Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 353: Featuring Robin Lehner

Episode Date: September 28, 2021

On Episode 353 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Robin Lehner of the Vegas Golden Knights. Robin joined (1:19:49) to discuss playing in Vegas, fast food, mental health and tons more. The guys also discuss the Jack Eichel situation in Buffalo. Kirill Kaprizov got himself paid, so the boys dive into that deal and a few other contract that were signed last week. The guys wrap up with some TV talk and whit dives into the Ryder Cup.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 353 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka and the Barstool Sports Podcast family. What's up, boys? We got T-minus two weeks till opening night, preseason already underway. A major young star gets locked up for five years,

plus more news out of buffalo we'll get to that shortly but let's say what's up to the fellas first producer mikey granelli how's it hanging buddy uh what's going on boys uh pasha was in town this weekend as you can imagine uh my weekend was a little nuts uh lost my debit card pasha blew me off one night but most importantly, Biz, you look fantastic with that new haircut. It's about time.

You need to fix it. Hey, you got it. You got to tell the Pasha story, though, on how you got ditched and why. The why is a very big, important female. So I think I think the perfect way. Yeah, no, Pasha got zero chicks this weekend. I think the perfect way to describe

I think the perfect way to describe Pasha is how width in our group chat earlier. He's mini RA. So he, this weekend, we had dinner plans to go out, do West, great spot, West Village. And he stops answering my calls. Like, you know, the reservation's at 9 p.m. It's 7 p.m., no answer. 8 p.m., no answer. 8.30. No answer. 8 p.m. No answer. 8.30.

No answer. Finally, he gives me a call and he's like, Mike, I got to be honest with you, man. Got some last minute tickets to the private exclusive Coldplay concert for famous people only. So I can't make dinner tonight. I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? And then I get a video from the Coldplay concert he's front row not only

did he get into this concert but he's front row at the exclusive Coldplay concert so I don't blame him for blowing me off but he's just always getting himself into some kind of mischief he went solo so I had a buddy from Victoria who was in town in New York City

for a wedding right so he went out to lunch and, and it kind of correlates with your beautiful hat. All right. By the way, highest Jersey sale records to Seattle cracking. He ends up running into one of the crack and owners or somebody who's high up, but I don't know if it was actually exactly an owner or maybe like the

president. I think he was throwing on the party and it was this exclusive 500 person party that where they had cold play performing and he knew pasha was in sound town so he got the the call and got people 500 people at a cold play concert they were sitting front row now i'm surprised that he didn't end up passing on his ticket to you and then just sneaking in because pasha sneaks into everything he snuck into like the nba finals when it was in toronto one year he's uh snuck into uh what's the festival there uh in the cochella one year

and ra jr our ra jr hey when he when he snuck into cochella though on the final day they were like going in the vip buffet area they were just living la vida loca and And I guess the security had caught wind that there was a bunch of people who had created these fake passes. So he gets pulled into this tent, interrogated for hours and hours on end. He was actually a little bit nervous because I think they ended up taking his ID. I don't know if he had his passport on him, but oh, fuck. Pasha is, he is an absolute.

As you're listening to this right now, folks, he's on a plane, or he's already in London with fake passes he made to go to the James Bond premiere tonight. No. Yes. In London. He's fucking going across the Atlantic. He's crossing the pond to sneak into a European event. How did you hear that?

He sent us the pictures of the passes he made. And by now, I hope somebody rats him out. He gets arrested in London. That's a long, long way to go for fake passes for a fucking movie. These fake passes look legit. Legit. Ten out of ten. Ten out of ten.

He's got the laminate on it. There was actually not too long ago, there was a guy who made a documentary about how he was sneaking into all these concert and events. I don't know exactly what the documentary was called, but all right, I got to shout out your hat. It looks unbelievable on you. And I would say for a,

for a sport that you get a lot of complaining a lot of the time about either the third jerseys or, or, or jerseys for this or jerseys for that. What the record breaking sales for the Seattle Kraken, as far as Jersey sales up to date. I know there was an occult. I don't, I don't know if they dropped official numbers. Gee, we were just looking at it. But they've been selling through the roof, as you'd expect.

I think any new team. But this logo kills it, man. And we saw the team play the other night, their first preseason game. I mean, those jerseys look gorgeous on the ice. Just all the different shades of blue. And then the whole tentacle with the red eye. I mean, like I said, people who shake their head at it. I don't know, man.

We've been complaining the NHL has boring nicknames, boring teams, boring logos, and then we got this, and I thought it was outside the box, and they fucking nailed it. They gave us crackheads. It's amazing. Biz, I don't like glasshorns. Do you get, like, little twisty braids in your head? What's going on here? Yeah, I got the fuckboy haircut.

Yeah. It actually comes with an activated TikTok account, and I actually get to join the what's the podcast that Portland does you ripped on Josh Richards for having the TikTok hair now you got the same hair as him you just become a wiggle dicker the minute the hair cut was finished you just

start wiggling speaking of the sea serpent that's what that would look if I was wiggling my dick around I can't be doing that with all the fours. The old calamari cock. You guys are just talking about a small concert. You know who played one last week just outside Boston while we were recording?

The Rolling Stones. They've been in Boston for the last month because they're still finishing this tour that's been two years now delayed from COVID shit. They've been in Boston since early August rehearsing for their tour because they didn't go back to London for the funeral because they would have had to do all the quarantine bullshit. They had been here rehearsing. I guess when you've been friends with a guy for 60 years,

you know whether or not you should go to his funeral or not. So they stayed here, continued rehearsing, and Bob Kraft had them play a show at Gillette last week. It's not like the stadium. It's like they put a tent up on the field biz, holds like three or 400 people, and only like the big wigs of Boston got invited to it. High-end politicians

like billionaires, and the Stones played for like 300 people at Crash Place last week to get into toy shape. So I was bummed out. I guess I'm not that big of a swing. I don't mean to go to sad outside like on Route 95 trying to catch a tune from one of the fucking stereos.

Go three quarters a mile up to get the right echo or some shit like that. So I actually got a one-upper, the Fugees, after 25 years of releasing the album, the score. Now, R.A., are you a big Fugees guy? I wouldn't say I'm a big fujis guy i'm familiar with that hit album from back in the day you know some great songs i'll be gone till november i'll be gone till november that song that is why clef jean and that is not on that album i believe he is part of the fujis but they have reunited after 25 years of going dark of course i think

a lot of that had to do with lauren hill she ended up releasing that like they dominated the late 90s and sure enough they end up getting together they they performed a live show i think it was nine songs um they're a little bit known for being late they were four hours late to the gig people didn't care though because they completely crushed the nine songs it was done in in new york on on a pier i don't know exactly what the venue is called but they're actually oh pier 17 thank you granelli that's probably right next door to you or not far because you live near a pier don't you uh yeah it's downtown it's kind of near me okay um and quickly about you thinking that you're one-upping r.a's rolling

stones with the fujis dude are you fucking kidding me? You don't think – He's squeezing a stress ball right now, flipping out that you thought the Fugees would be considered a one-up to his R.S. dogs. Okay, well, let's leave it up to the fans to decide, because I think that the Fugees are – I mean, obviously, they don't have as big of a catalog, but I think that as far as an impact and people excited for this 12-show tour –

R.A., I don't appreciate that look you're giving me, by way 12 show tour camera not you they got a 12 show tour coming and i think it's a big deal because i mean being a massive fujis fan like i ended up buying that disc when when i was growing up and you know i grew up on it as well as that miseducation of lauren hill which i want to say went like 10 times fucking platinum. Huge Stella. And that would, that dropped in 98, not far after that score album.

And then all of a sudden, poof, famoose, much like Dave Chappelle. She just kind of up and quit the industry. She just didn't want to maybe like conform to the, I don't know. All right.

Would you, would you, would you have more to say on that? Like what, what was, what would you say her reason it was for just upping and leaving it all? I think she had some tax issues, if I'm not mistaken. I can't say I had my finger on the pulse of the Fuji cycle.

Was it like mental stuff? She had tax issues? She hadn't paid her taxes? I don't know how much that affected her leaving the group. She had R.A.'s accountant. I'm pretty sure. I think there was some tax issues with her. Yeah, it turns out she didn't go dark.

She was just in jail for the past 20 years we're going back 25 years so it could be a many number of things but i seem to remember her having some tax issues at some point but i think yeah they had creative difficulties they basically weren't talking a lot like i can't like i said i didn't follow my time this is just dribs and drabs i've picked up yeah i just i think given that the the craziness of the story back then how she was on top i think she won like a million fucking grammys that year after she dropped that album and i want to say it was her first solo album and then just you know up and quit so i i guess it's not a one-upper but you know i think it's a pretty big relevant topic

surrounding the music industry so i just figured i figured i'd follow you up that they definitely were monsters back then i want to go back last week with the um i googled the dirty honey dirty honey lead singer and i'm pretty sure he was the guy who walked by me during the concert like because he was in the area where like only security is there or unless you like have like the band permit and he come up and said you know hey what's up love the show whatever and like because that's the only guy who could have been part of the band. So I realized who it was when I looked it up, who the dude was. He walked by during the show in the pit where the security is. But I didn't blow him off.

I was very cordial to him. I just didn't know who he was. I was rolling my balls off and enjoying the music. You were just waffled. And you probably don't really remember, buddy. I got you. Oh, no. I remember.

You mentioned Robert Kraft. I got to ask you guys quickly. We could talk about football later because I've been dialed in, then you probably don't really remember buddy i got you oh no i remember um you mentioned robert kraft i gotta ask you guys quickly we could talk about football later because i've been dialed in shout out aaron rogers for that amazing fucking comeback last night with 37 seconds keep the fucking change um will you guys be attending brady's return at gillette stadium this upcoming week no i will not be i will not be i uh i can't stand going to NFL games. I think it's the most made for TV sport ever to be created time, let alone an 830 game where you're, you know, just saying I'm old, dude. I'll be watching that game. I'll be up.

But in terms of like being at the game, you're home at two. You're exhausted. And also. The Bucs are going to pound the shit out of the Patriots. Brady's going to light them up. You think so? Well, especially following a loss, too, right? He's following a loss.

They have a rookie QB. He's going to be as fired up as ever. I'm convinced him and Gronk despise Bill Belichick. Oh, yeah. I think that's pretty obvious. I think that the NFL is probably the best league as far as organizing their schedule and making sure certain things happen at certain times i want to say that tom brady is going to pass the all-time passing yards record in gillette stadium because i he was he was just on the teeter

last game because they posted about it second all-time to i believe peyton manning so he will be passing or maybe it was drew breeze and and he'll be passing it at gillette stadium so like they just do an unreal job of of putting all these games on the on like the pedestal that they deserve at the right times brett gretzky broke a record in edmonton when he was on the kings somebody will know what he's got like a hundred of, so I mean. I know, I know, but in talking about legends going back and actually breaking a record at their original barn or original stadium, like it's pretty crazy

that the timing works out like that. I guess you're saying the schedule makers knew that it could have been that game and they kind of planned it for week four. But the other quick thing I wanted to say about the NFL is I'll go to a game. I want a 4-4- a, on a November Sunday. Like one's too early for you get there at one, one 30 tailgate.

You're not home at two. You're home at like nine, eight 39. And just kind of that. That's my sweet spot in case anyone was curious. Okay. It was a, it was Gordie Howe's point record that he broke. October 15th, 1989. Holy fuck, Grinnell. You are absolutely humming out of the gate right now. Well, it's called Google.

Hockey season, baby. I can't tell you the last time I've been to a Pats game. It was probably one of the conference championships versus like Brady versus Manning. It's just because like Witt said, it's an absolute fucking chore to go. Unless you're in the rich people parking lot where you get in or out,

or if you're parked south of the stadium, which most people aren't coming that way, it's a pain in the ass. And also to it, I think you're going to mention, how many donkeys are in the crowd? I mean, I know NHL games get their share of donkeys. There's donkeys everywhere. You know what grinds my gears? NFL, there's a whistle every 10 seconds.

That's my issue. It's just like me and the rapper. People blacked out at like 10 in the morning. Then, like, you know, you got to deal with them, hundreds of them in the stadium. It's like the walking dead. Yeah, you on our trips. Nah, come on, guy.

Come on, guy. Hey, I don't think we ever talked about R.A. in Detroit, the one day where you were completely waffled. Yeah, we did. I called a 20-second timeout of myself and laid down and had a cookie and actually act like an adult and actually mixed in a water. Yeah, we can talk about that. Okay. Well, actually

quickly going back to Detroit too. We dropped the Wierenski and cop sandbagger this past Wednesday. Great numbers on that. Thank you. Everybody who showed up to the live chat was buzzing a bit of controversy. I'll throw it over to you, Witt.

I don't think everyone's watched it, so we won't spoil, but I'll tell you this. It goes to a playoff, and on the first playoff hole, Zach Wierenski takes a drop. He's the worst drop guy in the world, by the way. And a lot of people were chirping his swing, like it's a short swing the world, by the way. And a lot of people were chirping his swing like that. It's a short swing, but he pounds the ball.

So I wish I had a shorter swing because you're just more compact. And like he he's a good player. His swing doesn't look great, but he gets it out there. He moves it out there. But he decided to lift his ball up and take a drop. I mean, after talking to us in the end, we gave okay, but it was just a bizarre situation. Thank you for tuning in. I was on the live chat with some people during the

broadcast Wednesday night. The course was fantastic. The greens were rock hard, and they were also lightning to putt on. Just check it out. You got to see what this dude pulled off on the 19th hole. It was unacceptable. We then found out, apparently it's a local rule where the grass is like dying.

You get dropped, but I don't know about that. We might've just been getting finagled by the membership poster. I said in the sandbagger, fuck, he should be paying the water bill after signing that ticket. Good line. And,

and, and I would say three times over the course of that sandbagger, some very, very suspect drops by Rensky. So I don't't hopefully the nhl league looks into it because uh maybe player safety can uh but that's why it's retired dude oh really okay fired did he get fired no his contract just contract ran out yeah he's made for tv he's gonna be on espn now oh he is right yeah i don't I think so. Occasionally, he is funny on TV.

He doesn't hold back. Come for that ass biz. Imagine that guy in an arbitration meeting. No coaches ever go, he's like, I'm coming to this one. No, no, actually, no, I'm coming. No, I'll be there. All right, boys, it's officially fall, which means baseball is here, football is back, and pucks and hoops are just around the corner.

So head on over to your local bar and make sure to order some Pink Whitney to enjoy with any game that tickles your fancy. I'm a big football guy this time of year. I kind of was down on football a little bit, Whit, but a couple of shots of Pink Whitney, boom, I'm right back at it. Speaking of which, Tampa Bay is a six-and-a-half-point favorite right now. Wouldn't be so shocked if that goes up toward the end of the week. Oh, in my survivor pool, I bought four picks at the beginning of the year. I lost one when Buffalo lost week one.

I picked them to beat Pittsburgh. The Steelers beat them. But I have three left. One of my three this week was Baltimore. And I was playing golf, and I had no idea. And I looked. I go, oh, nice. They won.

And I had a group chat of the guys in this pool, and they were like, buddy, you have no idea. He's buried a 66-yarder, longest field goal in history to win off of the bottom of the crossbar and then rolls in. So had I been watching, there's no chance he probably misses it by 20 yards. But I just thought it was an easy win when I looked at the score app. So the cherry on top is I want to say somebody who was recording it behind. You remember

when Big Cat ended up going to the game with those guys who were in those silly hats? The most ridiculous night ever. Detroit Don and someone else, I think it was. So he ends up kicking it against Detroit and somebody who was videoing it had those guys in front of them in the shot and hits the crossbar and doinks

over. Oh, my. And, oh, yeah, what a treat. We've gotten pretty deep into the football talk. But, okay, so we might as well talk about Aaron Rodgers, or should we save that for the back end? Let's save that for the back end. Yeah, save that for the back end because we do have some hockey to get to. First off, we do have a guest.

We're not bringing him on quite yet. A little later in the show, we have Vegas Golden Knight goaltender Robin Leonard joined us for a nice lengthy chat, about an hour and a half, and very interesting fellow. We talked a little bit. He doesn't say much, though. He kind of kept to himself. I don't know if you guys will like the interview.

He is a very opinionated guy, and we love guys when they come on and let it fly. And I don't know if you guys have seen some pictures online. He is looking absolutely shredded coming into the season. So this is a man on a mission, and I'm interested to see him in the starting role. Yeah, so a little later we'll bring him on. But like I said in the intro, we got some more drama up in Buffalo, the latest in the soap opera up there.

Unsurprisingly, Jack Eichel did feel his physical, given the situation with his neck. Then he was stripped of his captaincy. Of course, we've said before, he wants that artificial disc replacement. The team wants him to have the fusion surgery. It's crazy they're fighting so much over this. You've got to wonder if these shots are being called from somewhere up higher. Like if, I don't know, I mean, is Kevin Adams really digging his heels in this much

or is someone above him saying, hey, you've got to do this. He's a first-time GM. He's got to take his orders from the boss. But I don't know, man. It feels like this is getting done above his head. Pagula's got their hands so far up his ass. He's a puppet master at this point. Yeah.

This is, listen, I'll be honest. I thought there was not a chicken dick's chance in hell that this would be dragged out as long as it has. That's why I never really gave it much deep thought earlier on in the summer. I thought he was going to get moved over maybe towards the end of summer. This is just fucking embarrassing. This is a guy who should be getting ready for an Olympic year, a star in the NHL who's at the pinnacle of his career.

And I'll throw it over to you, but this is a fucking joke. Yeah, I said it from the beginning. And you're right. There is no chance you can give Kevin Adams shit for this. This is the Pagoulas telling him exactly what he's going to do and not giving in to the surgery that the player wants to get on his own body. And we actually talked to Robin Leonard about this because he was a part of some issues in Buffalo. Granted, it was a different staff and a different time years ago,

but he had opinions on what's happening to Jack. We're biased in a sense that we're friends with Jack Eichel, but in looking at the whole scenario, forget that. This is fucking insane that there's a player in the league, any player in the league, that wants

a surgery and that the team won't let him get it. And not only is it hurting the player, it's hurting the team. First off, he's getting paid. He's getting paid, dude. He got injured playing hockey.

This dude didn't get injured. Fucking on a motorcycle doing something off ice. Like this guy got injured in a game and now he can't play. The team gets nothing out of them. The team can't even trade them because they can't get an agreement with any other team on what surgery he needs. And the whole issue really stems from Buffalo being such a dumpster fire and really ruining this from the get-go. Now, I see their side in the sense that when the CBA was discussed and figured out, the teams ended up having control over, over players,

injuries and surgeries. That's definitely going to be looked into next time. The CBA is a, what do you, what do you call it? All right. What's the renegotiated, renegotiated,

whenever it is negotiated again, this will good job is there will be talks about this because it's a bad look for the entire league. Like you say, you're one of the best players in the league. One of the biggest young guns going. He's not even playing, and nobody has any clue when he's going to be playing. And he was skating all summer.

I talked to guys in Boston, flying around, looking unreal. Now he can't be hit. There's no contact, but he looks great. And you just feel for a guy. I don't care how much money he has. This guy loves the game of hockey. It's all he wants to do, and you're just sitting there in limbo right now. I listened to Elliot and Marek on 31 on 31 thoughts podcast and they were talking about how with tarasenko and

tarasenko requesting the trade from st louis his medical records were made to be seen and open to any team that wanted to see them in terms of talking trades they could look at it they could have their doctors look at it nobody's seen eichels So maybe at least come in, and Elliot said this, in terms of getting his medical records to any team who wants to see them, so at least they can have doctors give their opinions on what's going on, and maybe a trade could happen before the surgery goes down. But the whole thing is embarrassing. It really is embarrassing for the league.

It's embarrassing for the Sabres. And you're looking at a guy, you strip him of the C, and he's just going to be there getting paid. And where does this end, dude? Like, at what point is this like, is he going to play this year? So, Witt and R.A., and R.A., I'll ask you too. I don't know if it was Elliott Friedman who spoke on this. I believe that there are some packages from teams in place,

but some conditions on the package would have to be worked out as far as how much he actually ends up playing and of course if things don't go well with whatever surgery or whatever procedure he decides to get done they could they could get some of those conditions removed like like let's say it's an you know a first and second whereas if he only plays 30 games they end up getting the first rounder back or whatever it may be. So I don't know if that's playing a part into the fact that he's not getting traded. But Ari, I don't know how much more you have to chime in on this, but one of the biggest takeaways, and you might have talked about it

during the summer and mentioned this, and I don't want to spoil the whole Leonard interview, but one thing that I didn't realize is this fusion surgery that is it a guarantee that, that later in life that you're going to have to get more surgeries guarantee like a G like it's, it's a hundred percent fact, correct? Yeah. So, so a lot of the time, if you're a Buffalo Sabres fan and you're not maybe coming from the bias perspective that we are, cause we are a player's podcast,

but we often don't as a fan, you know, and you're rooting for the Buffalo Sabres and the organization, think about the player when he's done playing. And if, if you're telling me that he has to get the surgery where now he's committed to a lifelong amount of surgeries on his neck, because that's the procedure that the team wants him to get. I think that's fucking ridiculous.

And that's why I think that you mentioned that when they renegotiate the CBA, this needs to be looked into. And there needs to be some fine print put in for certain particular situations exactly like this. And that's why I say it's a fucking joke because they're essentially saying you have to get this surgery and then you're committing to your life getting these surgeries where I haven't talked to many people who have had this, but I'd imagine surgery after surgery. There are no guarantees. When I had my L5 S1, when I went and talked to the doctor, they said, last resort, you want to get like that type of surgery where they go in and do something like that now i don't know if fusion was exactly the type of thing they wanted to do for the herniated disc and l5s1 but they even said they said there's you there are no guarantees after you get surgery it could be even something very minor so i don't know i'll leave it at that i know i get a little bit fired up but this is is just, it sucks because we need the bad look.

The league needs its stars playing and shining. And I think, you know, Kevin Adams, I imagine he has some empathy for Jack. He was a player himself. So he knows like, this is probably fucked up. Like, okay, you can come back, but only if you get this particular surgery and it's major shit, man, it's not a sprained ankle. It's not a broken arm. And you know, I think the other thing too, with Adam's business, like this was kind of foisted upon him, like, you know, so he's,

he's not obligated to trade him. Obviously he knows he wants out of here, but he's not going to just take the first best deal that's out there. And I think at this point we know whoever, whoever does get them has to probably accept that they're not going to have them playing for however, six, eight, 10 months, 12 months, however long the surgery is going to take to convalesce from. So, you know, I think it's way less healing time with the disc replacement as well. And, you know,

they can build that in like biz said, as far as like, give a, give a couple of draft picks. And if he plays X amount of games, you could take them away, make them conditional, that type of thing. But at the bottom line is you still have a 24, what? 25 year old stud who's in the prime of his career after the surgery, he should be the same player. Teams are still going to be hungry for him.

Eventually, I don't know if a team's going to start shitty and have to make a move, but I can't really blame Adams for sitting here and waiting for the best deal because this isn't a situation he really created or asked for. And he doesn't control it now. Right, and that too. I also have a feeling if he was like, listen, I kind of want to just part ways with this situation personally,

I don't think that he's the one where the deals are going across his desk where he gets to okay it or not. I feel like... Yeah, not when it's a $10 million contract. That's not something a freshman GM is saying. Is there any other... Now, granted, pro sports is different, but is there any industry or job in the world

where your employer can tell you what surgery you have to get like i wonder what the nfl or nba standards are in something like this but it is a wild scenario right now to talk about somebody's body and what you have to do to get healthy again not just to play hockey but like you said biz to live the rest of your life life and comfort and and you're sitting around you got a team telling you you have to get this certain surgery. It's like, what world are we living in? It sounds crazy to me.

Yeah, it's nuts. And Ari, I know we've touched on it a while. Was it you who mentioned Tarasenko? Whit just did briefly, but it was a different point, I think, than you were making. Here's another guy who has a trade demand out there and everything's kind of going ho-hum. You know, like Whit said, the medical evidence is is known but even just the way the coaches are treating him

and his teammates like all right they all accept in the room he's he wants to be traded but they're just kind of going with business about usual business sounds like i i feel like that'll be rekindled it's apparently he's been there skating with the guys and and you know he came in and uh back into camp in incredible shape and i don't, I feel like this is a relationship that can be restored. And, you know, I think that Tarasenko still has a lot of game left. He's made a massive impact to that organization. Stanley Cup champion. Although, was he injured when they ended up winning it?

Was he out with a shoulder? No. Or was he still in the lineup? Maybe I'm confused here. I blocked out on that. He played in the cup final. Oh, did he? Okay.

I don't know. You got me doubting myself. I'm pretty sure he was on the ice celebrating with the boys. Yeah. But either way, I mean, it's nice to see that sometimes it's maybe the miscommunication. And I think that when we end up getting over to the Kirill Kaprizov deal that ended up getting signed, sometimes there's such a disconnect between general managers and even the players, just because they have so much to worry about.

Maybe Tarasenko wasn't feeling the love based on what he'd provide the organization. It seems like it is something right now that they are maybe rekindling. So I hope the best. There were some quotes from him here. I guess I got them right here. I could read them off. So bear with me for the next 30 minutes.

He goes, we always love the St. Louis community. We always try to help the community as much as we can. Me and my family, we're very grateful for those people who support us through this last nine years, especially this summer. We received a lot of support. I'm grateful. And then Berube wrote, or Berube's quotes were, I really don't believe it's a distraction at all. He's been here for a while, skating with the guys, being with the guys,

hanging out with the guys. I thought he looked excellent out there today. He's been part of this team for a long time. Yeah, things happen in the summer times or things are said. I don't go into it at all let me restart that i don't go into it all that much i don't worry about that he's here playing hockey for us so i coach him that's it it's not a distraction in my opinion so maybe i'm making too much of uh the tummy sticks going on in the media and the fact that terrasango saying

he loves the community and Berube saying that he's not a distraction so I don't know if you're a St. Louis fan I'd imagine you don't want to let go of a 40 goal score who I'm sure after you know having a great offseason training could have so a lot to provide this organization yeah we'll keep an eye on it like I said just because a guy wants to be traded biz doesn't mean the team has to trade them as we see I mentioned exhibition games have started i think pretty much all the teams have played at least one game seattle played in spokane washington pretty raucous crowd they beat vancouver five to three i thought those jerseys

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All right. You having a Bloody Mary? No. Go ahead. No. No. It's just a Christmas glass. Oh, okay.

Okay. I saw Santa Claus, and I thought that was the red of a tomato juice. Yeah, a local brewery. There's so many breweries in Massachusetts now. It's awesome. I'm a beer snob. I like my high-octane IPAs. A couple people were tweeting about the progression of how tipsy you were getting last pot, R.A.

I like it. You like to relieve the stress a little bit with a few cocktails? Last week, maybe because it was the first one back, I said, let me have one to take the edge off.A. I like it. You like to relieve the stress a little bit with a few cocktails? Last week, yeah, it was maybe because it was the first one back. So let me have one to take the edge off. I didn't notice you. I didn't notice you being drunk. Usually I do. It's like you have three or four beers

over the course of two, three hours. Well, if they're 16% IPA, yeah, you're going to be crippled. But I think it can enhance, especially if I'm not feeling myself. It can get me a little loosey-goosey when I need to be. Oh, hey, I forgot to mention last episode, guys. Jake Tebow.

I don't know if you remember the name. That's the kid who was paralyzed from Milton Academy. He's the senior hockey player. I got to go visit him at Spalding Rehab. Unreal guy. Huge fan of the show. I know all you guys gave him a call. He really appreciated it.

But I got to meet him, so I'm going to go hang out a call. He really appreciate it, but I got to meet him. So I'm going to go hang out next week as well. Watch some hockey when it gets going with him. But this kid, I wanted to shout him out. I know you're listening, buddy. It was a pleasure meeting you. And for anyone who doesn't know him, heart of a lion, dude, this kid's spirit is unreal. It's just, he's, he's convinced I'm going to walk again every day. He's like working as hard as he can on his rehab.

He's talking about getting hard as he can on his rehab. He's talking about getting different trial type stuff that, that different doctors and scientists are working on for people with paralysis. So shout out to Jake and an unreal person. And I can't wait to spend more time with your buddy. So I wanted to shout him out. Good job. I got to see him myself too.

I talked to him last week as well. Great, a great kid, just a tremendous spirit. When he refers to himself as fortunate, it could have been worse. It just, you know, his perspective is in a good spot. So another story. This is one that would have even come out a couple weeks, months back,

whatever. We didn't want to bring it up because it was basically gossip, but the NHL got involved, so we kind of had a report on it. Well, Evander Kane was cleared of any wrongdoing regarding allegations that he gambled on hockey or somehow affected the outcome of games, which we thought was kind of preposterous from the jump. The NHL investigated the claims that were posted on social media by his ex or soon to be ex-wife and found absolutely nothing there. The league also said that they were aware of separate allegations made in divorce filings in the monitor monitor, those ones as well. But they're from the same person. They already found out was basically full of shit on these ones.

So basically, Evander Kane didn't gamble on hockey per the NHL. And there was nothing to indicate he could throw a game because that, like I said, that seemed surprised. The best player from the team ended up being cleared of throwing games. Yeah. So anyways, like I said, just reporting it. We had a report when it dropped. So we're reporting he's been exonerated of all such things.

So some fun stuff. Signings. We always love to talk about the signings. And after much back and forth and some silent treatments, the Minnesota Wilds signed called the trophy winner and restricted free agent Kirill Kaprizov to a five-year, $45 million deal. He's got a no-move clause for the last two years.

He'll be 29 when the deal ends, so he can still make some nice cabbage. He had, let's see, 51 points in 55 games last year, and he has the highest average annual value with the fewest number of games played since the salary cap has been implemented. He had 99 out of 100 first-place votes for the call the last year, and his one other vote was second place. The only other major award winner in wild history is Jacques Lemaire, who won the Jack Adams back in 2003.

It felt like a no-brainer, obviously, for the wild to get done. It seemed like it wasn't going to at a certain point. I don't think anybody really thought he was not going to end up back in Minnesota. Did you, Whit? No, I never did, and it was pretty funny because at the press conference what comedy hour it was worth the wait based on garen's comedy hour at the press conference yeah the one of the reporters asked him like was there really a chance you were gonna ever play in the

khl he's like oh god no garen's like, you might want to not include that for your next fucking salary demands in five years. He goes, you shouldn't answer that because you're screwing the next guy who's using that as a negotiation tactic. Oh, the next guy. I thought he said, you're screwing yourself next time you try to use it. But yeah, I mean, the guy is, he kind of changed the entire vibe like around that that team um i

i certainly used to shit on that team all the time for being like just so boring to watch play if they're on national tv or playing your team like you know i get the bruins games and in the end he's made them exciting to watch he's such a game breaker the highest uh average annual value or whatever the aV stands for, for like lowest games played. Am I wording that correctly? There's never been a higher salary with less games played, which is 55. So he kind of had him by the balls a little bit.

I know he was RFA. I wish I did know the differences in RFAs. There's all these different type of categories there can be. Needless to say, Minnesota got their guy a high price. But if you look at the production around the league and you look at Panarin and what he did after his first year, like, I don't think he's going to be slowing down. I would bet that Kaprizov is even better this year. So he's making a bunch of dough, but that team needs him and they ponied up and paid him. And so you just hope now that in those five years, this team can really get going on a different trajectory

that they've had in the past in terms of always middling around, barely making the playoffs or barely missing. Now they can really start going. And then in five years, if he's still a dominant player in the league, which I think everyone here and every fan that's watched him play believes, then he's going to maybe want to resign there when he's UFA. So now you've got to get this team good because he's going to be a certain builder for that entire organization as they get better i think that was one of the reasons why

it took so long for garen to figure out what he could give him because there were not really many comparables of any to what he could give him and one of the other funny things that happened during the press conference was they asked him about because the fact is it's an olympic year and he gave a long-winded reply in russian i think there was a translator and garen's like i know what you said we're coming for you because he's the assistant of the states now i think the first time that he really came on the scene was actually at that last olympics when the players didn't go because he was still playing in the khl at the time. And I would probably say the craziest gold medal game to ever happen in the Olympics when they – it was OAR.

I don't know what the initial standpoint – Olympic athletes of Russia. From all the doping, they weren't even team Russia. Yeah, because they were all getting shot in the ass with the Russian gas. But he ended up scoring the OT winner against Germany where I want to say Russia was up 3 or no Russia went up to one then Germany responded to tie it and then Germany ended up going ahead and then and then Russia tied it late so there was like crazy amount of action in that third period and then of course he became the hero

and and that's really when he popped on but even like going back like this guy started in the KHL as a 17 year old and mean, you played over there. I don't know how many 17-year-olds are ready to play in the fucking KHL. There's some on each team, but they don't play much. There's actually a kid, I think, on St. Petersburg. I wish I could think of his name that's like legit at 17. I've already seen some highlights. Yes.

Go ahead. No, no. I was just going to say that he also probably like turned he probably could have got double the payday in the khl he's taking a pay cut to play for the wilds well because when he threatened it people thought he was going to go back because he spent his first couple years in nova kud's nets and that's a place that we've talked about a few times on the podcast as not being maybe the best place to hang out with. Was that where Tim Stapleton played? No, it's where Sopal played.

Sopal played. Yeah, the crocodile. Yeah. The alligator or crocodile drug. It's disgusting. Yeah, and then he ended up going off to another place for one year, but then CSK Moscow had him for three years. So that's probably where you're assuming he got his bag,

and maybe he could have returned and got his bag. Oh, yeah, he could probably go there forever now and get another bag because uh i believe they want a title there and yeah he's the best player he would have been over sooner but he was under contract over there but the fact remains that i wouldn't be surprised if he's even better this season like i don't i don't i think this is just the beginning of what he's going to be i think he over a full 82 game season i think he's a 90-point guy. And even going back before that, that World Juniors, I think it was his second one. It was seven games.

He had nine goals. He was an absolute electric factory. So he really thrives for that big moment. And if you want to get a real breakdown of how the contract negotiations went down, did you end up reading that Michael Russo article? No. So Kaprizov was frustrated because he thought that this was going to be done earlier in the summer.

There was a bit of a holdout and there was not much dialogue going on, but in order to get ready for the season, he didn't tell the team, but he flew over to Florida. So he had his COVID shots and he was like already with the immigration situation and and got kind of settled in and then and then uh kaprizov's agent ended up reaching out to garen and he's like hey do you got time and he's like i'm in a meeting he's like yeah you might want to step out for this so he goes hey let's we need to sit down and have a serious talk so garen ended up flying down to florida and they sat down and

that's when i was talking about the tarasenko situation sometimes there's a bit of a disconnect and i think that that kaprizov wanted to understand maybe why he wasn't getting as maybe many years or as much money as he anticipated and and wanted to know what the future of the team held if this was going to be a contender and how maybe garen planned on doing it. So they had obviously great conversations there. They ended up inking the five-year deal. And then they shared a PJ back to Minnesota together. And he said they talked the whole time for three hours.

Now, Kaprizov's got some broken English and some of the dialogue was done with Google Translate. But if you could go check out, if you're really interested in one of the young up-and-coming stars in our league, Michael Russo wrote an incredible article. I read the whole thing. It only took me about two days. And I think you should check it out if you care about understanding the dynamic sometimes between these big contracts and how sometimes there's some miscommunication and dialogue.

I hate to break it to you, and I hate to break it to Russo, who, you know there's some miscommunication and dialogue i hate to break it to you and i hate to break it to russo who you know thinks he's so dialed in with the wild but you both have it wrong he was actually furious that they had sent him in the third group with the scrubs in camp after felino told us he never got over it and he wouldn't sign till they promised him never skate him with an east coast league slash ahL guy in camp again. Hey, wait, that 16 year old was Mateev Mishkov. Yes, Mishkov. I think he's I think they're looking at him for whatever 2024 draft or whatever it would be. 2023 project. So is that when?

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Back it up, because I was talking to Donor the other day. And speaking of these young stars coming up, the last time there was a legitimate, at least according to the serious talent evaluators slash scouts in the NHL, the last A-plus prospect in the draft was Austin Matthews, where they knew he was going to come in and he was going to dominate. Apparently, there's four in the next two years. Shane Wright, who's up this year and the year following there's three guys Connor Bedard

Adam Fantilli and this Dalibor Dvorsky that's the Russian kid so maybe Mishkov's the next year oh so there's another A pluser I I don't I mean granted I don't know about the A plus rating and how the scouts look at these can't miss guys the guys, the McDavid, Matthews, Patrick Canes, but this kid's in the KHL scoring goals for St. Petersburg, who's a top team every year, and I think he's 16 years old. He's got full cage on in the league, dude. Yeah, he does. So I just love seeing this.

It's every sport. It's every sport. The young guns are coming in. People are ready to dominate professional leagues at 18 years old. Football's a little different because you can't go until after three years from graduating high school. But it is wild to see these hockey players and how good they can be at such a young age.

It's so good for the game. Bingo. And that's kind of why I alluded to that. It's like we need the stars. We need them shining. We can't be losing them to the KHL. And going back to what I said about the rated A+, it doesn't mean that guys haven't turned out to be as as good as the austin matthews and haven't excelled to that level like kael mccarr was not ranked that when he was

drafted he's turned into an a plus type player but i'm just saying is that was the last time where they saw a guy and they're like this is a can't miss guy like if you draft him he is going to make an impact right away. Was it Matt Dumba who made Billy Guerin his camera bitch at the first pitch at the baseball game? Here you go, Jimmy Olsen, take my pitch. But he didn't even care. Billy Guerin is the coolest fucking guy in the world. That's the type of guy he is, though.

Yeah, he might be one of the cooler cats to play in the NHL in the last, like, 30 years, I would say. Everyone loves him. And they asked, they said they said you know were you upset at all and he goes no i never took it personally bill garen was a guy who sat out twice in contract negotiations during his career so i was talking about the camera not not the the no no no okay i just i tell you sorry i moved away from that but yeah they i think they were at a Minnesota Twins. Yeah, first pitch. Yeah, he's like, yeah, take a picture.

I kind of did that to Ken Casey from the Dropkick Murphys after the Bruins won the Stanley Cup. Like, I don't know him. I mean, I know who he was, obviously, the Dropkick Murphys. And I was sitting there with Sean Thornton. And I had an old-school camera, like, you know, with film. And I was like, hey, Ken, can you take that picture? And he kind of looked at me as if to be like, who's this guy? I don't know you.

But then I think he realized if he said no, it would have been kind of a dick move, given it was like a Stanley Cup celebration. So he took the camera and took the picture. So, Ken, if you're wondering who that guy who yelled your name was randomly that night, it was me. You pigeon-tossed him. Yeah, I got to get that picture. I got to dig it out, too. So a couple other sign-ins, too.

Buffalo, they signed cornerstone defenseman Rasmus Dahlin to a three-year, Yeah, I got to get that pitch. I got to dig it out, too. So a couple other signings to Buffalo. They signed Cornerstone defenseman Rasmus Darlene to a three year, 18 million dollar deal. The 21 year old is going into his fourth season. He was the number one pick in the 2018 draft. Whit, I'll go you again. You're the other defenseman on the show. Have you been satisfied with his progress?

Do you think Buffalo has been holding back? Do you think he's on pace? What's your take? Tough one to say, because I'm actually surprised he wasn't one of those A-plus prospects. I remember his world junior and what everyone said leading up, no-brainer first overall pick, future Nick Lidstrom type. I mean, to say that about a defenseman sounds crazy, but the discussions on him were game- breaker, Connor McDavid of defense. And at times he has looked amazing. His skating's ridiculous, his puck handling.

The team he's on sucks. He's not great defensively, but he hasn't been really taught or played on a team that makes it easy on a young defenseman to get the job done defensively. So I think right now, if you ask Sabres fans, they probably would have thought they would have had a little more after three years of him being in the league.

But I still think there could be true greatness ahead of him, right? It depends on where his team goes. It depends on his game and if he continued to get better. But I think the whole offensive side of the game and the puck handling and the skill is all there to be one of the best. It's the defensive zone and being completely well-rounded and a true number one defenseman and being able to play in your own zone as well

that the question remains. I don't know. It's really hard to judge players on the Buffalo Sabres. It sounds bizarre, but it's true. Yeah, I would say that if you're a Sabres fan, you might be like, quote-unquote, frustrated at the growth between when he came in his first year but as you said like there's a massive anchor there and the fact that the rest of the

team around him has not gotten any better in fact it's gotten worse so it's really really difficult to judge this guy but he is a a top caliber pairing defenseman in the nhl there's no doubt about that i just think with the guys around him he hasn't been able to make the impact that he's eventually going to make in this league so i think it's a a great deal um you know it's it's it's quite a bit of coin i mean i'm surprised i'm surprised were you surprised that they didn't lock them in a little longer or at least try i don't know if he'd want to uh i don't i don't know if they'd want to because of some of the inconsistencies i don't think anyone knows what the hell's going on there i you know what i mean it's like you you like we said you can't blame kevin adams i don't think all the decisions are on on him i think that he's

the puppet being puppeteered whatever the fucking word is and in the end there's a lot to be had with this player there's a lot to be seen, but I think that he could be great still. That's what I'm, that's what I mean. Even though there last year, there were some rough patches. And he will be RFA after this contract expires as well. So I guess you can look at it somewhat of as a bridge deal,

I guess, biz. And what I mean by that too, I haven't watched him that in depth. I'm not saying that he hasn't progressed since his first year. That was his highest point total given one of those years was COVID in a shortened season. But his defensive game might have progressed. But I think that that leap that they're expecting is still yet to come. All right, moving right along. Columbus Blue Jackets extended our goaltender Elvis Merz

Lekins to a five-year $27 million deal. Comes out to $5.4 million average annual value. He's got a modified no-trade clause. All five years, he would have to submit a 10-team no-trade list. That kicks in next season. He's making $4 million this year. And his tandem partner, Yunus Korpisalo, has one year left at $2.8 million. He'll be unrestricted after this year. But Merzlikens, I mean mean it's a a small uh what's

not body what's the word small sample size 54 starts a 21 21 and 13 uh 254 goals against with a pretty impressive 920 save percentage seven shutouts uh this kid he's a great goalie man uh what we've seen him in so far seen out of him so far uh i was nice i was happy to see him get the money biz yeah and you continue to see this trend where there's not necessarily necessarily the biggest sample size when they're getting all this money but i kind of see a a trend where they're trying to lock in this guy and then it's eventually going to be probably a two goalie system because they got a couple studs in that in that uh in that system so what's his aav at just over five five four yeah so I mean if you can get a you know a

top caliber goalie under six million nowadays you know you're you're laughing especially with where the cap's headed so what what we've seen of him he's proven himself but I mean with it's it's it's really I would say if there's one position where it's hard to predict it's it's the goaltending position and I know nothing about it but uh I mean good for him for locking that in with such a small sample size perfectly said goaltending is just so much depth it just changes so so frequently now that there's so many good young and upcoming goalies that can hop in and show that they could do the job so when you say there's so many question marks around it I think part of it is that nowadays you just don't know how quickly you can lose your job. Somebody comes in, you get injured, somebody comes in, they start winning.

Look at all the stories the past few years of guys that have just come in and out of nowhere seemingly and stolen starting roles. And this is a situation where like if you can get Corpus Allo and him both playing good hockey and you can get your both your goaltenders locked in for 10 million long term you're in good shape because i mean you see what bobble got in florida and there's just no guarantees in that so with having with having that one two punch they're going to be in good shape for a long time just a reminder that they gave mabrovsky that contract after they drafted spencer. It's amazing. Wild, wild, wacky stuff.

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Maybe I would have used them if I didn't have Katie on waivers right now for lining me up for the worst fucking haircut of all time. Can we put the pictures up? Grinnell, he posts this picture that I ended up sending with. The funniest part about it is I get a FaceTime call from Jans, and I'm like, oh, he's calling to check in. And he goes, show me your haircut. So she lines me up with this guy already. So when she first got to town, she reached up to a couple of her girlfriends to be like, Hey, where can I get my hairstyle? So she ended up going in,

she got a cut. She enjoyed it. But she's like, this guy was the most obnoxious guy that I've ever been around in my entire life. So I normally go to a barber and I get the fades done. So now that my hair went crazy, I needed somebody to style it like a Tik TOK star. So we ended up, she ends up lining this up or she, excuse me. She messaged him. She goes, do you know anybody who could style men's hair? Here's my boyfriend, Sal. And he goes, well, when's he need it by she says well in the next couple days so he goes come she i think the guy goes come by at 5 30 tonight so perfect so we line up a haircut we're heading over the most annoying guy in the world the most buddy my my blood tell you that before she so this keep in mind i don't know this this is something that i found out afterward oh she did you so dirty dude but i say

afterward i i got to experience it while we're driving to the haircut she goes just the heads up okay this guy's extremely obnoxious and i'm like oh whatever i'm going to be in the chair for 30 minutes if he dials in my salad who gives a fuck i'm like i'm fucking painful who cares i mean people listen to me talk for hours on this thing so and then she goes oh yeah also he was in an atv accident last week so he's a little banged up right now so i'm like okay i mean we're fucking pulling in as i'm being told this so i i get in there and he's everything is advertised on top of the fact that he probably just did a big bowl of wolf because this guy didn't shut the fuck up for 35 fucking minutes. So as soon as I sit down in the chair, he's like, well, how do you want to style? I said, well, I want it shorter on the sides.

I wanted to blend it up to the top and I want to leave the length in the top. I said, I do like to get my neck cleaned up with the with the clipper, though. The you know, the. Yeah. So he goes, OK, okay perfect we'll do that before we wash your hair awesome he literally go i got you know how at the at the back of your head where sometimes it goes into a little bit of a point he just literally goes takes the point off and then he started and then he grabs his scissors out in in the in the brush and i said and now i'm on

my fucking heels like mc Like McDavid's coming down on me one-on-one work on my goddamn triangle. So I said, wait, you said, you said you were going to wash it before we start cutting. He's like, oh yeah. So then we walk over to him to forget. So now I'm fucking reminding him of his job. Okay. So I don't know if he, like I said, he took a couple of ketokes, whatever it was. So we walk over to, to, to, to get my hair washed. I have an SOS pad. My mom's half black. That's one thing that I inherited was a very, very thick hair. So he puts me down in this chair and proceeds to spray the water gun at my head for five seconds. So basically one strand of my hair is wet. No, it bounces off your hair.

It hit him right back in the face like you need to do at least five minutes on your head so my hair is actually damp my hair is actually drier than when i sat down uh so he puts shampoo in proceeds to shampoo my head for about five to ten seconds sprays my head for another five seconds puts conditioner in starts rubbing my head for about five to ten seconds sprays it for five seconds all right we're good to go that's supposed to be like an eight minute experience when you're getting your hair washed at the end listen do i need a full scalp massage no but wash my hair properly and get it ready to go and get the full thing wet so you can cut it with i am

i'm like shaking at this point walking back to see and. And as I said, he's got me on my heels, so I can't abort the mission at this point. I'm walking back and I run my hand through my hair, shampoo and conditioner in the palm of my hand. So I sit down and he just starts blabbing on. Mind you, Katie's sitting right next to me and she can kind of see something's up. He cuts one side of my hair and throw the picture up again. He cuts the one side 20 times he's blabbing along cuts a little off the top cuts the other side about two or three times and then he starts styling it with his fingers a little bit he goes all right how do you like it and katie

stands up she goes uh i think uh and she knows i'm gonna fucking lose it when we leave this place because she could see the look on my face. So she goes to the side where you only caught a couple of times. She's like, I think you need to take a little bit more off this side. So he starts cutting a few more times. And then, and then she's like, and she starts to chime in.

I said, Nope, looks great. What do I owe you? He goes 30 bucks. I tip him 10. We get out of there. As soon as we walk out,

she goes, are you going to text Mike? The guy who normally cuts my hair. I said, I've already sent the fucking text. So Katie's on waivers. She went right from the show to the ECHL. So we're riding the sleeper bus eating soggy subs for at least a month here.

So it's amazing what he was able to do from the picture you sent me to what it looks like now. Is the back line a nightmare, though? No, no, it's not. It's got to grow in a little bit but one of the details i forgot to mention when i got back to the seat you know how after it's a little bit wet they start combing it in order to like get it going before they cut it every time that he put the brush in my head it got stuck because of the curls he didn't try to

keep going to get it through he just went till it got stuck and then like pried the brush out and then did it again and then pried the brush out never once did he actually go all the way to comb it through so i want to fight the fucking guy in rough and rowdy grinnelli vacation after that like that's like and it's a tough day and everybody listening to this has been to a haircut where they know that the minute they sit down it it's not going to go well. Although, R.A., you might be a special case because you're kind of an off the glass and out. Like, how long have you just been shaving your head? About 20 years now. I mean, obviously, I'm not consistent.

I'll let it grow out and then blow the barber once in a while. But I initially shaved it about 20 years ago when I looked and realized I was living a lie. But I initially shaved it about 20 years ago when I looked and realized I was living a lie. And based off the picture and the fact that my sideburns when I left there were longer than the hairs on top of my head. So I think anybody who's watching this on YouTube has seen how fucking ridiculous my head looked after I left there. One of the worst haircuts I've ever seen. Ever seen. I thought Ashton Kutcher was going to pop out. I thought I was being punk, but I guess not.

So no more Blue Nile for Katie. And sorry for wasting everybody's time with that story. That's quite all right, Biz. Everybody enjoys your stories on here. And actually, this next signing pretty much carries the same theme as the previous one. Elvis Merzlikin signed a pretty good deal. Not a ton of starts.

Well, the LA Kings inked a goaltender, Cal Peterson, to a three-year, $15 million extension. He's got a modified no-trade clause. Ten teams he doesn't want to go to if they ask. He's only got 50 career starts in the NHL, 19, 25, and 6, with a 2-7-9 goals against, 9-1-6 save percentage and a shutout. What's interesting is the first year of his extension is the last year of Jonathan Quick's deal. So, again, it's very similar to the Corpozalo-Mers-Leakens thing

where this guy, hey, you got a guy on a contract here, might play his balls off versus a guy going into his extension. So, either way, you wonder what the future is of Jonathan Quick in L.A. going forward, Biz. Also interesting. I mean, he's probably going to play mentor and then play 30 games. I would say that Cal Peterson's probably got the net as far as this season. Even if it's 50-50, you get to ease your next goaltender into things

and not just throw him into the fire, which is, to me, a perfect situation. And I was fortunate enough to play in Ontario with Mike Stothers and he'd been raving about this guy since he got there. I want to say he played at Notre Dame. Classic biz right here. Oh, Peterson, you're talking about? Yep. Give it to me.

Give it to me. Please have it be like correct good job biz suck on that whip dog so it is yeah i i just want to see what the king's got this year that's one of those teams i don't know how it's gonna go i think they could they could be good it's also so early and a lot of these young guys they've brought in by field different players i i am excited to see where they go though well that and uh and uh who's the kid from montreal they brought in god i'm drawing a blank i blew my load i don't know to know i mean doughty was talking about it on 31 thoughts he said he's sick of losing and and blakey had to make some moves in order to bolster that lineup so they're very very, very strong down the middle.

And now that allows Quinton Byfield to probably play third-line center. If not, they may move him to a wing position on the top six. Yeah, play wing a little bit. Yeah, so I think they're in a good situation, and I'm really interested to see what happens in that Pacific division. Pretty nice. What's that? I was going to say pretty nice raise for Peterson going for my 858

and change up to $5 million when the extension kicks in next year. Yeah, but then you get California taxes, so he's right back to 850. Time for 5 million. I make 1.2. That's an IOU. That's as good as money. Another one more signing here. The blue sign.

I want the Lamborghini. I want to keep that one. Forward Robert Thomasomas two years 5.6 mil the 22 year old had 12 points and 33 games played last year so i know he looked great when they're on their run to the cup and i know he battled injuries like that's a guy who could pop off at a nice number i love saying pop off biz gave me that word years ago but he could have a lot to say about st louis bouncing back and he's not making a ton of money sorry we were interrupting you there we're having a little fun i wasn't listening

to you guys when i get interrupted i just keep going i'm like a freight train i didn't i didn't can you repeat what you said though because i didn't hear it i just said that thomas could be nice and he doesn't make a lot of money and it's a pretty good signing by our boy doug armstrong who also got re-signed. Five more years for big game Doug. You know all the people we brought in on a PTO? The PTO master. Real deal. The real deal. Get a hat trick.

Listen, I don't put too much stock into preseason but plan the Leafs parade. Leafs are losing right now in Montreal. Are they? Sell the farm. But yeah, James Neal, man, he needs a bounce back year. And I would imagine they're going to sign him for probably league veteran league minimum.

And he's probably going to put 40 tucks in the back of the net. So off to a hot start. And I mean, yeah, the real deal, James Neal in St. Louis, maybe one of the reasons why they probably were able to get rid of Sanford. They ended up trading him off the Ottawa. They got Logan Brown back. I was going to get to all that.

Yeah, Charlie. We had a little St. Louis Blues bubble here. Yeah, you just mentioned they signed you guys, boy, Doug Armstrong, who brought you guys in for some per DMs a few years back. They signed him to a five-year contract extension that will take him through 2026. He's also the general manager of Team Canada in Beijing next year as well. The Blues also announced that Peter Chiarelli has been named vice president of hockey operations

and that Ken Hitchcock will rejoin the organization as a coaching consultant. And that move I was just about to get to, where is it here? Yep, St. Louis traded forward Zach Sanford to Ottawa for forward Logan Brown in a conditional fourth and 22. 26-year-old Sanford had 16 points in 52 games last year. He's got one year left at $2 million. The 23-year-old Brown had nine points in 13 AHL games last year. He's had the injury bug bite him a couple times, making 750 grand this year. The conditional draft pick is removed from the deal

if Brown plays more than 30 NHL games this season. Kind of like we were talking about with Eichel earlier, I guess, as far as trade value. If a guy plays X amount of games, they'll determine draft picks on that. But either way, Sanford to Ottawa for Logan Brown in a conditional fourth. It looks like one of those trades maybe that might benefit both guys who could probably use a change of scenery. Yeah, and going back to Sanford, I guess I'll say probably the best memory

of a cup parade, him puking on the driver because he was so buckled from the night before. I think he was buckled from that day. Yeah, and that day. He was trying to get the hair of the dog in him to chase it away. He ended up yucking on the driver in that drop top. But I tell you what, man, he was really, really big in that cup run for the St. Louis Blues.

He was one of the guys involved in that altercation that got them going, wasn't he? Yes, he's the one who got beat up by Bobby Ortuzzo. Yeah, Bobby, you know Ortuzzo. You know, you know, you know. So, I mean, Sanford, man, he was very impactful in his time there. And as far as them bringing in Logan Brown, you mentioned that injury bug, R.A.

I think he even dealt with it a little bit in junior. Up and down between the minors in Ottawa, you know, maybe adds a little depth at that center position, and Army's seeing a little bit more than i guess maybe what other people are so we'll see i mean it's it's people put a lot of stock into these guys and how much they perform earlier in their careers but i mean the guy is only 23 years old and some guys are just you know late bloomers so yeah going to an organization like st louis with a lot of good wily veterans surrounding them surrounding him, I think maybe he could take that next step and become a full-time NHLer.

And he's from there. It's cool. He's from St. Louis. So maybe that really gives him a jolt. He probably always wanted to play for the Blues. Now he's going home. Home cooking. Home cooking.

All right. A few of the player notes here before we get to Robin Leonard. Our buddy Hazy had to get a little surgery. He got abdominal surgery. I guess he was skating, felt a little tweak. He did have the hernia issue back earlier this year. He's going to miss about the first nine or ten games. He also spoke with the media about losing his brother

and how much the hockey community has rallied around him and supported him. And it breaks your heart to see Kev up there talking like that, but it was nice to hear him acknowledge, you know, how kind the greater hockey community has been to him with. Yeah, it was great. And you talked about all these different people who reached out to him and former and current teammates who showed up to Jimmy's funeral and services.

And I think it's also cool that he mentioned how close him and Keith Yandel are and the fact that they're living together this year helps out a ton. It sucks to see him get injured, he'll get back get healthy and be there for most of the season it's just a bummer to begin your season uh going under the knife and with with something you've dealt with in the past and not to make light of his surgery but um you know that when I got face call FaceTime call from Yance he was there in the room because you said they're living together and I think that he got just as bad as a haircut on his ball bag as I did on my head from the nurse before his surgery.

Because he still had sideburns off the side of his horn, much like the guy who cut myself. Like those things of hair Jewish people have? What are those, tendrils? I don't know. That would be a question for RA. Do you know what that? What are those, tendrils? I don't know. That would be a question for RA. Do you know what that is? Is that a tendril? Jewish Orthodox people?

Look it up, G. Some of the curly Qs on the side. Is that called a tendril? Is that on a fish? If you get this, I will lose it. I think a tendril is part of an animal. Is it a peyote? What's a tendril?

Google tendril. A tendril is like an antenna or some sort of thing with an animal, if I'm not mistaken. Oh, man, you were way off. Oh, man. You've had two gloves on the entire time? Oh, my God. That is dash five.

Oh, you were kind of close. A tendril is a slender thread-like appendage of a climbing plant, often grown in a spiral form that stretches out. It's basically like a vine. You had a couple tendrils on the side of the morn. That's probably the more politically correct way to say about it. So actually, you get plus five there, Whitdog. I don't know how Jewish Orthodox people got dragged through the mud there

talking about tendrils. There's a curly Q aspect to it. If you look at the pictures there. So I wonder if they act called Tendril. We'll just have Hazy send us a picture and we'll get that on where Biz's haircut picture's on. Maybe he actually had the same guy cut his ball bag before surgery that cut my salad.

Yeah, Tendril. Also, something. He was the one who planned the whole thing. It was a giant prank. We haven't told you yet. Has he had any good ones lately? Something also. And Foley was the one who planned the whole thing. It was a giant prank. We haven't told you yet. What is it? Has he had any good ones lately? No, he slowed down. He's just fairly close.

He's an Instagram influencer now, so he's not a prankster. That's right. He missed like a four footer the other day to break 80 for the first time in his life. Hey, what about making him the first non-hockey player to join a sandbagger? Maybe him and Ned Havern together. Oh, dude, I think that that would be an absolute monster hit. Now, people viewing would be like, who are these people? It would be if we have viewers of sandbaggers who don't listen to the pod,

which there might be some, they might be like, who are these guys? But if you listen to the pod, you know about Foley and Ned, you're tuning in and it would be exactly what you think it would be. Oh, we got Yans and Moths from the rink shrinks at some point too. Okay. But I'm pretty sure every person listening knows the guy who threw me a beautiful saucer pass on a five on three. No look behind the back.

No look behind the back to thinking I was going to step into this thing and get him a nice primary assist. His first five on three time of the back. No look behind the back to thinking I was going to step into this thing and get him a nice primary assist. His first five-on-three time of the year. Yeah, because our boy, Nettie Havert, he played at BC, and he was more of a role guy there, but he was playing power play in the ECHL with the Wheeling Nailers when I was on the team. And we've told this story before, but he throws it back to me

and thinking I was going to step into it, and I'm at center ice fighting Lane Manson 6'10 for the Dayton Bombers. So yeah, we should definitely get him in foals in the action and maybe RA on the commentary. 6'10, Jesus Christ.

Every time I tell the story, he gains an inch. He's going to be 7'4 by the end of our contracts at Barstool in 10 years. Let's see. All right. A couple more notes, boys. Edmondson goalie Alex Stalock is likely out for the season due to a possible hot issue, GM Kenny Holland

said. Hopefully he'll get better. I hate to hear anything like that, especially to do with the ticker. Pittsburgh GM Ron Hextall said Evgoni Malkin is going to miss the first two months of the season, so Sid and Gina will both be able to start. We'll obviously keep note of that in the gambling corner once the league starts back up. All right, can I hop in here quick on the Pittsburgh talk?

Yeah. Where does Pittsburgh go from here? Like, I'm not saying hit the panic button by any regards. Like, that's a very, very difficult division now. Like, even New Jersey's not a pushover. A good start to the season is going to be very important. So they're out with Sid who they said he's going to miss max six weeks. And then they got Gino out of the lineup.

Thankfully, they ended up trading for Jeff Carter, who's going to be strength at center in their absence. But like, do you think they're going to make playoffs this year? I don't know. It could be a real struggle for them. And I actually read some tweets from Rob Rossi. He's been on the Penguins' beat in Pittsburgh sports for 20 years now, I think. And he said their prospect pipeline is absolutely bone dry.

He said there's not much there. And so I don't really know. I mean, this is what happens when you have such a good team for so long. If Sid and Gino are in the lineup, everything's a different story. But with them out, are they going to be able to win games? Are they going to be able to score at all? So they're going to need goaltending and team defense until they get those guys back.

Even Jeff Carter, it's not enough, right? If he's just up there alone, first line center, then after that, you're mixing and matching guys who never really played at that role. So I was on the Mark Madden show and he asked me that exact question. Like, are they going to make playoffs? I'm like, where do they go from here? Mind you, the year they ended up winning, I want to say their second cup.

Letang was injured. They did not have, at least on paper, a very good back end. I think Dumoulin might have been their best defender. That was when Ian Cole had a big playoff run. But what they did is they got goaltending from Murray. Let's see what Jari can do. I love a comeback story. He did not have a good playoff

last year. But if they're able to keep, I guess, afloat, and then they get Sid, Gino, and then Carter at third-line center, I mean, that's kind of what they had when they won that second cup. So I guess you could never count them out. But, I mean, the years are dwindling here for their window.

So like Darren Drager said, Crosby to the avalanche. Montreal's Mike Hoffman, he failed his physical as well. He could be out for up to four weeks. Of course, he signed a three-year, $13.5 million deal with Montreal, so he'll want to get healthy so he can get paid. Washington, they unveiled the first NHL jersey with an ad on it. It's not going to take effect until next year. They're going to have a rival gambling company will be on their home jerseys.

They're a rival company, so we're not going to say their name, but they're going to have a logo above the right titty. But they are the first team to acknowledge having advertisements on the jersey, so that's why we're reporting it. That's all. I said above the right titty. Because some teams, Paul, like they might have diagonals, so they don't know.

Each team is going to be able to decide where to add. It can only be like three by three and a half inches. It's got to be either here or here. So something like the ranges with the diagonal letter, and then, you know, we'll have to go on the opposite side. Basically like get rid of the spoke B for the Bruins.

We can get an extra 50 K. If you just put the ad in the middle of the chest, don't worry about the logo. I, and one last one before we send it over to Robin Leonard, the cross check and rolls. It's one of these situations where the league's like, oh, we're going to crack down on it.

And it basically just sounds like they're going to enforce rules that have already been on the books for the last 100 years. I don't know if you guys remember the lockout in 2005. All they did was just call the rules that were already on the books and just enforce them a lot more. So it just seems like that's all they're going to do is crack down on the cross-checking. Oh, so they're going to enforce it in pre-season and after a weekend of the season it's going to be back to normal i think i i honestly think that them emphasizing this rule

going in has everything to do with mayfield taking out one of kucherov's ribs in that conference final well i think it's just that there's no consistent standard paul where like like some games, some guys hit a guy two, three, four times, nothing happens, and the retaliation gets called, or a guy just hits the second one or the third one. There's just no consistency on it. So I think if you call that first fucking cross-check, guys are going to adapt, you know? Fair enough.

I think, I mean, 16 years later, right, when they crack down on all the obstruction hold and an obstruction hook, and any time a guy takes his stick off, I i'm sorry his hand off his stick in the offensive zone and grabs a guy it's an automatic penalty i think it's pretty much the last 15 years the ref automatically blows a whistle once a guy puts his open hand on a guy and ideally that's what we'll see with cross checking man that first one by the book should be a fucking penalty call it i i yeah i think yes ever since they took the can opener away i feel like that was like the next wave of how guys defended and correct me if i'm

wrong when guys are going when a defenseman especially is going down on a forward like in the corner they usually try to get their i think their their hands aren't too far apart on the stick they're fairly close but they try to just kind of get them right in that hip area in order to throw his hips off in order to contain him and, and eventually gain possession of the puck. Like, is that something that you used to do? No,

I would reach in and try to get the puck, but I, I know what you're saying, but they do teach stick on puck way more, but in terms of like trying to maintain a guy to where you keep them in front of you and keep them in the corner, like little cross checks with your hands together can certainly knock a guy off balance not the best players in the world but i think you're better off getting your stick on the ice trying to get you know get

it whether it's through his legs which then can be a trip or around them guys are so good now that when you do throw those little cross checks they can kind of spin off you and and if your sticks in the air in my opinion defending that way is never going to do the job because you can't even have a puck luckily deflect off your stick. If the guy's trying to make a pass, if you've got a parallel to the ice and you're cross checking a guy in the back. Now saying that though,

you do see it a lot as far as guys trying to defend that way. Right? So what you're saying is sticks on parks, stick on parks, parks in deep. Pucks on net. Yeah, Biz, they said stricter enforcement designed to promote offense and reduce injuries. So, I mean, if the refs are consistent in calling it, like I said. What do you mean?

They don't want the guys pissing blood? Nah. Only if they're $17 million over the cap. All right, boys. I've been teasing for a little bit here. Vegas Golden Knight Goldtender, Robin Leonard. But before we get to him, I want to let you know that this interview was brought to you by Cross Country Mortgage.

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I'd like to welcome our next guest to the show. A second round pick in the 09 draft, this goaltender is heading into his 12th NHL season and his third with the Vegas Golden Knights. He's a two-time winner of the Jennings Trophy, a Vezina finalist, and the winner of the 2019 Masterson Trophy. It's a pleasure to welcome to the Spittin' Chick with Podcast, Robin Lena. Robin, how's Vegas treating you, brother?

Good, good. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's been some time. Booth has been trying to get me on for a bit now. But I figured 12 seasons, so if it goes wrong here, I'm still happy with my career. If I get kicked out of the league. Let's see what we can do. It's been a good enough run where Biz hounding you.

You can only take it for so long. You had to give in at some point. You can join the podcast if anything goes wrong this episode leonard nice nice then i can put the really take the filter off i like that yeah oh yeah like you keep it on ever oh it's uh it's about 90 on these you know so so so you you floating it on twitter is 90% with you with a filter on. Yeah, 100%. How many hours before he gets kicked off Twitter if it was 0% biz? Oh, he'd be fucking pigeon toss. He'd be on that site that won't allow any of the liberals or whatever it is.

I don't even know. Telegraph. Telegraph is what it's called. Hey, so I get one stupid question to start things off and I couldn't find it online. How did you get the nickname Panda? It's not as mysterious as it's been.

Just the only thing that I didn't answer, but it's pretty simple. I watched Kung Fu Panda with my son a lot in Chicago. And, you know, it's my son a lot in Chicago. And, you know, it's actually a pretty good movie. I like it. Great movie.

You know, just the whole thing about it, this fat bear that, you know, learns to move around. And I just saw myself in him. You know, he learned how to play Kung Fu. I'm a big, fat goalie that plays in the NHL. It felt like it was fitting. Not anymore. Not anymore.

I mean, I've lost weight, but I wouldn't say I'm skinny. I'm trying. I'm trying. I got a few more weeks, but we will see. Yeah, but you're also into the boxing. Aren't you doing that stuff off? You got to be getting a little bit ripped if you're doing boxing class here and there.

No, I do a lot of it right now. I used to do it a lot back in the day, but now it definitely gets you in shape. But I would like to get a bit more and keep it going throughout the season, you know, help the body out a little bit. You know, I've been playing heavyweights for, you know, up and down in my career, but especially like last three years

for different reasons. But it doesn't necessarily affect my game that much. I just play a little bit differently. And I don't really get injured. So, but now i'm 30 and if i want to play no matter how how long i want to play you know i gotta you know cut it down a little bit i gotta ask about this jesse granger tweet that just come out a few hours ago something about you digging for snakes at mark stone's place what's what's this all about were you a snake hunter yeah just no matter what no no it happens with me all the time but no it was true you know Revo is really scared of snakes and we had a we had a little gathering at Stone's house and he lives

like you know his backyard it's uh it's very nice and then over the fence is the desert so i figured i go try to find some snakes to to give to revo and i didn't find any but apparently they showed up at stone's house a few weeks later so what are you gonna do just carry it over right to front of revo and just make them jump yeah that was the plan i i was i. It was hot. I was lifting rocks, going some snake holes, trying to find a rattlesnake or something, but I didn't find any. Have you seen one in your time there? Because I had one almost follow me into my garage a couple of years ago. There's actually a video online of me having a killer. Yeah, I've seen it. i've seen that one yeah hey how lucky was that that the garage ended up stopping it it landed right in the middle of it it stayed there the whole night i thought it was dead i went up to it and it was like so shit and it almost got me i i mean if you know what you're doing they're they're harmless well i don't know what i'm doing but

i fucking that's true just don't touch it he doesn't going back to Stoney, when we had him on last, he was saying sometimes in the locker room when Revo was on the team, you guys would get wrestling a little bit. And he says when your wires would cross, he said that there's nobody in the league that could fucking take you down. I mean, yeah, that's probably true. I mean, Revo's the best fighter in the league for sure. I mean, I couldn't, you know, with in the league for sure I mean I couldn't uh you

know with my gear and stuff I couldn't it would have been tough uh on the ice but uh you know there's a little bit of strength and weight difference I remember I think it was like second or second day when I got to Vegas me and Revo you know he wanted to try the bear out right away and he yeah he he flew across the room oh you tossed him nah yeah it didn't work out well but you know wrestling is you know it wasn't fighting you know we're just feeling each other out a little bit well we already talked about the boxing but i think uh i was reading that your your old man is an mma trainer as. Do you do a lot of the MMA-style training? No, not my old man. I have good trainers back home, but obviously here in Vegas, there's a lot of good trainers.

So I started training with John Woods, and, yeah, we've been going hard. And, you know, they have a lot of good fighters there, and, no, it's been going really well. Have you been to any title fights, MMA, or boxing in Vegas since you've been there? No, it's been, you know, with the COVID and stuff. I was pissed today. We have our last, we play San Jose away last preseason game the 9th. And I was going to go to the Wilder Fury fight.

And I'm probably playing that game. So I'm like, I wasn't too happy today, but I need to get the games. But that fight, I looked forward to it. What about Raiders games? I know they haven't played too many since they got the new stadium. Have you been able to take one in yet? Are you planning on it? No, I haven't yet, but I'm going to go in a couple of weeks.

You're going to go down the black hole with all those crazy fans? Yeah, I heard it's amazing. You're going to body all of them? Yeah. I heard it's amazing, so I definitely want to go. Another thing we heard, was it this past summer you were in Morocco

riding dune buggies across the Sahara? Was that this past summer? Yeah, no, I went a little bit of a road trip no i was with some friends we were in uh eastern europe for a bit we were going um uh we were in serbia for for a while um we yeah we went back and forth and i went to morocco went to casablanca for about 10 days uh took a car ride long car ride out to the sahara desert to spend uh some time there uh so you kind of come to these uh this little village and then you have to take these beach buggies for about five hours into the desert to like, there's like this 10th camp, really nice and luxurious actually.

And we just spent. They call it. It was good. It was really nice. It was way better than I thought. And yeah, do some camel riding. And it was, it was very peaceful. It was good.

Nice mental break from all this craziness for the last few years. Did you say 10 nights in Casablanca you stayed? Yeah. Yeah, 10 nights in Casablanca. But in the desert, we were just for a few days. So that wasn't too long. That's a pretty crazy city, isn't it? Yeah, I thought it was.

I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the city. But, yeah, I had to get some traveling in, you know, mentally recharge and travel around. It's, yeah, in Europe and over there, it's not much restrictions, you know. Everyone's going everywhere. So it's nice to kind of live. I'm sorry to interrupt you.

On trips like that, are you working out each day or are you actually totally just getting away and just kind of chilling? Yeah, no, I'm not doing anything. I rather just mentally recharge for a longer period of time and then just work really hard to get in shape. You know, a lot of people do. Everyone does differently, right? Like,

they just keep it up throughout the summer. Do a little bit. I, I needed my mental break. Not think about anything. Got real fat. And then I'm like,

now I got to fix this. And then I had to get working out real hard. During the club. I guess we can switch it over to hockey a little bit. Obviously, you guys are a contenders. The Vegas has been a contender since they got into the league. I guess we can switch it over to hockey a little bit. Obviously you guys are a contenders.

The Vegas has been a contender since they got into the league. Last playoffs, you guys are an absolute buzzsaw until you run into Montreal. What, like what were the Canadians able to do to shut you guys down so effectively? Cause guys like stone, they were on fire the first couple of rounds and they couldn't get anything going versus Montreal.

I mean, it's, it's not about pointing. It's, it wasn't like one guy, you know, like a guy to give Montreal credit. I mean, it's not about pointing. It wasn't like one guy, you know, like you got to give Montreal credit. I think the league is so even these days, you know, top teams. Everyone's really good. And at the end of the day, it was a disappointment for us. But you got to look who are Stone and those guys playing against,

you know, they're playing against one of the best shutdown, in my opinion, shutdown centermens, you know, that were keeping them busy. And, you know, at the end of the day, we expected more. We all had to do more, but, you know, Montreal, they played that, you know, they played really good defensively and obviously Price, you know, really good goalie and it sucks second year in a row in the conference final there we couldn't get over the hump. But I have a feeling that, you know, we are getting better and better

and, you know, it's experience that's needed and we can keep, hopefully next time when we need it in those situations, we can just learn from our lessons. Did it get pretty crazy with all the media coverage with DeBoer going from flower to you and back to flower? It was like the whole goalie rotation thing. Do you guys just kind of roll with the punches when that's all going on? I mean, does it get tense with you guys just kind of to roll with the punches when that's all going on. I mean,

does it get tense with you guys at all? How does that, how do you deal with all that? Well, you, you deal with it. I mean, I've been in tandems. I've played with good goalies many times, you know, I think it was more, you know, Vegas being a new new hockey city and all that stuff and, you know, what Fleury meant to the town and what the media created in the narrative, you know, made everything a lot harder, especially for me.

But in the end of the day, I'm used to it. I didn't really, you know, I would lie if it didn't affect me at all. But I'm also good at turning that motivation into, you know, positive things. And, yeah, it's been pretty crazy. But in the end of the day, I think it's good to have two good goalies on a team, no matter what anyone says.

And we showed it last year, you know. I started the bubble when I got here in the playoffs and played the playoffs and started last season on opening night. We were going back and forth for a little bit. Then I got my concussion, you know, and, you know, Fleury took over and he obviously had an amazing season. And that's what you need. Then came back and we kind of split again.

And now it's just how it goes. But the media narrative and everything that happened, you know, with the sword picture and with the agents and all that stuff, it was – yeah, the cult of Fleury was against me for a while. Is that hard? I mean, they kind of have a rapid fan base all of a sudden out of nowhere. And I feel like maybe the fan base and even the media to a certain extent like they were causing maybe a little bit more the division than was actually even going on behind the scenes and

that ended up nah they cost a lot of division you know it's uh you know in the end of the day it was great between i mean in the beginning uh i never thought that was going to trade to Vegas, right? I don't think anyone did. I don't think Fleury, I think everyone kind of got caught off guard a little bit. But, you know, so it was a little bit, you know, we're professionals, but it was a little bit weird in the beginning. But the last season, you know, I mean, and we're professionals. We had a good relationship, me and Fleury. And last year, it got really good.

We had a good relationship, me and Fleury. And last year, it got really good. But the narrative, media, not all fans, but a lot of fans, you know, it was a big division, you know. Every game I played that I won was an easy game. Every game that he won, he stole the game. Every game that I lost, I sucked. Every game that he lost, he didn't get out. You know, it's just how it was. I can back it up. I mean, I follow the game. Every game that I lost, I sucked. Every game that he lost, he didn't get out. You know, it's just how it was.

I can back it up. I mean, I follow the stuff. I like to follow the stuff. It motivates me, but it's been a hilarious process to kind of follow. And I think with the whole Alan Walsh thing, and I really like Walsh, by the way. I respect what he did, actually. He stood up for his client, but it screwed me a bit. It wasn't great at the time,

but he does a lot of good things for the players, you know, and our rights. I respect that. And, you know, he still stood up for his client. You know, I respect that. But it turned up the heat, you know. It really did. And this is probably the most pressured season i have uh coming in this year you know and it's the same thing it's fueled

by the narrative of how everything was left and you know the whole trade and how how everything was i mean no one knows what happens behind the scenes. And again, being a new hockey town, it's such a big deal, you know, like with, you know, Fleury didn't know and all that stuff. But it happens to everyone, man. Like, what did you do, Lundqvist? You know, Lundqvist was sitting in the stands. I mean, you know, like whatever time comes, man. Yeah, it does.

And like, look uh it's the sports man we like when are we gonna learn we they don't care i mean the last five six years you find out on sportsnet or on social media when you get traded happened to me when i got traded to vegas i was in st louis and i didn't get a call from my agents or anyone. I saw on Twitter, oh, I'm going to Vegas. You know, it happens. You hear it all the time. So it's nothing new. And do I think it's right?

No, I think it sucks that it's that way. But it is that way. And, you know, we all love Fleury. I really – he's a Hall of Fame goalie. I hope he plays for as long as he can. You know, I'm a big fan of his, but it's just how the business is and everything just gets a little bit bigger here, you know, when it comes to that

because he meant so much and still means so much to the city. So it's, I understand it, but it's a little bit exaggerated um despite all the negativity you face maybe because of the outspokenness or whatever it may be i feel like a lot of people appreciate you because you are so open about it and and the mental health stuff or what so have it you said everybody goes through those periods of time during throughout their career especially if they're going to have a long one and you just mentioned Lundqvist him getting healthy scratched I know that your father trained him early on do

you do you like reach out to goalies of the past or other guys in order in order to maybe get a little bit of guidance through it or do you just kind of keep to your inner circle and and get through it that way I uh no I don't I mean I been, I think I've been through most of what you can be, go through in this league, you know, to be honest. Just accept how it is. I mean, you know, there's the narrative here in Vegas too, which I kind of, you know, I don't agree with, you know what i love this organization and uh uh this team because they are they have expectations you know every year they it's not just you know what everyone comes into camp you know even when we're in buffalo and we weren't good we we come into camp say our goal is to win the san luis cap you know it's every team does it you know understand what i mean but here it's like you know you you get a win you know otherwise there's change changes and you know i know i gotta perform or i'm gone you know and that's fine with me i think that's great

because you know i play right now i want to a cup. And that means they have an organization that's dedicated to win a cup and they do whatever they can to put the best, you know, coaches, players, whatever it might be to win a cup. And that's the goal. You know, I'm going in my 12th season. I want to win the Stanley Cup, you know. So it's good pressure when you learn how to handle it. Obviously, everyone handles that differently.

The one positive, though, you're going to be the start of this year. You're going in there. You're going to get a lot of games. The downside of it, maybe some shootouts. I know that you fucking hate shootouts. You've been very vocal about it. What is it about the shootouts that you hate? That I can't save them.

That he just feels the red light heat every time. What would you rather other than shootouts? Would you want more three on three? Like how, how would you want them to change your rules up? I don't know, man. Like,

yeah, I would like a longer three on three. I just, yeah, I think the shootouts crazy. I really do i mean it actually means a lot too you know like to be quite honest if there was if there wasn't a shootout in the league i'd probably still be in buffalo you know honestly because you know like

it's why did you how much was there what listen man i have the worst record in history in nhl in shootouts and i am i'm kind of proud of that fact you know at least one thing in the record book you know hey at least you got to play in the shootouts fuck i was stuck on the bench the entire time well but it's you weren't playing in the third either so it had been a while um yeah the shootouts i i i think they i think they make sense in terms of like ending the game at one point but it does get a little boring at times but are you bad at like practice at breakaways too or is it just more it's not break breakaways and shootouts are two different things. I listen to it. It's why like people just don't understand. Like, I think I'm going to be good at shootouts this year.

You know, I'm going to lose a bunch more weight. It's been a weight related thing. One hundred percent. When there's a breakaway, I see right. Like I can see about halfway into our zone. Is he shooting or deking? You know, you come out out you get momentum and you know he does one he shoots or he's gonna go one side you know they usually don't do a crazy deke

on a break on a breakaway they don't have time people are chasing them in shootouts you know the amount that i weigh for a majority of my career, you know, coming really slow, slow and then take me down one side. And, you know, I'm not as – like when I get my momentum one side, it's not as fast going back as other goalies. It just isn't. But I'm good at – in real game situations, I'm good at like kind of reading and gaining momentum so I can still be fast.

But when they can come slow and pretty much stand still and fake you and then go left, right, left, and, I mean, backhand, barhand, what am I going to do? It's that simple to me. It's not like I haven't tried to work on them and stuff like that. It's just I'm not good when they can come slow. A Carnival cruise ship doesn't stop on a dime, dude. You get that big body moving.

You're not. Uh-oh. The chirps are flying here. No, he's saying he's a big guy. I mean, I'm not. It's not chirp. I mean, I've been a big guy for the majority of my career. It's not like it's a secret.

But what I've actually been weighing and what, you know, I haven't weighed myself in a long time, you know. You know, so in the end of the day, this season, I think I'm going to be in a really good weight. I think if I can get down to like 230, 35 I'll be happy but that'd be pushing it but yeah it's it's hard to change momentum and the weights that I've been playing at the other thing that interests me about you and is before I mean you've been on social media but then this year even leading up to a start end of May, you're just really open with people.

And you're talking about the Islanders goaltending coach and who really makes the difference there. The guy Greco, I think it is. And then another guy, you were talking about your time in Ottawa and how it wasn't a mistake to trade you. You were a mess, but they should have never got rid of Ben Bishop. So is it something where you're just like being open with fans and you're just a guy who will talk about anything with anyone? Yeah, no, I think so. I think, you know, I just think in general in the NHL, you know, like we're missing out so much in fans revenue and all that type of things

by being all these boxed in people that just stays. We're all robots, right? You know you say you everyone says the same thing you know and everyone you know and there's this goes around get some guys with some personality stuff like that i just wish you know you can be open honest about things you just need need always to be the the robot type thing and i like, there's always so many rumors, you know, like this, you know, sports in general, there's always like, okay, this is what happened. This, this, this, and they go through 10 different mouths and most of what you read about

people or situations, like none of it's true, you know, how, how, how it really is. And we have platforms and, you know, my platform, I, I'm kind of, you know, when I use it it i use it a lot but i'm inconsistent but i like to you know like to put the truth out there you know uh and my truth i'm not saying i'm always correct but uh when i see stuff happen and and and talk about those things you mentioned even the eichel thing you know how it was for me in buffalo and all that stuff i mean i say a lot the Eichel thing, you know, how it was for me in Buffalo and all that stuff. I mean, I say a lot of things because I want change, you know. It's – in the end of the day, there's – I'm not – I love the NHL.

I'm not trying to hurt the NHL. I'm not a – you know, me and Biz have been talking about this a lot, like privately, right? Like I'm not a guy that's trying to destroy the NHL by any means. I love the NHL. I just want things to be better in all sports leagues in terms of how health and mental health is prioritized and all those types of things.

And if we can't be open and honest about what actually is going on, I mean, how's anything ever going to change, right? Yeah, kind of like the Sabres to a going to change right yeah kind of like the sabers to a degree at this point are kind of controlling the narrative i mean everybody's going to have their their their situation or position excuse me on the aiko situation just from being a guy who played there like how do you feel about what's going on like you know the fact that they can control the like what i hate i. I hate it, man. Honestly, I hate it.

I think it's – I don't – I think you do. I know they put investments into us and all that stuff, but I still think your body is your body. End of story. I think there are so much bureaucracy that destroys things. You understand what I mean? If Eichel want to make a surgery and they are scared because they could protect the investment, I mean, how hard can it be to just have him sign a waiver then?

You understand what I mean? If something goes wrong, he doesn't get paid. You understand what I mean? If he really wants to do it. But it's just so, again, it's so boxy, everything. But it bothers me because, you know, Jack Eichel is a world-class talent. You know, I played with him. You know, I respect him.

We didn't always see eye to eye, you know, but I respect him as a person. And he's potential to be one of the best players. I think he is one of the best players. And what's going on there? And, you know, I opened my mouth on that this summer too, and Twitter and everyone's like, Oh, bad timing doing that. Are you doing it for Eichel? No, I'm just shedding light. It was a shit show there, man. And I'm not trying to, and then again,

am I saying that to trash the Sabres? No, I'm not. I was a shit show. Everyone was a shit show there. When I was there, we, we were, we were, we were awful, you you know and i took majority of the blame of it but you know we did also come into a when i got there the first year we came into the biggest experiments in sports when they had like 12 new people hired had never seen a hockey puck from all over the world and i showed and i tweeted out what they what they did to my ankle i have all the evidence for it i never if I wanted to hurt Sabres, I would have. But they destroyed my ankle that year.

End of story, 100%. And again, that's why we have rights to second opinions. And he obviously got a second opinion and gets stopped by the doctors. That makes no sense. Now, why do we have second opinions? That's what's amazing to me is that they're basically saying that they have zero trust towards the player and what i mean by that is he cares about his own career so you you you think he'd be willing to risk this

surgery that he wants and is comfortable with and almost is he like trying to fuck you guys do you know what i'm saying like you you have to understand this guy, all he wants to do is play hockey. So if you want him to pay for the surgery or whatever, like I just having played the game, maybe I'm jaded, but you got to allow this guy to get the surgery he wants to get. And it's crazy to think that they have the control over him where it was a clusterfuck when you were there and it's still the same exact thing.

Yeah, I mean, they changed a lot. I haven't been there and, you know, I don't know what's happening there now you know and honestly i don't talk to many people over there so it's i'm just shedding light on how things was when i was there and they did screw up my ankle i had such ankle surgery i still have pins in my ankle because of what they did 100 and it also led to other things which was my fault but it led to other problems 100% you understand what I mean and again I'm not putting blame on anyone else I my own man I take decisions but that thing that happened there was crazy it really was and uh my just my last view on this whole uh with with the Eichel thing I mean in the end of the day they're hurting

themselves and the value of a trade asset right uh uh the way that this has been handled and uh in the end of the day if you listen to eichel's interview where everyone kind of jumped on him again i respect him tremendously for you know you know what he said there that I respect but no one else respects is my life after my career because no one gives a shit about the lives after our career. Is he going to have a problem in his next? Is he trying to get an option of surgery that's going to make it better for after his career?

He has a long career left. Do you understand what I'm saying? I never even thought about that no but like honestly you know could could what the day want be better for the career for sure but he has to like fuse his neck he'd need to get three more of them throughout his life no it's exactly so like the first time I, yes, think long-term please. You know what I mean? Like our bodies hurt. We play through everything and it's hero type culture, you know, play with broken legs and knees and all types of things and playoffs and all

this stuff is all courageous. Okay. Well, you guys have played in the league. You guys know how we do that. You understand what I mean? But it's not easy to walk off your career you know i know a lot of former players they can't walk they have problems with their back surgeries left right what does that lead to you know pain meds alcohol all types of shit right so in the end of the day he's taking his health career and after career first and they're stopping it and they won't let him. Like, oh, man, it's what it is. Freedom of speech and choice is under attack in this country these days. But the good news after that situation in Buffalo,

you end up getting the opportunity with the Islanders. How did that come to be? Did Lou originally just reach out to you personally? And, like, what was your overall experience with the Islanders. How did that come to be? Did Lou originally just reach out to you personally? And, like, what was your overall experience with the Islanders? I mean, I know you put up some really good numbers and got your career back on track, and now you're one of the best goalies in the world, bud. No, I mean, it was – this is what, like, a lot of people don't know, right?

And, I mean, that's why, you know, going on your guys' podcast, right, there's always a little bit, you know, the team was a little bit scared of me telling them I was coming with you today. Oh, Lou hates our guts. No, my team in Vegas. Oh, they hate our guts too? Great. No, but, you know, it's good conversations, you know. But, again, you got to be open and talk, you know.

And at the end of the day, I own what happened in Buffalo. It was a lot of mistakes from a lot of different sides. I, you know, people like to say I screwed up a lot, but it's kind of weird to, you know, add a 92 save percentage there. I don't know the last goalie that had that there. Ryan Miller did, but through my three years, but I was the worst goalie in the world, but that's how it works. You're not winning.

It's the goalie's fault and a coach and all that stuff. Right. But it was not good situation for me personally. I didn't have, I didn't, I regret a lot of things that I did too. I own that. But, you know, went to rehab. It was a shit show after rehab, you know, went to rehab. It was a shit show after rehab, you know, coming out after rehab. And you don't know where you're going to be, where you're going to go. You're sitting waiting. You really have no clue about the future, right?

And that was kind of the hardest time I've had. I had, even before rehab, was after rehab, that month, month and a half of waiting and kind of see things. And I got invited to a few teams to interview. And I went to a team that just treated me like such a piece of shit that I almost relapsed on the, almost relapsed the same day I took the flight back from that place because the GM was good, but, you know, the coach sitting there taking shit off the rehab and then the mindset that I was in. Oh, Toronto. And, you know, just getting – no, it wasn't Toronto.

Just belittling you or just like – like just shitting on you? Yeah, just shitting on me for – just shitting on me for just totally shitting on me absolute piece of shit still in the league too but uh that's uh most of those pieces of shit dinosaurs are still in the league but uh in the end of the day you know i sit uh sit there for hours i was there for a long time you know it's like i just came out of rehab you know i know i'm a good goalie coming there, you know, flew there, sit in his office, and then just, like, protect myself. You're this, you're that, you're this, you're that,

you're not good at this. Like, just sitting there, I'm like, what's the point? Do you understand what I mean? And some of the things that he said, I'm never going to forgive this person. I'm not pissed that he's still in the league, but it's what it is. I'm not a type of guy that's going to throw him under the bus and cancel him out. He's a piece of shit, so he will get out eventually himself. But so that was tough.

And then you see the real class. I get a call from Long Island. They fly me down Long Island. I had dinner with Lou Lamarillo. He takes me in. We didn't talk about rehab. We didn't talk about the past. We talked about family. We talked about values. He taught me a lot. We sit and had a great dinner. You know, honestly, like friend to friend. And next morning, breakfast with Barry Trotz, same thing. And it was just that, that probably saved everything for me, you know,

and took a decision. We went there and then, you know, the whole Long Island experience, I know you love Long Island with me, you know, it's the best. I said that episode, I might be hopping on board they are they are great you don't know but you know what

people I had other podcasts the other day and they asked about my Long Island tattoo I'm like it's not like I'm going to put in

five tattoos of the five teams listen Long Island is the only thing that's going on in my body end of story

and it's very important to understand why you know had a tough time and you know played early in Ottawa all that stuff I had great love Ottawa they started my career I was I started too early you know I was thrown in the fire too early I think not mature I was a shit show in Ottawa that was all me everything was downhill after the concussion and obviously the Hamburglar went in and stole my job.

It was great sitting there at home with migraines. He went like 20-0-1. We finally have a goal. Yeah. And on top of it, he got the lifetime sponsorship on McDonald's that I always wanted. Yeah, but they'd be pulling you for shootouts if you were crushing mac 10s that much you know the guy that actually eats fast food don't get it but uh you know and you know

i didn't have and no one's like i didn't become like a favorite there you know i was young i didn't play that much buffalo obviously they hated me there uh the only thing i heard was booing uh usually started from warm-ups uh and you know you play hockey you know you want to be an athlete and a professional to play for fans right and this is why you know i think you know long island fans really saved my life. It's the truth. They did save my life. That's why I have a Long Island tattoo on my neck because, you know, I shared my story there and Lou was so good to me with that. And he was so, what would you say?

He was on board. You know, he really supported me through the whole thing. The whole team did. But then we go out the first preseason game. I've never played there before. And you know, Matt Martin, those guys, they're fan favorites. They cheer the loudest for them. But the first preseason game,

I had the loudest cheer. You know, I think it's that, you know, middle class, hardworking class mentality of Long Island. You know, like we related to each other. We created a special relationship. And, you know, they were cheering my name all the time, you know. And, you know, they made me love hockey again.

They really did. And that relationship that they created with those fans, I will never forget. And I'll be thankful for the rest of my life because they are a big part of why I'm sitting here in Vegas, still playing my 12th season out of four more years. And how supportive they was throughout the whole season, man. I can't explain it.

And how much they love the players. You know, like they're so personal with all the different players you understand what i mean uh and uh yeah they uh again i know this is very hard for you to hear with me you know but uh you should probably start the you know what do you mean he just booked an appointment to get his tattoo yeah that. I'm getting strong island, though. The Vegas and Long Island train is what you should jump on. That's the news. I can get down with Vegas. But you did mention, like, 12 years in the league.

You're only 30. So I don't know if it's still the record, but at the time you were the youngest goalie to ever play in the NHL from Sweden, right? Has that been broken? No, no, no. No, it hasn't. Yeah, no, it was cool, you know.

But again, you come in with luck and all that stuff. But, you know, looking back, it wasn't that much luck, you know. It's hard to be a goalie, you know, at early ages. It really is. And there's so many young goalies that, you know, get thrown on fire too early and, you know, take some time to build up all these defense systems and the mental strength to handle it.

You understand what I mean? You look, you know, look what Price had to go through since a young age in Montreal. I mean, what happens if he doesn't have that year? I mean, he's a great, one of the best goalies. I can't say enough about him. But, you know, the whole Halak thing there, and if he has a bad year after that,

or if he doesn't have that monster season before he signed a big ticket where he won the heart and all that stuff, what if he got injured, stuff like that, right? But in the end of the day, it's taxing. And you see what happened with Carter Hart last season. You know great such a talented goalie man like i'm such a big fan of carter hart being called out the left and right by their coach and stuff like that i mean things like that it can you know what happens if it has a tough year this year you know um it's uh most goalies i think the statistics is they break into a number

one role around 26 27 i could be wrong it maybe has changed since last time i i knew those statistics but it uh it takes time and uh today's nhl is about younger early when i came into the league it was the opposite right you you had to go through certain things so i think i was rushed a little bit. Well, I would imagine they probably got excited after you ended up helping them win the Calder Cup in Binghamton, right? So you go from all that excitement. I believe you were the MVP of the playoffs too, right? Yeah, but that was a crazy. I mean, I was up before that because Pascal Leclerc was injured a lot that year.

And so I was up and down, up and down. I wasn't even a starter in Binghamton. We lost, we were down 3-1 in the playoffs. I didn't play. And then I jumped into the playoffs and we ended up turning around and we won in Binghamton. Then the next year, we had a bad year in Binghamton. You know, all the players kind of left.

When you win the Calder Cup, you know how it works. Like players go to other teams, get better pay. A lot of guys go up to Ottawa. They wanted me to play another year there, but I was still up and down quite a bit. And it was the third year I broke in with Bishop and Craig Anderson in the lockout season. And they traded Bishop, and I became full-time there.

And, yeah, then everything else happened next year with hamburgers all that stuff happened pretty quick so right i want to go back to uh like players lack of individuality and guys not showing a lot of personality is is that more of a north american thing is that the same way in sweden what's your take on that is that just hockey culture everywhere no it's uh i think it's the most un-american thing there is if you look at the Americas, well, it's showing personality and showing more than you have kind of thing, right? Sweden is the total opposite. I think NHL is the only sport, you know, to be honest.

It's something deep-rooted in the culture, you know. But in the end of the day, I think a lot of players are missing a lot of extra revenue. I think a lot of players are missing a lot of extra revenue. I think that the NHL is missing a lot of extra revenue and more because, you know, of course it's team first, all that stuff. I, we all know that, but you bring more fans if you can follow a personality and someone's life story. And, you know, in the end of the day you you you would bring

you know it's more to the media and media deals all that types of things but when you know i think sometimes i say to home sometimes i watch a lot of hockey too i'm like if i'm a fan if i didn't play hockey and i'm a fan of hockey and I follow a season and say, I'm a, yeah, whatever team I'm a fan of. And I go through the same interview answers for a whole year for 10 years. You understand what I mean? Every, after every loss, it was, you know, the same question, you know, we didn't do that enough. We didn't put the puck in deep. We didn't screen the goalie. You know, we pucks on that.

You know, it's the same answers every time. It really is. You know, I'm like, wouldn't I get tired of it? You know, in the end of the day, you know, like I think, and that's just a little example, but I think you look at the NBA, you look at NFL, you know, like you know like there's like TV shows reality shows around them into their lives it's like you know people are say they're a little controversial all that types of things and it's okay you don't so you know uh you you can wear whatever you want

to games I mean it creates more revenue for players you, you know, in terms of endorsement deals, all that types of things, you know. And I just don't understand it. I really don't. I understand 20 years ago, but, you know, we're 2021 now. It's, I think, some stuff got to change. I was going to ask you, does it feel like it's changing even a little bit right now with some of these younger kids kind of coming out of the shell a little more? Like, you know, Austin Matthews, for example, would, you know,

some of his crazy get-ups. Yeah, no, for sure. And, I mean, I love it, you know, but it's kind of, it goes in cycles. You know, I remember, you know, Sagan and those guys, you know, they always had personality. And, like, now when they're a little older, it's not as much anymore. I think, in the end of the day, I think it's team and it comes from the top and uh i think it's just you know it's just they want it this way and you know obviously batman

and those guys have done a great job of you know the nhl is a great enterprise it really is but uh whereas it's compared to like basketball and all these types of other sports, right, you don't think hockey can be a lot bigger. And I think that's a missing link. You know, it's not no personality. You know, even those TV shows that we do, those, you know, up to winter classic TV episodes and all that stuff. HBO 24-7.

Yeah, yeah, but, you know, I don't know if you ever was a part of one of those, but, I mean, it's very cut, you know, like it's anything controversial doesn't make it, you know, it's very, you know, like showing just the technical, you know, what NHL wants them to see, you understand what I mean? The most controversial one is probably Bruce Gallop, you know, Bruce Gallop stuff, you know? Bruce Gallup stuff. You know, he was funny.

But in the end of the day, hockey players are, in my opinion, they're probably the most personality and crazy people around. I have a lot of athlete friends and hockey players. There's a lot of good characters. And I just feel like no one knows. No one knows, you know? Hey, they should start following the teams around a rookie party and then just display all the content from the rookie parties.

Yeah. No, I mean, there's – Yeah, that might not go. I want to ask you one. You mentioned that you enjoy fast food. What's your favorite chain? That's a tough one. I actually started liking Smash Burgers here in Vegas.

It's really good. No, I didn't either. In COVID, I ordered some DoorDash stuff, you know, tried different things. Smash burgers, good. But, no, I really – anything I just feel like – I don't say no to a fast food here and there. But, I don't know. It's tough to say.

Chipotle is good too. I like Chipotle a lot. I'm getting Chipotle tonight. I feel like I just handed you. I had some before this jumped on the podcast too. Well, during camp right now or even during the regular season, after practice, what are the rest of your days

like? Are you somebody who's just kind of hanging out, relaxing, watching shows? are you out and about? What are your hobbies besides, I guess, the boxing you said you want to keep doing? I mean, we have a family here with kids. But, yeah, no, you go to rink, you know, especially in camp, you don't do much. But I haven't had the opportunity to really explore Vegas and stuff yet because of COVID either.

But get to know, you know, do more things with the guys maybe and more dinners, stuff like that. But it's pretty laid back right now. Just trying to be in good shape and get ready to season. Nothing too crazy at the moment. Did you watch the last game in the Coliseum? I saw your tweet to the Coliseum. I mean, fuck, what a building.

People hacking darts, chucking beers at the boys. Were you a little bit of FOMO at the fact that you couldn't be on the ice getting beers chucked at you by the home crowd? Yeah, yeah, no 100 percent uh you know it was a great disappointment for both me and whitney you know with the best building there ever been i was gonna have to be a waiter at an italian spa i know i saw i saw that uh i thought i was hoping so badly uh i i was rooting against you for sure no uh it's a great building and it's not just when I played there it's also the first

building I had my first start I had my first win first penalty first playoff start all those types of things so it meant a lot to me for sure and it's such a great atmosphere there and no I know the new arena is going to be nice but it's not going to be the

coliseum rob you've obviously talked about mental health issues yourself and others for the you know last couple years and people have mentioned it more but do you think a lot of it is just sort of lip service or the actual tangible change is happening because you know i know everyone's like trying to make it uh take the stigma away but sometimes it's feel, it feels like it's just, you know, topical lip service at times. Yeah, no, 100%. Nothing's changing. I'm, you know, I'm doing everything I can with, and trying to join with people that have some, the same goals, but you know, I was, I try to be optimistic about it,

but still you gotta be got to be realistic. There is really nothing changing. There's too much rules and regulations. It's really laws and government and big pharma and all that stuff. It's hard to change, man. I think it's got to start at the top. More people have got to be open and honest about it because people really don't know what stigma is. I get a lot of i get a lot of shit for talking about

certain things about it and uh regarding uh um me not being like equal pay you know everyone says oh he's crying about this uh you're making millions and he's crying no i'm not i'm not crying at all i took this contract with pleasure and it was great contract and i couldn't be more happy about it it doesn't change the fact that i'm underpaid compared to my comparables you know that's just a fact um and um you see you you see a bunch of new contracts that just came out now the last few weeks and goalies right i mean they they make same or more than i do at way less games you understand what i mean it's uh it's just a reality and that's the stigma and that's uh what people don't know what stigma is because you know the big pharmaceutical

pharmaceutical company-run charities are the ones that are the biggest and they are controlling the narrative and they uh you know it's all bullshit it really is you know just one in five and you know not trying you know they've probably done a lot of good things too but they're not helping the actual stigma and for me the actual stigma is if you are open or if someone knows that you have an issue you will get punished by society and that's the truth uh why do you know we talk about police officers and military i was in a military group in rehab and i know firsthand and i have a lot of friends in the military too you know a lot of police officers and all that stuff but like it's a matter of matter how fucked up it is really to be in a position or in a job that you know trauma is what like leads up to a lot of issues and you get

trauma like every day in your work you see crazy stuff and you can't be open that you're struggling about it because you'll lose your job or say that uh you know imagine how many police officers is bipolar you know uh trauma traumatic stress all that stuff's a big leading cause to be bipolar i mean uh they cannot say they're bipolar they get thrown out the forest that means that they can't get the right medicines that you can be totally normal so they got to self-medicate and then they wonder if something when something goes wrong what the problem is or if a police officer that's put say 100 criminals in jail comes out and says he's bipolar one i can guarantee you that a lawyer is going to get those 100 criminals out of jail within the first month of that statement so it's uh we are punishing people all across the world for being open and honest about issues that we all have.

I'm not saying we're all bipolar, but we all struggle with mental health issues at times. And it grows and it can become serious. That's the whole point of things. It's the same problems in sports, especially. point of things and uh it's the same problems in sports especially in i we don't have more problems than others but in sports we call it different names we make up our own names again old culture a person it's uh this how many people did you see top their sticks 30 times and do crazy rituals and all this shit before a game oh like as far as like ocd and like which yeah exactly yeah thank you you gotta put on yeah exactly you said ocd but you know and hockey or sports world

that's superstitious you know that's your superstitious you know that's not ocd how many people have a you i've seen over my 12 years that have have ADHD. You know what I mean? How many young, talented guys have you seen through your career that goes barring in every practice but can't hit the net in a game? You know? And they say, well, he's not clutch. He's nervous. No, he's anxious. Performance anxiety.

You understand what I mean? Like you take inconsistent players that scores a lot of goals or whatever, or goalies that are really good through periods of times and that they suck. Did they lose their talent? Could it be some type of bipolar in their mood swings? You understand what I mean? But we love as a sports teams and leagues to add more sports science. We need three more guys up in the gym to measure our heart rate and our blood, all type of blood levels and all that stuff. But God forgive, give, we,

we put in some mental health professionals to, to, to help that stuff out. You know, I would, I would imagine, I would imagine the drew in stuff probably hit home a little bit too like i know he came out recently and he had to leave the team last year and you know kind of alluding to what you're saying it's like you know maybe if there was some more people around maybe he could have nipped it in the butt earlier or whatever it may be and and then to go even further it's like will him being open and honest about it hurt him moving forward is that kind of oh 100 100 you know

how many players you know like i i talked i've helped a lot of a lot of players like get help and in different ways i'm going to program and all that types of stuff right but you know people always ask me should i be open and honest and you know i was and i explained that many times i had to make that decision to for to survive but also to help other people but also to survive you know because in rehab and all that type of stuff it's about you know creating the support system and the people around you needs to you know beat your walls kind of kind of thing but yeah that's great and all they say that in rehab they come out in real life and then everyone around you tells you be quiet so if i was quiet in long island and

didn't say do my article and didn't know no one knew or whatever i would have had a beer on the first plane right you understand what i mean but am i going to tell a player to be open and honest now? I know a lot of people have, but yes, they're going to be punished 100%, even though all the executive knows that a lot of people in all of our teams and all teams across all sports deal with so much issues, right? And after each contract and stuff that I signed, it's always funny. Then the leaders and people in the organization and all that stuff comes up. It's like, yeah, I struggle with that too. I struggle with that too.

And I know that he drinks. I know that he is a substance abuser. I know that he has family members that have all these types of issues and stuff like that. We all deal with it some way. We're all touched by it by some way. But you definitely get punished by it. And people get mad when I say it it but that is what the stigma is and it goes through in in all types of professions the lower class middle class and upper class and the crazy part about it the why i'm not

so optimistic here in the u.s is you can't even get help man man. I'm lucky, you know. What am I supposed to say to them? I promise you, Biss, like I probably have, I don't know how many thousands of messages I have, right, on my social media platforms over the last bunch of years. What do I say to them that can't get medicine? Because they can't afford it or get diagnosed or get help or go to rehabilitation or whatnot.

What am I supposed to say to them? Huh? Yeah, great for me to talk about my story, but what do I say to the people that are not privileged like me? I mean, I looked at in Chicago, my medication was like three, four grand a month. No shit. You know, but the league paid for it you know and uh thank you to marchand for paying for my rehab because he pretty much did that right because he took so many

suspensions that one year and all the suspension money goes to the rehab money so marchand he sent me to rehab and i appreciate him a lot for it even though he chirps me for being fat every time I play what do you go back with you you deke him about his nose thanks no no I you know a lot of people call me fat and I say yeah I just had a burger before the game and two two pepsis so what try to score hey you made a great point though that as much as things, you know, might be different because already brings up everyone talks about it. Well, in the public eye, like you hear about people on in professional sports and occasionally like celebrities taking mental health. Right. And they're taking a mental health break. So on online with famous people and celebrities, it's it's discussed. break so on on online with famous people and celebrities it's it's discussed but you don't think of the people working nine to fives that can't afford the help police and other people

that don't have the ability because in those industries and a lot of people the jobs they have to to make ends meet in canada and the united states is you can't be saying you got mental health issues it's like what do you fucking mean you can't come saying you got mental health issues. It's like, what do you fucking mean? You can't come to the plant tomorrow. It's just crazy. It's disgusting. And that there, you know, that, you know, medical prices are so much higher here than everywhere else in the world. And, you know, treatments and diagnostics,

and there's zero mental health education, which is the biggest part that I think can change things. Because that's what rehab does. Rehab educates you. And you go through a bunch of things and you see the patterns, you learn about the different illnesses they think you might have, and you fit in or you don't, and then you do more tests and you try medicines and all types of things.

But it doesn't need to be that complicated. I think that should be mental health education from a young age in school. Because then, you know, in the end of the day, you know, like they pick their statistics in all the different countries of, you know, who dies from what and when. You know, mental health kills more people than COVID would ever do every single year. And they say it's like some study says like 10 million people a year in the world die from mental health issues. I'm like, it's bullshit, man. It's the same with these pharma backed charities, mental health charities saying one in five are struggling.

How the fuck do you know? Who, what poll, who, who, which, what person do they poll that on? And who is honest about mental health issues? You understand what I'm saying? No one is. This is even the more mind-blowing thing is, I went for a long time not knowing I'm bipolar, right?

So if I get a fucking, if someone sends to me, if I have mental health, I don't know. You know, if you're not diagnosed or gotten help, you don't know if you have mental health. So how do they know how many people have mental health issues, right? So it's all these fake narratives um all over the place it's not helping anyone and uh you know the whole bell let's talk thing i appreciate what they're doing they're bringing attention and all this stuff but they're bringing a lot of attention to that bell name too but you know bell let's talk go talk to someone and ask them how they're bringing a lot of attention to that Bell name too. But, you know, Bell Let's Talk, go talk to someone

and ask them how they're doing. That's not how it fucking works, you know? I'm not, if I go to someone, stand on top of him and ask him, hey, how are you doing? Yes, I'm fine. I'm good. Most people that commit suicides, everyone says, oh, I had no clue that that was going to happen.

I never saw that coming. You know, if I want to start a conversation with someone I talk to them about how I'm doing and then you gain some trust and then you know you get a conversation going but everything is so backwards with this whole mental health movement in so many different areas and well Robin you kind of proved it by saying how open you are about it and how many people reached out to you right you just started the conversation so obviously with you being open about it a lot of people feel that they can try to lean on you for that type of advice so no but i think the most thing what helps uh what what i helped with is and what a lot of people in my shoes,

say, that are successful in something, that are open and honest about their mental health, is they show people that are struggling with mental health and that have gotten a diagnosis that you can still make. You understand what I mean? There is light at the end of the tunnel. We all deal with things, so we need to normalize it, right? Because if you have it inside you and can't talk about it or be open with it you unconsciously you tell yourself you're not good enough you sell yourself there's something wrong with you and that's why you go into these

depressions and it gets worse you know if if you get to hide who you really are right i mean i mean how how is there a light at the end of the tunnel? And that's what sucks. That's what the stigma is, again. Look how they look at the whole world looks at this. Look at the tennis player that came out. Look at the gymnast. What was the gymnast's name? Simone Biles.

Simone Biles. Naomi Osaka. Oh, my God. I mean, they've saved more people than most people in this country ever ever do with what they did but look at the media scrutiny that they got man like i would love to every single one of those writers i would love to i don't even know what i would love to do to them you understand what i mean because they are the bravest people that i've ever seen you understand what i mean because that's not easy right no one all these people that say

that they're soft and quitters and all that type of stuff how is it soft to to to look after your health you understand what i mean uh this is the greatest discussion that i have with a lot of people right like old hockey players but let's not just focus on hockey every athlete the old timers the old nfl and all that stuff that fought through injuries, that played through injuries, that were quiet about head with the concussion, that fought through it and all that stuff. OK, that's tough in the general population's eyes. That's tough. But how did they deal with it? I have no idea how they treated that.

That wasn't tough. How many are alive? How many are healthy? How many how many you know have addiction issues how many people like it's it's crazy man how many have committed suicide because of it so you know what is that tough or is it tough to take care of yourself you understand what i mean and try to help others at the same time and uh i even saw joan mackinroll we went in and talked about uh uh osaka the tennis player and said some shit you know who the fuck is he man he should be he talked enough in his career you know like it's the most bravest thing ever and uh uh and it helps so many people. And again, everyone openly are discussing,

yeah, they will get punished. Yeah, they will get this. They will lose sponsorships. So it's right in front of our noses, but no one discusses it. So again, the mental health thing, I'm going to fight till the day I die about it, but it's not going to change until you get in their jobs because of bureaucracy and loss and liability,

how are you ever going to have a healthy workforce? You know what I mean? How are they ever going to, you know, if they get, I'm bipolar, if I'm not on my meds, I do some crazy shit. But they can't. How many untreated bipolar officers are there? Because they can't be open and honest and get help about it, right? So that's the crazy system that we have in the world.

And they also, governments and all that stuff, they create the problems too, you know? Put the people in student debt for the rest of their life, that probably doesn't cause any issues, right? That's why probably a lot of college students smokes weed at the end of the month when bills got to get paid and that turns into bands of ass. Let's not bring the stoners into this, Robin.

No, no, no. I'm just saying, man. You know, the stress. I know what you mean. I'm joking. The stress of be in death. You put the whole population in death. You don't think that's going to cause mental health issues? No, absolutely.

Is that what I'm saying? Yeah. Shane Corson, I mean, he had the balls to do it. And this was, Christ, 30 years ago to step away when he needed to when he was going through some mental health issues. And that was at a time when it was unheard of. But, I mean, he was one of the toughest guys in the league when he did it. So nobody was going to question him, at least to his face.

So it is – it's a brave thing for someone to just walk away. No, I mean, they shouldn't walk away because, again, if we had the right help and the right people around, I wouldn't have gone to rehab at that time. I would have gotten help early. You understand what I mean? You know, I you know I was been bipolar for a long time you know if there was health around mental health in the NHL early

I wouldn't have gone down that road I I wouldn't I wouldn't have self-medicated like I did because you know in my faces and when I'm manic and things go to a thousand miles an hour, and when I lock myself in totally obsessive, uh, for crazy amounts of times, and I don't know what's going on in my head and beer was the only thing that was kind of calming that down. You know, if I had medication from day one, maybe I didn't go down that road, you know? Um, and, um, it's, that's kind of where I want things to go in the future.

And I hope that more people listen because, you know, we, we want to perfect everyone's bodies in sports, but not their minds. And that's unfortunate because imagine how many good players that could have gotten a little bit of help and been such a good asset for the league. You understand what I mean? The same for all the other big corporations like google and stuff say 500 000 employees if it's true what these organizations says one in five just do the math how many people in google that struggles if they help them with mental health organization and write medications and diagnostic how much better would google be

they're very successful but how much better would it be you know so maybe we should start seeing the uh the upside of helping people hopefully let's do a couple uh quick quick fun ones with with you before it's tough to transition out of that but we we appreciate you speaking up man like you know it's uh it's it takes a lot of courage for you to come on and and really really dive into these types of subjects so thank you very much for that. No, no problem. It always goes into this, not unfortunately, but like, you know, I have a lot of other aspects of my life too,

than the mental health part and journey. And again, the league has given me great, a great life and great memories and great ups and downs. And you guys have played. You know, it's truly special. I just think, again, I'm not a guy that sits here to say this. So someone gets fired or it's a problem, it's trying to change it. So hopefully someone I can get in front of, more people listen to each other

and not just the people with a suit and tie and that have just, you know, a master's degree from a book somewhere, you know, that no experience about it. There'd be nice if someone that actually has some experience makes some decision. All right. What do you, uh, what do you got? You got any fun ones? Yeah. A couple of goofy ones. Um, what was the most surprising thing about moving to Vegas that you weren't

expecting something you were like, Holy shit. I had no idea this was here. Vegas that you weren't expecting something you were like, Holy shit. I had no idea this was here. Well, I came here and then COVID hit. So I, but again, you know, like Vegas is no, but Vegas, you know, you seen, uh, I've been in Vegas before, you know, and you know, the strip and stuff. What surprised me was how good of a family life you can have here. You know, Summerlin, Henderson, all these places. It's just such a fantastic family area.

It's a great place to live. I am, you know, when you tell people you live in Vegas, everyone is like, okay, the strip, all crazy. But out here, it's amazing. And also the fans, you know, like such a short, you know, the team hasn't been around that long, and the passion of the fans here is crazy, man. It's unbelievable.

And the way they market this team and the atmosphere is nuts. So it's a privilege to play here for sure. I want to go back to when you were growing up. So your father was Lundqvist's goalie coach. Now, had he ever played? No. No, he didn't. My father used to be a karate fighter when he was in his younger years.

He was successful at that. But I wasn't very into hockey he got me into trying playing hockey when I was 10 years old and I don't remember exactly how him and Lank was kind of getting in touch but my father always loved hockey and he was he started training Christian Husselius like for off-season training, you know, him and some of his friends. And I don't know how everything kind of got collected, but he always loved goalies. He always looked at goalies.

And what happened was he started working out a lot with – working with Lankwist a lot. And he actually used me when I was younger to try things out. And then he went to Lankwist. But he had a – he's really good at that mental aspect of the he has he's a very strong mind uh my father you know and pressure and stuff like that so I think he helped him a lot with that and then uh eventually became uh when he played in Forlunda he was uh his goalie coach and helped him get over some of those things I think I was involved that much and um nah so he he worked with him quite a bit, but I was quite young, and I wasn't around that much.

Interesting. It's wild. A goalie who ended up being world-class and has a Hall of Fame career is doing on-ice drills with a guy who never played goalie before. Yeah, no, I mean, there's a lot of good coaches that didn't play goalie or didn't necessarily play the game. You understand what I mean? I think you get a good grasp of how to become better at the position

and open up to try new things, and especially the mental part of the game because there's a lot of pressure in the position and, you know, open up to try new things. And especially the mental part of the game, because there's a lot of pressure in the game and stuff like that. You got to get over it and learn. So, no, I mean, there's a lot of good goaltending coaches around the league, but not everyone has played at certain levels. It's the same that Gretzky wasn't the best head coach right because he was the best player yeah you've you've been a part of like tandems you know it was with

flower it was with grace and this year you must be excited to be the guy like you hoping to play 60 games do you even think about a number or i mean is that way too many you know what i i i've gotten that question so many times the last few weeks. Way to go, Whit. Whit Naylor. No, but like I hate it because honestly it's disrespectful, you know, because at the end of the day, you know, Brasser is a great goalie. You know, he is.

Goalie position is a lot about luck. Where do you end up? Where is the position open? He got landed behind Hellebuck who plays a lot of games. But, you know, Brasser is a good about luck. Where do you end up? Where is the position open? He got landed behind Hellebuck, who plays a lot of games. But, you know, Brasser's a good goalie. And I don't look at it that way. You know, yes, I want to play as much as possible.

I could play 70 games, no problem. And I would love to play a lot. But here's the reality. I also have philosophy. I'm a team guy. And there are certain things off record and stuff that people will someday know like play the best goalie at the time you understand what i mean if someone on a roll why not play him you know it's about winning as a team you know and i don't see that

you know i'm a everyone says i'm a starter now well i came i got traded here to Vegas not to back up. That's the truth. I had a great camp before the bubble. I started the playoffs. I started last season. We started back and forth for the first few games, but I was going to play more and I got injured. I think you need two good goalies in a team these days. I really do.

Do you want to have an investment in a team with one goalie and he gets injured and then that season's gone? You understand what I mean? You need two capable goalies. And the game is getting more, what can you say? The game is getting more what can you say the game is getting way more physically demanding and I feel like

you don't play 70 games anymore you need two goalies and sometimes when someone gets cold you need someone else to step up and so I don't see it that way Robin now that things have finally started to open back up,

do you have any shows or local attractions that you plan on hitting up? Grand Canyon, anything like that? Yeah, for sure. I'm starting to look around quite a bit. I'm starting to go to dinners and stuff like that. But yeah, I like to get down to the Strip, and there's obviously a lot of shows and you know the raiders and all that stuff now so yeah uh it's um um it's uh it's a lot to pick from you know so it's uh i i gotta figure it out but right now it's the

raiders i wanted to go to that wilder fight and obviously some ufc events and stuff so uh we'll see it's going to be a different type of year so uh it's going to be fun also traveling again I wanted to go to that Wilder fight and obviously some UFC events and stuff. So we'll see. This is going to be a different type of year. So it's going to be fun also traveling again. I had this one. Oh, I had this one teed up. I just want to know who your favorite UFC guys are. Like, are you a big McGregor guy?

Yeah, I am. Not for, I don't think he's the best. I don't think he's the best fighter I don't think he's the best fighter. I think he's again, like we talked about hockey earlier, it's about marketing, right? Like he brought the sport to a whole other level.

He really did charisma. Still a great fighter. Don't get me wrong, but like his, like the whole thing about him, it just made so much revenue. Right. So you got to respect that.

Right. And I, so, so I i like him but there's a lot of good ones you know uh um sam pierre has always been uh been great you you know i've liked a lot of boxing and stuff too sometimes i think the ufc gets a little bit too much you know hugging around uh but uh like jake paul huh i said you said docs and guys said like jake paul no yeah no that that thing's interesting but you gotta give him credit too you know yeah he said he's setting this up and making more money than some of the best fighters of all time ever made you know he's just doing it in a different way so again uh it's the new age of social media and mark and internet marketing

right and um never heard of this i can't i can't i can't see where this is uh see where this is going you know it's uh you need characters character cells you know and uh um yeah then do i like his personality nah nah i really don't. But good for him. He's making some good money. You got any questions for us? Any questions for Whitdog? I was going to say, I think we all know that you're a character, so we appreciate you coming on.

I would love to take a question from you. I hear you just put Biz's mind in a puzzle. He called you disrespectful. I like that. I agree with you, Robin. No, I just heard some interesting things about your Russian experience in the KHL. You know, I was there for you. Oh, would you ever go over there?

Huh? Do you know Andre Pedersen? Yeah, I played with him in Binghamton. Did you? I lived with him. He lived with me. He lived with me for two years. I love Petey.

I called him Petey. I don't know if you do. But he's been lighting up over there for years. I got to i called him pd i don't know if you do but yeah he's been lighting up over there for years i got to play with him in sochi yeah no uh yeah no i played with him two years before unfortunately uh he should be playing in the nhl he was so skilled man uh he was but again you got to be a little lucky but uh no i i i mean obviously i want to play in the nhl but uh i would never said no to go to khl if that was the option at the time uh uh would have no problem with that i've heard a lot of fun stories from over there when he played with carlson before

he made it to the nhl over in sweden oh yeah k65 yeah no i we, yeah, we played in the same team. He was like a little bit higher levels than me, but yeah, we were on each other. Yeah. And for Linda. Yeah. He was, he was a character back then, you know? Yeah. I just laugh when I think about how he was. Usually when we get a laugh like that, it's like, Oh, I just thought of something I can't tell on the podcast. Yeah.

No, but he's a – wow. Yeah, he was such a talent. He still is. But he was special in his younger days. He really was. Well, Robin, listen, good luck catching those snakes in Stoney's backyard. Hopefully we're – actually, we are heading out there for the next ball hockey tournament at the end of of february g all-star game right beginning of february or

beginning of february uh when the if you're not in the all-star game maybe we can get a ringer for our ball hockey team and you can go between the pipes for us yeah no that could be possible could be possible. Could be possible. Fucking nuts. What about your lacrosse career? How did that turn out? Not great. Not great. Honest to God, I found a new respect for that sport when I tried it for the first time.

I couldn't even pass or shoot. I thought it was just going to be as easy as just chucking the ball. No, very difficult. You also thought you could do the tour de France and like, Oh, I haven't started training yet. Very true. Well, Robin, thank you, buddy. Thanks so much for joining us.

We'll definitely catch up when we're out there. No, for sure. All right. Thank you very much. Absolutely. Robin, if you got to check out a show, go see, Oh, with Bellagio, you won't regret it. Good stuff. Really? Yeah. I'll check it out. All right. absolutely Robin if you gotta check out a show go see O with Bellagio you won't regret it good stuff really?

I'll check it out huge thanks to Robin Leonard for joining us to chat about the new season and whatever else is going on very interesting fellow to talk to huh Biz? Oh absolutely and I mean we touched on it at the end of the interview there guys like obviously a very important topic especially nowadays you're even seeing ads in the NFL about you know players speaking up about you know things that they're

going through as far as mental health so we know a lot of you people out there also go through things so we think it's important subject to cover every now and then and you know what better guy than a guy who you know who's been through a lot and uh really cool to hear that insight and i know we we joke about the Islanders all the time, like hearing about Lou sitting him down before he ended up signing there. Like that's why guys love playing for Lou, guys. He's just a stand-up person and a reason why he's been around as long as he has. He's a legend and a Hall of Famer.

So really, really nice to hear stories like that. Well said, Biz. And I want to let you know that interview was also brought to you by liquid death you may start noticing there are strange tall boys of beer in the bottled water section of your local stores well it's not beer it's actually mountain spring water from the alps and it's called liquid death the water is called liquid death because it will brutally murder your thirst and the infinitely recyclable tall boy cans are helping to bring death to plastic bottles they donate 10 of the profits from every can sold to help kill plastic pollution i've had a bunch of this stuff and there's nothing like water from the alps i love the salts too but you can read it right on the side legit straight from the alps can't beat it

again the salsa if you're a salsa guy like myself get all over it so go to liquiddeath.com slash chicklets to get a free set of koozies with your first order of any case of water or just grab some at any whole foods or 7-eleven liquid death check it out all right boys chugging right along a few more stories to get to unfortunately this is a particularly ugly one from the ukrainian League, a very disgusting incident. Andre Deneskin, I think you say his name, with an absolutely foul and racist gesture toward a player named Jalen Smerik, who's from Detroit.

He's an American. He's been playing pro for about five or six years. You guys can Google it and check it out. It's just something that shouldn't happen on any field or play or rank or anything in this planet in 2021. The IIHF has released a statement condemning the actions. They have yet to take any disciplinary action. I would assume it's forthcoming.

I don't know how many times they would need to see the video to draw any conclusions, but it's a real chance for the Ukrainian Hockey League and the IIHF to make a hotline statement against this type of shit. Uh, we hear about it in European soccer. Often we see it, we hear the audio.

Uh, but this is just the type of shit that no player anywhere should have to, to put up with. And if the IIHF and the UHL have any balls, uh, or any integrity, they would do the right thing and toss this fucking guy out of the league for what he did.

So pick them out of the league. I would say minimum a year, if if not lifetime ban at least from the league if not all european hockey and it's it sucks because we see about you know one or two of these types of incidences a year but the positive news is the minute it happens now there's an there's action being taken and these leagues and everywhere really around the world they're not they're not allowing it and it's like punishment see you fucking later so yeah um i'm yeah i i would be shocked if it wasn't at least a year if not lifetime ban from anywhere in europe so uh brutal and uh yeah play stupid games win stupid fucking

prizes this ain't this ain't someone suffering canceled cuts or any bullshit. It's a stupid fucking thing, and he should be dealt with in an appropriate manner. So let's see. Detroit Red Wing Tyler Bertuzzi will decline to get the vaccination this year, which is his want, but he will not be able to travel to games to Canada. It's going to cost him probably about $400,000 in salary. As well, Edmonton forward Josh Archibald, he could miss up to 30 games per Ken Holland. Also, Zach Ranaldo, he couldn't go to Columbus' camp

because he wasn't fully backed. So, hey, again, guys make their own decisions. But as you realize, when you work for companies and bosses and they have roles, then it might not line up with how you feel so i don't know man would you would you sacrifice 400 grand uh in salary biz or what he wouldn't sacrifice fucking the per diem from the first trip he would have gotten three needles in his arm no so just kidding yeah no no i i guess my my comments are i'm kind of like i think everybody's sick of covid and everyone wants it away and everybody wants to just get back to living normally. There has to be rules in place in order to keep especially a league like the NHL running where there's constant interaction with players.

And, you know, we don't want to end up in a situation where they can't have fans back because it keeps spreading more rapidly. I guys, I'm not a fucking scientist. I'm a rule follower when i'm told that i'm a rocket Scientologist uh when i'm told to do something i do it and that's all i'm not gonna fucking go online and bitch at people because they're not doing whatever i'm just gonna mind my own fucking business and you know if they want to sacrifice salary and not playing games because they don't want to do something, it's like, hey, it's all the power to you, man. That's my opinion. If you want to be one of those people that goes online and lose their fucking mind at these guys, go do it. I just refuse to fucking get involved anymore.

I'm going to think about more positive things and I'm going to move on with my life. Well, you say go do it. I think you're such a loser if you do that. And in the end, if somebody doesn't want to be vaccinated, it's their own choice. I think if you're vaccinated, what do you fucking care what anyone else does? I never understood that. And at the same time, I'll also say private businesses and owners of teams,

they can have their own rules. And if you don't abide by it, you can take a hike. The thing is with Josh Archibald, he'll be gone. He'll probably be in the minors. If they could even send him there, I don't know how that's going to work. Tyler Bertuzzi's a different story because he's a very key part of Detroit. Archibald, you know, he's his fourth liner, right? Tyler Bertuzzi's an enormous part of the Red Wings,

so if it's up to him, you know, they don't want to lose him as a player, but it certainly presents an issue. But to be telling people and going after people who aren't vaccinated, mind your own fucking business. Yeah, we're just again, it's news. We're reporting. It's I just laugh. It's like, you know, it's sticking that stuff in me. We don't you only put toward all my fucking body. I mean, I've I mean, I put worse. I put a lot worse. It's like, hey, fuck you. You'll put that me up. I've hung around with my RA at Hockey Fest. OK, I mean, I put worse. I put a lot worse. Fuck you. Don't put that on me. I've hung around with an RA at Hockey Fest.

Okay. I mean, I mean, Christ. No, you know, I have a strict no needles policy. Unless like we're trying to. I wasn't saying needles. I was just saying substances. Apparently, goaltender Curtis McElhinney retired as his Instagram now reads retired pro athlete

he played 13 NHL seasons for 8 different teams almost 250 games played and he finished up with 2 Stanley Cups back to back with Tampa Bay so Curtis if you are in fact retired congratulations hell of a way to go out with your Instagram bio but

if that's the truth good for you. Congrats on a hell of a career. That's like a bowl meester exit. Just like, hey, see you guys. Yeah, see you boys. Deuces. Jim Hewson also retired at age 64, ending a 42-year broadcasting career up in Canada. Biz, I know you can speak to him a little better than us guys down in the States can. One of my favorite play-by-play guys.

What an incredible career. I feel like, listen, he can ride off into the sunset, but I feel short-changed because he still sounds so good, and he looks great. You said he's 62? 64. Or 64. He looks incredible.

I actually ran into him one time when me and Paisley were at Kierland Golf Club golfing. I think the Vancouver Canucks were in town at the time but uh just an awesome guy one of the best and and it sucks that hockey's losing them but uh enjoy retirement man you uh you're one of the fucking greatest guys i've ever heard call a game and even in you know he's been hockey night in canada and the canucks but he's been nhl for ea sports yeah announcer correct yeah yeah i used to play the video game on my uh my computer that he Canada and the Canucks, but he's been NHL for EA Sports announcer, correct? Yeah, yeah.

I used to play the video game on my computer that he was doing. He's a man. He's one of the best. I'm not sure if you guys saw this. The Olympic schedule actually came out. The first couple games, the U.S. is going to play China to kick things off, and Canada will play Germany. Interesting.

We'll have Leon going head to head versus Connor in case you weren't aware the 21-22 NHL regular season is going to take a break from February 3rd to February 22nd you have the all-star game weekend I believe that's the 5th out in Vegas

and then the Olympics so we're going to be we're not taking a break check let's win the NHL is taking a break 19 dayslets, we're not. The NHL is taking a break. 19 days. Those guys, that's the Hawaii trip everyone does. That's the long Cabo trip. They're going to be going off. We're staying in Vegas from February 3rd to 22nd. Last man standing owns everything for chicklets.

Yeah, cage match. Lower the cage. I love it. I love it. But, hey, that's going to be a blast. What a fucking year for the NHL. All these young studs at the Olympics.

They're still going to give us an all-star game. I know. That's crazy that they're doing that. ESPN back. It's fucking awesome. Do we have to figure out what prospect was imitating me during the Washington Capitals? Oh, yeah. Roll the clip, Grinelli.

Hi, Washington Capitals. Oh, yeah. We didn't talk about it. Roll the clip, Grinelli. Hi, Washington Capitals, man. Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 264 of the Spinning Pickups Podcast. 100% we're going to see you got sent down in two days, poor kid. Yeah. You listen to those idiots. Get him out of here. Trade him. He's going to be in the EIHL. Send him to the Islanders. down like in two days poor kid yeah you listen to those idiots get him out of here trade him

he's gonna be in the ehl cinema the island is yeah that was pretty funny man i i forgot to google to see which which prospect or rookie it was but uh it's kind of it's kind of a funny thing to have yourself imitated by by pro athletes uh it was i definitely put a smile on my face though imitations the fucking goat bro most sincerest form of flattery, Biz. You know that. Oh, for sure. All right. Hey, you guys know we love Saks.

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out they are good they keep you like a nugget snug uh like that you like when it contours your ball bag yeah it just keeps yeah especially like i said you get all the gravity starts working its power a little bit more whoa whoa whoa you got old hangy old balls doing it yeah doing every guy i mean wait wait wait is that a fact as the older you get the the more your balls droop fuck yeah you have gravity baby yeah yeah yeah old man i have never seen jackass that's fucking that's not a joke that's from reality i think it's all genetics you still got a powerful ball bag you're saying it's so powerful i got no droop no it's you it's

yeah gravity in time takes it my balls are up high i don't got a thing man you don't want you don't want it when your ball bag is drooping like so far down that your like horn looks like it's tiny because it's like not as i already i already fight that issue tough yeah wait wait wait till you get my age boys uh all right let's move it right along how old are you um me 49 49 when do you turn 50 not till next year oh we gotta throw we gotta throw i think we said we were going to vegas for that vegas party we won't be in vegas When do you turn 50? Not till next year. Oh, we got to throw. We got to throw. I think we said we were going to Vegas for that. Vegas party. We won't be in Vegas for my birthday.

So where do you want to go? I other than Fort Lauderdale or Daytona. You know where it's for a party. All right. I want to go to Pensacola Hooters. That's where I want to go. We'll actually be in Florida for my I mean, Vegas for my birthday this year. So if you guys want to throw me a little party that Saturday night, I want to go. We'll actually be in Florida for my, I mean, Vegas for my birthday this year. So if you guys want to throw me a little party that Saturday night,

I'll be a 29. I'll call my boy. We'll be in Vegas. We'll take care of you. Gee, we got to talk about Erica's. Bastl hockey cup. It just got announced this week. It's going to take place in April of 2022 on long Island. Erica is going to assemble the best female players

from the Olympics, professional leagues from US, Canada, and Europe. There are going to be four teams taking place. It's basically going to be like more or less a World Cup of women's hockey, right, G? Yeah, that's why it's called the Barstool Hockey Cup. Erica's been kind of planning this thing for a long time, and it's going to be electric. It's great because

you know she tried to get involved with the league and they pigeon tossed her like the complete fools and in the end okay if you don't want me i'll i'll build my own women's hockey classic and the reason that it works is because all these girls want and women all want to play in it so i think it's going to be fantastic i talked to jameson coil who works for the nhl network he texts me right away hey i'd love to be involved on the broadcast think it's going to be fantastic. I talked to Jameson Coyle who works for the NHL network. He texts me right away. Hey, I'd love to be involved in the broadcast team. Like people want to be involved in this and all the,

all the women want to play in it. I think it's going to be very special. I'm going to really do wonders for the women's game. So will it be team USA, team Canada, and then team Europe? I have it right here. Gee,

unless it's changed since what you sent me, it's going to be team USA, 25 and older. Team Canada, 25 and older. North America, 24 and under. And then the rest of the world on one team. Okay, so much like the World Cup and the men's hockey. Yeah, what they did with the All-Star game that year, the North American team. Do you remember that three-on-three they had between the Young Guns and Sweden?

Insane. McKinnon buried at the end between the Young Guns and Sweden? Insane. McKinnon buried at the end on Lundqvist, right? Yeah. Yeah, that was probably the coolest three-on-three I've ever seen. I want to say that was when the first had been introduced, where that season that followed it was the first time that they had the three-on-three overtime. Was it? Yeah, that's how they introduced it.

I think you're right because that three on three was so crazy that we were like, oh my God, this is going to be sick. Oh yeah. Leonard just wants more shootouts. So we should just skip the three on three. I kind of agree with Leonard. I would rather see more three on three. I'd rather, I think that if you did,

I think if you did 10 minutes of three on three, that'd be awesome. And there's no way that somebody wouldn't score 10 minutes, three on three and, or go down to two on two. That'd be awesome. And there's no way that somebody wouldn't score 10 minutes three on three and or go down to two on two. That'd be crazy. With that much ice, somebody would eventually end it, but that's almost like too much ice. So the year I won the Calder Cup in the NHL, not a big deal. They did seven minutes of overtime,

and after the four-minute mark of overtime, if there was a whistle, it went from four on four down to three on three so i think in in the nhl's case they could maybe try to do that where we go from three on three to two on two i find that more of hockey than just a guy going down shooting on a goalie no yeah they just always talk about more minutes it's just it's i know i know what you're saying i would rather that too i would but i think there'd be pushback. Hey, how about this? It continues three on three, but you can only play the six guys

with the least amount of ice in the lineup that night. So the fourth, get the fourth. Everyone's just chipping it out, chipping it in. You're like, guys, you don't have to do that anymore. Their legs are seizing up because they haven't fucking played in a full period in overtime oh god you should make like a boy or something like they should get people that work for the team involved in the shootout if they want to make it really crazy so like somebody from the team you have a representative that works for

the team and they put skates on as overtime is like coming to an end and then they do the shootout. How about after overtime's up, the home team gets to pick an activity other than hockey, other than the shootout. So if you're in Vegas, they bring out a craps table or a blackjack table. Hey, Merle's might get a one-way just for his craps ability. Hey, if they had roulette, you might get a one-way just for his craps ability hey if they had roulette you might get a fucking pto wit i'm like the mcdavid roulette even though i lost every dollar

i had that week hey hey you're in you're in dallas they do like a bull riding they bring out the one at the den. You just got to smoke a huge bowl. All right. Welcome back. Yeah. Tampa. Like waitresses come. Hey,

Hey, Hooters dances. Give you a lap dance. And the first guy to blow loses in Tennessee. The captains have to sing country. Yeah. Karaoke style. Nice. I like that.

What other ones would we do? Buffalo. You just got to take a shit on the ice. Largest shit wins. No, you got to do hot wings. Boston, it's a clam chowder fest, like a competition who can eat the most, the fastest.

The Kraken, you got to down a leader. Can I eat the might squirrel? You got to down a leader of Starbucks. LA, whoever comes from banging a porn star quickest loses. No, TikTok. No, we can't do that. It's a valley.

Batman's not going to okay that. I could see him okaying the Hooters waitresses with the lap dance, seeing who lasts the longest. Let's keep going here. What are some other teams? What would you do in New Jersey? Arizona, you got gotta spend the night at your apartment and whoever doesn't throw up wins oh yeah what uh what else who else do some other

teams this is fun i can't even think of other teams right now gee i'm gonna go back to uh unreal jerseys i know you mentioned them before the show. Biz, while we get a lull here. Unreal golf merch. It's spelled UNRL. We have a bunch of new golf shirts dropping. Biz is actually wearing the Unreal quarter zip that we have, but they're Unreal.

They're like Pink Whitney speckled, spit and chiclet speckled, so they got a bunch of logos all over them, and they're just like high-performance golf shirts. I know Wick can talk about them. I i mean i think they're amazing well high performance golf what did we see a lot of up in the americans this weekend the what holy shit what an absolute thumping the americans you gotta build a sandcastle no that's that's what you used all that time to think of if you're gonna come with something there it had to be fire sandcastle i'm gonna log off the american team is an absolute wagon and the crazy thing is so europe had dominated the

past few rider cups for years now now granted america still has to win one over there i don't think they've won over there since like 1993 in europe next Next one's in Rome in 2023. But the American team is young. They had six rookies this year and they dusted a European team that's getting older and older. And it kind of looks like it could be switching where the next, you know, 10, 15 years, the U.S. is dominating the Ryder Cup. They have horses. DJ was the oldest guy on the team. It was a it was a memorable weekend. Like I think my biggest thing, I love the Ryder cup. I love watching it. I love it when it's close, right? You hope that singles matters and that there can be a huge difference maker

when it comes down to Sunday this year, it was over going in, but it was just, it was just, it was perfect golf from the American team. DJ went five and all. He was a machine. My new favorite, I shouldn't say new, but my favorite pro golffer is this colin morikawa like there's no such thing as the perfect human this guy has it all going he's so professional polished his game's ridiculous he's the best iron player in the world he went to cal berkeley i think he had like a 4.0 there an unreal stern top ranked amateur just a stall. So the fact that he was a rookie, he lit it up. This Patrick Cantlay, he's an animal out there.

It seems like just somebody who never gets rattled. It was just a great weekend of golf. I want a bunch of money. I had America to win the cup. They were big favorites, but I didn't, I didn't see a way they were losing. You saw Rory after Rory had nothing. He was crying after talking about how emotional the Ryder Cup is

and how much it means to him and how disappointed he was to be so bad. He won his Sunday singles match against Shoffley. But the team events, he was horrible. They actually sat him for one of the afternoons or the mornings. I think he got sat in best ball. I don't remember, though, but for him not to play, I mean, it's been a tough go for Rory McIlroy. I always wonder like he made so much money.

He won four majors in such a quick amount of time. He only has to win the masters to win the grand slam, but he's been struggling and he's got swing changes and different coaches and his friends, his caddy, he had a caddy for a long time and you just never know what goes through a guy's head. He's a father now.

It's like so hard to probably balance his life. He he's he's so good at what he does yet maybe there isn't the joy that was once there and it's it's nuts because when he's on there's nobody better but it just seems like it's been quite a while and this weekend was tough for him because he was just playing horrible Friday and Saturday but US was dominant they They were so good. It was great to watch. And that course, I played Whistling Straights. I actually didn't love it. It's so hard. I mean, those guys make it look so easy.

You don't understand that you get out there. There's blind shots everywhere. The wind's howling. The water's on the left or the right of almost every single hole. Pete died. They designed these courses that just make them super difficult. So I didn't love the course basically because it was so hard, but the way they make it look, those guys are just so good

that it was entertaining to watch this perfect golf USA played. First of all, I was surprised to see Ian Poulter still involved in the Ryder Cup. I want to say he fell off years back, but he seems to be pretty clutch in these events. Yeah, I think that it goes back to like maybe 2014. He was ridiculous in Medina. The Saturday afternoon, I think he birdied like the last four holes

to get a point, and then they had the ridiculous comeback. But he seems to get like playing great leading up to the Ryder Cup because he continues to make these teams. This is probably his last one. He was actually a little emotional in the press conference after saying saying he thinks it was his last chance you never know if in two years he could give it a go again he played westwood didn't he i don't think he he didn't play great well maybe he had to play with rory in a couple matches and rory was terrible so he was dragging a minute i think like he won like three of the holes for him the day that i was watching

i'm like fuck i didn't even and especially that he's bumping the visor like me and the sandbaggers. I kind of had this like emotional connection to him with the frosted tips. What's interesting about the Ryder Cup is, is so whoever's hosting it, they have the right and they're the ones who set up the golf course. So it's kind of gotten too extreme where like you go over to Europe and it was in France when Europe won in 2018 and they set up this very tight course with long rough because their guys hit it shorter and straighter where US just has bombers right so you set up this course that's so difficult

for the team USA to play and then you go back to America and they set up these ballparks, these big old ballparks that ball strikers can play and hit. You got to hit shots like iron shots, ball striking that team Europe doesn't have. So I kind of think that moving forward in the Ryder Cup, it'd be better if there was a neutral person or group that set up the golf courses, because it's almost getting like, I think a lot of the times it just benefits whoever's setting up the course so much. We'll see what happens in Romeome like i said usa will be favored i think they just don't have

much coming up in europe usa has even more guys that are coming up um the other thing that i wanted to mention was the the big uh bryson dechambeau and brooks kepka they now they're playing tummy sticks like do you think that this is forever you think this was just for this event they seem to i mean bryson dechhambeau was wearing the Stepbrothers shirt with their faces on it. I know. It seemed to be that Bryson finally kind of seemed normal. Like he seemed like he was not being –

Yeah, he seemed likable. Koepka still, I don't know. I mean, they had to certainly have respect for each other this week. I think both of them had talked about it. Like, they're on a team for a week. But maybe moving forward because they won. And Bryson beat Sergio in singles. And Brooks went over to him right away and kind of dapped him up.

It was, like, great playing. So, you'd think that would end it. One of those guys could go back and continue to just rip it on the other. And you never know what could happen. But you wouldn't be surprised if this is the end of their beef. I think it won't be the end of people giving de chambeau shit um justin thomas was pretty big in this event too you know what i noticed the day i was watching they they were getting a little bit chippy about not giving each other putts yeah dude they were just put the fucking thing in the hole and the crazy thing was

like so they lay bryson actually thought a putt should be given to him I tweeted about it he laid down the putter now technically like people say if the putts inside the leather so from if you were to put the putter head into the hole and if the ball would then be between then and when the like putter grip starts like so if it was just between the shaft they say that's gimme's. But Bryson, he did it. They were down six points, I think. They were down five or six points. It's like, why would anyone be giving you putts? They need anything they can get.

And then he made a spectacle of it. So I'm sure there was some competitiveness going where Europe's not giving them anything and they're taking offense, but just make the putt. Hey, Whit, was that why the belly putter was created? So you get those free long putts no i said that but i people then said that the distance between that and the grip would still be like the same length i don't people on twitter are fools well the rider cup wasn't the only thing on tv all weekend with the decidedly uh european influence that a lot of people watched

the sopranos have been replaying the entire, uh, Overey, all five of their seasons, or is it six seasons or five and a half, whatever they call it. They replaying all the seasons. Cause the movie is dropping Friday, the, uh,

many saints of Newark. So I know people like, Oh, who fucking watches cable. But if you're sitting there and it's on TV, you're going to pop on it. You don't have to be. What channel was it on?

HBO was streaming like from eight o'clock in the morning until 8 o'clock at night. I want to say last Thursday. They've done season one, season two, season three. So someone like me who works from home all day, it's like a no-brainer to put Sopranos on the background all day. And it's funny, man. I haven't watched every second of every episode, but I've revisited quite a lot of it.

And it just reminds you how awesome and epic of a show it was groundbreaking. It was at the time, you know, a show that they're never going to make again. But like I said, so it's at a text or the day with how James Gandolfini was built for that role. Like, like, I think he was slowly going to build out of it. You know, he died not too long after the show and off the air, but he was starting to make movies that weren't, you know, James, I mean, Tony Soprano type roles. I think he was so pigeonholed, but I think he would have been such a good actor if he lived another 20,

30 years, there would have been like the Tony Soprano phase of his career. And then like the next Oscar winning phase of his career. Cause he was like, I think that he did a pretty good job of, of, of getting out of Michael Scott or do you think that everybody always views him as Michael Scott? Good, good call biz. That's a good call. But what I think a few things like I tweeted about and I got good feedback on

was like when Richie April comes out, cause he's like one of the first scumbags that gets out of jail and he starts dating Janice. And I was like, Oh, Richie April is such a maggot. And everyone like replies to that as like, but he worse than Ralphie Cifaretto. I was like, Oh wow. I didn't know this is gonna be a dick master contest between the two big scumbags i'm like well no ralph sifaretto is the worst i mean richie beat up he punched janice in the face he he fucking drove over

beansie after he tried to muscle him but ralphie sifaretto killed a horse he burned it alive and then he fucking murdered he beat up the stripper that he got pregnant like he was just a psychopath ralphie sifaretto was probably the biggest scumbag on the show. But also, too, what I noticed was how big of fucking idiots Meadows' boyfriends were over the years. She dated the biggest fucking morons, like that kid Noel. He was like the biracial Jewish nerd whose father was like a big shot lawyer, but he was such a geek.

And then that kid Finn who caught um what's his name was a veto blowing the guy at the construction site and then jackie jr was the biggest fucking meathead he was about as sharp as a donut like she was a meathead herself on that show like but but i think maybe they're trying to say well when you have this guy as your father then you're not going to pick out probably the best boyfriends that could have been like one of the messages messages of the show yeah uh the show is so good i recently re-watched the whole thing i think two years ago so i'm pretty dialed in moving into this movie uh gandalfini was unreal he was built for that role do you think it's weird because some people steve carell is a great example but some people i feel like never

get out of the role example what's another example of a guy who can't get out of a certain role like the guys on friends like did they ever do anything now the argument is like if you're on a show that's so successful where you end up not really being able to do anything after like you're making so much money maybe you don't care but also as an actor or actress like it's got to be kind of hard after to to realize that you're never going to get out of that jerry seinfeld would be a good yeah but he was a comedian so he was different yeah and i think it depends what your aspirations are because like the the uh woman on gray's and gray's anatomy what's her name from everett what's her name um ellen pompeo like she was in a few movies she was in old school and then she got into gray's

anatomy and like she realized i can make way more money at Grey's Anatomy. I might not get the roles I want, but I can like have a position of power here and make like $10 million an episode and be a producer. And that's what she decided to do. She basically like threw out any potential acting career. She might have the movies to focus on. I got a couple of good ones. Who do you got? Carlton. Yeah, like yeah, he I got a couple good ones. Who do you got? Carlton. Yeah. Like, yeah. Or how about like Ted Danson?

All right. I know he's been on other things, but he was so good as Sam Malone. And like, was he? What about Screech? Was he somebody? Yeah. R.I.P. Was Ted Danson somebody that could have had like an amazing acting career and never really did?

I mean, I think he had a pretty good TV career. Obviously, you mentioned Cheers, Sam Malone. But then he did that show, Becca, which I wasn't necessarily a fan of. But he was pretty popular on that. And then the recent what was a good place? He was on that. He's in Curb Your Enthusiasm, too, as a good as himself, which is funny. And he did that other show on HBO.

Fuck, the name of it escapes me. Is it God? I dropped a couple of bangers and got nothing. Yeah. I mean, he said Screech. I mean, he's not even alive. that other show on hbo um fuck the name of it escapes me is it uh god i dropped jason schwarzenegger's and got nothing yeah i mean he said screech i mean he's not even alive yeah i don't think ted danson got pigeonholed i think he actually did better than most guys do who have like an iconic role like that like he do it sam alone he was able to go out and do two or three other roles that maybe people know him by other than sam Malone. What about Adrian Greiner from Entourage? Oh, big time.

There's one. There's one. Yeah. G is buzzing. Yeah, there's a guy like, I don't know, is it because of his Entourage success and people know him as Vince, or is it that he wasn't that good of an actor?

You know what I mean? I think it might be the latter. I don't think the acting was that great in Entourage. Yeah. I mean, I know he's on some Entourage show. I'm sorry. Netflix show right now called Clickbait. But yeah, I don't think he was the strongest actor on that show.

So they might not have been beaten down his door. I mean, you look at so many iconic shows, even something like The Wire. That's one of the best shows ever. But people aren't beating down everyone's door. Like, oh, you were on this show. Come on our show. There's a lot of flashes in the pan.

I mean, even Aaron Paul. Let's bring up Aaron Paul. Yep. Jesse. Jesse Pinkman. Jesse Pinkman. Now, he's been in a couple movies. He's got some other roles.

But he hasn't done anything to make you think of Jesse Pinkman since he played Jesse Pinkman. I mean, if that's the worst thing that you'd see a grave is you play this iconic role in a TV show. It's not a bad thing, but I think as actors, they want to like. Yeah. And you go something else. And you in a way, it's similar to athletics where you can kind of go from

being the top dog on the biggest show ever. And all of a sudden you kind of got nothing going on. It's definitely, it must be a bizarre feeling for these guys. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's, it's tough, man. It's a tough business. I know people, all those easy work. It's like, no, it's, it's hard work. If you're not good at it, it's real hard work to do. And these people aren't guaranteed jobs, man. There's a lot of working class actors that, you know,

they get a job or two or three a year, they still gotta they still gotta pay bills the vast majority of actors are not making a lot of money there's one for you fez from that 70s show oh god he got he's still dining out on all the fucking ass he got i think which guy was fez he was the funny one when they would always do the round table he would say the ridiculous shit the guy who'd wear the sunglasses of like the hispanic guy the hispanic guy yeah the salt oh yeah yeah yeah what's uh wilmer wilder yeah yeah oh that guy was that guy had like a jeter like dating uh like pool that guy was an animal yeah he had a bunch of different rockets yeah he was savage like he hosted that show yo

mama on mtv where they would make just like yo mama jokes for like two oh yeah that was baroots secretly loved it um uh speaking of shows free britney documentary is dropping uh tuesday when this comes out we're recording this monday That is going to be a banger. So all the behind-the-scenes bullshit that her family put her through in order to keep her in this conservative ship. So I cannot wait to see that. And one other thing I had written down here is McGregor's first pitch there for the Cubs game. Are these guys fucking trying to pitch it like shit?

Like this has to be like an attention grab. I don't think so. I think he tried to pitch it like shit? Like, this has to be, like, an attention grab. I don't think so. I think he tried to throw it as hard as possible. And do they play baseball in Ireland? Like, he probably doesn't even know how to throw a ball correctly. I mean, come on, man. The guy's a fucking – he was a UFC champion. You're telling me these guys can't figure out how to throw a goddamn baseball?

I think you'd be surprised that athletic people who never played baseball, like, don't know how to throw a ball. that athletic people who never played baseball don't know how to throw a ball. I think there's guys in the NHL that if you saw them throw a baseball, you'd be fucking shocked. Let me ask you this. Do you think that if somebody handed you a ball, no warm-up, no nothing, you can't even practice going into it, you could throw a strike from the top of the mound?

No, I can't. I think if I took heat off of it i mean i was a big lefty pitcher i threw gas to a nice curveball i was money till i was like 12 and uh let me tell you i do would not feel confident in throwing a strike president bush's 9-11 first pitch greatest first pitch all time was a dart perfect strike i don't know man if i took a lot off it maybe i could get it over the plate but i would would not be confident. It's farther away than you think. I threw out a first pitch once at a little spinners game.

How'd you do? You threw out a first pitch. Threw out a first pitch. Got a fucking Little League game t-ball. I was walking in and they said that the guy canceled that day. I was wearing a Red Sox shirt. They were like, come throw out the first pitch. Ended up throwing a strike right down the middle. Oh, I want to

see a video of this. R.A., were you done on the actors who can't get out of their roles conversation? Yeah. Or did you have any other things to chime in on that? I don't know. R.A. never got anything after being the cook. That's true, man.

You got the pigeonhole of being a cook. It's funny. i did get one of those emails i told you i'm a member of that casting place where like if i'm on file so if someone sees me and they might want to use me i'll get like a special email because they're filming a movie around here next month but i i replied but i haven't heard back yet so i don't know if i'm gonna they should make like an oceans 13 style, like a film about a guy who sneaks into sporting events. And maybe R.A. could play himself. Yeah, but see, I wouldn't tell people about it.

So I don't know how you can make that movie. That's the whole key when you do that shit. You keep your fucking mouth shut so you can keep getting away with it. Not tell the whole fucking world. So then they look for it. Well, Pasha did, but it was just too bad that we did. Yeah, rookie move. Pasha, call me when you drink out of this Nelly Cup, Pasha.

Suck it. Yeah, he's like, don't be coming after my crown. Come on. I don't have anything else, boys, other than Aaron Rodgers. Fuck, man. I think that as far as individual quarterbacks go and maybe not the team surrounding him, he, by the time he's done playing,

will maybe be the greatest quarterback to ever play in the NFL. With one Super Bowl. Not even close, Biz. Listen, Tom Brady is the greatest winner in football history, and I don't think that as a player. All right, you think that he's a better individual player than Aaron Rodgers? No, Aaron Rodgers is a fantastic quarterback. I'd put him up there with Peyton Manning as far as accuracy,

just having a natural ability to be an NFL quarterback. But the results are the results, and he's won one Super Bowl. He's won three or one in four NFC Championship games, and he's had some big games where he hasn't come throwing the clutch. So, yeah, I think championships matter, but he's a great quarterback, fantastic Hall of Famer, but fucking one title, man. But then you could also, on the contrary, say, like, look how many times, like, I'm not going to say bailed out because that's such a negative word

when it's surrounding Tom Brady. There's a lot of factors that went into him winning a lot of these games. Yeah, and he could have won a couple more, too. Fucking helmet catch david tyree i mean again rogers will be a hall of fama and like i said he reminds me of manning as far as the accuracy the pinpoint control the they make throws you've never seen before but that's just certain parts of the game those are certain skills that don't make you the greatest ever i mean it's winning it's winning it makes you the best ever. And whether I'm a Brady guy or not,

I just don't think when you have one Superbowl that or man, in this case to which one was on the defense. I don't know. I think it's a no brainer. And who who's the best quarterback of all time when you, when you're measuring who won titles. All right. Yeah. But Hey, we do get a bias Homer. We do get to give a shout out though though, to Justin Tucker. Sixty six yard field goal set an NFL record, sent Lions fans home crying yet again. But that was incredible.

I know. I know what you said. You had them in your suicide pool. Yeah, I couldn't believe it. I didn't know that's how it went down. Went down. And when I saw it, I was shocked. Yeah.

Yeah, it's pretty. The one other football thing I want to talk about was Sean McVay. And you're the coach of the Rams? Coach of the Rams. They look great. Fascinating guy. Apparently, he's a savant surrounding all the play calling and all this. He's kind of a hybrid between Belichick and Pete Carroll

and how he motivates. If you ask him throughout his coaching career about any play by giving him the down in yardage and time in whatever week it was, he can go back to 2015 and tell you the exact play that was ran on that down. Yeah, that's great. Week three, 2016, with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter. He'll tell you. Second and four, he's telling you what play they ran.

He'll tell you exactly what play he ran and what was executed on. That's some Mary Lou Henner shit. That's kind of like me going back to the golf rounds I play. I'm a savant, right? Can you guys call me a savant, please? Yes. That's a real condition, you know. Well, I don't think McVay has, but Mary Lou Henner,

the lady who was on the show Taxi, she can remember every little detail of her life. They can ask her, like, any day from, like, 50, 60 years show Taxi, she can remember every little detail of her life. They can ask her like any day from like 50, 60 years ago, and she could tell you. No way. Yeah. She was on 60 Minutes. It's not like some crazy RA story.

There's a name for it. People, it's almost like a curse because they remember every little thing. And Mary Lou Henna, the hot redhead from Taxi. Yeah, she was on 60 Minutes. She can remember every obscure detail from like any day that you name in her life and tell you what day it was all this crazy shit that sean mcveigh's head would go fucking circle that that new stadium they have in la is stunning between like that and the raiders who else has a new one in the nfl all these new stadiums that they're building are absolutely incredible minnesota's is new i think that'd be after they hold up fucking taxpayers for all that fucking money that's what they did in vegas i mean hey if

you're an owner and in the city wants to pay for it fuck it yeah i'd let him too but jerry's world is still relatively new that place is silly yeah and i don't know how much the uh dallas or texas taxpayers are on the hook for it but vegas taxpayers paid a lot of money for that fucking radio stadium i'll tell you that. I think we can wrap this thing up. I think I frustrated R.A. enough by saying Rodgers is the greatest quarterback of all time. No, you ain't frustrated me.

You called the Fugees better than the Rolling Stones. And then the Fugees trumping the Rolling Stones. That's what's going to get your throats lit later. All right, guys. Awesome week. Thanks again to Robin Leonard. We're looking forward to a couple more interviews.

We're trying to crush away before the start of the year to have some on tap solid episodes coming for you in the next few weeks. We can't wait to get hockey going. Like Biz said, ESPN,

new team, all star game Olympics. It's going to be wild. So thank you for listening. We will see you next week. Peace. New team coming through. As always, we like to thank our terrific sponsors here on Spittin' Chicklets.

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