Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 297: Featuring Andy Sutton, SCF Update + More

Episode Date: September 24, 2020

On Thursday's episode of Spittin’ Chiclets the guys are joined by Andy Sutton. Andy joined (53:01) to talk about his NHL career, playing with the Whit Dog in Edmonton, playing in Atlanta for the Thrashers and a bunch more. The guys also recap Games 2 and 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, as well as break down the NHL awards that were named earlier this week. The guys wrap up with some NHL news, the new TSN documentary and an insane Golf story from Whit.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 297 of Spittin' Chicklets presented by Pink Whitney. For my friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here on the Barstool Sports Podcast family. We're coming to you fresh off of game three. Tampa Bay with a stomping, but let's say hi to the boys first. Producer Mikey G, how we doing guy? What's going on guys? Just slinging some t-shirts here in the concrete jungle.

There you go, back in New York City. Biz, what's going on, guys? Just slinging some t-shirts here in the concrete jungle. There you go. Back in New York City. Biz, what's going on out in the desert? Yeah, I was pretty amped up before game three. I thought we were going to get some excitement. First period, a lot of action. But wow, the mush god is back. Big time. Biz, what's going on in life, though?

Oh, life? I worked out today. I actually got on the bike starting my tour de france bid and i'll tell you what i don't think it's going to be my lungs or uh or my legs that are going to prevent me from completing the tour de france i rode the bike for probably 25 minutes and i think i have hemorrhoids like it is fucking sitting good sitting on the saddle that long dude i off, my arse was killing me. I don't know how those guys – You're supposed to be stand-up.

You're probably supposed to be stand-up pedaling a little bit for that training. No, no. You got to get like a special seat that has like the gel in it. And I think these guys have a pretty good routine as far as how they coat their five-hole with all these gels and liquids and stuff. So it's like slippery and slidey down there. I'm going to start researching it. I've had a lot of criticism as far as people not thinking I can complete the Tour de France with 18 months of training. Well, I started today on the stationary. I actually rode during the entire first period. So

really proud of myself. Like your normal days of being a scratch. Correct. Yeah. That's well, that's, I guess that's another story. Uh, if you want to get into that, when you were a healthy scratch, you would have to work out during the first period and usually it was a tough bike ride being a healthy scratch in the NHL suck because you get bag skated after pre-game skate then when you showed up for the game I would always have to warm up and then after warm-up you'd have to go in the gym and get a workout in so uh yeah a lot harder than actually having to play. Still get paid, though, right? That's true. The check's still clear, my friend.

Absolutely. Well, Stanley Cup Game 3, like we said, just finished up. Tampa captain Steve Stamkos returned to the lineup for the first time. All playoffs. It seemed to really fire up the lightning. He scored on his first shot. He took all playoffs. Kucherov scored in a breakaway right before that.

What do you call it? Dallas cut it to 2-1, but Tampa just ran away with it. Their stars were just better tonight. Hedman scored, Point scored, Palat scored. It was just too much too soon for Dallas tonight. Biz, let's go to you first for your take on the game. You mean like every guy that I said was tired and burnt out, just like lighting the lamp after game one when I picked the stars to end this thing in five or six games.

Yeah, they look good. I mean, I'll tell you what, guys. Let me read you this post from Steve Dangle, and this is regarding Stamkos. 2010, Olympic snub, scored 51 goals that year. 2011, game seven of Eastern Conference finals, face broken, they lost. 2014, Olympic lock. He breaks his leg. 2015, Stanley Cup Final.

T-Base top scorer in goalie hurt, losing six. 2018, no NHL in Olympics. 2019, first place swept in round one. 2020, out for six and a half months, three of which were in the bubble. Returns for game three of the Stanley Cup final, scores, and then looks as if, though, he's going to be out again. So the highs and lows going into this game, when I saw that he was playing tonight, dude, I had goosebumps for him.

I did. And then when he scored that goal, man, like I'm a hockey fan through and through. And, you know, when I talk about Sid and I talk to all these great guys who literally devote their lives to the game, like, in order to entertain us, of course they're doing it for their self and their love for the game. But, like, you just know how much they put into it and how much they want it. And it was unreal when he scored that goal. I think the fucking Twitter exploded.

Everyone in the hockey world was just loving life. And then to see him not come out for the second period, all the tweets start rolling out. And it looked as if, though, when he came back, he kept trying to go on the ice between TV timeouts. And I don't know what the injury is. It's clearly lower body. Somebody said he even might have switched skates or something.

And I don't know if it's foot or ankle, but it's just such a shame. But I was so happy for him to get that goal. And you could see that that team was so amped up to get that W for him. That is just a jolt of energy through that lineup. And I was happy they got the dub for him. But overall, a great performance. Now, to start off this game, I actually like the way Dallas came out. And even in that first seven minutes when they went down two goals,

it was just two quick defensive blunders. But then even after that, I felt that they took control. 16 shots in that first period, outshot Tampa 2-1. It looked as if, though, maybe the emotional highs of coming in and the fact that they had Stamkos in the lineup might have taken a little bit of wind out of their sails. But like many good teams do that have that many weapons, they

capitalize on their two opportunities, they get out of the period up 2-0 and then, or 2-1, excuse me, after Dickinson had that beautiful knee drop snipe on the penalty kill which was one of our prop bets going into this one. But then Hedman with a quick one in the second period,

and that kind of created that separation, and that's really all they needed in order to go on and win game three. Biz. Feeling it. Great job. And now the Stamkos thing, I couldn't agree more with you because in just seeing the fact that he's on the ice and seeing the fact that the guys are so fired up,

and then when he scored, they had the camera down the bench. You see Cologne go nuts. I think he hugged scored. You could tell, like, man, this isn't just, like, maybe the best player in Tampa Bay Lightning franchise history. He's, like, the captain of this team. Like, these guys have missed him so much. They love him.

And to see him getting back and just do that, what a legend. All the tough luck he's had in his career. He's still going to go out there and he's playing that injured where he scores this highlight reel absolute snipe. Picks the corner. Literally perfect shot.

He actually is doing that injured. To watch it, it was incredible. I felt so bad and really sick to my stomach when they said he wasn't coming back out. Naturally, the guy is such a beauty. He's such a great teammate. He stays on the bench the rest of the game.

He's firing everyone up. I'm wondering if from the beginning it was really hurting. And he's like, I don't know if I can do this. And then he scored a goal. He's like, all right, I made an impact. Or if something happened after the goal. But just to see that go on tonight, I mean, no wonder they win.

He gets that goal. And let me tell you, the first period, I do agree with you, Biz. Dallas looked great. And especially after Game two first period with Tampa just shit all over them so Dallas has a good response and they're only down one goal but that second period I don't know what the hell was said in the locker room who knows if Stamko said something or somebody else mentioned what he'd been doing and what he did for this team but they came out and that second period was maybe the best period of hockey i've ever seen a team have in the playoffs talk about recency bias but jesus that was it was an absolute shit kick in the

entire 20 minutes and just and then you you do it there when they go like that there no no one can match with them dallas vegas wouldn't have been able to either and i'm i don't want to speculate here but in where you could probably speak to this as well. Like my last year, when I tore my first ACL, I, I prehabbed it in order to come back to try to finish the year. And by the end of my,

my first round of like, like prehab therapy, you know, the days before I was coming back, I was like, yeah, I feel ready to go. It feels back to normal.

Like I think I could do this, but game speed and the instincts and the reacting, and especially when it comes to lower body, the minute you're in that live action, man, if you're not a hundred percent and it's something that's very crucial, like an ankle or a foot where you need that stability or knee, I don't know.

If you tweak it, if you tweak it once, man, like I know for ankles, anyone will tell you anyone who's ever sprained their ankle. If you tweak it, if you tweak it once, man, like I know for ankles, anyone will tell you, anyone who's ever sprained their ankle. The biggest, once you sprain your ankle line is everyone's like, ah, yeah, you're better off breaking it. No shit.

But every single time that you go on the ice coming back from something like that, you tweak it and it's like debilitating. Like whether it's for the next hour or two hours or whether it's even just for like two minutes. So we don't know what it is, but just to see him out there. I mean, people are kind of saying that Hugh Dobin was off his angle, maybe a little bit, but, dude, he picked it at the elbow. It was the perfect shot, and it was a great moment.

Definitely the most memorable moment of this series so far. What stood out to you the most, R.A., in Game 3? Well, actually, just to stick with Stamkos for a minute, I think we're going to see this comparison a lot, and it even predates me, is Willis Reed with the 1970 New York Knicks. It was Game 7. He was all banged up. They didn't know who he was going to play,

and all of a sudden he walks down the tunnel at Madison Square Garden. The place goes nuts. Nobody knew who he was going to play, and it just lifted the team, and they ended up winning the Game 7, won at Madison Square Garden. The place goes nuts. Nobody knew he was going to play. And it just lifted the team. And they ended up winning the game seven, won the title that year. Reid won the MVP. I know it wasn't game seven, but it had shades of that because, you know, the guy wasn't 100%, didn't play the whole game.

Similar to Stamko. So I just wanted to piggyback on that. First, his first shift, I actually, I was watching him and he did a couple like stops and starts very quick. A couple of pivots. He went in on a four check and ended up being a set four check, but he pivoted to chase down that guy who picked it up behind the net from Dallas. And I was like, wow, he looks great. He was flying. So maybe something did happen that nobody caught.

It could be something away from the puck. It doesn't really have to be something where you're getting run into. But you've got to think with what happened, him not playing in the second or third, he's done for the series, right? If you had to guess? I don't know. I mean, once again, I was shocked that he even came back.

I thought they were just – I don't know. I thought maybe Koop was just playing it in the media in order to make it one more worry for Dallas to think about. Like, I don't know. Sometimes people play the little bit of the mental warfare as far as the media is concerned. The mind games? Yeah, the mind games. But, man, the last two games, the stars for the Lightning have definitely shown up.

And, I mean, just going back to game two, must win for the Lightning, right? You can't go down 2-0. Actually, before that game, they were 5-0 following games after losses. And Kucherov had had seven points in game in those five wins after losses up to that point. So, I mean, for people who listen to the podcast and probably heard me say Kucherov, Hedman, and even Palat were lugging a ton of ice time and seemed a bit burnout. You also probably heard me criticize Tampa's power play before that for going old for the previous 14 and one for the last 19.

Well, Kucherov and Hedman had two assists each in the first, after they went two for three on the power play after the first 20 minutes of game two. And then Palat had one of the power play goals. So I could I couldn't get one thing right and and then you look to game three as well and uh you got Palat with a goal and assist Kuch with a goal and assist and Hedman with a goal and two assists and uh now they're of course after that game game two win six and oh uh following losses with Kucherov with nine points.

So just talk about, you know, just responding after losses like that, especially come playoff time. That's just a sign of an absolute wagon. But listen, throw this one out the door. They got Duby a little bit of rest there in the third period by throwing in the backup. Plenty of hockey left. Dallas down 2-1. They could easily come back and tie this series next game.

So we got to get into that we made bets on the Barstool Sportsbook, correct, Mike? We did. We had our own prop bets, boys. Okay, so this is now a thing, everyone. So we're going to be able to create our own bets. Now, who makes the lines? Penn National.

Okay, so we tell them we want the bets. We're going to figure out to create our own bets. Now, who makes the lines? Penn National. Okay, so we tell them we want the bet. We're going to figure out a line. All right. We don't know. We don't have a plus 80,000 that I won't cut my hair. We hit on the chicklet shorty, though, boys. We hit on the chicklet shorty. Yeah, so we got it.

That's what I was going to say. So we got a winner. So what were those odds for the shorthanded goal tonight? Dickinson. Plus 750. How many people were messaging you that they bet it? Tons of people. Tons of people.

We got tons of stuff on Instagram. I got a lot of people texting me asking me if I was in Pennsylvania. So if you would have bet $100, you would have went 750? Correct. Oh, wow. That's a nice payout. Good math, Miz. Yeah. There750? Correct. Oh, wow. That's a nice payout. Good math, Miz. Yeah.

There was also some other ones, too. If Tyler Sagan got a power play goal, that didn't hit. If Corey Perry, if his over, under, and penalty minutes. So we have some cool ones, and we'll have some cool ones coming out again, too. Did anyone catch Corey Perry skating down the ice, barking at Hedman in the game? In game three? Perry's completely, he's lost his mind on the ice.

He's just, he'll do anything at any time, anywhere in a game to win. And barking in the face of the best defenseman on the other team, I respect it. Well, he also put Paquette in a noogie headlock in game two, too. That little sequence was hilarious. And then, uh, I was actually messaging the group chat at the end of game three, when they were scrumming Dallas was getting a little bit chippy.

They were trying to throw some cheap shots, but mind you, I guess it would be fair to say Maroon kind of started it in game one by shooting the puck in the bench. This is, they weren't going to be playing any tummy sticks. This series, um,

Lelski gave good row, a nice cross check to the ribs and they played together in San Jose. So then Paquette got in there. There was a bunch of shit at the end of that game. I enjoyed it. Now, I know I was wrong on a lot of things, but I did mention the fact that if Tampa was going to go

to 12 D and 6 forwards, I would have liked that better than doing 11 forwards in 7 D. Just for the simple fact that I felt that they were running their forwards quite a bit. And, you know, there's a lot of skating in today's NHL. And I feel like that extra forward does make a difference. So in game two, they did switch that up. They did go with 60 and 12 forwards.

And, of course, in game three with Stamkos being in, same thing. So they've looked good going with that formula. So I'd imagine moving forward, they stick with that as well. It's's funny a lot of people thought cory perry oh he's automatically going to get a penalty because it was one and a half was the total which is basically will he get a penalty or not but if you looked he only had two minors in his previous seven games well now it's two minors in his last eight he's actually been playing some pretty disciplined hockey so if you took that all of you that went to to the shit. I had the chance. I ain't got to experience playing with Corey Perry.

Every single night he'd be in the middle of the shit all game long. It was, he, he busy was one of those guys who he couldn't play without just being in the middle of some sort of like, uh, how would I call it? Just like a rat fest absolute pile in the crease or in the corner.

He lives for those moments. So I'm just thinking back to playing with him. And then every single night he seemed to score. I mean, I was with him right at, I would say, in his best five years in the league. I think I was with him for one of those years. He was dominant. So I think that guys like him and guys like Cogliano and some other veterans and Pavelski and Ben and like this series is not over I know it looks like Tampa really has

the upper hand through three games but man I I think that this is still gonna go six or seven actually I'll ask you what is it almost better to get like blown out i know five two isn't really a blow up but it was five one is it almost get better to get blown out and just move past the quick than it is to like lose a three two ot game oh i mean you don't want to go to ot you don't want to you don't want to go to ot if you're going to end up losing that game unless you think that they're an older team and that more hockey may hurt them in the long run of a series but yeah it doesn't really matter all you say after is is it's we lost it the whole saying is true 10 nothing or one nothing it really doesn't matter because it's just on to the next game in a short series so I think Dallas is the only worry that they have is they actually came out and did exactly what they need to do in

the first period and they were still down so I I think that Hudobin, he hasn't looked great in these past two. Would you agree? Yeah, he had an off night tonight. I thought most of Dallas was off. I honestly would have pulled him after that fourth goal, more so to wake up the team than anything Darby was doing wrong. But they kept him in, and they ended up getting the fifth goal. This cup final is just, there's such swings,

because when all of a sudden it starts like you're trading chances back and forth, that's disaster time. That's when the panic light starts going on for Dallas. They can't do that with this team. They have to be able to dominate in their end, but they're not even able to create four checks most of that game tonight. Going back to game two, since we talked on the gambling subject, I know you guys had the puck line, Jesus.

Oh, that's fucking. And what'd you say after it? What did you say? Okay. Well, there's a couple of things here. So you guys, you shouldn't be blaming Goodrell for missing the empty net. First of all, you should be blaming because you should be blaming Coleman for not dragging his fucking leg.

Are you kidding me on the off side? Listen, I'll, uh, right now, Dallas is which I thought after Coleman went offside there, I thought they were going to tie the game. I thought they were going to win it. I thought, because Dallas has been on a heater as far as comebacks. They've came back in eight games

in this playoff, which is two off the NHL record for a team who's for any team in the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs, and guess who's number one at 10 the Dallas Stars no the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins with Chris Kunitz

they won 10 games coming from behind that year in playoffs and Dallas has done so 8 times this year that's a tough one that's a tough one to hear they got rid of me and then the team became resilient there's probably kunitz in the room telling them let's go boys this game ain't over wit's not here anymore well that's what i'm saying and like i in that first period they completely dominated and dallas gets two and then you know you think okay finally we've

created this separation we've got a little bit more insurance here putting it forward to uh right away when i saw it i said oh my god i said he kicked it out it was a slow puck going out why we they call that a ladder play in the nhl and then he ends up driving but all he had to do was just drag his leg a little bit but he didn't he kept his his feet flushed together of course offside comes back and then you guys were upset because you didn't win the the spread you had a goal and a half right so you you guys had the puck line there then goudreau at the end of the game there was 30 seconds left this is how i would personally handle the situation okay so i believe it was klingberg on the ice and as a clock's winding down clock management in your head

30 seconds he's just crossing over the blue line and klingberg is retreating back to the net to play as goalie i personally being up a goal in that situation if i'm goudreau i would have skated right to the offensive zone corner and i would have tried eating the puck against the wall because by that time you could kill at least he shoots that he misses the net he creates their rush you're telling me well he shot it and missed. That's my opinion on it. Okay, well, Biz, I'm shaking my head at you because you've got to try to end the game. You're ending the game.

You go and rag the puck in the corner. Okay, there's 31 seconds left. You go into the corner. You get down there, and somebody is in and attacking you, I'm going to say by 27 seconds left, okay? Time out. There was no back pressure on him. There was none. And Klingberg had already retreated. I disagree with you. He'd already retreated to the net. So I personally

would have went to the corner. By then, you're probably looking around, and you don't got to sprint to the corner. You're there at about 25. I'm just saying that within four seconds, there's going to be contact, okay? Agree with me on that one? Sure. Within four seconds, somebody's... Sure. Okay. Then you're going to get a two-on-one. They're up a man. They have no goalie, and they're going to be contact. Okay? Agree with me on that one? Sure. Within four seconds, somebody's... Sure. Okay. Then you're going to get a two-on-one. They're up a man.

They have no goalie. And they're going to get the puck. So say the team, worst-case scenario, if you're trying to rag it, gets the puck back. They got 20 seconds left to go down and score. Look at Alex Hemsky scoring a goal against fucking Dallas when Patrick Stephan pulled the stupidest move of all time and whiffed on the empty net. Pucked off, Donald. That was three or four seconds. So you have the chance to end the game. You put it in the empty net, and he missed the net.

And it cost me and R.A. a bunch of money. So it's not about you trying to say that you'd go in and fucking eat it up against the wall like you're playing on back in peewees when you were way bigger than everyone else. If you did the drill, you had to protect the puck. That ain't going to work. Well, yeah, maybe you being soft in the corners.

I would have been a fucking honey badger. No, but I would have got the stick in there. Pink! Poke it right out. I probably would have got a second assist, too, on that poke. Yeah, so. If I can hit a Tom and Jerry mouse hole from center ice at Chicago, then any NHL should hit a fucking empty netter from inside the blue line.

That's my take. Exactly. How about this? On the next round of New Amsterdam skill competition, we could fucking go in the corner and we'll see who comes out with a bitch. Time for hardest battle. Time for hardest bitch slap.

Like the t-shirt says, Biz, with the empty net you live by it, you die by it. You know what I mean? Well, Ari, you said that at one point in playoffs, and it was not at the beginning, that there was one game where it swung the by it. You know what I mean? Well, Ari, you said that at one point in playoffs, and it was out at the beginning, that there was one game where it swung the wrong way for you, and I believe it was one of the games, Boston and Carolina? Yeah, the Bruins.

They actually got the two-goal lead, and then Carolina pulled the goalie, got one, made it 4-3. It ended there, and it's not so much that I took a hard loss, but it's that I lost a lot of dough because I had Pauly's AIs. I had it wheeled every which way, so if it won, it would have hit a bunch of bets and it didn't. So yeah, honestly, that was the difference in my playoffs. I mean, I'd probably still be down a little bit, but it was a huge swing. Also, we got to mention in game two with his two assists, Kucherov broke Brad Rich's team record, most points postseason. Rich's, of course, did it back in 2004. Also

won him the Conn Smythe and then he partied into the night with yours truly. Snuck into a cup party that night. That was the first time I met Brad Richards. Biz. Good thing you're not fucking partying like Kostitsyn. Holy shit, this guy. You see that latest headline? No.

This guy's a... Oh, he was in Russia. Oh, what's he doing now? So Kostitsyn's in Russia. I played with him in Sochi. One of them. Is it Sergei?? So Kostitsyn's in Russia. I played with him in Sochi. One of them. Is it Sergei? Sergei Kostitsyn.

I played with Andre. Crashes his sports car middle of the night. Cops show up. He's there completely wasted. And then they're like, what happened? He goes, I don't know. I wasn't driving. So this is in Minsk.

I don't know what's going on with the latest but Jesus Christ these guys are just out of control where did they get where didn't they get in trouble uh when they were in Montreal there was a big like drug ring or something I don't remember the whole story but I know that Andre Kostitsyn loved crushing beers he was this guy was so skilled too he would just set up on the halfway give him one time-timers. His shot was a joke. I would say that are they both still playing over there right now? I would imagine. So they're getting paid by someone.

Sergey was the one that was with Radulov in Nashville, right? Yeah, they went out to the W the night. I saw them there. Too much ice! Shocker, you were there. Speaking of Radulov, he left the ice hurt tonight. I saw them there. Too much ice! Shocker, you were there. Speaking of Radulov, he left the ice hurt tonight. He went to go hit Coleman, and man, that was an awkward,

tough-looking landing visit. He went in behind the net. Hopefully he's feeling all right, because that was a fucking rough one to watch, I'll tell you. Yeah, he went down the tunnel, and then I think who was it? Gorianov ended up getting something in the face late in the game, too. Listen, we can move on from from dallas tampa

right now with the rest of the pod but uh at the end of the day i think in game four dallas's best players have to show up and and let's see if they can respond because in the last two games it's been it's been tampa stars who have shined the brightest no doubt is Google Andre Kostitsyn. Okay. K-O-S-T-I-T-S-Y-N. And look at the Montreal photo that pops up. How do you spell it again, please? K-O-S-T-I-T-S-Y-N. And then it's going to be the first oh my god

oh my you can't even get mad at that haircut that's the Ilya Brizgalov had that one too going I feel like every single person every single person in Russia has the exact same barber they go to the same guy there's one person in Russia has the exact same barber. They go to the same guy.

There's one barber in Russia. I didn't get a haircut over there. It's the same guy from Dumb and Dumber who cuts Jim Carrey's mop. Fucking bald cut. Oh, God. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. Holy shit, look at those bangs. Hey, boys, you been using your whoop at all or what?

Yeah. My recovery rate is outstanding since I got off that bender and I've just been sleeping about 10 hours per night. It's amazing. It tells you exactly how much sleep you need to get that night to get back to recovered. So if you had a long night and you if, if you, if you have a long night, the next day, it's going to say, Hey,

listen, you slept like five hours last night, three minutes of which was in the deep sleep. And you woke up 47 times. So tonight you need to sleep nine hours and 37 minutes. Boom. You do that. And you're back.

Nice technology. Exactly. In case you're on a way on a way at whoop is a fitness tracker that provides personalized insights on your sleep, your body's recovery, and the exertion put on your body throughout the day from both your workouts and just the normal stressors of life. WHOOP is worn by some of your favorite athletes in the NHL, but it's not meant for just professional athletes. WHOOP can help anyone improve their performance by providing personalized, actionable data to help you make smarter decisions.

I had some business in town the other day. I ended up walking four miles in downtown Boston just off a little stroll. It was great. I was able to check my personalized data, see how much I did walk, see how much my body was worn down. Like Wood said, see how much rest I needed after walking four hours. How many times did you sit down? Well, I had to hit the bank.

I had to go pay a bill somewhere. I sat down at Umberto's. I sat down and get some lunch. This is the RA workout. It's like his own triathlon. Including getting a chicken parm sub during the workout? No, just two squares at Umberto's. You do Umberto's, right?

No, I don't. It's a pizza place. Go ahead, Biz. Yeah. Well, I was going to say he goes and picks up a bag, takes a sit on the bench, goes and picks up a parm sub, takes a sit,

you know, goes and sees a couple buddies in Charlestown. Has a cigarette on the bench. Yeah. Let's, can the whoop tell me how my five hole

is going to recover after my hemorrhoids from sitting on the fucking bike for 25 minutes? Jesus Christ. I'm having a tough time sitting in this comfy chair right now.

Oh, geez. All right, well, anyways. Do you have to rub stuff? Do you have to rub stuff in there? Oh, sorry. Not yet. I'm going to start time sitting in this comfy chair right now. Do you have to rub stuff? Oh, sorry. I'm going to start. Oh, we got to keep talking about the whoop?

My bad. Yeah, got to get that promo code up. Whoop's recovery score is delivered to the member when they wake up so they know how to approach their day. Whether they're signaling they can go to a more intensive day at the gym or it's time to take a rest, whoop helps provide that feedback. Whether you're looking to sleep a little better or training for an event

or just looking to lose a few pounds, WHOOP can help you reach your goals for a healthier life. WHOOP is offering 15% off when you use the code CHICKLETS at checkout. Go to WHOOP.com, that's W-H-O-O-P.com, and enter the code CHICKLETS, C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S, to save 15%. Unlock your potential today with Whoop. I mean, wait, you've never been to Umberto's on Hanover Street?

The pizza joint? Never. They sell like the square Sicilian pizzas and they close by like 2.30 every day. Like if you don't get there in time then you don't get your slices. It's kind of a legendary place. I'm a big fan of the corner pieces of the square pizza.

Yeah, you can request them there. You know what I mean? You get double crust. Yeah, and they got like the cheesy potatoes and all the other little Italian specialties there too. So last episode, we were talking about it. Why did Rick Bonas get fired after one season when he led his team to the Eastern Conference Final?

And there was actually a story from Wyshynski about it this week on ESPN. GM Harry Sinden said that he considered Bonas firing him two or three times during the season claiming he lacked something as a Bruins coach. They talked to Dave Reed and Andy Brickley. Basically, they were waiting for Brian Sutter. Once Brian Sutter

became available, they turfed Bonas, brought in Sutter. They think they basically had him sitting there waiting to keep the seat warm. Because then he coached Ottawa for like their first couple years. Remember how awful they were? Were you too young back then? Oh, they were brutal when they first came in. That was 93.

What's that? Is that 93? Yeah, 91, 92 maybe. Actually, no, 93. Yeah, it was 93. Yeah, so I remember it was like they were the laughingstock. And San Jose as well. I think everyone just crushed them.

And then I'll never forget when San Jose beat Detroit that year. That was the most shocking series upset that I can remember. I was young. I was a playoff game. Your eyes are on PJs on. You had my eyes exactly. Quickly, I got to go back to that headline. X Habs news.

Sergei Kostitsyn crashes Benz in the center of Minsk around 3.30 a.m. in a one-car accident. Kostitsyn denies driving the car and refused the breathalyzer. Smart move. He's currently training for a return with KHL Minsk after knee surgery. So that's that one. Some KHL news for you guys. I know it's been a while, but, uh, yeah.

We got songed actually on a trade today. Kevin Weeks, uh, said as per what he was told, the Penguins are trading forward Patrick Hornquist of the Panthers in exchange for defenseman Mike Matheson. Uh, however, shortly after Elliot Friedman said there was a quote glitch with the trade and it was definitely in progress. Uh, later he wrote a story that there were two hurdles and Hornquist, uh, no, with with the trade, and it was definitely in progress. Later, he wrote a story that there were two hurdles, and Hornquist's note with his no trade clause and in his contract, those sound like more than a glitch. They definitely had conversations about it.

I guess there were concerns about the insurance in case of injury and whether it would be covered, just some of that technical boring shit. So, I don't know. It sounds like it may still happen, but I don't know if we're going to have to wait and keep our eyes on that one. Yeah, I mean, at this point, if you're both guys, you feel like it has to happen now. It's going to be awkward, I guess, if they were to go back to their team. I understand Matheson getting traded.

I think that that's not surprising because he has so much money. You know what? His cap hit's not crazy, but he's got a ton of term on there. Five years left. Yeah, so you see times where this guy i've said a million times he's like has every tool he can skate like the wind he's a machine he's strong and then there's just times he just makes plays you're just kind of like shaking your head like uh maybe not maybe his hockey iq isn't necessarily what what it has to be to be like that

top three defender uh so i still think it could happen. He's young, but you understand why Florida's moving him. And then I think a guy like Hornquist, if that actually ends up going down, he gets in front. He's tough to play against. I think that they have guys up front who are just elite with Huberto and Barkov. But to get some sandpaper and get somebody in front of the net on the power play, it makes total sense.

I just don't know now where you go if it isn't official. And there's like what Ari is saying about in your contract, we have no trade cause. A lot of times you have to pick 10 teams. We were talking about that the other day with Eric Stahl. Sometimes you have a full no trade. I don't know what Hornquist's deal was. But you'd think that something like that would have been completely ironed out before this trade was at least broken in the media

because that's when usually you know it's legit. I haven't watched Matheson enough to be hard on him other than the fact that everybody online is and seems to think that, like you said, he's got all the tools, no toolbox, and just given the fact he's got five years at the cat pit that he has, that was going to be a fleece job by Florida, even if they wouldn't have even got anything in return, maybe just to get rid of the contract.

But like you said, I don't know really what's going down with that, but Hornquist would have been a good return. I like what he brings to a lineup. He's good along the walls. He brings all those little intangibles. Of course, he's slowing down. He's getting a little bit older, but he's got that playoff experience. He's got that Stanley Cup championship under his belt.

He's got two, right? He won back-to-back with Pitt, correct? Yeah. I don't know. We'll see what happens here. The trade got canceled. Either way, we'll keep our ears open and see what happens with that potential trade. Actually, we haven't even mentioned our guest yet.

Witt, your old pal Andy Sutton joined us. Yep. Actually, we haven't even mentioned our guest yet. Witt, your old pal Andy Sutton joined us. Yep, spent a brief season with him near the end of both of our careers in Edmonton. It was great catching up. He actually had reached out to you, Mikey, and said that he would love to come on, so it worked out well. I think everyone will enjoy it. Nice. Yeah, we'll be bringing him on in a little bit.

Go ahead, Biz. Mr. fucking Smiley, Andy Sutton. Also, probably one of the biggest humans on the ice as far as not only height but just how thick he was he was like a bear out there on the ice covered up so much space with oh he was just a monster he just crushed people too probably some hits now that would be really frowned upon i'll say all right i i took a game oh yeah a nap before game two the other night. Boy, I woke up. I didn't realize they were doing so many awards.

It was like they did like five or six of them. Of course, great night for UMass programs. Whit, Cale McCarr from Zoomass. He won the Calder. This tweet was from Chris Peters. He covers USA Hockey. Cale McCarr, only the second player to win the Hobie Baker and the Calder. The other one, Chris Turrey.

I don't know if McCarr won a Little League World Series. Either way, a lot of people seem to be upset. Hughes didn't get it. I thought one, Chris Turrey. I don't know if McIver won a Little League World Series, but either way, a lot of people seem to be upset. Hughes didn't get it. I thought it was a coin flip. What do you got there, Biz? I said it before. I was hoping that this is one that both guys could share. I thought it was very close. I thought that Quinn Hughes

had an incredible run, especially after the NHL All-Star break. We don't need to dive into the analytics. Some of the analytics community were very high on Quinn Hughes based on some of those numbers. Both tremendous young defensemen. I think that the massive start for Kel McCarr. And I also mentioned this one too.

Pierre Lebrun wrote an article not too long ago, and he ended up interviewing, I think think it was 12 people in position like higher ups whether they were high-end scouts uh people in front office whether it was assistant general managers or general managers general managers excuse me from the western conference and 11 of the 12 had kale mccarr so these are people that are in high-end positions that are watching these games against divisional and conference opponents. So they've seen them both a lot because they're both in the West. And I just think, you know, Kiel McCarr ended up pulling ahead.

And I think if the season would have gone the full length, it might have gone to Quinn Hughes. But it's a shame that one of them wasn't going to win it. But both of them are well on their way to probably each collecting a few norrises yeah and so much money and macar to me like eyeball eyeball test it's just he he was more impressive to me he he did things that were like kind of like shocked me more right i think quinn hughes was so good at being consistent and making the game look so easy. But there were some full-blown like game-breaking plays by McCarr.

I'm not saying Hughes didn't have any, but to me, I understand this pick. I mean, he had, it was 50 points in 57 games, so he's.88 points per game. It led all rookies, and it was the third highest from a rookie defenseman in NHL history behind Brian Leach and Larry Murphy. So Leach was actually over a point per game. It's funny. There's only 17 rookie defensemen in NHL history to reach 50 points, and Hughes did it this year along with Makar.

And the last to do it was Vladimir Malakhov, 52 points with the Islanders in 92-93. So you realize how rare both of these two were. But I can't argue with the pick. I think it makes sense. And the other UMass product to walk away with a trophy, Connor Hellebuck, UMass Lowell. Also from Chris Peters, Connor Hellebuck was the first ever winner of the Mike Richter Award as best goalie in college hockey, and he's now the first to claim the Vezina. So pretty proud time for UMass hockey,

whether it's in Lowell, Amherst, whatever. Well, funny you say that. When you say UMass, I think of UMass Amherst, and I think just of Lowell is like the Riverhawks. So I don't know. I guess they are both University of Massachusetts. Well, I mean, that's why I said UMass system. I know UMass is like Amherst,

but they're both in the same school system, basically. That's all. So, yeah, anyways, it's good for them. A feather in their cap. Leon Dreisaitl won the hot in the Ted Lindsey. Cap in their feather, you mean? Cap in their feather, yeah, exactly. He's the first German to win both of them.

I mean, can't be any surprise here, really. It seems to just go to the guy with the most points nowadays anyways. eyes here really with is there it seems to just go to the guy with the most points nowadays anyways yeah i wouldn't argue um i wouldn't argue at all had had panarin actually won this or or mckinnon i think that all three were so easily you could make a case for all three so easily that i wasn't going to really mind either one i mean i i see stories of certain people like leaving dry style off the ballot completely. I mean, that's when you're just like, what are you just trying to get like recognized or somebody,

I think voted Adam Fox as like a, as the rookie of the year, they gave him a first place vote over McCarr and Hughes. So those, when things like that happen, you just think maybe people want to get, get noticed to get, get a little attention for pulling complete foolishness in the voting.

But with all three of those finalists for the heart, I was down with all three of them. But I think Dreitzel, with what he did while McDavid was out, I think that probably really put him over the top. Because he just took over and had, I think, even a better point per game average when McDavid was out than he did when he was in the lineup. So I love watching him play. I think that Teddy Purcell put it perfect. He had a little picture of him, and he's like, this clown's gone on to be a Hart Trophy and a Ted Lindsay Trophy winner because I think he's just one of the boys.

He's a guy. He's one of the guys in the locker room who's always in a good mood. That's kind of what I sensed when we interviewed him at least. He just seemed like a great guy, and I think that when you see somebody like that take over with the best player in the world out injured, you understand he's probably on his way to an MVP. Yeah, those media members you talked about

competed in R.A.'s triathlon before they voted on that one. Speaking of Leon Dreisaitl, a little fun fact here from my buddy Hockey Illuminati. Leon Dreisaitl is the only player in NHL history to win the Hart Trophy with a negative plus minus since they started tracking the stat in 1967. Now, saying that, I believe he should have won both. Of course, Panarin had an unbelievable year

putting up the numbers he did, helping the Rangers into playoffs. Well, that's up for debate given the Corona Cup situation with the 24 teams getting in. But any time that you're voted by your peers as the best player, I'm totally fine with you winning the heart.

The guys that you're competing against night in and night out are saying you're the best, you deserve the hardware, then give them the heart as well. So congratulations to Leon Dreisaitl. Looking forward to hearing from your representation on when we're going to kick off this cologne.

Biz20 promo code, swipe up. I mean, it's got to be tough for a lot of these voters too because you're covering a team. You can only watch so much hockey. You can only see so much. So you are relying on the opinions of other people, other people's eyeballs and yeah, analytics with a lot of these guys. So it was actually a Winnipeg writer who wrote in Fox for first place.

I would have thought it would have been a New York guy. Yeah. And, of course, Roman Yossi won the Norris, so it looks like we mushed John Carlson when we interviewed him back at the All-Star break 100 years ago. He looked like the runaway winner back then, but then all of a sudden it was a little bit of a campaign, I guess you'd say, for Yossi, and the tide certainly swung that way. He beat out Edmund and Carlson. Biz were you surprised with this one?

No I would have been okay with either guy winning it same with the rookie of the year with Cale McCarr and Quinn Hughes so congratulations to Yossi. I think it sucks for Carlson given how the year started and at one point I don't think anyone thought anybody was going to catch him. But, you know, with playing on that team, with the way that power play goes, I'm sure he'll be in the running for another one. Well, let me tell you, like, if you want to look at where Carlson was at in that race when we interviewed him and then what happened as the season went on, I think the reason Yossi won this award was because from January 1st to the end of the year, he led all defensemen in points.

He had 26 while also logging the most minutes per game. So it's from the new year on, he literally did both things you need a defenseman to do, and he did the most in the entire league as it. So he deserves this award. And I think it would be fair to say as the season goes on, and playoff time starts nearing, more people seem to be paying attention to this stuff. And that's when everybody's usually,

at least the teams that are going to be heading to playoffs, start playing at their best, and the competition gets a little bit harder, things tighten up a little bit. So I don't know. Maybe, as you said earlier in the episode, it's that recency bias that really plays into it, and I think that's probably why a lot of people thought

Quinn Hughes should win as well. I mentioned that he led all rookies. I think actually he led all defensemen in the NHL in points from the All-Star break on. You mentioned that it was January 1st for Roman Yossi. Is that what you said he started? Well, Quinn Hughes was from the All-Star break on with 19.

Oh, okay. Well, I got a guy who was the last three days of the season. I can beat your guy. No, I wasn't saying at the start of fight for crying. Hey, you're getting back at me for the Kunis comment, aren't you? Peckerhead. Fuck, I'd already deleted that. And now you just brought it back in there i

actually had another thing written down on my notes that i was reading on twitter and this is a guy who i'm sure people were uncertain about his future uh david bacchus uh he's with the anaheim ducks right now uh he's been working with a skating coach twice a week in minnesota right now during the break um i know probably a lot of question marks given with his concussion history on whether he was going to keep playing hockey. He's 50 games away from 1,000 guys. So there's a guy who's put his heart and soul into the game as well, an Olympian, a good human off the ice.

So I hope he's one of those guys I actually hope he gets that 1,000 games. Maybe not a watch, maybe a couple dog collars because I know he's a big animal buff. So just the watch. You don't got to get too greedy, Bacchus. You've made enough money in your career. Come on. He loves animals so much that Sochi had all these dogs

running around, these stray dogs, and he was over there for the Olympics, Team USA. I think he's bringing them home. He's adopting Russian strays. Yeah, Derek Stepon, I think, adopted one as well. So a bunch of people from Team USA did. Yeah, it's good to hear because he's a good guy. I mean, I like the man in Boston.

I think he had some bad luck to start with the injuries and things just didn't pan out the way I think both parties hoped. But, you know, like you say, he's a good guy. You absolutely want to see him get 1,000 games. He was that one off season where a bunch of guys who were over the age of 30 ended up getting paid and and the game was changing to where it was a little bit more fast pace and and he was kind of just the guy on the team where it was easy to say ah this is a terrible

signing i mean it kind of went with like the way that lucician in oilers you just needed to end up somewhere where you were towards the end of your term and and hopefully that's the case for him and and he gets up end his 1,000 games and ends up being a little bit more appreciated. Absolutely. Well, do you love watching TV but hate your cable company? It's time to finally cut the cord with FuboTV, and you can pay less money for more channels.

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to FuboTV.com slash chicklets. There are no contracts and you can cancel any time. Again, go to FuboTV.com slash chicklets for 15% off your first month and a free trial. That's F-U-B-O-T-V.com slash chicklets. C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. And Biz, we also got the year-end all-star teams. I know sometimes when you read it, people think the all-star. Wait a minute. That was the middle of the year. But these are the year-end all-star teams. I know sometimes when you read it, people think the all-star. Wait a minute, that was the middle of the year. But these are the year-end all-star teams they get voted on.

And the NHL first all-star team this year was Connor Hellebuck, John Carlson, Roman Yossi, Leon Dreisaitl, David Pasternak, and Temi Panarin. The second team, Tuka Rask, Victor Hedman, Alex Petrangelo, Nathan McKinnon, Nikita Kucherov and brad marshon and the all-rookie team elvis mers-leakins quinn hughes kale mccarr dominic kubelik victor olufsen and nick suzuki what's your take on that there biz fucking rights let's roll baby is olufsen olufsen's the one in buffalo right yes correct yeah fucking you know what man

sabers fans i was a little hard on you last pod when I said oops because Stahl's agents forgot to cross you guys off the list. I got some of you Sabres fans just hammering me on fucking Twitter. Anyone came at you? A couple. You know what, though? Welcome to my world. That's one organization that's been hoofed in the nuts, and I feel bad.

So I hope you guys are able to turn things around and keep printing those wagon shirts for you guys that's one organization that that really needs a boost so congratulations that you had a guy name and nominated to the to the all-rookie line funny we talk we always butcher names on the show it's kind of a running gag well we always say Alex Petrangelo right well his Well, his father's cousin, Frank Pietrangelo, was a goalie for the Penguins, but they always pronounced it Pietrangelo. He actually had a pretty key role, a pretty big role back when they won the Cup in, I think it was 91 or 92, not 91.

He actually went 4-1, but Russell got hurt. He had to come in Game 6 versus New Jersey in the first round. If they lost, they were out of the playoffs. He ends up winning Game 6, gets a shutout in Game 7. But they always call them Frank Pietrangelo, and his cousin's son is called Pietrangelo. So I don't know, Biz. Does this get us off the hook for butchering names or what?

I don't know, but you brought up Tom Barrasso, and I think it was Vern Fiddler who told me a story about Tom Barrasso. And he took himself pretty seriously. And I think they were at a rookie party one time, and the boys fucked around with him and they sent him like some, what is Louis XIII? Is it a bourbon?

I don't know if it's a scotch or a whiskey. Whatever type of booze it is, it's an expensive shot. Like I had one at my rookie party. I think they're like 130 bucks a shot. Anyway, I think they sent one to him over and he was like sipping on it. And he's like this, he's like this, this is quality booze. But meanwhile, they sent one to him over, and he was sipping on it. He's like, this is quality booze.

But meanwhile, they sent them over like Jack Daniels or some shit. So they all had a good laugh, and I think he was so pissed he might even leave in the rookie party. So I got to get the full story from Vern Fiddler on it. I've always heard, yeah, maybe a little bit grumpy of a guy. Maybe he'd come on. Maybe Brass would come on here. He went straight from high school to the NHL

and won Rookie of the Year. You know how fucking ridiculous that is? He was playing against some little rat from Needham and fucking ended up playing the next year against Wayne Gretzky and won the fucking Calder Trophy. So he did some amazing things that will definitely never be done again. I actually went to his very last high school game at the old Boston Godwood,

sat legit right behind him when they still play the games at the New Garden. But he actually lost. I forget who beat him, but he lost his last high school game before he went pro. Really? Yeah. Was it packed? Oh, dude, that was when they played like three, four games back to back.

Yeah, the whole place would be packed. You know, city kids, kids from the sticks. It was pretty wild days back then. Nothing ceases to amaze me when we just bring something up and R.A.'s like, actually, I was there at his last high school game. Like, how the fuck were you at his last high school game, for crying out loud?

It's unbelievable. Well, actually. You know what you are? You school game, for crying out loud? It's unbelievable. You know what you are? You're the Forrest Gump of hockey. You are. I ain't going to argue with you on that one. Well, big Jim Veazey, Jimmy Veazey's dad, he was, back when he was a stud in the mid-'80s for Christopher Columbus,

my high school, I mean, he basically put Merrimack on the map. Nobody knew who they were back then. He went to school there and got him to, like, the Final Four. So, yeah, I was a big high school fan back then. He played at Christopher Columbus High School? Jimmy did, yeah. Yeah, big gym. Who would they play against? They were in the Catholic Central Conference, like, Costco, Savio, like, all those.

I mean, that's when it was fucking one of the best conferences in the state back then. Columbus won the whole thing back in 84. So, yeah, high school hockey is still good. But back then it was good shit. I think it was a little more intense too back then. All right, boys, some other news. San Jose finally made official what had been assumed and named Bob Bugner head coach.

They also named Rocky Thompson associate in charge of the defenseman and power play and former Devil's Center John Madden. He's an assistant in charge of the forwards and penalty kill per P.L. LeBron. Three-year deals for all three guys. Obviously, no big surprise here. He took them over after they turned from McClellan. The Sens told goalie Craig Anderson

that he won't be offered a deal. The 39-year-old with 17 years in the league. I wouldn't be surprised if someone signs him. What do you think, Biz? I mean, just for a little backup, or is it too competitive? Yeah, just maybe to nurture some younger guy. I mean, we talked about how vital Elliott was for Cata Hatt. So I'd imagine that maybe he fits in on a team

where you've got some young goaltending. But I don't know. Everyone's doing this two-goalie system now, so they need usually both guys to contribute. I think the best quote of the last few days, this is from your new GM in Arizona, Bill Armstrong. I didn't come to the desert to get a tan. What do I look like, biz?

Well, we're going to actually – He said that? No, he didn't say that. I had it. What do I look like, biz? He's dropping lines about biz already. Well, he's already kicked us in the nuts when he cut us from St. Louis. He was there.

He was in St. Louis. He was probably the guy that said, get these goons out of here. Yeah, he's like, no more per diem packs for these losers. But we're going to actually get him on the podcast in the next couple weeks, guys. I'm interested to just – obviously, because of the Coyotes connection, all you guys are going to be like, oh, slob is knob here. But I'm interested to hear about how the whole like breakdown of like interviewing for a GM position,

of course, learning from Doug Armstrong in St. Louis with that championship team and the pedigree there. He mentioned that he's going to be using a hybrid of of course, hockey knowledge and analytics. I'm interested to hear, dive into the analytics. Oh, yeah, the analytics conversation should be riveting. Well, I don't know fuck all about it. I've been negative about it.

I'm a pretty open-minded person, so I wouldn't mind hearing about what he has to say about it. And if I don't like it, then I'm going to start ragging on him because he snipped me and I don't like analytics. But, you know, it's an NHL GM. We're going to get him on the show. All right, Whit, is that okay with you? Yeah, it actually sounds great. I've seen that he's been around the game so long and really put in his time that it's

pretty exciting for a guy to finally get a chance to run a team. That'll be exciting. I'm interested to get him on. We've got some other big interviews coming up, folks. Speaking of, we're going to send it over to Andy Sutton in just a minute. I want to let you know that the interview with him is brought to you by Cross Country Mortgage, America's crazy good mortgage company who make it easier to get the financing you need fast. Go to ccmlens.com slash NBD to learn more about your future home buying or refinancing experience. NMLS 3029, equal housing opportunity. And now

we're going to send it over to Andy Sutton. Well, our next guest was an ungrafted defenseman who went on to play professionally for 15 seasons. He played 687 NHL games, regular season and playoffs combined for seven different squads in 13 NHL seasons before retiring in May of 2013. Thanks for joining us and welcome to the show, Andy Sutton. How are we doing, Andy? No, I'm doing well, boys. How are you guys doing?

I'm doing great, buddy. Talking to you, man. Wow. People always say like, hey, who do you stay in touch with since you're playing? And it's hard. I don't have that many guys. You're kind of a guy that I haven't talked to in probably nine years, but we were good friends that year in Edmonton.

So how you been? Yeah, I've been good, man. It's been a crazy whirlwind for me as it has for you guys. But life is good. I can't complain. All things considered, what a crazy time. But just trying to keep a good attitude and, you know, press on with hopefully some good things like you guys are doing.

So how's the body these days? Because, dude, you used to be icing and heating everything before and after games. What's going on now with the old body? It's not great. It's kind of down day to day. It's honestly like if I don't keep moving, it's not pretty. My wife watches me get out of bed in the morning she's like holy shit what what did you do to yourself you know i had i

had 14 surgeries over 16 years i know you had a million injuries injuries injuries too guys are like i uh you know i've got plates and screws everywhere so it just seems like uh every year older i get the worst i feel but i'm uh i'm trying to smile through it. Yeah, it affects my mood a little bit. Some days I'm just like, no wonder I'm a little grumpy. My whole body's in pain. My knees are shaking. My L5S1, that's what it's called, that little joint there in the back. You're making me.

But I only care about the Kentucky Thoroughbreds. I just want to hear about Kentucky. I didn't even know they had a pro team there. It was legendary. I mean, come right out of college, and I went right in there, right into the fire, right? I mean, I didn't come up through junior, so it wasn't like I was fighting for four years and got right into the thick of things with grown-ass men.

And it was kind of a rapid introduction. There were some legends there at the time danny boyle was on the team and sean hines and we had uh had mike craig there and nick fatio was the assistant coach who's like one of the coolest guys on the planet used to be he used to go on his on his knees at the goal line and he could shoot a wrist shot over the over the netting at the far end i was like he's he's like 50 years old, six years old. I was like, oh, my goodness, this is incredible. It was really neat going there.

I mean, you know, at the time I wasn't married or anything. So, you know, it was pretty nice. The southern ladies were definitely nice to look at. Oh, yeah. I mean, you're in Lexington, Kentucky. I'm like, whew, that's a little better than Michigan Tech Saturday nights. Yeah, Michigan Tech's rough, boys. 7,000 students, right? 7,000 local residents makes for a pretty tough pool of assets.

It's so cold up there in the winter, right? You're at the top of the hand of Michigan. Yeah, how'd you end up there? You took scholarships from other places you chose there? Or was it kind of that they were the one team that saw you? Honestly, boys, like I was pretty average. I mean, I'd say I was pretty average for most of my career. You know, I think I made the most out of whatever I could do.

But, I mean, I never really had that many options. You know, I got a scholarship as a forward, went in there, had, you know, two pretty lackluster first, you know, couple of years where not much to speak of and then it was the lockout of 94-95 and at that time Pierre Paget came in and spent some time with our team and at the

end of his two week assessment he left notes for everybody so Bob Mancini who was the coach there at the time called me up into his office and he said do you want to know what Pierre said about you? I said yeah sure he said all he said was try something at the fence he's like do you want to do it i was like fuck it let's do it i mean things aren't going that well for me so i made the switch right then and there uh struggled like crazy for the next two years and i don't know what happened the senior

the senior year um you know everything i touched seemed to work and i know we've all been there before you're just kind of in the flow and the flow. And, um, you know, I went from being undrafted to having 14 teams, give me a contract offer the day after my last game. 14 teams. Yeah. 14 teams. And it was like, I was, I literally took less money to sign with the Sharks. Um, you know, St. Louis was on the table with Pronger and McInnes and, you know,

it was all up near the top of the line money for first-round guys. I couldn't have been happier. I had $7 in my bank account the day before stealing chicken breasts. Easy rock. No, he was

boxing. That's a true story. That's a true story. I saw your HockeyDB and I was going to say, That's a true story. That's a true story, I swear to you. I saw your hockey DB, and I was going to say, what was the difference between your fourth and fifth year? You went into your last year, and you just started lighting it up. The pucks started to find the back of the net. Was it something you did in training in the summer?

Did you all of a sudden sprout, or were you always a mutant at 6'6", 245? Well, I was a late bloomer. I was definitely late to the party. I can't say it was because of that i'll say it's this every time that i ever have had success in my life is are the times when when i throw caution to the wind i dive at something headlong and just figure it out like i didn't overthink things you know i just like went out and played and i was kind of like fuck it like i could be done this could be the end of things you know i almost took an internship

the year before my final year. And I was like, you know what, I'm going to give it one more kick at the can here. I'm going to give everything I can to the season and see what happens. But I never had at that point in time, I didn't have any expectations to do anything consequential in my career. And then it's just like sliding doors, you know, like going to San Jose and, you know, some, some really strange events sort of like led to the way and, you know, some really strange events sort of like led to the way I,

you know, typecast myself as a player and going in there in the late 90s when the game was a certain way in the sort of Pronger Hatcher era, you know, I came in and I could skate all right. And, you know, and they found out that I could fight a little bit. And all of a sudden they're like, wow, we had no idea we were getting this guy. And then, and then Brant Myers, who was our resident tough guy at the time, one of my good friends still, he's having some serious problems with substance abuse. So they put him, he falls back in the program.

Well, now, you know, I get in a couple of straps in preseason. They're like, well, why don't we just let the kid do it? So I'm fighting all these guys, Matt Johnson and Sue Grimson and Scott Parker every night. And these guys are chasing me around. Tony Twist chased me around one time in St. Louis. And Maizy laughs at me because I literally wouldn't make eye contact with him because I didn't know how to fight him.

He was taping his stick on the bench before the game. I think his biceps were like 28 inches big or something like that. It was kind of trial by fire. But thankfully, I got through it. And at a certain point, I was able to sort of show people know, show people that I could play a little bit, you know. And I think always being able to go down that road to either protect my style or protect a teammate was probably, you know, the thing that was able to give me a little bit of space to offset any of my deficiencies.

Andy, your first NHL coach, Darryl Sutter, what kind of impression did he make on you? How did he mold your game? What was that experience like with him? Well, he was amazing. You know, he's a player's coach, right? And when I came in, you know, especially in San Jose, I mean, we had, you know, we had Gary Suter and Jeff Norton, Brian Marchman, Bob Rouse. I mean, just like, just legends on D.

And it wasn't like it is today. I mean, you had to pay your dues to get in. Right. But when I first came into Kentucky I fought this guy played for Hershey and we had a scrap and, and I got right out of the box and I fought him again. But when we got beat out of the playoffs that year, they called me up to be a black ace and Daryl called me in his office to introduce himself. And he hugged me. He grabbed me. He's like, that's the kind of shit we need around here.'s like I loved I heard you I couldn't believe he'd even heard about it right so he was so hard on us like he wore cowboy boots all the time the farm

guy right background he was so intense he almost didn't even know what to say sometimes he was incredible definitely rewarded you for like all the little things that you did that made a difference in the game and but like I can remember one time in a practice. And I think I got set up by the boys and I think it just happened to be a, be a bad day for me. But, you know, and I was using a shaft with a wood blade and it was like a two on one tip drill to start practice. Right. So I, I go first cause I'm super, you know, ambitious and excited to show them I want to work hard and all this stuff.

Right. And so I pull it off the wall and I go to take the shot and the, and the blade breaks, we're coming off like three losses. He takes the shaft and whips it up in the stands like do it again so i go get another stick thing busts again he throws the next one like 30 rows up and he says do it again and i shit you not i can't make this up the third stick broke i come to find out after the boys saw it all my blades but daryl didn't know that so he chucks the third shaft like 50 rows up and tells me to get the fuck off the ice he literally tries to kick me off the ice tells me if I'm not ready I shouldn't be in this league and that's just the kind of guy he was like he just wanted perfection he wanted he didn't want us out there a long time but he wanted us to do it right and he wanted us to stick up for

each other he had the old expression the one guy in we're all in and that's how it was in San Jose and I still think the teams that do that well are the teams that are hardest to play against who saw the sticks and you get them back i never got them back i mean back then i mean they they used to cut the the toes off my dress shoes they'd stitch my legs shut on my on my on my suits i mean just like my car with packing peanuts i mean just like shit you guys yeah i can't even fill my shoes with shaving cream and glue, like all kinds of stuff. Everything you've said so far. You gotta do it. You gotta get the rookie checklist, and it used to be way

worse. I remember you guys. Every day. Chris Letang used to get it pretty bad, too. You guys would like nail his Dior dress shoes to the concrete. Letang did get it, but I got it so bad, so I gave it to him bad, and Bugsy gave it to everyone real bad. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I got the pant legs sewn before we had this, like, corporate dinner before the season started the year I made it. I think Scud's got me with that one. So I was okay getting the butt of the joke as long as the per diem packs kept coming. But I think R.A.'s got about 20 Atlanta questions. Well, even before that, I want to stick with San Jose for a minute. Now, you go in that locker room.

It's very much a veteran locker room, all kinds of old guys in there. You're a young kid. How did you adapt to that? How did you fit in? How did that all play out? Well, you know, it was very much like you were kind of – as much as they try to include you, you're also kind of an outsider because back then the game was so protected by the veterans.

You had to play until you were 32 to be a free agent. Think about that. You've got to make it, if you're a college kid 10 years, if you're a junior kid, you've got to make it 14 years before you become an unrestricted free agent. Your loyalty to the team, your tenure was the most important thing, and guys were paid for it so when when a rookie came in especially a guy that maybe they didn't see coming i think they always kind of

were like all right and you know i feel you know worried about my job maybe if i'm an older guy or you know i don't i don't want to like this guy that much and shit was just different back then i mean you guys know that i mean i can remember uh my second year training camp i kind of rubbed brian marcher out behind the net and I go to skate back up I was thinking we're buddies and he broke he two-handed me across the back of the legs and broke his stick and happened before I could turn around I had a fist in my mouth you know and it's just like and we've we've been we've been d partners and and what I thought was friends for a year before that I did I come do the same thing as Stefan Matto and an inner squad

game in the same training camp it just game was, the game was just different, you know, and I think that, you know, it was probably a bit much. I don't know why we were so fired up all the time. I like the guys now go kind of, you know, twirl it around a little bit and, you know, get a sweat and go home. It seems like a better arrangement. But at the time, that's just how it was. That's a 12 years of being restricted will do to guys. Yeah, you just fucking get crazy like do to guys. You're just fucking crazy like in the cage. Like I'm still

making $750. Yeah, I know. It's so true. Andy, at what point did you feel that it wasn't necessarily a necessity that you had to scrap? Because coming in as a big guy in those days it was like if you didn't fucking scrap you were being labeled a pussy.

You probably wouldn't even got to the NHL, but at a certain point, if it's genuinely not in you where you had that natural bad blood, you're kind of like, yeah, I'm not fighting most nights. Well, I think being, I mean, being big and then, you know, I tried to play physical whenever I could, right? So I always had to be willing to fight to protect the style of play, right? Because if you don't, then you're a big pussy, right? So I always had to be willing to fight to protect the style of play, right? Because if you don't, then you're a big pussy, right?

And you still get called a big pussy. Like, that's what guys call big guys and, like, call them a big pussy or whatever. So, like, I would always, until the very end, I mean, I'd stand up for that or I'd stand up for teammate. So that was always in there. I think that where it changed for me, where, you know, when I went to Minnesota in the expansion draft,

they tried to turn me back into a forward. I was still fighting. I was wearing leather strats and shit. I had no idea. I had no identity. I hadn't figured out my identity yet. So when I was there, and again, I was kind of being out of the lineup. Things were going well.

So I went into Doug Ryserow after being told by Mike Ramsey that I'd never be a defenseman in the NHL and I asked for a trade so really when it when it changed for me was when I got into Atlanta and when Bob Hartley came in and said hey Suts I heard you have a lot of potential we're going to find out I'm going to play you 30 minutes a night and we're going to find out if you can play in this league or not and he did and and knowing that I was going out the next shift and I was going to get that ice time it allowed me to not focus on on like little mistakes it allowed me to not worry about if I had to fight Scott Parker that night or some other some other guy you know that was going to probably beat me up because like as much as I could stand in there I wouldn't say I was like top tier tough guy by

any means I mean I would just hang in there because that's what you had to do sometimes I win them sometimes I lose them but like it was just kind of I don't know part of the gig of being big I think you just said it hanging on the mistakes I find when your ice time gets lower and lower like if you make a mistake especially early you're just all over yourself in your head but like you said when you get that when you get that leash and all of a sudden you know you can make mistakes and you're still getting that next shift i feel like at that point you just think that's when you stop making it's so true it's like everyone always said well for these for guys in that position what comes first the chicken or the egg and i think it's like in a lot of ways you know sure you should you need to fight for it but at the same point in time a coach who

has faith in you who's going to be like look man like as everybody makes mistakes and we've been through those fucking video sessions when they slow it down to like a single frame and like sydney crosby can look like he's doing everything wrong you know it's just it they can get out of it whatever they want to get out of it and they see what they want to see so it's like in a lot of ways it's it's about your opportunity and whether or not the coach you know the coaching staff or management or a combination of both sees it in you enough to give you, to give you some room, you know, and when you're under the gun like that, especially when you're like a six, seven defenseman,

I spent a lot of time in that five, six, seven position, you know, or if you're a fourth line guy and, and especially if you're, you know, you're a tough guy, this are like, you have no, you have no room to, you have no room to breathe. There's no room for mistakes. And then you're cold. You come in. You're not free and loose.

So you end up making more mistakes almost. It's such a bullshit position. It's impossible. I wouldn't sleep pregame because I'd be worrying about my first shift because I know if I fucking turned it over, I would never see another shift. Then I'd basically have to untie my skates on the bench. That's a great way to be successful.

It was crazy. By the end of it, I couldn't even make plays. I was just like, okay, just don't turn it over off the glass and out. Anyway. And then they want you to go out like if I run somebody, you're going to get a shift after sitting there for two and a half periods or something like that. At the end of the game, they're going to throw out some some token power play or something like that it's just

it's it's impossible it's the hardest position you know it's hard and you feel you feel almost ashamed you know yeah and you must have been one of the longest tended atlanta thrashes i mean i think they were there for about a decade you were there for almost six years like what was your experience like did it feel like they were ever going to turn the corner and, like, be a stable franchise? Take us through that. Yeah, so, I mean, early on, it was rough. We were not good at all. Like, I mean, we'd be pinned in our own end, like, two-thirds of the game, which I think, like, helped me, you know, work on my defensive skills

because we spent so much time defending. And then it kind of started to turn a little bit. I don't know if it was because they decided to spend more money or what it was, but I think getting, you know, having, having Danny Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk there, and then, you know, we bring in Marian Hossa and Slava Kozlov and, you know, Scott Mellenby and Sean McEachran and Greg DeVries. And we started bringing in some guys to support, you know,

myself and Kari Leitman, who's, who's just like budding, you know, as a, as we get carrie layton and who's who's just like budding you know as a young goaltender in the league and it's just like got so much talent raw talent it was insane so i think that as the pieces started to come together they started to bring in some support some support players you know keith kachuk comes in at the deadline we get bobby holeek who at the time is getting paid by like four teams he's making like 20 million dollars a year um but they they start bringing in all these guys and we and you know we and we end up winning the division for the first time we go into the playoffs so the team's never made the playoffs we play the rangers in the first round i think this was in like i don't know whether it was 2010

maybe or something like that and i literally think michael nylander had the puck for four straight games we get absolutely blown out we we don't even look like we belong. And then that year, that summer after that year, they dismantled the team. They got rid of me and they got rid of Chuck signed somewhere else. And I think Holik left and Melody was done and they let a lot of guys go and they never sort of reinvested until I think they kind of, you know, started to head back to, back to Winnipeg. So it was, it was definitely tough playing there at times with all the losing. I mean, it's, it's so, so challenging as we've all been on those teams to stay upbeat and stay

positive. The city was so cool. I mean, I loved living in the South and, and I have such a soft spot for that place. Still, you know, it's still one of my favorite places on earth. You play with a lot of young studs from that era. Danny Heatley, Hosa, you play with Gabrick in Minnesota. His first couple years, right? Yeah, and he was another one who was just a phenom. I mean, and Jacques Lemaire had this thing.

We played, you know, Jamie McClellan. Noodles was our goalie, like one of the funniest men on earth and and he was he'd always call it the mutant skate so we had a regular practice and then the mutant skate like me and steve mckenna matt johnson if you're over six three you had like a whole practice after the practice and they used to just kick the shit out of us and they used to skate us like bag skate us at the end because jacques always thought that big guys needed to skate like 10 times more than anybody else. He's probably right. And so I can remember we were doing like suicide, like whatever sprints or whatever.

And I remember like leading and those other guys and kind of like, I'd come down and I'm making the final down back and I'm not even to the, to the blue line, the first blue line and fucking Gabbert is coming back past me and he's done. And it was just like you know at that moment you're just like wow you know it's just another level um so like so strong so dynamic did so many cool things like with the puck and just the way he played and explosive like hosa was and i mean over the course of my career i mean i think we can all attest to

and we all play with just phenomenal players you, I got to skate with all those guys in their early years in Atlanta. You know, that whole Heat League, Kovalchuk, you know, entrance to the league was just unbelievable. And then getting to play with Marian Hossa every day and watch that guy work. I mean, just one of the most incredible players

on the planet, like I've ever seen. Two-way player and just like the nicest guy too. So that was really cool. And, you know, closer to the end guy too um so that was really cool and you know closer to the end getting partnered with carlson in ottawa you know in this rookie year i i outweighed him by 100 pounds i was 265 that year and eric was 165 so he always he always called me the old man and uh but it was it was a pretty pretty cool he was i remember one game in montreal we were heading out and i don't even remember his second period i look over at him and he had a he had a giant chew in his upper lip he just decided he was going

to play the second period with a chew in like he's like in a men's league or something like that i mean just like the kid had so much swagger and he just he just literally didn't care anybody thought about anything and like just a riverboat gambler but so much skill he could pretty much just like walk on water out there yeah he has like almost some NBA swagger to him like they're like oh my god Carlson doesn't give a shit he'll try anything

so I think you playing with him it was like the perfect combo it was like the movie Twins what's that movie boom so I'm wondering though with Kovalchuk or is it how do you say his name? No idea. He's a Chuk or a Chuck. We're not sure.

Well, I don't know many guys who play with him, but he first overall came on like a freak. What was he like as a guy? Was his English getting better? Or was he one of the Russians that really wasn't even that interested at the beginning? I think what I saw like across the board with a lot of the Russians is they always had a bit of a front-up, I think maybe because of where they came from. And it took a while to sort of get in with them. I mean, I'll be brutally honest.

He rubbed me the wrong way. My opinion was that he was a very selfish and self-centered player. I can remember we'd win a game 2-1 and he wouldn't get put on the ice at the end of the game to protect the lead. And he'd come in and smash a stick, you know, across the stall in the locker room. And stuff like that was pretty much a mainstay. It was really going to be all about him. And, you know, he had a lot of critical turnovers, especially early in his career.

Did he wear Abercrombie fits too? um did he wear abercrombie fits too i don't remember the abercrombie fit i think it was mostly like it was mostly like gucci and louis vuitton stuff like that but he uh he was he was he's rolled pretty hard and we so we'd be at war a lot because i kind of took it upon myself to try to lead you know in certain ways and in practice i mean i just try to give him the business i mean i i just would feel so frustrated with some of the stuff so i i don't know that we were ever considered you know great great friends by a great question wit that's an awesome i just got a lot of info there that's i'm like no i'm like i'm saying great question like legit great job ryan just got a lot out of that so so by the end of uh like of your there, had you guys become friends or better teammates?

Or was it kind of like that the entire time you were there? Yeah, we were always kind of like kind of jostling that way because, you know, we weren't winning enough. And he wasn't, you know, I wouldn't say he was winning enough games for us where I was just like, OK, that's all good. And then outside of that, you know, there was some stuff sort of outside of that where he'd kind of do things his own way, miss meetings and do different stuff. So it was just like I never really got there with him, you know, but I was really good friends with Slava Kozlov. And I'd always talk to Kazi about Kobe and, you know,

try to make sure that we could, you know, keep him on track. He was kind of just a wild man, kind of a loose cannon and, you know, really kind of like doing things his way. And, you know he was a kind of a, just a, just a wild man, kind of a loose, loose cannon and, you know, really kind of like doing things his way. And, you know, quite frankly, in retrospect, I mean, I can't say I blame him. I mean, you get your first overall pick and you're, you're just, you're unbelievable. You can almost score at will. And, you know, you're, you're going to use the curve you want to use before anyone's using massive

curves and just kind of did things his way. And it worked out for him. I mean, he had, people have always wanted him. So, I mean, he so i mean he's obviously figured out how to how to be a good teammate you know people probably get the sense we we rip on russians all the time on this podcast but i could think of plenty of russians that came in sergey gonchar is one of the best people i've played yeah we get a bad rap there i think i've never said a word about the one guy i want to ask about andy um i know you didn't have a lot of time with him in Atlanta, but how did Ray Ferraro react to all this stuff? A young kid acting

in sort of a punkish manner. He's an old school guy, 37 years old. I think he was the captain there for a bit. What kind of interactions did those guys have, if any? Well, he kind of, at that point, I think I felt this way near the end, too. You almost feel happy about everything because you feel like you're on borrowed time.

I think he had a great career and his career was winding down. As much as he was trying to help, he was also very diplomatic about it because I think he was also thinking about life after hockey and stuff like that. He was always giving me points. Sorry to interrupt. He's like, yeah, stay in the league playing with this kid. Shut up. Stop hitting him in practice. Exactly. That's pretty much exactly what it was, I think. So there was a lot of weird stuff, you know, sort of in that flow.

There was a lot of big, big characters present. And I think whenever you've got that, and especially when you're not winning a lot of games, I think you're kind of like, you know, you're a little more frustrated. And I think it's sometimes harder to come to a center point there. And then, you know, beyond that, you've just got to have insane leadership. You know, somebody's got to take the helm and sort of connect people. And I think all the great teams have more than one guy that does that. And after Atlanta, of course, you went to the New York Islanders.

We got to ask about the comedic stylings of Bill Guerin and Dougie Wade together. Oh, man. Well, I, I, at that time I was, you know, fortunate enough to get to hang with those, those guys a lot. And, and they're, they're just, I mean, they're two, they're two of the all timers, right? I mean, just two, two absolute living legends. And, uh, you know, we'd sit across each other playing, playing cards on every flight, and we shared some great times. They're two of my favorites from my entire career for sure. So I was with you your last NHL season, man. So you bringing up the way Ray Ferraro was,

you were in just a great mood, and we stunk. You just appreciated every day being there. At that point in getting to meet you, I was like, this guy's the happiest human alive. Well, I appreciate that. I am generally like i think pretty happy i i i don't have too many days where i'm sad i don't carry a lot of that stuff with me and it's funny how that all went down you know because i ended up signing another year deal that year and at the end of the year tom renny called me in the office and he said he said so you're only going to play maybe 40 games next year and i look at him i'm like well, so you're only going to play maybe 40 games next year. And I looked at him and like,

well, you know, I'm not going to fucking accept that. Right. And he's like, yeah, I figured you were going to say that. So I go,

I go home that summer and I'm, I'm damned if that's going to be the case. Right. So I'm training and I always train hard. I'm training harder than I ever trained before. And I'm doing these jump squats with the barbell on the back. And I've got these big bands attached to the floor. And then you do like these double leg bounds.

Well, I, I finished the workout. I go skate and then you do like these double leg bounds. Well, I, I finished the workout. I go skate and halfway through the skate, I can't bend my, my, my leg anymore. So I go take my shin guard off. My, my knee looks like a basketball, right? So for three weeks in a row, I ice this thing, you know, Tuesday through Sunday, I skate, try to work out Monday morning, try to skate. I can't skate. So I call my agent and say, say, I've done, I've done something to my knee. He's like, you need to get on a plane to Edmonton right away. Uh, we ended up getting locked out like seven days later. So I come in, I get MRI team doc comes in and I swear

he looks at me and goes, what the fuck have you been doing? I said, what do you mean? He said, you broke off a piece of the base of your femur and your knee joint, the size of the size of your pinky finger. And that's why your knee is so swollen it's lodged in the joint you got to have like emergency surgery so i ended up having surgery to take that thing out and then they wanted to do some kind of like radical procedure to fix my knee so i could keep going and i had a few other things going on in my life at that at that point in time and i just decided not to have the uh the 15th surgery and and i shut it down. So my last game, I played like a putz.

I mean, I hadn't played – you remember, we were out of the playoffs like probably 45 or 50 days before the end of the season. And they called up all the kids from the minors. I hadn't played hockey in like six weeks. We're drinking beer every night, having a blast. And then the last game, second last game of the year, like four defensemen go down. And I wake up in the morning and they tell me I'm going to play in Vancouver.

So I go in, and the whole thing was like, don't get hurt. You know, don't be minus nine or something like that. So I played. That was my last NHL game. There was no swan song. There was no goodbye, like nothing. It just kind of ended like a fart in the wind. It was crazy.

Hey, there never is. 99.9% of the time, man. It's just. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and they don't give a fuck. They% of the time, man. It's just, yeah. Well, they don't give a fuck. They don't care about you when you're done. Nobody cares. Like my agent, there was, there was no bottle of champagne, no card, no thank you.

No nothing. It's just like, all right, onto the next, you know, it's just, it's one of the things you don't realize until you're done. You must've got paid that year then, right? Of the lockout. I did. I got, I ended up getting paid for the whole year, so that was kind of nice, offset some of the suspensions

I got the year before. It was pretty much a break-even. We didn't talk about it in your time at Anaheim. Yeah, Anaheim was interesting because I had a great year in 2010. I had a good year with the Islanders, and we weren't going to make the playoffs, so they traded me to the Senators at the deadline, and I was really excited. It was the first time I got to go back to Canada and play.

My folks were still together at the time, so I was a couple hours from home. They came to every game. It was absolutely amazing. They offered me a two-year extension at the end of that year, and I was an unrestricted free agent, obviously, so I decided I was going to test the market and if they were still around, I was going to, you know, take a look at it at that time. I ended up, I ended up telling my agent to get me a job with the Ducks or the Kings.

I didn't care who, so the Kings offered me a one-year deal. The Ducks offered me a two-year deal. I go in and they've got me partnered, you know, with, with Lubomir Visnovsky, which is unbelievable. He's just an incredible talent. And I, I were down four, nothing nothing or five nothing in the first game against, um, against the Red Wings. And I go, you know, grab Ruslan Saleh, rest in peace. And, and I started to try to fight him. I ended up shattering my thumb in like 11 places and I never really got back in the, in the thick of things. And then that summer they traded, they traded me to, they traded me to Edmonton where I, where I finished

up. So it was kind of It was kind of an interesting year. Got an insight into that team while I was there and never really got in the fray. How many times did Randy Calhoun remind you that he won a Norris Trophy? Oh, gosh. Don't get me started about that guy. I was not the biggest

fan of him or his tactics. Even in the end, even though he knew we weren't playing, he used to dress us all for frigging games and make us all take warm-up. And, like, you know, just stuff to – I couldn't stand coaches that exercise control in those ways. Like, I was a goddamn long-term professional. He didn't need to embarrass me like that, you know? So that was kind of the final blow. And I said a few things in the year-end meeting. I think that was the main reason that I got traded that summer.

Like the Babcox. You're the biggest hard-o if you're doing that. If you're coaching guys, the guys on the road, you're going to make them come in and get dressed in Chicago to skate. He's played in the league 12 years. Come on, dude. Yeah. You stand there and you just you just feel so you feel embarrassed you feel like you're not you're not there and like you know rah rah cheerleader guy you know as much as you want the team to do well you just feel like it you just feel like a heel you know what i mean then you got you got the work you got the bag skate in the

morning the workout in the morning you got the warm-up and then you've got to ride the bike workout again and by the time by the time the game's done, you're just like, oh, my God, I'm more tired than if I played 30 minutes. It's brutal. No doubt on that one. You guys, I mean, that was half my career, and I had to go for it. And then you went out after until 6 in the morning. That's true.

Andy, you played through with 30, 70 years old what was the key to that was it lock fitness little bit of everything tell us why you were able to play so long well I think 14 yeah I think luck I feel fortunate for all of it you know I

always I think I always push to the limit and that's probably why shit broke you know and I think especially you know I was especially I always tried to be a good teammate, and I think I was always really supportive of teammates. And I think as I got older, as I was getting older, the league was getting younger, like literally probably double the rate. So I was fortunate enough, I think, to stick around in a time when veterans were going away from the game.

And because of that, and I think my ability to, you know, assist some of the younger players, like playing with Carlson, and I think that became part of, like, my new identity. So I think the main reason why I was able to stick around was, like, I was able to figure out how to be a freaking chameleon. You know, if you had to go here and fight, or you had to penalty kill over here or you could ask to play the power play and you know you got to take shots and do that well or you're going to be a fifth sixth seventh defenseman uh or a top four guy i think i i think i just i i figured out the best way to kind of survive which is really what

it always felt like i don't know if you guys can attest to this or not but like i always felt antsy when i was playing i don't have anxiety anymore now that I'm done because it was always like, you know, I never really felt like fully in control of myself in the game. Like I never really felt totally comfortable with what was coming. And I think it was, I was always just trying to survive and do my best. I never felt, most often didn't feel like I just had it under control. You're kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop all the time. You know what I mean? All the time. You're just like, oh, I know what it under control. You're kind of waiting for the other shooter to drop all the time. You know what I mean?

All the time. You're just like, oh, I know what you're saying. So are you still a stick? Are you still playing golf? I mean, dude, that was right when I was getting into golf. I'm a complete golf junk box now. And you were nasty. Do you still play a lot?

I don't play as much now. Honestly, I've gotten so busy, but I still get out a few times a month. But I'm working towards getting back at it. I love it. It's one of my favorite things to do. And I can still beat it around. I don't score like I used to, but it's almost better. I've got a little bit of fluff now on my handicap,

so I can go out and – Oh, you scumbag. So what's your index right now? I think I'm a 5.7. Oh, you're the biggest scumbag. You'd get booed out of places. You're a game. I'm a member guest dream right now.

Keep me in mind. Yeah, until they take the money back, like in rounders, when they realize there's a setup for the guys. Oh, yeah, for sure. All right. So, I mean, I appreciate you coming on, dude. It's great to catch up. And what are you so busy with these days? What's going on life after hockey?

Well, I ended up doing a lot of different stuff, but in particular and more of late, I ended up working for a hockey company for about five years. It's a company called Wholesale Sports and it's all owned brands. My partner uh there's a guy named chris malke and chris owned he founded and owned both hockey giant and hockey monkey and his third go-around at wholesale sports was all owned brands so the the emphasis was on you know owning the brands and while i was working there as president we acquired a few brands and i had some interest in some of those and then you know i was able to take the Verbero brand outside and I've now taken it as an outside entity and running it, running it, you know, completely by myself.

And in that I put together, you know, really the best of the best of everything I ever, ever learned from sort of the sales side, the product side of things working at WSI. And then all of my knowledge from the game and even my background in engineering and product development from some other projects I worked on and really put that all into Ribeiro. That said, you know, we've got some amazing products. We've got the lightest stick ever brought to market. We've got a full carbon fiber skate, which are sort of like the flagship products. We've got a partnership that we've done with a company called Cav on the helmet side. It's all 3D printed, the most insane helmets you've ever seen,

just obliterating the best in class from all the top brands. And then we brought in a private label apparel partner and some international apparel manufacturers, and we do all on-demand customization for teams, everything from game wear to all the off-ice apparel and bags and travel accessories and everything in between. And then we created a proprietary software system where we house all these products in team stores. So we're a Team Direct brand. We sell Team Direct. And then we plug in all these products and services so that they can be accessed 24-7, 365 through e-commerce.

Press 1 if you want to hear this again. We accept American Express, MasterCard, Visa, and Traveler's Platinum. Holy shit, that was a mouthful. I know. That's sick, man. That's great to hear. And it's good catching up. I'm glad to hear that you're still as positive as ever. And we appreciate you coming on and talking to us for a little bit here.

No, thanks, boys. Thanks for having me. You guys take good care. Big thanks, as always, to our guest,y sutton really enjoyed talking home not so many uh guys we get on who actually play for the atlanta thrashes for five seasons so always good to get that perspective hey boys put down your dip tins and spitters this stanley cup week and grab the best smokeless tobacco alternative on the market. Cannadip CBD is here. There's no tobacco, no nicotine.

It's infused with water-soluble CBD that really works. All-flavor dip experience, and these pouches taste amazing, and the flavor lasts from 30 to 60 minutes. It's 100% all-natural. There's no more hiding a dip can from the wife or sneaking out to the garage to hide a little chaw. Throw lip boomers anytime, anywhere. Go to canadipscbd.com and use the promo code CHICKLETS15 for 15% off site-wide and be a true hero and hang lip boomers with the boys.

That's C-A-N-N-A-D-I-P-S-C-B-D.com and the promo code CHICKLETS15 at checkout for 15% off your order. Give that stuff a whirl. Biz, there was a, well, I guess we've got a new segment on TSN the other day, The Problem of Pain. Another great job of reporting. Rick West, he does some great reporting for that outlet. And it was about, you know, we've talked about pain medication on the show before. It's usually about opiates.

That's the common problem people have been aware of for too long, unfortunately. But this one was really getting into guys getting shot up with the Toradol and other drugs, which I've never had shot into me. And Ryan Kessler, man, these things, like, really fucked him up. He got colitis. He's got Crohn's disease. And a lot of these players, like, they just say they get shot up because that's what you've got to do to go out and play. but a lot of them have said we never but we're told how bad

this is for us so uh what did you get a chance to check this out i did i did i watched it some powerful stuff pretty raw and i remember back i mean toward all is it was very it is very commonly used i mean the thing that i really respected, about watching that was then I saw a tweet Ryan Kester said. He said, I just want this to get out to players now to kind of know what the risk could be because I didn't. But I decided to do this. It was me who decided to take this. And I would have done the exact same thing again for my teammates and for my team. exact same thing again for my teammates and for my you know for my team so to see what's happened to him now and to see his body being such a mess and i know kes a little bit i mean we played a

little bit international uh you team usa together but so when he the interviewer asked him how's your quality of life and you see him take a breath and he starts to choke up a little bit. And he's like, it's not great. And that's why there's so many things that go into being a professional athlete and dreaming of playing in the NHL and doing whatever it takes to get there and then doing whatever it takes to stay there. And you really don't care. I remember thinking, I don't care about the rest of my life. I'm trying to get to the NHL. And then it all ends and you're like, holy shit. I have so much of my life, if I'm lucky, left.

And I'm now, in Kessler's case, really struggling to feel normal and to enjoy each day. And let me tell you, I have times when my body is such a fucking disaster. And I took Toral. I wasn't taking it that much. I remember I was taking it at least two months straight with uh with a bad ankle injury um every day to play and in the playoffs I remember getting a shot right in the right in the butt before every game playing with injury through playoffs and you do it made you feel great and it did not make you feel mentally fucked up like an

opiate would like a perk um so it certainly does what it needs to do. Now I will say like, I would have done that. I needed to do that. And I was getting ready to play. I was doing whatever I needed to do to play. So I, I understand why guys are, are, are certainly frustrated, but, but I think everyone does know that went through it, that they, they, they, they were the ones that chose to do it they wanted to be the ones to be in the lineup they were afraid of being out of the lineup meaning losing your job so it was like this kind of vicious cycle that i think will always kind of be there i mean guys play through pain they do what they can to play through pain and the one

thing that is true from that entire documentary was 30 40 minutes was awesome well done is that i tell every single player like the team they truly don't really care about you i know that sounds kind of insane and some guys sign huge multi multi-million dollar contracts but in the end like their goal is to keep you healthy but their goal is to have you play and produce and when you're not doing it it it it turns into a thing where i mean like the trainer for the fucking detroit red wings he works for the detroit red wings and if somebody up tops like dylan larkin needs to play i'm just thinking of a random player right now like he's gonna do what he needs to do to get him in the lineup so that definitely goes on that's happened but i just feel so sick to my stomach for guys who, who, who really do not have good

quality of life because I know the days that I don't with my body, it's very, my family knows, and it's very hard to, to kind of be around and be positive and like have any energy to do anything when you really wake up from the minute you wake up to the minute you go to sleep you're in bad pain it's it's awful yeah um what really well said wit and and just to kind of touch a little bit on i don't want to take too much away from it because i'd like everyone to go watch it i think think what the the best part about it is it gave you every dynamic where you know kessler was a star player and he said he did it because he wanted to be in the lineup and he thrived for that competition and he wanted to do it for his team uh you also heard from guys like Zen and Konopka and Kyle Quincy where you know Konopka was a guy

who was up and down and he was basically doing it because he knew if he gave his spot in the lineup he may never get it back and he may never be in the nhl again so you know he i think he said he'd had over 700 stitches in his face throughout his his hockey career and he the bumps and bruises when he said that i'm like are you kidding me and and he has to take a 30 minute hot bath every day just in order to get his body going and even some days after that it just it's it's it's really sad um you know speaking from personal experience like guys I was one of those guys too like I know I had to do what it took to stay in the lineup and not show weaknesses and just for the fact that you know there was also a sense of pride as far as hockey players when playing hurt and playing through things I mean I told the story about my last game with my tour my my two torn ACLs,

like it was, you know, I wanted to finish the way I wanted to finish. And it was, that was that in that position where I wasn't making the big bucks, it was all pride. I wanted to go out the way I wanted to go out. And that's, you know, maybe that's a, I was a product of my environment and the way that, that my thinking had been created over time being in that hockey culture. But as Ryan Kessler said, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have changed it for the world. So to those guys who opened up about it, you know, wonderful job. Wonderful job by TSN. And Rick, is it Westhead is his last name? Yes, Rick Westhead, the reporter.

And as I said earlier, he just did such a good job of covering every base you know he talked to bobby ryan he talked to one of the trainers for the anaheim ducks who's trying to teach guys and help guys do it in a more natural way that's why i constantly talk about cannabis and cbd guys like i you know i did my fair share of partying and i have my bumps and bruises i'm trying to find every natural remedy in order to help my body out as opposed to going to those very dangerous alternatives. So thank you for listening to me and Witt talk about it.

One thing I will say though, the one thing I will say, Biz, is the whole beginning of hockey for players, young kids, and the transformation from how it used to be when i was growing up into now and the whole trophy culture and everyone you know gets a trophy

and it also leaks into like kids are like laying on the ice because they you know the parents come out to help them and then you know they can't play. I could not disagree more with that because there's one thing to be in the NHL and be taking things. You don't necessarily know what the final outcome is going to be from what you're taking and trying to play. But there's another thing

in terms of when a player's young, not only just for hockey but for life to, you're fine to play. You can play. Like, oh dad but for life to, you're fine to play, you know, you can play like, Oh dad, my shoulder hurts. You're fine. Because there's a huge difference between being hurt and injured. If you're injured, you can't play. If you're a little hurt, you can play. So for me, it was like with my father, like, I'm like, Oh, you know, I get a Charlie horse. He's like, you're fine. You're playing. And it goes along the same lengths of not laying down on the ice.

Like Brian Yandel told me the funniest story the other day. His youngest son, Liam, he actually said he went like flying into the boards. And like it actually looked pretty bad. And he's someone who's like he would never go out. He's like, get up. You're fine. Get up. Do not make me go out on the ice.

And he's like, I'm sitting there and I'm like i don't know that kind of did look bad then the guy i coach with he kind of starts stepping on the ice but liam pops up and he skates over and he's kind of you know he's leaned over he took a big fall and brian says great job getting up liam and he goes well yeah i knew you weren't to come out and help me. But he's got his son, and he's teaching him that you've got to play through some pain, man. That is what separates the highest level players. In hockey, I'm going to say the same thing in football, because if you're injured, you can't be playing. If you're in pain and you're just hurt you can play and i know that it's kind of uh well with like to summarize what you're

saying like for me personally when i battled through injuries which you know was it was a decent amount as as much as most hockey players do throughout a season i think i'm so happy that i did do it because what it prepared me for at least after my career was things get hard in life life doesn't get that's what i was getting like life does not get easier as you move on it gets very difficult and for some people it's difficult from even an early early adolescence so um you know some just you know but on the flip side right through the shit you gotta fight through it yeah so it's in like minor sports and just everything

and it grows into when you're an adult yeah we've rambled on quite a bit so there is other subjects that does cover like the conflict of interest and the fact that

some of these guys were not fully made aware of the consequences so watch the documentary appreciate you guys hearing us out on this subject and we can move on

yeah like I said Kessler's this isn't a guy from the 70s or 80s he's a guy everybody watched a few years ago. And the quote was, I never knew what it could do to me. I never knew the side effects. I feel if I could talk about the dangers of it, it'll help everybody.

So, you know, whether guys still want to get the shot or not, they can make their mind up, but at least they'll be more informed about what it's going to do to their body. So on a little bit of a lighter side, Biz, Greg Wyshynski and Emily Kaplan, I know we've tooled on ESPN and hockey fans still tool on it for their coverage, but these two, I got to commend them, the work they've done on the bubble the whole time. I mean, that's a grind doing stories, multiple stories every day,

and they had a pretty fun one. It was about life behind the bubble. Players were getting room service bills. Some teams were cheap. Some teams were spending more on other players, and I teased them because he had one little section called sex and drugs. And it was like a bait and switch because there was no sex. And the only drugs he was talking about were gummy.

So, you know, it was just kind of an interesting peek behind the bubble. Biz, what kind of jumped out at you from that article? Oh, they didn't talk about the glory holes on the walk over to BMO Field for all the single guys to get all the Instagram thoughts from Toronto sucking their weens on the walk over to BMO field for all the single guys to get all the, to get all the Instagram thoughts from Toronto, sucking their weans on, on the way by. Fuck. It sounds like we talked about how hard this was.

That would have been your paradise. Hanging out, watching hockey, eating gummies. I would have been the king of the prison. Yeah. As they called it. Yeah.

I mean, you just did it for three weeks at the Boston content house. I don't think you left the entire time. No, but no, they've done an excellent job. I mean, they just did it for three weeks at the Boston Content House. I don't think you left the entire time. No, but no, they've done an excellent job. I mean, they covered all. They worked tirelessly. But yeah, we've known how difficult it's been on the players. And to hear that things weren't as advertised going in is no shock.

And that's why I said last podcast, this is going to be the hardest Stanley Cup I've ever been won for going the full distance and going through the circumstances they have. They said early on the Boswell Packs, when the guys are just playing the round robins in early games, there'd be like 10, 15 guys from each team up there every night. I also heard that all the waitresses

and all the people taking temperatures were smokes. I'd be interested to see how many stories I hear after things start moving around again and we talk to some of the guys who are inside the bubble, at least the single ones. We could do a sandbag or just bubble talk. We can never release it. Well, hopefully they were chugging some Bud Light Salsa because this episode is also brought to you by Bud Light Salsa, the delicious hot salsa from Bud Light. Just one gram of sugar, 100 calories, and five times filtered for no aftertaste.

Not a big deal, but Bud Light Salsa just launched a hat trick of new flavors in the Variety Pack Remix Edition with pineapple, cranberry, and grapefruit. Try them all today or stick with the classics of strawberry black cherry lemon lime and mango and remember spit and chiclets listeners can always go to budlight.com slash delivery to get bud light and bud light salsa delivered right to your door without having to miss any playoff action i i got i think i might get hooked on those at the chiclets house and those are good you get, four of them going on pretty quick. I have a hard time believing that not one guy was able to sneak a girl in.

And or the fact that some type of tomfoolery wasn't going on. Guys working on their fucking two-on-one, no back checkers with some of the staff. Also, they probably weren't going to tell, even off the record, they probably weren't going to tell stories. Hopefully, they were trying to defend a two-on-one against from the staff on the offensive side i mean speaking of the prison yard though it did have a timmy ho's truck so i mean that's oh yeah i mean a couple double doubles for the boys that doesn't sound too bad that sounds phenomenal i i was shocked the first time i ever went to timmy hortons. I hear people say double-double. I hear people talk about the bagels.

I went to Tim Hortons and it just fucking blew me away. This had to be, I don't know, 1995. Just right away, exactly what everyone said about it. Just in a fabulous place. I could eat breakfast there every morning. Some people call it the Wano and they get nine sugars and nine creams in their fucking coffee. Oh, no, dude. Imagine that person's cornhole like 40 minutes after that.

Jordan, roll up the rim to win season two. They're probably getting a few of them. Roll up the rim to take a shit in it after you drink a niner and niner. Last episode, we talked about the town. It was the 10th anniversary, and I mentioned that there was an oral history online. And Whit didn't think it was worthy of an oral history. And I was making the point that anything could have an oral history. Well, we ran a poll.

Is the town worthy of an oral history? 48.9% said yes. 51.1% said no. I actually replied to the poll with a bunch of like random fucking movies that got oral histories over the years none of which were classics said i anything can get an oral history if someone some editor decides you're gonna do one oh we're still talking about the town well we did a poll i was bringing the poll back up hey i'm opening his way what do you what else you got for us can i explain uh what happened in a golf match to me last week quickly? Sure.

So, my brother and I, I know I mentioned we lost in the semifinals, but I had to explain how we lost. We're on the 18th hole of this match. Now, I'm playing with my brother who's getting a stroke off

me. I'm playing against my buddy Danny who's a firefighter. He's a Boston firefighter and so is his partner, Peter Ealy. Danny's saved like 53 cats in his career as a Boston firefighter. He leads the league in saving

cats. So he brings this stick, Peter Ealy. We have a great match. We're on 18. We're tied. And Sean's stroking. So is Danny. Sean, my brother, pounds driver down the middle, and he then hits a six iron to like

12 to 15 feet, I'll call it. Just a perfect shot. He's now putting for 3-2. Danny hits this shitbag drive out to the left. Awful swing. but it stays you know just in the trees he then takes his three wood and rips it up tries to get it up top the hill he's probably like 245 out it rolls to the bottom of the hill so he's now got about like an 80 yard shot up the hill to

the elevated green he's hitting his third shot sean's just waiting to fucking putt in his birdie three for two danny then chunks this chip to the top of the green he fucking barely gets it up there and it sits down and rolls just to the front of the green about 50 feet away from the pin what does he proceed to do walk around the putt for 10 fucking minutes and then stand behind and buries the thing four for three we were already in our minds had won the match which is exactly what happens in match play whenever you think you win a hole the fucking miraculously the only thing that could happen against you happens so So he sinks this monster putt. It was unreal.

There was a bunch of people there watching. I'm like, are you kidding me, Danny? Four for three. Well, Sean still has a putt to win. And he just misses it. He made a good roll, but he taps it in. Four for three. So we're going to go down the playoff.

Next hole, what do we go down? What goes down and happen? We go down. I hit a bunch of shitty shots. I end up having like a five-foot putt for par to continue the match. I miss it. We lose. It's over.

So in a fucking – you're trying to go to the semifinals to get to the finals to – you're going to win some good money. You're going to win the member guest. And then all of a sudden, a guy hits a 50-footer on you to force a playoff and then you lose 10 minutes a guy hits a 50 footer on you to force a playoff and then you lose 10 minutes later in that playoff hole it was the most disgusting loss i've ever had shout out to danny what a putt you sicko and shout out to his partner peter ely's kid was pounding the ball so it was just an upsetting and then the other thing the other thing so then

usga4 ball that i qualified for with the one-armed bandit last year i talked about it on the pod and i was so excited well then it got canceled because of corona and then they they decided to not allow the people who you know got into the tournament to play in the next year's tournament i i went on a podcast rant about that i believe as well so what happens we come up to monday monday of week, we have the qualifier again. It's now. All right, buddy. We got fucked last time.

Let's go and do it again. Let's go get it done again. Karma's on our side. So we get there. Indian Pond, this place in Kingston, Massachusetts. Let me guess. Nice track. Let me guess.

It's a nice track. Yeah, it's a nice track. It's a nice track it's a let me guess it's a nice track yeah it's a nice track it's a nice track uh it's yeah i mean the greens are usually really fast they weren't like super fast this day but nonetheless like let's go do this we go out and we're hitting it really nice this first hole we both hit at 15 feet par so we're thinking gonna shoot gonna shoot like seven under second hole oh fuck my buddy's kind of in trouble i hit driver five wood the hole's like 550 i hit driver five wood to about 10 feet short of the green and then easy easy little chip up the hill tap in birdie let's get us on the board well i fucking chunked this chip about you know leave it like 10 feet short i missed

the pot god damn it we should be too on we should be one under through two right now we could even be two like that's that's that's on me bud i said to my partner i gotta get that up and down fuck so we go to the next hole my buddy misses a kind of a six foot slider we're still even we go to the fourth hole and i stuff one to an inch a legit inch whatever we're on now, one under. We think we need six more of these things. We get to the fifth, the fourth hole, or whatever, the fifth hole, par three down the hill, make an easy par. We get to this short, short par four sixth hole.

I hit my five wood up 40 yards short of the green. I hit it on. I knock in the birdie. There we go. Now we're two under, okay? We need five more. Think guarantees it. Well, now, what has started happening in this round of golf to get into a united states golf association event the wind is fucking howling 25 mile an hour steady howling affecting every single shot

when it's in your face you're clubbing up by three when it's down when you don't know what club to hit i was like this place is playing hard as shit and all of our my me and my one-armed bandit partner in our in our group we all agreed i'm like i think the number might be like five i think five might get in this year and there's also alternate spots that we wanted to get we wanted to get so whatever We fucking go out there. And it's playing very hard. And we par 7, 8, 9. My buddy made a cup sick par on 9.

I 3 putted. He was in trouble. He gets up and down from a shoebox. And we don't lose a shot. So we make the turn in 2 under. We go down 10. Both of us hit it to 5 feet. We both knock in the birdies.

Didn't even matter. One of us just needs it for the card. We both did. So now we're 3 under through 10. Both of us hit it to five feet. We both knock in the birdies. Didn't even matter. One of us just needs it for the card. We both did. So now we're three under through 10. Here's what fucking happens at 10. 10th hole. I'm getting off the tee. And this USGA rules official says, hey, we got a big problem.

Just like this. I'm like, what? I'm like, my mind is racing. I'm like, what the fuck could have happened for this dude to be that adamant and this engaged I'm like, what? Like, I'm like, my mind is racing. I'm like, what the fuck could have happened? Like, for this dude to be that adamant and this engaged in, like, telling me we got a big problem. The one-armed bandit crushed his old lady or something. Yeah, exactly. That's what I was like, dude, like, did you catch your wife, like, roasting your buddy last night in your own garage?

Like, what the fuck is wrong? What's the problem? You're five minutes behind pace. It'll be a problem if we have to talk to you again. So I'm like, oh, my God. I would have paid money to be there. So listen to this. I'm like, are you fucking kidding me?

So me and the one-armed bandit have our caddy, Mikey Powers. This kid's the man. He's just doing a hell of a job. He's carrying both our bags. I'm like, dude, give us clubs. My partner starts running. We all start running. Because if you get a fucking penalty, if you get a slow play penalty,

you get knocked a stroke off. They'll fucking hit you for a stroke in your round. So we go up to the 11th tee, which is probably one of the hardest holes in the course. But it's downwind. So we all hit fucking real quick. I hit driver, pounded it. And we just all run we're sprinting four guys two of them are carrying their own bags me and the one-armed bandit and the caddies are

where we were gonna hit in the middle of the fairway dude i'm i'm literally breathing heavily let's just catch up to the group in front of us and end this quick i hit i jeremio hits from 140 he hits it to like 15 feet right of it i'm i'm 81 yards in i fucking mash this drive it must have rolled out 100 yards and i flip a 60-degree wedge up to five feet i run up the hill i'm marking i'm like fucking right i go over i get my putter i'm jeremio like tries to like calm down a little bit hits his putt, literally just misses, tap and par. I'm like, dude, I got a five-foot uphill putt done. I'm like, all right. I know we're in a rush, but you got to just calm down and make this putt.

Miss it. I'm like, motherfucker. But D'Aremio, the one-armed bandit, he's like, dude, lots of holes left. We're feeling it now. We're feeling it now. We only need fucking four more birdies, even three or two with this weather. So we go up to the next hole. I fucking hit it out of play like an asshole into the woods.

I have to chip out. I have a putt for four, and D'Aremio has to have a putt for four because he missed the green short. He was in the fairway. Well, I missed my seven-footer for par, and then I'm like, oh, my God. Drew's got seven feet. Fuck. He cans it. So we stay at three under.

We stay at three under. It's unreal. Next hole, par three. We both hit it. Drew hits it in the rough, but he got it up and down. And I have fucking 12 feet staring right up at the flag. Hits the lip and just, just does one of those dirty ass mother fregger lip outs. Oh, come on. Disgusting. But whatever. We got a birdie hole coming up next. Come on. Let's keep doing this. Dirty ass motherfucker lip outs.

Disgusting. But whatever. We got a birdie hole coming up next. Come on. Let's keep doing this. It's a par four. It's 280 yards, but you can cut the corner if you hit this big slice and slice it onto the green. So I just hit a five iron out to 100 yards out.

D'Aremio does it. Our caddies up there celebrating because he fucking drove the green on the par four. I hit my 60 degree to like 15 feet it was a shitty shot and this kid now has the two putt but he's the pin was on the bottom shelf of the green he's on the top shelf so he hits this putt that rolls down the hill and it rolls to like nine feet should have been a birdie should have been an eagle putt from if the pins up top well i missed the 15 footer and then this kid fucking misses the seven footer on a great putt so not only do we not birdie birdie the par three that i fuck i don't know birdie 11 when i'm running around like a lunatic sprinting and can't breathe then we don't bury 13 because i missed the uphill putt on the lip out and then 14 my buddy drives the

green we don't birdie that one either so it's like are you fucking kidding me so we get to the next hole it's like a down dog leg left we both hit it with 120 out and we both hit it just right of the pin 15 feet like one guy's one foot in front of the other was perfect we're gonna get a read we both missed i'm like are you kidding me you still stuck at three under with all that's going on and then the fifth uh the 16th hole is the same exact thing we both hit it on the green neither one of us made the pot we're like all right well we got a bird we got an 16th hole is the same exact thing. We both hit it on the green. Neither one of us made the putt. We're like, all right, well, we got an 18th hole par 5, but it's dead into the 30-mile-an-hour wind. And a 215-yard par 3 is the 17th hole,

and we need to at least make two, five under, like at least, right? 17, we both missed the green right in the rough. I'm like, oh, man, what what a bummer i get up to this ball i swear to fucking god i had a premonition i was like i'm making this shot i'm i'm literally chipping this in i'm gonna do this and drew says do you want to go first do you want to go first i'm like yeah dude i'm gonna knock it in dude i fucking knocked it in get the fuck out of here i hit a high pitch shot and it landed on the green. It started rolling towards the green, and the kid on the other team trying to qualify goes,

go in the fucking hole like that. And it goes, dink. I go, yes! There's one! There's one! We're at four! Get us to five! We're in this fucking tournament!

Let's go! High high five my buddy i go to the insane insanity i just i'm going i said i was gonna do that i was so mentally fired up and like what the brain can do it was fucking insane it was like the best moment of my summer you'll you'll laugh when you hear the rest of this so i get to 18 18 is like 570 dead into the wind oh my goodness it was like 220 yards the fairway i i hit this thing as pure as i could dead straight dead nuts and i had like 320 in it was it was it was an absolute honking win right in your face, but I got it in the fairway to a point where I had to lay up with four iron, and then I had to hit another five iron because I hit a bad four iron.

So either way, D'Aremio is in the trees. We need to birdie this hole. He's in the trees. I'm in the middle of the fairway. He hits this ridiculous punch hybrid through the trees like 200 yards. He hit it about 180 yards and still had 220 to the hole. But it was unreal shock just to even get out of the shit and get back in the mix. So then I hit my layup shot, awful four iron.

I'm trying to hit this thing like 200 yards. I hit this awful four iron and it goes like up into the hill into the rough. I'm like, are you going to be kidding me? So one-armed bandit, he's in the rough, takes out his three wood. It's 220. I'm like, this is playing 245 and ropes this three wood to six feet. No way. He's got six feet for the birdie to get to fucking minus five.

I go over to my ball in the rough. It's on the upslope. I'm like, I think I have to hit a six iron because I was like a buck 70 into the wind still. And I'm like, dude, actually, it's on a slope like this. So the six iron will turn into a seven iron. I need to hit a five iron because it's because it's going to go right up in the air. So I do. I hit this thing.

The wind takes it. It's drawing towards the hole. It hits the green and bounces and releases towards the pin. I'm running to the fairway as D'Aremio's going, go in the hole, go in the hole for Eagle to get to seven under. Or no, for Eagle to get to six under. Go in the hole. D'Aremioio screaming and I can't even see as I'm running around the hill the fucking ball rolls down and lips out of the cup lips out of the cup because it was going too fast off the hill and settle seven feet beneath the hole so I was like oh my god we're high five and it didn't go in but holy shit we got two birdie looks we both

looked like we were dead on 18 we can get this thing to 500 right now we get a chance we both missed the fucking pots dude no now now now here's what you're gonna laugh so at the time i'm like dude that that's it i go five was a chance at least as an alternate and with us getting in last year, if we're alternates this year, we'll get in. They were taking two spots, and they were taking two alternates. So we're waiting around all day because we came in, and the clubhouse lead was five under. We were in second place. Now there were some really elite teams of some big-time amateur players

who live around here that were going out in the afternoon. But the wind was still heavy. I said, who knows? So we waited around all afternoon, and some of these teams made the turn. And at the turn, all of these teams were like, well, we're minus, we're two under. We're two under.

We're two under. One was three under. And we're like, hey, these guys could go out and not light up the back. And like four, we could be standing in a playoff at four for an alternate spotter to get in the state. I got one question here. Yeah.

Is the wind still hawking? Here's the thing, Biz. Just as I was about to bring it up. Right as these elite, the elite groups, because they pack all the really good teams together in like three or four different times, you know, t times for the afternoon wave right as they went out for the night the second nine because they they teed off

and it was honking and i'm like this is good and then they came in with scores that were just like ours and i said this is good and then the fan turned off it didn't turn off completely but it turned off into like a chilly fall day where there's a little wind, but nothing like the 25 mile an hour gusts we were dealing with. So we waited around. An eight under came in, a seven under came in, and then there was two six unders, and then a five under, and then a four under.

So we didn't even sniff. Getting the squat like we did last year. We didn't even sniff being an alternate and then possibly getting in. And we sat around that thing all afternoon, hitting balls, thinking we'd have a shot, and drove home with nothing but failure. And the fact that we were fucking high-fiving going nuts after I chipped in to get it to four red on 17, home with nothing but failure and the fact that we were fucking high five and going nuts after i chipped in to get into get into four red on 17 and we're screaming at each other about the ball

getting in the hole on 18 if you ever see what ended up happening we would have looked like the biggest fools of all time but it's still it's trying to get us jimmy chip that's my goal it happened and i got screwed with uh the tourney canceled. Next year we'll give it a go, but it was an exciting round. Well, I got two things. That club championship was a nice appetizer to the real golf story. And fuck that Marshall. Here is the thing about the Marshall. And what happened last time, boys, with the story when I got in?

Remember the Marshall came up on 17, what's your score guys I said whoa whoa that's not something a Marshall asked we're trying to fucking get something done right now get out of my headspace buddy well this time this Marshall says we're late we're sprinting around and I'm I sprinted a 400 yard hole because of no reason oh I forgot a part about the the Marshall I sprinted a 400-yard hole because of no reason. Oh, I forgot a part about the marshal. I sprinted a 400-yard hole for no reason, then missed the most makeable putt of the day to get us to four under through 11. And it was all because I was out of shape and out of breath. So we go up 12 and you have to walk uphill and then you hit downhill. And I hit it right near the cart path. And there's another marshal there. And I hit it right near the cart path.

And there's another marshal there. And I'm like, Peter, this guy's the man, this older gentleman, Peter from Mass Golf. I'm like, Peter, are we on the clock? Are we going to get put on the clock? He's like, what? He looks at the sheet. He's like, you're not even, you're not, you're playing too fast. You're fine right now.

I was like, what the fuck? I go, the guy up there is telling me we got a big problem like his wife left him with the dog and you're telling me that there's no issue at all so it was a wild day and and to get in the house at 68 and sit around and think you have a chance only to see the medalist be eight under double your score it's it's a little humbling i tell you what man that might have been one of the best golf stories I've ever heard from you. And I'm sorry you didn't get in, but it was very entertaining. I think our fans are really going to enjoy it.

All right. Well, man, it was devastating. I got a couple of huge tournaments. I got a tournament coming up. I don't know if you guys know who Jim Renner is, but Jim Renner is the people's golfer. Jim Renner is the first golfer Portnoy ever took a liking to and realized this fucking guy, he's legit. He's played on the PGA Tour.

Right now he's got some starts on the Corn Fair. He's battled a lot of hip injuries, but he's coming back strong. And him and I are playing in a tournament together, the Pro Scratch at Old Sandwich where all the Scratch players, they all bring a pro. And I'm bringing Jim Renner and that tournament is October 5th, 6th, and 7th,

and fucking look out for us taking it down. All right, buddy. Well, I'm looking forward to hearing the full story, and oh, man, that was great. I'll see you guys. All right, everybody. Have a fantastic weekend, and we'll see you back here Monday. As always, we'd like to thank our fantastic sponsors here on Spit and Chicklets. Big thanks to

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thanks to our old friends Bud Light Salsa and big thanks to our new friends at Cross Country Mortgage. Do check them out if you're looking to buy a new home. Everybody, have a fantastic weekend. Within the glow that we use The cloak of the light That moves a strand that has no end For many hours and days It passes