Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 292: Featuring Kris Versteeg

Episode Date: September 7, 2020

On Monday’s episode of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by two time Stanley Cup Champion, Kris Versteeg. Kris joined (1:15:05) to talk about playing for Coach Q, being roommates with Phil Kessel, winning the Cup and tons more. The boys also recap the final few series of the 2nd round and look ahead to the Conference Finals. The guys then talk about absolute NO-GO songs at weddings & Whit getting his car stuck at the beach on Nantucket.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. night that tonight's gonna be a good good night hello everybody welcome to episode 292 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney, from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka, here on the Barstool Sports Podcast family. We have two weeks down here in Boston. We're on to the semis. We had three game sevens in two days. Absolute mayhem. A little quiet weekend in the house here. The boys are gallivanting around town a little bit. Let's say hi to the boys first.

Biz, what's going on, buddy? How's things? Things are great. I got to ask you guys a question off the top here. So I was watching Tour de France highlights, and I told my girlfriend, I said, I think if I had 18 months to train and it's all I did, and I had the top know the top trainers uh maybe

even a little blood doping considering everyone in Tour de France is doing it I could complete the Tour de France if I got 18 months to train it didn't matter it doesn't matter on time but just the fact that like to complete it because there's a lot of climbing you got to go back to back days I think you only get two days of rest in the whole 21 days. And you're in you're basically riding your bike for about six hours a day. What do you think I could accomplish that? I'm confused, though. You're saying there's no timeline, but you have to complete it. Yeah, what when when do you have to do it by? Or do you just have all the time in the world? Basically, I would have to be in the race. But I mean, if they're if they're completing one of their days in six hours, yeah, I might stroll in

at about nine hours, but I have to get up the next day and do it all over again. 18 months from now? I got 18 months to train with top trainers and I got the top gear. You could do that in nine months. Are you kidding me? You're an absolute beast

in the gym. If you started training, stopped boozing, went all in like olympic training all they're doing is riding a bike buddy are you shitting me played in the nhl and you were like a fucking every anytime there was a anaerobic is that the word exercise you crushed it i think you don't bike riding a bike would be more aerobic but whatever the term is you know what i'm saying like when you gotta go a long ways i've seen you do that in the gym so what the hell couldn't ever stop you from doing bike riding at a high level she said no way she said no way given the back to back to back and the altitude would fuck with me but i think if i got the top training i could do it so thank you i think if i

had the right shoes and top training, I had nine months. I could just crush the Tour de France. I used to do 20 mile bike rides as punishment at BU. 20 miles. Because I think you sound like the guy who plays softball and thinks he can fucking go yard on Nolan Ryan if he gets enough swings in. So chalk it up. So chalk it up.

I could outrun a bear and I could also complete the Tour de France. So, all right. Maybe I'll even try all right you're comparing hitting a baseball that's going 100 miles an hour to just riding your bike i'm comparing a like a guy on his couch who thinks oh i could fucking be an athlete i'm not knocking biz he's obviously an athlete but i think to say 18 months of training for some people work their whole lives on i don't't, I don't know. I, I, I question it. I love this, but you know, I don't know if you'd pull it.

No, that's, I mean, she said no. And she's a smart woman and, and, and, and wits an idiot.

So, um, yeah, I, I'd still be willing to try it. So for all you cyclists out there, let me know. I'm sure you'll be like,

you're a fucking moron. You couldn't even blast three days. Biz forgot how to ride a bike. And I got bad knees too. So you got to factor that in. Yeah, of course. That's the wit, dog. How's it going?

You having a nice weekend? Golf on TV all weekend, I noticed. Yeah, it's kind of a trash event where Dustin Johnson starts like minus 10 and then it's like handicapped. So everyone's already at a certain score. I understand why they do it. So I haven't really watched any of that i've watched the hockey and then i was away on um nantucket island which was just what a what a couple days and two nights three nights actually and we just had a time so i'm a little hurting right now one of the you know you know it's a

sunday night like the booze blues but i'm'm ready to go. I'm excited. And I just got really, really excited thinking of you in like a little bike riding outfit in France, Biz, running around making content. Yeah. Next up. Well, speaking of hockey, like I said, we had three game sevens in two days. Absolutely incredible. Three teams clawed back from three to one deficits to force them.

First one, we're going to go to Dallas beats Colorado. 5-4 in overtime. This is one of the best games you've ever seen. Back and forth. Colorado takes a late lead. Cops it right back up. What's his name? Well, we say it, Joel, here, but Yoel Kiviranta. He was in for Andrew Cogliano, who I believe was hurt. Not a healthy scratch.

He was hurt. Gets a hat trick, including the game-winning goal. Gets open in overtime. I thought that was a horrible breakdown. I'm not sure who gets blamed. Horrible breakdown. But we're going to go to you on this one first, buddy. Really sad to see it go down like that because you talk

about a... That's a training camp breakdown. That's just like three or four guys even just totally out to lunch. We don't have to go to that right away. Just the overall game. I mean, you couldn't ask for any better of a game seven. It was back and forth. You know what was crazy is that Dallas came out hard, and Radulov gets that first goal.

Radulov is – what did you call him, Biz? Farm animal. The farm animal. He is one of those like hairy pigs some of them have the horns or the tusks and they're just going you like stay away from them you know the ones i'm talking about oh yeah i know or a boar like a boar boar yeah that's a good one boar's head shout out boar's head deli plus one for granelli plus one for great call but the he's a bore. And so he went to the net. He bangs on Rihanna. He goes nuts.

And you're like, oh, here comes Dallas. Now, Nemestikov, Biz. I mean, how proud were you? He gets the first one. And that's already enough. You were on Sportsnet saying he's a huge trade deadline acquisition for Colorado. He's got a game seven goal in the second round. Then he gets that second one, which you thought might be what?

I blew my load. Then I cleaned up and texted Grinnell. I said, pull the clip. I said, pull the clip. I'm going to make Witt look like an idiot. And then fucking before you know it, right when I hit send, right back. Dallas, holy shit so all right in that game it's just shocking when you see a team like colorado has that 3-2 lead you know what happens roger

love ties it up and then you're already dealing with this guy who's so good and he's kagan hasn't scored sagans got one goal. Now they're getting Guryanov and they're getting all these different guys hopping in, but Radulov's their stud, man. This guy's the game breaker. And he ties it up again. Dude, they get the lead. Nemestikov, he makes it.

It's like, all right, we have another lead in this game. And wouldn't you know, like they're showing McKinnon who played awesome, but the scoring streak did come to an end in that game, but they're showing him. And like, you're just thinking, get it done for him. That's the one night he didn't,

he didn't dominate the one night. He didn't, he wasn't able to just take over, get it done for him. And Dallas comes back and this Kiva Ranta, I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing it. I love my Finnish friends. Is that correct, Ari? Yeah, I think it's good enough. Kivaranta. Okay, that'll play. All right, so he's in the game. He's already got one. He's in the game for Cogliano, who's just

been a force in the league playing-wise since he came in. He never misses games. He got suspended that time. Everyone was upset for him, but he's unfit to play so this kid goes in i think he had 11 games played this year for dallas yeah he gets this tying goal with three and a half minutes left whatever it was you're like holy fuck this kid comes in the game makes this much of a difference and talk about being ready as a player this is somebody who's just been a black ace for the most part actually i shouldn't say that he's obviously practicing playing two games so far, but still. Yeah, but you know what I mean? You're just basically there, and you're practicing,

and you know it's probably not going to be your name getting called, but he stayed ready. There's no chance he didn't. He must have been competing his ass off in practice, doing all the extra work, and he gets to go in, and then the OT winner to cap off a hat trick in game seven to go to the conference final dallas's first trip since 2008 when detroit just just detroit destroyed them excuse my uh my cat got my tongue to today junior um that was the year detroit destroyed them and

then went on to dummy us r Ryan Whitney and the Penguins. Let's talk about Radulov. What a beast that series, five goals, three assists, and just very timely rise in the occasion in Game 7. You know, Ben and Sagan haven't played up to their level yet, but we talk about that secondary scoring for Dallas and all these guys coming out of nowhere. I thought the storyline coming in this one after seeing Colorado against the Coyotes

was going to be their second-hand scoring. And, Alray, you have the number as far as production on Colorado's side in the bottom six this series. It was fairly non-existent, correct? Yeah. Top two lines, 49 points. The rest, only eight. I mean, that's, you know, what's that? 80% of the scoring is coming from your top two lines, 49 points. The rest, only eight. I mean, that's, you know, what's that?

80% of the scoring is coming from your top two lines. I wonder what the average is, though. Yeah. I'm just curious. I don't know. Maybe the Islanders would be best in terms of depth scoring-wise, but 80% is way too much. I'll give you that, Biz.

But just even, like, lack of sustained pressure and just, you know not much dominance from the bottom six let's go to the injuries now I thought this was a pretty even series I think if Colorado is healthy or even remotely healthy they had the injury bug during the whole season and then they end up getting it again they lose their starting goaltender to me on the back end losing Johnson was then all of a sudden you're relying on – I thought Graves played well. I thought he definitely elevated his game. But the guy that really stood out to me other than Kael McCarr was Gerrard.

This guy on his edges, his mobility, the way he's able to move the puck, and he's just the perfect complement and obviously a big reason why they probably moved Tyson Berry, right? They felt confident enough in this guy where he could step in in that role. He ended up playing, I believe it was 27 or 29 minutes in that last game. Like this kid's going to be a beast. But ultimately, I think the injuries was the straw that broke the camel's back. Credit to Dallas and how they're able to find these guys

that are nowhere who can contribute. I mean, you know, the list goes on and on. But just, yeah, tough night for Hutchinson in Game 7. I thought he played awesome in relief of Fransos, and pretty much they had to go to him at that point. But Bednar just played the shit out of his big guys in that last game. I thought they put up a good fight. I think they posted 44 shots in that game, and it was just – yeah,

it was just probably a little bit too much for those big boys to carry the load between Kadri, Rantan, and Mack. I mean, Landeskog didn't play game seven either so there's a there's they're missing a piece of their three-headed monster right there so it's uh it sucks uh well learned by dallas i'm very interested to see how they're going to uh match up against uh vegas but uh i wouldn't i wouldn't say the better team won i I'd say that Dallas took advantage of some big injuries in the Colorado lineup. No offense. Go ahead.

I'll finish. Go ahead. No, no. I was just going to mention when we talk about what happened on that game-winning goal in overtime. If you go and watch, and you can watch the replay on NHL.com, it's just you cannot have more than one guy looking at the puck, right? And if you look at the video, Sakara, or I always say his name wrong, Sakara, I don't know. No, Sakara.

Sakara, okay. Okay, great. My old D partner. My old D partner in Owen Sound. Where? In Owen Sound, I play with him. He's a good player. Oh, he's real good.

He would take two-minute shifts. He'd come back to the bench. He wouldn't even be breathing heavy. Yeah, so, well, he goes down the wall, and he makes a good player. Oh, he's real good. He would take two-minute shifts. He'd come back to the bench. He wouldn't even be breathing heavy. Yeah, so, well, he goes down the wall, and he makes a great play. He's able to get behind the net, and he stops behind the net. And if you look, there's four avalanche players staring at him. And Zdorov's kind of standing in the crease, and Kadri's standing there covering Kivaranta,

and all of a sudden, Zdorov, who doesn't – don't ever chase the guy behind the net as a defenseman. He can't score from back there unless he's fucking Svichnikov and he can put it on his twig and just shove it in the top of the roof shelf. But most people leave him behind there and he goes at him for no reason at all while Kadri loses his man and Gerrard's kind of in no man's land as well, and it is just the biggest, like, it's not a tap-in, but fuck, everyone's staring behind them. All he has to do is

lift the puck, and it's in. And so you just hate to see a breakdown, and you see right away miscution. Jesus Christ, where's the minus one? I'm not retaking. He slams his stick. He's so disgusted at how pathetic the coverage was on that goal.

So a shitty ending for a great series and an awesome comeback. That's a prime example, though, when you're playing against great competition. The minute you have a split-second breakdown, they're just going to shove it right up your hoop. And great job by him to just find that weak area, sprinting out like that, similar to my goal against the San Jose Sharks. How are you? Knee drop tonight? He didn't go down on one knee either, did he?

No, I know, but I was referring to mine. But all in all, Ray, what was your breakdown of that series? I was heartbroken for Mac. I mean, obviously, you know, we met him last year. We hung out with him. He's such a great dude. So, you know, we got attached to some of these guys, and I was rooting the hell out of him. I mean, we have 25 last year. We hung out with him. He's such a great dude. So we get attached to some of these guys. And I was rooting the hell out of him. I mean, he had 25 points in 15 games, just a horse every night.

When they cut to him after that goal, he was just crestfallen. And it was like, fuck, man. I just want to see him keep on playing. I thought it was a tough goal to lose on. I mean, credit to Kivaranta for just finding that spot. It was a very stealthy move. You know, everyone was napping on Colorado. He found that weak spot.

I felt awful for Hutchinson because he played the first two fucking playoff games. He started with both elimination games. He went 2-0 in them, almost went 3-0. I thought he was pretty damn good in the fucking position he was put in. But again, the injuries, man, and not taking away anything from Dallas. I love watching Hedobin too. He's a battler. He'll give up a shit goal or two early,

and then he'll make 15 fucking fantastic saves in the third period. But no land, this God, no group. I mean, who's bona fide. Number one, France, those couldn't get it done. No Dawn's play. No Johnson. I just, you know, Colorado. I think they're probably like, fuck man.

If we had a full awesome, we would have won this game in six. But bottom line, Dallas won. They deserved it. They're moving on. And one more note on Kivaranta, the first rookie with a hat trick in a Game 7 in NHL history. I got another fun fact, too. Who was the last player to score a hat trick in a Game 7 win?

Man, you caught me on an off night coming off nantucket it wasn't messy it wasn't i got wet on his heels right now just working him on the forecheck what do you mean asking me fucking trivia questions that 90 of the people don't know you peasant what do you think i'm on my heels for 99 wayne gretzky was the last guy to do it. Oh, when? You heard of him? When?

The regs. I don't know what the fucking date is. Look it up yourself. And Demko won two beanpots. You don't even know the date of the stat? The last time? That's the whole point of the stat, you dummy. Fuck you.

Oh, who's on his heels now, all right? Who's on his heels now? I got caught pitching, all right who's on his heels now i got caught pitching all right fuck you you have to bring it why are you always pitching when we're up three to nothing fuck i don't know what the fucking date let me look it up keep going we could keep going he had one in 93 against toronto that's probably when it was and messier had one the the year after against jersey yeah yeah when he guaranteed victory back back when guaranteeing victory against Toronto. That's probably when it was. And Messier had won the year after against Jersey. Yeah. Yeah, when he guaranteed victory. Back when guaranteeing victory is actually meant something.

Now it happens fucking every other week, it seems like. Very true. Very true. Very true. Victory! Johnny Drama. Johnny Drama. Also the other game, 7-Vegas. A shout out Vancouver, 3-0. This game was as lopsided as a game could be.

Thatcher Demko, absolutely incredible. This game swung. This season, this series swung on what I thought was an awful call. They called Milifahooken. It was a routine defensive play that you see 100 times in a game that may or may not get called. It didn't affect the scoring chance. I had to watch the fucking gift four times to see where the penalty was.

And you're giving the best team in the league arguably a power play with six minutes left in a game seven. I just thought there was no need for that call. Now, I've been trying not to bitch about the refs. I think they're in a tough spot like a lot of other people. I think they've been calling it more regular season style than playoffs. I don't think they're as bad as people are saying. But that call in that spot, Fiz,

I don't know how you make that to fucking basically hand the game to Vegas. That was tough to that point. And Vancouver had plenty of chances on the power play up to that point to at least get a 1-0 lead on Vegas, but it was the Vegas show. But I agree with you. I think the ref who called it was behind him. And from that angle, the stick did go up towards the hands, but it did get his stick. So it was stick on stick contact. Yes. A very, very

soft call that eventually led to the game winner. Let's talk about that timeout by DeBoer. And DeBoer, of course, with the goaltending situation and just the fact that, you know, Gallant was loved there. I don't want to say he's been under fire.'s done an unbelievable job but you know that if they don't win that game he is going to be scrutinized till the end so they pepper um vancouver with shots and we haven't even talked about game six and demko's performance yet but demko's just standing on his head standing on his head when the fucks are coming oh my God. They're going to win this game being outshot 50-10, and the worst team is going to move on because Vegas is far and above the better team in that series.

Well, he calls the timeout. He gets his players rested who were on the ice for that six-on-five for about 45 seconds a minute, and sure enough, they win a faceoff. Theodore walks that line, and this kid, man. That's going to be haunting Anaheim's dreams. The Ducks let that guy go in the expansion draft, and he fucking zips that thing as he's walking the line cross-body. And credit Demko.

He read it perfectly. He went to that side, and he had his stick there, and it just ends up hitting his butt end and going right in the top corner. And that to me, as soon as they get that, that's the series. I knew they weren't going to give it up after that. We got to go back to the, we talked about the power place for Vancouver and some opportunity to at least take the one nothing lead in that game.

They looked like shit. They looked like the coyotes playing against the colorado avalanche they didn't get any type of offense even on that five minute major which we'll talk about that in a second i don't think they got a shot on net and even it was at the end of the second period it was three and a half minutes and the period ended and you get another minute and a half on fresh ice you can go in the locker room you can regroupgroup, they come out, lay another fucking egg. And they even had a two-minute power play after that to even try to get a chance to put one in, and were unable to.

Do you guys want to talk about the Rebo hit now? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, well, you know, anytime you dip down off your check and go to make that type of hit when that guy's already being followed by one of the defensive players, you're putting yourself in a tough spot, especially with how fast the game moves now. And it looked like last second Revo kind of saw what was coming and he tried to turn.

You could see him turn his back, and he ends up basically getting him in the head with his nameplate. Clearly he makes contact to the head. Mott goes down. I have no problem with them giving him five in a game. He ends up getting a game suspension. At that point, I'm like, oh, no. I don't want this to be the reason why they lose.

And I thought – I had that feeling in my gut that Vancouver was going to capitalize and take advantage on that. But Vegas, I guess, have learned from their mistakes in taking a five-minute major in an important game, not giving up three. So DeBoer's been to the finals with two teams, correct, R.A.? In his first year of coaching. Exactly. And this is his first year with the Vegas Golden Knights.

So there's something brewing, and there's something where he's able to come into a team. And basically you talk about over the years, coaches who maybe run stale after a little while. And I don't know if that's the case with him or not. I don't know what type of guy he is. I actually don't know if guys love playing for him or not. Maybe you could hop in there, but first year he's able to get guys going and he's had some good teams,

but you cannot think that, that the performance in game six for Demko was going to be easy to just back up the next night. You know, there's no day off and granted you're not traveling, but still you play the very next night and it was domination. 48 23 were the shots in game six. I think it's, it's the kid stands on his head and then right back the next night, and it's 36-whatever, 20. Vegas was so much better than them,

and they ran into this incredible goaltending performance. That game six performance in that was one of the best I've ever seen in playoffs. He was standing on his – At one point, even going into game seven, I think he went over two games in length without giving up a goal. 120 minutes. Thank you very much. Quick math. And he

saved 91 consecutive shots. So it was just... He was playing out of his goddamn mind. Two bean pots, by the way. I think I've already said that. I'll throw it back over to you, Whit. But overall on the hit, what did you think? The Revo?

Yeah. I was shocked he didn't get more. I thought he'd get two or three games for that hit. Maybe partly Mott really leaning over matters in terms of the discipline that they were going to give him. But it looked terrible, especially in slow motion. You see Ma, you don't know if he's knocked out cold. He just looks like he is, though, flying through midair.

And those are the hits they just want out. So definitely a suspension. I actually thought it would be two. Then I said I wouldn't be surprised if it was three, but it ended up being one. So shocker, I was wrong again. Do you agree me in the sense of like he kind of was in that oh shit situation and he tried to turn and it was just like too little too late and got him right on the chin yeah i don't think he meant to just take his head off like that but that's when that's when when i

actually talk about how bad it looks on slow motion i should also mention the fact that that's how ridiculous slow motion is. That is happening so fast when you're on the ice, let alone if you're like a centerman watching that happen or a winger and you're right there. I mean, being a part of something like that, like I've been ran over and I've ran into somebody that didn't really mean

to it's last second thing. And I, I think Revo would for sure try to take it back. But I also think he was like, I am just, I am just kind of screwed. He's in the train tracks, and I can't really get myself off of the tracks right now. We got to talk about Mark Stone.

This guy is so good. He's an animal on the bench too. He's an animal. He's kind of in that Radulov realm of he's just trucking all over the ice, making defensive plays. You'd be hard-pressed to find a guy in the league who's better with his stick defensively in the neutral zone, just picking pucks off like crazy, bringing in all ends of the ice.

Robin Leonard as well. I know he didn't get much action, which is always hard as a goaltender, especially just sitting there for the first period. That save he made on Brock Besser if that goes if that goes in man you know the arseholes on the bench are going to be puckering up so tough uh tough to know that you've lost the last two and uh who was it uh roberto loango had an interesting tweet he said you know you know a guy who's got a massive uh list of credibility he said if you were going to go to Fleury you should have done it in game

six because then it gives you the option to go back to your starter in game seven and I was nervous for Leonard going into this one but he ended up tweeting it out after the game he said never a doubt and he was very confident going to that one so DeBoer in that situation makes the

right call again, because I know I would have been going with Fleury in game seven. I don't know if you've been, hold on. I don't even know if you've been running around and not on Twitter, but I've just seen that Marc-Andre Fleury will be starting game one. So the mad scientist DeBoer, who knows what's going on right now. I think that's genius because you just went three in a row to Leonard. Well, they're out west.

It makes sense, but why wouldn't they have done it in seven? I was just kind of like taking the long way of answering your question. I thought Fleury was definitely going in game seven. Yeah, and what about you, R.A.? Did you think he was going? Yeah, I didn't think there was much doubt. It's obvious DeBoer is leaning more toward Leonard at this point. Like I said, he came in the middle of the season.

He has no loyalty to Fleury. And it was interesting, a couple of tweets you sent to the thread biz that a lot of the media seemed like they were kind of clamoring to get Fleury to start. And they're mentioning his stats and his Game 7 record. But referencing a Game 7 from 11 years ago, I mean, it's pretty irrelevant to today. I mean, you know, and then they said, oh, last year he had a shutout.

Yeah, until the team gave up four goals on a shitty power play call. I had, it's pretty irrelevant to today. I mean, you know, and then they said, Oh, last year he had a shutout. Yeah. Until the team gave up four goals on it, on a shitty power play call. I had no problem going late. And I'm glad you mentioned the save. I did have that written down the one on best. I mean, that's, that's showing the series. Like you say, if he scores there, the way Demko's playing, that could have been all she wrote. Also one other thing I want to ask you, do you think Travis green pulled Demko too early two and a half minutes left one goal lead i i thought

i don't know i thought maybe another 30 45 seconds would have ticked off what do you think on that one with that's well i was gonna say that's that's a fair um a fair criticism it's not like you're giving him a mask with pp whack but yeah that might be a little bit early depending on where the face off was and remember ra when you're when you're playing in a game like that you're getting no type of sustained pressure like they were hemmed in all game long and not touching the puck maybe he felt like that was an opportunity considering I don't know I don't remember the exact play of when they did it but once they got in the offensive zone considering they hadn't been doing much to that you he's probably like oh I gotta go now yeah it wasn't his own face-off so

which is so there you go why he did it but I'm the best just ask me you're so good and on the revo hit like no surprise the suspension i didn't i didn't think it had that kind of maliciousness so i headhunt the stuff we've seen in the past from players i think like so the guy was kind of leaning forward mart when he hit him um glad to see he was all right he was obviously in the game later but they won't have revo for game one of the uh western conference, which we'll be getting to in a little bit. I just want to compliment Vancouver on a great season. Exceeded my expectations. I was critical.

I didn't even think they were going to make playoffs, for crying out loud. You've got to think that the fact Quinn Hughes was pretty banged up. He was getting treatment three times a day, played into the factor. They couldn't get any type of offensive rhythm going and that just tells you what this guy means to that team so hopefully it's nothing serious but a very very very bright future for this vancouver canuck squad they were just outmatched in that series against a wagon yep exciting time to be a canuck fan and i think quinn hughes actually was you could tell something was a little off right you? You've seen how him and Heskinen dominate the games,

the way they control the tempo, I would say that. And he wasn't at that top level. So I figured he was banged up. And then you hear how much treatment he was getting. It makes sense. And a lot of chatter afterward. And I know that Markstrom's going to secure the bag. But this raises a lot of question about what Vancouver,

given that they're – I don't want to say they're a cap team, but I think they've got a lot of guys that they're going to have to pay moving forward. How much is he going to command as far as salary? And if you've got a guy like Demko who has shown that he can play, especially in big moments, it leaves another question mark in net. So some difficult decisions in vancouver but uh that in a good way and demko he is under contract for one more year

biz that just over a million dollars so uh yeah he'll be an rfa they have to set a line in the sand for money that they want to give markstrom and if he's not if he if he rightfully so knows he can get more and he moves on that's it but you – this Demko kid, how are you going to spend all the money on Marky? You know what I mean? I love Marky, and that's why I'm not too worried he's going to get paid somewhere. But you have this kid. Why would you – it's like the Panthers signed Bobrovsky, and they drafted that Spencer Knight first overall.

Well, he's just a prospect. You know this Demko's legit. Why are you going to spend all the dough on somebody else that's older? Yeah, it's a very, very difficult situation. And then you've got to think maybe they can get rid of – if they were to decide to go with Markstrom, given how much value Demko has and he has a year left at a million, if you're Vancouver and you feel like your time is now in terms to next year,

that's a valuable asset you can get back. And I think that they do need a little bit of help on the back end. And if they can get another piece, I think that the, I think that that could potentially put them over the edge. So we'll see interesting, tough decisions to make for Benning. Yeah.

And to piggyback what you guys said, hats off to the Canucks. I mean, this is a team that was, you know, eight, nine years ago, it's probably one of the most hated teams in the league. I'm not just saying this as a Bruins fan. After that playoffs, everybody kind of hated them, and they've kind of had a whole image makeover with, you know, Besser and Pedersen and Hughes

and, you know, they're a fun team to roof us. I don't have that same venom for them that I used to, man. They're definitely a team on the upright. Roussel's definitely carrying the weight as far as, like, bringing that team to piece-of-shit level. He's doing all he can, but very effective player. I thought he had a good playoff. I mean, maybe he didn't look as good against Vegas because, you know,

they weren't touching the puck as much, but that's a good team. Yep, good stuff. Hey, boys, buying a house can seem pretty daunting if you're not familiar with the process, but owning a home is a great way to set you up for your future and cross country mortgage can help you through the process. And they're fantastic at getting loans closed. Biz, I know you own about 84 houses these days. You know, it's not always the easiest thing to get, get your toes wet with, right? Sometimes buying a house. Well, I, I, well, I mean, I was going to say diversify anybody who's listening. If you make money, like, you know, you got to secure it in certain areas and real estate's a

place where I feel comfortable and doing it with companies that are reputable and that are going to make things easy is that's like the biggest stress relief, especially when you have other things to worry about, put it in the professional's hands, guys. And, you know, I mean, real estate's been good to me. So check these guys out. I know that while she stopped by, he brought some merchandise from them and he said he's had a ton of buddies

that have used this company. And, you know, we have a fairly young audience. So be smart with your money, young people. And, you know, I think real estate's definitely a route to do that. And I know it's easy to rent. I'll say that I love doing it, but with the rates now, I'm, I'm being honest to everyone. I mean, you got to think if you're able to just get in and own a place, it's, it's, you're going to make money on that. So you spend a lot of money on rent and after two, three years, you're like, well, I fucking just spent thousands of dollars and it didn't go towards anything really. So I'm all about this mortgage

company, RA. I had a buddy years ago said, you know, when you get owned property, you got a chip in the game. And the best way to get a chip in the game is using cross country mortgage. They're America's crazy good mortgage company. Cross country mortgage combines a people first mindset with the dedication to the fundamentals of mortgage lending, which results in a fast, easy, and stress-free home financing experience. A personalized approach of assessing individual needs to recommend the best loan option for each customer has allowed cross-country mortgage to serve their communities and forge lifelong relationships since 2003. Although they've grown into a nationwide lender over the years, cross-country mortgages focus on maintaining the mom and pop spirit continues to separate them from the competition.

Me and G were lucky to meet with a lot of the folks in the company the other day. Great people. You get a great sense that they are kind of a mom and pop operation. I know people don't think of banks and loan and mortgage type things as that, but they really are. They definitely give that vibe. And also Cross Country Mortgage has the solutions to serve virtually every mortgage situation. They can make it easier for more people to get the financing they need to own a place of their own, especially first-time homebuyers, military veterans, and people with less than seller credit. They're licensed in all 50 states and offer a broad portfolio of traditional and niche loan products. When people want to buy a home or refinance their current loan, they want

it done quickly and cross Country Mortgage delivers. They deliver fast closings with a highly efficient process. In most cases, underwriting is complete in 24 hours or less. They partner with top vendors to offer the best technology without the big price tag, and they pass those efficiencies and cost savings along to the customer. Cross Country Mortgage puts their customers first by providing the tools and the resources for loan offices to succeed within their own offices. Their loan offices know their businesses and markets best, and this entrepreneurial approach helps everybody win. Simply, cross-country mortgage is the best at what they do. So go to ccmlens.com slash nbdins.com slash nbd to learn more about your future home buying experience. That's ccmlends.com slash nbd to learn more. Cross-country mortgage, LLC, NMLS, 3029, www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org, equal opportunity housing, those are the legal things I have to provide.

And I also got the bucket on, too, the one that Walshie dropped off, CCM, which is pretty appropriate for a hockey podcast. So, like I said, folks, if you're feeling out this process, if you're new to it, definitely check these folks out. They're excellent at what they do, and I think you'll be satisfied using them. Diversify. Invest your money.

Find good realtors. Do your research. Interest rates are at an all-time low right now for you young bucks. I just got one at 2.375%. I got one in Canada two months ago for 1.87%. That's free money right now. Boys, we got to load up the van, fill up the gas tank, and get in the road because we're going to Borelli's. We are going to Borelli's. We are going to Borelli's.

The Islanders bludgeoned Philadelphia game seven for nothing. Again, another one-sided game. Philly, eight shots, I think, with 10 minutes left in the game. They just choked them out. That was a 60-minute chokeout of a game. Surprisingly, they put Thomas Grice in. I thought they'd keep going with volley. It was only Grice's second style of playoffs.

What's he do? He gets a shutout. Trots hockey. It's grinding hockey. It's winning hockey. Whit, I know you love this team. Let's hear it. Oh, what a barn burner of game seven, huh, guys?

That was a fucking awesome game, no? I knew that game was over. I'm sorry, Biz. That game was the most typical Islanders game ever where I have 500 tweets. This is boring, this boring, this boring. Yeah, dude. Your team's really good, but the games they play in,

they're so good, they make the games really boring. Is that good enough for you? That's a fair analogy. So, okay, I'll say this, dude. That effort by the Flyers was pathetic. It was like they had nothing. Now, granted, you have to give the Islanders so much credit, but man, you got to think they'd have more than that i was shocked by that and uh the islanders man the goals were sick that josh bailey is something else dude that pass that he made the fake shot he's wound up and he just dishes it over to nelson man and nelson flies i did not realize until this playoff because i hadn't watched them that much because I don't want to go to sleep that he

buzzes up and down the wing he absolutely works both ends of the rink and he skates like a fucking horse out there horses can skate guys they could wheel around and he made that play he comes down and he strips

Giroux of the puck and then he wheels around the zone and then Bailey could wicked wheel around and he made that play he comes down and he strips jeru with a puck and then he wheels around the zone and then bailey makes him makes that play to him you're like holy fuck this team they never stop coming back they just make it really difficult and really painful to play against it is cool 26 years the longest running um team in the league without being in the conference finals. So that streak breaks for them. I think the last time was 93 when Montreal beat them. Yep.

They upset the Penguins that year. You think that people coming at me like, dude, congrats. Once again, I've never said they're bad. I've never said a bad word about the Islanders. Somebody find a clip of me saying a bad thing about the Islanders. Oh, Jesus. It's going to look like the Mark Stone highlights of him stripping people in the neutral zone one after the other.

I knew that game was over when Barzell's helmet popped off in warm-up and he did the hair flick and fucking all the ladies at Borelli's Pizza Place were jamming themselves with the dough rollers. Frankie had his finger in his cornhole to Barzell's bloody nose. Oh, fuck. How about this one? You know that clip on the internet of the guy playing in the volleyball match where the ball keeps hitting him in the head

and his face is just like black and blue? And every time they put it over the net, it comes back and hits the guy in the face? They ended up doing a clip where they superimposed Barzell's head there because he's been getting dinged up so much. He's got like a black eye, a cut here, a cut there. But yeah, he looks like – who was the old goalie who didn't wear a helmet who's got all the scars everywhere?

Jacques Plot? Jacques Plot, yeah. He did wear one, then he started to. Talk about the argument though for wearing helmets in warm-up. No buck, it's the best thing about the league. That thing could have broken his orbital, dude, if he didn't have a helmet and a visor on. Well, I believe a majority of the league started switching

when Taylor Hall went down, and you were on the team. Oh, my God. I was with Horikoff this weekend. I have a picture of before they put the stitches in. You can see Halsey's scalp. That was so horrific. Dude, I think you can see his skull. It's fucking insane.

So the dog did an amazing job. You can't even tell now. I saw he just got a beautiful puppy. Congrats, Halsey. Yeah, I was looking at those dogs, those Vizlas. Vizlas? I don't know. They're awesome, awesome dogs.

He said he never pictured himself as a dog person because i dm'd him i'm like oh those things are awesome but yes so but barzell but no but then he gets the eberly stick in the face it's like oh my god the toughest he's got the toughest luck at this point and he's still playing through everything he's just on the bench disgusted how much more shit can hit my pretty face but i mean that line of him eberly and lee and then you got the the the other line i'm talking nelson bailey and uh who's on the who's on who else is on that line i'm drawing a blank right now i must have been asleep for part of the game i don't know they all look the same bevillier yes bevillier so those top two lines can play dude

yeah they can. I think Tampa wins. It's not going to be easy. And it's going to be fucking boring some nights. You've stifled some stars in Philly. Don't try to shut down these stars in Tampa and ruin my Eastern Conference final. Don't do it. Even going back to Game 6

when Philly ended up winning an OT with that Provorov goal, beautiful play by Hazy. Just to put it into that pocket, knowing that there was no one there, he had a great playoff. But Islanders deserved to win this series. They were the better team. They dominated in Game 6 as far as the shot category. Katahat had a great game.

I thought it was a good move by trots to not play varlamov i feel like he'd been stripped of his confidence he gave him two opportunities to close the series out and thomas grace has been proven to be one of the better backups in the league and it wasn't so much of of what you know the islanders needed to do a net it's what they were going to do you know you know playing and they just the you know barry buda trots the fucking the mastermind behind the bench puts puts philly's offense in a complete chokehold um you know we talked about barzell to who me right now the he the line rushes and you talk about moving forward to tampa where you're talking about this boring team to watch, those top six forwards for the Islanders, they can move,

and they can move and transition and make plays off the rush, and they are exciting to watch. So I'm going to retract from my statement of saying that they're boring to watch because I feel like Witt's got me drinking the fucking Kool-Aid, but he's hating on Demko too, and he's an idiot. So Islanders – I never hated on Demko. Well, you weren't impressed with the beanpot question that I asked you.

I'm a BU guy. You're asking me about a BC guy. You're still not over the Demko thing. I fucked up. And then in the first round, we talked about the contributions from the back end. In game seven, Barry Trotz going in said somebody's going to be the hero. And all of a sudden, boom, their first two goals scored by the back end. In game seven, Barry Trotz going in said, somebody's going to be the hero. And all of a sudden, boom, their first two goals scored by the back end. And not the guys I was talking about before.

Not Polak, not Tabes. No, you got Green, the high school history teacher from Portland who drove his Subaru cross-country to get inside the bubble. And then Mayfield. So you got a couple of the you know the the the the lesser producing defensemen chipping in and and all of a sudden they got that two nothing lead and what you texted the group chat you're like there's no looking back from here they're gonna they're just gonna continue to put them in that stranglehold and uh i really

really like the islanders chances moving forward against against Tampa. Wow, sounds like you're going to pick them. All you got to say is with them being up 2-0 and then seeing what Philly was doing, for me, it's like that's it. There's zero chance. And let's put it this way. How'd the Flyers do in Game 7? They had to pull their goalie with six minutes left. That's how they did.

It's just – and you say – I actually agree that starting Grice made a lot of sense. I'm interested if he goes back to Varlamov in game one on Monday. I think he'd go back to Grice. I do too because they're so even in my mind and I know Varlamov has 13 games and Grice only has three since they got into the bubble.

Those guys to me are just one's as good as the other. When you're gambling on the Islanders during the season, it doesn't matter who's in. Both guys give them the best chance to win. So right now, Grace, one in a row, let's keep it going. If he loses game one, go back to Varlamov game two.

So the MO for the Islanders is they're able to limit the other team's offensive high-end scoring chances, okay? I'm interested to see how they're going to be able to do that against Tampa. Also, can they continue this PK run? They did not allow a power play goal the entire series against the Philadelphia Flyers. Philadelphia Flyers went 0-13 on the power play. I just felt like they didn't get enough from their top six no goals for connect me um you know i thought jeru i don't know i mean he's not as dominant

as he once was and i think that that you know putting being put in that defensive headlock by the islanders really kind of like exposed the the top end top six for the Philadelphia Flyers. So I'm interested to see how they're going to be able to rebound because that core group in Philly is not getting any younger up front. So it was great to see Lindbaum back for game six and seven. Barry Trotz made sure to comment on it after the game and how inspiring it was. Guys, it is fascinating how he was able to come back to play hockey

given that he was diagnosed with cancer. What was it? Wasn't he diagnosed six months ago, R.A.? I forget. It was earlier in the season. I forget the date offhand, but it was great to see both teams. I mean, you don't see both teams stick tapping like that in collegiate. That was awesome.

Very special moment. Also, I loved seeing 37-year-old Andy Green with the goal. Like I say, he was a captain of Jersey. Probably a bit of an afterthought, maybe, you know, going in the playoffs, probably weren't expecting that a lot of him. He's got two goals, two assists. That was obviously a huge goal. Love seeing old vets pull moves like that.

It was the most watched game in the playoffs, too. Obviously, two American teams. NBC PR tweeted that out earlier. Also, for Philly, I mean their best player was was Carter Hart um that's good for their future but it wasn't good for their playoffs right now they just didn't like you said didn't get much from the big guns Hazy did lead them in scoring four goals nine assists in 16 games uh but Hart was outstanding man I mean you know the biggest bugaboo for Philadelphia for the last, since Hextall basically has been goaltending, you know, nine and five with a nine to six save percentage, 2.23 goals against two shutouts. I mean, as if we had any doubt before the Cotter is the real deal for Philly. They know they're secure on that, that net fog, however long he's

in town. I enjoyed the hell out of watching the kid play, but it's, they needed more from their own. They didn't get it. You mentioned that first goal in Game 7 that went in from Mayfield, I believe, shot at us. It did hit something, Whit. I think it hit somebody's shaft on the way in. It might have been Provorov, who was battling out front, but what a great effort from this young goalie,

and I'm interested to see what's ahead for him. And once again, Islanders fans, before we finish up on you guys getting to the Eastern Conference Finals, you should not care one bit how it is to watch your team, how you feel watching your team when they're winning. It doesn't matter if it's a very, very boring style. If you win, who cares? Anyone who calls your team boring, what do you care if you win, you dummies?

What do you care? So here's the thing. If that was, and I just heard you say it already, the most watched game of this year's playoffs, that means you have a ton of people who aren't necessarily hockey fans who watched Saturday night on Labor Day weekend. That's not great. One team had 15 shots.

Congrats on moving on. Good luck. But you're not that exciting to watch that sounds like that sounds like a philly problem not an islanders problem i'm part of the islanders booster club moving forward game the islanders are playing in it's a game the islanders are playing in it's all i'm saying interesting two three of the four teams in the finals all uh warm weather cities vegas, Dallas, Tampa. You're forgetting another thing as well, R.A. Three of the four teams still in the Stanley Cup playoffs come from states with no state tax.

You're the best. You are the best with that. People think I'm crazy and I won't let it go, but I think it's an advantage. I think it's an advantage. Oh, absolutely. All right, moving along here. Hey, guys, I've always wanted to learn a new language, but it can be intimidating, whether it's time, effort, or money.

Babbel gets rid of all the roadblocks so I can start speaking Italian sooner because when I go to Borelli's, I want to order my meal in Italian. Babbel has proven to get you speaking a language within weeks. Babbel designs their courses with real-world conversation in mind, letting you learn everyday practical conversations that you'll actually use. The daily lessons are 10 to 15 minutes, and they start by teaching you words and phrases. Then sentences gradually get more complex. Soon, you practice in short conversations. Lessons are thoughtfully created by over 100 language experts, and their teaching method has been scientifically proven to be effective across multiple studies. They even

have speech recognition technology that helps improve your pronunciation and accent. With Babbel, you can choose from 14 different languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, and German. And Babbel is available as an app or online, So your progress will be synced across all devices right now. When you purchase a three month subscription, Babbel will give our listeners three additional months for free with the promo code chicklets. That's three additional months free. If you go to babbel.com and use the promo code chicklets on your first three

months of subscription, that's B-A-B-B-E-L.com promo code chicklets c-h-i-c-l-e-t-s wit if you could know one other language in the world which one would it be i'm pretty sure you asked me this like two episodes ago and i'm pretty sure i didn't know an answer i'm gonna go with spanish fair enough i think i would say Mandarin. I think this is exactly the same conversation we had. Are you getting deja vu? Kind of, except for deja vu was like a dream

or this one actually happened. This is getting trippy right now, guys. A little too meta. I said, What's meta mean? It's like, meta, it's like India. It's like an India head joke. I don't even know the best way to describe it.? It's like, how's the meta? It's like in your head joke. I don't even know the best way to describe it. When something's like, shit.

It's like I know when I see it, like when a movie's meta, it's almost like inside its own head. Let's see. Of a creative work referring to itself or the conventions of a genre. Self-referential. Actually, I'm going to change mine to English. Hold on. I need to I think we

need memes on what he just said with Happy Gilmore or no. What is the movie? When he goes back to school. Billy Madison, you are now dumber. I don't know what you said. What was that, R.A.? I was trying to explain meta, but I couldn't. I was failing to describe it.

I know, but were you saying that our podcast today has been meta? No, just that whole moment of talking about language and doing it over again. I love it. I love it. I would love to learn one of the romance languages, like Spanish or Italian. I think when it rolls off the tongue, there's a sensuality to it. think when it rolls off the tongue that's uh i don't know there's a sensuality to it biz the um the deja vu talk which i don't even think it was considered deja vu um in christopher nolan's old movie what was the what was the good one the inception inception but that reminded me

a tenant just came out apparently they've people have been watching it i don't know if it's been bootlegged that was a christopher nolan movie that I think it set records for the budget. Sean Avery, last time he stopped by, talked about how he was on set. I think he ended up getting a few seconds of screen time in this one, too. It might even be... I don't know how long, but somebody mentioned that they saw

him in the movie. So, all right, we need to sit down and watch that. Pasha, the videographer, my buddy there from Vancouver, massive New Jersey Devils jock sniffer, he said that he saw it and he said that it's a mind fuck. You have to watch it over and over to be able to fully understand it. Was that kind of the way Inception was too?

Yeah. Inception is one of those ones you can watch three or four times and still maybe be unsure. But this one seems like a real mindfuck. I mean, I'm not reading the reviews on it because I don't want to get anything spoiled. I want to go in pretty blind. But I think a lot of people are walking out of this kind of baffled

as to what's going on. But, I mean, Chris Nolan, his record speaks for itself. How about we do RA Movie Night this week with Tenet? Well, I don't know how we'll be able to do that because I don't think they play movies in this state. It's a movie I want to see in the theater. You know what I mean? I don't know if we'd be able to get it on the internet without violating laws.

I don't know. We'll find something, Biz. We've been having some fun movies. Oh, yeah. You're going to start following the law? Oh, shit. We've been having some fun. Oh, yeah. You're going to start following the law? Oh, shit. Okay. Breaking news.

The sole lawbreaker on the podcast, me. Yeah, yeah. Oh, fuck. All right. Well, now on, all teams, all games are going to be in Edmonton. Semifinals and finals. All the teams are going to be doing everything there. Western Conference final, Dallas, Vancouver.

The season series, each team won once. Vegas went 1-1-0. Dallas went 1-0-1. So one of those games was a shootout. Per Frank Saravalli, he said Marc-Andre Fleury is going to start game one, which is pretty interesting. Shea Thier, though, probably if there's a Conn Smythe candidate from that team, it's probably him.

Six goals, 10 assists in 15 games. We already talked about Mark Stone. That clip file Dimitri Filipovich made of him, two minutes long of just him stealing the puck, stick checking, just an absolute fucking monster out here. He's been great to watch. Of course, Heiskanen, he's probably the consummate candidate from Dallas. Five goals, 16 assists in 16 games.

Got an eight-point streak going on. I think there's a decided advantage in net for Vegas going here. I love Hrubobin, but he has the off game, the odd off game here and there. The other side's a two-headed monster. Piz, let's go to you first. Who do you like here and why? I'm going to pick Vegas in seven. And, you know, as good as I think Vegas is,

and I think that, you know, given that Colorado's out, who I picked as the front runner once they bent my coyotes over, they just keep coming at you and wave. And they dismantled Vancouver. This is going to be a far bigger test given the full lineup of Dallas and especially the contributions from the depth so now all of a sudden Vegas meets its match on the depth now where I think Vegas has the advantage at least of now is the high-end first-line talent and the fact that Sagan at this point hasn't been able to contribute as what he's expected to.

I don't think Ben is necessarily where the top end talent is for Vegas. And I just think that that is going to just play a massive factor in the fact that you're not going to be able to stop Vegas from putting up numbers. And you mentioned it, RA. They just have a lot better tandem and net and I think that ultimately they're the better team uh and if they stay healthy I think that I think that they're going to beat Dallas in seven games but Dallas right now I tell you I I they were underrated I thought they were going to get beat by Colorado but uh a very resilient bunch, and they just keep finding ways to win.

Well, I got to shout out, I kind of disagree on Jamie Benn. He's got nine points in his last seven games, so he's played well, and he's also played physical as hell, and he's really carried that line with Radulov because Sagan hasn't done anything. Now, I still love Vegas. I think they went in six just because I, right now I can't imagine you're able to skate with this team. In the last nine games, they've averaged 40 shots a game. It's just, and that's, and so you look at like their last, their last, they only have four goals in their last three games, but you think of how good Demko was, but it is, I mean,

if you're going to continue to get 40 shots a game and continue to have the puck the whole time and just cycle teams down low and be able to change lines while you're still holding on to the puck in the offensive zone, you're going to have nights where you get four and five goals. So I know that Dallas is a better team than Vancouver overall, I believe. It's going to be harder for them to play against. They're older. They're more experienced.

But still, Vegas is just at another level. Yeah, Mark Mariano Stone. He's the today's game version of Mariano, who is one of the best to ever do it and be a Hall of Famer. So I think that Mark Stone's just – that sign that trade and then sign it was so good it was exactly what this team needed um missing revo game game one hurts but but i mean he he'll be right back no matter what happens in that first one and and i think that dallas like having heskin in and him going head to head with shea theodore will be pretty fun to watch um i wanted

to i wrote down this one heskin in is he is on an eight-game point streak right now, Biz. There is two defensemen, two defensemen in the last 30 years that have owned nine-game playoff point streaks. Their names are Larry Murphy and Brian Leach. I've heard of them. What were the dates? The dates were 1995 for Larry Murphy and 1994 for Brian brian leach take that put it up your pipe and smoke it trying to stuff me on a date oh my god nice try there biz tough try there biz

tough little sequence for me especially with the the the ben comment that's a yeah yeah that's a sneaky 13 points so far in playoffs jesus i haven't he's played nice yeah i haven't necessarily noticed them that much and i hadn't been keeping track of his points but jesus i haven't he's played nice yeah i haven't necessarily noticed him that much and i hadn't been keeping track of his points but jesus christ i'm getting listen to this i'm getting lisa and dp with that fucking sequence hey hey but he's so he's got 21 points there's only been 10 instances of defensemen scoring 22 or more points in a single postseason. Brent Burns was the last to do it, 2016. And get this, he's the only non-Hall of Famer to do it, and he'll probably be in the Hall of Fame.

So look at Heskinen and what he's doing, folks. Interestingly, too, both coaches were midseason replacements. Pete Cabora obviously relieved Gerard Gallant, and Rick Bonas came in when Jim Montgomery stepped away. So, you know, a couple of guys. Bonus has been around a long time. He actually got the Bruins to the conference. He's back in 92. What's up, Iz?

And he had a nice little celly after they won, gave him the double barrel fist pumps. And Grinnell, if I could ask you to send it to the clip of the Finnish announcer calling Joel. Can I get his last name again, Whit? Joel. Kivaranta. Nice. Can I get his last name again, Witt? Joel. Kiviranta. Nice.

Can we get that clip? Thank you. So obviously ecstatic for his fellow countrymen just buzzing there. And even involving this kid, he was a late addition from what I'm hearing to last year's world championship for the Finnish team. And a lot of people had no clue who this guy was, but definitely making strides. And I thought his post-game comments were so humbling.

All he said was, like, I just hope I get the chance to play more games. Well, I think you're going to get that chance, considering you're the last guy to get a Hattie in a playoff game seven since Wayne Gretzky. Just don't know the date. And so last thing I think for me on this series, though, is for Dallas to have a chance, the power play's got to stay the same. The power play is unreal. And they've been able to score.

So I think it's going to be a huge test. I think it's going to be a good series, but I like Vegas in six. All right. I think Bonas is one be a huge test. I think it's going to be a good series, but I like Vegas in six. All right. And I think bonus is one of those easy guys through for you. You know, it's always a veteran who plays, you know, never got to a cup. I think bonus is kind of that version. It's separate coach biz. You know what I'm saying?

He's been around the league so long. He's well-known as a nice guy. And, you know, he'd been an assistant for such a long time after being a head coach and he kind of got thrust into the role. So despite that, I don't think he's going to move on. I think Vegas is going to beat them in six. I think the goaltending disparity is too much for Dallas to overcome. They got lucky last round, but they got lucky by not having to face Grubauer.

It's going to be a different story this round. So Vegas in six. And before we get to the next preview, we haven't mentioned that guest yet. Speaking of Stanley Cups and champions, we were lucky to get Chris Versteeg, a.k.ris verstig aka stigalicious on instagram he's been giving some outstanding commentary uh we were able to talk to him the other day tremendous interview i mean very entertained i know we say that a lot uh we but it was very entertaining we did like close to an hour with him talked about his career he's so candid so open funny bastard as well uh we're going to be bringing him very shortly we're going to be bringing him very shortly.

We're going to obviously talk about the Eastern Conference. I also think a lot of people would be surprised on how his career ended in junior to how it started in pro and where he was at to eventually what became his full body of work. So, yeah, very, very interesting. Thanks, Whit, for grabbing him to get him on the pod because that was a great interview. Yeah, good stuff coming shortly. But for us, like I said,

the Eastern conference finals, the old Wales conference, the Islanders versus the Tampa Bay lightning. They played three times this year. The first two of the aisles won five, two, then five, one in the third game,

Tampa won that one three to one. Tampa has been off since August 31st. So they're going on about a week rest. Stamp coast is definitely out for the series. Fuck. Kucherov, we haven't heard. He's not playing. We know he's probably a little bit dinged up.

All right, Whit, we'll go to you first on this one. What do you see here? Who do you like? I like Tampa. They've been my pick to win the Stanley Cup. I just started talking about the Isles Flyers game seven. It's not going to be easy. I think that Tampa's going to win in six games.

I got Vegas and Tampa both getting it done in six games. But if you look to the Islanders, as good as those top two lines are, right, and they're able to play with anyone, I still think that that Gord Goudreau Coleman line, dude, the way they looked against the Bruins and the ability for them to just turn it on, and it really is no disrespect at all to Pajot and Broussard, and Broussard looked so good at the end of that series

after being a healthy scratch. But, I mean, forget Kucherov and forget Point, that Gord, Coleman, Goudreau line, exactly what we said against Boston, they're going to do the same thing. And along with that, Victor motherfucking Hedman. Okay, there's no defender on New York that can play like this guy. And if you have a world-class best defenseman in the league,

man in the back of your team and just captaining. He's just the force. Every time he's out there, he's controlling. Whether it's offensively, defensively, he's going to do it for close to 30 minutes. The Islanders don't have that. I think the Islanders' team play has been awesome. I'm happy for their fans, great people. But I like Tampa moving on.

I just got a feeling that the Islanders are going to win. I can't really explain it other than the fact that they just – they don't really have any weak links. And especially given like, you know, what's going on with the bubble and the reboot and how you're starting to see guys get a little bit banged up. You know, if they have one guy taking on a lineup, it's not going to phase them. And right now they're just all clicking.

It looks really good. They're playing that defensive structure, but yet I said creating off the rush as well with that top six. And I think this is going to come down to whether the Islanders can continue what they're doing on special teams, particularly on the penalty kill. on special teams, particularly on the penalty kill. And I think that I'm interested to see what the top six for the Islanders can do keeping up with the pace of the top six for Tampa.

And so far, so good. I think Barzell's playing at a different high level right now, and I don't think that they're going to be as phased as everyone thinks. They're thinking there's this there's this boring defensive minded team but I'm saying is no they they put you in that defensive pretzel and then they're now they're able to capitalize and they're able to go play on the offense so I like Islanders in seven right now and I think sorry go ahead go ahead no I'm done I was done no it's like, do you remember what you were saying about Tampa? It's like you're so – I think it's recency watching the Islanders

do what they did, but, man, do you remember Palat? Have you seen Braden Point? Kucherov, it's like Sorelli and Killorn, the way they play. The Islanders haven't played anyone close to this. Not even close. That's why I started off my entire segment with i just got a feeling like i got a feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night great wedding song oh yeah gets the juices when you got married with did you give the dj a do not playlist like absolutely

under any circumstances great fucking question i didn't plan anything from the wedding but i'm guessing if i know my wife his wife was picking out the the cake and all the arrangements. No, people know my wedding stories. It was the best wedding of all time. You want to know why? It was a surprise wedding. Nobody knew.

It was an engagement party. Everyone came to go, you know, have some drinks, have an engagement party, and this wall opened up. We were standing up front. Boom. Wedding. No bullshit. No nothing. And then you just party, and then it's over. I were standing up front. Boom. Wedding. No bullshit. No nothing.

And then you just party, and then it's over. I played golf the morning of my wedding. Teed off at 9.30, got home at like 3, threw on my suit, went and surprised the shit out of my family and friends, and got married. You did a drive-by? The drive-by weddings like in Vegas? It was like an ATM from weddings.

I played nice that day, too. Hey, I bet you know every shot uh no i actually don't what'd you shoot i was over three years now but i shot 72 at thorny lee in brockton i won like 402 i think i gave it to the dj once he promised me not to say not to play um what was the all right, because I took the long road answering. I did. We did. I now remember. She definitely talked to me about certain songs.

We wanted to make sure there was no jazz. I hate jazz. I think it's the worst. So if you had a jazzy type song, unless it was DJ Jazzy Jeff, don't play it. So no Kenny G? No, that guy's just sick. He's like a scratch golf for that guy with that unreal perm. He looks like the – how about his arrow or something?

It's the guy who's always moving his knees in the warm-up. He's hilarious. Miguel Angel Jimenez, they do look alike. I heard an unreal story biz that Miguel Angel Jimenez was like four shots off the lead in the third round of the Masters. And somebody walked in and he's having a monster ribeye with a glass of wine and mashed potatoes. An hour before the third round of the Masters. I think he had a cigar, a glass of wine, a ribeye, and mashed potatoes.

He's a legend. Okay, so how about this one? Mechanic. I think they had the U.S. Open in the state of Washington not too long ago, right? Yeah, they had it at Chambers Bay. Inside Seattle. Okay, so my buddies went, and they went and watched them on the practice screen because they heard it's like – or like the practice tee.

Not the practice tee. Range. The range. The driving range. The range. Yeah. Anyway, anyway fuck jesus christ fumble fucking my words here but you know how he does that warm-up routine when he does the the clockwise with his knees and then he switches to go the other way so he like you can hear the crowd all getting excited and all of a sudden he stops and he looks up and then he starts going the other way and they all start erupting and going crazy that's when you know you're a boss he's a boss he's a boss i he's got a funny instagram too he's always wearing those silly golf shoes you know everyone's wearing like the nikes and the

the the light ones now he's got those like old school leather ones with like gator on them and shit uh just an interesting guy i don't know how we got so far up the fucking rails we're in a different state right now all right i actually want to know what would if you could put a top five song uh request of what not to play at your wedding what would it be um i i had the chicken dance was probably number one like that's fucking the worst like dan and i i've never seen that at a wedding well i didn't i wanted to ensure it didn't happen at my wedding. So I put that. I had the electric slide, like, fuck that.

I didn't want that at my wedding. Probably, I think my old lady might have had one or two. I'll tell you, though, when Beyonce came on, put a ring on it, all the single ladies, it was like a fucking dynamite went off. Every chick was on the floor doing the fucking thing. It was hilarious. I felt like I landed in a video out of nowhere. What about Cotton Eye Joe? Yeah, that's another one. I might have had that on the floor doing the fucking day it was hilarious i felt like i landed in a video out of nowhere what about cotton eye joe yeah that's another one you know i i might have had that in the list that might be my come out song and also my and i had a very specific rule i mean i know

shout is a wedding thing it's kind of probably even played out especially after wedding crashes but if you're playing shout at a wedding i know the isley brothers are legends but you got to play the odis day and the Nights version from the Animal House soundtrack. Oh, yeah. It's the best moment. It's iconic seeing the movie. I mean, and, of course, someone's always going to do the alligator on the floor

like Belushi did in the movie during the wedding. So I heard. So, absolutely, man, you've got to give that DJ a DNP list. Well, since we're on the subject, and I think R.A. and Witt, you're the only two married people on the podcast unless Grinnelly had a... Grinnelly's on 90 Day Fiance. Anyone ever seen that show?

Ridiculous. Oh, it's ridiculous, dude. It's absolutely ridiculous. But I was going to ask, R.A., what was your wedding song? Like your dance? It was Rod Stewart, You're In My Heart, You're In My Soul. That was my old lady's choice.

I actually wanted to go with a petty song, but you got to pick your battles when you're playing a wedding. So I'm a huge Rod Stewart fan, so I had no real issue. Otherwise, it was a little bit of a long song, but maybe a three-minute or less song would have been better. By like five minutes, it's like, all right, well, people are getting fucking bored here. What was yours? Yours by like five minutes. It's like, all right, well, people are getting fucking bored here, you know. What was yours?

Yours by Russell Dickerson. Great song. Yours. All right. I hadn't given my prediction yet. Tampa, I think they're going to have just too much oomph for the Islanders. I mean, I know I personally am bored by the Islanders. I don't mind grinding, winning hockey,

but I think Tampa is just a little too deep. And also Vasilevsky, man, I think he's the leader in the clubhouse right now for the Conn Smythe Trophy. 10-3, a 1-9-1, 9-3-1 save percentage. He was stellar versus Columbus. He was outstanding versus Boston. I expect him to continue that level of play

regardless of who the Islanders draw out, but I'm going to go Tampa in seven. Sorry, Frankie Borelli. I got a feeling go Tampa in seven. Sorry, I got a feeling that Tampa's going to be Jim Kite or good night, Jim Kite. Do you like jazz?

Are you a jazz guy, Biz? Yeah, I like it in a certain environment, like a bar if you're just having a couple of pops. Yeah, if I was with my lady. Yeah, I like jazz. I love a nice saxophone in a song. When a sax goes on, I go nuts. Fucking nuts.

Clingbird just buried. One-nothing Dallas. Three minutes into the game. Ooh, there we go. Let's see. Yeah, check out Miles Davis, man. He's the best all time, no doubt about it. But, all right, before we get to Versteeg, with two more rounds still to go,

Canadians need to be well-nourished. So get mouth-watering seasonal recipes and pre-measured ingredients delivered right to your door with HelloFresh, Canada's most recommended meal kit. HelloFresh makes cooking at home simple, planned, and delicious so you can enjoy cooking again. Biz, I know you're a big health guy. Like, you know, you use this stuff.

What's your favorite stuff to go with? Yeah, guys, I tend to eat healthy, especially as you get older. big health guy like you know you use this stuff what's your favorite stuff to go with yeah guys i tend to eat healthy especially as you get older you start packing the pounds if you don't i mean i know grinnelli i've been trying to convince you as a young guy you're getting to that age now where if you're not eating good you're gonna feel it but uh a lot of greens a lot of high quality meat and i just try to stay off the crazy carbs. There you go. Also, your meal plan is flexible as well. You can schedule your days, you can skip a week, only order what you want. HelloFresh can help you eat more sustainably because there's less prep and less waste in the packaging is almost

entirely made from recyclable material. You'll have homemade family dinners made easy with a better cooking routine because HelloFresh does the planning, shopping, and prepping. And if you have finicky young ones, there are kid-friendly recipes that they'll dig. Enjoy cooking at home again with weekly HelloFresh delivery. Save some dough and drop the unhealthy takeout by cooking fresh, homemade dinners every week with recipes you'll love. HelloFresh cuts out the stressful planning and prepping, so you can get dinner on the table in about 30 minutes. My favorite part of HelloFresh, the time it saves me from cleaning and all the prep work. I can't stand that stuff.

When you get the mail-free package, boom, it's so much easier. And for a total of $80 off your first three weeks of HelloFresh, including free shipping, go to hellofresh.ca slash chicklets80 and enter the code chicklets 80. Once again, for a total of $80 off your first three weeks of hello fresh, including free shipping, go to hello, fresh dot C a slash chiclets 80 and enter the code chiclets 80. So everyone up in Canada,

get on this stuff. I know there's a couple of rounds left. Everyone's grinding to the finish, but you want to stay well fed. So go ahead and check out HelloFresh. All right, they're going to do my meal prep when I'm training for the Tour de France. I'm going to need all the time and rest I can get.

You're just going to pump drugs into your food? Yeah. And another thing regarding the Tour de France, is it true that basically everybody in it is blood doping? Is that kind of like a. I mean, I know when Armstrong was, yeah, he was doing what everybody else was doing it well, except everybody was in sewer and every person in their fucking orbit.

But yeah, I would imagine it's probably cheating is probably still a huge part of what they do. I don't, I doubt they eradicated it. A couple of bumps on the way up the hill. All right, gang. Well, you mentioned we got Christopher Stieg coming on. Great interview. We're going to send it over to him right now.

Hopefully you all enjoy it as much as we did. I'd like to welcome our next guest. He played for 11 NHL seasons and 15 pro seasons overall. While he suited up for seven teams over 643 games, he's most known for his two stints as a Chicago Blackhawk as he won the Stanley Cup both times with them. Not a big deal. These days, he can be seen opining on the NHL playoff games

at Stigalicious on Instagram. Thanks for joining us on Spitting Chicklets. Chris Versteeg. Yeah, thanks for having me. R.A., I do got to say say when i hear your voice it's very nostalgic when i was with providence i flew in and they kept saying welcome to woe wick welcome to woe wick and i'm like i hope i'm in the right city but every time i hear you talk i think of that moment so thanks for having me on today you guys like where the hell's wall wick

what are they talking about yeah i swear i was like woe wick whoa, and I started looking. W-O-A-H, I believe. What the hell? Yeah. Dude, well, thanks so much. It's been a long time coming. We got the chance to play together quick in my fabulous stint with the Florida Panthers. Seven games played, 0-0-0-7. So I knew right away, like, just being around you, I'm like, this guy is hilarious.

And then this thing started. I'm like, at some point, Stigl, come on. So retirement's now come, dude. It's come to an end. I mean, how's everything been going since? I know you're really big into watching the playoffs and being on Instagram. I love following you there. Yeah, it's been different. As you know, it's a change of pace for me. I was talking to like a couple of the networks about doing some playoff games. And then obviously with this happening, Sportsnet didn't need me on. But talking with them and doing Twitter, I don't want to do Twitter because it's too much.

Smart man. Yeah. So I figured actually I had been watching Avery a little bit and how he was going about it. So it's almost like if this is going to be the next thing I do, I thought I need to get some reps and I would like to see, you know, like you did NHL Network. How hard is it to form an opinion where you're not pissing everyone off

and also make it educational within like 10 to 15 seconds? So I figured this was a good way just to kind of practice without using Twitter and do something like that. So it's been keeping me busy so far during retirement, but it's different, and we'll see where it goes from here. It's also hard not to drop like an F-bomb when you were doing it. I'd get on, I'm like, wait a minute, okay, not chicklets, not chicklets, not chicklets, not chicklets.

Well, it's articulating your thought too without like saying what you would say behind closed doors because you have to button it up for the network, and I don't think me, like it was, it's exhausting to me, even when I do coyote stuff, because I'm so nervous, I'm going to say the wrong thing. And the next thing you know, I'm getting fucking canceled. But for, for as far as your opinion goes, you're, you know, you're pretty credible.

You had a really good career and put up some great offensive numbers. And I feel like you're, you're great at, you know, teaching the game. Like when these plays are going down, you're breaking them down as to why, you know, this guy went to his backhand or, or that and forward. Would you ever consider yourself getting into something like maybe Adam Oates? You know what? I have talked about that with my brother and another guy from my hometown. We talked maybe about like having an app or something where like the kid can

teach you what he's doing too. You know, a lot of this is just a one way street of teaching teaching but maybe where you can write they can write on the app what they're doing and then you could send it back to them what you're thinking and it would be something kind of like that so I have thought of something like that maybe in the future where you could teach kids almost like a one-stop shop it doesn't have to be like five game packages they could just send a clip or something to that or to me and I could try to break it down and tell them to the best of my knowledge what I think. But it definitely is something I like doing.

Now, going into coaching or doing anything like that where, I mean, it would take up so much time and the days are so long, it's nothing that I'm even thinking about now. But on a minor scale, I think it would be fun to do. It's such a grind as far as starting out as a coach, especially if you've got to start in the ECHL or junior, the bus trips. Oh, yeah. Based on what you were being paid as a hockey player,

it's tough to find the motivation unless you truly, truly love it. But towards the end of your career, it became more popular watching the video and your shifts, and it was all tracked through the iPads. Earlier on in your career, were you like that fuck no no it was like and and where it started for the ipads for me was actually in florida i think when you got there wait remember they gave us our own ipad yep they wouldn't give you one that sat in my room the whole time he was watching the pga app on his phone so like so that that was like the first time where i really like for for me too i was playing with quendle prior to that and ron wilson and

those two guys they're not really big uh video guys what they do is they like to show you one clip and and i like that too because you can get compounded with so much video and then even five minutes into some of these video sessions i find find myself sleeping and nodding off. And I'm like, you know, what did I just hear halfway through? So the way Quenville did it was, was so smart. He would show you one clip and then it would, it would click in during the game. I'd be like, Oh, that's what he was showing me where you're not overloaded with information. So then when in 2012, 13, when they gave us that iPad, and now you're starting to really watch shifts and now you're kind of like you're just over correcting everything you're you're way thinking about it and now they're just hammering you with analytics and all these things I felt like it was information overload

at times there's too much so that's why I just put it away and and tried to let hockey uh work itself out obviously it didn't and I got shipped out so maybe I should have watched the iPad how how was the relationship dynamic between you and Quimble I know you spent two stints there I mean was it a love-hate kind of thing it was a love-hate yeah for sure I was I was the whipping boy very very easy to say so there'd be times like I would be on the bench bench and bowling would be on the ice he'd be like first day fuck what the fuck and i'd like look back he's like q i'm right here it is regardless fuck you you know and i'd be like what the hell you know and then he'd be like snapping on me and then even like little plays i remember i came in the league and we're playing colorado one night

and actually back then i like i remember in the minors i shot the puck through my legs and i had to fight like a shift later right so when i got up to the NHL I'm like man I'm gonna put up through my legs one time and everyone's gonna see me on TSN with the puck through my legs you know so I came down the wall I snapped it through my legs it actually went off the barn out and I heard Quenville's on the bench he's like did he just do that did he just do that so I get to the bench he's like you little shit never do that junior shit again and he's like going, you know, and I'm like, holy, he's done. So we go in for the period. He pulls me in the hallway.

He starts screaming at me again. Junior shit. That's horse shit. You know, then all of a sudden I think it's over. The next day we get to the rink. He shows it on the video. Everyone's laughing. Everyone's laughing.

He's like, first day. Fuck you. Fuck you. He's like, that's junior shit. And I'm like, I got yelled at for it for like 24 hours, you know. And then all of a sudden we get out there for practice and Buff and Kane are snapping it through their legs just to prove a point. And I can't. So it was, we had, but you know what?

Quengle for me was really good because he, well, he would get in my kitchen for sure. But he was good because when I was hot he would ride me and the best coaches do that they ride their guys they ride their horses but they also find ways to get guys to help their horses and I was one of those guys when I was when I was hot I could help their horses so he would find the days I was playing good and I'd play like 18 19 20 21 minutes and then the next day I'd play eight so you you'd never take it personal when, when you were on like the downswing. Yeah, no, I definitely did at times, you know, there that, that's why our team was really good about it though.

The guys always picked you up. You had Taze and me and Taze are really good buddies. Seabrook, I played junior receives and Keith. We always, I felt when a guy was in a shit moment, everyone was there to kind of support them. But also like, you know you know I I would obviously I'm not close to the player sharp is but I would be competing with him for ice and I'd be like fuck I gotta play better than sharp today you know I gotta play better than this guy he's gonna take my ice you know so there's also a competition there that we we pushed each other obviously I didn't push sharp as hard as he would push me but it was there it was it was

a nice healthy I thought atmosphere but also there was a thing where Sharpie would come to me and be like hey man like are you good like whatever but for the most part I would brush it off but there were days yeah we were like man fuck this guy that team was so deep too it's like the healthy competition for for roster spots it's nothing is better than that in terms of growing a championship team but i gotta go i we gotta get into chicago in a little bit because i just want to start like you grew up in lethbridge right yeah okay so undersized kid i mean you came into the whl pretty much close to 20 years ago and it's such a different game now and you've never really shied

away at all from being physical and fighting like right off the hop was that kind of who you were did you just learn that in junior like i can't take any shit i gotta play this way because you were a prick out there well yeah it's like i'm not gonna beat up anyone but i felt like it like a lot of where i grew up you know how you guys talk about boston like and and what's the town what's that part of boston that everyone that's where ra is in the movie. He makes biz watch it once a day. So like, I'm from North Lethbridge. And it's kind of like the same thing. You know, it's no one has money. It's a very, you know, but people need to work hard and it kind of forms you and who you are. And so that's kind of who I always was. I had a kid, I was a kid

with a chip on my shoulder, I was pissed off. And I was undersized. And so that's kind of who I always was. I had a kid, I was a kid with a chip on my shoulder. I was pissed off and I was undersized. And again, like my line mates in junior were like Derek King and DJ King and Derek Parker. Like if you know, and I remember he was like, go slash. And then I'd be looking across the ice and there'd be like Derek Bugaard and all these guys. And I'm like, I'm, I'm going to die die tonight literally I might die tonight but and those days every game was a line brawl um I was in two bench clearing brawls one against um Vancouver one against Brandon and it was scary but for me again I I knew I had to do something different because I was small and back then if I remember when I'd see a guy smaller than me I'd like I'm going after him you know finally I get to see a guy smaller than me so you had to have that edge and tenacity and

be able to get in there and I knew that and my dad would always tell me that too like you're not going to be good enough just to play on skill you got to be a prick too so it was something that it molded me of where I where I'm from I then took it and I put into my game and then I definitely took it with me into the NHL especially in the a my last year quite or um Bowman and talent told me they're like you're not going to play ahead of or no it wasn't hostess have lat at the time uh Kane all these guys they're like you got to do something different so I remember I was fighting and trying to do different things obviously I wasn't winning fights but I was just trying to do different

things to get up uh and I mean I look back I was literally willing to die to play in the fucking NHL at the start. And by the end, I was barely willing to get in front of a snapshot. So it's funny how it changed. But for me, it's crazy what I was willing to do and willing to play in order to play in the NHL. That's just true passion. And we've talked a lot about guys who probably could have made it if they were willing to switch their games, but it's so, so hard. I want to jump quickly, though.

The bench-killing brawls, do you remember the moment when the coach was like, go, go? Oh, yeah. How did it start, though? I was going to ask about the Brendan one. What are the chances that Tutu hit started it? Oh, that was Derek Parker was chasing Tutu around the ice, like chasing him around the ice.

Because of the head? Yeah, I don't know. It was after the game. The game was over, and he was chasing him around the ice. There was a big brawl going on, and Sean Mazey, I don't know if you guys remember him. He was a big guy, like 6'2", 230, 240. He knocked out someone, and that's how the fight ended.

Everyone was like, holy, there's a guy knocked out, you know? No shit. Yeah yeah i was scared i remember i grabbed derrick rarenka and but we looked over and he popped him and that's that's just how it ended there was no whistle or anything for a 10 and then the next one was against vancouver that one was a melee you had nick tarnaski and tristan grant going at it um all these guys fight fucking tristan Grant need me. When I was in Wilkes-Barre one year, I ended up missing about two or three rounds of playoffs. Biz is over it though. Just like I'm over a good as knee and me. Oh,

let's just start fucking with these guys. Fuck you, Tristan Grant. You sack of shit. Yeah. That guy, that grant was nuts though. Oh yeah.

He was scary. I didn't do anything about at the time but he but it was a tilly and i remember even i it was me and john lammers we're fighting this adam core shane and it's like you're just going crazy right you're just grabbing guys and i remember i came in i grabbed this adam core shane's chain i ripped it off i threw it in i'm like just acting like a savage you know then you get carried off the ice and it was and i think actually colton or his brother got he he punched a ref that exact same uh instance and colton or got suspended for like 20 games and then whl that was like unheard of at that time is it true that colton or has got a plate in his face and his fists and stuff he's basically like

terminator yeah i i don't know about that i did play with orzy i played with both of them i i don't know about that i do know uh kinger well i've i've felt his fist later on his career it's like sand there's like no bone you know oh dude that king i just i've told this story before but when we had mike scroy on he he we were playing worcester i was like who are you gonna fight tomorrow he's like i don't know there's nobody there and Colby Armstrong's like that DJ King's kind of a killer heads up he's like nah think think think he talked about it like the kid was a killer

he had bowling ball hands do you know Mitch Love remember Mitch Love he's coaching in Saskatoon now okay he broke Williams, Tiger Williams penalty record when we were playing in Swift Current and he broke it fighting DJ King. And DJ King,

I've never seen a guy beat up someone worse in my life. And Mitch Love, he's like lights out, out cold on the ice. He's a middleweight. Yeah, but he's a middleweight. He's not a heavy. But he then gets up, his shirt's over his face and he pulls his shirt down and they're like, he just beat Tiger Williams penalty record and he starts skating around his shirts over his face and pulls his shirt down and they're like, he just beat Tiger Williams penalty record.

And he starts skating around the ice with his arms in the air. And I was like, what is going on here? It was the craziest thing. Oh my God. I'm looking now. 327 PIMS that year. Yeah. I don't know if it was a year or if it was a career. Okay. Yeah. Maybe that makes sense. I was going gonna ask you about playing early on with seabrook i was actually uh when i played under 18 he was our captain in the in the summer one which was the hardest one to make and just really a natural born leader i

believe he went first overall to the left for church canes when it was that bantam draft yeah i don't know if it was first or second but just an unbelievable guy. He took care of me. Like I was a walk on as a 16 year old. I wasn't drafted or anything. So I walked on and from day one, he took care of me. His billet was actually really good friends with my dad. So just such a good relationship. And then when I got to Chicago, I actually do attribute a lot of my success to him because you know what it's like when you go somewhere and you're trying to make a team. He like bringing me around like Duncan Keith and he was bringing me around all these guys and making me feel like almost like I not like quite I belong but like really comfortable so the tryouts when I was there I really attribute a lot to Siebes just like you're you're right natural

born leader amazing guy and I am definitely great friends with him. When I was hanging out with him, he wasn't drinking at all. He turned into a sauce fest after a few cups, eh? No, I remember that too. Like even at my rookie party, he didn't drink. So he was 17 and I was 16. And, yeah, I don't think it was until maybe he was 19 or 20, maybe he started to have a couple beers. So you were like, all right, I'll get you.

I'll cover you on this one. I'll drink for both of us. Yeah, that's what pretty much happened. Oh, the other thing I want to ask you about your junior career was when you played for Red Deer. Yeah. Brandon and Brett Sutter were on the team, and then one of the fathers was coaching as well.

What was that dynamic like? Because normally you could see a minor hockey situation where you're favoring the kid. I feel like that one't be the opposite. Yeah, that was opposite. Brent was hard. And Brent, he was hard on me. So I played D actually my last year in junior, believe it or not.

So I was a D man. And he'd be like, you're the hardest fucking player I've ever coached in my life. You know, I'd be like, he would show me a clip and like, I would brush the puck and then all of a sudden there'd be like nine guys back in the screen. And all of a sudden I'd be coasting like slowly back in the screen, you know, maybe like you're terrible, you know, but he, he also was like that with his own kid, even harder and Brad as well. He, for me was, I also, again, between Scott Gordon, Dale Town, Brent Sutter was one of those guys for me who I learned a lot from in a year. I learned tough love and what I need to do to be a pro.

But again, like you're talking about with his son and Brett, he was hard on them. Steger, after four years of juniors, you get drafted by the Bruins fifth round, 134th overall. You're with the organization for a couple seasons. They trade you in your second season. What was your reaction? Were you pissed off?

Did you expect to take us through that journey? Dude, I was crying. I swear to God. What? Yeah, on the bus. Well, man, hold on, though, because I'm thinking, I'm looking. You had an unreal year, rookie year, and the team sucks in Boston. You don't even sniff getting called up. I think you'd be like, what the fuck?

Man, so I was working at SportCheck about a year prior, not even, playing defense for the Red Deer Rebels, right? That's true. I'm like, my career's done, right? And I'm partying, you know, whatever, just like with my buddies back home. I'm like, I'm not playing hockey probably. So at the end of that 20-year-old year or 19- or 19 year old year they call me up and I actually play lights out and then I'm like playing so good because Scott Gordon's like hey Steger I know where you've been I know where you've come from

I know everything I'm gonna give you every opportunity to succeed and so that summer I went home and I put on 20 pounds I was I came I came back at almost one 90 and I, and I was playing lights out. Like no one expected me to. Right. And at that time, Scott Gordon's like, man, I think you're going to get called up. Sean Donovan just got hurt. I believe Glenn Murray was hurting. He's like, you might get called up. So we're on our way to Manchester and I'm sitting on the bus and I get called up to the front and Gordon's like, Hey man, I just got to tell you, you just got traded. And I'm like, Oh, and I'm like, what I just got to tell you you just got traded and I'm like

and I'm like what so you know how like you're kind of I'm kind of a messed up kid and then you're like you get this opportunity and then all of a sudden it's like they just quit on me you know after what I did like I was I think I was seventh in the league in scoring in the A at that time and I didn't even have 40 points in the dub or 50 points in the dub year before so it's like I was really mixed up and confused and I remember being on the bus like tearing up couldn't believe it and also about three weeks prior to that we were in Norfolk and I was like fuck if there's one team I don't want to be with it's the Chicago Blackhawks I swear I was like there's no way they had all the studs everyone

and so when he told me he wrote it on a paper and he slid it to me and it said Chicago I was like no way like I have no chance to make the NHL now so that's that's kind of where my head was at at that time and I remember even Don Sweeney called me he's like hey I had nothing to do with this and I remember I was distraught wow that's interesting so I think players can look at careers on on online and think oh man he finally got a chance by getting traded and little did you know it was the best thing that ever could have happened to you. I don't want to upset R.A., but who was going back the other way? Brandon Bochenski. Tough trade for the Boston Bruins.

But you know what? I think he had 36 goals at that time or something crazy. He was going off that year. Yeah, fuck that, Rusty. This Bochenski's awesome. A week later later he was scooping ice cream fucking down the street you were lighting up in chicago yeah yeah no but at that time though i thought it was actually even a good trade for them like wow they got pochinski for me crazy all right so that year you go over to norfolk and you continue like a point per game player and then the next year is your first go

in the nhl where you you at least got called up but that year in the AHL had to be one of the top players in the league and what stands out is just how physical you were playing and that's when you just basically decided I'm doing anything I can to get there like did you know there was a chance at the beginning of that year in camp you could get called up are you going in like I got nothing set right now I just got to go balls to the wall I just thought I had to go balls to the wall and I actually and I usually have good camps I didn't have that good of a camp that year and I got sent down and and I was playing horrible in Rockford the first 10 games like horrible I didn't have one point in 10 games I was actually playing fourth line too and I remember I came into the dressing room and I was like ready to flip Mike Havlin's table and

me and Mike have an awesome relationship and I was like you motherfucker put me on the ice put me in a power play and I remember I went home that night and I called my dad I'm like fuck hockey I'm done with hockey you know like I did everything I could last year now I'm playing fourth line a year later you know and my dad's like well come sell tractors with me and stuff or you know what I mean I was like yeah and I thought he was gonna like sympathize and he's like start coming selling tractors with me and that's where i was like oh fuck i don't want to sell tractors you know i'll play more fine dad yeah so i went back and i actually in the next 15 or sorry eight or nine games i had like 15 points and i was like and i remember a little after that i was talking to talon and them and they're like you got to do something different

i was fighting and doing everything i could and then believe it or not I was on my way I think we were on our way to Peoria and I got a call and they're like hey we need you in Calgary tonight and Calgary's my hometown so I played my first ever game in Calgary. Steve we obviously got to talk about the Stanley Cup in Chicago the first Stanley Cup take us through that one I mean you played a significant role there four goals eight assists and 17 games I mean when you played a significant role there. Four goals, eight assists in 17 games. I mean, when you got that talent like that, Chicago hockey had been dead for a long time, then it got revitalized. That must have been a pretty sick thing to go through, eh?

Yes, six goals and eight assists. But anyways, it was unbelievable. I remember about two years prior to that, the same year I was in Rockford, we're sitting in one of the rooms, I think it was at the Sheridan and Dale Towns, like, I'm telling you, if you guys win this Stanley cup here,

Michigan's going to be full. And we're like, yeah, right. Like I remember pulling my NHL card out of the bar and they put me to the back of the line, you know, things like that. So just to see where we were and, you know, fans were like 8,000, 7,000 and you could, anyone could get a seat to where it ended in 2010 with the team we had and the friendships. It's still a fairy tale.

I look back. I look at videos. It's really incredible. Well, I mean, we've got to talk about the celebrations. Like, holy shit. I mean, that city in general, I'd say it's probably top on the party list. I had my NHL rookie party there. Going to have to stop beatboxing for him first yeah yeah i i was i had to sleep on my stomach basically

after because my kidneys were sore oh my goodness yeah we don't want to get dive too much into it which is coming back from the pisser here we're gonna tee him sorry about that i read the lunch the wrong stat line i read the old no i was just bugging you oh no you should calm down i fucked it up oh you you get did you pigeon toss him? I love that. Sometimes you just got to chuck R.A. Just what are you talking about? I'm just wondering, though, like that – so the Chicago team that the first cup

when Kane scores, okay, where are you on the bench? Are you considering that like it's not in? Are you one of the guys that's like, no, Kane or no's? No, for me, he shot the puck and I heard a thunk and I thought it hit late and stick and went into the meshing. So I'm looking in the meshing and I think it was Brower. He looked over at me and we're like, where is it? Where is it?

And I'm like, I think it's in the meshing. And then all of a sudden everyone buzzed by and he's like, I think it's in the net. I'm like, it's in the net. So I jumped over and I remember I threw my gloves off. I'm like, this fucking better be in the net. This better be in the net. And then I got down to the end of the ice and we're all hugging and everyone's like, is it in the net? You know, is it in the net? And I swear, they say they can't find that puck, but I swear,

I looked down the ice and I saw the linesman pull the puck out of the net. And that's when I was like, yeah, we, a bunch of us were like, we just saw him pull the puck out. And then we got the word from the video guy to the coach and staff. they told us it was in but i never seen it going like i said i was looking in the meshing yeah that puck became a big mystery because everybody thought pronger took it because he was stealing all the pucks them but they did say a line's been walked off and i think he like refused to answer questions about or something like that a thousand percent i bet i i know 100 he had it was going to sell that thing at some point. So going to the end of your first time with Chicago, so you mentioned that love and hate with Quimble.

What, had it just gone a little bit sour? What was the reason why you ended up moving on and going to Toronto? Well, we just won the cup, and then I remember we were – it was me, Vince Vaughn, and Stan Bowman, and we're at a bar, and there's like a little alleyway behind the alleyway and vince is trying to you know we're just talking and then stan's like hey steve i think we're gonna have to move you and i was like you know and then i remember vince he's like you know how he talks he's like we can't trade him we can't trade him he's playing great for us you

know he's like vince we gotta trade chris you know it was kind of a funny moment. That's how I kind of knew it was going to happen. And then about a week later, I think it was around end of June, start of July, I was ended up getting traded to Toronto. So you weren't a part of that gong show with like the qualifying offers not getting mailed out. Yeah, I got a huge contract with that. So explain people at home what actually what actually happened in that situation? And was it Dale's fault or is that on like somebody else way beneath them?

Dude. Well, who, who, all you got to ask yourself is who's supposed to do the paperwork and you know, how does that go? But I, I don't know who was doing the paperwork or who's supposed to do that. But at that time there was me, Frazier, Brower, Barker, and a few of us. And those couple of those guys already signed contracts. And Barker then called me the one day and he goes, Hey, I think our qualifying offers are missed by a day. And I was like, what? And so I told my agent cause he didn't, I remember, I'm like, Hey,

can you check if ours is missed by a day too? He didn't see that either. No, because we just didn't expect it. And he's like, yeah. So he's like, Holy shit. It is missed by a day too he didn't see that either no because we just didn't expect it he's like your commission yeah so he's like holy shit it is missed by a day and i remember kind of at that time uh we were talking about like a two-year 1.5 you know maybe and i and that was actually the year i was up for rookie of the year so it was like a good year but i was it was my first full year so they didn't want to break the bank for anything yeah and so we're going, we're talking. And then all of a sudden my agent's like, I think we can get two, you know, I think we can get two.

So we're at two and it was for two years. And all of a sudden it was like, we just kept going. And all of a sudden my agent's like, we're at 3.083 for three years, you know? And I'm, I'm screaming. I'm like, I swear to God, I was like Cuba Gooding Jr. in Jerry Maguire at that point. I was like, show me the money. Like, I couldn't believe it. I went, like I said, three years prior, I'm selling T-shirts and rollerblades at the sport check. You know what I mean? And now I'm signing a multimillion-dollar contract.

It was surreal. But that's, for me, how it was. Obviously, it didn't end well for dale for that situation for him but again i ended up going to florida and playing with dale and me and dale haven't have a really really good relationship so it sucked that happened to him and again i don't know who files paperwork but i'm just guessing it's not not dale you're like dad i can buy you a tractor now i don't need to work with you thanks thanks a lot for taking me to the rinks when we were at that riding lawnmower yeah so yeah like the thing about chicago that's so great and it's

definitely changed with the dynasty that formed there but in terms of media coverage and like craziness it's it's not that nuts i mean they have so many teams in that city and then you get to toronto it's like oh boy so it must have kind of been almost annoying in a sense where you're coming over as a cup champion and you got to deal with this media. Like, did you enjoy your time there? Granted it was brief or were you kind of like, I'm all set? No, I, I enjoyed my time there. It was tough because I didn't put my skates on until about two days before camp, you know? So I had a bit of a rough start there. I think I had like one, one or two points in my first 11 games. I had a bit of a rough start there.

I think I had like one or two points in my first 11 games. And I bought an Audi R8 actually in Chicago and I brought it to Toronto. And in my parking garage, someone spit all over it and they wrote in it, like they carved in like, you know, you suck and all this stuff. Oh, my God. So I remember I didn't tell the media this. Was it Babcock? Babs was tweeting in. He was framing him tweeting in but uh no so i remember finuff was saying hey steger how's your r8 how's the spit on your eight and all the media kind of like heard it

and then like a few days later i remember hearing like who the fuck is versate think not the fuck but who does versate think he is you know complaining about his $150,000 car getting spit on and I'm just thinking dude I don't care if I had a $5,000 car it got spit on but also I wasn't complaining to the media that was kind of where I really realized like the fishbowl and what it is like it's not just about hockey there's a lot of other things that come along with it and you got to really understand that and be able to prepare for that but all in all like Phil Kessel was my roommate and me and Phil got along well we were also together a little bit in Boston uh and and there was great guys there too so it was a good experience uh and Berkey and me had a

really good relationship too but it was a good experience it was just a different one and it was a short one any memories of Phil I mean you play with him in two different spots in terms of just how about what a natural he is? It's just like – I'm guessing the pregame naps, he's just rolling out of bed like, see you at the rink, Steger. It's sickening. I remember even in Boston, Whitesides during camp would make me and Matt Lashoff take care of him.

So he would always take the curtains, and he would take like a clothes hanger to make sure no sun got in right and one day i remember we're in pittsburgh and the clothesline falls off and it's like seven in the morning and the sun's peering in he's like oh my eyes oh my god steger turn the lights off i'm like stand up phil like what the fuck you know it just it was like constant stuff like that or even if like the next day he'd wake up the next day, he'd be like, ah, I feel terrible, Steger. I just, I feel terrible. Like it could have been that bowl of cheese you ate with pregame.

But then he goes out and scores two goals and assists. And he comes in the bus after he goes, Steger, not going to lie, felt terrible out there. Holy shit. You know, and I just be like, I want to kill this guy. He did a pretty good job of dealing with the media there like yeah how much flack he took for sure he he's uh just an unbelievable guy i i love phil chris i want to ask you you get traded like three times in a year maybe one day longer than a year what was going

through your mind during that you kind of like what the fuck i always say one team trades but that means another team wants you was was it getting pretty frustrating for you with that stretch? I had to tell myself that a lot. Yep. That year. Yeah. It was just, it was strange. You know, you get shipped out because of cap reasons and you go to Toronto and you're not on a great team. And then you go to Philly and I didn't play good in Philly. And then I go to Florida. So kind of at that point, I'm like, holy, I just want a Stanley a Stanley Cup and now I'm I've been traded like three times so I was like fuck this is it's really hard it is really hard and the other hard thing about that is is playing with new players and playing confident within a new system there's

something when like I'm a player that is a field player too like I make small plays and I need to make these tight plays and when you're not confident and you're in a new, you're in a new system or you're, you're there and you just can't make those plays. And I felt that way, especially in Philadelphia, I wasn't confident at all. But then when I got to Florida, when me and Dineen got together,

he, he sat me down and said he was going to use me in a big role. And, and I played really well for him at the start there and until the injuries and obviously shit kicked in. But yeah, it was psyche wise. a big role and and I played really well for him at the start there and until the injuries and obviously shit kicked in but um yeah it was psyche wise I was in a rough spot for sure who were you playing with in Florida where you got things going again like who were you vibing with offensively we had an unbelievable line that year is Stephen Weiss and Thomas Fleischman. And then at about game 48, I remember I tore my hip.

And then I came back, I think, another like 15, 16 games and then playoffs. But that first 48 games, it was crazy. Like everything was going in. We were playing so good. And it was so much fun. Just Weiss, unbelievable center. You didn't have to focus on playing D at all. He was just such a good two-way player.

And Fleischman, one of the most underrated skilled oh shooting players i've ever played with fleishman was sick and you know how you can just let people know how good he was just tell him detroit picked him in the second round yeah like he was a red rings pick and that means the guy's probably going to possibly be a hall of famer yeah exactly he battled injuries but he was so smart i remember that team you guys had because you lost in game seven to the devils. Was that double, double overtime? Yeah, man. Like that team was pretty good. And then you just can't get anything going in Florida.

It was, it's so difficult to like, you'd look at that team and you had some young guys cool call Von D and you're like, all right, we might get going. And then it just kind of kept fizzling out. Yeah, for sure. That, uh, well then the lockout happened, right. And, and I had hip surgery. I didn't do myself any favors. I definitely came back out of shape. And then we had, I believe it was Jovanosky had hip surgery and we had a couple issues with injuries and then, um then Garrison left to

Vancouver am I wrong I don't know he left somewhere so we lost some pieces and we had some injuries and then the next year so the lockout happened we didn't make the playoffs then we come back and I was coming off ACL and a couple other things and it just yeah you just couldn't find your mojo again and that was a team we didn't have any superstars great players, but we had a mojo to us and we had some swagger and confidence that year. And that helped. And after that, it pretty much left. That was when Talon was in Florida. At that point in time, had they had new ownership

and started introducing the analytics stuff? Because there was a weird point in time there where they went very hard on the analytics and then backed off and then Talon ended up having more control again well so i was gone in 2013 november back to the hawks they just got the new owner like a day before i got traded okay and the the only thing i remember is they had horacek in there and i think he was a good coach but i remember he was doing like triangle offense i was like what's triangle offense? Like it was one of the weirder things I've done,

but that was the only thing where when we were playing, I thought it was kind of strange. But yeah, after that, I guess they brought in all the analytics. You're like, yeah, that's the NBA on TNT, dude. This is hockey. We don't do the triangle offense, but I can't let that 2013-14 season go by without talking about one of my favorite stories.

And I'd love to hear your memory of it. But you were such a good player, and you were coming back from injuries. But, like, Deneen wasn't playing you. He was furious. And then I just remember thinking, like, this kid's going to snap because we landed in Washington, D.C. at three in the morning and he was waiting at the end of the bus and said Steger be at the rink at 10 a.m like take me through your whole thought process and how pissed off you were that next day yeah I was fucking pissed but but

the whole thing this might be a long story so cut me out no no no no no I love this shit yeah so I remember so like the whole lockout happens. He's pissed off at me. Rightfully so. I'm not in shape. Right. I then blow my ACL out and I come back like five months later to play. Five months after ACL, I fractured tibia.

Like, you know, I was a mess. And I told them, I'm like, Hey, I'm shit right now. Like I can't skate my hips hurting again, which I had surgery on. And I'm like, I'm not good, but they're like, you know, play, get in the lineup, play some power play, try to help. And then when I was playing, like, you know, rightfully so I'm not playing good. So they're not going to play me in situations, but also I'm like, fucking, you know, sometimes you're like, give me something too.

So then I'm pissed by this point, like pissed. And like we land in Washington 3am pulls me off. He's like, Steger, you're not in. And I'm like, fuck you, you know, fuck you. So the next day we wake up, I'm still pissed. We get to the, there's like me and I can't remember who it was, four or five guys. Me, me there. Yes. Oh, that's how red I was. I remember that we're like on the ice and Gordon Murphy, you know, we get out there and there's a bunch of pucks and I start flicking pucks in the stands and and Gord's not saying anything like he's not but I'm kind of flicking him in the stands because I want him to say something you know so I keep flicking him in the stands and I go down for a two-on-one

instead of shooting at the rink I shoot it in the stands you know so like what was it 10 minutes into practice maybe there's no pucks left on the ice gordon's like wait grab pocket there's none left so so i remember yeah so murph's like i guess practice is over there's no more fucking pucks left i'm like i guess so fuck you know so that was it that was that was the end of practice you can bag it or no you actually let you get off the ice oh he was just done he was done too i didn't think he wanted to deal with it he was disgusted but the best part was like oh my god this guy's getting out of here like and then you go to chicago like what a moment for you yeah you know what i i was so happy to go i remember we were in the room me you and upby right yep and that's kind of like where i tell the story like i remember

asking you because you're talking about what you want to do after your career and I was like don't you want to do radio and you're like no I want to do a podcast because I can kind of speak and do things so I mean kudos to you you followed through with it that night too but I was I was a little choked because at the time I I thought I was going to be in Florida and you signed for less taxes right um and so that kind of goes into it. And then out of nowhere, I was traded back to Chicago, which I was excited about, but it was a bit of a mixed emotion too, because I did want to kind of follow through with what was going on in Florida.

But then I go to Chicago and in Chicago, when I left in 2010, I was at the top of my game. And even prior in Florida, 2011, 12, top of my game. And then they get this guy coming back who has had, like, knee and hip surgery, and I'm horrible. So they must have been like, where the hell did this guy go, you know, the last three years when I came back? So for the fan base, I don't think it was easy for them. And it was very hard for me, especially that 13-14 year. Just the, I guess, the criticism and everything I was taking,

especially knowing what I was going through. It sucked, but all in all, 2014-15 happens, and then you win a Stanley Cup. It obviously comes full circle, and you feel pretty good about it. For Stig, I just want to go back to the South for a minute. Teams down South, Nashville, Carolina, all these teams have had success, won Cups, but it seems like the Panthers are the only ones

who haven't had any sustained success since, like, 96. Do you think they'll ever find it down there I know Miami's like a bad sports town but it just seems like they're the one southern team that just can't seem to latch on like every other team down there I don't get it the big thing for their fans is that arena it's in a horrible area there's nothing to do out there so after games there's nothing for them to go do so that's a hard sell for a fan base and as a team they have pieces but i watched them they're not physical enough they they lost uh i forgot the right-handed shot demands and just they're not in guys faces enough and sometimes might that might be you know you're playing it's hard playing in front of an empty stadium so

there's not the extra energy there where tampa like they have extra energy because they got a great fan base that's that's at every game and they got you know like no taxes and a great team so it helps too but then you go to florida and it's like an empty building and so different and there'd be like a one one game like third period two minutes left and i swear sometimes i'd have to slap myself in the face like be like holy shit like we're in a game here so they're there's yeah at a certain point you got to be like okay we understand that like it's in good financial position because i think when the owner owner got it it was kind of like the arena and land play and franchise values have gone up but you know and and and i may be coming off as a hypocrite here because i work for an organization who's also had a difficult time sustaining high-end success in the Coyotes. But arena location is like such a major piece.

Look at Ottawa. That's a Canadian city where when they're not winning and playing well, people don't want to drive out 30 minutes to Kanata. They couldn't sell out the fucking playoffs. They couldn't. In Canada. Yeah. It's crazy.

How about after a game? You're in the bus because there's one way out of the parking playoffs in Canada. Yeah. It's crazy. How about after a game? You're in the bus because there's one way out of the parking lot. Right. Like, it's horrible. So, yeah, you're 100% right about the location. So, I got to jump to Russia because just to know that you got to experience what I experienced over there, like, was it pretty cool for you or were you like, get me out of here? It was just a quick stint. Yeah, it was like six weeks.

Dude, I got shingles over there. No. Oh, man. Talk about a panic. Yeah. So I got there and like they treated me good. It was fine. Obviously, it's a lot of a lot is different there, right? A lot's different. But I got there. And I don't know if it's a lot a lot is different there right a lot's different but i got there and i don't know if it's the bacteria in the food but i was fucking shitting like 40 times a day i'm like holy hell like i can't keep anything in my stomach and i remember talking to is it kevin dollman yeah he was over there i was like dolls man like i'm messed like i i can't eat i can't do anything so then like three weeks later my buddy comes out and I got this like rash and I'm showing the doctors and they're like eczema eczema my buddy's like man

there's like blisters so I send a picture to my doc in Toronto and he's like man you got shingles I'm like shingles you know and I'm I'm now sitting in a hotel in St. Petersburg. And I'm telling the team, I'm like, I can't, I cannot do this. Like I cannot play. My back is on fire. It feels like someone's burning you with a pen, like literally with a pen. So then, and then like, there's a little bit of issues with my family's visa at that time too. So I was, I was super stressed out about the whole situation. And, and then my wife was, you know, just pregnant with our new baby where we're trying to, and she got pregnant right before I left. Oh, you're a lot going on, man.

Yeah. And fuck man, it was just a hard situation kind of at that point. And that's where I was like, I just got to go. I got to go home. But man, I don't know if any of you guys had shingles. Holy, it is brutal. Yeah. It's caused by stress mostly, right? Yeah. Well, yeah. Yikes. But you went to Sweden after that though. You kind of finished up the season in Sweden, right? Yeah. So about four months later, a Swedish team bought me out. I had a couple opportunities to go to maybe a couple of Swiss teams.

They were going to pay my buyout for me to come in. And one of my buddies was the captain of the Swedish hockey club. So I ended up finishing in Vekla. I actually actually had a really good time the hockey's like rugby on ice though it's just rugby it's not even hockey and the ref crazy over there what is in switzerland sweden man it's physical they don't call anything like would you agree with that it's rugby on ice i remember even going to north americans i'm like i might as well just play you know rugby right now this is fucking brutal. Like the way they don't call anything.

And there's so many talented players there. Like in that league, that Bokefist brother, I was like, this guy's insane. And then I looked at his points. He had like 30 points in 50 games. I was like, what is going on? But like the holding, the hooking, the reffing is just atrocious there. It's so bad. So, but besides that, the living, if they could figure out the reffing is just atrocious there it's so bad so but besides that the living

if they could figure out the reffing in sweden and the rules it would be an unbelievable place especially at the end of your career to go play but that's something that they got to figure out because it's just the hockey is is not up to where it should be i think in sweden i just don't understand the rugby reference is that the way they like, so if a bison shit, if you get boxed out in your own end, like I remember I, I chipped the puck out of my own zone and a guy came in front of me and boxed me out like from my own zone,

there would be like little plays. If you're going into the corner, like a 50, 50 puck and you're holding someone on your back, a guy would just bear hug. You pick you up, move you and then take the puck. You know what I mean?

It was just like, and the other thing is in Sweden, they played these five man pressures so they just pressure points all over and that's what chicago is actually trying to do because they have all the swedish coaches but you can't do that in the nhl because the ice is smaller and also the pressure point if you miss someone in the nhl it's a penalty or if you hook them or slash them but in sweden the slashing like on your hands and all that that's why you can high pressure there and the ice is bigger too so if you get beat you can still kind of get back so that that for me it was just like it was a it was a scrum all over the ice then to get to the net no chance you're getting to the net sounds like the 95 doubles yeah yeah it was put me to

sleep by describing it yeah i'm telling you it it's they got to fix that over there because the players are elite like these guys are sick um i mean did you guys talk about calgary and los angeles at all i went to take a piss so have you guys uh hit on these teams later in your career no we're gonna mention that you were you were lucky man you were able to finish your nhl career with the hometown flames that must have been quite a thrill for you hey yeah that was that was awesome there's no way i could have handled that early on in my career so it was all over the front page of the paper it would be so bad to play in your hometown early on well in those days but you know now at the end of my career you know i have my family and everyone it was it was an awesome experience

bradshaw levin brought me actually i was at the Oilers camp and I decided to go to Calgary it had a bit bigger of a role I was told by Tree and and they followed through they gave me a role and it was just an awesome experience we made the playoffs that year I remember a funny actually a little story we're in a bit of a schneid during the season and I have a buddy I always bring bring around his name's nuts and he's a bit bigger, but anyways, uh, everyone thinks that when we turned the corner that year, it was because uh, Gullitson let us have beers on, on the train. But what happened was, is a little bit before that I put my buddy in the sauna, he got naked and I put them in the sauna. And so Goudreau and Monaghan would go in the sauna every morning and they get in the sauna and they're like sitting next to this naked guy they're like who the hell is that guy so they come out and

they're like Brad Paschal's naked in the sauna right now and then all of a sudden my buddy comes strolling out and it's him so that was kind of like a moment on that season I remember you know that kind of loosened up the boys and we actually went on a heater after that and made the playoffs it was it was an awesome time and an awesome experience there all thanks to your degenerate buddy yeah what a nickname nuts that's what you call nuts yeah oh my god did you know that at the end of the the next year um that that was probably in the nhl like you know like are you going over to russia thinking maybe i can get back in the league what's the approach there mentally i think a little bit of both. That last year in Calgary,

so I didn't get allowed to play in Switzerland because my hip was not in good, you know, it wasn't good. So I came back from Switzerland and I actually went to Edmonton camp. So it was like torn again, like retorn. It had actually been torn for about two years, but I was just playing with it. And then that year in Calgary started off, I heard it in camp and then in Dallas that night I turned on it and it tore and I remember like asking the doc like can I play he's like yeah you can play again it's just not

going to be fun so kind of at that point I was like well I gotta try to play again and then going into the next year there wasn't anyone who was interested really maybe I had a PTO possibility with one team but again like it didn't look like a good option so then Russia came and had a couple offers in Russia and Switzerland so I figured if I go to play in Russia maybe I play good maybe yeah I can get back in the NHL and I went there and obviously just stressed out and it didn't work out then went to Sweden and actually I played really well in Sweden. And that's why then I came back the next year. I played with Rockford for a little bit.

But man, I was getting hit every shift out there. And then the ups and downs. And I remember talking to Brian Campbell after the game. And he's just like, I asked him, I'm like, when did you know it was over? He goes, when I couldn't deal with the highs and lows anymore. And I'm like, man, I can't deal with them. Like I can't deal with the highs and lows. I still felt I could physically do it, but I knew my chance in the NHL was over and I

wasn't willing to go through those highs and lows and also take a young kid spot in Rockford. If I'm just going through the motions, it's not fair to those kids either. Knowing what I went through at that point in my career, I didn't want to take that from another kid. So it was just like, it made sense for me to wrap it all up there in November and then you are away from at the rink. And also social pressure, especially in markets where the media is a little bit crazier than others. So it's just like you're riding this constant wave. And I don't think people understand how much it ages you as an athlete. I've never heard that described the way Supi did. It makes so much sense because you can, when you're younger, all right, the highs are great.

The lows, I'll get back. And then you get older. It's like, dude, I don't know if I'm going to get out of this low. No, it's down near depression almost. You're sitting there, and then you're waiting for the next game, and you're like, okay, if I play good, maybe I can feel good tomorrow. And then you play that game, and you play like trash, and you haven't got another point in like three games.

You're like, oh, God, maybe I'm down. And then you leave the rink in Rockford. Yeah, no, and it was fine there, but you're like oh god maybe i'm down and then you leave the rink in rockford yeah no it's well and it was fine there but you're right it's you're you're back in the minors and you're supposed to be a good example for these kids too right so there's a bit of the pressure there too and i was just oh man i just couldn't go through it anymore okay you're probably gonna give us the best breakdown out of anyone possible you've had on the show so you experienced Kaner when he's a little bit younger and I'd say going through more of his party years.

And then you come back the second time around and like, talk about a guy who just really, he just figured it out. Seems like he completely devoted his entire life to hockey and, and just like talk about the difference between them then. And then the second time around and also like just watching him day to day and like i mean he's gonna go down as probably the one of the best american players of all time the best man so everyone's always like tase you know and tase is tase is like a workhorse and he's dialed but still i've never seen someone work like kane especially on the ice after practice

you know when practices were over especially near the end of record i'm like i'm out you know i'm not staying and but he he stays on long he works on his game he even skates all summer you know and and he's constantly working on his game and doing things to try to either keep up to par or or get better um the second time around he was just hyper focused you know i've you know when games would happen like there would always be funny things on the ice if I ever played them like what's your job tonight I'd be like I don't know he'd like get the puck to me that's your job you know he'd always kind of fuck with me like that but like when he's playing he's hyper focused especially again later on in his career and even at practice he definitely wanted to be the best if not the best and it was

it was something to watch. I definitely learned a lot from him and now I got young kids and, you know, I see what he did at practice. And I know I'm kind of like a crazy hockey dad. I try to do that with them and little things that he rubbed off on me. I try to instill in them, but he, he changed, he changed a lot, but he was also a lot of the same because when he was young, he still worked. It was just obviously on another level later on. One other guy i want to ask you about when you were in calgary you saw his first couple years in the league matthew kachuk we've had him on the show

before what's his ceiling uh in the nhl well it's high he he's he's a prick man he's nasty out there he's exactly what your team needs to win i've he you know i watch anton antoine rossell and everyone's like god you know tell him toton antoine rusell and everyone's like god you know tell him to calm down out there tell him to stop going against uh ryan reeves and waken regions i love that shit like i love it because the second they say reeves turns the puck over something happens you can hop on but imagine being that annoying and being as good as matthew hard right like you're r And like, you know, every guy around the league and the other locker rooms, like, I fucking hate this guy. He's the biggest loser in the

world, but it's just like, no, the minute he, he gets on your team, you're like, this is what, this is a piece that you need to win. It's unbelievable. Exactly. And then, and then you add the element of Kachuk's, uh, uh, an elite player and elite player. He's a lead around the net. He has high, his hockey IQ is sky high. Obviously he doesn't have the ability of a Connor McDavid or those guys, but what he can do in and around the net below the goal line, he's a lot like his old man like that. He sticks his butt out and he can hold guys off.

The best players can all hold guys off, especially in tight areas. And he's one of them and he can create so much. And man, it's just, you have so many different elements of a player and that's one of them and he can create so much and man it's just you you have so many different elements of a player and that's why you get matthew kachuk and that's why he pisses off everyone but i love it and i remember during that year when he was getting suspended and he was doing some of those things the elbow dowdy i remember i pulled him aside and i'm like don't change i'm telling you bud don't change maybe maybe you can toe the line a little bit but don't change because you need to be you yeah it also in some cases it gets those guys into the game they need to be like that in order

to gain the juice 100 especially in today's game right it's hard sometimes oh my hey i don't i like the old game because i like the emotion involved i do feel like some of the regular season game becomes a little bit too much like a video game now where it's – I don't think soulless is a fair word to use, but just feel like, I don't know, maybe shorten the schedule that make games more intense. Berkey says something. He calls it like a Sunday skate or whatever.

It's robotic. They're robots a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So me and R.A. were talking about this, and when you retired, you kind of had a lengthy – you wrote and ra were talking about this and and when you retired you kind of had a a lengthy you wrote and were very open about the fact that maybe you had a chip on your shoulder and all about all that stuff like looking back now and the way it all went down do you have any regrets

are you are you happy with it how it mapped out and like what would you have done differently maybe i i the biggest regret i have is not taking that lockout. Seriously. I did not think we were going to play. I did not. I agree with you. Fuck. Like I was lighting it up in Cardiff. I don't know.

What was I thinking? Not going to play hockey, dude. You didn't go to Europe. I know. I didn't go play hockey. I was coaching a university team back in Lethbridge. Like I was like,

my buddy was the coach you were having, you know, we'd have drinks and, and I didn't skate. I just put my skates on and push pucks around, you know, same, like I should have done exactly what you did. And I have that regret because you're getting paid so much money, but not so much the money part, but the window is so small to do it. And I think I let my guard down a little bit that summer I just came off I had actually double groin surgery then I had hip surgery and then I showed up kind of fat and I blew out my ACL so it was just like karma yeah a little bit I feel for me and what makes it even tougher is you want to Stanley Cup you're younger you've made some money so it's so easy now to look back at the time you're like I'm fine I going to light this league up another five, six, ten years.

And it's just so not the case every time, it seems. It's not. When you let your guard down, man, especially in this league, it'll catch up to you real fast. Well, I got to ask you this because I'm using air quotes, but like a kid from Lethbridge who had no chance to play in the NHL and you ended up doing it and you were so successful and like playing against you, playing with you, had's so much respect that the day you did retire,

was it emotional? Like I remember myself kind of breaking down, calling my dad. Was it, was it hard for you? Yeah, a hundred percent. I remember, you know, I call my mom, everything I did was for her, you know, my mom and my grandma and grandpa, like without them, you know, like we couldn't afford to play hockey, you know, and my grandma to this day, says, you know, if it wasn't for hockey, she we'd probably be dead or in jail. You know what I mean? And that's why they did what they did to keep me and my brothers in the sport of hockey. So all this stuff near the end of my career, I'm just like, man, I wish I could go on for them mentally and physically, but I just couldn't do it anymore. And I almost felt I was letting them down after what they did for me.

It really tough times in my life. So that, that's why I broke down was for her, was for my, with my mom and especially my grandparents. Yeah. Well, man, I'm so happy we finally got you on. And I think it's pretty much up to you, whatever you want to do. Hockey media wise. I think the way you've kind of approached what your Instagram does,

and not just talking about goals, but just stopping little plays, I've really enjoyed it, and I'm pumped you came on. So congratulations on a great career, and looking forward to catching up with you in person at some point, hopefully. For sure, boys. It was an honor. Thanks for having me on. Thanks so much, Stig. I got one more quick one for you. Who do you like for the cup? I like Tampa Bay. Okay. Yeah. Too bad I got one more quick one for you. Who do you like for the cup? I like Tampa Bay.

Okay. Yeah. Too bad I don't have money on them now. Stig, I think our fan base is really going to enjoy this, man. This is awesome. Feel free to reach out. You can come on anytime. Yeah.

Yeah, maybe if you figure out what's next, whatever it is, come on. We can pump that. You know how it is. Pump your new app. Yeah. No, for sure. We'll meet you on Woolworth. For Stieg's app, it teaches you how to stick handle,

and you can get beers delivered in Lethbridge. Exactly. I could have the office portion of the app where you teach kids how to put rubbers on and call a girl an Uber and be respectful. That's why they want their money back. They're like, what happened? She got her pregnant. Fine.

All right, buddy. We'll talk to you soon. All right. Take care, guys. Huge thanks to Chris Christie for joining us, Biz. I love how he made the connection from his hometown to my hometown. I guess it was a pretty rough area he grew up in and, you know, said basically a lot of guys end up dead or in jail if they're not successful.

So definitely interesting points he made. I thought he was fantastic though. He was awesome. And looking forward to him popping off on his media career. I feel like he's one of those guys that, you know, he presents himself well on camera. He's been doing those Instagram videos and breaking down plays and power plays and shifts from the playoffs.

So check him out. Staglicious, correct? Staglicious. Staglicious. Stigalicious. Jesus Christ. S-T-I-G. That's all right, Biz. All right. Hey, everyone knows how challenging hiring is these days for business owners with more things to think about than ever before. Monica Stocks could relate. She needed to hire for a pivotal role at her construction company, GS Group, but was having a tough time finding the right person, especially with so many candidates out there. So she switched to ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter doesn't depend on candidates finding you, it finds them for you. Its technology identifies people with the right

experience for your job and actively invites them to apply, which is why you should try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash chicklets. That's how Monica found Lamont Jenkins. She said that ZipRecruiter sent Lamont's profile to her around five minutes after she posted her job because he was a great match for the role. Through ZipRecruiter, Monica's company has hired everyone from accountants to project managers to field scientists. But Monica's not the only employer who loves ZipRecruiter.

Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. See for yourself how ZipRecruiter makes hiring faster and easier. Try it now for free. That's right, free at ZipRecruiter.com slash chicklets. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash chicklets. That's C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S, ZipRecruiter.com slash chicklets. That's C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. ZipRecruiter.com slash chicklets.

I'm going to need a new fucking job soon after my Ben criticism. He had the first assist on that Klingberg goal. So 10 points in the last eight games. So I'm getting the sandpaper finish on that one. I would tell a late story come over the wire. We want to send congrats to Minnesota defenseman Matt Dumba on winning the King Clancy Memorial Trophy. It's given to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and

off the ice. And it was made significant humanitarian contribution to his community. Obviously dumb has been at the forefront of ridding this game of racism. He made the very emotional speech that kicked off the playoffs, which is a terrific job. He did. We talked about it before. So kudos and hats off to Matt Thumper on winning the King Clancy trophy.

Absolutely. One of the cool things we saw on Twitter bounce around the weekend biz was that old Ontario blues team picture. Steve Stamkos, John Tavares, Mike Talzotto, Alex Catrangelo and Michael Hutchinson on, I looked like they were about 10, 12 years old, 49-0-1, the one game they lost, Tavares missed on a sudden-death shootout goal, and he says that Stamkos never lets him forget it. Stamkos's dad was coaching the team.

Pretty cool little picture, though, floating around. Tough week for JT. Islanders move on. He's getting criticized on Twitter because he can't fucking finish in a minor league game. I tell you who they wouldn't have beat, fucking Welland Tigers. That's who they wouldn't have beat. I just want to mention that Del Zotto said, I think, on Twitter in response to Spittin' Chicklets, they were 49-1 in the summer.

Playing 50 games in the summer means you're a crazy person. So I guess 16 of them made the NHL. Congrats. But 50, did I misread that? I think he said 50 games in the summer. So for parents having their kids play 50 games in the summer, you're nuts. That's a stacked squad. A couple of the notes here.

Mark Savard, he stepped away from the Blues bench. He'd been working there as an assistant, just kind of out of the blue. I don't know. They didn't get into why, whatever. It's personal, none of our business, but either way, he did step away from the Blues. The Coyotes, business team, they're in the market for a new general manager. They've reportedly talked to Pierre Maguire and Sean Burke, among others. Arden? They've talked to Pierre twice, apparently apparently and everybody seems to have a problem with this but hey i'm you know me i'll give everyone a chance and there's nobody in the world who knows junior hockey players and where guys played more than pierre mcguire so you already know he's going

to be drafting incredibly he knows what these guys are eating for pregame meal in juniors. So if he does get the job, I will welcome him with open arms. Maybe he even needs an assistant. I wouldn't mind hopping back there. Christ, I may even throw my hat in the ring at this point. But there are a few other candidates. Sean Burke is apparently another guy. I think he had a four-hour meeting the other day with them. He knows the organization, knows a ton about the league.

He's been overseas scouting for the Spangler Cup, so he knows players in Europe as well. Of course, Steve Sullivan, who took over as interim GM when Chayka left because he was the assistant at the time when Chayka was the GM. So those are a couple of names that have popped up. I don't know who else has been interviewed. I don't really dive too much into it. I kind of wait for the news to roll out.

But, yeah, it should be interesting. Do I think Pierre Maguire is going to get the job? No. If he does, will I be surprised? Yes. Do I want it to happen because I want to see fucking Twitter explode? Yes. And it would give us another great topic of conversation for this podcast.

All right, Biz, go out and have some fun out there, will you? What do you mean? That's what PS says to players every time. Oh, yeah. Meow, right over your head. How about this? I got a DM slide the other day from former Washington Capitol, Jeff Halpern. He asked permission from Uncle Gigi if he could make a tribute donut

at his donut shop, Astro Donuts in Washington, D.C. He actually released a Gigi special donut. It was a jelly donut with the cream cheese glaze and bacon and sesame seeds on it. Obviously, it's in D.C. I didn't have a chance to try it out. But I was with Uncle Gigi when I said, hey, look, if a former pro player asked him permission,

he's like, yeah, absolutely. He was pretty proud, I think, G. And we're also releasing a full tutorial on the YouTube page of how to make the Gigi special, so keep an eye out for that. Gigi's like, no. Gigi's like, how much is he going to give me? No, not at all. He didn't want to send it.

He goes, I think he just was appreciative of the tribute. I think he just wants to share the greatness that he's created. That's the best thing you could do if you invented this awesome breakfast. It's funny because his wife, my aunt, she's a nurse of Mass General. And I guess they were on the break from something. A couple other nurses were talking. And each of the girls' boyfriends requested them to make the GG special for them. And she's like, that's my husband.

So he's becoming this little chick that's a celeb, and we still haven't even dropped the video yet. And it's going to be awesome. I mean, he was here for two hours. Obviously, we'll whittle it down to about 10 minutes because he talks more than I do. So I can't wait for that to drop. All right, I will say I've went on a few walks through Charlestown.

Every time I go for a walk, I see him at some point. Does he just cruise around Charlestown all day? Yeah, he goes for strolls. He likes to walk over the North End. Plus, Charlestown's so small. Dude, I've got more texts from people like, dude, was that Biz down at CVS? I think I just saw Biz. I'm like, yeah, he's in town.

He's strolling around. We've got a real-life celebrity bouncing around Charlestown. Robin Banks. I'm going to really adapt. Yeah. You need a wheel, man? All right, boys. You got anything else you want to share?

We're going to wrap this up. One last thing to share. Just so we're leaving the island yesterday. The first boat we're on is at 2. And then, yeah, you go to brunch, have a couple of drinks. The next thing you know, you're going to the beach and it's like 1230. You're like, no, no, I got to leave the next one, 450 or whatever it was. Well, what do you know?

It's like 50 minutes before the thing leaves. And I'm with Ned Haver and everyone knows he's a former Chicklets guy, Sean Horkoff, Keith Yandel. We're hanging out, having a great day. And Ned had parked like uh he thought we were at a different beach he'd parked like kind of a mile away and then they were walking the beach he's carrying coolers so at the end of the day right like we're now have to go return the rental car get it downtown hop on the ferry so we're gonna drive his wife to their car where they parked. So you drive down this dirt road, then you drive down another dirt road and up another road to the next beach over

the next parking area for the next beach. Well, I dropped Ned's wife off and I go to back up and just kind of like do a three point turn to get going forward. It's a one lane road, right? forward. It's a one lane road, right? And dude, I'm stuck in the sand. I'm going reverse. I'm going forward. So I'm not only stuck, I get all right. Look, I'm like, are you shitting me right now? But I'm sideways. So the one lane roads blocked. So anyone that's trying to leave the beach cannot get there. And my ferry ends up leaving. I think it was leaving in 23 minutes. And the Waze said it was going to take me 17 minutes to get downtown. I'm like, oh my God. Now I am so bad with anything like car related, like stuck in the dirt. It might as well be Ryder trying to get the car unstuck. My heart is just racing. I was more worried about how

embarrassed I was going to be when all these people were soon going to want to leave the beach and my rental car was blocking them. So all of a sudden, these three kids walk out, they're walking down, they're like, Oh, dude, we can help you push because I'm like trying to push my wife's in the car. It's in neutral drive. I know nothing about four wheel drive or anything. I'm like oh unbelievable this one kid he's like holy shit are you ryan whitney from spit and chicklets what the fuck are you doing i'm like unbelievable the kid goes i thought you'd be playing flying private i'm like oh my god i'm a peasant right now i know but these kids are awesome all of a a sudden, Ned's wife got in her car, and she sees him. She's like, oh, my God.

She gets in the driver's seat, four-wheel drive low. These three beasts help me. We push the car out of the sand. We go flying away. I get this kid, Will McGeachern's name and number. I'm sending him all this gear, legendary move. In the middle of helping me, he was able to chirp me and tell me I was a peasant for not flying private. And I bombed down the road. I got downtown in 15 minutes or 16 minutes,

the ferry left in four. I called the rental car place. I said, I'm leaving a double park right in front of the gazebo. And he's like, what? I just hung up and I just put the thing with the hazards on double park, sprinted down with my golf clubs and all of our bags. Last one is they're closing the ferry door no way so ned's wife was the one to figure out to put it in four wheel drive low and go reverse and forward and this kid will mcgacken and his two buddies are pushing and it was just an unreal ending to a great little vacation and me being helped out by some awesome people so um yeah i thought that was pretty pretty funny and all in the while

you being completely useless useless i'm the guy who's like directing them push push but it was i i'm not great with stuff like that um i got one last thing to say i got a text from ray shiro and a close family friend to him um is going through a difficult time. The whole family is. Sam Torney, who's in the middle of a huge battle and getting bone marrow transplant at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. So to the mom, Sally, to Bob, the father, brothers Bobby and Jack, we just want to, on behalf of the podcast, we want to wish him the best in getting through all this. And we're going to root for you.

And so they started a hashtag, and it's strong with a capital S, capital T to start, as in for Sam Torney. So he's going through something difficult right now. So on behalf, as I mentioned, of the podcast and our fan base and everyone, best of luck getting through this difficult time. Well said, Biz. We send out best. And that wraps up this episode. Could be in a better place getting through this difficult time. Well said, Biz. We send our best. Could be in a better place getting that done.

Absolutely. Well, that wraps up this episode. We'll be back again Thursday. We'll be a couple games deep. So, everybody, enjoy the hockey this week, and we'll catch up with you Thursday. As always, we'd like to thank our Dynamite sponsors here on Spit and Chicklets.

Big thanks to our friends over at New Amsterdam Vodka and Pink Whitney. Huge thanks to our new friends at Cross Country Mortgage. I hope you folks check them out. If you're looking to buy a house or if you want to learn more about the process, do check them out. Big thank you to everybody at Babbel.

I can't wait to learn a new language. Hopefully you folks do as well. Big thank you to HelloFresh. Hopefully all you Canadian listeners check them out. Like I said, no mess, no prep. It's so much easier. And big thanks to our longtime friends at ZipRecruiter. Check them out if you're looking to hire.

Have a great week, everybody. I got a feeling That tonight's gonna be a good night That tonight's gonna be a good night That tonight's gonna be a good, good night I got a feeling That tonight's gonna be a good, good night. I feel it. That tonight's gonna be a good night. That tonight's gonna be a good night.

That tonight's gonna be a good, good night. I feel it. That tonight's gonna be a good night. That tonight's gonna be a good night. We'll see you next time.