Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 367: Featuring T.J. Oshie

Episode Date: January 4, 2022

On Episode 367 of Spittin’ Chiclets the guys are joined by T.J. Oshie. T.J. joined (1:17:29) to talk about his famous pregame handshakes, playing with Ovechkin, the Olympic Shootout and tons more. But first, the guys open the show talking about their trip to Minnesota and the coldest Winter Classic ever. The guys then react to the World Juniors cancellation news and give their take on Brad Marchand’s Olympic comments. The guys wrap up talking some hockey news, including how hot the Penguins are right now.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 367 of Spittin' Chicklets presented by Pink Whitney. From our friends over at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family, what is up gang? Games are slowly coming back into the schedule. Chicklets is back from a very frozen Midwest after the coldest game in NHL history, but we had a blast out there. Lots of fun stuff we did. Let's see if the boys thought out yet. Mikey G, how you feeling brother? Finally back in New York city for the first time in two weeks,

had a great time in Minnesota. Like I said, I've never been there before. I actually fell in love with it, but next stop is Las Vegas boys. Chicklets cup. I'm ready ready let's go perfect i need about a month off after minnesota that place can rock them sock them i'll tell you biz nasty we enjoyed you for a couple days unfortunately uh your higher-ups dragged you back to uh atlanta for the the game it was we were bummed out i mean you got the fucking play-by-play crew there but you can't have the studio crew there so everybody was sad they didn't see you paul that might be been a wayne call he's probably screw this. I've already done enough

outdoor games. Let's get back to the studio and stay warm. But yeah, it sucked that I got to miss that appearance. What was the bar called again? Cowboy Jack's. Yes. And apparently there was a ton of people there. So for all the people that I missed i'm really sorry uh looked like an amazing time you guys even ran into uh one of the bachelorettes who came over yeah hey i will say one of the pictures that i that ended up getting snapped it was a tough scene because it looked like she was giving with the hungry eyes i don't know if it was it was with that pink hat i was wearing oh my hey my my wife saw that and DM'd MB. She goes, why is that woman eye-fucking my husband? MB goes, don't worry, she wasn't.

Just like a completely random, like the way she took the pic, but I'll take it. Yeah, tire pump plus one. But other than that, man, we got set up huge. We got some great stuff captured for uh for all you chicklets fans it'll be slowly rolling out over the over the course probably the next three weeks and i'll leave it up to our ray to announce who we ended up collecting as an interview but uh like i said for all the people i missed the cowboy jacks my apologies we went

there the night before though on new year's eve and there were a few people there we got to say hello to a few people were just absolutely gunned though like just slop tarts probably too many pink whitney shots uh but no it was a good time it was it was a really fun game to call tons of stuff going on and to everybody from the nhl and and um the media crews and the fans everybody who showed up uh just an amazing event uh crazy at the fact that the temperature was so cold and they still ended up selling out, but that's just a testament to all you hardcore fans out there and including the ones from St. Louis who made the trip.

I had no idea that was the bachelorette. I just, I could sense they were like somebody, one of them was something. And I legit asked him like, are you two newlyweds? Cause they were all over each other and they kind of just laughed. And then like 10 minutes later, my mother's like, Oh god you just met the met the bachelorette i was like i did she's like oh your aunt was on your instagram and they came through the line i didn't know until my mother texted me that it was the fucking bachelorette but what it must have been something about those pink hats we were wearing because i had the trapper hat on and you know

minnesota women very very lovely very friendly just said i like your pink hat i want to buy you a drink but i you know we're from minnesota we like to be nice just totally bought me a dirty dog i love r.a by the way he's like yeah minnesota can really rock them sock them dude you can get rock them sock them in you could be in iraq and you'd be rock all right you were one of those guys you had a weekend for yourself very impressive i. I love Minnesota. It was beautiful. It was, as much as I say beautiful and it sounds crazy, it's an unreal experience in the winter. I love summers there, but I've never really gotten to do the ice fishing thing.

One of our probably best days filming, what we got to do, an amazing interview. We'll bring up with who that was with a little bit later. Actually, a couple of different people. My trip though, dude, it got started off. Rough start. I was flying in Tuesday, and I was planning on seeing a good buddy of mine, Justin Miser, I've mentioned, the Miser dog.

And my flight left Boston at 5.15. So I was in the city earlier, and I was like, I'm not going to go home first. I got to the airport at like 2. It was like 1.45, because of late time work. I was like, I'll just go early. Nothing's better than an airport beer and I'll hang out. Well, my flight ends up getting delayed. I took off from Boston at twelve forty five a.m. I was at the airport for like nine

hours. They delayed it eight different times. The first delay was 20 minutes. I'm like, that's not too bad. The next delay was forty five minutes. The third delay was 20 minutes. I'm like, that's not too bad. The next delay was 45 minutes. The third delay was three hours. Then I was like, oh, my God. Now I have to, like, stop drinking. I'll be waffled. So my mind's racing. Now I'm finally at the gate.

Later on, I went to the Delta Lounge, which was actually a really nice touch. Great job by the Delta Lounge at Logan Airport. So it's now probably 10.30 p 10 30 PM and we get hit with another delay, like another like hour and 20 minute. And naturally the crowd around the gate, everyone who's been there close to seven hours is, is like, Oh, like the groaning out loud. Just, Oh my God. I wasn't one of them i was doing it silently but i was not loud loud moan groan guy you weren't punching the the lady at the front well listen the lady at the front this is unbelievable what this lady does so immediately like a couple people go up

like they're so furious like now mind you going up what what's it gonna do i think they just wanted to really like announce their presence with authority to the woman at the gate so like everyone's kind of pissed off she deals with a couple people i'm sitting close enough where i could see one guy's flipping out like he's you know he's gonna miss the connector he could miss the connector the next day now with the way things are going so she gets on the mic and makes one of the most ridiculous mistakes i've ever seen an airline worker make she starts off great she's like's like, everyone, I know this is so hard. This is, this has been a brutal day and we apologize. And she sounds really good. I'm like, you know,

this is pretty professional what she's doing right now. She says, but you got to listen to me. I started my shift. I got here at five o'clock. How do you think I feel, dude? There was about 30 people. Are you fucking kidding me? I was here at three. You got here at five to do your job. Holy shit. I was like, oh, my God. So it was people were getting on the plane by the time we get on the game facing her. I think right away she knew she shouldn't have tried to make it about her. But it was just one of those things that was kind of a disaster to start the trip off. So I was worried how it was all going to go.

I'm one of those people. If the trip starts off bad, is it going to be bad the whole time? Exact opposite. Minnesota, incredible experience. The meet and greet was wild. These people are so friendly. And Minnesotans and generally Midwest people are so nice. You almost think like at least where we're from,

you almost think they're like fucking with you a little bit. It's like an ulterior motive somewhere. Why are you saying hi so friendly? Like it was just a great experience. What else? I have a couple more things that I can't think of now, but they'll hop back. I saw you tweet something out about the airlines making a rule where all the people who are bringing household pets onto the plane need to start flying on their own airline. Enough. Just start booking animal only flight or animal with passenger flights.

So it's like this is something people take obviously taken advantage of. And I'm not talking when I say house pets, that fucking should automatically rode guide dogs by the ADA. Like this isn't about that guide dogs, a guide dog. But you can make any dog a guide dog now no no a guide dog is a is a train it's a you it's through the americans with disabilities act it's that it's not an emotional support thing that people pay ten dollars and put it on their dogs back and like pretend like they can't fly without it or people bringing their cats on the fucking plane it's ridiculous did you guys see that viral did you

guys see the viral clip a couple weeks ago with the girl who had the fake cat and she was pretending to breastfeed it that was an act acting like she was acting like she was a psycho so the airline attendant was starting to bitch at her and so were some of the people and then finally when she stood up and showed him it was a fake cat they all they all felt like idiots but it was a pretty good song by the chick. Now, I think that. Oh, the skit, bud. Oh, wait. Oh, the whole thing was planned?

I was like, does he not know? Yeah, the skit. Oh. Well, Biz, because the kid at Bastl, big team. Oh, so I got songed. He blogged at Bastl, and I was like, wait, did he get jaymacked here? Like, when you get caught by a fake story and you blog it, that's called getting jaymacked?

I got nipples, Greg. Can you milk me? So more people probably thought it was fake story and you blog it, that's called getting J-macked. I got nipples, Greg. Can you milk me? So more people probably thought it was real because it got blogged when it was obviously fucking fake as shit. Oh, I mean, I was just surprised that they would take the time and energy on a flight for everyone to kind of get together and plan that. Or was it like, were they filming something on a plane

where it wasn't even an actual flight that was going from one location to another? Gee, are we going to chime in there, G? I mean i mean i was gonna say it's probably one of those fake airline sets that they have in la like those fake private jets that all the influencers use oh it looked like an actual flight so i look like a fucking donkey now a great way to start the show minus one but all right oh merles everyone oh sorry go ahead bills well i was just gonna say i think a lot of airlines ended up cracking down on the fact that you couldn't just bring like a regular dog.

Like I think it got pretty easy where all you needed was a note in order to bring it on. Now, what animal, what animal did you see that that sparked you to send that out? Like did someone bring on a Falcon or something? Well, there's the usual array of, you know, dogs who were just people's pets, which, you know, I know, and I know I don't want to pay the money and put my dog into that it's like well that's what separates animals and humans like you know what i mean like fucking if you don't want it then then you know fucking

then get get an airline what was the dog doing though it was a fucking no it wasn't a dog that's what people like oh i already don't like dogs i'm like i didn't say dogs it was a fucking meowing cat and i fucking hate cats with a passion like a lot of people do and i'm like i have headphones anyways but this match is sitting next to this meow meow you were next seat over and just meowing just non-stop i think it was probably a kitten that's like which again like oh i don't put my kitten underneath well it's like well then maybe fucking rent the car you know what i mean and here's the thing it's not about not liking animals that like animals like what if you're allergic now i'm not like my wife's allergic to cats okay so this person is to bring their fucking cat on or else they can't fly allegedly but now to say there's 10 people on the

flight who are allergic to cats so you're going to inconvenience inconvenience 10 fucking people to make one person in their fucking cat comfortable how does that make sense you know what i mean it doesn't make sense so i'm not to mention some people are fucking scared of dogs not me some people get bit by dogs before even a little fucking shih tzu scares them so like yeah they're trying to fly they're already petrified of flying and then some you know people you know they're petrified of flying you're making up how do you know they're saying i'm okay even if they're not maybe they're just petrified of dogs and fucking that's added into the stress that flying already is man it's fucking first fucking do animal flights just fucking have an animal in line billion dollar idea freebie there you go they did didn't they snakes on a plane

that's what i wrote my blog i'm like first of all emotional support pit viper on the fucking plane like jake the snake coming out with an anaconda wrapped around your neck i can't fly without um if you're scared of a shit so you're a fucking asshole first of all uh and what was the other thing i was gonna say i forgot great good start biz um merles ebr getting recognized everywhere the brand is growing probably 30 to 40 ebrs as merles as merles walked by so it was a great trip for him he continues to grow we added a little merley element to the end of interviews a little merley minute so that was another thing on my mind oh there was some kid that's like he's like buckled with all his buddies he's like whitney thousand bucks a hole i'll play a thousand bucks a hole i'm like yeah anytime bud now grant now

mind you like golf you could look like the most unathletic squid in the world and you could be amazing at golf so it doesn't you know what i mean i am i anytime and he comes back thousand bucks oh my god i told you anytime he's like you're not even that good you know i go dude what who are you he said i played d1 golf his buddies are like he's unbelievable he's unbelievable i'll play you anytime i go buddy i made 30 million dollars playing another sport and now i'm decent at golf i've never said i'm better than you get out of my face with a thousand bucks a hole and leave me alone and he understood right away i think he just overstepped his boundaries a little bit screaming at me thousand bucks a

hole thousand bucks a hole i'm like can you go like hit on a girl or something and leave me alone but other than that every other fan was amazing oh you know what i was gonna say already i saw someone chime in on that uh that tweet you sent was i'd rather a pet than a crying baby and i couldn't agree more i've been next to a few crying babies on flights that's the tough one but you can't you'll change it you'll change your tune and you have oh hey i would i would feel very uncomfortable if my kid was crying for let's say like an hour and a half of a four-hour flight you just you feel bad i'm not saying that we're not gonna play the put the babies underneath i'm not complaining like ra over here no no i'm saying i'm saying it's it's way worse like any person whose kid is crying on

the plane is more rattled and despises it more than any other person listening to it. Like your kid's cry is worse to you than it is to anyone else. So imagine how bad it is for the stranger who just hears a baby crying and think of the parent that's with them and what they would do to get that kid to stop crying. And it's like the infants don't know how to pop their ears with the altitude change. You can't get mad at a fucking infant.

I mean, that's the baby. You just got to whack them really hard. That's why you get fucking, you know, the fucking Bose noise cancelers. You're good. But if a kid's being a fucking brat, that's when you want to, like, punt them through the loop. Do the noise cancelers cancel out the cats meowing or no? Fortunately, I didn't. I wasn't seated near that woman, so I didn't.

I didn't hear the meow, the whole fucking flight, thankfully. Well, we can move on from the flights. Oh, I thought you were sitting right next to the cat. No, I was sitting in the gate. That's when I tweeted because I was waiting at the gate. Hold on here. There we go. I think you just shriveled yourself.

Oh, yeah. I think you said you sat next to the cat the whole flight. No, I didn't say that. I said I was sitting next to it. Why didn't you make me specify the gate? Regardless, I've been beating this drum for years, dude. I blogged about it years ago. This isn't like a new thing with me sitting next to a fucking cat in the fucking gate,

like trying to fucking get a flight home. That's you know, I actually I legit moved. I moved fucking because it was annoying me. And that's why I fucking I sent the tweet. But whatever. That's all. I think we should get a rough and rowdy between fucking R.A. and the cat ladies or the cat.

He just has to tilt a cat. That'd be a deal breaker, man. Legit. I fucking can't stand cats. But hey, before we do the deep dive into many, just a note or two from last episode. Keith Jones, Biz, I know you said he might be on a Mount Rushmore, and that's high praise, but everybody seemed to love him.

We just want to give him an extra thanks because his interview was so good. His stories were unbelievable. How bang on was that getting the assistant captaincy? And it even happened to you, didn't it? Yeah. So did I not say that during the interview? No, I think you were just letting him talk, which was probably the way to go. I thought I might have said it either then or last episode. I don't know if I said it last episode when, at when his interview ended,

but yeah, it happened to me. I got the a on. I'm like, Oh baby, I got the a and sure as shit. It is the most ultimate. Let's make every team think this guy is way more important and way more of a

leader than he actually is. But that I didn't even, you know what the funniest part is. I never even thought of that until like he said it. I was like, wait a minute. That was like, well,

as he was telling us, I was in my, my, I was like the, a minute. That was like, well, as he was telling us at his ranch, I was in my, I was like the, the, the hamster was in my head spinning the wheel. Like, oh shit. That was what I really should have known. This happened in pit or in, in, in pit. In pit. Okay.

Oh, wow. The old rope a dope. Well, we all, we all seem to get sunk so far this episode. Yeah. I got, I got a little bit better. Oh Jesus. Come on, biz. Get the brain clicking. You actually made an appearance on the blindsided podcast as well. Corey Hirsch. Yeah. Yeah. It was great. We had a good sit down.

It kind of went deep, kind of went a little deep, deeper than usual. I think people who don't see that side of biz might want to check it out. I think that that was, that's the purpose of their podcast. And, you know, they did a good job of, of, of dragging it out of me. But like I said, I don't, I'm a, I'm an open book. I can, I can talk about anything. So yeah, it was great. If you guys want to check it out, I, you know, divulge a little bit of my personal life, but I mean, some of you are like, nah, I just rather hear the idiot biz on the, on the' Chickens podcast. So here we are. Exactly.

Well, we've been burying the lead long enough. The big highlight from our trip, at least from my perspective, and I'm sure you boys agree, we got an invitation to General Manager Billy Guerin's house to do a long-awaited interview there, and then he had us over for dinner. And, you know, he didn't have anybody else do the cooking. Billy cooked the steaks himself, was outside grilling the asparagus, had the cheesy potatoes going, mixing drinks for everybody, like just a consummate host uh class personified we got an awesome interview coming to you soon uh but what just uh we've been talking about this

guy forever in the show everybody has nothing but good things to say about him we saw up close why everyone loves billy gary yes and thank you to his two daughters i believe who the main reason that he actually came on. I think his son, too, Liam, who's playing junior hockey right now, I think they've given him enough shit where it's like, Dad, come on, go on the show, go on the show. So finally, with us being in town, it worked out perfect. Mind you, this guy brings out steaks at the end of the interview.

It was like 8.45, 9 o'clock. He's got 13 Wagyu beef steaks. It must have cost a grand total what he had out there r.a actually put one in a goodie bag in a in a doggy bag to go at the end they look so good we crushed those at one point he was telling all of us a story he's you know he had great stories he's filling us in he's like hold on i gotta go flip the asparagus upstairs like this guy he gave us the the gift of doing an interview and then he's running up and down telling stories and flipping the the steak so an amazing experience the one thing i had to i had to ask you about r.a was

never have i ever seen you more excited or happy as to when bill garren mentioned he's a star wars fan so this came up at dinner and they started talking back and forth and it was great you could tell r.a it was so excited that like a guy like Bill Guerin is a big time Star Wars fan. So they're discussing Chewbacca and fucking Darth Vader and all this stuff. Next thing you know, we're finally leaving. It's later on.

It's probably 11, 1130. We almost like had to basically kick ourselves out. Yeah. Like it was, I think, well, we're having some wine and then he goes,

anyone want an ice cream? And he got up and I was like, I think that means like guys like get the fuck out of the house. But we had an ice cream and then we left. So we're finally ready to. And then he goes, anyone want an ice cream? And he got up and I was like, I think that means like, guys, like get the fuck out of the house. But we had an ice cream and then we left. So we're finally ready to go. And all right. Classic.

All right. He's like, Hey, Billy, I know you mentioned you got a unbelievable star Wars Lego connection. He's like, yeah, it's upstairs. He was like,

can I see it? Next thing you know, Billy G's like, all right, they go upstairs. They're going over the star wars lego so already on the ice fishing he was discussing billy garren like star wars it was probably your top moment of the trip i'd say definitely up there man because like you know you guys probably didn't watch a lot of sci-fi growing up there's not a lot of kind of overlap between

hockey players and star wars in my experience so like, again, to have a guy like Guerin, and we're pretty close in age to be familiar with it all. I mean, he even dropped the line at me. He's like, I don't like you either. I was like, holy shit, he's dropping Star Wars cantina lines. I was fucking overwhelmed. He gave me the invite. I didn't invite myself on that one.

He's like, come up and check it out. But, dude, his son Liam, unreal collection. It's funny, too, Biz, because we just mentioned it like an episode ago. They had these Millennium Falcons that take like a week and a half to put together. Liam had every little thing. He had all these toys I had. So I took a couple of videos. I haven't shared them yet because we haven't spoiled the news about going to Billy's. But that was fantastic.

Definite highlight of the night was getting Billy Guerin to drop Star Wars. And I would say the icing on the cake was him busting out the, the Stanley cup rings too. And those were, it was, it was fun seeing the old one and how it's smaller. They are compared to the new ones that are just covered in diamonds and about six fucking pounds. The old,

old ones you can wear and they're subtle. These new ones, you can't even wear them. You just got to keep them in your, your, your safe or something. We'll actually have a vlog drop it of all this, like Darren's house and all that on our YouTube channel next week, too.

So keep an eye out for that. Yeah, we're going to drop a pin, too. So if any of you Minnesota Wild fans want to stop by, maybe enjoy some Wagyu steaks and some Star Wars banter, feel free. I know that. Well, I was going to say Billy Sushi went to later, but we got to call him Wagyu Billy after he busted out those steaks. I never had that before.

Oh, my God. Billy Sushi. I forgot about that night. This place is, I've said a long time, after you busted out those steaks. I never had that before. Oh, my God. Billy's Sushi. I forgot about that night. This place is, I've said a long time, the best sushi I've ever had is Umi in Pittsburgh. Think Shadyside. I think I have a new number one. Billy's Sushi in Minneapolis. One of the most amazing meals I've ever eaten in my life.

Billy, who owns it, is a complete lunatic. This guy is the most incredible thing i ever seen this guy we signed a picture in there but the sushi at billy's sushi is the best i've ever eaten so please if you ever get the chance in minnesota check it out that was a great trip and i gotta ask you guys who went to the game um like like did you last the whole game i know it was the coldest one on record it looked I don't want to say miserable, but it looked like it wasn't enjoyable to be standing there the entire time. I stayed for the whole game.

Yeah, I stayed for the whole. But, you know, Ari, you couldn't have felt much. Like, you were buckled. No, dude, buckled. Dude, I fucking had three beers during the meet and greet. I went upstairs, met a couple people on the patio outside, got some fresh air. Dude, I hit a wall at the game.

I had like the first drink. I didn't even finish it. But I was going because I went downstairs just to warm up between periods because you needed to. Like my nose was starting to hurt. I thought I was getting frostbite for a second. But no, I warmed up between periods. I stayed until the bitter end. As someone who was buckled, it still hurt.

It still, the coldness very much hurt it was it was very very cold like almost to the point where you're wondering what you're doing but i think like basically the experience for everyone was like all right let's just go grind it out i thought i saw somewhere it was the third coldest sporting event ever played i don't know if that's legit i don't know if somebody made that up at the bar I don't know if that's legit. I don't know if somebody made that up at the bar. I don't know, but I ended up going inside because there was a pretty cool setup upstairs. Like new Amsterdam was involved. We go in, warm up a little bit there, like peppermint schnapps, hot chocolates, crushing those things, probably a thousand calories each, but tasted great. Oh, all right.

The other, the other line that you cracked me up with r.a came bombing into the meat and gravy it was almost like 10 minutes late but he couldn't get into the building it wasn't his fault and he's fucking leaking sweat now mind you it's minus 10 outside i'm like how is somebody sweating so he takes his jacket off and he's getting ready and you know people are coming through the line and the first thing i hear him say is sorry about my back sweat to the person that's giving him a hug oh my god yeah and they were bringing this shirt out and taking uh ra shots i take what are the shots at the bar a sweat oh i take my fucking face cloth in the hotel i use my barry white sweat rag that's an old fat guy you were leaking because i'm dude well you had a layer up for the game so like you're gonna be sweating by the time you walk where you're going.

That's, eh, what are you going to do? Dab the sweat. Do you guys want to talk about the game itself? Like, did you guys, like? Yeah. I thought fucking Cam Talbot, I mean, he got pulled after the second. I thought it was because of his giving up six goals. But, actually, Dean Everson said after the game it wasn't precautionary.

He came out of the game. He wouldn't have taken him out of that hockey game. He's a battler. He gave up six goals on 28 shots, but they said he suffered a lower body injury. Jordan Cairo led the way. There's two goals, two assists. He was probably the player of the game, you'd have to say. Well, going back to Talbot, he was the only reason that they were in it early.

St. Louis came out humming. And it's unfortunate because minnesota hadn't played for what 13 days coming into it and then all of a sudden like i don't want to use like i don't want to say the word distraction like a negative sense it's just you're at home you're dealing with the ticket situation you have your family there you're doing the family skate the day before so a lot more weight than a team that's coming in from from off the road uh but as far as kairu's concerned man this guy keeps raising the bar. I think he had four points in that second period humming around.

They were just really exposing Minnesota. And, you know, just going back to the fact that you're not playing a game, a regular game in 13 days to go into that experience, it looked like they really struggled in those first two periods. But then in that third, you kind of saw them come alive and at least make it a little bit interesting, but definitely some highlight real goals. It looked, it was a, yeah, there was, there was a massive amount of skill on display for sure. Tough to win without Spurgeon and Erickson act too.

Oh, and Brodine. So they going in, they were really behind the eight ball. And I thought the minute that the St. Louis blues strolled out in those outfits that uh it was i mean you look back i mean boston wore them they ended up winning in tahoe so they got uh i mean was there any other boston wore 80s gear it wasn't like going to the beach gear yeah that's true that that was all time and then binnington i guess he bought like 30 lumberjack shirts that was their original plan so like then they ended up switching to the beach attire last minute so he's got a bunch of lumberjack shirts he's trying to give out and uh because you said he had like chicken like chicken soup broth and the hot water bottles too during the game that that's pretty wild stuff i never heard of that i don't know where he got that from that

must be an old trick for the people playing on the ponds but uh definitely a wily veteran move given the circumstances any other players stick out to you guys dude let me tell you something you can text me or tweet me if you disagree if If you were at this game, I don't know how much you actually remember. It's like going to a Red Sox game. You actually don't remember one play because not only is it minus 10, you're drinking. I don't really remember the game that much. I'm not even joking around. I know Cairo is buzzing around. Our seats were a little bit tough to see. We were down really low. So almost like eye level with the boards. So it was kind of difficult to actually see the ice.

But I think in the end, it was like everyone who was going there was just concentrating on having drinks and staying warm. And I think in the end, like actually watching the game almost became second. I'm not even kidding around. It was that cold. It's the atmosphere, too. And that place looks like a great place to watch a ball game. Oh, yeah.

But it's at the old school Twins logo right up the middle with the guy shaking hands. That's one of those old G American League logos I love. But I would go back to watch a ball game there. I'd say one of the most noticeable things were the St. Louis Blues jerseys. I think that it would be cool if they moved to those permanently. That ivory white with that baby blue. I think it pops nice. I thought the wild was awesome, too.

Yeah, I like the wilds for the outdoor experience, but to move those to all the time. No, in my opinion, I just really liked for, I like St. Louis is making those maybe regulars fans may disagree, but to me, those were some of the classiest jerseys I've seen for a special event. Yeah.

I love how the wild skated out to the rink too, out of that little, like, look like kind of a... Little hut? Yeah, it was a pretty lumber hut. It was pretty cool. It was a great setup. I mean, walking in, too, it was like the fans were going, knock, let's go Wilds chant.

It was a really, really cool atmosphere just to be a part of. And right when you walk in, every outdoor game I've been to, right when you walk in and you first see, like, the arena, the rink and how it's set up and how it looks. It was a cool moment. I got a cool video of that. So in the end, I mean, an amazing experience and a wonderful trip for us. No doubt. The sellout crowd is 38,619. The temperature is negative 5.7 Fahrenheit,

the coldest NHL game ever. And the Chicklets boys were there for it. As far as who impressed me, we got to mention Caprizoff. He got a goal. He scored his 40th goal for the Minnesota franchise in 86 games played. It's the fastest in team history, besting Brian Ralston's 40 in 90 games. Let's see, Biz, we're going to talk about the stash on TNT. I was with you Friday. Didn't even think that you had a stash going,

and the next day you show up looking like Freddie Mercury. I was scruffy and I figured out the outdoor game. Might as well just look like a complete donkey on national television. I was going to ask you guys, was it was it about 50 50 as far as attendance like St. Louis Blues fans to Minnesota fans? No, dude. Oh, it wasn't. Oh, 70 30.

Oh, was it? OK. I just felt that when we were walking around the town, that there was a lot of St. Louis people. Oh, there definitely was, but not close to how many Wild fans were there. Yeah, but as far as a TNT broadcast, it was a great time. Me and Wayne ended up sitting down between the second, the first intermission and second intermission

and doing like a little Q&A on the Bleacher Report app. And yeah, other than that, some funny some funny moments, but yeah, it was, it was a great game boys and a fun game to call. Did you ask Bettman if he drinks during the games? He looked like he had a glaze on during that post game. And he had a nice tan. I don't know where he's living these days, but he had a nice tan going and including with the scrub. He says, he says wife doesn't like the scrub.

And then I asked the bill check question cause he's been,'s been swatting it away i asked what his new year's resolution was and you know uh no surprise that he's like i just want this fucking league to get back going again this this virus to go away because it's been a it's been a log jam with the games i'm still uh i'm a little pessimistic to to think that they're going to be able to squeeze in all 82 by the time that they thought they were going to when the regular season was supposed to end. All I'll say on that is if they don't get 82 games in, it's the most embarrassing, pathetic thing I've ever seen. That's what I'll say that with. Well, you guys want to jump the World Juniors?

That's even fucking worse. Oh my God, I can't wait to talk about that. Fucking joke. That's a fucking joke. Poor kids that fucking joke that's a fucking kids let me tell you guys something at home playing in the world juniors is one of the most legendary memorable events of my life people that get to play in those games usually start thinking about the chance and the dream of doing it around like 11 or 12 i'll say that 80 to 90%,

even though the tournament is stacked with the best players in the world, let's say 80% of the kids who play in the tournament, it'll be the highest level hockey they ever play. And to go out and cancel it the way they did. And first off, if it's going to be in Canada, which is ridiculous right now, it was planned in advance of being Canada.

Okay, they had no game plan whatsoever. I was reading a report today in red deer there was zero the hotel was packed the restaurants the gift shops and if you're going to do that you got to understand there's going to be positive tests instead there was four or five positives they call the whole event all these kids dreams crushed um the only good thing that happened out of the cancellation is getting to hear about the Russians' trip home, getting kicked off the plane, and getting the Czech team kicked off too because they just thought they were with them.

They were like, no, no, we're not smoking cigarettes and vaping. I think it was Sergei Zubov who was vaping at the front of the plane, wouldn't stop. So just an awful situation to cancel that tournament. And I've been reading possibly it'll go on this summer, but it's just amazing to see it go down the way it did and that first United States forfeit. And it's just crazy.

I guess what was bizarre was the fact that the rules were so strict, but yet they had them in hotels with the general public as well as other teams. That's what I couldn't wrap I couldn't wrap my head around. All right. Yeah. I, I, not, I can't wrap my head around any of this anymore. Paul, like I don't get it. Like I don't, I don't get why, why they had to cancel it. Why the NHL isn't doing what the NBA is doing. I'm, I'm fucking out of answers, man. We've been doing this for like two years now. I don't understand why, if you're supposed to isolate these kids why around other people or even you know if you get tested you might fucking test

different an hour later i'm i'm just i'm like so fucking sick of talking about it but going back to it with the idea of a 17 year old kid sparking up a fucking dot like kelly leak in the bad news beers like in 2022 on a delta flight that's more preposterous than bringing a Python on a fucking plane in this day and age. Hey, Hey, by the way, by the way,

you, you, you don't like a cat next to you in the gate. Imagine a Marlboro light lit in your face. I can rather that. Well, dude, they said one of the coaches,

he was playing Russian rock off his phone, but he had no headphones on. He was just blaring his fucking iPhone tunes. That's the most annoying thing ever, but let alone it's fucking boring. So I think Team Finland was on the flight too, and they ended up having to delay it, but they let them, all those guys, back on,

and they said that they wouldn't have to be delayed until the next day. Yeah, and they felt so bad about Czech that they ended up getting them the hotel, getting them the exact same flight the next day, because they basically got roped in with the Russians, right. I mean, they have the colors are like somewhat similar. Right. If they're wearing the jumpsuits, who knows how it went down. But if I'm a kid from Czech who's reading a book, listening to a mental like a like a positive attitude podcast and I'm getting dragged off the flight because some kid in the KHL is drinking vodka and smoking a cigar in the bathroom. Because some kid in the KHL is drinking vodka and smoking a cigar in the bathroom.

I'm furious. I would pay large money to see this whole surveillance of all the antics. I'm surprised nobody started videoing it and the clips haven't gone viral. Yeah, we get the fucking cat sucking the girl's tit, but we can't see the fucking Russians blowing Marlboros and Team Czech Republic's yap. Come on, meow. Putin rounded them all up already. This is not the first time that Team Russia has had issues flying home from the tournament. I think the year they ended up winning the gold medal,

they were even worse. It was an absolute shit show. They got kicked off that flight. So they just, yeah, they don't really like rules over there. Oh, God, no. Do you think this was their rebuttal for for uh for double ihf and honestly it could have been they could have been like this is such a joke we're just gonna make a mockery of this airline i i have no idea i wish i could get in the minds of these kids

like imagine zubov's like guys get in the back of that plane bananas they're like oh yes i i know i told you to leave it all on the ice, but I want you to leave it all on this airline. Part of my world juniors, too, I was... So the forfeits started happening. I was so mad. I was like, this is just so pathetic. And then I started thinking,

if this tournament actually continues to get played, which I think I thought it would, I started saying, there's no chance Canada's going to have to forfeit a game either. There's not going to be one fucking time Canada test positive. It's in Canada. They're going to get away with never forfeiting a game. So at least that whole thing didn't end up having to go down. And the United States are still defending champs.

We're the world junior. Oh, here we go. It'll be four years running before they play that tournament again. If it's supposed to be in Canada again next year. It'll be four years running before they play that tournament again, if it's supposed to be in Canada again next year. Chris Pete, he tweeted that the IIHF's Luke Tadif said that they're not going to give up. They're going to hope to have it at a later date. They haven't ruled out having it perhaps in June, July, August.

But that's, you know, very much down the line in TBD at this point. All right. That's not the only guys voicing their opinion on the cancellation of things. So Anthony Duclair, and I want to say David Perron were two of the guys in Quebec. They did a mandatory shutdown. You couldn't be out of your house at past 10 PM. And at the outdoor rinks, they locked the nets together. So nobody could go play hockey, which is another fucking joke.

Cause you can keep fast food restaurants open, but you can't go do any type of activity outdoors. Like, give me a fucking break, man. This is like north of the border. It's just gotten a little bit squirrely. And a lot more people that I consider very level-headed are starting to voice their opinion. Fortunately, guys, I'm in the States right now. I know I'd be going a little bit crazy, especially with the mental health aspect of this. And I'm sure a lot of people are going through again.

So let's just hope it turns over quick. But I think that Quebec has gone even more extreme than the other provinces. And shout out to Duclair and Perron for stepping up and saying something. Yeah, like I said, when I was up there a couple weeks ago, Paul, it seemed to be across, not that I was asking people their politics, but it just seemed to be across the board. People just overwhelmingly frustrated with it with everything regardless of which which way they might lean so i don't know hopefully they can clean up uh

at some point because canada can't be killing hockey like this one part i forgot to mention about uh the outdoor game was after we finished the broadcast as we went back to the hotel to grab a little bite to eat and a few pops in the lobby. And all of a sudden, this guy, a big, massive guy with a cowboy hat walks in. And I think it was Wayne who recognized him. He goes, I think that's Brock Lesnar. And he said, hello, ended up coming to sit down. We spent about two hours with him having drinks and shooting the shit. I had no idea that Brock Lesnar actually bought property in Saskatchewan. He actually lives in Saskatchewan now. So he just kind of commutes. He ends up driving over the border about two hours away and that's where he travels out of and flies out of. So a great guy, very, you know, very interesting. And he's still going.

He talked about the, cause I was like, how are you not banged up and how are you still wrestling at this age? And he said about 13 years ago, he, he got this trainer and he just kind of changed his whole life as far as eating habits and the way he trains. And I think that he says that he could probably wrestle at a high level for another three, four years. And I think and actually that night in Atlanta, he won back the belt. So he's now defending champion of the WWE. And I believe it's is it considered the heavyweight division? Is that how they break them up in wrestling?

All right. You're asking the wrong guy. I don't know. I tapped on the belt, but like five years ago. Yeah. I knew he was winning it. That was like the girl with the cat in the plane. By the way, if Gretzky recognizes you,

that's one of the sickest things I've ever heard. Like Gretzky was the one that's like, that's Brock Lesnar. Yeah. I think he's a, I think he's a wrestling fan. He pointed him him right out i had i i did a quick turn and just looked and i didn't recognize him right away but it was probably because he had a cowboy hat on that was covering like the top of his head but uh yeah no he was a great guy i know he's known as a bit of a heel and he has he has to have kind of this asshole persona as far as his character but he was the complete opposite he actually he actually exchanged numbers with me and i got a text the next day like hey let's keep

in touch man i'm like okay fucking hey i'll let you choke slam me through i'll let you choke slam me through a table for content let's do it all right we got a couple other olympic notes here but first we do want to let you know that it's a new year but that doesn't mean everything has to be new or you got to have a resolution for it. So if you were digging pink Whitney back in 2021, we'll keep whacking them back in 2022 and stop by your favorite local joint, order up some pink Whitney there as well. And guys,

it was great to see some of the gallo folks this weekend with pink Whitney. We've been pimping the product for a couple of years now at a meet and greet with, I know you bumped into a few old friends there, right? Yup. It was amazing. All right. We finally got to see Nate, our buddy at new Amsterdam. He is now at a meet and greet with, I know you bumped into a few old friends there, right? Yup. Uh, it was amazing. All right.

We finally got to see Nate, our buddy at new Amsterdam. He's been an enormous part of this entire thing since the very beginning, a great guy. And it was cool because the, the way the line works for the pictures we did with all the, the fans at the meet and greet, we had the,

the pink Whitney, uh, shot, the shots, the shots. So everyone's crushing a shot. Grinnelli did about 300 of them. And we got to hang out with a bunch of old friends, Nate included.

So thank you for coming out and keep crushing the pink wit. Yep, absolutely. Lots of that flowing last weekend. The United States announced the women's Olympic hockey team as the team looks to go back-to-back. After the second period at the Winter Classic the other night, the 23-player roster was unveiled. Hillary Knight is back for her fourth Olympics.

Kendall Coyle Schofield back for her third. And a pair of Pink Whitney Cup alums are back as well. Amanda Kessel at her third Olympics. Megan Keller back for her second. Good luck, ladies. Also, Maddie Rooney, Nicole Hensley, and Alex Cavallini are the three goalies. They're going to be back in the cage as well. Of course, the U.S. won gold back in 2018

with a 3-2 shootout win over Canada. And again, one of the best rivalries in the sport, U.S.-Canada, looking forward to getting that going. Biz, maybe you guys get a win. What do you got? Could I just jump in real quick? Just you saying those girls' names from the Pink Whitney Cup just reminded me how bad that they were chirping me.

These girls can throw the chirps around. That whole game, Amanda kessel up and down the ice just giving it to me in my ear so and especially with usa canada they hate each other so much i'd love to hear these girls mic oh i would love to hear them mic'd up and and that uh that decker i've met her before she was on that that swing with all the ladies when they played down in arizona and apparently she's a little bit chippy too so i think they they should – they probably wouldn't allow it at a double IHF event, but they definitely got to do it down the road and fucking allow these girls to get the chirps flying.

I can't wait. I mean, the fact that we pretty much know they're going to meet in the gold medal game, although I guess they could end up meeting in the semis depending on, I don't know, how the divisions or how that works in the Olympics. But when they play each other, it is no joke. Can't wait. Well, it's not so often the hockey world generally agrees with Brad Machon,

but they did with his tweet about the Olympic lack of participation, I guess we'll call it for the men. His tweet, the NHL and NHLPA can change the rules of the CBA to add a taxi squad so that they don't miss any games and they don't lose any money, which has already been agreed upon that the players will pay back in escrow until the owners are made whole from what they have lost during this pandemic, regardless of how many games are missed. Yet they can't do a taxi squad during the Olympics so they can honor the agreement they made so NHL players can go. Please tell me that's not bullshit. And for all of you out there want to

pipe back about forfeiting pay while being gone, yeah, not a problem. Let the players make their choice. Again, I'm bringing this up again because it's Marchand and again, he's not the most liked guy in the league, but everybody agreed with him. Vladimir Tarasenko, he chimed in as well, basically saying, yeah, it's kind of bullshit. And he was saying that you'd be surprised how many guys actually would have

gone. So, I mean, we could probably put this story to bed soon, Biz, but you know, it was a noteworthy thing from a pretty prominent player. Go ahead. You seem cocked and loaded. No, I mean, we could probably put this story to bed soon biz, but you know, it was a noteworthy thing from a pretty prominent player. Go ahead where you seem cocked and loaded. No, I just, I understand completely where he's coming from, but what's interesting is as many people who agreed with him and in the end, I do too. I'll say this, you know, who wouldn't have agreed with them is Bruins fans, because if you look at it,

say him Bergeron and, Pasta and McAvoy left. The Bruins have four of the best players in the league, not in the lineup. They got taxi squad guys replacing them. No chance they make the playoffs. They're already barely there right now. So, yes, you were playing for your country, which in the end is something that everyone dreams of doing. Like we mentioned with the World Juniors, Olympics is even beyond that. Best on best. Yes, I'm all on board on wanting to play for your country.

But there would have been Bruins fans furious. And you could say right now everyone agrees with them. But when you go and you're gone 26 days and your team goes two and eight, it's like, I don't know, it would have been a lot different. Had guys decided to completely bail on teams and they kept playing yeah so i think everybody's well aware of my opinion on this i've kind of spoke more to like just keeping the nhl up and running because of what happened last year um i might sound hypocritical in defending marshawn what he said my my whole idea of it all changes completely. If my, if I was in his shoes,

given what I've done for that franchise and the value of the team. So the whole like having to eat it and essentially pay for the taxi squad in order to keep going. Like I would say Marshawn easily in his tenure as a Boston Bruin has probably added solely himself, at least a hundred million dollars worth of value to that franchise, if not more. Would you not agree?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh, here we go. I knew you were going to fucking argue with me. Let's go. You're telling me for what he's done over the last, what, how long has he been with the team? 13 years? He's helped won them a Stanley Cup.

I think it's impossible to put. I think it's just impossible to. Yeah, it is if you don't use your brain how do you figure you don't give me a monet they give me a monetary reason for why it's 100 million because why do the amount of playoff races they've been through and the amount of tickets they've sold because of that because their team's been relevant this has been one of the best lines in hockey for a very very long time pasta not included in the fact that how long he's been there but he's also been there for what five five to six years making an impact so these guys are the ones who are selling out the building every night these are the guys who

are getting the playoff tickets sold because they're making playoffs i guarantee you each game that that uh each playoff game in boston's probably bringing in million. And they've been relevant for as long as they have because he's been one of the most reliable players over the last 10 to 15 years. So, yes, I think look at the franchise values and how much they've escalated in the time. Am I saying that it's solely just him? No, but he's been their most reliable forward.

I would put it even on top of Bergeron. No. Okay, so... Why are you laughing, G? Because I fucked up the name? You can't say Bergeron's name, Biz, ever. Bergeron, yeah, I always fucked that one up. I always think of Bergeron. You have Bergeron in your mind sometimes, so I don't really

blame you. I pronounce Bergeron. Those two together, and like Chara, yeah, I guess if you group that core that had that 10 year, like magnificent, successful run, two cup finals, a cup winner, three cup finals, one win. I just think when you said just him, I, I, my head exploded. But if you want to talk about three or four guys being worth a hundred to 150 million over the course of the last 10 years, I'll agree with you. I would say, I would say,

I would say you could separate them, and each of them have added that much in value. Go back probably 12 to 15. But without them all together, that's fair. But he's one of the top players in the league and has been for a long time. So to think that he hasn't – buddy, look at the – here, I'll give you another prime example. And this is obviously a different spectrum.

Connor McDavid, look at the franchise. They got a new rink basically because they got him as first overall. Look what he's done. So for those guys to say, Oh, now we got to cover the taxi squad. If we want to get over there. And there he is still saying, fine, I'll fucking pay for it. And on top of that, Marsha has been playing at a discount. So if I'm putting myself in Marsha's shoes,

everything that he said, he has complete right to say it. Although I've said everything from the ownership slash league standpoint leading up to this point about I understand why they didn't end up going to the Olympics. I understand why they had to put their foot down. They knew it was going to be a gong show over there and that it would probably end up dragging out

where they wouldn't have access to these players. But for these players, the ones who lace them up and the ones that the fans come to watch, I think that him saying what he said, he has a big time point. Any of those guys, if they want to feel like that, they have every right to. And then the fact that they have to cover the the cost of the taxi squad against yeah that that's another that's another one that that in my opinion is bullshit i think that the players have done a lot of bending in order to make everything work including having lining the the owner's pockets with even more money i think that he had a his tweet where he i think he hit it out of the fucking park um i think yeah i mean mcdavid's certainly a little bit of a different

circumstance and i believe that rink was already planned to be built sure they got fair enough but but yes i mean that he's changed the entire organization now let me ask you a question do you know how much that the edmonton oilers pull in for a home game probably two million a game 2.7 yeah i mean so we can talk about them later. Oh, fuck. Sorry. Yeah, I know we got off the rails a little bit, but I... Oh, John Cooper.

That's who I wanted to bring up. John Cooper, same thing. Kind of heartbroken. He had the chance to coach Team Canada, something that, you know, he mentioned, who knows in four years if we go, if I'm still the head coach. There's so many things that can happen.

So clearly there was guys who were just so upset about the Olympics being canceled. four years if we go if I'm still the head coach there's so many things that can happen so clearly there was guys who were just so upset about the Olympics being canceled and the way Marshawn did explain it all it certainly was hard to kind of disagree with him all I was thinking about was in terms of fans of teams had like four of their best players just gone and the rest of the team stayed it would have been kind of a disaster around the league. Yeah, I think, like I said, the overarching point of what the players were saying, Tarasenko, Marchand, was just let the players decide. It should have been their call from the jump.

That's what they agreed to, and it kind of got taken out of their hands. So let's see. What else? We've got some other stuff here. Oh, I got to squash a rumor. Uh-oh. Going back to Gretzky.

There's been a rumor buzzing around after the passing of john madden rest in peace football legend that uh apparently he had a rule in this this rv that he would cruise around in so john madden was afraid of flying so he would drive an rv to every game that he had to call and there was one rule you couldn't crunch a shit on his uh his rv and there was a rumor came out that wayne gretzky was one of the people that took a shit on his RV. And he was so livid. He's like, guys, I haven't even fucking been on that guy's RV.

So I want to squash the fact that Wayne Gretzky, he did not take a dump on John Madden's bus. And that was a rule. So he did not break the cardinal rule of taking a deuce. Breaking news. Breaking news. And I want credit. We did not break the Cardinal rule of taking a deuce. Breaking news. Breaking news. And I want credit. We did not crunch on that. We want credit.

Right, R.A.? You let him know. We want the fucking credit. Actually, it's funny. There was some big news while we were with Billy Guerin. The next day, it come out that he extended head coach Dean Everson and his full staff. They gave him a multi-year extension while we were in Minnesota,

which obviously well-deserved. His record for the first 99 games he coached there, 62, 30, and 7. You got to chat with him for a brief second, right, Biz? Yeah. Everybody was choking around about the fact that he looks like Creed and how he ended up having to squash that. I guess he called in the team PR guy, and he's like, yeah, yeah, this has been going on a week.

Enough of this. Hey, by the way, if you ever tell somebody that you don't like a nickname, it sticks for life unless you're the head coach to the social media guy. That's the one person who can be like, I don't want to see any more tweets about Creed. But Ari said it best. Once you see Creed next to Evanston, you'll never not see it again. It's wild how close it's like.

I actually started laughing out loud because you could make the argument that it is Creed. He's an actual coach. And the practice facility was cool. We were able to stop by, check out the practice. It's like you went to like a downtown business building. You take an elevator up a couple floors and there's this rink there and they let all the fans in.

It was a pretty cool thing. We talked to a couple guys. We can't mention who yet, but also a couple of the notes we didn't get to boys. We jumped ahead. We did ax thrown what Mark Parrish, a local guy who played for the wild play for the Panthers. Have you guys ever done that before? I nailed my first two shots and then butchered everyone after, man. I don't know what I'd done ax thrown before.

I hadn't done it a lot of fun. The lumberjack in Stillwater, Minnesota. What a beautiful little town. I can only imagine this in the summer on the river or lake. I don't know. It was a body of water, but a very cool spot that actually opened up, I think, like a month before COVID hit, maybe January 2020. So hopefully they're kind of crushing it now. But it was a really fun spot.

And I went with a one-handed throw. The girl, I think it was Sarah. Yeah, Sarah Sarah. She, she, she taught me the two hand, but I ended up going with the right, the right hand, just flinger. And, and, and I mean, listen, it's a lot harder than it looks. I'll say that. It looks pretty easy when guys are humming them in there at the bullseye, but it was fun. And Mark Parrish is a phenomenal guy. Who's been through a lot. I think he was sober last year. He's probably over a year now sober.

We got to actually do a different style interview where we interviewed him while also having a competition with each other, kind of went from a couple of his stories to some of the throws. And I had a blast there. So shout out to Lumberjack. And we mentioned Billy Sushi earlier. We didn't mention who was there with us. Keith Ballard, another local guy who played a bunch of years in the in the league we sat down had a great conversation with him he came to

dinner we had we had a great night with him it ended up being kind of a slobber knocker that night and yes we did talk about the vocoon incident so i can't wait for people to listen to that one uh and also well what you alluded to it earlier ice fishing with ryan cotter the first ever chicklets interview on a frozen lake in an ice fishing hut biz had the pole in the water that was not a euphemism he's literally had a fishing pole in the water but just a unreal experience an unreal day it was like true fable weather it was like hoth out there uh and ryan carter your old teammate went what a fucking what a beauty he is i know yeah i don't i don't think Carter would take offense to this. There's probably a bunch of people, maybe, you know, fringe hockey fans are just not diehard Devils or Ducks fans that don't really

know who he is and don't know about his career. Played a long time, went to the Stanley Cup in Jersey. Some amazing stories. I thought he was a top-notch interview. Goes into some Randy Carlisle bits that everyone will absolutely love. And in the end, I mean, he sat down with us on a cold day and kind of taught us a little bit about ice fishing and also did a great sit-down. So we had a blast. Paul Martin stopped by ice fishing as well. He's helping coach the Gophers right now,

where he ended up going to college and helped out these young bucks. Now, G, we got to thank these people who helped us bring out bring us out ice fishing they set up with all the gear they had the huts ready to go the clam 600 is what we sat in they had the heaters chef donnie was there with us cooking up the fish once we caught it this was like the true outdoorsman experience donnie even grilled us up some crappie after we made some fish tacos yeah people said that we had crushed the entire day, really ice fishing style until they saw us eating fish tacos. They're like, that's not usually part of, you know,

the ice fishing experience, but we made it our own little thing with chef Donnie killing it. Yeah. Unfortunately my stomach was acting up for some reason. I, I, I know if I try to eat one of those, if I'm hung over, it was for some reason. See, I don't know. I must've got a bad piece of fish the night before.

No, seafood and hangovers do not mix whatsoever. But I was kind of bummed out I wasn't able to try them. But I caught the first one of the day, right? Gee, you caught it. The Crappy Chronicles, by the way. If you're on YouTube, check them out. These guys, they have fishing guides. They summertime, wintertime, whatever, all four seasons,

they show you all these little nooks and crannies to catch all the crappies.ies i think they call them crappies and we call them crappies is that is that basically an accent thing i have no clue yeah either way it was it was an awesome day out out on the frozen lake with them uh and we're not bringing them on quite yet but a guy who played hockey in that state tj oshi is our interview today we've been burying seven several leads today we still got a bunch of other news to get to but but we're going to have TJ Oshie teed up for you as well. All right, boys, moving right along. What else we got here? Wait, you mentioned the Oilers. You might as well go

to them. You already said something. They're scuffling right now. They're playing in New York Monday night. Does Whitney need to order up an airing or what? What do they got? Two wins in their last 11 games in regulation? Yep. Currently the second wildcard team. Guys, it's a panic.

It's a little bit of a panic right now. Here's the thing. I'm not like Biz. I'm not going to run away and find a new team, right? I'm going to stick by this team. I'm not going anywhere, but I have to be completely truthful. I am nervous as all shit. I've almost kind of come to grips that I'll have an earring for a month, a Barry Bonds-style cross earring.

The issue being the start was that good. And now I didn't even kind of realize. I checked a bunch of different stuff today and was looking over their season so far. They started off 9-1, right? And things were humming along, and the way that McDavid and Dreitzel were playing was just out of this world. Now, they're still playing great.

They're not exactly what they were the first 10 games, but these guys are not the issue. We'll make that immediately clear. I think every Edmonton Oilers fan in the world knows that, but they were just that on fire. The power play was completely wrecking other teams, and they were flying around. Now, the schedule was a little bit easy. They had a lot of home games early.

Since then, they're 9-13 in their last 22. So you're looking at an under-500 team through the course of almost like a couple months, it seems. You know, six weeks, say. And if I'm looking at the bright side of things, it's like they lost Nurse. They lost Slater Cuckoo. They lost Duncan Keith to the entire left side of the defense. They lost Cody Cece for a while on the right side. Now guys have come back a little bit, but at some point they were without everyone. So that was a really hard

thing to get through. Goaltending is an absolute disaster, which everyone kind of talked about going into the season. Mike Smith's an older guy and he's had some great years, right? He's been an amazing pro. He's had some phenomenal success under Tippett since he's been back. He's got five games. He's under 900 save percentage. He's just beneath four goals against. So it's like they have to do something. Now, the immediate thing that all these Oilers fans are talking about,

and I cannot say I agree with them right now, is they want a coaching change and they want to get somebody else in there, which, right, if you see somebody else in there, which right. If you see Bruce, there it is in Vancouver. It's kind of hard to argue against that, but, but the Oilers have had about 14 coaches in the last 10 years. I exaggerate, but it's like at some point, I don't know if you continue to switch coaches and change coaches that if

it's going to do anything, like they've tried this so many different times. And the fact of the matter is they don't have a goaltender. Their defense is thin. And the depth of the third and fourth lines is not great. So when you don't beat teams with your power play and you don't beat teams with McDavid and Dreitzel combining for seven points in a game, it's really hard for them to win.

Now, the thing is that's scary, right? Nuge has a long-term deal. Hyman, they just signed this summer. And if you look at them actually missing the playoffs in Connor McDavid's seventh year, that is beyond a disaster. That is possibly like McDavid saying, and I'm saying this on my own, I've never heard this,

that is possibly him being like, I can't do this anymore. Would you blame him? I don't know. Like, it's pretty, it's pretty ridiculous at this point, considering they look the exact same way as they have years prior when everyone's talked about all their weaknesses as they continue to be there. So I was all confident with the start and I'm an Oilers fan. I'm still confident. I'm wavering a little bit. I was also confident with the bet because I didn't think Calgary could

keep this up. Not thinking they have Markstrom, who's just a top end goalie playing out of his mind with a team that's probably a little bit faster in the end. Besides those two guys, Calgary can play, dude. They're a quick team. Goudreau's having what looks like it could be a career year minus the 99 point season. And the Oilers right now, they play New York tonight. This is Monday night. It's going to be a big one tonight. And they play Toronto Wednesday.

I mean, good luck against Toronto. I mean, they got to win this game. Georgie has playing not just Durkin. So I'm just I'm just at the point where it's gone on long enough where things continue to be the exact same throughout each year where they come out guns a blazing

and then things kind of start falling apart and then hopefully they get in the playoffs. do they have the depth so what happens to happen to in my mind it's not a coaching change right now put put away the babcock rumors because ken holland will bring them back get rid of that and make some deals you cannot miss the playoffs in year seven of mcdavid you got to get some goaltending help you got to get some defensive help and you got to get some depth up front and then maybe things can switch around. The Anaheim Ducks are looking phenomenal. I thought they'd have some guys to trade looking at campus Lindholm and Josh Manson on D UFA as well. Fuck, they're ahead of the Oilers in the standings in the Pacific. So are

they going to be selling guys? I don't think so. It's just a scary time to be my left ear in the end. It is. I feel bad for this guy. Hey, can we get a little round of applause here for that breakdown on the Oilers? Holy cow. I'm still an Oiler guy, though. Come on, Oilers. So, Witt, I don't see Ken Holland firing Tippett halfway through the season. Not this year.

No, because I think it's last year of Tippett's deal anyway, and he'll give them a chance to figure it out. And I would imagine, given the roster, that they're going to be in it to the end, even if they do end up missing playoffs. Goaltending, I mean, you hit it in the head. I was just concerned early in the season, and we all know this. There's so many fucking many – there's so many penalties called in the first 20 games,

not at the pace that ends up happening the rest of the year in playoffs. And we saw how not only hot that power play was, but then all of a sudden you're not going to get as many of them. And ever since that's dropped off and the power plays cooled off, now all of a sudden you see a below 500 team. So I completely agree with everything you said. They got to probably look to make a move you mentioned nuge he's probably the one piece that i think that that is significant that another team would want given with what they gave him now mind you does he have a no move clause

like does he have a no trade i don't think you get rid of nude i well who else are you going to trade to get anything remotely relevant in order to help your roster prospect ah man i don't think shard i mean yeah i i if you bring okay so if you trade news you get a top end defenseman i don't even know off the top my mind who that would be maybe but it's like you just sign the guy really so it's it's it's put it this way the game the past two games and now you're listening to tuesday so before the Rangers game, they had the Devils. They took a big, they took a lead. They ended up blowing it. They lose that game in overtime.

Hughes shot the puck directly into Mike Smith's stomach. It somehow went in. The Islanders game on Sunday, was it? Saturday was the most disgusting effort. The third period, dude, in kind of like not a must win, but like, let's get going here, Oilers. They didn't get a shot in the third period until there was like six minutes left in the game. So it's just the craziest and scariest part.

If I'm a real diehard Oilers fan, which I am, but I'm talking about guys that live like in Leduc that are just like living and dying with every single face off. McDavid looks so disgusted on the bench sometimes. Like, the look of just like, oh, my God, is this happening again? That's what's scary. Well, what he's disgusted about is the fact that they're going to be battling for a playoff position, and Tip's going to have to play him fucking 28

to 30 minutes as a centerman, and he's going to be worn out, so he won't even be able to do what he can do in playoffs. The same thing happened last year. They're too one dimensional. And that's what I mentioned earlier in the season. I think what went through fucking 10 games, if not 15 games, they were close to 50% of the power play. It's just, that's not how you're going to win game.

They pay, they play too much for power plays and take advantage of that. So this is a, this is ugly. And I'm very happy about my bet. Looking back. Nuge has a no move clause for the rest of the contract, which has a one, two, three, four, seven more years left on it.

And listen, if I'm an Oilers fan, I'm looking at the Chicago Blackhawks in the standings. I'm seeing their 12 points back of the wild card, probably not getting in. It'd be crazy if they're not going to unload Marc-Andre Flory somewhere, get something for him. If they're not going to make the playoffs,

he's a pending UFA. That move, it seems like the most obvious move in the universe. But if you're fucking the Edmonton Oilersers you got to do what you got to do to make that happen biz i think i would fucking love to see that where did you pull that one out of our right i think it's just doing the obvious math i mean this guy's of you know world-class goalie he's won stanley cups he's been in the throws of the playoffs he's going to be an unrestricted free agent chicago they're already way back of the wild card right now i don't assume i don't think they're going to get better uh in the interim so

man i mean he's unrestricted you could probably cost you draft picks i don't that would be a a very good move for um for chicago considering they got him for basically nothing did they didn't they get him for nothing yeah future considerations which was which was nothing so yeah if they can turn that into an asset what would you what would you pay for him right now, given the desperation? Would you give up a first-rounder for Marc-Andre Fleury? I'd probably make a better gas station attendant than GM. I'm so bad at stuff like this. You don't even know how to pump gas.

No, I would. What? You don't even know how to pump gas. That's true. That's true. That's why I said I'd probably make a better gas station attendant. I think that thanks for explaining the joke, though. I think that in the end, you can't go much more than like a third or second round.

You can't give a first rounder up for a guy that might be there for 10 games if they miss the playoffs. If they miss the playoffs, I think that the ownership group will clean house. Yeah, I don't. i can't i can't even imagine this season with what they did in the offseason them missing this year i don't even know where you'd go yeah i think they would have to clean house in order to to keep to keep connor around for at least one more year that would be hey that would make clean house it's like that would that would be like antonio brown type drama maybe he'll just fucking peace out in the midst of a game at one time this season just saying i've had enough you

guys can get flurry you can use me as bait all of a sudden he's on a flight over to china he somehow is playing in the olympics the only guy from the league he'd still win the gold for them we'd already dropped the bruce there it is for us. Well, Vancouver reeled off seven straight under Bruce Boudreaux. He tied the NHL record for the most wins in a row, starting with a new team. So kudos to Bruce for that. His eighth game was a shootout loss to LA.

Vancouver come back, won the next game. So they've got 17 out of 18 points under Boudreaux so far. Just two points back of the wildcard. JT Mill has been an absolute monster for this team. There's 11 goals, 25 assists, 36 points in 34 games. This kid, I don't think people are talking about how much he's been

fucking outstanding for this team this year other than you, Biz. I was looking like an intelligent hockey mind again after saying that they shouldn't have traded for him. Now he's going to fucking single-handedly put the team on his back and lead him in a playoffs for Christ's sake. He's done this to you like three times. Yeah, he's just playing with my emotions for crying out loud.

But I will say, I think that if they are on the cusp, that that would be a great guy to trade to a cup contender in order to get a pretty big return. So I don't know, man, but with the way they've been playing man they're fucking rolling right now and that's all it takes sometimes as a coach to come in there loosen things up i know we mentioned on a couple podcasts prior to this but even after dropping that shootout loss to la they ended up getting right back in the wind column against seattle and already um to move away from the hot to move away what were you gonna say i wasA., to move away from the hockey side of it,

there was a pretty cool story that we can talk about regarding the Seattle Kraken and Vancouver Canucks. And this is dating back to the first game of the season in Seattle. And, R.A., I'll let you take it over. Yeah, really nice story, hot woman story. Seattle fan Nadia Popovich, she went to a game back in October versus Vancouver, and she's going to be going to medical school. She's volunteered at a bunch of clinics and stuff,

and she noticed a mole on Vancouver's assistant equipment manager, Brian Hamilton. They call him Red. She saw a mole on his neck, so she was getting his attention during the game and kept banging on the glass and held the phone to the glass and said, the mole on the back of your neck is possibly cancerous please go see a doctor and she kind of highlighted the words mole cancer and doctor to you know really get his attention you know he was kind of

like this is kind of odd it's not a normal thing to happen on a hockey bench but he checked with a significant other after the game then the team doctor team doctor said yeah that needs to get looked at he got a biopsy done and showed it was cancerous type two malignant melanoma. But because it was detected so early by Nadia, it was able to be removed and treated. So he didn't know who it was. So he went he went out, set up to find who his hero was. He posted a letter to Vancouver's Twitter. I said, I want you all to know this isn't about me.

It's about an incredible person taking the time to notice something concerning and then finding a way to point it out during the chaos of a hockey game. It took less than three hours before they found Nadia. And then they brought it to the next game. They chipped in $10,000. Vancouver and Seattle did tour her medical school. Hamilton said she extended my life. I've got a wonderful family.

I've got a wonderful daughter. She extended my life. She saved my life. She didn't take me out of a burning car like a big story, but she took me out of a slow fire. She's a hero. Just an incredible story, man. This woman sees this guy with a dangerous situation. If you don't know about moles, man, you got to keep an eye on them and ends up saving this guy's life. Just a terrific hot woman story. And it's not often you see cancer and hot woman in the same sentence, but that certainly applies here big so already in the new year one of the best

hockey stories you'll hear folks and and red i don't know if he was um he helped out with the away locker room but i'd met him plenty of times an unbelievable guy and you know you just get to know all these guys who worked hard behind the scenes and uh very very awesome story about the fact that he was able to to find that out and then act on it. Yeah, looking out for a stranger like that, what a move by that woman. And also, like, timing is just everything in life. Like, what if he had, like, a jacket up over, you know, if he had a jacket up over his neck that day?

It's just so wild to think of had he never seen that, had no one ever taken a look. So awesome story. And you know it's a great story when kind of hockey's involved and it had gone completely viral like good morning america's talking about and stuff it was great to see yeah and as a guy who's like high risk for this shit as you get older man you do get more moles and freckles and like a lot of them are just naturally occurring but you got to keep an eye on them visit your dermatologist if you have

insurance don't be shy just go they give you a full body scan and you know because it could be something that looks innocuous that actually turns out to be harmful. But if, like, in this case, you catch it early, you can save yourself because skin cancer is a nasty motherfucker once it gets in there. So I go every say, you know, six to eight months. And even the dermatologist said, hey, you don't really need to come this much. I said, hey, listen, I'm outside in the sun golfing all the time insurance pays for it she goes that's great she goes it's already great you came in and like you said already the crazy thing is it could be something you don't even notice and so definitely make sure you're seeing a dermatologist at least once a year yeah no doubt i'm a son of donnie gold man i can't afford to be in the sun too much that's

why i'm always pasty all the time uh Oh, nice. The Oilers just got a penalty 10 seconds into the game. Oh, wah, wah. Let's see. Max, Pat, you ready? Vegas stud. He's going to be out indefinitely after undergoing wrist surgery. Pete DeBoer said it's long-term, week-to-week. He's not going to be an option for at least a month.

He was the second star of December for the NHL, had 16 points in 12 games. Meanwhile, Mark Stone and Robin Leonard are still day-to-day. Former Vegas Golden Knight Alex Tuck made his debut at Buffalo last Wednesday. He had an assist in his first game. He's got three points already in three games. Great to see him back in the lineup. And he's genuinely what I'd say like a Buffalo fan.

He's really happy to be there, really wants to contribute to this team. Everybody's been raving about what he brings to the team is positivity. It's great to see him get back out there finally. It's awesome. I think he's going to be an amazing player for Buffalo. We talked last week about how kind of excited he was going there. And I think you're looking at a guy who could be like a point per game player for Buffalo in the next few years. He skates so well. And if you've never heard our interview with him, go back and listen. And he talks about how he really learned to skate a new way. Skating improved immensely. I think he was with a woman.

I don't remember her name, who really taught him how to skate, gave him the biggest weapon in his game now. So he looked great in the games I saw him play so far. And going back to Vegas, they are atop of the Pacific Division, which is the worst division in the league. But still, they have done it with guys out all year. They haven't had their team healthy, I don't think, once. And now Pacioretty, who came back guns a-blazing,

was running through the league. He unfortunately gets hurt again, but Ike will be back in February. Look out. If this team can get healthy and stay healthy, could easily go to the Stanley Cup final. They are very good, and in the end, the rest might end up helping them. Now, R.A., the fact that Pacioretty is out and he's on long-term IR,

is it going to end up being a situation much like Tampa, where I think when they acquired Eichel, they were going to have to figure out their cap situation because they were going to be over. But now, with this injury and the fact that it's long-term IR, I think that they're going to be okay, right? Actually, I'm looking right now because when I put the outline together last night, he hadn't been placed on LTIA yet, but they must have done it today.

So, yeah, they're basically going to put his money away. They'll be able to probably bring Jack up. Let's see. Yeah, they got over $10 million in space right now on long-term injured reserves, so they can bring Jack up whenever he's ready. And then once the playoffs come, just do the old Nikita Kucherov sting from the Raptors drop in for the playoffs. Oh yeah.

I think I, I was reading that patch already could only be like five weeks, which is actually kind of when Eichel could come back. So maybe patch ready is actually two months, three months and they won't have to do something, but I don't think it's, it's out for the year in terms of like, they won't have to make some sort of deal to get under the cap.

Actually, I take it. He's on. I take that back. There's not LTI. He's only on. They put him on it today. So it's not long enough. I don't think.

Oh, okay. Yeah. But I'm sure they'll figure something out. Somebody might get a little Vegas flu in between now and then. And like the Celtics used to do us when we get there. All right. A couple more notes for you before we slide over to TJ. Oh, she,

Florida Sam Bennett got a three game suspension for a check to the head of cedric paquette uh i had no problem at all with this with this call biz i mean i mean the head was the principal point of contact i i don't know if he was maliciously meant to do it but the hit happened and i don't have a problem with him getting three games for it yeah i thought it was a little bit heavy i don't know if he's got anything prior but I get what you're saying but there was a turnover he's right in front of the net there the other guy and he puts himself in a vulnerable situation and yeah the way the way the other guy was positioned it's like it's like he had to hit that before he ended up hitting making shoulder to chest contact

but the way that they're calling it now I guess it doesn't make any sense for me to argue it, but I thought that three games was too many just on what I saw. I did. Did you see the hit with? Yeah, I thought it would be two. I thought it would be two games just the way it looked and then like to slow down that replay. I thought two. So in the end, three isn't that surprising, but I figured he definitely getting suspended.

No, he plays on. In the end, three isn't that surprising, but I figured he'd definitely get suspended. No. He plays on the edge, that guy. By the way, the Atlantic is so nuts. The fact that in the first round, it's either going to be Tampa versus Florida, Tampa versus Toronto, or Toronto versus Florida. You know what I mean? Two of the three of those teams are playing in the first round.

It's going to be nuts. That's why you got to try to win that division. If you're in the Atlantic makes a huge difference, getting the eighth seed at the seventh seed wild card over playing one of the Florida teams or Toronto. I think same goes for the central too. It's like, you've got to get that first spot.

Cause it's just going to be a battle getting out of the first round. The two and three seeds are nasty. Get me horny for the playoffs already boys uh alexander alexander ovechkin set the all-time power play goal record he passed uh dave andrew chuck friday night in detroit with his 275th power play goal now is 754 total he's 12 behind yaray Yaga for third all-time, and he passed Johnny Busick for 25th all-time in points. And we talked to one of his teammates recently, and we're going to send you over to that now, boys. Any final notes you want to add? No.

Great segue. Quickly, Ovi, 275 power play goals is such a sick joke. I think he's going to break Gretzky's all-time record, but until he does, I'll say this. That record of power play goals, and he's not even close to being done, will never be touched. Same with the goals once he breaks that. But this one, closest current player to him, I think, is Stamkos,

who's down 100. Fucking Rangers won nothing. Unbelievable. Jesus Christ. Oh, no. So Stamkos is as close as 100 away Jesus Christ. Oh, no. So Stamkos is as close as 100 away from him. Think about this. If you get 10, if you get double digit power play goals,

that's a hell of a season. You got to get 27 years of those 10, 10, 10 power play goals a year to even come close to this. So just an amazing achievement by an all-time great. And let's go over right now to TJ Oshie. Hold on one sec. Before we send it over to him, we want to let you know that this interview was brought to you by Shopify. Shopify gives entrepreneurs the resources once reserved for big businesses. So upstarts, startups, and established businesses alike can sell everywhere, synchronize online and in-person sales, and effortlessly stay informed.

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Grow your business with Shopify today. Go to shopify.com slash checklists right now. Once again, that is shopify.com slash checklists. And now it's time for TJ Oshie. All right, it's time to bring on our next guest. This right wing was taken 24th overall by St. Louis in the 2005 draft and joined the Blues after three years at North Dakota. After seven seasons in the Midwest, he became a Washington capital and had a huge role in the franchise's first ever Stanley Cup championship in 2018. And at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, he put on a shootout performance for the ages. It's a pleasure to welcome to the Spittin' Chicklets podcast, TJ Oshie. Thanks for joining us, brother.

All right. Thanks for having me, bro. Pleasure, man. You guys are rolling right now, huh? Pleasure, man. You guys are rolling right now, huh? Yeah. I mean, squads, squads finding ways to get, get wins after, you know, everyone in the league seems like guys got injuries or guys are out with COVID protocols. So hats off to a lot of the guys, young guys that stepped in and hats off to the big guns that keep her keeping us rolling. And all of this without Backstrom, which is, I know you guys have become real good buddies

since you became a Capitol. And is he getting ready to come back? Is he just itching for it? Or what's going on with his mental state? He's usually pretty relaxed from what I know. Yeah. You know, Nick is battling back from this injury that he's had.

And you know, you see a lot of guys come back from this injury that he's had. I, and you know, I mean, you, you, you see a lot of guys come back from injuries. I've never seen someone work this hard to, to get back. I mean, he's been, you know, going, going on the road to see a specific, you know, physical therapist, you know, working out six hours a day. He's there a couple hours before we get to the rink and he's he's there an hour after we leave so um hats off to him and you know it's it's it's so great to see him healthy again and skating and back with the boys he probably can't wait to get

back to that pre-game ritual line which by the way every single one of my questions this whole interview will be directed towards this pre-game ritual i got involved in a rabbit hole situation where i've been watching all of them why does uh why when you come out of the locker room does uh does ovechkin sound like a printer what specific noise is he making for you when you come out of the locker room um it kind of started out it's more of like a like just kind of like i don't know what you would call it with your lips kind of like a you know um so i call them i call them oh banger and uh so it became like oh banger and uh so that's kind of our that's kind of our thing going back and forth and i don't know we do it like 10 times

a day it's fun you guys have a bit of uh like a sumo wrestle sometimes like sometimes it's not as intense as the chest to chest but sometimes you'll get pushing you back a little bit yeah it's uh sometimes i mean for me it's borderline violent because he's a he's a monster of a man and uh yeah i've even caught him in the face a couple times with my helmet because my my neck just can't stay back when he hits me so i uh i rebound forward and um yeah i think uh it's been a couple shoulder injuries for me a couple chest injuries but uh it's a fun ritual that we do just battling through through it. What about when guys come to the team? Like, are you letting them decide what's going on in terms of how quick guys

got to figure it out? Because at the beginning, they must just be, like, biz when he had to go first and drills back in the day, just lost and confused. It really depends on, I think, the player. If it's an older guy, you usually work something out before you get going. If it's a young guy, you kind of just figure it out. Like Martin, Marty on our team, I kind of went through the first time

and just gave him a little sack whack, and now that's kind of what we do. We just go back and forth. We want a guy not as violent as Nick and Johnny or Johnny. But I would say that. Yeah. You just you just kind of you just kind of figure it out as you go. You know? Yeah.

They got the original bag tap and they were like, oh, yeah. Yeah. Give it to me. And it's up next thing you know, they're going to have like paddles out there on the ice like in dazed and confused. It's you know what it is it's insane how hard they hit each other in the cup because i'm right there i'm you know they're one two and i'm the third guy out i'm right there and when they do it it's like i think the fans at the end of the tunnel probably hear it with the music on with the music on with the cheer crowd going they can hear the sound of a cup

basically breaking oh my goodness this is good this is good okay we're we'll call it although the last comment i want to say is hathaway seems to have a lot of rhythm coming out he's got a little swagger to him in the line where he he's dabbing up the guys maybe a little smoother than most. I mean, you've seen his hair. The guy is smooth as ever. You know what? I think he might have the best lineup of just different types of routines with the guys, different shakes, different chants, whatever. He's pretty creative when he gets in there,

but I'd say he's probably the smoothest on the team. If we had to dance off. He's an Ivy League guy, Biz. Played at Brown, so he's got the brains up top. No, no, no. Witt, come on. He's a Michigan boy. Garnet Hathaway?

Oh, no. I thought you said Haggy. Oh, I'm sorry, Biz. Did you say Haggy? No. You said Hath? To be quite frank, I said H Haggy. Oh, I'm sorry, Biz. Did you say Haggy? No. You said Hath? To be quite frank, I said Hathaway, but I can't even remember what I said. I was so engaged in what your answer was.

No, we'll be able to rewind. That's probably on me. I'm very forgetful. No, that just means your boy, Hags, is just always on your mind. You were that impressed by him. I'm always thinking about those golden locks. No, Haas is a good one. We have a couple violent ones with him, too.

He's a beast in his own. I mentioned the hot spot. Right now, Toronto is the only team in the league that has more points than you. I know still a lot of pucks left this season, but did you guys maybe feel a little overlooked heading into the season with people's predictions and whatnot? Not really. maybe feel a little overlooked going heading into the season with you know people's predictions and whatnot um not really i mean attention yeah i i don't make a lot of us really pay attention we're not a team that of hockey nerds that's you know checking the stats or watching other teams games

on like a night off you know we we have fun we go to the rink we have fun we snap it around we joke we mess around. When 7-0-7, when the game starts, we turn it on. And when the game's over, it's back to relaxing and having fun and just enjoying being together. It's really a great squad and really fun to be a part of this crew. Also, you know, you've got a big family at home, kids and dogs. And recently, an unreal catch. Was it your daughter as you just completely fell in your front yard?

Dude, I was watching on Instagram. Like, oh my God. Yeah, that was, that was, that was my little guy. That was a tough one. I, I don't know. We have like a gravel driveway and not like the tiny pebbles. Like they're like big big like almost not golf ball but they're big dogs and uh yeah i went down on the on the knee pretty hard um and i was going

to starbucks actually to for the wife to get her you know just to start the day out right get on uh get on the good side and um turns out i uh i had to I think it was the day off too. But I ended up having to go to the rink and get some stitches in the knee. Oh, you were cut that bad? I got split right open. What a loser. Oh, my God. I thought it was just – you hopped up pretty quick.

Yeah. No, it was – a little guy was laughing at me when we were on the ground too, which is the worst part. Yeah. Hey, you just mentioned you're at home i i saw your house is also an architectural digest and you actually did it a couple years back are you are you like really into that like you care about uh what what the you know that's more delegated to the the better half no i i i uh i couldn't be further um from an architectural digest i you know nice things in my house because i'm i'm a little bit of a slob and uh i don't know i guess i just i i don't know you're like can i chug a beer nice house i'm just kind of what i'm used to so

no that's the wife she's she's got a real talent for. That's kind of what I'm used to. So, no, that's the wife. She's got a real talent for it. Not only that, but just fashion in general. And she enjoys it and does a great job. So, yeah, I think it was a big thing and a big accomplishment for her to get us in the house and architectural digest and something. She wears that a little bit as a patch of honor. She put a lot of hard work, a lot of stress, a lot of time into it. And I was just along for the ride,

trying to not not break the bank on the selections. You're like, I'll cover the rentals with all the winnings from the playing card game. Yeah. Well, I actually, I think I'm almost in the plus now for my younger years in St. Louis. You took a, you took a beating early on, just the veterans always teaching the young guys how to play.

Oh, it was rough. Who played? Steiner on that team? Like, did he play in the card game? Yeah, Steiner wasn't in right away. You know who I played with? I played with B.J. Crombie, Kelly Chase. Kelly Chase can count cards. It's not fair.

Basically, at that time, he was like a 30-year veteran of 7-up, 7-down. But no, being there, B.J. Crombie always gave me a hard time because I furnished his living room in like two months, my first two months in the game. But I'm turning it around now. I'm turning it around now. We actually got a pretty solid game on our plane with the big dogs. Yeah, Orp said he couldn't drag you away from the table. He said even one time you had strep throat and you were sick as a dog

and you're like, I'm not giving up my card game spot. There's no chance. Actually, i broke my collarbone in playoffs in uh in uh broke my collarbone like four places and uh on the way on the way back from carolina i i still jumped in the card game just needed someone to deal for me oh hey that's the best part you got a full minute the mouth oh mouth. Hey, dealing's the worst part, so you got out of all the hardship. Yeah, yeah. I'm kind of a – I'm a little bit of a card geek.

Like I like keeping score. You know, I like – I got the bridge shuffle. I try to, you know – I try to make it like you're in a casino when I'm dealing. One other thing that Orp told me, I don't know if this one's true, and you might have had it wrong, you guinness and wine together as a drink um yeah it's not an every time thing but you know when the boys get uh when your collarbone's broken in four spots type thing yeah no when the boys get uh we got a green light um in preseason we stayed over in uh in carolina and uh we had just this kind of mom and pop italian place and um there might have been a couple t-bones flying from table to table and uh yeah

i decided to mix the the wine and the guinness and that's actually kind of where the hollow man the first that's the first time i did the hollow man for the fellas pull the shirt over the head with uh wine oh that's what it's called the hollow man oh i thought it was the ghost man i did the hollow man for the fellas pull the shirt over the head with uh wine and guinness that's what it's called the hollow man oh i thought it was the ghost man i like the hollow man yeah that's the merle special yeah you're just uh you're just a trendsetter when you're getting buckled because you're also the guy who led the boys into the fountain after you guys winning it i know we're fast forwarding here but but you're just uh up to your old antics when you get the booze in you yeah i don't know i get uh i'm a captain coke guy typically so that uh the sugar i think just gets me gets me going and

you know i just can't stop what kind of wine did you mix with the guinness screaming you know i i'm not sure it was in a box it was uh red it was red i'll promise you that it was red and it's actually you should try it one time maybe not your first drink of the night but it's not as bad as you think this could this this is how pink whitney was pretty much invented so i just i just patented it and we're coming out with a canned beverage josh you got 10 of the deal we got a maroon Whitney coming out next. Yeah. Runny bum. R.A. Runny bum. Runny bum sponsors. Well, a lot of people, you know, they think of you with like Warroad and the clothing brand and where you're from in Minnesota.

But you grew up in Everett, Washington. That's true. And how long did you live there before you moved up north in Minnesota? I moved up when I was was 16 so i was there a while um in between my my freshman and sophomore year i moved to minnesota and it was basically because hockey was getting so tough out in everett um my parents split up my mom had me go with her back to her hometown which is like a small dairy farm town. I was the only person in the whole school that had probably ever even skated before,

definitely that played hockey. And so I'd have to travel 45 minutes to my dad. My dad would pick me up, then 45 minutes to the rink. You know, when you're young, those practices are like 9 p.m. And so then you'd have to do it on the way back. I'd get home at like.m. two nights a week and then we had to play in a Canadian league so I had to drive up to Canada every weekend Saturday Sunday to play games so it was it was getting pretty tough and I have some roots on the Oshie side back in Warroad and went out there for a summer camp and I mean, loved it. It was, it was amazing. I went out there a couple of times when I was a kid. And, uh,

so me and my dad ended up making the move. My mom, brother, and sister stay back in Washington and, uh, Minnesota has been home ever since then. How old were you when you realized you were probably head and shoulders above a lot of your peers? When I, when I what? When you were like, realize you're a lot better than most of your peers that you were playing with. It was, I mean, I wasn't much better. I definitely wasn't even maybe top 10 on the team when I got to Warwick.

Those kids just skate like the wind. They grew up with a stick in their hand. I was actually a basketball player growing up. And in ninth grade when i made the the freshman basketball team i told the the coach i was like hey uh just so you know like i play i have hockey practice on monday and thursday nights and then i go to canada on the weekend so i'll just i'll have to miss some games and i think he thought it was a joke so he's like all right well he had just given me my jersey like literally literally gave me, I think it was like number 24, this jersey.

He was like, well, you got to pick between basketball and hockey. And I was like, all right, fine. I literally, I remember I stood up at this little desk in this portal and I just tossed his jersey onto his desk. And then I just walked out, never talked to him again. And so that's when I decided, I was like, all right, I guess I'm just a hockey player now who was your who was your like nba comparative like what would you play like what position um i mean gary payton was my the glove kind of my idol yeah the glove so i was big i had pretty good handles and you know big on on the defense and. And I'm not the biggest guy. So. What about smack talk? Wasn't Gary Payton known for a smack talk?

Yeah, I'm terrible smack talk. I'm the worst, maybe the worst in the entire NHL at smack talk. It's I have no, I have nothing. I don't watch anyone. I don't know who anyone is that I play against. So I can't, I don't got any dirt. I don't look at their lineup. Like if we're matching lines, I don't know who I'm play against. So I can't, I don't got any dirt. I don't look at their lineup. Like if we're matching lines, I don't know who I'm playing against unless they're like one of the big dogs in the league.

I just don't, I don't have time to watch hockey. Let me ask you this, because Whit knew the answer. Do you know every guy, the way they shoot? Could you tell me every guy's curve in the league or at least maybe the guys you play with, every guy in your team? I could tell, yeah, every guy's curve in the league, or at least maybe the guys you play with every guy on your team. I could tell. Yeah. Every guy on my team. I couldn't tell you, I couldn't name probably a hundred players in the NHL.

This is what I've, I was talking to Taylor Chorney who you guys, I think we're freshmen together at North Dakota, right? Yeah. Yeah. So Chorns is my great guy. He would talk about a sick skater. I played with him in Edmonton and he was saying the same thing. He's like, he doesn't even watch hockey or know anyone. I've never,

I've never been to an NHL game. I've never, I've never watched a game from like start to finish. I was playing sports. I couldn't, that's literally all I did. I barely, I didn't have a lot of friends,

like, unless you were like on my team or I was like, we were meeting up in like the neighborhood to like play basketball. So when I didn't hang out with you. So when you stopped playing basketball, did you become more hyper-focused on hockey or would you be the type of kid where in the off seasons you were just kind of, you know, going around running with your friends, not really focusing on hockey?

No. Cause I mean, I had football, I had golf. of you know going around running with your friends not really focusing on hockey no because i mean i had football i had golf um so when whatever season it was that's what i focused on um and and we're kind of all in whenever you were doing it right like your mind wasn't even yeah whenever i do something i yeah i'm all in i'm all more so like game stuff. I'm not, I wasn't crazy about like, you know, I wasn't training at like 15. I started working out when I got to, and basically Ironman at North Dakota, like in testing. That's when I first lifted my first weights. And probably because you were doing all that stuff, you're probably getting, you know, becoming more athletic because Orbs was even telling me that you're a righty.

And he says, if you pick up a hockey stick left, you can shoot a slap shot pretty much as close to as hard as you can a righty and harder than most guys' actual slap shots. Yeah, like a one-timer, a slap shot lefty. Yeah, I can probably get it up there close to my righty. I mean, stick handlings, I'm not the best. You know, toe drag's a little slow. Are you ambidextrous in anything? No, not really.

I'm basically right-handed in everything. I don't know. It just makes sense. You just hold tight bottom hand and let her fly. And then I guess at a certain point, then you started getting recruited for college. Like, what ended up making you decide to go to North Dakota, having, you know, for college like what ended up making you decide to go to North Dakota having you know lived in Minnesota um they were just the first team that asked me I guess I didn't uh I

didn't go on any visits um I was really like I it sounds it sounds weird and it sounds like I'm maybe I don't know not a smart guy maybe but like I didn't know what like they were just like you want to come to north dakota i was like yeah sure and then like i got drafted and i was like i don't know what the draft means i don't know what i'm supposed to do i wasn't watching the draft i don't like you just i just play i just like playing wow no bullshit type uh just go out and get it done i don't i don't need the noise on the outside of what's going on. Yeah, and my dad was very good. He's like, he never let scouts talk to me in high school or, you know,

none of that. I didn't have to deal with any of that stuff. He kept everything away, never pressured me or asked me to do anything. So it was a good way for me, at least to to do it and just focus on playing and getting better and having fun with your friends did the national team development program reach out at all i don't know if they did i never heard about it uh i never checked the messages shattuck shattuck uh i think reached out i think I remember something about him saying Shattuck was interested. We had lost. We won my sophomore year, won the state tournament,

got upset my junior year, and so I wanted to go back my senior year. We ended up getting it done and went undefeated that year and won the state championship. That's the one when you had the diving game-winning assist? Yeah. You guys see that at all?

Whit? Yeah, the Minnesota State Hockey Tournament, I mean, we've brought it up before. It's one of the probably cooler things, I think, not that it's youth hockey, but in the United States at least because hockey, high school hockey has become so watered down, at least in New England and a lot of parts of the country, but Minnesota is just still so solid, and the fans go to those games it's like i i that's something i wish i could have

experienced at that age it was yeah i think uh my first time you know coming from from everett to where you know you maybe have parents in the stands but you know maybe not maybe no one's there parents are having coffee up whatever not watching the game to go from that and then go there and you know sold out for i guess for our game for single a it was sold out bottom um xl energy center uh for the lower bowl you just it's just like it's nuts and then you go to the double a and the whole thing sold out it's uh it feels like you're standing the cup it feels like it doesn't and then you go to the double a and the whole thing sold out it's uh it feels like you're staying in the cup it feels like it doesn't get any better than that i might have

missed it from a standpoint perspective but like when you went on to lead uh everybody in high school hockey in minnesota is that kind of that senior year is that when they approached you about it had you heard before that um i i believe i committed after my junior year so I think I played my senior year committed North Dakota um but it was just like uh I went in for a game um in the spring I think of my junior year and then um and then committed they they came to my school, whatever it is. I think there's like a date in high school when you can sign your letter of intent or whatever. Or whatever it is. So I don't even remember.

It was like September, I think. And they came in and was like, hey, would you like to come to North Dakota? And I said, yeah. And that was it. Signed some papers. And away we went. Did you have any appearances in any of those Minnesota hair videos that the guy does every year during the tournament?

No, I was a little before that time. I did – my mom and I – well, I guess my mom and myself did start that. We were kind of – I don't know if we were one of the first teams, but we did the the we dyed our hair you know blonde or yellow I guess yellow and black because we were black and gold and kind of went every other guy and I don't know if that has anything to do with why the hair is all crazy now but I do remember we were one of the first ones to do that. When you were at North Dakota did you guys win a national title those one of those three years how did the how did the career go there and the team do

oh no you didn't get one what happened what happened oh so we lost every single year in the first game of the frozen four to boston college all three years you know how much that makes me sick too oh she'd be and be you like that's fucking disgusting to me gerby took it to us every single year and it was like we had like the big you know north dakota like the big rough and tough like d-man d-man were like six seven six five commodore matt green they have all these little fast guys, and they would just come out. I think one year we even played unbelievable, and we still lost like 6-7 or something. It was wild.

But, yeah, that was – You're just saying 6-7 is more wild than anything. Definitely doesn't pay attention to hockey in the squad like that. 7-6, My bad, boys. My bad. When you left school, when you did, was that an easy call for you after the junior year?

No. It was a pretty difficult call for me and one that I probably regret. North Dakota was just so awesome. Everyone feels like a family there. I mean, you were talking about Chorns, me and Chorns went three years there together, um, freshmen through junior year, we both left at the same time.

He'd probably agree with me. I think, um, wish we would have went back and gave it one more shot, but, uh, North Dakota, they really, they do a good job keeping guys, you know, together after you're gone, we'll have went back and gave it one more shot but uh north dakota they really they do a good job keeping guys you know together after you're gone we'll have a golf tournament there'll be guys that played in like the 70s 80s 90s thousands and then all the way up to the guys that just you know finished their senior year and we'll all be mixed together and it's it's it's a blast. And so I regret, you know, going pro and, you know, at the time when you're young and, you know, it's a possible, you know, big paycheck

after living off of 40 bucks a week. And yeah, I mean, I understand why I did it, but looking back, I wish I went back for one more year. Wow. Even the way everything went out. Why? Just because you feel indebted to them about what they provided to your hockey career or just given the relationships you had there, like the boys, one more year with the boys?

I think it was both those things. I mean, my coach before I left, before the season started, even my junior year was like, hey, we're going to prepare you this year for the season started, even, my junior year, was like, hey, we're going to prepare you this year for the NHL. This is your last year here. So it wasn't a shock to them by any means, but I just miss the guys. You go from going to breakfast, lunch, and dinner with at least 13 guys. We had 13 kids in our class, so we had a big group together.

kids in our class so we had a big big group together and um and then you go to you know when i went to st louis there was we had an older team we had kachuk we had korea um you know a lot mcdonald a lot of old guys everyone had families you know you just go back to your your little condo you kind of sit there by yourself and basically just back then it was just skype you just skype your buddies while they're all partying and you know have a couple beers in your living room while they're like what am i doing yeah you're like that's straight loser mode you're on skype and they're at the bar what i thought it was you got the laptop on the dance floor with ocean oh yeah they would too they would oh she's also paying for everything going on back in north dakota yeah that was that was probably the best part is going back after your your rookie season going back yeah and just

especially there like you know you pay for the whole bar for one night you know not as much money as it would be going out for a couple drinks in the town yeah in a city. So, I actually looked through just quickly while you were talking, I was looking through the, the rosters of North Dakota, your, your three years, the kid, Ryan Duncan was always up there in points. He never got to play the game in the NHL. Is that surprise you? Yeah, it does. You know, I think, I think he had a chance to leave after our sophomore year when he, it was me, him and Tavis were on the line.

And he chose to stay. And he actually came to, I think, St. Louis' rookie camp that year with me. And it's surprising. In our time, when I signed, the league was still pretty big. Like, you know, guys, they still wanted, the league was still pretty big. Like, you know, guys, they still wanted big guys. They still wanted size. And I think that turned some teams away.

But he had one of the most accurate shots of anyone I've ever seen. He had a small little sacket curve, went up to, like, maybe, like like my nipple height and he had a hundred flex and just hit just a um a basic wrist shot just a full not even a snapshot because he couldn't flex it just an old school wrist shot and he would just set it wherever he wanted to it was it was honestly amazing um but he went on to have a really good career, played for the Red Bull for a long time. Yeah, he played over in Europe for a while. Yeah, he had a great career and a great player, awesome guy. And before you got to school, had you played against Jonathan Tabes in international stuff?

What was your relation to him when you you first became teammates no i i think i might have played with against him in elite league um what would have been a year before we we started our freshman year um but no i just you know i just heard he was kind of the the big name coming in kind of the next jack parisi of north dak Dakota you know and um I mean he I mean he lived up to he was fantastic still is um but it was it was just crazy seeing you know this 17 year old I think he finished school high school in three years um and and came to North Dakota so it was uh it was amazing seeing you know this kid that you know who I felt was younger than me and should be in high school, but yet he approached the game

in such a professional way, which is not the way that I did. So it was amazing. You're like, we have a game tonight, Dave? So it was, yeah, we had a lot of battles. We kind of went head-to-head a lot, not in a bad way, in just a competitive way on the ice and, you know, in between classes go on the ice and do, you know, have shooting competitions or stick handling competitions,

whatever it was. So I think he is a big reason why I grew a lot in at school that first year. And hopefully he feels the same way about me TG you never spent the day in the minors but those early years in St. Louis did you ever come close to it or get threatened with getting sent down at all uh nope I don't I don't think so um I probably deserve to go down time or two. I mean, I came into the league in St. Louis. I believe they got like 13th in the West or whatever it was the year before. And so I think they were really trying to get, you know,

us young guys experience. And I was just fortunate. You know, some guys are really good players, and they get drafted to really good teams, and they got to play four or five years in the minors. I just, I got an opportunity right away and tried to make the most of it. Well, I know you said you were so young and missing partner with your buddies and most of the time the guys were with their kids at home.

When you got on the road, did you start experiencing pro life a little bit? I mean, I feel like Keith Kachuk's a bit of a throwback where at least you guys would be rounding up on the road for a little bit. Yeah. Big Walt, he, he was, he sent me in my room quite a bit to not to make sure that I was going to make the bus in the morning. So there wasn't, I didn't, I didn't really, I didn't ever went out on the road really my first my first year so um i don't know if it's because our team was older or they just didn't want to

you know any bad habits rub off on the young bucks or what but uh we had a couple good nights but for the most part um you know we kept i i mean as far as as far as i remember it was pretty tame for me my first couple of years, at least on the road. At home, it might have been a different story. Did any vets take you under their wing, show you the ropes, or did you bond with any older vets when you got there? I bonded really well with Danny Hainaut.

He was the one vet that wasn't scared to tell Kachaka or Korea or whoever it was to to stop uh to leave leave the young guys alone he'd always he'd always grab us and be like well that's enough these are my rookies and he'd grab me and pull me aside and um he was one of the guys that kind of started my pregame routine with all the handshakes and all that stuff um he had a high ankle sprain and he he was the guy that took everyone out on the ice and uh he asked me to do it maybe 20 30 games in and um and then i took i took the boys out from then on and for seven years in st louis so he was he was very instrumental and just kind of

grabbed me and telling me you know he liked to have a good time too. And he's kind of, I guess, mentored me a little bit on my approach to the game, my energy, how you show up at the rink. So he was a big part of that. Hey, Korea would get at the rookies a little bit? No, I mean, a little bit, yeah. You know, just a little little not necessarily hazing just you know making sure that we knew what place we're in and for sure and how many games we played it's not like that anymore i tell you that i was gonna ask you like without being like the the boomer guy but is it not at all existent really where you're like your first 10 games,

you're just like going up to eat first at buffet and everything. Yeah. It's it's, it's not, it's not, it's not the same. I think I don't know. I don't know if it started in juniors. If these, these junior kids are, I think I'm pretty sure. It's all guys like business fault yeah i'm pretty sure i think in college like the freshmen they still got to do like a bunch of stuff and they have to sit down until everyone else is done eating and all that stuff um but a lot of these kids come in and they just oh there's food here all right i'm gonna go eat because i was at the front of

the bus and i got to get off the bus first, you know, or I'll go up the elevator first. A lot of that stuff isn't, it's not the, it's not, it's not like it, like it used to. I don't know if the veterans are too soft these days to enforce it, but I hope someone starts it and it gets back to the old ways. You played a few years under Ken Hitchcock. A lot of guys seem to have a good time under him. What kind of motivation tactics did he use on you? Oh, man.

You know what? Me and Hitch got along really well. And I enjoy it. We chatted quite a bit, actually, off the ice. But I remember he would always say to stop dingle dangling and to just give them the puck because they'll give it back and i remember always thinking like hitch i have the puck the puck is mine right now why do i have to give it to them and get it back it's like no you're a

four checker you're a great four checker and so that's what i that's obviously not the voice you did it in but um so i think the in those years i kind of lost a lot of my um offensive creativity and it's like my career kind of slowly started to whittle away maybe not in the numbers but just in i feel like my uh my creativity and you know the confidence even the confidence a lot of confidence and uh when i got traded to washington it was the exact opposite they they actually came up to me after like 10 games they're like hey we know that you're going to back check so you know try to make more plays just do whatever you want to do out there and it took me a good 45 games maybe even you know a year a couple years until i really got that voice out of my head like don, don't turn it over. Don't turn it over. You can make plays again. So, um, it was a,

it was a big move for my career and just for me to just enjoy playing hockey. When the trades, when the trade chatter started getting pretty heavy in St. Louis, like privately, did you want to change the scenery? Did you want to get out of there? No, I, I'm, I'm, I'm pretty loyal to the team I'm with I always imagined myself being a blue forever and once I got traded I honestly felt bad I felt like I let

the blues down the organization the guys that drafted me my teammates the fans the fans were so good to me honestly way too good to me and I felt bad that I never got to win a Stanley Cup there for him um and you know that lasted a little bit and then once you realize you're going to be playing with Backstrom and Ovechkin you know you you kind of get a little excited and

um but it was it I took it pretty hard for for a little bit and uh, you know, until I saw the excitement in D.C. for me to go there, it was a little rough. And you get over to Washington, like the first two years you were there, I think you won the President's Trophy but lost in the second round. And are you feeling like, all right, this is our year, and then all of a sudden it ends quickly again? You're like, we have a Stanley Cup in this room.

Like at some point this is going to happen. Was that the attitude even as difficult as it is losing in those tough early playoff exits? Yeah. It, uh, I remember going in to talk to, uh, Mac or GM and, um, you know, there were some big, there were some big, we had, you know, it was the two year window. Everyone's talking about this two-year window with me um justin williams deal was up um a couple other guys deals were up and uh i went in and i'll uh it's actually a better story but maybe

i'll save it until till the career is over over. Um, with the first exchange with my fucking listeners, blue balls. Great. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I like the teas. Just make them come back for more. Hit me in the dick again. Just like your fucking, just like your fucking pregame warmup routine, buddy. Um, but no, and I, I sat down, I told him that I wanted to come back. Um, probably not a great um bargaining tactic but um i wanted to come back and i told him i thought that we could win

stanley cup and i told him i thought we could win a couple with the the crew that we had and so sure enough next year i don't know if i'm skipping ahead but um we win it and the first time i see mac i gave him a big hug and i i kept yelling i told you i told you i told you because i i just i you could feel it in in the room that we were right there and if we could find a way to beat pittsburgh you know pittsburgh was on top of the world at that point if we could find a way to beat them then no one could stop us and and that's that's really how it played out um i don't i don't can we go back to that i just want to go back to the hitch stuff like as a player and you seem like a type of guy who obviously falls in line and you want to do what's best for the team

was a little bit frustrating like given that you maybe wanted to be more offensive and like would you sit down with them and have long dialogue about why you thought maybe you could be able to make more plays? Or did you eventually just kind of give it up and then you settled in on being that four checker type? Yeah, I think eventually I did kind of just give up. But it was, we would talk about it. I mean, the power of video for coaches always you know it's it's tough to argue against because they they got the pause button there so um but it's he he saw I think my work ethic um on the forecheck and on the back check and kind of defensively and stuff like that so

I think I I realized what he explained to me is that um basically if i could just get it behind their d-men i would i would could work hard enough to turn it over and then we'd be in the ozone you know a better chance than me trying to toe drag a guy and get it in so looking back i mean he's he's got a great hockey mind um and maybe our team um at the time wasn't you know a top end skilled team we were more of a blue collar type team and I don't know if he just wanted everyone to play in that that same way but um it definitely you know it it made hockey not fun for for a couple years there it's to be a buzzkill when we're talking about the cup run. No, you're good, baby. You're good. I'm over it now.

I want to ask the Eastern conference finals versus Tampa. You guys had a two nothing lead. You blow that you're losing three, two in the series. Was there kind of a feeling in the room of, Oh no, here we go again on the, on the cusp of losing. No, no, not even, not even close. We were, I, and I kind of, I alluded to it a second ago. When we – when Kuznetsov scored that overtime goal for us to beat Pittsburgh, it was like no matter what, we're winning.

And it was – there wasn't – it was amazing. There was like no frustration no matter what. Like, and if guys made mistakes or had a bad game it was just like all right i'll i'm gonna i'll pick you guys up next game and they and they literally did it it was like all the um the cliche sayings of you know whatever it is like we were we were doing it it was it was amazing um but we were we were 100 percent um, had this conviction about us that no matter what happened, we were going to win. It was a really cool feeling. Everybody kind of alludes to maybe one of the aspects of winning is Ovi really changed his game.

Do you think it's more of a, no, it's like we had an unbelievable core group where everybody just kind of stepped it up. Or do you think that Ovi, in fact, like he did make adjustments where he sacrificed personal stuff for the betterment of the team? I think Ovi definitely elevated his game. I think that's – I think there's no question. But I think everyone did. I think it was – everyone played like a playoff-style game. There wasn't one guy that was shying away from being hit. There wasn't one guy that was shying away from being hit.

There wasn't one guy that wasn't going to give a hit. Ovi's block. You know, I guess a lot of it you could look at does have to do with Ovi because if you see Ovi going out there blocking shots and you're a guy that had 12 goals in 82 games, and you don't go out there, you don't block shots, then, I mean, it looks bad and you feel like and you don't go out there you don't block shots then I mean it looks bad you feel bad you feel guilty so it was it was everybody just kind of everyone elevating their game and not doing anything really that special you know besides you know the talented guys doing

you know their thing everyone just kind of was on board with with our game plan everyone knew what to do in every situation defensively five on six six on five penalty kill power play um it was just kind of an all-in moment and it was uh it was it was cool to see because there's a lot a lot of years where we thought that was the year not only in in dc but in st louis so when you finally see it come together it feels it feels really good to be a part of when you got there and like actually got to witness Ovechkin daily and like every single game see the pace he plays at and how he can score it must have been were you just kind of shocked because it's like 50 goals every single season while running people over like what is it

what is it actually like to see him do that daily I I mean, it really feels like you're watching history and practice. There's nothing I'll ever see in my lifetime like what I'm seeing right now and what I've seen over the years as as far as being this close to really, I mean, greatness. And I don't want to, you know, I don't want to pump Ovi up too much, but I mean, it's really what it is. I, I don't want to say pride myself, but I was pretty proud of like, you know, kind of being the guy that would always just whatever you do, you kind of like find a way to like win things, whatever it was,

could be throwing a tape all into the trash can and i remember like buddies always being like you know pissed off me it's like god oh like why do you always have to win whatever it is golf you know what so competitive i i lose but just super super competitive and then to get to get to see OB. And now I know how like those guys felt because like, he just, he just wins in like whatever, like cards. If he's paying attention, he's probably going to win. He's going to get the best cards. He just is. Like on the ice, if he wants to score, he's going to score. It doesn't matter what the other team does. So it's a, it's a treat. It's it's awesome. Really fun to watch.

I know Grinnelly want to jump in with a question. Oh, gee, what do you got? I don't know, boy. So I was watching the game on ESPN the other night, and the ringside reporter said that he had Pepsi in his water bottle, but he happens to prefer Dr. Pepper in his water bottle during the games. What do you think of him just sucking down sodas during the games? He's not human

in any aspect of life i don't think like he was i don't know i don't know what kind of testing you can do to make like a like a superman but like he's he just runs on different fuel than the rest of us and he is made differently than the rest of us um it was i mean i thought it was kind of it was just funny at the start like i didn't know you know your first game you see him you know slugging a dog or pepper right before you go out um but he's uh he does his thing and he has a way of doing things he's very uh not superstitious but he just does things the same way i guess and uh it works for him and i mean you can see it's it's tough to stop another guy too you've gotten to see the evolution of tom wilson and like even where he's brought his game offensively like he's probably

one of those pieces that is is probably one of the one of the biggest as far as maybe if you guys were able to get another Stanley cup. Yeah. I mean, absolutely. He's, he, he brings so much to our team. The guy could play 30 minutes a night and probably not be tired. Like he's a, he's an animal. And it's really, I think it's for me, it's fun to see him get some offensive recognition for the things that he brings to the team. Because, I mean, he plays with Kuzi, you know,

and he clears a lot of space and he gets a lot of loose pucks and he maintains a lot of offense for those guys. But you don't really talk about that because, obviously, you've got a guy chasing Graski with goals and you've got Kuzi who, you know, can dance and skate like the wind. But it's great to see his game evolve even like you know when he tries even not to like hit guys anymore because he's just too strong and he too he's like going as fast as he can skate like he just ends up catching guys at the wrong spot. You know what I mean?

But to see from how much hatred he has to him have some success and finally get some points on the board, it's fun to see. I keep the right side pretty tight where right side takes care of each other. And so it's great to see him flourishing offensively, also being just a big leader and part of the leadership group on our team. We kind of left St. Louis, but in your time there, we got to experience one of the most legendary Olympic ice hockey moments, I would say. And I rewatched that shootout against Russia,

where I think you scored four out of five was it and and I'm so curious like when did you realize you were going to be going every single time or did he never even tell you just kept calling your name again and again uh he he didn't I I assumed after I went first and we we worked on the shootout in in our practices and I end up doing pretty good against our goalies so I had an idea I was going to be going on the shootout in in our practices and i end up doing pretty good against our goalies so i had an idea i was going to be going in the shootout i didn't know i'd be going first um and then when i scored my first one i thought maybe that he would come back to me and and have me go in the four hole if we if we needed extra innings and then after that i didn't

i literally every time i shot i didn't know when i got back to the bench if he was going to call me again because i mean i did i missed twice even though i was like you know pretty happy with the moves that i made yeah and um and i was i mean i don't know i i was literally just waiting i think after after i missed five i thought maybe that was it. Missed my fifth shot, I believe. I don't remember. Yeah, missed my fifth shot. I thought, I was like, all right, he's going to go to Canter. Like, why isn't he going to Canter? You know, like, or anybody.

One of these other guys. And he called me out for six, and I figured that was enough time since I did my first move. So I was pretty confident on the sixth one. Would you supply a prize? The Russians went to Datsuk, like from Kovalchuk to Datsuk, back to Kovalchuk, and not stick with Kovalchuk the whole time? Not really.

I really wasn't paying too much attention. He's like, we were playing Russia? I didn't know who they were. I wasn't, yeah. I don't know who they were. I wasn't. Yeah. Like I didn't, I'm just, I don't, I don't know.

I like, I didn't know that I was shooting on Bob Roski. I didn't know I was going against Bob. Like I just don't, you know, but yeah, I don't, I,

I, I did, I did the shootout. I don't know if it was a summer before, a couple of summers before. And I, I, I scored three out of five. So I knew the format and everything, so I was pretty comfortable with it. Now, at what point do you know what move you're going to go with?

Is it right when you're at center ice? Is it when you're coming down? Is it different each time? I have an idea right when I get the pocket before I start. And then depending on if they come out or stay back in their net um or sometimes they do weird stuff like flurry and who smith I think sometimes they'll like put their their glove over their five hole to try to get in my head and stuff but um typically I have a good a pretty good idea and then about the hash marks I make my final decision and just go

with it that olympic you guys lost in the semi-final to canada won nothing right um i think we lost in the semis to canada won nothing yeah yeah that must have been heartbreaking huh like because they went on to beat sweden like you were that close to getting to that gold medal game yeah yeah that was i mean it was a tough one. I mean, Canada, their team's always so good. Osh, what would you do if you weren't playing hockey? Like if I never started playing hockey or if I wasn't playing hockey right now? Yeah, yeah.

Just chitting away from the hockey chatter right now. I'm curious to know if some guys – I would have probably done something in basketball um like my dad played um like every like community college basketball he's actually in the hall of fame and everett there um and uh i i'd be doing something in sports definitely nothing that had to do with like a nine to five job where you got to think or do paperwork. Could you dunk? I know you, I know you're not like super tall, but. No, I, I, I dunked. I think I, I maybe like once or twice, but like a volleyball.

I was going to say a Nerf ball. Yeah. With a volleyball. I had, I actually had pretty good hops back, back in like senior year high school freshman year college days but they're gone now promise you that have you ever chatted with uh bobrovsky at all after that olympic tournament maybe during a game or during i don't know all-star thing or whatever just about the whole experience no um i haven't i i mean I've chatted with O about it a little bit. Just cause he was on the bench there too, but no, not much.

One more thing. One more thing about O. Go ahead, buddy. The day we're recording here, he tied the power play goal record last night for the NHL. He's tied. He's actually leading the league in scoring second and goals.

Like how long do you think he can go at this pace for as a 36 year old guy already? I mean, I think it's up to him really um he if he trains like like he's been training the last couple years um i i don't i don't think that number where you're you know your typical nhl starts slowing down um i don't think that'll hit him for a while, as long as he wants to push it back. So I think it's really up to him. I don't see his goal scoring going away anytime soon, just because of his release and his hunger to score goals.

But if he keeps his body in good shape and trains hard in the offseason, I think he'll fill out his contracts, you know, still putting up 30 in the last year. Do the Russian guys bring weird exercises to the gym? Like, are they doing different stuff than the North American guys? Not really, actually. Other than the gas? No, I'm kind of the only weirdo with the art i think everyone else is yeah i'm still on it wow can you describe what the art is to some people who are listening who

have no clue it became like a new method of training and i want to say it became familiar with with hockey players that were around the the north dakota minnesota area yeah a lot a lot of mini guys uh jumped on board um i guess the simplest way i could put it is like a like an ultra stem machine um and then i i i couldn't i've been using it for six years now six years and i can't really i couldn't write myself a program with it i need like my my trainer the guy that i work with to write my programs for me because i don't i just don't have enough experience with it um but uh based on you like so the very simple ways you i put it on my muscles and you know fire them up contract them and get them ready to go but there's a lot of other

things wrapped into it with your nervous system with recovery um so many different things i saw luch had one of those uh the bandages on his forehead whip before one of the games i'm like jesus this guy's gonna electrocute his brain before we get out there going oh yeah i mean gotta turn the brain on biz that's the most important piece my favorite one is when i'm not really feeling quite into it or you come back from a concussion or something you throw it two on your forehead one on each side and you read a book backwards for 10 minutes oh my goodness that's how you hit the reset button? It sounds like it's from South Park. And if it doesn't work, then you hit the Guinness and Screaming Eagle mix.

It is crazy, but I tell you, if guys are hurting or they have something bothering them, and they can't seem to figure out what it is, they always slide my way, and I find it right away with the ARP. I think I had – who was I doing the other day? It's called a search and destroy, but anyways, he was in tears. He had a tear come out of his eye when we were done. I mean, it's painful.

You better be careful. I don't know what he's going to be asking for on his ball bag in the pregame warm-up intro. Give me the ARP. Crank it. No, I don't know if i'll let him it doesn't it does it's not it's not pleasant i promise yeah you don't want to stick in all the hairs that'd be a tough way to rip off like the old band-aid who's got that who's got the ox core in the locker room. What kind of, uh, you guys into the big booty mix. What do you,

what are you guys getting down to? Um, uh, Tom Wilson and OB have it on, uh, on game days. And I'm, uh,

I'm a pregame skate and road practice day guy. Um, I hate doing it. I was, uh, just kind of nominated and cause I'm like, I'm a full country guy. I was just kind of nominated. Because I'm like, I'm a full country guy. I just listen to country music.

And I mean, Ovi doesn't like country music. So I got to find other things. So I usually have one guy give me a decade and another guy give me a genre. And then I pull up an Apple playlist and play that for the boys that day. We had 60s love songs the other day, and it's actually a phenomenal playlist, by the way. Yeah, group effort. Sometimes you need the other guys chiming in and get the different flavor going.

Now, is Ovi going hardcore Russian fucking beats, club beats? No. O likes it all, I think, except for country. He'll do the techno stuff. He'll do Lil Wayne. He'll do Britney Spears.

He'll do it all. Are you into outlaw country, new country? Which kind of country you into? I like a lot of older country, like 90s, 2000s, and then a big fan of Luke Combs right now. I think that guy's unbelievable.

Number one. Number one all time for me. Luke Combs? Luke Combs. Yeah, I think that Caleb, our buddy at Barstool, just interviewed him. He does a Sunday morning conversation. It's actually hilarious.

And Luke Combs seemed like the man. I had never even really heard of him i checked out his spotify because of that interview he's money he's phenomenal that guy like i even like his videos on instagram of just him and the guitar singing it sounds like you're listening to a cd it's phenomenal are you that hardcore where you're watching like the cmas and you kind of keep up with who's winning all the awards? No. No. No TV for me. I'll watch shows sometimes in bed, but three kids now, baby.

There's no time to do anything. How much does the three kids affect your golf game in the summer? I know you're a good player. You play out in that American Century Classic. Are you still getting out there a lot in the off season no i usually get like four or five rounds before that tournament and i tank every year no way really but i'll play i'll play like maybe total 20 rounds a year which i mean i think i think that's pretty good with sprinkling like four or five during the season. So I just joined a course in D.C., though, and the kids are kind of getting to the age where they can maybe start coming to the course with me.

So that'll be the ticket right there. G shot me a text and reminded me to ask you. We were talking about the Olympics, and you had that famous line about, you know, who the real heroes were. Like, were like obviously afterward you're probably you know you'd ask a question you say something like that ends up going viral it's probably a good feeling knowing that you brought a lot of people joy uh yeah well i think going through like the olympic orientation stuff and and meeting with uh navy seals army rangers hearing them speak um i think you just have a different appreciation when you hear their stories and uh you know when i think of

american hero it's you know it's definitely not me and it's not you know uh an athlete by any means so um that's kind of what came out and it wasn't meant to, I mean, I didn't say it to go viral, but, um, I'm glad a lot of, uh, military and military families, uh, appreciated it. And I have so much respect for those guys. And I don't know, I, I really, I really, uh, enjoy seeing people kind of just bear down and bring themselves to a different place competitively. I guess competitively is a way you could say it. Bringing themselves to a different place that a lot of people can't get to. And those guys bring it to a place where, you know, I'll never be able to get to and that I'm kind of almost jealous of that, that you'll never, you know, you'll never be able to get to. And I'm kind of almost jealous of that,

that you'll never know what it's like to be at war and have the guy next to you have his life in your hands, vice versa. I think that's the ultimate, kind of the ultimate, not really sacrifice it, it is, but just the ultimate competitiveness and where they must be able to get their minds to be successful in that. How do you feel about shootouts ending playoffs and tourneys? I know it doesn't happen in the NHL, but, you know,

international tourneys or even other sports? I'm not into it. I think regular season's nice. I mean, the guys, a lot of times it's a back-to-back. You got to get out of there. I think it's a fun way for me personally because I love shootouts to end a regular season game, but when it gets to playoffs, I mean, you just – I mean, I've heard and seen clips, never watched,

but the actual full game. But you hear those games of going into, you know, five, six overtime. The guys playing – they're playing like 2 a.m. Like I feel like that's the way a playoff game should end. the actual full game but you hear those games of going into you know five six overtime the guys playing they're playing like 2 a.m like i feel like that's the way a playoff game should end you know five on five um not not just a guy and a goalie and after that cup win with washington did you ever have a bender to that extent before quite like that yeah every week at college after i went to north dakota all right what do you i know i know what you're not here for the start of the interview

it was uh no you know what it was only for me it was two three days and then i i hung them up for a little while and uh yeah so that was know, maybe 3% of my best one. I think Grinnelly had another one for you. Mikey? I did. We mentioned War Road earlier. And I know you started up that War Road clothing company. And, you know, how did that all come to be? I know you mentioned earlier your wife's the fashion in the family. But is that her? Is that you? Like, who's's running all that no so that that's me and my partners um i was approached with the idea and uh

and they wanted to to name the the company war out i i love the idea but i wanted to run it by my my high school buddies first um being that i was an import as they said or as the other other teams crowd chanted when i was on the ice um and uh so i asked them and they thought it was that they they that they loved the idea as long as we we gave back to to the town and um so i brought that to the partners i was like i'm only in in if we give back to Warroad Hockey. And we've done that through different things, through some fundraisers, some other things. A portion of sales goes to Warroad Hockey, Board Youth Hockey.

I don't know if you guys know, but everyone in Warroad skates for free. No one pays for ice ever. So that's why. That's nice. As a donation from the charity uh the town i mean marvin marvin's have a lot to do with it but the town no one pays for how many people live there the sign says 1722 so 1722 but i think it's a little above 2000 now um Um, but yeah, no one pays for ice. There's ice

all day, every day. There's two rings for 1700 people in an outdoor ring. It's it's, it's hockey heaven up there. Um, but yeah, so we started the brand and, uh, it's been fun. We, I felt like there, it wasn't like a clothing brand for hockey players or um i guess rooted in hockey um that wasn't um it was more i don't know i want to say like higher fashion but somewhat you know higher fashion lulu-esque type athleisure wear um and so i just kind of wanted to bring that actually i'm glad you brought that up um because uh i talked to the partners and they let me know that i was coming on spit and checklists and they're all freaking out and jacked up about it all everyone's uh huge fans of the pod and um they wanted to give all of

your fans a discount at world if they would like let's go biz 20 promo code. Hit them with a fucking promo code. 20% discount. That's what's it up. That's an entrepreneur right there, boys. Yeah. So 20% discount, waro.com slash SC. We're going to go even further. TJ's even going to drop it off. He's going to drive it to you. He's going to do all the deliveries, folks.

All the deliveries. Yeah. So, but that's that's that's for for your fans and hopefully we can uh maybe steal a couple i don't know i think that's how business works right but uh but yeah so it's been it's been so much fun and we've been able to give back a bunch to uh the addf alzheimer's drug discovery foundation um after the stuff that i went through in my family to the ADDF Alzheimer's drug discovery foundation. After the stuff that I've went through in my family. So it's been, you know, it's been awesome. And we've,

we've ended up getting some under gear stuff that I designed to get some cut proof wrists, an extra sleeve to hold your elbow pads back. So guys don't got to sit there onehand taping elbow pads with sock tape. So it locks your elbow pads in place. Super comfortable, and I'm a big sensitive skin rash guy, so we made all the material not rash-proof, but has improved for, for me and a lot of other guys in the league that have found out about it, have ordered it.

I was getting them from other places. I'm sure you were. True that the TJ name actually came from a movie that your mother gave you the name from a movie. Yeah. Yeah. From the champ, right? The champ yeah yeah from uh the champ right the champ yeah from the champ my mom liked the i i honestly ra was an extra in that movie

no not at six years old have you ever seen it ricky schroeder john voight i've never seen it no but i was i was timmy growing up like when i was really young uh my family called me timmy and then she saw that movie i think i was maybe four and then just started calling me tj junior's not in my name i'm just timothy life oshi so um we tacked on the junior so really everyone's just calling me my nickname which is uh i don't know it works out except for when i got legal documents yeah if you do check it out man make sure you get the kleenex nearby i'll leave it at that not those nothing not those kind biz yeah oh fuck off oh man oh shit oh what about this i went after this one last guy 20 year old rookie in your team

alexi protis this kid's a monster huh like he's a big boy yeah yeah he's gonna be i think uh he's one of those one of those guys that when he, I feel like he might still be growing into his body just a little bit. I think he's really good right now. He's got poise, got a good shot, obviously long reach. He can skate really well too. I think in a couple of years, he's going to be a really solid power forward for us. Well, before we let you go,

thank you so much for coming on and joining us. But I think we, I speak for all the guys when it was, it was an incredibly touching thing. When your, when your father passed away, you scored a hat trick that next game. And I got the chance to meet your dad coach, an unreal person. So I was so sorry for your loss, but that must've just been such an emotional day for you,

but I figured you'd probably want to want to mention him. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Whit. Yeah. He's you know, he was a one of a kind dad, kind of a big kid. And it was it was tough going back there. He was he was really struggling. And we the team actually let me fly back there with the kids um because we knew he was getting kind of towards the end we thought there was about six months turned out there was only uh you know about 40 40 days or so from from when we went out there but uh so we got we got you know pictures with his grandson who we'd never met before because of covid and all the traveling stuff and uh, uh, and then, yeah,

it was, he was in, he was in rough shape. He ended up, uh, he's at the point where, you know, he didn't know really who was around him or who was talking to him. Um, and he would, we'd have to take him on walks. He just would, he'd just stand up on his own and just want to walk. So we'd walk him around the kitchen a little bit and get, bring him back to his chair. stand up on his own and just want to walk. So we'd walk him around the kitchen a little bit and get, bring him back to his chair. And it was, you know, it was pretty tough. Because he didn't know that I was there. And I remember on,

on two of the walks, he would snap out of it and he'd see it was me. And it's, it's an amazing thing how he's like literally walking and we just look up and his eyes would just fill with tears. That's amazing. And like, and then, you know, that like, he didn't say anything, but he, I knew that, you know, he knew it was me. So we had those last moments. And then, you know, when he finally went and suffering was over, I got to get back with the boys, which is kind of, I don't know how, how you guys deal with, with tough times,

but mine's always been to play sports. So I got back with the boys and they carried me and got me three goals. So I was appreciative of that and kind of a nice little farewell to the big man to get a hat trick there. And thanks for bringing it up. He was a great man and loved by a lot of people. Thanks, Sharon. Yeah, that's amazing.

We appreciate that, Sharon. And then sorry for your loss, but we want to thank you again, buddy. It's it's been an incredible run for you. What a career you've had and it's continues to move along. So good luck the rest of the year. And and someday Biz and I in a sandbag. I don't know if you've seen us on YouTube. I think we're six and four all time.

So maybe heads up if you want a shot at the at the crown yeah we need the contract story too you got to come back round two exactly when when when i'm done i'll you guys be the first ones i call i'll give you the story it's pretty good one um but thank you guys thank you so much for having me i know it's been a while and i'm glad we were able to make it work sorry for sure and uh say that say the website one one more time yeah yeah so the website itself is just waro.com that's how small world is they didn't have waro.com the website coin so uh just waro.com slash sc for spit and chicklets you get a 20 discount there um go check out the stuff um we got boxes coming to all you boys when i get your addresses and uh we got this new butter line of like a sweats sweats and a little sweatshirt

comfiest thing you'll ever put on so um again guys thank you so much for having me this is this is awesome and it's fun listening to you guys and we had always nice uh nice catching up we had a couple couple good runs overseas together and I didn't want to spoil it too much, but you do have a documentary being made about your career, and that's also to raise awareness for Alzheimer's. And we'll get you on to talk about that too. But I guess look out for that in your social channels. And when is around the time it should be coming out?

Yeah, so we're still cutting it up. And I don't know if it's if it's out there yet, but we have someone pretty high up in in the Hollywood scene that's that's co-producing for us. But it's honestly like dream come true to have this guy working on the film with us. So we do have the documentary coming out and just raise more awareness on Alzheimer's. I think one of the leading cause of deaths in the world, really, and just trying to get the attention out there and help prevent it for other people. So I'm not sure when it's going to be coming out, hopefully in the next six months or so, but I'll let the, the magicians behind the camera, figure that out. Thanks again for coming on.

Man, big thanks to TJ Oshie for joining us for a great chat. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I love his insights on, on his, all his peers around the league. I want to keep track of the big dogs. That was some pretty fucking funny stuff. I hope you guys got a kick out of it as well. We do want to let you know that the interview was also brought to you by Better Help Online Therapy. We talk about better help a lot on this show. And this month we're discussing some of the stigmas around mental health. For example, some people think you should wait until things are unbearable to go to therapy, but that isn't true. Therapy is a tool to utilize before things get worse, and it can help you avoid

those lows. Many people think therapy is for quote-unquote crazy people, but therapy doesn't mean something's wrong with you. It means you recognize that all humans have emotions, and we need to learn to control them, not avoid them. And we've been taught that mental health shouldn't be a part of normal life, but that's wrong too. We take care of our bodies with the gym, the doctor, and nutrition. We should be focusing on our minds just as much. BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist so you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy,

and you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Give it a try and see why over 2 million people have used BetterHelp online therapy. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp, and our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash chiclets. That's B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P.com slash chiclets. And, G, I know you're feeling better because we're going to take a month off, relax after our nice little Minnesota trip, and get ready for the Chiclets Cup in Vegas, baby.

That is correct, R.A. We are exactly one month away from the Chicklets Cup. Last pod biz announced. A.J. Galante from the Danbury Trashers will be joining us there. Terry Ryan, Terry Ryan Sr. as well. And we're also working on adding a potential another party to the mix. So another Pink Whitney party could be thrown into the mix here for All-Star Weekend. We're super, super excited. And, Whit, I know you were kind of mentioning in Minnesota how pumped

you were for this. Oh, I can't wait. I mean, one thing, it's Vegas. Everyone has a blast there and then leaves with their tail between their legs. And two, the fact that we get the party. I think that what we experienced with the first Chicklets Cup shows that, like, there's so much room for improvement, even though we crushed it. So we're going to get better and better. Now it's Vegas. Now we've got some parties going on. And also, there's room left. So ChickletsCup.com.

Get on there right now if you want to play in this tournament. I promise you, you will not be disappointed. The setup we have, I believe, is right outside the Strat. Right? Is that where we're doing it? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So I've already seen on Google Images, Google Maps, setup we have i believe is right outside the strat and it right is that where we're doing it oh yeah oh yeah so i've already seen on google images google maps the area it's going to be it's going to be a blast get over there right now chickletscup.com and join the party yeah not only for

the people who are involved in it but even just fans there for the all-star game we're going to have like live bands uh we're going to have a couple parties and stuff like that obviously the people who are involved in the tournament are going to have first priority we're going to have a couple of parties and stuff like that. Obviously the people who are involved in the tournament are going to have first priority. We're going to do the night before we're going to do this little kickoff event that we did the last time in Detroit. So we're learning and growing as we do these things. This one in Vegas is going to be a notch above Detroit. And I cannot wait to fucking speed bag all these teams.

And I'll announce another guy. We're getting Trevor Gretzky as our goaltender. And also, Terry Ryan is going to be bringing in a couple ringers for me. So he's going to reach it. Trev's playing, huh? Trev's going to be. Well, R.A., I wanted you in that, but you said you hung him up. So I got to go with the young guy, the young legs.

You guys are better. You're in a higher class, too. I don't you guys not playing in the D division anymore. So we're going to Vegas. We're going to land. That'll be the last time we see ra playing a street hockey tournament those gretzky boys at it again uh biz you know talking about celebrity guests uh i meant to say you bumped into the uh famous tony x uh blues fan out in the hotel i understand huh yeah hotel bar

he was having a he met uh he met quite a few guys over the weekend too. He met John ham. He ran into him in the bar. I saw your Twitter exchange, but he's one of the, I think he became a hockey fan randomly online, just kind of stumbled across hockey. Now he's kind of one of these like online personas around the game. And I think the league ends up flying them around because of the amount of engagement that he creates. So just an awesome fan and awesome guy. And was able to to finally meet him in person so yeah it was it was a great event man i had a blast he's a hell of an ambassador for the game man i'm i'm fortunate i

didn't buy bin one but i'm trying to twist his arm to get him out to vegas so maybe we can entice him with a little free airfare well to get uh gary betman to open up his wallet and get a flight for 20 X. Well, boys, I know you want to talk about your old team, the Pittsburgh penguins, the red hot right now,

they ripped off the eighth straight win with a 13 day layoff in between Jake Gensel, pretty much pacing his team right now, 29 points in 25 games, Evan Rodriguez on fire as well. Got 26 points in 31 games, but I think the story of the team, Tristan,

Jerry, a 10, one-on-one games. But I think the story of the team, Tristan Jarry, 10-1-1 in his last 12 on the season. He's got a 1-9-3 goals against, 9-3-2 save percentage, three shutouts. There's still six points back at first, but this is a hell of a run they've been making. And Gino Malcolm hasn't played a fucking game in a while yet. So you're going to add this all-world guy right to the lineup.

Said his knees never felt better. They asked him about coming back. He said he wants to play for three or four more years. And he said, I'm not thinking about my contract. I'm not thinking about money. I'm like a pretty rich guy. So, I mean, Gino being Gino. And if you're a Penguins fan, man, the way Jarry's playing,

the way the team's playing, now you're going to add Malcolm in. You're going to be fired up right now. How about Rodriguez, man? This guy's on pace for 30 goals. The most he'd ever had before this was nine. And he's been a lightning rod for them. But going back to Jari, he was the one question mark after a tough playoff performance last year. And it's a cultural thing to me.

I'm a fucking bozo. I thought that they were going to miss playoffs with Crosby and Malkin missing time at the beginning of the season. Crosby's came back and all he needed to do was get his reps. Now he's firing on all cylinders. And going to Malkin missing time at the beginning of the season. Crosby's came back, and all he needed to do was get his reps. Now he's firing on all cylinders. And going to Malkin and hearing his quotes, geez, I think he's going to be ready to sign a four-year extension with the Penguins pretty soon, probably at a hometown discount

for crying out loud. And he says that his knee is stronger than ever before, and he's probably on the gas. And this team is primed and ready for another fucking cup run all of a sudden i actually put in a future on him um because if you look at if you look at like the way that the sid's career is gone like would you be that surprised if he gets one more i really wouldn't and going to this season i obviously would have been but then seeing some of the the production they've got,

Rodriguez being number one from guys that you didn't necessarily expect it from. Rodriguez has a pretty cool story. So he played at BU, fellow Terrier. And his junior year, a tough year. I think the whole team kind of struggled. He had like 14, 15 points in 30 games as a junior, right? Well, senior year,

he comes back. You're not going to turn pro after that. I don't even know if he had the option to, and Jack Eichel comes in. So he has the chance to play with Jack Eichel who wins the Hobie Baker, one of the best college players of all time. Rodriguez wasn't drafted. He gets 61 points in 41 games playing with Eichel, gets signed by Buffalo Buffalo that year plays most of the year in the AHL, but then works his way, works his way. He's playing in the NHL. No grant he's playing for Buffalo. So this isn't a great team. So maybe he wouldn't have had that chance. Had he signed with another organization, but he goes over to Pittsburgh and Mike Sullivan has just really believed in him. And there was a lot of talk about, you know, who's going to score goals for

them. And apparently there's a clip on a show that falls around the Penguins, kind of like what the Bruins have on Nessun. All right. The Penguins have something similar. I don't know the name of it, but you can see my Mike Sullivan in the summer is talking openly with the hockey staff, you know, about like how how well this guy can play and how much of a score he can be. And this year has been incredible. And I think that if you've had your career high points be 29 and you're at 26 through 31 games not only are you like feeling great because of what's going on you're as confident as you've ever been so the kid had a hat trick on Sunday Brian Rust also had a hat trick he had five points and I think that was his first game back in a long time another guy who came off injury yeah and so they have they have have a team that could go on a run, and Jari being one of the reasons that you're like,

oh, they have a legit goalie. I mean, this kid is not a flash in the pan. He's a true number one goalie. He's kind of proved that. So actually, I was in the last game. I think I was in the last game, at least on the team. The last time two Penguins had a hat trick, it was Peter Sikora and Pascal Dupuis in 2008.

So it's been quite a while. And to think that Rodriguez had a chance, he just missed an empty netter for his fourth goal. It ended up being icing, but they were up two goals, whatever. That's what everyone does now. But this team, it's for real. And the question mark being like Gino's a UFA, LeTang's a UFA. I don't know how that all works out,

but we'll see what Gino has when he comes back because the way he was talking, you're expecting some serious. Oh, yeah. He doesn't talk like that very often or if ever. So, yeah, now I'm fucking shaking to my boots for my hot pick there at the start of the season. I watched most of that game because it was, what was it, 5-1? 6-1 after the first.

6-1 after the first. Next thing you know, it's 6-5. And so I was watching, and Crosby was dominant. I mean, he's had like a little bit of an issue in terms of scoring goals. He's still over a point per game, but like, you know, he's got four goals in 19 games. And the way he looked it almost is like hey there's going to be a Sid explosion coming up here one of those 10 games eight goals 12 assists 20

points type Sid explosion so I wouldn't be shocked at all if that if that comes to fruition when Gino gets back and that power play with how good Rodriguez has looked him being a righty it's an enormous difference maker so you can have Letang up top You get Rodriguez to his left for a one-timer. Malkin will be to the right for his one-timer in his usual spot. Sit down on the goal line and then look, you know, stick whoever you want in front. It happens to be Jake Gensel. So I love the pens and now I'm on the train for them possibly winning the cup.

Number four. I think they're, I think they're one move away. And the only unfortunate part is I don't think they have a lot of high-end prospects down in the minors, and I don't know exactly what they have as far as draft picks in order to maybe lure someone over. So, I mean, just like everyone else, I think they need that one other piece. Berkey will be going for it. Yes, he will.

I should say Berkey and Ron Hextall. It's not just him. All right, boys, moving right along. Another milestone to check in on. Jonathan Tavares played his 900th NHL game the other night. Unfortunately, there was no crowd there to celebrate with him. He got an assist in a blowout versus Ottawa. Biz, I know you wanted to chime in here on your boys, the Maple Leafs.

They are fucking rolling right now, and that was another guy who was, you know, there was a little bit of a question mark coming into the season on what he was going to provide provide and he looks like his old self with those young fresh legs so I was surprised to hear that he's already hit 900 because he's still going to play another like he's the type of guy who's probably going to get the 1500 games at the pace that he's going right now so yeah you saw a couple of their guys post about him he's a you know he's he's a leader in that room, and you could tell the younger guys really respect him and look up to him.

So, yeah, I have high expectations for this Leafs squad. I know that Witt doesn't, but we all know that he's a fucking bozo, and he's going to lose that bet too. Oh, yeah. The bet is that they win the cup. If you think I'm the only fucking person that doesn't think they're going to win the cup, then you're dumber than your mustache makes you look.

Ooh. A little spice for the back end of the pod. I won't look as fucking stupid as you or what that stupid hearing of your ear. If you're a Leafs fan, any Leafs fan out there, as I said, say whatever you want. No, I think the bet was at the beginning of the year that I said that they were going to find themselves out of the first round.

I said that. No, no, no, no. Well, I said I'd wear the pink tuxedo if they win the cup. That's true. That's true. How much is a life-size? I could have a pink tuxedo with an earring, technically. How much is a life-size crucifix anyways? What's that run?

A couple hundred bucks? I have no clue. Why? Why do you ask? Well, I mean, it's got to fit the wit dog. Oh, it's going to be the, yeah, it's going to be the same one of that movie that the passion of Christ crucifix. No, because he says, he's got to match the size of your ear.

So he says, you're going to look like the guy, the guy in the passion of the Christ. I thought I'd be like, like Jesus on the cross. I wasn't thinking about my ear. All right. I was thinking of the exact same thing you were. I was going to say, who directed the movie? Famous actor.

Mel Gibson. No, Mel Gibson directed it. I'm sorry. I'm thinking of The Last Temptation of Christ. Scorsese directed that. The Last Temptation. Stay hot. Yeah.

All right. Well, there were two big Jesus movies by prominent directors. Yeah, Last Temptation of Christ. I've never seen Passion of the Christ. Passion of the Christ is Mel Gibson. I've never seen either. Really? Yeah, religious shit doesn't float my boat, even if it's a movie.

You're a movie guy. I know, I know, I know. I've actually never seen either one. I don't know. I think fucking all the brainwashing they did to me as a kid. I revolt against that shit. Now, biz your old stomping grounds run the news quite a bit this week, the East coast hockey league. We had a pregame doctor hook fight,

the anti tummy sticks, Travis, how the Jacksonville Iceman versus Nico Blackman, a Blashman of the South Carolina stingrays, a shadow Connie from Dorchester. But these guys were like one guy stepping over the line. of the South Carolina Stingrays. Shout out, Connie, from Dorchester. But these guys were like one guy stepping over the line, the other guy's hitting them. Dude, they were like stick fighting.

It was like Dr. Hook, Tim McCracken straight out of Slapshot. Have you ever participated in some of the most outrageous things I've ever seen in a professional hockey game was the guy from the Jacksonville team, the Iceman, go over the red line and start stretching on the other team's side. And then you had guys from the South Carolina team firing pucks at him. And I guess there was a dust-up between the two guys at the red line who were going at it at the beginning of the clip, and the guy from the Jacksonville Iceman ended up pumping the other guy.

Now, that was just what I'm hearing online. So I think we need to tune in a little bit more to this echl business because this is one of the this is going right back to the slap shot days would you not agree they were fucking harpooning each other they were spearing each other i just made 17 slap shot references so yeah i agree a thousand percent yeah exactly what's the kid's name from jackson? Jacksonville play was Travis Howe. Okay. I'm guessing he is beyond tough because he was stretching in their zone

and they weren't really doing anything. Like that's something where you come over and physically like jump on him and tackle him. Like I know people aren't really aware of that, but you do not enter the other team's zone in warmups. It is like uh what is the word like it just doesn't happen in hockey you've seen guys who go a little bit over the red line they get an elbow to the face back in the day like it's your zone it's your half of

the ice so do not go in there and the way that they were kind of like they were shooting pucks at him and they were kind of spearing on him but notice nobody was going near him yeah you gotta you gotta drop the mitts at that point. Yeah. But what's the suspension if it's pregame? I mean, you must get murdered with a fine. There's no ref on the ice. I don't know why.

They were like assaulting each other out there. That's right, Biz. I didn't mean to cut you off. They were like legit assaulting each other, though. Like, I don't know. I love it. I love the fact that nothing happened. But it's funny you mentioned Slapshot, Biz.

And I meant to say this earlier, but a nice little segue, the organist at the Seattle games is the actual organist from Slapshot. The movie Rod Masters, his name is he's, he actually wore a bucket, you know, in the Slapshot,

he gets hit in the head with a puck and he comes back with a bucket. I guess he wore a bucket the other night in Seattle and he played lady of Spain, which is the song of course that Reds dumb up tells him to never play again. So just, I don't know, fun, fun that Reds dumb up tells him to never play again. So just a fun little thing, I guess, for Seattle to kind of keep going all these years later. Going back to the Jacksonville player.

No, no, no song there. That was a good little segue. That Jacksonville player, when Sean ended up going down to get a little bit of video of Derek Nesbitt's 1,000th game, they were playing against Jacksonville, and that guy ended up getting in a big scrap. So I think that he's the king of the castle. And if you could resay his name again, R.A., so everybody knows, I think that he's the number one heavyweight in the ECHL.

And Clayton Keller reached out to me and said that the guy from the South Carolina team, Blanchard, I believe you said his last name was? Yeah. Blatchman, maybe. Or Blatchman. They said that he would come on the podcast to explain everything that ended up going down so maybe we should start getting these ECHL interviews and kicking up some dust they could turn it into the UFC for crying out loud the amount of or the lack of rules down there

and Biz we will be working on the jungle series that we mentioned last podcast with tons of ECHL content that you're going to be working on for the next few months so keep an eye on that on the YouTube channel. I might buy a fucking team if that's the antics that's going on down there. That's pure entertainment. Start to finish.

Warm up, that is. And then there was another crazy ECHL story too, right, R.A.? Yep. Get to that in a sec. Travis, how was the Iceman you were asking about, Whit? And also, I just mentioned the Stingrays. Of course, their team president is a local boy, Robbie Kincannon, dorchester uh guy right out of here in boston so give oh my god google robbie can cannon boston globe and i think billy baker wrote the article friend of mine jack

baker's brother you'll learn about how much of a legend rob can cannon is i don't even know him oh ron connie's he's he's a fucking bananas we miss him up here in boston but he's been having great success down there. So hope you're doing well there, Connie. But yeah, East Coast, we had an e-bug story. This kid, Brady DeVries, he plays Division three Grand Canyon University in your home state, Arizona. He was in San Diego for winter break. Well, the Utah Grizzlies and East Coast East Coast Hockey League team, they were visiting his hometown, Rapid City, Russia.

And they needed a goalie because of COVID, injuries, all this bullshit. So DeVries stepped in with borrowed gear. He stopped 18 of 21 shots for a 4-3 overtime win, made his pro debut. This is a Division III goalie, man. I went to a Division III school. Some of these kids are good. Some of them are so-so.

He jumps in, gets his first pro start. His pads were back in Arizona. He had to borrow pads. He had to borrow the helmet off the other team's goalie coach. He goes in, gets his first pro start. His pads were back in Arizona. He had to borrow pads. He had to borrow the helmet off the other team's goalie coach. He goes in, and he beats him. Just an awesome fucking story, man. We can never get sick of E-Bug goalies, whatever level, but the fact that this kid's home on spring break, a D3 goalie,

and gets in a pro game, awesome. I couldn't even throw on another guy's shin pads and play a game. That's how uncomfortable it is. Even breaking in new shin pads. They could be mine the same size. If you get those new Jofas, they just feel like, oh, they feel terrible. But that's a great story. The ECHL providing all the entertainment.

Seriously, this week. Last ECHL thing, a buddy of mine, Bobby Butler, who hasn't played since 1819. He played for Hartford. He actually made Team USA the Olympic team last Olympics. So he's been retired two, three years. The Worcester, I think it's the Railmen, the ECHL team in Worcester, called him.

They needed a guy, so he went and played. And he had a one and two, goal and two assists on Sunday, playing with all, you know, and his kids are a little bit older now. I think his son Vince is his oldest, who's able to be there. I saw all the pictures on Instagram from his wife. And his son's got the jersey. And he lit it up. So it's pretty cool to not play pro in two years

and go get three points in a Coast game. I don't know if that says a lot about him or the league. I don't know. He's a sniper, I'll say that. But yeah, it's like, can I get a contract, please? I said three points. Can he play ball hockey? He's pretty decent.

Another local. We got to give a salute to it. Our buddy, Stevie Greeley. He joined Dallas as the director of hockey strategy slash scouting and development. He's going to oversee scouting and analytics. This guy's a great guy. Played for the range. I'm sorry.

Worked for the ranges. Saved us for a little bit. You grew up with him, right? Yeah, we're from Scituate. His brother Jack and I played together. His brother Jack's the kid who had the breakaways against Marc-Andre Fleury. I think he scored two of 10.

I've told that story a long time ago on Chicklets. Steve, I played at BU with. He was assistant coach at BU. He worked for the Rangers. He worked for the Sabres. And now after, I think it's been just a little bit over a year, he's signed he was assistant coach at BU he worked for the Rangers he worked for the Sabres and now after I think it's you know been just a little bit over a year he's signed to Dallas and I think a big part of it's going to be the analytics so I know there's a lot of discussion there on what he'll be doing so congratulations back in the game that's that's what that's what

he knew would happen so Dallas Stars here comes Greeley. Congrats, pal. Good for you. All right, boys, that's it for the hockey. A couple of final notes here. John Madden, NHL legend, died at 85. Of course, he was a legendary coach. NFL. What the fuck did I say? NHL. It's okay, buddy.

We're all scramblers. Well, Gretzky took a shit in his car, so he's kind of a... So, yeah, a little Venn diagram. Yeah, either way, NFL legend, John Madden, dead at 85. Of course, he's a legendary coach, legendary analyst, the video game god. And you already squashed the story about Gretzky. And also Betty White. She got whammy, dude.

People Magazine comes out, 100th birthday special edition for Betty White, and then she dies before her 100th birthday. It's like fucking whammy by People Magazine. Another TV legend. Do you ever watch the Golden Girls? I watch the Golden Girls. I was a 13-year-old kid watching it fucking ages ago.

I don't know if it was about a horny senior woman. Yeah, a couple of gilfs buzzing around. You love that shit already. G-gilfs. Either way, the show still holds up and largely because of Betty White and how funny she was. So a couple of legends. Hey, I was shooting pucks, and R.A. was cranking it to the Golden Girls. Yeah.

I don't know. I think people might take option B there. You are a sick fuck. We don't kink shame on here. Going back to John Madden, he was one of the only guys that was ever able to announce games for different networks wasn't he working for three different networks at a time no no no no he worked for all four networks the only guy ever he was never doing

it all at once oh i thought it was all at once i'm like holy shit i really i maybe my comprehension skills agent yeah no he worked for abc nbc cbs and fox and nobody else has done that and okay i actually uh i totally forgot that john madden did the pats first super bowl win when they beat the rams and pat summerall who also passed away years ago they them together if you just youtube pat summerall john madden like the way they both sound, their voices and the description and the fact that they got to do that Pat's Super Bowl in New Orleans, just an amazing, amazing announcer, amazing team. Probably the best ever to do it in football.

Yeah, I wouldn't disagree. I mean, I throw Cosell fucking Gifford and Dunn Maynard in there, but I certainly wouldn't disagree when you say Summerall and Baden for sure. Apparently Summerall enjoyed a few cocktails while he was on the broadcast. Is that a fact? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it became a problem for him.

I think he kind of settled down with that later in life. But, yeah, he used to enjoy a few pop stars. Well, I mean, the way that Andy Cohen was buzzing buzzing i think they should let people drink and go on television more often yeah andy cohen he was drunk shitting on um well the former new york mayor de blasio in which case who gives a fuck he's not the mayor anymore my wife said he got fired but apparently he will be invited back i don't know but either way when the st louis blues won the cup a couple years ago i went over and congratulated this guy my My wife's a huge fan of him. And he was like, kind of like a dick.

And I said it before. And like, I guess someone told him, he brought it up on the show. Like, you know, I mean, I wasn't rude. I was like, hey, congrats on the winning. He was just like, kind of looking at me like that, like who you type look like, you know, when someone's being like condescending towards you.

So I don't know. I always liked him before that. And he's kind of a dick to me. So I haven't rooted from it as much since biz. All right. Well, he's on the show. Don did that night but all right anything else boys oh yeah guys one thing um so i posted a picture of biz in our um new ski merch that we plan to drop um this thursday actually and it kind of went i don't want to say it went viral but people

were popping off about it so we're dropping a whole Opry ski line this Thursday. We got winter jackets, trapper hats, RAs wearing them. We have pants. We have windbreakers. So barstoolsports.com slash chiclets. It's actually some really, really incredible, high quality, good ski merch. So get it for the money.

I'm going skiing in two weeks, G. You got to send some my way. I got you, buddy. I'm going to Okemo in Vermont. And You got to send send some my way. I got you, buddy. Going to Okimo in Vermont. And my last thing is in terms of TV shows. Maybe you brought this up already. Dope Sick on Hulu. You seen it?

I haven't yet. I've heard it's wonderful. I haven't seen it yet. Oh, it is one of the most amazing, sad, like incredible shows. The acting in it's amazing. Michael Keaton is kind of the main character. It goes through basically what the true pandemic is, and that's opiates in this country

and how Purdue originally brought Oxycontins into the world. And I recommend it to anyone. It's amazing. And it's very, very kind of tough to watch at times. It's not a documentary. It's a show, like I said, with Keaton. But check that one out because some of the biggest scumbags to ever live you'll see in this show.

It's absolutely disgusting. They knowingly hooked millions of people. They told everyone that less than 1% of people would become addicted. And then not only that, people started taking a pill that was supposed to last for 12 hours. It wouldn't last for 12 hours. What did Purdue did? They just told all the doctors, oh, double the dosage. And so like you don't – I'm kind of somewhat – I'm like on episode four or five.

You don't necessarily know yet. Like all the salespeople didn't know, but I think they kind of did. Doctors didn't know, but they kind of did. It's a wild show in terms of seeing how this all went down, but the family, I think they were the sacklers. They're the biggest. It's insane. Nobody's in jail for it. Sorry to cut you off. Disgusting. I recommend the show on

Hulu. Dope sick. Everyone, scattered episode, but we had a great time in many, and there's so much good happening in the league as long as we get these games back going and get fans in Canada. I'm sorry, Canadians. You don't deserve this, but we had a great time in many and there's so much good happening in the league. As long as we get these games back going and get fans in Canada, I'm sorry, Canadians, you don't deserve this,

but we love all you guys. And once again, to the people in many unreal that you chose to come out and hang with us. Thank you so much. As always, we like to thank our terrific sponsors here on Spit and Chicklets. So huge thanks to our longtime friends over at Pink Whitney and New Amsterdam Vodka. Big thanks to everybody over at Shopify. By all means, check them out.

And a huge thanks to our friends at BetterHelp. Have a great week, everybody.