Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 343: Featuring Jon Cooper

Episode Date: July 13, 2021

On Episode 343 of Spittin’ Chiclets the guys are joined by Stanley Cup winning coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Jon Cooper. Coop joined (00:35:27) to talk about his crazy rise from lawyer to one of the top coaches in the NHL, the Lightning’s playoff run, winning back to back Cups and a ton more. The boys also give their own recap of Game 5 and put a bow on the season. The fellas also discuss some NHL news, including Duncan Keith being traded to Edmonton. The guys wrap up talking a little golf and with some movie/TV talk.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 343 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam Bar. You're hearing the Barstool Sports Podcast family. What is up, everybody? We got our last handshakes of the season as another NHL season is in the books.

We got a fantastic interview on tap for you coming later, but let's check in with the fellas first. Producer, Mike E. Grinelli. What's going on, guys? I always love parade day because running this spit and chiclet social media, I just spend all day watching NHL players get absolutely buckled. So I had myself a great day. I don't know about you guys. It looks like the Stanley Cup got buckled itself today.

We're going to shoot a picture of that. Let's say hi to the boys first again. Paul Biznasty Bissonette. Sorry, buddy. I'm a little foggy. I'm on Columbia time still, Biz. I'm a little foggy. Jesus, R.A.

Holy fuck. You should be as wired as any human being to ever do a podcast right now, and you're half asleep. I had a travel day, boys. I had to get up early today. I had to fly from Pereira to Cartagena. I'm at Cartagena day boys i had to get up early today i had to fly from parera to catahania i'm at catahania now but i'm all get up i'm ready have my coffee great coffee down here oh is that what they call it okay yeah he's been tied up by the cartel they were they were

questioning them they're like why is half our supply gone in the whole fucking country what is this little plane parked in this fucking field for? Who is this Nikita Kucherov you're sending all our supply to? Why is he sniffling like this during his press conferences? How you doing, boys? It was a great weekend. Friday was pretty tame. Now, you guys are going to think I'm crazy.

For the first time ever, I finally watched True Detective Season 1. And who do you thank for that? Well, you guys give me all my recommendations. Same with Mare of Easttown. Without you guys, I would fuck it. I think I would only have – who's the Heisenberg? What show was that? Breaking Bad.

Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad would be like the only show I'd ever watch. Just don't repeat over and over. I legit binge-inged watched true detective and i'll say the the on-screen performance and chemistry between the two main actors matthew mcconaughey and i'm drawing a woody harrelson woody harrelson 10 out of 10 i was glued in and then of course saturday uh the fights so we'll get to that later i had a great time watching it with clayton Keller and a bunch of his buddies. And it was a good time.

Great weekend. Last but not least, you heard him a second ago, the wit dog, Ryan Whitney. What's going on, buddy? Where are you? I'm on the island in Nantucket, R.A. It's great to talk to you. Great to see you guys. I love getting the chance to talk to John Cooper.

I mean, I felt like that was a long time coming and they got it done last year. And he told Biz, let's just wait. Let's just wait. Well, once you go back to back to back we're gonna keep hounding you or i should say biz is gonna keep hounding you and we got him so that was a blast to talk to him yesterday before he was heading out to a big coach's dinner celebration um what else is going on with me yes watch the fights the fights were phenomenal this sean o'malley guy is electric and the dude he fought this chris Moriano or something. He's from Massachusetts.

The toughest human being alive. I've never seen somebody take a beating like that and continue to go at the guy, giving him the beating other than my rope, other than my rope pregame. Yeah, exactly. Other than before your pregame nap,

because the juice is going, but yeah, it was a great weekend. Very relaxing. The cup has ended and Tampa. What a team. One of the best teams we've seen i don't know in the last 30 years we'll get into that we'll get into more but it's it's really good to see you guys again you know it's been a week right i had to catch up my spirits have been elevated uh ever since i got that face that well patty maroon texted me and whitney said hey give us. So I'm like, Hey, maybe he's got the cup. Maybe he's going to say hello. So I jump on FaceTime with

Patty Maroon and Kucherov's at the steak place. He's on the mic. He's got his number one cup ring on and he's giving me the side finger. And then he switches over to the middle finger and basically just pigeon tossed me. So on Friday night, I felt like the biggest loser, nothing new here. But as I said, the rest of the weekend really elevated my spirits. And I ended up getting a FaceTime call from John Cooper from the locker room, but it wasn't for me, Whit. He was wondering where the hell R.A. was. And I had to tell – I had to break the news to him.

I said, hey, he's the one getting Kuch all of his shipment up to you guys for the cup parade. So he'll be working overtime. So did – I saw Kalorin's Insta. Did Kucherov have no idea, like, who you are? That's what he said. up to you guys for the cup parade so he'll be he'll be working uh over time so did i saw coloren's insta did kucherov have no idea like who you are that's what he said like yeah no i'm a pigeon he does he know who you are or did he not know it was you or does he have no idea who paul bisonetti no no he has no clue who i am but he goes no way dude no no but guess what but he but you know what he's uh i think uh patty goes spitting chiclets and then and then cooch goes where's the bald guy so r.a is the coolest guy on the podcast so i guess i'll just

hand it back over to you r.a fucking christ yeah getting coop was was great like what you said talk to him for about an hour we get some good shit coming but yeah i i looked at my phone i saw a missed call and and derrick lalonde the assistant was texting me. He's like, hey, Coop's trying to call you. I thought he was pranking me. And I was like, no, that was really missed calls. I wouldn't have expected anyone to be calling me from the locker room, let alone the head coach. Imagine winning back-to-back Cups, and you're all fired up,

and you've cemented your place in the history of the game. And the reporter's like, Coop, we got to do the Zoom interviews. And he's like, hold on, I got to call one guy. Rear Admiral. I got gotta get in touch with him like what fucking planet are we living on right now he's like you are he goes he's like i need to know what's grinding his gears today give me give me a few minutes he's right you should never warn people if there's sharks in the water fuck them all yeah yeah yeah exactly bingo yeah definitely a first for that i'll tell you that i was definitely surprised but it was good getting him on i saw a few of the tampa bay guys drinking some pink whitney of course make sure to head over to your local liquor store today to find pink whitney and the new 375

milliliter mickey size bottles for all your cup celebration needs or if your team didn't do good you can drown your sorrows like i said we saw some of the tampa guys who was that uh matthew joseph that a few bottles of it you guys hook them up is yeah i think uh grinnelly sent a bunch down to him for the celebrations they had some last year during the parade as well and yanny gourd was doing some of the minis but uh yeah yeah the kid who caddied for me at the gasparilla bobby remember i said great kid horrible horrible caddy a few years back? He ended up chucking Yanni Gord Pink Whitney last year and he

was dosing it, so I'm sure he's having more of it this year. Gord had his shirt off the whole day today as the entire team did. He is shredded. Holy fuck, looking good, Yanni. Good for you. The parade, the entire scene from today, or Monday, excuse me, is wild.

And I feel like every year they're getting a little crazier and crazier, right? Like when Washington went really bananas and were jumping in the pond at the Nationals game, you know, it keeps getting upped and upped and upped. And now the Cup's dented. And, you know, who knows? Who knows what will happen five years from now? But I love seeing all these guys, no shirts on. i would never take my shirt off if i won the cup doesn't matter if i just played fucking 30 playoff games in a row i still never do it covering up those awful fucking calves

i'm the only guy wearing a suit to the parade as hard as they are parting unfortunately the the the actual what the event ended up getting canceled because it got rained out pretty bad i mean that's that's that's florida in the summertime right this is monsoon season it was perfect weather while they were on the boats next thing you know they dock and then it's a thunderstorm so yeah all you could see was one lunatic on a fucking jet ski you're like who is that riding through a tsunami and it's cologne holding the cup that's probably how it got dented got hit by a tidal wave and speaking of weather not to get off topic but the fucking weather in massachusetts is the biggest disgrace known to man we're on day 11 of july it's rained 10 of them

it's a fucking joke so shout out weather gods and shout out massachusetts weather for maybe the worst place to live in the country i'm gonna say it. December 25th, Christmas was 60 degrees and rainy. July 4th in Boston was 60 degrees and raining. So fuck this place. Global warming. Good week to be out of Dodge, it sounds like, huh? Oh, dude, you're doing a hell of a job in Columbia, just ripping rails and doing nothing.

Guy's going to make me sound like I need fucking Betty Ford. I'm here for a wedding, guys. Let's clean it up a little bit. You're going to ask Erica to pay for it just like your Ireland trip? But on a serious note, though, how's your trip been, R.A.? Is Columbia a good time? What have you been doing? Are you erasing the culture?

What kind of food is down there and stuff? Dude, I've been eating good. It's a lot of of chicken beef um pork well you know it's a staple down here as if you needed to sweat more uh a lot of potatoes down here a lot of a lot of root vegetables but no the people have been great it's been a lot of fun like the my friend was getting married his wife she's playing like activities for every day like the second day i got here we we went to a hot springs, like at the top of this mountain. And it's crazy, like the mountains down here.

I've never seen hills like this before. And there's a giant waterfall, like natural waterfall at all hot springs. And it's like a recreational thing. And about 50 of us went to that and hung out, had beers. And it was just something I've never seen before. Never would have seen it in my life. I hadn't come down here. So we've been doing like activities every day. I haven't seen a tv since I watched the cup game

Wednesday night literally haven't watched the thing it's crazy um you mentioned that she she lined up a bungee jumping thing and you showed up naked so fucking of course you stuck to the script on that one I respect that no no no naked bungee jumping down here. No, he did the hot springs. They went to an amusement park one day. I got here too late for that, but it's been fun. It's been, it's different. Like we, we had like a, it was like a ranch. Basically what we rented, it has like a big house and there's like a soccer field, a pool,

like a Tiki bar, just all this kind of mishmash stuff. And we just can kind of stand on private property most of the time. And I don't know if I'd be trusting an amusement park. And did you see the video of the one? I don't know what city it was in where they had to like, people had to stop the thing from rolling over? Yeah, a bunch of people had to go hold the front of it because it was about to tip over.

Now, hey, if you go to one of those ones that wheels up to the malls and just parks up shop for five. The Carney folk? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's kind of like the the same type of people that were in true detective season one from louisiana that was hey chalk that as as things i'll never do go to the state of louisiana is that have you actually

have been invited i've been invited by one buddy justin Meiser. This kid, my boyfriend, I brought him up a million times. Huge hog. He has asked me to go down to New Orleans 15 times. I will never step foot in New Orleans. I've never heard one good thing about that place. All right. You been? I was there one night. I went down to the LSU Alabama game.

That would be kind of cool. About 12 years ago. And I stayed the first night in New Orleans. I blacked out broke my glasses woke up scratches all over me so it was like par for the course basically here's my surprise face you might as well just gone to columbia yeah yeah really i got a question how do how do hot springs work is it just like the earth's like the core of the earth is warming up the water and it creates a hot tub i i guess so it had like a whole setup to it like it wasn't

just coming from the earth it was coming off like they basically built these stone archways the brickwork was unbelievable because this thing was at the top of a hill like driving up to it was like jesus when we getting there and then you see this like cobblestone walkway that they built i don't know 100 years ago or something and it's just the water just funnels over i'll show you a video when i get home it just kind of funnels out of this thing, and it's like piping hot. Like you could make tea with this water. It's so hot. And there's like four pools of varying degrees of heat,

and it's just, I don't know, it's supposed to be healthy in some regard. Maybe if you're not drinking 15 beers while you're sitting there. But it was interesting. And then today, I got up today. We flew from Pereira, which is the town of the mountains, where we had the wedding, to Cartagena today, which is right in the water. I'm looking out on the Caribbean right now. So so i haven't really seen much we just got here today uh but already taking a cruise home no we're going to some island tomorrow um i don't let

taking us on the boat to some island should we hop on uh game five i mean yeah we pretty much you gave it the mark messier guarantee with so do you want to you don't you want to cap things off for us? Yeah, I tweeted, call me Moose. It was one of those things where it was a done deal. They listened to the mayor of Tampa. She wanted them to lose on purpose and go home. And it's funny, R.A., you had brought up the fact of people possibly thinking that.

I now say if you ever think players in the NHL or at any level lose a game in the finals on purpose to try to win at home, you don't know anything. So I think we talked about that last episode. But the fact there was actually fans who thought that was the case was nuts. But they get back home and credit to Montreal for playing a hell of a game. Right. And Ross Colton, who has the chance to come into this lineup, an American kid who nobody really knew anything about going into the playoffs. For him to get that game-winning goal and for Ryan McDonough to get the second assist,

it's just, that's a guy who we talked about with Cooper, how amazing he was. Savard, who they bring over, gives this Colton a perfect tap-in pass, and it's 1-0, six minutes to go in the second. And all I thought was, like, I think that's all they need. And Vasilevsky doing that and shutting out five straight series clinching games going back to the cup final against dallas i mean we also talked to coop about him but is there anyone better than than him in goal right now it's like he is the best goalie in the world he's so big so

talented he could skate so well and he was able to just seal the deal and at the end of that game Montreal had so many chances they were buzzing around the offensive zone and you just felt like they're blocking shots Goudreau blocked the Weber shot Vasilevsky made some huge saves and Tampa pulls it out because uh as you saw in Kuch's post-game press conference they didn't want to go back to Montreal. Oh, my goodness. Now, guys, here's the thing. Like, people were pissed off.

Montreal Canadiens fans, like, really, like, I guess I could understand why you're upset at him, but he's fucking loaded. He hasn't had a thing to eat. He's probably on his 14th beer. It wasn't that close to after the game. I think his press conference was, was like 45 minutes drinking during the third period i'm pretty sure you know fucking obi's got the coca cola in the water bottle i'm pretty sure he had uh some pink whitney in there just getting a little buzz on maybe that's why he was asking where the bald guy was he needed the ups but i i just i just

was fucking laughing out loud because this guy the personality personality he has and then like the sarcasm are you fucking kidding me? Are you kidding me? Just the way you're saying it. And our boy Joe Smith was the one who asked the question. He's like, what's up, Joe? What do you got for me? Just an all-time post-game press conference in which he managed to

basically make everyone laugh while also shitting on the Canadians and making a bunch of Montreal fans furious. I think he got the number one bullshit line from Khabib. I think he said that in a press conference before and maybe that was a line that was taken now going back to the fact that would a team ever lose on purpose well if there's a team that could actually do it knowing that they can go back home and win it would be the Tampa Bay Lightning so I wouldn't 100% say that that wouldn't be the I would biz biz biz don't try to do this right now shut the fuck up i know i'm just fucking playing around now uh going back to vasilevsky i would imagine that

that pick was already like pre pre-game that was already already the case given the fact that he shut out another team to close out a series is insane that's another stat for for the ages but probably one of the one of the closest races as far as like what you could say from teammates regarding point kucherov and him who could have all been given the con smite then i don't think anybody would have batted batted an eye now it probably didn't help that i think point was i don't know if he was held off the score sheet but he was definitely held off the the goal scoring and and uh in the five game series against the canadians now going towards the canadian you the five-game series against the Canadians.

Now, going towards the Canadians, you feel terrible for them, given the amount of the craziness of the run. You saw Gallagher's post-game press conference. He was just completely heartbroken. He put his heart and soul into this run. He just looked all banged up. So give credit where it's due. I understand why maybe montreal canadians fans are a little bit upset at kubcharov's post-game press conference and then him throwing a little bit of shade at uh

flurry who i don't even think he remembered his name at first so i guess i shouldn't feel that insulted but i don't think he knew his own name at that point but overall just i mean just a wagon of a team and uh and and i don't think anybody was going to deny them this and probably the last time this team will ever be together. And yes, that's very true. And they talked about that. How classy is Carey Price? And you saw the post game press conference and you know, I don't, I don't want to butcher the quote, but maybe we can get it.

It's something about the fact that he talked about how disappointed he was, but it was really only in the outcome. And in terms of like his teammates in the run and what they did, he was so proud. And the way he spoke, it was like, that's a guy who's played in the league a long time, had a chance to get in the finals. His team was as overmatched as you've seen a finals matchup.

I don't know. Like I thought Dallas had a better chance to beat him than Montreal did this year. Right. They did not have anything close to the same type team. And to show that kind of humility and how humble he is in that postgame presser, probably the lowest moment of his career, showed the type of guy he is. I didn't think they were going to lose that when they showed Dave Anderchuk

chugging that beer right before the game started. I was surprised to see that. I didn't see. What was that on? I think they showed it on NBC broadcast. I was surprised to see that. I didn't see, what was that on? I think they showed it on NBC broadcast. I saw it on social media. Yeah, they were throwing it around. So the pregame activities were a little wild

and it was pretty much a sealed deal from that point. The ultimate leader, Shea Weber, too, in that post-game press conference, when Carey Price is like, I don't think I played well enough. And he just jumps in, cuts him off, and he's just like, I don't think that's the case at all. We didn't play well enough in front of you.

Weber gave him a backhand. Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up. He played great. Now, going back to the game, I don't know if you guys during the first period, Anderson, Josh Anderson was a little bit pissed at something. I felt like he was yelling at the official the entire first period and edzo ended up bringing it up on the broadcast did you see him just barking at the

ref the entire time yeah i don't know what began i don't know what pissed him off or i don't remember but he was furious well i don't know if it had anything to do with the fact that uh mind you edmondson ended up hitting coleman a little bit late there was like a split second delay and then shortly thereafter Coleman delivered one to Suzuki of course it happening to a Montreal Canadian the internet ended up blowing up at that one where I was more like well there was one that just happened a few minutes prior legitimately the exact same play with the late hit so at least they were staying consistent with it and at least they're now going to address the cross-checking issues. I know that they were talking about it with the GM. So maybe they didn't have it figured out this playoff,

but they're going to rile it in as far as this postseason is concerned with the GM meetings. Speaking of cross-checks, Biz, Kucherov was playing with a fractured rib from the Mayfield cross-check he took on the Islanders series. And this is another interesting stat. Kucherov, eight goals, 24 24 assists he had 32 points in 23 games he's the sixth player to lead the playoffs in points in consecutive seasons without tying anybody in other words in first place by himself first guy to do that since mario and uh point was the this is crazy point was the sixth player to

lead the playoffs in goals in consecutive seasons without without a tie first guy to do that since yari curry back in 87 88 some pretty wild numbers too i don't i'm not sure we mentioned vassie got the cons might i thought well deserved i thought he was consistently the best player each round i know point had nice little heater but he did not score a goal in the final i just thought overall vassie's consistency i don't know how you couldn't give it to him i understand coch had a great candidacy, but to me, it was a no-brainer to give to Vassie. Let's talk about the picture that came out of the handshake line in which Price is shaking Vasilevsky's hand, and I believe they're the same height.

If maybe he's got an inch on Price, was that picture real? Was that doctored? It looked like he had double the gear on. Well, there was a real one, and then there was doctored ones. Mikey, can you find the real and the doctored and send it over right now because i need to see the difference but even i feel like it was quick enough where i saw the real one and it was noticeably the thing is though they measure their gear all the time but if i was just looking at the doctored one and flipping out i'm a fucking joke oh everyone listening knows already even when the real picture

came out the meats the meme started getting busted out and they had the kanye west and little pump video you're such a fucking hoe i love it so that was uh i was a funny one i had a good chuckle at what i thought you talked about the picture of me watching the game from down here the other night oh my god if anyone hasn't seen this picture holy shit so r.a's got his freshly shaved with a bick razor head which by the way r.a i don't want to ever see you again you look great with the shaved bicked head you can't grow the homer simpson on the sides thing just always be bicked i know okay okay fair enough so he's got the bicked head he's got the edmonton oilers battle

of alberta shit on look great on him he's then got those big head. He's got the Edmonton Oilers Battle of Alberta shirt on. Looked great on him. He's then got those toes, those toes that I had the lint from his toes rubbed on me one time. The toes have been talked about. He's got the open toes sandals. And then he has a cigarette for sure laced with something down in Columbia. And in my tweet talking about the picture, his Mona Lisa, I didn't even see a w lot of cash on his lap so god knows what you got into that night but just a phenomenal image whoever took that should be

given a what do you win for pictures nobel peace prize no that's for peace um what do you win um pulitzer if it's a good sir should have got a pulitzer for ra down in columbia you can win an award for taking a picture 100 if it's yeah journalism like a journalism photo you could win a pulitzer tell tell me tell me one that i would know right off the hop if i saw it that would um probably the picture of the guys raising the flag at iwo jima um geez i don't yeah is that a pulitzer i'm guessing i'm no i'm just trying to think of examples of i'm trying to think yeah It's usually like a breaking news story. It's a picture of JFK when he was a JFK's son when JFK died.

Oh, and he saluted him. Yeah. That could have won a Pulitzer. I'm just trying to think of famous pictures. Yeah. There's a bunch of them. By the way, with the cigarette you were referring to, I believe the kids called it a blunt. That's what I was puffing on that photo. That's that's a good bud down here too i'll tell you i i wanted to hop

in and and we you know we talk about the depth for the lightning and obviously i got bent over on that topic that one didn't play out very well but joseph getting inserted when calorn went down he made that play in game four they didn't end up winning it but when he sent it over to patty maroon i thought that you know once they started giving him a a somewhat of a regular shift i thought he fed in tremendously and then you just said the lone goal in game five ross colton i mean that's you know there you go sign sealed and delivered from the depth of the tampa bay lightning so wow quickly biz go to wikipedia and check out Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. And they have the winner from every year. Some amazing photographs.

Back to the game. Got to mention Killorn, who didn't get to play after the first game. First game of the series, right? Sorry. Yeah. Was that? Yeah. So, I mean, you find out after the broken leg, he's got a rod in it and he was planning to try to play possibly game six. So it just shows what these guys are willing to go through. And you could tell he, I don't know how the fuck he would have tried to play because when he was skating around with the cup and his gear, he barely put any weight on his left side.

So I'm sure it was his goal to try to play. I don't know what would have been possible, but depth. I know the Islanders had better depth according to Biz Nasty, but I think the depth shows you throw Joseph in, he plays great. And you're able to replace a guy like Kalon, who'd been one of the top players for the light in the entire playoff run yeah would have looked like mcgregor out there trying to skate around spaghetti leg well biz this series didn't last long but you can make sure you do last long in the rack when you use roman swipes most guys have tried different ways to last longer but

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lot of pictures i gotta be honest i didn't want people to think i'm out there talking about how amazing the pictures are of like poverty and fucking all these awful things so sad stuff but powerful images i'll say so go ahead i'm done with the pulitzer photography well all right i wanted to hop in here just a few more notes 15 and 0 in the playoffs after a loss and their two stanley cup wins how fucking that's that's that might be the craziest stat of them all that's a joke. And their third Stanley Cup in 28 years. The only team who's got more in that time is the Detroit Red Rings with four. So, Tampa is a hockey town, folks. There you have it.

And, yes, the team will be broken up a little bit. But Hedman, McDonough, Point, Kucherov, Vasilevsky, they're not going anywhere. So, I mean, I don't know how. I know right now in the preseason odds, Colorado is favored. Part of that is probably how good they look most of the season and also how unlikely it is to go for a three-peat in the current NHL. But Jesus Christ, Tampa's going to be right there again. Yeah, we talk about the D word a little later too.

There's also the 19th repeat first repeat winner since pittsburgh uh we gotta mention our boy patty maroon three straight cups for the guy i know he said his name earlier but we haven't mentioned that three years in a row three straight cups when's the last guy i mean it had to have been what an island that must have been an islander who did that three years in a row right yep it was uh i think i think it's eight or nine guys yeah yeah to ever do it. Because those, you know, those, obviously the teams have four straight with the Islanders. They didn't, they didn't have the same team. So just an amazing run for a guy who, who's kind of going through a

lot, right? You know, he went to St. Louis, he couldn't get the deal. He get the one-year deal with Tampa. Then as I got dunked on gets the two-year deal after they win it. But that's a glue guy. That's somebody who's playing on the fourth line, can play up and down the lineup if need be. Is so good at possessing the puck in the offensive zone. And, I mean, now his career was set before this. Now three straight. It's like, what else are you supposed to say?

Just an amazing run. Very happy for him. I mentioned how depressing that post-game press conference from Gallagher was. And then he gets home to find out his fucking house got robbed. Dude. So that is. What a kick in the dick. I'll tell you what, he was in pretty good spirits

and ended up making a TikTok video about it, though. So nothing can get that guy down, I guess. Yeah, he took a beating throughout the playoffs, too. His face was mush he was like the guy who against uh sugar in the ufc fight what's his name you haven't seen this fight it was it was chris uh marino i think he's from milford dude i was calling him cemented he and never seen anything like it um one other one other thing we were talking about kuch so much uh he must not have been too belligerent at least for this uh facetime tino sorry igor larionov's

kid ended up tweeting out that he was with his old man and they got a facetime from like a a weird number i guess that maybe igor larionov didn't have kuch raw's number for whatever reason and then he answered and sure enough kuch was just telling him how much he idolized him and how we look up to him growing up. And he just, you know, he just wanted to thank him for, for I guess being him. Did you guys see that? Yeah. It translated to you on my idol. Thank you. Because it had the Russian writing on there and it said, you know,

my idol. Thank you. He kept saying over and over to him. I'm sure he was probably wasted. If he was talking to him. And we got to bring up jeff petrie i had it right um actually passed out from the pain of getting his fingers put back in place after dislocating them and in the process of passing out popped all the blood vessels in his eyes so that's why you saw his his eyes uh all red through in the vegas series but what a warrior is as you know as we've said many times so many of these guys are playing through so much pain to try to make a dream come true and yeah you get shots before the playoffs and you can try to numb stuff but no matter what every one of those dudes was out there feeling not a hundred percent you

just gotta tip your cap to them and going through what they have for a long run. And then these Tampa guys two years in a row, it's amazing to see. It's not all negative for Montreal too. Deneau was saying that he had a bunch of pizza sponsors reach out because he was doing the post-game press conferences every time they sealed the deal on a series.

He said that he got offered a bunch of deals during playoffs, but he said during playoffs just wasn't the time in order to, you know, poke his head out and, and, you know, take focus away from the team. So I'm pretty sure he's going to get lined up and speaking to other sponsorships, all a bunch of the Tampa Bay lightning boys. Well, at least the Russians got lined up with Budweiser deals, right? Yeah.

Oh, are they not affiliated? When I heard that they were weren't, I guess they're like, not, I think it's two different companies. Oh, are they not affiliated? When I heard that they weren't, I guess they're like not. I think it's two different companies. Oh. I don't understand how that's even possible. Maybe somebody was just fucking with me, and they're laughing their balls off right now that I believed them. But I'm pretty sure they're different.

Two separate companies. Yeah, it's wild. Well, because I'm working on that Bud Columbia product placement for you down here while I'm here. Okay, thank you. Pair up with Bud Canada. Also, too, Bergervan. He did say he's got one year left on his deal.

He's going to honor that. I mean, you've got to think this bought him some time. I know they didn't win the cup, Biz, but, you know, this is kind of what his design was, his plan. And, you know, Price maybe has a better game or two. This might go six or seven. Instead, they lose. But, you know, you've got to think he's in a good position, though, Biz, right?

Oh, big time now on the flip side of that and i might get scalded by habs fans i could see a situation like dallas where this team might not make playoffs next year like we you know if but now keep in mind to charm who seemed to have the confidence of all the players cory perry in his post game or it wasn't post game it was the the exit meetings he said through and through this is an NHL head coach and it seems like the guys have bought in so as long as they're able to continue with that same structure and continue to play that good team defense I don't you know maybe see them having a problem having success moving forward now I think that they're gonna he Perry was on a one-year deal,

so they have to probably lock him back up. Who else do they got to try to bring back? Well, Biz, that's kind of why there is a chance that maybe they do miss the playoffs because if you want to talk about UFAs, they got Perry, they got Armia, who was phenomenal in that run to the cup final. They got Deneau, their shutdown center, who struggled offensively, but can do it great on the other side of the puck. They got Eric Stahl, UFA, and Thomas Tatar.

Now, Tatar wasn't playing for the entire playoff. RFA, they got Lekkonen, they got Koktuniemi they got to figure out. I think Koktuniemi doesn't have Arbright's where Lekkonen does. On D, just Gustafsson and Merrill are UFA. Everyone else is signed. So they definitely have some work to do. I don't know what Deneau is going to want. We talked with Eric Engels, who said it was kind of phantom.

Remember the rumors were going around that he turned down 6x6 or whatever that was. I don't know what the case is there. But they have some work cut out for him. So Bergevin's got to figure that out. If that was the offer on the table before playoffs, I'd imagine he elevated his stock and now is looking for a little bit more on the, I don't know though, but he doesn't

score. He had one goal. Yeah. But it's more of, but, but it's more of leverage is where like, what type of look at them down the middle. They just don't have a lot. That's like the one position where they really struggle. And a reason they probably ended up getting Eric stall in there for a little bit of depth for that playoff run so but but but hear me out on us

remember when you talked about um who are we chatting about recently when you mentioned on a oh you were talking about nugent hopkins and you're like i think on a stanley cup winning team he's a great third liner yeah if you're looking at a team who's thinking they can win the stanley cup would you not say dinoau is a great third liner? Because he doesn't have the offense to be on the top two lines, and you're not going to get $6 million a year to be on the third line. So I don't know. I'm really interested to see the contract he gets.

And you're right, because what he did on the other side of the puck and playing defensively and so responsible, there are 32 teams now, and somebody's going to give him a big deal. But I don't know if you win the Stanley Cup if he's one of your top two centers. Yeah, I think there's still room to grow, and he's definitely going to have to find a way in order to contribute more offensively

if you want to say he's a second-line center on a Stanley Cup team. The other guy who had a great playoff and who I'd imagine their hope they hope can also take another step is suzuki i mean that's kind of there's awesome yeah he's he's unbelievable and i mean eric ingles if you go back to that interview too you they talk about he he doesn't come off as such a competitive guy because he's got such a calm demeanor but yeah that's that's another one so yeah they got their work cut out for him but i'd imagine hopefully he'll find himself right back in the mix next year and uh yeah him caulfield

and romanov on d that's three young studs so um it'll be an interesting off season to see what does no doubt boys uh should we send it over to coop shortly or what we should all right not only did we talk about the cup with john Coop, we went into his very unique career path. This guy is just amazing how where he was in life and how coaching came to him and just how much of a knack he has for it and how good he is for it.

We got a nice long interview for him for you first, but I want to mention that this interview was brought to you by our friends at Body Armor. Today's athletes deserve more than just your grandfather's tired, old, salty sports drink, which is full of artificial dyes. Enter Body Armor. Made with potassium-packed electrolytes, antioxidants, and B vitamins, plus no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or dyes,

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In his first eight full seasons as an NHL head coach, he's made the playoffs seven times and went to three Stanley Cup finals. And all Wednesday night, his Tampa Bay Lightning won their second straight Stanley Cup, and he became just the second coach to win back-to-back titles in the salary cap era. Thanks a ton for jumping on with us, John Cooper. Congrats on number two, Coop. Thanks, guys. on with us john koopa congrats on number two coop thanks guys it's uh hell of a ride with a super awesome group of guys i mean it's potty time in the gulf right now is any different than last year

or is it no difference because it's florida oh no it's different it's well last year when we had a boat parade it was almost october now we're like mid-july and the heat is beaming down. So it should be a good one tomorrow, but it'll be hot out there. Coop, you and R.A. go way back, huh? You guys are buddies trying to get in touch right after you raised the cup for the second year in a row. Well, R.A. snuck into our cup party last year. I was like, boom, he lives in Boston, yet he's at a cup party in Tampa during a pandemic.

So that was interesting, but he was, uh, no, Ari was awesome. The stories he was telling, like the energy has, I could just throw him right on the gourd line. He'd fit right in there. I'll tell you what, I was shocked to get the FaceTime the night you guys won the Stanley cup. And the first day I see John Cooper pop up and I'm like, oh my God, he's calling me. This is unbelievable. I answer. And your first question is where's R.A. he's not answering he's

not answering my FaceTimes I'm like I'm not with him he just hangs up is so I gotta see you and Big Rig and then later on I get a FaceTime from Big Rig and then I'm getting bullied by Kucherov who who I guess I mean a lot of people have been victim of kucherov lately since he's been on this run just uh you know post stanley cup yeah the uh so derrick lond who's on our staff uh who i've known a long time i guess he went to school with ra so i get in-depth coverage of their past and if they're if ra is anything like derrick it was probably quite a bit of fun. Yeah, me and Newsy go way back.

I think it was his very first coaching job at North Adams State. I was, of course, 24, so I was only a sophomore or whatever I was at the time. But I hadn't seen him in probably 20 years until we reconnected over last season. So, yeah, it was great. Thanks. And, by the way, I didn't sneak in. I did get an invite to that one.

Oh, I know you did. I know. I'm just giving you a hard time. It was fun, though. I'm so glad to that. Oh, I know you did. I know you did. I'm just giving you a hard time. It was fun, though. I'm so glad you came. Yeah, it was a blast. Game 7 just Wednesday night. A 1-0 nail-biter.

We're going to get into your career, surely, but I just want to ask about Game 7 first. Did you get nervous at all? Game 7? Game 7 already? That was against the Islanders. The guys in Columbia fucking hopped up on God knows what interview

and a cup champ coach. You know what I mean. Last game of this series. Let's be honest. I'd be sitting here BSing you if I said you don't get nervous. I think I'm not as probably nervous as I was maybe in the 2015 final as you are in the 2021. But there's butterflies.

If I didn't have them, I'd be pissed at myself. Then I'd be like, something's wrong then. So I, it, it's weird because I was probably more like feeling that weird feeling in game five than I was in game four. And then we ended up losing game four. So it was, you just, you live for these moments and I always try to enjoy them because I sit here and I look around and be like, Holy cow, this is, you just, you live for these moments. And I always try to enjoy them because I sit here and I look around and be like, holy cow, this is, you know, in these stressful situations. But I always try and keep myself like not outwardly showing it.

Because I do think a team can take a little bit of the personality of the coach. So if you're wigging out and you're wigging out the refs, like the players will start doing it. Now you're out of control. So it's probably why I chew gum so hard all the time. But it's like, I try and keep it inside, but for sure butterflies were going. And then you just know like those last couple minutes

and you're looking up and you're going, oh my God, we're so close. Like just get this across the finish line. And the boys, well, when I saw Barkley Goudreau block that shot from Shea Weber, I'm like, all right, we got this. Your interview right after you said that was like the entire team. You just have to look at that one play.

And even at home watching, it's like, and if he didn't get it, there was probably another guy behind him. That's the one thing about your team. And it's just everyone buys in. It was a joy to watch. So like I already said, I mean, congrats. And Biz, go ahead, buddy. Well, you said the team takes on the personality of the coach.

And I know you're good friends with Charles Barkley. And I think after game one of the final, I read that he texted you. He said, three more to go, coach. And you said, no, one more to go. Because that's kind of the mentality you have, is where you don't want to get too ahead of your skis. You're one game at a time. Yeah, he's been awesome ever since we met a few years ago

and become a big fan and a friend and so yeah after we won game one he sends a text and says hey three more to go and i said uh no it's one more to go we just need to do it three more times and uh so he kind of he ran with that i think he might have ran with it in the uh tmt broadcast for. But he's a special human being, that guy, and glad he's a fan. He probably said, fuck you, Coop, like in the real thing. He might have. He might have. Shut up, bitch.

There's probably a better chance of that. Well, Coop, like, obviously we want to talk about this cup team and even last year's and your time with the Lightning, but I'm just as much, if not more, intrigued about how you came to be a head's and your time with the lightning but i'm just as much if not more intrigued about how you came to be a head coach in in your past and i guess we'll all start off like let's go all the way back to the beginning you were born in prince george british columbia and you're a big lacrosse player were you as crazy about hockey when you were growing up as you were about lacrosse or was it was it not oh yeah hockey was the first love like uh you know hockey night in canada

back way back then was just one night a week or one game on a saturday night started five o'clock eight o'clock eastern it was five for us and i'd go emulate i was uh bobby orr was my first memory of a player and i just loved the boston bruins and so i'd go downstairs and have tournaments by myself shooting pucks into my mom's uh and dad's dryer and uh and you know Boston would always win because I always made sure they won and but Bobby Orr was my was just my guy and I just fell in love with hockey and um and so that was that you know that was the winter sport and in the summer I'd play lacrosse and be a big believer and just playing all sorts of sports. And so I ended up playing junior A lacrosse in the lower mainland.

Hockey, though, I went to – actually, I went right there, to Notre Dame in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. I had some questions about there, actually. And so I went there. I made all the rep teams in my – in Prince George and played in all the top teams and then I went there and I was like oh wow I'm not as good as I thought I was

it was you know when you're lining up beside Wendell Clark at a trial it's not probably going to go that well for you and so it was tough because I didn't make the big team any of the years I was there and it was that was like the first time of like, okay,

this is what adversity is. And I stayed at the school. I loved it. It was a phenomenal experience. It kind of, you know, it's where I kind of went in as a boy, came out a man and, but it was learning experience that, you know, you're going to fail at some things and, and, you know, what's your path to success. And I look back at some of the times when I didn't have success and maybe it channeled me the right way to find my way into spitting

chiclets hey yeah so did you go there on a full ride did you go there on a full ride to go to school like was it a scholarship situation or did your parents just send you off to school there yeah they wanted me to go they wanted me to move on and branch out it's it's different today i was 15 years old when i left home and it was nerve-wracking i'll never forget when my parents pulled away from wilcox saskatchewan not sure if you've ever been there but i don't even know if there was a stoplight there when when i first went and uh but it was it's a special place and and and it was you just you got to grow you got to there's you're on your own at 15 and you got to find a way to to make it work and you know eventually did uh but it wasn't you know through hockey but it never ever took away my love for

hockey and you know i always said to myself i god i'd love to have my name etched on the stanley cup i just didn't know how I was going to do it. And it's funny how it turned out. What am I going to do as a player? Before we get to Hofstra, where you ended up playing lacrosse, I'm interested about Notre Dame because I consider it, and tell me if I'm wrong, it's kind of like Shattuck-St. Mary's, right? Didn't LeCavier and Brad Richards play there?

Oh, my gosh, yeah. There's a laundry list of guys. Yeah. It's crazy. Kobe, Braden Colburn, God, McElhinney,

our, our, our backup. Like it's, you never, it's so many guys. I don't even know how many to go there, but it's a hockey factory and they have a huge passion for it,

but you're absolutely right. It's probably comparable to, to Shattuck as like the top school i i do think prep schools and stuff are getting bigger in canada now um and people are going that that that route but it's uh it was it's a it's a great place and i think you know the canadians usually end up in notre dame and the americans end up in uh shattuck unless you're Sid. He just picked where he wanted to go. That's where he learned how to shoot pucks in the dryer.

I noticed he said that. He probably picked that up from you, Coop. He could thank you for all those goals he scored. My mom never got rid of that dryer either. She had it for 40 years. It was a mess. It was such a bad shot, I couldn't get it in the

dryer what what what brought you to Hofstra did you get a 100 yeah 100 lacrosse I ended up playing uh in the um the Canada games for I actually played for Saskatchewan it was my first like touch with field lacrosse. Cause I was a box, box lacrosse player. And so I was recruited by one coach and then he left the year I committed to come in. And this John Donowski, who's now like the winningest coach in college lacrosse, he's at Duke now. He, he became his coach. Now we didn't know each other. And I was on like a limited limited you know financial aid by them

but I ended up making the team they honored everything and and it was uh it was a crazy experience because the team was in transition and when the coach took over and we kind of took off and we had some really really good years there I loved it I loved playing lacrosse but it was different because I couldn't understand so I don't know if you're familiar with box lacrosse, but the goalies are like huge. And it's like the net's like four by four. And then when you went to field lacrosse, the goalies have no pads, which is asinine. I don't know. They're crazy guys. And the net's like six or seven, whatever, how big the net is.

And so scoring kind of came natural to me. And I was like, the guys would be like how do you just how do you score and i'm like how do you not there's nobody in the net soccer net started twitching i had pretty good pretty good practice playing uh uh field across but i had to learn to play with my other hand because like like, we would just throw behind the back. So I wouldn't – I just – I was a righty, and then if I wanted to go the other side, I threw it behind the back, and all the American players could play both hands.

So that was tough for me. I had to train myself to play both hands because the American kids, shit, they were really good. It's ironic that you went to Hofstra on Long Island, considering the way the last two years have gone. So you graduate. Your job prospects have nothing to do with coaching. Coaching's not even on your radar.

Now, is it true you worked on Wall Street for a while? Were you a budding good and gecko? I don't know about that. I worked at Prudential Securities. I was in the mutual fund department when I was a really big area. I worked down a water street. And then eventually I moved to their law department because i wanted to go to law school and my initial entry of getting back into hockey as i was going to become an agent and so uh i did some so there were some guys at newport sports um mark guy pat morris a group of

guys that i got to to know and then wade are not to it's a whole nother story how he helped me out but I worked with those guys a little bit became really good buds with Pat Morris they were kind of grew me along but it just wasn't my I just started getting into coaching then and I just loved that kind of the team aspect of it that I didn't want to be on the other side I couldn't see myself representing like multiple players on one team and then a different team. I went the coaching path. What's tough now also for the agents, even though admit, you have to go after these kids at 14, 15.

It makes it just so difficult chasing them. Yeah. That's why I left New York. I ended up going to law school, Thomas Cooley Law School. It was in Lansing, Michigan. I ended up in Michigan. I can say it now because they're all older but I was uh I was like trying to you know become an attorney and I started representing all the Michigan State players and uh oh like so I'd

get them out of the trouble they would you know what those college tickets you get and uh just a great great group of guys and So Adam Hall lives down here. He was there during that time. It was like John Michael Lyles and Andrew Hutchison and Brian Miller. They had a huge group of guys. Wes McCauley was there. And so we laugh about it now, some of the trouble I got these guys out of. Great guys. You were playing with the Legal uh legal eagles rec hockey team correct and

that's kind of how you got back into the swing and things yeah so so a judge um when i just got out i needed a job like i just passed the bar i was all excited but i needed a job and so i was playing with the cooley law school team it's kind of running it and pat murray uh played in the league a little bit i don't know if you guys remember him he's an awesome awesome guy played for the flyers like 25 games his brother's rem murray uh and they we became buds and he asked as he said basically the short story is hey i'll coach your kids high school team if you make me a court-appointed attorney that's basically the kind of deal that went on judge may tell a little different but it it's and so we did that. And then, but he brought me on to their legal Eagles was an all lawyer team in the city.

And so I was like the first law student to come on their team. And, and we had a blast. Then they brought Murr. Like we just had a blast with that group, but as yeah, that's how the whole thing got started. Busy strong-armed to judge i don't know about that so you get back into coaching and you're coaching that team and are you right away feeling like the passion and just like love for doing this

it was like i probably say that was the most fun i had in my early in my career was coaching these high school kids. And I've said it before, like, no offense, you know, cause half of them are probably going to listen to this, but you know, they, they weren't sitting there saying they were having a career in hockey. That was, that was the one thing. And, but we had so much fun with that group. It was, and the judge was great, but that was the year Maple Leaf Gardens closed. And so we took the kids in a bus and we rented out Maple Leaf Gardens. So we drove from Lansing, Michigan to Toronto, stayed three days,

played a couple of high school teams, and then got to play an exhibition game against ourselves at Maple Leaf Gardens. It was one of the biggest thrills I ever had. And, you know, trying to shoot pucks and see if we could lob them over and get them into Harold Ballard's box. Couldn't do that, but it was, it was a blast. I found that hockey night in Canada studios and my brother and I took a picture and Don and Ron's chairs and just a wonderful experience. But that team, we ended up winning the regionals and we lost in the state

quarterfinals, which they'd never been there before. And we had so much fun with that group and and I just kept getting, oh, my God, somebody's. Our popular man. Am I losing? Are you getting a phone call? Yeah, sorry. So we took, you know, I just had this passion for it, and then somebody asked me to coach.

It was the one time I was a part-time assistant because I was working too much. I couldn't stay in coaching. And then Kelly Miller was coaching the team. And he went to the NHL. And I'm like, Coop, can you stay on with us? I did. And then the bugs started hitting.

And I took over a Junior B team called the Metro Jets. And we ended up winning the national championship. And I think that was the part where I was like, I love this. And the winning is so addicting I want to keep doing it I just love these teams and I was kind of that's where I was kind of trying to build this recipe in my head of like how to win and then the next year I went to Honeybaked Midget AAA and coached you know some big-time players that ended up playing in the NHL. Nathan Gerby was on that team and Eric Condra. And then along came Kelly Chase,

because he was getting back into hockey, owning a junior team in the North American League. And we were buddies. I knew him from way back. And he said, hey, come coach my team. And at that point, it had to bug so bad. I was like, you know what? I want to give this a shot. I want to GM it. I want to do sales. I want to gm it i want to do sales i want to coach it i want to do the whole thing and we went down

to a place called texarkana texas and started a junior tier two hockey team and all the rest is history after that so when you go when you decide to take that job i mean that's when it's full in like you're done being the lawyer. And did part of that, was it easier? Cause you said, I can always go back and do that. And I have to give this a shot. 100%. I think, I think my dad looked at me cross-eyed when I told him what I was doing and my mom was high-fiving me. So it was, it was, it was a crazy time, but I was, I was in my early thirties and I'll be honest. I don't know. Like I hate, I hate saying this, but I was in my early 30s. And I'll be honest, I don't know. Like, I hate saying this, but I'm not that guy that's looking five,

six years ahead. I'm looking the year ahead. And I think that's what I loved about hockey because each season was different. And I just loved that feeling of like, all right, here's these 23 different human beings. How can I take them and make them one in six months? And that was my belief, like just very good culture based. And,

and, and so I learned that along the way and you get the right players in, you know, I don't think I had a captain on my team that was ever a leading scorer on our team, just character soothing through. And, and, and I loved it. I just, I couldn't get enough and, and the competition. And then that was fortunate to, to win a little bit along the way. And so it probably helped my career out. Did you surprise yourself at all at how much you had a knack for this and how

quickly you were climbing the ladder? I can't say, like, I don't want to sit here and say surprise myself like but i never thought of it that way i just thought okay here's the league i'm in like let's go have some fun but let's let's build something and try and win i'm like what's the point of doing this if you're not going to try and and win and and uh but it was fun putting the pieces together like I love the general manager part I was always a coach and GM and I I love that part of of just trying to build something from scratch and and the big the big thing is if I can give anybody advice out there you need to surround yourself with good people like you have to do that and you have to stay stick to your beliefs you can't do things that are going to you know please somebody else like you have to stick to your core values but big thing for me is surround yourself with good peeps man and and you got a good chance for things to

work out and i've been fortunate along the way like even when i went to green bay in the ushl that group of people that own that team there and manage it are phenomenal human beings. Like in the North American League was Chaser and Holly and Mike Brooks and Tony Sanso and these guys, phenomenal human beings. And then I run into like the rock stars of Steve Eisenman, Julian Brisebois, Jeff Vinnick. Like it's been a ride, but it's all because I've been surrounded with phenomenal people.

Well, when you're with the St. Louis bandits, that's when you first met Pat, right? He was on that team. Was that Kelly chase who made that introduction and how you ended up there? It was, he's a St. Louis kid. We were in Texarkana at the time.

He was 16 years old. He's like, Coop, I got this guy for you. I'm like, okay, chaser. I've heard that, you know, but he was right like Chaser was right a lot of the time and he uh he he says I'm gonna sign him to a tender I couldn't go see him play so I'm like all right I trust you and so he came to Texarkana at 16 years old and we started we started this uh because he was a big boy you know hadn't grown into himself yet. So he was in high school. We started this group called the Chub Club, named after Pat Maroon, at 6 a.m. in the morning.

So before high school, he'd have to go in the Chub Club and drop weight. And so it was bad because the guys called him Fat Pat. And I still, to my day, I didn't call him Fat Pat F-A-T. I called him Fat Pat P-h-a-t because he was he had the sickest hand so I always had that in my phone as his number and then after a year and a half the boy started calling him slim because he dropped so much weight and then when he did that in our second year so we wanted our second year in St. Louis that was the first time we won the championship and Eddie Pad patty had 95 points he was

by far had turned himself into the best player in the league and and uh that was i think london came calling after we won that and then actually london calling speaking of that the game so uh also you go to green bay you mentioned that and you get your title there now i saw looking through that roster anders lee was on that team huh was that is that a person you're thinking oh this kid has a legit chance of playing in the NHL so I was probably excuse me a little naive to the NHL at the time I never thought that was going to be coaching path for me I actually thought I was going to go to college so I looked at more guys as like college players we're always trying to get guys scholarships that year that year that Green Bay year every single player went d1 it was like that was our proud moments like everybody's

let's get them to college and so anders came to us and it was our color the clark cup winning year and we ended up he was a stud and if you score 30 plus goals in the ushl you got a chance i don't care like it now it's up to you. You got the skill to do it. But what a human being. I remember as – sorry if I keep rambling on, but things – Oh, we love this shit. He was an all-state quarterback.

And so – but he'd never tell anybody. We kind of knew, like as a staff or whatever, but he'd never throw a football. So anyway, we were in Minnesota somewhere. A bus got – I don't know if we pulled over to eat or something like that one of the boys had a football and he's like come on anderson let's just toss it around so he's like okay sure so he says i'm going you know they say i'm going deep and he went and then anders was like we'll go deep and he was already like so far down i'm like what he goes just keep going and then he chucked it and i was like the whole

team just sat in silence like it was so damn far and uh holy shit sorry boys and uh and so so we're like oh wow this kid's an athlete and he drew was a phenomenal athlete but i'll give you a quick story we get to the finals make it all the way to finals it's best of five we're playing uh fargo and we drop game one at home and the goalie uh whips his glove off in the air up in the air and shoots it because he scored a goal from the net he's going he scored the empty net of the goalie whizzed up his glove and shot it have an unbelievable picture of it i'd blow it up okay so i don't think much but now we get into game two we lose that one so now we're down oh two going to fargo and we're like the top team and so i blow that picture up stick it on the door and i'm like this is the guy that we're gonna

let us beat him now the kid's probably a super human being but that's what i used this as like motivation it was the sickest picture too like he's got the the stick and the glove anyway we go to game three and we're down three two with 30 seconds left and they got the cameras going i'm like i cannot believe we're gonna get swept pull the goalie and guess who scores with 30 seconds left anders lee and it was just big time player and we ended up going to triple overtime and we won in triple overtime won the next game went home to green bay won the next one won the championship and it was but anders lee was the guy and so funny thing was he was drafted um when he was drafted he kept his whole what's that law the rule like if you are there four years and you can

whatever but he was gonna yeah he could have not been he wouldn't have to sign with the islanders he had to wait till august and he could have been an unrestricted free agent and i remember uh thinking oh man we might have a chance here because i had a really good relationship with anders and uh but he he was like no i'm gonna sign with the Islanders you know what they were the team that drafted me this is why he's money and I was like good for you because he's like Coop I'd come and play for you you know that anytime anywhere but I feel loyal because they took a chance and drafted me I'm gonna sign with the Islanders and I was like good on you kid uh and I he deserves everything he has received except for that torn knee, which is awful.

So I've heard a few stories about you trying to motivate guys through special ways. You just mentioned blowing up that picture. Now there's another story of when you were with the Green Bay Gamblers about a practice situation where maybe the guy showed up to the rink and there was a note or something left where you ended up having them meet up at a park with you. Can you go through that story and and you know why you did that so this is good this is actually

a good story and uh so basically we had a really good team that was that year the year we won it and but we were like seven and six or something and we just went and played the u.s program and we played the young team and lost. And I was beside myself. I haven't tossed anything in a room and I tossed the table that day. And that's, you know, in junior, all that tape and the gum and everything's on one table. That's all you have. And so I was like, that was a, that was a tough one. I was like, what are we going to do? Like, how are we going to find a way?

So we bus back and we ended up going to this establishment as coaching staff to air things out, if you know what I mean. And as we kept going, I was like, I'm sick. Like, we're showing up. We're giving our all as a coaching staff. We don't feel like the guys are. And so I called a 6 a.m. meeting on a football field that night or the next day because it was a i think it was a sunday afternoon game so we got home early and these kids got high school and stuff like that and we were going to talk to them and run them and all this well as our night got a little longer

i'm like why the hell are we going at 6 a.m so i wrote on a note and it said this is what it feels like when you show up or no when we show up and you guys don't i hope you know basically i hope you don't waste this season or something like that and i put a stake in it at the 50 yard line so all the boys show up at 6 a.m i'll probably ticked off and the whole deal and everybody's on the field and they're like where are the coaching staff and it's like 6 20 6 30 and finally somebody goes what's that it's at center 50 what a 50 yard line and they went and read the note and then i guess they had this coming to jesus meeting and anyway so nobody talked about it not even that next day when we had practice nothing was talked about they never mentioned hey coop that was a dicky move nobody talked about it until game five of the finals when the whole car cup was on the line and the captain brought it out and put it on the logo

wow and said remember this day and we ended up winning that car cup that's unbelievable yeah that's good shit that that that shows uh a lot of thought goes into what the players and the coaches and the players are doing it's that's pretty cool that next year that next year you how did it go about that summer where you interviewed with eiserman and like how did it all become where i might actually do this professionally so now now the success has kind of built my career a little bit i'm getting a little bit of a name but vinik takes all buys the team in may and so then he hires eiserman and then eiserman hired uh giboucher to be the coach and then by the time it's august he hires

julian brisebois and now jul Julian's going to run the American League team, doesn't have a coach. Will you try and find a coach in mid-August? It's trouble. So Wade Arnott, who worked for Newport at the time, I guess Julian was doing a contract with them. And he's like, hey, do you know any coaches out there? And Wade was like, you should go check out this guy in Green Bay.

Just give him an interview. And I don't go check out this guy in Green Bay just give him an interview and uh I don't think Julian knew like Green Bay like you know one league or whatever and like USHL and so he called and I wasn't gonna go I wasn't gonna take it uh the interview because I was happy where I was I'm like I'm not moving but it's all that you know he said you don't go burn a bridge just go hey it's like worst case scenario. You get to meet Steve Eisenman. It's like, you know what? Damn right. I got to go meet Steve Eisenman.

So they fly me down like first class, which I don't think I'd even flown first class before. We go down there, put me up in this like super nice room, like bigger than any apartment I've ever lived in. So go downstairs to meet Steve. And there I'm sitting outside his office, you know, like knees bumping a bit. And I see his, I see his name. Like I'm going to, I'm going to meet Steve Eisenman. You know, I've got his, I got his rookie card at home and I went in there and I was expecting like this, like, Oh, I am Steve Eisenman. And he was like the nicest human being.

It was like my old shit moment. I'm like, holy shit I'm meeting this steve eiserman and he'll kill me for saying this but i was like a little bit taller than him so i felt good about that in height wise but he was like way taller than me and like aura size and the interview was uh it went like three hours and i didn't feel like a minute and it just you know I just kind of had a vibe and then my wife when I flew home after she goes hey how'd that go and I said well I probably won't get the job because I don't know who the hell I am but I know I made it tough on him and uh next day phone rings and they offered me the job in Norfolk it was crazy so that's one of those things where you're

because of you know your lack of professional experience coaching you're thinking no chance but leaving you said to yourself i crushed that yeah in a way in a way like i felt good about it like you know it's a great feeling the national like the natural but they put it this way there's a funny like there's some i've done some funny commercials out promoting and stuff for things and at the end of the interview they played it they said okay the interview is completely done and then they said do you think you're really like the most interesting man in hockey or something i did this i kind of mocked this funny commercial and i like i don't think they would have done that had they not been happy with the interview so uh but I didn't think I was getting it no way

I was like there's just too many good coaches out there and uh no but Julian and Steve took a chance on me and oh man am I grateful they did well then you stepped into Norfolk right away and and there's a couple players that obviously made impact for you in the two Stanley Cups you've won in Tyler Johnson Andre Palat and also colorn was there at the time and i think that you guys ended up setting an ahl record one of the years you were there for most consecutive wins in the in the ahl with like 33 or something yeah uh 28 but who's counting the um i'll put a little salt and pepper on the steak for you for fuck's sakes help me out here no the uh i was so naive about pro hockey like the recipe to success and building teams like it honestly hasn't changed from high

school to the nhl and but it was like i was naive to stuff like i had no idea what per diem was like i was like oh my god you get an envelope we get on the bus like this is like the best and i'm like do i get taxed on this you know like and then uh and then i would have i would like first do the calendar and stuff like that and practices at like 2 30 in the afternoon and the boys come in and like one of the the equipment guys jw's now in vegas he's like hey uh we're pro we we practice at like 10 30 or 11 and i was like oh yeah i guess there's no high school kids you know like i just like oh this is their actual job they don't do other things like just little things like that that go through your head and like oh god this i don't know how this is gonna go but you know like i had the on

ice and everything figured out it was the other other stuff. But our second year, Norfolk was a special team. I always say, like, if that team, you know, if they didn't beat you, they could beat you up. They could beat you any way you wanted. And we went on this magical run. It started Super Bowl Sunday. We lost in Springfield and kind of had a little another coming of age moment with the team.

I wouldn't let them get out of their equipment. We sat and watched the third period in their full equipment on the road. And then we went to a planned Superbowl party we had. And it was, you know, just little things like you push your buttons, these players, Tyler Johnson was a man on a mission. And we told them we played 28 straight games to finish the year and we never lost and we didn't lose our first we didn't go to overtime until like i think we went to overtime in game three and then not again to like game 20 something so there's like a there was a stretch of 20 games

we just wanted regulation and you guys know how hard it is like to win and and you've got guys coming from the east coast league the nhl team's pulling guys up and uh it was that that team was special and then we went to the playoffs and uh we went we had a scary gate colorn came to the team halfway through and that's when i kind of knew he'd be a player because he stepped into an all-world american league team and he was on the top he was a top six after three games but he got the winning goal against Manchester to win that series and then we played Connecticut and won that series and in six and then we went sweep sweep so we won our last 10 playoff games in a row and we won in Toronto and it was uh so it was like 43 of 46 to win so it was a

that that probably launched my NHL career probably put me on a few radars but that was it was like 43 of 46 to win. That probably launched my NHL career. It probably put me on a few radars, but that was all that team. They were just gritty. That was a hell of a team. I'm looking at that team right now, and Corey Conacher leads the team in scoring that year, and you haven't been to the NHL yet, obviously. You must have been like, how is this kid not getting called up?

How do you get called up no like how do you get called up around here is that not weird as an ahl coach when a guy's deserved to get the call but he hasn't had it yet yeah like now that i've been in the nhl i understand why i understand contracts and there's so but that's why you need to have like teams that believe in team first and not me first and so and you know as your coach you know you're trying to just to balance everything that's going on here and you're not as you understand what's going on in the American League but it's kind of the general manager's job to figure out when these guys can come up and you know I heard the line I'm sure you guys you know you've never seen a player be left too long in the American League.

It's like if the guys are getting called up quick. And I think the team in Tampa was probably a little in transition. Plus, at the time in 2011, the year before, they'd gone to the conference final. They lost to Boston 1-0, I think, in the conference finals to get to the Stanley Cup. And so I think they had something going and then it didn't go well the next year. And they're like, well, we're going to bring the young guys up in this situation. Not sure. Let's leave them down there.

They've got a good thing going. And then next year, that's when Conacher came up. And I think he was up for Rookie of the Year for quite a while. He was having such a good year. But I think they saw what was going down in the American League, and they didn't want to pull them out of that. I thank them for that. But it was those guys

really, they didn't get rushed up. I think that's why it's paid dividends today, especially for Johnson, Platt, Klor, and Gutis, that whole crew. Coop, you didn't even have to do an assistant gig before your NHL gig. Most guys have to do that. How did you manage to skip that?

Because I stayed in the same organization. I think that was probably the big thing for me. It was that year. I coached two years. And to be honest, I interviewed for a few teams after that magical year we had in the American League. So I interviewed with a couple couple teams and got deep interviews, like three interviews.

And quick story, I won't tell you the teams, but the draft was in Pittsburgh. And, you know, you stay at the, I think the Fairmont is the hotel in Pittsburgh. And I was in room like 511. And they were like, okay, you know, going for the final interview, we'll send you the hotel and room number when, uh, whatever. And so I get the text and it's, uh, they're in five 12. I walked out of my room and walked right into theirs and did the interview. It was hilarious. The double A, the splitting doors, just open up your splitting door. I'm like, Holy shit. I hope they couldn't

hear me through the walls. I was probably rehearsing stuff. But anyway, the biggest thing for me was I didn't get any of the jobs in the NHL. And it was the best thing for me because I wasn't ready to go. And for somebody that didn't play in the league and, you know, you want to get your crack, you're taking anything that comes because you never know when you're going to get it. I was just extremely fortunate that, you know something it opened up a Tampa it sucks because somebody gets low let's go because of that so it's always tough but I needed that third year the team moved to Syracuse and I coached 68 games I got pulled out up the end because it was the lockout year and so I coached

like the last 14 or 15 games but it was so good me. And I wanted to see through to see if we could win back to back Calder cups. But Steve said, I need you to come up. I want you to get a read of the players. I need, you need to get your feet wet in the NHL. So like, you know, when you get off a bus, you don't, we're not waiting at the back of the line for the players to go. So you know how to get to the locker room. I need you to learn all that stuff. And, and so, I mean, that's what the true story is to do that.

And so then, anyway, so it was a learning experience for me. And when I came in my first year in 2013-14, I was so much more prepared and glad that I was fortunate enough to get the job. With something you look back to your early days that you're like cringe now and you think of like, Oh man, I can't believe I used to do that. There's a long list of celebrate goals in the legal Eagles men's league team. Actually, I'll tell you like you go back and I guess because you get older and a little grayer and stuff like that, but I've, you know,

what recently we've won and we've obviously been in the press and stuff so people like throw old interviews of you hey this was John Cooper in Green Bay this was John Cooper here and I'm like oh my gosh was I wore that and I thought it was cool so you know some funny things like that but I it's been uh I've been blessed it it it's been a phenomenal ride and i hope it's nowhere near done uh but like to just be in the game of hockey like it's the best people in the world you know from the players the coaches the culture um to the code to everything i can't get enough of it like you know spending time with you guys knowing like everybody's got a different path to where we are right now it's uh

it's awesome it's awesome tell the stories and just be a part of it well there's there's always that transition phase and you get your feet wet in the nhl then all of a sudden you guys start acquiring all these amazing pieces right and then yeah you know look looking back to three years ago when you guys had that 62 win season then you guys end up getting swept in the first round. Was that probably the lowest point in your career, at least the way you felt based on expectations? Because you've been winning so much in all the past and all of a sudden that that happens. And really, what was that whole experience like? And then even in the offseason?

Like, it was embarrassing. that's what it was like you you have this team i'm taking a picture with scotty bowman in my locker room because we're the only two coaches to ever ever um win 60 plus games in a season like we're the only two and six days later we're out like six days we couldn't even make it a week and i you talk about getting punched in the face from everybody at the media the and and i was just thankful because you know i talked to some coaches later and and they were like oh man if that happened to me in my market i wouldn't i wouldn't be around anymore and and and i remember pete deborah gave me a i'll never forget this and at the draft and

i didn't want to i didn't go i went to the draft i didn't go on the floor like i normally did i showed up for we were like pick 28 or whatever it was and i showed up like two picks before went up on the stage and then left you know because it was hard it was just hard being around pete deborah was awesome he pulled me aside he said coop don't change anything you know what you had a bad week it doesn't say you had a bad year stick with it and i always that always stuck in my head and so we made only like minor tweaks to how we did things but it was a growing up stage for us like i look at kucherov and you know to me like you throw four players names in a hat for for best players of our generational players his names in that hat like that's how talented he is and but we all had to

grow like i had to grow as a coach i wasn't as good enough coach and you know he had to grow like I had to grow as a coach I wasn't as good enough coach and you know he had to grow like mentally to overcome like some adversity things like we had all the skill and all the talent uh and I like I always say like Cooch is one of the biggest reasons we won because like he got suspended he got kicked out of a game and against Columbus and then we missed a game and I think that hurt him personally like he knew he had to be better. I knew I had to be better. All the guys knew they had to be better. And we took it personally. And then the boys went to Sweden that year in November.

And we were kind of, weren't where we were supposed to be at. And the boys had a really bonding experience there. And we kind of took off. But I thought one of the biggest keys is what Julian did. When we were, you know, like everybody at the trade deadline, what julian did when when we were you know like everybody at the trade deadline what are they looking for oh they're looking for a top 4d top six forward like looking for this we were the opposite we were looking for bottom six forwards character grit we've got we've got all those other pieces we need the guys to push us over

the finish line because we've we showed we couldn't get there we were lacking that and when he went out and got you know goody and and cozy and then you know signed zach bagosian falls into our lap like right at the deadline goes and gets maroon for for you know like sending first round picks that takes of, you know, cojones to do that. And we believed it. We believed this is what we needed. And the guys made, you know, made us look really good. I just want to hop in here quick. You said in other, like coaches said in other markets, if that would have happened to them,

they probably wouldn't have a job. Was there a conversation right away where the team ownership, GM, they said, listen, erase it from your memory. You're still our guy. Or were you in limbo not knowing what was going to happen? So part of it, too, like I was in that 62-win year, I didn't have a contract. And Julian signed me to an extension like at the end of March,

like right before the playoffs. And so they'd made a commitment to me. Yes. But, but, but yeah, I didn't want, I did like, it was like I said,

like going out like that, it was such a humbling, humbling experience. And I know what it's like to be at the like depths of despair. And I know what it's like to be at the top of the mountain, but sometimes you have to go down there to get up there. But the conversation, the owner was awesome the general manager manager was awesome he he said don't worry we got this we will we will you know

what pieces do you need what are you thinking i'll tell you what we're thinking we meshed together and we went with it and i i gave them my plan of what i was going to do and they were on board and i was on board with them and i said we just we will do this together and they owned up to their end of the bargain and I guess we owned up to ours and one guy I got to talk about he he didn't come in you know the year you got it done um with the bubble win but Ryan McDonough comes in halfway through 17-18 season and not at all trying to get you to badmouth the Rangers, but you must have been like, what are they doing trading this guy once you saw how he plays, especially the last two seasons? Yeah, the Rangers, well, that was the running joke, right?

We were the Rangers of the South because we had Miller, Strahlman, Callahan, McDonough. Like, it was crazy. We had everybody, Girardi. But the Ryan McDonough trade, you can't sit here and say that was like the sneaky trade that like we turned the corner, but it was. And even though we lost, well, we had him. He is a stabilizer. And you've got dynamic players surrounded behind him, but he ends games for you.

He is there to do things like he plays the man's game against men and he's a phenomenal human being and to me like this playoffs vassie he deserved the cons might right but if the ward could not go to a goaltender and it was going to go to a position player, you could sit here and say Kucherov for sure could have got it. Braden Point, I mean, nine goals in a row in games, like for sure. But the guy to me that should have garnered like massive votes and maybe finished second to Vassie was McDonough. Like if you think about the plays he made, like the play he made in game one of the playoffs i don't know if you remember what pointer scores the goal like in two minutes left of game one the play mcdonough makes the block the shot have the wherewithal to block it grab it and then send

him on a breakaway the play mcdonough made in game seven uh for the shorthanded goal when he when he read the play down low, stopped. Weighted him out. Yeah, and the board's gone. And then gave it to Sorelli, and like, sick. And like, even the play,

like the play on the winning goal against Montreal. Like the weight, turn your hips, pump fake cell, send it over. And even the one against the island.

The pinch, too. Like, you could think of probably five and then the dish gave how about the one we don't win against the islanders oh that fucking this is all in one playoff here so he he had a big part of our game but it was a passionate guy and and like i said it's we don't win without that guy for sure. I was, I was with Keith Yandel and Kevin Hayes, two former teammates with the Rangers and they like, they were like Mack truck, like best guy, best player.

Like it was one of those things when you're talking to guys who've played with him and you can tell right away, he's beloved by the guys who do it with him. So I'm surprised there. Yeah. And he played like, I i mean i think he had a broken hand in the last like two rounds like he's just he's i i said to him it's like do you break your hand are you gonna be okay or something because i'm not sure if it's quite broken but i've broken it three times already so i should be okay i know what it feels like you know it's just like some warriors yeah cool how happy were you for Stamkos this year?

I know he scored the big goal last year, but he didn't get to play as much. This year he had a much bigger goal. So Stammer and I have grown kind of up together in the NHL. And I remember that first moment in Boston. It was a game 17 or whatever it was when he went hard to the net, slid in and shattered his leg. I remember thinking as a coach, I'm like, oh my God, our best player just went down.

I'm a rookie coach. It was awful. He had Olympics too for him personally. Yeah, it was just tough. And then he's had some bizarre ones. I might screw the years up. He was great for us in 2015. And then 2016, he had the clot or whatever he had.

Like, he missed the whole playoffs until game seven against Pitt. And so he's just had it. And then the next year, we missed the playoffs because, you know, he had a knee injury. Like, the poor guy's just gone through it all. And then I think the tipper was um because he was fully intending to play last year in the bubble and and there was just major setback after setback and it's just weird how things work out that he got to spend that two and a half minutes in that moment he was

like hey what line you put me on like I'm putting you with the big rig like that's and he goes perfect just let me get out there like he didn't care don't put me on the power play i just want to be a part of it and then he goes on and scores that goal like that was uh it's crazy you know it's like storybook stuff but you get to this year and now you get to have a role in it like there would have been an empty space like his name would have been on the cup last year but he would have known like i really didn't get to play the games but now it's he was a big part of this one and you can't you got to be happy for guys that grind it out man like because being injured is uh it's grueling for these players and so uh i was really happy for him and going back to kooch uh for a second people it seems like i find that out

about his personality quite a bit over these last few days, even if he doesn't know who biz is. You know, the thing with cooch, like cooch doesn't really speak to the media. He's quiet. He is respectful, but he just doesn't, you don't hear him too often. And I don't know. I think when he speaks, they cherish those moments because you don't get them very often. He's a hell of a guy and he's a hell of a player and and um he's got passion and you're gonna love that in a kid another play it's why i want to bring up is andre vasilevsky i mean this guy's the best goalie in the planet now how

when did you know this guy was golden for you early on yeah like the one thing for me for goalies it's it's your mental makeup and uh first of all, Sidebar, one of the funniest human beings I've ever met in my life. Like one liner after one liner. Like really good. Quiet, subtle, but he can get anybody. He's so funny. But anyway, he gets thrown into the fire in 2015 when Bish gets hurt. And now he's like starting in a game four, I think now he's like starting in it's it was like game four i think

he's like starting in the finals probably too young to come to the league but you can see on pure athleticism like this guy has it but it's like all right the mental makeup can he turn the page on a goal like how stressy and the one thing if you get a fault and i can't believe i'm going to say this out loud like there's the cliche oh he's first on the ice first on last off well that gets thrown around too much because like not all the guys can be that only one guy can be that well that was vasilevsky and over the years like bronisar goalie coach like we've had to you had to pull him back like never wanted to miss a pre-game skate we had to say no you can't go on the ice like he worked so hard and when he figured out the mental side of his game of like you know what i i let's channel

my energy like he he had some tough games like he'd face 45 shots and then a goalie the next night he might face 15 and and vastly learned how to stay in the game the whole time like it's been crazy to watch and because he had the talent when he oh my god he's he's as good as I think might we might ever say I in this playoffs here I thought the torch was passed the best goalie for the last 10-15 years and Vassie you know it's probably going to take over that that was it somebody we interviewed or an analyst who said he's just he's as good as anyone he's ever seen do you remember us having that discussion I think it was I think it was Kevin Weeks he was talking about or maybe McKenna and just talked about even just the skating and the fact that he's so big people have been joking

around that uh about the size difference in equipment between him and Carey Price have you seen that floating around Coop yeah he kind of looks like the guy in the kanye west video that was a photoshop on reddit oh yeah i'm the rumor guy by the way on the podcast i see that yeah but bass he's a he's a big man like he's he's got size and but his his preparation is on is unmatched like he's uh and he's just well I can't say enough about him um considering you'd spent time on Long Island when you went to college going back there and I'm sure you went to plenty games at the Coliseum was uh was game seven against the Islanders probably the most nervous you were out through all of the playoffs? Games in Tampa? Yeah, in Tampa, but just playing them and the whole experience.

There's no question. Because game six, I thought we had a chance to win it, and it just kind of like, whatever, it got away from us. But then you're getting, like, first of all, I saw Frank Sinatra in the Nassau Coliseum. So that always has like, oh, wow. It's like one of my greatest memories. I went to a ton of games there.

And I get to give those Islander fans credit. It was an amazing atmosphere. Like the songs, the chants, like going to a soccer game, I guess. Like they're going nuts. And so when we come back for game seven, like, I know how good the Islanders are. They know how good we are. I've coached against Trotsky. I know how good a coach he is.

Like, I know his guys are going to be ready. And it was just going to be which team was going to outlast each other. Those were two evenly matched, exceptional hockey teams. each other those were two evenly matched exceptional hockey teams and it took a phenomenal play by Max Sorelli Gord in a shorthanded goal that I don't think the Islanders have given up a shorthanded goal in the whole regular season to win the game and you know that's I think in the end you people say this whole mice really matter I think it's sometimes those games those big game sevens they do and it helped us um i was going to just quickly go back to stevie why obviously it was probably hard to see him go and just talk about maybe the impact he had on the team that ended up winning the two

stanley cups and you know what what he meant to you well i think the biggest thing for me is was he didn't get to get his name on the stanley cup when we won and the biggest the hardest thing for me was after uh after we lost to columbus to talk to him and i thanked him because we knew he was um he was leaving and and it was that was crushing for me because he is a major architect of you go through the line like he's the one who got mac he's the one who got chernak he's the one that got sergachev uh so he got Chernak. He's the one that got Sergeyev. So he built the base. Julian just topped it off.

And so I owe a ton to Steve. I learned so much from him. I learned how to listen. I learned how not to react right away and take all the information in. I learned how to be a pro. He was a legend for a reason. He's the man. Cool.

I got one more for you. Don't mind the ambient noise. It might be a little kind of all in the background. That's his servants in Columbia bringing him his next plate. My earbuds might go soon, so I'm going to have to plug this back up. He's actually got to get Kooch's next shipment up for the parade. Russian gas shirt. I got my Russian gas shirt on. The D word.

I think we're going to probably start here in that. Now you win two in a row. You guys got a great team still in place for the foreseeable future dynasty. I'm talking about, is that a word you embrace? You pay no mind to what your thoughts when, when people start talking about that? Well, we might, I think it's, I mean, the team's gone to five conference finals in the last seven years. Two of them, we went to game sevens, three cups, two, they won.

But to be able to get that moniker, you have to win. And now that we've gone back to back, if you look at the teams of our, like this little stretch of 10 to 15 years, I mean, Pittsburgh's won back to back. They've knocked at the door. I think what Chicago did was phenomenal. Three and six, the Kings. And then you're looking at us. And I, you know, I can't see what's going on in the future here.

But if you look back here and say, okay, well, let's go to the top five or top three teams in the league. This team has done it for a long stretch. And that's a big word to throw around. But I'd like to say that the boys are, they've put them at the kind of the top of the mountain here for, I don't know, the last seven years or so. Well, you guys haven't lost a series.

I got one last thing before we let you go. Stammer mentioned post, you know, in celebration that there was two different times the team spoke about, you know, the likelihood of this team breaking up a little bit in terms of cap. And there was twice during the run. And were you a part of that? Was that players only? I just had to ask you about that. So a lot kind of got into, you know, as a coach, you talk to guys, you get information.

But one of the guys I spoke with was Ryan McDonough, and he passionately talked about that, how we lost a game in the island, and he goes, this team's too good. We can't let this go. And it was like, well, you should talk about that. And you should talk to Stammer about that. And I don't know if it was Stammer or Mack went to Stammer. And then they kind of got together.

And I remember on the plane, I talked to Stammer afterwards. And he's like, we're going to get together as a group. And Mack's going to speak. I'm going to speak. I think Hedy was going to speak. Maroon was going to speak. I don't know exactly who did. But they knew. There was no guarantees what was going to be with this team

and i think you know as a coach you know i say this like bad you know bad teams no one leads good teams coaches lead great teams players lead and that's what you need and when the players take over like that for me it's gravy because I know that they're going to lock it in and they found the motivation to do it because they didn't want the season to end with this group knowing with expansion, cap, and everything, they probably weren't going to be together as this group again. Hey, we can't thank you enough.

You gave us a lot of time. The parade's coming up tomorrow. Congratulations once again. Personally, I think you should probably give the ring back when you get it because you guys were over the cap and i no i'm fucking around um i appreciate i appreciate it congrats no and and like i said i i never really knew what a podcast was until the pandemic and started listening and then i got into i never understood like what people record something and then play it like four days later like this works and now i'm a podcast addict i like listen to different things and um big fan of you guys you guys do an awesome job one day i'm gonna have to send you

the picture of a golf tournament that i played in with uh jeff laschle and we wore a gauzer he was wore spit and chiclet t-shirts a sick pick but i haven't But I haven't sent it. I'll have to send it to you guys. Hey, here's the good news. We got golf merchandise now. And maybe we'll get you for a sandbagger down the road. And then we'll show you who the real champions are, buddy. You got to get some of the boys. Some of the boys down here would love to go in the sandbagger.

I think we're going to get Maroon and Kalorn together. But one last thing I want to say. I was really happy that the fact last year you guys won at the bubble bubble this year you finally got to share it at home with the fans and when you i saw when you got handed the cup you know you you kind of gave it the i love you guys to the whole crowd that must have been a a pretty special moment for you to finally be able to deliver it to them in person yeah you know having the last name cooper when uh if by chance they're booing you i always say well they're just saying but uh i that will be one if i can have one memory looking back it was when i when the cup was handed to me and i raised it and the appreciation the fans gave me and and it was

right back at them that's why i was saying thank you uh we were robbed of that last year not having fans being a part of it and maybe it was meant to be this way that our guys got to to experience in front of the fans that deserved it and um it gives me chills actually just thinking about it it was uh phenomenal well you go from that gut punch against columbus to the fact you guys haven't lost a series since so i'd say say a dynasty is a, is a fair word to use. Good luck. Moving forward. We're only 11 series behind the Islanders. That's true. That's true.

Well, breaking distance. All right. Have a great time in the rest of the week. The celebration here. My pleasure guys. And thanks again for having me. Save me a seat in the boat. I'll be there in two hours. He's going to bring his own back over. Well, huge thanks to John Cooper for joining us for a nice long interview.

He was very generous with him to give us so much time with all the media appearances he's got lined up. So huge thanks to him. And then thanks again, Cooper, for trying to call me from the locker room. I still can't get over that. That's too funny. But I've got a word for you from our friends at OCB Rolling Papers. OCB is the largest rolling paper brand in the world

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at noon for that night they're're understaffed. Sorry. This is real. Maybe that's Fudge Kid fucking with you. I walked by Fudge Place today. I actually want to rent a kid. I want to rent a 10-year-old, and I want to recreate it and film it. I was going to say I'm going to roll up a big fatty and start on the script because I think that if Kurt Warner's getting a movie,

a whole lifetime line movie made about him, I think that John Cooper deserves his own Disney movie about his come up and how he became a head coach. Is it not one of the craziest head coaching stories ever? It's Gordon Bombay without the DUI. It's crazy. It's like, you know, I had read the story. And when he was, so what did he say?

They have five conference finals, three Stanley Cup trips, two Cups in what, the last seven years? Last six years? His eight full seasons as a coach. He's been at the Cup three times. And just to like know that he, it was that at 24 years old, 25 years old, there was never even a thought in his mind. I mean, all these coaches, if they're not playing at 24,

they're already into the game. They're already into the coaching and different levels. So it really is a cool story, and it shows that I don't think you necessarily need to be the most amazing X and O type guy when it comes to just like getting your message across, getting guys to believe in you and really believing in yourself. Because I think one of the things he mentioned in that interview was just like sticking to your guns and sticking to what you think's right.

Because once you start listening to other voices and what is the saying, R.A., when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one? Is that it? Did I butcher that? Yeah, you can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool other people all the time. Oh, no, that's a Bob Marley lyric.

I was thinking of a different one. When you assume you make an ass out of you and me, I've always liked that one. Loose lips sink ships. Loose lips sink ships is a great one. What's another great saying oh um uh what is the saying come on wit fuck pink sky and morning that's one no that's pink sky at night sailors delight pink sky and morning sailors delight pink sky and morning sailors take warning so for anyone who

wants to know what i mean if the sky's beautiful and pink at sunset you're gonna have a great day the next day but if the sky's pink in the morning when you're up smoking a jay with biz you're fucked oh right in the script now uh have you seen that kurt warner trailer wit have you seen have you no no rau looks bad um yeah it's i don't it looks that bad from a trailer i'll send it to you when it's bad who did it is it a known actor um what's it zach levi i don't he was on some show on nbc years ago i don't remember what show it was but yeah so this is direct to DVD. Oh, I mean,

I think it's, it's produced by Kurt Warner and his wife. They're producing. So, you know, you know, it's just, it just looks wicked cheesy. Like it's the,

they must've got the rights to the Rams uniforms, but like the numbers look small. It just, it looks like something off brand basically. Well, I think they're like Bible thumpers too. So I'm imagining it is a little cheesy, right?

Yeah. I think, I think, I don't know if it's on what channel air in it, but yeah, I think there's, Bible thumpers, too. So I'm imagining it is a little cheesy, right? Yeah, I think. I don't know if it's on what channel airing it. But yeah, I think there's probably a little religious aspect to it. Mikey sent it over to me. Looks like I had the same budget as Biz. Can I watch it and give you my natural reaction? Yeah. Oh, it's two minutes long.

I'll watch. But going back to Coop real quick, Biz. He's the longest tenured coach in the league right now. You can't see him going anywhere anytime soon, and he's building what I guess you would call a Hall of Fame resume right now. I mean, been to three Cups, won two of them. He's still young, and like I said,

he could be there for as long as he wants, I would imagine. Maybe the Coyotes try to get him when he becomes a free agent, just like when they're going to snag Tara Sanko. I'm sending over a case of Pink Whitney to Cam Jansen and Doug Armstrong, and they're going to send him over. We could use a fucking 40-goal guy for crying out loud. Well, we got a big trade. It just was made official in the last 10 minutes.

It was reported a bunch of different outlets, but Chicago has traded defenseman Duncan Keith and forward Tim Soderlund to Edmonton for defenseman Caleb Jones in the conditional pick in 22. Duncan Keith got two years left at $5.5 million. Absolute legend in Blackhawks history. Second most games played in team history. Second most points by a defenseman. Three-time cup winner.

Two-time Norris Trophy winner. Two-time Olympic gold. This is a huge player to get traded with to another team. I know he was looking for a change of scenery, but are you shocked he ended up in Edmonton? I'm not. I'm not because he made it pretty clear he wanted to be closer to his son. We talked about that last episode.

I believe it was last episode. And it's really funny how I've read this trade go down, whereas it seems to me the whole Twitter crowd like hates the deal by Edmonton. And I'm not, I don't, I don't discount or discredit advanced stats.

I think it's nuts. If you make the decision based solely on advanced stats. And I think it's nuts. If you don't, if you make decisions without looking at them at all, I think it makes sense to, to look a little bit and see the deal. Now people say he's not the same player anymore.

And I, I don't think the Oilers expect the same player, the 2015 Conn Smythe winner, the Norris Trophy winner, the 25, 26-minute-a-game guy. But I think Edmonton sees a stable, reliable, future Hall of Famer who's won, who's been there before, things they do not have. He's not even the best left defender on the team. I think Darnell Nurse has proven he's really at a high level in terms of how he can play.

But if you put Duncan Keith in your top four, it's an immediate step up from what you had last year. Now, yeah, they didn't, Chicago didn't have to retain any salary. So if you look at what went back, I think even Chiefs blog mentioned it was a really good deal by Bowman because as Keith gets older and you know, and he made it clear that he wants to be in Edmonton. So you're basically screwed. Once he said he wanted to be traded, he tells you, I can decide which team. Here's three teams I want to go to Vancouver, Calgary or Edmonton. And I want Edmonton to be the number one team. Well, all of a sudden it's like Edmonton has, they have us by the balls.

So for them to get the return they did, I think it is good work by Bowman. But for people to be all over this deal is shocking. I mean, you don't think Connor McDavid's happy about this trade. I think you're fucking crazy if you don't think that, because just getting a guy with his presence in the room can change everything completely. So I look at a guy like Duncan Keith, who has forever been not only one of the top defensemen in the league, but a gamer and somebody who shows up every night and has played through a million different injuries. You've seen the clip of the cup when he got all his teeth knocked out and barely missed any time.

So I think actually, and not often do I think this, but it was a fair trade. I think both sides are probably happy with how it ended up and what ended up going back. But it seems the public perception is that Chicago robbed Edmonton. I don't know what you think, Biz. Well, I just think from a leverage standpoint, and I guess you can offset it with the fact that we talked about how hard it is for them to get free agents to come there.

So there aren't many guys who could potentially give you the level of play that Duncan Keith could get to. Cause he's, if he's able to get to basically half of what he was, I think that they're going to be happy and solidifying their top four. And that's one area that they had to address. It's just the fact that they didn't, they weren't able to shed Kyle Taurus.

I forget the goalies. I always draw a blank on the goalie's name. Who, I don't know if, you know, that's a big salary where it seems as if, though, he might even end up getting buried in the minors. Where just to get them to retain any type of salary, and even in the fact that Edmonton sends over a third rounder, and then now that's conditional and could potentially, if they do have success, turns into a third rounder and then now that's conditional and could potentially if they do have

success turns into a second rounder that was the cup final and he's gonna play the entire playoff yeah but i just oh to not get any salary retained i think that's going to be maybe one of the things where it's going to hold them back eventually to to try to achieve the ultimate success it's like your goal isn't to get to the finals your goal is to eventually win it so it's like oh if you get there it's like okay well now you're giving up more an even better asset and you're not retaining anything so hey i don't know man well first off the goal it was it's miko koskinen you're talking about or is it kostanen one of the two yeah and and i don't know man because if it's a third rounder right

now and you get to the cup final and it turns into a second fuck man it's for edmund to get to the cup final they'd be pretty happy they need to get out of the first fucking round dude so thinking about getting to the cup final all of a sudden they lose a second rounder opposed to a third i just think it's stability and they don't have it on d and like i mentioned nurse but all of a sudden if keith's playing with larson it's a different second unit and it's well they well they also have to sign Larson so that's another problem too right so they got to they got to have that available cap cap space in order to make those moves and it's like okay well let's say you do use that cap space in order to give Larson what he wants in order to stay there so another guy you

need in order in order to solidify your top four how much money do you have to go out there and address these other issues that you clearly have as well like they don't they're essentially going to have to continue to rely on those those top end guys in order to produce because they just don't have the guys who can slide into those bottom six that are going to get them over the hump especially million cap space is what they have yeah especially in a conference where you're now going to have to compete against colorado i mean vegas ain't going anywhere i still see them as a more superior team and i don't know where you you put edmonton in the mix but the whole not retaining salary was a big head scratcher given that i thought that edmonton had all the leverage um they didn't have to make that trade

they didn't have to and i still think that duncan keith has game left this is not this is not anything against duncan keith this is more of a ken holland uh you had the leverage they wanted to get rid of Keith because they needed to free up cap space in order to potentially go sign Seth Jones, which seems to be the obvious move right now for Chicago. That seems to be the name that keeps popping up. Yeah, they want to try to trade for him,

and now that the brother's there, it becomes a little easier with his brother there. I don't know. I just think Edmonton needed... They had to do something, and they got rid of a know. I just, I just think Edmonton needed, they had to do something and they got rid of a guy, Caleb Jones. He skates well. I think there's a future there. He's an NHL player. I think he should make Chicago's opening night roster, no doubt, but I don't know. You, you add a guy. Yes. He's on the back nine. Yes. He's not the same player,

but he's not going to be asked to do the same things he was in Chicago. So him playing 23 minutes a game there. Yeah. He's not that player anymore, but if the same things he was in Chicago. So him playing 23 minutes a game there. Yeah. He's not that player anymore, but if he's playing 19 in Edmonton, I think he could be, I think he could be really good. So if he ends up struggling, you know,

I was wrong again, but in the end, if you're the Oilers and you need to make this next step, you got to add people who've won and been there and they did it. I'll say the pressure and the fact that they couldn't get out of, they couldn't get out of the second round. They couldn't't win a game they couldn't win a game in the second round and one of the things ken holland's saying coming in was they got a bill from within because that's really the only way you're going to have any type of success now in the nhl especially not to keep

reiterating the fact that it's impossible for oilers to get good free agents they've traded two second rounders two two third rounders, a fourth rounder and a fifth rounder in deals to acquire Andreas, Anthony CEO, James Neal, Tyler Ennis, now Duncan Keith, Dimitri Kulikov, and they recouped one of the sixth rounder by trading John Marino to Pittsburgh. So I'm not going to, I'm just, I'm just telling you what, what type of deals they've made since Ken Hollins came on board.

It doesn't align with his comments when he came in about building from within. I think he's quickly realized that it's not as easy as you think it is and also amplify the pressure from the fact that you have these two major pieces and there's pressure to put guys around him in order to get them to where they want to get to so i'll leave it at that um i'm really interested to see how this plays out and and i know i hope that they fucking go on a run because i'd love to see mcdusty late in playoffs 100 i'm full blown on the edmonton bandwagon i want the others to do good i've said it all all

along it's just it's just hard to picture you're right yeah fucking best player in the world man you want to see him get get a cup running at some fucking point uh another name biz we could see on the trade wire soon vladimir tarasenko wants out of saint louis uh he submitted a list of teams he's willing to get traded to he does have a no trade clause so he doesn't have to go anywhere he doesn't want to uh the saint louis saint louis post dispatch reported uh that he's not happy with the team, the way they've handled his shoulder issues over the last few years. He hasn't looked like the same player.

He is entering the seventh year of his eight-year $60 million deal that comes with a $7.5 million cap hit. Where do you think he ends up, Biz? Don't say Phoenix. No, I was just fucking around earlier. I'll still send a case of Pink Whitney to Cam Jansen and Doug Armstrong. I have no fucking clue. I think that this probably stemmed from when he was really upset that he didn't get the captaincy.

That was the first time he was ever vocally, I guess, a little bit discouraged with the organization. I was surprised that he came out and said that publicly, because I don't think anybody labeled him as maybe the captain type. I think he's, I think he's maybe a leader in that locker room, but given that the guys they have in that organization, I mean, Ryan O'Reilly with, I think that was the obvious choice. I think if you, you asked, if you pulled the whole league, they probably would have picked Ryan O'Reilly and not one guy would have said

Vladimir Tarasenko as the captain. And ever since there, it seems like it's been a trickle effect, the injuries and not him, not maybe getting to a place where his game once was. So maybe he thinks that a change of scenery is going to help him out. But I think that I could see a team like maybe LA. I think that they kind of view, and I think that that's always like, I mean, we talked about Jack Eichel. We mentioned LA as well.

I think that their core group, they see themselves as having one more kick at the can. Do any other teams come to mind? Long Island. I think he goes to Long Island. Yeah, there's a chance there. Even flop him for Jordan Eberle. I mean, who knows?

Can the Bruins resign Hall? How much would the Bruins like to have him? I don't know. I'm not exactly sure where, but I also think you mentioned the injuries quick. I think a lot of distrust with the team over the injuries. And what happened was the guy had two shoulder surgeries, right, throughout the team, and it didn't work. He to get a third one that's why he missed the start of this past season and i think that's where a lot of the the emotion comes for like what the

fuck he doesn't trust the team he doesn't seem to trust their doctor and and in the end now his shoulder i mean you're looking at if he gets injured again dude he's probably done you know three shoulder surgeries in that amount of time and what he's been through. I think it really frustrated him. Now, nobody saw this coming, but I guess that that coupled with the captaincy debacle that you brought up, you know, he's had enough there. Team wise, Grinelli had mentioned me before the Islanders. Great possibility. That guy's called a couple of trades this past season um would the bruins love a guy like that i don't know if they can resign hall i don't know what's going on there uh but he makes seven and a half i think he's got one more year after this one do you know ra that's

a heavy fucking cap for a guy who's been on the ir so if if he does get moved for anything significant you gotta think salary retention for sure. And was he vocal about his frustration with the team doctors? He has become pretty vocal now. And he's mentioned, you know, that when I first heard about this, that was what was originally kind of brought up was the issues in terms of his injuries and how upset he was with the staff in St. Louis, because he thinks, you know, I don't know if he wanted somebody else to do the surgery. He ended up having somebody do the third one that wasn't involved with the team.

So it's I mean, I'm reading here the Rangers, Islanders, Golden Knights, Bruins and Flyers, what they could offer the Blues. That's on the athletic with Rutherford and Corey Prawnman. It's just let's see here blues winger tarasenko requests a trade he wants out possible oh yeah so rutherford wrote an amazing article kind of detailing this entire situation and what's going on um so why does he want out according to sources familiar with the situation he is upset with the team's handling of his shoulder surgeries in 2018 and 2019. His first two of three such surgeries,

which were both performed by blues physicians. So then what happens is it fucks, it gets fucked up again. And then he's like, I'm done. He goes outside the organization to get the third one. And he's basically done with the entire team and their staff and thinking they fucked up my shoulder to the point where now I'm pretty much done. If I need it done again, you know, when you lose trust with the team and how you're handled,

I've never had issues with that. I've had a lot of injuries, but I never blamed the team for any of them and had any sort of surgical issues with team employees. But I don't want to say I can't understand where he's coming from, right? It's his health. It's his career. And he thinks that twice, not just once, but twice the team doctors fucked him up. I don't know if it's true. I don't know exactly the whole story, but that is coming from Rutherford who's really dialed in with that team.

Yeah. He's a four time 30 goal scorer. He scored 40 once. He's going to be 30 in December. Now, gee, did you have something you want to chime in for another trade possibility? Well, there was another one that, that people are talking about and that's him going to Calgarygary and Matthew Kachuk coming back to St. Louis. Paul, he'd have to agree to that. He'd have to agree to that. Would that be the dumbest trade for the Calgary Flames?

Well, you'd have to add more. Calgary would have to add more. I know, but I feel like Matthew Kachuk's the heartbeat of that fucking team. I don't think that that's the issue there. Wait, you think Calgary would have to add more? No, right when I said that, I'm like, I said that issue there wait you think calgary would have to add more right when i said that i'm like i said that wrong i meant st louis would have to add more okay louis yeah st louis would have to throw in uh ryan o'reilly uh bennington um explain to me why the fuck the calgary flames would ever want to trade matthew his name has been coming up but that's saying he wants out oh maybe, maybe he wants to. I'm coming home, coming home.

Love the way I'm coming. I've also heard rumblings of Taylor Hall potentially going back to Edmonton. I texted him. I saw a tweet, too. That's not true. Rumor mill? Well, I'm the rumor guy, so there you have it. Yeah, I saw that tweet.

I didn't know who it was, so I didn't really write it down. It just looked like a random tweet. It wasn't a reporter. It was my burner. Yeah, I saw that tweet. I didn't know who it was, so I didn't really write it down. It just looked like a random tweet. It wasn't a reporter. It was my burner. Yeah, shocker. Pierre Maguire, going to be back on the NHL team. He's joining Ottawa's front office. He was named the Senior Vice President of Player Development.

He's going to work with General Manager Pierre Dorian and owner Eugene Melnick. He was an assistant there way back in 95, 96. I mean, basically, it looks like he's been clamoring for a job in the NHL at some capacity. Didn't look like he was going to get hired for ESPN, so he ended up working with Ottawa. He said

a team did offer him a GM deal but it was only for two years, so he turned it down. He didn't say which team it was. But either way, Pierre Maguire, no longer between the benches, going to be on an NHL squad once again. Biz, what's your reaction to this news? Biggest signing of the offseason right there out of the way.

I'm actually happy for him, man. I mean, perfect time to get in too. I mean, they got a lot of young prospects, and I mean, it can only go one way for that team. So, I mean, so he's not going to be doing any type of media now. He's just strictly with the organization. Yeah, he's working for Ottawa. I also read that, and I think that it was his quotes,

that he was potentially willing to leave doing media because he was interviewing with a bunch of teams throughout the courses of the off-seasons, but no one was willing to give him longer than two years. What he wanted at the time was four years. So he couldn't get that long commitment, was willing to give him longer than two years what he wanted at the time was four years so he couldn't get that long commitment but finally he uh with the nbc crew uh being dismantled because they don't have the nhl rights anymore he's able to get back in uh in a situation of being with uh

what's what do you call that with um not management player development hockey ops yeah so steven wino who's a ap hockey writer says pierre mcguire says he turned down a number of nhl management and coaching offers during his time at nbc to honor his commitment there but in but in the same but in the same breath he was still come on biz right hey listen i'm not a this isn't what i'm saying this is what he's saying but then people would argue well then why were you going for the interviews and then his rebuttal or what somebody said was is he could never get the long-term commitment that he wanted in order to not honor his nbc contract so yeah does it sound a little bit like uh that kind of

sounds a bit hypocritical. Sure. But I'm just going off what was said on, on the internet. And I think that some of which were his quotes. So I'll leave it at that. Yeah. I mean, most guys have an out clause usually if you work in media. So in case you do get a job, you, you know what I mean? Like, in other words, it's not like you're not honoring your contract. If you have an out clause, it's like they give you that opportunity in case something pops up. So I don't know. R.A. is an out clause from Chickaleth to work for the cartel.

I am a cart the hangar right now. I haven't even been outside yet. Why were you saying come on biz like it was my words? I'm saying come on biz. Not at all like it was your words. Like I was just emphatically mentioning like I don't believe that. I was more saying biz, biz,

you, but can you believe he's saying this? I wasn't saying like, I could see why you thought I was kind of coming at you. I was more like using your name to like, get my emotions out there. Like you don't believe that Tampa Bay lightning through game four in order to win a home game five. No,

not until we interviewed Kucherov and he says, I have no clue who any of you guys are and hangs up uh one last uh nhl note we'll play a note here uh philip grubaugh will be an unrestricted free agent on july 28th but he made it adamant that he wants to stay in denver he had a monster season last year 39 and one with the 195 goals against 922 say percentage seven shutouts. Was a Vezina finalist. He obviously likes what they're doing there.

Grubauer's only 29 years old. Let's see. He made, what was his contract last year? He was on a three-year, $10 million deal. So 3.3 mil last year. I assume he's going to get a significant raise based on his play last season. So it wouldn't be a shock. I don't think he's going to go anywhere.

Do you, Whit? No. No, I think that one of to go anywhere. Do you, Whit? No. No, I think that one of their biggest things is getting him locked up. And luckily, that's a team where you have some money because you've seen guys take less. You talk about McKinnon doing it. And they have an opportunity to re-sign their number one goalie because they're not locked into these enormous $11 million a year deals.

Okay, so they do have a shit ton of cap space, but keep in mind, I think they have to re-up Landeskog, and Kael McCarr has one more year on his entry level. So next year is going to be a very big year on whether they can get over the hump because all of a sudden those cap issues will start popping up in two years. Do you think opening night Grubauer is the starting goalie and Landis Skog still the captain of the Avalanche? I think 100%.

You're both back? But I would agree that adding those two big salaries and including Kael McCarr moving forward when he moves off his entry level, I mean, how much cap space do they have going into this offseason right now before they sign anyone? I would imagine probably 25.5 million. So, okay, boom, boom, boom. That's a lot right there, and they probably have some work to do

probably as far as some other guys are concerned. So next year is going to be a big year, but, yes, I have no qualms that they are going to lock in Lannis, Scog and Grubauer. Yeah, boys, I agree with you. I think both of those players will be back in Denver next season. So, all right, moving right along. When I packed for Columbia, I made sure to put these at the top of my list.

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Use the code CHICKLETS. Get yourself some fresh shades. All right, Biz, we got a couple big dates coming up. Not me and you out to dinner or anything. Just dates on a calendar. Well, we do have a fucking date with the ball hockey tournament August 6th and 7th in Detroitroit i want to remind everyone about that i will be playing we got roller hockey and ball hockey we cannot wait to see all you guys if you aren't um if you don't

get accepted into the tournament because we only have 52 teams that are available to play you can still come out and join us it's going to be at the greek town casino and then we also that night which bar is it grinelli we're gonna have chileles old chileles meet us there we're gonna have an absolute time we're gonna get our racing and karaoke all night long let's go oh i got the play i got the wedding rock in the other night it was mostly like columbia music which is good man i'll tell you get your ass your ass shaking. Everybody down here can dance. Oh yeah, what ass? Not me. I mean people down here. I got no ass. I left my ass in the woods. Pizza box ass. Pizza box ass.

But I went over. Back of his calves go right to his shoulder blades. Piz, I went over. I had him play Shout from the Animal House because it was legit all Columbia music all night and it was kind of getting, well, not that late. The wedding went till fucking five in the morning, over i had him play uh shout from the animal house because it was legit all columbia music all night and it was kind of getting well not that late that the wedding went till fucking five in the morning but i had him play shout uh from the animal house and the place fucking went nuts but then he played it twice in a row i was dead after i needed the defibrillator two rounds of shout were you getting down low on the whisper oh yeah a little bit soft

now a little bit soft and i'm writing 90 degree knee bend uh i don't know about that i kind of i kind of let let people get lower than me man i can't get as low as i used to back in the day but it's fun man that that fucking tune always gets people rocking and you got to go with the animal house version to otis day on the night yes so you got you know all the animal house sounds and shit so yeah it was fun man we got the then they started it was funny someone said like the colombians oh they dance their footwork is unreal their hips are swiveling and then when they started playing american music like they're like well they started to dance like americans when they started playing american music just like they weren't they weren't as nice dances as they were when they were dancing like guns and

roses at like four in the morning but they got the ladder out doing the quick feet uh what about uh what's the what's the one where you got to go underneath the thing um the limbo limbo limbo my brain is fried today I didn't even smoke yeah maybe I should have yeah that's that's probably the problem uh all right as I did mention a few dates upcoming just if you want to jot them down uh teams have to submit their protected lists for the Seattle expansion draft they need to get those lists in by July 17th. Seattle's picks will be revealed on July 21st. The draft, July 23rd and 24th. And, of course, free agency opens July 28th instead of July 1st,

like we're typically used to. So should be some exciting times. I would imagine a shitload of trades will be happening, but bouncing right along. The UFC stuff, I know right along to the UFC stuff. I know we mentioned at the beginning, I didn't see that fight live, but McGregor snapped his, his foot,

huh? Another one of those gruesome things. Did he, did it get broken? Didn't land on it. I didn't see the fight. Okay. So a couple of things about that.

So people are saying that, I guess they use the term check in, in UFC. So poor, I even said it in his post game. It's a Grabner, a guy who used to play for the the Coyotes he said that as soon as he kicked them one of the time Poirier pointed down basically saying like uh-oh and he gave it the point now if there was any correlation to the fact that that

was was when he thought that he broke his his ankle oribia, whatever it's called. I don't know. But in his postgame, he seemed to think so. And then when Joe Rogan sat down, he said, no fucking chance. It was just the way he stepped on it going back. But who the hell knows? I don't know enough about UFC. The other thing was in the postgame and how crazy that the postgame comments got.

And he even said it in the pre-fight about how Poirier's wife slid into his DMs well I texted Robbie who works for Barstool Sports who covers all the UFC I said is that a fact like that his wife actually reached out to Conor McGregor in the DMs and Robbie said yeah she did but it was about a charity situation and and donating and then i guess that they even talked about it and and mcgregor did end up donating after the last fight or something like that and the comments were she said that uh the money was going to help a lot of people so for the fact that mcgregor pre-fight used that as arsenal i think he's an absolute fucking slime ball i think when you bring bring family into it you're a slime ball to begin with to bring the

guy's wife into it so i ended up tweeting out after the fight it couldn't happen to a better guy i think mcgregor's turned into the biggest fucking clown regardless of how much he's uh he's gained the sport notoriety what about you wit yeah i agree i kind of agree with you i mean maybe one of the most embarrassing like post, post-fight couple minutes or hours for him. He just looked like such a loser. Like, he didn't ever show the picture of the actual message Poirier's wife DM'd him. Because it wasn't a message saying, I want to fucking bang you or anything. It was probably, like, chirping him, like, for about the charity thing or whatever.

Or calling out, you know, his family saying he was going to leave in the stretcher when ironically mcgregor ends up leaving in the stretcher so i think the way that he went about it and then he's yelling like he's gonna murder him and his wife in his sleep he just looked like such a fucking loser and i think that in the end he's not what he once was now i don't know if that's because he's older i don't know if it's because he has so much money. He doesn't have that same drive. But I was watching the fight, and I quickly saw, I thought he rolled his ankle.

Little did I know, his bone just snapped, and his ankle was facing south, and his body was facing north. So I think in the end, it looked quickly like a rolled ankle, and it was actually one of those gruesome injuries. But he was getting the shit kicked out of him. Poirier was on him the whole time. I think he hit him with a couple elbows and a kick but no doubt Poirier won that first round and McGregor's screaming make sure it's a it's a doctor it's a doctor stoppage as opposed to a TKO which they did change it to a doctor stoppage but you can't tell me if you're the biggest McGregor fan in the world that he was going to end up winning that fight.

That Poirier is bigger, stronger, faster, and they're saying there'll be another fight. He'll kick the shit out of him again. I hammered Poirier. He was minus 135. I hammered him. I don't like McGregor to begin with. The line ended up moving closer to even as the fight was coming near

because I think a lot of people were jumping on the McGregor band bandwagon i will say he looked like he was in far better shape and far more in tune than the last time around now i'm the rocket scientologist but the fact that he stepped back and twisted his ankle that wouldn't have been enough to snap it so i agree with oh no no no i thought it rolled it and but in the end it wasn't a roll. It was actually snapping, I meant to say. Oh, okay. I thought he rolled his ankle, but it just broke. Yeah, okay. Well, either way, I mean, the whole card was awesome, and that was probably the most hyped I've ever been for a UFC event,

and this is the fastest-growing sport in the world right now, no doubt. Did he do an interview with his leg leg flapping sitting there the whole time so he interviews so rogan gets on in the octagon and he's interviewing poirier and mcgregor's like screaming at him the whole time i think that's when he was yelling about killing him and his wife in their sleep and they look over at him so then rogan ends up sitting down next to him as the doctors are either trying to brace his ankle or reset it. I don't know what's going on. And he just gave the most foolish interview where you couldn't understand a word he was saying. Now, I know he's got that Irish brogue, but it wasn't even that.

It was just I think he had so much adrenaline and anger going where he just made a fool of himself. He made a fool of himself and he's going to have a billion dollars. Who knows what the fuck this guy ends up with. But in terms of looking at at him now he just kind of looks like a fool and Poirier made him look like a fool you know I know he mentioned that he's not into the shit talking he'd rather go out and fight well the shit talking is what what gets the paydays it is what gets people watching I think that's what people love about McGregor is how he can really just he cuts promos like he's a a wrestler you know well let's put this let's put it this way. He's a better fighter,

and I think he walked away with a million dollars for that fight. McGregor was paid $20 million, and I think they both ended up getting a percentage of pay-per-views. Obviously, McGregor probably took in more, but the fact that McGregor, who, you know, it seems like his best years are behind him, is just making absolute bank off this. I bet you, well, he was the highest-paid athlete in the world last year 180 million dollars mcgregor i mean so the thing is

is like he hasn't won a he's won one fight since 2016 and i was reading it was against the guy i can't think of his name who was like already kind of faded himself so he what i when i bring up how rich he is it's it's almost the same way people have – I'm trying to – people have talked about Rory McIlroy in this way where it's like when you have so much money, it's like how do you continue to have the drive that you had when you had nothing? And it's like that's what you – you see the guys who are able to do it with all the millions in the bank, and they're able to stay that focused.

But for the most part, you make that much money it's like dude you're not that mcgregor he's not that same kid poor kid growing up in the ghetto trying to fucking fight his way out and it's just it's just human nature so i don't i don't think that he's the same fighter one because he's getting older and two he's just the drive just can't it can't be the same as it was when he became whatever the double champion he had two belts i think at once. And it's evident that it'll fuck with you mentally because he just doesn't seem right in the head. Like that whole – even the pre-fight when he was chirping about his old lady

and stuff, it was so cringey. It was cringey. And before at press conferences and the whole lead up to fights – He would be funny. Yeah, he would be funny and there would be amusement out of it, but it just wasn't landing like it used to. And I don't know. That's my opinion.

I tell you what, I had a lot of Conor McGregor jock sniffers yelling at me. Oh, he's got some loyal lunatics. Yeah, big time. Yeah, he's a donkey, especially after that dolly incident when he threw the fucking dolly off the van that time. Like, ever since then, it's kind of been all downhill, I think, for him. That was, again, that was Khabib and his whole crew. So, hey, it got our attention,

and a couple of the NHL boys were there again. So, obviously, Matthews has turned into a pretty big UFC fan because we saw him here at the – I ended up going to the fights here in Phoenix. He ended up rolling up with Bieber and the crew. And who was the guy, Larry the Cable guy there, walking in right next to bieber was that a security guard nobody knows i don't know who that was and then it looked like

that pastor used to hang out with who then got busted like cheating on his wife and shit yeah shocker hey uh practicing what he's preaching getting about the card though you talked about the card i'm not you know all you ufc hardos out there we're pretty fringe fans we're getting into it but it's like i don't know much but there's sean o'malley i mentioned him before he should be like pretty soon the major uh the number one fight on a card because not only is he electric he's this tall skinny lanky kid who is so fucking good. He was so quick. He landed 200 punches on that Motino's face. You got to see this, right? I don't know how the kid was standing up,

but O'Malley was so quick. He's able to like kick, punch. I mean, I think he's like, I don't know, but he seemed like an up-and-coming superstar in this sport, if he isn't already. He trains out of Arizona as well. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. I think he trains out of arizona as well oh really yeah oh yeah i think he's out of gilbert or something like that and actually jacob chickering one of the one

of the guys who walked out with him the bald guy with the big beard uh he's a strength and conditioning guy as well and i think he helps out jacob chickering so i'm gonna see if uh maybe i'll start getting in the octagon he's only 5 says he's only 5'11", 135. It looked like on camera, he looked like 6'1", a buck 80, like tall and lanky. Okay, so he'll probably walk the street at around 160. These guys are able to drop about 25 pounds width. Some guys even 30.

And do you think that has something to do with where if you're training at a heavier weight and then you cut the weight you're that much quicker and stronger like that's kind of crazy to me no so it's it's just a technique much like wrestling so they do it in order to get to that weight class but the other guy they're competing against same thing it's just okay so so so i walk the street at about probably 205 210 now so if i were to ever want to try to step in the octagon before the fight you weigh in two days prior 48 hours i would probably have to cut to try to get to the 185 weight class now why now why wouldn't you fight in the class that you walk around like at talk because then i'd get fucking ruined by john jones who walks around the streets at probably 225 to 230 like he would

kick my fucking he would kick my head as far as as one of these uh with one of these zero cup guys could kick a soccer ball like these guys these that's just how it all works in the fight game it's just that's that's the way it works and uh what did you think of that fucking uh jake paul's necklace he had made of sleeping mregor? Did you see that? I would love Jake Paul to get knocked out, dude. Oh, my God. Would that be amazing? Yeah, I'd buy a pay-per-view to see that.

Oh, dude, to see him get knocked out. And it's like he chirps all these guys who would kill him. It's like, dude, come on. You won't fight these UFC guys in UFC fights. You have to fight him in boxing. Just shut up. you're not you won't fight these ufc guys in ufc fights you have to fight him in boxing just like shut up i know he he's a shit talker and he him him sounding like a fool is what gets him all the pay-per-views but oh my god would people be happy to see him get his head punched in who would you

take in a mcgregor versus jake paul boxing match oh mcgregor would kill him i don't know dude like i i i can't i can't try to go back and forth between boxing and UFC. It's so different, right? I mean, they're jujitsu, karate. It's like, I don't know. Can they box even? How did McGregor do against Mayweather? It wasn't even close, was it?

Wasn't close. He did okay early on, but we can move on. I know, R.A., we're getting long into the fight chatter here. Do you have anything to chime in with? No, like I said, I didn't see any of it down here. I didn't even get to see the Euro 2020, the final. England lost to Italy on penalty kicks, right? England lost to Italy at Wembley in London.

1-1, and then it went to PK. England scored like two minutes into the game that Luke Shaw scored. And almost, they kind of changed the entire game. I don't know if they changed their game plan, but they made it 1-0 and they just sat back. The second half, they were giving them like two thirds of the field.

And it just felt like a matter of time till Italy tied it up. And sure enough, they did. And then you go into extra time. It's 15 minutes each side, 30 minutes total. And it seemed like both teams were just kind of playing for penalty kicks. I guess there's a couple chances. But then you're watching these PKs.

England hasn't won a major international tournament since, I think, 1966. They're at home. And you feel so bad for the guys who missed. And the final kick, I think, is Saka. He plays for Arsenal, Troops team team he's 19 years old dude and they send him out there and he misses and what do you know what happens after is is the racism and this fucking brutal disgusting acts of just trash from people who are such scumbags online and you've seen so many different players reach out and speak out marcus rashford who plays for manchester united he missed a pk he took some of

the hate he wrote an amazing post on instagram about it and just just gross and the vile things people will say behind it well say and do man there are people fighting after the game like there was grown-ups punching kids at Wembley Stadium. Before the game, you had everybody attacking the gates who didn't have tickets to get inside. Soccer fans, that's some of the grossest shit you'll see as far as fans. And the racism in that sport is so fucking disgusting. And I thought Troop said something.

It made so much sense. It's like all these England fans, had they won, right? They're cheering for all these guys. They're cheering for Saka and Rashford and the other guy, I think Jadon Sancho, I think his name is. He played in Germany and just got bought by Man U. And if they won, they would have loved them, right? And you lose.

And so it turns into like, it's just such scum, dude. And I saw a couple of tweets like, is there any chance that Twitter turns into like, it's just such scum, dude. And I saw a couple of tweets like, is there any chance that Twitter ever makes like, you have to show your real name to have a Twitter account? No. Because the money, right? Yeah.

It's just like, yeah, people. Oh, what a fucking joke. What a coward you are. If you're online and you don't even have your picture or your name, you are a loser. So I think it was an incredible final game for the euro but just to see what happens after is so brutal so one so one of the things that people were questioning were the coach's decisions and the fact that in overtime he ends up putting in the two guys do you have to be playing in the game in order to kick so he put two of the younger players in who are fresh,

who he was going to pick for the PKs. They go in the last couple of minutes of overtime. They were, they were the two guys who ended up missing as well. Right. Three guys missed. Right. But,

but two of which were put in at the end of overtime. So it's, yeah, it was a, it was tough, but, but I guess the coach was making decisions like that throughout the whole run. And they were ended up working out because they got to the final. So, yeah, it was tough. But I guess the coach was making decisions like that throughout the whole run, and they ended up working out because they got to the final.

Well, what's interesting is Sterling is a sniper, one of their best players. He didn't shoot. Grealish is an unreal goal scorer. He didn't shoot. And so there's obviously decisions made, but it's such a weird thing to put somebody in who's cold and doesn't have the feel of the game and the feel of the ball. And all of a sudden, it's like, what's weird, too, is that...

Like me getting a tap. Yeah. What? You haven't played since your first period fight against McGrath, and all of a sudden, you're going in the shootout. It's like, buddy, my skates are untied. I haven't touched a puck since warm-up. It's like, yeah, maybe I'm not the guy, coach.

I'd put in LaBarbara. Put in Jason LaBarbara. The goalie gets your stick to go down. How about half of England fans looking exactly like R.A.? You ever notice? Hey, and there was one guy who looked exactly like R.A. before the match. Talk about getting the morale high as far as a fan. He dipped his fucking key right in a

bag of coke and maybe it was already maybe he did go there and and right in the middle of of the celebration going on pre-match near wembley stadium just goes big honker and the place went nuts they were all going crazy man i i said i had some fans bellyaching at me because i i said who the fuck would root for england if you're not not from England or if you don't bet them? And they're like, oh, fuck you, you fake Irish guy. I'm like, this has nothing to do with Ireland. This is fucking the United States fought England. Like, they fucking tried to take every country in the world.

You know what, Frank? I'll fight you on this. I mean, Italy has done way worse things than England in the past fucking 150 years. It's like, I think you hate England going back to like the 16 1700s italy fought with the fucking germans twice he watched thousands of years i'm not talking about 50 and i don't hate england i'm saying i wouldn't root for them regardless of whatever every time yeah every time like but the guy was trying to think say because oh cool you're fake irish i'm

like buddy this is I live in America. Who do you think we fucking fought to kick out? It was the Brits. It has nothing to do with being Irish. It's like this is another fucking land they tried to take over and got their asses kicked. Freedom! All right.

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to go hang out with the Young Bucks at the UFC as well? And he was even chilling at the back of kendall jenner's party bus to wit could you believe that with kendall jenner oh yeah oh yeah the leafs the leafs are gonna win it all next year i'm back on the wagon god don't even start wait i don't think you can root for them ever again shut the fuck up you. You just said something about Rory McIlroy. You mentioned him, right, a minute ago? Yeah, a fan took the sandblaster out of his bag. What was that all about?

Oh, my God. That was hilarious. Some fan was walking by and saw that he had the spin doctor, so he's like, nah, nobody's going to be cheating at the Scottish Open. We got to get that out of his bag. So the clip that we're talking about, if you haven't seen it, Rory's sitting and standing with John Rahm and his caddy and some lunatic it looked like it was Thursday morning might have been the first or second round of the Scottish Open this guy just walks over takes his

club out of his bag and starts taking practice swings near the tee now the first thing I thought was if you remember Stevie Williams Tiger Woods his caddy for a long time throughout all those majors, he was a lunatic. He'd be snapping on fans who were talking during Tiger's swing. He would have gone over and put that guy in an arm bar and snapped his fucking, what is it, the humerus? Is that in the arm? And Rory's caddy's like standing there just like staring at the guy. It's like, bud, go get your boy's club back. But who knows? Maybe they thought he was like a loose cannon. I guess he was for going and grabbing the guy. It's like, bud, go get your boys club back. But who knows? Maybe they thought he was like a loose cannon. I guess he was for going and grabbing the club,

but a hilarious move by that guy and kind of an awkward situation to, to see like no security whatsoever. Maybe if it's a couple of no names in the Scottish open, but Rahm and Rory together, you'd think there'd be a few people, whether they're employed by Rahm and Rory McIlroy themselves or by the European tour, it's kind of nuts to think that the guy could just walk right over to them. And what other sport besides golf?

I would say that that 30-second clip of him taking the sandblaster out of Rory's bag was probably more entertaining than the match between Phil Mickelson, Bryson. Who is Phil Mickelson with, Bryson? Phil Mickelson was with Brady, Phil Mickelson with Bryson or no Phil Mickelson was with Brady and Bryson was with Aaron Rodgers I thought that that was pretty a pretty boring uh event but Aaron Rodgers looked awesome on the course yeah he was the best player yeah he's nice Brady stinks at golf I thought he was good at golf he stinks he made one ridiculous shot I think he drove the

green pretty tight on a par four but yeah you know what i think part of that i had it on for a little bit dude it was like five and a half hours and i think maybe it's based on you know the ads you're selling like there has it has to be on tv long enough to make the ads worthwhile i don't really understand like why that's that long well it went so long that it overlapped with game one of the NBA finals, which I turned right over. I don't even watch basketball. I was more intrigued by the Suns going at it with the Milwaukee Bucks. So, yeah, I mean, I'll take a sandbagger every day of the week over the match.

Yeah, I miss the sandbaggers. We need to get back to doing those. Are you back healthy or what's up? I'm getting there. I'm definitely way better than before. I shout out my boy cam at bu i i think i told this uh he reached out to granelli and said hey i i physical therapist i run the show over at bu he didn't say that but he does and um if wit you know i want some help so i've been going to him for a while now i had more cortisone this time in the joint. So I am feeling better.

I played twice last week. Still trying to not play two days in a row, but I'm on my way. I'm on my way. I'm hoping to be 100% by the beginning of August. A few more weeks. R.A., I wanted to ask you about something. Last episode, you said you've never had a Whopper or Taco Bell? Or a Filet-O-Fish.

Correct. A lot of Filet-O-Fish. Correct. A lot of Filet-O-Fish defenders, Biz. Oh, big time. Big time. It's a great thing. And it's the one thing that they make fresh because you have to. You got to throw her in the deep fryer. So veteran move by me ordering the Filet-O-Fish.

Now, R.A., Taco Bell bell i can understand but i would say the whoppers one of the best hamburgers from a fast food place would you ever be down to trying one yeah i would try one i didn't and i only had like one big mac in my life i i didn't i don't eat a lot of burger k mcdonald's even even when i was a kid but i had did have one big mac never had a whop i just i don't have the sauce there's too much like tomatoes and onions i just like a burger with like ketchup mustard on it i don't like all kinds of so if you had to do fast food where are you going um Chick-fil-a honestly we're if when I eat fast food it's usually out of necessity it's like we're whatever's there like I I don't like I know people

probably laugh but I don't like really eat fast food like I don't eat McDonald's or Burger King I just don't get a hankering for it I really don't didn't eat it a lot as a kid i know i know people are very laughing thinking like this kid don't eat fucking fast food who's he lying to but i really don't it just i just never it was a big thing like if i had to go somewhere i don't eat it when i travel like if i was going to the airport and there was a mcdonald's there i'll get mcdonald's if it's burger king i'll get burger king but i typically don't eat fast food and yeah i never had taco bell either all right yeah i'm not like some i'm not some specimen or anything just i know some random foods that a lot of people eat that i never did uh but biz i want to ask you you finished uh mayor of east town correct i don't think i thought it was i had a i had a great

couple weeks of watching shows mayor of east town was excellent um my only criticism of it i feel like she struggled with the accent early on and it was very noticeable and i was i would have rather her i guess it's easy to say like she could have just not used it right yeah but i felt the sean connery when he was played a russian guy but wouldn't use a russian accent come on yeah it's a hunt for red october i think it he's like nope so he just had his scottish accent as a playing a russian because i felt as the show went on she she lost it when she was pronouncing the o's she would say she was like early on but i told you she said it was like the hardest accent she's ever had to try to or maybe ra told us told you she said it was like the hardest accent she's ever had to try

to or maybe ra told us that yeah she said it was the hottest accent she's ever had a master for a role like i noticed it very frustrated i noticed it in the first two episodes and i felt like as the as the show went on she really wasn't even attempting it anymore biz watch the wire notice that a i started watching the wire last night i will say i was not crazy about it it took me a little i know dude it takes a little bit i could totally understand where you're coming from i all right i know you love the wire but when i went and uh well my girl looked it up she said when you look at like top show lists the wire is usually number one on everybody's list and they say that it doesn't heat up until about episode five of season one it heats up though

whenever it does it goes i think it's it's a show because you have to watch like you don't have your phone out you can't be paying attention to anything else because you'll miss one little detail then one episode that'll like become relevant five episodes later or even a season or two later um i i would suggest i don't know if you use closed caption or your subtitles. That's when I started using subtitles, when I started watching The Wire because I didn't understand a lot of the lingo in season one

and it helped me understand the show. And I mean, now I use closed caption for everything I watch. So try that. It might help because sometimes if you know what they're saying, you can understand what the plot's going on, what's going on with the plot and stuff. So definitely give that a whirl. I watched a good miniseries, documentary series on Showtime called The Kings.

It was about the four boxers from the 80s. Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Roberto Duran. These guys all took turns fighting each other over the course of their careers. Just a tremendous boxing documentary. I know boxing's not that big of a sport like it used to be but this is probably the greatest ever of middleweights i know they fought at different weights but they're all middleweights fighting each other uh the 1980s again fantastic four-part docuseries on showtime i'm gonna do they go into the um do they go into the no mas no mas everything because they all like i said they all fought they all took

turns fighting each other if you pair any two of those guys off they have a history together uh and some unbelievable fights just even some ones i even forgot about all these years later but uh even if you're not a huge boxing fan it's it's a great uh piece of boxing history you should definitely i know i mentioned it at the beginning of the podcast true detective season one far and above the my the most favorite show i've ever watched hands down and i like I like how it's not too long. You get eight episodes. You're in and out. Obviously, short is tension span, so that helps out with it all.

And I have to mention this. We almost forgot during golf talk. Mike Madonna with the Albatross at the Lake Tahoe tournament. How about that? The first one they've ever had at the tournament too come on really first and that tournament's old that tournament's been around quite a while and what's unreal is somebody sent us a tweet i think you were tagging it too biz he legit fucking hit that shot from like where the goal line was in the game of uh the who played that game um colorado vegas remember they had the

that was right where that the arena was to set up on the 18th hole, that course. And you could see the kid, the kid included the picture. You could see the exact same trees in the view of the ice that you can, when Madonna was about ready to tee it up. So pretty cool. It worked out,

but what a shot I've told the story before I played Mike Madonna on a golf trip. He shot like 67 at LA country club. He's an absolute stick. But Pavelski's even better. I think Pavelski finished above him. Pavelski finished top five, maybe top seven in the tournament. It's pretty cool how they do it.

They do Stableford, where you get one point for a par, three points for a birdie, six points for an eagle, 10 points for an albatross, which Madonna got, and then no points for a bogey and then minus two for a double bogey so you know you see a lot of guys finish like barkley finished like minus 28 but he actually played pretty good i guess for him and then um vinnie del negro he won he took it down he beat john smolton a playoff pretty exciting i'd love to get in that tournament holy shit come on guys give me an give me an invite i'll bring biz as my caddy so if you oh pigeon oh i can't i can't play no okay oh well

hey charles barkley plays and i'm better than charles barkley no there's player there's people who are like worse than barkley too you could easily play but i just don't think both of us can get in and i want the spot is bill murray worse than barkley uh no i think bill murray's better than barkley but not great but no bill murray's definitely better than barkley he's hit some decent shots i've seen on tv before but that shot by madonna it was dude it was crazy like that holds 500 yards and guys were hitting like eight nine irons in because you're so high the elevation right the ball goes so much further so uh awesome to see the celebration and the threesome that day was oshi pavulski and madonna so three legends yeah

there you go and i told you i bumped into mike madonna near the ice den when i was getting my car washed right next door does he live in scottsdale yeah he's around here yeah sometimes at least partly and i said i said we got to get you on the show sometime he says you got to hunt me down i said well fuck i'll be wearing my camouflage gear in your fucking backyard kind of like uh when we interviewed theodore at the at the this is cia fbi uh i got one more week before you wrap up the trailer for the many saints of newark dropped um it's the soprano's prequel movie starring michael gandolfini he's playing his the role his father made famous. Have you seen it, Biz, the preview? No.

It's the Sopranos movie, basically. It looks so good. It looks pretty sick. Yeah, James Gandolfini's real-life son, Michael, is playing young Tony Soprano. Is he an actor? Has he acted before? He was in that show, The Deuce, on HBO a couple years ago.

He's done some acting. He's been in a couple movies as well. Wow. I mean, that's a fucking ballsy thing to do, to take on your father's iconic role. He's done some acting. He's been in a couple movies as well. That's a fucking ballsy thing to do to take on your father's iconic role. He does look like him. He has a lot of his mannerisms too. I don't think it's an inspired choice

to play the role. I'm looking forward to the movie either way if you haven't seen it. There's a couple actors. I can't think of their names in that movie because I saw from the preview. Ray Liotta, he's in it. Who? Ray Liotta.

No, so I'm thinking of the one guy who's in... Jon Bernthal? Yes, that guy. He's good in everything he does. Awesome actor. Yeah, he's a wolf of Wall Street. You do look like this guy. Yeah.

He is so good. And the other guy I really like is um uh al alessandro nivola i think his name is he played one of the sons in the movie about bernie madoff um and he was great and he's he's an actor i've seen before so he he plays a pretty big role i think in that movie but i'm looking forward to seeing that one biz have you watched the sopranos ha funny you mentioned that so i turned off the wire because i couldn't get into it and i started watching the sopranos so i watched do you like that so far uh yeah i i i've kind of seen episodes where people have been watching them where i'll catch like a half an episode like i i remember when i was watching he was like crushing the therapist like i that was a dream i think yeah no he didn't actually oh okay well there you go well there that

tells you how much i know about the goddamn show what else did i have in my notes here you mentioned ray leota i think he's aged just as poorly as mickey rourke for crying out loud no god at least he has his natural face still i mean i think he's just aged gotten old but mickey rourke's face looks like fucking cgi dude i can't remember it was a stallion back in the good fellas day um i don't know if we talked about it last podcast but the quentin tarantino interview on joe rogan did you get a chance no we didn't we didn't get to that awesome i found the most fascinating part about it was uh that i didn't know know Bruce Lee was known as a bit of an asshole. Dude, he fucking dogged Bruce Lee in that interview. I went away from that saying he despises Bruce Lee.

And I don't think he'd ever met him. It was all based on things that he'd heard about him. But I feel like Tarantino, after listening, I feel like he wouldn't be saying that stuff if he didn't know it was true maybe because it's like been told by that many people kind of what he was about he went into talking about how it was all a lie that um oh what was he he was mentioning that bruce lee said that it was his idea for a movie i'm totally butchering this but yeah in the end he if you listen to the interview he dogged him but i thought it was cool him talking about the movies that he's done and like how he uh what was the first movie he did it was kind of a horror movie ra quentin tarantino's first movie reservoir dogs no no there

was one before that i think i think that was the so i think he'd done a couple movies ra in order to get enough credibility in order to do reservoir dogs i in order to do Reservoir Dogs. I think Reservoir Dogs was the first one that he might have funded. It was with George Clooney, R.A. His first one. Oh, that was the vampire one. Dust to Dawn? Dust to Dawn, yeah.

I don't know if he directed that. He wrote that. He didn't direct it, though. He wrote Dust to Dawn. Yeah, that came after Reservoir Dogs. Yeah, Reservoir Dogs was the first feature film he directed i think i love that maybe a short film or or like a student film or something but he didn't have like a legit movie until reservoir dogs that was his first would you consider him would you consider him one of the best directors of

of your time ra yeah yeah i tarantino definitely i mean pulp fiction i i know it's almost cliche to say it changed cinema but like it it was such a groundbreaking movie that i mean just on that alone absolutely but yeah he's he's definitely one of the great the best probably five directors of his generation i should mean in the way that it was rolled out as far as how it went along where where it didn't start from the back and and up to the front oh the pulp fiction yeah like it had that non-linear story storytelling where it kind of jumped around but just even though the dialogue he put in just the whole the whole that story that movie just blew you away out of the theater i remember he started in 94 and

it was like i'd never seen a movie like that never had never felt that way from a movie before and yeah he spawned a whole bunch of shitty imitators. But Tarantino's huge, man. I mean, I'd also pull Paul Thomas Anderson in there, who directed Boogie Nights, The Master. I mean, shit, man. There's so many good directors. It's Chris Nolan.

But Tarantino was writing all this stuff, right, where that guy maybe just directed? Or is that? Which guy? You just mentioned the guy Paul Thomas or something? Paul Thomas Sanderson. Yeah, he's written a lot of his stuff as well. Tarantino.

Actually, the only movie Tarantino didn't write of his was Jackie Brown. That was based on a book. That was the only movie he wrote. He's got one left. He's got one movie left, too. He said he might do kill bill three as well yeah i don't think he's gonna make 10 movies i think he's gonna keep making movies dude like he's still young yeah i mean he sounded pretty yeah who knows i

mean people say that all the time and they come back but um i thought it was interesting too he talks about how when he's sitting down to write a movie, if he's just going right away, it ends up kind of being a hit. He knows right away. He starts writing and boom, he's writing for hours and then it ends up just being gold. So crazy to think that he Bastards and like Leonardo's had some ridiculous lines in Django. It's just like I love his movies. I didn't like Hateful Eight. I don't think that wasn't very good, that one. No, I think that was probably his worst movie. I don't see. He spoke about one of the movies and how they had such a gory scene

where Harvey Weinstein basically went to him it was like hey like i don't think like this movie's good that was reservoir dogs was it reservoir dogs yeah it was taught he asked him to not have he goes everyone in the world will watch this movie without um the scene of him cutting off the ear and and if you keep it in i don't think and he's staying in and then he said it's staying in. And then Harvey Weinstein was like, all right. And then he said he was probably right, though, because he said when he went to like the film festivals or whenever he would go see it in theater where there was people,

there would be like 30 to 50 people who would walk out. Which is crazy thinking now like that that's considered gory. I've watched Reservoir Dogs 10 times. It's nothing compared to nowadays what they're making. thinking now like that that's considered gory i i've watched reservoir dogs 10 times it's not it's nothing compared to nowadays what they're making i thought django unchained was was far more gory when they did that scene in the house when everybody was just getting oh the mandingo when they had when every slaves fighting yeah it was horrible well horrible and then and then also when they were just everybody was just getting shot and killed inside the house

and there was just blood everywhere. Yeah. Yeah, it's supposed to be over the top when he does that shit because he's basically an homage to movies. When he watched me, he was like a kid. He used to go to the movies all the time. But yeah, I think he's going to make a few more movies. I don't think he's going to make 10 movies and call it a day.

I think he likes movies too much. I like getting involved in the cinema talk with you guys now. Yeah. Well, there's no more hockey, so we got to – I know. I need a show right now. I need a show bad. I know.

When I get home, I got to get some shows and movies together. I haven't seen none. Of course, it's been all hockey, and there hasn't been a shitload out lately. If we're going back to sports to end the podcast, I would say that probably the greatest race in tennis history to be who's going to be the greatest of all time we got nadal jokovic and federer all tied at 20 majors and i tell you what i don't think there'll ever be an era of tennis like this one yeah i don't think anyone will i think jokovic is going to end up well he's 34 i think the other two are a little bit older um. I think Djokovic is going to end up. Well, he's 34. I think the other two are a little bit older.

But, you know, Djokovic is probably going to win the U.S. Open. It's like I think he's going to end up being number one. But to have three guys currently playing with 20 majors, it is easily the greatest error in men's tennis. So he could be the second person ever other than, I think, Stephanie Graff to end up having all four majors and the gold she had all four majors at once and the gold medal from the olympics that's fucking wild that is that's goat status right there stephanie graff uh her and andre agassi are still married right i'm not sure

they might be i forgot they even were well yeah but you just i i've brought this up before but one of the best books i've ever read is open by andre agassi didn't he talk about playing with when he was wearing the headband and he would have acid in his headband well dude it was a wig that whole thing was a wig andre agassi's long flow was a wig and like it would be moving around during these matches it was this book dude even if you don't like tennis i guarantee you'd enjoy this book it's wild and it's written by an un you know his i don't want to say it's called ghost writer but um the guy who wrote it all also wrote the tender bar my favorite book so jr mowinger so he just check out the book open by andre agassi if you're going to the beach if you need a good good book to read it's great

uh is it true though when he had that headband on there was acid when he would be playing with like drugs in the headband that would seep into his pores oh i thought you were oh i don't know i don't remember that i don't i don't know i don't remember that part of the book maybe that's a hall that's a halloween costume for ra but he'd actually have acid in his headband with the fake why do you keep licking your headband, dude? Have we gone long enough here, boys? Yeah. It was good seeing you guys.

Good catching up. I'm going to go grab some dinner. And everyone, enjoy your week. And we'll be back next week chatting some more. Yeah, and a big thanks to Cooper for coming on, man. That's a big get for us and for him to open up and talk about the come up. That's a wild story. I look forward to seeing another Disney channel.

Minus the DUI. All right, everybody have a great week. We'll catch you next week. As always, we'd like to thank our fantastic sponsors here on Spittin' Chicklets. Huge thanks to our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka and Pink Whitney. Big thanks to our friends over at Roman for taking care of the fellas. Huge thanks to everybody over at OCB Rolling Papers. Be sure to check them out. Big thanks to everybody at Bodyama for keeping us hydrated during these hot summer months. Huge thanks to our friends over at Shady Race for giving us some sharp shades for the summer.

And a huge thanks to everybody at Labatt Blue. Check them out if you're looking for a couple pumps this summer. Have a great week, everyone.