Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 360: Featuring Shawn Thornton + Mike Stothers

Episode Date: November 16, 2021

On Episode 360 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Mike Stothers and Shawn Thornton. Mike joins to talk about coaching Biz in Junior and the AHL, coaching the Anaheim Ducks, and his playing career. But first, the guys open the show talking about Bob Murray’s firing from the Anaheim Ducks, along with some other NHL news from around the league. The guys are then joined by Shawn Thornton to talk about his book, his career, and the time he met RA. The fellas wrap up talking about the Chiclets Cup, Marner or Nylander, and the Hall of Fame.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 360 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney. From our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. What's up everybody? We're back in our home studios after a week on the road. Great time in Philadelphia. Plenty to talk about this week, but let's say hi to the boys first mikey grinnell you had an adventurous weekend i understand hello gentlemen i uh i did have an adventurous weekend uh saturday went to the bruins game bruins devils over in newark it was a great time but on friday night i uh i got sold some fake tickets to the dave matthews concert what would you say after i was

after i was not allowed into the concert, I ended up at the Margaritaville Resort in Times Square with PFT Commenter and Donnie Does and Hank Lockwood. So it was an adventurous night. Was that the opening there? They opened a few weeks ago, but man, that place is unbelievable. I'd go there on any Saturday, Sunday. Who was Dave Matthews opening for?

Don't ask R.A. Jeff, I missed him. I would have loved to go see Dave Matthews. That's the problem. I think Dave is great. I got a lot of shit online for it, but the guy seemed like a real straight shooter. Not as much as MSG.

It was at MSG. I went to the KFC radio show beforehand, and then I, me and my buddy just said, hey, let's pop over to msg go see dave matthews and the first guy we saw we just said we had 32 in our pocket he said 60 bucks we said we got 32 he said deal right away oh we get way too cheap to begin with yeah well you i mean i didn't know you you didn't lose money you lost 32 bucks i thought you actually pizzas cost more than you lost the fuck jersey short for hey and another thing too it's like you didn't like you didn't

think twice when he's like how much you got like no didn't think twice at all the second i pulled the ticket out of the pocket the guy goes fake get out fake you're done and i'm like no no no scan it i'm like please scan it trust me it. Boom. They kicked me right out. So you like this day and age. I mean, you just didn't think that it might be fake. I didn't think twice. Never thought twice. Big, big Dumbo move by me.

Hey, this is our podcast. You know what they say? What's the term? Everything evens out in the wash. Every ticket. I don't know. Evens out in the wash. No, it's like everything evens out in the wash every ticket even even what do you mean no like it's like everything evens out in the wash you win some you lose some this is our podcast version of like the collective four we got already sneaking into concerts and then granelli's getting ripped off to not even go into the concert so it's all even out in the wash here guys

well you could buy a ticket from a homeless guy eating an old piece of samaro you're shocked to hear the ticket was fake oh hey which i was in the train station in a box and i would really bought a ticket from i would pay money to see the interaction dude it was actually a piece of the cardboard box he lives in that he he cut out and wrote on dave mat MSG. Oh, no. It was the barcode from the pizza box. No, scan it. Hey, the worst part was. You got to at least try to scan it. Scan this, man.

Hey, 10% off. It's to borrow. It's on your next slice. Hey, we didn't even look at the tickets. It's like when you looked at the printed seats, the printed seats were like X, Y, Z in section, like a bunch of random letters and numbers. November 10th, 1996. Did you even bother looking at the price of the tickets on the ticket nope oh my goodness he

seemed like a real straight shooter r.a came out of his coma r.a you're the concert guy how do you feel about all this you know what i there's a part of me that sympathizes with him because i i had a fuck up like this too you too was here uh boston, I don't know, maybe 15, 20 years ago. And a kid was coming out of the concert. Well, if you look close to the exit and he's like, hey, you need a ticket. And I'm like, yeah, I could tell he wasn't a scalper. And this was before you did all these things on the internet and downloaded all your tickets. You know, you still used a paper ticket.

And I fucking gave him like a buck 20 or whatever. And I got to the thing and like, oh, this is already scanned. But the concert had fucking just started. So he must must either got kicked out or like he had an extra ticket i don't know what somehow the ticket was already scanned so i don't know if the dude got thrown out and then just sold his ticket and i was pissed at myself that like i got beat by a scalper oh yeah oh yeah you know bothered you for a month i bet oh it fucking pissed me off so bad but hey you know what at least at least we weren't that in that concert at daytona beach this weekend biz with that broad just ripped a mad pisser all over that guy's face i have not seen the video but you were telling me about it beforehand and i'm kind of

like listen we had we used to have um who's the guy who bit off the bat's head ozzy osbourne oh it was ozzy osbourne yeah where like you know that's a little bit rockerish pissing on somebody's leg on stage i mean yeah i'm sure a few people were offended but not on the dude it was on the dude's face dude it was a full-fledged fucking golden shower right on the stage like the guy had to be deranged it was the same guy who sold g the ticket to dmb buddy he just ended up going to this cost him 32 extra nose hair he's part of the underground music scene. He's trying to

create morale around these shows, but I will say, even though you told me and you elaborated on the story, I'm still not completely mad about the play. You're at a rock show. You're trying to... It's entertainment, right? Yeah, it was over the top. I guess the rest of the band said, hey,

that was funny, but it ain't going to happen again. I think the rest of the band said hey yeah that was funny but it ain't gonna happen again i think that yeah i mean who was the band they can thank that person for the publicity though because now their band's being talked about nationwide right through that yeah through that so this is i mean this is rock and roll it's like you are fair game on anything except for like obviously the bad bad shit but like when it comes to like pissing on a person's face on stage, I mean, I don't think that's the worst thing. The band is brass against is the name.

And the lady's name was Christina Yursa or Sophia Yursa. Yeah. Sophia Yurista was the, was the singer, but yeah, nobody's kind of, what's kind of like, I don't know.

Do you disagree with what I'm saying? I just think it's so disgusting. And if you get up there and have some stranger piss on your face, you're so fucked up that I want nothing to do with you. I was with that guy. We could agree on that. He could have been my lifelong friend. I just erase his number from my phone and take my own Uber home.

Let's some random. It's not even like if it was like Taylor Swift or something like rock star pissing on your face. It's one thing. It's a cover band. It's a cover band singer. It's like, what are you doing? At least be able to say, at least be able to say like, oh my God. There was this Hall of Fame rock star that pissed on my face.

Adele. Yeah. Adele. It's a girl who tries to sing like Adele pissing on you. Adele, by the way, had an amazing performance. Her Oprah interview? Yeah. Let's go through the whole thing.

First of all, she lost 100 pounds. That's amazing. She looks phenomenal. Her voice is a voice of an angel. It was pretty cool. I think it's her son. It was her first time ever seeing her perform. She said it was like her greatest honor in life

to sing in front of her son. He's nine years old. I watched a little bit of the interview. Oprah drives me nuts a little bit. But I think in the end like i didn't understand adele like she's just she is one of the best voices ever queen i would i would i would put her above a beyonce as the queen bee now overall because i i liked i like i like beyonce's tunes and stuff too but i mean ad, Adele is just, she. Adele does not sniff the Fugees though. That's true. That's true. I, did you watch the whole performance already?

I didn't see any of it. No, no. I was like a little under the weather. Yeah. But just the fact that you, she got to interact with Oprah about, you know, where she was at the place in her life at the time and like you know how it how it kind of like translates into her music like you gotta remember too like a lot of these even the talented ones like they are writing their own songs so to have somebody not only write their own music of the emotions that they were experienced but to deliver them with the wordage and then to do to sing like you said with voice of an angel like i she will stop you dead in your tracks so she is uh to me she's the

queen bee right now now uh what was driving you nuts about the oprah interview i thought no no just oprah sometimes i don't know i just like people love oprah she's the most beloved person i got too big for you i thought the interview with like um prince harry and and megan markle she was kind of annoying i don't know i'm not the biggest oprah fan i don't really like you just like all our interviews what we keep watching all our interviews i mean you kind of have to because she gets these she's a powerhouse i mean like she's an absolute she got yeah she's had everyone ever she's a billionaire isn't she yeah she's worth a billion yeah she's got unreal. I shouldn't even dog Oprah. Mad respect to Oprah.

Shout out Oprah for what she's done. I don't know. I just, it's the same way that like people who probably enjoyed like our show at some point, we'll end up like not liking us at some point. Like she's just kind of. You know what my theory is on it with you were like an underground Oprah

fan when she first started out. And like, you saw the whole come out and maybe she hasn't answered a few of your letters and stuff and then like now you're like on the flip side you're on the other side of it no I asked too big you liked Oprah before everybody started liking Oprah no I I asked Oprah cover interviewer to piss on me and they wouldn't so I've just always held it against her what that was what was that an hour cbs special uh might have been a little longer right i don't know i watched 60 minutes 60 minutes tick tock tick tock did an incredible feature on the ports and the delays i saw that oh my god what a racket what these people there's people getting

their lives ruined because of the delays and the ports and the shipping. And what an incredible check it out. I'm sure it's online. CBS pretty much explains like the Long Beach and the L.A. ports and how everything is completely fucked. And what the guy actually said, this is you're looking at inflation like in person. So affecting the chick, it's merchandise, too. Like we get a lot of our stuff from China, which is which is the reason we brought it up. Exactly. What the fuck? I got to get my son.

Why can't I get my ugly sweat drop? He wants a street hockey stick. I got to get him something. We got to sell these t-shirts. Witt, I'm sure the people who are watching when this drops on YouTube, what's up with your elbow? You finally got the surgery, it looks like. Yeah, I got the surgery.

And holy shit, did I need the surgery. Because they went in there. And I think the last MRI I had was July. And that was when my boy Cam over at BU, who ironically enough, I've mentioned him before. He wrote Brunelli and he's like, hey, I think I can help with like he's the head guy at BU physical therapy. So I started going over and he really helped me like at least play a little golf this year. I got to play second half of July, August, September. I was hurting the whole time. I had to get all half of July, August, September. I was hurting the

whole time. I had to get all this cortisone, but he got me out there. But in the end, we did whatever we could and I needed surgery. So we go in there. It turns out that the tendon was completely ruptured, muscle torn off the bone. Like the guy, there was a ton of swelling in the joint. The surgeon shout out, Dr. Ruckelsman. Thank you, Dr. Ruckelsman. He said, dude, you had to do this. He goes, if you tried, because I was thinking like. I don't want to get surgery. Surgery is the last thing you want. My entire athletic career has been ruined by surgeries. I've been fucked up from the get go from whenever I started getting surgeries on my ankles and my wrist.

So I didn't want to do it. He told me, had you tried to rehab for it? Because what I was going to do was either just get surgery and I can't play golf for five months, which is a kick in the dick, but Oh, well, I should be healthy for may. It was either that, or it was rehab and not play golf for four months anyways, and just not even touch a club. So it was like one way or the other. I was out. Had I done that? He's like, dude, you would have played one round of golf would have blown right back up. So what an, what an amazing feeling it was coming out of surgery for him to reinforce like, dude,

you had to do that because once you went in there, it was so much worse than we thought, I guess the MRI, you couldn't see that it was ruptured. So yeah, man, now it, you know, it's a kick in the deck. Look, dude, I got this big thing for a week and then I go to another brace for about a month, but in a week I can already start trying to get the mobility back going. And honestly, i'm just very very excited to play golf not in pain because i was either in pain or i was taking 43 a leave and tylenol and that's not great for the liver and so it's just like now i'm on the

road to recovery so i'm gonna get the body healthy i haven't had a drink in seven days shout out me i've been eating a little bit better although i just crushed a bowl of reese's puff cereal shout out reese's puffs if you've ever had it you got a sweet it looks like chocolatey peanut butter oh the best oh my god pour that on my face at a concert and then and then and then i am on fire gambling and i'm also more um i'm i'm as driven with the chicklets job and the job we have right now as I've ever done. The gambling content, the season that we have going. I am in love working right now. That's a great feeling.

I think anyone knows whatever job you have, you go through ebbs and flows. I'm loving this right now. And I hammered, hammered the Barstool Sportsbook this weekend. So shout out the Toronto Maple Leafs scored with about 10 seconds left in Buffalo to get me a regulation win. And then Yamamoto who had been dogging all game in St. Louis got one with 25 seconds up and the, my Oilers got a big win on the road in regulation. So that along with a bunch of other wins just made it for a great weekend

while I was rehabbing. My wife was cooking me food. It's just a great feeling right now. And I'm not even on man, painkillers. You are on cloud nine, my friend. I'm a natural high guy. There you go. Last

week, we'd mentioned all the teams who played in the Warrior Classic, and there was one left off the list, so we want to give a shout out to the New Jersey Warriors. I know they're playing the games in New Jersey, but apparently they weren't listed on the form, I got, but I want to tell those guys, shout them out because I was told that we forgot to mention them, so shout out to those guys.

We have a pair of guests coming today. We have Boston Bruins legend Sean Thornton is going to join us a little later. He's got a new book coming out, believe it or not. He joined us a while back to talk about that in his career. And we also have Anaheim Ducks assistant coach Mike Stothers, who coached our boy Biz when he won his Call the Cup up in Manchester. Just some awesome, awesome insight into an NHL team, talking about some of these young guns in Anaheim.

And, I mean, we can be honest, boys. We don't really get a chance to cover that much. We don't talk in detail about them. So the fact that we got him on over the course of this very hot start for this team, it was awesome, and it was great chatting with him. So much so that we didn't really dive into his own personal career enough. So we'll have to get him back on down the road and uh and get into that he was one crazy bastard as a player

folks yeah i mean he fought an island coaster i mean he look at his pimps oh yeah in the hl in the 80s he was a savage uh of course sean thornton played for the ducks so this is a very ducks centric episode and we'll kick off with some ducks news in a second do we do want to tell you first to head over to your local bar and make sure to order up some Pink Whitney. It's the perfect shot for you and your friends. All the sports are going on right now. You're out having a few pops.

Have some Pink Whitney. We went off the rails. Do I get an intro? I don't know if Whit got one either. We kind of, yeah, we kind of bounced around. I didn't do my typical because we got on G for the Dave Matthews and then the piss in and Whit and then the elbows. So if you got anything else you want to say, chime in right now.

I just wanted to chime in and say, Witt, I mean, for the fans' entertainment, you've battled through this injury to provide some sandbaggers. One we have coming out next week between Caulfield and more quack, quack, Zegers. And then we had one against Teddy and Gomez. And then the latest one, Joe Watson and Todd Fedoruk. So those are in the bank folks. So shout out to wit for,

for showing up and grinding, grinding through, grinding through a leaves. And, and so we're going to have enough sandbaggers for the next, let's say four months, got one coming out next week. And then we'll,

we'll delay him a little bit, but maybe in the meantime, we get something else from the wit dog, as far as entertainment, maybe it's a behind the scenes on the barstool betting app because that was we still have to play chess against each other that could be a little 20 minute video feature or it could be four minutes when i fucking checkmate your ass early on in the game need to see that live when you play chess okay and on on the other note i just want to thank everybody for the support

for the watson gloves commercial oh Oh, Biz, great job. I forgot that that came. That is some funny shit. And let me tell you, companies out there who want to try to write your own commercials with corny ass lines. Biz is given a budget, correct? And then is like whatever you want to do, do. You are an absolute genius when it comes to writing and then acting in these commercials so any company that wants to do ads and wants to work with paul vissanette let him decide what it will

be and it'll be magic because every time you do one of these whether it was the pink whitney commercial or both watson gloves they're phenomenal so so it's with pasha and jeff and then obviously finding a company who's willing to give you their reins and basically give you free creative control with, we push the limits. They come back to us. We battle back to, to where, as far as we can take it and then they okay it. And then we try to execute the idea. So the first one was, was shot in a day. We pre-planned the whole thing, found the locations, and we tried to do the same thing in this one and we ended up like figuring out a way to execute it but pasha helps find the locations as well as jeff they help out with the writing aspect um you know that was one day 16 hours we did a full day yeah like woke up at 6 a.m wasn't done till probably like probably 12 so where were you cutting the

wood that had to be the first scene because Cause you had the beard, then you obviously shaved the beard, right? Yeah. So you have, yeah, you have to orchestrate the logistics. So this is when it gets really tricky. We call it guerrilla style. So we like, you know, obviously I have other things going on and they wanted it done by a certain time. And I was leaving Vancouver and Pasha was already there and had access to a lot of guys who know how to work the cameras. Like they're very good with the cinematography aspect of it. So we had to rush it in order to play a home court game. And yeah, we were able to figure it all out with the help of Watson gloves, as? No, that was my buddy's dad. And I fucking slapped him in the face about 20 times with this leather glove, like full on. So, but, you know, we were able to execute it. And then, of course, in the editing process,

you got to figure it out on the back end. But yeah, it's been fun, man. And hopefully more advertisers come our way and give us the full reign on whatever we're doing commercial wise. And while we're talking about it, biz we might as well mention their collection is ridiculous with gloves for shooting pucks on outdoor rinks, outdoor rinks, shredding the pow or a note a night on the town. I can't talk once again.

Watson gloves has gloves for anything quality since 1918. So give Watson a follow on Instagram and check out their website at www.watsongloves.com. And you could shop at both store.bastelsports.com and storeca.bastelsports.com to grab a pair of Watson gloves times chicklets gloves today. Those that's both the Canadian address and the American address. So where's that pink Whitney limo, dude? That was the one that Kane and all the Blackhawks were in Vancouver.

That next, next, dude. That was the one that Kane and all the Blackhawks were in in Vancouver that first cup year. Next, next. Did you say John Madden? No, you just did though. I think, yeah, he was one of the, they were having a good time. Vancouver was one of the best road cities in the NHL. They suck by the way. Yeah.

Holy shit. We should probably start getting into some hockey. But once again, thank you to Watson Gloves, Pasha, your G, and Jeff Jacobson, who helps out with a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff. So thank you, guys, and thank you to Watson Gloves. All right, boys, like you said, on to the hockey. And another one of those weeks with a story that no one really wants to cover,

but we got to do it. So Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray is out after 13 years. He resigned after the team looked into an alleged sustained patent of abusive behavior. You've spoken about this guy over the years and how he's treated people. Basically, the NHL says there's no excuse and there's no place in our league for the type of behavior. That was recently reported through the NHL hotline. We thank the Ducks organization for its prompt and appropriate response to the hotline report. So, obviously, that's how this was kicked off. People call this hotline complaint.

We're obviously seeing a sea change, I think, with the culture. Maria is also going to enroll in an alcohol abuse program. But, wait, obviously you know this guy. You work for him. Let's go to you first on this. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. Hey, hey, hey. Goodbye goodbye what a tune honestly i'm an asshole so here's the thing i for a long time have said he's the biggest prick i ever met in pro hockey so i was just kind of used to it and

and now granted i there was a reason he fucking hated me, right? He traded me. He traded a great player, Chris Kunitz, for me. I did not play well in Anaheim. I was not a great player. So he probably really hated me. And I think when he saw Getzlaff and Niedermeyer and Timu, I mean, he wasn't the friendliest guy in the world,

but he certainly wouldn't be rude. He picked the spots, and he knew, and he was a bully, and he knew he could treat like shit. Put it this way. I got in the elevator one morning with this guy and said morning murph and he just literally looked at me and then turned his head back like that's all you have to say so when you talk about um the alcohol problem i hope he gets okay my thoughts go out to him if he's got a problem with alcohol that's brutal you don You never want to hear anyone struggling with drugs or alcohol, and I hope he can get the help that he needs.

I actually didn't even know he had an alcohol problem. Now, why would I? I'd never hung out with the guy. But in all sincerity, I hope he gets healthy and he can figure out his problems when it comes to booze. But let's not pretend that's the entire reason he was a prick. And he was a guy that just was miserable, and he just treated people like dirt. And I was a perfect example of a guy and he was a guy that just was miserable and he just like treated people like

dirt and i was a perfect example of a guy who he would see and and i disgusted him and he made it very clear that i disgusted him so the the problem being that you can you can act like that and there's many people in the history of this game who've acted like that it's just times are a changing and we've talked about it over and over and biz Biz, you said it best on TNT when you actually said the word asshole, which cracked me up. What do you get out of being like that? The old way and the old boys network in hockey that so many people have talked about. It was not all the people were like that,

but there were many people who were just assholes to the players. We interviewed Stutters today. He even mentioned if you used to be in the elevator with a coach, you'd be petrified. Like that's how hockey was. And I'm sure that's how football was. I'm sure a lot of sports was, you're just, guys were mean to you

that they had the power above you. But what does it do? What does it create? It doesn't create confidence in a player. And I've had GMs like Ray Sherrill, unreal guy. I had bad games and he traded me, but he treated me with a ton of respect and he was a nice person.

And the same thing, Steve Tambolini in Edmonton. And it was just, there's been so many great people I've met in the game that have proved that you don't have to be a prick. And at the time growing up, maybe Bob Murray was treated like a prick from coaches and GMs he had. And he always decided he was going to be that way.

And let's also not forget, he had a pretty good run. I mean, I think he was the third longest GM in the NHL at the time. The Ducks have had a couple tough years, but they were really competitive for a while. And the guy had a sick career. He played over 1,000 games, 500 points as a defenseman with Chicago. But in the end, he's an asshole, a legitimate grumpy prick. So you know what? Hopefully he gets his life figured out with the booze

and he becomes a little bit nicer. Biz, did your bosses at TNT know you were going to say that on the air for us? No, and honestly, I kind of was just like, I don't really know what I'm going to say about it. And then when Liam threw it over to me, I'm like, fuck, man. I just don't have the energy today to sugarcoat it. I wanted to focus on the fact that, like, obviously with all this negative attention hockey's gotten in the last, like, let's say, what, two months? Just on, like, certain topics, some way more intense than others.

I just wanted to say, like, I never met Bob Murray. So I've had a lot of good experiences in hockey with people that were in, in power positions that really helped me. So it's like, it's hard to meet for, to speak negatively, like from my experience. And that's why I want to say there's so many good people in hockey, but for these types of subjects, you have to kind of vet it and talk to people behind the scenes. And like, literally everybody was like, Oh yeah, this guy was like the biggest asshole.

Dude, I had eight texts. So that's so, so I'm like, listen, like I'm not, I'm not, I want to focus on the good people involved in the game. And I want to say that, that all these people that he's treated like shit, it's finally one of those times where those people felt it was time to come forward given today's climate. And yeah, it turns up that, yeah, he was in fact being a fucking asshole so so see you later

and i'm sure somebody else is going to get that position who deserves it and and they'll flourish don't have to worry about fcc complaints on cable either i know a couple of people said that because they saw you can't swear on tv you can't swear on network tv you can swear as much i didn't even know asshole was that bad like he was being a jerk i just i don't know i let it fly because it's exactly what i would say on the show i think and with there was another story there was another story that happened uh in detroit and you were on the team at the time and so there's it's not just like a few examples there's like a lot of these like pretty intense examples like i don't do you feel comfortable talking about that one yeah i mean i don't i i wasn't there and you can look it up

online but a woman claimed that he like fired a chair at her it was actually after we lost game I don't know. Do you feel comfortable talking about that one? Yeah, I mean, I don't I wasn't there and you can look it up online. But a woman claimed that he like fired a chair at her. It was actually after we lost game seven in 09. Right. When did the Penguins win the Cup? Oh, nine. Yeah. Yeah. So we Detroit beat us in game seven at home. My boy Cleary scored with like minute 30 left, I think, in front of the net. And apparently like he well, according to this woman, he like fired a chair at her,

but I don't know if they settled or nothing. I know she sued him. I don't know what ended up happening. You can Google the story and read for yourself. But it was just another example. Like Biz said, I mean, enough people have said enough things where it's like, all right, this guy's got to go. And I don't know if you mentioned this.

Sorry, Ari, at the beginning. I think the league sent out a memo to every team like, hey, find out what's going on in your organization. If there's anything sketchy going on, get rid of the person now after the Blackhawks fiasco. So I think in the end, like that probably Murray being gone is probably because after the way Chicago fumble, fuck the shit out of this Kyle beach, awful situation. The league is like, let's get our P's and Q's figured out here.

And because of that, Anaheim ended up realizing they had a real problem with their GM. I guess the question I have is that the people above, you know, him know that the owners and then the people between the owners and the GM, you know, he has bosses too. Like did, what did he did he just you know change his tune when he was around

he said he's he said he's dapping up solani and get sloth and then looking at wit and fucking shaking his head right so it's i'm sure that those people are being treated with respect because he probably sees them as equals so to speak and then obviously down the pecking order that's when kind of the asshole probably comes out a lot more but it goes back to the bet then obviously down the pecking order that's when kind of the asshole probably comes out a lot more but it goes back to the betman situation with the whole blackhawk situation like these are owners of of of these you know these teams and other businesses so he he's he's busy growing the league where he's probably assuming like hey are we all good over there like are you guys like acting accordingly what's he gonna do do? Not trust the people that he works for the owners too, by the way, is he not going to

trust that they're like, they're not conducting themselves like, like responsible adults, given what they've built and what they own. So should, yeah. Like, so in the case that you're talking about, RA probably, they probably didn't know to the extent that it was happening other than maybe that scenario in Detroit that became public. Do you think that's fair? Yeah, I mean, these owners, they're billionaires. And like you said, they have a million things going on and maybe he's very polite and respectful to them.

But I will say. You'd think you'd hear some things, as Ari is mentioning, like, but I'll say in the year I was in Anaheim I went from trade deadline to trade deadline I like never saw the Samuelis I think we I think at the beginning of the season when you know I came back for that next year we had like you know a team get together at his house but I don't think it was like an owner where he's in he's in the mix that much so maybe not um but yeah he's gone now so good for everyone that good for everyone that had to deal with this wrath because it's stressful as shit every day to have a guy like walk around the office not just some guy the guy in charge who's like not only yelling at players but giving it to like secretaries and shit it's like what what world are we living in here i want to do my

job at peace i don't need the stress added to my life that I think you're going to snap on me at any moment's notice. Yeah, it's not a comfortable work environment for anyone. I know it's pro sports, but there's a level where it shouldn't be passed. And as far as the incident in Detroit, yeah, what he did, he pushed a chair. The article said it was accidental. I guess the woman's lawyer, he forgot to fill out a negligible on the lawsuit. So she never actually got money, even though they basically said oh he did it but because the lawyer didn't do the paperwork right she never actually got a settlement but they basically there's one other thing i want to say i i don't want i don't want to hear anyone like oh you can't stand tough love you can't stand coaches i can and there's a time and a place and there's a time and a place like

all right you're saying you're right in a way you should never be comfortable when you're in the NHL. And there's people that are coming for your job. But there's a big difference between being hard on a player or being hard on a coach if you're a GM and making their life miserable, because you can you can be all over a guy who's playing poorly and you can tell him this is bullshit. We need more. You make a lot of money. You're not doing your job all that stuff's fine it's when you're a legitimate asshole daily that it just goes to the extreme so i don't mind at all coach being hard on guys or gm being hard on coaches or players but there's a different extreme to what he was doing so biz is the era of the asshole over i mean i don't know how many assholes quote unquote is

still running front office yeah i don't know i don't like i mean so when we were talking about the babcock situation like with the thing that he did to marner i found that that was weird that was kind of like a power move dynamic um the did you guys hear about him having tyson berry show him his phone and like go through his photos to see like his maturity level did you guys hear that one maybe that was a rumor but I was like reading that associated to like like you said all the the bullies in hockey I would say that that if there are still some you'll see a very quick turnaround and yeah I don't if I mean if enough people are willing to come forward then they might get gas. But I don't know. I mean, I just don't know of any. There's guys, like I said, who were probably who played a long time in the NHL and were

treated like shit themselves in the 70s and the 80s. And now they're in positions of power. In the end, can they change? Can they realize, all right, just because it's like it's like being a parent. It's like, you know, your grandfather had it harder than your father had it, and you've had it easier than your father had it. And in the end, can you switch it up? Can you realize, all right, even though I was treated like this,

I can't be doing this to the guys I'm now in charge of. So if guys are able to switch it up and realize that times have changed, they should be fine as long as they didn't go too extreme when the issues were really going on. We mentioned it the terrian situation i think was that who's what interview was that in but you know how he saw that and that's probably how he tried to coach by intimidating and it's yeah and i mean he's obviously he's seen pj stock it was it was pj stock no it was i was bussy it was bussy yeah because he was talking about the theo flurry situation and how he ended up walking the locker room afterward or not theo flurry excuse me uh cla. Yeah, because he was talking about the Theo Fleury situation and how he ended up walking to the locker room afterward.

Or not Theo Fleury, excuse me. Claude Lemieux. And he was yelling at him in French. And then he was like crying. And it's just like he saw that and he's like, oh, that's how you motivate? So it's like, yeah, people are kicking up the dust and making people more aware of it. So it just kind of smartens these people up.

Oh, I think it's safe to say they're all on notice now. So if it's beyond that, you know, I'm not yelling at someone for screwing up. If it goes over the top and, you know, should be dealt with, how's it going to get dealt with? Another guy who kind of seemed to have cleaned it up was Torts, but then he ends up dropping a bomb on your Oilers captain there, Whit. Oh, boy, did he ever, Biz. And you know what?

I'm going to surprise some people right now. I love that Tort said that. And hold on. What are you talking about? You're an oilers diehard, once an oil, always an oil. You got a jersey coming in the mail. You bet him every night, McDavid, McJesus, McDusties, your idol. This is why I love what he said. Because we are paying Tortorella to make headlines and to give takes. And he's on ESPN and he's saying things that get us talking and get the league talking, get the world talking. He's a complete moron for what he said, and he's completely wrong.

But I don't want any situation where we ask for takes and comments and opinions on the league and then guys give them and everyone screams and yells how stupid he is, right? So I did send him an envelope with anthrax, so heads up in your mailbox, don't ever talk about McJesus like that again. But he's giving a take that he truly believes is correct. And here's the thing, who am I to say anything?

Because John Torello has a Stanley Cup. He knocked off the Tampa Bay Lightning in Columbus a few years back. He's done some special things in the game and he knows what it takes to win in the playoffs. But if you think that Connor McDavid has to change his game, you're the craziest son of a bitch that's ever walked the planet because this guy, like I've said before, is the greatest hockey player of all time. You want him to change his game? What are you talking about? Do you know people say Steve Eisenman changed his game

and they won Stanley Cup? Steve Eisenman had Sergey Fedorov, Nick Lidstrom, Larry Murphy, all the Russians, Konstantinov, Larionov, Brendan Shanahan. Dude, Connor McDavid is an absolute genius on the ice. We need every other player to try to do anything remotely close to what Connor McDavid does. We don't need player to try to do anything remotely close to what Connor McDavid does. We don't need Connor McDavid doing what some grinder does. Now, yes, in the playoffs, is it harder to score? 100%. But why would he change his game? Okay. In the end, does

he need to do a little bit more defensively? I guess you could ask that of anyone, right? Of anyone. Like, yeah, you got to be a little bit more responsibly defensively. Dude, you have the puck the whole game. You create chances every time you're on the ice. You're the fastest skater with the puck the game's ever seen. Nothing about Connor McDavid's game is causing the Oilers to not win the Stanley Cup. There's nothing that has nothing to do with him. And the argument is, wait, you don't know shit.

You were a plug. You were brutal. You went to the cup finals. You sat on the bench pretty much the whole time. Torts is a Stanley Cup champion. He knows what it takes. Torts, what would Torts be saying when he's telling the world on ESPN for McDavid to shut up?

What would he be saying if he was coaching the Oilers? Holy shit, call a fucking penalty on him. He's getting fucking tripped and hooked all game. So enough with the shut up connor like dude i have been video i watch every oilers game as you know if you follow me on twitter there's three penalties a game on they don't call and so if he was head coach he'd be disgusted so you can say shut up i don't even think he winds that much if you look at crosby's beginning of his career he wind more than mcdavid has i i just don't social media wasn't as big that

everything wasn't going as viral and and happening fast now i agree with you 100 he has nowhere near the personnel this is the first is this the first year where they have a legitimate contender and they still haven't to some people's opinion haven't addressed goaltending right well five on five they're struggling a little but they They are a contender this year. No question. 100% contender for the first time, I would say, since he's been an oiler. So now we can start judging. Now, based on the penalty aspect, there's been a big conversation online.

Because you know when playoffs starts, all of a sudden, they start calling the game a little bit looser. And we all know that, and that's a fact, right? You get away with a little bit more, cross-checks here, cross-checks there. So everybody found it weird how many he would normally draw and then the drop-off when playoff came. I don't think he drew one penalty during his eight playoff games. Sorry, did they get swept by Winnipeg?

They got swept. In the first round, right? Yep. So I don't think they called one penalty there and then in the games leading up to playoffs and even to start the season a little bit now even as a fan you're starting to notice it so everyone's noticing it right so so that's that's what makes me wonder maybe he is complaining that much and refs are so sick of it and it's like you know maybe it's behind the scene under his breath where like refs are noticeably

not calling penalties on him. And, and maybe there's a whole sense of like, he's so good. We can't, we can't help him out even more. Do you know what I mean? It's subconscious. Do you think this is torts torts looking into all those comments about that where he's like, man, like come playoff time. It's just harder. It's a little bit tougher out there. If he's going to keep complaining and whining and they're going to keep

complaining and whining, it's not going to help him in the long run. So he's saying kind of shut up and just like learn how to play through it. That's his, that's, that's his opinion on it. Tort's saying shut up. The way he said it's so funny because the guy just knows how to like piss people off. And he's, he's so truly like, what's the word when you, he's just so authentic towards, like he doesn't give a fuck what one person thinks.

And the way he said it, it like pissed people off. But in the end, yeah, dude, I guess you do have to stop complaining if you can't change like their mind. So, but when he said he's got to change his game, that's the thing I took issue with. He does not have to change his game. He doesn't. He there's nothing about his game that is, that his game that is causing the Oilers to lose games.

The playoffs last year, they didn't play well, and their team wasn't very good. This team is way better. I would say the only complaint in playoffs is he couldn't find the offense that he normally does on a more consistent basis. And I think the argument is it's like, yeah, it just gets way more savage in playoffs, but they need to continue to call those penalties.

So I guess his argument is like, if you're complaining now, it's not going to get any easier, and this is going to be the same result. You're going to get swept, and you're going to be out of there. So I agree with you. They ain't getting swept this year.

All right, well, we'll see. See what happens. One other note on the ducks jeff solomon takes over as the interim gm he joined anaheim six months ago after spending the previous 15 years with uh with la uh also the ducks on the ice at least they're doing good there man uh they won the seventh in a row sunday night uh they're second in the west right now troy terry who we talked about with coach in a minute 14 game point streak when he's got 11 goals and nine assists over that time his previous career highs was seven goals and 20 points so he's lighting it up the line with

rico getsy and troy terry's unbelievable we talk about john gibson what he's been doing out there and also the d shatton kirk follow lindholm uh did you boys see that manson versus la zone tilt the other night jeremy was on on seattle that was like an old-fashioned scrap man you don't see too many there's been a couple lately Branson too for Calgary's been chucking them a lot there's been some savage uh savage throwback fights the old Donnie Brooks yeah yeah some like none of that like wrestling like guys just standing there and chucking but I don't know if you guys want to chime in on the ducks or you just want to go right well I want to know your opinion on the torts thing uh yeah I think torts is doing it for dramatic effect a little bit. But, you know, I don't know that McDavid doesn't play enough defense.

I'm probably not the best judge of that, seeing as I didn't really play the game at a competitive level on the ice. But, you know, you've heard this about other players who, like, they start off early in their career. You just mentioned Eisenman, Witt, and Joe Sackick. And, you know, I know Joe Thornton never got his cup, but these guys are just – they're all offense, offense, offense. And there's a part of the game that they maybe have to pick it up defensively.

Now, again, I don't know if that's what McDavid needs to do. I don't think he's keeping him from going on the playoffs. But, you know, eventually he's probably going to have to play a solid two-way – spectacular two-way game maybe to get to that level. Fair enough. Fair enough fair enough we're gonna find out this year yeah this year oh are we gonna find out a lot of things this year and hey believe me i love nothing more than to see the kid go on a run too so hey maybe i mean i don't think he's got torts on speed dial but maybe i'll give him a little goose in the ass and i don't know how

much better he can play than he is right now wins the selkie hey he just goes like full spite mode and like stops producing just go shut down like i mean now that i watch every game and i i i'm catching a lot of heat i can't say leon's name right is it dry style dry style like that's a collab between drysdale and dry so everyone tells me i had i add it i say dry title that's incorrect i know that i know that but everyone out there who's listening all you guys in the car all you women on the treadmill everyone out there listening you have a word that you can't say every human has one word i happen to have a hundred but still dry side i sayl. Yeah, that's just got it. Okay, Dreisaitl.

Now that I watch every game, he is so unreal as well. He's so big. His stride, he just burns away from guys. He doesn't look as fast and dynamic as McDavid, but he gains space and time almost as easily. And his long, thick paddle he has on his stick, he shoots from everywhere. His backhand shovel. Dude, he's got 31 points in 14 games. his long thick paddle he has on his stick. He shoots from everywhere. He is awesome.

Dude, he's got 31 points in 14 games. I think the last player to get over 30 points in, in less than 15 games was Gretzky who took 13 games. So, I mean, he's on record breaking and Gretzky had 205 points that season. I think when guys put their sock behind their, what's it? The tongue on the back. What do you call that thing, that flap? Oh, like the socks behind the skate? Yeah.

Or the heel? I think when you do that, it naturally makes you look slower. A.G. put it actually all the way down over the heel. Fuck off. Hey, I used to do that in minor hockey. No. I used to do that in minor hockey. I had the worst. If I could get a picture of the way I used to do that in minor hockey. No. I used to do that in minor hockey. I had the worst.

If I could get a picture of the way I used to wear it. I had the worst style ever all the way up to the show. Nobody rivals how bad my gear wear was. I actually think that it fits Dreisaitl. I like the fact that he does that. It just kind of separates him in the gear wear aspect. So he does it, Kane does it, and Kucherov does it, are the three guys I'm really thinking of that go socks over the –

Kucherov does that? Kucherov does it too. And I think – I even think Point does it and Kucherov does it are the three guys I'm really thinking of that go socks Kucherov does it too and I think I even think Point does it too and I think I think Hedman does it I think a lot of more players than you think do it my legs were so skinny I started doing it at the end because I had to like tape my ankle on one of the feet and I looked oh it was just so bad with my terrible easton skates I hate the fact that my gear wear, at least if I had cool gear wear, I'd look cool in the cards when I could show riders and Wyatt. But now they're like, dude, what? That looks like a fake photo shoot for a commercial. So

Malkin used to do it, but then he stopped doing it. He changes back and forth everything all the time. He changes up the visors nonstop, the helmets. Yeah, he does. He's all over the place where I looked like a figure skater because at one point I would even pull it over the toe. Fuck off, dude. I'm serious.

What kind of socks did you have on? We used to have the old wool ones, you know, that had the elastic band, the old thick socks. If I could get some pictures of the way that i used to wear the bottom of my socks you might you guys might kick me off the podcast you might give ra more credibility as far as playing than me once you see my my greasy gear wear dude when i first went to the kings i've told this story my dad actually gave me shit he's like it wasn't me it was your mom well my mom bought me a yellow helmet and on the yellow helmet dude it was a red white and blue team on the yellow helmet i had a one of those combos where it was shield and cage like the itech combo it went it

went i think it went cage shield cage so yeah i mean and with my height dude i told you eighth grade six three 155 pounds can you imagine what that looked like in gear like a lollipop i was the same height as i am now and i was 60 pounds lighter you look like a toots imagine what that looked like in gear? It looked like a lollipop. I was the same height as I am now. And I was 60 pounds lighter. You look like a Tootsie Pop. I looked like a fucking pencil neck geek. Anyway. Hey, so we, uh, since we're on the topic of, uh, of the, of the coaches and stuff, I think we should probably throw over to Stutsy. Absolutely. This guy was great. Yeah. Good call biz.

This is a great interview, man. I wasn't sure to expect what early morning interview with an older guy, but it was fantastic. You folks are going to learn a lot. It's good stuff, but we do want to let you know that this interview was brought to you by our friends at Cross Country Mortgage. Cross Country Mortgage is much like us at Bostel, a people-first group of people. They're dedicated to the fundamentals of mortgage lending, which results in a fast, convenient, and less stressful home financing or refinancing experience. And right now, rates are unbelievably low. Don't pay the bank more money than you need to. If you're in the market, want to check them out by all means, because Cross Country Mortgage makes the process as painless and simple as possible and helps you to keep your money in

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www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org. And now, enjoy Mike Stothers. It's a pleasure to welcome our next guest. After playing professionally for 11 seasons, he began coaching and had stops in the OHL, WHL, NHL, and the AHL, where he won the 2015 Calder Cup as head coach of the Manchester Monarchs with our buddy Biz. And today, he's an assistant coach with the Red Hot Anaheim Bucks.

Thanks a bunch for joining us on the Spittin' Chickens podcast. Mike Stothers, good morning, Mike. Good morning, guys. How are you? Doing good. This is a little earlier than what you're used to on this show, but thanks for joining us this early. I know it's 6 o'clock out west. How's things going, man? You guys are Red Hot so far. Well, you know what? We can't complain, right?

We've exceeded expectations thus far. We're on a pretty good roll at the moment. I think maybe LA's the only team that's hotter than us. But you know what? It's a long season, so we'll take this good time right now because we know

there's going to be some ebbs and flows. But you know what? It feels good. It feels good for the ducks. That's for sure. Stutsy, do you got your Crocs on right now? I absolutely do. You know what? I knew. There you go, buddy. No surprise that you scheduled a fucking interview for 7am. You're already at the rink. When you were our head coach, you'd be there and you'd be thinking about the player meeting on monday or the leadership group meeting and your wheels would be turning

and we get in there and once in a while i'd get the invite in the room and you'd be red hot if we didn't have a good weekend well i you know what that's debatable because i always thought they were like you know positive in the fact that we were playing well or whatever and you guys always dreaded coming in because you didn't quite know the mood that I was going to be in and everything else. And then it was like, even if we won all three games on the weekend, it was like, we can always do something better. So you guys were like, holy fuck, we can never make this guy happy.

A little bit different as an assistant, you know, if you're a little bit red in the face. But we always focus, because in the AHL you have the three-on-threes. You got to win the Sunday game. So Stutz, you'd be in a good good mood monday and or tuesday if we had the day off well you know what we always say this uh we always tried to get that one day off a week um i think it was good for for you guys it was good for me as a as a coach you guys away from me and more importantly me away from you guys because uh you know what a week, you guys away from me, and more importantly, me away from you guys, because you know what? A week with you was plenty, maybe too much. Well, I want to ask you about how did this job even come up?

I know that you coached against the Dallas Eakins, and there was a bit of a connection there when he was with the San Diego Gulls. So when did you get the call? What were your expectations, and so on and so forth? Well, it happened later part of the summer. I think the organization here was looking to make some changes to the coaching staff. Dallas reached out to me. I've known Dallas for years.

We played against each other all through the American Hockey League. We've coached against each other. And I wouldn't say we knew each other well, but certainly we had a, you know, a good cordial relationship. He reached out and asked if I'd even be interested first and foremost. And, uh, I responded, of course, yes. Uh, got a call from Bob Murray. Um, it was interesting, probably the shortest coaching interview I've ever had. Um, usually they want video and they want some kind of a presentation and whatever.

And he says, I only got one question for you. And I said, okay. And he said, well, you know what happened in LA? And I said, well, you know what? I honestly don't know. But I think maybe it was just, just time for a change. And he said, okay, I'm going to call you tomorrow. I make you an offer. So now I'm just giddy with excitement. So I've dropped the phone. I'm telling my wife, I said, I think we're going back to california man eight days later i still haven't heard from bob and i'm going how in the fuck did i fuck that up just saying goodbye so anyway as it turns out uh you know

we got the deal done and i was able to join dallas and his staff and they brought in jeff ward and newell brown and i'll tell you what, it's a, it's a terrific staff. And you realize just how good the players are. The room itself is terrific. And now it's just a matter of, you know, what, trying to get that winning culture and make the guys feel good about themselves. Cause they've had, you know, the last couple of years, it's been a struggle. Yeah. I love Newell Brown. He was actually in anaheim when

i was there so you got to tell him i said hello but for your role with the ducks uh what are you coaching the d are you doing the pk what's your role exactly well i'm coaching the d and uh and running the pk um no we don't want peace that's it uh no i i stay out of that one those meetings i don't even attend so it's just better that i look after the other end of things but you know what we've got contributions from everybody um so it's it's good uh newell's been here i think this is his third time back with nime um and uh it like i said it's been good staff, and things are going real well right now, and a lot of it is because of the players and the buy-in, and probably most importantly, you know what?

We've had some good, solid goaltending from both Gibson and Stolarz. So this season, this offseason, I should say, the thing in Anaheim that was odd is there wasn't many changes made, right? They didn't do much. They didn't go out and sign a lot of guys. But because of that, it was not very high expectations. I know we talked about the team. We didn't expect much.

And now you've seen this hot start. Was there a lot of talk in camp between the coaching staff and the players that, guys, everyone's counting you out. Nobody thinks you can do anything. Or was it more, let's just go about our business the way we know we can? Well, you're right. I think the biggest and probably the only major changes was behind the bench, right? So, you know what?

It was a chance or an opportunity for these guys that were here in the past and maybe, you know, had some off years numbers-wise to regroup, refocus, reset, for lack of a better word. And, you know what? We came in with an open mind. We didn't know these players. So we didn't already have an opinion about what they could or could not do. It was kind of like, show us what you can do. And I think it, uh, it was a clean slate for everybody and, uh, they've responded, uh,

exceptionally well thus far. And you know what? We've done it, even though we've had some, uh, some injuries too, uh, we've lost Raquel and, and Silverberg for, uh, you know what we've done it even though we've had some uh some injuries too uh we've lost Raquel and and Silverberg for uh you know extended periods of time as well as others and uh we just keep getting contributions probably from those guys that you know what just wanted that second or third opportunity Mike I know some of your former AHL players appreciated your very direct style did you have to adjust anything going back into an NHL assistant role, especially the way things have changed culturally in hockey the last 10 years? Well, it's much different in the assistant coaching position.

It's more of a supporting of the head coach. You know what? It's maybe not quite as intense as you are as a head coach. Biscayne vouched for the fact that I'm a pretty intense individual. You don't see the veins in his forehead when he shows up to the rink. Well, you know what? I mean, it's, there's a lot going on, right. And you want to get the most out of everybody. And there's a lot of buttons to be pushed and, and you know,

Biscayne vouch for the fact that it's worthwhile when you win a championship. I mean, all those, all those meetings and all those hard days at the rink uh pay off but in order to do so you've got to have the support of others and when I was a head coach you know I had some great assistant coaches you know uh Chris Height was was phenomenal for for us in Manchester and then in Ontario um so I'm just trying to lend my support to uh Dallas in any way I can and again it's it's kind of like you know what, you grab guys, you pick up the pieces and you try to not necessarily be their friend,

but you're a little bit, it's easier, I guess, for the players to talk to the assistant coaches than maybe the head coach. Stetsi, I feel like as an assistant, you get to like chum it up with the players a little bit more and maybe observe more of the locker room chemistry because the head coach is a little bit more occupied. Is it pretty funny given how many young guys are in that locker room and seeing guys like Getzlov interact with maybe some of these young,

I don't want to say cocky is the word, but they got to pep in their step for sure. Is it fun seeing that interaction? Well, it is, and we have a good mix. Obviously, Getz, I think it's 17 seasons he's got behind him. And and, you know, he's interacting with the with we've got McTavish, who's 18. We've got Drysdale, who's 19 and and Zegers, who I think just turned 20. And it is a little bit different. Like, you know, you got Zegers, great personality, fun loving guy. Doesn't matter if you're the coach or the GM, he calls you dude.

You know? He's got the hat. Oh, we've got to go up with this guy. And everything else. And it's like, you know what? He wants to be the last guy to the meetings and everything else. And it's like, yeah, this guy's got a little bit of arrogance to him. But you know what?

It's different. It's not annoying. Not yet. I mean, it's not annoying annoying and you know what those guys are like those guys can be fucking assholes when they're when they've got a little bit too much uh and then you just gotta you know what uh have them take a step back so no they've been fun and you know what gets you's been great at working with all these guys and and it's it's a good mix right now so uh we're real happy with the situation. Well, that's why.

Also, Biz, also, this is the night after Zekers had two tucks, too. So it's a little easier to pump his tires right now. He had a big night. He had two and he had an apple with a backhand blind, which, I mean, if it didn't work out, he was probably getting chewed out when he came back to the bench. But when everybody's arms are going up, it's like, great play, kid yeah yeah i had the over in that game thank you so i know you're coaching the d and you got these vets you got shatty fowler manson and and and then there's drysdale and i'm just so interested because the stuff i've read forget his skill his compete level but i heard he's so competitive in terms of if he has a bad game he gets down on himself right so are you working with him like hey it's going to be ebbs and flows kid realize

it's not it's not always going to be easy for you at the beginning of your career well you know what he is wound pretty tight um i mean a terrific athlete is skating is exceptional it allows him to do a lot of things that other you know the young the young defensemen can't do. But the situation is now with Dreis, he can be very hard on himself, whether it's a shift or a period. And as you know, Whit, it's all about letting it go, right? I mean, you make the mistake, you come back to the bench, and you got to move on. Like, there's plenty of shifts ahead of you,

and you can't let it eat away at you. And also for Dreis, he's playing with Lindholm, who's a real solid veteran NHL defenseman. But he's playing against the other team's top lines. I mean, we're not that deep on the back end. So he's forced to play in situations that, you know what? Ordinarily, he might not be ready for, which is in itself a lot of pressure. And, you know, he wants to do well. I know earlier on in the year he might have been leading the league.

He might have been wearing the green jacket for the minuses, but he's kind of whittled it away. And it's something that we talk about. And it's more just positive reinforcement for Drys and the fact that let's not keep dwelling on the negatives. Let's just keep showing the positive. So we do a lot of video together. We talk a lot, but he's got, like you said, Shattenkirk. Oh man, what a true professional and a great guy in the back end.

This guy's got future coach written all over him. You know, Manson is as solid as an individual as you're ever going to run into. And Cam Fowler, I mean, he's an elite defenseman that nobody talks about. A little bit more quiet. But you know what? They carry themselves well.

And as I said, Lindholm has been excellent for drives as well. I heard Getze had them bring in Shaddy, so he'd have the second worst salad on the team. Is that true? Any truth to that rumor, Stassi? That's so dirty from Bears what a prick oh come on shatty will be able to take it and uh where refers to getsy as monkey bum because he's got the monkey bum on top of this well it's funny because you know what every time gets he comes back to the

bench he's taking the the helmet off and he's rubbing the head with his with a towel whereas shatty if he gets into a scrum and his helmet pops off, he's down on all fours trying to get back on his head. I think we had Keith Jones on the podcast recently, and he told a story about Ally Afraidy getting his helmet popped off, and he did the same army crawl over the pile to grab his helmet so nobody could see it. But I want to talk about another young guy, Troy Terry, who you guys have a bunch of guys who are trying to take that next step.

And all of a sudden this year, man, he's came out of his shell and probably on the scene to potentially get invited to the Olympics at this point, given his experience with the international play. I know you weren't there last year. What's been the difference so far, at least from what you've heard? Well, you know what? He benefits a lot from playing on a line with with getsy um you know you can say whatever you want maybe uh he's slowed down a step getsy but honest to god for a big man like he's got an unbelievable set of mitts and he makes passes that every day just drops your jaw

like you can't believe it i watch it in practice i watch in the game so you know Terry's been the benefactor of that and then uh you know when we've had uh Rico on on the left side on that line it's it's been real good but you know Terry's come in again he came in with a fresh attitude he got off to a little bit of a slow start to the uh to the fact that we we actually made him a healthy scratch um very early on in the season. And then, you know what? We talked to him. He took it the right way. And then he has been on fire ever since.

And I think he might have the longest active point streak in the league at the present time. But you know what? This kid's got some sick skills. The moves, the way he sees the ice. And they really complement each other, him and him and Getze. And he's been lights out for us. Last night in the game, it was it was great.

I think late in the third, Pedersen was wheeling through the neutral zone biz and Getze just buried him. Like it was the most classic veteran on a younger player type play. And then he went back to the bench. And I actually thought, like, is Dallas Eakinsins probably using getsy not at all like a player coach but he must really talk to him and trust him with how long he's been there and how much he knows about the game in terms of like preparing for other teams and getting ready to play around this league well you know what they have a great relationship um dallas and and getsy talk uh every day about a number of things. Sometimes it's not even hockey related. Um, you know,

it might be about gets these four kids or whatever, what they got planned for the off season. Uh, yeah, very young kids. And, uh, so that's important, right? You should have a good relationship with your leadership and certainly your captain. And I think Dallas and, and, and gets, you have a terrific relationship and you know what as as coaches we're able to uh you know ask questions of okay listen how are you guys feeling do you need a day off or is this a maintenance day you're going to get the honest answer right you're not

going to get oh yeah of course we want the day off it's you know like if he says you know I think everybody should skate or maybe he himself needs to skate we buy into it if he says maybe they need to back off a little bit so he's in touch with what's going on in the locker room with the players right and then that play you're talking about last night like you know at one point I was a little bit worried that you know with this new cross-checking thing that they're trying to put into the game uh you know he might have got a penalty but it was more like he bench pressed peterson like it was unbelievable he launched him from like the blue line to the center ice red line and then he just went off the ice like it was nothing and you know what if getsy i think he uh because of the respect in the league

you know what those marginal ones that maybe the referees like to call on other individuals they let slide with getsy because they know like he, he's a competitor, right, and he is a beast. So, yeah, I don't know if Peterson liked that too much, but it was certainly an important part of the game for us. I was just going to ask quickly, I was talking to Rick Talkett, and we were talking about tough guys in the league, and he mentioned DeLore and how much of an impact he can have on the game. And you guys even got him killing penalties right now.

Do you think that gives the other guys, especially the younger guys, a little bit of extra room out there? Well, you know what? We've actually had Dez on the line with Zegres to kind of give him a little bit of a protection. But Dez is an interesting story. You know what? He started out as a defenseman.

He's a forward now. He actually played in Manchester before you and I got there. I think it was the year before you and I. And he's had to work at it. We were talking about it the other day when we were in Seattle. And you know what? He wasn't a physical guy. He wasn't a guy that dropped the mitts.

He had to learn as he was going. And much like yourself, I mean, he, he said, how am I going to make it in the NHL? What, what niche can I fit into recognize that he needed to be, you know, kind of the, the enforcer, if, if you will. And then he, you know, took on that role and he's broadened his game to the point where, you know what, he's a real good

responsible player on the ice that you could probably use if you had the goalie out you're protecting the lead we use him on the pk he's fearless he'll block shots um and more importantly and and you certainly can relate to this it's kind of nice when the coaches can give a guy a tickle like that right give him some extra right? He's doing all the dirty work. He's doing all the heavy lifting for our team. And you just reward them by giving them, you know, Hey, here's a bone, like take this PK on like it's your own and you'll get yourself on the ice that much more. And he loves it. So it's a win-win for all of us,

but certainly Des is a great story. And, and another guy, I think that has like four kids. So there must be something in the water out here in California. But you know what? It's a great story. And if you ever wanted to delve into it deeper, it's well worth documenting. I want to go back to Terry for a second.

Is he sort of maybe the latest example of why teams should probably be patient with some prospects and not give up on them early? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know what? It takes guys, you know, sometimes a couple of years be patient with some prospects and not give up on them early? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know what? It takes guys, you know, sometimes a couple of years to feel comfortable on the ice and, you know, do what they can do best. Again, we go back to say, let's talk about Drysdale, right?

So if you let those early mistakes get to you, you probably stop trying to do the things that got you to this league or to this level um so i think it's been a little bit of give and take for uh taron and the coaching staff uh maybe past and present um there's going to be some hiccups in his game you know he's going to probably try some things the puck management probably isn't always what the coaching staff's looking for late in the period or late in the game but you don't want to stifle a guy that's as creative as he is so you've got to find that happy medium and you know what for the most part his pause was far far away any negatives he has with maybe trying to do too much i love getting to ask you about certain guys in this roster because the same way you mentioned people don't talk about fowler and a lot of the

d-men a lot of the ducks don't get a lot of love just because of where the games are played and and because of that like Mason McTavish this year right he's an 18-19 year old kid he's been up and down a little bit but what type of player are you looking at like what's the ceiling and what have you seen so far in terms of playmaking ability and offensive style well you know what Mac T uh I was fortunate enough with to have uh him at the uh under 18 the world championship um and you know what uh dominated there right yeah he certainly did and you know what um you know the talk was uh uh conor bedard and shane right and rightfully so like those guys i think this is shane right's year to be drafted he's probably going to be

you know maybe considered considered number one overall and certainly the next year, Bedard. But you know what? The guy that led the team kind of said, jump on my back and away we go, was McTavish, right? We had him, you know, in all situations, he was center iceman. And when you get into a tournament like that and somebody's able to elevate their play, that's telling you something about he's a big game guy.

So he's, you know, in that tournament, I mean, he looks like he's about 32. So it was it was a matter of he was more mature than all the other guys he was playing against. And in here, he's still fitting in. He's doing a good job. Now, the thing with Mac T, as you guys know, you know, he's he can only play nine games and we've got to make a decision. Is he staying or is he is he going to go back to junior? Now, that's still up in the air, but his play is telling us that he warrants being on the on the roster. He's fit in and he has been in and out of the lineup. He did get injured there and had to go down.

He had a two week assignment down in San Diego. And from all the reports I got there, it was, you know, he was the best player on the team there. He had injured there and had to go down. He had a two-week assignment down in San Diego. And from all the reports I got there, he was the best player on the team there. So you know what? You've got a guy that's, in my opinion, gets he can't play forever. So who's going to be that next guy down the middle that plays hard, physical, kind of a smash-mouth game where he can beat you with some skill and some talent or he'll just basically run right through you smack you in the mouth and put it in the back of the net so

you know what he's uh he's an interesting kid and i think uh that he's going to have a hell of a career mike i'm sure you are familiar with a lot of roster coaching against them in the ahl but who was really surprised maybe as a person as a player someone you didn't expect to jump out at you like that well there's a few of them i mean again you know the ducks they don't get a whole lot of love nobody's talking about them um but i i gotta go back to cam fowler i did not realize how good he is i didn't first of all i didn't realize how big he is uh i thought he was a much smaller guy um and man like his efficiency getting around the ice is incredible. Like he can skate great vision and puck distributor. And the amazing thing about him is, you know, there's been a lot of nights where, you know, we've we've rode him hard.

Like he's played a lot of minutes and he's one of those guys. He comes back to the bench and and, know you think oh man we got to bypass him we got to sit him out and you know he's ready to go so like his uh his engine is is extraordinary and i think if he was in a in a bigger hockey market probably people would be talking about him more now the other side of that is cam doesn't seem to be one of those guys that needs that adulation you know he's he's quite comfortable just being in the background in that supportive role. So maybe it works into his favor.

And the other guy, I had a pretty good idea that he was good, but Gibson. Yeah, he's nuts. Again, let's go back. I mean, we've got a pretty good thing going here. But as everybody knows, it's all about your goaltending, right? And Gibby's been terrific. And he's bailed us out when we've, you know, maybe started a game a little bit sluggish.

Maybe we've spent a little bit too much time at our end. Maybe because of our youth, you know, we have some poor decisions in the back end and we spend a little bit too much time in our D zone. But he's always there. He's a wall. He knows when to get a face off like this guy, you know, if they do get a shot on net, he purposely knocks it, you know,

and the rebound goes not back out to the, to the slot area, but up into the meshing. So we can get a face off. Like he reads the game. And again, I think more people would be talking about him if, if, you know, perhaps we weren't playing in Anaheim. So that's you going back to to Fowler and his efficiency, do you mean in a sense of not wasting energy throughout a game where he's going to have to play 25, 30 minutes? And is that something that you kind of try to teach to Drysdale?

Because you said he can get away with a lot because of his skating. But I find these young guys, they tend to just extend shifts and try these extra things at the next level where they can find themselves in trouble a lot. Cam Fowler is the, uh, the epitome of efficiency and knows just, you know, when he has to turn it, when he gets, you know, settle it back, uh,

sit back in the pocket and just distribute the park or he knows when to open it up and join the rush. Um, you know, drivess, as a young kid, you know, he's full out. Like, he's balls out every time, right? So it's – Dude. Listen, it is. It's crazy, this kid. But, you know, we've got to dial that back a little bit for him.

And hopefully, as I said, you know, Cam's a great example for him. And I don't know if his constitution will ever get to the point where Cam is, where he can just play, you know, probably 30 minutes a night. But certainly it's a good role model for the young Drysdale, yeah. Given the rivalry between LA and Anaheim, was it pretty easy to turn the hate on, considering you were on the other side for a while? Well, considering the way it ended in LA, yeah yeah that wasn't a problem so yeah uh no you know what I mean it it doesn't really matter the uniform I mean once you're with an organization

it's pretty easy to get uh jacked up um and I say that kiddingly about LA you know what for a lot of years what was it six seven, seven years, Biss, it was an intense rivalry between the Kings and the Ducks, and then certainly with Ontario and San Diego. And San Diego was probably one of the most intense rivalries ever. And now that I'm on the other side, I mean, you know what, I got a lot of respect for the people in the organization with the Kings. I'm happy that they're actually having some success they treated me very well i know uh bis i know you've raved about how they

they looked after you and um really we can't complain just the fact that i'm not there anymore um i don't hold it as a personal grudge but yes there is a little in extra incentive i think we play them uh november 30th in staples Center. And I have that marked on the calendar. I'm looking forward to it. But no, it's just one of those things. You know what? Things happen in the game, and it's given me an opportunity to learn from different coaches, meet different people.

And I think that's the best part of the social aspect of it. It doesn't matter what locker room you're walking into. You've got friends for life. Do you and Dallas ever talk about your rift with Big Earn? Because when we were playing these games, for whatever reason, I don't know if Big Earn just didn't like you, but he started chirping at Stutsy. He chirped at Terry, too.

He always chirped at the other team's coaches. Oh, was that a common thing? So I ended up having to fight the guy twice. I was like, fuck it. I'm like, Stetsy, for the first time, please don't say anything back. Well, no, I don't know what it was between him and I, but we always had the tough teams, right? And they always had their fair share of tough guys like himself

and Gazdik and everything else, right? And, you know, Biss, it's like nobody wants to back off. Nobody wants to give an inch. So if they threw a tough guy over the boards, we were throwing a tough guy over the boards and vice versa. So, you know what, you had your meetings with Big Earn, but I don't know. I don't know if it was because I was, like, looking at him or whatever. He comes over the one time, remember, and he's like,

you ready to go, big boy? I'm like, fuck, man, I'm standing here in a sport coat and a tie. I haven't had a fight in about 20 years no and anyway and and you like you say oh you had to fight him how about the time i think you just had your knee done and it was like one of your first games back in ontario and big earn was running around out there and you're like tapping me and going stats put me out put me out i'm like no piss i'm not putting you out you're like put me out put me so finally i put you out and what do you do you went right after you fought him right away and i'm thinking

holy fucking viz you just had your knee uh like surgically repaired and here you go i hadn't done the surgery i did i did the two and a half months of of prehab uh to get the thing going and then i think i think like four shifts into that game, I was done again for another month. Listen, you overshot that by two shifts. You get two shifts to get in that pit. That's unreal. I got to talk about, so you leave the WHL Moose Jaw. You get to Manchester. You end up winning it all that year.

And Biz has talked a lot, right? Like Biz was in Portland. He got let go, and he called you, and you brought him in and really kind of made it one of the most special years in his career. What do you remember about when Biz joined that team? And what do you remember about, you know, talking to the L.A. brass about, hey, I'm going to bring this kid in. What do you think? Well, here's how it played out.

This was playing, I think he was on a 25 game trial with Portland. So we're playing in Portland and the bench is after the end of the periods or after the game. You have to actually walk across the ice. So we played and, you know, the players actually crossed the middle of the ice, which is crazy. In the old days, that would have never happened. But, you know, in today's game, you know, they all hug it out and everything else. But anyway, so Biss, you know, he comes right up and he goes, that's my my my PTO was just about out with these guys. He says, you got to give me I want to play for you a match and everything else.

I'm like, OK, first of all, this can we have this discussion somewhere other than center in the Portland Arena? So, you know what? We had a we have obviously a mutual friend and the GM and Owen Sound, Mike Futus. So talk to Futes. And it was not that easy to sell. For me, it was easy for Futes. It was easy. we had to convince dean lombardi and uh you know dean was kind of like ah you know he knew about this and and uh you know he likes the social media and whatever and and dean was so adamant like he'd be just calling feuts and i in and going this fucking guy you know you better not i better not see these tweets and this and that the other thing so you know what he wasn't sold and then you know, you better not see these tweets and this and that, the other thing. So, you know what, he wasn't sold.

And then, you know, Biss comes in and he was the perfect guy for our room. Like we had a good team, yes. But, you know what, he filled a physicality role. But more importantly, it was the glue guy in our locker room. So, Biss comes in, practice ends, and, you know what, he's still there at like 2 and three o'clock in the afternoon. And it's not because he's lifting weights or working out. He's just still telling stories.

And now our guys are now spending more time at the rink. So the one day our equipment guy comes in, he goes, Scott, he says, can you talk to this? He says, fuck, we got to get out of here. We got to get the laundry in and this and that. The other thing. And I said, listen, you'll stay here as long as this staysiff stays here I said do you see what's happening with this team to the point where it went even further so now Dean Lombardi he likes to come down and spend like a week 10 days maybe two weeks down in Manchester with us right so he's hanging around and all of a sudden he comes through my office door and you never knew what like what was on

dean's mind at that time so like you know what i could be getting chewed out or whatever he comes in and he says that fucking business he says he's outstanding and i was like it kind of took me aback because of what he had said before but he actually saw this work in the room and being that glue guy and he was like head and shoulders like he was the one of the biggest best fans that that ever was to the point where i best like after games he'd walk right up to you if we had a good weekend or the win or a couple of wins he'd give you the team card and see oh yeah and everything else well go ahead not at that not at that point i think i got enough of it when uh

when i ended up in ontario but i would i would grill uh vinnie and the other guys to go get the card from him and we would abuse that fucking thing holy shit yeah but you know what was even more bizarre is is like dean would he'd look at it he'd go to he'd say to me go that's it that's all they did he says how can they have fun manchester we went and blew the whole town up and cigarettes are like two bucks up there still that just goes to show you like you know what dean was you know a wise enough guy to realize that it's not all about the skill guys and and the talent and i'm not saying that this didn't contribute in that part either but it's more important about the character and the guys you have in your room. And if you're going to win a championship, man,

you've got to have the glue guys like the Biss and Eds. And who else do we have? Oh, we had Gratton. Yeah. I mean, Sabs was a, was, was a glue guy too. I mean, we just had so many great, I mean, Backy was awesome. Right. We interviewed doubt. He was hilarious. It was, it was a special group when you could, I could just tell the minute I got there, I'm was awesome. Dowd, right? We interviewed Dowd. He was hilarious. It was a special group. I could just tell the minute I got there, I'm like, oh, my God, these guys all really get along, and they're all very talented players.

Yeah, but Holby was disappointed with the laundry, man. He wanted you in and out of there. That's true. That's true. Yeah, I'm a bit of a rink rat. But, Stetsi, to back it up, even going back to the start of your coaching career, is it so drastically different about how you have to approach the players and how how like you kind of have to conduct a locker room? Yeah, I mean, it's very much different.

I mean, I look back from even back when I started and, you know, I got drafted way back in 1980. So I've pretty much had a long road of seeing how the game has evolved to, you know, I go to my first training camp and guys are smoking. There's ashtrays in their stalls and everything else. And then now everybody is rolling out and drinking water and everything else. So that's kind of changed. But, you know, the approach from the coach, especially the head coach, like we never talked to the head coach. Your biggest fear was ever being at the hotel and the elevator door opening up. You had to share a ride to the seventh floor with the head coach, right?

Like it was, it was just, it's just a disaster. So, you know what? I think the guys now, and I think it's evolved in the right way, this, I mean, you know what? I think there's a lot of respect involved on both sides, you know what? And the players, they want to have a little input. They ask a lot of questions, probably more so than we did in the past. And you know what? It's a fine line because you know what?

Again, you want to be intense. You want to push. I think the biggest thing is you want to push guys in a positive way beyond their comfort level. Kind of make themselves comfortable being uncomfortable. And, you know, a lot of times you're still required to motivate whatever, but I think there's a tone that is different.

I think there's a dialogue and a verbiage that's different. And I think that's a positive thing. And you know what? I think the game's going in the right direction. And again, the staffs are bigger too, Biss too best right like before it was maybe just the one coach so you only had one guy to talk to if you were a player now you know you've got extended coaching staff and if you feel comfortable with one guy as opposed to another guy you can as a player you can pull him aside and maybe watch video or just you know uh shoot the shit or whatever you need to do. But I think it's,

I think it's really good. The, the, the knowledge, the availability with the video and the things that you can correct and, and do so immediately. The guys have the iPads on the bench. They use those constantly as you saw how long it took me to hook up with you guys. I don't touch an ipad when we started in junior you used to have the laser pointer oh yeah yeah well i still like that i still like uh kind of the old-fashioned way of doing things uh you know even for recording drills everybody's got their computers out with the drill draw i've still got the little sharpie and a and

a pad of paper with the rings that I draw on myself and everything else. But, I mean, I have evolved. I am a little bit better with the social media and the mechanics that go along with that. But, again, it's just the way the game's going, and I think it's positive for everybody. I would love to chat with Dallas Eakins once because you look around the

league and, like, Mike Sullivan or Bruce Cassidy, you know, it's not easy the first time as a head coach and you learn and you become better the second time. And have you talked to him about the time in Edmonton and, you know, he took away the snacks from the reporters. Has he talked about how much he's changed as a coach? Well, you know what? We've never really delved into it in depth.

I know it's still a sore spot for for dallas and not so much for himself personally uh it was is more about you know his family what they had to endure uh during that time in edmonton and as a parent um you know that's your worst fear your kids are going to school and and you know kids kids will be kids right they're just they're probably just repeating what they heard their parents say and you you know what, it can be a little bit harsh. And I think that's what upsets you the most. It's, it's, it's a situation, even when you get fired as a coach, the hardest thing to do is to go tell your kids, because you know what, everybody idolizes their parents and their dad. And, when when we're hurting you know they're hurting

and certainly um if somebody's upset your kids like you know somebody ever upset my daughters it was it was not a good thing right like it was you know and i feel for dallas in that regard but it's it's it's good that he's had that experience to go through it and now he was given a second opportunity and he's making the most of it and he's doing a hell of a job here in Anaheim. And you know what? I think that's, uh, it's something to be said, like, again, like we talked about Troy Terry and others, like, you know what? Everybody is there deserves a second, third chance. And you just become better as you go and get the experience.

And as you guys know, as players, you need the reps, right? You need the ice time. You need the minutes. If you're going to improve, you don't want to improve sitting in the stands or sitting on the bench. So you've got to get out there and get in the trenches. And I think Dallas is a real good example of that. Mike, I want to go back to your situation in L.A. again. You were with them for quite a while.

Was there any panic when they didn't renew your contract in 2020? Were you kind of, shit, what do I do now? Or did you figure something would eventually come or what? Well, you know what? Anytime you're going into a season on the last year contract, it's not a good situation to have. So, yeah, you know, as much as you say to yourself, it'll take care of itself and you're not really going to think about it,

you can't help it, right? And there's decisions certainly in the American Hockey League. You know, your roster changes so much. And again, we're all evaluated on wins and losses. So, you know, there's times when guys are getting called up and yeah, I guess that's a good reflection on the coaching staff that guys are getting called up, but you're, you know, your lineup going into a weekend is pretty thin or lacking a lot of

experience. So you think about those things and uh eventually it comes around and i had kind of a feeling that you know there was probably going to be some some alterations or some changes made but still it's a shock like when you get the call and and it hits you like a ton of bricks and especially the way it happened for me and the fact that you know covid comes in and everything's changed the whole world's upside down and I end up back in Canada and we you know the best we could do was zoom like we are here right so we had meetings all year long or all summer long regarding you know the players and and where we thought they were going to be in the future and you know as the summer goes on you're

thinking okay well things are probably going to work out. Like they're asking me to do reports and, and presentations on the pros and cons of players and, and where we project them. And I'm thinking, okay, so we do that. And then every Friday, you know, we get together as a, as a rain coaching staff and management staff. And just because everybody was in different locations, we just kind of keep in touch with each other. And so then all of a sudden it it all makes you to got let go.

And, you know, it was like two weeks after that, we had one of those Friday afternoon Zoom calls saying, hey, how's it going? What are you guys doing? How's things? And then, you know, I got off that. I looked at my cell phone and it was like, call Rob Blake. I was like, OK, this isn't good. It wasn't a great conversation, but in fairness, I think it was actually harder on Blakey than it was on me. I could see that he was conflicted about it.

He didn't feel real comfortable about it. You know what? It's one of those ones where you just kind of – like I just said to him, I said, listen, you know what? It's your decision. I'm never going to grovel for my job i said i think it's the wrong decision but hey whatever where do we go next and we moved on to you know like what do you do with your laptop what do you do with your phone like what you know things like that and smash them no well you know what this is funny because uh you know at first you first you're hit and you're like, you're kind of like bewildered and you're like, oh, what am I going to do next?

And then you get into that, you get into that rage, like then that that anger comes in. And then that's because, you know what, you've seen your wife, who's your biggest supporter now. Like nothing bothers my wife except for when you lose your coaching job. And it's like, OK, so now she's the kid i think she probably sees how much you put into it and and you know that's that's what it's hard i'm a little bit biased because i loved you as a coach i had you in junior i had you in the american league we ended up winning together i understand like the you know you you keep the guys accountable accountable non-stop and and you put your heart and soul into it so i i know how

much it affected you so i could only imagine how much it affected your wife well you know you know this like again like I don't know and I can't speak for everybody but you know like I love my players like you know what like there's a lot of you know we're gonna work like and I think that's something you try to instill in in them whether it's you're an athlete or life lessons about what you're going to do as a parent or get the job after the after the game ends. So, yeah, she does see what goes into it and it hurts. And so then you get into that, you know, you're angry at the world type of thing. And then you just get into the next stage of the grieving process, I guess, is, OK, where am I going next? And then you kind of get excited for okay what next opportunities

out there where would we like to land how would this like suit us best and sometimes it takes a while this time because of COVID and in this situation it went on a lot longer than I would have liked it was and that in itself was pretty tough actually everybody dealing with COVID the fact that we couldn't even see our kids and grandkids when we first got home and then it was limited in that regard and you needed that comfort right like I I hadn't even met my my granddaughter um and the first time I saw her was through the um the living room window at my my my house in own sound and she couldn't come in and that was she was uh just about a year i think at that point so like that stuff all you know chips away at you and um then you know you get some other leads and

you think okay this is going to pan out and it doesn't always pan out like there's reasons for situations and i guess the the old cliche everything happens for a reason then you get a text from dallas then you get a call from bob murray and then he leaves you hanging for eight days and then you know what he's too busy yelling at interns so it and to be honest with you like i had my uh when i went back again and we had our furniture packed up and stored here in california we were like okay where's it going next and as it turns out coming here to anaheim was actually closer of a move for that moving company to put us back into an apartment here than it was when they picked it up in Playa Vista.

So, again, everything happens for a reason. Everything works out. And, again, it's another opportunity to meet some more great people and have conversations like us guys are having right now. It's awesome. Maybe the Kings prospects were sick of the bag skates that's because you you mentioned you like to have the guys work where we used to have the worst fucking bag skates every monday tuesday you love your conditioning skates that's

well you know what but as as you know like it's a long grind right so i think that paid off for us and the fact that oh, you know what, we wore teams down as the game went along. I mean, third period or whatever it was, we dominated like that team. We had this, like we, we had a lot of weapons. Right. But more importantly, I think I, and I won't, I won't say who the individual was on that team, but he said to me, he goes, that's, you know, we go hard. Right. And I go, yeah. He goes, no, you know, we go really hard. Right. And I go, yeah. And I said, that's why you guys are going to go hard right and i go yeah he goes no you know we go really hard right and i go

yeah and i said that's why you guys are going to go hard on the ice i did not give a shit what you guys did in manchester so long as i didn't get a phone call in the middle of the night if you guys wanted to go out and get obliterated i did not care so long as the next day at 10 30 or 11 o'clock when that puck dropped for practice, you guys were ready to give me one hour and, and you guys never failed to deliver. When I looked like Oliver Ekman Larson at Canucks camp every Monday and Tuesday during my, during my, he probably didn't even back skate him until you joined the team midway through.

He's like, Oh, now these guys are really going. I was doing the fuck. I remember the first couple of weeks. Like I wasn't used to like, you know, well, I mean well i mean the practice pace was one thing but always the skates afterward and you'd see oni and backy these guys could skate for days i would be at least a couple lengths of the ice behind these fuckers hey you weren't as slow as mike richards that's for sure. Remember Richie? He had the weight vest on. Oh, man. Yeah.

We needed the weight vest and the trash bag as well. You know what he had weighing him down was the M&Ms, the peanut M&Ms. So when he came down to Ontario, we had these, like, nice rain hoodies that guys would wear, like, before games, you know. And he had this kangaroo pouch in front. And we had these peanut M&Ms, Mirzy had them in the training room. And he would just take piles and piles and he'd be eating these peanut M&Ms all day, every day at the rink. And yeah, that first bag skate, man, he was doing the fucking chopstick dance all the way down the ice.

I don't think I think his knee band was at about 10 to 15 degrees. One other thing I was going to ask you about Stetsy going back to your playing days. And for, for those of you who don't know about Stetsy as a player, I mean, he was a guy to be reckoned with. I mean, you used to scrap a ton and there was a famous series when you were in the American hockey league with the Hershey bears and you, you got, when you guys ended up going to the Calder Cup Final, you fought every single game against the other team's tough guy, right?

Yeah, I was in Hershey, and we were playing St. Catharines, which was the Leafs farm team at the time. John Brophy was the coach for St. Catharines, so anybody familiar with the game knows all the, the brophy stories. Oh yeah. We had one on this podcast where he, some guys in prison by the sounds of it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He threw coffee at a guy's face. Cause he kept coming in and interrupting his meet, his meeting before the period. Cause the guy kept giving him the heads up how much time was on the clock.

So I'll, I'll throw it over to you for the brophy story so uh you know we've got a pretty good series going and and uh it ended up being seven game series and i don't know the exact number uh but it was reported and it might be exaggerated as the years go but we fought like 13 times myself val james uh who twice a game is is is is legendary for how tough he was with first of all the rochester americans and then um into into saint catherine's in new market um and yeah so it was it was one of those ones where you know brof would uh you know he'd send out val and and john paddock was our coach and we always had a lot of meat on our team like we were never short of guys to go but they also had a pretty tough team so it just turned out that val and i uh would hook up all the time

and uh we had uh we had the one uh i think it was started by hexie uh shocker um you slash somebody in the crease or something and all hell broke out in the hershey park arena and uh so now like there's scrums there's fights going on everywhere so myself and val we squared off and everything else and we fought and you know then you get kind of up against the boards and you're kind of just trying to catch your breath so i see the referee coming on and because the linesmen are all busy with somebody else, he's coming over and I'm thinking, oh, thank God he's going to come over here and break this up. Well, it happened to be Paul Stewart,

who was the ref at the time, who as an American Hockey League player fought three times against the Bruins. And he looks at me and Val and he goes, hey, you two, take it out to center and finish it. I went, oh, for fuck's sake, that's the last thing I wanted to hear. We go back out the center. We had

a good tilt again. Then after the game, myself and Donnie Nachbar and our wives went to a little local watering hole and we were having some food and some beers. My head was so sore, I could hardly touch it.

It was like a bag of doorknobs. And in comes through the door is Paul Stewart. And he's got two pitchers of beer. He walks up to the table. He puts one pitcher in front of me, one pitcher in front of snack. And he goes, Stutz, that was the best thing I've seen in a long fucking time. Have a great night. And then he walked right back out, never saw Stewie again.

13 times. So you got oh my goodness that that must be a record for in one series it has to be well and then it got even worse because and I hate to say it because I mean I know the games change in the cultures but I got the the pre-game meeting from from John Paddock and he's uh he's standing there and he's like, you don't stretch that. They got a pretty tough team. And I go, yeah, yeah, I know. He goes, you know, I think they think we're afraid of them. So I think you should probably, if you can try to go Val early tonight. And I was like, what? He goes, yeah, well, he goes, I think they think we're afraid of Michael. I am like,

so sure enough. So you know what that's like it's like now that's all you can think of like you're you can't even look at the press notes because like you you just want to vomit or shit yourself because good thing there was no YouTube back then because that and sure enough it's to me it was better to just get it over with early than have it linger all night long as to when it was going to happen. But again, with Brof, if I came on the ice, Val was coming on the ice. But I have a lot of respect for him. And it's interesting, too, because I'd see him off the ice and we would talk all the time. Like we didn't know each other well, but there was a mutual respect.

He was doing his job. I was doing my job. We were both trying to win a championship and help our teams any way we could. uh i got an awful lot of respect for val james and certainly what he had to go through um as a player you know trying to break into the game of hockey and then become a professional player and then actually get a couple of games up in the nhl i think that's terrific i mean you got to reap what you sow right you talked about being a coach and and you know making the guys be comfortable feeling uncomfortable. And that's kind of how you had to live it as a player, especially in that fight story you just told as well.

Well, yeah. And, but I mean, you know, you guys know wit and you just like, you know, it's, it's really hard if you're the only so-called gunslinger on your team, because, you know, now you're expected to do it every night well the good thing about uh hershey is we were affiliated with flyers at the time you know that mentality so like we had more meat than we had skill like it was just you know what it was just like a butcher shop like we had big carcasses hanging in the locker room before and hitting it with our hands and everything else it was like you, you know, we'd all, we'd all get together and go, okay,

I got him tonight. I got him to no, no, no. I got him tonight. And it was like, it was a whole different animal, a whole different era. And you know, right or wrong, that's the way the game was played back then. Well, Stutsy, we can't thank you. Thank you enough. I'm real happy that you got back in,

back into the league this year and, and being with Anaheim and seeing what they're doing. It's no surprise that you're there helping out. So we really appreciate you coming on. Some great stories. Well, it's been my pleasure, guys. And I love listening to you. Keep up the good work.

And I enjoy the odd Pink Whitney. That's a pretty good drink. We'll send you some out there. Just keep it away from Zegers. We saw him drinking it this summer. Jesus Christ. Oh, no, no, no. You know what?

He's not old enough. So we'll. OK, yeah. And you know what? Well, we enough so we'll okay yeah and you know what we'll we'll have that key with dude come on dude i got a fake id dude come on dude coach studsy thanks for everything buddy you're a legend my pleasure guys that interview with mike stothers was brought to you by Roman. We've talked about Roman forever. Most guys have tried different ways to last longer and be a good lay for once

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I am. I would if I was you, I'd be so proud at the way Mike Stutters talked about you. That was such a cool thing to hear him say how much of a difference you made to that team. Because in the end, winning a Calder Cup is such an incredible accomplishment. Like everyone's dream is to win a Stanley Cup. Well, dude, you get to the AHL, you win a Calder Cup. That's pretty fucking close. And it's pretty amazing. And you got to do it. And by the sounds of it, it's not necessarily true. That team would have done it had you not been there. So you've always told me the story how Portland you hated it and things weren't going good. And, you know, Stothers helped you out and F me the story how Portland, you hated it and things weren't going good.

And, you know, Stothers helped you out and FUTA helped you out. But then to hear the coach actually say the difference you made and to hear Lombardi come in and say how happy he was and how lucky that he allowed them to talk them in, you know, him into having you come, that was pretty cool to hear.

So pretty proud of you, bro. I just got the Venmo request from Stutzi. I mean, I just, just yeah I appreciate the comments and of course from him I mean it means a lot I just like I don't look at it like that I look at it like the other way around how much they did for me and and how much I loved it there and how I met uh friends for life and I talk about all the time how it kind of changed everything around for me like if if I was in a dark place and it just, you know, it's, it's, it's life, man. And it's actually the year that we became a little closer. Yeah. Because I was close to Boston. So yeah, it's coming in all the time. He was, he was, I had him in junior as a coach. Right.

And it's kind of funny. We've had this topic of, you know, the old school coaches and Stuttsy played in a, in a, a very old school brand of hockey and like the gladiator days. And he played that role. So he, I appreciated that from him because he taught me accountability and he taught me a lot of, you know, you need to show up every day and you got to hold yourself to a high standard and, you know, what's acceptable in a winning culture. And a lot of those things have kind of transpired into the off ice.

So it's, you know, I lived at home until I was 16. So he had a big imprint on not only like my youth playing junior firm for the little period, but also, you know, during that dark period. And, you know, I always liked his coaching methods and it, you know, he kicks you in the ass every day and you got to show up and work. So I'm very grateful for him and for that Ontario team. And I guess we can move along. You jammed me up with that win. I thought you were going to chirp me about.

Well, I'd always heard your like version of it. And just to hear him say it and how like Lombardi was knocked down with it. And he ended up saying how great it was. It was just a cool story. So that's the last time I'll pump your tires. You looked like a fucking pumpkin on TNT. So I get a text from jeff he doesn't usually text me during uh during the shows and he's like bro you gotta fix your makeup and so

i got i never i was just sitting in the chair and the ladies are so nice and they just put it on i guess it was caked on and a couple people had sent tweets to the tnt account of like the pallbearer gee gee you're shaking your head did you notice in that first segment when i said the word asshole that how bad it was well yeah and then i do the chicklet social a lot so i get i get flooded with tweets dms instagram dms people being like what the fuck is he doing i just i just i go i sit in the chair and i just leave it to them like i don't know i never used to do makeup for the coyotes games ra so i would be oily. I have naturally very oily skin. So I think this lady got fed up of probably having to come out and dab up the oil on my face where she's like, fuck this.

I'm just caking it on. I looked like a walking filter on Instagram. So to all you fans, I could only imagine if Avery was watching that, what he'd be saying in his fucking living room. I could only imagine if Avery was watching that, what he'd be saying in his fucking living room. We should get him on and ask if he's seen that, because I'm sure that I didn't become subject to one of his Instagram stories, but I addressed the terrible makeup fast enough. And I think from now on, no makeup. Oh, my God, dude. Oh, you saw no so i have all right so i have a similar story where one of my first few times on

any network i got the makeup on and i walked in and you know this is three minutes before we're on air and weeks weeks he goes oh my god he's like dude dude dude look at your face look at your face i'm like what i'm gonna send you this picture right now we can post this on chick we gotta get biz and i look at this picture, dude. And, and after the first segment, I ran in and she redid it. But wait, look at, look at your phones. Look at your goddamn phones right now at how I looked. And so I remember it is the biggest panic when you start getting text

messages, biz, because you must've been. Dude, if your eyes are closed, you should be in a coffin. Like you look like you was legit orange i'm like what the fuck is going on and weeks he was losing it and i i actually just texted my wife go do you have the pumpkin picture of me and she goes oh yeah it took her one second to send it it's her screensaver we gotta get that one and biz is uh from this past week up there on the chickens account i don't think you were that bad dude you were just a little pale i feel terrible because the ladies are so nice but i'm gonna have to tell them hey no more makeup like this is ridiculous i look people are sending instagram shots of the pallbearer out there on me

for crying wet two to four seven and nine oprah brian's after seeing this picture yeah that's a scary yeah you know you look like you're ai you look like an ai robot. Yeah. I look like I just like, it looks like face paint almost. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you wonder, do you even look that much better? If everybody noticed how much fucking makeup you have on, is it even worth having?

Well, no, but I, Oh, I know. But on TV, when you have makeup on, when you get the makeup on before you go on TV,

if you look in the mirror, you're like, wow, I have makeup on. But then on TV, it doesn't really look like that. You know, unless you're me this time when I was fucking showing up and tell,

but it's Nissan pump. And they're putting it on with a paintball gun. TNT hired the only blind makeup artist. No, no, no, we gotta, Hey, you can't be talking about our girls like that they're all i'm just fucking around come on everyone has a tough day and obviously your face ain't that easy to make look good that's a that she's probably like getting this like 10 minutes before we go on and saying what the fuck am i gonna do with this thing you got scars all over oh my goodness i got half my kit going to this guy's toucan, Sam, for fuck's sakes.

All right. Should we keep it positive or move to the negative side? Because I got a lot of things to bitch about, like the fucking Vancouver Canucks. What the hell is going on with those guys? Okay, we can jump into them if you want. First off, Tucker Pullman, he got two games for his doctor hook, Tim McCracken impression on Colorado's Kiefer Sherwood.

It wasn't the worst swing of a hockey stick I saw, but he still swung this hockey stick at a guy's head, so he got two games for his Dr. Hook Tim McCracken impression on Colorado's Kiefer Sherwood uh it wasn't the worst swing of a hockey stick I saw but he still swung this hockey stick at a guy's head so he got two games for it and yeah the Canucks man uh they won I believe Sunday night and they haven't won a game since last Sunday night by the way uh not this last night two a week and a half ago they've been struggling man um Demko's been overwhelmed that I think he's been playing all right but I just think they're just giving up too many shots. They're not getting a much support. What have you seen from them? Just yeah. Like, like too much run and gun. And like everybody bitched about their defensive game coming in to the season and say, they're, they're just not very good defensively.

Like it's easy to just kind of point at the guys on the back end. I just think structurally, they just, they, they run and gun too much for the, I mean, I guess the lack of offense that they're even providing now and they got some guys that are struggling um so I I said like their fan base is as engaging as any because I'm like what the fuck is wrong with this team like two goal lead in Vegas Gonzo's they lose 7-4 you mentioned Demko is not the issue I think just overall the the team chemistry and the team chemistry and the overall structure of the 200-foot game, it's a bit of a fucking shit show.

And Pedersen's getting a lot of criticism right now. Now, it's still early, and I find that sometimes when guys hold out and they get to camp late, they always naturally have very slow starts to the year. Do you find that, Whit? Because it's like then you got the money, the whole experience is – you didn't get the training camp like the other guys did, so you're not quite in that shape that the other guys are. And then all of a sudden the contact starts and it's like, oh, fuck,

it's hard to play catch up on the conditioning side of it. Yeah, that can be true. No doubt. And he's playing like a complete dog right now. And then another thing too is the fan base is bitching about ownership. And they said that they need a new general manager. Now, I'd probably say one of the more hands-on owners in the league as far as how much control he wants around the team

and some of the moves that he's imposing on the fact of what the GM's actually doing. And I even think that it's probably a big reason by Trevor Linden, him just saying peace out like i don't i thought that was a bad sign like when he's saying like i'm here to like help this thing and then like you like i understand you own this thing and you're you're invested financially but like i've been around the game my whole life and and i feel like trevor linden is a he's extremely competent on and off the ice. And I would put him in the realm of one of these hockey minds of like a Sackick or an Iserman.

At least if given full control and a little bit of time, I think that he's going to make the right moves necessary. Because he's also going to have the right people to vet. So I guess this is kind of a situation of like when you let an owner have that much control of what's going on, these are some of the cons. And I guess that's all I got to say. And it's obviously trickling onto the ice. I'm not saying they can't turn this thing around because you look at their top six, especially in that division. You're like, once they get cooking and they got a solid back end, and we all know that the goaltending is not the issue. Like this should be a team who's at least competitive on the ice.

And right now they look like absolute dog shit. The problem in that statement is you're like in this division, dude, this division's like way better than we thought. Way better early on. Yes. And this, yeah, it could change. Who knows what, what, I think anybody 90% of people would have said that the Pacific is probably the worst, the weakest division going into the season. Yeah.

And Anaheim and L.A. have looked good. And Edmonton and Calgary are really good. And Vegas is battling through all these injuries, although I think Stone's back now, right? But their D are so bad in Van. They pretty much have two top four defensemen. And when you're best players, this loss and Pedersen right now is lost. In the Stothers interview, I bring up that Getzlaff hit. I watched most of that game. I watched the second half of the game. They were not good. And he does not look good. He just looks disengaged. And the whole team just... That was the end of a road trip

where I think they gave up seven twice and then gave up five to the Ducks. It was like 19 to six or something. They were outscored in three games, just shit kicking after shit kicking. So Hogland is like their best player right now. So if you're looking for positives, he looks great. But I don't know, man. It's a team that you thought would have some firepower this year. And Ekman Larson doesn't look

good he looks slow which is kind of what we talked about and there's only so much Quinn Hughes can do and the fan base is pissed off and then the biggest issue like so Jim Benning is his contracts up right so any move that has to be done right now like he'd have to make but do you trust him making it because he's probably not going to be back either. Like, do you get rid of him now and just, and move on now? Or do you allow him to make moves the rest of the season? Then you're not bringing him back to begin with. So you mentioned the owner, I think was it when COVID hit

and he just decided like, I'm not spending a lot of money anymore because we're not making any money. It really did change the whole tune of the organization because after they went to the bubble, remember, they got to the third round in the bubble, didn't they? Second round. Oh, yeah, okay, because they had to do the play-in.

But I think they took Vegas this game seven, right, that year? So it looked like – maybe I'm wrong. I thought they had a nice run when the bubble was in Edmonton, and it was looking like they were – I think they got beat by – or no, they beat St. Louis. They beat St. Louis, and then Vegas got them in seven games, I think. Really? Look it up.

I could be completely making that up. Oh, he gave you the thumbs up. Right? No, I was just saying I'm looking it up. Oh, okay. So, yeah, just don't say anything if I'm wrong. Yeah, it's weird. I think they rushed the rebuild, too.

I always go back to that JT Miller trade. And he's one of their better players. So I just felt at that time it was just like everything was happening so quick. And then you just mentioned, well, when COVID hit, it's like, well, all of a sudden you throw the e-break on everything. But, yeah, it's just been a bit of a gong show and the fan base is starting to fucking get a little bit noisy. And put it this way, man.

It's basically like year eight of like the Canucks rebuild, right? He's way past schedule. You know, so time for some change there. And you don't want to see people lose their job, but something's going to go down there soon enough. All right. What do you think? Yeah.

I mean, like what said, if he's, if this is his lame duck year and he's not on the contract, then you don't want a guy making moves just to save his job, but hurt the future of the franchise. So they got to make a move, either commit to him beyond this year,

or maybe just cut bait and bring someone else in because you don't want to G a lame duck GM. That's not a good thing to have for a team, man. Wait, you were correct, sir. You've got a great memory with – Holy shit. I don't even remember that they played Vegas.

Especially like the last couple playoffs with the COVID breaks and the shortened season. It's almost like all mushed together. Yeah, it's been a gong show of the past two years. But, yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. We do have a chicklets bump to report, Biz. Our buddy Nick Dowd.

Oh, what a great guy. Three-year extension worth 3.9 mil. Congrats to Dowd. I'd love to see guys get some. The Ontario Rain Podcast. Yeah. We should dedicate it to the whole rain organization. Or, excuse me, Manchester Monarchs.

That's where it changed into. But, yeah, no, well-deserved you know secure in the bag man good for him uh doubt part of a capitals team who just put a shit kicking on the penguins last night or sunday night biz as we were interviewing stothers i was looking through the roster of that calder cup championship team and like colin miller dowd you know the uh jordan wheel but brian o'neill how did he never make it he got a little he's been in the khl he's been in the khl lighting it up like seven years like i feel like he could have he can skate right he's with the joe carrot as as ra would call him um he got a little chance in new jersey and just kind of didn't yeah like i'll reference it to the

garland situation i think garland went pointless in the first eight games when he got called up and finally in that ninth game he ended up finally breaking the pointless streak and then he got on a roll after that i don't think oni was ever given a long enough time where he just never he never got that offensive confidence because fuck he went over to the the khl and like he's like a superstar over in the khl right oh he's i looked at his numbers like every year if not over a point per game he's right there and then that year you won the calder cup like 80 points in the ahl you've seen a lot of players light up the hl and not be able to stick in the nhl so it's not a definite but just just seeing his stats it's like fuck man could this guy have maybe played with another team i think 100 if he was given an opportunity somewhere else

he would have fit right in yeah he's one of those you know you know who a good comparison would be a nigel dawes unbelievable hockey player just never found himself in the right situation where like like think about how he made 30 million in the khl yeah yeah yeah i guess a little bit different um like i mean we use declare as the example at least right now of like a guy who was bouncing around where you just don't know like that's a type of guy who might say you know what fuck this i'm not going to you know to another team at league minimum i'm gonna make a little bit more money guaranteed over playing in russia and next thing you know they're there for the next 10 years yeah i i think that that was kind of a situation where he got a deal from uh from Joe Carrot that he couldn't

refuse and and it just all went so well that it's kept him over there but yes I think about that non-stop with Brian O'Neill he's gonna text me now that we said that I already got a text because we teased the Stutters interview from uh Vincent Laverde the captain so one of those guys where they're like oh fuck what was Stutsy saying? Because he was such a funny coach that you wanted in the locker room on a day-to-day basis. Any other hockey talk, R.A.? It was a little negative there with the Canucks talk.

Well, Biz, Tucker Pullman wasn't the only goonery we saw the last few days in the NHL. Your buddy Sid Crosby absolutely pigeon-tosses Martin Favre into the boards in this Washington game. I don't know if I've ever seen that before. A guy just pick a guy up like a wrestler and whip him in the boards. He didn't get a penalty either. He definitely should have got at least two there.

That's a little bit of frustration coming out from Sid. Also, I don't know, Whit, if you saw Ruppers' tweet. I did. I was going to bring that up. That was interesting. And it's bang on. It's like the energy guys are not providing the energy for the Pittsburgh Penguins and therefore, it seems as though he's a little bit frustrated

and he's having to take matters into his own hands. I mean, they're probably going to be a heavy favorite. I think they got Buffalo next game. I think it's at home. Gee, if you could check that out. But they're going to come out with a big response. But I said it coming into the season. I didn't think this was going to be a playoff team,

although they got out to that hot start without all their superstars, and now things have drastically cooled off, and this team does not look very good with it. No, it's really hard to judge them and completely panic before him and Malkin are both in the lineup together. But, yeah, it's ugly. And Rupp Street actually mentioned, like like he took it personally when he saw Sid kind of having to play that way as almost a sense of I'm not doing my

job. And that's Rupp talking in terms of like, I got to be creating energy. I got to be playing that physical style. I got to be pissing opponents off. And if he has to do it, that means I'm not doing it. And that was a noticeable thing the other night. I saw a lot of people on Twitter, like so pissed off about it. Like, I don't know. I was not doing it. And that was a noticeable thing the other night. I saw a lot of people on Twitter like so pissed off about it. Like, I don't know. Was it that bad? I feel like the guy might even dove a little bit.

I think the point was the fact that if Wilson did do that, though, people would have a meltdown. Okay, well, Crosby hasn't crushed anyone in the skull before. Actually, maybe he has. I don't know. I can't think of anything off the top of my head. Well, Crosby, the only reason I'm in this house is because of him. So if you think I'm going to talk shit about him, you're fucking crazy.

So I think that it was a little bit of a dive. And, you know, the guy should have got two minutes for holding Sid. One guy who Sid did hit in the head before, back in the playoffs a while back, P.K. Subban. We don't know if he's had it again. I don't think there was. It's like every time he goes to a corner now, we're sent a video and but hey people have been right we've seen two of the slew bands so far this year so going back to the reeves one that's a no the next two were yeses this one

was nowhere near it now was it who sent the original video out asking if it was or were people stating the fact that it was in fact a slew this one i can't even tell what happened to blay because i think blay ended up getting injured on the play is that correct and yeah bad he couldn't put any weight on his leg but i couldn't see anything i couldn't see the injury on like watching the replay over and either this was like an absolute nothing burger even worse than the reeves one so we're two for two on the slew bands so false alarm folks don't go to twitter and and start sending out some crazy shit we got the three he's gotten is he got he got frent frederick in boston last year he got uh zegras this year in exhibition and then what was his bad one this year luchich and luch so he. So he's had questionable, but three legit ones.

So either way, when he's in the corner now and a guy goes down injured, we're getting video sent. I'm going to start tuning into New Jersey Devils games just to see every time he enters the corner. Just to see, just to keep an eye on what's going on. Another COVID story. Unfortunately, we were hoping to not have to deal with this to this extent this year. But the Ottawa Senators, they got overrun with players placed in COVID story. Unfortunately, we were hoping to not have to deal with this to this extent this year,

but the Ottawa senators, they got overrun with players placed in COVID protocol. A lot of these guys only had minor symptoms, but either way, they, they tested positive or were close to guys who did. They were missing Zaitsev, Murray, Formington, who else? Four did D Holden, Brown, Mite. All these guys were all out. They had to play Thursday. They were way on demand. They lost to the Kings. Then they made them play again Sunday night versus Calgary they were

missing like 10 guys one of the coaches that was a 10k bet that was a 10k lock four nothing win I should have had five million on it yeah yeah I'm sick I didn't have my text of the group chat I know this is the one who said it and then I go holy shit they got all those COVID injury I don't think they I think they had used every defenseman in the system. Yeah. I think they had no other defenseman signed to contracts that they could have called up. So the league making them play that game was tough.

Yeah, it is tough. But either way, they're going to have their next three games postponed versus the Devils, Predators, and Rangers this week. I'll let you know when those games are going to be made up. But this just sucks because it fucks up everybody's schedule. G, what do you got? I don't know if you guys saw Pierre Lebrun's tweet. He had a,

he had a tweet. It said also a reminder that the NHL and NHL PA have until January 10th to opt out of the Olympic participation. If the number of postponed NHL games escalates over the next two months, that's an obvious possibility. Do you guys think there's any way that happens? Yeah. I mean,

if enough games get canceled, you can't, I mean, what are you going to do? And I think think that like explain to me though like the whole team's vaccinated like how often are they testing these guys i think it's every day they have to like what the fuck dude maybe maybe not anymore and don't quote me on it but like i mean i think that the the re-establishing an 82-game season should be the main focus of the NHL right now.

I want to see these guys in the Olympics more than anyone, but having a full 82-game season and not going through this poster fuck again, to me, is my full opinion. R.A., do you agree that they should put the Olympics on hold if it gets a little bit ridiculous? I mean, not at this level. I mean, I guess if six or seven teams are affected with six,

eight guys each maybe, but I don't know. I don't think this is enough because, again, you talk about money and ratings and all that aspect. I don't think this is enough to put the Olympics off. If it happens more or less. Well, not this, but they said if enough of it happens. Yeah. This is a pretty hard spread, right?

So they probably should have already canceled one game they're gonna mix the next two you said the three postpone the next three games yeah i guess if it happens to enough enough teams yeah yeah because then they're gonna have to make up all those games it's i i think every maybe i'm wrong i i would guess nine out of ten nhL fans want the hockey fans want the Olympics with NHL players. So I understand that you got to make sure everyone's safe and healthy, but I will be so disappointed if fucking COVID ends up causing the league to have to delay enough games where they can't go to the Olympics.

We can't watch best on best in China. I'm fired up for that, man. I think it'd be kind of cool to almost get games at crazy times because it's over in China. So who knows? It might be the morning, might be really late at night, but no matter what, it's the best versus the best. That's what everyone wants to see. And I know that's what the players want the most too. So let's hope that by canceling these three, it's able to stop everything in its tracks and really continue the progress that the league has made battling through this COVID bullshit and, and playing games on, on time and in good health.

So it does suck to see that. I just wish I'd bet him against him in LA too. Would have been another free win. What? No, you're right. I would, I would, I would, I think that the star players want to play at the Olympics, but I think for like the regular guys to have to get jammed up and schedule on the back end and be playing like every other night.

No, I think you're right. I disagree. I think they might want it more, dude. They get the two-week vacation. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. That's true. NHL Olympic break is the greatest thing that's ever happened to

NHL players. You're either in the Olympics playing for your country, or you have 15 days with nothing but sunshine and pina coladas and golf. Yeah, not me. I went to Cabo for like four or five days. I got fucking, I was on the IR after that for about three coming back. So I'd be like, no Olympics.

All right. We can move on. after that for her about three coming back so i'd be like no olympics no for the love of god all right we can move on all right boys uh moving right along uh but but uh oh yeah we want to send congrats to detroit red wing sam gagne he played in his 900th nhl game he became part of the sixth father-son combination to do it in nhl history with your buddy of yours, right? I love gags. This guy, great storyteller, very funny. He's going to come on the show whenever he does retire, which hopefully isn't for a while. And we're not super close, but I could say I'm very proud of this guy, man,

because he was drafted a very high pick. And I think even he would say, right, he hasn't turned into a point- point per game guy. He was a six overall pick, but he's played 900 games. And the way he's done it is really changing his game a little bit. And he came into Edmonton as like a future number one line guy and had some really good seasons, but in the end was, was never like a point per game guy and figured out a way to stay in the NHL through a little ups and downs, right? He ended up getting sent to the minors when he got to Philly and he played for Lehigh for a little bit in the AHL. Then he signed with Columbus and had one of his best years that he's ever had in his career. Then he goes back to Edmonton. He's in the minors a couple games

that next season. I don't know if it was injury or whatever the reason may be, but then back with Edmonton and then he's with Detroit and you see how much he means to Detroit with the season they're having and also him getting re-signed this summer. So he's just such a good person. He works his bag off. He's got a crazy, crazy high work ethic. He loves the game. He's somebody that's always loved the game. He would be on the ice all day long if he was able to. And I just loved, I love playing with him. I'm really happy for him. And to see, you know, if your dad plays that long in the show and then you're able to match him, that's like the odds of that are just so astronomically high that it's pretty cool to see that he's one of six father-son combos to play that many games each.

I got a text from him the other day. They're coming to Scottsdale, and they got their rookie party. Biz still sets up rookie parties. How ridiculous is that? No, definitely getting a commission on it. I definitely get it to my buddy now. Cause I don't know what the, what the cool things are, but it's awesome to hear that you said that he's a great storyteller.

I'm curious to know if he's going to eventually come on. Yeah, he is. He will. He did say though, when I talked to him, if he did, he said he could talk about liquid Duano and tell those stories for probably him and cog me i i almost want to get him and cog leonard together because they came into edmonton the exact same time but i think there's a classic story i'm gonna butcher it was like pat quinn in the newspaper was like we got two fucking guys that shouldn't even be in the fucking league i'm supposed to be taking care of him. I was like, pretty sure it's Gags and Cogs. I didn't do that justice. He'll be able to tell it, but they have some classic stories

because Carliano and Gagne came into Edmonton and fuck was that team bad for like five years. Like the whole time they were there, it was just struggle bus. He said that Liquid Duano could put on a show, that's for sure. So we should get him and Cogs on together to talk about liquid duano like is cogs a good storyteller with the duano stuff andrew colgan's best storyteller i've ever heard bar bar none all right line them up i don't know if he'll ever come on the show like cogs is like a private kind of quiet guy until you get to know him dude this guy does invitations to people that will have me crying laughing the next time i a private kind of quiet guy until you get to know him. Dude, this guy does imitations of people that will have me crying,

laughing the next time I see him. Kind of like in this one when everybody, I got a couple texts, Looch texts me, he goes, how is Thority? I said, Thority is very reserved compared to what he is. So guys are always interested what guys are coming on and how much they're going to let it fly. We got Thority come up in a few more minutes. We got a few more NHl notes to get to first

uh washington goalie zach fukeli got a shutout in his first career start this kid was taken in the second round of the 13 draft by montreal he bounced between the a and the coast bunch of different teams the last few years so just a great story man first start gets the shutout uh last time that happened was garrett sparks back in 2015 for Toronto. And also Ovi, he passed Brett Hull with the 742nd goal. He's now number four on the all-time goal list. Next up, Jeremy Yeager's 766. It's going to take a little while, so we'll take a breather on Ovi. Let's see.

Our buddy Hazy returned to the Flyers lineup Saturday night. Gee, I know you want to chime in here. You helped him announce the 11 Fund, which is going to go toward tuition for underprivileged kids who attended their old school in Dorchester, St. John Paul II. Great job on that blog last week, Gee, in getting the merch out there. Yeah, man, I had nothing to do with that. That was all Kevin and Jimmy's wife, Kristen.

But, you know, we have sweatshirts on sale now. 100% net proceeds go to the 11 fund. I tweeted out. There's no reason that this, this t-shirt and this sweatshirt shouldn't be our highest selling sweatshirt and t-shirt of all time. And, uh, you can find that at store.barstoolsports.com and make sure that's where you're buying it because we've seen some scumbags pop up online with

charities. Like this is, I mean, I'm not surprised because it's the fucking internet, but you're buying it elsewhere then you're not helping the cause which is the whole reason for this thing so make sure you're buying it from bostel so the money goes to the right place and not some dirtbag exploiting the fucking charity and if you uh in the flyers they also uh the flyers also put a little money on the board for uh for the 11th on there 93 grand was it and the ducks too ducks had a bundle on there too so that was great all those guys to donate all that money to get the fun awesome off good stuff uh montreal goalie carrie price he replaced released a statement on instagram stating that he

had entered a residential treatment facility for substance use because he needed to prioritize his health for himself and his family and he said with, with that comes some uncertainty when I'll return to play. Obviously, wish him the best. Wish him his privacy. It's just, you know, an update. He's a huge player in this league, and we want to see him get back, but we want to see him get healthy first. And unfortunately, the Habs also lost Jake Allen after Dylan Larkin.

It looked like he was pushed into him by defenseman Jeff Petrie. He just bundled Jake Allen. So the last thing the Canadians needed to lose was another goaltender. But either way, hopefully we'll get Pricey back out there, one of the great guys in the league. Let's see. Oh, Rick Nash is going to be the first Blue Jacket to have his number retired, number 61, of course.

We want to send congrats out to Braden Coburn, Atlanta's eighth overall pick in 2003. He officially retired after 983 games. What a guy. With Atlanta, Philly, Tampa, Ottawa, and the Islanders. And, of course, he won a cup with Tampa in 20. I'm sorry, Whit. No, I was going to go.

Two things about what you just said. Rick Nash, that guy's the balls. What a fucking career. Over 400 goals. First overall pick. That was the draft I was drafted in. Such a nice person. I've just met him a few times.

But guys absolutely love playing with him. And there's a really cool video Columbus made in terms of how they told him he's getting his number retired. It was a big team meeting in the locker room, and all of a sudden there was a video, I think it was the owner on there, mentioning Rick Nash was the best blue jacket they've ever had, that his number would be retired in March

in a game against the Bruins. And you could tell it meant a lot. All of a sudden his kids and his wife were right behind him standing there. And he did an interview today on NHL Network with EJ Raddick, and he talked like he mentioned, I'm just not comfortable being the center of attention. And all of a sudden I finally thought it was over, and I said my thanks. And as I'm leaving the room,

it was every worker from the Columbus organization was lining the hallways. I started sweating again, but Rick Nash, amazing player. I'd love to get him on here sometime. I know he said he doesn't really love doing stuff like this. So we'll see if that goes down. But congrats to him. That's such an honor getting your number retired. And Colburn, great player.

One of the worst trades of all time up there with Kunitz Whitney was Alexei Zhitnik for Braden Colburn. The Philadelphia Flyers acquired Braden Colburn when the Atlanta Thrashers wanted to try to make the playoffs. They dealt Colburn and they got Zhytnik in, who played, I don't know what, a year or two? And then Colburn went on to have a fantastic long career, a lot of that time with Philly.

And he went to the cup finals with them, actually, in 2010, I think, when Chicago beat him. But if you guys could get this one, I'd be impressed. There's four players left in the NHL who played for the Atlanta Thrashers. Can you name them? Oh, that's such a good trivia question. Evander Kane. Yep.

Even though he's not currently playing. Oh, who was one of our guests? Was it Bortuzzo? Was it Bortuzzo? Was it Bobby Bortuzzo? Or I want to... Oh my goodness, this is such a good trivia question. Edmondson? No.

This is a great question too. Kane? I heard this on the radio this morning. I think I have to give up. So I got three. I couldn't get the fourth. It's Kane I got. i got andrew ladd i got um uh who was the other guy i got wheeler blake wheeler that was an easy one and the fourth

one um i can't even fucking remember right now oh Oh, my God. All right. You can mull it over and you'll figure it out. Yeah, R.A. can move on. We can come back to it. Well, we got some big news. The Chicklets Cup, Mikey Grinelli. What is going on here? The Chicklets Cup.

We had a major rebrand. So first off, we have two big things. We have a major rebrand. The Barstool Hockey Fest will now be called the Chicklets Cup. Elite, elite name. And number two, February 3rd and 4th, we will be in Las Vegas

for the first Chicklets Cup in our second hockey tournament, the NHL All-Star Game. It's going to be a hell of a weekend. We can't disclose the location yet, but we can tell you

we're breaking out all the stops. We got special guests. It's going to be Vegas themed. It's going to be incredible. I'll let Biz talk about it for a sec, but we're breaking out all the stops for this one. Well, I'm playing in it. And then we can't mention the special guests and we can't mention the location.

So other than the fact that it's going to be great and competitive like the last one and the whole crew is going to show up, the Barstool team I'm sure is going to put a team in i would like to maybe have a separate team not saying that i don't want the bar i just want a little bit control as maybe like a gm slash coach maybe even have wit as as one of the brass with me and then we'll get bob murray as well we'll see what bob murray's up to and we'll hire him zach bogosian it will be the same setup as last time though roller and ball hockey so start getting your teams together start sending us videos we'll reserve a spot for you if you send us a good video i'll tell you that right now all right will you play net one more time in that one are you done are you in vegas dude are

you kidding me he might not even show up to the tournament. I was going to say, can you play on no sleep out there? Maybe. I don't know. I'm done. I'm done after Detroit. I had my fun. I paid for it for about two weeks after that. I'm officially retired. Yeah, Vegas, probably the worst city to get me in equipment, especially All-Star weekend. I'll be having my fun elsewhere, but I'll be there for the festivities.

I assure you that, Paul. Anything else for you? Yeah, so I was just going to say, so but I'll be there for the festivities. I assure you that, Paul. Anything else for you? Yeah, so I was just going to say, so we'll have more info in the coming weeks where you can sign up, how you can sign up. But like I said, start getting your teams together. Start planning this because it's going to come up fast. What about the content side of it?

They don't have to submit videos this time, or is that still happening? No, he just said send us a video. No, it's not mandatory. You don't have to send us a video. But if you do send a video, you send us a sick video that you go above and beyond. That'll guarantee a spot. Yeah, we'll reserve a spot for you. We got no problem doing that.

Good. All right, good to know. Whit, Bogosian was the last guy. Yeah, Bogosian. He was third overall pick there in 08 and played three seasons, I think. So that's the four. He said he wanted to come on. We got to get him on.

Yeah, yeah. Bogo said he'll come on at some point. We got to grab that guy. He's a funny bastard. That's the four. He said he wanted to come on. We got to get him on. Yeah, yeah. Bogo said he'll come on at some point. We got to grab that guy. He's a funny bastard. Hell of a career. All right, boys. About time to send it over to Sean Thornton, but we want to let you know that this interview is brought to you by Sezzle.

Sezzle is a buy now, pay later solution that allows you to get what you want today while paying for it over time and for interest-free payments over six weeks. Sezzle is now available at the Barstool Sports Store and more than 34,000 exciting stores in the USA and Canada. There are no hidden fees and no credit check if you're paying on time with zero impact to your credit score. This stuff's great, man, especially if you're like a broke college student or on a budget. You know, you got to get that new chiclet swag or whatever else.

Boom. Sezzle. It's easy. There's no better time to sign up for Sezzle than right now before our Black Friday sale when we've got all kinds of new merch dropping like this new lid right here. Gee, what style hat is this I'm wearing? I like to call it a chicklet's retro.

We got chicklet's retro and pink Whitney retros. Looks like an old softball team or something. Either way, it's a good bucket, and you can get it soon. Make sure to sign up for Sezzle. Once again, go to the Barstool Sports Store, shop now, and pay later with Sezzle. And now, go to the Barstool Sports Store, shop now and pay later with Sezzle. And now our pal, Sean Thornton. Well, it's been way too long since we've had our next guest on. He's the only player in the

expansion era to play over 700 NHL games and over 600 AHL games. He's the only player this century to record 10 fights, score 10 goals, and win the Stanley Cup in the same season. That came, of course, with the 2011 Bruins, and he also won a Stanley Cup with the 2007 Ducks. Today, he's chief commercial officer for the Florida Panthers, and now he can add Arthur to his resume as well. It's a great pleasure to welcome back to the Spittin' Chicklets podcast, Sean Thornton.

What's up, Shakespeare? How you doing? I got to add it to the spitting chicklets podcast sean thornton what's up shakespeare how you doing i got to add it to the linkedin huh the only guy the only guy who's written a book but couldn't read it just kidding you're a smart guy how you doing thorny i'm good boys good to see you again nice for people listening in the car he's got this beautiful corner office big panthers game tonight overlooking florida looks great but you're enjoying the new role there, or I guess it's not so new anymore. Yeah, it's been four years and a bit now. It's crazy.

I retired, I don't know, April 10th or whatever it was, and the team was on its way to Washington. I said, have fun, boys. I'm going to stay back and get a little tipsy in Lexus Lounge that it was at that time. Two weeks later, I think I was in the office, so not much of a downtime for the retired fellow here. You've switched positions a couple times already, haven't you, though?

I mean, you broke in kind of learning the ropes, and now you're kind of more to it with, like, the arena operations aspect. So I broke in a little bit of partnerships, a little bit of marketing. Now I kind of oversee most of business ops, actually, game pres, marketing, corporate comms, sales sales corporate sales uh brand content all that stuff reports into me now i know i'm as shocked as business faces right now i'm kind of shocked that i climbed my way up as well no i i i did a little research you got an incredible work ethic and all the way back to even before you started playing hockey but i wanted to

ask ra to retell the story he told before he jumped on about how you guys originally first met. Yeah, almost 14 years ago. Sean, you're the other guest. You can tell it. Oh, go ahead. You're better at telling stories. You're the protector of the cup, the holy grail,

for an evening in a shady bar in Charlestown, yeah? Yeah, yeah. It was January of 2008, I believe. And it was a Sunday. I think the NFL championships were that day. It was some playoff day, some playoff games that day. And Inwalks thought he was holding the cup on his shoulder like he's got a union job or something. And there's probably 15 people in the bar.

Again, it's a Sunday night. It's January. The Bruins haven't won the cup in 36 years. But he, of course, had rights pre-Minoc Day because he had won it before. He basically commandeered the cup from the wives carnival and just started popping it in every bar in Boston, and he popped it in the Spud, the Ironside Grill. We hadn't met before.

Of course, I was straight out of Central Cast. I had the Scali cap on, Bruin shirt, so I couldn't even have faked it. He puts the cup on the table, and with two-finger point hot in my chest, he's like, make sure no one picks it up. And he walks over and get a bar. I called my father's like, dad, guess what? I'm babysitting the Stanley cup. Like he's like, what? I'm like, I'm down the spud. So, and then he took it to Sully's. He took it all over town. I think half the time got their picture.

How did you have it middle of the season though? So it was the Bruins wives carnival and they had it. Mike, Mike Bolt was the keeper of the cup. And I know Mike from Toronto. He was my guy with all my days with the cup. And then, obviously, the parties after the season and all that stuff. So, he's like, Thorny, I want to grab a beer. I was like, all right, let's go. I know somewhere we can hide.

And he's like, but I got to bring the trophy. I can't just leave the Stanley Cup in, like, a hotel room. I was like, ah, bring it. So, that's kind of how. I felt awkward. I mean, like you said, Boston hadn't won it in 36 years. And here I am parading around Charlestown with it over my shoulder. It wasn't the most humble thing to do,

but if you wanted to grab a beer, it was the only way we could make it happen. No shocker, considering half of your stories result in the cup being involved in some way or another. Or a bar in Charlestown. But that's how it is. That guy, the keeper of the cup, he couldn't have just gone out with a beer for you and left the cup in the hotel room. He has to be by this thing's side like it's the fucking president of the United States of America or something.

Yeah. Holy shit. Well, maybe he doesn't trust himself. Yeah, exactly. I think he was missing once. But you did say you were going to bring it back. And three years later, you won and you brought the cup back to the Spud. Man, many a word.

All me, obviously. The only reason we won was the book fight my way to the top uh with dale arnold the forward by tuka rask how'd that process go when did when did you first come up with the idea for a book uh pre-pandemic uh it wasn't my idea i was approached on it uh i was like i don't want to write a book i mean that sounds miserable but uh they said you have a unique story i mean how many guys this day and age played 600 games in the minors then 700 in the NHL won a couple cups you know worked in a steel factory got punched in the face for a living didn't make the NHL till you're 30 and played till you're 40 like you got a you got an interesting story we'd like for you to tell it and we'll help you write it it was a little

tricky because I plan on coming back up to Boston and you know doing a bunch of hot stoves with Dale around and like letting him just hear the boys tell stories. But then the world shut down. So a lot of it was like phone interviews and trying to fit it in between, you know, the family and the job and carving out an hour or two here and trying to remember stories and making sure I had the timeline right. Like, was I in Newfoundland in 2001 it 99? God, I can't remember. I'm sure a lot of that's a blur anyway. Yeah, exactly. You've been to Newfoundland. You've seen it.

It's another world. So, yeah, they approached me. And, yeah, it was about two years in the making, I guess. So, hey, hopefully somebody gets something out of it. I've actually asked a few people because I've said before, like, oh, my God, book. I don't remember my stories and for guys who don't did dale do a good job and almost kind of get you to remember things you know what i mean like i feel like they can do that where it's like all of a sudden you get some reminders and things come back to you yeah a little bit especially with

the boston stuff but then i would call some of my ex-teammates and some of my buddies from back home and be like hey man yeah remember what happened when we had this there and he's like oh yeah i can remember and they would start kicking me stuff i'm like oh yeah that's right that's right and then a bunch of my buddies were interviewed in the book too so uh they again i hate talking about myself so it's really awkward and weird to write a book about yourself and not talk about yourself so i tried to get other voices in there to tell stories so it wasn't me how much in depth did you go into the fact that you were working mid what uh midnights at a steel factory before you even went to play for the peterborough pizza what age is this i think like 13 child labor yeah in my hometown

you probably could um i was uh yeah i was 19 i got drafted in the in the steel factory i signed my first contract literally in the steel factory. So I remember Bill Waters called and he's like, hey, development camp. Remember back then, development camp was like six weeks long in the summer, right? Like all the rookies had to go live in the hotel in Toronto. I was like, hey, man, I'm making like 20 bucks an hour in the steel factory. And my signing bonus isn't that big at all. Do you mind if I just stay here and I'll show up in shape?

He's like, yeah, you're fine. So I got out of dev camp to flip bars in the steel factory. That's incredible. Now, Thor, obviously, like you said, you played a bunch of AHL games before you got to the NHL. Did you ever think of throwing the towel at any point? Was the NHL always the goal? Were you just happy to be

getting paid playing hockey? What was the mindset during those maybe third and fourth years in the AHL? Well, it was the ninth year in the AHL when I left. My last year in Norfolk, I said, I'm going to try one more organization. I had only been in Toronto and Chicago, and I had a couple cups of coffee with Chicago.

It didn't seem like it was going to work out there, so I'm going to try one more organization. If not, I'm going to go back and be a cop in Toronto. I was skating with a bunch of buddies that were cops in my hometown and in Toronto. I was working my way on, on going that by my wife, uh, at the time she wasn't my wife yet. She had already gone through a police testing. We're like,

we'll just do the typical things that everyone in our town does go back home, get the small house, be a cop, try not to shoot people. Uh, and then I signed with Anaheim, and poor Fridge broke his face. And I got called up and never once backed down. I won a cup that year just going along for the ride with the Niedermeyers and Prongs and those guys. But I was on it, and then Boston was the next year. So, yeah, I was really ready to hang him up. If I spent the whole year in Portland, I probably would have gassed it. No shit, huh?

That's fucking crazy. And that was the fight when, rest in peace, Derek Bugaard hit fridge, right? Correct. Wow, so that year in camp, did you even get a chance at some exhibition games or was it kind of an early send to Portland? No, I played a bunch.

In my exit interview going down, Berkey's like, listen, we thought you had an unbelievable camp. We don't have room for you right now with some of the moves we made. They signed Greener and our buddy, Ian Moran, they're going to be like the extra forward and extra D's like, if I can make some moves, I like a tough team.

There's nobody, nobody other than myself that, you know, I'll have as many tough guys as possible as they can play, you know, you know, Berkey. So I went down and then that happened with fridge.

They called me back up and Berkey was like, listen, you're tough, but you're not heavyweight tough. I was like, Oh, ouch. But okay.

Oh, yeah? You fight them, asshole. Yeah, so they brought in George Peros, so I went back down and then they moved a couple guys and then brought me back up. So then I played, I think, 56 games that year, 15 or so in the playoffs and the rest was history, I guess. Yeah, that 07 Cup winner, I mean, there was a ton of veterans on that squad, but you also had two young guys pacing everything, Getzlaff and Perry. What was the dynamic like?

I mean, those guys are getting most of the points, but you've got Pronga in the room, Niedermeyer, all these kind of contrasting styles. How does the leadership take place there? The leadership there, Prongs, the Niedermeyers, Taimou, they kind of ran the room. Norm Niedermeyer is very quiet, but just when he speaks, the whole world just shuts down and listens to him.

He doesn't speak all that often, but when he does, he's kind of like Bergey a little bit. When he's talking, you know you better be listening. Prongs, if anyone knows him, he can talk. He's never not talking. Yeah, he was more the vocal leader. But then Getzey and Pairs, when I got called up, up actually i played on their line the first time and i think i had wow i don't know like four or five points in six games and two fights and then i got called back up i

wasn't playing with them anymore i think i had seven points the whole season so those kids were uh those kids were unbelievable at that age they're superstars and they're only in their second full year i think you're like if i keep playing with cory perry i'm gonna have 900 points this season just getting the worm out of all the trouble points too i would have taken all year long yeah that was that was more the league minimum from the bruins the next season yeah that was a big 03 draft for them i think they got them both in the first round and they were just like quick developing right up to the show and making an impact um what did you think make of your time in Peterborough? You were there for a couple of years, and obviously in that last year,

you gained a lot of confidence. You finally ended up getting drafted because you were passed over the first time. First two times, I guess, yeah. I mean, I was drafted as almost a 20-year-old that year. I loved Peterborough. It was great. What a great organization. My first year, it was typical kind of art roll biz, like fourth line,

run around, get punched in the face, make sure nobody else gets punched in the face. The second year I played on the second line, played with a good friend, Dave Durden, who was pretty, I think he was our top scorer that year. And I played D for about 20, 25 games that year, too. So, yeah, the draft, I had no idea, man. I met with one scout. He worked for the Leafs. I had lunch with him on the way. He was on his way to the Mem Cup.

He's like, ah, you seem like a decent guy. I might be able to do something. And honestly, they called draft day. I was golfing with my buddies. I only went back to my parents' place to grab a case of beer. Well, it was the only one that had a case of beer in the basement. And the phone rang. And I think I told Bill Waters to fuck off.

Like, I had my agent call back. He's like, no, that was really Bill Waters. You got drafted thanks uh that's how many time there that's how many that's how many pranks were going on back then because we have a lot of guys on who were getting up on people just like telling gms to fuck off because they think their buddies were pranking them but going back to like you know how you had to play that fourth line uh role in peterborough you end up going up to the american hockey league and that was like – it was different back then.

Like every team had like three or four heavies. How was that adjustment for you? Were you a little bit like scared going into that AHL pro seasons, like following the next four years where you had 350 penalty minutes, 316 penalty minutes, 320 penalty minutes? Like it's fucking crazy. My first year, yeah, a little bit going in. I was nervous but i wasn't the we had some guys clayton norris uh greg bird dog smith god rest his soul he was a

legend um i had those guys that were taking on all the big boys my first year and then the second year i was kind of like listen if i'm gonna make it i gotta be the guy and that's when i ended up like 360 minutes or something but it took a year for me really to get my feet underneath me and then I think I fought this guy Moose Morrisett and some of the Sylvain Blouin there are some like super heavies that were down there and I fought him I did okay I was like all right I can do this and then just carried on from there I mean that that jungle is I mean the maritime division back then it was like five six guys on every single team every night you're you're getting in one or two or the threat of it at least but we had five or six guys as well there's a lot of donnie brooks i wasn't the only one doing i think we had what six guys with 200 minutes or

some shit like that it was crazy back then but made it a lot easier when i got to the show and there was only one or two guys on every team they're like are you nervous when oh god no this is not a private jet instead of taking the iron lung, and I got two guys on the other side. I'm good. Thanks. Unreal. Terry Ryan actually reached out, and he said to ask about Bird Dog and maybe get into him a little bit.

I know you mentioned him, and you mentioned he passed away as well. Yeah, absolute legend. The scariest human being I've ever met in my whole life, like the legit craziest. But also, if I was ever in any trouble, he'd be the first guy I'd call because he'd give you the shirt off his back. He'd literally break the wall of the jail down to get you out if you had to.

Yeah, there's a whole chapter about Bird Dog in the book that, you know. Oh, really? Yeah, he did some things that, he's legendary in the minors, just legendary. I love that. What would you say your winning percentage was during the IAHL fight, Sean, if you had to round it off? Zero.

I just tried to tie every fight. I just like try not to get beat up. I don't just survive. Just survive. You were tactical. Like when we became buddies, I started, you know, I mentioned the offseason in Boston. You did boxing and all that stuff, but you were just smart. You knew exactly how to tie guys up.

It was basically that way from the time you turned pro? Yeah. My younger days, I was probably a little bit foolish and thought I could just go punch to the face, punch to the face competition. As I got older, I decided my hands started to hurt, my face started to hurt, and it wasn't really worth it. I mean, yeah, I boxed since i was a kid i've done jujitsu for 10 years like uh hockey fighting i mean in fact in the young days in the minors we had five or six guys we'd literally practice stuff after after practice where to grab how to grab different

little tricks that might get your arm free or choke a guy out while you're wrestling with them. DJ Smith, the coach of the 67 or the Senator, sorry. He he was on my team. We came up the same time. He was a tough guy in the OHL at the same time. Like after every practice we were wrestling each other for 20, 30 minutes to work on things. Sean, after the 07 season, did Anaheim offer you a deal or did, was Boston the owner offer? They give you more money. What was the story there?

Anaheim offer you a deal or did uh was boston the owner offer they give you more money what was the story they anaheim offered me one year um my agent said i think something else is going to be out there for you he not to get anybody in trouble on tampering but he was pretty sure i had a three two or three year deal coming from a couple different places uh chicago actually offered me as well coming out of there they offered me a two-year deal for more money but the bruins the bruins did three years and i mean these guys can tell you like when you move around that much especially in the minors like i just i didn't even care i was a one-way deal and i was in boston cam neely called me he's like you don't understand how this town will appreciate a player like you oh my god that's probably the understatement of the of my career like uh just embraced luckily so made the right choice for sure so sorry biz one sec so it's actually the understatement of my career, like just embraced luckily. So I made the right choice for sure.

Sorry, Biz, one sec. So it was actually – I kind of thought like you almost knew that in a sense, like I want to get to Boston. That's the perfect place for me to be. But if, say, Chicago had given you the three years, it would have been them, huh? It was more just that about getting the years. Yeah, more about getting the years and as much money as possible. And I was in Chicago already, right?

So Dale's the one that got rid of me and then he wanted to bring me back. I don't trust you, Dale. Yeah, a little squint. And he got me back to Florida, too. I followed Dale everywhere. So yeah, I'd never been to, I think I'd been to Boston like one time. We were playing Lowell.

I took a train in. I knew nothing about the city. I didn't know one guy on the team, but took a flyer on it and thank God it did. Yeah, you go from signing there to starring in Mike Wahlberg movies, or Mark Wahlberg. I call him Mike. You're still getting residuals for that thing. It's amazing. The check will show up for like $9.72.

I don't know. For those of you who haven't seen it, would you rush the stage and go and punch somebody out? I try to, but it's Wahlberg. He's obviously got to be the toughest guy. He's got to be the hero in his movie. Yeah, exactly. He's got to save everyone. I yell, you're an asshole, and then rush the stage and he gets me with the microphone stand.

Have you done any other acting since at all, Sean? No. No. I do not like being in front of the camera. I actually hate that you guys are on Zoom right now. I miss the old days when I could just call in. I know. Believe me, my face gets plastered every now and then. I want to puke. It used to just be right over the phone, no video.

Audio. I'm a face for audio guy. Tony, I mentioned the Stanley Cup of the Bruins. 10th anniversary this year. Obviously, COVID's been wreaking havoc. Were you able to have any sort of reunion or did guys able to get together even online or anything? We did a Zoom one for the Bruins.

That was great. Yeah, at the end of last year, everyone just started getting a little bit too many in them and started chirping each other. It was quite interesting, especially when I think all the wives were probably watching it too. My wife's like, so what happened in Belfast? I was like, I was with my family there.

My mom was with me. I don't know. I don't know what those guys were up to. So we talked about Shane Knight. He was going to try and set something up in Vegas for us maybe in this offseason coming up for us all to get back together. But we didn't really get anything done over the offseason. I want to ask, during that final,

did the Bruins sense that maybe the hockey world was starting to pull for them after Vancouver started pulling all that henhouse shit that was sort of embarrassing to the game? Did you sense the whole basically everybody was rooting starting to pull for them after Vancouver started pulling all that henhouse shit that was sort of embarrassing to the game? Did you sense the whole, basically everybody was rooting for the Bruins after all that shit? Well, I mean, everybody in Boston is always rooting for our Boston team. Outside of it, you know, I don't know. I was up in the stands for the first two games.

It was driving me nuts, some of the stuff that was happening. Me and Shane Knighty, I mean, it's the same way. It's in your dna you see people trying to take advantage of your teammates you want to go down there and rip their heads off in the locker room if you have to so uh i was definitely excited when claude told me that i was going back in for game three uh try and posture a little bit was there any um i mean i guess you're up in the stands but like was there any big speech or moment from recce or char like after being down oh two before game three or was it kind of let's just go home business as usual

you know we i don't remember a big speech but i'm the terrible for remembering that stuff and before a game i was kind of on my own little in my own little world getting ready in case i had to get punched in the face um but that team had been through so much and been through so much adversity in the years past like you know being being up three nothing to philly the year before and then absolutely choking and losing that so there wasn't a lot of panic in us we knew we were a good team uh so it was more like all right let's go home let's send a message when we get home let them know and then you're back to one and it's a series and uh just keep cranking but we weren't there was no sense

of panic i know that we're a confident bunch that have and just keep cranking. But we weren't – there was no sense of panic. I know that. We were a confident bunch that had been through a ton of things. So we weren't panicked. Doity, Claude was your only coach the whole time you were in Boston. What did you like about playing for him? His structure. I mean, he was disciplined.

We played a system. We were bought into a system. But I got to say, it was more the guys in that room, like Fergie, Z, Axley when I got there. Those guys really just took control of anything we needed to do. Mark Recchi, I mean, Rex is one of the best leaders I've ever seen in my whole life in any walk of life. He's just amazing. He really taught the group what it took to win. It was more the guys in that room that took ownership of the room

and really made that championship team, in my opinion. Is it hard to revisit when you ended up getting that 15-game suspension, when you ended up punching Brooks Orpah? Because I know you guys are buddies off the ice, too, and that was probably like the one thing in your career where you were always known as an honest guy and always would go up and ask the guy if he wanted to fight. You wouldn't jump guys.

And that was like maybe the one stain. Yeah, huge stain too. Does it hurt me to go back? Yeah. I mean, it sucks. But I wrote about it in the book too. Like I actually got Brooksy on the phone with Dale Arnold to tell his side of the story. I didn't want it to be how I saw it and my biased view of it.

You know, in my head, I was lightly tossing him on the ground like his head didn't hit the ground. And I was going to rough him up for a couple seconds. And like you said, we're friends off the ice. Like we trained together in the offseason. We used to ride down to New York together for the lockout meetings. So my idea was going to throw a couple punches. He was going to be fine. I'd get four minutes.

We'd kill the penalty kill, hopefully, and then I'd be back out there and uh he was the biggest guy on the ice i didn't see what if you guys remember brad marshand was like laying on the ice and i was on the ice it was behind the play it was james neal i think that need him in the head and i didn't see what happened i just turned around it's the second player in six minutes on my team that's laying on the ice almost unconscious so you have to respond right like that's my job and brooks he was the biggest guy on the ice and i grabbed him i was like all right i'll rough him up i'll send the message that i'm gonna have to fight i can't remember gods or rupper or somebody i'll have to fight them later in the game and you know it's settled it's good we're not just move on but obviously he was lights out i still don't know to this day what i did to i mean if my hands were

that heavy i would have won every fight i was ever in but like i kept my glove on but it happened uh the optics were terrible like i i didn't watch it again until my second hearing and they played it and i mean him on the ice for that amount of time and the garden being absolutely silent until the optics were terrible and i it didn't really sink into me until i saw that i was like oh shit yeah now i know i'm getting the book thrown at me i think i think the game was in a little bit of a bit of you know all those concussion lawsuits were going on too i think the it was a kind of a perfect storm for me to do that at that moment because they had to send a message and they had to send it with me which i understand the other side of it too speaking of the game

being in like different places it's now you watch and there's so much skill and so much speed we talk about all the time and you must watch as a former player who played a certain way and almost missed some of the the rough and tough hockey the way that guys really settled scores on their own and now it's just so different do you miss it in terms of watching and being a fan of the game? I miss. I can't. I'm not a scout, obviously, but I can't tell the difference between some of the guys now. Like the fourth line almost looks like the first line. Like I miss the character, right?

Like I miss knowing like, all right, well, that guy has a role. This is his role. I don't miss the shit me and Biz used to have to do. Like, all right, we're two tough guys. It's 10 seconds into the game. We have to punch like all right we're two tough guys it's 10 seconds into the game we have to punch each other in the face just to just because it's your part of your job like i never liked the stage part of it but the game's 200 by 85 no out of bounds like it's a pressure cooker i think fighting definitely needs to be a part of the game because if not

it could be even more dangerous and the guys that are fighting they know what they're doing so um yeah i miss the characters i i miss the fact the accountability uh instead of you know the game getting a little bit chippier i miss being able to punch people in the face to sort it out there was a story online uh tony gallagher a canuck sports columnist uh he called you unethical on television is this true and then you ended up hopping up hopping on while he was on saying that? Like, was he aware that you were on? No. So I used to do this show on Comcast. I never heard this.

Is this clip anywhere? Can we watch this somewhere? It's probably somewhere. I'm sure it's on YouTube somewhere. I used to go on Comcast with Felger. Like, I had a weekly show with him. I honestly thought I was going to get into media after I was done playing. I did, too. We all did, yeah. i thought you would too yeah this this game this job came

about it was i was more interested in the business side of sports than i was being in front of a camera ever so uh but yeah it was right after the donnybrook that we had uh i was going in to do my normal post-game hit uh that they were paying me for this guy came on it was just chirped me and they like turned on the camera i was was like, Hey, I'm here. I just walked the line with them, uh, explaining different things. These,

you know, he kind of went into your bully, your six, four to 20. I'm like, no, the guy was trying to fight. It's the exact same size of me.

I think I got four pounds on him and I fight guys six, seven to 70. Like I can look myself in the mirror. So we kind of went back and forth. Uh, yeah, it happened. It's there.

It's out there somewhere. I got to get this. Sean, we talked about the, well, probably lack of accountability. What kind of changes about the game have you seen that you like since you hung them up? I love the speed. I love how skilled these guys are. I mean, I watched that Connor McDavid kid.

I watched Barky on our team. Like, what they can do with the puck is just, like, mind-blowing to me. My head couldn't even comprehend even trying to do half the puck is just like mind-blowing to me my my head couldn't even comprehend even trying to do half the stuff they do just on a on a normal practice day so i i love where these kids how they've developed i love how skilled they are i love you know how fast paced the game is uh i think it's a more enjoyable game to watch to be if i'm being completely honest i just wish there's some more characters involved so you gotta back me up here at least give me your opinion.

I got ripped on online for a take where I said, the only three players I would trade Barkov for are Matthews, McDavid, or McKinnon. Forwards. Forwards, excuse me. And, you know, some people are like, what is this guy talking about? I stick to it in terms of age. You know, Patrick Kane obviously is older, but can you kind of explain watching this dude every night how ridiculous he is?

Yeah, I mean, I played with him. I sat beside him in the locker room. So this is nothing against anybody in the league. But I remember playing against Boston, and I thought Patrice Bergeron is the greatest two-way forward that I had ever played with in my head. Like both sides of the puck, his ethic is we played a game i saw bergie afterwards and him and barky were head to head and you they're probably pretty even all night and bergie's soaked right because he works bargy was barely breaking a sweat it was like

effortless for him like the kid's such a talent he's been down here in florida for eight years obviously we don't get national games ever uh we don't have the social following we need yet we're working on it maybe we can get biz to tweet something for us and we'll pick up a few checks we'll talk about it give me a business for sale everyone know give me a one way and put me on barkov's line for 10 games so i can tell these fucking trolls online that i could actually play a little bit two backdoor tap-ins you could play play. You're buzzing around out there. But, no, this kid, he's the real deal.

Like, he is the real deal. I don't even know if I'd trade him for Austin Matthews. I think the other two guys for sure. But he's such a humble human being, too. So, he doesn't like being in front of the camera. He doesn't like talking. He just wants to go out there and do his job. So, he doesn't get a lot of attention on that side either. Were you there as well when Jager was there with him?

Oh, yeah. I played with Jags here and in Boston. So they had a pretty good relationship in the sense of, like, Jager took him under his wing, and they'd be going for these late-night workouts to the point where I think the team almost said, hey, you've got to back off here a little bit. Back off a little bit, yeah.

Jags, he was a special breed. I remember walking into the Ritz in Boston at, like, like 10 30 after going to toro and drinking too many beers and a glass of wine whatever and yogs is on his way back from the gym i'm like buddy we're on two different planets you and i we're not cutting the same thought hey he's still playing dude that's probably why i know it's crazy insane crazy um but yeah no he he taught barky you know putting the extra in really helps he he really he yogs is a great mentor for him for the first uh couple years that we had him last year the playoffs obviously was a huge bump for you guys i think you finally got a rivalry going with tampa bay hopefully we can continue with that uh is that just basically

you guys are trying to build off the momentum of last year i mean this team feels like it's on the right track for the first time in a long time, John. Yeah. Listen, on paper, we're a really good team. I stay away from the hockey side completely. I mean, that's all Bill and Q and what they're putting together down there. But, I mean, we watch the games. It looks like we're as deep as anybody up front.

Bob gets his game going, and we've got a good young D-core now. I think that we have just as good a chance as anyone. I can stand on that. I love the rivalry with Tampa too. Off the ice, we get along with them great. We're on the business side. We're really close with all our counterparts. But on the ice, it looks like they just want to murder each other each game.

It's great for us here in Florida. Having that rivalry in state is amazing. So as a guy who works for the team now and not a player, do you still get those same emotions when you see those scrums going on where you feel like maybe Florida, like, somebody took a run or, you know, do whatever they did? Yes and no. Some days I'm like, God, that wouldn't have happened if I was out there.

I mean, I threw my skates out when I retired. Like, I haven't been back on the wheels since I hung them up. I have no desire to ever put my skates back on. Like, my eternal hell would be bending over to tie those things up for the rest of my days. So some of the guys I played with, maybe, you know, it's in your instinct. But I do not regret hanging them up at all. When you approach your job, business side and social media and all that, like, I have no doubt if you guys continue on this path and are really good the fans will be there is that

really all it is is success and winning to really fill that building and grow the following around like miami or southern florida for that team yeah i think listen south florida is more than event town yeah like buffalo boston those are even tamp Tampa is different in terms of, like, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, we're averaging over 14K a game now. And that's our fan base. You know, once the snowbirds come down and you're playing the big teams. I mean, we have the third biggest building in the league, too.

And when you play here, like, it's a huge arena. So, even if we get 16,000, 17,000 people in here, we have 3,000 empty seats. Whereas the Garden, 17,000 or something like that, they put 16,000 there. You just think if you guys want to go get a beer during the break, it doesn't look out of place. So I think winning is the next step. I think that's definitely what gets us to the next level. We're building the brand. I mean, we're everywhere down here in the community trying to touch every single human being we can as an organization. But winning is going to take us to the next level for sure. I want to jump back to the Bees.

Big shock. Are you surprised Z is still playing? Yes and no. I think he has a friendly, I don't know, crush or rivalry with TB12. So I think he's going to try and play as long as Tommy but I'm happy for him, glad he's going back to where it all started too

I think the fam's still up in Boston so he's close to the family, I was talking to him when he signed and said congrats his work ethic's another level as well so it doesn't surprise me he's going to play until they rip the skates off his feet I'm pretty sure What about in that run in 11?

And Marshawn was so young, and you could see the skill. But truthfully, did you ever see this 90, 100-point kind of superstar in the league, even at that age? Or were you more like, I don't know how good this guy can be? No, I saw it. I played with him for 15 games. I was like, this kid should not be on our line. Just being the power play.

You and Soupy and Pye, you're like, what the fuck? Yeah, exactly. Well, Pye's he got, Pye's he started with Bergie. Oh, okay. Yeah. He went the opposite way. They did the swap. It was the best thing that ever happened for the organization, I think.

Where Pye's he goes from Bergie. Everybody's trading everybody. Sometimes they just got to switch them up. Yeah, that's it uh but yeah you know what that kid i think he's gone on the record and said it like you know everyone says they'll do whatever it takes to win he he really has that mentality like practice he doesn't lose a battle on a puck like i give up on pucks and practice back in the day i was like this isn't worth it i'll get it tomorrow like his his work ethic his uh dedication his discipline like i know people see the antics and they see him on the bar without a shirt on back in the day and stuff but like when he goes to work he goes to work and he he battles he really really battles and he's he's

fearless he's fearless i remember him being on my line i'm like hey marsh you can do whatever you want tonight. World's your oyster. Just rev it up. Until we played the Rangers, it was like, bogeyman's on the other side. Tonight you're quiet. Stop it.

I do not want to wrestle that monster. So tonight you're quiet. He's like, I got you, 30. No problem. But no, he's a competitor through and through. Is he the most relentless chirper you've ever played with or against? Yeah, probably. Probably. A lot of guys chirp, but he's over the top.

Like I said, he'll say anything. I think he'd chirp his own mom to win a game. Now, we talked about Bergeron. I feel like we've got to ask about him. I know we always hear about his leadership. What is it specifically? Is it just his presence that kind of emanates? Why is he such a great leader?

What is it about him? You can help me out here. I don't think the guy's ever made a mistake his whole life. Everything he does is the right decision in all walks of his life. I mean, he's as close as a perfect human being as I've ever met. He gets it through and through, on the ice, off the ice. Everything he does, he makes the right decision. I can't speak highly enough about Berge, man.

I wish I was as good of a human being as that guy you think he's a guy who plays kind of as long as he can or would more be he knows when he's going to be done you know what i'm saying i don't know how long it looks like he could just keep playing and playing forever because even if you lose a little speed he's so smart it doesn't matter right uh i think he'll make the call i i don't think he'll i don't know i've never asked him but i don't think he'd go into that position where he's you know on the fourth line and just taking face-offs i i don't know i think when he knows he's you know time's up on being yeah the best player on the team i think he'll probably ride off into the sunset and put

his number in the rafters a few years after after. It's crazy to think of that team. Like, how many guys on that team right now are going to have their numbers up there if you just look at the pure stats, right? Like, it's unreal. From that run, it's Chara, Bergeron, Marchand, and Krejci will definitely have their numbers retired, right? I would say so, yeah. I don't see how any of those—

If Posta stays on this clip... Dude, you might get yours with all the fucking stuff you did there off the ice. All of a sudden, Sean Thornton night. Tukes, I mean, he's the winningest goalie of all time. He probably deserves to go up there. I'm a little biased because he's a good friend. But, I mean, there's a lot of guys on that squad that probably end up there. They're going to threaten Krejci if he wants it retired.

He's going to have to come back for this playoff run this year. I think he is coming back this year. That's my – because if he – he'd have to go through waivers. He's going to tell everyone, I won't come back if you take me. Season ends. I don't know. I'm thinking he ends up back in the Bruins for the playoffs. What do you think?

I don't know. No comment. No comment. Tampering. You still got your place? You still got your place? He's coming to play for the Panthers. Oh, no. Breaking news. You still got your place in town, Thoughty tampering. You still got your place in town? He's coming to play for the Panthers. Oh, no.

Breaking news. You still got your place in town, Thoughty? Yeah, I still got my place in Charlestown. I rented out. I was back last week, got to my place, went to the Brewer's Fork. Every time I'm in town, I have to pop over to Charlestown. Absolutely. That place got fantastic pizza, too, by the way.

That's the place we ate when we stayed in Charlestown last year. Remember? Yeah, we ate outside. That place was great. Yeah yeah it was good stuff now you should also still the sean thornton foundation which is aiming for cure for parkinson's and cancer talk about that a little bit how's that going going really well uh because i'm not up there full time i don't have as many events as i'd like but we just did them we just had five runners five or six runners for the marathon they raised i think around 40k at my golf tournament two and a half weeks ago.

I haven't seen the final numbers on that yet, but WIP keeps breezing me. It won't play in it. Never around. You always have it at bad times. Play with you whenever. Yeah. Listen, I'm lucky.

Everybody on my foundation board volunteers. Every dollar that comes in goes right back out the door to Dana-Farber, Children's Hospital, American Parkinson's Disease Association. So I was happy that I was able to start it when I was a player there. Even happier that it's continued on since I left and gives me an excuse to get back to town too, which I don't hate. There are a website you want to throw out there

or anything you want to link currently or just – I know you have your Twitter handle. You probably have it in front of you. You're on your computer. Come on. Oh, sorry. link currently or just i know i know you have your twitter handle probably out of in front of you you're on your computer come on oh sorry staring at it uh testing you to see if you know it yeah i know exactly oh shit well dorts dude any other stories from the book you could tell any funny stories you're gonna make everyone go buy it yeah go buy it gotta get my kids through college or i'll punch you should title it that buy this book or i'll punch you when is it out uh november 16th it was supposed to be out like in two weeks but like everything else in the world right now yeah there's a supply

chain uh mishap so uh november 16th i think it's the new date i'm coming up the end of the month we got uh we got a signing at the encorecore and at I Love Boston Sports. When the Panthers are playing the Bees, I'm coming up, and we'll have some books available at those two things. So come on out. I'll buy you a beer. Yeah, I'd love to catch up with you. Let's get a cocktail.

By the way, I know this is tough to remember, but ThorntonFoundation.org is the name of your website. I had it. I thought you had it in front of you. I thought you just blocked it. And also on Twitter, it's at Thornton FDN. So thanks for joining us again, Sean. I know it was way too long.

Don't forget about the gram, buddy. Don't forget about the gram. Oh, the IG too. Geez, I know. IG, baby. I'm such a boomer with this shit. I was going to ask a quick one about the book. Is there a lot of St. John's stories in there about maybe Langer and a few of the other

guys? I know a lot of these stories have got to be left in the vault. I texted Terry Ryan, he goes, Biz, most of our stories together, these can't be told publicly. Yeah, 100%. I will say, my book's not as risque as Terry's was.

I'm an executive now, so I have to keep it between the rhubarb a little bit more than T-Bone. But yeah, he's right. I mean, we were young and out of control back then there was no social on the rock too yeah and four years out there uh with him on my team who's a legend oh god him and i punched each other in the face probably we had three or four tilts i think when he was in fredericton and then he came on the other side i was like god i'm

glad to have you he's a guy i like to get punched in the face i think you must have spent a few afternoons having some pops with Senior, his old man, too. Oh, yeah. In the basement? Yes, I've been in the basement. There's some stories that shouldn't be told about that, too. I mean, you get a tarantula at some point that was just floating.

I'm like, this is – Oh, yeah. Just characters out there. Yeah, great guys, though. Honestly, Salt the Earth. My good buddy, Tran Sandwith, who we played with out there, he actually just went back last week to go visit Terry. He's like, wow, 20 years later, nothing's changed.

Nothing has changed. Nothing's changed. That's awesome. Yeah, same on Instagram, too. ThorntonFDM, by the way, if you want to check it out and follow. All ball busting aside, thanks for joining us, Sean, and let's get together later this month to grab a cocktail. Perfect.

Thanks a lot, Thorny. Good luck. Appreciate it, buddy. Thanks, Thorny. Good luck. Appreciate it, buddy. Thanks, Thorny. See you, buddy. That interview was also brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Think about the major life-changing moments you've had,

like buying your first car, getting married, having your first kid, or moving to a new city. Of course, there's also in that big job that you've been going after, which can bring new opportunities for growth, hopefully a higher salary, new co-workers, new friends, and awesome new career achievements. Whether you're trying to get your first real job out of college, achieve a new title, or land your dream job, you should go to ZipRecruiter.com slash easy because ZipRecruiter makes it easy to find that next job that could change your life. How? ZipRecruiter acts like your personal recruiter. When you create a free profile, ZipRecruiter starts working for you. They send you jobs that match your skills and experience, and then they even pitch your profile to employers whose jobs match your

experience. If someone from that company really likes what they see, they can personally invite you to apply to their job. No wonder ZipRecruiter is the number one rated job site by G2. So if you're looking for that life-changing job, ZipRecruiter is the number one rated job site by G2. So if you're looking for that life-changing job, ZipRecruiter is a game changer. They make your whole job search experience better. So sign up for free on ZipRecruiter.com slash easy today. Once again, go to ZipRecruiter.com slash easy right now to sign up absolutely free and put ZipRecruiter to work for you. Big thanks to Thorny for jumping on with us.

I know, like you said, he's such a personable guy, but he really does not like to talk about himself, which is certainly understandable. He is a pretty humble guy. But it was a thrill to get him on the show once again. Obviously, he has some serious cachet here in Boston, so it was a thrill to talk to him. He's got his book coming out as well. I know we said it during the interview,

but it's Fighting My Way to the Top by Sean Thornton, and he's co-authored by Dale Arnold as well. So on Amazon and wherever fine books are sold, give it a check. He's got a great story, man. He was working in mills and fought his way 600 NHL games, 600 AHL games, and had a hell of a career, two Stanley Cups. The only other guy I could think like that is Tommy Kostopoulos, but I think he was 500 and 500.

Did he play that many in the AHL? I know he spent a good amount of time. That was my first captain ever, Tom Kostopoulos. He's the guy who goes, man, you work on those calves a lot, and I thought he was being serious. He had the driest sense of humor he was so funny just ripping on me i had no idea man you must do a lot of calf raises uh let's see here the hockey hall of fame class of 2020 was finally honored this past weekend

they got their rings of course they had a big covid delay uh and they're getting inducted probably just as we're taping right now up in Toronto at the hall of fame. Kevin Lowe, Doug Wilson, Jerome McGinley, Marion Hossa, Kim St. Pierre and Ken Holland all going in. Lowe is eligible since 01, Wilson since 96. And we've talked about it before guys who've waited a long time to get in. And I think the one name with that always comes up McGilney. It's just, it's an absolute jaw drop of how he's not in the hall of fame.

Not only the skill, the points he put up, but the fact he risked his life to come to this country to play hockey and that, that alone should have done it. But I don't, hopefully they'll rectify this in the next year or two. Yeah, I completely agree with that. And in terms of this year's class, it's pretty special. I've talked a lot about Hosa and the experience of getting to play with that guy. And I mean,

the ultimate power forward and some people might not think like powerful when you think of Marion Hosa, but 230 pounds, nobody had a clue. He was that big to really played with or against him. One of the best defensive forwards I've ever seen. And just a guy, I think over 500 goals, or he might've had over 600, definitely over 500, over 600 assists, three Stanley cups. And the way that he lost in Pittsburgh when I was on the Penguins,

and then he went to Detroit and the Penguins beat him. I mean, at that point he had to be thinking, I'm never going to get one. That's after a long time with Ottawa, Atlanta, with the Heatley trade. And then he goes and gets three in Chicago. And by the way, when he had to retire because of that crazy, what is it called?

He had a rash. It was something where he, I have a tough time describing why he had to retire. It was something to do with a rash on his body where he couldn't wear his equipment, but he was still a fucking good player, man. He wasn't like, it wasn't like, oh, the swan's on, like he's almost not an NHL anymore.

Like he was still producing and like, Oh, the swan's on, like he's almost not an NHL or anymore. Like he was still producing and playing at a high level. So I actually heard them saying in the hall of fame game the other night, he looked great. It was the first time I think he'd skated since he retired, but just a horse. And more importantly, I've said it, one of the nicest people I've ever met. So congrats to Marion Hossa. My memories of Jerome McGinn,ley are just completely owning me. There was a clip sent out on Instagram

I don't know if it was NHL or something where went over a bunch of his nice highlight goals. I'm in one of them. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm on the PK, I think. I end up screening the goalie or I got pitched by someone in front. He rockets a one timer. But Jerome McGinley was scary to play against. He

scored, he hit, he fought. And many people say that, uh, one of the biggest, uh, robberies of all time was when he didn't get MVP the year, our buddy, uh, Jose Theodore won it. Um, that was the year that again, that had 52 goals, 96 points. He won them rocket Rashard. He won the art Ross and he didn't get MVP. He won the players, uh, voted MVP, but, um, Jose Theodore actually got the heart. And funny enough, I was looking into it. It went down to a tiebreaker that year and most first place votes got the trophy. And that was that was Theodore.

The reason that Aginla didn't win it, it was there was one voter who didn't even put Aginla on his ballot and he didn't even put him in top five and he was a montreal writer so had he just been on the ballot at fifth a gin would have won it by not having him on the ballot it gave deodor the the heart trophy and um since that time they've had to uh make their ballots public that changed the way that the the voters the professional hockey writers association votes that's just cowardly to leave a guy off like that when he has such a dominant year, knowing that he's probably going to win, but you want to pull for your hometown guy when you're not supposed to be fucking biased in the first place. Yeah, so Jerome, again, just an Olympic gold medalist, warrior, one of the best.

And it makes total sense to me why those two guys are first ballot Hall of Famers. And then the other one, and I know there's other people, but Ken Holland read a really interesting article by Mark Spector on sports net. When he retired playing, I think he had a couple NHL games. He was a goalie, but he couldn't get a job. He was 29 years old living in his parents' basement with his wife and three kids. His wife was she had a job. I don't remember what it was. And all of a sudden he's,

he started selling vacuums. He was going to sell vacuums. His mother's like, I'll buy one. Your aunt will buy one. We'll sell you get 25 cents a sale. So next thing you know, he got hired to be a Red Wings scout. And you see what he's done since then for Stanley Cups. I think three.

He was the GM for one. He was the assistant GM. But Ken Holland, who might come in or all the guys on the Detroit Red Wings have always told me he's one of the classiest guys in the world. So just proof you can be a successful GM and executive in this league without being a prick because Ken Holland's done it with class and everyone who's ever played for him loves him. Wow, well said, Whit.

Fucking A. The Hall of Fame weekend is so special. I actually wish they did it a little different in terms of, I don't know, like it's not as big of a deal. I don't. I actually wish they did it a little different in terms of – I don't know. It's not as big of a deal. I feel like it should be a bigger deal. I feel like in Canada, it's a little bit more national news.

Yeah, true. So it's just hard being down in the States. Low, I mean, six Stanley Cups. Could you imagine winning all those Stanley Cups, the parties, the good times? And Wayne said he was the ultimate competitor. And, you know, sometimes we debate about the individual achievements as opposed to the team achievements. It's just like hard to ignore somebody who has that many fucking rings.

So, hey, congratulations to him. All right. Any of the other guys you want to talk about? Yeah, because the only other guy we didn't really mention too much, Doug Wilson. I know he was a mainstay on the Chicago Blue Line for a long time before he became the longtime San Jose Sharks GM. But, yeah, like I said, he waited a long time.

One of those guys who was on the ballot year after year, and then he finally got in back in 2020. But, yeah, I think you guys covered the other players pretty well. Hey, Biz, I looked up TK, Tom Kostopoulos. He had 630 NHL games and over 700 AHL games, not including playoffs. I thought it was five and five. Damn.

That's amazing. He ended up as player coach, kind of, Reggie Dunlop style, towards the end of his career with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. I want to say he's still in the organization helping out. His career started, he played 76 games, 80 games, 70 games in the minors. He then was up and down for the next three years with Pittsburgh. Then he had like eight years or seven years in a row in the NHL. And then his career ended 71 games, 72 games, 75 games, 74 games,

31 games back in Wilkes-Barre. So what a career. We played against him in that Calder Cup run in the second round of playoffs that year, and he was still playing. And I'm like, holy shit. And he played and like he wasn't a heavyweight like like 40 but he fought and like played hard it's definitely warrior he was one of those sneaky guys where you challenge and the next thing you know you look over the bench and he's taping his wrist ready to fucking beat you up the game notes

army yeah exactly uh boys i tweeted about this the other day the nhl in this fucking blackouts man they gotta yeah they got they gotta fix it and by i'm so confused they gotta end them it is confusing because every fucking like cable company has their their whatever of the rules laws whatever i don't understand the blackout rules frankly because if you and i'm i implore people at the nhl to find my tweet on the chicklets handle and read all the replies all the quote tweets from all these fucking people who can't see games and it makes no sense they're not in any zones where they should be blacked out from any spots i understand certain situations you are but i mean even the nhl network like for example tonight what if you cut the cord and you wanted

to watch the nhl network you'd have to get a stolen stream online because the nhl network doesn't have a fucking app. So you can't watch that anywhere. So why wouldn't so because that but what I'm confused about is when if with ESPN plus now and I can get most of the games on ESPN plus. OK, so say I watched say I watched Columbus, Detroit on ESPN plus. That's that's the two networks in Detroit and Columbus that show the games, whether it's Fox Sports, I don't know, whatever it is. So why can't NHL network games just be on ESPN+, as well? I don't get it.

I don't understand any of it. And all they're doing is sending people to these illegal streams, which there's millions of them out there, and they work. They're good. I'm obviously not going to say them on here, but what this league is doing is sending thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people to these illegal streams to watch their product instead of just fucking,

I think the NHL could just eradicate blackout rules. If it's their league, they can just say, fuck it. No, you're going to put it on. But it's crazy, man. It's like people all over North America. I wonder if that's the answer is they just, they say that they have to do it. They're just, well, they just are like, Hey, like we understand that the a hundred thousand or 200,000 people that can't watch it are going to stream it illegally, but go, go do that. It's not worth on like, you know,

figuring all these solutions based on these networks. Cause there's all this fine print and there's a reason probably why they can't do it. I think what would be important if we, if we could get the reason why they can't like the in-depth reason why they can't so it would kind of just put a rest to all this because you have to do this a couple times a year and what and and you know we talk about it like we respect the fact that you do it because you want the the fans voices to be heard especially the ones in these areas because like just one guy tweeting

he's got five followers ain't gonna get to them right so maybe there's an explanation why they can't do it but we need to know or we're gonna keep bitching about this every six months and sending it on our social media i think it's just a relic from the past i mean i think when i think of blackouts here in boston i think like not being able to watch the patriots games because they stunk so bad and they didn't sell out so you wouldn't be able to watch them at home like I think of like definitely the 1980s but the landscapes change the media world change everything's so different just the idea that you know people live in a certain area and they're not even close to these teams and they can't get them if I can't make fucking what is it make any sense of it it's dinosaur thinking but it's just

like you don't you don't know what's going on with the tv world side of it is it is it make hair a hide of it is that the phrase biz no clue i can't make a wrong wrong people right now all right well we can leave that cornelli bought a concert ticket from a fucking pizza box what'd you say i got beat for 32 bucks that's what i'd say i put my fucking makeup on with a paintball gun all right you? You're asking me? Come on, man. I know on Instagram, well, on Twitter, we put out a couple of questions here and there to get some nice little social media reaction going. A couple we threw out this week, best NHL era to play in. Go to you first, Biz.

Well, I said now because I'd actually win a fight. I could pick on these little guys. I mean, I will say my career in the nhl would have been longer if i would have played probably in the 80s maybe even the 70s because i just i just liked the whole concept of like it was just like you went and drank you went and drank and party then you put your gear on then you went and fought on the ice that's basically how you went and drank again and then you went and drank again and like you know i like my pop so i would definitely say i'll just stick with the 80s because i think the pay was way better in the 80s than it was in the 70s well i i'm assuming this is non like this is money not included i mean it would be now if

if you're talking money i think you have to think all things considered. Right. I think that's fair. Then I'm going to say the 90s, because there were some guys making big dough at the end of the 90s. And the 90s was before the Internet and before cell phones. No matter what, it's before cell phones. It's when the guys talk about having the blinking red light on the phone in the hotel room. And that's how they knew if the girl was calling it's like the old school stories of not worrying about cameras being these pictures being taken of you and you're freestyling it nakama after you win a playoff round like myself i think in the end though the 90s was the bomb to play it that was the time when god you, like that was the 90s, at least for me. Right. I mean, 95, 96, 97. I'm 12, 13 years old. Like, I just look back at being so obsessed with the league. And I think for me being a tall guy, that was my best chance to make it to the 90s, even though I was a pussy because he had to be tough then. I don't know. That's a good question no that's a great answer because you because you because you just said there's some guys who are getting paid on the high end that are just as much as today if

not more high end because there's no salary cap late 90s i think kachuk kachuk was making 10 million i think in late 90s maybe early 2000s so i heard when kachuk was playing with the coyotes when there was no escrow and he was making 10 he was seeing about 450 to 500k every paycheck that is absurd man that is fucking absurd could you imagine half a million every two weeks all right uh yeah it might be gone i would be dead yeah i think i mean are you letting that close to vegas we've told the hey we've told the story before about Walt and those guys. We've told on the podcast, haven't we? Yeah.

It's always good to tell it again, though. Tell it again, Biz. So I think it was JR who told me the story originally. Maybe it was Donor. But there was this flight that left at 1030 from Phoenix to Vegas. It was the last Southwest flight of the night and they had it one in regulation, but they gave up a goal late. And all the four or five guys were going to Vegas.

I want to say Jar was one of them. Kachuk was one of them. I think talk was on the team. Well, they ended up fucking tying up like three minutes left and they're like, how are fuck where there's no way we're going to make this fucking flight. And Walt's like, yeah, right right i got us they go he goes out that next shit fucking takes it from one end to the other buries it fucking as soon as the game ends right down the hallway

they want to talk to him because he got the game winner and he's the fucking captain of the team no media they get a police escort to the airport make the flight because they had a day off the next day and they yeah i want to play in the 90s, 90s. So 90s it is. I'm changing my fucking answer. What an answer. R.A. would say like the 70s for sure. R.A.'s like the 30s.

Even the 50s. No testing before camp. It was too brutal, like too brutal, like from the 70s and before that. Like and that's when the owners really treated you like meat. And they still did it into the 80s as well. 90s the skill was good the money started getting a lot better uh the overall talent but yeah like right now the money even if you're pro-rated the money is way better today um the concussions we know more about that so you're less likely to be have fucking brain damage later in life and the skill level man i mean if you're a fucking soft player

this is the great time to play too because you're not going to get buried nearly as much. 90s also, I could show Ryder and Wyatt a game where I played in where the fucking puck was like... Lit up? Yeah, lit up. The glow puck. That'd be kind of cool. That's a Relic video.

So I have to elaborate a little bit on the story now. I believe at that time if you ended up going to overtime did they flood before overtime no no that wasn't no i think i think they started flooding before shootouts and that was the first time they were flooded that was the first time like but either way if that game goes into overtime they're probably not making that fight so so walt put the boys on his back and ended up talking to Gino. I like the no post game down the tunnel. As the captain scoring the game winner. I don't even think he tapped the goalie on the pads that night.

All right, boys. I think that wraps it up. I mean, we've been going pretty decent chunk right now. Yeah, two interviews deep. Columbus androit back and over it's two at the over five and a half goal number seven on the season he's having a great year this year biz real quick before we wrap up leafs one seven of eight what are your thoughts eight of nine i think they're eight of nine now gee they ended up squeaking out that victory now

we didn't get a chance to elaborate on the old Riley or O'Reilly. It's Riley. Sorry. Morgan Riley, Mo that goal that he scored. I've never seen a puck do that. He put English on it. Ended up trickling back. It probably hit,

I would say at least six inches after hitting the crossbar and then trickled in and definitely an emotional win. That was, that was my first time watching the least from the start of puck drop to to the end of the game or or at least most the game they didn't look very good everybody's like oh they beat the fucking sabers they got we're piss pumped all night at this stage in the season boys like you gotta irk whatever wins out you can and the schedule has been a little bit brutal lately they get the fucking i think they got nashville at home now

after a couple days rest so hey you just want to keep the momentum going because i know what you mentioned like the big boys maybe matthews in particular didn't look like he was he was on his game against buffalo well it was a back-to-back wasn't it or was it a no it's a back-to-back for buffalo i think yes and um i don't know. My question, would you... When I watch him and he's on, Nylander is so good. He's filthy. Would you rather Nylander at his 6 million

or Marner at 11 and a half? Oh, 100% Nylander all day. Yeah, like if they were to ever trade one of them, I would trade Marner over Nylander. Nylander's really good at getting like closing on defenders quickly and getting the puck stop and stripping them. He is awesome. Like his forechecking ability, like his effort level is there.

And yeah, I would say definitely Marner. If they made the same, I'd rather Marner. But double the price? It's like, maybe it's not double, but whatever. Four or five million more? Are you kidding me? Yeah, he's definitely the leaf that exceeded expectations based on what he got in salary i think he's i think he's a bargain at what he makes right now and you talk about uh the the top four and tavarez matthews martin nealander and

like you know they have to score to win which they are doing etc so campbell is the mvp right now campbell is so good and you talk about them having no money for next year. He's UFA. So I don't know. I love talking about next year with the Leafs because I know it's going to end first round of the playoffs. But wild story to see Campbell play as much as he has with the injury to Mrazek and also play as well as he has.

So good for him because after watching the Amazon Prime video, he does seem like one of the most genuine, nicest guys in the league. Leafs are humming, folks. And they got that Nashville is going to be they've been they've been another team that's been playing sneaky good. And I know we just had Stutz on to break down Anaheim. I'd like to get like Chris Mason or or Hal Gill, who we've had on before to come on and talk about him because they don't get you know, they're they're tucked away in Nashville. They don't get talked about. They don't get the national coverage when do the oilers play the leafs anyone know because we should go to that game uh december 14th in edmonton or january 5th in toronto i'm gonna be in toronto december 16th this year so i'd be willing to to make a pit stop

if you want to before christmas you and your silly cast i know i can't no they're in december 14th they're in edmonton biz i would yeah but i would i'm going to canada the whole process the way that things ended for for me in edmonton i can't go back there with a cast on i can't do it i can't do it dude I can't do it, dude. That would be just too perfect. We'll show him back up there with an arm cast on. We'll do it in the new year in Toronto. I'm sure R.A. wouldn't turn down a Toronto trip. Oh, God, no. All right, guys.

Thank you so much for listening. As always, we appreciate it. This NHL season's humming along. Let's hopefully, let's hope that COVID and Ottawa, they get that figured out. We get it straightened out. The Olympics happens and these teams keep playing as well as they have been because the league's great.

And we got some bad news here and there, but overall the product's awesome and we love the game and we love you for listening. So thank you so much. And thank you all for the support on Watson gloves. All right, everybody have a good one as always we like to thank our terrific sponsors here on spit and chiclet so big thanks to our friends over at pink whitney huge thanks to our friends over at cross country mortgage for taking

care of our financing and refinancing huge thanks to everybody at roman for taking care of the fellas big thanks to our friends at sezzle make sure to use them this refinancing. Huge thanks to everybody at Roman for taking care of the fellas. Big thanks to our friends at Sezzle. Make sure to use them this Black Friday. Big thanks to everybody at Watson Gloves. Thanks so much for working with Biz. Grab some gloves if you need them. They're awesome. And a big thanks to our longtime friends over at ZipRecruiter. If you're looking for a job, by all means, check them out. Have a great week, everybody.