to pick Columbus. And Stamkos is out too, right? As of right now, I don't know if he's possibly

returning or what. Do you know what I'm saying, though, about how much luck goes into all this? I agree with you. It's like so many things have to happen for people to win titles. It's just insane. Here's another question for you. How many of the players in the locker room do you think buy into the noise?

And the fact that Tampa's like, do you think there's certain guys that are affected in that locker room being like, Jesus Christ, we lost these guys last year. Now we're playing them again. They're coming off. I actually don't know. You don't, you don't, you think they buy into it? None at all. I think that that whole team's like fucking give us them again.

We'll, we'll dummy them. Like that was not, that was a one. That was a one. What is it called? A one off. A one off. A one off. Yeah.

Okay. So you got Tampa. I've been watching movies. The Onceler in the Lorax. Anyone with kids knows what I'm saying. Okay, so who do you got? You obviously got Tampa in what? I got Tampa in six games.

I got Columbus in seven. I think that even without Stamkos and Hedman, I don't think they could win the Cup, but I think they could beat Columbus. And a lot of it's going to come down to Vasilevsky and how good he is. And other than that, I mean, if Kucherov and Point and these guys and Tyler Johnson, all these guys are going, they can still score, man. Yeah, no Hedman, man. That's huge.

Like you said, Biz, he's an absolute horse. He does everything out there. He's on every aspect of the game. So without him, that's huge. And if there's no Stamkos, man, those are two huge holes you can't replace. You're taking out two horses and ponies, I guess, to keep a business analogy. Also worth

keeping an eye on Vasilevskiy. If he looks anything like he did last year, Curtis McElhinney's the first backup. And Elvis Merzlegans, I don't know how hurt he was, but he didn't back up Corpus Halle Sunday night. Matisse Kivlenic, an undrafted Latvian who spent his time at Columbus a little bit earlier this year, he was actually in the backup role. So I don't know.

We'll keep an eye on our pal Elvis as well. But I'm going to go Columbus in seven as well. I think they're just grinding. They're just playing that keep rolling four-line type of hockey, and Tampa's vulnerable, missing those two guys. So that's that. I think that it's such a weird year in that teams who have been playing meaningful games up until this point have an advantage going into this round.

Like Dallas has looked terrible. I know. I think it would be – Boston has looked awful. It would be crazy to think that the teams who have played these legit playoff games are not a little bit – they don't have a leg up. But I think that maybe it's one game, maybe it's one period. I think that these better teams will be able to be like,

all right, holy shit, this is different, right? Like the pace is going to be a little different. And then all of a sudden they'll be able to get into it. Because the Bruins players, man, you really actually know The pace is going to be a little different, and then all of a sudden they'll be able to get into it. The Bruins players, man, you really actually know it's an exhibition game. These Blues guys, I know that other teams are into it, and there's times that your team, you're disappointed, like what's going on if you're a Bruins fan or a Blues fan,

but until we see them play a true playoff game, you just got to relax a little bit. I would say, other than the Canadians, though, that's probably who they would have wanted to play. I don't think you want to play the Islanders over those guys? The Bees are playing the Hurricanes,

right? That's who they're going to play. You don't want to play the Canes. I'd rather play Columbus than the Canes. I mean, I would welcome Montreal just for the whole Boston-Montreal thing, but, like, 5% of me would be shitting my pants just because of the history there. Like, you know, the biggest rivals in sports, they have most playoff times ever played against each other. But having seen Philly draw them now, it's like, oh, careful what you wish for.

I know Philly was rolling in the round, Robin, but it's just that whole Montreal mystique, Carey Price on a roll right now. I mean, they got the number one seed, but like I said before, it doesn't really matter. I don't care if the Bruins go 0-3 and 0-3 because your seed could benefit you early on. That's the only series that I bet my house on

going into the next round. Which one? Philly over Montreal? Philly's going to smoke them. Yeah, there's no lines out yet, so I just checked. So no gambling corner yet. I'll just blog. The series is going to start Tuesday, tomorrow night, so I'll have a blog up. We'll be sure to tweet it in the account. So there's no lines, so I can't make any

picks yet. Folks, this is getting interesting. This is a fun episode. Biz. I know we got bent over on a few picks, but I'm on the what do you call it? The Islanders wagon. I'm on the Hurricanes wagon and of course the Yotes wagon.

Sorry, Toronto. I tried. I still have 70-1 ticket on Columbus, so I'm still alive there too. Okay, congrats. Biz, before we go, who's going to be catching the most heat in Toronto? Oh, goodness.

I'm not answering. I don't know. I don't know if it's going to be the Dubas or the young guys like Neal and their Matthews Marner I don't think anyone will say shit about Matthews no I think he was good no he's not he shouldn't get any of the heat and I don't think anyone should say anything about Riley no Riley's good whatever it should

be interesting it's gonna be the same old shit they're gonna snap it around everyone's gonna take their lickings and then then you can move on to next year and then see what you can do. All right. All right, everybody. Have a great week, and we'll catch you up on Thursday. See you, guys. Peace. As always, we'd like to thank our awesome sponsors here on Spitting Chicklets.

Big thanks to our friends over at New Amsterdam Vodka. Keep enjoying that pink Whitney. Big thanks to our friends at Jimmy John's for coming aboard. Also, make sure to check out Red Penguin. Red Penguins, I'm sorry, Unreal. Unreal movie, fantastic documentary. Thanks for joining up with us. Big thanks to Body Armor, loving that stuff in the summertime.

And a big thanks to everyone at Ernest. Have a good week, everybody. What I want, you've got, and it might be hard to handle. Like a flame that burns a candle A candle feeds a flame Yeah, yeah What I got, full stop Thoughts and dreams are scattered

And you pull them all together And I can't explain Oh yeah, well, well, you You make my dream come true Oh, yeah.