Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 322: Featuring Jody Shelley + Eric Engels

Episode Date: March 2, 2021

On Episode 322 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Jody Shelley and Eric Engels. Eric joined the show (13:16) to talk all things Montreal Canadiens, including the recent firing of Claude Julien and what is next for Montreal. The guys also talk about the infamous “toe cheese” moment that happened on a recent live stream involving RA and Whit. The boys then talk some NHL news, including the struggling Buffalo Sabres, Patrick Kane putting up goal no.400, Calgary struggles and tons more. We are then joined by Jody Shelley (1:05:18), who joined to discuss his NHL career, fighting Bob Probert four straight periods, fighting Biz and tons more. The guys wrap up talking about the Minnesota Wild and the Tiger Woods news from last week.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- get on the road again The life I love is making music with my friends And I can't wait to get on the road again On the road again Going places that I've never been Seeing things that I may never see again I can't wait to get on the road again. On the road again.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 322 of Spitting Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney, from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. Paul Biznasty, Biznette, we're going to go to you first because you're staring at me right now. The fucking RA is high-stepping, the high uh the live stream last night which we should probably get right into wit shaking his head right now the toe where's the toe jam shirt is it already on your ebay account with a signature on it it's a pile of ashes at the bottom of the the rented house's uh fireplace and i swear to god i haven't been more disgusted ever watching a video in my life.

You talk about two guys, girls, one cup. You talk about the dirtiest, most disgusting stuff in the history of the Internet. And as I'm eating dinner, I see a video of R.A. Pick his toe cheese from his big toe. He hasn't cut the thing in three months and he rubs it on my shirt now all right i walked in the room i said are you fucking kidding me with that last night because i didn't see you and the video was broke and i said and you're like whoa we gotta get into this in the show it's got me i got a i got i got plenty of things to say. There's a blatant video of you rubbing your toes, whether it was dead skin, cheese, or old acid that you left under your toenail from some monster trip you had. You then rubbed it all over me while I was in the middle of the discussion.

So what do you have to say? I can't wait for this. I think we can all agree I was pretty fidgety yesterday for no reason. I don't know. Sometimes I'm just fidgety. Not no reason. I think you're a fidgety guy. Yesterday.

You're fidgety every day. I am. You're fidgety as shit. I'm a fidgety yesterday for no reason. I don't know. Sometimes not no reason. I think you're a fidgety guy. Okay. You're fidgety. You're fidgety. I'm a fidgety fuck sometimes. Definitely yesterday. Also, if you watch the video, I scratched myself a thousand times. I am Ashie Larry. My skin is super dry. I was scratching all day.

I just scratched it. I don't even remember doing it. It was like subconscious. I wasn't like, oh, I'm going to touch my foot and rub it on wet. And then I watched the video and that's exactly what I fucking did but it was just a scratch there was no toe cheese i just i i can't even say consciously purposely did it okay i know this is thinking like way outside the box if i'm like itchy every day and ashy larry as you called yourself what about like throwing some lotion on your legs post-shower?

I'll start rubbing R.A. with lotion. I'll be a team player here. You rubbed your mother-in-law's feet with CBD cream, and now it takes three seconds to just lotion up your legs. You know what? Maybe because Pasha was a little bit delayed in rolling out the sandbagger, which we'll get to. As punishment, he needs to be R.A.'s lotion guy from now on.

Oh, Pasha, you won that bet yesterday, but you just lost a big one. Suck on that. Those calves are ready to get rubbed. Yeah. Where do you get the itchiest, though, right? Where do you? Right in the sack area so Pasha can get his fucking sensitive hands ready. My wife's on me all the time, says I should use lotion.

I'm just the guy. I've never used moisturizer lotion. I just never have, but I'm probably going to start. It's like, man, I keep walking out of the house, and I'm tripping over my shoelaces. It's like, tie your shoes. It's just so easily fixable for if you scratch it and then putting it on me. But I'll tell you what, though. Toe jam aside, it's great to see you guys live in the flesh.

We are down, and we're in Daytona Beach. It really is. That's not going to overshadow. We're finally all together because already didn't make scottsdale right so yeah the last time all of us were together was boston sandbagger city yeah fuck uh we're down here doing one of those we can chat about the the success of us going to five and one in our careers as partners four in a row i was a little embarrassed because uh i didn't bring my a game with you that was that was the most complete game you've ever brought to the sandbagger as partners? Four in a row. I was a little embarrassed because I didn't bring my A game. That was the most complete game you've ever brought

to the sandbagger and we needed it and we're on a four game winning streak. We are on a four game winning streak and you were taking heat which was well deserved. Ground ball after ground ball after ground ball with the driver. So I think we're going to be able to get some things figured out in your game. You've got new TaylorMade clubs.

TaylorMade, thank you so much. What are they? The P9070s or 790s? Yeah, we'll figure it out. We'll let you know. Either way, they're pure. And listen, Biz, I am like reading the chat. It's hard to read because when we do the premiere, I go on and I'm like trying to basically give my input to different things that are happening because we've watched it prior to being released.

And people are just still all over my putting, all over the putting. Yeah, putting is not my strength. I'm three under bogey free. And I see some people chirping me through 17. 18 looked like the easiest par five in the world. We just drove in. We were feeling pretty good. Fizz, you said to me on the 16th hole, I totally forgot.

You said, are you hitting it good today? I don't have a bogey. Is that good? But that just shows that you are in your own world, which I've learned to kind of accept as his partner. But I think we are willing to grow and move forward. And Sandbagger, shout out Pasha, who took a lot of heat, right? Yeah, I took a bit of heat. But the thing turned out great. Chaser as well. Yes, Chase.

Chase helps out with the graphics. He helps out with shooting it, of course. And these things aren't easy, so we're trying to figure out the production and continue to make them better and better. We obviously added drone shots. Shout out to Kierin Golf Club. Great track.

What's the word that I'm looking for when the fairways are green? The dormant grass. Serendipity. That was a good discussion about that movie when we did remember that word finally. The dormant grass, if you haven't seen, it's like they keep the fairways and the greens the color green. But in the winter when this grass dies, they just let it go. And it's actually a pretty cool look. It's also nice to play on those courses because, granted, you have desert.

You could hit into trouble. We saw Biz and Nasher do that. But there's no rough. So if you miss the fairway by a little bit, that thing's running and rolling. It's fast golf. So we're releasing another one. We did one more in Scottsdale. I don't think we're going to release the names. We cantsdale. I don't think we're going to release the names.

We can release the names. Okay, so we're going to release the names. We got Ray the Wizard Whitney, the good Whitney hockey player, the man who probably gets asked as often now more than anything in his life, are you the pink Whitney guy? Because he's the hockey player. He really is. I'm probably admittingly knowing that he is way above me in the Whitney game, right?

He's over 1,000 games, over 1,000 points. Yeah, there you go. Is that good? I explained it. Well, he's also a stick. I've talked for years about how good of a player he is. Joined by the one and only Mike Babcock Stan, Mike Commodore. I know right now, you sandbaggers, you fans of the sandbagger are thinking, what a combo.

And I know that we have many things that are going to be dropped within this video because the day is in my mind. I see it so clearly still that I think it's going to be one of our best, if not the best. I'm excited for it too. Yeah, looking forward to it. All right, you're coming to the next one. You got to come and best, if not the best. I'm excited for it too. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. All right, you're coming to the next one. You've got to come and do some announcing from the car. Get banged up and rub your boogers on my butt. Myself and Tysha Nash were having a great time.

He was an absolute comedy show. Yeah, he's hilarious. I've had the pleasure of working with this guy since I started in my media career with the Coyotes guys. He has really made me feel comfortable and get better in that role. He does the color on the television side of things for the Coyotes. So to Tyson Nash, who I didn't get a chance to play with in Arizona, but he was doing the media gig. And of course, Shane Doan. Thank you to both. I think that was probably the most

successful one as far as numbers early on. It was trending at one point. And once again, to all you Chicklets fans who showed up for the live stream, you guys are – the live viewing, excuse me. You guys have – you loyal. Is that what the kids say? You loyal. Oh, no. That was DJ Khaled.

DJ Khaled. How did you gain all the weight? That's what the kids say. Another one. How did you gain all the weight? Was that Larry King? Yeah, yeah, one. How'd you gain all the weight? Was that Larry King? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, how'd you get so fat? Should we, what was the one thing we just discussed about, oh, never mind. Keep going, sorry. All right, well, first we do want to mention, now that hockey is back, you're going to have to find your shot. And what better way to do that than with Pink Whitney? From January 1st through March 26th, we are giving Chicklets fans a chance to win a custom Pink Whitney shot machine. All you have to do is post a picture of you and your Pink Whitney and use the hashtags, hashtag Pink Whitney, hashtag Take Your Shot, hashtag Sweepstakes.

We'll be picking winners from the U.S. and Canada every other week, so make sure to get creative with your submissions. You're giving those bad boys away soon. Now we're going to shift over to the old North Division, the Canadian Division. That's where the big news was last week. The Canadians fired Coach Claude Julien. It was his fifth season there.

They lost that shootout to the Sens. It was kind of weird, too. Basically, the Canadians won that game. They overruled that Brendan Gallagher goal. We've got to get into that. Horrible. Let's talk. I think, listen, that was a fucking horrible call for a few reasons.

One, he was battling for positioning, and he got hit in by the Ottawa defender. Okay, let's say that you're like, no, no, no, no. He's got to go the long route because that's just as much the defender's ice. Okay, fine. I'll meet you there. So then he makes contact with Murray, okay? So he hits his right leg. Now, most of you would say, well, he spun him around.

Well, technically he didn't. He hit him, and then you could see Murray, I believe he ends up using his right leg again, the one that got hit, to make the— Like what they do in pregame skate when they're warming up. Yeah, so he ends up making the full turn because he might have thought, ah, it's just easier to go with the flow and the play is going out towards the blue line, so I'll have time to get set. So by the time he ends up standing up, what was odd to me was he doesn't position his stick

to where his five hole is, which was normally as a goalie you would get set, right? To me, it felt like he was being lackadaisical with it. Some people say well it might have taken him time to track where the puck was because he did the 360 well may I remind you he's the one who went 360 so he doesn't right away put the stick to his five hole well as he tracks the puck the shot starts coming he tries to go five hole to get set it gets it gets tangled up with gallagher's skate which is in this crease mind you after gallagher had originally got hit and he was down he got back up but he got piled on to by another ottawa senator's guy he's like trying to get out he was

trying to get out so not only the time not only the amount of time that murray would have had to get reset but also in my opinion he was colliding with Murray because he was essentially pushed in by the Ottawa defender bullshit goal which is crazy because then they end up losing that game and if they don't well maybe Julian doesn't get fired I don't know well okay all right well so I think that that's a valid argument and what else is the GM going to say but they said the decision had been But they said the decision had been made. They said the decision had been made prior that they were going to fire him after that game. Now, I think this is a good time to bring in and shoot this over to Eric Engels. Yeah, great.

So Engels is a guy I met when I was working the trade deadline show one year for Sportsnet. He covers Montreal for Sportsnet, and he's dialed in. So we figured we'd have him on for the first time and chat what's been going on there what's the issue with the team and how's everyone reacting to the big news so we're going to shoot over to him now before we do that though wit we just want to mention most guys have tried lasting longer in bed different ways thinking about baseball doesn't always work baseball season training spring training started up but the folks are business afro fledge 69 I love it actually the at Roman, an online men's health company, are changing the game with Roman Swipes,

the secret to longer-lasting sex. Roman Swipes are a clinically proven way to last longer in bed. They're effective, easy to use, and fast-acting. And the best part, they don't require a prescription. Roman can ship Swipes to indiscreet, unmarked packaging, and each Swipes packet is small enough to hide in your wallet for whenever you need it. They're super easy to use. You just take the Swipes out of the packet,

swipe it on, and you let it dry, and then what, Biz? You're good to good to good to go. That's it, baby. So go to GetRoman.com slash chicklets, and you get your first month of Swipes for just $5 when you choose a monthly plan. That's GetRoman.com slash chicklets,

and now we're going to send it over to Eric Engels. Quickly, though, Biz, when we were four up through nine and you said this match is going to need a Roman swipe, it was one of the funniest things you ever said. And then I tried to do an ad read after the five minutes. I couldn't even talk. So thank you to Roman for sponsoring the Sandbagger. That was one of the reasons why you guys got to see it.

And enjoy Eric Engels. Well, the big news of last week was Montreal firing coach Claude Julien. So we're going to bring on Eric Engels. He's the Canadian's beat reporter for Rogers Sportsnet to discuss it. Tremendous reporter, Eric. Your article was fantastic about Shea Weber. Thanks for joining us, pal. It's a pleasure to be with you guys.

Was this just a classic case, Eric, of a team tuning out a guy after five seasons like we see all the time in the NHL? Yeah, well, you know, that's what it is in simple terms. I think, you know, there was a lot of pressure on the Canadians before they came into this season, right? They made some great additions in the offseason, and you see the way those have worked out so far. Jake Allen's towards the top of the standings of any goaltender

that's played, you know, at least five games. Josh Anderson has nine goals and is playing like a freight train. Tyler Toffoli's fourth in NHL scoring with 12 goals. You look at Joel Edmondson, he's leading the league at plus 18. You know, there was a lot of things that improved about this group. And they built on what they had shown in the bubble in terms of their cohesion and Nick Suzuki and Yosperi Kakuniemi taking steps forward. So the pressure was on. And when you start going into a losing streak and the trends continue to be

negative and the power play and the penalty killer problem and the face-offs are an issue, but more than anything, when you hear someone like Shea Weber start to say that a heaviness has overtaken the room and you hear Nick Suzuki saying, we're too much in our own heads, it becomes clear that you need a new voice and that was what Mark Berge made focused on when he said he hired Dominic Ducharme he said we needed a new voice yes he's been on the bench for the last couple years but he hasn't had the ability to assert himself in the way that he will now and we're already seeing some positive changes take

shape yeah I mean they uh they probably could have won that game again the first game it was against winnipeg but the goaltending um you talk about jake allen but carrie price is the story and with with one of the biggest cap hits in the league for goal and what's going on there and almost in a sense a couple years where it's a trend of him not playing like he used to is there like panic there where we have to continue to start price or we're just riding jake allen because he's the guy that's getting us wins you know one of the first big decisions that he had to make to charm was whether he was going to go to price after struggling in a lost ottawa and season-long struggles that kind of led him to that

point and he did you know the fact that he gave him that kind of confidence boost that artificial confidence boost because you can only gain confidence from within and you guys know that as guys who have played before but for your coach to say you know what i know you've been struggling but i'm going to give you a chance to redeem yourself every player wants that the first chance that he had was the first game against winnipeg uh on thursday sorry it's hard to like remember everything that happened last week but you know price was okay for the first half and then those same struggles were there where he's making great saves and then he lets in some bad goals and the goal that he let in to nate thompson was it was a goal that was symptomatic of what's wrong with carrie price when he doesn't play well and i've talked to price i've known price for 14 years i've covered him his entire career one of the things that he likes to say is that you can't be guessing out

there that every fourth liner in the nhl now shoots the way a first liner does and it was one of the this came up because i once asked him like you know you and dominic hasik would never be compared to each other in terms of the style you guys have but are you able to play the way he did and in the sense that like he could show you blocker and take it away or he could show you five hole and take it away and he said you just you can't do that anymore the way the game played and if you watch the goal that nate thompson scored on him to put the jets up four three in thursday's game the puck goes behind the net he drops to his knees right away thompson gets passed just outside the slot on the side and he's got the bottom of the net covered drops to his knees right away thompson gets a pass just outside the slot on the side and he's got the bottom of the net covered and yet he lifts up his stick comes off the ice

there's a hole in between he's guessing and that is not carrie price when he's at his best when he's confident in what he's doing he knows exactly where the puck is going because he's so positionally sound and so well structured in terms of the way he plays the position, that nothing requires a guess. So now that he had that first stumble, they turn to Jake Allen. He plays very well in a 2-1 loss to Winnipeg, where they played a much better game. I don't know, Dominic Ducharme is speaking as we're taping this right now,

I don't know if he's going to reveal his plan for Tuesday's game. Wouldn't surprise me if Jake Allen is in for that one, and probably the next time we see Carey Price will be Thursday when they play the Jets again. Going back to last year, because of the shutdown and everything that happened, there were some rumors that they were potentially going to do this in the offseason. Now, they weren't planning on heading to playoffs. And of course, they ended up getting in and then beating Pittsburgh. Do you think that that helped Julian essentially keep the job to start this season? It had to.

You know, I think if the season had just ended with them in 24th place and they didn't get that chance from the NHL and the Players Association to play in the postseason, then they would have seriously had to contemplate making a coaching change right then because they had two eight-game losing streaks and another five-gamer where the trends just continued to go negative and then didn't reverse the other way so the reason why julian was kept in place and i think rightly so people forget because they saw what kirk muller did against philadelphia it was julian who got them past pittsburgh it was julian who elevated nick suzuki to the first line it was julian who gave yes barry kakuniemi max domi's role essentially

it was julie who jumbled all these cards relied on the youth he did a lot of things that most people would have looked at him been like this isn't really close julian this isn't you know his he he was bold he made some bold decisions and he deserved the opportunity to continue forward and he's a stanley cup winning coach he's an excellent coach. But all coaches have blind spots and they have issues. And his just came to roost when the time came that he lost his job. I was just going to follow it up by saying, do you think it hurts the organization at the fact that it basically is, I don't want to say pressured into hiring French coaches

where it eliminates a lot of good candidates, but do you feel that that is the case and it does hurt them in the long run because kirk muller was one name that came up but once again the power play was struggling and he kind of had the reins on that so what's your kind of your feeling on that whole thing my feeling is it's an exceptionally complicated issue that's very difficult for people to understand that don't live in quebec and montreal is a 50 50 city in terms of french and english but every other region in Quebec is 80% French versus English. Now, I'm not justifying these decisions. I think the Canadians are in a place where their owner is French and English.

Their general manager is French-Canadian. They've got assistant general manager, Mario Lapointe, is French-Canadian. They've got French-Canadian players. You know, I think there is a pressure on them to have a coach that speaks at least in the same language as the people that they can understand what he's saying when he speaks. But I think we're also in 2021 where you're in a place where,

you know what, if it's that big of an issue, have an interpreter right up there next to him. It's not like everyone in the media speaks French and English, so we can, we can decipher it and translate it. But I just think there is this, if it's the right coach, you know, it can't just be anyone.

When they fired Jacques Marte and Randy Cunningworth took over, it became an issue. It became this political issue that kind of persisted. The other side of it is that like if it was if it was mike babcock or gerard gallant for example you know maybe they'd be able to come out and say hey we've got one of the best coaches in hockey he was available to us we hired him and they may have even been willing to go that route when they fired michelle terrien but claude julian was available as of a week before and he is he was one of the best coaches in hockey quebec also has

a ton of great coaches within this system and if the canadians organization whether it's on their own bench or lower down now that they have an echl franchise uh and also an ahl franchise if they're not using those those areas to develop french- coaches, if this is an important thing for their organization, then they're then they might as well get away from this to begin with. So yeah, you know, anyone who's saying that it's a handicap for them, it's impossible to argue against you want to hire the best coach available. But they have found some people that are great coaches. And I think you guys know a lot about the guys that have been behind the bench. And I'll say this about Dominic Ducharme.

It's a short sample and there's very limited information that we have on how he'll be as an NHL coach. But my insight is telling me that he's going to be a really good one, whether it's with this team right now or moving forward. And you talk about the special teams and along with the goaltending being an issue because five on five, they're a good club. I mean, Edmondson couldn't be plus 18 if they weren't pushing the pace and controlling the puck five on five. Have you seen any changes immediately to how the power play may be different or the PK? It's like they have the guys where it's like Gallagher in front,

Petrie and Weber shot. It's like their power play should be so much better. You know, you talk about their power play should be so much better you know you you talk about their power play um and we can get into that for me the the biggest one is the penalty kill how this team is 22nd on the penalty kill with Carey Price and Jake Allen and that's with Shea Weber Ben Sherratt Joel Edmondson and Jeff Petrie and Alex Romanoff on defense with a forward group that includes Josh Anderson and Tyler Toffoli and Nick Suzuki and Philip Deneau and Paul Byron and Arturi Lakin. That, to me, they should be top five in the NHL.

But on the power play, they definitely shouldn't be 20th. They shouldn't be top five. They don't have Connor McDavid. They don't have Leon Dreisaitl. They don't have Elias Pedersen or Austin Matthews or Mitch Marner. But they can be better than 20th. And one of the things Ducharme talked about was mentality. Get the puck back, be intense,

treat it like a situation where you are five on five and be, show that desperation. Composure is another big one. I think when power plays are operational and wit, you can definitely speak to this. There is a mentality where it's like, we're not getting off the ice. We're the guys who are going to score this goal. Like there's no – like it's a competitive thing between both units and there's a feeling like I want the pocket.

I'm going to make the difference. And that mentality needs to take shape. Alex Burrows is going to be in charge of that right now and he's got the experience to help in those regards. Let's see what he brings to it. I saw some improvements on Saturday, but one thing that I saw that I really didn't like, if they're going to use Joel Armia on the power play

and you get two looks from Toffoli and Suzuki on a wing play where they get a clean wrist shot or you get a one-timer for Weber, which is rarely available, and he blasted on net, you need to be in front of the net. And Corey Perry was there for one chance on Saturday. Yusperi Kokuniemi took a shot, and it just happened to hit Hellebuck's glove but it was a perfect screen and probably a goal or a rebound opportunity that needs to change. Donal was one of the names you mentioned we talked to McKinnon before the season started and he said he's one of the best

centers that he played against in the league he's unbelievable shutdown guy he seems to have been struggling so far this year. What's going on with his game and why the struggles? Well, there's a lot of layers to it. You know, he started off the year where he said, I'm not ready to just accept a different role. And you think about what he did for the last two years for a Canadiens team that wasn't very good

and honing his reputation as a guy that Nate McKinnon would say that to you guys about on your podcast. Like this is a guy that is very good at two ends of the ice. And, you know, people are focused on the zero goals so far. Like personally, don't really give a shit about the zero goals. Yes, obviously you'd like for him to have one or two. I think his max is 13. This is a guy that can distribute the puck well.

But what the thing i do care about is the face-offs and this is a key face-off player and he cannot be set out for the the off the defensive zone face-offs and losing them clean uh it's you're gonna get beat by some guys but you can't afford to lose them clean in the defensive zone that's one aspect for philip to know that he needs to focus on but in terms of why it's kind of gone a little downhill, there was the pressure of his role being reduced a little bit and the importance of Suzuki and Kakuniemi. But there was also, he's in a contract year.

It got leaked out during the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade scenario possibilities with Montreal that Deneau had turned down a six-year deal worth five million dollars a year um there's something that that kind of stinks about that whole situation for me I don't like the fact that it leaked out to somebody if I'm if I'm Philip Deneau uh at that specific time while he's trying to find his game yeah it's not helpful for them um and the other thing about it is like and I'll i'll look into it but he's represented by newport and don mien and i know don mien well enough not particularly he's not my best friend

but i know that if a five year or a six year deal worth five million dollars comes across the table i'm pretty sure his next move is not hanging up the phone and saying no deal. It's normally he'd have a deal done within about six minutes. But I don't know if it was a maker like a take it or leave it offer without trade protection and all the different elements that come in. One thing I do know is that Phil Deneau had built himself that profile. And we're talking about Jean-Gabriel Pagiot's deal right now. I can see essentially the same deal that is rumored that he's turned down he is actually coming into the season built that case to have a contract that was better than that pandemic adjusted we talk about something

different but i'm just saying like there's something more to that that needs to be fleshed out and i'll do my best to do that but at the same time like that's a tough situation for any player but right now he needs to put that all aside he's being given a chance to play with Gallagher and Tatar who he had great success with and he needs to rise to the occasion and play better because he's an important player for this team I look at at the young talent well I look at Montreal and I think they made the the calculated move to they don't have like a true goal scoring stud, but they have depth where all their lines can score. But you look back to the draft and you look younger players,

and Cocton Yemi, I mean, third overall, 2018, and after him it's like Brady Kachok, Quinn Hughes, I mean, even Farabee in Philly was available. And you haven't necessarily seen what I think any Canadians fans hope when they have a top three selection is that still there is that a possibility where you're looking at a point per game player or is it even too early for you to even kind of judge where the rest of his career may go it's a great question and a relevant question because obviously you need that pick

to hit yeah quick the the thing about Yusperi kakademi is a couple things here first he started off his career as the youngest player in the nhl at 18 years old and the the canadians just didn't have anyone at center and desperately needed him there and he didn't just earn a buy here like he he earned his way onto the team he he really played great in that training camp and found his way at 34 points as the youngest player in the NHL in a sheltered role playing only 13 and a half minutes a game it tells you the potentials there last year went through some classic struggles for a player who was elevated pretty quickly into the NHL and as of right now at 20 years old there's maybe 10 players in the NHL that are older that are younger than him so that's

one factor the other factor is you can look back in hindsight and look at that draft and say what are they doing picking cockney me third overall when he was probably going to go sixth or seventh or maybe even as far as tenth like the canadians had two and a half decades worth of just a barren center ice position if they don't get the best center iceman available in the draft that's what we're talking about today because mark bergevin has spent eight years or nine now talking about the fact that you can't trade for them they never become available you can't sign them in free agency because they never teams never let them go dubois i understand he became available but that was a really unique circumstance who knows where it goes

with jack eichel and Buffalo? We'll see. But now all of a sudden they've got Suzuki and Kotkaniemi. And I love Brady Kachuk, and everyone knew he was going to be a good player. But I'll tell you, going back to that draft, the Canadians had Arizona behind them at five. They knew that Arizona wanted a center. They ended up taking Barrett Hayden. I think they would have taken this Barry Kotkaniemi if he was available at five.

They couldn't really trade down out of the position and they made the choice we're going to get a centerman with the third overall pick because we need one and you bring up Bergevin and it's eight years and I mean I don't know if it's necessarily fair to ask you or you want to say but I'd have to think personally if they don't get in the playoffs this year he's probably gone and I would have to agree and I think you look at the moves that have been made here and it's clear that that's on his mind if they don't get in the playoffs this year, he's probably gone. And I would have to agree. And I think you look at the moves that have been made here, and it's clear that that's on his mind. It might not even be that they'd be looking to fire him. It might be that he might say, you know what, I'm going to step aside.

I know that he loves the job and doesn't want to do that. But I also know that the pressure is on for them to perform right now. And I'll say this. We all had, I'm sure you three had the same opinion that i do before this season happened was that he had he knocked it out of the park yeah he did a good job and for you to see brought in we all know that and i mentioned it off the top here what those guys have done so far but it's a team you got to bring everything together you have to make decisions at the right time and if it doesn't work out if the canadians miss the playoffs this year it's time it's probably time for a new

direction and i would think that's a big part of the reason why dominic ducharme has an interim tag as head coach you know if if potentially you could have a new gm because it didn't work and you couldn't turn it around you'd want that guy to sign his own coach or decide on his own if you want to extend ducharme so there's a lot going on here, but I don't think Bergevin is under any illusions about what's at stake this season. Do you think, was it probably going to be him who would have gotten the job if it had happened after the regular season last year? Because it seemed like Bergevin's very confident in this guy

and it seemed to be if he was going to be the guy. That's a really hard question to answer but i'll say this um bergevin could say quarantine or not ducharme is my guy and he should say that because he's made him the coach his future is directly tied to this coach he believes in the coach and i and i think he's absolutely genuine when he says he's 100 my guy and i believe in him but we also know there was major constraints in being able to bring in a coach from outside. If you bring him in two weeks before you fire Julien, good luck keeping that under wraps. That's going to get out somewhere, whether internally or externally. If you bring him in in an urgent situation where you've lost a number of games in a row and you need to turn the tide and bring a coach in he's got a quarantine for two weeks uh having an exhaustive search outside of the

organization in the middle of what's going on in the season is virtually impossible but i i do believe that mark bergevin believes that dominic ducharme is a good coach and i would say this in the very short time that ducharme has been here in position I think Bergevin is going to be really reassured about a number of elements from what he's trying to tweak in terms of the strategy but also in terms of how calm and collected he is with a media that is not a vicious media or anything like that but we're well in tune with what's going on and we're asking hard questions and questions that are not easy to just navigate in your first time in that position in the pressure of Montreal. There's a tornado of pressure going on around him.

And he is handling it extremely well. And if I was Marc Bergemet, I would be really reassured by that. Well, we're super interested to see how this plays out. And I think it's a long time coming. You join in the pod. Great job on the Weber article, as you mentioned, and all your coverage of the Canadiens. So I right away backtracked from me saying they weren't going to make the playoffs. Now I'm like, wait a minute, I don't know what's going on,

but it's going to be a fun story to kind of watch over the next few months. So thanks for joining us. At the risk of putting myself on the line here, I'm confident that they will. I think they will turn this around. And then if they don't, we can make fun of me for however long you guys want if they don't. That's a pastime of ours, making fun of anyone that comes on the show. So have a good one, man.

We appreciate it. Thanks, guys. All right. See you. Thanks, Eric. Thank you very much, Eric Engels. We'll be chatting with him again in the future, no doubt. I mean, personally, it was a little surprising,

I think mainly because you saw the start that they had, and I didn't quite realize how bad it had gotten for a little while there, trying to follow the whole league. So still, you see him fired, and you're a little surprised, but then you hear Angles explain it, and you really do hear him say that Bergevin's pretty much relying on this year, and that could be it. So if he's not in the playoffs, he's kind of ditching it. He knows it's his last effort.

He's going to find a coach that he thinks can get this thing switched around because, like Angles also mentioned, Shea Weber saying it's just so negative around here, that's kind of shocking to see. That's when you probably know, all right, time to make a change. But shout-out to Jeff Petrie. We didn't even bring him up. I think he's fourth in the league, de-scoring and I've brought his name

up a ton on this but he's he's had a great season for them so the guy who covers the most things they can turn around will be in the playoffs what do you got biz I just I get like I mean hearing that of course takes me off the fact that like if they win that game maybe he sticks around then you said that you know they'd already had the decision made. But it's obvious that there's just a few things that need to be turned on. I believe Carey Price can turn that switch on. I think that ultimately special teams will figure themselves out. You mentioned the five-on-five numbers. They're there.

They've got a solid team. If they just turn a few of those nozzles, they're going to be okay. Going back to the Gallagher thing, I thought one of the interesting comments after the game was he thinks that most of video review has basically ruined the game and it's slowed it down. And in situations like that, maybe. I agree completely. There's too much overthinking going on in a sense.

Well, that's a little hypocritical for me to say, Mr. Fucking, you're not even known to start net half the time. But as far as the firing, what do you guys think? Like, I mean, do you think well-deserved? I mean, we were shocked, I think, when we had the text thread the next day, just because it seemed to come out of nowhere in a game that basically the Canadians won and got screwed on that call. I'm curious what's going to be next for Claude. I mean, he's going to be 61. He kind of has a defensive style where the league is kind of going a little bit more up-tempo. I'm sure he'll have a job if he wants one.

But I'm curious to see, you know, if a team is going to bring him in, if they're going to want a guy with, like, a defensive approach, if that's going to work. Because Chitwood, when he got hired, we had started the show, and, you know, we were questioning if he was the right guy for the job. And not that he was a failure by any means. I mean, you know, like, 60 years old, plays that style. It just didn't mesh well for whatever reason. So I'm curious to see what Claude does next.

We're going to get Dale Weiss on because he was firing off on Twitter. He was saying, well, I bet that they get a lot less too many men penalties. So apparently he forgets to call the lines out. I've played for coaches like that before too. Who's up? I think Barry Trotz is like that too where they get so focused on watching the play and how the game is all transpiring

to where part of it is trying to remember who to match up and call a line. That's one of the things that I was reading on Twitter the last couple days. It was an interesting little thing he put out. He's pretty funny on Twitter too. I can't wait to get him on the show. I think it was Mark Spector who tweeted out

what other job out there does Bodog post odds on who's going to get fired next? They had a list of names. We'll just report what Bodog put out there. Travis Green, 3-1 next to get fired. Hines, 4-1. Quinn, 6-1. I mean, DJ Smith's not getting fired. I don't know why he's on there at 7-1, but they didn't have Jeff

Ward listed because I sent out a tweet the other night, who's going to be the next coach to get shit canned? And I think it was overwhelming to a lot of Flames fans who weren't too thrilled. Would it be rude for us to, like, throw in our picks? No. I mean, you know, it sucks to get fired, but I think people need to remember these guys still get paid when they get fired. So while it sucks to lose your job enough people.

So what word is this? Who do you think is getting the next paid vacation? I would guess Hines. That would be my pick. Although they have been a little bit better over the last couple games. Yeah, Nationals stepped it up a little. But I guess if you're the owner of Nationals, okay, now if Poyle brought in Hines and it's not working out there,

are you going to take a look at Poyle? I know he's accomplished one more game. Are you going to do a parlay? Is this a Barstool book? GM coach parlay. Yeah, Barstool sports book. The combo would have sick odds. I think if you're the owner and you're looking at his last

hire, it's like, okay, if Hines isn't working out, they might turn it around here, but if they don't, as an owner, you're going to look at his previous hire and say, this isn't working out. Again, Poyle's record is what it is, but I don't know. I think it's something to maybe think of if you're the owner. Who do you got, Whit?

I don't know, man. That's so hard. Read him again. Travis Green, no. I don't think. Green, Hines, David Quinn, DJ Smith. He's not going anywhere. Blaisdell, Bugner, Tarkett, Bonas, Eakins, Kruger.

Like I said, they didn't have Jeff Ward listed there. I would actually take the bet that not one more coach gets fired during the season this year. I'll take that action. No way. I think John Hines gets fired. And one other aspect, too, Engel's brought up was the fact that there might be a quarantine process that has to happen. So they might be factoring that in saying it's a shortened season. Let's just get out alive.

Yeah, I didn't pick anyone. I know John Hines well. I mean, I guess it looks like he would probably be the next one. I really hope it doesn't happen to him, though. I've known him since I was like 14 years old, so he's a great guy. I mean, I know you mentioned they get paid, but you're still wondering, like, am I going to get a chance again? Right.

So there's some probably panic for those guys. All right. Yeah, I'm not rooting for anybody to lose their job here, but, you know, it is something we talk about. It's Bodog. Yeah, absolutely. But taking a look at the rest of the division, man, Winnipeg is, like, quietly consistent.

I feel like people aren't really talking about them. Connor Hellebuck's been playing out of his mind. Taking a look at, where are they? Third in the division, 27 points. I don't know. Got to give a little love to the Jets, I like i said hellebuck yeah i mean everybody was criticizing their back end going in with but you know i think they've i mean hellebuck may might be cleaning up a lot of that mess but ultimately yeah they've looked really good they've kind of tried to i

mean i think everyone's after edmonton's run here and i think it was at one point 11 and 2 in their last 13. I don't know exactly. But they obviously have picked it up. And it's like them and Toronto have started making the steps to kind of pull away. Well, Winnipeg's right there. And everyone else, if you look, they've got to chase them down now. And I know Montreal's only played 20 games.

And Winnipeg still has a chance to make up ground. But Hellebuck creates a team where, all right, they know they're going to score. They have enough talent up front. Ehlers looks awesome. I've always actually loved watching him play. His style of play is like he's going so fast, and every shift it seems like he's giving it. There's not really much laid back. He's almost the opposite of Laine, where you're just like some nights there's nothing there.

Ehlers is just, every night, I think fans love that guy. And then the talent of Scheifele and all that, but when you have a goalie who's playing, there's so much mental... There's so many different parts of the game mentally as a defenseman, where if you know that there's probably

going to be a big save made, it just loosens you up. It makes you feel at ease when you're on the ice. So where you can throw a couple pizzas. Yeah, I'm like, listen, I don't want to throw a pizza save made it just loosens you up it like makes you feel at ease when you're on the ice so where you can throw a couple pizzas yeah i'm like listen i don't want to throw a pizza but if i do i could get bailed out here so i i mean i think that they're going to be there all year i think they're going to be competing and that's a place that i mean i know fans is like so far from now i think but winnipeg with barn going, it's like I wish that was the case because I love their whole fan base, and I really hope they do do well this year.

They're a fun team to watch. I think maybe the funniest highlight from that division all week was Calgary goalie David Riddick headbutting the wall. Remember Gus Farratt, the Redskins quarterback? Yeah, didn't he break his neck or something? Yeah, he headbutted the wall after a touchdown. He dislocated something in his neck, had to go on the injured list. Fortunately, that didn't happen to Riddick.

But when's the last time you've seen a goalie head-butt a wall like that? I mean, I'm sure it happens every week in the KHL. Bennington almost head-butted. I mean, if I had to guess, it just happens so much that they don't even bother releasing the footage. But I tell you, man, there's been a few times in my career where the wires have crossed. I'm pretty sure I've head-butted shit. I'm pretty sure I've headbutted shit.

I'm pretty sure I've punched a few walls. And fuck, man, like that's – especially playing in a Canadian market, that's the type of built-up shit that you deal with. I mean you're constantly in the media. The team hasn't necessarily been playing that great, although I don't think goaltending has necessarily been the issue. Yeah, the fucking wires crossed. What are you going to say?

I mean, that team right now, they got blown out by Edmonton 7-1, whatever, four or five games ago. Then they beat Toronto. Then they lost in overtime. It's like, all right, that's a pretty big step back after that embarrassing display. And then they get blown out again 6-1 by Ottawa. It's like, oh, my God. So, yeah, I guess Ward in calgary put his name up there because i don't understand it i mean they they they've made changes this summer like gadreau's look good it's just so odd markstrom had times he looks so at the beginning i mean like markstrom

and the way that team was playing it looked like all right this team has figured it out and then like the past failures and like the playoffs and everything i think this is the year they could take a step forward. And now it's the same thing where you're like, I don't even know if they're going to get in the playoffs. So, as a Flames fan, you've got to be seriously questioning, like, the whole core of the team, I would think. I mean, at some point, we've talked about this before, this team isn't able to, like, take that next step.

I mean, yeah, there's probably two teams that stand out the most right now to where like, okay, if you if you can't get out of the first round with that core group, because there are some guys and like, you know, we hate being critical. It's them in Buffalo right now. It's just like, at one point, when do you just you got to change a few major pieces? Yeah, comparing them to Buffalo is a low major pieces. Yeah. Comparing them to Buffalo is a low, big, big time. But would you not, would you not agree if they don't make, let's say they don't make fucking playoffs with this Calgary flames lineup.

Yeah. There's something that's going to happen. I could see it being like, Hey, shortened season, no training camp. Okay. Let's reset the deck here,

but it's going to be a short wick next season. Yeah. Well, also want to give a shout out to Mike Smith. I mean, he's dialed the clock short wick next season. Yeah. Also want to give a shout-out to Mike Smith. I mean, he's dialed the clock back. Second goal, he's 38 or older to start a season 6-0. He's got a 204 goals against, 934 save percentage. Already got two shutouts.

Edmonton, I mean, they were struggling. That was an issue, I think, with goaltending. And he solidified it, at least for now. We'll keep an eye on it going forward. This is when Tippett went out and got him. This is exactly what he did. This is what happened in fucking Phoenix, dude. And it was crazy.

He went on a run, right? I'll never forget. I think we were like 7-0, and then Tippett was a little weary of us having a rookie party in L.A. If you thought I wasn't going to let—I was begging Shane, though. I'm like, we need this. Let me set this up, Shane. We're going to go to a club. It's not going to be in Nashville.

It's some fucking bar where there's nothing to stare at. Anyway, we have rookie party. It was a blast. We were brutal against L.A. I think they had 50 shots on that. Smitty fucking stood on his head. We won the game. No way.

In L.A. That's showing up for the boys. And then we played Chicago, stood on his head. Then we played fucking – dude, it was the craziest run I've ever been a part of watching a goaltender just be completely in the zone. It was like every night, it was like you said, you could throw six pizzas. You're like, all right, Smitty's got it. Is that when he signed the big ticket in Tampa?

No. So he came over from – I don't know if he came over from Tampa or Dallas, but he'd obviously had some connection with Tip, where Tip was like, hey, this guy is severely undervalued. And he came in, and that's when he – we ended up having the lockout year where it was a shortened season, 48 games after that year he had that crazy run. But it was the next summer when he signed his deal.

I think he got six times six in Phoenix. But guys – Oh, it was with Arizona, that deal? He was with Arizona when he got his big deal. So, guys, this is one guy I've witnessed do it, and it's not shocking because I think Tippett has instilled that confidence that he got back in Arizona, and I'm really happy for not only him but Edmonton because they've deserved this for a long time.

Keep going. He's also got to be near 40, right? He's getting up there. But he's also he's got to be near 40 right he's he's getting up there but he's he was he's jacked like he's in ridiculous shape and that's the thing that's frustrating too is like he he he cares like he takes care of his body he's training hard in the off season so it was hard to see where he kind of lost his confidence there for quite a few years so i had it backwards he was in tampa before phoenix and totally like... Yeah. Yeah, so then that's when he found it. He was with them in Dallas originally.

That's where he'd seen him play. He's 38, too. He's 38. He's getting up there, so it's nice to see these guys get one last run. That's what Edmonton needs, though. You'd said that for a long time, R.A. Yeah, 39 actually this month, so nice to see him having some success. Tough week for the old Canucks, 0-2-1 this week,

but the team was going to give away some of those reverse retro jerseys. I'm not a big fan of the Canucks ones anyways, but they didn't score any goals that night. They were going to give three of them away. They didn't score anything, but they got shut out. That's karma for chirping forbert in the Instagram DMs, you clowns. Some of the Canucks fans. Oh, shit.

And before we get to the East Division, I know what it's got to wear from Peter Malat. But also, shout out to Brady Kachuk. He became the youngest senator ever to reach 50 goals. So, kudos to him getting it done out there. I'd be remiss. My buddy Tyson Berry, another guy who's been finding some success there. He's been snapping around. I think he's probably one of the league leaders as far as D-men and points.

there he's been snapping around i think he's probably one of the league leaders as far as demon and points uh just we talked about him having a very similar role on a team that had a couple superstars in in ranting and mckinnon so now he kind of goes over that similar situation and and he's thriving right now so another reason for their success can run a power play and i do want to talk about peter millar guys uh i i think that it's the slickest, nicest-looking golf gear you can have. It fits perfectly. And the new Crown Sport Outerwear Hyperlite Shield is what we're going to talk about. It's a half-zip, right? And it's engineered from a highly technical two-and-a-half-layer performance fabric.

The Hyperlite Shield half-zip is a go-to piece offering fully waterproof, seam-sealed protection and optimal coverage in inclement weather. Golf's played in all weather, man. Wind, rain, doesn't matter. They don't always blow the horn. If lightning's not nearby, you're probably playing, especially in Europe. Especially. My new word. So, the tour-tested fabric is

supremely soft and comfortable with two-way stretch and easy care benefits. A separate pouch allows it to be packed down tight and easily stashed in the golf bag or carry-on. If it ends up being nice out, you chuck it in the bag, barely weighs anything. It comes in both long-sleeve and short-sleeve versions, so you can't complain that their gear is getting in the way or leading to them losing more money on the course. I don't know what that just said.

That's gambling, Whit. Exactly. That's referring to gambling. Fair enough. That's a fun part of golf. For more, go to www.petermillard.com slash chicklets. Check it out now.

We looked pretty good in the sandbag. Yes, we did. White on white. Or I was white on white. You had gray. I thought you had gray pants. It's fucking spandex you're wearing when you golf. You can see it.

Quadzilla. Going back to junior. I got quads like a truck. Truck, truck. Quads like what, what, what. Baby, will you lose, what, what. Let me sing it again. I got quads like a truck.

What's his name, Cisco? Yeah, you sound like Cisco, actually. I used to sing that in the locker room in Saginaw. You can ask Taylor Pyatt's brother, Tommy Pyatt. You were a big thong song guy, I would imagine. Oh, yeah. He was wearing them wearing i used to wear speedos to the beach like it was nothing i got a small small horn when it's soft though so

i would have to like get the fucking blood flow going before i'd get there just to make sure i could maintain it yeah because you could actually be so small that you can end up like a light switch into the into this thong on that side hung like a field mouse growing on a show buddy it's on a fur coat. We didn't even mention our other guest this week. We're going to be bringing him on a little bit. Jody Shelley. We just had him on recently to talk about the Columbus trade. Well, he's such an awesome guy. We want to bring him right back, and we

did. So we talked about his career. Again, we're going to bring him on a little bit. Just want to mention that. We're going to move over to the east, and this isn't fun talk. The Buffalo Sabres, man, it's been even worse than we thought. They've lost three straight, 0-2-1 this week. They were shut out in consecutive games. Only the Ducks have fewer goals.

Jack Eichel missed a couple games with a lower body injury. He did play Sunday. But Jeff Skinner scratched in three straight. He did play Sunday, 12 minutes, 35 seconds, one shot, minus one. Ralph Kruger, the coach, said, I don't have a doghouse in relation to Skinner there. I don't know what he calls it when he scratches a guy three times in a row, but Rasmus Dahlin

had some harsh words after Sunday's loss. Very embarrassed. This is not acceptable. It sucks. It's the worst. It all comes down to competing. Work for each other. Be a good teammate. Right now, we have nothing to lose. Someone has to step up, make a hit, make a play. I don't know. We have to find something, but it all comes down to competing work for each other be a good teammate right now we have nothing to lose someone has to step up make a hit make a play i don't know we have to find something but it all comes down to work for each other and we just have to start competing what's the issue with this team with like i said earlier it's almost like they have an undiagnosed disease in that

franchise they just can't figure it the hell out it's like a gigantic black cloud that's just hovering and there's teams in all professional leagues that's just it's like a gigantic black cloud that's just hovering. And there's teams in all professional leagues. It's like the Cleveland Browns. I mean, they finally started switching it around a little bit. But the Buffalo Sabres, man, it is such a dark period to be a fan of them. And there keeps coming with each new season new optimism. And, like, they had Halsey come there this year. And they have Eichel.

Each new season, new optimism. And they had Halsey come there this year. And they have Eichel. The sky is like... His skill level and what he can do when he's playing is just... It's almost unrivaled. There's very few people in the league that can do what he's done. Or is able to. And so I think for him, it's got to be like...

I don't want to speak for him. I haven't talked to him. But I can't keep playing here. There's almost, right now, it seems like zero chance that they're going to be good anytime soon. Like, there's pieces there. And Darlene has those quotes. And, like, I know people are disappointed in his play at times. I mean, that's a young demon with so much skill.

That's a guy you're not getting rid of. Okay? He needs to be, like like the guy that that stays but what what are you what are you like against seeing buffalo just like move a lot of different pieces blow it up man halsey's on a one-year deal so you're gonna be able to move him somewhere eichel i think his no move clause moves in next year i think 2022 where then he's deciding. That's a major factor. If you want at least some sort of control over the situation, you're looking at that.

And then the Skinner thing is nuts. And Jeff Skinner, two years ago, I think he had 14 even strength goals. It was more than like Shifley, Mark Stone, Barkov, Tavares, Bergeron. Far off to a really hot start. Right? And like now, I mean, he can't even score five on five. He can't score at all. He's not even playing.

So I think that like if a guy is making $9 million or whatever the hell he's making and you sit him, it's like, all right, yeah, this kid, he needs to wake up. He's not playing well. But I feel like those are the players you sit for one game's like, all right, yeah, this kid, he needs to wake up. He's not playing well. But I feel like those are the players you sit for one game and they're back in. He's sitting three straight games. So obviously the coach can't stand him. Oh, really? You don't think he's being honest with the media because he says, I don't have a doghouse.

I don't think he's lying. But he might be in a situation where he thinks he's protecting him, where he's like, this guy has been stripped of all of his confidence. He knows – he's probably feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. He's making $9 million. I don't know him enough, right? Maybe he's just one of those guys. It's not a bad call. I mean in the end though, you take a step back as the player and even if he's telling you, listen, you just need a break.

you'd take a step back as the player, and even if he's telling you, listen, you just need a break, in your mind, the team needs to win, and this guy's choosing to not have me be a part of the club to go try to get a win. So it's like, no matter what, you can say that, Ralph Kruger can say he doesn't have a doghouse, which I'm not saying that's not true. We're like, he's probably definitely willing to give him a chance again,

but Ralph Kruger also looks at his entire team as any coach and says, all right, well, I don't love his game. He's not necessarily in my doghouse. I just don't think he's that good. And I think that Skinner right now is – I mean, his skating was always different, right? He was able to move, but it was the opening up of the hips, and there was many different ways he was able to create space for himself.

And skating through the neutral zone, he'd be like opening up. It wasn't always in a straight line. Maybe like he's had injuries in the past. Maybe he isn't the same player anymore. But to have that much more time at 9 million, they can't trade him. Their only hope is that the Kraken would take him. And Ron Francis was in Carolina when they drafted him. And Jason Barley assistant GM

gave him the contract in Buffalo right so maybe they're like yeah you're saying it's an inside job well I don't know you hold half the dough and we'll take him we're not paying him that who gave him that one he's insinuating it's an inside job isn't he it would be a hell of a conspiracy and you love

conspiracies this is going to spend the next two weeks on the computer investigating. Dude, I was all red-eyed. I was on YouTube until 4 this morning. So to get serious about it, I don't know, tough times. You've got to imagine Eichel is not going to stand much longer for this. You said Hall. He's on a one-year deal.

I don't know if he's regretting the decision. I don't know what's going on inside the locker room. But you can gain some pretty good assets as far as drafting capability and maybe get some young prospects. I just think it's got to get worse before it gets better, and you have pieces that you can move now, and you mentioned one of which you're in control of with the no trade or no move clause kicking in next year for Eichel.

I think he'd have to agree to it or pick the team. Yeah, all of a sudden you're getting the list to the teams that would take you, and it's a tough situation for the organization. Ultimately, though, I say blow it the fuck up right now, and it's going to get bad for two years, but at least at that point it's going to really turn around to where you don't want to be in the same position three fucking years from now. I know, but the problem is it was this bad seven years ago,

and then they got Eichel, and it was, thank God. We did it. We went through that time. We're going to go, and now it's like, oh, my God, wait, we're doing that again? Eichel didn't work. He's this good, and he's gone. We've got to find somebody else. One other thing, Sam Reinhardt's been good this year.

I mean, that's been a positive note. He's, I think, second in team scoring right now behind Olofsson, who's another good young stud. So they got some pieces, like we know today's NHL, with everything going on, you can turn it around quickly, but holy fuck, man. This is like

one organization I was pulling for. I think I might have had them making playoffs this year. They might be getting first overall pick. Olofsson has been one of the few bright spots, second in the league of power play goals with six. But honestly, I don't think it was a bad play by Halsey because he probably figured, well, even if they suck this year, I'll get traded at the deadline.

He could very well end up on a contender. He probably will. So, I mean, obviously, it's not how you want to plan a season. It gives him a little bit more control in that sense, and he was able to potentially fetch his number. So, I mean, hey, he's our buddy, and I hope that he's able to get moved and go to a way better situation, and he's able to get paid accordingly.

But I can't imagine that he expected it to go this bad. Yeah, I mean, he might have his cake and eat it too if he ends up with a good squad. Also, more tough news for Buffalo. Go Elias Allmark, another one of the few bright spots. He's going to be out at least a month with a lower body injury. So, it's like the more it rains, it pours.

What's that phrase? It's an easy one. When it rains, it pours. When it rains, it pours. Yeah, look at Biz help me out there. So, either way, man, yeah, we don't like to pick on Buffalo. We know they're great fans, but it's a situation that we've got to talk about. Or the more things change, the more they remain the same. Yeah, that's another one that works. Thank you.

But let's move on to the Capitals. They had a great week, 3-0 in one week, 7-point jump. They got in the first place. Hank Lundquist did skate the other day, which was great to see, but he's still months away from playing. They're not even putting any sort of timetable on it. But freaking Caps, man. I mean, they had a couple little bumps in the road,

but they're looking pretty sharp lately, Biz. I haven't been watching that much, so I'm not even going to open my mouth about the Caps, man. I mean, they had a couple little bumps in the road, but they're looking pretty sharp lately, Biz. I haven't been watching that much, so I'm not even going to open my mouth about the Caps. They're a wagon. I think I picked them to miss playoffs this year, so that tells you the extent of my hockey knowledge. That division, when we watch and, like, you know, we've got the Islanders-Penguins stream on Sunday,

thanks to the Bob Blue Light. You just see, like, Pittsburgh's had success against the Islanders. All of a sudden, the Islanders take it to them. They win a 2-0 game. Boring as hell. Thanks, Islanders. And then you just look. Like, Pittsburgh's not even in the playoffs right now. And so that division is so strong where the Rangers fans had

way higher expectations than what's going on there. Now, granted, like, they're falling away quickly with Buffalo and the Devils in terms of this is a five-horse race. Washington's, I don't want to say the entire time, but heads and shoulders above the rest of the division because I think Boston's looked so good through certain stretches.

They had a tough go. Rangers and Islanders pounded them. I'm kind of just jumping all over the division more so because I bring up Washington's good, but that is such a dogfight the rest of the way. There's so many games in so few days that you can't at all make the decision that they're going to end up finishing first. If Washington

finished fourth, I wouldn't be surprised. It sounds crazy now, but the beatings that these teams put on each other are going to continue to get worse and worse. This division's the deepest, and I think if you don't take advantage of pounding Buffalo and the Devils, sorry Pasha, you're going to continue to get worse and worse. This division's the deepest, and I think if you don't take advantage of pounding Buffalo and the Devils, sorry, Pasha, you're going to lose ground.

Well said. Stick taps for wit. That's just an absolute roundup of the mass mutual East division in the NHL. It's called the mass mutual? I don't know. Is there a mass mutual one? I don't know, but if it is, that's a cherry on top, and you just crushed that segment. I just got there a mass mutual one? I don't know, but if it is, that's a cherry on top, and you just crushed that segment. I just got the actual mass mutual thing. Way to go.

What a play by you. You mentioned Posh's team, the Devils. It was nice that they got to honor Zajac at home, Travis Zajac, the whole team, come out with the jerseys. He was on the road when he did it, so it was nice to see that acknowledge his career accomplishment there. Sneaky, sneaky 1,000 games. Yeah. Sneaky best center 1,000 games. Yeah.

Sneaky best center Parisi's ever had, I said last week. You don't hear about certain guys, and then you look, and you're like, whoa. That's a career that any person in the world would be proud to be able to say was theirs. I know you just dumped on the aisles, Whit, because that's what you do, but they also had a good week. They were right in the thick of it. Tie with Boston, second place in the division. Sorokin, two straight shutouts.

Volomov, he's been outstanding all year. This is a team, they just get it done by committee, man. There's not one. Obviously, Basal's a star, but, you know, this team just fucking someone steps up. It's Trots. They're all bought in, and I'll tell you what, they limit the high-end scoring chances, and I'm not taking anything away from the goaltending either because they have competent guys in net and they and we talked about their um just Turk and had a first rookie goal ever to

have back-to-back shutouts for the Islanders is that what it was no the first time it had happened for a rookie goaltender uh since 75 and I don't remember who the the goalie was it was yeah there you go. You're buzzing today. I'm feeling it. But they just, like I said, they limit other teams' high-end scoring chances. We watched the live stream against Pittsburgh and, like, fucking, I mean, that's me drinking more of Dreger's Kool-Aid.

Like, I just, this team, like, Penguins couldn't muster anything up. And I'm not saying that Islanders reinvented the wheel, but they just had nothing. So Islanders are completely dialed in right now to that team system. Crosby was pissed, too. And he was fuming. I think he went after Bavillier, and you just saw at the end of the game, when he's pissed off and frustrated and getting in cross-checking matches or even fights in his career with guys,

you could tell in the locker room after, it's probably definitely tense. Also, Philadelphia, they had a nice week 3-0. 700th win for Alain Vigneault. He keeps climbing up that list. A couple other notes here. Pittsburgh's Jason Zucker, as we found out, wasn't playing Sunday biz. He's going to be out longer term, as they're saying, with a lower body injury. Boston defenseman Jeremy Lauzon, he had surgery in his left hand.

He's going to be reevaluated in about four weeks. Any other notes from the East? Coyle, what a goal he scored. Just showed out. I'm a big Charlie Coyle fan. Under the triangle, sniped top right to get the Bruins out to the lead. That game annoyed the absolute shit out of me because I saw the Bruins got pounded by the Islanders,

so I hammered them against the Rangers every which way to Sunday. The Rangers drummed them. Great fight at the end of that game with Trent Frederick and Brendan Lemieux who had fought earlier in the season and Frederick told them we're going again. It wasn't Richie who fought him at the end of the game? It was Richie who fought him at the end.

I don't think Frederick fought, but he did score again. I'm sorry. I got ahead of myself saying I was feeling it. I just butchered the entire... Well, I didn't think Frederick fought, but he did score again. I'm sorry. I got ahead of myself saying I was feeling it. I just butchered the entire. Well, I didn't. The Bruins won that game, too. Okay, either way.

Fuck it. Forget it. Get back to my story. So I pounded them against the Rangers. They got worked. So then I said, well, they got them again Sunday. That is max bedtime, money line, puck line, everything. And I thought the game was at 3 o'clock and I know for gamblers out there,

it's like I looked at randomly my phone 12-15 and it was Bruins are up 1-0. And I was sick to my stomach. It's almost worse than a loss, I said to R.A. So, yeah, play the violin for me, have some cheese with that wine. If you like old school hockey, I would probably

tune into every other Rangers Bruins game to finish the season. Because there's some legitimate hate there. We've had Brendan Lemieux on. He'll drag his team into it. He'll drag them into the fight. And I would, hey, there's some prop bets for you. Lemieux getting in a scrap next game against the Bruins. Book it!

I like that. Boosted odds. Nice to see a little original six hatred. Because for two original six teams, it's not a huge rivalry there. I know they played in the playoffs earlier in the decade, but it's not a spirited... Didn't they beat them in the cup final?

Who'd the Bruins beat in 72? Yeah, that was their ranges in 72. I know, no, there is no rivalry. I know, but it is true. It's kind of odd. I guess the Canadians have that. Maybe Derek Sanderson would have something different to say about it. He got some at-bats.

He got a few at-bats in those series. But I would agree. In those cities. Rangers, Bruins, I would have never paid attention to until this year. All right, gang. Well, at Le Bat, they don't care if you're good or bad at most things in life. They only care if you're good at beer, being yourself, and not pretending to be someone you're not.

And if you are, they're good with you. After all, if you choose Labatt Blue Light, you're good at the most important thing there is, beer. We already know you're good at watching hockey. Now, be good at beer, too a pristine canadian pilsner labatt blue light we're going to be working with labatt labatt blue all year and we have some exciting content coming up so grab a pack and enjoy we've been enjoying them all week and we're going to continue to enjoy some nice little bad very tasty had about 10 during the live stream

another live stream coming to on wednesday oil Maple Leafs. Very excited for this one. Oilers were shit. Was it Sunday they played, or was it Saturday? I think Saturday. Saturday. Yeah, they stunk that night. But right now, Matthews is on the IR, questionable tonight on Monday. So hopefully he's back in the lineup and we have a great, successful live stream. And the good news is it's not the Islanders' plan,

so we don't have to watch any boring hockey. You won't have to listen to me for another two hours. You're going to rub your earwax on Biz's legs this stream. Oh, shit. All right, boys, I think we should send it over to Jody Shelley right about now. This was a great interview. Such a fucking great guy. Unreal career, so that's why we brought him back so quick.

And enjoy Jody Shelley. It's great to welcome this guest back. Though he wasn't drafted, he played over 600 NHL games as one of the NHL's last generation of enforcers. Most of them were in a Columbus Blue Jacket uniform where he led the league in penalty minutes in 2003. He also suited up for the Sharks, Rangers, and Flyers. And you can currently catch him providing his expert color commentary for the Blue Jackets on Fox Sports Ohio. Thanks a bunch for coming back on. Jody Shelley, long time no see, my friend.

That was awesome, R.A. Thanks for having me back on, man. A little hiccup at the end, but stuck the land in. Last time we had you on was to talk about Pierre-Luc Dubois, Patrick Lanny, Roslevic. He's been a stud since he got there, huh, Roslevic? Yeah, that was quite a trade. And, you know, Laine's a star, but Roslevic is a player that's got skill

and he's got a lot to prove. So it's been a good fit here so far. You know, he's a guy that grew up in Columbus, idolized Cam Atkinson. You know, Atkinson used to idolize Marty St. Louis, and Atkinson got to meet Marty and learn from him. A little bit of that happened here with Roslovich and Atkinson. It's nice. So should we have added Patrick Laine's personal fighting coach

to that title at the beginning here? He's been chucking the knucks. Jody grabs him after. He's like, let me help you next practice. No, I think Jared Bull would have to do that. He's an assistant coach. He did take one, though, Biz, like I do. Like when we fought, I think I took one from you.

So, yeah, you might be my signature move there. I think you slipped on a banana peel, and I looked like I won the fight. I was shitting my pants. The first time I ever fought for the Arizona Coyotes was this guy in San Jose. And I'll tell you what, as nice as you are off the ice, you had one of the meanest mugs on the ice. Did you practice that look that you had? I did.

I was playing the role big time, buddy. What I remember about your fight, you asked, you were so polite. You were the nicest guy. You're like, hey, Shelzey, you got one in you, man? I got to get a fight going here. And I'm like, sure, biz. light you were like the nicest guy you're like hey shells hey uh yeah you got one in you man i gotta i gotta get a fight going here and i'm like sure biz i knew you were coming but yeah all right that just shows though you respected your elders you weren't that loud guy when you came into the league i was like hey um can you not pump my fucking eyes shut please

i tried to but i didn't like the end of that fight yeah so last time we didn't get to do the full monthly like we usually do, so we brought you back on. Now, you were born in Manitoba, but you moved to Nova Scotia as a young kid. I loved that trip there. Obviously, these guys have been there multiple times. It seemed like a real great place to grow up. It is, man. It's tremendous.

But, yeah, I was born in Manitoba. I grew up on Vancouver Island, so the west coast of Canada. My dad was a miner so uh we were out there for 12 years and then um long story short we ended up in Newfoundland where my parents are from after we left Port Hardy BC and ended up uh from Newfoundland in a year and then uh to Yarmouth Nova Scotia nice little lobster fishing community on the south shore there everyone knows uh that Halifax area which is great but uh little lobster fishing community actually ryan graves is from the same town i'm from so grew up there and yeah

it's a beautiful spot you guys got to see some some some of the highlights of the province for sure with royalty in mckinnon and crosby of course but uh it's a great spot of the world to visit i actually i wanted to ask you before um you came into came into the league, right? And it, well, I don't, I don't even want to jump that far ahead, but I want to, I want to know, like when you came into the league and you knew you had to play the role, was it scary at that point? Or were you so used to it after junior, after college, all the things we'll get into, like, was that something that was easy for you? Yeah, it was easy. It was, uh, it was my only ticket. I mean, I had no other choice. So, uh, you know, I knew I was it, why I was there. I tried to fight every three games. At

least if I went four games without a fight, I felt like I wasn't doing my job. So, and it was easy to find fights then, but I was, I was intimidated, but I didn't care if I lost. And that was my mentality. You know what I mean? Like I couldn't have been the champ to me. That would have been too much pressure. I would have rather been the underdog in every fight and been like, I don't care if I lose, I'm just going to go at it. And, uh, that's, that was the part that settled me down. So not much anxiety when biz talks about pregame meal night before, not,

not, not the case for you. No, I was good. I slept well. I, I dealt with it in a weird way. That's a real sick puppy. When I retired, I realized how much it consumed me. You know, like it was on my mind all the time. Like, you know, we used to get transactions in the newspaper. So it was like, oh, so-and-so got called up or sent down. You know, I maybe slept a little bit better if I knew a guy got sent down.

But when a guy gets called up, you know, I deal with it mentally, file it away, and get ready for the next day. But I slept, and it was no problem. It's like a goal scorer going a couple games without a point. You know, the anxiety starts to build a little bit. You don't feel like you're contributing. But it's Aaron Potts' line, correct? Right after we had you on, an unbelievable article comes out

of the 20th anniversary of you getting your first NHL game now throughout the course of the article this does talk about like in minor how you ended up going from playing like midget where Halifax ended up coming into the league as a new team correct yeah so you how did you end up getting invited to camp was it just like they noticed you locally or what's, what was the story behind that? It's a great story. It's a great question. Yeah. Aaron Portsline wrote that it was an unbelievable article biz because he did

so much work and it was, it was just a nice, it was awesome to read that, you know, I had all these stories in my head, but he put it all together so well, but I was in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia,

and I went to hockey night in Boston. I made this team out of team Atlantic. I went to hockey night in Boston and got on the draft list when there was like 16 rounds. So they were inviting. They had 90 invites to camp in Halifax, and there was a couple of scouts that had seen me, and they said, who's this kid in Yarmouth that's on the draft list?

Like, we got to invite him. You know what I mean? So Shane O'Brien was a local scout. He invited me. I got to go to, or Sean O'Brien, excuse me. I got to go to camp and I got a tip going to camp from a guy, a local guy where I trained at Halifax at college that if I wanted to make an impression, I should drop the gloves.

And I was 17 years old, just graduated high school. I'd never dropped the gloves in my life. Never. I don't know if you had fought before you'd played, uh, played high or like on the streets or anything, but I'd never been in a fight. You fought the pot. I was like, I was like, so I was like, yeah, yeah, I'm not, uh, that that's not something I'm going to do. So I, I, uh, actually started boxing and learning how to fight just in case for camp. You know what I mean? So this guy, David Haynes gave me this tip that this one guy, they were touting around on the, on the billboards and on radio shows was not that tough,

not as tough as they thought. So I ended up fighting him at camp and I was a local kid and I had an inside lane and I ended up making that team in Halifax just from learning how to fight in camp, getting beat up my, my whole training camp, whole first year and then just took it from there. Not often does a guy like that end up going on and become captain, too. And one of the most beloved Halifax Moosehead players of all time. Like, what a wild ride it was throughout that entire junior career.

It was amazing, man. It was something that, you know, an expansion team into the Quebec League, there was a lot to learn. Our first year, there was 11 English players, 11 French. We were pretty – it was really split up into two groups, but it was fun. It was a great experience being in the Maritimes, having the Quebec guys out of Quebec and in our turf. That kind of helped us in a big way.

It was amazing going into towns like Val d'Or, Quebec, and the passion in that league. There were some tough boys like Patrick Cote and George LaRock It was amazing going into towns like Val d'Or, Quebec, and the passion in that league. There were some tough boys like Patrick Cote and George LaRock and Peter Worrell. These were big boys that we had to go up against every night. But, yeah, it was pretty spectacular. Then I got to be the captain. I mean, you know, I was a local guy fighting with, so, you know,

like there was some admiration there. That doesn't necessarily mean anything to be a leader on the team no i know i know but i it was it was i was well known it worked out really well but i appreciate that you're right i i did have some leadership qualities and i'm really proud of that now yeah i think you're underplaying it too jody your number 25 was retired there i mean yeah that's right 700 739 penalty minutes over minutes over your last two seasons. That's impressive as hell. But did the fighting come naturally to you? Like once you started it, you're like like kind of started salivating a little bit.

Oh, yeah. I mean, I knew it was my role. You know what I mean? I knew I didn't forget what got me to the dance and I'll never forget. So after my third day in training camp in Quebec, would have been like fifth day. First round of cuts happened. And I remember calling my dad after the third day in training camp in Quebec, might've been like fifth day, first round of cuts happened. And I remember calling my dad after the third day. And I was like, dad, I was waiting at a pay phone with a calling card. I finally get to the phone. I'm like, dad, I got to come home.

I can't do this. You know, like this, no one speaks English. I don't know anybody. I just want to go home. And my dad said, just don't cut yourself. You know what I mean? Just stay there. Give yourself a chance. Just don't cut yourself. So I go back. I keep going to work. And I'd only had that one fight in the first five days. And the assistant coach came up

to me and he goes, hey, you know, we got a lot of guys that are from Quebec that are five foot nine and can play with the puck. You know, if you want to play like you're five foot nine, uh, you might not have a chance, but if you play like you're six foot three, like you did on day one and I like the light bulb went on like ding. Okay. I know what I have to do to stay here. So then I just kept, I just kept fighting. It came natural after that. But I mean, you know, people ask me, how do you, you know, how, what do I have to do to be a fighter? How can I learn to fight? The only way to do it is to get beat up a number of times. That's what I did my first year. I was just fearless.

I think that's what it was. I wanted to be there. It was my only ticket. That just let me be fearless and be able to do it. I was going to say, looking at your numbers, though, were you somewhat of a decent player in minor hockey? Because you ended up putting up 10 tucks your first year. year or was because you were creating so much space for yourself out there because all all these guys were afraid to get close to this mutant no I I was I was pretty good

biz I mean I played midget b and uh you know that was that's not a high league but I was I was a good hockey player I could so to adjust from you from being a skilled player, in a sense, to going to getting limited minutes, was it hard to adjust on the hockey side of it? Yeah, I mean, it was at first, but it was just part of it. The fighting was a priority, but when I got to go on the power play, when I got to play in practice, it was different in junior. You didn't have to be so specific.

I took care of the fighting, and then it was kind of off to the side, and I got to play more minutes so I could turn down fights too. But in the NHL, it was very specific. No, I think the hockey side was just more natural in junior because it's free-flowing and less stress and less thinking, where I think the NHL is really that system, and you've got to do your job, and then you've got to worry to worry about guys and you make one mistake and you're on the bench were those actually the guys you were running through in junior larocque warrell like was big george the champ

then as then like even before he got to the show you know i don't he's a lefty and he was big and the rinks were small and and he would fly around. He is so fast. Straight ahead. It's a joke. And everyone in the building is screaming, look out! And he's just running guys over. Peter Worrell was there.

I mean, we must have went at it I don't know how many times. But, yeah, there were all the big boys there, Gordie Dwyer, Patrick Cote. I mean, he's still running through the Quebec league, I think. So your last year junior, you ended up tearing a ligament in your knee, correct? Yeah. And so after that, you don't really know what you're going to do. You ended up deciding to go to Canadian university.

Yeah. What I mean? Yeah. Like, so, so the, the story goes that you get there, but then you're kind of seeing all these guys who you've been fighting in junior who, I don't know, you might even thought you were a better player at the time, making all this money playing pro hockey. And then you're kind of like, I'm over this college situation. Well, yeah. So I was, I finished my major junior career, tore my ACL.

And then every year you play in the Canadian college or at CHL, you get a year of Canadian college paid for. So I had three years in the bank and or at CHL you get a year of Canadian college paid for so I had three years in the bank and that was a big deal so um you know at the end of my overage year uh St. John and the Calgary Flames had some interest but once I blew my knee out they were like when you're rehabbed and done call us and I was like I'm fine I'm gonna go to college you know this is this has been great but as I sat there I watched those guys that I fought. Exactly. They were stars in the National Hockey League. People knew who they were.

They were making an impact. So I left. And, you know, I signed a tryout with the St. John Flames towards the end of their season. And I went there, and that forfeited the Canadian scholarship. That meant that was gone. But I was like, okay, so you know when they say, like, burn like burn the boats you have no other options no other way to get off the island though the scholarship was gone the next year I went to camp in Calgary and within days I was in Johnstown of the East Coast Hockey League wondering you know what have I done what I've been there too I would

have thought the same thing it's a great town but it's a long way from the NHL. Yeah. When, when you go, when you finish junior now, obviously I don't, I know there's examples of people who've ended up making the NHL, but if you finish junior and go to Canadian university for the most part, it's like, that's it. You're probably not playing at the highest level. Was that your mindset then too? Or were you actually like, no, I'm still going to be good. Or did it take to see those guys for you to be like, wait a minute,

wait a minute, this dream isn't done yet. Well, I'll tell you, I, I, so I saw those guys and I was, you know, it's thinking about, they all got signing bonuses and they all had a good time and I was at Dalhousie and, you know, I was playing on the team. And it wasn't really my style of hockey. I went and took out a $5,000 credit line and used that as my signing bonus. I think I spent it in about nine days in Halifax.

And then when I realized that, I was like, you know what? I think I still have that pro mentality. So I think I better go take a run at this. So that really was one of my indicators that, yeah, you're not ready for college or that style of hockey. On $3 beers. That's how much you were drinking out indicators that, yeah, you're not ready for college or that style of hockey. On $3 beers. That's how much you were drinking out in Halifax, you donkey. That's fucking hilarious.

What was outside of that, though? What was the college experience like off the ice? Were you having a good time? Oh, man, it was awesome. I mean, you know, when you play major junior biz, I don't know if you talk about this, but you always look at the college guys and you're just like, man, it's so much easier. Like, you know,

they got the campus life and they got everything there and they got the dorms living together. They're way funnier. Hey, no curfew. All the good. And, and, you know, we're on the bus grinding it out, going there here and there and all, all through the week. So, um, I enjoyed the college experience. I mean, the school, I remember going into one class though. It was a business class and I went to the back of that room and I sat down and I cracked open my brand new book. You know what I mean? It was just like, you could hear the

binding on it, just crack open. I was like, oh, I'm ready for this. Got my pencil out, sat there for 10 minutes, looked at my buddy and I was like, let's get out of here. I enjoyed it like a kind of like a frat frat boy, I guess. Is that when you went and took out the signing bonus? Yeah, right away. Probably would have been a Wednesday night. Yeah. Unbelievable. When you signed with Calgary, how much did they tell you you would have to put in as far as getting to the NHL? Was that like a place that they had you in the future at all? No, no, there was no real conversation.

It was just a two-way contract, American Hockey League, East Coast. And when you sign that, when you don't really know anything, you think, ah, I won't be in the East Coast Hockey League. But it was an invite to training camp, which was a big deal. But no, there was no talk of prospects. I was in the American League with Jean-Sebastien Jaguar, Marty St. Louis, you know, Chris Clark was there. There was a lot of good players that were down there

that ended up having futures in other organizations. But, you know, at the time, when I got to Johnstown, I was down there with a second-round pick in John Tripp. Derek Walzer was a prospect. He was down in Johnstown too. So no one was sitting around feeling sorry for themselves, but we all kind of felt like there's no real, we didn't know where we were going.

Since you brought it up, I got to ask, what was it like playing with Martin St. Louis in the American Hockey League? I believe you guys played together in St. John, correct? Yeah, we were in St. John. I mean, he was just, it was great. I mean, he was a guy that was, you know, he could tell you he was going to prove something.

He was a guy that was, if you've around marty he's he's a great presence he's very demanding he's vocal but he's also like he's got this leadership quality but he was hilarious because he was part of the veteran group with uh chris o'sullivan and todd lusko who were probably two of the funnest people i'd ever met in my life at that time. And, you know, in St. John, New Brunswick, the hotel was connected to the rink by way of a mall. So, I mean, we just spent all of our time together laughing at these three guys and the mockery, the fun they were having off the ice. So, they were great to be around.

Played with Ja'Garrett at Halifax as well, too. He must have stole a bunch of games for you back then. Yeah, he was awesome. I mean, he was the guy that I really, the first guy I'd been around that was a first-round pick, you know, big bonus, big future, so competitive. Yeah, he was a backbone of our team in Halifax, yeah. I got to play with him in Anaheim. He's so funny, too.

Oh, he's awesome. He just chirps, guys. He has, like, this funny sense of humor he sweats so much i never seen somebody sweat that much it must have been the same in junior oh he cramped up yeah he's uh he was making he was making up for nita meyer a wit because nita meyer would come off from playing 30 minutes he'd have one beat of sweat on his chest but uh listen even when i played against the Syracuse Crunch they envied their fighters and that was that was like your last spot before you ended up making a full impact in the NHL now you ended up becoming kind of a cult

hero there much like you were in Halifax correct well Syracuse was a good town too Biz because we had I mean that that's a blue collar town and they like they like that action and there were some big boys in that league at that time too so you know you protected the turf and and you know that was one step away from from uh the National Hockey League now that was an expansion uh team in Syracuse that you know they were now the the Blue Jackets affiliate instead of the Vancouver Canucks at the time so yeah we we wanted to prove every night that we were a tough team to play against plus Syracuse man that rink is intimidating the boards rattle the stage is right at the end the fans are right on top memorial the war memorial just like I remember seeing the name

I was like wait it's actually called the war memorial that's a slap shot it is it was a good barn exactly great barn and we knew we tried to keep it intimidating and our coach loved it gary agnew loved to have us out there running around you know trying to get in the face of everyone else so that's why we uh that's why we had such a an intimidating team um here's where things got a little bit interesting in that article um they mentioned there was like an off-ice fight between christoph oli Oliwa and Lyle Odeline, and that kind of was the start of the fact that you were going to eventually end up coming up.

It didn't mention why they were fighting. They ended up fighting twice off the ice in the same day. What was the conflict between Lyle Odeline and Christophe Oliwa? I have no idea. You know, I don't know what happened there, but I know it was, you know it was out it spilled it went from the shower out to the parking lot um i have never talked outline about it or any of that stuff but you never uh you think that stuff would come out at some point but you know we'd heard

rumors that it was you know girlfriends and stuff but we don't know i didn't know what happened so i was just in syracuse waiting to see if i was going to get the call when do you like it's not when but like what was the memory and what do you think back when you got the call I was just in Syracuse fighting everybody and you know Gary Agnew said to me he goes you know you're going to be going up and I'm like yeah right you know that's not happening and he's like yeah you're going up and I be ready be ready and and so you know he worked with me on my skating and all that stuff so I didn't believe it until I was actually on the plane um I just remember getting into Nationwide Arena we were playing the Pittsburgh Penguins Mario Lemieux was on the bench uh and I was there to fight Oluwa and uh we had 19,000 fans in the building and I remember being in warm-up and just thinking

I was waiting for someone to come over and and tap me on the shoulder and be like Mr. Shelley you're in the wrong place get out of here you know what I mean get off the ice but uh no it was just one of those moments that you know you felt like it wasn't supposed to happen and the next thing I was in a fight that I mean I could have fought anyone that night with the energy i had it was amazing well you end up having to fight steve mckenna first you thought you were going holy wah you end up getting two scraps of the first period i don't even think you had a minute of ice time i had eight seconds of ice time two fights both started off of a tv timeout you're we're doing eight seconds so you're like hey man can we skate around for a couple seconds before we drop the gloves no i wanted to get it out of the way so it was like drop the puck i

don't know how you got four seconds in of ice time after the puck drop but anyways mckenna grabbed me first that wasn't on the script i mean he i was like whoa and he's a big guy so i was like this isn't going to end well and this isn't't supposed to happen. But I survived that one. And then when Ola was out there again, Dave King put me out. And I don't know how the clock ticked four seconds from, I mean, the puck hit the ice, our gloves hit the ice, and we were dancing. I also read in that article, before the game,

you were trying to get in touch with your parents who had won a free trip to Vegas. And back then, no cell phones, no nothing. So they were completely unaware that you were even going to start in your first NHL game no they were they were out of touch they had never uh really left town and uh here they were like two kids in Vegas and I'm ready to make my NHL debut and I was like so frustrated I'm like how can this be happening you know what I mean but you're right I mean I there's no way to get a hold of them.

You call the hotel. They're like, ah, we don't know who they are, where they are. So my dad's comment after, I was like, dad, well, you guys missed it. And he goes, yeah, we saw the highlights. I was like, well, it would have been great if you would have saw it. He goes, well, you'll just have to play another one. I'm like, what? But unfortunately, you didn't.

And then you ended up getting sent down. It's funny now. Yeah. I got sent down right away. And, and a big part of that too, is cause you know, they sacrifice so much for you growing up. And that was also mentioned in the article as well. Just like talk about like the influence that they had on your career. Yeah. Well, you know, it's nice because you know, I mean, we all kind of everyone that, that makes it to the top level, you know, I mean, we all kind of, everyone that makes it to the top level, you know, you thank your parents and your family.

And for me, they, you know, they sacrifice for themselves and for us all the time to just try to survive. We lived all over Canada, but it was always great. So their attitude is great. The way they raised us was great and how they always gave us an opportunity, especially me, to play hockey. I mean, I just played hockey for fun. And, you know, it's so rewarding to be able to play your first game, score your first goal, you know, meet idols or talk about teammates and be able to pick up the phone and share it with them. And, you know, a lot of moments, I think, in our lives, you know, you almost think I wish my buddies and my parents could be here. And, you know, I was glad I got to play so long because I got to share

a lot of the moments with them through just appreciating what they did for me. Spending the summers with them, too, it's like you get to tell these people stories. And it's like they're just NHL fans at heart. And then you're their family and best friends. It's such a cool thing to think about. But when you got to Columbus that year and you get called up, I mean, that's the first year of the Blue Jackets. That's right when the city gets a team. And there were some tough years.

But at the beginning, I mean, they had a pretty loud and proud fan base right off the bat, right? Oh, yeah. They were. So this town is a major sports town ohio state's 105 000 fans inside you know winning is everything i mean they lose this town shuts down um but they understand their sports so this is their team so they're all in and you know the fighting the goals uh the excitement i have in pittsburgh detroit was a big rival of course because ohio state michigan the energy was there the passion was there so you know a lot of times you see that the cheering would be off the charts and you'd be wondering what's happening well it

could be just simply you know a guy falls down for the other team and they're just all over it so they're a raucous crowd right away here jody we mentioned you mentioned Lyle Odeline. We've had him on the show. Just an unreal story, what he's gone through, what he came back from. But we've talked to other guys, too. Just an absolute doozy beauty of a teammate, right? Oh, I mean, so the old school Montreal Canadiens, to me, are the – I mean, their stories they have about after practice being together you know whatever whatever they did in montreal they did it all together beers yeah and they're all legends in

that department and to me lyle odeline um he's my first captain i get to columbus he could have told me i mean he could have said we're gonna go do whatever i mean i would have been like okay here we go you know you're lyle odeline let's. We used to go after practice and we would sit around and have Bud Lights and he would tell stories and we would eat chicken wings. And I would ask him, I would ask him a thousand questions and he would do it right until he'd be done. And at classic Odie, every time he's done, he'd stand, stand up and be like, all right, I got to go home. And he would leave. And he'd be the first guy at the rink the next day, showered, chew in, and he'd walk right by you by with a coffee like he didn't see it for a week be like good morning and he'd walk right by like nothing happened i'm like guy is awesome that's just old

school business right there have fun but show up for business and that's what i loved about od great guy team first guy uh and a real throwback. Were there some off-ice games you guys would play? Was it pool? Was it darts? What was the thing you guys were doing when you were crushing points? Yeah, you know what? We used to play Golden Tee. He used to play Golden Tee all afternoon. I mean the hours of Golden Tee.

He thought he was pretty good at it. He smashed me. He smashed me in that game. Yes. He's like, want to go? Okay, I've never played. I'm like, okay. There goes your bonus. He's just collecting in that game. Yes. He's like, want to go kid? I'd never played. I'm like, okay. There goes your bonus. Collecting my signing bonus. Yeah. There's, there goes your bonus. Just like Jody's.

Mine was quick. Jody, I want to bring up another date. January 10th, 2002. You fought Bob Probert once each period that game, what was the lead up to that? What was your mindset going through the game? Take us through that adventure. Well, that was the lead up to that what was your mindset going through the game take us through that adventure well that was i'll tell you what that was the moment where i was probably most scared of my career because bob probert was the guy and you know he was later in his career but i got put on the ice with him i remember the game was on in canada coast to coast on tsn on the network and i knew the boys were going to be watching back home.

And I was standing next to Bob Probert in a TV timeout. And I remember clearly thinking, wait till next shift to ask him. Right, Biz? You could always think, I'll do it later. I'll do it later. You understand that. And then, so I was content with that. And then I heard myself say, do you want to go?

And I was like, no. I was just saying I was struggling with it you know what I mean so he heard me ask him do you want to go he looks at me with his he's got these beady black eyes god bless his god rest his soul I mean he's passed along and but he looked through me and said I don't care and I was like okay I'm done first of all I could I was hoping he was gonna say no I'm not gonna First of all, I could, I was hoping he was going to say, no, I'm not going to fight you kid. But he's like, I don't care. I was like, oh my goodness, this is really going to happen. So this is the first fight we're in Chicago. You know, not a lot of fans are at the time and they still beat the drum though. Every time he threw a punch, they'd beat the drum. And I knew that. So I was like, I just don't want to hear that drum too many times. And I don't want the lights to go out, know get KO'd so we fight

I'm over I'm fighting scared and um anytime I lost a fight or I ended up not feeling good about it on the way to the box I said to the guy that I'd fought I said and I said to Probert uh we're going again we're going again we're going again we got to do that again and I said it out of 50 times I bet to him while we were in the penalty box. He didn't look at me once. But second period comes, and I'm on the ice, and we collide, and I look, and he's got his gloves off, and he's ready to go. We go again. But this time I grab him really good, and I actually cut him.

So, you know, this is the second period. So now I fought Perlberg twice. I remember going back to the locker room, and the two locker room and the two locker room attendants are still there in chicago to this day and every time i see them we have a chuckle because i walked in and they were like you just beat up bob robert and i'm like yeah this isn't good this is bad because we gotta play him again i gotta play him there's still another period so they're like do you want to Gatorade a towel? I'm like, no, I don't want anything.

I just want to sit here. So the guys come in. I remember Tyler, right? And the guys are like, you just beat up. I'm like, let's not talk about this. Cause I heard if he ever loses a fighter gets cut, he will get you back the next day, the next minute, the next month. It doesn't matter.

He'll get you. So I got to get ready for the third period. And I I'm on the bench and Dave King finally throws me out and Probert's out there. It's a face-off again. And I get over the boards and Kinger goes, get out there, Jody, but don't fight him. And so I stop and I look back at the bench and I'm like, Kinger, I got to fight him. He goes, well, don't take an extra two minutes. I'm like, what does that mean? Okay. So I go over Bob Probert cannot wait to get at me. His winger sees me hop on the ice, the right winger. He automatically just looks, he sees me skates across Proby comes over and then we go again. And, um, yeah, I survived it. I was happy about that. But the

worst part of the story is we had to play him again two nights later in Columbus. So I had to fight him again in the first period of that game in Columbus. But I survived it. It was probably the moment without Twitter and everything else. It was on TSN. It kind of gave me a name. So I thank him for that.

But it was the longest night of my life. What an unbelievable story. That's phenomenal. Phenomenal stuff. That's phenomenal. Phenomenal stuff. Nobody even knows what to ask you now. We're still trying to digest that. I was actually thinking he was just so feared by everyone. He had that presence.

And then what he did hockey-wise, too. He's an all-star. I feel like every guy's first chance to fight him is memorable and then you have that story it's just like that on steroids but he didn't have to fight me too and he could have said uh you know i don't care buzz off and i would have said thank you thank you very much that's a hall of fame reply i don't care yeah oh he was stoic what uh let's talk about about Dave King a little bit. Doug McClain as well, he was a big fan of you.

He kind of gave you that first opportunity, just being involved with that organization. I know that they stress you going down and putting that work on, working on your skating and your skills. There was a lot of work to put in. Oh, yeah. Those guys, man. I was lucky.

Those guys, they understood that I was a player that could be here at some point. They believed in me probably more than I believed in myself at times. But I think when you're in the minors, sometimes, you know, you hear people or you see people get disappointed. Oh, I was supposed to go up. You know, you see those guys are like, oh, he got the call. My agent told me I was going. The GM said this. I never got caught up in that.

And maybe they appreciated that. But I had some good people in my corner. And yeah, Doug McClain was definitely one of them. Kanger was awesome. Biz, he used to take me after practice. Picture this. I'd just get called up. So, you know, practice has ended.

And the head coach now has called me over. And we're doing quick feet crossover drills and stick handling drills side to side. And I'm looking around. I just want to fit in with the veterans. You know, I got, they got Ron Tugnut, Lyle O'Donnell, Jeff Sanders, and they're all kind of looking over like, you know, what is this hockey school that's going on right here in front of us? And, but he put in the time with me and I would have done it all night.

You know what I mean? But that's the kind of people and teacher that he was for me i want to bring up gerard gallant that was his first coaching gig ever at columbus he was known as a player's coach and he was getting pretty good results out of the team that was there it wasn't very deep uh then i'll say he got kind of canned out of nowhere and then they brought hitchcock right on did they basically fire gallant just to bring in hitchcock think it was an upgrade well i you know there was a lot going on in the organization that time. You know, they had some good players here that we just couldn't get going.

You know, it was past the expansion time. It was around 2007. You know, you had some good leadership, some good players. You wanted to reward those guys. And we just couldn't get going. And to this day, I still say, if we could have won some games with Gerard Gallant, there's no nicer person. There's no better coach. There's no guy who cares more about every single individual.

And we dropped the ball there and they had to go a different route. And a different route is more of a guy like Hitchcock, who's, you know, very intelligent coach, but he's very demanding. He's very on you every single shift, whereas Gerard would let you work through it understanding it as a player uh and and I think that's just what you'll see with organizations you know you get the the guy with the whip and then the next thing you'll get a player's coach they call it so that was happening in Columbus that's why that happened when when Nash came in I mean it was it was my draft he's 18 I think he had 40 50 points this rookie year like it had to be a feeling of like oh my god now we're now we're beginning you know i think klesla was a high pick prior to that but all right we're gonna go here and i know the the goal who did they pick in 2001 um was it leclerc yes yes and he kind of never really panned out and then it was like i know that that definitely

hurt them trying to build this nucleus but n Nash, what a game-breaker he was right off the bat. Yeah, he was special, big guy, great hands, the star, the first pick. It kind of kicked us to another level, a higher gear. You know what I mean? You remember Minnesota and us came in at the same time, and two years before that Nashville came in so there was a lot of players that were were passed around the league for those expansion

drafts and then you know Nash was that player that yeah he was a guy that you know the all-star he scored 42 I think his second or third year I mean he was a guy that shared the Rock and Richard trophy with I think it was a Gimlet that year. Yeah, he helped us a little bit, but it still took time. I mean, this organization now finally, with torts and with the players that they've got here, they're finally getting going. But, you know, at those times, they just couldn't piece it together. They couldn't put the pieces around Nash that would help. The last guy I was going to ask you about before we move on to San Jose

was Sergei Fedorov. Oh, awesome. That's like, you you know that guy comes into the room you're like this guy is you know one of the best russians of all time and what was he like off the ice he was awesome he was uh he was so uh just in his own little world you know like major superstar i remember being in vancouver and we were out to lunch uh having lunch together um we were eating uh we were out for sushi and there was a bunch of people that were uh like knew who he was but it's almost like he didn't know how famous he was it was like he was like why are all these people can you believe all these people are trying to get pictures of us and i'm like us trying to get pictures of us trying to get pictures of us? And I'm like, us trying to

get pictures of us trying to get pictures of you, Sergey. What do you think? So I'm like, yes, they're trying to get pictures of you. I'll just sit here in the background. And he was like, it was almost like he didn't understand that that was happening at the time. He was such a great guy, a humble person, a guy that, you know, always had was fidgeting with something on the ice, like trying to improve his game but off the ice he was fun really into uh different things like diet he would criticize my diet i'm like sergey i'm just eating you know i'm just eating chicken no that chicken is cooked wrong i'm like okay teach me man but uh he's a real great guy yeah biz like you mentioned you

moved on to san jose after that You got traded in January of 08. Now, Joe Thornton, the guy's been around forever, but I feel like we're finding more and more stories each year just how much of a character he is. You were there for three years with him. What was that like? I got to tell you, man, I'm so excited for the Toronto Maple Leafs because I see the energy from the young guys, and I understand it.

I mean, we used to go to the rink early, and we would leave late just because the energy and the practice. This is practice, practice arena because of that guy. The way he approached life, the way he approaches the game, the way he's just a kid, you know what I mean? It's amazing. One of the greatest stories for me is, so we're in San Jose and it's the father's trip. Okay. So my dad, you know, gets the year, Joe Thornton, right? You

know, the father's trips are great. All the dads are there. It's loose. And so my dad's talking to Joe and I'm thinking, Oh, what's my dad talking to Joe about? So I get over there and they're like, my dad's finished saying, now when you guys get to Edmonton, because my parents live in Edmonton now, when you guys come to Edmonton, Joe, we're going to knock the snow off the barbecue and we'll have you out for dinner. And I'm thinking, and Joe's like, oh, yeah, yeah, we'll be there. We'll be there. We'll have the whole team out. And I'm like, oh, don't even start because my dad will be ready. My parents'll be there. We'll be there. We'll have the whole team out. And I'm like, oh, don't even start. Cause you know, my dad will be ready. My parents will be ready. So about six weeks later, we're in, uh, we're in, we're getting ready for the Edmonton trip. Okay. But about a month before that, my mom starts calling. She's like, now,

Bill Thornton said that, um, you guys are going to come out for dinner. I said, mom, listen, you guys are 30 minutes from the hotel. We're not going to, we're are going to come out for dinner. I said, mom, listen, you guys are 30 minutes from the hotel. We're not going to, we're not going to probably come to dinner. Um, I don't want you guys to get excited and plan it. And then not everyone, you know, no, one's going to come, but, um, you know, just, just plan on me and a couple of guys coming, just three of us will be there. So, you know, I, I'm not asking Joe on the, on the trip, but I'm not saying, Hey, we're going to my dad's, we're going to go to my parents for dinner. You said it, you know, I'm not asking Joe on the trip at all. I'm not saying, hey, we're going to my dad's. We're going to go to my parents for dinner. You said it.

You know, I'm just kind of waiting to see what's happening. So even the day before, I didn't say a word. My parents were wondering. So now it's the day of and we land in Edmonton. We drive, what is it, 45 minutes from the airport to downtown to the hotel. Just as the bus pulls in, Joe looks at me and goes hey joe are we going to uh ned and doreen's for dinner and i'm like so i stand up i'm like yeah okay anybody that wants to come to my mom and dad's for dinner we're having steak we're going to leave in a half hour so um you know i

go up and get changed i call my dad i'm like listen you might want to get my brother luke to bring his truck down because i think there might be two carloads of guys, but I don't know what's going to happen. He's like, oh, we're ready. We got the beer in the snow bank, the barbecue knocked off and the steaks are ready. I said, okay. So I get down in the lobby and there's a group of eight guys, I think seven or eight guys ready to go. So I look at the group and I, and I, well, I'm the first one to walk out the door to see my dad's face, right? But the group is – so it's Joe Thornton, Rob Blake, Jeremy Roenick, Claude Lemieux, and Ryan Clow, and Dougie Murray. Who am I missing?

Someone else in there? So this is the legends that are walking up. My dad is like – you know, his jaw is dropping. So we go out, we have dinner. They tell stories. They sit around like they're buddies. You know, Joe's there in the middle of everything. We're watching hockey.

We're eating steaks. 30-minute drive out, 30-minute back. And it was one of the greatest nights for my family to have them out there. It was awesome. But it was all Joe. I mean, he's that type of guy. We've had a lot of stories. That just, that like sums it all up though what everyone says teammate and a person

that's great he's a good dude what is uh i'd like to take i'd like to get your point of view on what you remember about um in 09 we played i was in anaheim we played you guys i think san jose you guys won the president's trophy that year we beat you in the first round. And it was a huge upset. Granted, we had Pronger and Niedermeyer playing like 40 minutes each. But do you remember the game? I think it was game three where Thornton and Getzlaff went right off the opening draw. Yes. Did you know that was coming?

Had Joe said anything? Or was that a complete? Oh, OK. So we knew that was coming. And I think Pepe, Claude Lemieux, had gotten his ear about it. Because I don't know if Claude had done that or someone had done that in Jersey at one point. But remember, Claude had come in from the China Sharks. He started over in China with the Sharks and ended up in the San Jose Sharks.

And he brought all that experience. And I think that was one of the things was to kind of help with those situations. But yeah, I think Joe was just trying to get going, get something, get some momentum to start. But that was, that was something that was talked about. We were ready to watch that one.

I remember, I remember thinking like, Oh, this is going to be all over like TSN ESPN. I don't even cover, cover this two superstars going toe to toe. Yeah, that was,

that was right at the opening draw. Yeah, I remember that. That was – Do you think a lot of it had to do with – It didn't work. Do you think a lot of it had to do with maybe the criticism at the time? Because they had these good teams for a long time, and they were never even able to get out of the first round, I think.

Maybe it was the second. First or second, I think. Yeah. But for the longest time. I think it was the pressure we could feel. I think, you know something had to happen we were playing kind of on the outside getting dominated presidents trophy winners you know what's happening here in the first round uh no question it was something to

show a little more desperation i think um i would say probably you know when i was playing with the coyotes i had no idea how loud that arena was probably Probably one of the more underrated fan bases, at least during that time in the entire National Hockey League. I think it is. And I didn't know what it was going to be like once I got there. But there's nothing like the playoff atmosphere in that building because it is a little smaller, it is a little louder, and it feels like the fans are on top of you a little bit more.

And their fans are passionate. You come out of that shark's head and they all got the white pom-poms going and it's it's electric it's uh you're right it is louder than you would think jody excuse me then you end up with the rangers there was a real cup of coffee there but definitely some characters in your time there obviously you played for torts sean avery there chris drury uh what was your experience like that must be awesome just to play on broadway in new york there's such a history behind it it was phenomenal it was it was amazing and and you know ra the greatest part about new york for me was the mindset that i had because i thought my career was going to be over you know what i mean i got traded from san jose

uh i didn't i didn't know where i was going to end up. I knew I was there on the deadline, and I just went to New York as a ranger. You know, my son was born in San Jose. It was a big move for me and my wife to move to New York, but we said to each other, like, let's just go enjoy it. That's exactly what we did. She was pregnant at the time. My son was sleeping in the closet in a hotel. You know, the whole crib was set up in the closet, but I walked, I mean, it was the most amazing thing. Cause you know, Madison square garden down there on 34th and to get there from, we were on the South of central South part of central park, you know,

you go through all the traffic and hustle and bustle and you get to the garden and there's a guy there with the rope and the kind of like the velvet rope and he recognizes you and he's like, Oh, Mr. Shelley in and i'm like that is the coolest thing i've ever seen and then you're in madison square garden and you're having uh practice days you're having lunch um i remember one that one day in the practice facility uh mark messier was in the the um he was in the the lunch room you know he shared the lunchroom with the Knicks. And, you know, there was already eight guys in the lunchroom, but there was a table for four with eight guys around it and no one was sitting with mess. So I was like, you know, I was kind of like, screw this.

I'm going to sit with Mark. This is a chance to have lunch. You know what I mean? So I sit down and I'm like, Hey, anybody sitting here? He goes, no, sit down. I'd love for you to join me. So I'm sitting there having lunch with Mark here? He goes, no, sit down. I'd love for you to join me. So I'm sitting there having lunch with Mark Messi, I think, and, you know, this is unbelievable. So Glenn Sather, all those people are there.

You're in New York City. But I think my mindset, my attitude was the greatest thing because the Ranger Blue, Madison Square Garden, the energy there, and I always wondered what it was like after a game, you know, like everyone just kind of disappears into the night. You don't see a teammate for like the whole day, the whole, you know, you do whatever you want. And I thought that was a really cool part of that city too. That was your first experience with John Tortorella.

Yeah, it was. And I loved it. Yeah, I mean, I imagine a guy like you, he's going to really respect and not going to give you too much shit when you're doing what you're doing for the team. But what do you remember about battles with Gabrick and other guys? Well, it was interesting because, you know, it's so late in the year and those guys that had him for so long that I didn't really get into that stuff.

I kind of watched from afar. I remember being asked to go over the boards and Gabrick sitting on the bench and I was like, Oh, okay. Gabrick, this is, you know, but that's, I felt bad for a second, but that's how, you know, that's how Torts coached and that's what was happening. So for me, you know, I was playing like 14 minutes a night. I was getting great situations, but to see Gabrick sit there, it was kind of like, okay, this is how it works. But, you know, they already had the history there. Things like that surprised me. Um, but you know, Wade Redden, the experience with Wade Redden, how, um,

you know, he was trying so hard and the fans were on top of them. Um, the experience with that, that was my first experience with the real, the original six team and the fans being that ruthless on a player they were upset with. And then I had a lot of long talks with Redden about you know just what was going through and what it was like and um you know there was some interesting dynamics on that team for sure Brandon Prust, Brian Boyle, some great great people there too so it was a it was overall a good experience. You mentioned the star factor of going out with Fedorov I could imagine if you went out with Henrik Lundqvist it'd be very similar in NYC well yeah and there was a couple times where we went to a couple clubs and you

know him and and Sean Avery they're so well known they know the city so well that you know it was seamless getting into anywhere and I always it was curious what it was like but you know we go to like One Oak or a place like that and you know everything was set up and everything was they could feel that we were way cooler with those guys around because they were they were so well known and we were just we were still trying to be known were you shocked at the antics that avery brought to hockey had that been the first time you'd ever seen it to that extent well i'd played against them so you know I wasn't I was I had heard some of the things he said but to be on the bench with him and hear what he would say to some people I was shocked I mean there was a couple things he said where I had to move down a couple get a

couple people away from him just be like oh my goodness I mean he just melted guys he just melted them and it was just it was ruthless man it was it was some of it was hard to hear well jord you only had 21 games with the ranges but you must have done something right because july 1st first day of free agency the flyers come along gave you a deal and i mean that just seemed like a perfect spot for you a tough guy philadelphia's history like a match made in heaven though well i'll tell you all right i had a good showing against the the Flyers at the end of that season.

It was that home-and-home sequence. And my buddy Boosh was in that, and I had a couple goals on him. And we almost made the playoffs. That was 2010 when they went all the way to the Cup. You know, it was us or them. It came down to a shootout. That's right, yeah. And it was Ole Okunin that got stoned by Brian Boucher on that last shot

that sent us back home on the train. The season was over, and they were off to end up playing Chicago in the finals there when Kane scored that goal. So, yeah, Philly was awesome. I mean, you guys know what it's like to play against the Philadelphia Flyers, Witt and Biz, and it's not easy. But when you're on the inside, it's a really passionate and fun place to be. We lived in the practice rinks over in New Jersey.

Me and my family lived in New Jersey. Some of the best times we had were away from Columbus. We're in that little town of Haddonfield, New Jersey. It was a great setup, a lot different than I thought. But the fans are so passionate. They care so much. They'll be in your face, but you really feel the the love they have for you and it was it was a good fit for me uh did you have a ticket punched to dry island while you were there or did you opt not to go i was on the island for about a week and i was like i'm not doing this

anymore i remember erasing my name off the board i I was like, forget this. How bizarre was that? I'd heard that Carter and Richards, they hadn't even been given the heads up that this was coming at them. I don't know. I didn't know the backstory of it. Again, I was pretty naive with a lot of these things that were going on behind the scenes. I look back and I think, well, how was I not more aware of what was going on?

But this was an established team when I got there that had just gone to the finals so and here I come in I'm like oh this is that was that was a good year I hope we can do the same or better so I'm just kind of like you know just trying to fit in and help where I can I didn't get involved with that I didn't know that they weren't they weren't aware of it but I remember when the whole thing came up and guys signed up and guys didn't. And I was like, what do you mean dry island? Explain this to me. Like, could you imagine Lyle Odeline hearing dry island?

He would have fucking walked out of the room. He might have sunk it. Actually, I want to ask, how was your experience playing for Laviel at dry island aside? Would you call him a players coach, an old school coach? He seems like sort of a blend. I would think, I don't know, old school. I think he's a motivator. You know, he's a guy that he did a great job pumping us up.

He had a lot of creative things away like dry Island and, and motivational videos and just thoughts. And, you know, the, the way that he would get the team fired up just before they went on the ice, he was really good at, you know, my role with him. He just didn't, I mean, that's not part of his game. So it was a struggle for me to get in the lineup on a more regular basis, but he was good to me. He was fair to me. You know what I mean? Like he wasn't like he was unfair. But I would call him maybe the mix is a good call.

The players coach and a little bit of an old school, maybe a little bit there. I would agree with that. Very aware. Your first year in the NHL, one game. Your last year, one game. How did it all come to an end? You know, that's a really uh that's a

great question because um it was so weird because um i had a hip problem okay so i had to have hip surgery but what i was going to be after the season so um i had played one game that season, and Labiolette wanted to address me in Toronto, and they had Colton Orr and Frazier McLaren ready for me. I think it might have even been a Saturday night. So I hadn't played in a while, you know what I mean? I was 37 years old, two kids and a wife at home, and this was when I knew I was done. Because pregame skate in the morning,

Laviolette comes up to me, goes, you ready to go tonight? I'm like, oh yeah. Always had that answer, right? Always. He goes, all right, you're in. And I'm like, at the minute he told me that I had a hole, I had this empty feeling in my stomach. I went back to the hotel and I could always nap.

I could always take a nap. I had no problem sleeping in the afternoon. I couldn't nap. So I called the trainer, Jim McCrossin, and I explained to him, I said, you know, my hip, it just doesn't feel, and he's like, okay, all right, I'll tell the coach. So I got back to the, he didn't call me back. I got back to the rink at five o'clock for a seven o'clock game, or 4.30 for a seven o'clock game, and my name was not on the board. So I went to Jimmy, the trainer. I said, am I not in?

He goes, no, no, we took you out. You take care of your hip. The whole thing was, you know, they knew. And I had always said to myself, if I didn't have the fire, I would not go out and fight. So I was proud. At the moment, I was heartbroken. But when he told me I was not in the lineup, I was so relieved. I mean, I'd never – it was like a thousand pound elephant

right off my shoulders and I just kind of was like this is it man this is it and I remember Scott Hartnell came over and he talked to me I told him I was almost in tears and Paul Holmgren who's uh who's one of the classiest people ever to be involved with hockey uh we had a nice moment where he came over and he said he looked me in the eye and he said, you did the right thing there. You did the right thing there. And I was like, man, I don't even, I didn't want him to know that I knew what he was talking about, but it was like a moment of respect that only, you know, you gotta be there and you gotta be in that moment and do what we do to

understand what it was like. And it was really a, it was a moment. I was, I was so thrilled that it was over, but it was, it was a moment I was so thrilled that it was over, but I was glad that I knew it. From a guy, too, who played the game as hard as anyone in Holmgren. It was such a fraternity-type thing, you know what I mean? He knows what you've been through. That's so true when the relief kicks in. You're like, oh, my God, I can't do it anymore.

That's the relief. I don't have it but crazy story for you to just figure it out that quickly you know it's weird it's like you can't take a nap that day and all of a sudden that's it well i think i must have been building up you know what i mean it must have been like the more that i was i remember being at home and and and i you know i would go healthy scratch for like 12 games in a row my last year and I would still go upstairs my wife with two young kids and I would be like well uh it's time for me to go take my pre-game nap and knowing I wasn't playing and she'd be like okay and then finally she's like I'm going up one day and she's like really you're gonna go take a nap and I was

like uh I guess not I guess it's over it was kind of coming see how long you can get away with it now yeah you said you said there like that weight off your shoulders how long before that turns to well what am I going to do next yeah that was uh so I was still inside the ropes you, at that latter part of the year, knowing I was going to be done. I knew I had to have hip surgery, so I got that taken care of. I kind of knew I was done. But, yeah, then that's when the scary feeling comes of now what, you know. My wife's from Columbus area, so I knew I'd be back here. When I got traded from the Blue Jackets in 08, they very kind gesture and saying, make sure when you're done with all this circle back.

But you know, you're wondering, is that still, is that, you know, the phone call is still available. I fought 15 guys from Columbus since then. Like, do they still want me to bowler? So I'm like, you know, so I get back there and, and then do they really want me? So the other, it was, they offered me a radio job and I was going to actually go.

Sergei Fedorov, who you mentioned earlier, was the president in Moscow there for CSK or whatever. And he had an offer on the table and I was kind of thinking about going. But, you know, and then I was thinking, what if this media availability with the Blue Jackets isn't there in a year and I've gone to Russia and, you know, what am I doing?

So it was right away, Biz, I was wondering what it was going to be like to answer your question, but it kind of fell into place easily. Yeah, Jody, I mean, I think you're a natural at it. You're one of the better color commentators out there. What I wanted to ask, NHL's deal with NBC expires this year. There's speculation they're going to have ESPN and NBC involved going forward. Is it possible we'll see you maybe on a national platform? Are you content in Columbus? Well, you know what? I was content early, R.A., with just being in Columbus. But, you know,

I think there's a lot of people that do both. I see Keith Jones doing both. So I'm going to try to take a run at it. I see guys like Witt and Biz, these guys, and you guys, you guys are tearing it up. So, you know, why would you be content? I think, you know, especially with a new, new horizon coming in, I don't want to give up the blue jackets thing. I love this organization. I love being a part of it, but I think it's worth taking a run at. That's a great point. Adapt or die, Jody. Adapt or die, buddy. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, you guys are a great example.

You're doing the pink Whitney and the media. I mean, it's like you guys are blazing the trail here, especially for hockey. I'm too afraid of the networks because every time I'm on live air, I'm like, oh, no, what am I going to say to get fired here? Do you have that feeling in your stomach of like, oh, am I about to drop an F-bomb or say something stupid? Yeah, I think you have to have that. You have to be a little nervous every time you're around a mic or else. I mean, you see what's happening to people. You got to be sharp, frosty. You got to be frosty, Biz. Hot mic.

It used to be hot mic. You'd be the guy mic'd up at practice or a game. You're like, boys, I got a mic on. Hot mic, hot mic. And now it's like everything we do, we got to be a little scared. Did you guys ever do that HBO? Did you ever have that? Oh, yeah.

I remember you were on the one year, the Winter Classic lead up. I wish I had. They did a great job with that. It's amazing the work they put in. And even funnier is you'd be in practice. They get to be a part of the background. And you'd look over on the glass after having a conversation with two or three guys in practice, and two or three of them

with the boom mic and the cameras, they'd be laughing, just dying laughing because you forget they're listening to your conversation. But they were great. I'd like to see some of those tapes in the vault of the HBO 24-7 HBO after hours. Yeah, a lot gets left in the cutting room floor. I'm sure I had one more for you. Obviously, when you came about and play, there's a lot more fighting, a lot more physicality.

You know, it's obviously toned down a bit. But do you think the game is at a perfect balance of like grit and finesse right now where if guys want to fight, they can. But the talent's too good to not have it fully flowered, I guess. No, I always think there's more room for emotion. You know what I mean? I look at the Battle of Alberta, 7-1, and nothing going on, nothing really happening. I just think that still the mindset of a certain mentality

of representing your town, your province, your state, whatever it is, your fan base, especially now when the fans aren't there. I know it's hard, but I love the emotional part of the game. I love the fact that especially that you can settle the score. I'd like to see a little more of it. I don't mean in a bad way. I would just like to see a little more fight from. I don't mean in a bad way. I would just like to see a little more fight from some teams,

a little more in your face. But I don't know if it's a perfect balance. I think it's gone a little far one way. But in saying that, I know, you know, the optics are bad when there's big, always fights and big fights. But I would like to see just a little bit more, to tell you the truth, a little more fire in this game. Perfect. I don't even know what a little bit more, to tell you the truth, a little more fire in this game. Perfect.

I don't even know what else to ask you, Jody. This has been fucking unbelievable. You guys are thorough. You guys are awesome. This has been really good. Is there one or maybe even a few stories that you were like, oh, man, I got to tell this one because, you know, I'm sure you have a lot that are in the vault,

but any ones you can share that we didn't bring up. I, you know what? I, that's always a tough question. I ask it sometimes and I'm like, I feel like a donkey. I think it's a great, it's a great question. You know, and I think getting prepared for you guys, I thought of a few things. I really wanted to tell that story of having those guys out to my house because I mean, it was a major name dropping session there with the guys, but it was such a reward for my, was she too there or Marlo or did you, I mean, it was a major name-dropping session there with the guys, but it was such a reward for my –

Was Chi-Chu there or Marlo? Or those – one of the other names. That came out with us? You forgot a few, but don't worry about it. He was kind of like lightning in a bottle, too. He wasn't dead that long. It was Blake – Rob Blake, Jeremy Roenick, Claude Lemieux, Joe Thornton. So, yeah, that's what it was.

And then Dougie Murray, Ryan ryan clove myself that's that's the group that came but i mean you know yeah it was nice to have jr hanging out on the couch just telling stories you know that was what that was a story i wanted to tell are there any guys that you fought in the past you're still sour about and wouldn't turn down a dozy doe today with no you know i i you, there's no real guys. I left it out there. You know what I mean? I just kind of – I think we were all so relieved that when the fight was over

that we just kind of got it done and out of the way. But, no, there's no animosity. I'm glad I got to fight Biz, though. He was so polite, you know. You gave me my start, buddy. After that one, I got to hang around Arizona for a little bit. So, Jody, yeah, but I thank you so much for everything, for coming on. I know our fans are going to love this.

And congratulations on a wonderful career and even a better or at least a comparable post-career. You're buzzing right now, buddy. Well, thanks, man. I appreciate you guys having me on. You guys are killing it. And this has been my pleasure. You guys are great.

I think more games than me and you combined, biz fucking guy. Great, great job. Thanks for coming on. And we appreciate it. Have a great one, Jody. Just a great guy. Great story. One of the more well-liked guys in the league over the last several years.

So big thanks to him for coming on once again fought probert four periods in a row insane insane story man like how about probert i don't care like is that an all-time fucking fight oh shit well you guys have heard us talk about whoop it truly is our favorite fitness wearable it's the fitness tracker that provides 24-7 personalized sleep, training, and recovery insights to help you unlock your potential. Each day it measures how well you slept, how recovered you are, and

how much stress you put on your body from both your workouts and just going about your everyday life. WHOOP is won by some of your favorite athletes in the NHL and on the PGA Tour, but it's not meant for just the professional athletes. Whoop can help anyone improve their performance by providing personalized, actionable data to help you make smarter decisions.

Whether you're looking to sleep a little better, a training for an event, or just looking to build healthier habits in 2021, Whoop can help you reach your goals of a healthier life. The Chicklets boys have all been wearing Whoop for a while now, and we've already turned our sleep and recovery into a competition. I'm kicking ass in the sleep pod. 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. Whoop has helped me get smarter about the way I train and has made me much more aware of my body's sleep and recovery. And right now, Whoop is offering 15% off when you use the code CHICKLETS at checkout. That's C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. So go to whoop.com. That's W-H-O-O-P.com to join now. Sleep better, recover faster, and train smarter this year and beyond with Whoop. He tracks his feet miles when he's doing fucking circles on the live stream with his Whoop. The feet, yeah, the activeness of the feet is just like, they're like, hey, it's not supposed to be on your toe.

It's your forearm or your wrist. But whoop is phenomenal, so check it out now. And, R.A., we were throwing it to the Shelly interview, and R.A. gets a text from your mom. It was your mom who texted you? Yes, yes. About the feet thing. Is she concerned at all about which shirt, or is it just your feet?

No, I don't even think it was. She didn't mention the feet. No, she said, send him a new shirt. Be a gentleman. Hi, Bri. Saw all the tweets. All okay? A little over-exaggerated, I think.

Check in with me. Okay? It's like, I'm like, Ma, taping now, Ma. Ma, I'm fine. It was a sponsored live watch for a beer company that sends us beer to watch the game. Please ignore internet comments. Because people are saying he had Coke feet last night. Hey, the Coke feet was the fun.

I've never seen Coke feet. I don't usually respond to rumors, but can we just say how much food I ordered at dinner last night? No, there was no. Oh, is that a sign that you haven't been doing woof? That's what I read on the internet. I think that was R.A. just completely buzzed up. But the fidgetiness and the feet and then the mom's text. How old are you?

46. I wish. 48. You want to make it tougher than this? She looks like you looks really fucked up. What are we doing for R.A.'s 50th? What would you want to do for your 50th? He's going to put those sandals on,

and he's going to dance those coke feet up a storm at some club. Vegas. We're bringing you to Vegas? I love it. For my 50th, when it happens, sure. Hey, let's get Portner to get R.A. a PJ for his 50th to Vegas. There's got to be some sort of bet here that we can make in order to get you that. Yeah, I mean, we're a ways away from it right now, so I don't have to figure it out right now.

Let's put 50 off. I think I'll get him one if he puts lotion on his legs every day until then. Put the fucking lotion in the basket. If you send me a video every day. Actually, I don't want to see that video. We'll figure something out. It puts the lotion on its feet. I know what that one is.

Silence of the Lambs? Oh, fuck me. Yeah, you get it. Buffalo Bill. That's like the first ever one I got. Did that win Best Picture? It did. That movie's incredible.

One of three movies to sweep out of the five major Oscars. The end. Spoiler alert. If you haven't seen Sounds of the Lambs yet, the end when it's pitch black and he's got the fucking night vision goggles on is just terrifying moments of film. Creepy. And Anthony Hopkins, he's only in that movie for like less than 20 minutes the entire time, but he's such a presence in it,

it feels like he's in the whole goddamn thing. He might be up for another Oscar this year, Anthony Hopkins, but we'll save that for another time. Let's move over to the Central Division. I'm still screwing these names up. Tampa Bay, they lost two straight games. People started wondering what's wrong. Blow it up.

Yeah. Four straight wins. Hedman gone. Do I have a trade for you? Do I have a trade for you? Jeff Skinner, Eichel, and who else are we throwing there? Halsey, package deal for Kuch, Vasilevsky, and Hedman. Straight up, keep the change.

Cap works out. Let's roll it. I'll tell you, what I like, guys, is it took fucking 20-something years. We're finally getting like an intrastate rivalry between Florida and San Francisco. For years, the games really haven't meant anything. But, I mean, obviously the divisions this year are playing each other a bunch. But it feels like there's finally like a true rivalry developing. I agree with you on that.

And Florida has not slowed down. I think we originally said, I don't know about this, they had the delay of the season because of COVID. You got to talk about Drieger. And am I saying it correct? Drieger? Not for me. I thought it was Drieger. Drie I saying it correct? Drieger? Good enough for me. I thought it was Drieger, but...

Drieger, I feel bad. It's a tough one. Without him... Mix in a few more wins and give us a bigger sample size and we'll remember your last name. No offense. Guys, I had NHL announcers call me Bissonetti. So don't even fucking start.

Bissonetti took warm-ups ups again but he won't be playing the Italian, former cyclist 21st straight scratch for Bistanetti he's now flipping pizzas in the concourse G you can get an autograph at the first intermission he set the record for a one way contract being healthy scratched

to the Italian how did this guy get a one way again? oh yeah, Twitter Newport Sports Management. Shout out Mark Guy. Fucking Hamburglar. He should have won agent of the year for five years. Your agent probably got you that one way and was like, oh, my.

He celebrated his dick off that night. He's like, I got Paul Bissonnette a one-year deal. His wife's like, isn't it Bissonnette? He's like, oh, shit Bissonnette, a one-year deal. His wife's like, isn't it Bissonnette? He's like, oh, shit. Oh, okay, cool. Patrick Kane scored his 400th goal, the 100th player in history. I reached that number. The eighth active guy.

And since he's joined the league, only Ovechkin and Stamkos have more goals than Patty Kane since he entered. You see his interview after? He's like, it just makes me hungrier for more. Like, he just did a fucking goal bump in the fucking back room before he came on. 400 tucks and he's staring into the camera. He ain't going to stop playing until he becomes the best American ever to play.

He is. Is he already the best American ever? Yes. Well, I think so. Barstool Chief, I'll address something else with him in a second. I saw him, I don't know if it was a blog or a tweet today that said patrick kane is the best american born hockey player of all time and i i agree with it i think he like just everything he's done the way he's played how long he's done it the cups he has everything that you need when you're talking about like you know he doesn't have what a gold medal not saying that it's the

end all be all but he will get to try to put who are the best american-born players of all time oh i don't know i was just saying one thing that he didn't have i was like okay yeah all right well you stick to your country up north back to chief i saw he uh i think he threw the word buffoon uh after my name on red line radio we're big barstow chicago guys but chief that fucking clown called me a buffoon. Now, I said the Blackhawks have no chance of making the playoffs. I still don't think they do. Dallas has been horrific.

They're going to figure it out. They've played more games. Chicago, I don't think, is getting in the playoffs. They're way better than I thought. But Chief chucking a buffoon to me. I don't know if anyone listening has ever listened to a snake draft. They've probably listened to the one I did where I just dominated all four of those clowns in one hour sit-down. Chief is the worst drafter of all time. They call him Baratta.

What's the cheese? Baratta Gang. Baratta Gang because he makes these horrible claims. I think he – what did he want for – they did a Fourth of July barbecue, and I want to say that's when he might have bought like a Beretta salad. Like he's just a clown. He's calling me a buffoon. He can take a hike.

I do think Chicago is enjoyable to watch. They have guys and Debrinket should get shouted out because he was shit and he's bounced back. He's looked awesome, but it all comes back to Kane and it all comes back to this dude that you think might slow down. Maybe this is the year. Nope. He's right there.

He's top five player in the league. And I think that the way he's doing it this year when the expectations weren't high and he's truly carrying this team without taves makes it even that much more special. Fucking Barata, man. Chief, what a Muppet. To Patrick Kane. To 500. Yeah, 11 goals, 23 assists in 23 games.

He absolutely has that team on his back. Columbus, tough week for them. They've lost five in a row, won five and 23 assists in 23 games. He absolutely has that team on his back. Columbus, tough week for them. They've lost five in a row, won five and two in their last eight. This is when job stuff comes up with coaches. But Tortorella's not worried. He's going to do what it's going to do. He's in his sixth season as a coach, which is typically when teams— Wouldn't that be a fucking curveball?

Oh, baby. Drop the hammer on Torch. Do it! What's the GM's name again? Jarmo Kikolainen. Do it. Do it now. Do it for us. Imagine the Habs went the non-French route and wore it with

Torch. Quick gas of Dominic. Torch comes in first, press conference with a poutine, throws it on the ground. He's like, not on my watch, motherfuckers. Oh, man. Hey, turn it into WWE. Do it.

Let's fucking go, man. Oh, well, that gets us to Binnington. Or is that the West? Binnington? That was WWE. We'll get to that in a second. The league threw a curveball at us with throwing St. Louis in the West. Thanks a lot, Bettman.

St. Louis and Colorado. We mentioned Dallas. They're last and the West. Thanks a lot, Bettman. St. Louis and Colorado. We mentioned Dallas. They're last in the division. I know they've only played 16 games, but you've got to kind of feel bad for them, I think, because COVID has absolutely wreaked havoc on their schedule. You know, it's really through no fault of their own. Some guys are getting on the list. They've done nothing wrong. But what are they? 6-6-4. I mean,

Detroit does have one more point than them, but Detroit's also played, I think, eight more games. But is Dallas going to pull together with and get, or I'm with it and get the contention here in this division or what? Yeah, I think they have an excellent team. My only issue is the fact that they're going to play this insane condensed schedule. And I don't know how that's going to affect. These guys aren't robots. So I saw the Coyotes play the Avalanche, not saying that they're on par with the Avalanche,

but Avalanche had played three less games and they came off two losses to where it's like three less games means like one less game per week where Coyotes played four games in one week. That's fucking crazy, man. That's fucking crazy. I know. Four NHL games in one week and that's going to be them for months. For two months. For two months.

Well, and that brings up the point where they could have gone with the 48-game schedule, and they could have been like, but what they did is with the 56, it does give them wiggle room because there is a legitimate chance that teams don't all get to 56. I think that if that happened the league would have to see it coming to a certain degree and they would have to figure out a way to slow it down on the back end so well i think that it would be ridiculous for let's say the north division what seems like the division that's going to for sure play 56 just given how how buttoned up canada is as far as, right? That's just based on fucking stats.

They shouldn't have to play 56 games where other teams are only playing 50. Six games in a condensed schedule is a major energy exertion factor. They should slow it down on the back end if that is the case. I was reading also the possibility, and it seems crazy to me, but where you you could actually pick the playoff teams based on point percentage if a team didn't wasn't able to play as many games right like then you're looking at like whoa whoa whoa hold on like how are you gonna how are you gonna say that what they've done prior means that they're they would have done well i mean they

essentially did it last year with the fact that they let 24 fucking teams in because they didn didn't want to eliminate teams that like, yeah, there's enough schedule here where that could have made a difference. So do you have to do that again if all of a sudden that happens? So I say you get ahead of it about like three quarters of the way. What does Dallas have played right now? 16 games. Oh, my God. The Coyotes have played at least 21. And to back up your point about points percentage, it should be noted that NHL.com has

added that to the standings. If you look, they had points. That's them warming us up for a playoff team that is fifth in points. You think Bettman's putting the mind torpedo in us early? We don't even fucking notice it? I think that maybe the reason I'm reading that is because the league wants that out there and has certain reporters possibly

reportering it. And right now, I apologize for ruining the flow I had earlier when I fucked up the Bruins fight with the Rangers, but now I'm fucking back. Yeah, you're back. Me just figuring out what the NHL is doing, that's big-time podcasting. With the point percentage?

Yeah, just put it all together right there. Thanks to Labatt Blue Light. Thanks to Pink Whitney. What a day we're having, except for the fact I have toe cheese on an old shirt that I had to burn. I will remember you. A buddy of yours had his first hat. I will remember me.

All right, no. Sam Gagne, who RA just brought up, had his first hat trick, and I think it's what, eight years? Nine years. Nine years. That was my last year in the NHL. Or maybe the next year? Either way, Sam Gagne has been such a great teammate and such a great guy that it makes a lot of sense for a team like Detroit to have him this year. And knowing – Detroit knows they're not going to get in the playoffs.

But they have a veteran who they can really count on teaching the younger players what it's like to be a pro. And he still can play. And he's had times where he's in the minors. Was he over in Europe at one point? I might be completely making that one up. But either way, Gags is a guy

who, when I saw him get the hat trick, I was so fired up. It reminded me of the night when he had eight friggin' points. I was going to ask you. That was the night. I thought it was either him or Eberle. That was the last time he had a hat trick, was the eight-point game against the Blackhawks.

I had one of the goals. Funny enough, people say that that shouldn't have been an assist for him, my goal. I think that was my first goal in close to 40 games. I did the old monkey off the back throw. No, you did. Yeah, pigeon move. Did you? Yeah, but I knew. I did the old monkey off the back throw. No, you did. Yeah, pigeon move. Did you? Yeah, but I

knew. I was like, god damn it, finally. But Gags, yeah, he what do you got here for me? He was in Austria, but that might have been the lockout. Yeah, that was the lockout. But he was in the AHL with the Marlies, Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and Bakersfield, and then he got a chance

with Columbus. I think he was awesome that season on the power play at 18 goals. So I'm looking at his stats and seeing how long he's played. 860 games played, 31 years old. He's been in the NHL since he was 18. So that's just the guy you're happy for. I wouldn't mind if you got a watch. I know, 140 more.

Fuck, I hope he gets it. It might be tough. Come on, Stevie, why? But Gags is going to come on. Rip the ball and fucking sign our boy a couple-year extension. I think he said he'd come on whenever, but maybe we wait a couple years when Gags is done. And I think that he's a guy who would actually keep playing.

He loves the game. He'll be in fucking England before we know it. I don't know about not, man. 44, like Tom Brady. He can't live up to you. Winning the IHL championships with the Cardiff Devils. We can go back for the ceremonial face-off puck drop. Case of beer.

Hey, for the MVP of the game, you'd get a case of beer to bring back to the ceremonial face-off puck drop. You got a case of beer? Hey, for the MVP of the game, you'd get a case of beer to bring back to the locker room. No way. Yeah, in the EIHL. That's big time. It was unreal. Was it part of like a beer sponsorship or was it just like, hey, here's a case of beer? No, after the game, you'd stay out on the ice and they'd present it to the MVP and then you'd fucking bring the case back to the room.

And then, I mean, everybody was going off the top ropes in the EIHL. It was something else. I don't know how we got there. EIHL, what's it stand for? England. Thanks for putting me on the fucking spot. English International Hockey League. I got the fucking abbreviation right, Whit.

Can we not just leave it at that? I don't even trust that that's right. You good? I'm good. Let's go to the West Division. Again, the highlight from the week was another goalie. Elite Ice Hockey League. What are you laughing at?

It's called the Elite Ice Hockey League. What are you laughing at? Grinnelli said English International Hockey League. I would have fucking led that league in scoring. Jordan Benenson put on an absolute snapshot on the game the other night. WWE shit. Literally trying to fight everybody on his way out went after Dubnik just hilarious I know he was probably pissed off

during the game which is a wild one 2-7-6 blues but anytime you see a guy just wanting to fight anyone it's always worthy of going viral I think our league their league uncross your legs you can't sit like that it needs more of this shit I think our league, our league, their league. Uncross your legs. Uncross your legs.

You can't sit like that. It needs more of this shit. Emotion. He doesn't give a fuck. We know he's a little bit tapped, and to be that good at hockey and to get dialed in to go on the run that he did when they won the fucking cup. Yeah. Yeah, he's a little fucking crazy, folks.

And we saw a little bit of it there, the fake blocker to Carlson's face. Dubnick chirped him after the game. I would like to see a goalie fight the next time they play each other. Let's go. Doobie's a big boy. Oh, he would probably chuck him around. But Bennington would be smiling the whole time

because we know he's tapped. Bennington is tapped. When we interviewed him, you've seen what he went through and what he really thought about himself to put it out on the line and basically say, I'm going to be an NHL starter. And now, a by the way he's been great he's been good he's been really good and so he has an off night and he's just he's pissed off so i think that they

end up winning the game i think they after that they looked awesome the emotion came up i know nobody could stop a fucking beach ball but those retro jerseys the sharks have i like i said that on the stream they were wearing them that night, weren't they? Whatever. Maybe they weren't. I think so, yeah. Those are pretty sweet. They all blend together all week. Minnesota, 4-0 week. This team, the rookie lead

them, Kirill Kaprizov. Six goals, 11 assists in 18 games played. Minnesota, man, they look for real. This backup goalie, well, not a backup now, Kakanen there. This kid's a rookie. He's played Minnesota, man. They look for real. There's a backup goalie. Well, not a backup now. Kakenen there. This kid's a rookie. He's been playing out of his mind.

Cam Talbot's basically become the backup to him. Do they keep it going with getting the playoffs or what? Yeah, you should dog them. You see how the goal Dumba scored? What? That's like.3 seconds left. Yes. Oh, my goodness.

As a goaltender, you don't even imagine being a coach, coaching that long of a game, and then you lose it with.3 seconds left because of a fucking defensive breakdown. That's pull your hair out shit. You battled all game for the points. The press conference postgame for a coach, if you get the point. Yeah. On the road?

No, they weren't on the road, were they? I think it was in Minnesota, but at that point, L.A. had been rolling. I think they won six in a row. They fucking dummied the Coyotes back-to-back games. They got their young guys playing awesome, all their veterans. Dustin Brown's probably been, I don't want to say their best player because fucking Kopitar is... And Dowdy's been back.

Yeah, Dowdy's been fucking snapping around. But, yeah, that's just a devastating loss for L.A., but as far as minnesota is concerned man early on you could just tell they had the mojo i thought maybe the shutdown with the covid protocol might have slowed them down boom four in a row they got four in a row right now right yeah yep four in a week day and and kaprasov is like he's as advertised their speed creativity a player that minnesota hasn't really had in a while. And I dog them in being a little bit boring at times.

But when Billy Guerin came in, the changes he made right off the bat, he was very open about making cultural changes. And you kind of see it's not shocking that this is going on. They get a game-breaker in this rookie, and they're getting goaltending. And all of a sudden, I think it's a team that probably could be around here making a real run at the playoffs. So I think it's more exciting. Those old North Star jerseys are so sick.

Hey, do you not feel that when you bring in a guy like Bill Guerin, who everybody's well aware of how much he's respected as far as a player is concerned, but he's making obvious changes to the culture aspect of it, it'll elevate the group because of it it just like it'll elevate the group because it kind of just makes everyone be like well i haven't fucking achieved nearly as much as this guy like i better fucking button my shit up and and if you see people that are that are getting dealt or not on the whole it's like it's like all right all right i'm i'm one that's here i'm one that he trusts this is a guy that I want to make sure I stay on his good side for as long

as possible. And I also think that from talking to different people, Billy Guerin is honest and open with players, I think, as you can be. And it's the new age kind of time being a GM. He also played quite recently with the Cup in Pittsburgh. So you look at

a guy who has the respect and also is telling each guy where they stand, and you can see why there is success there. So, I mean, the goaltending's huge. It's similar to a team like Montreal. They had off-seasons that I think you can kind of compare and that there was big changes. And Jake Allen's been good, but overall, Price hasn't.

Minnesota's goaltending has been phenomenal. And, yeah, Biz, they have won six straight. They won four straight in the last week. Yeah, I thought it was six straight. Yeah, six straight. And the LA Kings do it. I love their retros, too. When they played that night, that was some serious jersey porn.

I usually don't like purple and yellow, but I don't know. It works with the whole blend of the logos there. The Kings, yeah, you mentioned they won six straight points and seven of eight to jump right into the race. 22 points there in fifth place. We also want to give a shout-out to Arizona's head athletic trainer, Dave Zanobi, who worked his 2,000th game Saturday. Best guy, apparently.

That's insane. You must know him. I don't know him that closely, but he's been unbelievable at keeping up with the COVID protocol. He is just so well-informed. He works his fucking balls off. All the guys in the locker room love him. I think he was actually with the Panthers before he came over to Arizona.

But fucking a great hire for the Coyotes. Awesome guy. Like I said, everyone has something awesome to say about him. And he was so – yeah, it was the Panthers when I was there. And, like, I had no business there. Seven games, bunch of healthy scratches down to the minors. On the table the entire time. No, no. I would try to do my best to not take up the

time from the real players, but he still was helping me with my ankles, and they were so bad then, doing whatever he could. So congrats, because 2,000, what a run that is. I think you look at the 1,000 games played for a player, it's obviously different being a trainer, but those are late nights. We've talked about it a lot.

Marc-Andre Fleury, third shout-out of the season. This guy's been absolutely insane. 1.59 goals against, 9-4-1 save percentage. It's great to see him get that swag back. But this is the good news out of Vegas. Well, I should say Henderson. Their AHL team, did you see this? They have a town crier to announce their goals,

you know, like an old England, old medieval town. We had one at the pond hockey tournament. Yeah, exactly. He was unbelievable. He was unreal. Yeah, so I mean, I think it's great that, you know, what Vegas does, whether people like it or not, it's stuff that people talk about,

so they're carrying this on with the AACL team. And you can get away with crazier shit in the minor leagues, so they're probably going to come up with some wacky shit. Oh, yeah. By the way, we did drop a Vegas t-shirt last week for those fans of the team. We tried to take the horse theme, what do you call it, a joust theme with the hockey stick on there. So I don't know.

If you haven't seen it, check it out if you're looking for a different type of Vegas shirt. BarstoolSports.com slash chicklets. You can find it there. There you go. All right, boys. I think we can talk about the et cetera stuff, but I know Whit had another word for us.

Yeah, I want to talk about TaylorMade. We mentioned at the beginning of the show, Biz got his new clubs. I mean, these irons are fresh. He's going to finally be able to hit the center of the club face. And also with TaylorMade right now, it's all about the sim clubs. All these products, all their new woods, they're available for shipping and in stores now. And you've got to go in. You go into your local PGA Tour

Superstore, Golfers Warehouse, whatever it may be, get fitted. Ask to hit the Sim driver, the Sim 3-wood, the Sim Hybrid. Ask to hit the tailor-made irons and really kind of figure out your game, your swing, and they'll be able to help with that. So we've talked about them a lot. They're in stores now. The drivers, fairways,cues, and the three new sets of irons are all there. And what is really good about the new Driver and the Fairway is that the new ball is also available. So you can pound the center of the face with the new ball. It's not the exact high tour price that you're thinking, but it's a high tour performance type ball. It's the tour response.

It's for people who have always wondered what the high-priced ball and what it would be like to hit one, and you're afraid to pull the trigger, and boom, now you can get the tore response. Less money and also the exact same performance. So what are you waiting for? Go to the Barstool store. You can get balls with the Chicklets logo,

and you can also get yourself fit for the new SIM driver anywhere you want where clubs are fit for local athletes slash golfers. So where is the fucking link here? It's basically no link, I think. Just Sim 2 driver fairway rescue club in the irons. Check it out. A couple of things about the West. So I had written down Foligno laying off the young guy in San Jose.

Oh, that was very respectful. Classy move. He bloodied him up. I don't even know the kid's name from San Jose that he dusted. But this new wave of player, like some of them, they might have been in one fight in their life, and Felino just teed off a few bombs off his face. Do you know the kid's name already?

It's a rookie. I can pull it up. I don't know off the top of my head. Oh, it's all good. But I thought it was just a classy move. He talked about it post-game. So stick taps there. I got to watch two games in a row.

Hold on. Mikey's got his name. I mean, this is the toughest name I've ever had to say. Kniezeroff? Good enough. Kreesehoff. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Kreesehoff.

Is that an R or an H? Your screen's broken. Oh, Kniezoff. Kniezoff Knie's off Alright, well there it is Yeah It was a nice move I mean, like you said

Why keep punching the guy? And I've had a couple of hottos on Twitter Like, this is what hockey's coming to Hockey's so soft No, it's like Dude, he just broke his face Like, you know We know things about head injuries now

The guy had You know, he I don't want to say he felt bad for him But he had a little empathy for the guy He didn't want to fucking further Yeah, I mean If he fucking put one of his players Like, you know Into the don't want to say he felt bad for him, but he had a little empathy for the guy. He didn't want to fucking further destroy his face. Yeah, I mean, if he fucking put one of his players, like, you know, into the wall where the guy's like, a stretcher's coming out kind of thing, okay, I get it.

Another thing, I got to watch Bo Byram play two games in a row. I know. Buddy. Game breaker. He's fucking got a chip on his shoulder two games. I didn't know he was as mean out there and nasty as he is. So we got to talk to Nazem Khadri yesterday, he i asked him about him too and i'm like man this i thought this guy was kind of going to be you know just like a little puck moving skilled

defenseman but he's a western league boy like he he was fucking standing up to hit guys and lay big hits and then like i said he ended up getting the dust up with uh cajula he fucking took a couple bombs but he got up right away he's's like, whatever. I got in a battle in front of the net. I ain't fucking giving up the front. So, Colorado, you got a fucking good one. And then, I don't know if you saw Mack. I felt bad for Jarmus and put it through his triangle

and his release on that shot. How fast do you think that was going? It was a snapshot. I don't know, but Ronda didn't move his glove, and I was like, whoa! It just went... It hit the, like it hit the crossbar. That's how fast it came out. It might have came out faster than it went into the fucking net. So the Mac dog, but the game before that, I mean,

I think Mac's been a little bit snake bitten. Like a lot of posts, a lot of, but Kadri, man. And we got to interview him. He had a goal and two assists. And they got some great secondary scoring, bit of a boys club there and uh i think they're i think they're a couple pieces away crosby yeah keep making up trades we were just talking about golf obviously with the big news in the golf world this week tiger woods's accident yeah that was uh well crazy i mean i was uh sitting around and i think it happened at 7.15, like West Coast time.

So 10 o'clock, 10.15 where we are. You didn't hear about it until 2 or 3, I think. And right away, I just remember, like, is he alive? Like, you saw the picture of the car. It was, like, pretty horrible. I mean, what's crazy is his tournament, the Genesis Invitational at Riviera, and he was driving a Genesis, obviously. So that's, I know it sounds crazy, like, almost good ads for them.

They saved his life, this car. And the thing is, like, with the online, you see reports, and that's what Twitter is. Like, I remember the day, like, Kobe passed away. It's like the same thing. You're just seeing all these different reports. It's so crazy now. But once everyone kind of, or it was announced announced tigers injuries weren't life-threatening that's when like you know as like a golf fan or even just like following the story it's like all

right there's a big relief there he has kids his family like fuck golf man it's like who when you hear that stuff i wasn't even really thinking about golf you know like people are saying like will he could he could he get another major after this it's like dude yeah i think his like legs are all broken right now just hold on a second so glad to hear he's doing well i i will say like if anyone could come back and play high level golf again it could be him ben hogan got in a horrible accident i think he was ran over by a truck at one point and he played in one again and but still just to hear he was alive and okay is nuts now i don't know um if we'll hear more about the crash like or what or what happened

like is he looking down reading a text or is he kind of like you know you're speculating but is there something going on because there wasn't actually there weren't tire there was no he never hit the brakes so then you're like oh man like did he fall asleep? You just don't know. So that's why speculating is kind of brutal. But I would hope to find out kind of what was going on. And I think the police right away saying that they were not even going to blood test him. There was no reason to think it was any sort of, what is the word, inebriated driving or whatever. Yeah.

So, I mean, that's good to hear. But still, definitely scary time. Glad he's okay. Yeah, it's a pretty dangerous road too, I mean, that's good to hear. But still, definitely scary time. Glad he's okay. Yeah, it's a pretty dangerous road, too, I guess. And they said these vehicles actually have a black box in them, similar to like an airplane, so they can tell how fast the vehicle is going and all the conditions of the car when it had the accident. Oh, really? Yeah.

So, like you said, though, it didn't seem like he was impaired in any way. A dangerous road. We obviously wish him the best, but I thought it was pretty cool. A lot of his opponents wore the Sunday red. Oh, yeah, cool it was cool and that's that's a this that i'm glad you brought that up that's a great way to like honor i mean listen he's alive so it's a little you know it's a great way to kind of show your respect to tiger woods and and kind of i think it's just them showing hey like we understand you brought this game to a different level and like we're so grateful yes but and colin morik Morikawa, after he won, actually said,

we don't thank Tiger enough. Thank you. So I understand. But the issue I had was with Max Homa, who won at Riviera, ironically enough, he tweeted out how, listen, I already packed my four outfits before I got here. These guys have sponsors on all the shirts. He's like, so I won't be in red and black. And these golf hardos are attacking him. That's disrespect. He's like, so I won't be in red and black. And these golf hardos are like attacking him.

Like that's disrespect. He's like, hold on. He's like, I can honor a guy or respect a guy any way I want. And he actually ended up tweeting. He was going to do it by, you know, he's tried to model his golf game after him and play the best he could. That's him thinking of Tiger Woods. But they're like the people who were going after the guys who didn't have the red and black on. It's like fucking settle down, dude. it's fucking social media yeah it's always

an idiot opinion out there they're easy to find we already talked about sandbag of six with you guys we want to tell people subscribe to our youtube page as well uh granoli's been busting his ass on it getting up uh tremendous amount they hit just the first couple days so if you haven't checked out the sandbag yet not only only that, I have aspirations to do other video stuff. We want to go check out leagues overseas, and we want to give as much exposure to hockey and all these amazing places as possible. So you guys signing up and subscribing to the YouTube channel

helps grow that. That way we can get the funding in order to do so. We've got to hire a good team. Production goes up. We want to show you guys some cool things. If you guys could subscribe to that, it would mean a lot to us. That's pretty much all I got to say. One other thing. I sent that text to you guys about Beartown, that new show on HBO.

I know it's a book and it's the sweet Swedish show, but I heard amazing things about the book, and now you're saying the show's legit? Yeah, I watched the first episode. A bunch of people hit me up on Twitter. I don't know if the second episode dropped over the weekend, but yeah, it's a former NHL player who's coaching a team in his hometown in Sweden now, and some sort of controversial thing happens.

Obviously, like I said, there's only been one episode, but I'm hooked, man. It's one of those shows that ropes you in it's in swedish with subtitles but a story is like why are there more shows like this uh if you haven't checked it out yet by all means you should uh i don't know if you guys have any final notes i got one last thing here i want to send a welcome home uh to u.s marine staff sergeant zane betcha and his fellow vmfa 323 death rattlers on the USS Nimitz. They just got back from the Middle East after an 11-month deployment.

I know Zane's a big listener, so thanks to all you guys serving. We appreciate you. Enjoy your time back on U.S. soil. What do you got, JR? And we just dropped some blankets in the Barstool Sports Store. We have Pink Whitney blankets, Spittin' Chicklets blankets. Who doesn't like a good blanket? Nice fleece blankets. They're so comfortable.

So go to the Barstool Sports Store right now and buy those. Boom. Absolutely. And, yep, as always, thank you so much for listening. And like Biz said, check out the YouTube. Thank you for watching the Sandbagger. We really enjoyed doing them. A lot of hard work goes into that behind-the-scenes, guys.

And I think that the upcoming interviews we're getting while we're here, along with maybe some more action on the golf course, you'll all enjoy. Hopefully you do at least. So we appreciate as always thanks for listening have a great rest of the week peace and we'll see you wednesday for the live stream brought to you by labatt blue usa oh yeah have a good week everybody everybody hey baby there ain't no easy way I won't back

down hey I will stand my ground and I won't

back down no I won't back down as always we like to thank our fantastic sponsors here on Spittin' Chicklets.

Big thanks to our longtime friends over at New Amsterdam Vodka and Pink Whitney. Huge thanks to our friends at Roman for taking care of us fellas. Big thanks to everybody at Peter Malar for making us look fresh out in the course. Big thanks to our new friends at Labatt Blue. We've been enjoying these all week. Huge thanks to our friends friends at Labatt Blue. We've been enjoying these all week. Huge thanks to our friends over at Whoop for taking care of us in the fitness department. And a big thanks to our friends at TaylorMade for helping us look good golfing on the course. Have a great week, everyone.