Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 335: Featuring Grant Fuhr + Frankie Borrelli
Episode Date: May 31, 2021On Episode 335 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Grant Fuhr and Frankie Borrelli. Frankie joined (56:32) to talk about his Islanders, him vs Grinnelli, Sean Avery and more. The guys open ...the show talking Habs-Leafs and recapping the rest of Round 1, along with Round 2 previews. The guys are then joined by Grant Fuhr (1:41:27) to discuss his career, Wayne Gretzky, playing golf before Game 7 and more. The guys wrap up the show talking about Brooks vs Bryson, the Tampa Bay Lightning jersey policy, Chelsea winning the Champions League and more.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
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Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts,
Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
Hello everybody, welcome to episode 335 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney.
From our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka and the Bastl Sports Podcast family, what's up everyone?
We're coming to you early this week because we're going to have a bonus episode for you later in the week so we can keep up with all this crazy playoff action.
So we got a nice little surprise Monday drop and we're going to have another episode later in the week so we can keep up with all this crazy playoff action so you guys a nice little surprise monday drop and we're gonna have another episode later in the week so uh we're still
waiting on one first round series to finish we'll get to that shortly we still got three three
second round has already started up but let's say howdy to the boys before we get cracking
mikey granelli producer what's going on guys i spent my uh weekend down at the lovely lovely
italian restaurant barelli's down in long island had some chicken parm had some pink whitney got What's going on, guys? I spent my weekend down at the lovely, lovely Italian restaurant,
Borelli's, down in Long Island.
Had some chicken parm, had some Pink Whitney,
got to face-fuck Frankie Borelli.
Had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend.
So, yeah, that's what I got.
So, yeah, Borelli got the zucchini via Grinnelli.
Biz Nasty, what's going on, Paul?
Biz Nasty, Biz, out in the desert.
Relaxing Memorial Day weekend.
I ended up going out, meeting up Pasha, another buddy of mine yesterday we had a little bit of fun but
nothing too crazy man just trying to take in all this action and the hockey has been incredible
we got the second round kicking off and oh my goodness yeah i think we all my goodness the
toronto maple leaf all right i'll let you introduce ryan whitney but uh this is fucking crazy man
yeah i think we all need a little uh time to get the wind back on our sails
after four nights of live streams down Manhattan.
That got a little crazy.
But last but not least, the wit dog, Ryan Whitney.
What's going on, brother?
The most interested party in this Leafs Maple Leafs series is,
if you remember, is Biz's long-discussed foreskin,
in which he claimed and promised
he will remove if the Leafs
don't get out of the first round.
So God knows how Game 7 goes.
Good luck, Biz.
I'm coming off,
all right, you know, locally,
maybe the worst weather Memorial Day weekend
in the history of Memorial Day weekends.
Just legit 45 degrees,
pissing rain and windy
as shit the whole time.
Brutal.
Needless to say, I had the best weekend.
My brother, Sean, came home from San Francisco with his wife, right?
So we all got together Saturday.
All restrictions were lifted in Massachusetts.
We went out to dinner at my buddy Shaw's.
He's a part on, Loco South Boston,
fat baby owns great spots.
Our raise a frequent fat baby eater.
What are you called?
What would you call it?
Attendant customer customer.
So we walk in at six o'clock,
dude,
Mr.
Brightside from the killers.
The all time sing along is pumping.
And it was like a party that I've never seen in my life.
The whole time we're there, the atmosphere from 11 a.m. on.
So at some point, can't Canadians, all you guys, other states, you'll enjoy this day so much.
It was the best time ever.
And I felt like it was like a party uh after you fucking after we took down
both world wars like when it ended just like everyone's just so happy so it was a it was a
great time the bruins rolled and i more than anything want to talk about the colorado avalanche
so i know we have other things to discuss but what's happening right now seven to one
that is one of the best hockey teams i've ever seen in one game
in the playoffs so i i i talk too much that's my problem sometimes but go right ahead all right
might have been the easiest bet of the year tonight to load it up on him
colorado if it wasn't sunday night regulation and puck line yeah were you guys involved in the over
we gotta wait to get into it later but we're gonna talk about leonard getting the start and
maybe some other questionable decisions but uh what are we gonna kick off with all right uh first
off we do have a huge game seven on tap tonight so make sure you head over to your local liquor
store to find Pink Whitney in the new 375 milliliter mickey size bottle you'll want that
extra smooth taste when you're taking celebratory shots saluting your squad load up for the pre-game
and the after party with pink whitney
i'm busting i'm busting out all the stops boys i got these i got my leaf socks ready to go
what's that your bandage for your hog that's what he used to use when he was 12 years old
11 times an afternoon that's standing up right now
what is up with the Leafs, dude?
Man, I'm looking at it the same way that that Minnesota-Vegas series went down,
where I still think that they're generating more chances.
They're out shooting them.
Jack Campbell, despite how well Carey Price has played,
Jack Campbell's got better numbers.
It doesn't make sense right now.
It doesn't make sense how they've won the last
two games I mean obviously the slow start in game six and finally the Habs power play um ends up
executing I don't think they had a power play goal up until that point they get they get two in that
game now Marner and Matthews are taking all the heat right now it's actually like it's it's pretty
brutal and and I don't know if I guess you could say it's warranted.
I talked last podcast about the fact that Marner come playoff time,
I think like that split second hesitation is what's killing him right now.
And I think that it's, you could tell his confidence is maybe getting beat down
game by game by game.
I think he's got what?
He's got five career playoff goals in 31 games.
So we all know it's harder to score come playoff time,
but he's got to end up finding the back in that.
But not only that, he ends up taking that puck over the glass penalty.
Now here's a little fun stat for you, Witt, that I ended up seeing online.
Mitch Marner has 12 career PIMs in the playoffs, six minor penalties.
Here they are.
2018 Game 2, puck over the glass.
2018 Game 6, puck over the glass 2018 game six puck over the glass 2019 game five puck over the glass game uh 2020 game four tripping 2021 game one puck over
the glass 2021 game six puck over the glass is that not fucking insane to you dude that is and then that that ends up
that ends up making the five on three in which they scored on I believe that was
to Foley's goal or maybe it was Corey Perry I can't remember who scored it but
obviously the pressure seems to be getting to him a little bit yeah I think that that play was
the most evident when you're looking at how much his confidence has dropped.
Because it's such a panic play.
This guy is like the master of never panicking.
Fourth in the league in scoring this year, everyone saw what he did.
And then Matthews leads the league in goals, and they have won a piece.
It's just when you make that much money and you're that good
in the regular season,
and all of a sudden you're getting older.
I think we talked about this when there were rookies.
As you get older and the money comes,
it doesn't matter what you do in the regular season.
If they lose tonight, it's like, all right,
now everyone's going to be all over them.
Where before, they were like young enough and good enough and had done enough in certain playoff
series to to be given a pass with the losses but now it's it dude and if you look at the way like
they're playing Tavares being out you don't think it'd make that much of a difference I shouldn't
say that because right away it's a panic. It's your captain.
It's one of your top players. But the way that Marner and Matthews were going,
you're like, all right, they'll be fine.
We're thinking they're like Bergeron, Pasta, Marchand.
And it's just been different.
And so I think that Carey Price deserves a ton of credit.
This is without Montreal's D getting any points in the series.
But the biggest thing for me,
Sandin has those two fucking horrific plays in game five.
He turns it over.
He gets crushed on the first goal.
He turns it over on the third.
So they put in McDermott.
Dermot Hall just, yeah.
You get to OT last night.
He has the puck on his stick.
It's just glassing out, man, to the middle of the ice 15 minutes into OT.
And he tries this spinorama, loses the puck. It's in the back of the net. It into ot and he tries this spinorama loses the box in the back of
the net it's like they're giving away goals and i do agree though i think they win tonight yeah so
they have one goal combined actually with so they've uh they've had 59 shots in this series
1.7 shooting right now in the regular season they had 16 16.1 percent shooting on 61 goals combined so
you got to think at one point the levy's gonna break right they're getting the opportunities
they're getting the shots and i mean with the way everyone else seems to be playing i mean
william kneelander has stepped up he only had three goals in his first 25 playoff games he had
four in his first four in this series he's's been carrying his weight. Spezza's been playing out of his mind,
given what expectations were coming in.
On waivers at one point.
On waivers.
So overall, you're looking at how they're playing,
and I still think that they're...
And this is without...
I don't know if Deneau has a point yet in this series.
I don't know if Gallagher has a point yet.
And I think Josh Anderson has one assist.
So if you look at the whole the whole realm of of all
the stats and the analytics and who's playing better and who seems to be dominating dominating
the play you've got to imagine that the Leafs go into game seven and they win it at home and then
here's another one for you guys the Maple Leafs have now lost seven straight potential series
clinchers tied for the second longest streak streak in NHl history leafs are 12 and 12 all time in game
sevens they're seven and one at home though in game sevens tied with the rangers for the highest
all-time winning percentage on home ice in game seven so all signs lead to the leafs winning this
one and i hope that it's a hurdle that they can get over and i think that it's it's just gonna
like it's gonna take a massive weight off their shoulders and
why the fuck are you laughing the clip that they can throw together of me saying they're winning
tonight and you doubling down your foursie and saying they're gonna win tonight and then as
ra is gonna speak right now he's got the canadians in a bet he thinks they're gonna win game seven
and he's gonna look like the genius if it does go down i think i'm the only like media person in
north america who actually picked them.
I mean, yeah, it was probably a 5% of a troll pick, but I gave my reasoning.
This is what this team does.
I do have a money line bet on them.
I'm going to read you a couple here.
Montreal became the first team in NHL history to surrender a multi-goal
third-period lead in consecutive games while facing elimination
and win each contest.
Just the ninth team in history to win two straight in overtime while facing elimination and win each contest uh just the 19th 19th in history to
win two straight in overtime while facing elimination it's just they just kind of pull
this magic shit off regardless of what's going on and do we got to give full props to carrie price
i mean uh campbell's been great for toronto but price has been better price had 13 saves in that
overtime when cut can the emmy's good the overtime game winner that was just their second shot of
overtime for montreal also the leafs oh-6 in elimination games since 2018 where they would
have advanced 0-7 when trying to clinch since 2013 outscored 31-16 power play putrid penalty
kill and putrid you just wonder how much of it is mental obviously there's not a lot of same
players that were on the team in 2013 but you know it's almost like it becomes institutional and they're not going to have John Tavares either he's not going lot of the same players that were on the team in 2013, but it's almost like it becomes institutional,
and they're not going to have John Tavares either.
He's not going to be available for Game 7.
You're looking at a Boston Red Sox situation at this point
that they are unable to get over this hurdle.
Now, I agree with you.
I think, aside from numbers, I do believe Carey Price
has outperformed Jack Campbell in this series just from eye tests,
but I'll tell you what, Whit.
I've been very
impressed his numbers I guess aren't jumping out but Corey Perry every time is on the ice he seems
to be making plays he just is so comfortable out there of course with the uh style too yeah it's
his style man it's just the game seems to slow down for him and and he's looked tremendous and
you know he's he's a big reason why they're playing so well but oh my goodness okay the fact
that this is even happening is –
it couldn't have worked out better for hockey drama.
Biz, give me your face reaction when the 2-on-0 broke down
from the opposing blue line.
Oh, well, first of all, Galchenyuk gets inserted,
and he was tremendous.
And then I saw a couple tweets after that he's working he's working uh undercover
or what's what's the term ra oh yeah what's a double agent yeah you could you both couldn't
think of the term double agent i was like what special term are they thinking of yeah well yeah
i was thinking of 007 um but i mean goodness to turn around there you're you're essentially the
last man back and he just throws that pizza up the middle, and two on O.
And I tell you what, well-executed.
Nicole Caulfield, another one of the young guys,
puts it right in Suzuki's breadbasket.
And, yeah, what I was thinking at that time was,
hey, at least we get one more game.
I wasn't thinking, oh, shit, they're going to fucking lose game six,
and here we go to game seven.
I felt bad for Galchenyuk given the impact he's made
coming into the series.
And even in that game six overtime, Leafs fans were pissed off
because they thought he took a high hit earlier in the overtime.
I don't know what defenseman it was who came over and got him
and ended up hitting him pretty – I thought it was a bit of a high hit,
but sure enough, later in that period, they go down uh cockney cockney miami is that how you say
it yes barry cockney miami and this is a guy who didn't start the series with he's got he he's got
seven goals uh career playoff goals and he's uh under the age of 21 that's more than mcdavid had
under the age of 21 it's more than messier had under 21, more than Iserman.
He is very impressive come play of time as well.
Yeah, I couldn't believe he didn't play in game one.
And if you would have heard, and is Muzzin playing?
I don't know if I brought that up yet.
I can't remember.
But if he isn't, that's a huge loss.
He looked like he pulled something there.
My biggest thing also is if you look if Muzzin plays, because if he misses the game, it's an enormous loss for the Maple Leafs. He's a huge loss. He looked like he pulled something there. My biggest thing also is if you look if Muzzin plays,
because if he misses the game, it's an enormous loss for the Maple Leafs.
He's a great player, and he looked like he pulled something.
And I never would have thought if they were in game seven,
the issue would have been their goal scoring.
And Campbell's been good.
It hasn't been him one bit.
Yeah, no, you can't blame it on him.
It's the goal scoring.
The offense isn't coming. I mean, the two best players aren't producing.
Neyland is doing it, but Austin and Mitch aren't right now.
And as far as Campbell went, I was shocked to learn
he's only the second American goalie to ever play a playoff game for the Leafs.
Yeah, I couldn't believe that either.
That was kind of a shocker.
It's also going to be the first game seven between Montreal and Toronto
since the 1964 semifinals.
And one more stat, too.
Kotkin, Yemi, Suzuki, the last couple of games, they became the first team in NHL history
to earn consecutive overtime victories in a postseason with each winner,
which each game was scored by a guy 21 or younger.
That never happened before.
Back to back guys that young.
So and keep scored on him.
He was sorry.
He said the games have gotten harder.
Montreal's played better and we haven't dealt with it well so and aside from the drama though I will say it
was probably one of the more boring series like I ended up watching game six of Leafs and Habs I
missed the first game of the Islanders in Boston because I was out when I was watching it so I
couldn't have two screens on but I mean that Boston game looked like it was an absolute blast
and way more high flying and intense than uh than maybe the Leafs Habs boston game looked like it was an absolute blast and way more high flying and
intense than uh than maybe the leafs habs one it just seems like it moves a little bit slower
i hate to be on this drum but watching on tv with fans is fucking different man
yeah oh yeah although it was good to see montreal did get fans in the building first time they've
been in a building yeah i know they were loud as shit too but they should have put them where you
could see them i thought they still you couldn't really tell they were
there i mean you could noise wise but they didn't have them in seats that they're trying to keep
them away from the players and now i guess the other big story going into toronto is they asked
if they could get fans for the game seven and the ontario government said no so people are
obviously upset about that no not just fans biz they said no it
was vaccinated health care workers correct and they fucking said no that is one of the most
bullshit thing the no golf earlier and then this ontario you guys are fucking down and i love the
people of ontario yeah yeah canadians bad. You guys don't deserve this shit.
What is going on up there?
Doug Ford is putting the strap on.
Doug Ford sounds like a Chris Farley character from Saturday Night Live.
That's who I think of when I hear the name Doug Ford.
Too bad his brother wasn't still around.
There would have been no rules anywhere.
They're related?
Oh, yeah.
Dude, Rob Ford, that's his brother.
That's his brother.
They look like twins. Oh, this is hilarious. You didn't know the Fords were brothers. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Dude, Rob Ford, that's his brother. That's his brother. They look like twins.
Oh, this is hilarious.
You didn't know the Fords were brothers.
Yeah.
Oh, geez.
We're not a political podcast.
No, no, no.
I mean, Rob Ford's just a character.
I mean, you didn't have to follow. I don't know how this is political, but all right.
No, it's not.
No, I meant like we don't need to dive into it.
But yeah, it's quite the character.
You don't think people love hearing us fucking talk about this? right let's talk about the forest no no i'm just i'm
ready to move on but yes how many people in ontario are fucking this is the opposite of
rick and red deer they're fist pumping us in ontario right now yeah that's true we're backing
all these people yeah people have one night healthcare workers can't go to the fucking game
dude yeah a lot of
frustrated people up there we tweeted last week we'd done new york city you know the first day
manhattan kind of opened up it was awesome it felt like you know we had like america back for for
well not for a day for the whole week making people happy and it's fucking great and the
more cities that can get open i'm sorry it's fucking good for people one other sign too i
know there's a couple twitter feeds. There's one here in Boston.
It's like at Stacos, like S-T-A-C-O-S.
And he just follows the police radios all night and, like, tweets updates.
Last night, between, like, midnight and four, I was like, fight, Faneuil Hall.
Fight, Corner State Street.
Then fight here.
I was like, oh, Boston's back, baby.
No, there's this thing going on.
There's this thing going on already around here.
I don't know if it's TikTok younger kids, but there's, like, fight thing going on already around here. I don't know if it's TikTok
younger kids, but there's like fight clubs
going on at different beaches.
Yeah, they're meeting up like Hampton Beach
in New Hampshire, down at a beach in
Plymouth, I think. They don't even know the first rule of fight
club either, huh? I know. You can't announce
it on TikTok.
Fucking Zoomers.
Whatever generation you got
pissed at now.
Oh, shit.
Before we get to the rest of the North Division,
we do want to mention our guest.
He's going to be coming on a little later after we talk playoffs.
He played for Toronto, and he also played for Edmonton,
who we're going to get to shortly. Grant Fuhrer,
Hall of Fame goaltender. We talked to him
about a week or so ago. Great interview. We'll get to
that, like I said, a little bit later, but we want to put a
bow on the series that did end.
And this was the upset of the first round. Not so that winnipeg beat them i mean nobody picked them on this this show and not many other shows picked winnipeg to win
but they swept them i mean an absolute stunner uh here was the one thing that jumped out to me
conor mcdavid hasn't drawn a penalty in the last two playoffs um you know people think automatically
you should get them but i'm curious because when you hear that how many other guys are in that same category who haven't had calls in the last two playoffs i
mean you know is it big is it small i mean you you said it before we ended up hopping on and that
jumps out to you just because every year he's the league leader in the regular season as far as
drawn calls now that could also be a a segue to people to be like, why is it reffed differently?
And we all know that playoff time, it's a little bit tighter checking,
and players seem to get away with a little bit more.
But, yeah, that's definitely something that pops out.
And I'm sure that he's looking back on this playoffs as a massive disappointment.
I know in his post-series comments, he said, you know,
the team's going to have to figure out how to make some moves and improve this roster.
Because as you saw, Winnipeg had depth, especially up front.
I mean, we mentioned the back end, but as far as the forward group, you saw it in that last overtime.
They basically had to run two lines with.
And then Winnipeg had three cranking.
You could tell the level of play and you could see how fatigued McDavid looked he couldn't he couldn't beat guys one-on-one
like he was doing in the regular season because you're out of gas by that time especially playing
against the high level talent that you meet in the playoffs so that is that is going to be an issue
for for for not only the team but for him to get a little bit more more energy in order to do what let's say uh
mckinnon's doing what he's that's the number one and two in the world right now and you look at the
depth that colorado has and he's able to play with he's able to maintain that fucking high velocity
speed and play and and and continue to do that where mcdavid i feel like by the time he gets
in a playoff from carrying his team in the whole season he's fucking gassed he just and and maybe that's the reason he wasn't able to draw as
many penalties because he didn't have that that extra step that he had throughout most of the
regular season so we all know playoffs is a different beast guys um you know i'm sure that
he's you know disappointed more than anyone but that uh that that's kind of how what i what i have
to say about the whole drawing penalties
and how that series ended up playing out, especially game four.
I'll just say this, Biz.
Well said.
Every single Stanley Cup champion, you look at the roster,
you say, look at their third and fourth line.
Look at Tampa, Coleman and Goudreau.
There's nothing.
What is McDavid going to do?
What is Simon Dreitzel going to do? It is, what is him and Dreitzel going to
do? It's just facts. And now people come out and say, Oh, he's never, he's never done anything in
the playoffs. Dude. All right. You want me to go old school, red socks. People, people used to say
that shit about Ted Williams, dude. There ain't nothing more he can do. McDavid has zero help.
He's able to do what he's able to do in the
regular season because the checking's different.
Exactly like you said. When the
playoff starts and the level
goes up, no matter what it happens,
you cannot play
through those minutes dealing
with that type checking when there isn't as
much called. So until there's a second
and third, and I love Nugent Hopkins,
until there's a third, fourth line, they're fucked i love nurse on d i think that if i can hop in right there but
biz you have to draft you have to draft well you have to draft these players because they're not
going to sign there so i don't know what does edmonton do well we talk about depth look at the
back end too darn on nurse i think in the first overtime had to play 14 minutes so even on the back and they don't have him and tyson right what what were the numbers i think
he played over an hour he had 62 minutes of ice time which i think is the the third most since
they started tracking it 6207 yeah he didn't leave the fucking ice so not and and then like we were
we were kind of ragging on winnipeg's d keep in mind folks like we're we're not able to keep track
of the entire league.
There's so many fucking teams and everything going on.
They were fine rolling 4-6 D, especially in overtime.
So if anything, they had better depth than fucking Edmonton did on the back end.
Do I think that Edmonton probably has the bigger names
than Darnall Nurse and Tyson Berry based on numbers?
Sure.
But you can't get it done
and that that group of five probably the group of five guys that really helped get them in there
it was just it was evident that they just don't have enough help around them and that's why they
ended up getting swept and and fuck we look like clowns as the experts I don't know no one picking
Winnipeg yeah um I mean right now Winnipeg's will they be favored in this next series?
Definitely.
If Montreal wins,
if Toronto wins,
I don't know,
maybe not favored,
but it won't be big line.
I think Toronto will be favored,
even though they've got,
what would you guess it is?
Minus one 30 plus one 10.
Yeah.
There probably would be five and a half,
six and a half.
Maybe,
I mean,
then against Toronto.
So they know they'll get a lot more action.
So it could be close to one 50, but I mean, I don't think that that doesn't mean that that big of a half, six and a half. Maybe, I mean, then against Toronto, so they know they'll get a lot more action. So it could be close to 150.
But I mean, I don't think that doesn't mean they're that big of a favorite.
You know, yeah.
And it was hella buck.
And to have like stretches, stretches of the season of him being as poor as he.
I mean, I don't know.
He's not like he wasn't horrible, but he wasn't one of the best goalies in the world.
And then he just fucking turned it on.
No one looked better in the first round in that.
Yeah. Nine five0 upside, Biz.
I know we covered a lot of Edmonton and their downfall.
We're going to be able to talk about Winnipeg plenty in the second round
and pump their tires, but I think that they're licking their chops.
They're going to be well-rested, just like we saw Colorado.
The age-old question, Biz.
Rest for frost.
Bees in Colorado probably put those to bed the last couple nights.
Bingo.
And that's kind of what I was alluding to.
Now, who else are we moving on to now?
Oh, quickly.
Just quickly before we move on.
Sorry.
We got a few other things here.
When you mention the ice time that Nurse played right away,
you got to mention, oh, who's number one?
Who's number one, guys?
Say who number one was.
Well, it was Seth Jones.
All we're saying is there's a report today that he told the Columbus Blue Jackets
he will not be resigning there.
So we don't have anything else to say besides we're sorry, Jackets fans.
You got a fucking hell of a little group you're growing there fan base wise,
and you're going to lose this guy.
That's a huge kick in the dick.
So go ahead, R.A.
Yeah, I was just talking about Hellebuck.
A 9-5-0-6 percentage, 1-6-0 goals against.
Also, we got a great quote from Blake Wheeler.
He took a shot to the Nads.
He said, I got three beautiful kids.
We don't have any new most, so what the hell?
After you went to block a shot.
Hey, that's playoff hockey.
That's playoff hockey.
Take my dick.
Fuck you.
I'm about to lose mine, too.
Keep mine.
I'm about to lose mine, too, Wheels.
I'll give you my foreskin
oh shit uh also two fucking foursies as long as the leafs playoffs drought for crying out loud
67 goddamn years guys did yeah absolutely hilarious quote from blake will the funny stuff
uh also congrats to donnell nurse and his fiancee michaela uh she gave birth hours after the game
and never mind his 62 minutes, boys.
She was in the hospital for a day and a half with contractions and, you know,
all the stuff that comes with being a pregnant woman.
So she gets the first star for that day.
I don't care how many minutes he played.
So congrats to them on the birth of their first child.
Also, too, as far as Edmonton, man,
I think Kenny Holland's still picking up a little bit of Peter Shirely's mess
because, yeah, that's not a cup contendingending roster but we'll keep our eyes on that this summer
and unfortunately more dickhead news like we hate to bring it up but we have to Ethan Bear I know he
had a turnover one of the games and just idiot racist trolls talking shit online and you know
upset his wife and she put an Instagram post about it and you know all his teammates made posts and
rallied around them and you know he come out and made a statement.
It's just so fucking stupid in this, like, day and age that we still got to deal with it.
But, you know, it's the internet.
I almost wish we could just ignore it and not even feed into it.
But unfortunately, I don't think that helps either.
Scumbags.
Yeah, no, it was a nice statement that he put out.
He stood in front of the camera and had some great words. We should actually play the whole clip.
Hello, everyone.
It's Ethan Baer here in Rogers Place
on Tree 6 territory, home of the Edmonton Oilers.
We just came off a hard-fought series.
We didn't get the result we wanted,
but the guys all left it all on the line.
As you've known,
I've been subject to racist behavior on social media,
and I know this doesn't represent
all Oilers fans or hockey fans,
and I greatly appreciate your support
and your love during this time.
I'm here to stand up to this behavior,
to these comments.
I'm proud of where I come from.
I'm proud to be from Ochape's First Nation.
And I'm not just doing this for myself.
I'm doing this for all people of for myself I'm doing this for
all people of color
I'm doing this for the next generation
to help make change
to love one another
to support one another
to be kind to each other
there's no place for racism
in our communities
in sports
or in our workplace
so I call on all of us to help make change and to end racism.
We all deserve to be treated fairly.
And at the end of the day, I think we'll get there.
Well said by somebody who doesn't fucking deserve any of that.
And you are such a piece of trash if you're writing that to somebody.
This is a guy who came in as a seventh defenseman last year in training camp
and has turned into a you know a top four nhld and and you know he's he's worked
his bag off to get where he is and one turnover and he's got to deal with that absolutely ridiculous
so let's try to ignore it fuck them and uh you know move on the internet needs a godfather so
people are afraid to do shit like that. So they hold people accountable.
You know what I mean, Biz?
Oh, yeah.
That's why old neighborhoods with wise guys were good because people didn't act up.
Nobody robbed old ladies from their purses when you had a fucking godfather around.
But anyways, yeah, fucking idiots online.
We deal with them all the time and it's unfortunate.
All right, guys.
We're going to get serious here for a second. Again, The last year plus has been hard on a lot of people,
and that's why we're doing something new and partnering with our new sponsor,
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Take care of yourselves out there, folks.
All right, moving right along.
We're going to go to the, I think it was the Central Division this year.
We had a shitload of South teams in it.
Tampa, Florida, just wanted to put a bow on that one.
Spencer Knight started the last two games for Florida,
and he acquitted himself pretty well. He won the first one, lost the second one. I mean, Tampa Bay was just a steamroller on that one. Spencer Knight started the last two games for Florida, and he acquitted himself pretty well.
He won the first one, lost the second one.
I mean, Tampa Bay was just a steamroller on that game six.
They kind of chewed Florida up and spit him out.
But I'm not saying that Q would have ever started Knight
or that he should have even.
But if he did, man, you do wonder how this series would have played out
given the numbers that Dreeja and Bob produced
and how good Knight was just in the two games
I don't know it went six with that bad a goaltending with the kid in the whole time
might have been a lot closer yeah I just also the goaltending carousel sometimes it might
fuck with the guys in front of you and especially like the way that they may play the puck behind
the net the way that they communicate so not having that type of comfort and not knowing who's
going to be between the pipes and I get the fact that they probably had to justify giving Bob the start to say,
hey, it's a new season here.
Maybe this guy we've paid a lot of money to can hit the reset button.
He can have a great series.
He can end up beating Tampa.
And he can get back to his old ways to when he was winning his Vezna.
And I thought in that first game I don't
think he necessarily played terrible but what he let in five goals it's just you know it's you're
hoping that the guy that you're paying 10 million to can end up standing on his head and stealing
you one and it didn't happen and it's kind of been this way since he's moved over and I think
that they've kind of gave him every opportunity in order to see if he can get back to where he was and he's just been unable to so the positive news for the Florida
Panthers is they have two young studs coming up the tough news is how are they going to find a way
to to get rid of that contract and Bobrovsky and I would imagine they're going to have to give away
some assets in order to do so so listen congratulations to the Florida Panthers on a
very successful season it's great to see Southern hockey markets like Colorado and Florida flourishing.
Although I only got a chuckle out of Grinnell there because people were giving me a hard time about calling Colorado a Southern market.
No, because I didn't see many people come out and say like what do you need?
That's what I'm saying.
That's what I'm saying, bro.
Oh, so you're winning.
You say you won that argument. No, I i think that people i was just chirping myself there but uh but no it's you
know they ran into a juggernaut and and vasileski has proven proven himself to be the best goaltender
on the universe right now and and they just weren't able to to figure him out either he was
so nasty in game one today or yesterday excuse Excuse me. I like Carolina played good.
Carolina deserved to win that game.
He was sick.
So Vasilevsky,
they're,
they're Tampa and the abs,
I believe are above everyone else.
I think they're the two best teams league.
I think Boston could make an argument,
but I think if Boston played either one of those teams,
they're underdogs in Vegas.
Yeah,
I would agree with that.
Florida. I mean, they made some strides this year i mean it's still been 25 years since their last series win but like you said
biz it was nice to finally get that rivalry 27 28 years and they finally played each other in the
playoffs and also but prophecy last game of the year he doesn't even dress he was the third goalie
um i mean obviously we'll see what happens i thought they should maybe buy him out but when i
i did the calculations,
it's like, yeah, they're probably not going to.
It's probably not the right move right now.
He'll be like Mario.
He's going to own part of the franchise.
So either way, it was a very entertaining series.
I thought probably one of the more entertaining of the first round,
but either way, it was nice to see, again, the intrastate rivalry down south.
The other series in that division, Nashville, Carolina.
This was a great one for straight overtime, overtime games.
Carolina came back to tie, then win both games, five and six and OT game.
Six was the only game that was won by a road team.
Just a wildly wild entertaining series.
You see Saros, man.
I mean, as if we didn't know already, Nashville has their replacement for Peck or Renee.
He's just been outstanding for the, I don't know, 14 months now,
but he was stellar this whole playoffs. Either way, Carolina moves on.
What notes did you have from this?
Okay. So going back to earlier in the series, Rob Brindamore,
who I think even in the past,
he's been pretty vocal about officiating at some point.
And I thought that he felt that earlier in the series that they were getting a little bit of a disadvantage on officiating.
Now, Hines was asked, I think, after game four or five about it,
and he didn't seem to think that it ended up having a factor in it
because people in the media seemed to notice
that they felt that Carolina started getting more of the calls.
Now, this is another series where we had the goaltender interference issue, although it
did end up getting affecting Carolina, as opposed to the other series between Minnesota
and Vegas.
So, Whit, I guess I asked you, do you think that a guy of Rod Brindamore's stature having
as much respect as he has when he speaks out about officiating that,, they hear it, and one, it might affect their decision-making.
And I talked about the goalie interference real quick.
In game six when it all ended, I felt after Brady Shea took his original penalty,
they ended up even it out on a neutral zone play to put it four on four where I think it was a hole
got bumped into but he was the one who backed up into the the Nashville player and then they evened
it up and then they it's Jordan Stahl ended up scoring the winner on that four on four play where
I was like these penalties are sometimes called where the guy you know blatantly bumps into him
and he could have maybe moved well but I felt that ajo was at fault for running into the nashville player and then it gets evened
up i thought i thought it was a bullshit even up call i think that overall i've read stuff too it's
been a tough playoff so far refereeing wise it's like there's just so many calls that people at
home completely disagree with and that refs one night it's one it's a
penalty the next night different refs it's not a penalty so the consistency is tough when you talk
about brindamore do i think like it affects you said do you do you think they hear it and you
think it affects them yeah they definitely hear it does it affect them i think it depends on the
guy maybe there's a guy who's like oh yeah and is somewhat not intimidated but respects perinamor
and looks to help him out and then there's a guy who's probably like fuck him and might even go
against him even harder i don't know like calling out the refs public you never know what you're
gonna get the next night the next night you have these i usually think he's pretty respectful about
it though ra and he does do it in a way where he's making it clear he doesn't think it's good
yeah that's true yeah he's not yeah he's not being crude about it and he does do it in a way where it's not like he's... Yeah, but he's making it clear he doesn't think it's good. Yeah, that's true.
He's not being crude about it.
The thing about it is, after Shea's penalty,
I mean, there was nothing that needed to be evened up.
He got a fucking three for a dollar. He committed
like three, four penalties in a row.
They finally call him, and then they
call the incidental, and I think it was Brandon
Impress tweeted about it with the video, and
you watch it again, and it's like, it was incidental
contact at most.
And, I mean, I don't know how he could pick one guy or the other.
They collided, one guy falls.
That's not typically a fucking penalty.
So, yeah, it sucked.
That's a tough way for you to see it go.
It's such a chintzy call, makes it 4-on-4,
and you lose the fucking game as a result.
And even as Ajo's backing up into him, the guy stops and tries to avoid it.
So that's why it looked a little bit crazier.
But we'll have to talk about the goal interference later
in the Vegas-Minnesota wrap-up.
Yeah, we'll get to that very shortly.
Yeah, to get that shortly.
But, hey, a great fight by Nashville.
And, you know, it was fun to see that building rock as well, Witt.
And you had one last thing?
Yeah, Jacob Slavin, I've talked about him before.
This guy is something else. He missed three three games he had a lower body injury comes back three assists 25 minutes a game and
that play d to d him to dougie hamilton to tie it up game six three three was one of the nastiest
plays how often you see a d to D pass cross crease tap in.
I mean, it's like those two guys get on the ice together.
They're both such good skaters.
They wheel around an awesome player that comes back.
No surprise.
And then Ajo.
I think Ajo is kind of one of those players.
If you don't know much about hockey, you watch a game like that guy's he's better than everyone else.
You know, he thinks the game.
He's quick.
He's so good with his stick.
His hand eye is ridiculous.
And he's like very fun to watch play.
Okay, I actually got them mixed up.
The Jordan Stahl one was when they won game five, I believe.
The Ajo tip was to win it.
That surgical tip he made on that point shot was disgusting.
That was like the most subtle tip I think I've ever seen on a goal.
Oh, just like barely moved his stick.
It's just so – and you know he was doing exactly –
he was trying to do exactly what happened.
Yeah.
I mean, he just has the hands that not many players have.
So I like Tampa in that series.
I did pick them, but I think it's going to be a hell of a series.
And the first game was awesome.
It was, other than that goal.
The game winner by Goudreau was terrible.
That was a street hockey goal.
Yeah, I was like, how did that just go in?
What the hell?
I thought he toe-picked.
No, he just flat-out missed the post with his skate.
And then he was lost, and he was falling over the post with his shoulder.
The most frustrating part about it is Brady Shea could not have played skate and then he was lost and he's like falling over the post with his shoulder the more most
frustrating part about it is brady shea could not have played that one-on-one when he was flat-footed
any better he had his stick out in the lane it was he forced him to that poor angle and yeah he
just thought you give up is that's the one you're willing to give up yeah that's all day all day
baby yeah as far as the reference you'd heinz said had, it had no bearing on anything as far as,
you know,
the opposite of Bryndamore.
Bryndamore actually,
that was a cool thing.
We want to mention too,
biz when he had his father on the phone and he says,
his father's been having some health issues and they had the whole room
saying happy birthday to him after they won.
That's just a great clip.
No matter who you root for.
As far as natural,
man,
couldn't you tell how fucking intense that dude is.
He's like walking around.
Like,
but it was so cool.
You could tell you get a little emotional as dad's there listening.
That was one of the best clips of the playoff so far.
Somebody said he got it.
He definitely got his steps in that day.
He's not good.
Yeah.
Imagine that guy in the weight room.
He's probably screaming at himself as he's bench pressing.
It's like a puppy.
Yeah.
Nashville.
They really turned this season around too busy.
I mean, we were talking about, well, I forget someone flo floated a rumor that or they've heard John Hines job might
be in jeopardy and then after that they wanted a sick tear and you know it looked like it might
it might have been a time to break this team apart but I don't know I thought it was a pretty
reassuring year yeah we created that rumor we put them number one on the Vegas odds list no Adrian
data I'll give him full props give him credit he he said it I. I'm not tagging him. I mean, he tweeted it out.
That's what we reported it from or passed it along, I should say.
And obviously, it didn't matter.
But actually, I think you ended up saying that Poyle's not the type of guy
to usually switch coaches in the midst of a season, right?
Right.
Or he's maybe never done it?
Not that quick, certainly, either.
I mean, it would have been a very, very early firing.
But it was just, I think, indicative of how bad the season started,
but they obviously turned it around.
Had a pretty good season for themselves, but
Carolina moves on, and we're going to move on to the next division.
Minnesota-Vegas.
This ended up being a hell of a series. Vegas was up
three games to one. Minnesota battles back.
Forces a game seven.
Then they just didn't have enough. Vegas turned it
on when they needed to. 6-2, they win game
seven. They just rolled over them.
34-20 outshot them.
66-33 at the dot.
Jan Maka, this first ever NHL hat trick.
And actually, did you see the clip of Robin Lehna from the bench?
He threw his hat.
You know, the goalie's at the back.
He chucked his hat in the ice, then fist-pumped one of the coaches afterwards.
So, what do you got on this series, buddy, to wrap up?
Well, the game seven, hell of a game. It's two, two, right?
And I think that when patch already came back,
like the crowd went nuts early in the game for him.
And of course he gets that game winner. I mean,
he's one of the top goal scorers in the league when he's healthy and just the,
like the feeling for that team to get him back in the room must've meant so
much that building was going bananas. And just the feeling for that team to get him back in the room must have meant so much.
That building was going bananas.
And in the end, Mini had a hell of a run.
One player, it seems, changed things.
I think a GM and then Kaprasov coming over and having the season he did,
it's a different outlook there right now.
But Vegas was the better team.
And I like your analogy, Biz, and that if toronto wins it's
like toronto they deserve they deserve to win the series i think you know what i mean if they
keep playing and out shooting and enhancing them it's like it's got a the levee's got a break at
some point and vegas um they put it on and it was i didn't think it would be six two but i did like
them i did like them to win game seven.
So you talked about some of the inconsistencies in the officiating with maybe some of the penalty calls.
The goaltender interference one this playoff has been an interesting one,
and we saw two examples of it in this series where Minnesota ended up
getting hosed and then Vegas ended up getting hosed.
We talked about the first one, which was Marcus Foligno uh interfering with Fleury I thought it was a nothing burger I thought that
Fleury might have came out on the right side to initiate contact whatever put it behind us
well if you're a Minnesota fan and you're pissed off about it you got to look back to game six when
it's one nothing and that Alex Tuck goal gets or Alec Tuck screen when Dumba's backing into him I thought
that Dumba forced him into the crease and that's what ended up creating the initial contact although
I didn't even feel like he hit Talbot that much I feel like he as the play moved across the blue
line Talbot followed it and he didn't he didn't like look like he got bumped very hard or anything
and if he did it was because Dumba had his ass inside of uh inside of tuck and he was forcing him back so
that goal ends up getting called back uh and uh and and uh who is it Vegas loses the challenge
while sure as shit Minnesota capitalizes on that power play and they go up 2-0 so
from the standpoint of the goalie interference so far in the playoffs we've seen three examples of it and in every situation I think that they've all should have counted as
goals where they disallowed him but at least they're staying consistent where they're saying
that if the guy is even an inch inside the crease and the goalie is touched is no goal there there
are no goal in it so I feel like I feel like it's the uh it's the uh foot in the crease all over again
uh playoff you know we're seeing too many of them where we know there's there's going to be a few
more coming down the line here it's just so annoying that like a goal scored and you see
some sort of like contact and right away like oh well what's it going to be what's the review going
to show the the issue is these some of the challenges and then you go on you have to go
back on the pk it's just it's crazy and you you go on you have to go back on the pk
it's just it's crazy and you know it's only gonna get worse there's gonna be some sort of
ridiculously controversial decision made coming down the line in these playoffs with these in the
goal this in the crease uh i don't even know how to describe incidents um gi as i call it
yes all right uh one other quote that was was interesting especially after
i thought he had a really good series he was healthy scratched earlier on parise he had a goal
in that game seven as well um after the game can i throw it to you no it's just yeah maybe maybe
we should have g play it for you tonight i know it's a game seven but just personally how motivated
were you um you don't No different than anyone else.
I mean, we were all motivated to play game seven.
These are special games and opportunities.
With all the sideshow stuff that's been going on,
I mean, I was ready to play from from
day one so um tonight was no different so ra like a little bit of frustration there especially when
the i didn't feel like the the question really stemmed from what he ended up going to as far
as the answer but that's the probably the frustration he's feeling from the organization
right now and maybe a little bit of the disrespect.
They have him, I think, four more years at nine and a half, I believe.
I think it's seven and a half, but either way, it's a decent amount.
He's going to be 37, I think, over the summer.
And yeah, I mean, this is a case of a coach that has no loyalty to a guy
because he's new there.
Dean Everson is going to play the guy who's going to give him the best chance to win.
And obviously, he had scratched Parise earlier.
And yeah, you know, he might have been still salty about they just lost
the game seven.
But when you sent the quote, I say, you know what?
I like to hear the question sometimes because sometimes you read a quote
without context or hearing it, you can misinterpret it.
But then you sent it over the question.
Yeah, he definitely sounds salty here.
He went out of his way to bring that up.
Exactly.
He could have just answered the question.
And then he said, with all the sideshow stuff that's been going on i've been ready to
play since day one nothing different and you know i'm sure he's curious about his future but he does
have i believe a full no move clause so he doesn't have to go anywhere but i don't think he's going
to want to play for dean evanston anymore so we'll see what happens there but uh i don't know if it's
going to be the end of the road for the guy but that's a huge part of that franchise and like i
say a new coach comes in bill Billy Guerin didn't sign him.
So there's no like, you know, quote unquote loyalty in that regard.
So I don't know.
I'd be surprised if he's still there.
I mean, they could ask him to waive, to go to Seattle.
I mean, other than that, they'll threaten to bury him in the minors.
Because, you know, if he's not starting from the playoffs,
why are they going to want him next season?
I would imagine a guy who has a quote like that after the game
would be okay at this point
getting moved as long as he had a little bit of the decision in it because it sounds like the
the relationship is fizzled out yeah to be saying that like immediately after the game you know what
I mean that that close to the game ending it's like all right I think I think fuck you fuck you
fuck you you're cool fuck you I'm out what What did you guys think about Fleury not starting game one tonight
against the Avs?
Because he played Friday night in game seven,
and I don't know, I was like, it was one night,
and they're giving him extra rest, but I thought he would go again.
I thought it was strictly a rest situation, and then you're going on.
And if Leonard won, you think Fleury was going back in?
Yeah, so that's the question I had. What if he puts out puts up a shutout or only allows
one goal like what do you do after that I would imagine that he would be comfortable uh giving
Fleury back the net given with with what he did in the first round but I was actually surprised
after the game where I think it was game five where where um Minnesota only had 14 shots on
net and they ended up losing that game at that that point, what do you do, right?
So we know Fleury's going back in net.
Colorado is an absolute juggernaut.
I don't think – it didn't matter who was in net tonight.
They were not winning that game.
I was waiting for the Alan Walsh meme of, like,
Leonard in a room with, like, the Saw scary face.
Putting rat poison in his coffee before the game.
Oh, my goodness. I'm just kidding his coffee before the game. Oh, my goodness.
I'm just kidding, Walsh.
All jokes, yeah.
Oh, fuck.
He can handle it.
He fucking threw out the slug and I'm going to sell with the sawn monster.
Jonas Brodine also.
That was a huge loss, too, going back to Minnesota.
I mean, it was still a close game at that point.
He was playing 24, 25 minutes a game.
He's maybe not the most uh heralded
guy out there but he's he's a fucking great defenseman and they lost him and also to the
ryan suda hit from revo um that was kind of a tough one yeah i don't it's tough to watch i'm
gonna say this i don't think revo thought he was going to be burying him into the post
i think he saw him last second and his instinct was to like
turn his hands up first
and then Sutter, yeah, Sutter was
turned into the net or Suter.
It ended up being
bullshit the way, I mean, that looked like
fucking bad to bury the post
with your face. I mean, that was not
a good
looking video at the end.
You thought it was suspension worthyworthy, maybe one game?
I didn't think he would get suspended because, like I said,
he was hitting him where it looked like he was going to hit him,
and he was kind of maybe go over the right side of the net.
And as he turned, it was the most perfect and awful timing
where the push ended up burying his face into the post.
Yeah.
Yeah, just a tough scene.
And Suda's not the type of guy to fucking milk something like that.
Oh, no.
Get Revo out of the league, Goon.
He actually had a really good first game.
The fourth line for Vegas was the only one.
Well, Revo just got kicked out of game one.
Oh, did he?
Injured Graves.
He got a match penalty.
Oh, no.
So Graves, D-man, he hammered that Yanmark, and he left the game.
It was late.
He dropped it behind him.
He's on the wall, and he kind of was still looking back at the puck,
and Graves came over and buried him.
So Revo in front of the net, it's 6-1 or whatever it was,
and he basically, I don't know if he headlocked him.
He got him down on the ground, and then the melee came in,
and then he kneed on his face.
And so the kid was down. He didn't move for like a little while and edzo brought it up i think it
was edzo doing the color he's like he doesn't move then he rolled over the trainer came on he
immediately was like grabbing his nose so i think his knee might have been on his face but he got
the boot and they ended up with a nine minute power play yeah so i i stopped watching because
we hopped on here uh with like 10 minutes left
in the third so i missed that but i thought in the first couple periods like the the fourth line
for vegas was effective but you think you so you think you'll get supplementary discipline i don't
know i have it was honestly while just as we started and i was kind of watching it like what
is going on here because he was down and and i don't i don't i gotta see it again yeah we'll
obviously keep an eye on that and if there's news, we'll report it on our episode later this week regarding Revo.
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All right,
boys,
one of the series to put a bow on here,
the Islanders Pittsburgh Islanders beat them five free in game six to win
the series.
The Coliseum was absolutely rocking.
Penguins blew three one-goal leads in that game.
Tristan Yari, man, I mean, he was the story on Pittsburgh's side,
not for good reason.
8-8-8, say, percentage, 3-1-8 goals against.
That's just not going to cut it in the playoffs for any team.
Pittsburgh came in, confidence was sky high.
Everybody was kind of buzzing on them, but didn't pan out at all.
There was only one member of the panel here who chose the Islanders to win.
That was me.
Whit, what do you have to say for yourself?
I think that the Penguins had absolutely zero goaltending.
And how are you supposed to win when on the other side,
you got Sorokin playing four of the games and being unbeatable?
So at one end, you can't get a save.
And at the other end, you can't even get one past them.
It's like it's a recipe for disaster.
Pittsburgh with a great regular season,
but if you look at the Islanders,
the way they're able to grind them down,
and Frankie said it.
Frankie said it.
It was like they just wait and wait,
and they just live off turnovers and the Penguins
had him and like I said couldn't
get a save
what was their backup situation
like had they never thought to go to the
backup in
games who is it
Maxime Lagasse
so legacy
is a legacy
I have no clue.
I didn't even know who it was.
I was wondering where the fuck – why did they put him in the net?
Did they even have a backup?
Yeah.
Because after that second goal in game six,
Pajot comes over the blue line.
He's on the wall.
He throws it towards the net, towards his blocker.
Awful fucking rebound right on a Palmieri stick in the back i'm thinking okay i
know it's two two you probably shouldn't pull him there but i might have just given with how he'd
been playing and obviously his uh his confidence is shook at that point and then the fourth goal
a squeaker right between the legs that ended up being the eventual game winner and like he
obviously they kept him in he ends up letting in one more i think they ended up losing five three but oh my goodness they just couldn't get
a save when they needed it they blew three one goal leads in in that in that game six and yeah
you look you look down the lineup and jeff carter was a great insertion he had a great playoff as
well uh crosby's numbers probably not where they should have been compared to what uh you know what
he's brought in the past,
but I still thought he was very effective out there.
They were generating a ton.
People were all over me.
People were all over me for saying that he was playing well.
Now, yeah, I guess if Sid's not getting a point per game,
for him it's not playing well, but he was getting chances.
Their line, Carter was awesome, but let's not forget,
like Malkin had two assists in in the
in the game six but he didn't look like himself no he did not look like himself all series he he
looked hurt so yeah i mean it's the same questions you've asked about them when they were swept by
the islanders and last year in the bubble it's like you don't know what's next you don't know
what they'll do i'm sure brian burke and uh he Hextall have a good idea of what they want to do.
But without Golton, you got no chance.
And what's so crazy is like Murray, they keep Murray over Fleury,
and Murray's not even there anymore.
And Fleury's fucking amazing still.
It's like you look years down the line, and obviously, who am I to say?
They won two Stanley Cups with matt murray but it's just
interesting now that they don't have a goalie and and i don't know yeah i want the penguins
guy and elliot free being kind of pissed on the rumors that mike sullivan might be out i mean this
is a guy a month ago everyone's talking about as a jack adams winner he said it's not happening he
still got three years left on his deal.
So, you know, just want to mention that.
People were trying to throw Mike Babcock as the next Penguins head coach.
I heard a couple of those online.
But, hey, regarding the Islanders, we have to give them credit.
And what better way to do so than to bring on Frankie Borelli, our good friend.
He works with the 4Play podcast.
And he's basically an Islanders jock sniffer.
So should we throw it over to him?
All right.
Yeah,
biz.
That's a good call.
A little surprise for you,
a friend and coworker,
Frankie Brelli.
I'm not sure.
He's liking him too much these days,
but either way,
we're going to send it to Burrell.
He's right.
And now we welcome one of our favorite reoccurring guests are right now.
One of our most hated reoccurring guests, or right now one of our most hated reoccurring guests,
being Bruins fans us for, but Frankie Borelli of Borelli's Restaurant Long Island,
the New York Islanders diehard fan himself, coming off a 5-2 loss in Game 1.
A little bit of a panic probably setting in for you and your dad right now, no, bud?
You know, I wish we would have talked right after the penguin series because i was riding real high especially with you wit and all the things that you guys have said about this
team but yeah you know this is a different this is a different animal the bruins were a team that
all season long you're like man you just don't want to see boss and hopefully some way somehow
we just don't match up in the playoffs but um oh so you're thinking that beforehand you were
you've been a little afraid
of the bees just you know they're the same type of team as the islanders and i think that that
doesn't bode well for for our team i think when we play a highly skilled team that doesn't have
the tenacity and like the the balls to the wall type of defense that the bruins have like we're
able to kind of make things happen i'm saying we as if i'm a part of the team i know people hate
that you are the islanders have a way to to to make something out of nothing when they play a
team like the penguins right like you can just fucking crush these guys for three straight
periods and somehow some way you see you saw the games that they won that double overtime game they
had no business winning but they can just grind it out against the bruins it's going to be a little
bit tough i think too um i said on the, from the Bruins point of point of view,
they wanted Pittsburgh as well, because like you're saying, they don't,
they don't play as hard defensively. And yeah,
I don't have much against you anymore.
The past two series for my penguins against your boys has been ugly.
I mean a sweep and then a pretty easy in six, it seemed,
but my question is moving forward. Like,
I don't know if you can match up
with the top line you saw last night it's like you guys are fine two three four but that top line
you have barzell as that type player after that though it's kind of a kick in the dick looking
at those three guys up front for boston yeah they're they're fucking unbelievable like
tomorrow night at the restaurant we're serving serving antipasta instead of pasta.
So it's getting kind of crazy now.
My dad's walking around trying to do a buffet of bits.
He literally has a buffet at Borelli's tomorrow.
It's going to be a buffet of bits, antipasta, no pasta in the building.
So it's going to be, you know, it's different.
But I like to think that, like, the Penguins were a little bit better than them.
Like, they had Sidney Crosby, Gensel, Letang.
Dude, they outshot you guys 2-1, basically, in the last two games.
They were outgenerating basically the entire series.
The only thing that you guys had going for you is the fact that they had a shooter-tooter in that.
Right.
But, like I say that, like, Sidney Crosby, Gensel, Russ, Letang,
why can't we just shut down, you know, Pasta and Bergeron and Marshawn?
Like it could happen.
It's not like I wanted the Pittsburgh, but it wasn't a walk in the park.
Those are fucking unbelievable hockey players that Adam Pellick
and Pulak shut down Crosby to what, three points?
Like this defensive core can do it.
It's a matter of just getting the right bounces.
Like last night, it's a 2-2 game with a power play with 15 minutes to go
in the fucking game. Like this game was closer than the final score indicates that was
that was like a coin flip in the third period one save here they kill the penalty the bruins and all
of a sudden they come down and mcavoy the fucking long island guy shoots a bomb that that uh sorokin
couldn't see is the antipasta thing in retaliation to him coming in that suit game one and then peppering a
hat trick on you guys now if you've seen the video of the hat showering down in slow-mo i don't care
who you root for that has to give you a hockey bone or having the fans was it a fully packed
barn wit packed to the hits so so 100 capacity that was i mean, come on. Is that your retaliation, Borelli?
It's just, you know, fucking the guy has a hat trick game one.
We're in an Italian restaurant.
Everyone's like pasta's being served at Borelli's tonight.
The whole thing.
So we can't go on our heels like that.
I can't tuck my tail between my legs.
The only thing I can do as a fan, as a guy who just watches on TV, is not serve pasta at my Italian restaurant.
And not get face fucked by granelli on on live stream dude it's uh those live streams are starting to become
something man the live streams i actually think could end up in a full-blown tilt at some point
because when he first grabbed so i tweeted out that i saw your hat throw which was just vicious
screaming in his face and immediately people are like Grinnelly threw his hat first. So for him to do that, you must've been steaming.
Listen, I love Grinnelly and, and I love his passion. I have crazy passion.
I have crazy passion, right? He isn't a, he is a physical,
he's a physical person to watch a game with.
Now this isn't the first time that he's done this.
We went to the Coliseum and he's grabbing my head. He's choking me out.
Like I listen, bro. And I love him him he's shaking his head yeah right so like i want all these spitting
chicklets listeners to realize that i don't bring the fisticuffs first i've watched these games with
a million different people and i've never once gotten physical have you ever seen my frame i'm
a doughy female looking piece of shit that can like i'm 160 pounds but i'm fat like i can't throw
bows with anyone my shoulders are
falling off my elbows i can't even grip a drumstick anymore my shoulders are you think i'm
gonna start fighting with mike grinnell what are you crazy welcome to the thunderdome buddy when
this guy dude the first goal he grabbed my neck and shanked me like i was fucking like yeah but
then he gave you the asian massage that looked like it felt good i bet yeah but when, it looked good. But, Witt, after two goals, I'm like,
I have to fucking launch this dude's hat into the next county.
I have to.
I'm getting embarrassed out here.
Dip his head in the grease.
And when you chucked your hat first, the whole Borrelli's is like, ooh.
I thought I was getting stabbed.
I actually thought someone was going to stab me.
He walked into my house and took a shit on my table.
Like, I'm like, I got to do something here.
But, listen, I think we'll be able to wrangle it back a little bit i if it gets any i mean that's game one where
do we go if this thing goes game seven i have to start i gotta bring a gun or something i don't
know i don't know how far this goes is tonight a must win for you frankie tonight uh yeah so yeah
tonight you know on the road you and you guys like playing right like isn't that kind of isn't that what you guys are
doing going into in a way um you know the goal is to get one just get one and in the end i know
what r.a is saying because i don't think it'll be possible for them to win four out of five against
the bees if they do lose tonight but it ain't over till you lose a game at home right if you're down
oh two and you're going home it's a little different than losing the first two at home
and then going on the road.
But the thing is, is that five games remaining after tonight,
if they're down 0-2, the Bruins are too deep.
The thing I wanted to ask you is, the stream was awesome.
The numbers were great.
Like, even the story Dave put out with, like,
kind of the highlights of the night, I loved watching it.
That means you can't go to games three and four?
I don't know, man. Yeah. This is war. They can't do that means you can't go to games three and four i don't know man yeah
this is war you they can't do that to you frankie that's especially if like that if like i don't
want to talk so doom and gloom but if like that's the last game at the coliseum of all time it's
gonna be tough to be watching that in you know in the borrelli's parking lot you know not being in
the arena but um you know anything for the business like i felt bad for grinnelli that
you know he's got season tickets what are you section three 220 whatever you're 323 row one baby let's go 23 row
one he was pointing him out when we were watching the national anthem i'm like and i thought to
myself like this fucking guy came all the way down to new york city instead of boston on memorial
day weekend to watch it in our restaurant in front of all islander fans for a home bruins
playoff game uh during a season that this is it.
Like this is your core group that they're supposed to win the cup now.
I would do anything to be in the arena.
So hats off to the Boston fans for doing that.
Total respect because I love being in the building.
I don't know what's going to happen.
Dave loves us in the restaurant, so we'll do whatever.
We were going to bring Avery on,
but you did a pretty good job of insulting yourself already
with you describing your build.
So I guess we'll just not give him the call this time.
Dude, last time.
Were you expecting us to maybe bring him on again?
I've got a quote up here this time that says the NHL has conducted that Sean Avery is detrimental to the league or the game of hockey.
I mean, I have all these quotes of all his ex-teammates and all his gms because last time
biz like you know i love this show i i listen to it in the car when i drive to work i stop it when
i'm out of work on my drive home i restart i think you guys are fucking great for this game i know a
lot of fans are gonna hate that like i actually do like this show because i think they think i'm
this rogue lunatic that you guys like to just talk about how the islanders are the fucking wild, wild west of the hockey and their fans stinking.
Frankie Brillo is a lunatic.
But I fucking love this show.
So when I got asked to go on with you guys, I was like glowing.
And I'm walking around my girlfriend's house.
I'm like, I'm going to go on spit and chicklets today.
I had a little pep in my step.
I'm literally walking and talking to you guys.
I thought we were going to talk about the Coliseum and the playoffs and like how the atmosphere is crazy and two seconds in i had
nothing prepared two seconds in all right we bring on sean avery i'm like whoa whoa whoa and i'm
closing we buried you with that that was hit from behind i'm closing doors people are like frank do
you need the computer i'm like shut the fuck up. I'm talking to people at the house being like, shut the fuck up.
It felt like the beaches of Normandy.
People were flying in from everywhere.
The fucking waves were crashing on me.
And everyone's like, oh, Frankie got his fucking hat fed to him.
It's like, yeah, I didn't fucking.
Joe Nivey's a good shit talker.
I didn't know that was happening to me.
You know, you're talking on a platform.
I like arguing, and that's not somebody I'm dying to go up against.
He's pretty legit. He'll throw anything at you. And when you talk to a guy like that give a shit it's almost
like you with like when you talk to a guy like that like you're just gonna lose no matter what
you got this legions of fans that no matter what you say you get fucking buried so yeah you guys
fucking killed me on that one that was that was fucking hilarious though just just the hitting
you from behind having no clue um little
back to the islanders because you're in the know i mean a lot of these guys you become pretty good
friends with any word on wallstrom because fuck what a season he had and now he's out like are
we hearing that he could be back or do you not know anything yeah i heard there was not there
was not much structural damage is what i was hearing so you know he was kind of walking around
the neck thing was crazy but i'm oh dude the way that snapped but the knee was the more more of the problem so if you actually re-watch that highlight
his knee gets bent into a place that should not be bent everyone's looking at the neck because he
looks like gumby getting wrapped around yeah you stretch armstrong oh it was crazy but his knee is
a problem um wallstrom's a he's a firecracker out there man he was playing really well in that
penguin series um he took a lot of penalties in the Penguin
Series, which I thought Trotz was going to give him the
because when you start taking dumb penalties,
he's sat Matt Barzell for two straight
periods before because Barzell's taken
penalties 200 feet away from his own net.
And I thought Walsh for sure was
getting the ax, but he kept going with him because he's got
that run-and-gun type of offense
that this team needs.
Another guy I got to ask you about, considering you are a true insider.
For people who don't know, who the fuck is Adam Pellick,
and how did he become so good at hockey?
Dude, he's just – and Grinnell, what's his numbers?
What's his contract?
This guy's making sub-$2 million this year.
How long has he been with the Isles?
Was he in Bridgeport?
I don't even know his come-up and everything.
It's been a couple years, and obviously his contract's up this year you've been with the aisles like was he in bridgeport like i didn't always come up and everything it's been a couple years and obviously his contract's up this year so it's
gonna be like you gotta fucking write the checkbook for him yeah one of the reasons
lou's gonna waterboard him to fucking sign another fair deal one of the reasons why we
lost devon taves who i'm watching in this colorado series i mean the play he just made
on that first goal for the avalanche like catching that puck at center ice and just going end to end
he's unbelievable i hate losing the guy that i center ice and just going end to end. He's unbelievable.
I hate losing the guy that I wore that turtleneck to to his wedding.
But, I mean, when you know that for that reason
you're going to keep a guy like Adam Pellick, hopefully.
This guy, when he was out last year,
he popped his Achilles playing pregame soccer in the locker room.
How many times have we talked about that?
My buddy Curtis McClain, who I play with, who was playing with the Islanders in his first couple games in the locker room how many times have we talked about buddy with my buddy curtis mclean who
i play with who's playing with the islanders and his like first couple games the nhl did the same
thing with the islanders sounded like a gunshot went off he said in his fucking head and this is
when the islanders were hot like they just came off winning like 17 games in a row they're rolling
into the playoffs this is before covid stopped and then the islanders lost like seven or eight
games they got pageau in the trade. They didn't win a game.
Cause cause Pellick's out. We get the stop luckily because you know,
how many months went by five, six months,
he was able to rehab and he comes back for the playoffs.
The Islanders go to the court, the Eastern conference finals.
So that's the kind of guy where once he's out of the lineup, I mean,
you could see, they just were, they had so many holes in that defense.
One guy makes a huge difference. So Adam Pellick is,
I think,
the most valuable player on the New York Islanders,
which is kind of a weird thing to say,
because you have Matt Barzell, Eberle.
But fucking man, that guy is huge for us.
I'll ask you this.
From the games I've seen,
I don't think Barzell's made the impact that maybe I was expecting so far in the playoffs.
Obviously, they get past the first round.
So it's kind of like if Marner and Matthews,
if the Leafs get by, it's like, oh, whatever, everybody forgets about it.
Like, is there maybe an injury there or is he just out of rhythm right now?
What's the case?
I don't know.
It's hard because his whole career, he's had success so far.
The year he comes into the league, he doesn't make the playoffs,
but he wins the Calder.
Then he goes on to make, they sweep the Penguins,
and the second round they get swept by the Hurricanes, but he makes it to the second round make the playoffs but he wins the calder then he goes on to make they sweep the penguins and the second round they get swept by the hurricanes but he makes it to the second round
of playoffs the next last year he makes to the eastern conference finals this year he just beats
the penguins and so it's like he he's invested in this team i know a lot of people say you got
to get matt barzell off the island and he could he could he could um you know be so play his play
a small more style that might suit him somewhere else but that's the point i was just going to ask you guys is like yeah you have all the success but a guy trots trots makes these guys
play a defensive game and we've heard it from the players we've heard it from other opposing players
you guys have noticed it watching games like do you think that's hurting him personally like
sometimes it looks like he's not invested out there like into that system but
then you look at what i just read off and it's like it's working so is it i think it's the personal
gain or does he want team gain it's the exactly it's the tales all the time where i'm sure he
loves winning but there's definitely got to be moments where he's like i can do so much more
that i'm really not allowed to do here and he actually gets more leeway than other guys because
of what he can do.
Cause he'll make certain plays and you're like, Oh dude,
that's getting another guy on the Islanders bench.
So I think he loves the aspect of the, him being on a good team.
But when you look around and you see guys that, you know,
you're better than around the league and they get more numbers or I'm sure
there's times he does definitely gets frustrated. You know, that's my,
that'd be my guess.
Yeah, no, it's, it's um you know when you're
watching it sometimes you're just like fuck man i'm watching a game like mckinnon and landis
gog and these guys are able to do things they can take over games and you want to think that
matt barzell can do that because he's done it before but is he given the opportunities to take
the puck end to end and do what he wants and use his creativity he has one of the more creative
minds in the nhl the stuff that he chooses to do.
I said that about Sid the other day, like watching him live.
And you guys obviously know this, but like the things he attempts,
that creative mind to even attempt some of the things that he's doing are nuts.
And sometimes you'll see flashes of that with Matt Barzell.
He'll throw it off guys' backs.
He'll go behind the net and he'll try and knock it off of a defender.
And like, he's just not allowed to do that.
Yeah, I think, yeah, difference being as sid's proven it and he's
gotten that leash to where like i think if he tries one of those plays and it doesn't work out
it ends up in the back of his net i don't think sullivan's going to be sitting him down for for
many shifts let's put it that way another thing i was going to ask is uh was it josh bailey's wife
when he scored the ot winner all the wives were at the barelli's. So it seems like this whole Islanders team is not only a family
as far as the guys in the locker room,
but even all the wives seem to get along and all hang out.
It's just like one big happy family.
Yeah, the Islanders' wives, they are –
Borelli's team them all up.
Smokes.
Smokes.
Yeah, that was the funniest part of that stream.
It's like they were watching me and my dad for three straight periods,
and all of a sudden, in overtime, all of a sudden they see all these just blonde smoke shows coming out
i was like who the hell is that they're like they're like servers yeah they're like who's
popping out of the kitchen it was one after another these girls are great um they they go
to every single game and if they're not at the game they're doing a watch party and they're
drinking and they're coming up with the martini and they've got the jerseys on they've got all the uh the the jean
jacket jerseys with the names on them and the kids are dazzled uh names on the back i'm telling
you man this team is such a family and i think it's the aspect that lou it's it's lou lamorelle
has made this a family oh he was he was making the jackets well no, no, I'm saying like – Lou was getting the bedazzler out. He was getting the bedazzler, yeah.
I wouldn't be –
No, Lou irons on the diamonds.
He takes them forever.
Like this team, like, you know,
they're not allowed to put up Instagram stories and all these things.
Like if you notice what the Islanders do,
they're not allowed to have beards.
Like no one's allowed to be above the other guy.
He wants them all to be like –
you know, it's play for the logo on the front,
not the name on your back.
And he is so serious about that. and you can see that this team really it feels like a like a high school
team where like they all grew up together in middle school and elementary school like josh
bailey and matt martin and cases azekas and these guys have all literally grown up on long island
together so their wives and their kids are now they all live next to each other long island's
a great place to grow a family so yeah um the girls are they are a riot i mean what you know i didn't expect them to jump on the
screen like that but bailey is in front of the screen going crazy and you know it's just that
only a place at barelli's will that happen where the guy scores a double overtime fucking game
winner against the penguins and the wife's jumping on the live stream uh and uh cassie clutterbuck
because i grew up with cal clutterbuck in welland Ontario. He's from my home. He's the last remaining guy from Welland still playing in the National Hockey League.
So have you gotten to know him at all?
Oh, yeah.
Me and Clutter have gotten tighter as the years have gone on.
We actually will golf.
Stick, I heard, Borelli.
Yeah, we've golfed quite often here.
And it's funny.
So Clutter's played with a bunch of pros.
And he went down to, I think, Georgia, where a bunch of the guys were playing. He played with, a bunch of pros and he went down to I think Georgia where a bunch
of the guys were playing he played with like Spieth and Kisner and he like he made a scene in front of
them basically being like this guy's fucking good and he also can drink while he plays like they
were these golfers were all like I didn't know that hockey guys were like this like he really
made an impact in that crew where the point where Kisner last night Kevin Kisner last night texts me
uh what did he say he goes like on, Cal fucking put this in,
like in the third period. He's like, that wasn't a fucking penalty.
Come on, bro. Cal's going to come up with the equalizer. He's got the,
he's got the PGA tour, like watching the Islanders now.
So that's the kind of guy he is stick on the golf course and couldn't be a
nicer guy off the course off the ice.
Like he's probably one of the bigger shit talkers but fuck man that guy's
got such a respect for the game and like we'll talk i've always wondered like do these guys want
to talk hockey with me because like when they go home it's not it's not there it's not it's like
you don't want to talk about your job at home right he's the kind of guy that will break down
like what he was thinking and like oh some guys love it and some guys don't and if if if you've
become close enough with these dudes that if they're talking about it, they don't mind it at all.
They just wouldn't even be mentioning it
if they didn't really want to chat about it, you know?
Yeah, I mean –
I certainly at times love talking about the game after.
Right.
Well, on the flip side of that, they must –
especially Clutterbuck, he must be asking you
about everything you got going with foreplay.
And by the way, congratulations to you guys
on what you guys did for the ladies.
That was awesome. You guys stepped up. Obviously,iggs was was a big part of that same with trent
and uh i always forget the other fellow's name lurch lurch lurch he's forgettable oh no but
he's gonna he's gonna like cry i said that i'm sorry yeah he's a huge part of it yeah yeah frankie
you guys are killing it and we appreciate you coming on.
So before I let you go, I will be in the building tonight.
So I'm looking forward to being at this tilt.
Yeah, last Bruins playoff game I went to,
they lost in double overtime to Columbus,
and I threw up everywhere in the bathroom,
and people were recognizing me, thought I was drunk.
It was actually food poisoning.
But hopefully tonight goes a little bit better, but I be there face painted black and gold and all right before i get
off here you know i have to do the islanders fans a service right this whole year has been this
notion that spit and chiclets hates the islanders hates their stupid fucking fans on the island
what's your guys actual take on this team i know boring hockey's become one of
your slogans i want to hear it from you to an islander fan because i don't speak for islander
fans but as one i want to know how you guys genuinely feel about this team the new york
ambience they put you to sleep get out shot every night just suck up suck tight to the middle don't
allow any of the dangerous shots and they don't generate it their own. The New York ambience. I say that the team is really good at making them play the style that they
need to play to win a game,
right?
They are very good at winning games.
They're like,
you've said they're a close bunch,
but in the end,
it's not that exciting.
And their fans are scumbags.
I never shit on them,
but they're great.
They're a great fucking team. I've said that a lot this year, but they're sc they're a great fucking team i've said that a lot this year
but they're scumbag fans i went full octane on the scumbag stuff when they were throwing
shit at taveras and i know it was only a couple people and it was it was the snakes
the plastic snakes but ever since then yeah i kind of wrote them off what about you all right
yeah it's not a collective thing i see it online oh you guys all over the islanders i'm like no
like tag wit or tag biz like i haven't shit on them i i said i think they'd be tough to
play i mean yeah they're not maybe the most exciting but for what the the roster makeup
they have the coach the gm they have a philosophy and it obviously works for them so i i have not
shit on the island isn't and in fact looking forward to uh one of my first time at pirelli's
this week later they are the modern day in New Jersey devils.
Lou has brought it over and that's it.
Dude,
they want Stanley cup.
So like,
I don't necessarily think that the aisles have the Scott Niedermeyer,
Scott Stevens, and like,
it's a little different,
but in the way they play,
that's what they do.
Cause that's how they win.
So good for them.
I just don't love watching them play.
The fact that Lou won't allow guys to come on the pod is another factor.
Yeah, that's why we really hate him.
That's another reason why, because we want to talk to –
like Cal Clutterbuck, I asked him to come on.
He's like, I can't.
Cal would want to come on.
Eberle would be a blast, but they get fucking treated like they're 10 years old.
Like, hey, Paul Mary, he used to have you shave your beard, dude.
I'm 33 years old.
You're making me shave my beard.
I just did an hour ago.
You want me eating pucks for you and I can't grow a beard to maybe cushion it if it goes off my face. Come on
here. Well, what I like is the term earn the beard, right? It's kind of like if you want a
fucking beard, make the playoffs. It's something I've come up with. And the second one. Oh, so you
like the term that you made up? That's that's shocking. That's that. That's the fucking, that's what the Islanders are all about.
And the second thing I want to say is Paul Mary,
what I'm hearing from behind closed doors
is that he actually shaved his beard
before Lou even told him to.
That's the kind of pull Lou Lamorello has.
He showed up the first day being like,
do you think it's enough?
Is Lou going to see?
And everyone's like, dude, chill out for a second.
You just got here.
So yeah, it was very funny that Paul Mary, before before he got to the island before he even saw someone was worrying about where
he was gonna get a razor from i've heard it from everyone like obviously lou has a certain like
everyone thinks a certain thing about him but if you're inside that family they absolutely love him
and they'll go to bat for him and go to war for him so i think we're just part of it is stick part
of this is us we need we need somebody to hate on yeah I will take that it's just like I as a fan I watch this team and like you got Bailey
Bavillier Pajot Walsham it's a fun team right now like everyone thinks they're this older team I
argue with these fucking Ranger fans they're the youngest team in the league I'm like yeah like we
have a couple guys that are old Andy Green and Brock Nelson's now a veteran like 28 29 but
they're a young squad man so it's it's a, I don't know.
I'm just really excited about it.
I do thank you guys for giving me the time of day on the show.
Like I said, it's a huge honor. Love the, love the pink Whitney drinks.
We're doing frozen Whitney's at Borelli's now. Oh yeah. I love hearing that.
Oh yeah. The frozen pink Whitney drinks are unbelievable. My dad's,
I mean, Grinnelly, how many,
how many bottles of pink Whitney did we go through last night?
Guys, we got to hook Borelli's up.
Mr. Borelli was complaining last night about how they're not getting
enough Pink Whitney bottles.
Frankie's telling me he's got to drive to local liquor stores
just to put them behind the bar.
So we got to hook them up.
All right.
It's the official drink of Borelli's.
It's crazy.
This guy walks around during these games, even if we're not on stream,
and he'll walk around with a tray,
and it's just got a thousand of these little shot glasses filled with Pink Whitney.
He did so many shots last night.
So many Pink Whitney shots dished him out to the whole place.
It was unbelievable.
I walked over to Fights.
I said, man, my dad's had about four martinis, ten Pink Whitney shots,
and two beers.
I said, if we need to cut this guy's mic off in the third period,
you let me know.
I was like, he's on the other side of the table. If he
starts saying stuff, you know, he's a 62-year-old
Italian. Yeah, dude, he gets canceled on
the live stream. With like 30
shots in him, and we got
a million people watching clips. You let
me know right now if we need to turn
that fucking mic off. We just battled
through COVID at this restaurant. I ain't letting
him cancel himself now.
Alright, Frankie.
Well, we're looking forward to hopefully a long series,
and we appreciate you coming on.
And keep it up with foreplay.
Like Biz said, you guys are killing it.
All right, thanks, boys.
Appreciate it.
See you, bro.
Good luck, pal.
Big thanks to Frankie for joining us for a nice little chat.
He might be the most passionate fan I know of any team anywhere.
Like, I'm a Bruins guy, but, like, he gets, like, rabid.
Faces when they score score and it's easy.
It is a sociopath.
Yeah,
it definitely is.
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Shitty weather in the Northeast this week, but it's going to be hot enough soon.
We'll be complaining about the hot weather soon.
All right, we're going to go back to that Islanders-Boston stuff.
They got the season series.
Let's see, the Islanders won that 5-3, but the Bruins won the last three games.
They were obviously a different team after the trade deadline.
Let's see, some other stuff from game one.
That top talent, Witt, just dominated for the Bruins, obviously.
Pasta, Bergeron, Marchand, but of course, Crecci, too.
Charlie McEvoy with the big goal.
Basically, the Bruins' big guns were way better than the Islanders' big guns.
I don't think Sroka played a bad game.
Tuca was what he needed to be, and the Bees are up 1-0.
What a night at the Garden.
I wasn't there.
Like I told Frankie, I'll be there tonight.
But if you look at the way that the Bruins played,
and when that first line's going, and if you watch back, like the NHL.com five-minute, you can at the way that the Bruins played and when that first line is going,
and if you watch back the NHL.com five-minute, you can watch the game.
They show six, seven minutes.
That line could have had 10 goals.
And what I said to Frankie is I don't think that they have –
like Barzell, he's that skill level, but they don't have three guys like that.
So if that line is going to go and then they're also going to get secondary scoring and chances the way
they have,
then I think the Bruins like they are huge favorites leading in,
like we'll win this series in five,
six games.
I don't know though,
if Craig Smith's out,
that's a tough loss.
He's a playoff type player.
He's looked good.
He's it's,
it's not just been hollows changed that team.
Now granted,
crazy won that whole trade deadline
by getting those guys as wingers, but Smith can't be out.
Luckily, Gryzlik came back when it looked like he hurt his leg
because he looks great.
But McAvoy, we've talked about it, that first round, another level.
And that game the other night, he looks great.
Not only is he killing guys defensively and playing lots of minutes,
the offense is really coming. So, uh yeah it was a good game and like frank he said two two
you know with what 15 minutes to go and and on the power play so i shouldn't have said five or six i
think they can but it's going to be a tough series i just think that that top line separates them
um one thing that stuck out to me taylor hall on the uh posture
and all catrick do you see that net drive pushing everybody back the intangibles i am so happy for
him he's playing so good in a high level how happy must he be oh buddy and then he scored ended up
scoring that goal afterward but uh the bruins look dangerous man and you talk about that secondary
scoring critchy his playoff numbers it's fucking nuts
40 goals and 80 assists and 151 playoff games this guy is like under no way is he really
second all-time for the bruins in the playoffs in the history of that organization number two
all-time in playoff points and he continues to get it done and it's yeah it's quiet and it's
so good for him to have some wingers and i don don't know, though, like Sorokin didn't look like himself.
Wallstrom is good.
Like, Wallstrom makes a difference.
Like, to not have him, that's a tough loss.
I mean, Zajac's played a long time.
It's just not the same type player.
It's a young kid, a ridiculous shot versus a guy coming in
who can probably defensively be fine,
but offensively not be able to do what that young gun Wallstrom was doing.
And to follow up on that Borelli interview, I asked him,
and I'm not shitting on him because I don't think he's played poorly,
but I think if Islanders are going to have a chance to win this series,
Barzell has to elevate his game to what we saw more towards the beginning
of the season, and he's going to have to start putting up a little bit more
offense because they're going to have to keep up to these big dogs for the Boston Bruins.
Because you go back to last series, well, they weren't,
Pittsburgh wasn't able to match the goaltending.
Well, that's one thing that Boston does have.
So you're not going to get those squeakers.
And they're not necessarily able to generate the best of opportunities.
Only 22 shots in that first game, outshot 2-1 by Boston.
So you said it though,
Whit. You said they're able to get the split and go back to Long Island. It's a completely
different series, but the Bees look very, very good. Yeah, Biz, I'm very happy with game one.
I think we're going to see a much different Islanders team in game two. I mean, it's a
Barry Trotz team. They're a proud squad. And Whit, you mentioned Craig Smith. He was huge for the
Bruins this year. I know he had a slow start. He's a playoff-type performer.
As far as who the Bs are going to put in, I would think maybe Trent Frederick,
given the way the Islanders started running around late in that game.
You know, they were starting to get hit after the whistle.
Even Bazar was mixing up a little bit.
So, I don't know.
I would think they might want to bring on to maybe deter some of that stuff
or potentially deter some of that stuff.
Also, too, we want to mention Grinnelli's going to be back at Borelli's
for another live stream Monday night.
I couldn't make it this week.
I had a bachelor party the other night.
I had some family obligations Monday, and I'm going to go to the game
Monday as well.
So we'll have Spittin' Chicklets, Boots on the Ground.
We'll do some live stuff probably from the Chicklets account on Instagram.
And me and Whit, yeah, we'll have to get a drink before the game
now that we can.
Wait, you mentioned that fans are back in the garden,
and I saw a tweet yesterday
from dj bean that said a beer vendor made two thousand dollars in tips so that like you just
love to see that these guys have been out of no idea how happy people are i'm not kidding you
i've never seen a vibe like this everyone will know what i mean when they first experience it
it's fucked now um going back to the Trent Frederick insertion I think that he is a
playoff type player I'm excited to see him in sometimes you have to be a little bit weary of
implementing a guy who's got a lot of piss and vinegar like that because if you get running
around a little bit too much all of a sudden you're taking penalties so it's it's you know
it's a you got to stay a little bit more even keel in playoffs but yeah it would be be fun to see his
physical presence in the lineup.
And I guess we kind of have had our answers so far,
at least up until this point as far as rest versus rust,
because both teams who have been rested have ended up getting those first wins
in the first game of the second round.
I guess the other one we'll be waiting for is Winnipeg,
who ended up sweeping Edmonton.
So, yeah, that's all I got.
How about Marshawn's first assist to the playoffs last night.
Oh, really? I didn't know.
I know. I was surprised.
Save him. Save him.
You know, he didn't need him in the first round.
All right, well, I got our predictions here for the series,
but let's first recap how we did in the first round.
Obviously, Toronto-Montreal, Game 7.
We don't know how that's going to do,
but so far after round one, Mikey Grinelli leading the pack with 5-2.
Actually, I'm sorry.
I'm tied with him.
We're both 5-2 right now.
Merles Witt and Biz all went 4-3.
Of course, like I said, Toronto's still pending.
So if Toronto wins.
So Grinelli locked up the win.
Oh, no.
No.
If Toronto wins, Grinelli wins, and then we all tie for second,
all 5-3. Right. And if Montreal wins, theninelli wins, and then we all tie for second, all five and three.
Right, and if Montreal wins, then you guys all suck my ass
because I'll have won.
Predictions for this particular series, we all pick Boston.
Shaka.
Me and Grinelli actually picked them in seven,
and Merle's, Witt, and Biz picked them in six.
So you guys will get the graphic up.
You guys can tool on us.
We'll probably wait until tomorrow night's game, obviously,
before we post them.
But I don't know.
Montreal, that could be a fucking nice pick if it pans out.
But we'll see what happens.
But we're going to move along to the next series.
Tampa Bay, Carolina.
This is the first ever playoff matchup between these two squads
during the season.
Each team went 4-3-1 versus the other.
Kucherov's been on fire. Ajo's been on fire. We had game one Sunday afternoon. These two squads during the season, each team went for three and one versus the other.
Kucherov's been on fire.
Ajo's been on fire.
We had game one Sunday afternoon.
It was a great game, a fantastic game that ended on a terrible goal.
Just an absolutely dud of a goal from Nedeljkovic.
I don't even know what he was thinking here. It almost like he fell, but he didn't fall.
Biz, one of you guys.
It was just an awful way to end such a great game, such a shitty, ugly goal.
Maybe anticipation.
He thought it was going across the crease because it was such a bad angle,
although it didn't even look like there was anyone back door.
Maybe he thought it was going.
Yeah, and I think maybe he just slid out on his leg,
and luckily for Goudreau, he found that little hole.
So that's just
a devastating loss and uh you know a team like that uh at tampa bay where you could take game
one at home would be huge so but hey that's tampa man they could beat you anyway defensively with
good goaltending or if you want to go run and gun they could put up the point so um you know that's
a that's definitely a tough loss at home for Carolina to start things out.
Yeah, I think that they have to be happy
with the way they played, though.
And without that one gaffe,
and he made some huge saves, Nedeljkovic.
So it was just a fluke gaffe by a goalie
who just completely missed the post.
But you got to get that game at home now.
I mean, we talked about losing the first two on the road,
whatever, sucks, but it is what it is. You lose the first two at home now. I mean, we talked about losing the first two on the road, whatever.
Sucks, but it is what it is.
You lose the first two at home against the defending cup champs, you're done.
You're done.
You're not winning four or five.
Yeah, I think we're going to get a great series.
Carolina's been a monster at home.
I had their fucking record hit.
Oh, yeah.
3-0 at home in the playoffs.
Well, before today, 23-5 they were during the regular season.
They just got to keep Tampa Bay off that power play.
That thing is absolutely vicious.
It'll kill them all day. Hey, we didn't talk about Carolina's unreal troll tweet
at the end of the series against Nashville.
Oh, my goodness.
How did we forget that?
Dude, that was so –
So, people who didn't see it, Carolina released a tweet,
and it was just three banners, Nashville Predators banners.
Remind me of the one of them, but two of them I know was
Creed played the second intermission and was the second loudest
NHL crowd of the season.
Tyler LeJuan chugged a beer.
Tyler LeJuan.
Our Bustin' with the Boys boy chugged a beer,
was on the other banner.
So just the ultimate troll after beating them too.
You know what?
People were shocked by it, but I fucking love it.
Oh, yeah.
I like when the Twitter accounts get after it.
That's what, I mean, we saw in the first round, though,
with Washington, how it can backfire a little bit.
They ended up hitting the delete button with the Tom Wilson one.
But what was...
Yeah, that's different, though, dude.
You're hurting feelings here.
Someone was actually injured.
Yeah. Didn't they have a follow-up one as well because i know nashville ended up posting something where they blocked they blocked carolina on social media which is which is a funny reply
uh but they also got uh they got david airs to get the the crank up going for game one against
tampa as well so oh no ended up ended. Ended up not going over so well.
What was the other tweet, really?
Montreal's flying.
I'm up next.
Yeah.
David Ayers is going back-to-back.
He's going to do a Montreal dance before game seven today.
They should fucking play him.
Okay, so like we said,
Tampa Bay got a 1-0 advantage so far in the series.
And here are our picks.
Let's see.
Merles, Witt, and Grinelli all like Tampa Bay.
Merles likes them in six. Witt and Grinelli all like Tampa Bay. Merle's likes them in six.
Witt and Grinelli like them in seven.
And me and Biz like Carolina in seven each.
So we'll keep an eye on that.
Moving right along to the other series that started,
Vegas versus Colorado.
We obviously mentioned it a little bit, but a few other notes here.
It's the first ever matchup in the playoffs between these two.
Colorado went 4-3-1 versus Vegas.
Vegas went 4-4 versus them during the season.
Nazem Khadri is still out for at least six more games.
He is appealing a suspension, but in the meantime, he's not playing.
First game, though, Colorado absolutely dusted them 7-1.
Just an absolute beat.
I know you guys talked about Lehner coming in,
which I don't know if the decision really mattered or not.
I don't know what's his face face to board knew that and started them.
But either way, I got a little out of hand late.
Ryan Reeves got a match penalty.
He took a whack at somebody and I think he was sitting on Ryan Graves,
his head.
Well, after the game, we just got a quote.
Gabriel Landis said, I don't know if you can call that physicality.
Reeves, he's on a mission to hurt someone in the third.
Obviously, you know,
opposition is going to be pissed off
when that type of stuff happens.
And when you see it, you do get a wonder.
Is he just trying to hurt this guy here?
And Graves was on the ice for a little bit.
So Graves was the one who hit Janmark.
You mentioned that earlier, right, Witt?
So you got to think that that's retribution.
Obviously, when a game gets out of hand like that
and then there's a questionable hit coming from the side
that's beaten on them as far as a score,
there's going to be some retaliation because if there's any time to do it in the series it's right there
the game's out of hand i don't know if there's going to be any supplement supplement watching
it again it it's the it's hard i sort of there's so many legs around it's hard to see on the camera
angle what he's doing but you can tell at one point he's got his knee on his face so yeah i
mean game out of hand and you're
right it changes it when you look at it that he had injured one of his teammates earlier in the
game right yeah and and people are questioning whether it was a head hit i don't think it was
i think that it was like you know late and it was a tiny bit late and he did come off of his check
so yeah guys i i was complimentary towards reeves in the beginning of the game and how he was
playing. And I think he's a physical force and he definitely makes guys,
you know, look over their shoulder. And I think he's a valuable asset,
but you know, they might be without him and definitely some,
some fireworks in game one to look forward to game two for.
Yeah. So I've got a little ugly late in that game.
Oh, and here was the other stat I want to throw you guys in the last 102 avalanche
games. They've only been shut out twice.
Both times were by Mac Andre Flurry,
which added further to the whole goaltending question. But I,
I think it's safe to say we'll see him in game two either way.
And I'm sure that's going to get ugly as well.
Our predictions for that series Merles was the only one to go at Vegas.
He took Vegas in seven.
The rest of us took Colorado.
Witt's got him in five.
I got him in six.
Biz got him in seven.
And Grinnell, he has him in seven as well.
So also, yeah, Biz, the end of the game shenanigans,
like that type of stuff.
Is it stuff – did coaches ever kind of give a signal to guys
or did they just kind of do things pissed off
and try to quote,unquote set a tone?
I don't – well, nowadays, like you're not supposed to basically say,
hey, go out there and fight people.
I don't think DeBoer is that type of guy.
I think that he probably was like, hey, you guys better finish this game strong
and invest into this series and make sure you have one another's backs.
But I feel like Vegas is the type of team where they already have that type of culture in their locker room.
Where they don't need to be told.
I think Reeves wants to set the tone.
And I think they're out there late in the game.
They're getting blown out.
I don't think the coach has anything to do with that particular instance.
No.
Not in this case.
But we did mention that late in the game with that game out of hand.
There was a few chippy plays, too, already.
I don't know if you've already mentioned it,
the reverse hit by Pacioretty on Gerrard.
And it was originally called the high stick,
where he ended up getting him a little bit high.
He went down the tunnel a little bit.
Mind you, he's not very big.
So even if Pacioretty's bent his knees at 90 degrees,
I still think he's going to get him in the jaw.
And then even in the front of the net when Vegas scored their first goal,
it was a battle in the net front, and Carlson and Gerrard had a collision,
and Gerrard went down, and he wanted an interference call.
So it's more like, hey, this is fucking playoff hockey.
Stay on your feet.
And you know the old chirp going by the bench.
Oh, yeah.
Stay on your fucking feet.
I was getting it all the time but i was like dude
i'm not even diving i just fell yeah my ankles can't keep me up all right apologies did you
already mention too that deborah he's six and oh in game sevens now i had not no that is that is
like somebody asked me just said oh it's all about preparation. I mean, I just couldn't believe when I saw that.
To never lose a game seven, you've been in six of them.
That's an amazing stat.
Yeah, it must be a hell of a motivator in the room for that kind of record.
And hey, this is the series everybody wanted, man.
I mean, it was a blowout tonight, but last night I should say,
but I think game two will be significantly closer.
Biz, what do you got, buddy?
Last thing I'll say, Nathan McKinnon.
I think that I take a lot of consideration in a playoff play.
If he continues on this pace, he's got 15 goals.
I don't even know if he had one towards the end of the game,
so it might be 16.
But he has at least 15 goals in his last 13 playoff games.
If he continues this all the way to the finals
i would be willing to say he is number one in the world at least tied with mcdavid because what the
fuck he's doing right now especially when he's playing against the higher caliber players and
teams he is doing it at an enormous pace dude since march 1st he's got 57 points in 36 games.
And he's going through the neutral zone.
And I put out a tweet.
People are talking about his goal and how it looks like it's in fast forward.
Let's talk about Nicholas Hagg and that poor fucking guy,
flat-footed in the middle of a video game.
And let me tell you, there's nothing you can do, bud.
There's nothing you can do, bud. That's when you throw your stick.
There's nothing you can do.
Just shake that one off.
I mean, he made Alex Petri right there.
And somebody sent me the clip of Petrangelo at the Outdoor Classic on Lake Tahoe.
And he was backing up on him.
And he goes, oh, boy.
And then McKinnon sniped one there.
Yeah, he's on a different level.
Get gap on him.
Oh, really?
You want to try to get gap on this guy?
Just stand at the top of the crease.
That's how you're going to get your gap.
And lay down.
That's how you're going to ensure he doesn't pull by you.
Lay down on top of you.
Oh, my God.
We should do a content piece when I beat him on draws.
We could do a couple out of the gates.
There's this drill that they do out of the gate one-on-ones
where the forward starts at.
Where does he start?
At the hash mark?
Or does he start at the goal line and then the demand the demand starts facing
the board sideways on the hash mark right in front of the goalie and the forward starts in the corner
on the goal line facing forward and so it's him going straight and you got to do a hard crossover
rob scuderi was incredible at this i used to just
get blown by but it's a nightmare he would be at the red line before biz had done his third crossover
and um and to to make matters even worse for defensemen you're not allowed to turn around
skate forward till you hit the red so i would be getting fucking roasted if i was going i would
hey i would make sure when when when they we went away from the board after they lined it up i would i would make sure to look what forwards were going where and make sure when we went away from the board after they – Yeah, you lined it up.
I would make sure to look what forwards were going where
and make sure I was timing it properly so I'm going against the slow guys.
And you got to bump a young guy.
You're like, I'm going against him.
Yeah, hey, lace broke, lace broke.
Oh, boys.
All right.
Obviously, we'll have a lot more on Winnipeg for you next episode.
They're still waiting on Toronto, Montreal,
so there's not really a preview of games to go over there yet. But we do have Grand Fjord.
And before we get to Grand Fjord, I did want to say that at Labatt,
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. Be good at beer too with a pristine Canadian Pilsner Labatt Blue Light. We were
drinking these in the live stream last week. So good. Takes you back to my teen years up in
Montreal. And we're going to be working with Labatt Blue all year. We have some exciting content
coming up. So grab a pack and enjoy. And who knows if the bees working with Labatt Blue all year. We have some exciting content coming up.
So grab a pack and enjoy.
And who knows if the bees keep on chugging,
we'll have some more live streams for you.
But without further ado, here is Hockey Hall of Famer Grant Fior.
Well, it's an absolute pleasure to welcome our next guest to the show.
This goalie was a key part of the Edmonton Oilers dynasty back in the 1980s that won five Stanley Cups in seven years.
He played in seven All-Star games and won the Vesna Trophy in 1988.
He also holds the goalie records for most games played in the season with 79
and most points in the season with 14.
In addition to the five Stanley Cups,
he's also the first black person to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Thanks so much for joining us on the Spitting Chicklets podcast.
Grant Fuhrer, how's it going, Grant?
I'm doing good. How about you guys?
Doing well, doing well. No complaints.
Where are you coming to us from today?
I'm down in Palm Springs.
Collecting a little sunshine right now.
Definitely on the golf course today, R.A.
You know that.
Hey, I'm interested because did you just say 14 assists all right
yes that's way more points than biz ever had this season shut up i knew that i knew you were
gonna bring that up i'm gonna really i i'm gonna shift it to golf though and that's something else
wit likes um the legendary story of the day before the game seven a stanley cup final you might have
played a little bit you so this is like your jordan moment you played 56 holes the day before
game seven of a stanley cup final yeah maybe 54 so yeah we played a little bit of golf to relax a
little gretzky was telling the story on your documentary.
He just basically says the reporters, all their mouths just dropped.
They're like, what?
You're like, yeah, I would have played more, but it got dark out.
They were a little more flustered than I was.
Yeah, so you were always somebody just laid back before the games.
It wasn't like the day before you had to spend any time thinking about
what was going to happen the next night. It was just live your life and do what you do you know
what the day before i just wanted to relax i mean there's enough that goes on and before game seven
and a playoff series anyway so you want to relax you want to get away and my getaway was going out
to play a little bit of golf and during the regular season we played table tennis right up
until it was time to get dressed to go on the ice. So, yeah, we're reasonably laid back.
You've been watching a lot of the league lately, Grant?
You keep tabs on everything?
I do.
I still enjoy watching the game.
I mean, you must be an Oilers fan or anybody else you'll pull for as well?
Any particular players?
You know what?
I'm still a diehard Oilers fan.
I still cheer for the Blues.
So if both two teams met
though it's oilers all the way for you yeah i'm born and raised just outside edmonton so i'd be
a diehard oiler fan do you have any friends that that booed me when i played there a few years
because there was a lot of people from outside areas of edmonton that couldn't stand me
actually i had a lot of friends that were fans of yours
they like offensive hockey oh what i grew up in an era of offensive hockey it's not about
playing defense all the time you gotta have some offense too yeah well how did you get stuck in
that that's normally ra's question so did when you grew up did you always want to be a goaltender
you know what nobody else wanted to do it and the equipment looked cool so i volunteered to do it and i was the only kid that got to stay on the
ice all the time so i like that idea was there a particular player or a goaltender you modeled
modeled yourself after i know goaltender wasn't as refined then as it is today you know what i
was a big glenn hall fan and i met him when i was a young kid. And, of course, Tony Esposito, because we're the same hand.
So watching them play, guys like Roger Crozier, the acrobatic guys,
I enjoyed watching those guys play.
So you catch left.
Do you think that's the advantage to the goalie for anyone playing at a high level if you're catching left more so than right as a goaltender?
Oh, hell yeah.
I mean, take a look at you guys as forwards.
You get half a second to pick a spot to shoot.
You're used to shooting in a certain spot
because most goalies catch with their left hand.
I catch with my right hand.
Your instinct is to shoot at the blocker side.
That's my glove side.
So, and I'll give you a nice look at my glove side
to make sure you see it too.
Fair enough.
I had them mixed up, by the way.
Which way do you play golf then?
I play golf right-handed. So you not mixed up in catching sorry playing baseball you throw lefty
i throw lefty in baseball all right so you can kind of do it all you're just an amadextrous one
no i'm just mixed up i think that's what amadextrous is grant we watched a documentary
which we highly recommend it's called making coco Coco, The Grant Fiorce Story.
You can find it on Amazon Prime, among other spots right now.
Yeah, there seemed like there was some debate about taking you,
the Oilers, in the first round.
Where were you expecting to go for that draft?
You know what?
I had no idea.
I had no idea that the Oilers, that Glenn didn't really want to draft me.
I didn't find that out until I watched the movie.
So we had a couple of laughs about that afterwards. But no, I mean, to me, it didn't find that out until I watched the movie. So we had a couple of laughs about that afterwards.
But no, I mean, to me, it didn't really matter.
I just wanted to be drafted.
I didn't care where, when, whatever.
You just want a chance to play.
And the fact that I managed to get the move home to play was just a big bonus.
Was it common for goaltenders to get drafted so high back then?
And given the fact that you got picked so high,
do you think it added any pressure to you you know what back then I think the only one that
was drafted higher before me was John Davidson so there wasn't a lot of goalies that get drafted
higher and pressure wise no Andy had just come off a fabulous series with Montreal so I didn't
even expect to stay in Edmonton I expected I was going back to junior, so I had no pressure whatsoever. So for people who don't know, in Grant's documentary, Glenn Sather says he saw you
play twice and you were garbage both times. The head scout said, no, I saw this guy play a hundred
times and you were picked. And what was surprising, I didn't know, is Andy Moog, he was young. He was
only 20 years old. They picked you with already a guy who looked like he could play in the league so for sure I think it must have been surprising like you said
oh yeah I mean Andy was there we had Gary Edwards was there Eddie Mio was there
uh shit who else do we have Ronnie Lowe it's we had a lot of guys in the NHL experience Andy just
come off the phenomenal playoff run against Montreal so I wasn't really sure where I fit
I figured I was going back to junior to play another year of junior,
but was lucky enough to hang around.
I want to ask you about junior.
You played in Victoria, grew up in Alberta.
So had you ever gone anywhere east to play before the Memorial Cup in Windsor?
No.
So that was the first big trip.
I mean, most of where I played was around Alberta, around Edmonton,
probably within 40 miles other than playing in Victoria where we logged a few
bus miles. But other than that,
Winnipeg is probably as far East as I'd gotten.
Wild. What other, what other,
what other guys had long NHL careers that grew up where you did same age in,
in the Edmonton area?
Goalie-wise, Clinton Larchuk was there. Daryl May that played in, where David played, St.
Louis for a little while. He was there. Mess played there.
So you were the same age as Messier growing up?
A year younger.
Must have been stories about him going back to when he was 10 years old, I'm imagining, with his tenacious attitude on the ice.
Well, you know what?
We practiced together with the Spruce Grove Mets back in the late 70s
when they won the Centennial Cup.
His dad was coaching him.
So I got to be their practice goalie, and Mets were skating with him at that time.
So we were 15 years old
at that time was he skipping school too to to get ice time because i was reading how you you just
you would you weren't a big school guy you like to go play with the boys a lot more
well i don't consider it skipping i was delegating to a different
unbelievable that's a good way of looking at it well the funny part was the outdoor
rink that we had was right on school property so it wasn't very far away from that i could
see the school so i count that as school yeah get a get a credit for kicking for kicking after
our vice principal knew where to find us we weren't in class he'd walk over to see who all
was there so it's not like we were being derelicts or anything it's
exactly what we were doing and where we would be and there'd be oh 10 or 12 of us out there
it's just a long gym class biz so that's where you learned to to give off the glove and then
take it away all the way back to the to the old school roots of the the the playground
that started probably playing a little bit of ball hockey but it got a little more refined as we got older.
Perfect.
Grant, when you joined the Oilers, Wayne Gretzky,
he only had two NHL seasons under his belt.
I mean, fantastic seasons nonetheless,
but what was the perception of him in the fall of 81?
I mean, he was still a young kid then.
I think everybody expected him to be a star.
I mean, I think coming right out of the WHA,
that was the perception in Edmonton that he was going to be a star. So you look at our nucleus at that time, you got mess,
Gretz, Yari, Paul coffee, Kevin Lowe. I think the oldest of the group was probably 20.
So pretty young group of guys. Now was, was the room cognizant of just how good it was? Like
there was seven future hockey hall of famers in that room at some point?
Or were you guys just, you know, doing business as you were there?
We were just having a good time.
We all enjoyed being at the rink.
We enjoyed hanging out with each other.
And we played because we enjoyed it.
We expected to win because that's just the way Glenn said they're instilled in us.
You got to expect to win and play to have some fun.
And the style we played, you were going to have some fun.
It's not going to be pretty numbers, but it was going to be fun.
At any point in a practice as an Edmonton Oiler in your career,
did guys have shoulder pads or a helmet on?
They wore shoulder pads, helmets, helmet.
I thought even some of them no shoulder pads.
Maybe I'm totally making that up.
So you guys
are just they're just snapping around you're not doing much defense those those practices right
most of our practices had no defense it was all about scoring so fun and and they said that they
shot the score every single time so do you think that was a a huge reason as to why you were able
to get to the level that you got to oh definitely, definitely. It made Andy and I both better because some of the practices,
if they didn't score, they had to skate.
If they did score, we had to skate.
Sucks as a goalie having to skate.
So you're better in a hurry.
Oh, big time.
Your second year.
Okay.
There's a story that you got sent down to the minors because you called the
fans and you called them jerks.
Well, there's another term that goes right before that, but yeah.
What would prop you to call the fans and you called them jerks well there's another term that goes right before that but yeah what would prop you to call the fans jerks and and at that time were you shocked that you ended up getting sent down to the minors for it for 10 games shocked no did I earn it yeah
you probably stuck my foot in my mouth at a nice early age so yeah no I got off to a tough start
my second year I'd had soldier surgery and just couldn't get hit, basically.
So one night playing Washington, Rod Langway went to dump a puck in,
and I went behind the net, and it hit a partition right in the middle of the net,
and I tripped over the net behind it.
So I'm lying behind the net when it went in.
Needless to say, there was a lot of Bronx cheers after that.
Oh, no.
I may have had a moment as a 19-year-old.
Oh, Jesus.
I think it was Rod's only goal that year, too.
Grant, actually, I want to go to that season, the 82 season,
the miracle in Manchester, as it's known,
Oilers blew a five-nothing lead to the Kings,
end up losing the series.
You said you weren't sure if you were ready for the NHL
or if you were right for the NHL, if you were right for the NHL,
what did you take or learn from that series when you guys kind of crashed
that game?
That I sucked in the playoffs.
You take a look at my first playoff series.
We lost the first game, 10, eight, not even an empty net goal.
Then we win three, two win three, two.
The miracle of Manchester happens. We lose six, five.
We come home and lose
seven four so I didn't think I was long for the NHL after that wow that actually must have really
been a tough off season where you're thinking am I even going to be back there right or were you
pretty confident you'd at least start the season with Edmonton oh hell no I went into training camp
figuring I'd be fighting for my life yeah Yeah, pretty much first playoff I sucked.
That's the best way of describing it.
What kind of coach was Glenn Sather?
Glenn was great.
I mean, he gave us enough rope that we could have fun,
experience life, enjoy ourselves.
But at the same time, he knew when to yank on the rope
before you fell off the cliff.
So kind of like a coach, kind of like like a father figure kind of let us do our own
thing or at least let us think that we were doing our own thing yeah like you guys are basically a
machine that could run itself he probably just had to pop in every once in a while check the oil
no pun intended a bunch of kids that like to run a little wild and every now and then they just had
to reel the horses back in a little bit like At what point did you guys become rock stars in that city
where you probably wouldn't have been able to even go out to eat?
You know what the best part about it was?
We hid in plain sight because the guys went out and hung out with people at bars
and you could eat in a restaurant and talk to people.
So you got to hide right in plain sight.
So we never really worried about the rock star side of it.
The guys were out. We enjoyed ourselves whenever we had the opportunity so we hit right in plain sight
so so they were respectful and they've gotten over the fact that you call them fucking jerks
yeah they got over that thank goodness a couple a couple cups will do that and um going back to
the first year uh or the the year before you guys won your first
given when you got sent down to the minor minors when you got called back up you felt that Moog
got the net because of maybe how much you'd uh ruffled feathers and and through throughout that
playoff run because I think through that playoff run where that you guys end up losing you only
played 10 minutes or did you feel at that time that it was Moog's net and that incident had no reflection on what happened?
No, it was Andy's net, and he was playing well at that time.
So you're running into the playoffs,
and you've got a goalie that's playing well.
Glenn had a tendency to run with the hot goalie.
So I knew I was there for mop-up duty and to learn.
So you sit, you watch the games,
you get a chance to analyze the playoffs a little bit to
see what it's all about so for me it was actually a great learning experience so so throughout that
process Moog was still fairly young were you guys like going back and forth off your experience did
you guys have a great working relationship because sometimes that's not always the case with with
goalies it's kind of a kind of bit of an odd position where you're constantly in competition
you know the best part is we were good friends so we could bounce things off of each other
and you cheered for the other guy I think that was the greatest thing is one back then it was all
about winning so if the team's winning everybody's winning came down to contract time if the team won
everybody got paid so we weren't worried about individual numbers you're worried about winning
and the way Glenn had set it up with Andy and i is you keep winning you get a chance to play so winning became
important can't be letting in 10 goals hey ken but you have to get 11 you just gotta get that
dumb hey wasn't wasn't that one of your rules in the locker room you're like hey if you guys get
to a certain number i'll make sure sure I stop it at that top.
You usually keep it somewhere around four or five.
I can handle that, boys.
Yeah.
Unless you, hey, it sucks on a night where you're
spotting them three or four in the first.
Oh, we had a couple of nights where you'd spot
them three in the first two and a half, three
minutes, and then you'd end
up winning eight or nine
three yeah yeah you would you would sweat out the night before but by the end of the first
rally in between periods and get it done in the last 40 yeah we might have a little nap through
the first 10 minutes and once the guys kicked it into gear you knew you're going to get four or
five to work with that's how good you guys were then you just had the luxury maybe sometimes to be like okay boys i think it's time we turned her on well you know what the fun
part was defense wasn't really a priority in our world it was all about offense if you got four you
wanted eight if you got eight you wanted a dozen and it didn't matter what the numbers were going
to be guys were going all offense i mean we you get defensemen hanging around their crease looking for rebounds you know it's not going to be a defensive strong you're going to be guys were going all offense. I mean, we, you get defensemen hanging around their crease, looking for rebounds.
You know, it's not going to be a defensive strong.
You're going to give up 40 shots,
but you're going to have nine goals to work with. So it's not a bad situation.
Sounds like street hockey. We asked so much about Mark Messier's leadership.
He has the award named after him.
What are some examples of his fabled leadership that you can share with us?
Well, let's just say if you didn't you weren't pulling your weight in the dressing room,
you probably got a face-to-face conversation.
Mess was our vocal leader.
Gretz led by example.
Mess was the vocal guy.
So if it looked like you were not pulling your weight,
you probably may have a comment or two from up close and personal mentioned.
So he'd get right in your face, right in the middle of the locker room
between periods, be like, he'd call guys out.
You were dogging it.
Oh, my goodness.
You mentioned you were dogging it.
There's no debate.
So he was the guy where you guys never caught him slipping,
like regardless of what happened the night before, how late it was,
he was always the guy setting the tone and practicing on the ice?
Oh, yeah. Hey, the old adage when we played you can't play guilty you can't play so you gotta if you're gonna go and have some fun you better be able to play the next night
not that mess never did pull his weight but what if what if he wasn't pulling his weight was that
up to the coach or wayne or somebody else you know what glenn made the leadership accountable too he made gretz accountable
he made mess accountable so everybody was accountable to somebody but the best part is
the players were all accountable to each other so and that's all we cared about you go out you
have fun as a team you win as a team you mentioned uh ping pong before those games. I imagine those battles are just legendary.
Who was top dog?
Oh, I think I managed to hang around the top for a little while.
Yari was pretty good.
Yari was a good player.
Those Finns and Swedes are always very good at table tennis.
Oh, they are.
Tick thought he was a good player, but didn't win that often.
Would you guys be gambling, playing and stuff?
Or was it all about the pride?
Oh, no, it's pride.
Even if he made a dollar, it didn't matter.
It was about pride.
Going off of the ping pong question, who was the guy in the locker room
if you had to pick one guy throughout the course of that legendary run
you guys had?
Who was the catalyst as far as the humor is concerned? Because you guys had who was the the the catalyst as far
as the humor is concerned because you got to keep things light in the locker room and i'm sure you
guys had tons of characters in there but if you had to pinpoint one guy where he just he was able
to ignite the group and get them chuckling on a day-to-day basis i would have been samank easy
easy pick i had a really dry sense of humor and it would come out of nowhere. So if things got too serious,
he'd come up with something that would throw guys
right off kilter.
Messier's
just in somebody's face and he's just
dropping one-liners and everybody's buckling.
Pretty much.
No, Biz, Semenko would walk in and say,
Fierce, you're making me look bad when you get another
apple.
Semenko and I I can understand the bet.
We used to play for a bottle of Dom Perignon
as to who would have the most points at the end of the year.
That's awesome.
And the year you had 14, obviously it was your year, right?
It was definitely my year.
I think we might have caught a couple of the defensemen too.
Oh, geez.
Yeah, you got a case.
Oh, God god that's unbelievable
i got seven more in the playoffs that year playmaker that's uh we actually have that you
you tied my career number and assists in one season right there 14.
oh god you just mentioned isa teak and then uh we gotta have some stories about that guy he was an
absolute character huh oh ticky was beautiful hey he was my next door neighbor so we
spent a lot of time riding to the ring together didn't he have didn't he have his own language
more or less yeah pretty much we used to call it Tikinese because you had no idea what the hell
he was saying it'd be English Finnish and Swedish mixed together so you had really no I had no idea
what he was going to say when he was going to say it when he was going to say it. And if you got flustered on the ice, everybody used to look around going, what did he just say?
I want to, I want to ask about that. The 85 roster,
people say it's the greatest team ever assembled.
I think you guys only lost three games in playoffs that year.
I think you're quoted as saying you didn't think it was the best team all
the time.
I thought 87 was, I thought we had thought we were a little bit deeper in 87.
Was that Kretzky's last?
Yeah.
No, we won again in 88.
Oh, yeah.
Tough to remember, Biz.
So why is it, considering you guys were so dominant that year
as far as how much you obliterated the competition?
You know what?
It's kind of a toss-up between the two teams.
I think we were just deeper with guys, even guys that weren't playing at that time we were deeper
so I mean yet we added that year we added Kent Nielsen so you've got Yari Gretz and whoever you
want to play Mike Krusinicki at that time was playing on the left side you've got Mess Andy
and Kent Nielsen as your second line you had had, who do we have in the third line?
Dave Hunter, Kenny Linsman, and Pat Hughes at that time.
So, I mean, we could roll lines with pretty much anybody in plenty style.
And then you got Samank McClellan and McSorley.
So it didn't matter what type of game you wanted to play.
We can play all of them.
We mentioned Yari Carey's name a couple times.
I think he's probably one of the more unheralded superstars from that era.
Who would you say is a modern-day comparison to him
for our listeners who didn't get to see him play?
To Yari?
You know, it would be hard to say.
It would have to be somebody that's good defensively
because Yari did all the work on their line in our end.
So you take a guy like Guy geek carbino with same idea except you already probably had a you already did have way more offensive talent so take a guy that could score 50 goals
but at the same time you could kill penalties with him every day when he came when like everyone
first saw him was it right away no doubt this guy's going to be a superstar and gretzky and him meshed or did maybe take a little bit of time no they kind of hit it off
right away yeah that was the great thing about it and slaps let them kill penalties I mean if you
look at our four penalty killers at that time you'd have mess and Andy Yari and Wayne and Davey
Hunter and Pat Hughes those would be the three combinations we'd roll out.
So your first pair might outscore you if they're killing a penalty.
The second pair has a chance to outscore you.
The third pair actually played defense.
I mentioned the goalies a little while ago.
Do you think the goalie gear is too big these days?
I mean, when you guys played, you still had all the horsehair pads and there wasn't a lot of style.
Talk about how much the goaltendants changed in the equipment.
Well, you know what it is?
It's the weight.
I mean, we used to lug around 25 pounds every night.
So you wanted to wear it small so you could actually move.
Whereas now, I think a pair of pads weighs about four and a half pounds.
So, of course, if it's that light, you're going to wear it bigger.
So when they sit there and they talk about cutting the equipment down and this and that, all you got to do is put a little bit of weight back in it.
Guys will shrink it on their own. that so yeah back then it was more about
shedding weight as opposed to size oh yeah you wanted to shed weight it's not if you stick a 30
pound backpack on and run around for a little while it's not very much fun so it never dried
out that was the worst part it's just heavier as the season went sticking with the goalie game
theory given the fact you had so many apples uh did you curve your stick at all did you have a special type of curve so
you could play the puck a little bit better later in my career at the beginning i started with a
straight stick and i sucked handling a puck so we added a little bit of a curve to it but most of my
assists came from kicking rebounds into the right spots we were stopping in our end yeah and and more to the gear side uh i think it
was in 89 if you could give the backstory you ended up signing a pepsi deal and i did i bought
the all-star game yeah and you ended up putting the the logo on your pads and there was an issue
of some sort yeah the league didn't quite think of it and they weren't very happy that they weren't
getting a cut of it so they frowned on it wouldn't let me wear them who did you have a bit of a battle with anyone about it we had a
little debate with them and such and i think at the time they were going to suspend me if i wore
them so we didn't end up wearing them but we had a lot of fun with it were you were you able to do
any other ads in order to make up for what they thought they were getting with the the pepsi
emblem on the pads no but we had fun we warm in the morning skate and we warm around a little bit to make sure that
everybody noticed that they were around nice hey so all you guys are so young and we've brought up
these different names and you're all traveling like the continent together right i mean as young
guys you must have been going out in all these cities. Was that the case for everyone as a group, as a team, I mean?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, we did everything as a team.
And that was the great thing about our group of guys
is we did everything as a team.
After practice, you'd have a mandatory team lunch,
so you'd go for a beer.
Young guys may have stayed a little later.
Married guys went home.
But we did everything as a team.
Back then, Grant, this was kind of before every player got his day with the Cup.
How did you guys celebrate?
I mean, I know you had plenty of options to pick from,
but what was the typical celebration during that time?
It depends where the 20 guys were headed.
Nobody really took it home at that time.
We just kind of traveled with it.
So you either went to somebody's house, you went to a bar,
you went to a nightclub.
It was a traveling roadshow um going back to the traveling so apparently when you were 21 you first
at 21 you celebrated your birthday in st louis and you talked about how much you loved it there
and it obviously later on your career ended up signing there what was it about st louis
specifically that you fell in love with you know what what? I enjoyed the people. It was like being in a Canadian city,
just a big hockey market.
So it was fun to play there.
The old arena sucked,
but it was actually fun to play there.
Yeah, Grant, watching the documentary
and some of your old clips,
I noticed you had different styles of masks.
Why would you change throughout the years?
I liked the full face mask for one,
just because you could be a little more creative
with the painting and the colors of it.
And then it just became part of survival where you wanted the cage to absorb some of the shock.
It actually hurt in the old mask when you got hit. So hence you try and catch everything.
But no, I mean, if I were to play it, I had a choice. I'd still wear the old full face mask.
I thought it was great and I love wearing it. You end up moving over to st louis and uh i'm sure gretzky had a part in that
considering he was already there uh you ended up getting to training camp and i believe that you
were out of shape is that the case was that the case in a shape i was round you so he didn't send
you home right actually yeah we had a little debate as to whether I was in good enough shape to play or not. So I got to go home for a few days and I figured, okay,
whatever. And then he called me back. He's like,
I won't say anything bad about you. If you don't say anything bad about me,
just play. I'm like, okay, fine. So we played.
And you did.
And I think you played 76 straight games that season to open up,
which is an NHL record and RA. I think you played 76 straight games that season to open up which is an nhl record
and ra i think you said what 79 total which is also yeah 79 total and 72 stats
that ain't getting touched that ain't no that's not the analytics
you needed the extra love handles to get you through that full-length season didn't you grant
you know what they don't pay you to be in shape in training camp.
They want you in shape come playoff time when it actually really matters.
So it's a matter of building my way along.
It's about durability.
It's about peaking at the right time is what you're saying.
You got five months to get in shape.
Hey, they used to have 10 exhibition games.
So you get in shape in the exhibition games
because you knew you were going to play an eight or nine of them.
Was that hard for you throughout your career when you, when it,
the off season and the, and you know,
all the training started getting a little bit more and more serious.
Well, you know, my first four years I played baseball in the summer.
So as soon as hockey ended, I jumped right in and played baseball.
And then when they decided that I shouldn't play baseball anymore,
I got summoned slots his office to be explained that they're not paying me
to play baseball.
Then I was like, okay, now what do I do in the summer?
Not a big gym rat.
So I did a lot of nothing.
I played a little bit of golf, played fastball one year until it,
apparently that was compared to baseball.
So that didn't go over very well.
So I didn't do a whole lot in the summer other than just relax what is the difference
between fastball and baseball it one's underhand one's overhand oh really okay I feel like the
fastball would be the overhand one that I got like what's the difference between the two I'm like
it's easy one's overhand one's underhand. It's not the same.
So I would imagine your relationship at that point with Keenan was probably pretty good for the rest of the way. I mean, maybe he was upset off the start, but you guys had a pretty good
relationship throughout your time there. You know what we did? I enjoyed playing for him.
Was he hard on young guys? Yeah, he was hard on some of the young guys,
but there's always somebody and we had holly
so that let he left the rest of us alone oh why because they were constantly going back and forth
so much it pretty much it was an everyday it was entertaining how's that you'd go to the dressing
room just to see what was going you'd want to get there early just to see what was going on
like what like fuck you matches or just more like casual insults?
A little bit of both.
There were a couple of games where there might have been the odd fuck you
fight in between periods.
But you couldn't go a week without seeing an ordeal happen?
Oh, no.
If you were lucky, you got two days.
That is such a bizarre thing.
Had you ever seen that type of relationship between player and coach before in your career?
No, that was definitely a new experience.
At that time, I was spending a lot of time with Hulley.
We were hanging out, playing a little bit of golf.
So it was a little different.
He's a wild card, huh?
Hulley is entertaining.
He will tell you exactly what he thinks, whether you like it or not.
I would consider him, would you consider him the John Bailey of hockey?
Would that be a fair comparison?
That's a good comparison.
I consider him the,
so you must be golfing with him all the time now
in your retirement.
You know what?
I see him at different tournaments and stuff.
And when we run into each other, yeah,
we'll hang out, play a little bit of golf,
have a good laugh or two.
Have you played in that
american century classic i played in it for about 20 some years oh no shit why'd you give it up
you get old you get voted off the island is that what happens they end up saying hey
good see you later thanks thanks for the memories yeah pretty much like the nhl
dude you're the original influencer in the NHL with Pepsi logos on your pads
and they're fucking pigeon tossing you off the tour, Doug.
Hey, it's the way it works.
Once you get old, you get voted off the island.
Grant, back to that 96 season in St. Louis.
When did the players, the guys in the room,
have any inkling that the team might be trading for Wayne Gretzky?
I don't think we ever had an inkling.
I mean, I think we came to the rink the one day and it had just happened.
And we'd heard maybe he was going somewhere,
but we had no idea it was going to be St. Louis.
Yeah, it was definitely a surprise.
And, well, there's a lot of scuttlebutt that the reason he didn't resign
that was because of Keenan.
Is that an accurate thing to say?
You know what?
I'm not sure 100%, but I do know that they probably
by the end of the year
didn't get along 100%.
How's that?
That works.
That was a tough season for you.
I mean, you, like we just said,
79 games, you were rolling pretty good.
Then Nick Kipriosi kind of falls on you.
He called it a hockey play.
Chris Pronga had a different take on it.
But how do you look back
at that moment now? Is it, you know, you guys had a hell of a shot at winning the cup
that year well i think we probably would have won a cup that year we had all the pieces that were in
the right place and everybody was playing well so yeah it's unfortunate but see all that it
shit happens in hockey you get fallen on a hundred times and nothing happens it just happened to be
the one time that something did happen you want me to have his family kidnapped grant i can do it for you
you got hey you gotta we'll scrub the episode we had him on off the internet
i'm coming after you nick you're done so we we got him in toronto during the movie premiere
we were talking about a little bit we got him to come up sit on stage and he didn't know what we'd say so you could see he was a little nervous coming up
on stage had you never had a conversation with him before that about the whole incident no so you
were leaving him in the dark on that one oh that's how you got him back like we just hung him out to
dry and let him think about it and then we were nice to him and he wasn't sure what to do so you never ended
up even bringing it up yeah we brought it up but in more in a nice happy light yeah but we left
for a little while uh before you get to st louis you had a couple pit stops in toronto and buffalo
uh you were in buffalo all that long but you did play with a future hall of famer as well
dominic hashing did you have any idea that he Hall of Famer as well, Dominic Kasich.
Did you have any idea that he was going to be as good as he became?
Oh, yeah.
I saw Dom in Canada Cup in 84.
So you knew Dom was going to be good.
He just had nobody giving him an opportunity yet.
I mean, he was in Chicago before that, and the games he played,
he played well.
So it was just a matter of him getting an opportunity.
How would you describe his style? I know it's kind of unique i'd go with the stop drop and roll i mean tom tom's a little
unorthodox but it's all about getting hit i mean it doesn't have to be pretty it just has to work
yeah it's gonna stop it you mentioned the canada cup you played a couple of them 1987 one the
pretty famous one you played all nine games, the best of three final.
All scores was 6-5 in each game.
What surprised you most about the Soviets?
Just the style they played, where they didn't shoot the puck all the time.
They always waited for the perfect shot.
That was probably the biggest adjustment for me is a guy might have a clear shot,
but it might not be the perfect angle. So he wouldn't shoot it.
He'd wait and look for another guy that had a better angle.
So it took a little bit of an adjustment for that.
Were there any memorable off-ice interactions
with any of the Soviet players?
You know what?
I played with Alex McGillney in Buffalo.
So getting to know some of the guys,
they were all actually great guys,
but we weren't allowed
to socialize with them in 87 they always had their security around them and they at that time
everybody spoke no english apparently and it was i mean it was kind of like that still in the nhl
because there weren't as many trades and there weren't weren't as much crossover where i feel
like even guys in the off season when they would see teams from the other team, they'd be like, whether it was at like a charity golf tournament
or whatever, there would always be that little bit of animosity. Yeah. You know what? There were a
lot of teams that were like that. I mean, we were lucky. Our group of guys socialized with everybody.
I mean, you can battle somebody, but you'd see him in the bar later and you'd have a beer with him.
So our guys didn't hold a whole lot of animosity unless it was probably
Calgary.
There wasn't a whole lot of socializing going on in summer or during the
season.
That's because you guys were pounding every other team.
You're like, Hey guys, want to go to the bar?
Yeah.
They're hoping they traded for them.
That same year they did that NHL rendezvous,
which I believe was what a two-game set against
nhl all-stars against the russians yeah we played in quebec city and what was what was that like do
you think that the nhl should maybe try to do something like that again was it an enjoyable
experience for you there yeah you know what it was a lot of fun of course i got lucky and i got
to play both games that makes it a lot more fun but at the same time you're getting to play with different stars from around the
different teams so you make some great friendships and it's fun to see the guys for a week 10 days
every day you get to see what good competitors they are yeah for sure and then like I was just
gonna ask I know you coached a little bit with the Coyotes and some other places.
Did you get enjoyment out of that, teaching the younger guys
and showing them the way?
I did. I actually had a lot of fun with that.
I mean, you have to enjoy the game.
And I think part of what's happened in today's game with the players
is they've taken some of the fun out of it.
And the coaching staff we had in Phoenix with Alfie Samuelson,
Rick Tockett, Gretz, myself, Barry Smith, we still had fun in the game.
I think that was the biggest thing is you have to enjoy being at the rink every day.
If you don't, it becomes a job.
And you don't want it to be a job.
You want to look forward to being at the rink all the time.
And that's what we tried to instill is you have to enjoy it.
You have to want to be there.
Yeah, like if you lose a couple games, it doesn't feel like you show up and it's the end
of the world and then you know and and yeah it's it's got it's gotten a little bit serious even in
the fact of like the the off ice activities like you don't see these guys drinking like they used
to and and doing the off ice activities no i mean that was the first thing I noticed coaching is nobody went
for a team beer.
Everybody went their own different directions and everything.
The teams weren't real close.
And that surprised me a little bit.
I thought teams would still be close, still want to play for each other
by hanging out with each other and everything,
and they kind of all went their own directions.
Or they went in little groups of two and three.
So that's what changed the most from when I played to when I coached so many of your former teammates in Edmonton you know gotten to you know being general managers
being in the front office was that something that interested you or or not really no I mean
front office would it be fun I don't know doesn't look like very much fun wearing a suit every day
but at the same time I what I know best is goalies,
and that's what I enjoy doing.
I still enjoy watching the goalies today, so that's what I enjoy,
and if I ever get back in the game, that's what I want to do.
Grant, I forgot to mention the LA Kings.
You had a cup of coffee with them.
You were traded there, a pretty significant deal.
They sent Alexei Zhitnik back to Buffalo.
You finished the season there, and then did they even make you an offer
because you ended up signing with St. Louis?
It just seemed they gave up a lot to bring you in,
and then they didn't keep you at all.
No, I mean, it was a trend.
They were in a transition of management and that sort of thing,
and it was my first chance to be a free agent.
So we just wanted to see what was out there
and see if there was any interest.
And Mike Keenan happened to phone one
day and asked if I'd be interested in coming to St. Louis and I said sure I'd give it a go
then he forgot to mention that he just traded Curtis Joseph who happened to just win the most
popular player award so I missed that memo along the way somewhere. Then you've got coach Q Joel
Quenville after Keenan How was your relationship with Q?
He was awesome. I mean, he's one of the most fun coaches I've played for where he kept it light
for the guys. It was old, kind of old school coaching. You practice for 45, 50 minutes,
but you practiced at 110%. So it was all high paced. It was fun. And the guys enjoyed it.
Did you know he was a degenerate horse gambler back then
no i had no idea
oh i don't believe you grant come on grant i'm not a horse guy so i didn't know how about um how
about the edmonton retire um jersey retirement ceremony where you put the pads on went for the
skate i think a lot of guys have done that. What was that night like for you looking back?
You know what?
It was pretty cool.
I mean, one, it's not something you ever expect.
I mean, I was just happy to play the game,
let alone everything else that came afterwards.
So to finally get to do that and do it in front of friends and family,
it was actually a pretty cool night.
I probably had more stress with that than I did playing.
Yeah.
Did you give a speech
yeah you have to have speech and all that fun stuff and being is that i don't like making speeches
oh you must have been panicked before i know the feeling before you got to give a best man speech
the worst feeling of all time oh no it was i mean Hall of Fame speech, I had written it and given it to my son to hang on to.
And when I went up, I forgot to get it from him.
So my Hall of Fame speech, I just went off the cuff because I didn't have my speech with me.
So there was dire panic there.
The same thing with the Jersey retirement is I thought about writing a speech.
And I said, you know what?
I survived one by just thinking whatever pops into my head say
that so we tried that again but yeah I probably sweated more over that than I did any over any
game oh my god yeah that would be that would be that would be tough uh Wayne Gretzky said you're
the greatest goaltender ever played a game like when you hear things like that from a guy of that
stature probably the greatest hockey player of all time like do you does it make you uncomfortable
are you like oh that's my guy like what's your first thought when you hear
that you know what it's nice to have him on your side but there's still guys I would put ahead of
me who who are who are the the goats in your opinion I'd start with Terry Sawchuck when I
started he's the one that had set the bar of where he wanted to try and get to so I would still put Terry Sawchuck there I would put Marty Brodeur there I'd put Patrick there and then you could throw
a bunch of different guys in along the way after that where probably five through twenty there a
lot of great goalies but those would be the top three in my world so so Paddy Waugh being a little
bit younger when he had that massive hot side obviously you're dialed into the goalie scene. Like, do you love that type of passion? Like, you know, when you talk to him and you end up meeting up with him, are you, are you discussing those, those scraps he used to have?
my first three or four years in the league, Smitty was the guy,
he was your money goalie. So,
and you saw what a competitor he was and actually how mean he really was.
And then you meet him off the ice and he's the nicest guy in the world.
And it's like, okay, this is a little different, but it was, it was funny.
I mean, the competitive guys,
Hexie was the same way where you thought he was a lunatic, but in true sense,
super nice guy. So yeah, once they put skates on, I don't know if they pinched their toes or whatever but they got a little different side to
him yeah i couldn't i couldn't imagine how many people like were wanted to go ask ron hextall for
an autograph out in public but they're like ah maybe i don't know maybe he'll cave my face in
actually it was funny he used to stretch right at center ice and the one year in the finals kevin
lowe kept flipping pucks through his legs.
And I thought, this is going to get really ugly really fast.
And then the one game they did have a little conversation
where Hexley maybe had a moment.
You've got Samank there.
You've got Marty there.
You've got Dave Brown.
I'm like, this could get really ugly really fast.
But fortunately, cooler heads prevailed.
There you go. If it was a regular season game, it might have been really ugly really fast. But fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. There you go.
If it's a regular season game, it might have been really ugly.
Greg, there's one aspect of the talk I want to bring up.
It was okay.
The suspension that Commissioner John Ziegler gave you for alleged drug use
or whatever you want to term it.
I know way back then the way society thinks about addiction and recovery
and whatnot is way different.
Like the way they went about that article was kind of seedy.
I thought, but you know, you got a year suspension,
you never were arrested.
You weren't really caught up in any scandal or anything that it did get
reduced to me.
It looked like you were getting scapegoated for what maybe everybody else
was doing. Did, did you fail that way? Or do you still,
do you fail that way today?
I probably paid penance for everything that had happened in the league at
that time.
But at the same time, I'd earned it.
I mean, yeah, I did it.
So was I happy about the suspension?
No, still not really happy about it.
But at the same time, you can get mad and get frustrated and get pouted, or you can do something about it.
And just decided to change the person I was at that time and go about my own business.
Did it feel like the NHL was being sort of like,
I guess a moral superiority thing with you, like kind of, you know,
judging you, which again, society was sort of the whole way that back then.
Well, they were going to make an example of me.
I mean, there was no question about that one.
The team was successful.
And what's the one thing that everybody likes to do with a successful team?
Knock it down.
So there I was, easy target.
So, yeah, I got knocked down for it.
But at the same time, it made me a better person.
What was the reaction around the league, you know,
privately from other players?
What did they say to you?
Well, you know what?
I get a lot of support from players around the league.
And I think that's the biggest thing is it made me realize that the league
itself is like a big family.
A lot of guys from different teams that reached out to say hey not don't worry about it not a big deal you'll be back so it was nice to know that there were
players that had my back so that that year when when you finished up in Calgary did you kind of
realize you know that this is it like it's it's it's coming to me now the body just can't do what the mind
says to do anymore yeah the mind was great wait mine could play i'd been fine but the body had
given up the ghost and i think i was eight or nine surgeries in on the knee at that time
so i just i couldn't do what i wanted to do anymore and be good at it i mean i could have
been i could have been average i probably played for another year or two but i didn't want to be
just average.
I wanted to still be able to compete and compete at a high level.
So it was time to say that's enough.
Grant, I got to ask you, I heard a gobstopper story.
Now it might be completely fake.
Is this thing true?
I don't know.
What's the story?
About you liking gobstoppers and one got caught in your pad and you end up going down one game and hurting yourself.
Is that a true story?
It may have happened.
It might have happened.
Come on.
Okay, so it is true.
It is true.
Every time your name comes up in my head,
I'm like, I can't wait to get him on the podcast
and ask this guy about the gobstopper story.
So can you please bring us front to back on what the hell happened?
So where was I?
Where were we playing we're in
philadelphia playing with st louis and i like jawbreakers so i happened to tuck a few in my
pad so i could sit on the bench and have some jawbreakers and jamie mcclennan was going to play
that night well noodles seized up so a little dehydrated cramped up mad dash gotta go jump in the game forgot that i had
jawbreakers sitting in my pad first shot i went down what do you land on
oh yeah it didn't feel very good did you finish the rest of the game oh yeah you still finished
the game but it was like you're an idiot oh idiot. Oh, no. Yeah, we may have done that.
We may have hit Mountain Dew in the water bottle.
Things are a little different.
Get the trainer, go get you a couple hot dogs.
In Montreal, hell yeah.
Oh, yeah.
How many times did you get hot dogs, and then all of a sudden the goalie got yanked
or you had to go in with a full stomach full of hot dogs?
Only once in Quebec City.
In the airplane, you sat across the ice so you have
you'd have a little hot dog you'd have three or four hot dogs and one night we were getting
shelled and it just nicely finished a hot dog and it was i forget who was playing that night
might have been ronnie lowe got yanked into the net i went with the belly full of hot dogs
how were you were you kicking uh let's just say if you're guilty of it, you'll play well.
Going to need the e-bug because of Willy Wonka over here.
Which guys did you dread seeing coming down on a breakaway?
Breakaways I didn't mind.
I actually like breakaways because I thought I had an advantage.
What you didn't want was a guy like Al McInnes or Reed Larson
stepping into about 20 feet and everybody parting the seas. Or you get the one forward who's going to block that shot but
he's only going to do it with his stick or the guy who steps over the blue line and slides it
along the ice just i was good at the flamingo you know that one leg that needs to be there you lift
that thing up and then boom i saw a couple guys who was trying to cough tried to block a shot
one night and picked up the wrong foot.
They'd hit him on that foot.
Yeah.
That's the karma part of it.
Then he yelled at me because it was my fault.
Cause he tried to block a shot.
When you say you had the advantage, what do you mean exactly by that?
What advantage?
Well, on a breakaway, it's about patience.
So if you, if I don't move, you've got to move at some point.
Otherwise you run out of space.
So the longer I can stay in one spot, the harder it is for you to score.
Huh.
It was a little game of cat and mouse.
Also in the documentary, I know you mentioned that, you know,
growing up in Alberta that, like, you know, race was never a fact of play.
Your teammates always accepted you.
But was it ever an issue anywhere at all where you played?
Like, for opponents, I guess we could talk about. Did it ever have any issues with that opponents no i mean i've ran into a
little bit of an issue in buffalo but it was just a minor thing just something i didn't expect
and you figure by what 1993 or 94 at that time that the world had changed a little bit but here
we are in 2021 it hasn't changed so maybe my expectations were a little high back then.
Was it like a locker room thing or something on ice?
Actually, it was at a golf course.
I got denied entry to a golf course because I just happened to have too good a tan.
You think I'm a soccer guy too.
What was your reaction?
Did you kick up a fuss at the time?
Did you try to report it to who would listen to you?
Like, how did it all go down?
You know what?
Teammates had a harder time about it than I did.
I just went and joined another golf club.
I mean, if people don't want you there, there's no point kicking up a fuss about it.
You just go join a club where they do want you.
But some of the media found out about it, and they kicked up a big fuss.
Some of my teammates at that time kicked up more of a fuss than I did.
I was always taught, if people don't want you there,
there's no need to kick a fuss about it.
You just go join better people.
That's a good way to look at it.
Positive mindset.
Great way of looking at it.
R.A.?
Yeah, I was just scrolling down.
I had one.
We kind of bounced around a little.
But, yeah, Toronto, we didn't really talk about that at all.
That was another blockbuster you were involved in.
Vincent Danfuss went back to Edmonton.
You had just turned 29, had some surgeries.
Did you wish you stayed in Toronto longer?
I know they didn't keep you all that long.
You know what?
It was a lot of fun.
I mean, I got to Toronto just when they were starting the rebuild.
The first year I was there, we weren't very good.
But then we added Dougie Gilmore and Jamie McCowan, Rick Natris.
So the team had gotten better.
It was going to make a good playoff run.
We drafted Felix.
So the team was good, but they needed one more score.
So hence, I get shipped to Buffalo for Dave Anderchuk.
So they got their one more score, and I got a different scenery,
but could still live in the same place.
I got nothing left.
I had about five pages for you, Grant.
I mean, we appreciate your time. I mean, one other thing I had written down was the fact that in your last year you got to
kind of you know help Freddie Brathwaite out and I'm sure that that probably meant a lot to you
and I know recently he ended up getting getting the call for the the Henderson Knights so he's
still kicking and coaching as well he did I saw I saw that. A great story about Freddie.
When I got traded to Calgary, Freddie and I roomed together.
So I got into Phoenix late that night,
and Freddie had heard that I liked to have cheeseburgers and such.
So when I got to the room,
he had already had room service ordered and everything for us.
So we get off to a flying start.
Can't ask for any more in a roommate than having cheeseburgers and
everything ready for you when you get there.
Unreal.
Good stuff.
Well,
thank you so much for joining the show and congrats on an awesome career and
that documentary.
Everyone should check it out.
I really enjoyed it and good luck with all the golf.
I'm sure you get some tournaments coming up.
Yeah,
we got a few coming up.
I'm going to go play Jermaine Dyes in Chicago and we just got back from Bill
Murray's,
which was a little bit of fun. Oh, I can imagine. if you and gretzky ever want to play with a couple legends
in a sandbagger let us know maybe we'll uh we'll consider it oh you know i would love to
maybe for a dollar or two i don't know man it's like it's a lot of pressure when the cameras are
out and we got these sandbaggers going i don't know if you're used to that nothing like the cup
finals or the canada cup or whatever else you want.
Real quick.
Do you ever play in a foursome with Bill Murray?
I have not played in a foursome with him.
Okay.
Yeah.
He's a cat.
He's not a wild cat.
Oh no.
He likes to have a good time.
Do you get,
you get starstruck grant around these guys when you go to these,
these pro abs.
You know what?
I've done it now for about 20 years. I'm just
happy I get to call on my friends. I mean, the fact that you can walk up and have a conversation
with them, spend some time with them, it's probably the biggest perk I've got out of the
game is I've got great friends from all the other sports, the different entertainment venues,
musicians. So it's actually been pretty cool. That's unbelievable. Well, Hey buddy,
thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story with our, our, our audience. We got some younger, younger bucks,
as I mentioned before the interview started,
that'll truly appreciate you coming on and sharing what it was like in the old
days and the way that we like it around here.
The way the game should be.
Bingo.
I like the bourbon collection over your shoulder.
Actually, that's not bourbon.
You know what that is, Grant?
That's something we're going to send you a case of.
That is Pink Whitney.
That is the number one selling flavored vodka in all of North America.
Right there.
Actually, you know what I have?
Where did I have some?
I had some somewhere here about a month ago.
What did you think?
It's good.
Oh, attaboy.
Okay.
Attaboy, Grant.
We'll send you a bunch of stuff.
No, no.
We're going to get you some pink pads.
Fuck Pepsi.
And screw the league for not letting you wear those pads.
We're going to get you some pink Whitney pads,
and we're going to get you a case of booze, my friend.
It's a deal.
All right.
Love it.
Thank you so much.
My pleasure, Grant.
Great seeing you.
Thank you so much, Nkoko.
What a career.
We appreciate him coming on very much.
And I want to talk to you guys about TaylorMade.
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Lovely.
Well done, Whit.
Well done, Whit.
Appreciate that.
With Skit Coco, Sami, you could play more holes of golf
on game days.
Seriously, huh?
Or day before a game.
50 holes of golf the day before game seven in the Stanley Cup Finals.
One of the fucking wackiest things I've ever heard in my life.
Crazy stuff.
It's Jordan shit.
Like, crazy.
Yeah.
I would have played more.
Just got dark out.
All right.
We got some other NHL news.
All right.
Speaking of crazy, I had this for the Dom, but we'll bring it up now.
The Tampa Arena fiasco with the jerseys that I blogged about the other day.
What a blog, R.A.
Do you think you were one of the leaders of this going down the way it did?
I thought a lot of traction on that blog.
And your blog had the video that showed, like, when I read it, I didn't believe it.
Seeing the video was fucking insane.
Yeah.
And for those who might not have heard it or caught it yet,
this guy recorded an interaction.
Now, if you go to the arena in Tampa,
if the club seats in this three rows off the ice,
I guess they're considered club seats.
You're not supposed to wear the gear of opposing teams.
Now, this guy knew that and he was sitting there with his kid
and he recorded the interaction with security. Now, was he being a provocateur a little bit yeah maybe but you know what this rule's so
fucking stupid i don't care that he did security come over and the one guy one security got
threatened to call the cops he was with this 11 year old kid the panthers fans at a game it's
fucking warm-ups there's not even close to the game if they're not on even on tv and they're
threatened to call the cops so i saw it like a lot of people i was like this this is so fucking stupid the policy stupid and i
wrote the blog and and i said look this isn't about tampa i have a long love affair with tampa
the area the team whatever i've been going down there forever it's a stupid fucking policy well
lo and behold the next day park daddy tweets out he has from tampa they're going to not enforce
the policy anymore the next day they did a total 180.
Well,
it turns out the original policy was put in place five or six years ago
because the fucking fans requested it in Florida because they didn't like
fucking fans from other teams.
This was,
you know,
years ago,
people go down to Florida,
go see their team play.
These babies complain.
So the fucking team wouldn't let people sit there.
So it was so fucking stupid
and again it's not just tampa it's any team who does this if people spend their hard-earned money
and it's not an offensive shirt it's a fucking shirt of their team let them wear it do it it's
so fucking stupid if your fans can't handle it then too fucking bad either way they flipped
the not flip they didn't change the policy they just said they're not going to enforce it anymore
i don't know i mean i think yeah obviously you put something on barstool it's going to shine a
bigger light on it i don't know if the thing was going viral before that but
yeah it's a stupid policy and then a bunch of people tag me i guess the guy reached out to um
oh um brain fart daniel nagrano the poker player saying hey sit on the glass with me and we'll see
if they'll try to throw us out which is like and people like oh like with the crumple face like
emoji i'm like who cares dude Like it was a stupid policy.
And yeah, this guy was like trying to get attention.
But once that lady said, I'm going to get the TPD down here,
it's like fucking police department.
The game's not even starting over a fucking call to the police department.
She's like, what?
It was, yeah, fucking brutal.
What's the problem?
Oh, a couple of things here.
All right.
It's nice having a guy who's like
the common fan on the podcast because you have the people's back you're a man of the people now
you get to add this to the resume not only creating the vegas gold knights mascot not only winning my
octopus teacher a fucking uh what is it an oscar oscar and now you're changing team policies by the day.
And maybe potentially end up buttoning up the TV rights situation in some of the hockey markets.
So you are the man of the people of the podcast,
and we love you for it, buddy.
Well, thank you.
I appreciate that, Paul.
There is one thing I don't think you or I collectively we can undo,
and it was sad news.
Robert Morris basically killed off the men's and
women's hockey program. They tweeted
out, oh, here's an update on our programs and
they killed them. They just cut them off.
I know obviously college situations
are fucking different and pandemic
re-tablet blah blah blah bullshit. These people had no
idea it was coming. These players, they got a letter that
I guess was very fucking
No, it was done over a 10 minute
Zoom call, R.A.
It was a 10-minute Zoom call.
And no questions after.
They just got off these cowards.
They wouldn't accept any questions.
It's insane.
There's a GoFundMe going on.
So we're going to get that link out.
You think of the players and you think of the kids who have committed there
and are playing there currently, sophomores in college, just boom.
You hit them with this.
I think about the staff. All of of a sudden they don't have jobs.
It's just crazy.
And I've seen the argument of how many people go to the games and what their
attendance is like.
But the way that this all went down is one of the most bullshit things I've
seen in college. And this is like, we talk about the, this isn't the NCAA.
They're their own world,
but this is still shocking that they already come out and said no matter what
or is it a certain amount of money that we could raise?
If I did sound pessimistic from the get-go,
it's just because colleges tend to make these decisions and not give a fuck after.
They already know the heat they're going to get, but they already figured it out,
and then they pull the plug on it.
Of course, yeah, we don't want to see this happen,
and if we can help in any way, we will.
We'll support voices and raise voices.
But, again, it's just because these colleges tend to be scumbags about this that they don't give a
fuck how we feel so that was the reason for my pessimism but let's move along to some more hockey
news uh the anaheim mighty ducks they did announce that gm bob murray and coach dallas eakins will
both be back next year uh the ducks have finished last in the nhl two out of the last three seasons
three years well at the playoffs now but uh apparently the ownership likes with their
what's in place they do have some good young talent there but um i'm not going to criticize
i'm not really sure what with this with the statuses with those guys but they're back for
another year uh we did mention the seth jones earlier he's not gonna resign with uh columbus
he already said that he's gonna test free agency and And Aaron Portsline, the great reporter for the athletic,
he covers the Blue Jackets.
He basically is saying he's most likely going to get traded.
And, I mean, it's a no-brainer.
I mean, he's crazy not to try free agency,
and it'd be fucking stupid not to trade him this summer
because this is the highest his value is going to be.
Some contender would love to add him for a year
and maybe convince him enough to maybe sign there.
I mean, he's probably looking at eight years, nine mil,
whatever he does sign. But yeah, Columbus, the beat goes on yet.
Another player. Who's not going to come back.
A Norris Norris, who's a Norris caliber defenseman.
And these guys, they don't want to stay there now.
It's like, there's no winning culture.
He probably wants to win somewhere. And I don't know, man,
I know they brought John Davidson uh you know this isn't helping
yet it's it's it's a the biggest blow that this organization's had i think does that sound crazy
with how good panarin is and this is their cornerstone this was their guy that you can
build a team around a defenseman like this and and he's young, and boom, it's over with him now too.
Dude, if I'm Wierenski and I'm getting him to sign that $5 million a year bridge deal,
I am going to bend that team over.
No, he's probably like, I don't want to be here.
Well, or that.
I mean, he's going to get it somewhere.
It might not be there, but I believe at the end of this two years,
he is going to be.
How happy is he he didn't sign seven years? But but i believe that warinski is going to be restricted and seth jones
will be an unrestricted free agent so that's so that's kind of the difference as to what i was
saying but uh yeah it's uh it sucks to be a columbus blue jackets fan but hey you got some
good people in charge and i'm sure it won't take very long to get them back in the winning ways.
And this is a quote from Davidson Sunday night.
The number one thing we'd like to do is keep Seth.
He has every right in the world to leave if he wants to not extend the contract,
but we'll do what's best for our team.
We just want players who want to be here.
So, you know, I think that's greasing the skids for a deal.
And again, if you know you're not going to have him,
you'd be fucking foolish not to get rid of him.
And per a port's line, he said the Blue Jackets were prepared to offer Jones
what would have almost certainly been the largest contract in franchise history,
and they would have probably named him captain as well.
But obviously that's not going to happen.
He's going to join Panarin, Bobrovsky, Duchesne, Anderson, Dubois,
all out the door afterwards.
Like I said, he can't blame a man.
And you've got to stop wondering,
is like Yamo hurting this team more than he's helping it.
He's a great hockey mind and great negotiator.
But, you know, the track record is what it is at this point.
And Jones has one more year left at 5.4 mil.
He's got a modified no trade, so he'll submit 10 teams
he can't be traded to.
And like I said, man, I mean, you look around the league,
Carlson's making 11 5 dowdy 11
yosi 9 plus pk 9 petrangel 8 8 i mean you got to think he's going to slot in if i'm a g a gm
eight years fucking 72 mil kind of a no-brainer i think you can only go seven if you go to a
different team unless unless of course he's traded there and then he signs the contract so yeah so
depends how it all goes down but oh yeah that's it yeah
a lot going on uh all right let's see oh yeah Wayne Gretzky he signed with TNT G wrote a blog
about that last week good job G um I'm curious about this move I mean you know Gretzky's obviously
who he is but like young kids gonna put on hockey because Wayne Gretzky's on I mean young kids that
didn't grow up with him and they know who he is,
but I don't think they have any real, like, emotional connection
where they're going to, like, watch a game because Gretzky's on.
And that's usually the market you're trying to get
is young people who aren't already watching.
I mean, hockey fans are already going to watch with Gretzky or not.
So I'm curious to see how much this moves the needle with the youngest set.
I just think you need, yeah, you need to have some people teeing him up.
I'm interested to know, like, his knowledge about the game and, yeah, you need to have some people teeing him up. I'm interested to know like his knowledge about the game
and like what he would do in this situation,
like coming off of a break
and going through like plays and games that,
you know, impacted it.
And, you know, what would you have done here?
And, you know, what did you see here?
And how did you handle these types of situations?
It's all about credibility.
And as I said, you know, in the last couple of podcasts,
when we were talking about this
move is i don't think i don't think these hall of famers have ever been really enticed based on
what they're being paid to even consider putting themselves on television and now the dollar value
is there to now they're willing to do it so i think it's going to be awesome and and i you know
i'm i'm looking forward what do you what do you think wit i'm super
intrigued into how it's gonna go because if you get wayne gretzky who by all accounts like he's
not the most public person right i mean he's not he's not someone you know a ton about now you do
in terms of like watching his his documentaries and the movies but like who he is and what he
thinks about the game if he was really slinging it at intermissions and telling stories from like the legendary days, things that
remind him of stuff that's happened to him and, and being like, you know, the great one in terms
of like letting you into how he feels about the current game and players in certain plays.
And more than anything, no matter who it is is be willing to criticize and that that's not
necessarily easy for somebody like Wayne Gretzky you can fucking say anything you want about anyone
but but in hockey culture it's not it's not that common and that's what and Barkley and Shaq they
don't care they call guys out and so if Wayne Gretzky's out there and he's calling people out
it'll be must watch tv I don't know what he'll be like nobody does right slide edibles and before he goes on the yeah yeah who knows maybe yeah that could work out that could
work out in his favor i mean i i was thinking like when you i talked about we talked about
avery with frankie but if you put sean avery on tnt i fucking guarantee it'd be interesting
yeah it'd be fun he would be calling people, and he goes over the games on his Instagram.
He does some pretty good stuff in terms of showing little plays.
I don't know, man.
I think when you're talking about who's going on,
Wayne Gretzky will get people to watch R.A.,
maybe not the youngest guys,
but people are going to watch the first night Wayne Gretzky is doing the
intermission on TNT.
And I think people would watch if avery was doing it too
hey i uh you know i'd be interested to hear his thoughts on what's going on with the least right
now and what's going on with matthews and marner you know that's a guy who's got that credibility
where like fuck the puck over the glass guys if i played as much as marner did i'd have three of
them a game me hitting the panic button so it's like you know what does wayne got to say about it
yeah but if wayne but will wayne say yeah to say about it? Yeah, but will Wayne say, yeah, great young players,
their time will come?
Or will he say, hey, call him out?
It's like, that's what intrigues me.
What are we going to get?
Yeah.
Therein lies the rub.
All right, gang.
I think that about wraps it up.
This is a pretty fat episode for you.
Yeah, yeah, please.
Chelsea? Oh, yeah, please. Chelsea.
Oh, yeah.
Chelsea Football Club in London.
They won the Champions League, guys.
They are the champions of Europe.
They are the best team in the world.
They took their second Champions League title.
The other teams in London, one of them's taught them.
They went to the finals. They've never won one. The other teams in London, one of them's taught them. They went to the finals.
You say they've never won one.
The other one is Arsenal.
Arsenal fans are the biggest bunch of baby fucking losers
I've ever met on the Internet.
I'll go to dinner.
I'll do round trip van rides across the country with Islanders fans
before I'd ever ever say a good word about an Arsenal fan.
They've never won one.
They suck.
We have two.
And we did it with this team who changed coaches,
the old legend,
Frank Lampard,
halfway through the year.
We were struggling right when I joined next thing,
you know,
Thomas Tuchel comes in from Germany and we're rising rising, and we're rising, and we hit some bumps.
And at the end of the Premier League season, we hit a big bump.
We lost.
We had to win to guarantee top four to get into the Champions League next year.
But Tottenham ended up beating Leicester City,
and we just snuck into fourth.
So no matter what happened in the Champions League final,
we were in the next year.
But then we go to
the champions league final and we're playing manchester city they hadn't lost the game in
the champions league they had one draw and we fucking beat them the best team in the world
people said we beat them twice in the regular we beat them in the regular season once we beat them
in the fa cup semi-final and then we beat them fucking for the Champions League. They've never won Europe either.
So to be a fan of this team, and I see people,
this American doesn't know shit.
Yeah, dude, I started watching soccer six months ago.
You know what happened since?
My favorite team won the biggest tournament in the world, you clowns.
Obviously, I don't know what I'm talking about, but my team's the best team.
And people say, will this guy be a fan in fucking two years?
No chance.
You want to bet? I'll be in a fan in fucking two years no chance you want
to bet i'll be in a game next year i'll tell you that for free we'll be doing a sandbagger in europe
too that will be a trip and a half and just to go to stanford bridge and see now above the logo on
their jersey there's two stars now biz there's two stars oh they get to add it because they got their
second champion what was the score with one nothing they score they got their second champion. What was the score, Witt? 1-0. They got this French
player, Nagolo Conte. I can't
say his name correctly.
He's 5'5".
And he is
all over the field. He's
everywhere. He's unreal. It's the
most entertaining soccer player I've seen.
Now, they lost this Belgium superstar,
Kevin De Bruyne
from Manchester City. This guy's one of the best players
in the world he got knocked out of the game in the second half huge loss but to win that game
in portugal with fans it was just i had tears and arsenal and troops you scrubs not in the champions
league next year like eighth place or whatever in the premier league and we just got our second so
i love it i'm all in that's where people say what you want i just picked a team and then they
fucking won it all six months later you think i'm going anywhere nope you triggered one thought in
my mind though when you said sandbaggers was all this golf shit going on on the internet between
bryson dechambeau and brock's uh brooks kepka that video
was was how did that video get out all of him basically rolling his eyes at bryson walking by
i think hey i i'm kind of team uh dechambeau i think that kepka guy's a bit of a diva he he
that video made him look worse way worse it's like dude like you're that disgusted by me it's
like and i don't know it's like go go go challenge go say something he has said something to him
they've gone back and forth but that i it's like and i don't know if de chambeau said something or
if it was more just his metal spikes like knocked his interview off that bad it's like bro you're
doing an interview post round so midget metal yeah mental midget a little bit metal that's why you lost the pga but then bryson
releases a the bryson's just such a nerd he's releasing a video of him doing like a hundred
the worst curls i've ever seen in my life looking like granelli out there
so these guys pair them up in the u.s open the usga won't do it pair them up in the u.s open
oh you're saying they're avoiding this conflict at all costs yeah dude the pga tour had that clip
scrubbed from the internet oh my goodness i know the pga tour does i had it written it down they
should do a parlay special where they have a fucking boxing match after they go head to head
on one of those match-type scenarios.
How much did Tiger and Phil get paid for the match?
Did they get paid 10? There's another one coming up.
And then the next day, it was announced that Aaron Rodgers
is teaming up with Dee Shambo,
and they're playing against Mickelson and Brady,
who played against, who was it, Tiger?
And who was Tiger's partner last year?
Peyton Manning.
Peyton Manning, yeah.
Peyton Manning. So Brady Manning. Peyton Manning.
So Brady and Mickelson are going back.
And Koepka wrote on Twitter, sorry, bro, to Aaron Rodgers.
Which is funny.
Bryson's in his grill.
I'll tell you that.
Oh, for sure.
But I think that that match will be fun.
And I think if they started.
Yeah.
And listen, all this stuff broke.
The Koepka lefty match with Portnoy it all this stuff started breaking when the tour announced the
program where they have 50 million dollars that i think they're going to give to five guys at the
end of the year in terms of your social media brand and how much how many eyeballs you get on
the tour now throughout all this the tour's taking off videos that is only good for the growth of golf.
How many people were talking about Bryson versus Brooks and golf?
It took over the internet.
I was all about it.
Instead of the tour leaning into it and living with this drama
and creating the controversy, they run away and hide from it.
It's fucking bananas.
It's like the backwards business model.
I don't know who's running Tom Brady's social media accounts,
but they deserve a raise because he is just the funniest.
The memes he made.
I think he made three knockout ones.
It would be like if Jordan was doing it because, like,
what are you going to say to Tom Brady?
And he was all over.
Nobody could say a word to him.
Yeah.
So that was – I wanted to bring that up with you just to end the pot off
with a little bit of golf talk.
And, folks, thanks for listening.
We're happy to be dropping the bonus episode.
We got another one coming Thursday.
We're going to come back next Monday and then Thursday again to,
to wrap up the second round. And then we'll be back to one a week.
Absolutely. And we're also dropping a bunch more playoff shirts.
So check out our Twitter feed, Instagram. We got Colorado avalanche.
Wow. Who else we got Vegas, a bunch of teams, man. Just check them all out.
Every team, every A bunch of teams, man. Just check them all out. Every team.
We got one for every team. Every team.
Eight teams left.
Actually, nine teams left because we're waiting on Montreal and Toronto.
Also, tonight, make sure you check out our live stream from Borelli's on Long Island.
Again, I'm going to be at the game covering it live.
Wink, wink.
But Grinnelli will be there with Borelli and whoever else shows up.
So, go Bees, and we'll see you later in the week.
Peace. else shows up. So go bees. And I will see you later in the week.
As always, we'd like to thank our terrific sponsors here on spit and chiclets.
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We'll see you later.