Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 315: Featuring Jack Eichel + Shane Doan

Episode Date: January 12, 2021

On Episode 315 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Jack Eichel and Shane Doan. Jack joined (42:47) to talk about this upcoming season in Buffalo, Taylor Hall, some music, his dog and tons more. The guys then break down the East and Central Divisions followed up by a great interview with Shane Doan. Shane joined (01:39:27) to talk about his new role with the Arizona Coyotes, his kids, some hilarious pranks and a bunch more. The guys wrap up with some NHL news, the West and North Division predictions and the return of RA's gambling corner.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 315 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney, from our friends at new Amsterdam vodka here in the Boston sports podcast family. What is up gang? The NHL is back this week. We got wild new divisions, a crazy new schedule, lots of excitement in the air,

but first I'm going to send it out to the American Southwest to say hi to the boys. I stayed home for health reasons. I'm fine. Just more precautionary than anything, but the boys are out the West. So let's say, hi,

let's go to G. All right. All right. You're on the no fly list. That's why you couldn't come out here. He actually went to the airport. They busted him with just a bunch of age. I won my,

I had a hockey mask. I'm like, I got a mask on. Hey, I respect it. All right. You're not going to be a super spreader. You know,

there's no little risk. You stayed back. It would have been nice to have you here, but we got you in the big screen so this is interesting we've never done oh god i hope it's not in 4k for you guys sake boys i am fired up though this is going to be a fun season there's a lot of storylines there's so much action because things had to happen so far before we got kicked off so uh first of all thank you guys for coming out and all right thank you for uh for battling through this and coming to us live via whatever the fuck you're

coming to us through. Yeah. It's like a via satellite. I feel like I'm on an old fashioned newsfeed here or something, but yeah, like I said, I'm fine. My health's fine. I, I, I actually tested negative just, but you know, it's all over the place. And I, you know, I didn't want to potentially risk you guys. If I did have something, you're negative one day, it could be positive the next. So, like I said, it was out of precaution. But what's up?

How's everything going out there? You guys are going to be hitting the lights. That's how I approach my career. Negative last game, but you never know. All right, game. It was good. Last night we ended up getting Shane Doan live. Big news today.

I know we're going to get into that. But we got a big episode for the opening of the season here. We got Jack Eichel and, of course, a mentor of mine and longtimezona coyote shane doan coming on for about an hour so what do we got about an hour and a half in interviews today that's correct let's roll baby absolutely well before before we get to the nhl biz we do got to clean up a little from the world juniors uh we did the show after the game of course this story broke the next day uh i hate attaching gate attached attached gate to stories, but barrel gate,

this became known as the Americans. They had been doing this thing all tournament. It was based on this. I don't know if it was a myth or a true story where people crossing the Sahara and they would leave by barrels every five kilometers. So you knew where the horizon was and wouldn't get lost. And that was their, their theme all,

all tournament long Canada happened to be the last team. So they pulled the big blue, you know, barrel, what do you call it? Drum, whatever you want to call it. And that was their theme all tournament long. Canada happened to be the last team. So they pulled the big blue barrel, what do you call it, drum, whatever you want to call it, and it had Canada on it. So the optics of it, if you weren't familiar with the story, were kind of like, ooh, and then people reacted. And then the true story came out. But it was fucking hilarious for a couple of days, though, Biz. Well, I think Ryan Rashad was the original guy to send the tweet out.

And rightfully so i mean it looked like a garbage can being brought on the ice which guys i was rooting for canada the entire time i was a canadian team canada jock sniffer the whole way we had kirby doc on and i don't mind a little bit of trash talking i thought that if it was a garbage can with the team canada logo on it it was going to spark some debate online. I know it wasn't, but ultimately, I think we got enough excitement out of it. And I'll leave it at this. I'll believe that that was the case and there was no ill will in calling Team Canada garbage, essentially. Well, it was a fact.

I mean, Team Canada certainly isn't garbage compared to the way we played in the gold medal game they were. But in a sense of like overall hockey Canada, no, you're not garbage. I think that, R.A., you misspoke a tad bit. We all got together after the semifinal game, so we haven't even spoken since the gold. True. That was Tuesday night, the day that the episode dropped last week. What an effort by U.S.

So proud to be a former alumni of USA Hockey. I mean, they've come so far. I said to, I think I came on the ring strength, Brian Yandel and Mike motto, check that out. And we were just saying like, I'm really happy that I wasn't playing hockey around this time because with all the talent in different States that weren't, weren't playing and didn't have talented players when I was coming up, I would never made the national teams. So it's become, um, you know, a powerhouse and certainly like the players they produce Zegers in that tournament, the goaltending from Spencer Knight, it was an awesome effort and losing the first game in that

tournament. Granted it's round Robin, they got spanked by Russia and to come back and not lose again and just go on the run. They did. Congratulations. Now the bucket thing, the, the, the barrel thing, I think it might've been a poem or whatever it was. All right. It's pretty cool story. Now, even if it was a trash bucket, that would have been, that would have been not the classiest move by any stretch of the imagination. But if you don't want stuff like that to happen,

don't lose the game. You like, listen, you can say a gracious winners, all that. It was a barrel from a run that they've had with a story they were following. Next barrel, next barrel, next barrel. They put the flag on the barrel. Next

team up. Canada was the last one. Let's bring the picture in. If it was a big old gross BFI trash barrel and they put the Canadian flag on it, well, tough shit. You lost. I just couldn't believe how many people were so upset by that. Well, you lost, man. You can't be upset about anything.

You lost. Be mad at your team. Be mad at your country. I'm actually happy it took the focus away from the trolls going after the players and more upset at the actions. Because you know how that goes when Team Canada loses. Like Rick from Red Deer is on there just going after guys, getting fucking blocked, and on Twitter rants about how the defense

needed to be better. Now, going back to the semifinals, I thought the U.S. was in trouble because I actually thought that Finland had outplayed them. And I don't know if it was just an off night, but they survived it. And going into that game for the USA, you said they got to get one early, they got to get one five and five, and Canada's going to be shook. They had two lines going, and they just rolled them. That was the one, I guess guess issue i had with and i

don't want to say coaching was a problem but i feel like they were snapping the ice time around a little too much to team canada where they needed to find i'm not saying that they needed to go to the cousins line although they had been driving the bus most of the tournament if they didn't maybe necessarily have their legs enough go to a different line but you got to strike when the iron's hot on which line was going i just don don't think that really Canada maybe didn't even have a line, and that's why he just kept shuffling four lines going out there. Is that a fair statement? I mean, other than the power play at the end of it.

Well, I think there's so much talent too. So it's like you've got this third line on Canada, fourth line on Canada. All these guys are elite scorers for the most part. So it's like we can get somebody going. It's really harder to shorten the bench when you're so deep like Canada is you know the the thing that was shocking to me and we we I've I've always mentioned Twitter isn't really real life it's not but you said you saw all the comments um going in it was like no chance Canada's losing there's zero chance the Canadians are going to lose and my thing

was it's one game I already said it too one game anything can happen and USA had all these sick players it wasn't like it was one game against a team that doesn't even have a first round pick the the amount of Canadians on Twitter there is zero chance we're losing this game today okay there's a nasty goalie in some fucking sick center that's going to dominate in the NHL Trevor Zegers and you're telling me that the U.S. couldn't win this game so it kind of went down as i hoped it would and congratulations i got a lot of heat for my one nothing usa pay yeah you did you did and you were the closest and one guy's like yeah i'm sure they're gonna shut out a team of 19 first round picks oh okay that's why i play the game i can agree with you guys in the assessment that

canada lost because they were just too talented there's too many talented players therefore it kind of scrambled them a little bit, and they couldn't find – They got stuck, Biz. They got stuck not getting tested once. And then you get to the gold – It's like they never had any adversity. I know it's not ideal, but in a sense, it can really help

when you're going through issues and you're going through times when you're not in – They didn't even not have the lead. They were just tied at the beginning of the game. So I think that they ran into the best team besides them and the tourney who played lights out. And it was just the perfect storm for Canadians to be butthurt. Congratulations, guys.

Congratulations on the gold medal. We're going to have Zegras actually on the podcast. Him and Cole Caulfield are going to come on. Yeah. They agreed after the game. I don't know what they were going to do after. This Zegras kid is a stallion. He looks like one of those like TikTok guys who just died handsome tucking genos how's that hair

job that hair hair solid he's going out to newport beach tough life you think he makes the team this year uh yeah i think he's gonna well i mean anaheim hasn't done much in the off season i know we're gonna get into some of the ads and additions i I mean, Dylan Cousins is so NHL ready. He's going to play a big role for Buffalo. I would think that kid's at the same level. I would agree. Those two, Bowen Byram along with those two were the three players in the tournament. You're like, whoa. And I think

all three of those guys you're going to see this year play some serious minutes. All right. I love a good hashtag classy on Twitter, like classy Twitter. It's hilarious when people bring that shit up on Twitter yeah you're on Twitter Shane Doan was actually getting a few of those today when they tweeted it out but that's for different

reasons yeah that's not hashtag sarcasm yeah so congrats again the US 2-0 gold medal winning game over Canada the Finns won the bronze as well. And also congrats to Teresa Fiesta. She made history first as the first female coach at the World Junior,

then the first female coach to win gold as well. She works for Nate Lehman in Providence. She has for several years. She's a brilliant hockey mind. So we want to pass on that for making some history up there as well. So congrats to Teresa Fiesta. Congrats, Teresa. Love it.

Good stuff. Love to see it. All right, moving along. One of the big restricted free agent names that was still out there has been signed. Matthew Barzal signed with the Islanders. Three years, 21 mil, $7 million cap hit. He'll be getting four mil this year, seven mil next year, 10 mil the year after. His next deal, whatever, wherever, whoever comes from will have a qualifying offer of at least 8.4 mil. Both parties were looking at a six-year deal.

He wants to stay there, doesn't want to go anywhere else, but the money wouldn't line up right now. Of course, the cap's kind of staying static because of the pandemic. Barzal, when asked about the possibility, he didn't want to stay with the Isles. He said, no, absolutely not. The whole negotiation was totally respectable on both sides. It's pretty clear.

I love it on the island. I love being here. This is a fun place to be and a fun place to play. We knew this was happening, but still. Wait, you didn't finish it. That quote. At the end, he said, and suck it, Vincent. Oh, my.

You know what? I feel like the freshman in Dazed and Confused right now and lose Ben Affleck and he's got the fucking paddle. He's chasing him out of the baseball game to whoop him. Yeah. I'm throwing out my hot takes on the mound and he's fucking waiting me with the paddle. You got to keep going, R.A.

Sorry to hop in there. No, I was going to say, what's the guy, whoever Cole Hauser played in Dazed and Confused? That's Witt, the guy. That's actually him. Yeah, you guys look exactly like listen guys i got dragged into this battle by sean avery when he was going at frankie barelli and rightfully so but the fact that they were throwing the snakes at him and warm up at

taveras on the ice when he came back to the island and i kind of hopped on this this bandwagon of trying to rip on the fan base and always you know stir the pot i have been taking l after l after l and for them to lock this guy in and him to be happy and him to come out with that quote and get him not one not two but three years at seven million avv and i don't know how many people were paying attention to the way it was structured and people were a little worried because the last year the deal he's getting 10 million i believe it's structured structured what is it uh is it 4 million 7 million and 10 million correct yeah and and and so people are thinking oh well it's qualifying offer on last year of him being a restricted free agent would they would have to go above 10 that's not the case it's only a certain percentage above the avv so i

believe that if you were to sign i was wondering about that yeah so if you were to sign a one whatever one year deal or a qualifying after a qualifying offer after this three-year deal it would be at 8.6 so that would be his cap hit but guys this is an unbelievable cap hit this team is is very well spread out and you know i i i thought that they would eventually get something done i even said last podcast that it was a holdout and then dragger even dunked on me on fucking twitter because a holdout is when someone actually has a contract and they aren't reporting so i've just been getting my fucking ass torn apart by the islanders fans and wit i'll i'll haunt it back over to you yeah i mean i've made a lot of uh comments the Islanders fans and wit. I'll, I'll, I'll hand it back over to you. Yeah.

I mean, I've made a lot of comments about Islanders fans in the past, this podcast, and they've never dunked on me at all. Fuck them. I mean, you can say that they swept the penguins that one year, then they,

then they got swept. And then this past year, I granted, I said, I thought they'd lose early, but my whole thing is they won't win the cup. So congratulations. Cause they're getting bars out at that number.

Sick. What you said, you're still not going to win the cup but you're going to have a guy playing big time a huge role an elite level player in the nhl making only seven million that's bruin style very impressive um i don't know i i i'm curious when the deal ends already do you know how many more years till he's ufa yes just one he'll have one more year of rfa okay so that's that's going to be interesting this is three years away let the islanders fan yeah let them enjoy it but that's something where it's i don't know if he signs a one-year deal so maybe then he does love it so

much he plans on just signing a real long one then and just ending that one year into the ufa years i don't know but to get him at this number is great i think the islanders did get lucky in a way that all of this is going on with the money being less and the cap being an issue and the no fans it's like you can't really bend them over if you're matt barzell and want and continue to want the team to be playing at a high level at this at this time period with the pandemic and thing i think that even so from what i heard was, and remember, I don't have the best sources because I'm just going to my own brain here. Apparently he would have liked to have signed a little bit of a longer term

deal at five years at 9 million, but I don't even think that the Islanders could have because they just don't even have the money right now. So the fact that he was, Barzell was, I guess he was, what's the term I'm looking for um i don't know they weren't really greedy in negotiations at all like i feel they they had the leverage they had the leverage the islanders did big time fair enough and i think that at seven million i think that he could have probably held out for a little bit more but he probably just wanted to get this this thing

rolling and and given the situation with covet and stuff i think it definitely played into to helping out the Islanders. At the end of the day, man, great job by Lou getting a guy for a very, very good average. Also, when you are an RFA, it's pretty easy to take when you qualify. I was going to be 8.4 mil. It's a little easier.

8.4? I thought it was 8.6. My bad. That's all right. A few other sign-ins here I'm going to run through. Just chime in if you guys want to chime in. St. Louis made it official. No surprise here. Mike Hoffman, one year, $4 million. PTO is just, like you said, a formality so they can get to this point.

The Devils brought back Sammy Vatnin, the defenseman. He was a free agent. They had traded at the deadline last year to a one-year, $2 million deal. What else? They also re-signed their own restricted free agent, Jesper Brat, to a two-year, $5.5 million deal uh what else they also re-signed their own restricted free agent yes but brought to a two-year 5.5 million dollar deal nashville signed a restricted free agent luke coonan to a two-year 4.6 million dollar deal they acquired him back in october for nikki benino uh let's see columbus signed forward all of a bjork strand to a five-year extension worth 27 this one was a bit

of a head scratcher having him't him and Torts had issues? I mean, that's not saying much considering. I think there was times that he was definitely playing at a level that Torts didn't think was enough. And I don't necessarily think he's always played that style where it's like in your face, blocking shots so difficult to play against. But I don't think that that deal is done right now without Torts maybe saying, all right, I've built some trust into this guy.

And there's been moments when he has been a really, really high-level player, and I've loved watching his game. He is skilled. But, yeah, when I read it, I was like, whoa, it's a pretty good deal for a guy who's had his moments there. I haven't really taken a deep dive into his numbers, but when you see a guy like Hoffman who you know he's for the six years since he's been a full-time NHL or he's you know 17th in the amount of goals he's

scored so like you look at some of the impact some of these guys are making you're like wait he's he's getting a one-year deal and he's looking for a place to play and like you know other guys are getting these five-year deals at big numbers so I don't know it was it was a bit of a head scratcher so I just wanted to chime in there quickly while you're reading those off, R.A. What was it? It was five years? Yep. Five years, $27 million. It comes out to $5.4 million cap hit. Worth noting, I mean,

he's a 20-goal scorer each of the last two seasons. Last year, he had 21 goals in just 49 games, so obviously Columbus likes what they see, and they don't just throw money willy-nilly, so they must really like this kid. Good draft, too. third rounder yeah turn into as far as Vatnin's concern you mentioned him I thought he was 40 I thought that I feel like Vatnin's been in the league for 15 no I think you just been hearing a lot about him you know he was a guy who was pretty highly touted uh early on

and I think that that was probably another reason why they thought they had enough D in the pipeline in order to move Theodore when they did, with the expansion draft and everything. They thought he was enough to give up. He ends up getting moved over to New Jersey for Adam Henrique. And I feel like he just, he might have lost his game a little bit because he was on, my favorite word here comes, he was on this great trajectory and all of a sudden he just fell off but nice to see he's going to get another opportunity there i think that's a pretty fair number and you know from from when i was watching him early on

because they are in the pacific division uh with with the coyotes i mean he was a he was a solid fucking player great one-timer can run a power play not great foot speed i would say and then the the thing about that trade that nobody will ever forget is the goal Henrik scored when he went back on Vatanen, flipping it over his head. It was like the goal of the year. That was basically like Kunitz did that to me, but like times 100 by winning 15 Stanley Cups. But Henrik still just, I'm going to win this trade right in your face.

Vatanen's never been the same. No, no. It's a killer. I think being in New Jersey probably didn't help his career all that much either. Oh, wow. No, I mean, you're not on a great, good team. Then, you know, you're not going to really,

it's not going to help your career. I mean, some guys might take advantage of it points wise, but, you know. I feel like they're they're chicago now where they had so much luck for so long and so many things go their way that i think that everybody needs a little bit of the devils yeah just a little bit of i mean they had another situation with uh i mean that that left them in a not want to say a tough spot but with cory crawford retiring you might as well hop in in new jersey right now all right yeah speaking of jersey uh we had some

big news coming out of there this week cory Crawford he had signed a free agent deal with them in the offseason he retired seemingly out of nowhere after 15 pro seasons including 10 of them as the Blackhawks starting goal he of course won two Stanley Cups in Chicago he was a part of two Jennings trophies as well franchise record with 52 playoff wins I mean he was huge part of that Blackhawks squad he He said, I wanted to continue my career, but believe I've given all that I can to the game of hockey, and I've decided that it is time to retire. I would like

to thank the Devils organization for understanding and supporting my decision. Again, he signed with Jersey in the offseason. Chicago just kind of let him walk, which was kind of an odd decision. Well, that pissed everybody off, right? That was kind of when a bit of the fireworks happened with leadership group, yeah and tough what's happened to chicago as well in the well the initial thought was that people thought they were going to be on the hook for his contract but

apparently when they did the last memorandum of understanding they adjusted the 35 and older contracts so the devils will not have his 3.9 deal count against the cap for the next two seasons which is a pretty big deal needs to say big time because i actually thought i was reading that in fact that they were on the hook for it because he was past the age of 35 but you're saying that when they renegotiate and redid the cba they corrected that yeah it's uh the right at the athletic cory i think i forgot it is miss it i'm gonna butcher his last mosaic on this i forget he's the devil's beat right at the athletic he was the first one to uncover that.

And then cap friendly, I think retweeted him to verify that. Yeah. They're not going to be on the hook for that. So that, which that really changed a lot in my mind. And I've been through this on a way lesser level, way less of a career than Corey Crawford. And I was in Sweden, but I did go through a thing where you sign a contract with the team and you get over there, and then I realized I had nothing left. I wasn't going to help the team. I didn't love the game.

Now, I'm not putting words in Corey Crawford's mouth. Who knows what he's going through? I know he did make the one statement. But if you're mentally not there anymore and you can't even picture yourself getting up and going, doing what needs to be done to get ready to play games, it doesn't really matter the situation now you feel so bad that you i felt so bad i signed in sweden and you only allowed a certain amount of imports and i remember saying to the gm like i apologize so i'm obviously giving you back every cent you've given me so far i know i'm putting you

in an awful position but i just i don't have it anymore and the guy was so good in sweden i apologize for not remembering his name but he said i completely understand he probably saw how bad i was too so he's like yeah go ahead dude he gets out of the office we got rid of him uh orsberg's popping champagne on fucking zoom he's not taking down moto anymore so uh crawford, when I saw that and didn't know about the contract, the cap hit not going on against the team for two years, I was like, oh, you're calling Tom Fitzgerald who gives off $8 million over two years,

and now you've got to tell him, sorry, I'm not going to be here for you as a goalie, and you're stuck with my cap hit. Like, that would have been, as a former player, I'm sure going to be here for you as a goalie, and you're stuck with my cap hit. That would have been, as a former player, I'm sure Tom Fitzgerald would understand, this guy doesn't have the passion that's needed anymore, but God damn, did he kind of screw us. So it's good for the team's sake that that's not going down.

Well, and the one thing that it does suck on is the fact that they probably could have went out and signed somebody else to be Blackwood's backup. From my my understanding it was probably going to be a situation where blackwood was more of the starter but he was going to be there to groom him and probably lug given the season maybe like a 60 40 split maybe even a 50 50 so now with new jersey being the fact that they need good goaltending because they're not quite there as a team yet that's gonna that's gonna put them in a way more difficult spot as a whole, as a season. I don't know who they're going to go out and get in order to fill that void.

But as you said, when you're just mentally checked out, there's really nothing. You're not doing yourself or the team any good. And what a career. And looking back, I mean, 2002, the Blackhawks got Duncan Keith like 54th, right over 52nd. And then the next year, in the second round, in the next year, they get Corey Crawford 52nd, I think. The greatest draft of all time.

So two second-round picks by the Blackhawks when you go into drafting and how much it matters that were key players, key cogs in those three cups. He'll probably end up getting his jersey retired there, I would imagine. And from what I'm reading all over, they're saying one of the most underappreciated Blackhawks of all time. It's everywhere. Yes, but R.A. mentioned to me, or on the notes, I think, I don't know if Corey Crawford will be a hall of famer.

He has the Stanley cups. And I would say not a hall of famer. I would definitely say ring of honor as far as a Blackhawks is concerned. He's like, he would be like their Jonathan quick for LA two cups. He, in both times he was stellar in one, one of the cases more than anyone. Yeah. Two. I said three, excuse me.

Yeah. He, he, he stood on his head. I think Niemi was there for the first one, yeah it was anti-niemi yep yeah but uh i would yeah as they're saying the most underappreciated blackhawk of all time yeah i'll definitely go ring of honor there i i yeah in terms of like overall career a lot of people probably say he was just with a great team the old chris osgood argument but you know what i'm saying it's like people like oh he wasn't that good well talk to any guy that was on the Blackhawks. They'll tell you how good he was. Exactly. So congrats

on an amazing career. I'd love to chat with him. He's probably got some great stories. Handsome fella, too. Yeah, actually, it's funny you say it was a good win. That's the first guy I thought of because obviously guy retires, two cups, Hall of Fame, the first thing people want to ask, but a lot of people think Osgood should be in by virtue of his two cups. So I think there are very, very

similar arguments to be made. I don't think of Osgood or Corey Crawford and his two cups. So I think there are very, very similar arguments to be made. I don't think of Osgood or Corey Crawford and think Hall of Fame. I'll say that. I think his number will definitely be retired, though, Biz. I mean, it's a no-brainer. He's the best. I mean, you can make the best goalie. Let's call Pushy Crusher 6969.

Let's get him on the fucking phone. Let's see if he's getting inducted into the Ring of Honor. All due respect to Eddie the Eagle and Tony Esposito, but, you know, Corey Crawford won two cups there. Neither of those guys can say they did that in Chicago. Also, it's Corey Mississack. I think that's how you pronounce it. I hate butchering people's names on here.

Also, another retirement. Colin Wilson retired after 11 NHL seasons. The BU product played his first eight in Nashville, his last three in Colorado. Had 286 points in 632 games. Whit, I know you know Colin. He's been very open about the issues he's dealt with in his career,

you know, OCD, self-medication. So we certainly wish him the health and happiness in retirement. I know you wanted to add something, Whit. Yeah, we actually chatted with Nathan McKinnon. That'll be coming out in next week or something. Week two of the NHL season, boom, boom, bangers. We caught up with him. And so we actually, you'll kind of hear us chat about Willie

because we were talking on the day he retired. So, you know, they got a chance to play together, and he gave his thoughts. But I'll say what I said then. The first time I ever saw this kid, he was an incoming freshman at BU, and the former BU guys would work out at their gym in the summer, and I was over there. And I think he had about 90 pounds hanging from him. And he was doing pull-ups like 10, 11,

12, like 18 years old, squatting 350 front squat. He was an absolute machine, this kid. And I don't know if looking back, I'd love to get him on. He'll definitely come on and chat. I bet you, he'll say he probably trained too hard and he was going as hard as he could every off season during the year in like explosive lifting stuff that necessarily isn't great for you he had the shoes did he have the platform shoes on too no he had the old shoes with just the things under the toe to work on your calves you remember like the costanza adam i'm just kidding. But his speed and his vision, he was a high pick and he'd been looking like a stallion too the whole time. The guy's a man rocket. I'm

very happy that he ended up playing as long as he did and to go through the issues he did go through and be open with what happened, I think that's really difficult. So he's a guy that he's recovering from certain things. The stress of the game, I'm sure not worrying about if you're going to be healthy, what you have to do to play can really help your mind in terms of when you do retire.

I know it can be difficult for some people. Well, in a sense, it can also be a weight off the shoulders. So I wish him all the best. Great career, great run, and really kind of deserved all of the things that he got because he worked his ass off. Yeah. I actually spoke on the phone with him a couple weeks ago, so we're definitely going to get him on.

He's a very interesting guy, and we'll talk about that awesome long career. I think his father ended up playing a pretty long NHL career as well, right? One of the things he always used to say, he's like, hey, just trying to play as long as my old man. That was like his one line. So we'll talk about his old man when we get him on too and the career he had as well. All right. right again best of luck to those guys in retirement congrats on great careers uh to the surprise of nobody patrice bergeron was named captain of the bruins he's

the 20th captain in team history brad marshand and david crechey have the a's i was pretty funny what they did they kind of sunk them in the room they announced marshy as the captain and i don't know if bergeron was buying it because you couldn't tell if he was smiling with the mask on but that was that allowed Mashi to actually make the announcement so yeah the masks on made that like so weird you're like is anyone smiling under those yeah we're just looking but I I think that this is the biggest no but I made fun of when the O'Reilly news broke so we can't even talk about this oh hey in all honesty though did you feel like the the the way they called marshana did you feel it land a little flat yes that's what i'm saying and

i don't know if that's what i unless it was the masks i think the mask might have done it but when i saw the video i was like bursch on it's like give me my fucking jersey with a c on it yeah there had to be at least one guy in there who was probably like, no fucking way, like in his head. There's no chance. That's why I think everyone's like, sick joke. That's like when it was like a GM thinking of the joke and everyone

in the room's a yes man being like, that's a great idea. We did this at Harvard in 88. Let's get some content. Let's get some. No, they use another word for content. That's actually what the C's for. That's what the C's for. They gave him the content. That was as bad as the.

That was worse than the joke. Was it worse? Or was it worse? Let's put it up. Let's do a twirl. No, I was laughing. I just had my mask on. Forming jokes is amazing.

We're not comedians, guys. We're trying. We're trying hard. We're hockey players. Thank Christ we're not. Currently, guys. We're trying. We're trying hard. We're hockey players. Thank Christ we're not. Currently, five teams are the captain. Detroit, New Jersey, New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators, and Vegas Golden Knights.

The Wings, of course, are expected to name Dylan Lockett at some point. But interesting, some teams still opt to go with no captain in this day and age. Well, Stevie White forgot because he was fucking ripping the bong. He's like, oh, shit. Yeah, we got to fuck. Steve, who didn't name the captain. Oh, my pen. Sorry, my pen died. I'm died i'm sorry i took the indica not the sativa all right hey gang 2021 is finally here and it's a great time to monitor your body's activities

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but it's not meant for just the pro athletes. Whoop can help anyone like myself, improve their performance by providing personalized, actionable data to help you make smarter decisions. Whether you're looking to sleep a little bit better, training for an event, or you're just looking to build healthier habits in the new year, Whoop can help you reach your goals of a healthier life. Whoop is designed to be worn 24-7 and with five-day battery life and an on-the-go charging system, you won't miss a beat. The strap itself is also waterproof. Skip the alerts, buzzing, and notifications on your wrist when all you're trying to do is get your workout in.

Once you're on Whoop, you can create a team with your buddies and make sure to chirp whoever's sitting around and falling behind. That would probably be me, Biz. Whoop has helped me get smarter about the way I train and sleep and has made me so much more aware of my body, sleep, and recovery. This thing is great for letting you know how beat up you really are. Whoop can help you set all new goals and achieve the New Year's resolutions that you've made for yourself.

Right now, they're offering 15% off when you use the code CHICKLETS, C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S, at checkout. So go to whoop, W-H-O-O-P.com and enter chicklets at checkout to save 15%. That thing's great for sleeping, man. I mean, it's always telling me how much more sleep I need, but at least I know how exhausted I am moving along. We did mention COVID earlier in the show because it's 2020, 2021. Hockey is back, so that means the COVID beat is back, unfortunately.

The Dallas Stars just had six players and two staff members test positive so they had a close-up shop over the weekend uh the expectation is that the team will not open this season earlier than tuesday the 19th uh the pens also had to cancel practice and scrimmage on saturday uh p.l lebrun suspects that this will happen a bunch he tweeted my guess is the schedule is going to change many times for several teams throughout the season and all likelihood because of positive tests. Get used to this. And I know the NBA is a different league, but these two leagues play the same schedule, essentially, same buildings.

And they've been canceling games left and right. The Celtics and Heat had a – I should say postponed. Celtics and Heat had to postpone a game. LA Kings also had five players unfit to participate. So, boys, I mean, we're having positive thoughts here, but when you see what's going on in the NBA, we've seen it in baseball and football, it feels like, you know, COVID might wreak a little havoc

on the NHL schedule. Yeah, that goes without saying. I'm so sick of the, oh, they shouldn't be doing this. Look at this. Games are going to get postponed. You've seen it all year in the NFL. You've seen it around the world in sports, Premier League, shout out soccer.

They're postponing games. We're going to deal with it. The season will get played, and there'll be times where teams got to take 10 days off and everything gets refigured. There's no fans. It's going to happen. But for all these people, oh, my God, the NHL's failing. What are they doing?

Well, they're coming off the most successful COVID participation of all time in the two bubbles of all time. COVID's been around a year, not even. But you know what I'm saying? Like enough with the complaining. Oh my God, look at this. Hockey's going to be a mess. Every sport's a mess.

And when the games end up getting postponed, they'll get played later on and we'll figure it out. But the whole sense of like frustration and annoyance that the season's even going on is so ridiculous to me like do you want hockey or not because with what what's going on right now you're gonna have to deal with the covid storylines of teams getting it and especially with the travel up i don't know but you know what i'm saying i was i was just taking it all in i thought you that was very well said. I see so many articles. Oh, look at this.

NHL's already a mess. I think that kind of shows why the bubble was the way they had to go. And maybe we'll see that. I couldn't see them adjusting halfway through the year, but could you see it where it gets to playoffs, them redoing another bubble type situation? I don't think the players are going to refuse. I think the longer this goes, the better off everything's going to be

as the vaccine's getting rolled out, hopefully. So as the season, you know, hopefully we get into May and it's getting better around the country numbers wise. I have no idea how that's going to play out, but I don't see a bubble again because the players hated it so much. Right. And R.A., you did mention that Dallas was one of those teams, and I believe that they were supposed to start the season against florida and it kind of segs way into something else that we had to talk about uh as far as something that elliot friedman tweeted out now

something to look out for i don't know what's going on i'm sure there'll be more that comes out with it i'll let you read the tweet there all right yeah biz uh elliot actually retweeted george richards who covers covers the Panthers down in Florida. He tweeted on Sunday, the Panthers split up team practice in what looks like game players and those on the fringe of making the roster. Defenseman Keith Yandel is with that second

group. Joe Quenville says the group can change throughout the week. He wants to see the team's younger defenseman. And then he writes still... And this guy's not a clickbait type guy. He's a pretty good journalist. And Elliott Friedman retweeted George and said, this is something to watch over the next few days.

Florida's first two games versus Dallas were postponed. Yandel's 866 games consecutively played streak is longest active and fourth all time. And then Elliott asks, will there be a spot for him on Florida? So I don't know. What did you want to chime in I I haven't um talked to Keith I'm not gonna like you know bother him right now getting ready for the season but when I saw this it's shocking to me that he's not there right now and

I don't know what's going on but I can imagine that a new GM comes in and looks to change culture, looks to get rid of guys that he doesn't consider the team going to, he doesn't consider the team will win a Stanley Cup with. Maybe guys getting older. Things are going on when you become a new GM, and there's changes you want to make. So maybe this guy's come in, and he's not a fan of Keith. I have no idea as of right now, but there is no way. I refuse to believe there is any chance that Keith Yandles Ironman streak

will be ended when their season gets going right now, not practicing with, with the main squad and Quentinville Tong will look at the younger D. I don't know. I don't know who's making these decisions, but if you look at Keith Yandel's past 10 years whole career on the power play and offensively he is one of the best in the league this is not a guy who signed a long deal getting older and his games really slipped like looking

at like a guy kind of like Andrew Ladd right he's older probably lost a step and you've seen him spend time in the minors and you, you know, it's a contract. When a guy does get older, we often talk about they're probably not going to be able to play to the level that you're paying them when you do sign it. That's not Keith right now. Specifically, the fact that you signed him to produce offense. And I know that sometimes producing that rate of offense, sometimes maybe your own end might get sacrificed a little bit. But as far as his numbers are concerned, they have not declined one bit. No, not at all.

And so knowing how much guys love Keith, I mean, probably many people who've played with him would say he's their favorite teammate they've ever had. And I'm sure this whole story will come out, but I right now refuse to believe that Keith Yandel's Iron Man streak will be stopped by a healthy scratch to start this year. I'll flip a fucking table. I'll tell you that. I'll lose my shit. I'll take a skydump on Zito's car.

We'll find out if it's Zito, Quenville, whatever's going on. I just actually refuse to believe it's going to happen, though. If that goes down. Who's the current guy who actually owns the streak right now? Doug Jarvis. And his ended with a healthy scratch, actually. That's what I was told. When Shane Doan was over here last.

I thought he said the guy that had it before him. Oh, okay. It was one of the top guys. Oh, you're saying I'm wrong with one of my stats that's shocking calling out your source shane doan barzell on lavers i mean definitely definitely something that makes no sense to me when i saw those tweets all right and ra another thing too is outside of ekblad i don't know if i could name you another d-man on florida yeah they got like a leaguer they got rid of Matheson to the Penguins.

And what, Keith's the issue? What am I, am I missing something? Yeah, so we'll keep an eye on this, folks. I just didn't understand why the drama this early in camp. And even if it is a case, and like, guys, this guy's our buddy, so it sounds like we're just defending a friend. If anyone's had an active streak like that, who's done as much in the league as he's done and continue to do it even throughout last year if you come in as a general manager and you do essentially want to change your culture and

you don't see as this as a guy who you think can bring you to a stanley cup and and and and a guy who can't contribute i say at least maybe sit him down or or talk and say listen this is where we need you to pick up your weight and and maybe focus on the area of your game in order to mold it to where more more how we see it you're just not gonna play him and yeah as opposed to even give a guy who's had that long of a career and and and just maybe show him the disrespect and not even be able to prove himself doing it and there is one thing about continuing an iron man streak or a consecutive game played streak for somebody who isn't carrying their weight anymore is one thing it's like i can't as a coach or gm i can't keep playing this guy because he's got a streak going like chara yeah i mean i'm just that was a joke

folks did he have a streak going? But you know what I mean. Keith, it's not – the play isn't an issue. So it's like something off. So there's something off down there, and we'll know more by next week, I'm sure. Send him to Boston. We'll take him. Boston would be a six-ball for him. He lost Krug, and if you – Florida keeps some of the money.

Say Florida holds on to half of his salary, and maybe the Bruins send John Moore. Would you not love that as a Bruins fan? Would love it as a Bruins fan. We'll see what goes on, but I refuse to believe that the streak will end on a healthy scratch

by the shitbag Panthers. No offense, Keith. Yeah, it definitely feels like some sort of a staring contest here. Keith, he has three years left at $6.35 million. He also has a no move clause, so they can't necessarily trade him without his permission. But, you know, an owner, a GM could make, I don't want to use the word threats, but can say, hey, if you know, you don't want to oblige, we can do this or do that. So it's, it definitely feels like something that for the forever, all involved has to come to a head at some point. You know, I don't think you want to go into the season scratching a guy like this,

and it just becomes a story that you created on your own. But we'll obviously keep on. You're also devaluing an asset if you do, in fact, want to trade him. It's a little bit bizarre, but we can move on. I think we've kind of – Yeah, we're going to get to Jack shortly anyways. Just a couple other notes related to COVID. Sorry, I hate to do it, but we got to talk about it.

The Tampa Bay Lightning did reverse course. They are not going to allow fans in the building due to the recent COVID cases and hospitalizations in Pinellas County. Three teams will have some fans. The Stars will have 30% cap, which is 5,000 fans. The Panthers on the other side of Florida from Tampa, they'll have a 25% cap at 5,000 fans, the Panthers and the other side of Florida from Tampa. They'll have a 25% cap at 5,000 fans. And you guys, the Coyotes, 25% cap, which is 3,450 fans.

And that doesn't include Meteor and other people that are allowed to go in, but Coyotes kicking it off soon there, Biz. All right. I'm very excited. Very excited to get going. Actually, we're going to do, we're going to, I'm going to head to the game on Thursday against the San Jose Sharks. A little, I think they play them back to back. They play them Saturday as well to head to the game on Thursday against the San Jose Sharks. I think they play them back-to-back. They play them Saturday as well to kick off the year. So excited to see Burnsy as well in action.

San Jose Sharks, another team looking for a bounce-back year after they struggled last year. Eric Carlson, another big name there. So I'll get to see him live in the flesh and get my – how do you say that? My TV personality back on. So I have to have somewhat of a filter. Biz,

biz. What is it? Peter man's biz, Peter man's biz. Color guy. Go. Yeah. It's going to take a little getting used to these baseball style

schedules for sure. And one last note before we send it over to Jack Eichel, a couple of teams are going to partnership as far as the AHL Nashville and Carolina are both going to use the Chicago wolves in the AHL and Tampa Bay in Florida are both going to use the Syracuse crunch as the AHL. Nashville and Carolina are both going to use the Chicago Wolves in the AHL, and Tampa Bay and Florida are both going to use the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL. What kind of way you can actually have a guy on your

team and then go play him later in the season? I know it's probably slim this year, but either way, I want to pass that along. But, boys, I think we should send it over to Buffalo Sabres superstar Jack Eichel right about now. Boom. Well, we're happy to welcome our next guest back. A guy making his fourth appearance on the show, I believe.

That might be a record or a tide for one. He's heading into his sixth NHL season already, and his third as captain of the Buffalo Sabres. Last season, he further solidified himself as an MVP caliber, number one center in the league while posting career highs in goals and points per game. Welcome back to the Spittin' Chicklets podcast, Jack Eichel. Welcome back, pal. What's going on, fellas? Yeah, it's nice to be back. It's nice to catch up with you boys.

Thanks for making time for us during camp. We appreciate it. How's it going? It's been good. I mean, I guess with everything going on in the world and COVID and everything else, it's actually been a pretty smooth camp. The organization's done a good job of keeping things pretty easy for us and letting us just focus on the hockey more or less. I think that it's crazy to think how long ago it was since you played a hockey game. So it must be so exciting. I know you were battling a little bit of an injury.

You must have missed the first couple of days. Everything's good there? Yeah, yeah. I had something that i did training probably like three weeks ago i was on the ice and and i did something to myself so uh yeah i took the first whatever four or five days off of camp and i was skating just now with the group and uh no it's nice to be back with them i mean it's tough like you said you haven't played a game in 10 months and my timing's just terrible right now like and it's kind of what I said the other day the media is like I think people kind of have to understand like hockey hasn't you know we haven't played in a while and and for some of us 10 months and for some of us that were in the bubble it's been

but just the break itself has been so uh has been so long without preseason and with the shorter camp. I can't imagine the start of the regular season being as crisp as it usually is. No chance. That's just how it's going to be. I'm going on the over all the first few games, but it's sloppy hockey I'm looking at. Did they make you guys do the same fitness testing as they normally do? No, no, they didn't actually.

We barely do anything. I know some, like I talked to some other guys in other places that are that got absolutely bagged i know that part of the agreement between the nhl and the pa and whatever was i think it was limiting the uh the fitness testing off the ice but i know that some teams still buried guys on the ice with fitness testing uh luckily our coach is uh he's a pretty smart guy not saying that fitness testing's dumb but uh he he utilized uh all our ice time as much as he could and um yeah he didn't really bag uh he didn't really bag us unnecessary uh ralph didn't test you physically but he's always got those mental tests going that's how ralph so doku puzzles around around the room some crosswords no this guy's so smart biz he's just

intimidating when i was talking to him he's got he's got knowledge about like everything so he's very uh very well educated i'll say that about ralph kruger yeah he is uh one of the most yeah he's one of the most diverse people i've ever been around like he can talk to you about anything in the world so you guys didn't have a a russian training camp like torts over in columbus so that's nice that's all no i mean even even like toronto i was talking to a couple guys up there i know their skate test was pretty tough this year really yeah they were i talked to a few guys that were complaining that they had absolutely no legs whatsoever uh when they got on the ice for practice because they just got

completely smoked during the during the skate test but yeah luckily we don't do a skate test we did it one year i think it was maybe phil housley's first year it was pretty tough but i think that was uh that was the last time we did it i think that that was part of the agreement with those signing bonuses they got, that they had to have harder training camps because the wires come in and then they bag them a little bit. Hey, just to jump in real quick, does one of you guys have a dog biting on a toy or something right now? Yeah, I do.

My fucking dog's under me. I heard that. I got that, yeah. That was a squeaky toy? I was wondering if that was – I thought Biz was up to no good over there. Oh my God, look how cute that thing is. What?

When did you get him? He's biting on this, dude. I keep trying to throw it underneath me. He keeps standing here trying to bite it. What's the dog's name? Harold. Harold. That's a great name for a dog. Harold.

What is it? french bulldog yeah that dog well that's how much bigger how much bigger will he get he's tiny he's probably not going to get more than like 24 25 pounds uh things a chick magnet too hey i'm sorry about that mikey i don't know no we have to restart the interview we have to redo it all over again whatever hey uh so i was talking to milsy and and i was i was doing a little bit of digging before this one and he says this thing's been shitting all over the house all over it man he's got like good days and bad days but i feel like uh sometimes if you're not like giving him attention and shit he's just like ah fuck you i'm gonna go take a shit carpet you know what i mean like like this yeah like he's

he's not poly trained at all my parents have have a dog and like my dog growing up the thing's probably trained in a week it's just like knows it goes to the door it never shit so you never have to worry about an accident this guy you gotta have an eye on him at all times he's either pissing or shitting and then when he shits, sometimes he eats it. It's just like, oh, he's a savage. Yeah, he's a sickle. I was going to say. It's a puppy thing, man. Like, it's a puppy thing.

I was about to say, I used to have the same problem. Odell, you named it Odell. I used to have the same problem, but it was a middle-aged woman, but she wasn't eating it. That's a little fucked up, man. Oh, yeah, I know. Poor guy. He doesn't even know any better.

We got to take him to the vet and get him some medicine that makes him uh not do that my wife was talking about a dog looking at breeder and they they'll train the dog i was that an option or did you choose to do it apparently you can get a dog sent to you trained good to go oh oh yeah like uh i'm pretty sure mckinnon has a german shepherd he paid like 40 grand for the thing or like 25 grand and the thing came breakfast yeah literally came fully fully omelet guy fully trained like i know a lot of people that have gotten the dogs fully trained this guy i mean he's not trained at all yeah like i tell people like he goes when he wants, where he wants, whatever. Maybe we can keep track of the progression over your social media

of how he's getting trained. You can do little lessons. Maybe you could send him off to daycare or something. I think that's got to be in the works for him to get to some sort of doggy daycare so he kind of figures out that he's got got to go outside not inside and other than that he's not bad i mean he's kind of going through that like five month thing where they're like he goes through like humping phases and biz had that span yeah 30 years this had it but this has lasted for a lot longer than a couple months.

Unfortunately, nobody snipped him. Hey, you would have had to put the dog down if it was Biz. No, you just have a lot of fucking child support dog payments to make. But at least you got the coin. Pay off all these little baby mama dogs. So as the season gets going for you guys, it so different you mentioned covid no fans you've talked about it but i mean that city's a football town and the bills look special i i did hear there's a chance that some fans could be allowed into that playoff game is your chance you're going or what's the deal uh i would have loved

to have gone it's tomorrow at one o'clock we have a uh so we're doing a seven o'clock scrimmage tomorrow night like inner squad scrimmage i mean we're just trying to replicate like a game day so we're gonna do morning skate whole thing game day tomorrow night but the bills play at one so obviously you don't want to do the scrimmage at the same time that they're playing we did a scrimmage earlier in the week that was at one but it would have been nice if the bills had the night game then we could have probably played at one and then and then been able to watch the game but i mean i'm gonna still watch it just sit at home and watch it but i think there are fans going i think that every fan has to like prove a negative covid test and i think that there's some things they gotta do but yeah there

are fans going and yeah, I mean, the town's going nuts about the bills for sure. They look like a wagon. Oh, that, do you know Josh Allen at all? Have you become buddies with him?

Yeah. He's probably the only guy on the team that I would probably say I know personally, like in exchange messages with. And so I met him a few years ago and then um yeah just kind of like if i'm like i've been over to their facility a few times and and hung out with him there and whenever he's at the game he comes down and so i mean we've uh we've been able to connect a little bit um but yeah he's a he's a good dude and he's obviously a really, really good competitor and a sick football player.

He's a host, too. Yeah, he's huge, man. Like, when you get around him, he makes me feel small. Really? Taller to taller? I mean, obviously he's way wider, but is he, like, towering over you? He's got to be, like, 6'4", 6'5", like 240 probably. He's got massive hands, man, and he can move pretty well too.

Jack, I know you're a Pats fan, but if the Bills keep marching on, are we going to eventually see a video of you smashing through a flame-covered table, drenched in mustard and ketchup? I mean, you're going to catch the fever no matter what, right? I know. I love the Bills the bills obviously being here and and i think a lot of the fans here know like i mean i'm a patriots fan right i grew up there like i i think it's i mean you can't just like be a fan of a team and then go somewhere else and then not

like that team anymore it's just not how it works you know what i mean so people are like you need to be a bills fan now like i love the bills like i root for the bills but at heart i'm a patriots fan so i root for the patriots and i grew up liking them i mean i've liked them for 20 years and that's that's just how it is so uh i would i would love to i mean obviously there's not uh the bills tailgates and everything like i was saying to someone the other day like i'd love to go to one of the games if uh if we had nothing going on and get squirted with ketchup and mustard with that guy. I think it would be hilarious. That would be unreal.

Get Halsey to do it. Get the fucking morale going for your guy's season. The fans would go nuts. I feel like he liked the Bills for a while, actually. Yeah, I was talking to him the other day. He said, obviously, there's no football team in Toronto, so he's trying to get on someone's bandwagon, so he figured he'd jump on the Bills.

But I think he said he's been on the Bills bandwagon for a little bit before he got traded even. There's a few NHLers who are pretty vocal about it. Logan Couture is always tweeting about him. There's a lot of hardcore Bills fans out there. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of Bills fans in Ontario, right, because obviously they don't have a team. So a lot of those fans come down during the game.

It'd be pretty cool if it ended up being Seahawks and Bills because it would kind of create this Canadian rivalry. There's tons of people from Vancouver who have seasons to Seahawks games. Really? Oh, yeah, they are hard. I would say they probably have a bigger fan base in Vancouver that represent the Seahawks than maybe Ontario and the Bills. Yeah, I mean, I know like, I know Rhino,

I don't know if he's a Seahawks fan anymore, but I know he's been to a pretty good amount of Seahawks games coming down from Vancouver when he was living there. So when the season like abruptly ended, you were having the best year of your career i know it wasn't great for the team but just lighting it up and everything comes to halt so for a while nobody knew if the regular season be finished it was such a long wait in terms of how this thing was going to go down what was the longest time that you didn't skate i mean was there ever like

month two months where you were off your skates or were you at least uh at most a week uh jeez i took some time off yeah i mean i took some time off from the ice um i think when originally yeah we didn't know what was going to happen with the season right and and i think for that first whatever you want to call it month month and a half of covid nobody really knew right everyone was kind of froze. So I skated for the first few weeks of quarantine, if you want to call it, but it was more or less by myself where I was just going on the ice because there was nothing to do. So I found somewhere to skate and I was just going out and skating in the

mornings or just, just to get out of the house and go somewhere and skate and stay busy and do something that you like doing. Because there was, I mean, other than that, I was literally just sitting on my coach and drinking wine and watching TV. Like I was nothing to do. Right. So busy, get your finger up. Oh, I, that just tells those guys that I'm going to hop in next. Oh, it's like a little signal. We're play calling over here, buddy. We're working on a half wall.

All right. But no on the PP. We're working on a half wall. All right. But no. So after that, I went down to Florida actually for a month, the month of May. And I just skated with Oatsy for a month. And so I was down there kind of hanging out. Obviously, the weather's a lot better. And so I went down there and then I think it was like either at the end of may or the beginning i don't know whenever they said that they were going to go try and come back with the season and they were going to do the

bubble and they had all their plans set but when they made the announcement that we weren't going to be one of the teams i kind of put my bag away for a while and i still worked out and trained off the ice but i probably wasn't on the ice as much um so i probably i probably honestly took probably a month off of skating i would say that's long for you like you like you're skating often remember yeah i mean that's yeah i've yeah i mean i i've gotten more into like staying on the ice more year-round and giving yourself more of a rest from lifting here and there than than the ice I just I my body reacts better to that so um yeah but I probably gave myself a month off or so and then I started getting back on and skating gradually more and more but like even like I was back in in the Boston area for most of the

summer and like even being back there it wasn't the normal summer where you have like a bunch of guys skating together because the bruins were in the bubble a lot of guys were still playing so usually we're at warrior skating so it was like we had a small group of guys kind of up uh in tingsborough skating together for a few months which was fine like you know we made the most of it it was it was ice time and we were working hard but it wasn't the normal summer that we had so but it wasn't a normal summer for anyone um do you did you need that much time off because you were maybe burnt out or just like you just needed a mental break and during that time did it give you a lot of time to think about you know the future of the team because i know in the summertime it ended up coming out you you made

some comments and i thought that they were fair you're like I want to win I'm sick of losing and they had to address some issues as far as bringing guys in um yeah so I think I took a bit of a break as a as a mental break um I had some injuries that I was dealing with last season during the year so uh when I knew we weren't going to play for a while, I took some time off to try and let myself get healthy. And then to touch on the other fact, like, yeah, I mean, I think at the end of every season, you know, it's either deemed a success or failure.

And, you know, unfortunately, you know, in Buffalo, we haven't been able to make the playoffs in the last few years. And that is frustrating. It's frustrating for me. It's frustrating for the organization, frustrating for the fans, the city. And yeah, I mean, I think I obviously am somebody who shows their emotion and I'll say how I feel. I don't hold things in too often and I definitely expressed my frustration with where we were and where we're going uh with that being said I think

you know the organization made a lot of good moves this summer um you know what you've played for Ralph I think having a coach like that having a guy like that leading your team is is huge um so I mean I think you've you've voiced your frustrations but um you know i i don't think i'm the only guy that was frustrated either you know what i mean i think uh i'm sure you know i'm sure my comments probably might hold some more weight i am the captain of the team and and um i i understand that but you know i'm not the only guy that's frustrated i think everyone was probably frustrated in their own way. But yeah, I mean, everyone wants to win, right?

We're competitors. When Free Agency did come around as late as it was, was there a chance for you to talk to Halsey when he was thinking about Buffalo as an option, or was that more of a surprise when you did hear the news? Yeah, I had no idea. Really? I had no clue, like none.

Just like the NBA. I had no idea. Really? I had no clue, like none. Just like the NBA. I had no idea. So I think it was, I think it was, I want to say it was either Kevin or Ralph had mentioned something to me. I think it was Ralph had said, obviously he played for, he had Halsey and Edmonton. So I think he might've said that they were in contact with him and his agent and he was considering us, you know, blah, blah, blah.

And, you know, I didn't know. I had no idea. You know, you always think like, you know, every team should go after a player like that, right? So you think every single team in the league is probably trying to get in on Halsey and, you know, team should go after a player like that right so you think every single team in the league's probably trying to get in on Halsey and you know it makes sense why I mean he's obviously uh won the MVP a few years ago stud player so it's like you think everyone's in on him so you know I'm like oh like you know this guy obviously wants to win and and and we don't

have the best track record over the last few years. Like what are our actual chances of getting him? And, um, and then I remember, uh, Ralph called me late on a Sunday night, the night that Halsey ended up signing and I was, I was away. I think I was, I was at a lake house or something, having dinner. I don't know. I just remember missing the call. And then I, within the timeframe of, of me being away from my phone and seeing it,

I had already had like 10 text messages about us signing Halsey. And then I had called Ralph back and then ended up, you know, talking to Halsey for a little, but yeah, obviously such a special player and he's a great guy and you know, we're lucky to have him. Jack, I know you missed a few days to start camp and you haven't had a lot of time on the ice from yet, but what's the early chemistry been with Taylor Hall so far?

It's good. I mean, it's tough to build chemistry this quick in practice. And there's a lot of guys on the ice right now. So, you know, you're not getting as many reps as you probably would during the season. But, you know, we have the scrimmage tomorrow night, which I think will be important for us to try and, uh, you know, build more chemistry. And, you know, with a guy like Halsey, I mean, he's so dynamic and so fast, like, you know, you kind of have to get used to that speed. I think, um, you know, he's somebody who, you know, you can just put a puck to an area and he's going to beat a guy and make a dynamic play. And, uh, he's somebody that can create so much on his own.

So I think it'll be, it'll be great for the two of us. I think, you know, we'll be able to work well off each other, but yeah, I mean, I think it's just more or less just trying to continue to get used to, you know, the tendencies and, you know, where he likes to go, how he likes to play and vice versa. I think the one thing you'll like is like, he'll go to the dirty areas to score. He plays hard.

I mean, he probably plays too hard at times where you're like, dude, protect yourself a little bit. So, I mean, that's only going to help you in terms of passing and connection with him. It's going to be fun to watch. I mean, I know that it's been tough, and you've said that, but even Ottawa, too, we talked about teams are getting better. They're adding guys, same with you.

So it's definitely a year where you have some serious optimism, I would think. Yeah. And, you know, we had a guy like Eric Stahl and we got Eakin. And like, you know, we've definitely added some good players to our group. And, you know, Stahl's career speaks for itself. But, you know, he's, I's i mean still i mean i don't i don't know how i don't know how old he is but he's been playing the game for a while is it his 18th season hey good news is though he's already passed a thousand games you guys

don't gotta buy him a fucking gift that's a big that's all i bet you the point the boys were pumped after that signing um yeah but like even in, like he's looked so good and like, he's just such a smart player and he makes so many good plays and you can just tell he's like one of those ageless wonders where like, it doesn't matter how old he gets the guy, he can just play hockey. You know what I mean? And so he was another really big signing for us. Yeah. He's an established veteran, won a cup. He's been a captain as well for a team largely in its twenties.

What does a presence like, like him mean to the room? Just instant respect, obviously. Yeah, it's huge. I mean, I think we've had a young team for a lot of years. And when I first came to Buffalo, our team was older, and it's gotten younger over the last few years. And I've said this a few times. I think it's important to have that mix between older guys and younger guys and experienced guys like halsey and install that you know guys in

the room really respect and um you know they demand respect and i think it uh it brings a lot to the room um you know and for me like you said as a young captain i mean um you know i'm trying to figure it out so i'm i'm watching these guys every day trying to get better at my own job. And, you know, they're really good guys to learn from. I asked McKinnon the same question. What was the one thing that you felt that you needed to work on this offseason to bring and add to your bag? And guess what he said.

Try to guess his answer. Nate? Yeah. God, I don't know. The guy's got a lot of shit in his bag that's what i was like what's he gonna say sure and i'll face off the chipper putter or what do you call the spin doctor that's what he wants to add to his fucking bag that sucks oh the uh oh that the club yeah yeah um god i don't know let me see here well for me uh i mean i don't know like for a lot of the offseason it was about getting healthy and and getting my body in the position to play 82 games and um trying to take care of myself you know i feel like uh i feel like the

biggest thing you know in our league is consistency, being able to do it every single night, you know, or as many nights as you can. And even those nights where you don't feel good being able to contribute. And I think that, you know, those are those are the things that separates the best players, you know, in the world. You know, the MVP caliber players from, you know, from everyone else is like, you just, you make a difference no matter what in the game. And, you know, for me, it's just trying to find that consistency through the whole season. And, you know, a lot of that has to do with, you know, how, how you feel physically and, and trying to, and trying to help yourself feel as fresh or as healthy as possible for as many games as possible. And, games as possible and um you know so

you know part of my offseason was geared towards that you know part of your offseason is geared towards uh you know sharpening your skills getting better at shooting whatever you want to call it pass and just all your things whether it be power skating um you know so i think you just try and touch on it all and you know i think at this this point, it's tough to like pinpoint one thing that you want to get better at as you just try and fine tune things that you feel like you might be able to get a little bit better at. And I think that like for me, working with Otzi has been huge because he's so good at like finding the smallest little details in your game that he thinks you can improve on. And obviously the, you know the the track record

with him and players is huge around the league is there any times is there any time with him because he is so well educated about the the game that you kind of have disagreements where you're like i don't know about that like will you go back and forth are you pretty much what he says almost every time you completely agree with and are willing to work on uh well i'm willing to work on anything right i'm willing to work on anything that uh that he brings forward but he always has probable cause and he always explains why we're doing something he always there's usually there's always a video to go along with whatever he's saying or teaching right so um not to give too many of of his tricks away but a lot of what he does is he watches the best players in the world do things

and he watches their habits and then he tries to teach people's habits like it's hard to explain what he does but he dumbs it down for us he's he's he's very very good at at looking at very very fine details in a game and being able to look at what someone does and try to teach that so whatever whatever skill he's usually teaching there's a there's a there's video to go along with it yeah well he talked about it when he was talking about one of the defensemen he was working with i think it might have even been was it luke shen and it was like you know how many times a game are you going back for puck retrievals we'll work on it like like consistently like repetitive to where like you become essentially a robot in every situation where you're spending the most of your time on the ice and you know as

simple as it sounds with a guy just going to work on going in and retrieving it it's just like it you know it's it added so much to his game. Yeah, and, like, that's what – so I started working with him after my rookie year, and, like, one of the biggest things that he's – one of the biggest areas that he's taught me is how to be, like, a half-wall player on your offside. So how to play the offensive zone, it would be, like, your left side where I play on the power play. But how to play it – how to play it five zone it would be like your left side where i play on the power play but how to play it how to play it five on five how to play it five on three how to play it five

on four no matter what like and and a lot of different things come off of that side because as a righty you're more dynamic from your left side than your right side there's more options so you stick to the middle you mean yes a lot a lot of things whether it's that whether it's pulling up whether it's curling you know whether it's your, whether it's curling, you know, whether it's your power play, it's a one-timer, you know, there's just a lot of options over there. So, you know, we definitely spend a lot of time working on that area of my game. Because like you said, it's like a defense and going back, back for a puck.

If you watch a game, you spend so much time in that area, no matter what in the offensive zone you always float there you float to the back door you float to the half wall you float to the circle dot like if you watch a game the tendency of players that you watch like Kane or Panarin or Kucherov or some of these guys they always find that area over there and there's a reason right that's that's where you're most dynamic um a lot of noise has been made about Dylan Cousins and him coming in and how good he looked in World Juniors I think he's gonna make a great impact big time rookie but Darlene's only 20 years old he's two two years in but you gotta

you gotta think this year you'll see even a bigger step forward for him yeah I think so and I think the guys are seen in camp like he's yeah he's put on weight he's bigger i mean i i think some people forget he's so young he's not even 21 yet right so uh his his skill level is obviously incredible and uh his his compete and passion for hockey is fantastic he obviously wants to be the best. He works very hard at it. So, I mean, he's been great. And during camp, he's looked really, really, really good during camp. So I'm excited to see what he can do.

I think he's primed for a serious breakout season. And he's going to do a lot of special things for our team. So he's going to be, you i'm i told him when he got drafted like just be patient you know you're gonna win a norris in this league like you're so good it's crazy the first time i skated with him i called my dad after i was like i think i'm skilled like this guy's way more skilled than i am really that's how good he is yeah i remember what's he doing what's he doing with the puck he's just so smooth i mean the swedes the swedes are just so smooth but like just the way that he moves his body and his hands the puck? He's just so smooth. I mean, the Swedes are just so smooth.

But just the way that he moves his body and his hands and just everything, he's just such a smooth player. So I think he's primed to have a huge year. You had a chance to see Cousins light it up at the juniors? I did, yeah. I mean, I was rooting for him to have a good personal tournament. Obviously not – I didn't want him to beat the, yeah, I didn't want him to beat the States, but, uh, no,

it was good to see him doing well. And, and I think he's another guy who, uh, you know, we're obviously happy to have in the organization and somebody who's probably going to make a, you know, impact on our team at some point. So, um, I think he, uh, I think he's in Buffalo now and, you know, hopefully we see him over the next few days. I haven't seen him yet, but they've been doing a good job separating guys and different COVID rules, and there's a lot of stuff that goes with it.

Yeah, he's in PGA quarantine. If you take a private jet, it's a smaller quarantine. I know. I was staying in the locker room. It must be nice, huh? Just finish the game, jump on a PGA, you're off to Buffalo. I've staying in the locker room. Must be nice, huh? Just finish the game, jump on a PJ, you're off to Buffalo. I've never had it that good. God, fuck.

Yeah, try playing in the minors. Like, business has got an East Coast Hockey League jersey on. You like that one? The Wheeling Nailers, two-time East Coast Hockey League. Wheeling Nailers, my best buddy played in the Wheeling Nailers a couple years ago. He's still playing, isn't he? Brian Hifley, what a handsome ago. He's still playing, isn't he? Brian Hifley. What a handsome bastard.

He's over in France. This guy is living the life. What's it like? Living the life. He's living the life. Should we get him on to talk about it? Is it a fun league? Well, I was going to say more or less his extracurricular activities is what

living the life means. That's what I was talking about too. He's like a model. He's like an Instagram model. No, no. So he actually booked modeling gigs over in France. Oh, my God. This guy must be swimming.

He's been modeling. So he had like a long break. To all the ladies. He had like a long holiday break. So he went to Spain for 10 days. He was in Madrid enjoying himself. And then he went to Portugal and surfed for another week. And now he's back in France playing.

But, yeah, he's living pretty good. But he is doing the modeling thing. He's actually taking it serious. So hopefully the guy starts bringing in some cash. I don't have to pick up every one of his tabs anymore. Uh-oh. Portugal got some sick surfing too. The best surf he's had. I was going to ask you about that.

You're a surfer. Are you not? Oh no. I got in the water with him once this summer and I got right out. That was it. Is that, I thought maybe that why that's why you were growing out the hair. Cause you're going to know.

I was just growing out the hair for looks good in your helmet. You should go rat tail playoffs and then keep it. Braid it over the shoulder at the face-off circle. Guys wouldn't even fucking want to step in there with you. Hey, you did the music vote on Instagram. I like that. Yeah, I never finished it, man. I deleted Instagram for

like, I deleted Instagram for a little bit during the summer. I was just like, yeah, I don't need to look at all this stuff going on. Like there's obviously like, uh, you know, a lot of conflicts going on in our country and people are everything you said, it was just, people were very critical at the time and no matter what you did, like it was just, yeah, but it was just, it was getting a lot for me to look at every day. And i was just kind of getting fired up with what people were saying and doing so i just took it off my phone so i stopped doing the music bracket but i uh i did do that for a little and i i should finish it everyone keeps telling me to finish i think we were in through like the sweet 16 or something yeah all right so that's gonna that's gonna

reappear that's starting back up we i think we've talked about the music on here before, but what is it with the older tunes and bands that resonate with you? Is it your old man playing it around the house? Yeah, I mean, it's just like what you grew up on. So I grew up on a lot of the older music with my dad, and then I got into a lot of it myself where he kind of got me on a good pathway of music, I would say. And then I started kind of, you know, learning a lot of, a lot of things on my own.

And I kind of dove into it myself, whether it's different groups that I like that he wasn't as into or I just kind of, I carved my own path through it and I'm still going through it and, you know, finding new people I like and new songs, artists, albums, whatever. That might have been our first big scoop with finding out that Jack was a classic rocker because all the young kids usually don't like that shit. You did a Zoom the other day. I don't know. I saw a picture of it on Twitter or something. You had a Rolling Stone magazine cover framed. Is that in your house too? Oh, yeah. It's Jim Morrison's on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. It's in my kitchen.

So this dude's dialed in. So who would you be listening to as far as new artists are concerned? Do any of the new artists interest you? What genre? I mean, I listen to everything. So I really like – did you see – you like My Morning Jacket? I do. Scotty Upshaw, him and him, OB, and a bunch of the guys brought me to Bonnaroo,

and that was the first time I'd ever seen him or heard of him, and I was like, this is like – how come I've never heard of these guys? That's amazing. Oh, it was unbelievable. And Bonnaroo, too. They just released their new album the one with the eyeball on it yeah um yeah so i mean i got i started getting like o'reilly's obviously a big fan of them so he had kind of turned me on to them a few years ago but i never really i never

really dove too deep into the the group and and more recently i have uh gotten into them i started getting into tameame Impala. I don't know if you know who that is. Kevin Parker. He's like an Australian musician. So he plays sort of like, it's like indie rock, psychedelic rock. So I started getting into him, and he's been on the top of my list recently. So do you got the aux cord in the locker room,

or do you have a big say in what's being played? Yeah, there's only, like we were talking about today, there's only like four or five guys that really care about what we listen to so if i get in there early enough i usually put on what i want to listen to and uh but you guys are pretty easy no one's no one's making like bad decisions on the music so it's it's not too bad okay you said early enough and remind me of one of the stories that i dug up so uh matt molson talked about when you live with him, he liked to go to the rink early, and one day that you ended up driving there. Do you know what story I'm referring to? Yeah, we were going to a game.

I think it was against Colorado. Yeah, it was against the Colorado Avalanche, and he remembers it like it was yesterday. Yeah, it was February in Buffalo, so it's pretty cold and uh i think i was out to dinner the night before and i didn't want to pump gas because how cold it was i always do that oh fucker me and most were on our way to the game and i was i had not much gas in the tank so i we had the heat blaring in the car heated seats going music going whatever and we were probably like we're probably 10 minutes in the rink one o'clock game too and uh all of a sudden the car just starts slowing down on the highway and uh i run out of gas on the way

to a game so i'm panicking but like we had left early enough where we weren't gonna be late but we weren't gonna be on time like we weren't gonna be late right so one o'clock game you want to be there you know before 11 like we were gonna be there for 11 probably and so my car i pull over and on the off ramp and i'm in a three-piece suit and i'm but and there's there's a good amount of snow on the ground and I'm trekking through the snow and there's not like a close gas station off the exit. So I'm trekking through the snow off the exit. I'm running down the street in three piece. I get to the gas station. I'm freezing. I'm like I go in. There's there's like the gas cans, whatever. So I'm buying one. And a guy walks in with a bunch of savers stuff on.

He looks at me, notices me. He's like, oh, Jack Eichel, right? And I don't even, I'm just like, yeah, yeah, man, can you help me? He's like, yeah, yeah, sure. Like, what do you need? And I'm like, my car broke down. I'm on the way to a game. Like, can you help me out or whatever?

And so he ends up pumping the gas for me. I'm sitting in his car at this point he drives me back to my car he gets out me and mo sit in the car while he pumps the gas into my car for me we take off to the game i got the guy's number i left him some tickets uh i have exchanged messages with him it was really nice of him but i remember just being so cold and this guy was out there and his hands must have being so cold and this guy was out there and his hands must have been so cold trying to pump the gas and he couldn't get it like but yeah most wanted to kill me because he's like uh he gets so anxious if he's gonna be later

well he needs to be there early but the best part about it he's like i was a bit of a mental midget the rest of the night he ended up having a tough game. You ended up scoring first shift, he said. I said, yeah. I scored in the first shift, yeah. He was like, god damn you. I scored pretty early. Yeah, he was pissed. I got to run out of gas before every game now.

Yeah, imagine Crosby would have tucked. He'd be pulling over on the highway in Pittsburgh. Well, hey, Ike, thanks so much for hopping on with us, dude. Oh, you got another one? I just wanted to ask you, I think you're building a new place out in New Hampshire. You're going to have your own rink at it.

You bought a place in New Hampshire? I did. So I bought a house on Seabrook Beach, actually. He bought an island. He bought New Hampshire. So right over the border like right right past plum island um yeah so is it is a beach i grew up going to um you know i had been looking in the city for a while and i just decided i'd rather wake up to the beach every day so uh i rented a house there for a little bit this summer loved it decided i'd go back but yeah, so we're in the process

of knocking the house down and building a new one so yeah, we'll have to have a we'll have to do like spit and chiclets, cribs or whatever, you guys can come up and we'll have a couple beers on the beach and hang out throw the ball around let's hope you don't get

bent over by the contractor like McDavid, at least make sure you get higher ceilings in the shooting gym. Yeah, I know. That's been one of the big things in the plan is ceiling heights. It's crazy how much goes into this, but there's some good people taking care of it, so we'll leave it to them. Biz will fit right in up Hampton with all those tattoos. He'll have to take his shirt off.

Oh, yeah. I don't go over the border on the Hampton side, but we'll let Biz go there. Oh, over the border. No, it's a beautiful spot. I bought a place in New Hampshire, and he turned up to training camp. He smokes cigarettes now.

It's crazy. I single-handedly brought that state a Calder Cup. Yeah, you did. I mean, Manchester, it's not too far. Manch Vegas. Manch Vegas. Oh, by the way, last thing I'll say to you, and I'll have to bring up the other story that Molson told me next time,

but the answer that McKinnon gave was face-offs. You went into this whole spiel about all these skills you need to work on. He said face-offs. No, I said, you know you're nasty when the only thing you can think of is face-offs. Yeah, I mean, Jesus. Must be nice, eh? Yeah, Jesus. He probably doesn't need to work on too much, so face-offs will work.

Jack, you mentioned the vino earlier. What's your go-to for wine? Yellowtail. Yeah. I usually buy it in the bag, R.A., and just slap it hey if it's red it's dead that's my mom did you not hear him say he lives in new hampshire that's legit the 20th time i've dropped the yellowtail joke in this um what's the go-to i don't know i mean there's a lot of different wines that i like you know uh yeah like i'm just a cat i like cab cabs. I like cabernet.

So Molson, Molson, Oki, Ocpozo have, have been my biggest wine influences. So I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. It makes your wallet take more of a hit, but at least you're learning good wines. Yeah. Molson's the one who teed me up with the hoverboard story, but we're going to save that one. So thank you so much for joining us, man. Thank God we're saving that one. We'll wait for episode five.

Yep. All right, buddy. Thanks so much. Good luck this year, man. Thanks a bunch, Jack. Yep. Good luck this season, buddy. Big thanks to Jack and his pooch, Harold, for joining us.

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Definitely. I cleaned up with that. Oh, absolutely. Got mine the whole day. You guys shape your hoop at all? You guys ever clip your hoop? I've nared it. You've nared it?

Yeah, it's ridiculous. I would pay $10,000. A little bit. You'd pay $10,000 to watch me nare it? I would pay $10,000 to have laser removal from my belly button down. It would cost you less than that. Okay. Well, I'd fucking pay.

Maybe we can get a sponsor. Hey, we should do it. Although, you'd need to go like seven times. Hey, I'd get my hoop waxed on camera for the crew. No, I mean gone. You'd want to get it lasered so you're never dealing with it again like the girls do. Just do the landing strip there.

Do the little... Rub your horn. You know all the French guys got that little flavor. All he does is keep a little hair in the shape of a joint right above his horn. Mine does look like a joint. My cock with the fucking corgi on it. Fucking God. You're sick.

Ah, shit, boys. My favorite part of this new season, I think, is the divisions, man. I mean, obviously, this isn't something they're going to do every year. They had to kind of work on the fly here. We got Northwest, Central, and East. We're going to kick off with the East, which basically is like the Northeast car or a VAM track. Boston, Buffalo, Jersey, the Islanders, ranges, Philly, Pittsburgh, and Washington.

We're not going to do a team by team breakdown. Cause I don't, we think that gets a little tedious going from team to team, but we're going to give our take. Yeah. Yeah. Basically. All right. I'll jump in first boys. I think Boston wins the division. I mean, they were the president's trophy winner last year. I know they lost Z and crew, but I don't think they're insurmountable losses. You know, this isn't the trial of five, 10 years ago. Uh, I still think they're the team to beat in that division. Obviously Tampa's not there

anymore. Uh, let's go to you biz. What do you got going on in the Northeast? I'm going to go off the board here. I'm going to, I'm actually going to pick the Rangers to win that division. I think this is the closest division as far as like, like it's anybody's game. I mean, I mentioned how the Islanders look now with Lockett and Barzell and how solid they are, but I'm looking to New York with some of these young guns. They're seeing this Keandre Miller. Is that how I say it? Is I say it properly? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. They're saying this kid's going to make the team at a camp.

So there's another guy on the back end. Who's going to step up. They got, who's the guy they signed to the big contract Truba uh i would imagine with if conrad miller steps in i i don't know what's going on with this d'angelo i mean he's got a lot of the off-ice stuff that's bugging him right now they've had to talk to him a few times he's playing the left side currently but the game is there you yeah you like him offensively he's i mean yeah he's a kind of a riverboat gambler i mean defensively he's not the strongest, but I think they just, overall, their team's good. The two goalies structure, they got the two young Russians.

So, you know, in a short and condensed season, they can flip-flop. But, you know, ultimately, I like how young their legs are, and I think they're going to surprise a lot of people. And, of course, with the number one pick coming in, that's just going to add a little bit more to the offense. People about capo capo capo i know like he's number two overall pick yeah and one of those guys who maybe didn't pop off off the start but neither did jack hughes so looking for him to really elevate his game along with lafrenier and and of course

panarin who's a bandage ad is a bandage ads another guy so as far as the back end up front and then having two guys in net who are competent, I really like their chances. Coming out of nowhere in two years, just completely turned that organization around. David Quinn's done a phenomenal job, and they've quickly kind of gotten things going again. And since when they signed Panarin, I was like, I don't know,

like all this money. And when does this seem like it was being rushed? Yeah. When are you going to start winning? And either they knew it or they got lucky in that this guy can actually carry a team because when the season ended last year with Corona, I believe they were in the playoffs. If you'd started the playoffs right then mid-March and nobody saw that coming, they went on a big run.

And you mentioned a bunch of guys that I really like. But for me, no brainer is Philly winning this division. I think the Philadelphia Flyers are set up to go and win a Stanley Cup this year. I think there's a legit chance that they could get it done. All I've heard is that our boy Kevin Hayes has had one of the best camps going, shortened camp, but came in ready to go,

playing awesome couple goals in the scrimmage last night, Sunday night. And Nolanrick is a guy that just comes to my mind because we talked earlier about how much he's had to battle and go through since he came into the league another huge prospect second overall i believe i don't remember the exact year but a guy who's like the future of him looks so bright so much potential and then the concussion thing which is so scary and what guys go through and you don't know if you'll ever get back to that level. Well, in talking to people around that team, he looks as good as anyone on the ice. So I know the issue right now as a Flyers fan is like,

it's not an issue, but if you're looking at what maybe could pop up is if Giroux and Voracek don't really play at a high level and in the playoffs, it's kind of been an issue. But I still think there's enough there, young guys wise. And Carter Hart being the goalie, along with Proverov on D, who I think could win Norris. I mean, not only is his game great on the offensive side, but he's way better defensive than people realize, plays a ton of minutes, and is known as the hardest working guy on and off the ice for that team.

So he's an animal trainer. Yeah, they're really strong up the middle. Yeah, he absolutely loves playing for that team, as do most guys. I think everything's different this year. Philly's got a good home ice advantage, it seems. The crowd's always into it. It's not going to matter this year, but their team's good enough to really not have it affect them because I think there's a ton to go on.

In terms of the other three playoff teams, I'm going Boston. I'm going Washington. Man, so that means Pitt or the Islanders or the Rangers wouldn't? That's crazy, man. This division is murderer's row, as they say it. Murderer's row. And I think it just sucks because there's going to be two, if not three, really good

teams that don't make the playoffs. Philly, Boston, Rangers, Pittsburgh. Fuck it, Washington. Fuck it, Islanders. And fuck it, Buffalo. Buffalo, yeah. I don't think Buffalo's getting in

this year. I would love to see it. Who do you got for your four teams? Like I said, Boston for the division. I get the Islanders in there. They're essentially returning. They'll make it, but no chance I'm picking them. Yeah.

They're essentially bringing the same team back. I mean, they lost Thomas Grice, but they're bringing Sorokin in from Russia. He's probably maybe the best number two in the league. We'll find out soon. I also like Philly, another team that really didn't have to do much to their roster. They did lose Matty Niskanen when he retired, but they brought in Gustafson to essentially replace him. And I like the Capitals as well for that fourth playoff team. I know they lost Holtby, but they're high on Samsonoff.

They still got a good squad. I know their window is going to be closed. And so, again, to reiterate, Boston, the one in the division with the Islanders, the Flyers, and the Capitals finishing off the playoffs. Three Patrick division teams, but that way, every division you're going to get to this. Well, maybe not every, but how do you leave this team out?

That's what's crazy about this year is a lot of good teams aren't even going to make the playoffs. I got Boston, Philly, and both New York teams, and I will leave Buffalo out. No pit, no wash, no buff. No pit, no wash. I'm with you on that. I got the, Philly, and both New York teams, and I will leave Buffalo out. No Pitt, no Wash, no Buffalo. No Pitt, no Wash, no Buffalo. Yeah, so there's my hot take.

There goes your Penguins alumni newsletter. They had a huge roster turned over, too. I mean, you're bringing five, six new guys in, a bunch of guys going out. I don't know, man. I don't know if you're going to have that cohesion right away when you have so many new parts working with each other. Probably.

Yeah, that's true. You still got Gino and Sid. But all right, boys, we're going to go over to the next division. I've been calling it the South Central Division because it's basically, they call it the Central, but there's a lot of teams down south in the central part of the country. We got, let's see, Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Nashville, and Tampa Bay.

This one, pretty much a no-brainer. I mean, the Stanley Cup win at Tampa Bay, I don't see how they do not win this division there. Pretty much coming back as of today with the same team, although they did just waive Tyler Johnson today. I don't know if he got picked up before we started recording. They lost Shatton, Kirk Bogosian, traded Paquette and Colbron up to Ottawa, but I don't think these guys are irreplaceable. So I got Tampa winning this division pretty handily.

Let's go to you first, Biz. I'm going to pick Dallas. I think that they're going to come back with vengeance. I think that they're going to have a bitter taste in their mouth, the fact that they spent that long in the bubble and didn't bring home any hardware. People forget they didn't have their number one goalie in the bubble with them.

I think that they have a perfect one, two punch a net. They have a couple of young studs on D led by a Haskinen. Is that how I say it properly? I think that's close enough. Haskinen. Haskinen. Haskinen.

Just a stud. Who, I mean, you mentioned Provorov as a potential Norris candidate. I think that, you know, he's probably, Haskin might be one of the most underappreciated defensemen

in the whole league. Just ask all of his teammates. And as far as forward, they just get it done collectively. They got a good leadership group. I would imagine after all the bumps and bruises that- Sagan's out a while. That kind of hurts. Well, see, I see them getting,

I see that opening up an opportunity for a few of their young guys to get a little bit more ice time, prove what they can have, and he's going to come back in right in time for playoffs, Dark Knight style. Who else is doing that right now? We said that they're going to come back the perfect time. Kucherov. Kucherov.

Similar situation, in my opinion. And, yeah, I like Dallas, and especially I like a hungry team. Similar to the year when Pittsburgh went to the cup final. They didn't win, and then next year they got rid of Witt and then did win it. So very similar. I'll tell you right now, if Tampa doesn't win this division, which they are my pick, it's impossible to go against them.

If they don't, Carolina Hurricanes are going to be your division. What? Dude, the Carolina Hurricanes are a love that. Fucking good hockey team. And Ajo is the most underrated player in the league. It's starting to change. I absolutely love this team. I know that they added in Jesper Fast, too, who plays at a high level. He plays the game quick.

He's always in your face. He's done a good job. Hamilton, Dougie Hamilton on the back end. Dougie Hamilton was injured a lot of last year and Ajo's been great, but then Shvetsnikov, he's a point per game player. I think Carolina makes the playoffs, no doubt

in this division. Tampa is my winner. Carolina, if Tampa doesn't get done. Let me just hop in here. And no offense to Carolina. I love the culture there i love the head coach it feels like everybody's bought in who is playing that pardon who's playing that for the carolina hurricanes that's been my biggest question mark for them is their goaltending david hairt same two as last year that's a good one reimer and mrazek yeah i just

i don't know if that's going to be able to get them over the edge. I know they got this nice two-goalie system going, but I just feel like they need to get somebody in there to solidify their goaltending and that's just my opinion, so I think you're an idiot. I think they're hoping that Mrazek kind of takes over and is the full-blown starter. We'll see. We'll see, but dude, this roster,

man, Slavin on the defensive side, they're good. They're good. But I need my other two playoff teams uh tampa bay and carolina are my no-brainers i then think dallas and nashville get it done i mean i think it'll come down i i'm gonna pick nashville over carolina guys okay who's your fourth carolina or my dark horse for the season and i've i i said it last episode i think the columbus blue jackets are going to surprise a lot of people again um and and they're going to make playoffs i really like i like their lineup i like i think that the

shortened season plays right into their hand. And we'll see the Dubois effect. We'll see what goes on there. I think Torrance was trying to light a fire under his ass, and we're going to see Dubois coming out party. And maybe a few fuck you matches on the bench too for entertainment value. Interesting.

Both cup finalists from last season are in this division. I don't think we've seen that since probably the 78 Cup without double-checking my work when Montreal and Boston played. Of course, things would configure much different then, but just kind of wild they have both Cup finalists in the same division. Either way, I got Tampa winning the division. I think Dallas gets in as well, as do Columbus and Carolina. Yeah, going to be some tough teams.

Good teams not making the playoffs, but that's such as the year we're in this year Alright gang, before we throw it over to Shane Doan I want to let you know that January is important For setting the tone for the new year And in 2021, that has never been more true Luckily, our friends over at CBDMD Are here to give you the support you need

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they're offering our listeners 25% off your next order when you use the promo code CHICKLETS at checkout. Once again, that's cbdmd.com use the promo code chicklets c-h-i-c-l-e-t-s for 25% off your purchase of superior cbd products from cbdmd.com check them out all right gang and without further ado we're gonna send it over to shane doan this guy doesn't really need an intro um played a hell of a long time in the national hockey league for the arizona coyotes organization and uh really happy you guys already know the news because it dropped on monday this comes out tuesday morning uh welcome back to the arizona coyotes shane doan i never thought i'd be saying

those words never thought you'd leave yeah some words. Never thought you'd leave. Yeah. Some may say you were a business mentor, too. You left that out of the intro. Yeah. Well, I'm happy that they announced it and they brought you back. I mean, what exactly is going to be your role with the Coyotes, Shane? Yeah, thanks. Because I'm really excited to be back because, obviously, you know, it was my passion and I love playing for them

and love the whole organization and doing whatever he could for them and for them to for the new ownership to to bring me back and give me a chance what i'm doing is i'm just going to kind of be helping in as many areas as i can with uh i'll help mr marillo and and javier and then uh that's the owner and the president and then i'll be helping out with bill with the gm when they need advice i'll give them advice and really that's kind of i don't know too much i mean as we go on we'll kind of figure it out but about that sounds like kind of a boss boss position for this guy yeah i just bounce around bouncing around jack of all trades master and on if anything goes wrong

i'm not in charge you guys fucking handle. I'll just keep kissing babies and shaking hands. I'm the face of this franchise, guys. But yeah, the master of none, I think, is the key line in all of that. So while you're away, you're working for the league. And every time I talk to you, you're in a great mood. You really enjoyed your experience. Some of the ex-players you get to hang out with, who you're working with hand in hand. You mentioned that you've become a massive fan of Bill Daly

and just his whole behind-the-scenes humor and all this. Yeah, you know what? I had an absolute, like, the best time. Like, when you step away from playing, I had no idea that it was going to be that hard. Like, it was really, really hard and emotional. It was like some bad days of just trying to deal with it. And to be able to go into a group with hockey ops at the league,

that treated it like a team. I remember I was flying in to Toronto, and it was the first time. This was right at the beginning of the season, the summer after I'd kind of retired. So the season would start. I was flying into Toronto for the very first game. And I hadn't officially signed with the league or agreed to do anything, but they wanted me to come in and see if I wanted to do it.

And as I was coming into land, the guy sitting beside me is like, So, what are you doing? And I was like uh you know um just and i remember thinking because i'm going to work and it was like the first time i was going to work by myself like you always have your boys and your team with you and it was a little low i was almost emotional sitting there by myself like i've never done this by myself ever. And to walk into that groom with all of those guys that were just like Chris King and Rod Pasma and Kay Whitmore and then Murph and Mike Murphy and Colin Campbell and Steve Walkham and all those guys. It felt like I walked back into a dressing room and it was like, oh. Yeah, I feel at ease.

Yes. Was Kinger kind of the one who helped you ease the most? Yeah. You used to play with Kinger, right? Yeah, Kinger was my captain my first year. So Kinger was my captain my first year. In Winnipeg. In Winnipeg.

You played for the Winnipeg Jets, but the other one. Yeah. The Solani Winnipeg Jets. We'll get into when it came back into play, when they came back. Yeah, so it was so nice. Yeah, so it was so nice. And then getting to know Coley and Murph and Gary Bettman and Bill Daly and the way that they are, I had such a new amount. I had an interesting relationship with Gary and Bill because of the team

when we were owned by them that I dealt with them a bit. But to see it again, it was it was it was encouraging it was just beyond encouraging i was so grateful for that and i think that part of the reason it it it feels so good for a former player to get around the guys is the guys you're going to see that are putting you at ease they've all been through what you're going through exactly so it's it's such a feeling of like hey dude i how you been yeah probably pretty bored yeah right yeah i mean it's like you have the routine and i i could not agree more because i never thought it at the time uh probably because i'm so out to lunch but now that you say it when i got to nhl network it was like you got into jersey showed out to caucus and then you got a like a uber at 4 30 by yourself you show

up to the studio like oh my god i'm, my God, I'm going to work. It's so different. I imagine that when you get in the room, you're pretty much just watching at the beginning in terms of what they're looking at in games, when questionable hits are happening, who's doing what. You're just kind of doing what you're doing now in Arizona in terms of at the beginning there, just chilling.

Totally. I mean, the story of Biz coming in hot. I never wanted to come in hot, ever. I was kind of... I was a coming Hawkeye, too. You clown. Like a rock.

Like our guy who drove our plane in Arizona. Drove our plane. There you go. Remember how we used to land so hard sometimes the guy the poor guy it's hard to land a jet like it's not am i throwing the fucking coyotes guy under the bus donor yeah now they're gonna get i'm gonna get the pilot fire knuckles and the pilot guy are just gonna show up at this apartment shitty bang bang that you're flying along and what's welcome like in there i loved him when he was

official that guy was awesome on the ice it was so cool like the that room is such a fun room to be in because you're watching every team play every night and and it's amazing the thing i learned the most was you'd watch one team play a game so you'd be watching tampa play florida and you're like you're seeing how good Tampa and Florida are. And right beside them, then you're watching Arizona play L.A. And you see the difference in style when it's up on the screen side by side and you're watching one period and then flipping to watch another period and then going back and forth.

But Wachs is awesome. He is a good man. And he is a leader of those officials. And, I mean, I had him when he was a ref, and then when he came back, and then he went back again to be in the head of officiating. Yeah, I get along good with walks. He was unbelievable with the refs' names. Before every game, he would make sure you got a briefing from service,

and he had to do all the talking to them, but the fact that he could remember all their names, because he was usually complaining to them about the offsides and stuff. So he even had to know the linesman names. So, yeah, you showed a lot of respect to the officials. So I would imagine that was a pretty smooth transition. Yes and no, because I usually yelled a lot at them, too. You gave it to officials. Yeah, I did.

Are you freaking kidding me? You'd be on the bench just so mad after most shifts, though. You should have played angry. So then I had to apologize to a bunch of them. I actually went to the refs' training camps, and they're such good guys. You know what? It's amazing on how much they take

and how good they are at de-escalating and kind of making sure that guys can get emotional. Everyone's emotional on the ice, and you can only get called so many things before you start to react a little bit. If you have to deal with that for like three hours in a row, at some point you're going to snap. Yeah. I actually, one time, one of my most embarrassing moments,

I screamed at a linesman who screwed an offsides up, and Mark Reckie's like, go apologize to that guy after the game. Like Rex, this old legend, I was like, sorry. I was like, oh my God. Down to the ref's room? Yeah, I think we might have met in the hallway. I'm fuzzy in terms of when and where I apologized. But Rex was like, dude, come on.

I had to apologize, I'd say, three or four times throughout my career to different refs for being like, I got a little too emotional in that one. And I wouldn't swear and I wouldn't yell at them, like say anything like that. But at the same time, I had to just make sure that hey this was this was i i shouldn't have said it like that and you were right i was you wore your heart on your sleeve quite a bit yeah and if i saw that i was wrong i would always usually in between periods i'd be like hey show me that again and i'd be like hey i totally was wrong on you were right i was wrong oh the officials must love that yeah but sometimes i

would be right and i would and they were wrong here he goes then it'd be even worse i'd be like oh no calm down calm down donor donor's probably one of the you should have been a lawyer the way that this guy would argue at tour ball and always get his point across and win the uh at the end i was old so At the end, I was old. So the young guys didn't have a choice. I'd just bully them. No, you're out. What do you mean I'm out?

No, you're out. Definitely. You got to try harder. It went off your shoulder donor. No, it didn't. That was the wall. We were actually talking about your – this guy had gone so long in the NHL without a hat trick. I think you had the NHL record at one point for most two-goal games

before getting a hat trick, before you ended up getting it in the dying seconds against the Islanders? Yeah, yeah. And with, like, point, like, we actually, I believe I'm the only person that got to celebrate his hat-trick not in overtime, in regulation time, with the whole team on the ice. Yeah. That's how, like, late in the game it was? The horn went, and they left the ice because it was a 5-1 game.

It wasn't like a nail-biter. So the horn went. They left. They had to go and review it to see if it counted. So everyone stormed onto the ice and was celebrating with me in the corner. It could have gone more perfect. Yeah. In a big win.

Well, here's the best part. So I think it was always the storyline, how many two-goal games. And at first, in the So I think, like, you know, it was always a storyline. How many two-goal games. And at first, in the first couple years I played with you. 50 it was at? Yeah, 49 or 50. Oh, yeah. Like, to the point where it was mentioned.

Oh, my God. I thought you were going to say 20-ish. Like, 50 times. You're like, I just need one more. So I'm always a healthy scratch. So I'm watching, like, in the locker room with Petey. Oh, my. And I'm like, Doner's never had a hat trick?

That's fucking nuts. What a pigeon. And then it kept going, kept going. And last shift of the game, he's probably out of gas. Completely. Tip played me the last nine minutes of the game. To try to get it. So last shift, storming down the ice as the clock's dying down.

He comes right over the blue line. And I think, who was in that? Rolston? No, Nabokov. Nabokov. And I feel like he kind of just like. He's like, give it to him. He's like, he comes right over the blue line. And I think, who was in that, Rolston? No, Nabokov. Nabokov. And I feel like he kind of just like. He's like, give it to him. He's like, the game's over.

Why are you even shooting this? Oh, yeah. That's kind of more like, dude, what's going on? This is going to be a fight if it wasn't you. And it slid in between his legs, I believe. And there it was. We're coming back. I missed like four really good chances right before that.

And Ray Whitney was on the ice. And I ice, and Wizard and I never played together. And I miss again for like whatever, the fourth time. And there's like 15 seconds left in the game, and we're heading back in, or less than that, eight seconds left in the game. We're heading back into our zone, and I'm like, screw this. Are you kidding me? Well, you don't backtrack anyway.

So you probably just hung out. So I i'm going back and somebody turns it over like a bad turnover right at our blue line and wizard picks it up and looks at me and he's like let's go i'm like i have no legs left i can't even get i i can't turn and he's like come on come on come on yelling at me and i'm trying to catch up and i catch up and he crosses and as he crosses we've done it in practice a few times where like he he liked to work on stuff like that and he crossed in front of me and slides it back and i take a one-timer from like the top of the circles and it goes in between his legs but the horn sounds as it goes in so you're like i don't know yeah i don't know if it counted like i'm like, it might have. And honestly, at this point, I was assuming it wasn't going to.

I'm like, there's no way this just counted. Everything is, I've hit posts and had empty nets that go offside. It's kind of a cool record to have. Yeah, well. Once you don't have it. I passed Scott Mellenby, so that was a... But yeah, it was a lot. Did the team come out on the ice and then wait for the official ref call down and then went crazy again? Jelly's over at the penalty box.

He comes in, doesn't even come to me, goes straight to the penalty box. Jans goes straight over to the penalty box, and he's at the penalty box arguing with the ref. The ref's like, come on, you've got to give it to him. And they're like... That's when he sold box arguing with the ref. The ref's like, come on, you've got to give it to him. And they're like, it's not like we can. That's when he sold his soul to the league. That's when I had to go work for them for a couple years. He actually wasn't even let go by the Coyotes.

It was just all a big cover-up. It's like fucking the Jason or the Bourne Identity shit. Some awesome script. Yeah. And then he's going. He was more excited than I was. I was so tired because I'd played for literally, like, Tip was so good about it.

Like, he was playing me, like, ridiculous once I scored two. Prior to that, he didn't play me that much all the time. But once I scored two, he'd play me a ton. I don't want to get, like, too serious, but obviously, you know, you said the transition was a little difficult at first. Like, thinking back, you don't have the guys in the locker room. Like, it was probably hard the way it all went down at the beginning when like, I mean, I don't know how much you want to go into it,

but when you weren't affiliated with the team, obviously things had gotten a little bit sour. Like can you, if you had to say anything to the fans and to people who really care, like how were you feeling after that went down? Oh, yeah. Like it's so weird because I was so beyond grateful for everything that, like, the reason that I got to be, like, where I was at was because of what the Coyotes did. So there was like, no, like, I wasn't, I wasn't, I guess, mad. It wasn't the way that I had kind of saw it happening. You envisioned it. Yeah.

And so I think that made it where I was like, but we all do. Like, we've talked. Like, it ends bad for everyone. Like, I can't tell you how many guys I talk to that hate their last coach. Like, everyone hates their last coach. And it's like, is it because none of us see that we're done? And the coach is kind of he sees it we I still thought that I could do more and and tip and I've had awesome talks like tip and I get along good but it was hard my last year on on our relationship tip and my because it just

you never really see it ending the way it ends you have this storybook kind of John Elway kind of win it you know at the Super Bowl go out you know the storybook kind of John Elway kind of win it you know at the Super Bowl go out you know Ray Bork kind of especially the longer you go like oh I mean it even even happened with Timu Solani a little bit towards the end when him and Boudreaux were kind of arguing about ice time where it's like yeah it's it's it's you know it's it's it comes a situation where you feel that you need to get your reps and I guess the reason though why it was like I guess a little silly because at that time it wasn't like they they didn't have like a ton either it wasn't like they were like completely loaded where you're playing fourth

line and maybe happy because you guys were happy because you guys were still winning a lot of games yeah and obviously that made it that that always makes it way easier when you're winning and it's and it's going your way um anyway and definitely wasn't at that point for us. Yeah. But you know what? It was. It was. Like the fans and they treated – like I was an okay player.

I was just around a long time. I wasn't like – there's guys that are like superstars. They don't get the treatment that I got from the fans. I wasn't anything close to that. I was around a long time and got to know a lot of people and so because of that oh i think yeah i think i think leadership and and and i think it's how you played how you played all variables considered donor i thought you were a tremendous player great leader and even in situations i always tell the story i think the one year it might have been my first year here there was like 20 games you went without scoring.

Yeah, probably. I'm really digging in here with the no hat trick thing and the 20. Maybe it wasn't that long. It probably could have been. What year did you come? 2009? The back-to-back years, we lost to Detroit in the playoffs. When it all turned around is when I showed up. Your first year was the year that they lost to detroit yeah the first year where we lost i believe in seven the next year but the point being is your role was diminished but given the fact that the team was having success at that point he was like tip i i know i'm going through a tough stretch right now i'll play you know third fourth line i'll i'll do what

you need for me as long as things are going well i'm you know i'm pulling the rope the same way as everyone and like that was kind of like that's what it's about right there it's no no ego is involved that's for the betterment of the team and like you kind of alluded to it you know it's like it's a little harder when when the team's not doing as well it's kind of like hey let me you know maybe get a little bit more of my reps as this thing is coming to an end. One thing that you said, I don't know if you want to say it on here, was that even in that last year, you were not planning on coming back. No, yeah.

I had made my mind up probably about three weeks ago. I just wasn't – I don't know. The game wasn't fun. I couldn't do what I wanted. Yeah, I couldn't do what I wanted to do. The feeling going to the rink is so different. It is. And to be honest, I knew my daughter was leaving home,

and I wanted to be able to go see her whenever. She was going away to college, which is crazy because that was the end of my – and so she's going away to college and I'm like okay if she calls I'm leaving like I'm not missing any like if and I was fortunate that I got to be there for a lot of everything for the most part and I've just I knew I'd pretty much done and then a couple people around me were like just don't say anything like don't make it a traumatic thing at the end of the year even though they I probably might have been a little bit better for everyone if i had but um looking back yeah looking back that was a terrible decision i could have i could have had a jeter

yeah exactly no was it was it yeah jeter and poppy big poppy they had the big big poppy hawking your rolexes for you from team to team. But, yeah, and then I was like, okay, we'll wait and see. And then at the end of the year, I was, you know, humming and hawing through different scenarios. But, yeah, and then when it ended, and I can understand. Like, I don't think there was any – there was nothing that was, you know, vindictive about it. It was just a business decision that they had to move on.

And as a player, we all overreact and i i didn't say anything or do anything that was i regretted like i was positive and grateful for every chance i got with them that's the one thing about you man is like i mean i guess i guess like you're good i guess it's a thing of handling your ego maybe whereas like if i think if i would have probably accomplished those things and been treated maybe the same way as i might have came off the top ropes, I might have been like fucking sting in the rafters at Gila River coming down for the season opener. But no, it's a testament to who you are by not overreacting. Yeah, but that was in public.

In private, I was going freaking crazy. Oh, okay. You know what? Oh, that's why you have the UFC dummy in your head. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Tried all that stuff. That's the self-control though biz yeah that's what we need yeah no he doesn't get the twitter fingers like oh yeah he's on uh what are you on farmers oh that is that is that a dating yes that's a dating app well you're just using it to meet

friends yeah he just wants to meet fellow farmers, talk about their tractors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you bring up that when you were done with playing, your daughter's just going to college, which is like, my two sons were born when I was done playing. It must have been great for you to have your kids old enough to remember all the things you accomplished. And, like, your son being in the room.

Like, that's so cool that you had kids young enough to experience all that. It really, like, I didn't. There was times when we had them that I'm like, man, this is really hard. And it doesn't make sense. Yeah, I know. While you're playing. When my wife was, like, doing everything. And I'm like, yeah, I got to have a pregame nap.

So two hours. Yeah. She's quiet. Guys, can you guys keep it down in there? Cause I'm trying to sleep over here and my wife's got four kids and try, but at the, towards the end of my career, like biz, we we'd have, they'd come and have pregame with us. Like we had pregame together.

We did have pregame together and we do like, and they got to do everything with us, and they got to go on trips. My kids kind of got to see the world through hockey's eyes. We went to Russia for the World Championships. We went to Italy. How many gold medals did you win in the World Championships? Just two. I got two gold medals and three no three gold medals

two or three and then i got three silvers too you were kind of like captain canada yeah which isn't it's not exactly a good thing you're making the best out of not exactly and you know what that's something that i don't understand why players don't do like i really don't get it i know because some of my best friends are from like because you're going over there and you're getting crippled every single night oh we had so much the first like 10 days at least like before the families come it's like i'll say this once i went and played in europe it made even more sense why that tournament that means so much then to them. Their national team, they got the couple week breaks. It's all national team games.

To play in the World Championships is a huge deal, and it is fun. Like you said, you meet guys that you actually stay in touch with forever. Yeah. Donors bankrupting Hockey Canada because they've got to bring the whole family over. You've got the fucking 10 kids. We had everyone, too. The one time we brought everyone to Austria. Like everyone.

Vienna? Oh, Vienna is so nice. So we brought everyone. That's a great idea is to bring like a nine-month-old over to Vienna and then fly all the way home after not sleeping the night before. Because you were celebrating? No, we lost. Oh, okay.

You still got after it? Yeah. We lost. Is that the Canadian thing? My nine-month-old is sitting up in the front with us, or with me. Oh, it's even worse. No, no. The worst part is I'm not like, I'll spend money, and I don't care, but I'm not a big

spender. No, you're not. But I'm not. I'll buy it and do whatever I want. So my wife is very frugal and very aware of money and so I'm like hey we'll all fly first class home she's like no no no I don't need first class like I don't even use a whole seat and we'll just get the whole row and the kids and I and it's actually better because in first class you have two here two there and my youngest my daughter

was nine months old my son was only two and a half or three he was three and then my oldest daughter was seven or six or whatever it was so they're little and she's like this is perfect we get a whole row she brought a friend with her this girl that she was really good friends with so there were like they had a row of four on the international flight anyways how about halfway through the flight my wife's's like, hey, Karis, my youngest daughter, won't sleep at all. So she's coming, bringing this baby up to first class. And she's telling the lady. Some old guy's like, what?

Yeah. And she's telling the lady. She put it in the overhead bin. Yeah. I'm just going to keep this here. Just stuff it in there. You can barely hear the crying when it's closed. If you put a blanket over it, she won't even over the engine the engine really drowns out the noise yeah could

you hang out in the cockpit here with you guys thanks so the the flight attendants like looking at her like what are you doing and she's like it's it's his daughter and then the flight attendant comes up to me and she's like there's a lady back there that's saying behind the curtain yeah behind the curtain that has your daughter and i'm like oh yeah. And then she looks at me like, I'm the worst husband, dad in the history of life. You should have swiped the air miles. I'm like, she wanted to sit in the back. Hold on, hold on. I'm up here sleeping.

Donor looks right into her eyes. He hits the fucking, he pulls the exit door. He's like, ah! The stewardess, she sees, like, his wife in the back changing a diaper with another kid, He pulls the exit door. The lady's got a parachute on her. She sees his wife in the back changing a diaper with another kid jumping on the seat. Holding another kid. She's like, excuse me, more champagne, please. She's ready to kill me.

And I'm trying to justify myself to the flight attendant. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. But there's no excuse. There's no excuse. I should be back there, really, if I'm being a gentleman. So then she brings out this baby thing that you can stick in the first class that it lays down. There's a little crib there.

And I'm like, oh, that's beautiful. So I'm trying to go to sleep. And every time I'd fall asleep, my daughter would start to cry. And so I'd sit back up. And then you're so uncomfortable because everyone around you is ready to kill you. I couldn't imagine that feeling. You're flying from Vienna to Washington, and you is ready to kill you. You're flying from, you're flying from Vienna to Washington and everyone's ready to kill you. So then I'm like waking up the whole time and now I'm starting to get grumpy.

Like, why the heck, why isn't she up here too? Like, why? Like, we should all be together. I'm getting more angry. We land in Washington and then our flight's delayed. It was like 29 hours of traveling with three kids. Oh my God. We pulled up to the house.

And my wife and I, we don't get too heated at each other. It's like we are. It is World War III. Like, we're getting divorced 100% tomorrow. I'm never going to see you again. And we wake up the next morning and just started laughing. Like, that was dumb. We're never doing that again.

And from then on, we took two kids and no more. Like, we'd be like, we'll take two. Once they're old, none of them. Donor told me that story and I got snipped when I was playing with the coyotes. I can't even have fucking kids. Yeah. So it was one of those embarrassing moments. But that flight attendant's eyes when she looked at me like, you're a scumbag.

You're a scumbag. You're the worst dad, husband. I can't believe that you did that to your wife as she's trying to get the baby up to the first place. Speaking of kids, Josh, he's playing in the USHL. He was playing with the Chicago Steel. Yes, yeah. And they got that.

They have a wagon of a team. Well, they got the kid who was supposed to go first overall. Last year. Oh, he was. So last year, their team was like historically good. Like they had the number. They had the leading score in the first second. They're the one, two, three, four in the first sec they're the one two three

four and five leading scorers of the league on their team and then three four and five all on the same team then they had the number one defenseman who is the leading scoring defenseman and he's not draftable till this year he's going to go number one overall well what's his name again owen power owen power he's a kid coming out of the USHL could go first overall? Yeah, he's from Ontario, and he's played there. He's going to go first. He's a Canadian kid. I think he's going to go first overall.

Is he like 6'6", 6'5"? 6'5", like 215, 220. So he wanted to go to college or something? He didn't want to go junior? Yeah, he's playing in Michigan. Well, London Knights will offer him a fucking one-way deal. Well, it's too late. He's going to be in Michigan.

Oh, excuse me. I thought you meant he was playing in the ushl colony this was last year he's i messed that up yeah but if he was draftable a lot like he's a late o2 so he's yeah but he's playing college hockey this year okay yeah yeah so then he was on their team and then they had like top three goalie on their team and then their number six scorer on their team came to their team halfway through the year from a college team. He decided to come back and he ended up finishing with ridiculous points per game but he was their number six scorer on their

team. The team was stacked. So he wasn't getting much ice last year but this year it's a hole in the ball game? Did their season get cancelled? Yes it did. And it's so bad because they were going to run away. Yeah. They hadn't get much ice last year. Did your season get canceled? Yes, it did. And it's so bad because – They were going to run away. Yeah. They hadn't lost a game to, I think,

they were like 36-0 against the top ten teams in the league. They'd lost, I think, seven games in all to the bottom six teams. It was ridiculous. So your son was experiencing not being the big guy. He was just watching like, wow, I'm going into a great team. It's probably a pretty good way to learn. I don't know. Is he a big kid, your son?

So when he got in, he was 157 pounds and like 5'9". I was eating all the food at home. He couldn't get his fucking hands on it. He's like, dad, I want a sandwich. Yeah, exactly. Just a sliver. Get some crumbs. Cut it up.

And now he's growing sandwich. Yeah, exactly. Just a sliver. Get some crumbs. Cut it up. And now he's, yeah, he's grown now. Like he's, I tease him. He did four pull-ups at camp last year. And this year at Christmas he did 24. So he's all jacked up that he's. And he went from 157. He'll say 160, but he's like 157. And now he's like 183.

So he's moving up in the right direction. So he loves the game. He's all in. Oh, my gosh. He really is. Well, you said he was on the ice over the break. He got to watch you. Well, that, during the break, he was on with Matthews and McDavid,

like keeping up with those guys. Like that's got to be a huge boost for him. Yeah. He didn't actually get to go on the ice with McDavid because McDavid came after their season started. But, yeah, he got to – Austin has been unbelievable to him. And he got to skate with the Coyotes last summer a little bit. And then Austin, when we do the – you know, in the pro skates where before –

Is that why we lost draft picks? Was it Josh? Was it that way? Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I don't think so. But, yeah, yeah, you're welcome. Little daughter.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then, yeah. But now this year, he's getting his chance. And they got a great team. They got the number one, two, and three scorers in the league this year. And they got the fifth scorer. And they're doing well again. And then he's had a good weekend.

What happened? He had four goals, six assists this weekend. Two games? Three. Three games. So he's heating up. So he's heating up. Because we went golfing recently, and you said he was a little cold off the hop as far as numbers,

was playing well, and the floodgates opened. Yeah, and he didn't have a point. No, he had one assist in the first five games. Has he gotten in a fight yet? No, he hasn't. And he's thought of... Have the rules changed there at all for fighting? No, it had one assist in the first five games. Has he gotten in a fight yet? No, he hasn't. And he's thought of – Have the rules changed there at all for fighting? No.

Or are they still just five minutes? It's all good there? Yeah. I think – yeah, you get five and – I think he can still play. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can fight. I think he might get a 10, though, too. He might get five and a 10.

It's not as often as it was. Don't want to make some no bible studies is he talking to colleges what's he's by he does it don't make some do bible studies that's not even i'm just messing around i like i love him doing bible studies i want him to do the bible do it you know what this is this is for every day where keith yandall will come in the locker room and torture me and this guy would be fucking had his face in his jersey. Because I was like the Kanye. And now you got the mic.

Now I get to chirp a little bit. You're right. That's right. But going back to him skating with Austin and seeing Connor, being around the NHL, this is kind of like these kids are getting to this different level than it's ever been before. You said you witnessed it a little bit when they were training and just what they're doing with their time on the ice and how they're training for game situations it's they like i think though like the way we used to do it is like when i first came into the league you would kind of take a group of pucks and you'd shoot pucks from like a stationary spot like that would

be kind of like your practice i think you'd take pucks at the top of theucks and you'd shoot pucks from like a stationary spot like that would be kind of like your practice i think you'd take pucks at the top of the circles and you'd shoot you shoot 25 pucks and then as you get old as a i got older it was like okay now we want we're past me and i'm going to start doing one-timers because i didn't know boris salming was kind of the guy that started the one-timer yeah and he was like jackie moon in the semi-pro? Yeah. Like everyone used to catch it on their backhand, then turn around it and take, like there was no one-timers, which I didn't really know.

So then when I got a little bit further into my career, everyone started taking one-timers. Brett Hall obviously was just like unbelievable. And so everyone kind of wanted to be like him. So we all started practicing it. But then it was just you being stationary, taking a one-timer. Like you'd stand over there, I'll stand'll stand over here pass me a puck and then i'll take a one-timer yeah and then as we advanced it got to the point where i'll pass you a puck now you pass it back

to me and then i'll take the one-timer it's like oh we're getting good now yeah we're going crazy we want to give and go and get it then you got someone on top of the triangle and it's just like crazy so then you move but now the guy's like okay like austin and connor they're like i'm going to skate as fast as i can pass it to me any way you want i'm going to catch it handle it beat it go underneath the stick over another stick pass it to him give it back to me one timer i'm like wait okay what you lost me at the when you said pass it like like they're just they do everything as fast as they can they do stuff with the puck that's just so quick and so it's just it's by the way I picture him like showing up to run the skate yeah and he's like putting him

through the peanut you guys don't do the peanut anymore? The fucking merry-go-round was the best. I had my stick in the air. Okay, everyone go this way. Yeah, everyone go that way. The crossovers. The crossovers. Warm up your ankles. Yeah, yeah. Okay, yep. Back this way.

No, no, back that way. Oh, I hated that. Yeah, the, I don't know. Matthew's shot. I'd love to just see that. If you go to a pregame skate or something, just the releases. And then McDavid, his skating and some of these guys we just talked to mckinnon too the training they do oh and eichel mentioned how

often he's staying on the ice now like he's they don't really take the time away from the rink i mean i'm sure some guys do but i don't know when i was playing pretty much everyone from the time your season ended you didn't skate for two months oh yeah you didn't start skating till there was a few guys like i know tom pody i think pody always skated every day i think that the guys who were ahead of their time were the guys who were smart where they weren't necessarily training too hard but they stayed on their edges throughout the whole year because like i found by the time i kept coming back it took you so long to get used to your edges again where these guys aren't taking that time even if it's once a week just getting up what are you laughing at what are you guys okay so i was waiting for him

i was laughing because he started laughing but when you went like this i thought it was funny because it's like yeah outside edge inside edge oh it's like when business gets new you know if you break a blade you got to put new set in yeah but i know what you meant 100 you get on you get on the ice and you're like oh my yeah i'm more than anything it was like the hands oh yeah you couldn't stick here i've never had those so i wasn't i'd already crossed that off the list hey do they know that you had made pittsburgh have you ever told the story that you made him as a defenseman no i didn't it was last cut last cut but who who'd did you get cut for? What's his name? Dan Folch?

Was that his name? Dan Folch? You got cut for Dan Folch? He was in Coyote Draft. Really? Yeah. I remember. So I was coming in the next year.

Or two years later because the locker room between. And looking at who's on the team. And there was all these one ways. And then I was like, oh, this Bissonnette kid. I remember. I heard he almost made a team. Then I meet him, he's fighting Carcillo in camp. They said, they go, they're like, hey, just so everyone knows, no fighting.

First scrimmage, day one, me and Carcillo. And he's a forward. Or, no, still a D-man then? I was, I believe, yeah, I was still a D-man in camp and, like, the scouts were just probably getting their coffee and me and Carcillo were going toe-to-toe at center ice. 8.15. Yeah, 8.15. probably getting their coffee and me and carsey talking about toward that center ice and 8 15 guys are having the he's eating his fucking mcdonald's in the locker room that's no that was woke prayer that was a couple things i want to talk about uh you're part owner

in the cam loops blazers right yeah so you know what's going on as like an owner in that league i don't even know if games are being played right now. I think they're kicking things off pretty soon. How has that gone? And I mean, I know you had a long history of playing there, winning some championships. Yeah, it's, you know what? We have Matt Barsley is our GM and the guy's done an amazing job. He's a guy that is, he's just got an unbelievable story he kind of came up through

Portland he's from Portland Oregon never played hockey loves hockey um started out at the arena working kind of as doing the Zamboni and kind of taking care of the Zamboni how did he end up in Cameroon started working up through Portland um doing the Zamboni stuff then offered to help out as a trainer, then Mike Johnson got involved with him, Travis Green got involved with him, they just loved him. And they're like, hey, come help us out. And he started watching hockey and watching hockey.

Kind of like a Hitchcock situation. But just the most truly, you know when people just treat people right, that you're like, that guy's got to do well. Like he's going to, he just, he does everything right. right and as an organization we've been pretty lucky to get him and he's come in and done a great job we had Stu McGregor before that who was my GM and now Matt and so they kind of got it going in the right direction he was the GM from what even when you were playing there he was assistant GM when I was playing there so this guy was around for what he went to Edmonton he actually he had he was in Edmonton when Ryan was there really yeah he was like a head one of the scouts one of the head

scouts oh he's probably one of the guys that's like get rid of number six dude so you guys hired me to scout for you you need to get rid of him so it's been but it's been good and now so this year going through everything it's been like oh i thought we talked to matt and find out what's kind of going on and we just had a big there was a big meeting two days ago and they're kind of they're committed to playing they're committed to to getting some games in they've come out with a strategy of maybe 24 games to at least get the boys a chance just because it's crazy like what are they going to do with this draft situation that's the part that it's going to be so hard to figure out like it's not fair some of the boys are going to get with this draft situation? That's the part that it's going to be so hard to figure out. It's not fair.

Some of the boys are going to get the short end of the stick on this. Especially players who had a great summer and are out to prove themselves, and maybe they weren't on the radar, where they could have had at least a fair number of games to play in order to show their stuff. Now it's such a crapshoot, and how much separation has the wave in front of them who's had access to being able to play in order to show their stuff now it's like it's such a crap shoot and and how much separation has the wave in front of them who's had access to all like the being able to play games and like even let's say just the world junior kids like how much more of an advantage have they had

to develop over this period of time where they're just other guys are sitting at home well you look at like my son is in the ushl and he's played his 17th and 18th game like this weekend and two of my two boys that i'm really really close with they've played one has played three games in the bcj or five games in the bcj and the other one hasn't played a game yet and they're both not play a game through the new year yeah so you're looking at nine months these guys haven't played a hockey game. And you're just, you're heartbroken for them because... That age. And the anxiety that comes with, like,

of just your routine not being what it's been. So I'm excited that the league, the Western League, is kind of, they're trying, they're trying to, I mean, we're obviously, you have to honor what the government is doing and what they say. So each province is a little bit different, but it sounds like the BC division in the Western League is going to get started hopefully 8th to the 10th of February.

We're going to do it in kind of some, I think they're going to, not hub cities, but we're going to have maybe PG come down to Kamloops, have Victoria maybe go to Kelowna, and then have those. So Kamloops, Kelowna, and Vancouver have all the teams in there, and so we can play five, all five teams can play and get the boys an opportunity to play. Because, I mean, that's what you want to have. The boys have their normality back a little bit in their lives yeah just the amount of scrambling to even with the nhl we've been pumping their tires so much and we talked about um uh batman earlier like the way

they've been able to like siphon through all this shit and like change and i know they've been dealing with some issues lately but the way they executed the bubble and just the way they've handled covet in general you don't realize how important leadership is until you really get to see it. And, I mean, the way that Gary did was like he was adamant that we're doing the bubble and we're going to do it and we're going to get through this, and we did. And that's, I mean, a testament to a lot of people were questioning whether or not that was going to happen. A lot of people were. I was like, I don't know.

Is this going to end up going down? I know. How are they going to do this? And they did it as masterful as anyone has since this whole thing started. It was incredible. And to see all the stuff like that Zoom calls. I'm so glad I don't have to be on a Zoom call on those again. This is our first live interview since, I guess, Boston,

but it's so much better live. It's such a better feel for you. Yeah, and just the collaboration. Why do you need the video on for the Zoom? Just do the audio. Why do I need to be looking at you and stuff? Yes, I agree. It's just oh but i can't believe that he

was so adamant and so determined and really pulled a lot of people along behind and then once more and more people got on board it really got going and then the way that the hockey ops like rod pasma and chris king and and k whitmore and those guys guys, they were the guys that kind of run in the hubs. Oh, you should have seen the stuff with the hubs, like trying to organize, talking to hotels about, hey, you're going to have to up your broadband because these guys are going to be stuck there. That doesn't mean what some of you think it means, by the way.

Yeah, it means something related to what you're thinking it means. That's correct. Because they're going to be watching you porn the whole time in the way. Yeah, it means something related to what you're thinking it means. Because they're going to be watching you porn the whole time in the bubble. They're like, ah, these towels are walking around the place at this point. Guys, can we get some bleach in this fucking place, please? Well, yeah, because you didn't have anyone come to clean them. Oh,

Jesus. Because they could only come like once a week. Oh, really? Because no one was allowed into your room. Oh, my God. It was unreal, but down to figuring out where you like what food you can get and how you can get it and you couldn't it's not like you're on a road trip where it's like oh let's just go grab some tea but let's go for a walk or let's

you couldn't you couldn't and the guys the players were incredible it was i mean they could have complained and i couldn't believe how you know, it showed on each team that the guys, like, well, you know, once a group of guys starts saying this is good and this is, it seems like everyone follows because if someone goes like, no, this sucks, this is terrible, then it just pulls a whole group that way. And the guys constantly kept being like, no, this is good. We can do this. No problem.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. We can do this. It was pretty impressive. But there was no chance they were doing it again this year. It was like, okay, we is good. We can do this. No problem. Yeah, yeah, for sure. We can do this. It was pretty impressive. But there was no chance they were doing it again this year. It was like, okay, we did that. Nope. Why didn't Gary have the fake boos come in? The crowd?

You know when he went out and there's normally people? I mean, would you ask him? Yeah, I didn't ask him that. I feel like he executed it perfect, and that could have been like the cherry on top where he makes fun of himself where he amplified the booze. Yeah, that would have. See, you need people like you around, Biz.

The little details. Is he the type of guy he can laugh at himself like that? Yes. Okay, so maybe I could be his content guy. I could follow him around with a Twitter account or something. Yeah, I doubt that. Think about it, Gary. I doubt that, but yeah.

Think about it, Gary. I doubt that, but yeah. Think about it, Gary. Oh, what else? Biz, we got tomorrow. We'll be taking this guy on in a little round of golf in the Sandbagger Classic. What do you think about this? I've seen you swing it. You played in the... He drives with a 3-wood.

He doesn't use the drive. The Pro-Am at TPC. Yeah. He carried his bag. Yeah, Biz. Yeah, yeah. It was fun. Yeah, but there's fans out there.

That's not a problem. They're like, hey, you want to come to the golf tournament? How many people were on 16? 16 was hard. 16 was hard. But it wasn't that bad. They actually used my shot on 16. Thank you.

Yeah, no big deal. Biz gave you the number to hit. Yeah, yeah. Biz was... Actually, Biz hit two on 16. I had a small ball. I was like, hey, hey. Did he do the knee down?

No. No, but he took it about back to about. Joe Vanosky. I would say to about, I'd say 18 to 24 inches past his foot. Was it from here? I got nervous, dude. Straight from here, straight through, as hard as he could. Yes or no.

Do the mechanics get messed up the farther you go back? So I knew I clubbed up, and I just wanted to punch it just so I could not get booed. And I did punch it. You did? I was on the fringe. Oh, really? But they were ruthless. They still fucking booed me.

And I still was pouring Pink Whitney down their throats. Yeah, you were. On the way by. No. Number 10. Number 10 was like so number we started par four dog leg right yeah we start on 10 there's water left uh no no no no no no 11 there's water left yep okay but on 10 everyone is around 10 like if you start on one no one's around one so

everything bottlenecks yeah everyone bottlenecks so there's like oh 15 000 people around 10 and i'm like oh boy this is your first swing so i'm i hit last too so first guy gets up who is it matsuyama yeah matsuyama like pounds it down the middle he has a little pause at the top yeah his glutes just activated his quads are like crosbyby's. Boom! And just crushes it. Hits it through the fairway. Hits it through the fairway. And so then Archie Bradley was up. He played with us. And then a couple other guys that were...

I actually knew the one guy with American Airlines. Really good guys. And I'm last to hit. I like bump the ball off the tee as I'm trying to set it down. I'm so nervous. I'm like, oh my... He's pouring like pink Whitney's for everyone running around.

Everyone. Pouring it out to everyone. Everyone's got their cups out. He's running down this. I need a club. Yeah. This is pre-COVID. So like we're all like everyone's got their glasses out. Spraying it on people. Like it's unreal.

And I'm trying to hit and I'm like, man, you're not safe on the right or the left when I'm hitting it off the tee. Like, I can snap hook and kill somebody that's like 20 – Oh, there's people close enough where you're thinking you could hit somebody. They're lined up like – Those people are idiots then. Complete idiots. Not idiots, but smart. Oh, you see Donner feels bad.

That's how nice he is. What a guy you are, Donner. No, it's just like – You're the best. I'm like, oh, my goodness, you haven't seen me golf. I'm really close to hitting you. Let's put that on the headline. I hit it. Did you have some drinks to loosen up before? No, I didn't.

You should have. I should have. Yeah, I should have. No, he wasn't doing that. I put an edible in his mouth. That's why he was like Gumby out there. There we go. Stringing him.

Oh, but it was fun. So, yeah, but I'm looking forward. My partner. Yeah, what do we have to know about him? Oh, Tyson Nash. He's an interesting guy on the course. He's not doing the knee drop, but he chips and he putts like a hockey player. Oh, that's what you think is interesting?

What about the fact that he hits with a driver left-handed and his iron's right-handed? No way. Oh, I didn't even recognize that. No way. Oh, wait till you see it. Yeah. And he's good? He was piping them.

He was un... I didn't even know he did that. We golfed last week. He was... You're the only person in the world that wouldn't notice that. Imagine working with this guy. He's like, what did you just hit? I'm like, we're putting.

He's just in his own world. That makes total sense that you didn't recognize it. What did you say the other day? Or somebody mentioned it. They think about like six things before they actually make contact with the ball. I'm like doing like, what's my toe feel like? Okay, my ankle's good. Okay, the knee good.

Okay, is my leg. It's just like. You got shot clocked by Yans. I got shot clocked. Did you get to see that? I gave him a shot clock. My son told me about it. Yeah.

I was taking a long time, though. Apparently, Walt, Keith Kachuk, he, like, walks up to his ball. He hits it. He doesn't like doing rounds of golf that are longer than, like, two and a half hours. Yeah. He's, like, flies through, like – And, like, you hit when you're ready. Like, no worry about like,

really do you need to worry if someone else is hitting at the same time? Like the balls are zipping by guys' heads. Well, no, it's not. He's a pretty good golfer too. So he's not like.

He lives on a course down the Cape Ridge Club. We were going to get something going with Matt and Brady at some point. Oh, yeah. And Walt, you know, he'll be out there torturing me and Biz. Oh, yeah.

We did the interview with all three of them. It was hilarious at the All-Star game in St. Louis. Like, Keith's sitting there the whole time. He's like, put your microphone up near your mouth. Like, just like giving it to his two kids. You can tell he just bullies these two guys. I don't know if we asked you. Maybe we asked you the last time you were on the story about like when when a couple of guys had a trip planned to vegas

because there was a day off the next day where you were on the team right when who told us that story on the pod i think it was it might have even been rick talkett you're looking at me like you're getting a little nervous oh what's what there's there was a few so that group of guys we had the game late and they had the last ticket. You know what I'm talking about, right? Yeah, there's a few of those stories. That group of guys, like there was Rick Talkett, J.R., and Keith Kachuk. And then you throw in like Dave Manson and Dally Drake.

That's a good one right there. Oh, it was. It was cool. Yeah, like, yeah, it was a lot of fun. Bobby Corkum. Do you know Bobby Corkum? No, I remember he was just like a hard-nosed defensive forward. He played for a long time.

Yeah, he did. He's from out by you. Is he? Yeah, yeah. And he's like Craig Janney, who's an unbelievable guy. He was on the team, too, at the same time. And CJ would always be like, best athlete out of New England. Best athlete ever out of New England.

So he had like a full-ride scholarship as a – I think as a quarterback. And then he also had one as a pitcher. And then he ended up going as a hockey player. And he's just a freak of an athlete. But those guys were like – and then we had Brian Noonan for a little bit. We had that whole like northeastern kind of – it was a fun group of guys. And so was that, like, common where you'd have a day off and you guys would just jump on a flight to go over to Vegas?

I mean, I don't know if you were part of that trip. No. But the fact that they tied the game up late and then they're like, oh, no, we're going to miss the flight. And he's like, no, we ain't. And he went out the next shift and he grabbed the puck and he, like, just went out there until he scored. And then he wouldn't do the interview post-game.

They said by the time the coach was ready to walk in, Jim O'Neill had a police brigade ready for him to get to the airport on time for his flight. Yeah, because we're right downtown in America West. So you'd come right out the back there, shoot right over. You could be at the airport in like 15 minutes, 10, 15 minutes. Who's had a cannonball run from the air. You'd get to the, after when we'd land, we'd drive all of our cars were there and we'd head home. I got pulled over one time.

We come out of, we come out of America West and this was like a full cannonball run. And we're all like, it's like two 33 o'clock in the morning. You land from a road trip and we're leaving and i'm at the back of the pack there's like eight cars ahead of me and we go flying we're going down washington which is five lanes wide open they've put the yeah so we're definitely speeding and i'm i'm like the last guy off the bus because i'm the youngest guy on the team so i'm the last guy to my car in the first wave. And so I get in my car and I get going and I'm behind everybody. And Norm McIver is behind me and they pull over Norm McIver.

The cops pull out and we're all flying. And the cop pulls out and pulls over Norm. And I'm like, yes, I didn't get it. And then lets Norm go, gets him pulled over and and comes after me and pulls me over, too. How many miles ahead? I was probably, like, he didn't get Norm all the way over. He just got him to where he thought he had stopped and then took off. So I'm like.

Oh, this guy was out there fishing. Yeah, he's trying to get all of us. I probably looked at the flight schedule because that would happen all the time. Well, so then the guy's asking me, he's like, who are you racing with? He's just yelling. Who are you racing with? I'm like, I wasn't racing. Like, I was just. He's like, who's the group of guys what gang like you guys a gang

what's going on i'm like i i'm not anything i'm just sitting there i don't he's like who are those guys i i don't know who any of those guys were i'm just driving home i want to get home who are those guys are you nar as i'm as i'm sitting there i'm I don't know. Another wave of our guys go by. Honk, honk, honk. Out of the way, don't run. They give this to me. I'm like, this cop is like going bananas on me. I'm like, ah. So then he's like, tell me.

And there's an older cop with him. And the young guy is like just going crazy. He's like, fine, if you won't tell me, I'm going to go find out who that other guy was. So he goes back there and he's gone norman left yeah veteran oh because he never actually pulled he left i'm like and so then he's like who was that i'm like i don't know he came back yeah because the older guy left and stayed there and the older guy was like hey you know what are you doing and i'm like yeah it was stupid you know whatever we were speeding and stuff so anyways it was going by the guy's places. Yeah.

I was like, I'll ride with you. Apartment 312. Go up the stairs. On the right. He's got the star maps out. I ratted out every guy, especially some of them. So speaking of guys places, the one of the funny prank stories you told me was when one of the guys had been traded

and he went inside the locker room. Todd Simpson, 100%. He put all the guys' keys on the same ring. No. He took everyone's keys off their rings, took all their keys off their rings, all their car keys off their rings, shook them up in a bag,

and then went, spread them all out over the floor so when we walked into the dressing room everyone's mail keys all their like car everything's on its own just laying on the floor guys didn't get their mail for the rest of the year so he did that he got called off the ice so that was the first thing he did before he left he got picked up on waivers oh by anaheim bullshit we're guys oh god but that was him he did he would he took he took the phone in the in the in the trainer's room and like the big old phones you know they got the big block of like numbers and everything and he'd like unplug it and

then slide it into your luggage so at the bottom of your luggage and it's not that heavy. So you'd pick it up. And then this is when we're still doing like commercial flights and you'd go through like the, like they put your bag to go through the x-ray machine and they'd be like, uh, sir. And they pull out this phone and you're like,

what the, and you're on like a seven day road trip and everywhere you go, you're like having to carry this phone. And you're like, they're like, you know, like that's not going to do you any good wherever. Like you can't plug it in and work. You're like, I know. And so you'd be carrying it for the rest of the trip. Some of these, like the dildo through the ears.

Oh, you'd wrap it up in tinfoil. So it would go off. Because that was when we flew. The one time, he Vaseline-ed the entire windshield of my car. He was hurt. So he Vaseline-s the windshield of my car, goes to a barbershop, buys a bag, gets a bag of hair, and dumps it on my car. So then I get, it's so gross.

I get home. I get in my car. I look. look i'm like what the heck's on my don't even look it's like 2 30 in the morning so i get on my car turn my windshield on and it's just like all this human hair all over so then i go to the gas station i gotta drive with my head out the window to the gas station i get to the gas station it's me and Ladislav Nagy. He does it to us both. And we're like taking all this human hair and like throwing it onto the garbage can. But it's getting everywhere. The guy comes out and is like, hey, what are you doing?

I'm like, just have to clean off my car. He's like, getting rid of the hair. And he's like, what is that? I'm like, it's hair. He's like, it looks like human hair. I'm like, yeah, it is. It's a joke. It's not like he's like it looks like human hair i'm like uh yeah it is it's a joke it's not like he's like what are you guys doing you guys can't be leaving human hair all over my i'm like i gotta leave i gotta go i'm getting out of here and i just i was awful but of course he did oh he'd do stuff like that all the time one of the worst ones i heard was the

the buttered popcorn when it ruined the uh yeah that was brad may in vancouver that wasn't us oh that wasn't you guys no i i've told this before and i think you told the last time you're on the the purple yeah ray whitney that was ray whitney well todd simpson did it but he got it from ray whitney so with would it already done it yeah so they got so this one this one was like it was like, it was pretty costly. Yeah. Yeah. Really costly. And simmer never admitted to it for like five years.

He didn't admit to it. And it was flurry type shit. Like it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. So he got me the first time. So he gets me with the purple people leader. Like he puts it in my jock and it's this purple dye that you put on money. And if you put it on the money, it turns anything that's sweating or anything, just like, not

like a little purple, but like you're full on dipped your hands in purple paint. Like it looks like you're like, you spray painted your hands purple. It's unreal how good it works. So he puts it in my jock and I come off the ice. I'm the last guy off the ice and I take my underwear. I'm like, what the, oh my goodness. So I'm trying to figure out what's going on i'm like all your ginch is purple oh caucus oh like purple purple like all my junk is dyed purple like junk is purple purple not like a little purple but like full-on purple i'm like are you are you kidding me like this is and so i'm

like okay who's waiting around to see this like I'm like, okay, who's waiting around to see this? Like I'm going to figure out who's waiting around to see this. So I out-waited him. So I just sat in the room and did my usual take too long. And so he's hanging around, hanging around. And anyways, I go walking into the trainers and I'm like buck naked. And the trainers are just crying, laughing that I'm standing there. And so anyways, he waits and it lasts for like five days.

So he waits and every day I out-waited him so he never ever saw. So he didn't think he got me. Oh, so you didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing it. Because I was sure it was him, but I didn't know. So I didn't let him see. So then he did it to the whole team, but he put in everyone's gloves. No. Everyone's gloves.

But then didn't realize that he didn't have he put the right amount in for me but he put in like 10 times amount in everyone's glove so everyone's like banging their gloves out and it's getting in the air and people are walking through it and they're turning purple and it's like this mist the jersey the jersey was over everybody everyone's purple jerseys. Their jerseys. The track was over. Everybody was purple. Everyone's purple. Jerseys are purple. I'm mad for the trainers. Losing it. Like 15 grand in cleaning bill for the rugs and all the walls and everything. And standing.

When Prank's gone way too far. Yeah, when Prank's gone way too far. And he did it the day of our golf tournament so that everyone had to shake hands with everyone with purple hands. He does it to everyone. This guy was rude. He does it to everyone including himself except for me so everyone's like take your gloves off donor i'm like what and they're like

that's how dedicated yes and i think it was probably retribution of the fact you didn't give the satisfaction for showing your dinosaur cock so that so... That's why he killed again. It's like a serial killer. Yeah, yeah. He's a serial pranker. Yeah. So then I'm lining up against Columbus and Ray Whitney was beside me.

He's like, hey, I heard you got the purple people eater. I was like, you do? Who told you? He's like, I don't know. I just heard. I'm like, who told you? He's like, what? No, I don't know.

I think Simmer might have... I was like, I knew it. I'm like, who told you? He's like, what? No, I don't know. I think Simmer might have. I was like, I knew it. I knew it was him. So then I went back to Simmer. I'm like, I know it's you. He's like, are you kidding me? He would love to get me in trouble, which is a good argument because he would have loved to get him in trouble. He's like, that's totally him.

He's playing you. I'm like, I'm getting Jedi mind tricked here again. Like these guys. Anyways, it was, but it was. I'm getting Jedi mind-tricked here again. Anyways, but it was awesome. It took him literally five years before he even would admit that it was him, but he finally did.

Going up to guys who are so true who pranked you and you're like, I know you did it. They're like, hey, I promise you. I know who did it, but it wasn't me. Then you're just like, I'm 99% sure it's you, but you just sort of ruined this for me. Yeah, and it takes way too much time and energy to actually dig and find out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Donor, congratulations, man.

This was great, though. This was awesome. I can't wait till tomorrow. I'm so happy you're back with the Coyotes, man. It's obviously where you should be. We should probably announce it now. We're doing a podcast together. Every two weeks, me and Donor.

Every two weeks? That's news to Donor, so I'm glad I got it. Maybe once a month. I think there's a vibe here between you guys. I think this is going to crush it. All Coyotes news? Probably, yeah. We still haven't found a name for it,

so anybody out there listening, and congratulations, you're back with the Yotes. One of these guys said Chase said Yotes Notes. Yotes Notes might be a good name. It's not bad. Chase is looking for a raise here. So let's figure out a name and looking forward to the season, Donor. Yes, and thank you guys.

I appreciate you guys having me on. I really do. Hopefully I didn't get you in too much trouble. No, it was pretty good. Okay. I think. All right, let's me on. I really do. Yeah, hopefully I didn't get you in too much trouble. No, it was pretty good, I think. All right, let's do it. Wrap it up. Thanks, Donor. Well, R.A., normally it's you taking care of these things,

but I just want to thank Shane Donor. What a guy. What a guy. Guys, he was like a father to me when I played for the Arizona Coyotes. Any bit of advice I needed, I would go to him. Always had the time for everyone. There was no reason he should have been never associated to the organization. of coyotes any bit of advice i needed i would go to him um always had the time for everyone there was no reason he should have been never associated to the organization um after his playing career it

was unfortunate how it all went down but they have made the right decision in bringing him back the coyotes are now now officially a wagon look out just a wagon baby wagon with three wheels and a big old cover on it. Yeah. How many times did he catch you yanking it? If you've said he was like one of your parents. Actually, I don't know if he told you

would be in some of those like when me and Yans would be shooting the shit in the shower, he would come in sometimes. Usually I'd leave, though, because he had a big weapon and i was a little embarrassed in there with my little fucking trinky dinky after the cold tub but uh no he's uh he's the fucking man and uh he uh yeah he's the best i don't know if he told you guys what came out today he was named the chief hockey development officer for the coyotes as well so congrats to him on that we were interviewing him and we didn't write the title yet so we kind of just like okay he just does basically whatever i basically just butchered the intro and then uh and then yeah that was it and then we kind of went on and just asked him

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Oh, boy. All right, next we're going to what I'm calling the Lewis and Clark Division, which is the West. If you look at the area map. It looks like the Louisiana purchase. If you look at the actual map, that guy made a while back, the color-coded one that you thought you were tripping

when you were looking at, Biz. Either way, the new West division, Anaheim, Arizona, Colorado, Los Angeles, Minnesota, San Jose, St. Louis, and Vegas. This team had three teams that did not qualify for the playoffs last year. All the California teams, San Jose, LA, and Anaheim. Probably one of the weaker divisions, I think you might say. The weakest.

Okay. You're a weak one. Just tee what up for the spike. You're a weak one. Similar to the East, the West, I think, is a no-brainer, at least for me. Maybe not a no-brainer, but I got Colorado winning this. Basically, I know St. Louis is going to give them some competition, but I'm down with Colorado winning the West division.

Whitdog, what say you? Colorado was my pick. It's tough to go against them. And then I think it's pretty easy with Vegas and St. Louis. Don't know the order in terms of the second and third seed the fourth seed in that in terms uh of who's going to come out of that division making the playoffs is kind of what's tough because you got really no clue what what la or anaheim's going to bring they have so many different young guys playing anaheim's added shatton kirk um but they got prospects both those teams you saw world junior guys and them taking the private jets.

So there's a chance for both those teams to be young. Arizona, no chance they're making the playoffs. So take them out of the mix. And then Minnesota's there. I think Minnesota ends up grabbing that last spot. But it's certainly the weakest division when you look at like having to go on the road and play like two and three or three and four, whatever they're going to do.

It's not as tough when you're playing against Anaheim and LA. Then if you look at you, you got the Islanders Rangers and then the easy one against the devils. It's just that division really changes things because there is, there's, there's some top top teams. And then at the bottom, there's,

there's not much in between. So I gave the four teams i'm going minnesota fourth don't know st louis uh what was the other one vegas two three and then colorado coyotes darcy kemper he's gonna go 56 and oh he's not gonna let in a goal oliver it's gonna be an incredible oliver i'm speaking oliver eckman larson he's gonna win the norris and then connorland is going to score 400 goals. Keller is going to have 1,000 assists. Coyotes are going to fucking roll.

No one else in the division is actually going to make the playoffs because of the beatdown that Arizona is going to put on them. So I got Arizona, and Arizona alone. Ow, ow, ow. Let's go, Desert Dogs. This is a man that knows this year is going to be rough. I left out the Sharks. I don't know what the Sharks are going to do.

It's an interesting team because they've been so good for so long that the one-off year you expect them to come back. I just don't know if they have the pieces there to make it happen. But Burns, he filmed Vikings. That'll definitely help. He'll rip it up. And they got some big time. Kachur can score and stuff.

Hurdles looked awesome, but I just don't know if the depth there. Yeah, I think the two Southern California teams, they basically know they're not going to do much this year. Anaheim really didn't do anything. They're going to probably have Zegers assume when he makes it, which he probably should. LA brought in Athena CU, Ole Mata. Clinton Byfield's expected to make the team as a bunch of other studs might as well.

But these guys, obviously, this is part of their plan. They know they're not going to make the playoffs for these couple years. So what do you got, Biz? If the league does show the other teams in the division sympathy and let them in, I will pick Colorado, St. Louis, and Vegas as the other three. Now, Anthony Seau, he is going to be my Anthony Duclair of this year I think that he's found his spot I think he's going to go up put up some good numbers and he's going to find himself it might not be staying there because we saw Anthony Duclair and what he did in in Ottawa

and he's got this contract now in Florida I this kid at one point has to pop off that skill set has to eventually come out and And considering where LA's at, I think that he's going to play with some good players and he's going to have some success. So that is my hot take prediction for this episode other than the Coyotes' role in that division. So, yeah, the shocker was him not getting it done in Edmonton where I thought there'd be a fit.

I definitely think he can be a top player on a bad team. I don't know if he's a first or second line player on a really good team, if that makes sense. So this year could be him getting minutes and him getting opportunities that on a deeper team he wouldn't, and he could pop off. He has all the skills and the speed is a weapon that he uses perfectly at times.

Then other times it seems like he's just skating himself into trouble or skating himself away from where the play needs to be, be made. So I think it's definitely a guy who's exciting. If you're a Kings fan in terms of, he could help during a year that much, but I don't know. I don't know if you're, I have, I have sympathy for these guys where they're, they're, they kind of,

there's these expectations that maybe never get lit lived up to it to a certain point. Like another example. No no but like you hear you you hear all this like okay the skill set and potentially put all together and another example would be it with the islanders to hosang he ended up going to camp again i saw today he was on waivers like he's not going to get his chance there i'm not saying that people thought he was going to go there and make that team at a camp but like i like to see these guys you keep hearing about with the high skill sets eventually pop off and and and this is no insult to Ho-Sang. At this point, it's kind of turned into a Rob Schrempf story

rather than an Anthony Duclair story. You know what I'm saying? In a sense of I'd like to see these guys maybe get a chance somewhere. I think with Ho-Sang, he's slept through a meeting. I don't know if it's all just him not popping off on the ice. I think there's some other things. Well, we'll get him on at some point because he did reach out to me via DM. But I just, you know, I have a soft spot for these guys.

I want to see these storylines pop off. You know, I got you. All right. Like I said, I got Colorado winning it. I think they only got better at inside and Devin Taves in the back end. I think the Blues probably give him a run for the division. Vegas. They, of course, had a Petrangelo.

Granted, they lost Schmidt for it, but in Minnesota, man, I think Billy G, he really kind of retooled that roster, let a lot of guys go or traded them, brought in some new blood, and they brought in Cam Talbot, some of that new blood, probably solidified the goaltender position a little. So I'm going to

have Minnesota as my fourth team making the playoffs from the West division. And the last one. I got a question for you, R.A. Do you think that Vegas goes until the end of the season with both Fleury and Leonard in that? Do you think that they'll last the season there? Yeah.

Yeah, I think, yeah. I think because there's going to be so many back-to-backs and group games, like group games all grouped together and shit. So, yeah, I definitely think that's going to happen. All right, Biz, we saved the best for last, the North, the Canadian division, Canada division, whatever you want to call it. Let's see. I like Vancouver to win this division.

I know you're probably surprised I didn't say Ottawa. What? I like, yeah, Vancouver, man. I mean, they got Braden Holpe. I know they lost Markstrom, but I would, you can make the argument Hopi's an upgrade. They added Nate Schmidt as well. I know they lost to Foley, Stetcher, Tanev, like I just said, Markstrom.

But what they made, they went viral this week, and their camp is Tyler Martin, Adam Gaudette, little scrap in camp. It looked like Martin might have slew foot him there. Let's get your expert analysis on that one. I would say that's a camp that's got chippiness where a coach might have came in and said like hey let's get the intensity up we got a lot to prove there's been some moves to made and you know this is a this is a tough fucking division and it's a team where you you have like three guys up front and every everywhere else spots are open exactly you know like there's going

to be some serious competition in advance and if you ever see Mott play game to game he just he's a big ball of energy and he's the type of guy he's got one speed and it seems like him and Gaudette were going at it yes I would call it a slew foot although it was a tough angle from training camp and I don't know who posted the video of it you could probably dig that up while I finished my comment here but the funniest part is how after he did it Gaudette dropped his stick and then mott slapped his stick away and then you see the wires cross and then right away practice donny brooks so i think that those things kind of set the tone sometimes and and in a season like this you need some spunk coming out of the gate uh we saw it with st louis guys i've been in plenty of

practice fights during my day that may come as a surprise to you given the fact that i got a puck yeah i got a pretty short wick with both not only puck but players sometimes but this is going to come as no surprise to anyone toronto through and through is going to win this division i am expecting big things i see if they don't get out of the first round, I will saw my dick off live on YouTube. Katie's like, no! She's like, actually, okay, just don't cut your tongue off. Just keep your nose the same length. Toronto, they look really good. They added somebody to the back end who's good at both ends.

Fuck, I'm drawing a blank here, too. Guy came over from Calgary. Brody. Oh, yeah. And Simmons adds that salt and pepper, that sandpaper finish, and Joe Thornton, that experience in the locker room, I think he's going to help with the special teams and what he's got to contribute. I would imagine he's going to be on them,

but if he's not, having him in a video session ain't going to hurt you. And just calming those young guys down. This team is still very young, and John Tavares has a lot to prove as captain, and I think last year left a very bitter taste in his mouth, and it's time for his team now that he left that shitty Islanders organization. He needs to advance farther than them in playoffs one time.

Give me one time here. Give me one. Give me two, Utah. I think that the the old metro whatever that's called now the east that is the toughest division this is the most exciting division for me the idea of the Matthews McDavid matchup that many times the idea of Patterson Peterson going against Kachuk and just the Canadian rivalries throughout that country and how special those Saturday night games are going to be. I'm beyond fired up. I'm also with you biz. Toronto is my pick. I think a lot of people say,

well, you bring in forwards Thornton, you bring in Simmons. I mean, neither one of them are fast. Well, the team's played fast for a little while and hasn't worked. Maybe they need to play heavier. Maybe it's a thing where Toronto doesn't want to just be an off the rush team. They want to be a team that's able, it's going to be able to cycle you down low. So you add some size, you add grit and you add Thornton who can pass the puck from anywhere. Yeah. He's not going to beat you one-on-one coming into the zone, but he's going to grind you away beneath the goal line and make plays.

So you saw the line that he's currently with, with Marner and Matthews. It's exciting. And Nylander needs to play well for Toronto to have a big year with the money he is being paid. No, no, it's not extraordinary,

but it's enough where you need production from him. And he has it at times. He's also just kind of a little, what do you call a guy? He can float out there at certain moments. And I think you need to see him really diving in, playing physical and just getting involved in the play more than he always does. He can kind of disappear in my mind, but the team's great.

Riley is a, is a star defenseman. He's going to play 27 minutes a night. Who knows maybe a little less with how mind, but the team's great. Riley is a star defenseman. He's going to play 27 minutes a night. Who knows? Maybe a little less with how crunched in the season is together. 40 minutes. I love that squad. I really do. And I look at the whole division and it's going to be a battle to make the playoffs.

I think Toronto's in no doubt. I think Edmonton's going to get in because I just think McDavid being healthy right now, knock on wood and Dreitzel and what he did with him gone. And that team kind of still on the upswing. Look, look for Yamamoto. I just think McDavid being healthy right now, knock on wood, and Dreitzel and what he did with him gone, and that team kind of still on the upswing. Look for Yamamoto. Maybe he makes a little bit of a step this year. That's a skilled player who did show moments last year.

He was great. After that, it's like I can't see Calgary not in the playoffs. The Battle of Alberta is going to be off the hook this year. It's going to be exciting how many times they play each other in quick in quick amounts of time. And I love their squad. I love their squad, even though they lost Brody, they're still nice. And Markstrom is an awesome goalie. I said, or you said already that you could almost say maybe hope he's an upgrade. I really disagree with that. I think Markstrom's a different level goalie right now than hope he is. It'll remain to be seen this season after that. So if I'm picking Toronto, Edmonton, and Calgary to both get in,

it's going to be tough because Edmonton and Calgary are going to kick the shit out of each other. That fourth spot's a battle between Van and Winnipeg. I don't think Montreal has what it does. Everyone's talked about Montreal and what they're going to do this year and how it's a totally different look. I know betting against Carey Price is tough, but I don't see them making the playoffs. I could be way, that could be my most fucked up pick this whole,

this whole preview show. But I'm looking at Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, and then Van and Winnipeg battling it out for that last spot. And Ottawa is going to kick the shit out of some teams. I don't know if they're deep enough to make it into the top four, but they're certainly not going to be an easy game against them. There's my Canadian division preview. Thanks for coming.

I hate to do this, and I'm sure that a lot of people from Alberta are going to be upset with me and the fact that I'm going to leave the two best players. No, just the two best players in the world. Well, two of the best in McDavid and Dreisaitl not leading the Edmonton Oilers to playoffs. And I think that they are going to miss playoffs. And who I do have sliding into playoffs is Montreal.

I just did a bit of a culture shift. They brought in some new guys. And Bergevin's been very vocal about the fact that he thinks that they've made enough moves to now put this team into that realm of conversation. And it's playoffs or bust. I like Montreal sliding in there, probably in that four seed. Tatar needs to be good there.

I definitely think Calgary. I like the way they're built. I think Johnny Goudreau has lost his fumpa, and I think he's ready to go. I heard that his gunt is no longer. And he is ready. Ready. He went on a little diet. He's got the Spanx on and he is ready to go.

And I got one more coming at you here. I can't leave Vancouver out of the mix. I think Vancouver is definitely going to be able to squeeze in the playoffs. So those are my four. I'm sorry, all you Edmonton fans. I love watching McDavid and Dreisaitl go at it. I just, I don't know. I just, I think too much tougher competition this year.

Yeah, this is the one division I scratched out and had to rewrite teams five, six times over. Like I said, I think Vancouver takes the division. Toronto will get in. And then the two Alberta teams, Calgary and Edmonton. I know this kind of goes at odds with me throwing a wager on the Ottawa Senators to win the Stanley Cup, which got a little buzz on Twitter Sunday night, Biz. But, yeah, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto with Vancouver winning the division.

And I did just mention Ottawa, so that's probably a good segue into the old gambling corner. Hey, what do you think, boys? Return of the corner? It's been a while, my friend. It's been a while. It has been a while. Quick one-note. What do you think, boys? Return of the corner? It's been a while, my friend. It's been a while. It has been a while.

Quick one note. Farhan Lausi was the one who first tweeted out that video, because you were asking about the God That Mott fight. We like to give credit due when appropriate here with other media outlets. So, yeah, the gambling corner, man. Like, everyone had a good laugh Sunday night, because, you know, you guys tweeted out me saying I was going to bet the Senators to win the cup. Now, again, I did also say if murray returned to form like which didn't make

the quote but this isn't me saying the auto is going to win the stanley cup or predicting it or thinking it's going to happen it's no it's it's throwing the shits and giggles play out there i mean there are 200 to 1 in some spots you throw 20 bucks 100 bucks whatever you feel like you want to throw and if it ever came through i mean we, we saw, well, what, Leicester in the EPL a couple of years ago with Leicester, Leicester. I don't, I don't fall. You know, I mentioned last week, the LA Rams, when they won the super bowl the year before the pads beat them, they were 201 to win that year.

So it's more just trying to take advantage of odds than anything else. I'm not, I don't really think it was talking about the podcast. Yeah, he was. He loved that. We chirped his tape job. I think that, I think that when when he comes on he's going to be a joy to talk to he seems like he's full of life that guy loves the game very uh authentic i'll say his personality his english is probably pretty good they can all speak english and those germans can pound beers can't they oh they dummy and he's living with brady kachuk too so oh my god yeah it's like oh hey uh saturday

we have three days off uh facetime still telling brady you just put them on instagram live they're doing the beer bong on instagram live and shit stutzel smashing pink whitney we'll sponsor their house we'll call it the pink whitney house didn't they do that in new hampshire all right also uh yeah we're gonna have we're gonna to have our boy Matt Murley hopping in and helping you with the gambling this year. These two are going to be making lines. R.A. Murley, some special different bets, some prop bets. Is that true, Mikey?

That is true. Matt's been sending over some write-ups. He's getting into it. He's got so many prop bets for the upcoming season. It's insane. A true degenerate that will fit right in in the Chicklets crew. Yeah, just to know we are coming up with the props, but not the actual odds.

We leave that to the professional odds makers. But it is fun. I mean, I've been obviously doing this stuff for a long time, so it's fun to be able to come up with our own ideas and then actually see them in a real casino. My father's never been more proud of me in his life, I don't think. And Chiclets, like you said, we'll be working with the Barstool Sportsbook all season long.

We're going to have props posted all the time. I'll be posting on Instagram, writing sportsbook all season long we're gonna have props posting all the time i'll be posting on instagram writing blogs about it we're gonna have the murley special i possibly in poly form but basically you could bet whether a game's gonna go to ot the biz nasty special which team you think is gonna have more penalty minutes that night puck line jesus which is just the puck line but puck line jesus is a way cooler name uh the whitney special we're still hammering out the details on that. So I think with the funkiness, I go first in the league who gets traded before the game's over. I think, like I said, the funkiness of this new season, the new divisions, the schedule. I think it's worth the play a long shot or two in the mix.

We got the Keystone rivalry right now, Pittsburgh and Philly. You can you can bet which team is going to have more points out of those two. We also have a Norris division one as well. Chicago and Detroit back in the same division. So if you get a little wistful like myself, nostalgic, you want to throw a little wager on, by all means, go ahead and do so. Of course, you want to abide by local regulations at all time. I'm not a big chalk guy.

I know cup picks. I'm going to get to that. I'm not a big chalk guy. I know it's easy to pick Colorado or Tampa or whatever. I've never been a big bet on total points like how many points for the season but a couple cup picks i do like and these odds are from the barstool sports book your your mileage may vary depending on where you go but boston is 15 to 1 i think that's some pretty damn good value for a team that just won the president's trophy again i know they lost char and krug uh i don't think

they're insurmountable challenges for the team uh also the fly is at 18 to 1 they jumped out at me the blues at 20 to 1 who's the team that just won the cup uh a year and a half ago dallas was just in the cup last year they're 25 to 1 so uh tremendous value i think again if you want to really load up on a team put a you know a couple dimes on whatever you get some real potential good payouts. Ottawa, who I mentioned, they're, I believe, 200 or one of the Barstool sports books. Where were the Coyotes? Actually, let me pull them up for you.

There's no odds possible. I was going to say, I hadn't considered making that bet, Paul, so I didn't have it written down. My fucking life savings on it. Let's go, Yotes! No disrespect, of course. What else? Oh, yeah. Art Ross. This is what's good about the basketball sportsbook, too, is there's all kinds of stuff there to bet on.

It's not just the Stanley Cups and the divisions and all that. You can pick the trophy winners, award winners. That stuff is dynamite as far as I'm concerned. Art Ross, Jack Eichel, who we just had on, 20-1 to win the Art Ross, which is the lead and scorer. Those are some pretty damn good odds for a guy who averages over a point to gain. And he's going to be playing with tail hall on one side and all of a

sudden on the other side. So for 20 to one, definitely going to take a flyer on that for the call that we just mentioned Stutzel, the German he's 10 to one, which I, you know, those are pretty decent odds as well.

I'll probably throw a Bob on that. There's your coyotes, a 60 to one to win the Stanley Cup. Hey, I mean, it's a nice return if you want to play it. Who else would be a candidate for Rookie of the Year? Who's another guy who's coming in who people are really excited to see? Lafreniere.

Oh, yeah. Other than him. Those are the two big names that are coming in. There's a lot of options this year. You saw in the World Juniors how many different young players are probably going to be in NHL rosters. Who's got the best odds on that? Lafreniere? Lafreniere

is the best for the Calder right now. Yeah, I'm pulling him up right here. I got him. Second at 10-1? Let's see. Lafreniere is 3-1 and Shesterkin is also 3-1. Two ranges at 3-1. Capra's off of Minnesota. You take votes from each other.

Yeah. The local media or the national media in terms of who's more important to that team. I like that Stutzel call. Yeah. I mean, 10-1, man. You know he's going to get a ton of ice, too. You know, like he's going to be playing as much as anyone else on the team.

Yeah, and it's Frank with Pink Whitney. Yeah, but there's another guy you liked, Miro Heskinen. He's 20-1 for the Norris, too. Those are some also nice odds as well. And for the Vesna, you got Rask at 12-1 and Cotterhart at 10-1. So some good value out there if you're looking for it. As for individual games, we're looking at open night Wednesday. My first play of the year is going to be on the Philadelphia Flyers.

They're only minus 120 against Pittsburgh. I think they probably should be a higher favorite, so I'm going to jump on the Philadelphia Flyers. They're only minus 120 against Pittsburgh. I think they probably should be a higher favorite. So I'm going to jump on them on the money line and also on the puck line, which is laying a goal and a half going to get, get back plus two 50 on the return there. So Philly minus one 20 on the money plus two 50 on the puck line. And on Thursday, I like the Bruins. They're open playing New Jersey Bruins minus one and a half is plus one 80. So we're going to be taking the Bruins on the puck line. And Thursday, I like the Bruins. They're opening up, playing New Jersey.

Bruins minus one and a half is plus 180. So we're going to be taking the Bruins on the puck line Thursday night as well. Also, too, you know, my daily wages, we obviously don't get puck line games until the day of the game. So follow me on Instagram. Follow me on Chicklets at Rare Rad Bees blog at Rare Rad Chicklets on Instagram

so you can keep tabs on all my plays. So that'll wrap up the corner. We got a couple other notes we're going to get to before we wrap up the show. The AHL named Haley Moore. It's VP of Hockey Ops. Haley's a Massachusetts gal, so congrats to her. She's currently the GM of the Boston Pride of the NWHL, and she'll start her new job after the Isabel Cup.

So good luck to her, and congrats to her. TV notes. Some pretty big news coming out of the tv world mike milberry will not be returning uh to nbc for this season uh let's see here mike milberry will not be back uh doc has retired so we're gonna have a bunch of play-by-play folks kenny albert mike tariko john forsland brendan burke uh gordon miller john walton and randy hann are going to be handling all the play-by-play. Edzo, Anson, Kata, Keith Jones will be doing games in studios.

And in the studio as well, we're going to have Ryan Callahan, Dominic Moore, and here's a name for you, Mike Babcock will be a studio analyst for NBCSN. Any take on that? Yeah, I'm interested to hear what he's got to say on there and how he's going to be in front of the camera. Yeah, first of all, Milbury, so many people wanted Milbury gone. I don't necessarily think that's a great thing because there were so many times where I agree or disagree with them. He got people talking.

And I know that like people will complain if they don't like a guy's point of view and what he says. But if you're talking about the broadcast after the game, sometimes that's a good thing. Milbury was a grumpy bastard. It seemed seemed but there was also times where he made me laugh so uh he did it for a long time shout out to him and babcock coming on is very interesting because you're not at all gonna get the guy that's been behind the bench and you wonder if he's changed you wonder if he's looking to coach again at any point i'm

sure he is and everything that came out the marner story of having him rate teammates and their work ethic and then ratting out everyone what he said what what uh well uh franzen franzen the mule what he ended up saying he did to him so there's some real scumbag shit that babcox pulled throughout his career and now he's got a nice television job he definitely has uh the vibe and the face to be on TV, right? He can talk. He's got the head of hair. He's somebody that I think in terms of what he's accomplished, NBC looks at like, wow, we got at one point one of the top coaches in the league. As far as what he's going to be bringing to the broadcast, you mentioned he's going to have people talking afterward, 100%.

I think that like him and Milbury. Do you think he's going to be outspoken and calling guys out the way Milbury did? I think he's just going to have great insight where maybe he's bringing things and bringing a different perspective that hasn't been brought to the panel before because, like, I mean... Okay, okay.

Like, I remember this. When Torch joined the panel for a little bit, I definitely paid more attention to it because he was fairly current and he'd been inside a locker room and he's accomplished. And then, like, I mean, look at... I mean, Babs has been, you know,

coach of Team Canada with, has been you know coach a team canada with like you know some of the best he's done it all he's done it all now now my question is will he if he wants to coach again there's definitely going to be he won't be calling girls distractions on there but he's going to be fucking breaking down game tape and i'm sure bringing some unreal point of views i know i'm just yeah i i agree he he knows a lot the guy is is a is a hell of a coach i don't know how he treats people if that's the correct way or not i've never met the guy chucking coffee in people's face like who is what was the story wall street told on here

cut the producer coffee i just don't think babcock's gonna be really calling guys out because that was like the thing people talked about when he got fired how ruthless he's like yeah what's the coach coach that guy's got a tiny cock in the showers get rid of them um you mentioned brendan burke uh and i'm i'm actually wearing the jersey right now i when i was playing in wheeling he was doing play-by-play he's with the islanders now he was doing it for the Wheeling Nailers. So, shout-out to Billy Higgins, who's still the – What are you – Equipment manager.

No, equipment manager. Excuse me. And him and a few people from the office and the organization sent this Wheeling Nailers jersey. So, thank you very much. It has number 28 in the back. We did this last episode, didn't we? Oh, did I really?

Yeah. Well, the whole point and reason I want to bring up is to thank Billy Higgins again for sending this jersey over and to congratulate Berkey on getting to where he has. He's unbelievable. One of the best guys to listen to, although he is affiliated with the Islanders. That's even me playing tummy sticks to all you Islanders fans out there. So I used to be with him in the wheel, and now he's in the show at the NBC.

All right. Any other notes, you guys, before we close? We got a long one for you yeah this is a long show but we talk about the divisions and we have two great interviews i hope you guys enjoyed them and other than that i mean nfl wildcard weekend was exciting go bills go the bills move on and the bills i think they're gonna smack baltimore in the mouth on saturday night it looks like snow showers are a possibility in buffalo Saturday. That's going to be a blast. So I'm on the Bills bandwagon.

And other than that, man, hockey's back. I think that people are excited. And I know that there's going to be games postponed. And we chatted about that earlier. But we're back, baby. And there's going to be some sick storylines as these games get going. And the hatred begins. If you're still listening, live stream on Wednesday and Friday.

If you're still listening. Congrats to the Wednesday and Friday. If you're still listening. Congrats to the Browns, too. Browns and their fans. 26 years without a playoff win. Quick correction. Ryan Callahan went to the Stanley Cup final with Tampa in 15, not with the Rangers. I always confuse 12 and 14, Rangers, Devils.

Who went to the Cups those years? And also, Hank Lundquist said the surgery went really well and every day is a step in the right direction we just want to say get well hank uh great guy great guest of the program of course well i was going to say to the live streams that we're doing on wednesday and friday they're brought to you by roman and they're going to be on our youtube channel we're twitter as well youtube and twitter oh no more twitch no more youtube it is that's our. We can talk about gambling. We can let it loose.

I love it. It'll be fun. All right, well, thanks for listening. Hopefully you guys like this episode to kick off the NHL season. Yeah. You're a nervous dog. Have a great week, everyone. As always, we'd like to thank our awesome sponsors here in Spittin' Chicklets.

Big thanks to our longtime friends over at New Amsterdam Vodka and Pink Whitney. Big thanks to our friends at Whoop for letting us know what we need to do and what not to do. Big thanks to our friends at Manscaped for taking care of the fellas below the waist. Huge thanks to our new friends over at CBDMD. Check them out for all your CBD needs. And

a big thanks to our longtime friends over at ZipRecruiter. Check them out if you're hiring. Have a great week, everybody. The heart is a balloon Shoots up through the stony ground But there's no room No space to rent in this town You're out of luck And the reason that you had to care

the traffic is stuck and you're not moving anywhere you thought you found a friend to take you out of this place someone you can lend a hand

in return for grace it's a beautiful day Someone you can lend a hand In the chance for a place So beautiful day Sky falls, you feel that So beautiful day