Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 369: Featuring Keith Ballard

Episode Date: January 18, 2022

On Episode 369 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Keith Ballard. Keith joined us (1:09:35) during our Minnesota Trip to discuss his career, growing up in Minnesota, the infamous incident with Tomas Vokoun & tons more. But first, the guys open the show discussing all the recent NHL news, including the NHL all-star rosters, Kodak Black at the Panthers game, and once again the Edmonton Oilers struggling. The guys wrap up the show discussing whether or not Nick Lidstrom can still play in the NHL, the NFL, and some movie talk.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 369 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney. My friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. What's up, everyone? Hope you had a nice week. We got lots to talk about.

Some all-star news, some luxury box dry humping, a huge name returning to the nhl we have some philadelphia legend on philadelphia legend on violence crazy week but let's first check out the boys see how their weekend went mikey g what's going on brother nothing really man another day closer to uh the chiclets cup so we're getting biz's roster finalized and we're uh we're all good to go that thing's coming together quite nice because you guys is this going to be a goon squad? You guys trying to win it? No, we're trying to be competitive here. As far as Merle's video, I'm sure that was going to come up.

I mean, this guy's a content factory now. What are we going to do with him? Hey, he wants to be on this team, and he just showed you up in northern Sweden how bad he wants it. He's doing like power squats on 1965 machinery in Sweden. So I was impressed as hell with the video. I don't know. Did he put in the video the outtake of when he almost broke the window

with his slap shot? It was a 100-yard slap shot. It could definitely come in handy in your street hockey tournament. My thing for your street hockey, what is it? Big Deal Selects? The Big Deal Selects. Big Deal Selects. I love the name. You were like the Rangers in 2001. You're

just grabbing all these guys. You're grabbing all the big free agents and they're all skilled, like amazing skill and wizardry of the game. But I don't know how these guys are all going to conform to be on a team where I think you're just like, let me get some great individuals and it'll work out where Merle is the guy that will make it work out by making them a team.

Yeah, the glue guy. Merle brings a lot of glue to the lineup to the point where Sid ended up mentioning it on his podcast. You know, we got a Crosby on of all guys that come up. He's talking about was he not his first ever NHL roommate? Yeah, he was. And Merle's just caught. He's the glue guy who organizes the dinner.

Make sure the Ubers are set to go to the casino and drop us back off from the casino. Despite how late it is, even if it's seven o'clock the next day and you've completely missed curfew. Was it him who made you late for curfew? Yeah, we just mentioned that last week. But, Biz, you got to remember this. Merle's was the setup guy for Sid. At RPI, Merle's had a setup guy. The setup guy, it runs down river.

Is that the term, R.A.? It goes downhill. Yeah. The setup guy in high school or the guy getting set up, he may be the complete opposite once you get to the top. So Merle's just, he adapts to what he needs to do and on your team with all these special talents that have never played together he's gonna have to get them together and i'm going to be on the side by the way i think r and ra and i'll be doing some announcing in-game interviewing post-game

interviewing so i'm gonna be all over you you think people are hard on tippet and the oilers right now i'm gonna be coming at you like shit because i'll tell you this team is built not to win it's built to impress with the fancy dancy trevor's moves that was a nice little fucking rant now what you're saying is we need a chameleon and that's merles and i will say it looks like the voting and i left it to the chicklets nation's hands as far as voting was concerned. So it looks like he will be on the squad. And after seeing the lengths he went to to make that Rocky IV remix and get R.A. going. Now, R.A., I was going to ask you, that workout machinery at that park he was at, like, what do you call that?

Is that like a prison yard? That looked like basically something like a free workout thing. You see them around like public gyms and stuff. Muscle Beach in L.A. Yeah, there you go, beach but i love i love how we went to it didn't we yeah but i don't know if they have those ones are like easy because it's like almost like just momentum and you're barely like like the chin-up bar yeah i understand but those other things are a bit i know but biz you ever see a really jack swede no you ever see well i'm sure there's some world's strongest guys swedes but most swedes are just fitness freaks because they do the body weight stuff you don't need the

heavy weight stuff anymore the whole country is sweden they're all ripped up because they do the body weight in the park at muscle beach orange goldsveig is it i was gonna what'd you say it orange gold veek well that's where i played orange Ornskold-Zwick, where Modo plays. Oh, that's the name of the shot. Very close to where Timra plays, which is Sons of All. So he's going to be on the squad, and hopefully he can bring this group of guys together. Because, gee, you can mention the other guys.

It's always Hockey. He does all these hockey tricks. I mean, yeah, like the Don Cherries of the internet. Yeah, they're shaking their fucking fists harder than R.A. at some lady trying to sneak a cat on a plane. Hey, but he's participating in the All-Star game. He's doing the breakaway contest for the All-Star game, too. That's how silky this kid's mitts are.

He's now being seen it. It's ridiculous. What's his game? Because I was going through his Instagram. Always. Oh, yeah. I mean, some of this stuff is so wild I just want to see how is he in a game because I know he's mastered the skill of the video and the shootout but

in a game I'm just that's what I'm wondering well then biz you added a little muscle too you have Ollie and Jacob from on the bench too they can protect him out there we have we haven't talked about that yet yeah I got those silly bastards from canada coming down well and they're gonna add suspended the uh the way that i uh i found them on the internet originally was when they did a couple of the videos i think they did like the torch training video and it was just them eating pucks and they're like right in their groin area and then the other one was when they were skating on their actual skates on cement and the sparks are just flying everywhere. So these guys are a couple of silly idiots with the content.

But when I agree with you, there's a lot of guys who are content factories on the on the team. But when you have to play in an actual game and try to win a tournament, especially at the fact that who's who are these guys? What's the league called that they're coming from? The All-Stars, the National Ball Hockey Association. What's the league called that they're coming from? The All-Stars? The National Ball Hockey Association. Yeah, they're coming. And they got that guy, the guy with the nose with the half-chewed caramel that looked from the original one.

What's his name? Corey? Corey. Corey, yeah. He looked like a Corey. I mean, he said before the tourney they were going to win. He then scored, I think, at least once in the final against Wierenski. Talked shit the whole time.

Longest pick ever, too. I'm sitting down and talking like, kid, he's a long medal. Massachusetts. I mean, this is where, like, ball hockey began. A lot of people say Deckhawk, Pittsburgh.

So the Lemonster, sorry. What did I say? I think you said long medal, but got to give props to Lemonster. Hey, there's an L in there. I'm winning at any point. Western Mass. I think, though, in the end,

we are looking at a team who I'd be shocked if they didn't repeat. Yeah, they are definitely stacked. They're pretty nasty. Going back to Merle's, my favorite part was when he was doing the ball drill and all the plastic cups were the Pink Whitney cups he took home from Detroit. I think he checked a separate bag just to bring all those fucking cups back home from Detroit that time.

Well, speaking of Pink Whitney, we've got to get it in. First week of the football playoffs, a toast. Some of the teams, like around here, we're drowning our sorrows. Other teams like Biz, he's still celebrating. His team's moving on with the birdie juice. However you're feeling, go out, celebrate with some Pink Whitney. If you're not a football fan, big deal.

You just go to your local bar, order up a shot, maybe a nice Pink Whitney and soda, and enjoy the nice, smooth taste of Pink Whitney. Biz, your weekend looked like you had a little road trip, according to the IG. Where'd you go? Is it Jackson Hole? a nice pink whitney and soda and enjoy the nice smooth taste of pink whitney uh biz y'all weekend look like you had a little road trip uh according to the ig where'd you go does it jackson hole yeah i went to jackson hole oh my goodness boys what a magical place just a very very cool town i went to that million million dollar cowboy bar you know you know how there's always that one bar in town like you go to vancouver you gotta go to the Roxy. I feel like this is kind of that place, but it did not disappoint.

I ended up meeting a bunch of Chicklets fans. There was a Senior A team from Arizona there for a Senior A tournament or a meetup to play against the Jackson Hole team. Apparently, they get pretty good crowds there. I think it seats the arena 600, but there was about 2,000 people jammed in for the senior A game. So ran into some Chicklets fans there, played some pool, had some fun, fucking had a couple of Bugsy Malone Jager shots along with Pink Whitney, of course. And yeah, it's just it's a place already that I would consider moving.

And as people know, the Grand Teton, I guess the French discovered this place with and that the two tallest mountains look like a set of tits. So they call it the Grand Tetons. Hold on, I'm writing this down. R.A. discovered the Grand Tetons. That's the maturity level to the French that showed up to this area of the world. French hate Americans to begin with. You tell them that R.A. is a a frenchman they'll fucking lose their mind that's not like that's their enemy number one

is an ra yeah no no french blood me how far of a drive is that this eight hours like no uh so we flew in but i think oh i think you drove okay no no from scottsdale arizona to there it's a 15 hour drive but it's just cool because it's it's all surrounded by uh by national forest and government land right so it can only be so big and the the summertime is is is magical they're uh unbelievable golf course or they got a couple um and but the the size of the town is 12,000 people and it can't get much bigger because they won't allow for for more and more development development at least at like a regular rate so i would probably put it on par with with aspen if not even a little bit better as far as the skiing's concern so as far as the the 12 are

the the four seasons that you're dealing with i mean it's it's a it's a magical place man and you're getting that you're getting that dry powder because it's not very humid. So the skiing is even better. Like I know out East, you get some great places like Vermont to go skiing, which I believe you're going there next week with, but it's just, it's just a different type of skiing. I'm going tomorrow, tomorrow night or tonight, I guess when you're listening to this and I can't wait.

I have always wanted to ski out West in Jackson Hole. My brother, Sean, played a game there against the Jackson Moose, I think they're called. Said like 2,500 people, he thought, 2,000 maybe. I mean, there's fights. It's an absolute blast. And I would like to get out there, not only to ski, but to see the town

because you sent some pictures. It just looks like such a cool downtown that I i think that and the no state tax buddy that's a no-brainer for you i mean i i i would love to come visit you out there hey you just reminded me so this that was one of the places i went mangy moose it's like a bar there's a bunch of baseball players there ra they had a live cover band they get live music every single night they don't do it to too late so it's basically you spend the whole day on the mountain you come down at around four o'clock and then you go on like a you know four or five hour drinking period with the live cover band everybody it's packed in there and then usually by about 10 o'clock everybody starts clearing out

because fuck you as you know as anyone where you get out there to the mountain you go all day and then you have about you know five six drinks in a couple hours. You're fucking pickled. You're like R.A. is in this fucking Ballard interview. Got to call in some extra flurries. That is a perfect precursor, folks, because we got Keith Ballard coming on tonight. R.A. tied one on. We can get into it after the interview, but wow.

Yeah, I was hair here the dog and i guess i had a little still more flowing to me than the night before than i expected uh because i mean i think i had two or three drinks before we left and yeah yeah whatever we got through it i thought i thought it was a good interview i thought we ended up oh it was awesome buddy it was awesome hey i'll give you five guesses where i went friday night at midnight i i went to somewhere i think i might have tweeted so i spoiled it there but if you didn't see my tweet i did not see it i went wait wait wait you went to hang out with john cooper again for the fucking 20th time and you guys ended up at some nightclub together no no no it wasn't the time this weekend i went to a midnight showing of a clockwork orange

friday no way yeah so yeah i've never seen that movie. It's obviously got some weird twists and turns. Like let's hear your breakdown of this old time classic. All right. Now I haven't, I've seen it hundreds of times, not dozens of times as a teenager. Me and my cousin used to watch it all the time. Probably haven't watched it in 25 years. So I started playing at the Coolidge, Coolidge corner over in Brookline. They do midnight showings for old movies all the time. It's kind of like a repertory theater. So I texted my cousin, my buddy, look what's playing. So we ended up going over, dude. And it's so different to watch it 25 years later.

Like the guy come out and he's like, hey, anybody see this movie before? Like they talked to you before. And like half the crowd raised their hand. They'd never seen it before. And I honestly thought he was going to give a trigger warning, like because, you know, younger crowd, modern crowd. And there are some scenes that maybe would get a trigger warning

in this day and age, but he didn't give one. He's like, all right, enjoy the movie. It's Stanley Kubrick film. And there are some scenes that maybe would get a trigger warning in this day and age, but he didn't give one. He's like, all right, enjoy the movie. It's Stanley Kubrick film. And it's awesome, dude, to see an old movie. I had never seen it in the theater before. It came out in 1971. So I only ever saw it on either HBO or VHS.

So to see it on this big grand theater with 35 millimeter film, it's an awesome experience, dude. And it takes you away more. Like my brain's always fucking racing and going. I sat there and like focused and zoned in on this movie and kind of understood it probably better than i ever did before highly recommend it it's it's a different movie something you probably wouldn't see made in this day and age i don't mean like for pussy pc reasons just because it's trippy based on a book well i just i think that it's it's hard for people to find original ideas i feel like a lot of them have already been uh

used up now this one is a type of movie like an alice in wonderland where it just goes on a world of its own right well it's about these four four like goons basically it's like set in the future and they're they're basically you know violent here in the future you know what they don't say in the movie and i hadn't read the book and since fucking high school but it's set in the future and they're just they're just scumbag thieves crooks and one of them uh he gets arrested and they and he opts for this um certain procedure basically if you go through this procedure you get out of jail quicker and i don't know if you've ever seen the scene biz where they got the guys his eyes are forced open that's why i've never watched the movie that's yeah gross as me to fuck out they've they used to put that up I'm almost positive at the Mellon Arena at TV timeouts for the Penguins.

Like it would be like, you know, say like firing up the fans. I don't know what it was. And they would show those eyes clamped open. And that's why I said I've never. What movie is that from? Clockwork Orange. I'll never see that movie. Yeah, it's it's I mean, it's a great movie.

Malcolm McDowell played the lead. He was phenomenal. I mean, it was it was a crazy role to play. Plus Stanley Kubrick. He's one of these guys who makes people do 50, 60's a great movie. Malcolm McDowell, who played the lead, he was phenomenal. I mean, it was a crazy role to play, plus Stanley Kubrick. He's one of these guys, Biz, who makes people do 50, 60, 70 takes sometimes. So, I mean, imagine doing three or four for a Watson glove commercial. I can't imagine doing fucking 60 or 70. Like the coach in Miracle.

Is it Miracle? Is that the name of it? Isn't that your favorite movie, Grinelli? Without a doubt. Without a doubt, 100% my favorite movie. That's obnoxious, R.A. Is that like one of his... Is that what he was known for?

Yeah. I mean, in addition to making phenomenal, unique films, yeah, he was known for being kind of a tyrant on set and making people do the same thing over and over. He directed The Shining, too. He would have Shelley Duv people do the same thing over and over. Like, like, and he directed the shine and two, he would have Shelly Duvall do like the same take over and over. And she was getting like terrorized by Jack Nicholson with an ax. Like she basically had to go to like therapy after making that movie.

So I still haven't seen that one front to back, but, uh, I think I saw probably the first hour of it and he is just, Oh my God, is he good in that one yeah so he is freaking hit hit back in the day man like was there anybody better jack i don't know man jack in the 70s i mean one flow of the cuckoos in this that's my favorite one of his that's when he kind of personified that like jack persona uh one best actor for it if you haven't seen that phenomenal film he earned his money certainly working for him but no else earned his money this week you did paul on tnt you blew that place down between the coyote head the howling goofing on talking is talking gonna punch you one of these

nights because you're constantly how's your leg bro that's so uh that was a fun night man yeah sometimes fucking the wires cross and you just end up having way more fun than you expected. And they told me to bring the Coyotes pelt, so I was like, I'm down to throw it on and be silly. And, you know, we were a little nervous because we weren't sure how the game was going to pan out because fucking Toronto was a wagon and obviously Arizona. They've been playing a lot better hockey lately,

so you just kind of have a backup as to, like, you know, like what you're going to joke around about. But, fuck, it was a great game that Vemelka stood head uh then we got we got the marshy and the habs and that wasn't necessarily the best game either it did get chippy towards the end but fucking mike and marshy up and getting the pre-game interview with them and then like kind of following it as the game went on to me like that whole experience of being able to follow him kind of helped the broadcast and at least elevate it to a different level. No? I thought it was sick.

Yeah. He's great. When he wants to do stuff, he's not afraid to say anything. He's not afraid to do anything. It's fucking awesome. It's like HBO. I was at the game Saturday. My dad, the in-laws took Ryder, his cousin Cooper.

It was a blast. And he is so ridiculous right now. He absolutely hammered Yossi on the winning goal. It led to the winning goal later that shift in the middle of the ice. He crushed someone else behind the net, Fabro. I think he left the game. He had a goal and an assist. He is playing at as high of a level as anyone else is in the National Hockey League right now.

Him and Huberto are the two best players in the show right now. And if you look at what he's done in the back half of his career, listen, you can go on Twitter and check him out. If you think I'm going to rifle off these stats right now, you're out of your goddamn mind. But just his productivity after the age of 30 is, I think it's what, him, Crosby, and Ovechkin. And Mario as well.

Oh, Lemieux as far as, oh, wow. I've heard of him. 350 sheets. Keep that change. I didn't know they were bringing the stat back that far, but it's, it's honestly fucking remarkable. And you could just tell he was kind of ramped up, ready to go for an Olympic year.

And I'm sure why he was very frustrated, why it didn't happen. So now he's just fucking dropping his bag on the rest of the league as a result, a league as a result. But going back to that game against Nashville, unreal game, playoff type game, and very, very physical for a regular season game. Who ended up clipping? Was it, was it Tanner's or no? Who ended up getting clipped by that Riley kid? I thought Hall, I thought Hall hit him.

Oh, it was Hall then. Buddy, there was about five clips online of guys just running at guys. That Janot, he hammered Bergeron in front of Nashville's bench. He ran over somebody else in the neutral zone. I was really impressed by him. We talked about him a few weeks back, talking about how he's come up through the coast and everything he's been through and that he's a big

boy. He can move. Nashville's got a team. And I know I just talked about Marshawn running over Yossi, but we've chatted about him and we got to interview him once, but you saw it in person two weeks ago, Biz, and I got to experience it Saturday. He plays the entire game.

He leads the rush up the ice. All of a sudden, he's first man back playing the attacking team, breaks the puck out of the zone on the power play as a cannon. He also is making fakes all the time. I was so impressed by his game. He scored the tying goal in the third period, so they got a point out of it because of him. It was a great regular season game, though. Super intense, a fight. I had a blast. And I had you were there as well. Yeah, I got a late text about 1230. I didn't get over that till the game had started. But like I said, incredible buzz in the build.

But sometimes you get there for a matinee on a Saturday and the place is a little sleepy. But that wasn't the case Saturday. It did have a playoff vibe in there. Place was buzzing. Great time. I suppose we should jump into the bees because they had some big news this week. Of course, they've won five in a row, eight of nine. Mixing up those lines has been a huge deal.

But they signed Tuka Rask, as everybody expected. A one-year deal worth $1 million. It's going to be prorated, so he's going to earn about $545. He said, I'm back in Boston. It's official. Now, where's that Bud Light addendum? Because he had said prior, before last year, I'll play for Bud Light. So then Bud Light tagged him and said, oh, sign this contract here.

So funny little joke to add along to it. But it's a huge deal for the bees with. I mean, not that Swayman was playing bad by any stretch, but you got two bonafide number ones, a one and a one right now.

And this team is fucking moving along right now. I don't think I catch Tampa, but they should get in the playoffs. I think that the the eight playoff teams are set in the east. We could go into that a little bit later,

but it's it's kind to me, set in stone if you look at the standings. Tuca, I was happy for him. I saw him earlier in the fall, and he said his hip was feeling good. He wasn't even, I think, positive he was going to play. He probably knew. He just didn't tell me. But, I mean, I'm happy for him because you could hear when he talked about

how he's grown to be really family with Bergeron and Marchand and how many years they've been doing this. And I think that he does feel like there's unfinished business, no doubt. I mean, he was on a Stanley Cup winning team. He wasn't a goalie. Two amazing runs, lost to the Hawks and the Blues. A hell of a Bruins career. I don't care what anyone says.

So now he's back. And I do feel bad for Swayman a little bit. Now, it's weird because the beginning of the year, the goaltending was struggling and all Mark wasn't playing good. He's been great lately, but it made a lot more sense. And then all of a sudden the Bruins started playing better. You know, coincidentally, it goes along with how the goalies started playing better. And then Tuca comes back. So Swayman, I feel bad for because his quote was that's not not exactly ideal. I mean, he doesn't want to be in the minors. He played there the other night. They won five one in Hartford. And I think by his quotes, he's pretty, pretty positive and trying to just remind himself, let's just continue to get better and be down here. But it definitely sucks. And Don Sweeney

mentioned he's a big part of the team. They got rid of Ladar because of Swayman. But when you look at it, it's just tough when you when you've started feeling a little bit and playing a little bit better and then you get sent down so that's the only guy that i think this really affects right now because everyone else it's a good thing let me ask you this wit uh that's this window is closing right and this team is looking really good um i don't know if forbert's forbert's not back yet right yeah he played oh did he play okay so he was back in the lineup. So I think that they got a decent back end. I am happy with the forwards they got.

You guys realistically think that they could get back Krejci? Jesus Christ, new time. So I talked about this the other night, and I was saying, I wouldn't be that surprised. He's playing in the Olympics. The team's good. He got maybe the rest, as I'm saying this in quotations. Yeah, mental rest. saying I wouldn't be that surprised he's playing in the Olympics the team's good he got the maybe the rest as I'm saying this in quotation mental rest yeah so I said well my father's like there's

no way he'd come back he could come back I said what do you mean he said well somebody would grab him on waivers and I said well he would just tell them hey if you take me I'm not playing for you and he's like yeah but why wouldn't a team gets going to compete against the Bruins grab him me i'm not playing for you and he's like yeah but why wouldn't a team gets going to compete against the bruins grab them which i kind of didn't have an answer to like cock block yeah is that i know i know there's a certain amount of contracts you can give but just claiming a guy you don't have to give him a deal or like how does that work if he decides not to come i i don't know if they could say hey give us a a draft pick for it i mean you think a veteran of his statute they would just be a common courtesy like they did for Spezza. If you claim me, I'll retire.

Hey, this is a fucking war out there. I love the cock block analogy and the fact that another team in the East, you just talked about it. They're all set in stone. I think now that Tuke is back in Boston, I think that they're just one through eight. It could be any of

those fucking teams going off to the finals. I have no doubt in my mind. Now, the question I was going to get to earlier was, do you think that Swayman becomes a trade piece? What's that? Besides Toronto. Go ahead. Sorry.

Do you think Swayman becomes a trade piece? Because I think that he's so valuable. You got Allmark. I don't think anybody's going to take his contract on at the length that it's in. I mean, do you think Tuca is going to play beyond this year i'd imagine he probably will so he's probably going to come back to boston and and given the fact that swayman's probably at this point nhl ready at least on different teams and he's a young up and comer i bet you they can get a nasty return for something they're going to use for this cup run like you can't if you're the boss and bruins given the fact that bergeron's up after this year and you got you know pasta kind of playing at his peak um you got marshy playing the way he's

playing right now through this season he's having an mvp caliber season what is he top six i think in points per game output right now i think you throw all your fucking eggs in this basket right now you have to what do you go out so you go out and yeah i mean that's giving up the future goaltender for your entire organization that's a that's that's trying to win now though i don't even hate what you're saying but but it's basically looking at it sorry it's basically looking at it like in three years, you're saying no matter what, the Bruins are going to have some dark times, right? Can you say that?

I, yeah. Cause I don't four years from now, they could be completely rebuilding. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yes. That's around the corner of the, given the draft and the last seven years,

they're definitely going to have a lull here. So biz, I mean, depending on what you could get for him, I just don't, I don't, yeah, I wouldn't care could get for him i just don't i don't yeah i wouldn't care like it's just like you don't you you can't think about that you gotta you gotta you gotta try to win one more with this core group and that's a that's a decision that pittsburgh's gonna have to make here they're gonna have to put all their chips in one basket that's not a decision in pit that's just fucking that's happening yeah that's happening all right well i was you know

hopping back we don't have to go into that now but malcolm just comes back laughs at the whole league you ra you mentioned drafting uh real quick to the 2017 first round pick erho vacanine and 20 straight i mean three straight games with 20 plus minutes a game he's been a huge addition on the back end for the bees yeah i liked him when they first brought him up a couple of years ago and then they really didn't bring him up for another dosy dough until now, man. I like that kid's game as well, but biz, just to go back to your question, I don't think they trade sway.

And like Whit said, he's the future. I'd be surprised. I'm not surprised, but I don't know if Tuka is going to play after this year. I think this is like maybe the last kick at the camp farm. The last dance. Either way. I can't see them trading sway. And unless it's some like, you know, first line sniper with, with some term left, but I just don't see that happening. I way, I can't see them trading Swainman unless it's some like,

you know, first line sniper with some term left, but I just don't see that happening. I mean, I think a big portion of them. I don't hate it at all, Buzz. I know. I do not hate it at all. If you can't get Krejci back, you got to try to get something back like that, that type of impact, and I would get rid of Swainman to do it.

And I bet a lot of times. I really want Krejci back. Well, you're going to need one if you want to beat some of these other teams in the East. We can move on. Enough bees talk for one episode. Actually, one last note. Earlier in the week versus Montreal, Chris Wyman gave Eric Hall

a little Samoan-style cocoa butt. He got a game suspension for his troubles. He got a rough and in and on sports mic penalty on the play. One other suspension of note, the Islanders' Ross Johnson got three games for an illegal check to the head of New Jersey's A.J. Greer. Whit, that's going to cost these guys a few bucks, and that's less money for them to invest in Alto. All right, no doubt we got to talk to you about Alto, guys.

And I think all of you people at home know I'd like to at least think I had this long, incredible, but actually super disappointing NHL career. But do you know that most players, the average players, careers only five years and everyone from these young studs with all the money in the world to older guys, you know, retiring, they need to start thinking about saving no matter how old you are, no matter what you're doing for a living, you got to think about saving. And there are a lot of options out there,

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Thank you. I appreciate that. RA, did you hear about this girl who's suing Drake because he he put uh hot sauce in a condom i did i i read that up her vagina to get pregnant by drake and it's the craziest story because i always thought that but i was like nobody's ever actually done it when sure as shit this girl went to do it now the thing is why didn't he just flush it down the toilet as opposed to just pouring hot sauce in his cum because he's petty environment because he's petty you say all right bad for the environment oh no i don't think you're supposed to flush them but i think we've all done it once

or twice well if you're afraid of girls ripping the thing open and artificially inseminating themselves with your cum i don't mind maybe ruining the environment with an extra dome down the drain but but that is bizarre business i mean does hot sauce even kill sperm i mean do we do we even know that oh i have no clue about the the science of that already if that's what you're asking um oh god i heard this fucking wild story one time it was like the worst uh the worst like first dates ever and like one of the things when the girl showed up the guy like wanted to get out of the way right away he's like hey i just want to let you know that like one of my like bad habits is after we have sex i usually come in the condom and then i chew on it like bubble gum afterward this is disgusting biz okay sorry we can delete that then

i mean do you know this person biz be? Be honest. No, I don't. It was something on the internet. Good. Did you guys ever do that thing? Did you see the girl who said her worst first date ever was with Leo? With the Star Wars thing? Yeah, and he's running around playing fake Star Wars. R.A., I could see you doing that.

Maybe not on a date, but by yourself in the basement. Slide into my DMs, Leo. I'm down for all night. I'll even watch the shitty star wars movies if we can play fucking lightsaber fights r and leo snuggling watching star wars rubbing each other's what are those things called lightsabers lightsabers oh i thought you were gonna say docking oh there's a little of that with the millennium falcon going on because so that was a complete fake story right or was that i mean it's on the internet so fucking take it with a grain of salt i'm fully truthful i don't know what to believe anymore i heard i mean i mean i'm believing dudes are chewing their their rubbers after uh after sex like bubble gum with

have you ever been on a date either one where you have like your buddy call you like 10 minutes in if you need a bailout like and you're like, oh, my God, I have an emergency. I got to go. You ever have like that situation? If you're on a bad date, you need a bailout. I've only seen women do that. OK, unlike movies and like sex in the city and have you ever had to do that? All right.

No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't fucking Welch in a date. I mean, have you ever had any women 10 minutes in say there was an emergency at home and they had to go? He's a matter of fact. Yeah. He's like shit all the time a lot of them that's how a lot of those ended i've never had anybody tap out on a date uh at that point no so well if we're gonna if we're gonna talk about dates we should talk about kodak black's date at the panthers game oh my that's what that's the one piece they might be missing to get out of the Atlantic. Did you see the fucking defense on that guy in the box?

If you could watch the tape again. It's rare for a guy that short to use a 120 flex, but I tell you what, that was a very impressive defensive display right in front of the Panthers brass, too. The best part, I thought it was some of the scratches. Was it the brass that that was roberto luongo and the analytics team watching him put on a defensive display kids at home stick on the biscuit and he didn't over commit either he had the fucking pet people

thought they were banging in the box they were not banging he was just simply grinding i thought he was clapping her cheeks no doubt from, from the cross-view camera. The cross-ice camera said, oh my god, he's banging her. And then, you know, you come to find out they were just doing the little twerk action together. She was twerking for him. I mean, talk about a

chain. We've talked about the wild going from boring to exciting. Look at the Panthers now. They scored 10 goals a game. They got Kodak Black just getting after it by himself in a box at center ice. That place is rocking now. I want to go to a game. What was the stat, R.A.? Do you have it?

I think they've scored 50 goals in their last eight games. Well, first off, we should backpedal and let people know who aren't familiar with the Kodak Black incident. Is anyone not familiar with that? There's not one person on the planet who doesn't know about this. There's a 73-year-old listener from Burnaby, British Columbia, that's heard of Kodak Black and is fucking at the Panthers. I'm just taking the notes here, boys.

Yeah, Kodak Black, he's a rapper, was invited to the Panthers game. The league tweeted out a picture. Hey, look who's at the game. And then the video came up of him from across the ice. And it did look like he was, as W as what said clapping those cheeks from across the ice we did get a further view later which by the way it wasn't 100 conclusive that he wasn't clapping said cheeks apparently she was just twerking the nhl deleted the tweet uh it was this kind of whole rigmarole for the whole night because i guess his corsi that night was 98 so he was doing something right

but the question is does he get the invite back from the Panthers after this? Oh, yeah. You think? They got him off. They didn't have to give up any assets to get their best shutdown defenseman. Somebody gave up an asset. That's true. Hey, good. I say put him

in the Hall of Fame in the builder category. I mean, fuck, come on. Gary got in. I'm going to Lauderdale for six weeks february to march and i'm i'm going to a couple games because it is electric factory in that building right now for the first time ever there's crowds and well not the first time ever but there's crowds are going nuts i can't wait to get down there and see that team in action they got to go on the road now where they kind of struggle i think they're like five four and five but 20 and three at home is insane. And they do have an all-star, as I mentioned earlier, the all-star rosters and coaches were announced. Jonathan Huberdo is the lone Panthers

representative right now. They are doing the fan vote and that's going to conclude tonight, Monday night. So we don't know who's in yet, but I'm not going to rattle through all these names guys, but I will say Jack Campbell, absolutely absolutely great story the guy was drafted 12 years ago had some hiccups up up and down his career he's having a tremendous year likely Vezina finalist right now and he finally gets to his first all-star game biz let's hear it for your boys on the Leafs oh I I agree with you I think right now it's between Saros Shusterkin and I would say Campbell's probably that third guy right now we're going to see what happens at the back half of the year. But listen, I've been very impressed with Toronto. Even after that difficult loss against Colorado,

they have a great rebound win in the shootout against Vegas. I know they end up taking a dump against the Coyotes and Vimalca, but then they go into St. Louis, and they end up putting up six-piece and getting that done. But as far as Campbell's concerned, he's been there the entire year when they've needed them. I've said it. If they get past the first round,

I think he enters that status of like being one of the most famous leaf goal goalies ever. You know, you think of Felix pot, then you think of Cujo, they got a soft spot for the goalies who can fucking put them into that situation to win. So we can get them to the second round. Fuck off. off hey that given with what's going on in the last what 30 years have they been to a conference final or i guess yeah the only one that was against uh when they lost to um to the to the kings to the kings 93 no philly philly beat them when roenick scored

in overtime to go to the conference final yeah that was second round so hey so um biz no offense to you whatsoever but it shows how ridiculous vasilevsky is that you don't even mention him in the vest because he's so good every single season that people forget about him yeah i think he's right there too i think i'm a softy where i'm like no you've already won a couple it's time for you guys you're just you're just a man of the people i like to snap it around but uh another guy who might get the last man in jt i think that you know we talked about him uh a little uh nugget here we interviewed sam gagne and he's very close with him spends a lot of time with him up in muskoka and he had a lot of the leafs up there

this summer to to kind of have one of those powwows being like hey last year let's put it behind us let's fucking put the work in and let's get the job done so I've been very very impressed with the Maple Leafs overall and I'm very happy for Jack Campbell and we've we've told this story many times in this podcast first uh first round draft pick a lot of pressure had to go down to the minors to find his game and now he's right back uh exactly where everybody'd expect he was going to be when he was drafting the first round by the Dallas Stars. So happy for Jacko and happy for the Leafs. And I think they are primed and ready.

One quick or a couple of quick notes on the Panthers before we move on, because the stats are nuts. They scored seven plus goals in consecutive games for the first time ever in franchise history. It's their second game with nine goals this season, and they have scored at least four goals a game in the last nine games. Stack I went. Hopefully stack I went.

Hopefully people are betting the overs on the Panthers and making money. And I mentioned Huberto. betting the overs on the Panthers and making money. And I mentioned Huberto. I talked to like Yans a little bit about what makes him so special. He said like he's one of the best passers he's ever seen and his edges on his skating. And he's quietly like the biggest superstar in the league. And I think right now, if he's not third in the league in scoring,

he's right there. I know Ovi took over the top spot or he's tied with somebody. He's leading the league in assists, though, right? Yeah, I mean, it's just he's not playing with Barkov either, right? I mean, he's got his own line. I think he's with Bennett and Duclair, and they've formed this ridiculous, I don't want to say second line. It's the first time.

But when you have Barkov on another line, it's kind of flipping and flopping them. And so I think that in the end end like protecting the puck and all those things you don't really see that often if you don't watch the Panthers a ton is kind of what makes Huberto so special because every night he's doing it it doesn't matter whole man on the road for him yeah best winger in hockey right now Nathan McKenna wasn't too pleased about his teammate Nazem Kadri not making the all-star game. Quote, it's silly. I don't think every team should send a guy. It's an All-Star game, not a

participation game. Great little quote. Of course, Khadri could get voted in with the last man voting. The coaches are going to be Rod the Bard for the Metro on the Atlantic, Andrew Brunette, the Central, Jared Bednar out in the Pacific. Pete DeBoer has got the nod there. 18 players. This is their very

first all-star game, so congrats to all those guys who are making it for the first time. And boys, I think they fucking called up Plain Jane and asked her to design the jerseys because there's nothing to them this year. I know we should. NHL biz loves them. No, I liked them.

I thought they were a little boring and just kind of. What about vintage? How vintage? How would they just give me vintage vibes? I look at them. That brown color looks like a vintage vintage. It's more of a,

it's more of a, it's more of a Marlowe, isn't it? Yeah. You can say that more of a Marlowe. I really liked that blue too. Listen, let's see what they look like with the full gear on.

Cause I imagine they have the matching pants and the matching gloves. So I wouldn't judge them just quite yet. You could judge the Nashville outdoor jerseys. I'd pump the brakes on these ones with that. Well, I also don't know. It's kind of hard. I feel like every jersey now doesn't look that great. Like you said with movies, they've run out of ideas for jerseys.

Every new one seems to be a little suspect. Not every, but most of them. Do you think NHL should change up the dynamic of the All-Star game in the way that it's voted on? I think McKinnon's dead on. I've been saying that since McKinnon was shooting pucks in Crosby's driveway before he got security to kick him out. The whole fact that every team needs to have a guy makes zero sense. You're it's the, it's, it's the best players in the league. So I don't, when you look at Marshawn and Kadri, there's, that is not even why I have to have somebody from Columbus. No, I'm just thinking of random teams. It just doesn't, that's not the, the,

what the game should be. It should be the best players in the league. And now obviously the games have turned into the effort should be. It should be the best players in the league. And now, obviously, the games have turned into the effort can be questioned. It's just not, I mean, it's not physical hockey. It's not what hockey really is. So people don't really necessarily love watching it. But picking the players wise, you got to take the guys who

deserve that year to go. They're lighting up the league. Get them in there. Who cares if there's four guys from one team? That's great, I think. Yeah, I agree. I know baseball always did that. I don't know if other leagues copied it. One year in the OHL when the London Knights were fucking nasty, I think they had seven guys on the All-Star team.

No word of a lie. They fucking had seven guys, and they had Danny Sivret, Corey Perry. That's the only ones I can remember, but they had seven. They had five more guys. Just believe me, I promise you. I think Dan Girardi was on that list. What other forwards they have? Come on, G, help me out.

Fuck, maybe look it up for the biz here. I was just going to say, speaking of all-stars, guys, Timo Meier, five goals right now in the LA Kings versus San Jose Sharks game. Holy shit. And we're not even halfway through the third. Holy fuck. Wow. Whoa.

Have a night, Timo. Who's the last guy to get a double hat trick? I'll look that one up for you, Biz. Okay, look that one up for me. I don't remember six goals in a game. Yeah, fuck, man. I think the original, I think the first rule came from baseball. I think it was like the 1950s Cincinnati Reds.

They had like seven guys to start in the all-star game, and I think that's when baseball instituted the rule. Everybody should have like one player, and I think it just rippled over to other sports over the years. Okay. All right, good stuff. Well, I was going to say you got to carry the pod right now because I'm looking up the stat.

All right. Sorry, you guys all. Okay, here they are. They have Corey Perry, Dylan Hunter, Rob Schrempf, Dave Boland, Danny Sivret. And I think one other guy in there. But it was fucking nuts. Listen, they still had Mark Mathod on that team. They still had Dan Girardi on that team.

They legit had – they could have probably won the Calder cup that year in the, in the American hockey league. That's how fucking good that London Knights team was. I'm still bitter about it. Can't tell. Kickback. Hey, so no player has scored five or more goal or six or more goals since

Daryl Sittler scored six in February of 1976. That might be the game when he had six and four. Six and four, yeah, 10 points for the record. Wow. Yeah. I just turned it on. There's three minutes and 50 seconds left now, so get him out there. Keep him out there the whole game, six to two.

I think Merle's at the Kings. Yeah, we're recording Monday afternoon. Lots of matinees with Martinin luther king day and the avalanche man this team keeps rolling just had to update my stats they just won their 14th straight at home which extended their franchise record it's the longest since toronto back in 2018 they're now 15 0 and 1 in their last 16 at home uh this team just keeps fucking rolling along poised with stroking them but when you deserve to stroked, my wrists are way too sore to be given these guys a double H J right now. They're rolling.

This is exactly who we thought they were guys. They're humming much like the leaf says. Everybody keeps fucking barking at me on Twitter. When I give them any type of compliment is we got to wait till playoff time because there's a couple of big teams in the West that they still got to get by, but a very impressive, great contribution. I mean, we talked about Caudry. I mean, fuck when Caudry's been your best forward. And then you still got McKinnon, Rantanen, Landis, Scog, and they're,

I mean, even new hooks been contributing offensively lately. They got the backend buzzing and then Darcy Kemper and that they're a fucking wagon. Yeah. And the only, the only tough news out of Colorado was just Bowen Byram and the news that he's taking a leave leave of absence, I guess you could call it, but things just aren't right since the concussions. And we talked a while back about the,

I think I read an article in the athletic about what he went through and it's been kind of a torturous couple of years for this kid. And when he plays, you can see the future he has. Let's hope, let's pray, right? Because he's got to get his head figured out. But I think he played the other night, maybe a week or two ago, and then said, I just can't, I can't do this anymore. I cannot play right now with where my head's at. So all you could say for that is good luck and get healthy.

Him being that young and and that bright of a future it's like if you need to take eight months man just whatever you need right now so i i hope i think he's definitely doing that at this point because he's tried different times to come back and it hasn't been right this is when you got to reset you have a lot of years of hockey ahead of you like i'm talking to him but you know what i'm saying and we wish him the best because that's not that's not stuff to mess around with this is your noggin absolutely i'm glad hopefully he comes back well like you said it's just a tough situation it's a it's a good read on the kid but at least he's taking the initiative and taking himself

out where you know 20 years ago this might not have happened guys at least i know realize they can do this big time great point all right uh another big story well hasn't happened yet but evander kane is still unsigned as a recording uh the scuttlebutt seems to be he's gonna end up somewhere i know we talked about it last week we didn't think a lot of teams would sign him but uh tim peel former referee slash insider uh he's reporting it's going to be edmonton uh it hasn't happened yet uh ken holland is on record as saying he believes in second chances. Connor McDavid was asked about it.

Gee, want to roll that tape with his reply? I'm not really here to discuss optic issues. You know, if fans don't like it or the media doesn't like it or whatever, I think, you know, it is what it is. You know, I'm sure there's lots of things that go on on the ice and whatnot that fans don't like. We don't necessarily have to discuss those up here with you guys. The public opinion is something that obviously matters a lot. We're here to try to win games and try try to to uh you know put together a good team

on the ice and um you know kenny thinks that that's that's what he can do then that's what he can do i think uh you know kenny's got uh got our full support and what he does yeah and uh for whatever reason well i'm sure we could just blame it on the internet but this seemed to piss off a lot of people he didn't really kind of come down strong one way or the other, but because he didn't come down hard on a Vandy Kane, they got mad. What is he supposed to say? I'm sorry,

buddy. Don't get me started, man. I actually was so confused by this one, but this guy's beaten down. He looks beaten down by all the, the auto game. We won't get to that right quite yet,

but even from that, they're asking him exactly you say what what the fuck is he supposed to say in that moment he might be fucking teammates with him in a week this is just such a i know okay so i said last week i wouldn't sign him um i don't know if i've ever been one to change my mind you guys know me well usually i stick to my guns but i'm all in on signing him in Edmonton. We got to do something. Get another goal scorer in there.

And the only thing I'm worried about now is there's another investigation now going on, correct? Yeah. And he got 21 games for a COVID violation earlier in the year. If they somehow prove or find out that he did something again, crossing the border with vaccination status being unknown, he might get 50 games. He might not even be able to play.

Is there any update on that, R.A.? No, NHL is still doing an investigation, which is probably delaying the signing. But that's another question. If he did this as an AHL player, can he still get suspended in the NHL? Yeah, because he was under suspended in the NHL yeah because he was under contract in the NHL okay yeah so they're waiting on this investigation um I don't know if is faking a thing worse than flying out I mean if he's not supposed to fly why did they

let him fly I guess there's some other questions there but regardless a lot of people in the know seem to think whether he gets suspended or not he's going to end up on an nhl roster at some point so again we'll keep tabs on it and if it changes we will let you know you think this is something that uh holland goes to the leadership group with and says hey we're thinking about doing this what do you guys think and they're maybe saying hey having having a guy who could put 30 in the back of the net and people make my question with with everything he's got going on in his life whether he can play up to that standard but fuck man he did it all last year i don't guys i do not know how he had the season he had last year going through what he was going through personally like that is just like that's that's a certain way to be able to turn off your brain and just worry about hockey when you're on the ice but wit I guess if one

thing happens you sign them to a a low money deal on a one year and in worst case you just go bury his contract in the minors now do does Edmonton have enough cap space to even risk that because if if if it doesn't end up working out and it does become a headache like was that the little gap where they could have made something work to maybe actually acquire something for playoffs so it's i get i get why you were saying i wouldn't do it um as desperation grows in edmonton i could completely understand why ken holland would want to do it i mean i don't think i don't think the desperation can grow any worse. And I get all the respect in the world for Ken Holland, like what he's done with his career. And Dave Tippett's had a hell of a career.

And these star players are amazing players, what they do on the ice. But what the fuck? This is every single year we're saying this, but this was the one year it was different. And that game the other night like three one like you have you haven't played in forever you're playing Ottawa pesky sends no doubt not taking credit away from Ottawa you give up five goals in the third period so they don't have a goalie I tweeted today you gotta do something I don't really care what it is I know

I said I wasn't down with firing the coach I think they've lost five more in a row since I said that. Maybe somebody can fact check me on that. They've lost, I think, 12 of the last 14. Buddy, they're a bottom 10 team in the league right now. They're awful. And so, sorry, go ahead, Ari. No, I was going to say six straight, 12 of 14, and they have on tap Florida two times,

Tampa, Nashville, Washington, and Carolina. Yep, yep. They got to go play those teams. The Panthers, twice. straight 12 or 14 and they have on tap florida two times tampa nashville washington and carolina yep yeah they gotta go play those teams the panthers twice carolina tampa all these teams what are you gonna so i've read a couple things that mention that for mcdavid this is actually like a little slow he's got 13 points his last 13 games it's he's that amazing that you got to mention a point per game isn't exactly his normal pace. Very his contract in the minors. No, seriously, that'll change. Dreitz Seidel for his value in what he does is a little cold for him.

That'll change. And Pui Harvey hasn't been the same since he came out of COVID. There's a lot of things that could turn around, but they don't have goaltending, and they don't really have many defensemen that can really make a play. And the coach seems to whatever he be saying, what he's saying isn't working, and the GM isn't making any deals. So how long does this go on before you just do something,

whether it's Kane cane whether it's firing tippet just something and uh those two wins came against the kraken and columbus by the way of those i got one more thing to say one more okay add a little i know i've said a lot today i had a million things stirring around in my brain before this show the one thing that's making me feel good the calgary flames fucking stink too so i think they're both gonna miss the playoffs yeah and i will not have an earring because you've stayed quiet on purpose i know your team stinks as well no no no no i had that shit written down man i was gonna talk about that now this is like a goosebumps choose your own ending because i could go uh tire pump on the Sens.

I could go take a nice hot deuce on the Oilers, or I could fucking rag on the Flames, who I fucking have risked my shave head on national television for. I guess I'll summarize the Flames situation real quick. They've lost eight of the last ten. They were going on a great stretch, and they lost an emotional game. I think it was before the shutdown against the Vegas golden Knights. And they had to play.

I think it was two nights later. It was in San Jose and they were up three, one, the Oilers know about the three, one, the classic three fucking one. That's an Alberta thing. And then they ended up losing to San Jose,

who I think is surprising. A lot of people, a lot of teams in the Pacific are surprising a lot of people, and they just haven't been the same since. And everybody you talk to in Calgary said that team coming into the season and the way they were rolling and how they got that full training camp together and Sutter got to implement his systems, they were playing as one. They were getting incredible goaltending.

They were getting the offense from the guys that they needed to, and they were playing as one. They were getting incredible goaltending. They were getting the offense from the guys that they needed to, and they were playing with passion. The last four-game stretch has been abysmal, and that's what Sutter has harped on the most. He says, we just are not playing with passion right now. And it's been a bit of a goalie carousel. Markstrom is not playing to the caliber he was at the beginning of the season. I don't know if that's because things have been tweaked up or just resting him,

but it's been a goalie carousel between him and Vladar. So I think that they got to get him back going. They got to find that passion in their game. And then once the guys kick on the offense, they'll be back rolling in no time. Now, am I nervous about the shaved head situation? Absolutely think that edmund will fucking edmonton will turn things around but holy shit dude this is fucking hyman no goals in his last 11 games and i know i like pumping toronto's tires that was a cheap replacement they ended up getting for bunting i think bunting ends up having more points than him right now and in the time of period where they need a guy who they just handed over five and a half sheets

a year all of a sudden he goes dry you mentioned poliari goes dry i think the biggest fucking concern though is this sister wives bullshit with the goaltenders you gotta pick a guy and you gotta run with him he's got three fucking guys right now and then skinner gets put in net in that ottawa game well smith's hurt again too and then the and then the blunder that was when everything really turned did it not so is he your guy is he the young guy you're going to give the net to you're going to go back to koskinen next game who ended up having the kind of a verbal war in the media with tippet i think they're going to turn covid i I think Skinner, am I imagining this? Sorry.

Bez, I think you might've learned one thing. You never give out a lock. There's no such things as locks and gambling. You said there's not a chicken dicks chance. The Oilers lose that game. It's going to be a bloodbath. Well, it was a bloodbath, but it went the other way. My friend, you guaranteed a win.

That's right. You know, I know you're new to the gambling thing here, but you cannot guarantee wins, man. You just can't do it well you know i i mean i i can do anything on twitter i mean i blame i blame i blame the oilers they in a desperation win and you went you mentioned the schedule coming up it does not get any easier wait are you gonna blame it on the lulls and games is that something that that that is a big enough excuse for them right now for the for the no because no because you have energy and then you're up 3-1 you had the two periods it's not like not playing for 14 days or whatever it was it didn't give cause them to give up five in the third at home it's it's just a team that's just a wreck they're

an absolute mess watching them play is it's crazy what it's turned into and i guess it shows that when your power play special teams can kind of like hide warts and and 48 at one point early in the year i probably when i was betting my earring or my ear off i should have taken account that their pp was going to go a little cold at one point um going to the ottawa senators though credit where it's due i think in their last uh 11 games they've beaten the hurricanes avalanche lightning panthers oilers and flames they swept the alberta trip uh contributions from the young guys do what i kind of get a little concerned about this uh okay you pretty much know you're out of playoffs edmonton did it for a long time and

then like the second half of the season that's when you get rolling you're playing a little bit looser um between norris batherson kachuk and and uh shabbat yeah you got a pretty fucking good core moving forward it seems like year over year they're they're they're like doubling their production and adding that much more uh some great news for the Ottawa Senators with Jake Sanderson getting named to the Olympic team. I'm still fucking concerned about their goaltending because, I mean, I just, I don't know if Matt Murray is the long-term solution. So credit where it's due, the pesky Sens knocked off a guarantee lock.

But let's see how they keep going the rest of the year here. Two puck line, I'm sorry, two puck line covers in a row as well. They've been a hell of a team to gamble on, too, because they're always a dog. And if you can get that reverse puck line, they cover by two. Nice little payoff. I think they were plus 450 last game. So kudos to them.

I'm not sure if you guys saw that segment that Emily Kaplan from ESPN did on Jack Hughes. It's pretty good. It was about five, ten minutes long. He was basically saying how much he hated his freshman year. His rookie year in the NHL was just so frustrating for him. And, you know, we talked about the big deal he signed earlier this year, but he went on a nice little ripper recently.

Five-game point streak, four goals, eight assists, 12 points total. He didn't get on the board Thursday versus the Isles, but he's taking his game to the next level, boys. He said, I'm in a good spot right now in terms of points. I'm shooting the puck, putting things toward the net at the same time. I'm only 20. By the time I'm 25, I want to be a completely different player and much better. Do any one of you guys able to catch any of that segment?

Yeah, and I love his game, and you could tell every single year he's looked better. He's looked bigger and stronger, and we talked about it. And then the injury and what he's battled through to get this hot, it kind of shows that that contract, while to some people seeming a little aggressive for what he'd proven in his NHL career so far, I think New Jersey knows this is a special player. This is a guy that could be a complete game-breaker in a few years. And I think Hugh's talking about himself at 25 shows like he doesn't even consider himself close to being fully grown into the player. He's going to be.

I'll also mention that I didn't understand when I played hockey, I didn't understand the NHL network. I didn't truly understand till we got about this season and last season and chicklets, how diehard the New Jersey devil fans are. That is a fan base that is impressed the hell out of me. I mean, they do it by torturing me online, but if you don't show the Devil's respect, if you don't talk about them,

and then the downloads that we had for the Eliash interview, this is a fan base that wants their team to be good and that loves their club because they are all about us talking about Jack Hughes and how good he's going to be. I'm down with doing that, but you guys got to start winning more games. I'll hop on the devil's bandwagon. I'm not afraid to jump from team to team. I've proven

that devil's fans are straight up lunatics. They're all David Putty's the devil's the devil's and I've had enough of it online. So there's your huge blow job. Are they not crazy a little bit? And maybe make playoffs first. Yeah.

Grinnelly deals with them. He knows. Without a doubt, the craziest fan base I think we deal with on social media. In a good way. In a positive way. I mean, any fan base. They're not like Canucks fans. Any fan base.

How are you guys doing? Put on jerseys. That in a positive way. I mean, any fan base who gets their own name put on jerseys, that's a little crazy. That's what they lead the league in, own name on personalized jerseys. Also, a couple of the jersey notes. Dougie Hamilton, he's out with a broken jaw. Happened a little while back. They had an e-bug situation. Kyle Shapiro, he got to travel with the Devils,

took the team bus to Long Island, stayed in the hotel, ate with them. He says, I can see why guys love this league, which is a pretty funny quote. He got the royal treatment, got to do a little lap out there. He went buckets off for the loser lap, too. Yeah, no buggy warm-up. Also, too, we're going to give a note, Jimmy Veazey, man, he's a guy they picked up kind of late, gave him, I think,

800 grand close to the rookie minimum. He's been fucking killing penalties like crazy for this team. I think he's, I don't know, two, two and a half minutes a game killing penalties got six goals four assists so so yeah good to see friends of the program doing well out there hopefully he'll get himself a nice little deal after this one a couple other notes before we get to our interview here Big Z he tied Scott Stevens for the most games played by a defenseman in NHL history at 16. Only one guy ahead of them, the tan man himself, Chris Chelios. He's got 1,651. So Z could likely catch him this season.

Wait, you mentioned the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier. Geno, first game back, two goals, one assist. Says he feels great, but this is a crazy stat that come out of the internet somewhere. 2021-22 marks the 16th season that Sid, Gino and Letang have played together it's the most by a trio in NHL history I was I was surprised I know you were too Whit yeah I I saw it I was like very surprised only because I thought there at least it had happened before I mean pre-free agency the Canadians dynasties, the Red Wings with like Eisenman, Federoff, Lidstrom. And then I started thinking 16 years.

That's a long time, dude. I mean, I know Eisenman was around that long and Lidstrom, but Federoff wasn't on the Red Wings entire career. So right away thinking about that didn't make sense. And I mean, it shows, dude. They wouldn't be together that long, had it not been as successful as it's been. And you got, and flurry is a part of that too. And it's not the 16 years, but the three Stanley cups and the years of being contenders, it's,

it's been a pretty crazy run for, for that entire like fan base and organization. And those three guys in particular, after getting to experience what they did in the late eighties, early nineties with Mario and Jagger, it really happened again at an even higher level. So a blessed fan base and city, if you ask me, in terms of the Penguins in the past 30, 40 years. I mean, Gino, too. I'm sorry, G, we're going to jump in there. Well, guys, you mentioned Zidane O'Chara before, and there's a lot of online chatter right now. Do you guys think that the NHL should send O'Chara to the All-Star game

to let him get the hardest shot one more time? Yeah, but I bet you he doesn't even want to go. But, yeah, bring him. They should bring people in for just the skills. Well, aren't they bringing Zgris in just for skills? I think they're doing that this year. I think Zgris will come in for the breakaway contest, so it's like, why not just bring in Char for hardest shot? Let him go

out with a bang. Sure, I don't care. I want to give every good defenseman a Norris. Fuck, bring every guy to the All-Star game. They can stay in my room if they want. Biz has 19 different Vesna candidates you've got to choose from. Sometimes they do. Don't they do commissioners' choices, too? Like, out of the blue,

a guy of his stature will decide to just just send them as you know as a as a gesture of his career or whatever but like wood said he might not even want to go at this point although it is vegas so who wants to turn down a free vegas trip uh doesn't even eat dessert he has like a cappuccino a year he's not exactly like a vegas guy uh he'd go out there act like fucking like he was in the hangover like eating fucking ecstasy running around the top of caesar's palace what nothing i'm fucking you're saying char is gonna go to eat some disco biscuits at the all-star game like you need like you need like three of them to actually get fucked up chara rides the space needle high on mushrooms story at 11 hey

speaking of mushrooms i wasn't there the story that just broke about mark messier he had like a bad mushroom trip or a mushroom it was in his book yeah oh was it okay it was in his book and then it was also in a more article on men's health men's journal i think and he mentioned that yeah it was um it was early in his career, and he went away. R.A., do you have the details of where he went to experience this? Yeah, hold on. Let me pull it up.

To R.A.'s cabin. I think it was an island. It was an island somewhere. Yeah, the story. It was in Men's Health. And what surprised me, I thought he was going to say this was, like, after I retired or, like, six months ago. This was, like, 1981.

They were down in Barbados in the summertime and there wasn't a lot of people there and someone's like hey you want to try this tea out and they you know had the mushrooms they made the tea out of it and Messier tripped walls basically he said at first he was kind of nervous and didn't know what was going on which is common if you don't know you're going to be eating drinking mushroom tea but then he kind of found this level of consciousness where he got he got it he had this new outlook on life but so i'm like okay so he did these in 81 so how many times did the fucking messy mushrooms over the next 20 years during his career because you don't eat mushrooms have that experience and then not take them again for 30 years

i thought it was i thought it was getting four points at msg and they don't have a game for three days just ripping the bong before the, maybe move over Stevie. Why? We got a new pothead in the league. Mushroom tea by far. You trip the hardest on mushroom tea. I've never done mushroom tea. Have you, R.A.? I like the Chocolaires when they mix them in the chocolate. I think I've

told this story before. My first time ever taking them, I was at Bonnaroo and I was at Lupo, O'Brien, and Upshawall and they gave me a full one and i guess i was supposed only supposed to eat a quarter of it and i ate a quarter of it and then about 45 minutes later i'm like this shit doesn't do anything so i ended up eating the rest of the thing and then like yeah then then i went to fucking planet zoltan i didn't

even get to see one of the better shows that night because I was tripping balls I had to go back to the RV I was sitting I was sitting in uh I was sitting in the bedroom in the RV and I it's it's either I was like going zonkey where I opened my eyes but if I closed my eyes it was like a music video in my brain you have a tolerance like a rhinoceros too you need about 40 different things of whatever i think i said everyone to the normal humans too so i i think what happened was in ra you you might be able to attest to this is sometimes when you take it and then somebody's like oh you took too much like your anxiety spikes a little bit and then once that happens it's kind of just a runaway train and i think that that i think when when when loops was like you ate the whole thing and i was like yeah and he's like

oh geez and then i was like yeah you need that's i need a good co-pilot like someone who can like coach you along who's been there i had a few trips can kind of you know all right yeah it's a huge deal yeah my imaginary friend he helped me out the whole night that's r.a's pitch to mess to bring him around to have him be his co-pilot come Come on, Matt. We'll split a quarter and make a podcast. So what did he say about the trip? Did it make him open up his eyes to more things? What was his breakdown? His quote was, I learned that the mind is a muscle.

You have to train it like you do all other muscles in pursuit of excellence. Nice read, Biz. But yeah, it is. You got to build up your tolerance mask. We all do. As for you answer biz. No,

I never actually did the tea. I was down Jamaica. They were offering it somewhere, but I just went with the traditional, the traditional way. And then saw funky things all over the place. But yeah, that was a pretty wild story.

I wasn't expecting a mock messy, a mushroom story to come across the timeline this week, but either way, the Silas even it's getting approved in all kinds of cities. We've advocated the medicinal use for people with depression and all kinds of other issues. It certainly helps. And it's good that finally people open their minds to this, that there are other alternative remedies to help with people's depression or whatnot. So, all right.

One last note before we go over to our interview with Keith Ballard. Of course, it's Minnesota related. They signed defenseman John Merrill to a three year, $3.6 million contract extension to shore up that back end. His team is on the upswing lately, so a little depth never hurts. And now we're going to send it to Keith Ballard. But first, we want to let you know that this interview is brought to you by Blue Nile. whether you're ready to pop the question or celebrate and you'll love this valentine's day find jewelry as unique as her with the modern convenience of online shopping at bluenile.com bluenile lets you choose the diamond shape size and clarity as well as setting style and bluenile's bench jewels will then build the perfect engagement ring each is one of a kind and if you're having trouble choosing bluenile has jewelry experts on hand 24-7 that are available via phone or chat to help you find the perfect gift at every budget. Make your moment sparkle with jewelry from BlueNile.com and Spittin' Chicklets listeners get $50 off 500.

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Well, our next guest is this local lad from Baudette. He was an 11th overall pick by the Buffalo Sabres in the 0-2 draft, then carved out a 600-plus game career as a stalwart defenseman for Phoenix, Florida, Vancouver, and, of course, here in Minnesota. Thanks a bunch for strolling over to see us. Keith Ballard, how you doing, my man? Love it. Thanks, guys, for having me. This is amazing.

It's an honor. It's a long time coming, too. Did you say a Star Wars guy? I think he said a stalwart. But he's been on the Star Wars kicks. Oh, I thought you meant he was a Star Wars guy because he took out the fucking lightsaber and took Volkoon's head off. That's what I thought.

We're already into the Volkoons. We'll touch on that later, but 100% no Star Wars guy. I'm not into Star Wars. But that gif is pretty good. It's an all-timeer. Goodness. Is it gif or jif? I don't know.

We're still not sure. We're pro-gif. Yeah, we're gif guys. Just learn it, know it, live it. We can go into that one later. I text the donor. I say, hey, we got Bally coming out. He played with him in Arizona.

I said, what do I need to ask him about? He goes, the fact that he almost took his goalie's head off. I was like, yeah, maybe we should wait. And I'm like, no, let's come and swing it. You don't want to talk about that? Oh, absolutely I will. There's some layers to that onion, too. Oh, I know shit.

Yeah. We'll get into that when we get to Arizona, then. That's fair. Okay. That was Florida. Oh, that was Florida. Jesus. That was Florida.

I forgot about that. So actually, Doner was teeing you up for even another spot for him. He's like, you got to ask him about his Florida slash. Oh, okay. Shit, baby. That was Florida. Oh, okay. My apologies.

I wash it. It was Florida, Atlanta, Tuesday night. Thank God there was nobody there. There were seven people there. Yes. Well, you and I go way back. I mean, you're at 82, but late 82, we played a lot together at USA and stuff. And it's great to finally catch up because I think a lot of people don't know your whole story,

and I always knew how good of a player you were. So thanks for coming in. Thanks. This is awesome. And one, you guys, this is awesome and one you guys this is uh super cool what you guys are doing what you two have done post career merles i'm gonna throw you in there you three we have a sit-in for this interview yes yes you got one question and yeah so i i got the late call into this because i played a total of three games with keith ballard

and phoenix yeah you played unbelievable yeah i got eight minutes a game under Wayne Gretzky most of it on the penalty kill but our penalty kill was great you were a great guy I got there really nervous when you get called up you don't really know any of the guys you come over to me right away hey I heard your calls buddy you're a college guy you're with me you took care of me on the road that's awesome he's he's a he was a real pro it's uh you know what it going off that um and you mentioned donor and coming up um coming up with guys like donor derrick morris i've heard you guys met you mentioned those guys it it kind of as a rookie it molds you in the right direction, right? How are you going to treat the younger players? And that was so special to me as a young player.

And I was still young when Merles came up. But as you get older, that's the right thing to do. It's all you knew, really, and that's what you learned. I know. Yep. And I learned that in college. That's what you learned, I know. Yep, and I learned that in college.

The older guys treated us the right way, not as you freshman shitheads or anything like that. So you kind of build off that. We'll get to the college. Two of the best college teams ever. We'll get to that later. Merles was a part of that in a way, but I go back to the beginning. You're at the game.

We'll go back to the beginning like we usually do. From northern Minnesota, Littletown, Vaudette, right? I can't imagine growing up there. That's hockey heaven. There's outdoor rinks everywhere. Were you always a great player? Was it something you took to right away? Who got you into the game?

What was your beginning? My uncle actually got me into the game. He grabbed me one day at Thanksgiving or something. We were at my grandma's house. Everybody was arguing. He's like, hey, let's go outside. He's like, I'm going to start picking you up for hockey practice. How old are you at this point?

Five or whatever. Five. Okay. Okay, cool. And I just liked it. Northern Minnesota, you know, from from here 300 plus miles straight north right in the top right in the ontario border um and i just i i enjoyed it i had i was lucky enough to have from a town of a thousand people that's how small it is yep a group of kids my age that also loved it.

So we skated all the time. I mean, there was no secret. We just played. We had 10 kids on the team. Oh, you're on the squirt team? Okay, well, there you go. You get a blue helmet, red helmet, maroon helmet. Our colors are maroon and gold by the way oh you didn't

go to oh minnesota already setting you up to go there um but i mean it was just a hodgepodge of kids and we spent all of our free time skating we all loved it we no coaches getting in the way no parents getting in the way and i see that now is kids if they're not told what to do or where to go or what position they are sometimes have a hard time figuring it out ours was just go out and figure it out do it on your own yep that's amazing i used to ride my snowmobile 12 miles to practice every day and from peewees on it was awesome i would i would say you're known as a great skater is that from just spending a lot of time on the ponds and just just doing it figuring out your own or was it a lot of the teaching power skating and all this

no i uh actually had this conversation with uh with a buddy the other day we were talking about kind of the same thing um i remember calling my dad going into my junior year of college and i'm like do you think like i could get a skating instructor for the summer so it wasn't until then right and now like if you're nine years old and don't have one you're done yeah someone's thinking you're behind we just skated i know we went on the river we went to the rink and i was fortunate enough in a small town you didn't have uh 300 teams there was always ice it was ice and it was free so we'd go skate um so you figure it out on your own are you dreaming at that point of not the NHL, but just like the Gophers even?

Right? I feel like in the state of Minnesota, it wasn't even on your mind at that point? Not one bit. Not one bit. You know what I wanted to do is play on the high school team. That's all I wanted to do as a kid. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. And as I got a little bit older,'m like maybe i could do that and then

you know things kind of progressed from there did you make it freshman year i did play off of studio vassi all four years i played two years and then went to ann arbor michigan for a year okay just because of yeah and i was a junior and everybody else was seniors um the year i was there so i couldn't do the all the international tournaments that's when i came yep so yeah you're a misfit by a year well we were seniors together but you were late 82 so you got kind of screwed and you because you couldn't play all the international tournaments you went to play for omaha yep and lit it up that year too i mean that was probably pretty fun playing in the ushl it was fun i got to play for mike hastings who i would call a mentor someone who you look back and you guys have seen

or had people that uh really kind of made you the player you were and had a huge impact and mike's one of those guys and we're still real close to this day. So having that year, he was a fucking asshole to me. And I hope he hears this. Because I tell him all the time. He kind of made you. No, he wasn't. He was hard.

But it's what you needed at the right time, right? What 18-year-old kid isn't a complete shithead? That's a great point. That was me. Oh, man. And going back, like even before when you left for USA, small town, you dreamt of playing for Lake of the Woods. Was it really hard to go to Ann Arbor? Yeah, I think one of the hardest parts was probably because they had asked me the year before to go try out and I wasn't ready. I wanted to play football another year i love playing football to a position uh running back no shit out of here i mean this is this is small

town northern minnesota you know nothing fancy but i just loved it um and i just didn't feel like i'm ready to leave home yet and thank thank goodness I didn't because, Witt, you saw it there. And anybody who's left home, you've seen people who leave home too early trying to chase something when they're not ready. It doesn't work out that well. No, it never does. I was going to ask if maybe football taught you how to hit. Not the hip check.

Your low hits were deadly. Was that where you learned how to do that? No. I don't know really where I figured that out. You flipped people constantly. I think once I got, I don't know. I know going into, it was after the lockout year after 0405 um i went into phoenix's camp and they got 7d on one ways and it was me and zibenik mcculloch like i don't want to play in the minors again

oh you spent the lockout year there in utah yep and it was good for to learn how to be a little bit more of a pro, but we were dog shit. So all I remember thinking in that training camp is, I do not want to go back to the minors, so what else can I do? Can I be physical? And I fought a bunch that year. And you were offensive too, so that wasn't who you were really. No. I was always competitive, but how else can I add some value? What else can I do?

Can I block more shots? Can I play more physical? I don't know. I just didn't want to go back to the minors. I skipped ahead there. I didn't realize that all of a sudden, partway through your professional careers, when you added that to your bag. Yeah. I don't know.

I remember you throwing them in college a little bit. That's what I'm saying. There was a few in there. There was a few. I got Eric Nystrom on a good one once. Oh, that was great. He was so mad at me. I want to ask, during the two years you did play high school hockey in Minnesota,

did you appear in any of the infamous hair videos? I don't even think YouTube existed when you went to high school. No, we did not have the hair videos back then. Okay, all right. And if I did, it probably would have been. He's 40 years old. It would have been with those stupid, like, hydroproxide, like, bleach. Oh, God, yeah.

You did the frosted tips and all that. Oh, yeah, I did in juniors, too, in Omaha. Did you guys make it to the tournament at Excel? No. No. No. No. Just too small. No.

There's, you know, you got War Road. You got East Grand Forks. There's very good, very good programs in northern Minnesota. Rozo. Is that – All these towns are foreign to you guys, which is okay. No, no. I know all about all those towns.

Is that the obsession though? As a kid growing up in minnesota you want to play high school hockey because you want to get to that stage like you said all you were thinking about was high school hockey was it because you'd attended those events and you're like these guys are basically playing in the nhl but they're in high school hockey and i could see that as so that's that's achievable for me here yeah i mean if you go if you go to a championship game at the excel Center in St. Paul for a high school championship game, there's 18,000 people there.

As a high school kid, like, picture that. That might be your last ever game. It's pretty amazing. And the cool part is you're doing it with all these kids that you started at age five with. And that's what I love about hockey in Minnesota. Were you disappointed that you guys as a group didn't get to to achieve that like i mean yes but we weren't even close so didn't feel as bad no it wasn't it honestly wasn't something like oh we just missed

out it's like hey we didn't quite get out of the playing game and and and and obviously probably at that time you were a top player on your high school team was there any ever any thought to maybe go to a different high school where you could contribute for that team or is that just like as unloyal as it gets and you would never even consider that? It was discussed at one point, but not something I wanted to do. Cool. I would rather make a complete, which is why I went to Ann Arbor. If I'm going to leave, I'm not going to be playing here anymore. I'm not going to go an hour away and play for that school.

So that was probably a tough decision or an easier one, given that you knew that your career was advancing it was hard it was hard because i you know growing up we just went out and played it was park hockey but we had a great solid foundation of how hard you work details no system stuff it was if there's one, we need two. Okay, third one stays high. I remember my first practice in Ann Arbor, and Jeff Jackson's drawing this drill. It's dump in, break out, regroup with the D,

get back three on two. Pretty basic drill, right? I looked at one of the D, and I said, what the fuck is a neutral zone regroup i had no clue i'd never heard the term in my life i'm 17 years old at the time because that lake of the woods are like valid just go end to end like there's no so the the deep the other d was like oh yeah you just got to get it and whoever's like oh so it's hockey like we we convolute it sometimes right we get in the way so there were no other contenders i'm assuming uh college-wise like you know growing up around

where you did it was like minnesota a bust like no east coast of schools or anywhere else on your radar you didn't you didn't take advantage of the visits is what he's asking yeah basically yeah no i you know what i i was actually wanted to go to North Dakota for a while, which is only two and a half hours from where I grew up versus six from here. And I went there on my visit. It wasn't the right fit. Didn't feel like, you know.

Didn't get laid. I'm just kidding, Bob. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. We all know you got square wheels. My apologies. He's been married for like 36 years. Oh, has he? 40 years old.

Oh, nice. There can't be many girls in that town of a thousand. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Actually, speaking of where you grew up, not to go completely backwards, but we're going ice fishing tomorrow morning and we asked you for a couple tips. You said, well, I actually grew up on a, what did your parents own?

An ice fishing resort? They've got a fishing resort in Lake of the Woods. That was another thing that Donor wanted me to ask you about is the fake outdoors guy. That's what I want. That's like telling a guy he can't grill. A couple people said it to me and I'm like, there's no way. Where's Bougie from Baudet?

He's got the Gucci snowshoes. Really? What do you say about that? That is 100% false. I was like, yeah, I think he's an outdoors guy. I think I saw him on the outdoor network. He doesn't usually talk that shit though like that, does he? Maybe I had the wrong guy.

Maybe it was the wrong donor I was talking to. Wow. That was Gretzky. So you grew up on this? Yeah, I grew up. Parents owned a fishing resort, and they still do. My sister runs it up on Lake of the Woods, which, quite frankly, did not sound like an idiot, but probably the best walleye lake in the Midwest.

Suck on that, Boner. The U.S. side. Really? Yeah. So you guys getting people to stay in there winter and summer, or is it more just... Yeah, winter and summer. Yes.

Yeah, they've got... I don't know, they can sleep probably 180 people. Holy shit. It's really fun. It's a great So, yeah, it's really fun. It's a great, you know, it's the top of Minnesota right on the border. Great fishing. Great walleye fishing. I've never eaten walleye.

I'm a huge seafood guy being from Boston. But, like, how do you, what's the best way to eat it? Bread pan fried. Okay. Or if you go a little, if you're not worried about your health beer batter and that's way better yes what are the what's uh in florida what's that the grouper yeah yeah so that's like minnesota walleye would be our grouper okay staple like a white like a white white flaky fish good stuff all right so is that how you would spend most your summers just

spending time in the outdoors like was was summer training really a thing or you just kind of just enjoy yourself yeah no it was just being active being a kid i played a hundred if in a small town if you didn't play multiple sports they wouldn't have teams so i just played a bunch of sports and it was fun because as soon as football season would end hockey practice usually started the next day so i'm excited for hockey and then it's baseball or golf yeah you're always looking forward to something after the weight exactly and as i got older i did some summer hockey um but you know where i live, summer hockey can be five minutes down the road, where as a kid, it's a 300-mile drive.

Yeah, there's no hockey in northern Minnesota. No, we didn't have ice. Did you get a little bit homesick? I mean, I know it was a bit of a change of pace going to the program and maybe a little bit less laid back than the atmosphere here. Yeah, I did. There was times, but little hiccups here and there, but nothing crazy. I remember getting really upset about math one time.

Should have called me. I'm a math guy. You're not the math guy. No, I know. I know. He listens. So the next step was the University of Minnesota. I really wanted to talk about this.

2002 was my senior year, and that was your freshman year, and you probably were on, it's got to be one of the greatest college hockey teams of all time, and it just happened that Minnesota was hosting the Frozen Four that year. So give us a little bit about that. Who else was on that team? Because it was a wagon. That was good. Honestly, I walked right into something awesome um as i was telling you

and wit earlier um our left side defensemen were jordan leopold paul martin and myself okay you just walk into that as a freshman and paul was a sophomore jordan was a senior who had 20 plus goals that year year, won the Hobie Baker. Johnny Pohl, I think, led the country in scoring that year. Jeff Tafe had 30-plus goals. He's unbelievable. There was so many guys, but the biggest thing was the culture that guys like Johnny and Jordan set as senior leaders.

guys like Johnny and Jordan set as senior leaders. They weren't the, you know, it wasn't, you know, you're a freshman, just shut up and do what we say. They brought us in actually at the beginning of the year, and they're like, we need you guys. And you have to load the bus and pick up pucks and do all those things, but we need you guys to be comfortable because we're going to do something awesome. They said that before.

Yep. Well, that's funny. I was going to ask because both those guys easily could have turned pro, but they knew the Final Four was in Minnesota. That was 100%. I'm guessing part of them being like, we're going back and we're winning this thing. So it was part of that going in. And then, ironically enough, you guys win it.

And Grant Patulny, I think, scored the OT winner. He wasn't even from minnesota the first non-play was it the first player to ever play for minnesota not from the state uh the first and i can't remember how many years okay um but yeah and grant was you know a sophomore at that time but he was like 29 years old walshy style Not really But yeah He was He was an older Played a couple years Of juniors And Again Another great leader

Who was our captain He was Three year captain At Minnesota What was What was the after party Like straight across the river With frat house

Your hockey house Right back Right to the bar The library Oh yeah Yep Yep Right to the library Minnesota The library? Oh, yeah. Yep. Yep. Right to the library.

That's the Minnesota bar. I went there one night, I remember. Obviously, you were 21, right? Yeah, of course. Responsibly. I mean, you played with Thomas Vannick, too, man. I mean, an Austrian playing college hockey, that's a rare thing. Was he there the following year?

Yeah. Was he there? He came the next year. He was a freshman, I believe. Yep. We had Thomas the following year? Yeah. Was he there? Okay. He came the next year. He was a freshman, I believe. Yep. We had Thomas the next year, and what a treat. Yeah. Sniper.

It was amazing. We used to call him Teen Wolf. You know when Teen Wolf would get mad, and he would just dominate the basketball game? Someone would take the puck from Thomas, and it was game over you're not touching that puck again i remember the because brian yandel one of my my closest friends was on unh i think you beat him in the finals or the semis and vanik put on a clinic yeah that whole frozen four was the thomas vanik show i think i think it was amazing it was sean collins on that unh team yeah he was yep he was one of the best players i think i I don't know much about college hockey,

but he said when Thomas Fannick turned it on, it was just... It was not even close. I think he had 31 goals that year as a freshman. And that's just unheard of in college hockey? Yes. Maybe Paul Correa and him. Well, and then Eichel now, too. Eichel had a crazy freshman year

yeah it's not uh it's not overly common no um no thomas was outstanding it 60 some points as a freshman so when you went the next year like in college so obviously you guys went at that first year like how many guys do you lose and then you guys are still able to repeat? We lost our leading scorer, Johnny Pohl. We lost Leah Pohl. We lost a ton of good seniors. Jeff Tafe signed early, ended up getting Thomas Vanek, and just kind of next guy up.

Great leadership still with Paul Martin, Grant Patolny, those type of guys. Troy Riddle, who's, Merle's will know, one of the most underrated college hockey players of all time. Yeah, just water bug flying around at all times. Yeah. Other than the leadership, was there one guy in particular that really took you under his wing when you got there to make you more comfortable in that step

um no i think it was all by a committee it was committee yeah yeah i think for me i always liked when i first got there just watching jordan and paul because they knew how good they were and i kind of want to be like those guys so what do they do how good they were. And I kind of want to be like those guys. So what do they do? How do they practice? That type of thing. Just good habits. Yep.

Non-stop, every day. Yep. Like, what persuaded you to go pro? Want to take that one over? All right. Try it again. Try it again. What persuaded you to go pro?

Was it the Yotes talking to you? Was it time? Like, did you have any consideration? Yotes were desperate. Graduating. They they needed something how did you end up end up yes i thought you were drafted by the island what was that trade yeah there was uh i had a few pit stops before that i went from buffalo get traded to colorado and then i got traded to pho Phoenix were these at the draft like you were still I was traded at the draft I want to say or just after the draft at one point you're like uh calling it was a deadline trade like the and a prospect guy you're like why do I keep getting traded like yeah I've won two national championships I'm not sure what i've done wrong yet but

no it worked out well um no i i think going to world championships after my junior year of college um i went there and there was guys like chrisury, Mike Greer, those type of guys there. I played a bit. I played some games I played very little. Some games I played more, whatever. But I felt like I'm not that far off. I can play this game at this speed. And the lockout was coming, so nobody knew what was going to happen with the entry-level deals

and if we're going to get rolled back and any of that. So I thought I'd give it a run. So I guess skipping over kind of an unmemorable year in Utah, right? You said the team was brutal. The next year you get to the NHL. It was great. There was memories. There were awesome guys there.

A lot of ahl legends oh why scaldi terry virtue terry oh my god yes terry virtue no so i had a lot of really awesome really awesome experiences just not you know you come from winning cultures and then that, and it's just like, get me out of here. I got to get to the NHL. I just want to – yeah, I just felt like I need something different. I got to bring it up now. So we're freshmen in college together. We're rookies in the NHL together.

We pretty much followed the same path. And then I remember rookie year watching one of the greatest goals ever scored by Alexander Ovechkin. You were on the ice for that, weren't you? Was that Paul Mara? That was Paul Mara. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. That was Boston's finest Paul Mara.

That was Paulie. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah. No, Rick Nash, that one. I was on the ice for that one. That was me and Derek Morris. Oh, no. I knew it was the highlight reel you were a part of.

We had just tied it right before that goal, too. That was next shift. Yep. So when you stepped in the league, was Wayne your first NHL head coach? Yeah. I mean, yeah, I guess go into it. Tell them the story you just showed us of that picture. Oh, yes, but I'll touch on Biz real quick first.

It took a long time to just get comfortable talking to him. I mean, it's hard enough as a rookie to talk to your coach, right? But then your coach is the greatest hockey player of all time so it was always like coach or mr gretzky or it took a couple years just to get over the point that or get over the fact that wayne gretzky was around every single day and he's coaching you so no the picture i just showed wit and merles he's like uh you're like are we doing neutrozone transitions today he's like what the fuck is that no bally said that wayne used to throw the whole gear on in practice no i was just going back to

how you guys went around the pond and you didn't really talk about like all the systems and the cliche words and he was i'll say this wayne was unbelievable to me and it's like it was basically just go play and like guys like him donor derrick morris who i remember him all my rookie year if you get in trouble we were partners and i feel terrible for him for that but he's like if you get in trouble throw it to my my side. I'll take care of it. Just go play. And that's the kind of guy he was, right? And that's what you learn from as a young guy.

It was pretty cool. Keith Yandel still says, like, Derek Morris, like, I think he looks at him as, like, a brother. And, like, he's just somebody who's always looking out for everyone. And I still wonder why he punched my head in after that game. Him and Witt got into it one game. No, you see, he just beat the shit out of me, but it's okay, Mom. Tim Jackman's coming on here.

Oh, Jesus. There's about 40 people we could get on here. I love Jacko. You played with sides for a couple years, Dennis Seidenberg. Yes. You had pals with him and all. He's a low-key wild dude. Oh, gosh.

I wouldn't wish this on anybody in this room is eating a pregame meal with Dennis Seidenberg. Oh, let's hear it. Why, just mucking away? No, he eats so slow. He chews everything like 20 times. Oh, he counts. He's a peltrier count of the bites. So you're like, besides we're carpooling together, let's go.

I want a three-hour nap here, besides. Another character from those days, Jovo Kvo cop we were fortunate enough to interview him absolute beauty a wonderful i love jovo i love sides too sides and i were just gonna bring up every guy you played with and you're just gonna comment jovo and i think you guys have mentioned it on here before. Jovo or somebody has just the funny comments that are, if you don't know Jovo, you're like, guy's an asshole. Yeah, cocky funny, I call it. Yes, cocky funny. Yeah, I used to ask him on the plane, like,

oh, what kind of sweater is that? Expensive. Hey, you got to change for a 20. That is change. Yep, exactly. Every fucking rich guy line in the book. Exactly. He'd hit me with, I'd be on my heels.

Jovo got me in Phoenix. So when I got called up, I'm like, screw this. I'm just going to act like I'm a veteran. I went to the back of the car, like play the cards. I'm going to drink the beers with the guys. And I'm playing with Jovo. And he lost a big pot to somebody. And he goes, hold on, hold on.

And we're like, what is that? He goes, I just made that back. A couple deep breaths. Oh, my God. We've heard them all, folks. We've heard them all. Yep. But were you there?

I think somebody just posted the picture. And, R.A., I think you might have been bringing it up with Nickelback. So I brought this up. So I was scrolling through Twitter today, and I see this picture. I'm like, no shit. I remember this day to a T. This is pregame skate, and I'm looking for my stick. I'm a rookie.

I can't find my stick. Chad Kroger's got it. He zoomed in today on the pic. I zoomed in on the picture. It's my stick. Day of the game. He's using it as a tripod in the morning skate that's my game stick i wanted to use it in the morning hey so apparently there's a backstory like they don't uh chad kroger doesn't know exactly where he's what he's overstayed his welcome to where they went on before pre-game skate

and then pre-game skate was supposed to start at let's say 10 15 10 30 and they had at some point 15 minutes after practice was supposed to start basically tell them hey you're gonna get the fuck off the ice well like they thought they were gonna shoot a they thought they were just gonna join in pregame skate they were they were out there when we were yeah are you shitting me actually was wayne getting pissed? To be honest, it was all a blur, right? You're a rookie. Had I been a 30-year-old at the time, I probably would have been like, get the fuck off. But you're thinking, I'm going to send a carrier pigeon back home to let the boys know that

Chad Kroger from Nickelback was using my stick in pregame skate. Yes. I'm looking around the locker room for it. I'm in the stick room. I just taped it. Where is it? Sure enough, he's got it out there. I'd say my stick, but my whole rookie year,

my stick said Ruchin on them. Steve Ruchin played for the Rangers. Apparently we had the same pattern, so I just got his sticks. That's nice. Did you like the change of scenery going from Phoenix to Florida I mean I know at the time Florida still I I guess not the the biggest drop but did you just like get out of Phoenix I guess I loved the times you know what I loved Phoenix I loved being in Phoenix um it's probably as a lot of players go through right

that first first trade just it's shocking well you lot of players go through, right? That first, first trade. Just, it's shocking. Well, you've been traded nine times in college. Yeah, exactly. Or your fourth. Exactly. Whatever you ask. That was my fourth trade.

But first of all, playing pro, I was just busting your balls. No, I, yes. You show up to the rink and they're like, hey, fucking somebody wants to see it. Was it, was it, was it mid season? No, it was summer. Oh, okay. It made it a little easier, I'm guessing. Yeah. yeah so i was i was on the golf course draft time and got traded to vancouver same thing golf course draft time oh really yeah so don't golf over draft day guys who are still

playing or shut your phone off yes exactly um no florida was good i i was just it was the shock of kind of settled in phoenix really loved the group there really loved everybody in the organization um and then it's something new and you were playing good and like that was not a trade where like oh we're disappointed in them right no i thought it was playing well that was playing good. Just maybe them making a change. What was the trade? It was me and Nick Boynton for Ole Okunin and maybe a draft pick. I don't know. From what I hear when Wayne was coached with Phoenix,

they were trying to get into playoffs and he really liked veterans. So they were almost that team that they were constantly on that bubble but never made playoffs. So they never got a good pick in order to keep getting better. That's kind of the feeling, or at least what I've heard in the past. Yeah, I think part of it, there was such a turnover every year, right? The number of guys, Brett Hull, Mike Ricci Owen Nolan Curtis Joseph um all kind of at the end they're bringing them in yep there were so many guys like that which are all awesome guys and it was super fun to have that experience of you know hanging out with Brett Hull in training camp and

going for beers with him listen to him complain oh my god the funniest stories best complainer ever right so? So good. So good. But then watching him take one-timers after practice and just wiring them. It was amazing. Yeah, that trade was, let's see, you won't point for Ole Oak. Pretty good deal there for those guys. Actually, I'm trying to find.

Hold on. Give me take two. I lost my spot here. I had a question. No, you're good. No, no. What the fuck is it? Okay, you're not good.

No, I am. Oh, no. Actually, no. A coach who now is pretty much a mainstay in the NHL. You had him pretty early in his career. Pete DeBoer. When you had him, did you realize this guy's built to last, could be a potential Hall of Fame coach?

Pete's a great coach. Pete and I got to Florida the same year. I liked Pete. He was straightforward. If you played well, he played you. I think he's evolved a lot as a coach, which everybody does, right? Look, it was pretty hard on guys then, right? At times.

Yeah, I think, yeah, that's fair to say. Probably more of a junior hockey mentality. Yeah. Yeah. As far as. Having just come from there, though. Yeah, exactly. And I don't fault anyone for that.

And I'd say this all day is, you know, especially my second year in Florida. If I was. We lost ballmeister that year yep um if i was playing well pete's playing the heck out of me if i played like crap he's probably letting me have it and which was perfect that's life right um yeah and then he knew i could take a little bit of yelling so probably yell at me a little bit when he's yelling at the group you think that you're somebody who getting yelled at like it almost fired you up like you'd play better after i know myself personally terry would give it to me but i'd always play better after it was like yeah i didn't i didn't mind that and i

never minded that with coaches, with coaches being straightforward. Because as a player, you want to be, where do I stand? What do you want from me? And then I'll go do it. Give me a role. And I always liked that. And at least there was nothing phony about it. It was, this is what I think about you.

This is what I think about your game. If you want something different go change it um you called the vulcun incident uh like onions a lot of layers like is this something like is it was that just a lot of frustration that ended up mounting and it was like worst possible case scenario biz biz i'll say this to the listeners pause right now youtube this incident watch it and now you can hear the layers to it, right? Everyone listening right now who hasn't seen this, please check it out. Well, I've seen the clip when they score the goal, and then obviously you turn around,

but what did you mean by there's a lot to talk about about it? So there's a little bit of a backstory. Okay, let's go, baby. I'm going to preface this with, and Grinelli, please do not cut this out no we never this is not in any way shape or form putting any bit of blame on anyone else okay but nope nope nope not one bit but just so you can get where my mindset was let's go i'm gonna close my eyes for this all right

you know unzip your shirt a little bit this could be this could be on the calm app when you i'm gonna show you we're in uh we're in at the ritz and day before the game and pete pulls we're all going to a movie pete pulls me uh pulls me in the lobby and like you and we go back and forth right we're having basically what turns into a big fuck you contest he's not happy with your play nope nope i threw a pizza to phil kessel the night before not good i understand that it's like you don't even care like i don't know i disagree with you like that that's kind of what got me through my career is i'm 5'10 you know not a big guy competitiveness is something i kind of got me here um whatever we go through that so but i it's first time i've ever been rattled by a coach and i was rattled it's not pete's fault he's trying to push buttons so we go do you remember the movie you saw what's that you're going to a movie do you remember the

movie you were going to see not one bit i was rattled and the guys were just like what's wrong with you i just got my asshole ripped out and i didn't even mind the i didn't even mind the back and forth. But so next day, I'm still rattled. Fast forward that night. Kovalchuk. Me and Jordan Leopold got to play against Kovalchuk all night. Like, sweet. This will be fun. Sneaks behind us, breakaway, whatever.

Long story short, Vokun's ear gets cut. Not bad. But I had no clue. It was Will Ferrell in the debate. What's that movie? You blocked out. Old school. Yes.

Yes. The wires got... So I skated back to the bench. Without even saying anything to Vokun? I had no clue what happened. Oh, that makes it so much worse. I skated to the bench and i'm looking at i think it was brian allen like and the trainer's running i'm like what happened

you just killed the goalie keith what happened what happened because you hit him um because i believe in the in the conversation i had with Pete, he's like, you know, you get scored on, and you just line back up, or you come back to the bench. I'm like, what do you want me to do, break my stick? He goes, well, that would show you cared. I'm like, what? And that's not, I'm competitive on the ice, but it's one of those deals, right?

Clip it, Grinnelli. Pete DeBoris to blame for Volkun. Not one bit. What do you mean? You just told me that he said he wanted you to show it, and then you did it. I think that he's part to blame. I don't think he meant hit my goalie in the head.

But Volkun also, he reacted like he could be dead. That made it. Well, I think they made him stay down. That's what Volkie said to me. He cut his ear. That's all that happenedy said to me. He cut his ear. That's all that happened. Well, no, you cut his ear. Well, he cut his ear.

He should have had a better helmet on. Pete DeBoer cut his ear. Okay, let's get that straight. The best part was two days later going to pick up Leopold and Brian Allen. We all lived in the same neighborhood and there's vokey and first off we had him and i sat together and i'm miserable on this flight miserable the rest of the game i got tears in my eyes half the game thinking i killed the guy what What happened to my teammate and my friend? And so I go to pick up those two. There's Boke. Lawn chair in his driveway.

Cooler of beers. Just sitting there like, have fun at the game tonight, boys. He was loving it. You gave him a two-game sabbatical. Exactly. Stitches in his ear. Yep. He had like six stitches

in the back of his ear so okay so did this make like the not top plays like how long in the dressing room was this like just being talked about you guys were actually joking about it did the coaches give you shit too i mean was it they must have known you felt horrible they yes they were awesome they were awesome um next night we play colorado we had to overtime and i jump up in the play get the puck wide and i try to beat i think it was brett clark the d in colorado go to the net get my skates knocked out right as i'm cutting to the net old school glenn anderson style steamroll click craig anderson out cold killing goalies yes that was awful it was awful that's two games in a row oh it's terrible oh it's not oh yeah i don't need this on my conscious

yes oh the boar owns you you kill vocood and then ruin Anderson. No, but I will say this about Pete. I think he's an awesome coach, and I really did appreciate him pushing, you know? Yeah. I think he was awesome. And I say that because in today's climates, everyone gets offended, right? Oh, yeah.

Well, someone said you shouldn't do this or, you know, was hard on you. I say it all the time. My best coach was the hardest coach on me 100 just yeah i think it was great accountability taught me accountability and you know as much as i maybe didn't like it at the time it's yeah i i look back to it you look back and you're like yeah this is what i needed yeah so um no you go ahead All right, so summer 2010, you get traded to Vancouver. Is that a trade you wanted to happen? Did you facilitate it?

Did it surprise you? What happened there? Did not facilitate, no. Okay with it, yes. Not okay. Yes, it was welcomed. Going to a crazy market. Yeah.

It was so different, right? The first five years are in non-playoff teams and it just got to be a point where you're kind of a product of the environment which i look back on that and think i wish i would have done more to help it be different but at sometimes there's only so much you can do different but at sometimes there's only so much you can do um vancouver was an amazing experience team-wise uh personally different it was just just hockey wise um but i loved it i love the city and you know the way you skated like it could have been a really long career and i know concussions ultimately was the end like at this, had you already had a couple?

And I'm talking ones that were actually, like, written down. Like, I'm sure you had some that were never mentioned, but had you already started struggling with this, or was that a little bit later on? No, I hadn't had any. I had one in Omaha. So it had been quite a while. Yep.

Yep, I had one in Omaha. I i had when i got traded to vancouver um that was my second hip surgery that summer labrums um i had labrum after my rookie year and then i fractured my hip socket in February, my last year in Florida. And it was just bothering me. No one knew. So I went to Vail at the end of the season to get it checked out. And he's like, you're having surgery at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning. You're like, whoa, I just wanted a second opinion.

Yeah, I literally wanted to get a checkup. I was coming from the opera ski here, what the fuck's going on so you played the whole march and april i played february march and april with yeah fractured hip socket jesus um so that that kind of made the transition to vancouver hard hard because I was not healthy at all. And you go back to the skating, it was not even close to the same. And you went through it with your ankle. It's the worst feeling in the world. You know what you want to do, but you can't do it.

That's exactly how I felt. Yeah, it fucks with your head a little bit. The injuries, yeah. And then all of a sudden you start overcompensating and then other things start going. That was kind of the start to the end, so to speak. Yep, exactly. And a bunch of injuries that year.

I think I had MCL and I can't remember what else. When did you sign the big ticket? Who was that with? That was right after you did yours yeah we were always neck and neck you probably saw mine you got that what the fuck it went from thanks sid thanks with yep that was right after you had yours with 59 points and i think i had like 20

got a little more than him too no way get the fuck out of here did you that's more valuable you sicko yeah oh you mean you actually played in your own end he was physical wait a minute you hit people wait a minute you you entered your own zone no the ring he didn't play on us he didn't play on a circular rink with no corners he actually had a rectangle one that everyone else dealt with yeah yeah that yeah. That's too good. Wow, I didn't know that was right when I signed mine. Yeah, I guess we were all the same dealer. Six years, 19, 20. Let me ask you that.

I like to talk to all the guys who sign big deals because I never got one. The day you get the call and the fact that you're going to make this much money moving forward playing hockey, describe the day. Can you remember it like it was yesterday? Yeah, it started when I was in Cabo for my wedding. Get out of here. Wedding weekend? Yeah, so I'm with my agent, Ben, or on the phone with him, Ben Hankinson, who's local guy here and the best agent in the world.

The Hamburglar? Sorry, Ben. And the best agent in the world. The Hamburglar? No, he's telling me, like, you know, Florida's offering this, they're offering that. Okay, what do you, like, you just decide. What do we do? And it just kept kind of growing a little bit. And we kept going and going. And long story short, they signed me.

And bad news is no trade didn't kick in. So I didn't have any control. So they traded me to Vancouver, which was good. But ideally, when you have a no trade, you want to have a little control over it too. Yeah, when I got my deal, the first three years was, you know, you could be traded. The last three, no trade. I'm like, all right, great. Thinking like, I got the first three years locked in here.

I know Tang and Goligoski come and just boot my ass out. I was like, shit, that no trade did absolutely nothing. And Goose is still flying around out there. I know. It's fucking, how good is is still flying around out there. I know. It's fucking. I know. How good is he? So smart, dude.

Great guy. Just poised. He's a guy that when I first met him, it's like this could be a 16-year NHL player. It was just very easy for him. He's so calm, too. I think that that plays a factor in it. He's calming. He just slows the game down.

He knows exactly what to do in every situation. And if anything, he's one of those guys that I feel like he's probably still playing some of his best hockey right now. I bet you he's super energetic in terms of Arizona was tough. Now he's on a good team. That just lifts you up. But I'll say this. Even though Arizona was bad, every night he would bring it. He would block shots.

He just steady Eddie. And, you know, I have a crazy amount of respect for him and how his career has gone. And the way he was able to transform, because like when – and we joke around about it, but I think that they saw like at least we got Letang and then also now Goose from the back end who can provide offense. He's completely kind of transformed his game in a sense of he's not a liability defensively. He fucking gets it done. He kills penalties.

He's reliable with the puck, and he can eat up 22 minutes. It's fascinating. His skating, his positioning, he's like Jared Spurgeon. Same thing. And they play together. They play together, yes. Exactly. When you were in Vancouver, could you tell us that Dean's a pot?

It took a bit. I would wait for them to get into the change room to put their sneakers on. Look at that peck. We had the numbers on the back. He would label them with a Sharpie when he would get to the room. He'd just give them a cross on the arm. No, they had the numbers on the back, but now I can, yes.

It took me probably six months. I'll say this, two of the best people in the world. Yeah, they seem to be very low-key guys. We've had people talk about them before, but they don't seem to say a lot about them. But everybody who likes them loves them a ton. They seem to be generally

good people. Awesome're awesome people. I know you guys got a big Boston following and the 2011 mishap. I wasn't going to go there, Keith. No, we can go there. No topics. I mean, we already talked about slashing my goalie in the head. You thought going back to Boston, we got this series. I know you did.

2-0, we just spanked them twice. Yeah. Probably reffing or something. Can we blame, like, reffing, climate, barometric pressure? I don't know. No, it was a weird series. But when people talk about them being soft, and I hate that label for the Sedins,

they're so tough because they compete every night and they get the shit beat out of them they and they don't complain one bit i go over and over and over again um it was two of the best leaders right with shane doan um that i've ever played with i would say that I think at one point they will be the first combo GM. I think they'll be the GM of a team together at one point. Well, if it happens, it'll probably be, for sure, Vancouver. Yeah, that's a cool...

And they're working their way up in Vancouver. Is that like a hot take? What do you call that? I don't think if it happened, it would be that surprising. Like Billy Guerin said he worked his way up. He saw every part of Pittsburgh, and they're doing that in Vancouver. They're helping out with everything, and I think at one point they're going to be a duo GM. Isn't that position open right now?

Yeah, but I already read they're doing it slowly. I heard they were going to pick one, but they couldn't tell them apart. Another guy I like asking about is uh oh go ahead sorry well no i just wanted to touch on like that whole run and and maybe that series in particular like is that was that the funnest hockey you've ever gotten to play in your entire life it was cool because that year was the first year i ever played in the playoffs it's my sixth year in the nhl and first time i ever played in the playoffs. And I remember game one against Chicago thinking, holy shit, this is fast. Oh, my goodness.

It was night and day different from every other NHL game I had ever played before. And you were playing against those young – like Kane and Taves had just entered the league. Cup champs. They were – well, they ended up winning it. They weren't the cup champs the year before, were they? Yeah, they were, right?

Oh, really? Okay, okay, my apologies. I thought it was the year after they finally won it. What? They weren't the cup champs the year before, were they? Yeah, they were, right? Oh, really? Okay, okay. My apologies. I thought it was a year after they finally won it. No. No. And there was a big Vancouver-Chicago rivalry. The hair pulling.

Yes. Yes. It was a good battle. But it was so fun just getting that experience and realizing the importance of every play um the whole the whole deal was great you get power play kind of won us against san uh the series against san jose um you guys like any different raffy torres manny mahra stepping up and the importance of how good they were. You've got your staples, right? The Sedins and Edler, Erhoff, Bieksa, Hamhuis, those guys.

And then you see the other side of it too, right? Where Dan Hamhuis gets hurt, which I think has hurt us badly. He was so solid, so good. It was super fun to be a part of uh you know you win the national title at home and then you have the complete opposite in losing game seven in van and after that game like what did you do do you remember it that's just been heartbreaking yeah i mean i tried uh to make my way home yeah for the four minutes it was fires everywhere oh we had the it was the biggest roundabout way

um to get home because all the crap that was going on which is too bad but um no it was did guys hang out after though or did everyone yeah no we all hung out we all hung out um i remember losing the next year to la yeah first round yes they were the they were the eighth seed i think they beat us in two games they beat us they called it too brother they beat us that year everyone oh my gosh they wagging. You couldn't get within 12 feet of Jonathan Quick. Well, you win the President's Trophy. You're kind of a tough matchup. We get these guys first round.

Yes. And they got in the last day of the season. But one of the guys said after we were having beers in the trainer's room after the game, when we lost game five, like, this feels way better than losing last year. If we're going to lose, we're done now. Who was the feeling going into the game six? Like you said, you hit a 3-2 lead, feeling good, but you had gotten your asses kicked the first two games.

Is the team overconfident? What's the thought process with the team there? No, so that's the cool thing about that team. There was never – no one ever got excited about winning i shouldn't say excited no one felt like there was never the loud music in a party after a win and there was never a big low after a loss it was we know what we need to do we know what we have let's go do it uh we i think we had bx on and he said before game seven he just felt that there was a different aura that that for for whatever reason they felt

that he felt that there was more pressure on them to win or you guys excuse me i'm butchering this whole fucking thing uh but he just basically said that he just didn't have a great feeling in his gut did you have that same feeling i was was watching Game 7 from the Players Lounge on TV. Okay, there you go. Hey, I want to ask you about the— Health Bob. Health Bob. Hey, it wasn't my fault.

Yeah, I had my guy. I had my guy. I want to ask you about the Burrows bite. Now, obviously, you know, you guys are all in the same league, and it's something that typically doesn't happen. And were guys that kind of like privately like, man, what the what the fuck a bit of guy especially a guy like the stature bergeron like what did you say like fuck it's the stanley cup do you gotta do yeah i mean didn't brad marshall just lick someone's face yeah i love it licking and biting is two different things

no i i know i know i'll say this about Alex Burrows. When I was in Phoenix in Florida, every time I played against him, I absolutely hated the guy. When I was his teammate, I absolutely loved him. Yeah. He was a huge part of the culture that we had there. Remember one day, January, February, the dog days, right? I'm like, I don't feel like working out after practice.

He goes, let's go. We need this at the end of the season. It'll pay off. And he, you know, just that mentality. He was that way every day. Very smart hockey player. Sharp teeth, too. There was no mistake that he ended up having the success he did. The work ethic was no doubt part of it.

Everyone credits all that to the Sedins. He's a smart hockey player. Very smart hockey player. He started in the East Coast League, and then he worked his way up, and then AHL, and he wasn't lighting up the AHL. He just played his role, and then he got his chance and took all of it. And it's not that easy. I shouldn't say it.

I know this, but it's not that easy to be hated by everyone like to be always the most despised guy that's like that gets old i think after a while and he didn't care no no absolutely and i mean he did that but also added a lot of offensive value as he kind of got more established in the league um so after vancouver you end up coming back to minnesota and you know your wife's from medina it's like it must have been really special to come back here and and probably prepare to play a lot longer before the before the head injuries yeah it was awesome um loved it um i would have hated it think, early in my career versus being 30 plus with kids. Loved having the ability for all of my family to come watch when they wanted to.

Or, you know, parents, grandparents, whoever it was. Aunts, uncles, friends, all that. And just having that experience. Head injury stuff like you know i've had concussions before but they've never been really lingering like like can you describe the effects and like like what just what it had on your everyday life uh yeah it um it sucked to be very honest um probably took it was about a year when i started seeing a different doctor and it was a lot with my eyes a lot with my neck um and i saw a different i saw a doctor for i think seven months three days a week about two hours a day and it was night and day difference and i haven't had any effect since like like uh obviously like massage you said the neck and the eye stuff

is it like resetting the brain with all this like like new wave of technology i would do different activities um whether it be balance and doing a cognitive activity. You know, one thing we would do is these goofy glasses on and put cribbage pegs in the holes, right? You got to go all the left, and then next time all the right ones, and then every other. And it's not that easy at the beginning. It's not that, no, no, it's not. The last one you mentioned was the matt martin hit you know you wake up in the hospital right i mean yeah i mean i

was i was kind of i was awake um in the ambulance um at the x just after a bit after i kind of waddled my way off the ice and you still got up huh yeah apparently i threw a tantrum and i was screaming at the trainers i'm not getting on a stretcher um but they got me off safely and at that time like the next year you're saying well you told me that's when you knew you knew it that i'm done and not only are you done you're done like kind of in this brutal way it's it's it's it's so shocking and surprising but you got kids at home like before you saw that new doctor it must have been pretty hard for for a little while yeah it was um i think i got used to the new normal which normal, which looking back, I wish I would have probably done something earlier. Um,

but you get used to, as I've learned, people get used to, all right, I don't feel that great today or all right, I've got headaches or all of those symptoms and you get used to that's your normal. And once I figured out what my normal feels like then it was a night and day it was so much better for me i wasn't even close yeah and then like yeah i'm like i was at 50 now i'm here was that when you realize like it's not worth going back to that i'm healthy now and it's time to hang them up um no i I was very comfortable. I mean, I was very comfortable being done. I never, ever, ever expected to play in the NHL or quite frankly even dreamt of playing in the NHL.

And that was my third one in 13 months. When it was over, the last one, I'm like, I'm going to be done. It was getting harder, too, as you guys have gone through all the stuff you have to do, which makes me admire all these guys who keep playing and keep playing. It's crazy. All the stuff you have to do to prepare. It was getting harder for me. And I used to love all that stuff.

And I'm like, it's time. I'm done. I got kids. I got family. I want to stick around here for a while and remember their names. Yeah, exactly. And in post-career, I mean, right now you got, I think you said 11-year-old, 8-year-old, 5-year-old.

You're coaching hockey. You're running like a diner. It must be pretty cool. You're still in the game. You see the passion with the kids, and you see, as we said before, how good these kids are now. It's fun. Yeah, I help out with my middle guy's might team.

I got my daughter's 12U team, A little might board action. You teaching the hip check? Yes. No, there's no hitting anymore. Oh, yeah, true. I teach them what my Bantam coach told me. Anybody gets near you, cross-check them in the throat as hard as you can. I don't know if we can do that anymore, but he's an old school guy.

That's Baudette. Yes. Do you watch a lot of NHL currently, like night to night or just here and there, whenever you can? Here and there. Yeah. Here and there, yeah. Are you a wild guy, a wild fan? I just, whatever's on.

Okay. Whatever's on, yeah. I like watching it. I'm getting to the point where I don't have that many buddies left playing. Right, right, yeah. But I like watching my buddies. Yeah. You know, if the Islanders are on and Brock Nelson and Anders Lee are playing

or, you know, different teams, right? You got to start gambling then. Yeah, we're working on that. Don't get me started. It would be a nice account to have. We're going to get involved with a unit shaming club. I bet $50, $100 a game. These guys are big dogs.

Yeah, but we don't shame. People online shame. You can join the unit shaming. So if I just give you my credit card, can you guys settle up? Oh, yeah. R.A. will take care of it. If you have Venmo, I can take care of it. We'll put in $100,000.

It'll be gone soon. R.A.'s got the square. He brings it around. You can swipe on his phone. By the way, guess who's back? 9-3, Florida beating Tampa. I gave that over out in the cab. 9-3.

And I gave out Nashville Columbus 3-3 after 3. What's the Nashville Columbus score? 3-3 after 3. So that's the over. There we go. Valley's good luck. Let's go. Yes.

Yeah, we got a lot. I got one more for you. Keep going. I also have one more. Have you seen the movie Fargo? Yeah. How do locals feel about that, about the best picture? It did one best picture, but it should have.

I love your movie reference because I do listen to the podcast. I know you're a movie guy. He's a movie master. That means more than you know. I'm surprised Ari's still awake. Dark movie. Very dark movie. The accents.

Tell me if I'm wrong. Do I sound like that? A little. You're like 80% of that. But I think they exaggerated for the movie. It's very exaggerated. Yeah. But people, is there a sense of pride about it?

Because, hey, it's Fargo, and they talk about Brainerd, or do they think it's derisive? I mean, Far, is there a sense of pride about it? Because, hey, it's Fargo, and they talk about Brainerd, or is it like they think it's the rice of totem? Because I think it's endearing. I mean, Fargo is in North Dakota. Right. Well, that's the irony of the movie. That's the irony of the movie. It's all in Minnesota, and they named it Fargo being the Cullens.

But I think at the same time, like, it shows them as pretty kind and decent people for the most part. Other than killing and chopping up bodies. That was only Jerry Undergar. Chopping up goalies' heads with sticks. I haven't seen it. Don't watch it. I can't watch part. Other than killing and chopping up bodies. That was only Jerry Lundegaard. I haven't seen it. Don't watch it. I can't watch this guy. No, I got to watch it.

I mean, at one point, if you're going to use a woodchapper, don't do it over ice and snow. Like that's... Yeah, you're just spraying DNA everywhere right there. That was a bad call. Okay, so I always ask this as like a last question. Is there anything that you thought we were going to ask you that we didn't, that you wanted to tell, like a story that you can remember from your playing days?

Is there one that's a famous one that you usually like to tell? And if not, no worries. We just end the podcast. No fucking pressure, buddy. I don't think so. I put him on his heels, just like McDavid. Keep the fucking change, folks. I asked it.

Speaking to him, I'm so glad and wet. You will echo this. How glad are you that you're not playing? So you obviously watched. I would never have been on the ice against him, but yeah, I could have got ugly if I got caught out there for some reason. It's a joke. Neutral zone turnover, bad gap.

I just changed. See you later. See you. The best was when, no, that was McKinnon, I'm sorry, but Petro this year in Vegas, or last year, and he pivots, and McKinnon goes, no, that was McKinnon, I'm sorry, but Petro this year in Vegas. Or last year, and he pivots, and McKinnon goes, oh, fuck. Outdoor game. Oh, shit.

Let's hope we see another one of those, this one. The game is so good. It's good. It is. It is so fast. It's so good. I just hope it's still like when we started, where you still have those older guys kind of taking young guys under their wing.

I feel like now it's... The young guys are taking the older guys under their wing. Let's get on the bus after the road game and stare at our phones and check Twitter mentions and all that crap. Oh, shit. You're getting a little personal now. Whitseed has the beers. That's literally what I used to do.

And the coughs over the open cans. Collective skill has never been better. No, you need a towel. Yeah, oh, that's the, yeah. Is that the number one thing you're telling these new kids? It's like, fuck off with the phones. Enjoy each other. Enjoy the moment.

And ignore the technology and kind of just embrace the the journey as as far as the hockey's concerned i'd say the best part about playing is the relationships um take the drive from colorado from the rink to the airport that's 45 minutes right post game sit back with your teammates if you have beer have beer if not no big deal but talk to them get to know them get to know about their kids get to know what's going on bitch about the coach if you want just don't get caught on cell phone video those guys not

or an Uber driver yeah well Bally I mean we really appreciate this was a long time coming and as somebody who kind of competed and played with you it was really fun to kind of catch up. An amazing career. This was awesome.

Can I add one more thing with it? Yes. We brought up Vancouver for a bit when you were in Edmonton. Elaine Vigneault, this is word for word, very close. Every bit of offense runs through number six. We need to be tough on six, especially through the neutral zone. I got it. Pre-game mention.

Dinner's on wit tonight. Dinner's on me and no need for Roman swipes right now. I'm hard as a rock. I had to give you that shout out. You know what? I actually think that was during the good year. Shane O'Brien mentioned one time, he's like, dude, they pumped your tire in pre-game media. I'm like, holy shit, Obi. I still was minus three good year. Shane O'Brien mentioned one time, he's like, dude, they pumped your tire in pregame media.

I'm like, holy shit, Obi. I still was minus three that night. Any mention of me? You're like, keep biz on the ice. Nobody fight him. No, you tried to run me one time, though. Of course he did. Thank God I got out of the way.

No mention, though? No pregame mention? Okay, cool. We're getting on this. Hey, Bows, chuck out your parents' fishing resort name. Ballardresort.com. Ballardresort.com. Ballardresort.com. If you love fishing, winter or summer, northern Minnesota is where it's at.

Keith Ballard, amazing guy, great career. Thank you. We're coming back. Big thanks to Keith Ballard for joining us. Had a lot of fun with those mini guys. We had a great time over at Billy Sushi's in Minnesota as well. You had a little fun? I had a lot of fun. A lot of fun. You had a little fun? I had a lot of fun.

A lot of fun. Yeah. An extra lot of fun. An extra lot of fun. The best part about that interview is it's followed up by a trip to Billy Sushi's where R.A. did a margarita, a beer, a glass of wine, sake. My sake. Your sake.

Don't forget I got a mid-meal delivery outside as well from them. Oh, nice. Okay. Well, that's what really put you over the edge. No wonder you were by no wonder. Yeah. The florist is right. You fucking idiot. Oh my God. That is so funny. Yeah. If we had fun and hopefully you had fun listening to the interview on that interview was also brought to you by our friends over at manscaped.

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I keep licking my stash. It gets like I get addicted to the little wiry hairs. And I look like a donkey on TV when I'm like. You should Google Eric Van Royen. He's a PGA Tour player. And he's got an unreal mustache right now, kind of at the end. Like, oh, he does oil or whatever. He gets it

together the wax met with the wax yeah you should do that my my old man said you look like john holmes biz when we were watching the game the other night he's like what's up with biz's face he looks like john holmes is that another old porn italian porn star you know he's not italian but i mean if you don't know john holmes it's another porn star. Oh, yeah. John. John Holmes is legendary. Dude. You never heard of John Holmes. All right. I don't like watch VHS pornos.

Like, I don't know who John. Listen, he could have been a fucking real to real eight millimeter back when they were no talking in movies. John Holmes is. I think I'd love to do a poll, but I think we're at four percent of people listening to know who John Holmes is. I was going to say that. Yeah.

Legendary porn star. I mean, he was a very loose inspiration with Boogie Nights, but did you ever see the movie Wonderland with Val Kilmer? Best part is your dad talked about a porn star, too. Like, that's even another interesting thing. R.A., what did you like about his game? Like, no one's dad watched it. No, I don't talk about it with my dad, though. Maybe I'm in the minority on that one, too. Like that's even another interesting. All right. What'd you like about his game? Like not no one's dad. No, we don't. I don't talk about it with my dad though.

Maybe I'm in the minority on that one too. Any of you boys talk to your dad about porn stars? Nope. Okay. Thank you. Oh, then that's just all right. What'd you like about his game so much? Like, who would you compare him to? Nobody. I mean, he, he, I mean, his, he had like a legit, I don't know if it was 15-inch erection. I mean, it was huge. Long Dong Silva was the only guy who had a bigger one than John Holmes that were familiar.

Oh, Lex Steel didn't have a fucking bigger rope than this guy? Long Dong Silva was the biggest I've seen in footage, but John Holmes was legendary. But, you know, he ended up fucking, his life kind of got out of control. He got into the drugs. They ended up robbing someone who got killed, and he ended up fucking his life kind of got out of control he got into the drugs they ended up robbing someone who got killed and he ended up dying of aids i raised the type of guy who went saw like debbie does dallas at the movie theater with his old man let's not disparage leo here leo's leo didn't take me to see they brought the playboy to read during the previews um yeah it was a it was an autograph signing they showed up live before they had the

they had the horse from when the fucking girl crushed the horse they had a bunch of clay to wrap around his hog so they could make one at home yeah yeah that's not gonna happen no our family is nothing but loving good times unlike the philadelphia flyers alumni we're sticking i want to ask you one more question who's your mount Mount Rushmore of porn stars? Guys. Apparently, I'm supposed to know all these legends. Awful guys. I know Peter North because he must have hung out for months and months.

You don't know Jean-Paul Fernando from Portugal with the 13-inch erection biz? John Holmes, Peter North. And listen, I know he's had legal troubles lately, and we'll kind of put those in the back burner. Ron Jeremy, I mean, he kind of changed the game. He was a schlubby guy. Hey, imagine how stinky his fucking unit was, and these girls had to suck on his schlong.

And then a fourth. I would say Peter North because of his bat size. Pete North, John Holmes, Ron Jeremy, and Joey Silvera may be worth it. The fourth slot, that's tough. There's a lot of guys who will go in there. For the women, probably the Lynn sisters, Ginger and Amber, although they're not technically sisters. Who else?

Geez, I'd have to think a minute on that. There's a lot. Josh, Tori Wells. God, that VHS era, man, I'm telling you, um who else jeez i'd have to think a minute on that there's a lot josh tory wells uh god that vhs era man i'm telling you they produced incredible amounts of stars i know you guys know i i used to they got the ski slope tits back then they got the you know banana tits yeah banana tits i.e natural the throwback titties yeah same that was the mother from close encounters all right we can move on from the, we can move on.

So like I said, there's nothing like a big happy family, but the Philadelphia flyers alumni is anything but right now. Bobby clock appeared on our buddy cam and stricts podcast last week. And he's seen a few pair pair eighties tits. They are a 70s flyers. Oh my God. I can't imagine what those savages were up to back then. But, guys, it's very unusual to hear a franchise legend

like kind of shit on another franchise legend from the same team. It's just not something you see. But Ronnie Hextall, he's got to get the daggers out of his back. Bobby Clark had some stuff to say. He basically said none of our scouts wanted to know on Patrick that Ron Hextall made up his mind himself. All the scouts were pissed off they wanted my car he also said hexdall could have got ryan o'reilly from buffalo

didn't happen it was just unusual then he went talked about mike keenan basically shit all over him didn't say he said he couldn't understand how he coached or why he coached i mean boys go to you first with this is pretty unusual stuff like i said franchise legend to dump on a franchise legend like this yeah seriously and i i it was on cam and strict podcast i don't know if you said that so so we got to shout out those guys getting a great interview that's awesome for them they do a great job and bobby clark i mean bobby clark's getting old grinnelly if you could probably look up how old he is i'm not at all saying he doesn't know exactly what he's talking about. I'm more saying the older they get, you get, I think, the less of a fuck you give.

72. 72. Oh, yeah. Past 70, you give a fuck meter. Past 70, you're looking back at some. Well, you're looking at your team that, you know, you've spent your entire adult life being a part of one way or the other as a player as gm and all the different roles that bobby clark spent and you're looking at a tough time and you're getting questions and you're talking about um you know what is like your family and you're wondering why things are

going wrong and you're over 70 and you just start chucking out daggers to somebody who you think really fucked up your your squad so, you had a really good point. I'll let you make them a car before the draft. But when you talk about going at a guy like Ron Hextall, it just shows that Bobby Clark doesn't really care. And he has his opinions on, on, on the fact that in his mind, they wouldn't be in this position. They would be in right now without Ron Hextall.

I'm not one to judge Bobby Clark. It is tough though, to see, you know, public comments made. You don't see that much in hockey about, you know, a former partner or whatever they could be called Hextall and Bobby Clark and, and seeing kind of how ugly it got. Well, I mean, it was more of public knowledge and just the hindsight of, I don't think anybody had Makar in the top two

like nobody as far as the big scouting uh or you know the Bob McKenzie's or any of these types of guys um apparently nobody even within their their organization at the time had them in the top two uh Nolan Patrick was for sure listed I think at one point as the, at the worst second overall. And that's what he ended up going to the flyers. Now regarding the alienation of team scouts and making decisions on his decisions on his own from just talking to people, sounds like something that maybe Ron Hextall would have done. The Ryan O'Reilly thing. Well, depends what they would have had to given up and what he,

who he believed in at the time. So that's another hindsight one um the other stuff in in in uh in the alienating of the scouts and in doing that i think that given the fact that he's moved on to the pittsburgh penguins which seemed to be a pretty big rival of the philadelphia flyers and that the moves that he has made have kind of created this like i created this non-winning environment. I can understand the bitterness towards Bobby Clark, towards Ron Hextall, but to trash him like that in the media at this point, just very, very bizarre. And actually smart move by Ronnie Hextall saying,

right now I don't have the time or energy to kind of get back to to you on this one but I would imagine at some point given his competitive nature he's going to have a lot of things to say that were very calculated that are going to come out do you not think he's going to fire back with oh I think that that that's a guy that's going to put that in the old memory bank you know I I don't know if you ever saw any clips of Ron Hextall it's funny though picturing them tilting. It's kind of like Adam Sandler and Bob Barker. And then Bob Barker beats the wheels off of him and happy Gilmore. I don't think that Bobby Clark will be beating the wheels off Hextall.

But it's like, don't underestimate Bobby fucking Clark playing hockey all those years with no front teeth, being a complete lunatic, breaking that Russian's ankle with that slash in the 72 Summit Series. He'll do anything to win. Well, he does have the movie teeth now, so he's got to be careful he doesn't fuck those things up i don't think he wants to be messing around with ron hextall but he'll remember that there'll be there'll be comments about that at some point down the road what uh good stick fight what was the what was the other bad move that he was complaining about other than alienating scouts uh not taking their advice

on the macar the o'reilly trade i mean he should on mike keenan uh he said i don't call that coaching his coaching style was just to abuse the players mike's process was just wrong the whole time you know just another guy he's just so i mean i've also talked to a lot of players who didn't like mike keenan's philosophies and and and how he liked to handle his business so I guess I don't really have an opinion on that one I never played for Mike Keenan yeah but I talked to a lot of guys who have and he was a nightmare but I mean we should rough and rowdy Hextall versus Bobby Clark just a stick fight because those guys love whacking each other whacking opponents with sticks what would you pay for that biz 50 bucks I think I

think the reason he came over the top ropes is the fact that Ron Hextall is now in Pittsburgh and it looks like they're going to fucking go on to maybe have a cup run and maybe even win one. And he's left that team in disarray. If I could just sum it up in a couple sentences. Well, like Whit said, he's old and doesn't give a fuck at this point. Yeah. That too. Pretty cool moment, Carolina.

They had signed a goalaltender jack lafontaine a few days prior and he ended up getting in the game for the canes we've talked about this before all these e-bug situations goalies who are jumping in out of nowhere to play for these nhl clubs it's pretty cool he played the last 15 minutes after freddie anderson got pulled he did give up two goals on three shots but they they were breakaways cut the guy some slack uh rod also said he wanted to give freddie a little bit of rest on a night when the D stunk, and he also thought it was a good idea to throw the kid into the mix in case he has to get back out there.

But another one of these e-bug stories that, I don't know, people seem to like them. I do. I like sharing them. So let's see. Moving right along. Jack Eichel, he started skating just three weeks after surgery. He said he feels fine.

No real ill effects. It's kind of like, what was this whole fucking hullabaloo about anyways? Owner Bill Foley said he could debut in a few weeks. So obviously another thing we're keeping our eye on. And I mean, Vegas, they've been managing a hum along, even with all the injuries they had. So when you drop this one C into the lineup like this, man, they're going to be a tough squad to beat.

Let's see, chugging right along here. Team USA, they announced the Olympic roster. Biz just spoiled. One of the picks for us was Jake Sanderson. Big left ear, just like wit. People say that there's a lot of similarities between me and Jake. I was one of them. I think that he's going to be a stud, though.

If he ends up like me, Jesus Christ, christ poor bastard he better not end up like me on the ice off the ice it'd be okay just longevity some more prime years some more uh some more signing on the dotted line for 24 sheets i know he's gonna yeah we need to him to maybe sign on the dotted line for 85 at the end that'd be be nice. I just forgot one thing from talking about Bobby Clark. When Jonesy was telling us that story when he was retired, it was like, you know, usually a sad event when a guy's retired. And Jonesy didn't seem offended, but he gets up to the mic, Bobby Clark. He's like, well, Jonesy's done.

That was his fucking retirement announcement. Fucking just all-time stuff from Bobby Clark. But moving right along, there's a little bit of Canadian kindness in every sip of Labatt Blue Light. How did it get in there? They're Canadian. That's how. You can spread the love yourself by sharing a Labatt.

When you share a Labatt, you're not just sharing a beer. You're sharing an experience that'll pair with anything from hockey to hoedown. So next time you're watching Hockey with the Buds, be sure to share Labatt, because while you might not all root for the same team, you can all enjoy Labatt Blue Light. We're going to be working with Labatt all year when we get some exciting content coming up,

so grab some Blue Light and enjoy. All right, Biz. Nick Lidstrom was named Vice President of Hockey Operations for the Detroit Red Wings. Stevie Y made a little joke in his press conference, basically kind of saying, you know, we want you to join us. I don't know if you caught that. It was pretty funny.

Stevie Y doesn't make too many jokes, so when he does, we try to share them. But do you think he could jump in? He could probably jump in right now and play on a team, Biz, you think? Mickey Lidstrom? No, no, that's why he retired. I don't think he wanted to play anymore.

I think he could. I think you still think he could play at his age. I do think his ability level, if he got in shape. Yeah. He's doing the Merle's workout. Exactly. The Swedish body weight stuff.

I'm not saying he would be at that level, but even if like Lidstrom at 60% of normal Lidstrom, that might be like a hundred percent for a lot of old. Is he now? I would be at that level, but even if Lidstrom had 60% of normal Lidstrom, that might be 100% for a lot of guys. How old is he now? Is he like 48? 51. Oh, yeah. Come on. I don't think... I guess... Biz, if you put Lidstrom... If you gave Lidstrom two weeks

of practicing with the team, I think first game back, he would not look out of place. I don't know, man. That guy, he was the perfect player i cannot imagine his skating would be that much different if he stayed in shape like since he retired he could easily play 10 years since he last played a game no yeah that's way too long to be out boys come on let's you're retired that's how long chios played until, though, to be fair.

Didn't Chelios play until he was like 57? He's still playing in Europe somewhere. He looks like a big bag of leather out there just skating around. Big bag of brown leather. All that tanning he did. We mentioned the All-Star Game selections a little while ago. G wanted me to remind you that registration for the Chicklets Cup ends this Friday, the 21st. So if you haven't got your team in or if you want to be a solo player, get put on a team,

make sure you go to chickletscup.com to register. Also, our buddies from Danbury, the Danbury Trashers, A.J. Galante, they're putting a team together. Is this going to be like Federal League shit, G, or what? Are these guys strapping up or what? We have broken out all the stops. We have the Danbury Trashers nashers now putting in a team sorry what division of the trashers are they in the one with biz they are not there are a few divisions below but maybe we set up a little uh celebrity game between biz and the trashers just to get the people maybe not because

we're going to be focused on taking down the nose-faced killer on the, what's it called again? National Ball Hockey League Association. Yeah, who cares? Fuck them. We're going to bend them over. What else we got, R.A., in hockey news? I think that pretty much sums up the hockey news. The NFL playoffs were this weekend.

The Patriots got bounced out. I can't say it's a huge surprise. Buffalo absolutely dick- dick stomped them. Bishaw Green Bay Pack has had the bye. So who are you rooting for if anybody this week? Oh, I just wanted to talk about that Dallas Cowboys match and that end of the game. Oh, that fucking.

That was just some of the ugliest. Like Mike McCarthy was in Green Bay for a while. You hear enough about maybe how Rodgers' competence helped out him and elevated him, his wins as a coach. But then again, Dallas, they had a great season. What did they finish off with? 11 wins. They finished 11-6. How are they just like that unorganized?

The NFL coaching is so bad. These guys are clueless. It's actually amazing how many of them make mistakes. The viewer at home, not a fringe football fan, but normal football fan, is like, what are you doing? I feel like this is the only sport where that often you're like, what is this you doing? Like, I feel like that's the, this is the only sport where that often you're, you're like, what is this coach doing?

Like, it's just so it, maybe for these guys, they work so much. You always hear a hundred hour weeks. They're always there. And then they forget like the simple things, the clock,

like, I don't know the fact of the way, the way that game ended with a rush up the middle. It was so, what are we watching here? I will say Dallas, Dallas is a good team sam fran's legit that they are like i i think sam fran could could go to the super bowl i think if i was a head coach i would have a guy specifically to be telling me when i got to take a timeout manage the clock i would have like a separate guy to just tell me that because i think some of these guys get jammed up and when they have to call,

call plays now is Mike McCarthy, the offensive coordinator as well as like the overall head coach. No, they were showing that young looking kid, the whole thing. So in, so in that case, it's Mike McCarthy, the head coach, who at least, I mean, come on, man. If the other guy's calling the plays, you at least got to figure out how to manage the fucking clock. I mean, it's like do something out there for fuck's sakes, Mike,

other than crush the fucking buffet before the games, man. Is he looking big? Jesus Christ. I think we might be spoiled with Belichick wit because when we watch other coaches, like the way they butcher the use of timeouts, the way they just, I mean, they just fuck up so much. It's like, how is this guy head coach of an NFL team team man it's just brutal that was an absolute slop fest but how about the cincinnati bengals they knock off the raiders first playoff win in 31 years man imagine 31 years without your

fucking team winning a playoff game is oh snap no oh sir i guess they want to no i guess you would consider a game in nfl much like a series in in uh yeah in the nhl i mean no that's it was cool there was a viral clip that uh that got out there with the head coach stopped by a local bar and gave like a game ball the fans and stuff like that so i love when small markets especially in football win because you can see the impact it does have on the community especially like imagine like the browns ended up going to the like the the like even even like the the conference championship that would be like the super bowl for the cleveland browns right so yeah cincinnati was kind of one of those teams i put in that bracket and they got a stud that Jay that

Burrow guy Joe Burrow he's that dude is is there a cooler guy in football right now yeah he's got it all going he even had those cool sunglasses that only a real cool person could pull off post game the the other chase the the dude that he played at LSU with Burrow on that team I think he took off the whole next year like he couldn't't be drafted, but he just didn't play. Maybe he got hurt. I might be incorrect. But those two, they had the connection to win the national title. He's now a superstar receiver already.

I was pumped for the Bengals. Great helmets. Everyone's always said great helmets on the Bengals. The place was rocking. They won't have another game because now they travel to Tennessee. I could see them beating Tennessee, although Der Derek Henry's coming back, I guess. NFL playoffs, wildcard weekend's great. A little disappointed.

A couple games. I guess Dallas was an entertaining game. Cincy was an entertaining game, even though it wasn't at the end. It was very close to the Vegas Raiders tying it up. How bad was that play that Carr threw? He threw it short of the end zone. I never understand that. If you have to get a first down, you have to get in the end zone.

At least throw it to the end zone. He made a great throw, though, because I had the Bengals. I won that bet 6-6. So I was panicking because he made a sick throw on third or fourth down to keep that drive alive when they're going to tie it tied up like through the middle i forget who caught it but um you know pittsburgh whole talk about time to rebuild i guess i mean that well i guess just time for a new qb but they get out to the lead in kansas city i was watching that and by the by the

end i'd switched switched over to the golf to watch Matsuyama in one of the greatest shots I've ever seen in my life. 277 yards, hits a high-cut 3-wood to 3 feet for a tap-in eagle to win the Sony Open in Hawaii. So I had switched over, but, yeah, the Chiefs looked pretty legit in the end. What else did I have to mention, though? I'll say the gifs and the memes of uh the barstool was posting about jackson mahomes and juju he's hated huh uh he's a donkey

he's the worst he seems i saw the restaurant i don't know if you saw what they said he did he like he just yeah there's there's some stories come out where you're like this kid seems like like it's my brother's the man, and I'm going to do whatever I want type attitude. He danced on Sean Taylor's memorial. He did a TikTok dance on the Sean Taylor memorial, and it was that game too. Oh, my goodness.

Maybe he didn't know, but yeah, this kid seems to be a bit out to lunch. And I tell you what, he wears those shorts short. He's like he's wearing bathing suits all the time. Doesn't matter what the temperature is. How about, did you guys see the clip of our pal Hank from Pod My Take? Oh, incredible. All-time Hank moment. He thought he bet TJ Watt to score the first touchdown at 125 to 1.

Those are incredible odds. Picks up, I think it was a fumble, runs it in, gets a touchdown. Hank's going nuts. So he spent $25 to win three grand. All of sudden nick looks at the bet he's like uh no you bet derrick watt oh tj it was like no all-time fucking song like just thinking you won three grand on a 20 on a 20 fucking fight all i bet i mean 125 to one hit nods like that that's a huge high as a gamble but that's why I always say check your tickets to everybody out there when you're putting plays in,

because that shit happens. In fairness, if I saw like what Pittsburgh, I, I use, I mean, I'm the guy who's bet, bet the opposite team and it never works out.

You know, like I, I mean to bet the Panthers, I ended up betting the hurricanes by accident. And then the Panthers win like that. It's just amazing the way it happened live on camera. And then Nick's like, dude, that's a Derek. I actually saw Hank's tweet because, you know, we're a little ahead of time of the stream.

And I said, oh, maybe maybe TJ's what his real name is, Derek, because I had no idea there was an actual fullback named Derek Watt. So that was a tough move by Watt. Hey, so what about Matsuyama? Oh, my God. What was he down? Three shots in the last five holes? The back nine, he was down five.

And then I think he was down four after the 10th hole, three after the – then he ended up getting two shots on a hole. So then he was down two shots and then he just, he birdied 18 to tie it. And Russell Henley had like a eight footer and it just lipped out to win the tournament. And that was, you know,

once you go back to the playoff with Hideki, it's not exactly the guy. So Hideki meets Matsuyama. He's won three of his last 18 starts, including the masters. He's like the, the best, one of the best ball strikers in the world. So every single round, for the most part, look at the stats. He's hitting the fairway, hitting the green.

He's just a horrific putter, like statistically an awful putter. This week, he was number one in the tournament. So it's almost like with his game and his ball strike and the way he hits it, when he is on putting, he wins or finishes top three you know it's just one of those things so he's turned into a world power and crazy i i the broadcast mentioned it i would have guessed hideki matsuyama because i've heard his name for so long was 33 he's 29 it's like golf that's that's young man you're looking at i think it's like they say 32 to 36 true prime and golf don't quote me

uh because this is a podcast that i don't really know what i'm talking about so i i'll i'll say it was a fun tournament to watch because i think the prime time golf is exciting when you can watch at night i like that definitely a little bit more low-key and i guess we could shift it to the guys who will be under the bright lights they're doing a netflix series with all these golf guys and i want to say that max homoma is going to be involved. D Shambo. What's the rest of the list there. All right.

Yeah. There's a boatload of names here. Obviously what's more of the golf guy than me, but Abraham answer, Daniel Berger, Cameron champ, Tony Finau, Tommy Fleetwood, Ricky Fowler, Garcia, Harry Higgs, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Kepa, Mara Kala, Kevin. Now there's a lot of big names here. Shaw, Shoffley, Jordan speed, bubble Watson. Iiggs, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Kepa, Mara Kala, Kevin Na. There's a lot of big names here. Shoffley, Jordan Speed, Bubba Watson. I mean, you know, sometimes you expect maybe lower tier guys.

I'm sorry, Whit, but there's some big names in this thing. Yeah, I think it's going to be pretty cool. It's based on the F1 show, Drive to Survive, which is kind of what got me into F1. At least the series is awesome to watch. I really like that. So now it'll be great with golf because these guys don't they don't say much to the media they just it's it's you know it's an individual

sport so you're out there and it's all on you and i think a lot of guys like staying within themselves but also at this day and age with social media and netflix and how big drive to survive was it can only help their brand to make maybe a little bit more money away from the game. So I'm looking forward to seeing guys who are struggling at times because the game of golf, you see, you watch golf on TV.

You just see amazing shot after amazing shot and it's pulled pot and bomb drive. But if you go to a tour event, you see bad golf shots. Golf is so hard. And you see a lot of guys that go through spells of not making cuts even these big names they'll go through this little spell maybe they miss three out of four cuts and those are the guys you're going to be interested i'm going to

be interested at least watching and following because you're going to witness how are they approaching getting through the grind of a lull in golf and it's like a roller coaster and so guys who are the best in the world still have times where they can't hit a fairway it seems like and then you have the cameras around you're gonna see like i think a lot of it will be mental things to end up getting out of certain funks swing mishaps and and little kinks in your swing can happen but a lot of these guys it's mental and to witness how it'll go down with how much inside information we'll get from the cameras and the players themselves, I can't wait.

I don't know if they'll be dropping in the series as the season goes or just wait until the end of the season like F1 does and just drop 10 episodes or whatever it is. Especially with those individual sports, like you said, like F1, where these guys are on a bit of an island, whereas opposed to if you're doing a like a team behind the scenes type thing. Now, who are some NHL guys? Let's say you could pick like 12 NHL guys.

Who are some names you'd want to be able to follow through behind the scenes for maybe a half a season, maybe a full season? Marcus Foligno, definitely. Yes, that's a great answer. Kucherov. I want to see Kucherov. No question.

Just, I mean, Austin Matthews, because his relationship with Bieber, I think that's just enough. Yeah, you get a little bit more star power there. That's a great answer. Zegers. He don't give a fuck. He'd be hilarious because he's a young kid, but doesn't seem to care what other people think.

Hockey, you could just never do it because it's a team sport. You can't just have the cameras there for one guy all the time. I would say Oshie because he doesn't really follow hockey much. So obviously he's doing a lot of other things to keep himself. The director's like, TJ, you got a game today. He's like, what? Go introduce yourself to the guys on the other team first. Radulov would be great too.

I think Radulov would be hilarious. I think Ovi for sure. Got to see what's going on at the pregame meals. Joe T, I mean, Joe Thornton, he'd be great too. I mean, for an older guy, he's, you know, t i mean joe thornton he'd be great too i mean for an older guy he's you know very vocal big chirp but he'd be pretty entertaining to watch so yeah like you said though it's pretty unlikely it would happen but it's it's good to it's good to imagine they could do it actually that amazon thing they did on toronto last season that was

great it was only like three or four seasons but it was the closest i've seen to hbo 24 7 uh since they did 24 7 you know they got all the swearing intact and, you know, behind-the-scenes footage. If you haven't seen it, check it out, man. I'm hoping they do it this year. When you said Joe Bernsie, Brent Burns would be fun, especially if you got to go back to his property in Texas. What does he got, 200 acres there?

Keith Yandel. I mean, KY, I mean, he's all-time. Just for the songs alone. Yeah, you could do it. Definitely a different mix, right? You could do our like Austin's hanging out with the celebrities. You got the more laid back like Burnsy on the ranch. You got the Russians, the Roushki, whatever the fuck they're going and doing.

Who else? Give me one more last name to wrap it up. Each guy. Patty Maroon. Oh, yeah, that would be fun. Why am I struggling with this? Maybe the Kachuk brothers. Oh, it's a Benajad. I'll seize a Benajad in New York City.

Yeah, the DJ in the DJ booth. All right. The Jack brothers whacking each other in the nuts. Yeah, and one more from you, R.A. Last one. Last one for me. The Warthog? Radulov? I think G just said that I gave a little warthog sound Fuck man

Peter North Zach Bogosian, he seems like he'd be a character These older guys seem like they'd be a little more fun They've been around the bush a little Biz, I'm going to be rooting for your Packers, believe it or not. I got a couple futures from before the season. You could bet possible Super Bowl matchups. I have Packers versus Bills at 65-1 and Packers versus Chiefs at 40-1.

So I'm not a Packers guy per se, but all I need is them to get there. I don't need either team to win. Just get there, and I'll cash in before the game even starts. And I texted you guys yesterday just to go back to the football. A couple different lines in the game. So I bought a few points. What was it? What do you call it?

Philadelphia-Tampa Bay game. I bet over 44, and I bet under 49, and it ended up on 46 points. So basically, if it lands in between, even if it lands on one of the numbers, you'll push and win. So I hit both sides of that. It landed 46 points. So nice little pop. Anytime you can find those tween is they don't happen often, but often,

but they're a nice little payoff. If you can find one better than me losing my 450 bucks to your fucking Oilers wit. Well, yeah. Most, most, what do you say? Frustrating loss of his entire career. McDavid. Yeah, he looked despondent after that game and that press conference.

Before we wrap up, I got two things I watched that I would recommend I enjoyed. My wife and I went to Mexico this past week. We were there Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night, which was a great little getaway. We did a trip after Ryder was born alone and then after he turned one. And we did a trip alone after Wyatt turned one. So I stayed at Mayakoba. They actually have a PGA Tour event there.

Unreal. 25, 30 minutes outside of Cancun. Incredible. There's five different resorts in this Mayakoba area. There's a Fairmont. There's a Banyan Tree, one of them is called. We stayedorts in this mayakoba area uh there's a fairmont there's a banyan tree one of them's called we stayed at rosewood mayakoba one of my favorite vacations i had a blast i had so much chips and guac like i i'm not going chipotle for two weeks since i got home i said but um on the flight there i watched uh the documentary on anth Anthony Bourdain called The Roadrunner. I didn't know much about him, but what an amazing life and a tragic end.

And I don't consider it spoiling because I knew before I watched the show, even though I didn't know a lot about him. But he committed suicide a few years ago. But seeing this guy's life and who he was and how he became who he was, I recommend it to anyone. I loved seeing it and just a wild life for somebody who just never stopped. Actually, Biz, there's a lot of similarities between you two in that he just loved working. He's so passionate about so many different parts of life. I recommend that. And then I watched a movie. It's called, I'd never even heard about it. I was searching life. I recommend that. And then I watched a movie is called,

I'd never even heard about it. It was just, I was searching iTunes for stuff to download. It was the card counter. It was, I don't know if anyone's seen drive with Ryan, who's in that. Right.

And it's a little, I don't want to say dark, but different with certain music and certain scenes. And this movie really reminded me of it. Great performance by the actor, Oscar Isaac, I think his name. Yeah. Holy shit. So not the most exciting movie, but I loved it.

I was all in on it. So check that one out. The type of movie you're exhausted when you're done finishing because you're just kind of dialed in the entire time where you're on. Yeah, I mean, no, it's not like super intense the entire time, but there's moments of high intensity. And this guy who counts cards and what he went through in life, really, I recommend it. I liked it. It won't be everyone's cup of tea.

I'll say that. But I love Drive. What? Yeah, I did. And if you've seen Drive and you watch it, let me know if you think there's some certain similarities. I'm I'm wondering on people's opinion on that. So, yeah, those were the two things I watched.

What I know on the way home, what on the way home, I download an old one. I know I'm into the old movies. It's not that old. I think it was the Insider with Russell Crowe. Oh, phenomenal. Michael Mann. Holy shit. And I download it because I'm a Michael Mann guy. He directed Crowe. Oh, phenomenal. Michael Mann. Holy shit. And I downloaded it because I'm a Michael Mann guy.

He directed Heat. That's one of my favorite movies. So The Insider, it's basically the entire blowing of the whistle on Big Tobacco. Awesome story. And Al Pacino. Corporate media stroked him off. Sorry to cut you off. Sorry, buddy.

Go ahead. And then how corporate media stroked off Big Tobacco. Crazy. And Al Pacino is a dog. he's a legendary 60 minutes producer just the beginning of the movie how he gets an interview for the legendary reporter um who's the guy mike wallace mike wallace and he he had a great role and whoever played him that older gentleman he was a phenomenal actor christopher plumber yeah great, great movies I saw there. And the trip was awesome. Funny.

One funny moment or two funny moments from the trip. We got a couple's massage, right? Really romantic. You do it in the same room. I don't understand why you pay more to do that because I fell asleep and I'm snoring and she's like, we wake up. You don't get a discount for a couple's massage? I think you pay a little bit more to be in the same room. I don't know. This place wasn't cheap.

Exactly. I figured you're buying little bit more to be in the same room. I don't know. This place wasn't cheap. Exactly. Yeah. So, but before like the, the women are like, Oh, so where do you want us to focus? You want, you want a pressure hard.

And she's like any parts of the body you want me to stay away from. I was like, I, I, my way I could think of one. My wife would say nobody found that funny. I did though. I also met a guy.

So one of the nights we were there, they did a dinner. I don't remember the name of it. It's kind of a Mexican tradition where you're only able to get, I think it was 20, 22 couples. Now, it wasn't all couples. There was some mother daughter trips, but it was 22 sets of two. So 44 people. And you all eat together at two huge tables. So you just get to know, like, I got to know this dude, Mark, from St. Louis next to me. He ended up moving to Miami with his girlfriend who's in school to become a marine biologist. Now, Mark, this guy had 400 pieces of shrimp. They brought out shrimp and a fish at the beginning, and then they brought out a steak and a chicken the second course of the meal.

And I was having a blast with this guy. I was like, dude, you've eaten more shrimp. You're not even ready to get the chicken and the steak. And now I thought of the line, like the ocean call that wants a shrimp back from Seinfeld. And George at one point said he was a marine biologist, like this guy's wife or girlfriend, Mark. So we had a blast. And then at one point I was talking to everyone. I was feeling great. I had had a edible. I'm just having a blast. So much tequila. Unfortunately, the cook, who was this man rocket, he's talking to my wife the whole time.

At one point, I said to Mark, I think the cook's trying to crush my wife. He was a great guy. He wasn't. But I was like, all right, I'll just talk to Mark, honey. No worries. So what was I getting to? Was this the same resort? So Mark says to me, so I'm talking to everyone. So I'm like, and mark's like what do

you do what do you do and i was like oh i used to play hockey actually i was in st louis with my buddy uh paul bassinet we were like a ringling brothers barnum and bailey circus for training camp we didn't make the team he goes you played hockey he goes you don't seem like you've done anything in life but it was a great like we were giving it back and forth to each other funny bastard i got his number i said i'd text him when i get to fort lauderdale we'd play golf i i think in life, but it was a great, like we were giving it back and forth to each other. Funny bastard. I got his number. I said, I texted him when I get to Fort Lauderdale, we play golf. I think I might. But yeah, it was really good to get away and refresh and recharge. And I still was able to watch some hockey at night. So I wanted to mention my trip in the movies I watched.

Nice. Yeah. I caught the cod count. I wasn't too crazy about it. I like Paul Schrader. He actually wrote Taxi Driver. He directed and wrote a great movie. Actually, look up. It's called Blue Collar. It was Richard Pryor, Javi Keitel, and Yafet Kodo. It's back about 70s auto workers. He wrote and directed an awesome movie, if you want to check it out. The Roadrunner, I'll back you on that one with a tremendous documentary about Bourdain. So you just thought card counters a little slow, kind of? Yeah, and I love drive I'm a huge fan did you see similarities in the music and like when I think of drive

I think of collateral I know we talked about that not too long ago yeah I can't say I did I just I don't know maybe if I watch it again I might see something different but I wasn't that crazy about the card counter I love Oscar Isaac big trader fan but but yeah, road runner. If you are an Anthony Bourdain fan, uh, check that out. It was definitely. Even if you're not, I didn't know anything about him. Yeah. Yeah.

It's kind of a sad story, but interesting life he had, he kind of, you know, went from his cook to writing his book, becoming popular and having the show. And I don't know, it was interesting, but what about you biz? Anything you got a final notes here before we wrap the show up or what? No, I just want to congratulate Ryder for getting on the Jumbotron at the Garden. Big time. Wow, that's huge, man. He is such a cute kid. Did he catch a puck, too?

No, so my wife's parents, Dave and Missy, they have seats on the glass. I think they have them for 14 of the 41 games or whatever it is, or maybe more, but first two and then the two behind it. So Ryder and Cooper, Cooper's five and Ryder's four. They went and then just by banging on the glass, I don't know which guys, one of the Preds gave it to him because I was up in different seats, but he hasn't let go of this puck. And we went pond skating the other day with Billy Ryan and his kids.

And it was a blast. He's got the puck out there the whole time. My kids are taking it from him. He's crying. I go, dude, you can't cry. You got to go get the puck back. You can't just sit there and cry when you get the puck. That's what dad did.

Exactly. That's what I did. But look, it made me 30 sheets. So maybe it does work brighter. Oh, so yeah. So everyone, thank you for listening. Thank you to Keith Ballard. That was a blast.

And I'm getting really excited for the Chicklets Cup. We're about two weeks away, and we're going to be in Vegas. Biz has a lot to prove, and I'm going to be out there with R.A. trying to get the real answers from the tough questions. And we love all you guys. And wait, the Barstool team has a big, big, big addition we can't announce yet, but it's big. What? It will be the biggest, most popular player in the tournament, it the barstool team has a big big big addition we can't announce yet but it's big it's it will

be the biggest most popular player in the tournament the best player in the tournament it's it's a big one i'll just leave it at that and we should mention the promotional games we're doing that echl series we have one on january 25th or no 27th correct g 27 yes january 27 jersey in orlando this is a jersey right here the polar bears solar bears god damn it i kept saying fucking polar bears the solar bears and then we got uh february 25th in atlanta for the atlanta gladiators game and then on March 25th I believe with the Wheeling Nailers we're doing throwback night I'm going back to Wheeling the two-time ECHL all-star is heading back to West Bank or Reno so we'll you got to get Nick and KB there Nick and KB you were invited hopefully they show up and we'll see you guys uh for the Wheeling game it's a 7-10 start. For January 27th in Orlando, it's a 7 o'clock start,

and it's $20 to get you into the Pink Whitney zone, and they will be playing, I believe, against the Utah Grizzlies. So it'll be a good game. It's going to be jam-packed. Same owners as the Orlando Magic on the Solar Bears with. A-class organization. We're getting dialed right in and we will see you there for pink whitney night in orlando january 27th guys and one last thing uh our axe throwing

video with mark parish uh that we filmed in minnesota drops on thursday on the youtube channel so uh check it out there and that is it Peace welcome aboard folks huge thanks to everybody over at blue nile if you're looking for that perfect jewelry for your partner by all means check them out big thanks to everybody over at manscape for taking care of the fellas down below and a big thanks to everybody over at labatt blue go out and grab some labatt blue light and watch the game have a great week everybody