Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 370: Featuring Ryan Carter & Bob Stauffer

Episode Date: January 25, 2022

On Episode 370 of Spittin’ Chicles the guys are joined by Ryan Carter and Oilers reporter Bob Stauffer. Bob joined (1:04:25) to discuss all the drama in Edmonton, including the Leon Draisaitl vs Jim Matheson press conference. Bob also talked about potential trades the Oilers could make, keeping McDavid happy, and some old Whit stories. But first, the guys open the show talking about the crazy weekend in the NFL, Chris Pronger's jersey retirement, Willie O’Ree and tons more. The guys also discuss the racial incidents that occurred this past weekend. The boys are then joined (2:12:05) by Ryan Carter to talk about his career and some hilarious stories along the way. The guys wrap up talking about the Habs new GM, Star Wars Jerseys, and Clark Gillies.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 370 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney. From our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. What's going on, everybody? We had a little of the good into hockey this week, a little bit of the bad. We're going to get to that later.

We had a wild, wild NFL weekend. Historic one. One for the ages. We have our very first interview done on a frozen lake, wild ice fishing with Ryan Carter coming to you later, but let's say hi to the boys first. Mikey G and the camouflage looking good. How you doing, pal?

Looking good and feeling good. All right. I'm just ready. I'm counting down the day to the chicklets cup. Like you said, huge week for chicklets on hand as well. We have an ice fishing video coming out. We're re-releasing some old content.

I'm sure biz will get to later but overall big week for chicklets next week even bigger so i'm ready to go baby i'm buzzing yeah i can't wait can't wait chicklets cup in vegas for another what week a week and a half or something a week soon one week christ holy shit can't keep track without the calendar here next up paul biz nasty missing out with the solo bears jersey on what's going on buddy it's always summer for R.A. Witt. You know when you forget when the weekends and the days mix in? No, it's like he lives in the days between Christmas and New Year's

when nobody has a clue what's going on. You know myself. I'm not a 9-to-5 guy. You guys know that. You guys see when I jump in and add stuff. We got a lot of special news. Now, I don't know, am I allowed to announce that Witt will be joining me in Orlando? He's a late-minute addition.

And we may or may not be giving him an opportunity to shoot back from center ice to see if he could fit in. My elbow is still fucked up, though. I don't know. I'll do a test shot in the driveway and see how it feels. We'll get you a massage therapist on staff. Maybe we'll get that. I might need an elbow brace if I'm going to do it. Would you be back in the day, the deep cold?

Would you throw the deep cold on? What's the deep cold? Like the icy hot. Oh, yes. When my legs feel terrible, I would rub that all over the quads. And for sure, it felt a little better. I always thought all of a sudden you'd get the you get the cold, you'd get the burn and like you just be moving a little better. So I went against the Robert Nielsen screaming at my legs to wake up and just rubbed off.

Although the first time I did it, I made the mistake of not putting on that little rubber glove. And then all of a sudden my hands were hot and cold. So that was kind of a disaster because usually I could use that hot biz. Damn, damn. I never thought of that that was like the last place i would have thought to put it but uh hey what about what was that stuff called there was like a a mild medium and hot and yeah there was no logo on the hot on the hot one it was straight out of russia i think it's yeah i think it's safe to say that that that hot

one is three times as hot as tiger bomb and i put it on one game and during warm-up like i was like i thought my back was legitimately on fire i thought my skin was falling off of my back i made the mistake once too i i tried that never again you put the bomb on who told you to put the bomb on i didn't put the bomb on uh i think boyd gordon used to just fucking bathe in it and coat himself before games before you had to go out there and block socks but what uh what did i do this weekend where oh you know what i did this weekend i fell in love with sports gambling this weekend oh jesus christ nice the freaking 30 minute high of live betting that tampa game when they were coming back, dude, I, how have I not been doing this for years? I guess the, the, the,

the like money. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But just like the thrill of it and the fact that you could do it all from your couch. Oh my goodness. And then that second game, like I ended up losing the bills bet. I thought that game was over with 13 seconds left. I sent out a congratulations to Bill's mafia. I thought no fucking way that they're going to bring this back within field goal range.

And then my homes, dude, I tell you what, that guy's got, that guy's got the jam. He had 177 yards passing after the two minute warning in the fourth quarter. Definitely the best football game I ever, I ever remember watching. I don't remember anything that entertaining. I sent out a tweet too I go the Chiefs would have won if Tyree Kill just went down at the one and then they punched it in with a second to go oh okay time out I completely disagree with your tweeted take like

you're telling me you're gonna risk the fact to go up four with a minute left to trust your defense listen I don't know I never played football I don't know. I've never played football. I don't know enough about football, but I would imagine the defensive line for the Bills is pretty decent. Like they could get a stuff there, right? Because they. Well, yeah, in the end, it was a horrible take by myself. Not really surprising.

I mean, it was also here the moment I had the Chiefs at one point. I thought they had it. Then I thought they lost. Then I covered or they covered. But. I mean, all that aside I I think that it would be like 98 percent that if the Chiefs had it first and goal on the one they're gonna get in with that offense and their team so I I don't obviously yeah it could be a fumble could be a stuff. You never know. Russell Wilson style, shout out him, not giving it to beast mode in the Super Bowl. But it was just so amazing to see the defense, the Bills throw it on the field when they gave the ball back

with 13 seconds to go, because I don't know. Like they were talking after how they were making sure to cover up the sideline so they couldn't get out of bounds and stop the clock, but they had two timeouts. So what even mattered? Why did the sideline even matter? I just couldn't believe. I mean, I don't know what was worse, the ability of the –

or the Bills allowing the Chiefs to get downfield to kick the game-tying field goal or the Bucs defense in blitzing and leaving one-on-one on Cooper Cup in that game. And he ends up setting up the game winning, you know, what was it? It was a field goal, right? They just kicked the game winning field goal. So the craziest weekend of football,

every game came down to the last possession. One of them went to OT. It was wild. I seriously, though, feel so bad for Bills fans. I had the Chiefs. The only reason I took the Chiefs is because I had no clue. And I wanted the Bills to win, but I was like, oh, everyone's on the bills. And as you get into gambling biz, you'll learn like when everyone's on

something, just go the other way. The public stinks. Public's dumb. What? The public's dumb. Public's dumb. Exactly. Like we're for the general public.

We all are. Trust me. We're all the general public. We're just four morons sitting around talking about how we constantly lose. So I wanted the bills to win, but I, I didn't, you know, I wasn't sure everyone had them. And so I said, Ryder, Bills or Chiefs? And he just goes, Chiefs, Bills stink. He doesn't even know.

And I was like, OK, boom. So everyone in my house, we all bet the Chiefs. One buddy fell asleep. What are the little animals throughout time who picked the winners? I saw a corgi doing it last year during Stanley Cup. There was a monkey that used to do the TSN playoffs. Okay. An octopus I remember seeing one time.

Not the teacher octopus, but I've seen an octopus. I was going to say the octopus professor. Best picture because I already brought it up on the show. Actually, I thought of you today because I think there was research found out that female dolphins have like clitorises. all right i thought of you today because uh i think there was a research found out that uh female dolphins have like clitorises that you can like yeah that's how they get going yeah they there's a big article that came out i don't know why i thought of you but uh i mean i'm a big love button guy you're more of a what i said i'm a big love button guy so i could see why you thought of oh that's what you call that oh my goodness oh you never heard that one i like that i've heard that yeah i mean i never read an article but

they've all i've always heard that dolphins and humans are the only two um species on the planet that have sex for fun pleasure yeah for pleasure yeah oh okay uh where were we oh a couple things from the game though so granella football yeahinnelli, you... Yeah, back to the... Speaking of the Dolphins, I'm hearing Packers... Rodgers is going there. No, going back... Regular Joe Smalls who can't even find the Couturis

are talking about the Couturis. Let's get back to football. The rule of the fact that the opposing team who lets up a touchdown, first possession, does not get a chance to tie the game. I think that in play, I can understand for player safety reasons and to just kind of push the games along in regular season, why they would have that rule in place, but in playoffs, why doesn't each team get allowed to touch the ball? And once again, if you're going to chalk

it up to player safety issues, do like college did where they made it. I think they started what, from the 15 or 25 yard line where each team would get a touch on offense. So at least then it becomes a bit of a chess match where let's say you get stuffed on your first drive, you know, do you go, do you go for it or do you go for the three, you know, can you rely? So I just don't understand why they wouldn't change it to, to make the games more exciting. That could, that game could have went on another fucking hour long of entertainment of of of the greatest football game that we've ever witnessed of josh allen and mahomes going back and

forth so i don't see a a contradictory argument to to the other side a good enough one to say why wouldn't they change the rule it's funny al. Al Michaels is on that Bob Costa show on HBO. I was watching a little while ago and he said that he would love nothing more than to call a triple overtime Superbowl, like to have rules set up. So like you're saying, each team gets an opportunity. And he said it would be the most thrilling thing ever. And I mean, I agree with him, man. I mean, imagine having a triple overtime fucking Superbowl.

So two things. First being, I agree with you. I don't like the rule, especially in playoffs. If you want to do keep it normal in the regular season, but playoffs change it up. I'm all for that. I will say this, though. Besides in Kansas City and Chiefs fans sprinkled around the globe, had the Bills won the coin toss and gone down and won, you would not be hearing this discussion the way you're hearing it now. Everyone felt horrific for Josh Allen, how he played this perfect game.

And then all of a sudden with this ridiculous drive with 13 seconds left, the chiefs tie it up and then just immediately get the ball back and game's over. If the bills won that coin toss, this conversation would not be as loud as it is nationally. I'm convinced of that. And so the rules, what, G? I was going to say, after the Patriots beat the Chiefs in the playoffs and the same situation happened in 2018, over the offseason, the Chiefs proposed a rule to the NFL

that would get rid of that overtime. Wow, no way. Coming in with all my G's. Wow, so they're sitting there saying, hey, well, not that they care at all. Not that they feel bad. They're not being hypocrites is what we're saying. Yeah, they're not being hypocrites. But do you know what I'm saying?

I think people felt so bad for the Bills that it made the overtime rule stick out even more than it already does. And the other thing I saw Bucciaross like a tweet or retweet a tweet in terms of somebody having an opinion on what you could change it to. And it was something about the, you got to go for two when you, if you score. And if you get the two game over, but if you don't, they, they get a chance or something like that. That's kind of cool. Yeah. Like I think there's definitely a million different options, not a million, a little bit of an exaggeration there,

but there's a bunch of different options into how you could switch it. College is great. College is entertaining. I think they start at the 35 or 30, but maybe NFL bring it to the 40, 45 and just give, give both teams a shot. And I think in college, after the first or second overtime, you do have to go for two. So they could kind of bring that in. I just think it was, it was a lot about people overall rooting for the bills to win that game. I would have loved to somehow pulled the country or North America in terms of who's rooting for who it felt like everyone wanted the bills to win that game. So they were even more rattled and pissed off the way it ended.

And then Mahomes four years, he's played four years to the championship game of his conference. And then I was going to ask you it like, is there any brother and maybe wife in sports that are more disliked? Most than maybe the most hated brother in the history of pro sports. I don't know. I'm probably forgetting about like dudes who had brothers who like killed people and shit like this dude. Jackson Mahomes is awful. I've never seen fans turn against a team like this because of a sibling slash significant other.

I mean, it's it's bananas the way those two actor in the game and act like assholes. Yeah. Did you see somebody on Twitter said that she was spraying the champagne and Jackson's like somebody's like that was actually that was a section of recovering alcoholics that they were spraying the champagne and Jackson's like, and then somebody's like, that was actually, that was a section of recovering alcoholics that they were spraying the booze. That was the family section.

No alcohol. Oh my goodness. I just, you know, yeah. Talk about now you go to, you go to Joe Burrow and Cincy, one of the coolest cats in the world, kind of one of those guys that has this aura around them quickly too. I mean, what's it, is it his second year in the league. Kind of one of those guys that has this aura around him quickly, too. I mean, what's it? Is it his second year in the league or third? I believe it's his second. Last

year was his rookie year. And he tore his ACL last year, too. Okay, so I mean, what he did at LSU. Now, mind you, for people who aren't exactly aware of Joe Burrow and his story, this guy went to Ohio State. He grew up a diehard Nebraska Cornhuskers fan. He always wanted to play for

Nebraska. I believe his uncle and or father played. Don't quote me on that, but he had family members play for Nebraska out of high school. No, we don't want you. So I'll go to Ohio State. OK, well, finally, he's like, I'm leaving Ohio State. I think when he realized that the quarterback with Chicago now was going to be the starter in fields, Justin Fields, he wasn't going to be the starter. So I'm going to transfer. Now I've been in Justin Fields. He wasn't going to be the starter, so I'm going to transfer. Now I've been in Ohio State. I haven't played, but I want to transfer. Nebraska, come on, take me now.

I've been practicing with Ohio State. No thanks. Nebraska turned him down again. And then he went on to LSU where he became the Heisman Trophy winner, number one overall pick, and now superstar young quarterback. Wow. Leading a Bengals team that 31 years without winning a playoff game and now they're on to the afc title game huge underdogs no doubt but i wouldn't be that surprised i think r.a could be r.a could be on their old line right now too he's just he's just getting nine times

i lost a few pounds because i don't know well i know you kind of got that aaron donalds being i was complimenting you uh we're gonna to talk about Rodgers, man. I mean, once again, huge game. He fails to get it done. Doesn't even have a touchdown pass. The only touchdown they had was on the ground. Let's just skip it on. Let's skip it on.

No, no, no. Suck it, Biz. You got to get me. You win. No, Biz, he's the goat, you said. I mean. He's the fucking goat, Biz. No, all right, keep going.

I was just playing around with you to move on already. You can get your shots in, buddy. Yeah, I mean, home field advantage. They fight for it all year. They get it. They got a little bit of snow with a California team in it, and they put one fucking touchdown on the board. Sam Fran, this was the fourth time he's lost to him.

I don't know, man. He's kind of reminded me of Peyton Manning, but not in a good way. I mean, Manning puts up these great numbers, an incredibly accurate quarterback, definitely one of the best ever. But in the playoff times, man, he shrinks a little bit. I mean, he won two Super Bowls. The second one was completely on the defense. So Rodgers, man, his legacy is going to be, I think, more of his regular season quarterback than a postseason one. But I got to give a little pat on the back here myself. How about my props? I kind of had a yin and yang on the props. The first game I had Mike Evans over 74

and a half yards. I was sweating it out. He had 66 or 67 going into the fourth quarter. Brady hit him with that 55-yard bomb. Oh, nice. Boom. Put it right over and then the fucking Kansas City game, I couldn't believe the number was so low. Jackson, that's his name, Patrick

Mahomes, 27 and a half. Jackson had 27 yards too, actually. Jackson had 27 shrieking screams in the fourth quarter. Someone threw in the parking lot fucking 27 and a half yards. But his first run of the day, he gets 34. Boom, hit the bet fucking right away. So I had Tampa Bay in the second half, gave that as well. The Winnipeg Jets cost me a perfect day.

We had a perfect day yesterday. Don't be shy to throw those in the group chat before the game starts. right i wouldn't mind fucking cashing i mean i can't win the video check my twitter feed it was out there oh you were okay so you hit us earlier with that one you hit us with the late night uh foggy screen sometimes you post these videos dude i i don't think you look at your lens no i fucking wiped your wiped your chicken. He's got a Nokia filming it. It's my it's my Baba Wawa filter. It's like, let's go back to Rogers. Yeah, by that was probably that's going to be a looking back a big moment in his career

that people are going to kind of throw back on him, especially given how like the years transpire with everything off the field. I'm still a big Rogers fan. It's sucked to see. You said one offensive zone, one offensive touchdown. I think it was in the first drive of the game. Some people wanted to blame special teams. It's just like, you just, you just really can't. I mean, when your offense puts up seven points, it's just like, it's, it can't, it's not going to slide. So

as far as me bringing up the GOAT talk, like look at how he's probably still got another five years to play with the level that he's playing at. He came off an MVP. If he would have been able to lead them to the Super Bowl and win another one, I would have began the conversation of thinking individually with what he's accomplished in the regular season and then what he could possibly accomplish

moving forward that he could have been in the conversation. I think that he, that's totally wiped out with that loss. Can I just give you guys a stat real quick? Okay. Let's hear the stat. The complete list of quarterbacks who have played in a super bowl more recently than Aaron Rogers, Eli Manning, Tom Brady, six times, Joe Flacco, Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson twice, Peyton Manning twice, Cam Newton, Matt Ryan, Nick Foles, Jared Goff, Patrick Mahomes twice, and Jimmy Garoppolo.

I saw a stat floating around that makes it true. Does Brady have more wins against NFC teams in the playoffs than Aaron Rodgers does in his career? That is correct. So he's got the six Super Bowls and then he's got the run last year where they had to win three games. So nine

wins against NFC opponents in the playoffs for Tom Brady. And what is it? Eight for Rogers? That's fucking pathetic. This says he's a goat. I'll put the L on my forehead on this one, boys. Oh, fuck. I'll put a time out, though.

If if he would have gone on to win the Super Bowl MVP style performance in the playoffs, would you have entertained the thought? Yeah. But if my aunt had a big old hammer, she'd be my uncle. OK, we can move on and I'll take my L. You were fucking chomping at the bit for that one, weren't you, R.A.? Hey, and to pile on here and to pile on, the fucking Fugees cancel their fucking world tour for fuck's sakes.

Stones would never do that. Stones would never do that. Stones are 85 years old, a big bag of ball ball sack hairy ball sack cruising around the country still getting up there ra and dancing up a storm and the fujis canceled their only world tour after the last 25 years for fuck's sakes um i'm gonna log off here guys i'm gonna log enjoy the rest of the show guys 2050 anniversary of the the score of the album yeah i guess they had COVID concerns, but meanwhile,

the Stones just finished their 9,000th score for the month ago. So make of that what you want. Oh my God, you're taking a big old dump on my chest in this one. ARA.

You're like what? Plus three with two apples right now. Come on, don't jinx me. As far as the football, are you rooting for Cincy now? I mean, this is a team easy for me to root for.

They hadn't won a playoff game in 31 years. They did last week. Now they're a game from the Super Bowl. You is a team easy for me to root for. They hadn't won a playoff game in 31 years. They did last week. Now they're a game from the Super Bowl. You just mentioned Barrow. Easy team to root for and plus against Casey. Yeah, I'm actually I would like to see Cincy win the Super Bowl. I think that would

be an unbelievable story, but I actually think it's more likely that you're going to get Chiefs Rams or I think whatever. I wouldn't mind seeing the Rams win. I like Stafford a lot. I don't know that much about him. I just know what he went through in Detroit.

And I saw the story on kind of how he ended up in L.A. He ran into Sean McVay in Mexico on vacation or something. And I don't know if it was planned, but all of a sudden they kind of hit it off. And I don't know. I think it would be pretty cool to see the Rams get one. But in the end, I want the Bengals. I just don't know if it's their time yet, but you're looking at, so for QBs in the NFL, 26 and under, you got Burrow, Allen, Mahomes, the kid in LA Chargers,

Hebert, Herbert, Lamar Jackson's under 26. I mean, that's five studs for the next 10 years probably in the NFL in terms of looking at the next generation of QBs to light up this league Where'd they meet down there at Hedonism your old stomping grounds RA I went

back checkers a little tampering action I made I made a little girl from action. I already went over on hedonism. I made a little girl from Hyde Park from 20 minutes away from it. Oh, make out not fucking seven grand later. You got like the upgrade to be on the girl's wing. Yeah. Had to take in the Jamaican sites to make up for it. The full course, Jimmy Buffett.

Oh, my God. Okay. So pretty cool if it's Chiefs against Rams, and then Rams would be playing basically a home game if they don't. They were talking about switching up where Super Bowl was because of attendance, potentially. But also, if it does end up staying there, you get Dre, Snoop, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J. Blige. Eminem.

That's going to be a crazy halftime show. And then getting fucking Jackson Mahomes up there, TikTok dancing with Kendrick Lamar. Bringing an EZE hologram to beat the shit out of him. Guys, we preach inclusivity. I would love to see that. Bring back Janet's tit. Whip her tit out again.

Who gives a shit why are people hey i don't know what year that was but people thought that was like the most horrific thing in the world imagine if they could witness now what's going on oh yeah that was like a that was like a seventh grade makeout at like a church dance compared to what's going on now on your screens that was hedonism second base second day in confidence high plus three out of the gate overrated um any other football notes boys you want to chat about before we move along well i guess we didn't talk about san fran yeah everybody keeps like this is like another team of destiny they just find ways to win i mean if they're gonna win it though jimmy garoppolo he's

gotta step it up a little bit eh that? That's like, what was that? Can't get by on his looks all the time. People were saying they should have kept him over Brady. Remember that? Yeah, I don't know. I can't say I know enough about it because I don't really – I don't remember the last time I watched a full Sam Fran game besides this past one against Green Bay.

But he certainly doesn't have some skills, it seems, that you'd need to maybe win a Super Bowl. The defense is beast mode. They all get it done, and they kind of just live on their D, but I mean, he doesn't even throw it. At one point in the game, he had 70 yards passing. I could hand it off

to that Samuel guy. Oh, my God, that guy. I could just collect some points from him. Debo Samuel. Where did he play at college? I didn't know anything about him. You know him, G? I know the Pats drafted Nikhil Harry right before him.

I know that. Oh, what happened with that guy? Okay, so he was a first-rounder then. Is that guy no longer on the team? He's on the Pats still. He's just the fans are down on him. He doesn't catch too many balls for a guy who was drafted to catch football so okay either way uh i did mention a few minutes ago we have

minnesota boy ryan cotta we interviewed him on uh the pond doing ice fishing we also have oilers analyst bob stoffer coming to you a little bit later when we chat about the oilers so i want to give you a heads up there uh moving right along to the stories this week uh 64 years to the day after willio'Ree suited up for the Boston Bruins to become the first black player in NHL history the team retired his number 22 at a packed TD Garden the other night due to the COVID situation he appeared via video from his home in San Diego gave a very heartfelt speech where he spoke about his love of the game his love of the Bruins and you know even listening biz to like old audio with him you can always

hear this guy just always carried himself with like this particular grace and humility just always such a gentleman anyone who's ever met him or talked to him he's just always been this way like an easy guy to root for of course he's been the NHL's director of youth development they've had over 130,000 kids have gone through this program since since he took the job he's also been an ambassador for NHL diversity for, I think, 25 years. And the message has always been a simple one. Hockey is for everyone. I'm not sure if you saw the new fedora, Pasta.

I had the idea to give him a new fedora because he always has a pretty sharp one. And they gave him one with, like, the Bruins logo on the inside that Pasta came up with the idea. So a pretty nice touch. And then this came the next day. The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill to award him the Congressional Gold Medal, which is the highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions.

It just needs President Biden's signature, which is pretty much a formality. So it was a really nice night. It was a long time coming. Probably should have been done a while ago, but I really enjoyed the ceremony and particularly his speech, Biz. It was unbelievable. And Anson Carter ended up going on his behalf and raising the banner. Willie couldn't attend it. I believe he was in San Diego just because of COVID purposes, but a very touching ceremony. I'm glad that they were able to do it with fans in the building. And it was it was definitely a special night. And I was talking to Wayne before the broadcast and I,

I hadn't realized that he was legally blind in one eye as well. He'd taken a puck to his right eye. And I think for fear at the time, if he would have made the trainers aware of it, they probably for insurance purposes would not have let him play. And guys, if you go look at his hockey DB, like this guy was an incredible minor league player with, with one eye and the stats he was putting up and obviously worked his way up to the NHL and, and, and broke the color barrier. And, and it is

such an amazing story. And you kind of touched on an RA, like the way he carries himself and throughout all these years, like even beyond playing playing just continue to do what he he's doing to grow the game and especially at his age too right like moving around and still getting up and talk so he's been such a great representation of the hockey world and and uh and we're blessed to have him and uh did you end up catching it as well um um wit I did. And it's amazing. I had the chance to meet him twice, one time in Pittsburgh and then the other time was at NHL Network. He came in and we interviewed him on NHL Now or whatever the show is at 4 o'clock.

And such a nice person. Like, he loves the game of hockey, too, you could tell. And he was so friendly. He loved telling stories. And I just had a blast getting to meet him two different times. I can't imagine, you know, we got some other kind of shitty things to talk about, but can you imagine what he had to deal with? I could never.

And nowadays, as much as we keep hearing things, that's just brutal. You probably didn't hear much about what was being said to him then. And so for a guy who has been through more than anything I could ever imagine as a player, just to do something you love, I'm sure he's a true kind of legend to a lot of people of color who've played and tried to play this sport and realized that as much as they're still going through now,

as unacceptable, it is imagine what he did. Cause it was probably tenfold. And so I think for, for him to have the guts and, and the balls to go out there and keep competing, no matter what was said to him, it just shows he,

he should have his number retired and he should have the honors that are finally, you know, going towards him. Well said, well said wit. And yeah, I mean mean i'm sure it was probably every day non-stop every game for that poor guy doing it and he just you know put his head down and played and blind to one eye and didn't tell anybody which like piss that's that's probably one of the most amazing parts of his career and when we and we spoke to him on the tnt broadcast and i was able to ask

him you know who were you know who was your mentor who was the person that you you looked up to and followed and he talked about his older brother and even having to have the conversation when he decided to make hockey his primary sport about what you know he might have to go through when deciding that and it's good as wit kind of alluded to it we're going to have to get to some stuff that that is not so easy to talk about but uh to to to not only have to deal with that but then to have such a a positive outlook on what the game has done for him and to try to share with others that's why we we obviously wanted to lead with it uh it's obvious why he deserves the honors that he was given and you know it's um you know it paved the way for players beyond him.

And 130,000 kids have gone through the program since he's been the NHL director of youth development. So, you know, for a fact, he's made a difference from the day he became the first black player ever to play in the NHL until right now. He's never stopped making a difference. So what a life that is. Yep. Well said, boys. But like biz just said also unfortunately the same bullshit that he had to go through uh 60 fucking years ago it's still happening today uh ahl uh san jose barracuda forward kristoff uh rabic i think you say his name he was given a 30 game suspension

uh for racist actions toward tucson road Boco Imama on January 12th. Per ESPN, Rabic, quote, imitated the movements of a monkey in a taunt that targeted Imama. Some of the Tucson players saw it. Travis Barron, one of the players, confronted Rabic. Imama was being held back by the linesman. He tweeted out a statement the other day, basically, or is it right there? I've been dealing with situations like this my entire life as a person of color playing youth hockey through junior and now twice as a professional. This keeps happening to me over and over again.

We have enough to worry about as pro hockey players, and it saddens me when anyone has to deal with these types of issues. It's frustrating and disheartening that this is still going on in 2022. Even though I honestly believe the sport has made positive strides, we still have a long way to go to educate the ignorant and to make hockey a safe place for everyone. My hope is that people learn from this and that someday hockey will truly be for everyone. So yeah, Boco basically saying what we're saying here. It's just this shit shouldn't happen. The player who committed the violation, Rabic, he did issue a public apology Friday, said that he apologized to a mama. He said, quote, I am ashamed of today's events and embarrassed by the actions that led to my suspension. I want everyone to know that I'm very sorry for what occurred and I take

full responsibility for my actions. People should know that I had absolutely no inappropriate intent. The gesture was made in the heat of battle. I didn't mean anything racist by what I did. I realize now that through my own ignorance, how my gesture could be interpreted. I alone am responsible for that. It was terrible, and I make no excuses. When I heard about Boco's reaction to the gesture, I was horrified by what I had done.

Boco is a player I respect, and I am so sorry for putting him through this situation. I sent a personal apology to Boco and sincerely hope that he will forgive me. I also want to apologize to the AHL, the San Jose Barracuda, the Tucson Roadrunners, and to my teammates for my unacceptable actions. He can apply for reinstatement after missing 21 games, and a decision will be based on an evaluation of his progress

and the necessary education and training with the Player Inclusion Committee. I didn't see any video of this incident so you know obviously he fessed up to it so he he did something inappropriate uh and then you know you move along okay you think all right moving along here then the next day sun uh saturday uh the east coast hockey league there was a heated fight between south carolina stingray jordan suban and jacksonville iceman uh jacob panetta uh after the game subanban quote tweeted the Jacksonville account. The Jacksonville account had said, oh, there was a fight in overtime. Jordan said, more like Panetta was too much of a coward to fight me.

And as soon as I begin to turn my back, he started making monkey gestures at me. So I punched him in the face multiple times and he turtled like the coward he is there. Fixed it. So then Jacksonville first suspended him, Panetta. Then they caught him uh on Sunday Panetta himself released a video and said that uh he told Subban you're only tough when the refs get involved and then uh he said he did a tough guy bodybuilder like gesture told him that Panetta said he's made to other players and other games and then he said he said my actions toward Jordan were not because of race and were not intended as

a racial gesture I did not contemplate at the time that it would be received as a racial gesture and I attempted to convey this to Jordan when we were sent to the dressing room during the game I see now from Jordan's reaction that he and others certainly viewed it as a racial gesture and that my actions have caused a great deal of anger I want to express to everyone especially Jordan that my actions were not racially motivated at all. And I sincerely apologize for the pain and suffering and anger that my actions have caused his family, that have caused his family and everyone who has been hurt by this.

He also said, I need to, and we'll learn from this. And he wanted to reach out to Jordan to express his regret. And then he's going to participate in the league investigation. There was a video of that event. I guess we could say they were differing opinions on what people saw uh and what happened there there was obviously uh some sort of gesture but the way jordan reacted he he snapped right there so um you know we're not taking sides here we just want to kind of present what people are saying here uh and then jordan's older brother pk who obviously everyone knows him,

he tweeted out a video of the incident on Saturday, and then Sunday night after his game, he addressed the media and said there's no room for it in our game. I'm embarrassed because our game is better than this. And he spoke about how many kids deal with incidents that never come to light at the lower levels, you know, the youth leagues and stuff. And we do hear about these stories that happen all the time. And then a story dragged into monday too

andrew shaw who i guess is uh panetta's cousin posted on instagram that panetta is being judged in the media for an incident that was misinterpreted and that he'd done this tough guy pose before uh in the clip you can't hear any on ice audio and like i said we do see a gesture there that causes suban to go after him so It's just fucking, like you said, 2022. It sucks that we still got to talk about this, man. I got a little cousin. I hope he plays hockey in a few years. He's biracial.

I thought of someone saying something like this to him. You'd want to put a fucking stick over the head of the rink. A little kid like that, people are going to say shit. We just wish we didn't have to talk about it anymore. I know you want to chime in here, so I'll go to you. Well, let's go back to the first incident.

And, guys, if you even back it up, I would say, what, three months ago, they had the issue overseas in one of the European leagues of a kid making a gesture of opening up a banana and eating it and mocking a player of color. So, you know, P.K. Subban spoke, and he said that he got little to no sleep. I think he said he got to bed at about 5 a.m., 5.30 in the morning on the night that it had happened, leading into the next day,

which turned out to be a game day. And, you know, he spoke, and he spoke at length, and he spoke from the heart. And I think what's getting lost here is I don't know if he was able to hear Panetta's apology and why it was interpreted the way it is, nor am I here to argue what Jordan interpreted as well. Because as PK mentions in his statement, and I'm sure that Jordan will tell you and all these other guys, they've seen this plenty of times before through every single league, right? So what PK asked for and what I took away, and he's so good at speaking about this stuff too, because he really kind of, he's not inflammatory about it. inflammatory about it he says he wants to focus on continuing to create the change and he he wants every news outlet to speak about it in length and kind of break it down as to why this needs to leave it's detracting you know players of color from playing the game of hockey because they don't

want to put up with these types of things the same reason why i mentioned earlier about uh when willie mentioned that his older brother had to sit him down and explain to him what was what was to come if he chose his path of playing hockey it we don't we don't want it like that anymore and these players are fed up and and you saw boca's um our twitter post like this is the second time that he's dealt with something while playing professional hockey how many times you think there's tons of cameras around playing in the nhl how many times you think you dealt with in the past so shifting to the to the to the uh other incident where it's kind of there's some gray area back to the jordan suban one is i just hope it's able to get reconciled and and and you know

every everyone's able to use it as a, as a learning tool. And some people argue about the lengths of these suspensions and you, and what you're going to be able to chime in to, especially on the younger kids is there may be learning this from somebody at home. So I don't think that the punishment should be as, as, as hard, but there should be severe punishment for punishment for kids at a younger age. I don't think now with the way that technology is and the way that we were as informed as we are and where the social curve has gone, that in pro hockey, that if this happens moving forward,

it should probably be an even more severe punishment, especially for somebody who's admitting that they've done it. And I don't know if that comes with more preparation. Like I'll give you an example. When I was in the King's organization, they had the Voinov incident. So the organization obviously had an internal conversation that they never wanted something like that to happen within the organization again. So they got, um um they hired a team to come talk about um uh domestic violence for about two hours the next training camps because i was involved in the organization so everybody was able to learn and be educated on that and basically say hey there's no excuse moving forward we're grown-ups here and we've had strict and long dialogue about

it i think that maybe that in every pro league and maybe even all these minor league systems, like that should be talked about at the beginning of the year, every year, give everyone the briefing that this is an inclusive sport. And then that way moving forward, you can instruct a more severe punishment for a first time offender of younger.

And then at some point, maybe a lifetime ban. Like I, I think that if you're 30 years old and you're getting these talks every year in pro hockey and then and then you end up doing that and admitting to it like that's where i'm like let's that's where you can kind of step up and create a more severe punishment yeah i mean the hardest thing i think for all of us is that none of us know and none of us have any clue what it's like for these black kids and guys to go through this it's like i i got

to play this sport my whole life never dealing with anything remotely close to it so it's like to even talk about it i feel so uneducated and not at at what what does even i shouldn't it's like what what i have to say right now should mean nothing besides the fact that for that for Boco to deal with this the second time is 2020 when it happened to him before. It's like, holy shit. Both times in the AHL, you're one injury from going up to the NHL. And in two years, you got two guys making racial gestures at you. It's like, fuck me, man. Fuck me, man.

So as much as I would like to think it's improved and it's getting better, it's kind of hard to stand by and say it is if we keep getting these stories. And yes, I'd say that the most upsetting thing for me thinking is, is a seven-year-old kid out there who's dreaming of being the next P.K. Subban and some fucking asshole, whether it's a parent, which you know probably happens or a kid is saying something to him it's like that's truly heartbreaking i go to the panetta video and i saw what andrew shaw said and it's like this is why it's hard for me to even kind of take a side here but yeah i see the kids kind of emotion and it's like, I could totally understand that, that, that tough guy,

the meathead carrying the grocery bags. You know, I remember Colby Armstrong did it to Cam Jansen, like just fucking meathead. And, and I talked to a kid who played at Colgate with them and was like, this dude was, would never have done that in a racial way, a mistake. Nonetheless, partly because of what's been going on and mainly because of it just happened like two days before the punishment for the kid in the San Jose game. And so I'm not going to sit here and like and then all of a sudden.

So me me believing that kid is is is I don't believe Jordan Subban. No, I mean, that's what's so hard about this. None of us were on the ice. In terms of like a shit talking black player on the ice, no more doing the meathead fucking shoulders shrug move. Yeah. Because obviously Jordan Subban felt that you were calling him a monkey. It's so it's an awful, awful situation to have to talk about.

I feel horrific for any player who's ever had to go through anything like that. They don't deserve it. And it's very difficult to have this conversation, too, guys, on a week where they honor the first player of color in the National Hockey League and retired as Jersey. So, as Witt said, I don't think we'll ever be truly comfortable talking about these conversations uh or these topics excuse me just because we haven't experienced what these players have we just wanted to make sure we brought light to it

we can't see it anymore and and hopefully there's a way that they can incorporate bigger punishments and we see way way way way less of it if none of it moving forward well guys very well said what we had to add and we're gonna move along now because hopefully we don't have to talk about these stories ever again on the show um not to sound too pollyannish but uh it's terrible and we're gonna move on and hopefully never have to deal with these idiots again um willie oree wasn't the only guy who had his number retired since the last episode. Chris Pronger had his number 44 retired by the St. Louis Blues. He played nine of his 18 NHL seasons there.

He had 356 points in 598 games, another 51 points in 85 playoff games. He made the Western Conference Finals with them back in 01. Then at the podium, how about that? He dips down, pulls out a Bud Light, cracks a Bud Light. I thought he was going to pound it. He took kind of a little lighter sip than I would have expected for prongs. But, you know, this is a guy who knew he was going to get his number retied.

Absolute character. Pretty good stuff, though. I think he just wanted to wet his whistle there because he wasn't quite done. And then he ended up fully crushing it afterward. And, I mean, I would imagine the people in St. Louis were just abusing themselves to that because they love their pints in st louis especially fucking anheuser-busch too yeah i would say that's probably like the beer capital of the united states or is that naive well that's where anheuser-busch just started it started yeah okay yeah not like saying rogers is the goat over brady um but no i mean i would unless you're a core's life man i would say probably for a good you know

i would say a baker's dozen but at least a decade one of the most dominant defensemen all of hockey um you know he helped edmonton get to the finals the one year against carolina uh the next year after that helped anaheim win it uh had some stellar fucking seasons in st louis i would say that's probably where he was at is like nastiest and meanest and most dominant. He won the heart one year and then he was playing with McKinnon or McKinnis McKinnon, Jesus McKinnis. So, I mean, that must've been what,

probably one of the best shutdown duos in the league with dog. Yeah. MVP Norris and St. Louis him and Lidstrom, like my idols growing up. I remember going to the national program. They sent you a sheet, like what you wanted for equipment. And I just listed off all Pronger's gloves, Pronger's stick, Pronger's skates. It's just, you know,

you watched him and he was so mean too. What a bastard out there. Just a prick running around. He'd run people over. I loved how he brought up how, how hated he was at the beginning because they traded Brendan Shanahan for him and how people were so upset in St. Louis only to come and realize that they had a, you know, a future hall of famer that they got to watch in his prime. So he did chug it at the end. I think as he wrapped up the speech,

he finished off the bottle and walked off, but we had the chance of sitting down with them and you could see how he bust balls and he chirps guys and quick sense of humor while just being a the ultimate pro and every day showing up and being hard to play against along with adding offense it was uh it was a legendary career no doubt so pretty cool after he's been in the hall of fame now the numbers retired and and you could see what whatever he'll do next i'm sure he'll be successful at i i idolize him too wit him and uh adam foot were my favorite defenseman coming up adam and i had a little bit more

nastiness to my game so that's why i really like pronger i used to have those wood ccm twigs i'd just be laying the lumber in the ohl making guys piss blood get him in the kidney uh so congrats to pronger on getting number 44 uh lifted to the rafters good stuff congrats um i guess he couldn't find any pink whitney because he had a sip on the bud light but you can find pink whitney at your local liquor store load up for the all-star game load up for the skills competition if you're going to be in vegas load up for the chicklets cup or if you can't just belly up to your favorite local bar order some of that good pink stuff pink whitney and i was going to plug this thursday myself and wit once again the pink whitney zone at the orlando solar bears not the polar bears the solar bears i finally got it right so we're going to have a lot of festivities going on in orlando it's one of the if not the nicest

places to play in the echl the amenities are incredible they's one of the, if not the nicest places to play in the ECHL. The amenities are incredible. They play out of the same arena as the Orlando Magic. So these ECHL guys are fully dialed in. Other news regarding Pink Whitney, some more pink coffees coming. Sandbagger. I think we're pushing that back to what day, G? The week right after the Chicklets Cup.

We've pushed it back a week. Yes. No, we'll go back two weeks. So we'll be released right the right after the chicklets cup, we've pushed it back a week. Yeah. So we'll be, no, we'll go back two weeks. So we released right when we get the week after the chicklets cup. So we have our fans that, that weren't at the chicklets cup.

We'll give them a little something, something, you know, and that a sandbagger would be, we'll be with Scotty Gomez and Teddy Purcell. So, yeah, so we got the chicklets cup coming.

And then of course that whole ECHchl player relief series will also be brought to you by pink whitney so shout out to our presenting sponsor we got a lot of amazing things coming and we'd love to thank them again um speaking of the chicklets cup biz i talked to your mortal enemy uh cory oh as you call him the half-chewed caramel kid i talked to him on the phone the other night i was out in fitchburg for jake tebow they had a fundraiser slash jamboree for him so I went out to stop by it was actually really cool it was a fundraiser for him um you would have talked about him on the show he had the spinal cord injury back in September they had a college game uh prep game and then a high school game all you know at one after the other so I took

her out to Fitchburg to go see Jake and support it and the kid comes up to me he's like hey I'm a big fan of the show he's like he goes, you know the half-chewed camel? He goes, that's my brother. I was like, no shit. So we called him on the phone. I talked to him on the phone. He's all business, dude. He's coming for that ass in Vegas, biz. I'll tell you that right now. So I was a little bit upset because we didn't have enough video of him

in our behind the scenes. And then from what I'm hearing now is every time the cameras came over with, he was like, get your fucking cameras out of here. We don't want your cameras. We got our own cameras. Oh, yeah, but I'm sure you're fucking getting the same viewers that we are. You better pound this

kid, Biz. Biz, did you read this on a Twitter account with 17 numbers in it? What do you mean? Teasing, you know, how you pull random stuff out sometimes. No, I think I talked to one of our cameramen. It might have even been Sean. Yeah, it might have been Sean who went over, and he said,

no, we got our own cameras. And I'm like, well, not this trip. And if he tells us no fucking cameras, I'm going to come over the top ropes. I'm going to chew the rest of that nose off his face. No, you got a little sit down from it. I mean, this kid's like a ball hockey, street hockey legend, Ben. Oh, you want to talk about fucking ball hockey legends? Gee, I'm going to tee you up.

Who's the ball hockey legend coming to Chicklets Cup? Team Canada National Ball Hockey Team, Terry Ryan. Terry Ryan and his three ringers are coming in. I mean, the all-time, all-time power move to announce that, make that announcement the week before the Chicklets Cup. Yeah, yeah. So we'll see, folks. We're going to have all the content and all the posts.

Do you guys play them in round robin? They do. They will play them. They will play them. They're both in the top division. I'm doing the interviews after that game. Nose face killer. Can't wait. Can't wait. Alright, moving right along uh we had a little

media play a tiff uh a few days ago longtime beat writer up in edmonton jim matheson caused a little bit of a scene with leon dry sidle i called him pissy which you know i've been in a few press conferences it's kind of a dick thing to call a guy calling a pissy like in front of everybody like that one thing if it's private or off to the side but they call him pissy in that spot i don't know i thought it was pretty unprofessional. He wasn't getting the answers he wanted. And then somebody shared a story online that Matheson allegedly lied to George LaRock about Brant Myers talking shit about him.

They ended up fighting that night. LaRock broke Myers' orbital bone. He never played in the NHL again. Now, Myers did tweet out that nothing a plate inserted into a broken orbital bone couldn't fix. No matter what anyone said, we were fighting either way that night. But you do get to wonder, Matheson, if in fact this is what happened and LaRock said this is what happened, he basically lied. And, you know, George might have beat this guy up a little bit more because of, you know, what he was told.

He thought the guy's talking shit. There's a little more emotion involved. You know, Myers never played in the NHL again. And this guy's, you know, what he was told. He thought the guy's talking shit. There's a little more emotion involved. You know, Maya's never played in the NHL again. And this guy's, you know, affecting people's lives and careers at this point. Now, Whit, you played in Edmonton. Did you deal with this fellow a lot? I never. I know Jim Matheson pretty well from being up there,

as I do most of the beat reporters. I can't say we ever really had anything like that. But I do know this. It's been a long time since that team was like really good. And with the same guys covering them, and now you've got a lot of the guys that have been playing there for a good amount of time, and the team doing this poorly, it is just such a toxic.

That makes it sound really bad. When you're losing and you're in Canada, and every single year the same stuff keeps coming up and the same questions keep getting asked over and over. It is very difficult for both sides, for both sides to come up with new questions and to come up with new answers. And at some point when your team's struggling as much as Edmonton has emotions boil over right now, I'll say this. I think this example, I think it was on Matheson.

I'd say it to him. I have respect for him. He's covered the game for a long time. But you go watch the raw footage. Go watch the entire press conference because that was not the first question Jim Matheson asked. He'd asked a couple questions prior. Leon had given what I think were acceptable answers, right?

And this goes into the argument of like, players owe the media something because they cover them, but like, do they really? Like, not really, in my mind, no offense, guys, but they're playing the game, they're getting paid to play the game,

and yes, you may believe that you're giving news and quotes to the world and to the fan base, but I don't know. I mean, the players don't need you as much as you need them. I'll say that. But he answered the questions and he for sure was in a mood because he's probably been answering these questions for a month now.

They didn't win a game for a month. And so when it turns to Jim Matheson and he asks him, what's your level of anger? It's like, all right, well, you know I'm pissed off, but how can I answer this? And he went and he kind of laughed a little bit. And he said, you know, I'd call it more frustration than anger. You know, it's kind of like I'm frustrated by that question.

His vibe gave off a total attitude. I'm pissed off at the question, but still kept it pretty professional, I thought. And then he says, Madison says, well, you've now lost six in a row attitude. I'm pissed off with the question, but still kept it pretty professional, I thought. And then he says, Madison says, well, you've now lost six in a row twice. And last year you won the second in division. And did you think this team was past losing streaks like that? And he says, yeah, I did. You know, it's like at this point you could tell he's frustrated. He's been answering this every single day. And Matheson then just says, what are the number one, what is the number one reason for the losses? This is what was frustrating to me because he knows, and everyone knows the number one reason for the losses is goaltending. Okay. We've talked about what Tippett said that time, the goaltending has been a

disaster. And that is blatantly the number one reason There's a lot of them, but that's the number one reason. And so he's definitely looking for a quote that would make the rounds. He's looking for that player to call out the goaltending, to call out the coaching staff. He's looking for you to say, what's the number one reason you're asking the guy who was one of the best players in the league. It's not him. What do you think he's going to say? No matter what he says is a direct shot at whoever he's bringing up or whatever part of the team he's bringing up. So at that point, he, you know, he just says, well, you, you can decide that, you know, it all.

So it did get a little personal first from Leon because he, he said to Matheson, you know, it all. And he called him a know-it-all basically, but he was definitely realizing, all right, well, you're trying to get me to call someone out. I'm not doing it. And then all of a sudden Matheson just, he says, what's your problem? Why are you being pissy? And it's like, Whoa, I've never really heard a reporter like talk to a player like that. And Matheson's been around this game a long time and he was certainly pissed off, but to say,

why are you being so pissy is like such a slap in the face to Leon, who's been up there answering questions for a couple minutes. You didn't like the answers, so you decided to call him pissy. Yeah. It just shows I've been talking for a while, Biz. I'll get your opinion. No, no, I love it. You broke it down perfectly. especially even if you start the clip from the way that most people heard it, where they felt maybe it was a 50, 50 mix.

And maybe it was Leon who set things off, who put gas on the fire by saying, you know, everything from the, the, the original clip that was surfaced, it sounded like Matheson was making it a little bit personal. He had like,

it was, it was a personal tone. And as you said, once you heard the prior audio, you're like, man, not only were his answers fine, but you hit it on the head it's like i'm not gonna throw our goalies under the bus that just happened a few weeks ago with a simple quote from tippet

and it was a fucking firestorm it had already happened so he's not taking the bait they probably even in the locker room were like listen guys like things have became a bit of a shitstorm here let's just tighten it up and you know they had to kind of learn the hard way and and for people who who ended up hearing the tippet quote from my understanding is they were also digging on the goalie comment too so it's like you're always digging base you get asked the same question 50 times it's like fuck man the guy fucking gave him a pizza to start the game off and he let up four and yeah we only got one but yes that was not a great way to start the game off and he let up four and yeah we only got one but yes that was not a great way to start the game when we were fucking dominating in new york

so finally the frustration comes out and and like you said when you're dealing with canadian media sometimes those guys are going in because they feel they need to i don't know if they feel they need to stir it up why they're maybe making making it personal, but I would put the blame definitely on Matheson on this one as well. And going back to his question about the body language, body language on the ice sometimes when I was younger and I was going through frustrating times was probably not the best, and that's part of a learning curve of becoming a pro and becoming more mature did i have a fingernails amount of the pressure that leon dry settle does no so i don't

know what how i would be acting out there maybe i don't want to say dealing with incompetence but like you know sometimes when you're you're trying to put the team on your back as well as mcdavid and you're not getting the results and going through a losing streak where you've lost 13, the last 15. Yeah. I'd probably be fucking slouching over out there and slamming some doors too. And, and maybe Matheson had made a little bit personal. Cause he didn't like the fact that he was acting like they're out there as an oiler. I don't know, but I also don't act.

I don't watch enough Oilers games to know if, if his body language is in fact that bad on the ice, that would be a question for Oilers fans who are dialed in 24 seven. So we could, we could talk to, to Stoffer about it, but I know I reiterated, reiterated a lot of what you said with, but I know as a media member, like I'm never looking to make things personal. And the last thing I want to talk about and dig at is,

is maybe people's mishaps like we we try to make a joke of it and keep it light but i'm never gonna grill a player like that in my life i only grill russian reporters like that wait you ever get done dirty by a reporter i'm in a situation where you like kind of had to pull my side out to be like what the fuck bro oh not that not not that I can remember. There's no doubt. I mean, some reporters are going in there. I'm not saying cocky, but they're looking to kick up dust. They're they're, they're looking to just rattle a player. Like I remember Mark Spector was like that. He's still in Edmonton.

Like I just always felt like he was just, he was just looking to rattle. You're looking to remind you that you weren't playing that well, looking to give you a little shots here and there and that's their that's their job in their mind is to produce a quote now I would kind of lean on the side of like wanting the players to like me most most media members and journalists would throw up at that comment but I think just being a player it's like I like the guys who came over and no doubt there were some nice guys that had to write some bad things about me when I wasn't playing well, but they weren't a dickhead.

They weren't, they weren't like trying to tee me up. And in some cases they were like, Hey, don't like doing it, you know, but you're struggling, you know,

can you talk to me? Like, it's more like they felt bad as opposed to some reporters who you could tell are actually happy that you're playing bad and dealing with. Hey, was it nice to get over a first pier without throwing a pizza up the middle after doing it five straight games after like a six, one win where you had two apples.

It's just like, I don't, you know, I, these guys, it's like you have to ask so many questions and this team stinks and they stunk for so long. So it's, they're so, they're so tired of their job and the players are so tired of answering the same questions over and over. That's why I meant that's what I meant by toxic, not the people that are up there. It's just the atmosphere. And it kind of goes into the same thing of like, I think there's Patriots reporters who think they are like the biggest stallions on the planet because they've covered a team that's been good. It's like, dude, what's the difference between you and a reporter for the Bengals the last

30 years who've sucked every year. You're just lucky that the team you covered has been really good. Like, it's not like you're that much better than another journalist somewhere else. So I don't know. It's funny. You mentioned the Patriots because you got English majors,

like grilling a guy who knows more about football than the entire referee fucking combine the league like the Bill Belichick. He knows more about football than anybody. So you can see why someone like him is getting aggravated. But, you know, someone who was an English communications major got into sports and was like, you know, why didn't you? Why did you do this play and not that play? And it's like, buddy, my shit knows more about football than you. But not often do you get a online majority, high majority

on one side. And it was like people were dogging Matheson from every comment I read. Besides every reporter who is going out like sticking up for their boy. It's like holy fuck, guys. Never mind the Buffalo Bills. Nobody circles the wagons like local media when one of this is getting fucking chased.

Bob Boston is famous. Great question, Jim. Famous. Yeah. Don't listen to the haters. Way to do it. Way to get the job done. Yeah.

Yeah. Tell homicides. Hey, buddy, why are you being pissy to me? You don't do it in a presso that everybody's listening to. That's other ways to handle it. But on the other hand, Biz, Brendan Perlini's presso. This was like mr rogers compared to compared to dry silos i mean he's a pretty positive guy yeah looks like uh looks like

he just came out of a stevie y a grill session just finished the roach off just so happy on life just just mr positive i kind of like honestly to hear that though through all the chaos was like it was a little bit refreshing it reminded you like, like, hey, man, this is just a game. We shouldn't be reporters. Going back to the press conference, it made me uncomfortable between Matheson and Dreisaitl. So to hear Perlini come by and put a little bit of water or a blanket over the fire as opposed to gasoline,

I really respected that from him. Do you want to roll the clip, Grinelli? I think it can only go up. You know, like I said, I mean, I've been on teams where it's lose six, seven, eight in a row, and you can win six, seven, eight in a row just like that. So, you know, I'm always obviously an optimistic guy and glass half full type of guy,

but I really think it's probably, you got like, we got some of the best players in the world the best player in the world too in there so at any given moment you know good things can happen and it's just you got to keep going you know that's life you know you like things are never going to be you're going to win every single game your life is going to be rainbows and clouds and whatever not you know like life is ups and downs ebbs and flows right so uh it's it's really almost grateful for our group to go through periods like this because then when we'll get back to winning it's like ah i like that feeling you

know i want to keep winning maybe before we weren't grateful enough for for winning games and we have to go through something like this to learn. There it is. I think you just watched an episode of Ted Lasso. Good guy. Good guy. Well, I think, boys, we should probably bring in Bob Stauffer to talk about the oil. Big game the other night. We'll get to that. But first, we want to let you know that this interview is brought to you by Masterworks.

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That's masterworks.art slash chicklets. And make sure to check out the important disclosures at masterworks.io for the disclaimer. And now we're going to send it over to Bob Stauffer. Well, it's a pleasure to welcome our next guest. He's a color commentator on Oilers Radio Network, the host of Oilers Now on 630 Ched, and an NHL hockey panelist on Rogers Regional Broadcast. And he was nice enough to join us tonight to discuss the state of the Edmonton Oilers. Thanks so much for joining us on the Spit and Chicklets podcast. Bob Stauffer, how you doing, my friend? I'm doing good.

Anytime I can go on with one of my favorite former Edmonton Oilers, Ryan Whitney, it's going to make my day. Stauffer and I did a lot of – we were having the in-locker room – what do you call them, Biz? What do we have at the middle bar? Camp fires? No, not camp fires. Hot stoves.

Stauffer and I would have some hot stoves. We would discuss the long-term makeup of the Edmonton Oilers and the requisite moves that needed to take place back circa 2010 until about 2013. He goes, wait, I had you in the plans. He goes, I had you in the five-year plans. Then that ankle when he goes, so you're out of here next year, but help work with me.

Who else are we getting out and who's coming in? Well if you recall ryan i don't know if joffrey loop ever told you this but you just before the olympics i text joff and said hey what kind of guy is ryan whitney and uh you're the last game you played for anaheim would have been in edmonton and i remember they had all the flags from the different players that were representing and you were of course you only got a moderate applause because, truth be known, the Canadians don't exactly, they recognize how good the U.S. is now at hockey. And the U.S. has supplanted Russia as the number one rival.

And you got a muted response. And all I can think of is, I think we're trading Viznoski for this guy by the time we get back from the Olympic break. So, to be honest with you guys uh what was really good for the first cup you know first year uh then it got hurt towards i think it was in december around december 28th at next season and you were never really the same after but but you could all right sorry it's two days off i think i was still hung over from chris oh no i said it's 7 30 p.m i was just being a wise ass you Yeah, there we go. No, but you were you know, you can move the puck. You were smart.

You let the puck do the work and you could see through some of the challenges that the organization was having at that time. Yeah, so it's kind of it's been a it's been a while since we caught up and the fact that these struggles are still going on. I figured we texted once. I said, I got to get him on

and pick his brain on what's going on. So I'll say this. You run off the the bat and said, wait, they're going to turn things around. Don't lose hope, you told me. And I need to have you kind of explain why I shouldn't lose hope, because my ear is going to be heavier and heavier the more they keep losing. I don't know if you know that. You know, first of all, based on past history, criticism is fair in terms of the position that they're at right now. You get gifted, you know, two all-world players. I mean, we're watching with Connor the most advanced player we've ever seen.

Nobody's been that fast, that skilled in the league. You know, with all due respect, Paul, I know you work with Wayne Gretzky, and Wayne is the greatest guy in the world that you'll ever meet. He let the puck do the work. Connor can kind of do it by himself a little bit differently. Right. And, and then dry sidle through osmosis. And I think through work ethic has become a top five player, but they've had a confluence of events. Goaltending is obviously a significant part of it.

You can't have a team 900 save percentage and continue off a 16-5 start. At that point, everybody was above 914. And the other metric that people haven't factored in over the last 16 games is they're even saying shooting percentage is about 7%. So that'll get better. They were down a bunch of bodies that COVID run through the team.

Everybody had that. They had some injuries. It was an important comeback against Calgary. But they play in an easier conference, and they play in the easiest division. They're 9-2 against the Pacific, and that's part of the reason why I think the Oilers have a chance here to still be a playoff team. And frankly, I think they're going to finish second in the Pacific.

I think they'll make some hate second half of the year. Okay, second in the Pacific. You're in the playoffs. hate second half of the year. Okay, second in the Pacific. You're in the playoffs. Who's starting game one? Is he on the roster right now? Well, Mike Smith's a wild card, and that's an unfortunate thing. And I'll say this about Ken Holland. He's accepted the responsibility.

Went a week ago and said, hey, you know, I built this team. They were making a bet on a 39-year-old. I'm not an ageist, and i believe that hockey's a meritocracy right and based on last year's performance mike smith deserved another contract now he was 923 last year do you bet on a guy on a two-year deal at 38 and that's a fair question so i would say that you know if they if they have to go outside the organization it would most likely be to replace Koskinen because there's another year left in the term on Smith's deal.

But Smith's got to be healthy. I mean, he's only played six of the 36 games all year. Do you think something drastic would have happened if they would have lost on Saturday to the Flames? Or do you still think – Yeah, I think there's a possibility. I know you played for Tippett and Playfair when you were in Arizona. Dave's a real good coach.

Awesome. He's got a good feel for players. You know, he played 600 games in the league. He kind of willed himself to an NHL career. He's a bit like you. You know, like, your numbers relative to what you – I mean, I don't think you ever got double-digit goals in junior, and you still found a way to play 200 games in the National Hockey League.

That's because you made it happen for yourself, andippa was an undersized guy out of ncaa that might have been a better soccer player than a hockey player but he's smart he's got a good rapport with the players but i'm not gonna you know what uh this is a results-driven business for coaches and there is pressure to achieve um i want to go back to the to the comments he made about koskinen after that game now from my understanding he was kind of getting grilled about the goaltending and then let that slip and you talk about the rapport with his players like he's a player's coach and everybody here loved him what did you view that as a big time slip up on his part or was that just maybe annoyance from the media about the repetitive

question about goaltending see you know when you're one of the and things obviously have changed you guys like i'm still traveling with the team uh we are not in the rooms anymore with the player i work for the club so i'll be up front with you i don't have a problem with what he said because my guess is no and dave he probably said it 12 to 15 times already with miko you got to be ready early in games minimize the pot and that's part of the thing that mike smith brings is the pocket he's like a third defenseman out there teams play entirely differently against mike smith than they do against miko they soft chip and soft dump against miko try to create some turnovers and they hard rim on smith because he can knock pucks and he can transition and Edmonton's an off the rush team.

So I would hazard a guess. I'm almost certain that Dave had repeatedly spoken to Miko about being ready early in games. And it was the last thing. And the question was asked specific to the first goal against not in terms of Miko's overall performance. So if I'm giving the coach a bit of a break on that, I just, I trust Dave and I trust the rapport that he has with his players. And I believe that to be the, because I can tell you when I've challenged him on stuff like Evan Bouchard

playing more, he's been open to listen. Doesn't necessarily mean he accepts my position as being the right one. But just the way he handles these things and diffuses things, I don't think that he's necessarily a guy that just puts gasoline on the fire yeah you were always a guy that was into the defensive core that we would have and we'd be talking d and and that was at the time you said they got to play this petri more this kid's a player and it's it sounds like now that's boucher for you a little bit where it's like hey look look let's ride him a little bit more start giving him 23 minutes

as opposed to what is he playing now? 17, 18? Well, Ryan, he's at 21. Oh, good call, Whit. Yeah, but he, and, you know, Bouchard is an offensive defenseman. He should have played more last year. He reported in very good shape. Frankly, he was in better shape than Ethan

Bear was last season coming out of the, you know, when we got started up in January. And I think Jim Playfair and Dave Tippett should add him on the lineup on a regular basis. Now, they had Adam Larson. They signed Tyson Berry, led all defensemen in scoring. They still had Bear. But I wouldn't have had a problem if they would have played all four right shots, looking at the makeup of the owners' defense.

So that's me. I also think that you know they used to say guys the nhl is uh not a development league yes it is in a cap system you have to have productivity from entry-level players and that means like the best coaches today teach and they teach in a positive manner they treat their players with respect and dignity from the beginning of the relationship and that way they engender passion from them to get the most subtle players. And I would have had Bouchard playing last season. The minutes played is fine. This guy has a chance to be, you know,

I'll tell you what he is for. I don't want to go too far back, but he's a bit like Larry Murphy, right? He's right shot skilled, but at times it looks like he doesn't play enough intensity and passion because he's got a, skilled, but at times it looks like he doesn't play enough intensity and passion because he's got a slow twitch because he doesn't panic under pressure. And sometimes that gets him in a trouble. Bob, is it a given that this team

makes a move or several moves at this point? I think they'll make a move at some stage. Everybody's focused on goaltender. We'll see what happens with Kane. Obviously, the league's got to make a ruling first. I think Edmonton's got a chance to get Evander Kane.

I'm hearing there's a couple other teams that have entered the fray there. And why wouldn't they, why wouldn't they take the chance on a short-term deal? And you know what, if you're sitting there first, second or third in the league, maybe you don't do that, but maybe if you know,

you'd like, and Edmonton needs to change the makeup of their forwards. They're too small in the league maybe you don't do that but maybe if you know you like and Edmonton needs to change the makeup of their forwards they're too small in the bottom six and when you have those big horses like McDavid and Drysaddle down the middle I'm a little old school like I grew up playing against Todd Ewan and Mark Tenorti you know Todd Ewan's the only guy ever to knock Bob Probert out in a fight God rest his soul Todd was a tough dude. He could chuck him. He was an unbelievable player growing up like most of those guys were that morphed into sort of that enforcers role. But I'm from Western Canada. We watched

Wayne Gretzky be protected by Dave Semenko and Marty McSorley and Kevin McClellan. I still think you need a little bit of muscle, especially when you have top-end guys like McDavid and Dreisaitl. So I'd look for the Oilers to build a bigger forward squad and maybe even add a little bit of size and defense as well. I mean, is goaltending a priority?

Do you think they're definitely going to move for a goalie or are they going to try to see what happens? We're circling back to the question, who starts? I mean, that's a fair question. It's hard to do. Like if you're Marc-Andre Fleury, do you waive your no-movement clause to come to Edmonton right now? No, you'd probably wait and see what's my best chance to win at the trade

deadline. Now, what I'm telling you is I think the Pacific division is wide open and I don't think the West is anywhere near as good as East. So I think there's more opportunities to climb up the charts as the season goes on. I got to get your opinion on the, the press conference last week. I knew this was coming.

Well, it's funny because I talked about it right before you came on. And I said, it's just been so long and there's been so many years of just bad teams and the same questions being asked and the same questions being answered. And you could tell me if I'm wrong but it just seems like over time it's just the reporters are sick of asking the questions and the players are sick of hearing it um we've had like the thing about the Edmonton media is it's a lot of the same guys for years and years and years right like you're in a market and I'm a huge NCAA college football

fan Ryan as you know and not to interrupt you, quick, quick. So is Robin Brown these around? No, he's sort of out of the mix. But Mark Spector, Jim Matheson's been covering the team for 45 years. Terry Jones. Rashag. Yeah, you know, like everybody's been there at least 15 to 20 years all through this, right?

You know, it's like when paul's playing in arizona and you got uh you know rich nairn is one of the best pr guys like you might have one beat writer a day like craig morgan might be the one guy that was kind of down there other than your team broadcasters what i what i would say with that incident that a couple things you know some writers grew up in a time like red fisher out of montreal he didn't talk to rookies like here in montreal they had the best development system in the they had 400 carded players when red fisher was like they had the best organization in the league the guys that were coming up were really damn good i might want to talk to those guys in

their first or second years you know so i'm not saying that the writers are entitled. I'm saying, Ryan, your, your perspective that they're frustrated, they're exasperated. And then the players, some of the questions sometimes that get asked the players really should be directed towards management. Okay. And remember, I work for the club, but I say this because Ken Holland has sort of, he's admitted it, you know, the, the makeup of the team right now, this is my team. That's what Ken Holland said.

The question that Jim Matheson specifically asked Leon Dreisaitl, it was the third time that question got asked. What do you want Leon to do? Throw his goalie under the bus? He's not going to do that. So Leon was being a good teammate and was kind of going down a different path and then it got accelerated. And I got to tell you right now, if Jim Matheson could have done that over,

he would have done that over, you know, and he was, you know, I, that's, that's my interpretation. I, I think you get more out of people by being a little bit more positive in your approach. And I say this, I was a former SID at the university of Alberta school of wins in every sport from 2000 to 2008. I coached our coaches on how to do interviews. We lost some big games, right, in national championships in different sports. But you get more out of people if you're positive and engaging and not going at it from an

adversarial perspective. I asked Dreissel a question on Saturday. He gave a great response about, look, we don't just want to win for ourselves. We want to win for the city and for the fans. They know they're under pressure. And it is – hockey at Edmonton is like football at Alabama. That's all there is. You know, like if you're in Arizona, Paul, where you played, let's face it. There's – the only time anything's full in Glendale is when the Cardinals

are playing or Alabama's playing Clemson in a national championship game, right? That building's never full. I have friends. Is this shit on this interview? This is doing a topless night. Don't worry. I'll get to that a little bit later. I have friends that own companies that fly,

at least they did before the pandemic, that would fly four times a year for weekends down to Arizona. And it was cheaper than having season tickets in Edmonton. On the broadcast with Wayne, he's like, man, you'll go to Edmonton in the summertime and you'll turn on the local radio and they're talking Oilers. Like it's just like nonstop. It's like SEC football.

Yeah. It's the same thing. Yeah. Rick, Rick. All right. Then talk to me about the fan base. Is it, are people, now the pandemic changed everything, but like are people still going to the games whenever they can is the

passion will always be there. But at some point, has there been a group of fans? Like I can't handle this anymore. Say they missed the playoffs this year. Like what will happen? Well, there's one concern. And that concern is, you know, does Jeff Jackson reach out? You nailed it. Does Jeff Jackson reach out to and that concern is, you know, does Jeff Jackson reach out? You nailed it. Does Jeff Jackson reach out to the Oilers? And, you know, Connor's pretty committed, and Jeff has Evan Bouchard,

so that's another significant future Oiler player that he has. I think that's the biggest concern from the fans is the engagement level of Connor. I think the fans get it. They're privileged, like we are as broadcasters, to watch two of the best players in the world. I mean, Edmonton didn't have Hyman and Nugent Hopkins. You played with Ryan. He's a very underrated player.

Touches all aspects of the game. They didn't have those guys against Calgary. Again, let's see what happens the rest. They might not pull out of this, or conversely, this might be the best thing for them. You guys, you know, two of you guys there have played, right? You know what it's like. You've been on good teams and bad teams. And sometimes you go through something like this and it's the best thing for

you. The fans, that commitment's always going to be there. The heat is on. It's on a little bit on the management. Very few of the fans target McDavid and dry settle for the woes of the team. Sometimes it's, it's, it's, it might be a couple of writers that go down that path. I think it's unfair, frankly, like in hockey, you're only as good as your worst player. It's because the best forwards only play 22 minutes game.

The best D's play 25. Like you gotta, you gotta continuously build a team and then the great equalizer is goal. So you got to continue to chip away and build away and build a better team do you think the d needs reinforcements at some point or is this a defensive core that could get them through the playoffs because i think we've seen over the last few years that you might not have a marquee guy but if everyone works together like i think back the penguins they got it done a couple years back is that something that they could do in edmonton take a look at caroline in 06 and who they had on defense when they beat the Oilers in 07. That was the most unheralded defense of all time.

Edmonton's got a lot of prospect defense coming. If they're going to make a trade, goaltending and a forward. For me, those are the moves they need to make. They got several the makeup. They got a guy named Phillip Broberg. He's a first-rounder. He's played most of the year in the minors. He's

having a good season. All their guys are 6'4 to 6'7, but they have common. They're going to have a big defense. They have Nurse, and they have Bouchard. In two years from now, they're going to have five defensemen 6'3 plus, and four of them can move the puck, and three of them got a little bit of bite. So that would be a good combination. I mean, the only one I was going to ask, and kind of kind of goes back to mcdavid's agent colin uh do you think if they were to miss playoffs this

year that something like that could happen as soon as this summer or do you think he allows maybe one more year this type of kind of i think there's behavior but yeah paul i think there's there'd have there'd be input from the agent as well. Like, you know, I mean, if they miss the playoffs, I'm going to assume there's probably going to be a coaching change. Dave's at the end of his deal as well. He manages money very well, you know. And it is a high-pressure market. You know, there's no question about it because there's an expectation.

Like, you get gifted McDavid, and really they got gifted Dreisaitl too. They might not have known how good he was those of us that talk to people in the western league we knew how good he was but I think they were a little bit surprised that he's turned out to be the player he has um which makes up for a guy like Yakupov who just you know was and Ryan's laughing but who just was never you could tell he didn't have any read and react game with his teammates like he was never going to become an elite nhl finisher so um i i'm tend to be a pretty positive guy but that's people saying else you're out to lunch and the other thing that happened here paul's when edmonton won mcdavid that ratcheted up the heat on the organization and a lot of people

weren't happy the order's gone let's not forget they draft they got hall you know technically uh they didn't win the lottery the year they got Nugent Hopkins number one they just held their position they won the lottery the year they got hall and they won the year the lottery the year they got Yakupov and that 12 draft was a bad draft at the top of the draft you know Yakupov goes one, I mean, he's number five defenseman, he goes two, Galchenyuk can't stay healthy, he went third, the fourth guy that year was Griffin Reiner, who I haven't traded two picks for, last time I checked, the last year he was playing in the KHL, and Morgan Riley went number five, he was the best pick of those top five guys, so that was a great draft year uh and then they get you know

buffalo passes on dry settle in 2014 and the orders hit the home run there but when they got mcdavid that like markets like toronto who were playing like the orders weren't playing to have the top pick of 2015 arizona was you know toronto was and buffalo was. And the end result was that the Oilers ended up getting the pick. I think we've seen some frustration out of Connor in the last couple of press conferences. Is there any worry about this festering, like, you know, like into a Jack Eichel situation where, like, this guy wants to parachute out of town

because the team just isn't getting it done around him? I don't know how you're supposed to respond when your team's won two out of, you know, 50, if you go to 11 and two over 15 games, you know, how engaged and how happy go luck here. You're supposed to be there and, you know, during the media availability. The one thing that's happened with COVID is he doesn't get drilled every day in the dressing room, right? Because everything's done over from afar.

So it's actually lightened his workload in terms of the amount that he did. Again, I'd say let's just see how the rest of the season goes. I don't think it's quite as bad as every... Put it this way. They were never as good as 16-5. They're the best winning percentage through the first 21 games.

And they were never as bad as 2-11-2 before Saturday night when they beat the Flames. You guys know that from when you played, it's never as good when you think it's going good. And it's never as crappy as when you're going through a bit of, you know, a bit of a negative that's life, man. And it's kind of how you, you deal with it and to make the most of those situations and grow from. Well, I'm feeling better now because I don't know if you're a little bit more

worried because the flames aren't exactly lightening up. Who do you got going further this year? You can't be biased either, Stoff. I knew Calgary was going to bounce back because there was no way that Jacob Markstrom was going to have a 904 save percentage. You guys know this, that the Oilers offered Markstrom seven years at $5 million.

He took six times six. His agent, Pat Morris, certainly at one point, it appeared as though Markstrom was headed to Edmonton. He chose to go to Calgary. And then this past year, the Oilers were in on Darcy Kemper. And if Philip Grubauer inexplicably doesn't choose Seattle and stays in Colorado, the Oilers would have had Darcy Kemper on their team. And you could foresee a scenario.

Kemper's a UFA at the end of this year because you know I mean he's had some injury issues along the way but he's a pretty good guard uh goaltender you could see a situation where he might end up at Edmonton at some point here in the next nine months yeah I think I think they're getting to that level of desperation and they just got to hope it's not like a a Philly situation where they ended up paying Brizgalov and then next thing you know it's not like a a philly situation where they ended up paying brisgolov and then next thing you know it's just like you just you just never know the goaltending position it's so finicky because you see the bobrovsky now you know it seems like he's having a bounce back here but uh

uh switching away and talking about some fun stuff ken reed reached out to me and he said you guys used to do the train wreck tuesdays with terry r Ryan back on local radio. And he says that you guys would get off the rails quite a bit. Well, Terry, Terry Ryan was a gifted WHL player, but he was a better storyteller. And you got to have self-deprecation. I mean, that's part of what makes you guys, you know, one of the, one of the hottest podcasts out there. That's why your fans love you. You're not afraid to poke fun at each other. I mean, Ryan Whitney, I know, just wrote off Joffrey Lupo's coattails

in certain aspects of his personal life. Oh, yeah, I bet. Who didn't? Admit it. And for the record, Ryan, if you think Joff had game, you should have seen Craig Lupo back then. Because he didn't play in the NHL.

I'm not surprised. Because he did not play in the NHL, and he did every bit as well as joff that's all i'm gonna tell you so but uh oh how do you like hearing that you know what ken reed told me he told me you guys went to a top prospects game it was in uh i think it was at rexall at rexall wit so uh stoff goes in and he shoots 82 and then he says he hurts his back so ken reed got a little nervous on his first shot he did like 73 or whatever it was so stoff was bitching about his back so he goes the next time and he didn't shoot over his 82 and then ken reed got pumped up by the

mc in the crowd and he ended up shooting it look turned around boom 83 beats him by one oh man i was he wouldn't even do the post-game interview he went off the ice he was so pissed i uh i think i sprained some fat actually is what happened on the shot the worst one for me though guys was george larocke uh george for a fourth line player george had a lot of air in the orders room back in the mid-2000s you know he could back it up on the ice. Best fighter. I wouldn't say he was ever the best enforcer because he wasn't mean enough, but he was an unbelievable fighter.

And we had all these animated discussions on the role. And he waited two years, but he finally invited me out to skate in non-contact and then absolutely train wreck me uh when i the one time i had the puck i was probably 240 pounds at the time so like my current weight uh you know well into my 40s and i got the heavyweight champ of the nhl and at the last second i realized oh no he's gonna hit me and he hit me right in the sternum and i tried to jump up out of the way at the last second because i realized he was gonna hit me and he hit me right in the sternum and i tried to jump up out of the way at the last second because i realized he was going to hit me and i couldn't pivot around him and he's on the internet stuff no as a media member no and he got me and he like he he got me

i went i went about as far your old buddy steve mcintyre hit chris letang in Letang in Pittsburgh like this once, okay, in the 2008-2009 season. Goddard busted his orbital bone earlier in the game, and McIntyre didn't realize he was hurt, went back on the ice, and he sent Letang, I kid you not, 10 to 12 feet in the air on a hit after Letang, and I was the same thing, and I got up, and I knew George wasn't going to fight me, so I skated over, and I stuck him as hard as I could as my, you know, my helmets busted. I only got one glove on. I'm bleeding from the nose from the three point landing I did. And I got up and I grabbed my stick and I just drilled him as hard as I can. He's trying not to laugh. Right. It was. But, you know, just showed I know how Jeff Cowan felt because Jeff Cowan got hit once by George and lived to tell about it

because when George, if he ever got mad, he could hurt you, as you know. As for Steve McIntyre, as I recall, Ryan, you know, you guys had an interesting relationship. He was a guy that I think he did. He not chase you around once in the minor. Oh, yeah. In Oklahoma City at 11 a.m. for a fucking. once in the minors oh yeah in uh oklahoma city at 11 a.m for a fucking that was your first game when you got sent down right the afternoon special

oh no it wasn't my first game we went back there we had the game with the spongebob you know like all the middle school and elementary schools go at 11 a.m 14 i was just yeah i i think i made fun of him singing one night at karaoke. I forget where we were. That burger place. And honestly, I didn't think anything of it. But then somebody told me, this guy wants to murder you. So I'm actually still like, hopefully I don't see him someday.

I don't know if he'll punch Jason. I'm going to give him a big hug, though, at this point. Oh, no. George LaRock used to have karaoke contests at his house as well so i i believe it or not i won one of them it was i could see you singing a little rocket man it was it was elton actually i just felt you were an elton john guy stuff you gotta tell us what's on uh the uh uh lady diana version and it was one of those ones where everybody's making fun of the media jackass, right? Like, Hey, you know, there's like 45 people there.

And like, we got three words in and everybody stopped chirping. I just, it was one of those rare occasions. The song worked for me. You know, it was an emotional thing because I was a big fan of the crown. I'm kidding. But no, I pulled it off and George was like in shock. And the irony is george is quite possibly the worst singer you've ever heard like he did a version of vanilla ice ice ice baby and it might it might be the most wretched thing you've ever heard in your life so there's no good version of

that song you uh you seem to have a soft spot for the tough guys you guys got uh probably nurse and cassian who can handle their own. You mentioned mixing a little bit more meat and potatoes on the bottom six. Who would you like from around the league? I mean, you mentioned Evander Kane, but that looks like it's not going to happen. Well, I mean, Evander – I mean, the thing is Evander can do it when he wants to do it. The problem with Nurse is he's too good.

Like he's too good of a player to have to like i love larry robinson as a kid partially because he beat the crap out of dave schultz and i couldn't stand the flyers so i mean a memorable fight on a when cbs used to have sunday afternoon games 73 74 season love larry and darnell nurse is becoming that that important and that type of player you can't have a guy like that. Do it. And in terms of Cassian, you know, he's, he's got to fight on his terms. Really? He should be a 13 minute a game guy. We, I think the Oilers need a guy that's a sick,

especially given that they've got Connor and Leon, they can play out. They can rotate 11 forwards and have a 12 forward play four to six minutes a game just to keep opposition like calgary's got a tough team calgary's got a real tough team like they got good branson uh they got zadorov who's willing he's huge and then richie can do it and then i got a luch like that's not to mention kachuk who has been fighting for the last couple of seasons so i'd like you know who i'd like to get as Ross Johnson out of the Islanders. I mean, he gave Leon a pretty sizable face wash in the game.

And I'm thinking Edmonton's got nobody to answer that. Cassian was in COVID protocol at that time. They need, they need a guy that can do a bit of that. And there are fewer and fewer guys like that out of major junior Paul, as you know, like now you might have two guys in every team that'll fight yeah i was thinking i was thinking about asking you today and i love that delorier in uh in anaheim and he's a ufa and he's a ufa and i just like i agree with you they need something else something that to take the focus away from the casting and the nurse but

yet when those guys need to it's like they can come in after, but it's not their main focus. I think it's so valuable, and then you see with Revo, some people on social media were laughing about the Revo move this summer. It has made that lineup so much bigger and that team so much better, in my opinion, and that was one thing that they addressed,

and I think they're laughing right now. Well, they put Tenorti on waivers, and if it was me, I don't know if I would have claimed him because he's got a second year, right, at 900K. But if I'm the Illiterates, I'm finding a way to make a deal. Unfortunately for Jared, he's not quite as tough as his dad. Back to Bob Probert. His dad, when he came up with the Rangers in the 86-87 season,

he ate like four of Proby's best shots. His dad was big-time tough. When I played against him as a kid, nobody would even dump the Rangers in 86, 87 season. He ate like four of Proby's best shots. His dad was big time tough. When I played against him as a kid, nobody would even dump the puck in his corner. He was huge at 12. Like I was 5'10 at 12. His dad was like 6'3 at 12. And no one went near him.

They should sign you. That's what Witt was telling me. You're a tough guy, Stoff, huh? They should throw you in there. I'll tell you, Stoff, if somebody face-washed Connor, Stoff would spear him right in the mouth. Different era, different generation. I wasn't that tough.

I don't even think I tied one. Well, Stoff, thank you so much. It's really good catching up with you. All informed. Follow him on Twitter. Check him out on Edmonton. Bob Stoff, we appreciate you coming on. And go Oilers. I'm on Twitter. Check him out in Edmonton. Bob Stauffer, we appreciate you coming on. And go Oilers.

I'm on the train here. I need a run this year. We're going to have to think about maybe me jumping to another fandom. They better give you a raise for the double wrister you just gave them on our show here. Oh, you're polishing a turd right now. That might be one perspective. And some would say I've become very good at that over the years.

But I'll leave you with this. When you guys are stuck and can't get somebody better out of Edmonton, feel free to call me. Big thanks to Bob Stauffer for joining us to chat about the Oilers kind of last minute and what's going on up there. So huge appreciation for his insight on the Oilers. We want to let you know that the interview is also brought to you by our friends over at Cross Country Mortgage. Buying a home can feel like a brawl.

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Biznasty, my father, did he get to you? He called me that night. He's like, did my ranks about calling Biz John Holmes get to him? And he shaved the mustache off, which is pretty funny. No, I kept licking it on national television. My tongue was outside my mouth the whole episode before. My girl's like, what are you doing? I said, flavor saver.

Oh, yeah. I'm like, yeah, you're reminding myself of you, baby. Actually, I probably shouldn't say that um i like it i said you you followed up i like it after i will work out um because i loved how you tripped gretzky about the high sticking penalty versus fucking toronto back in 93 i don't know how it's caught that okay so i don't i don't think people took me seriously when i say that he still follows the league and he's just dialed as in as anyone have I told you guys that he travels around with this special box that has all the feeds on it he can get the Canadian feeds he's got this like little briefcase he walks around with like only

legends get it like a football but for hockey yeah it's what's the briefcase that doesn't the president have one you get the nuclear football oh that's what they call it the nuclear football holy shit that one right i love you buddy from fucking canada we got the nuclear poutine that's about all you don't have nuclear weapons up there you canadians yeah we got the poutine i was actually before we were going to hop into tnt ask what about uh his skiing trip because we never got to talk about it at the beginning of the show. Oh, it's great. There's not much to say.

I shredded. I went off a couple jumps, had one fall. I have a video of me going off this jump, dude. I thought I was flying. And then I saw the video. It was pathetic. But the only funny thing that, like, well, it was a great time. The funny thing that sticks out to was a great time the funny thing that

that sticks out to me is rider did ski school in the first day so i brought him up to the bunny hill after and i had him hold my poles as we went down he was like doing the pizza stop and i was like oh great so we went up again i was like go ahead bud and i was kind of like skiing backwards as he's going and he just put his skis straight like next each other, French fry, and just went. And I was like, oh, shit. So I skied up and chased him down. At the end, I just tried throwing my pole in front of him to slow him down, and he went full tilt, no pizza, and buried some old guy

trying to learn how to snowboard. So rider went flying, both skis went off. The snowboarding guy went down. He had a foot out of his boot. I was like, oh, my God. But he didn't cry. He hopped right up, and he had a blast. So I'm going to ski once a year.

I like going up once a year. It was great. We're supposed to ski three days. Friday was too cold. Dude, it's fine when it's cold because Thursday was cold. Skiing's fine. It's up on the lift, dude. You're freezing.

Your ball's off shaking there. Me and my brother-in-law were trying to smoke newports just to keep warm on the lift i couldn't even light it it was windy it was crazy crazy experience but we had a blast friday we went to the indoor pool instead oh did you you switched it up oh what's the movie where when like the guy's taking care of the kid in the stroller and all of a sudden it's like in san fran this thing just goes flying down clips and shit and and that's like three men and a baby yeah it's like you and rider you just like you're in control like whenever she he's with breeze fine with you it's just like absolute chaos forgetting them on the on the top of your car in the car seat

all my car dude jesus right i'm i'm fucking horny to hit the slopes again. I haven't skied the Alpine slopes. Every weekend. Yeah. But as far as TNT, we've been blessed with these unbelievable games. So, buddy, I have a soft spot for the fourth liners, and we all know how much Revo means to the podcast. And for him to not have a goal yet in the season,

and then while the rest of the team is sleeping other than that fourth line he fucking puts the team on his back he gets his first two goals he was on hat trick watch for for at least half the game there and buddy he got a couple chances the crowd was going nuts and he ends up getting first star so a very very cool moment and i was shocked to hear that he actually had a two-goal game in st louis too so revo is not shy to end up finding the back of the net they were nice goals too they weren't like garbage goals by any stretch the second one he scored it was all him he got on the in on the four check creates the turnover he ends up bringing it to the net goes net front

uh out muscle sandin not only physically but then on the stick battle um after the initial chance so yeah the second one was fucking top titty baby on a vesna candidate so keep the change um crider i mean fuck the guy went from not even be able to stay on side to having 25 tucks through the first half beast he's a beast and i thought he was i thought he was up for contract he signed a seven year eight year extension a couple years ago for fuck's sake oh boys this guy have some good timing he's on pace for 50 gonna cash in on that ufa market uh no he signed a seven year extension about 12 months ago but how are you supposed to stay up up to date with every player's contract right biz

it's impossible i'm saying that's what i'm I need a guy. Too many guys in the city. I need a Billy. You need an assistant. You actually should have an assistant. Maybe I should put a job opportunity up there. Grinnelli, who do you think would be a good assistant? Oh, my God. Outside of Jeff Jacobson. Somebody that can take a

fucking beating. I would say memes might be a good assistant for you. Just for you anytime you want. Just ripping the bong. And what times I fight? Oh, you fly today? Oh, I thought I thought it was next week. Hold on, man. I'm going to the third period.

I'll call you right back. Stevie, give me 15 minutes. Business on my ass again. The interview after the game was great stuff, too. I mean, Re revo great personality talking about being moving into the cheer when he's done and i could totally see him doing what you do afterwards because he's hilarious and a great personality do you see the video him skating around asking his teammates questions he was like stopping going trying to catch guys quick feet he

was buzzing oh we were joking out around because like, I think it was a topic of conversation for two days. I played 11 minutes one night against the Oilers. And I had to, like, after the game, I felt that I did a marathon game of 24 hours. I had no lungs, no legs. And all the guys were telling him to stay out there with the goalie pulled. And Revo was like, buddy, if I stay out here for one more fucking minute, I'm going to have a jammer. So he was on the broadcast, acted like a mummy making jokes. So he came out with a velour track suit down to his belly button. He looked like the, he looked like the rock all

tatted up there. And so we had a, we had a blast on that. What was the one other thing I was going to mention? Well, I don't know if it was Revo related, but someone tweeted out, um, he threw some pucks to a couple of young fans, a couple of young girls there at the game. Well, I don't know if it was Revo related, but someone tweeted out he threw some pucks to a couple of young fans, a couple of young girls there at the game. I think it was the parent tweeted out. I know it happens all the time, but it's always nice to see guys making these kids' days, because when you're a little kid, there's nothing better than getting a puck from

an NHL guy. Never. Maybe you want to talk about the nightcap, Colorado-Anaheim. It was a pretty tight affair. Anaheim's been playing great this year. Colorado ended up winning 2-0, but we got a great scrap between McDermott and DeLaurier. That thing was epic by today's standards. Longest of the year, I would say, right?

I believe so. Yeah, it was good stuff. Also, too, there's another. It was one of those little clips. I'm not sure if you caught it. I put it in the outline. Sam Girardi, it looked like he was about to crash in the boards at a really tough angle, and Getze reached over

and kind of grabbed him by the collar, just so sort of soften the blow and change his angle so he wouldn't potentially hurt himself which i don't know we love gets you in the show but it's just a really nice gesture from you know a guy could fucking 40 years ago you wouldn't see it but he saved them from a potential injury it was just a nice gesture a guy a guy good guy gets after taking the minus two i'm might have shoved his head even farther into the wall. I wouldn't have got a shift the rest of the night. So good guy gets showing up even after eating the minus.

So add another feather to that guy's cap or cap to his feather, however you want to say it. I wish the Ducks weren't there. Actually, across the street right now, Monday night we're recording. I wish it was late. I would have liked to have gone over and seen Sam and Trevor Zegers play because the Ducks have been outstanding this year. Okay, so unreal dust up. I would

agree. One of the best of the year. The fact that they were calling off the refs too. Let these guys go. We've made two Stevie Y references. We got an interview with him on TNT coming up this Wednesday. Oh, Jesus. Put the serious face on for that one,

because he won't even answer your question. What should I ask him? Be like Stevie. Sativa or Indica. You won't say it. I was being dead serious and asking you guys, what should I ask him? I think that maybe the fan base should decide.

Ask him, ask him. Hey, Steve, I got the chance quickly before the IHF like cowards canceled the world junior to see Simone or Simon Edmondson. If you had to trade cider or Edmondson right now, who would you trade? He would never trade either, but fuck, you got to put him on the spot, make him pick a guy. He'll do his he'll do his finagle out of it like a professional. But, Biz, you got to be asking the

hard questions on this TNT. None of the friendly, friendly, I love you, grads get the best, blah, blah, blah. Just start grilling guys. No tummy sticks. Why you pissy tonight? You're a journalist. You want me to ask Stevie why why he's always so pissy in press conference.

You say Stevie, why I heard there's no laughing aloud in the office. Is that true? Oh no. I heard. Yeah. I heard. Oh my goodness.

I actually think it might be, it might be a tough one for you to think of a question. Like he's just intimidating. He's a serious cat. His team's like, you know, they're in the right, they're in the right they're in the right

place i was actually coming into this one i was going to ask based on an interview he did before the season he didn't necessarily have um expectations put on wins and losses more competitiveness i was going to ask if he's felt this lineup has exceeded his expectations as far as the the wins are concerned and their competitiveness. So that that was. Yeah. Is that too much of a softball? That's kind of just like I think like any reporter in the world would ask that. I would say what if I'm like, what do you think? No, Mr. Eisenman, how would you describe the job Joe Biden's done since he came into office? What? Why are you anti-vaccine oh yeah yeah yes

yeah that'd be a good one stevie um talk to me about um bertuzzi's choice to not get the vaccine uh are you pro vaccine imagine fucking gretzky when you if you said that you guys are brutal. I'll say, man, like, I think I mentioned it on an interview we got coming up in the future. But Stevie Y, the first time I saw him in the press box at the Garden, legit, you get like starstruck. You stop and you kind of head. Holy fuck, that's Stevie Eisenman. Like, you know, it doesn't happen too often, but he's definitely one of those guys that happens with. Grinnelli, how about you chime in here on what maybe you would like to ask DVY

from a younger generation's perspective? Maybe who his favorite followers on TikTok? I would have said blunts or joints, I think would have been my first question. No, no, no. You could ask him about, before my draft, the cup finals was- Should I ask him if he knew that dolphins had clits?

Dolphins fuck for pleasure. Did you know that? Hey, do you know my co-host ate out an octopus? Hey. No, that was an appetizer. You got it wrong. What? Before the draft.

Can we just do this for two more hours, please? They invited some of the top possible picks to the cup finals. They still do it, I believe. And you get to talk to John Cherry and Ron McClain at the time. So it's Carolina. It was Iserman, Detroit playing Carolina. And we got to go in the locker rooms after pregame skate. And Iserman at that time, he couldn't even barely walk, dude.

He was the most fucked up knee like going like you could bring that up i don't know it's it's kind of random but that playoff they won the cup he couldn't even he could barely walk ah yeah yeah that's one thing they hard to get into that that would definitely be a curveball and something i'm interested in playing through pain you see playing through pain nowadays compared to what you did now granted that was the cup finals but um but uh for all you red wings fans out there you got a day because you're gonna hear this on tuesday send me a a tweet if you want me to ask an in-depth question to stevie why and maybe i'll read yours on air and uh as far as all you other red wings fans lay off my boy's egress because people are saying he's in the mix for rookie of the year

and everybody's like, oh, Sider. And who's the other one? Raymond. I think that Zegers has held his weight. I know I got the tramp stamp tattooed on my back. Like, talk it always chirps me, folks. I'm always pumping his tires. But I'd say it's a pretty even race here.

No? Whit? Yes. Yes, I completely agree. I think those three right now, it's all good argument for all of them. Zegers seems to continue to be producing points. Those guys might have slowed down a little bit. Yeah.

So, I mean, dude, Dawson Mercer in New Jersey is not getting any love. He is a stud. He's another just rookie just kind of popped into my head. Oh, how about the kid from Florida? We were talking about Lundell. He's not even a rookie, is he? I think he's considered a rookie, at least the person tweeting at me. You know, we get all these fans

saying like, how can we talk about this play in this game on that night? It's just like, well, then we'd fucking be doing. Yeah, they want us to do our pods. I thought he was here last year. Jesus. What a fucking stud. He has 12th overall in 2020.

24 points in 38 games, and nobody's even talking about him. And don't worry, Nashville fans. We've talked about Janot the last two or three pods as well. He's definitely in the running. I can't think of any other names off the top of my head who are in that consideration cider as far as point production uh jesus fumble fucking my words here point production has dropped off but as far as minutes played and maybe as a tough hockey on their plate you i don't think the points matter as much for cider as they maybe do for raymond

and zegras because he's still lugging 20 a night, still having to play in all situations. So he's, he's, he's definitely easily still in the running. And then anyone else there guys? Off the top of my head, but I was going to say biz. Now you kind of, we jumped ahead to Spicoli slash Zegers. It's pretty cool what the all-star game is going to do they're going to bring him in for all-star game weekend even though he's not on an all-star team they're going to let him participate in the skills competition I think it's a very

simple idea but a really good one this is a way to you know this kid I we've talked about him not ad nauseum but quite a bit on the show and he's a huge personality I think it's a brilliant idea to bring him out there showcase him more showcase his skills to have him out there in that same vein, the All-Star game. They did name the last man in. They had the voting. The winners were Anaheim's Troy Terry, who we just did an interview with the other day. Actually, right after he was informed about that, we interviewed him. We got that coming up later. Colorado's Nazem Kadri, well-deserving. Steve Stamkos from Tampa Bay and the Rangers' Mika Zibinejad, he was voted in, but he pulled out for personal reasons.

So Jake Gensel's going to go in and replace him. So Biz, we were talking, too, like, you know, all-star game. I know it's kind of, you know, people maybe enjoy the skills even more, but should they mix the format up again, maybe go with nationalities, ages, maybe have guys play different positions? R.A., I'm on the side where I think every year they should be trying to do something very different in order to at least create the debate about it whether it's switching up i think they should go back to five on five for for a year and then maybe do the draft as well where the players are there

like remember the moment where where kessel was the last man standing and he won a Honda like that was probably the most exciting part of the all-star game yeah pussied away from it because they felt bad for him it's like come on man that was that was a great moment I was like I mean I'm pretty sure that every every guy up there was never the guy in gym class to be picked last so they can go through it once especially at the fact that they're making seven sheets a year I'm sure they can get over it and the fact that they're getting a consolation prize of being the butt of the joke and getting a vehicle i'm sure i'm sure these guys are trying to place bets to hopefully that they would be picked last so yeah i i think that mixing it up is great i think that having zegras there is going to garner more attention they also got that always hockey like we talked about so let's see trick shots let's get younger kids more excited because

you we all know the older guys like us are just going to bitch about it anyway right so let's get the young people to biz swaggy peas participate and he's playing in the chicklets cup as well he works with elevate 802 which is scotty gomez and tory mitchell's company that guy he's got the mustache he does the craziest trick shots on the internet okay so he's doing uh more rollerblading and ice stuff yep okay awesome awesome another note related to that the league is going to finally stop testing asymptomatic players and staff after the all-star break per espn uh the league and the union reached an agreement they're going to meet again later in the month to assess the climate and

formalize everything. The NHL is still going to test players and staffers before they have to cross the border between the U S and Canada players who show symptoms will have to be required to test also per Elliott Friedman, the Ontario government. They're going to allow auto and Toronto to have 50 capacity on February 21st and then full capacity on March 14th so another little note for you and oh Brad Marchand I mean this guy he just each week makes his makes this show no matter what this time via social media he had a little beef with Carolina and Vinny Trocek. I guess someone in the media asked if he was like Marchand,

and Trocek replied with, am I a rat? So, of course, Marchand went on Instagram. He said, that's like comparing a Lambo to a Prius. And he posted his stats. I don't know if he deleted them or not or if they were just an IG story. I went back to try to find them. They were gone after. But then during the game, the Carolina feed was trolling him

because Trocek ended up burying Marchand. It's like, when's the last time you saw a Prius wreck a Lambo? Before then, after the game, they said, it all stands for Lamborghini. Marchand, fight his back. He goes, your other reason was still paying 20% escrow to the Carolina account. Like, this is fucking hilarious, man.

It's just extra entertainment in addition to the hockey. I don't think we can get enough of this biz. i think he's putting the fucking league on his back i mean i was i was kind of thinking about the whole uh situation with him and going back and forth with trochek did you end up mentioning the fact that he took the fan's phone oh that was unreal hadn't gotten to that yet oh okay well this is later in the week but this guy has been a content factory for the national hockey league now i will say, we've had Trocek on the show, and Marshall might have deleted that tweet because looking at his stats, I would not say that's a Prius.

I would say that's a really nice Mercedes G-Wagon. Right, Whit? I mean, he's not far behind, and he's done a lot, especially coming back from that broken leg that he got in Florida. And then he had the last laugh what a thumping that the bees took after that you you think that was bulletin board material before the game you think uh you think rod the bod even catches wind of that stuff i would say he catches wind i don't know if they bring it up but trochek ran him over and

marshawn's incredible though dude dude, he is just cause he, cause he's, first of all, he's a superstar that's willing to get involved in stuff like this. And then on top of that, he's funny. He's a witty bastard. And he's thinking of stuff off like quick. I mean, by the way, I love how Alan Walsh still tried to, do you see how Walsh got involved to the comment about the escrow? He's like, no, you pay the escrow. Cause a bunch of scumbags on the PA went behind the back of Bob.

But no, I was dying laughing that he had to get in there. But that was good. That was good for the game. I mean, in the end, I'm sure Marshawn was laughing. Not that his team lost, but pretty, pretty good job by Carolina, who's definitely shown they're willing to mix it up in the social media world. But Trochek's a hell of a player. Fucking amazing talent.

He's not Brad Marshawn, but any team would take him. And so I think that the way that he worded it was almost just a quick little comeback because I didn't hear the quote that Trochek gave. I don't know if there was audio or it was only written down. But I think he said, are you calling me a rat? Which I don't even think he meant to probably. He would never chirp Marchhawn as a player. He knows how good he is,

but the way that Brad came back, holy shit. So we were asking, we were talking to Rob Brindamore on the TNT for a questionnaire as well. And I think Anson was the one who asked him about these, the after the game celebrations and stuff.

He goes, I let the players handle that. And I recommended that the next one, Troshek should come out in a Prius for the, for the, for the, for the, the storm patrol, and then maybe give it away to a fan. That would be a, that would be next level. Or, or, or, or, or maybe not.

Hey, if Marty mush, I'll just shut the fuck up. I liked it. Okay. Thanks. If Marty mush is looking for a Halloween costume, he should just buy a Carolina Trochek jersey, grow a little bit of a beard. Dude, he's like Trochek's stunt double, Marty Mush.

No? He looks very similar. Very, dude, they very much look alike. I said that to Yandel a few months back, and he was like, oh, my God, that. Are we going to get to Yandel now that you brought him up? Well, actually, we'll get to him shortly. We got a whole Philly segment.

Just wanted to mention the Bruins-Capitals game because there were a couple of big hits that a lot of people are talking about. The Bees beat Washington 4-3 at the TD Garden. But a couple of big hits. Tom Wilson absolutely bundled Anton Bleed. You know, a lot of people, because it's Willie, crying about it, but good, clean, hard-hockeying.

I didn't see a lot of people crying about that. Yeah, I mean, well, it's Twitter. You don't have to go too far to find it but and it's willie he's kind of a magnet for that shit but yeah i i had no issue with it like maybe because people tagged me with and like oh you know i'm the bruins fan oh but it was dirty i'm like no it was fucking good hit just passed the pocket wasn't late it was a textbook clean hard hockey hit uh but then the one with that was at hathaway on mashon i wouldn't necessarily call that as clean i know um butch cast he was kind of pissed about it after he hurt his shoulder mashon he got up you know he couldn't even raise his shoulder to celebrate a

goal he did end up playing saturday um but yeah either way biz what was your take on either or both i'm sorry either hit or that um i usually don't like when guys roll off their check it seemed like he was already engaged with another defender so yeah he was pissed off when he got up he was barking at the official and um did we find out what the significance of the injury is because afterward i saw that the bees scored he could barely raise his arm looked he played the next game okay so he did all right he had an assist when they did they lose or win saturday maybe a little like ac joint stinger but yeah it looked like it was kind of half from behind too and i

thought i thought it was a dirty play but sometimes when you know you're marshawn you play a certain way you don't get those calls they didn't even call a two-minute minor on that yeah i was surprised that i didn't think it was worthy of a suspension but definitely a penalty roughing boarding pick one but yeah i mean he's not going to get many calls yeah doesn't matter how good he is when he's always in the mix of shit always chirping at refs i'm sure that's exactly what cassidy said he said i wonder if the fact that was my sean had a factor in that by the way they beat winnipeg three two sadly but the other moment you just mentioned biz my sean coming off the ice i think it was warm-ups, and all of a sudden he grabs someone's cell phone. He's just like, hey, what's up?

What's going on? It was just some random fan. He pulled his fucking cell phone out of his hand, made a video, and ended up getting back to the kid who was over the moon about it. But again, this guy, this off-the-ice stuff, personality stuff, this is what the league needs to do a lot more of because it just brings in so many more fans, so much more viral stuff. All right, I'll ask you one more time. Would you know it just brings in so many more fans so so much more viral stuff so all right i'll ask you one more time would you pay his parking ticket now no no i mean i

i mean fuck no i mean i'm just taking my spot now now that i'm his neighbor unless he's taking my spot maybe but maybe if he bumps the franchise value up another hundred million yeah give him another month i think my argument's making more and more sense by the minute that this guy does all these antics i don't know how he balances doing all that and then staying focused to play he is a wizard hell of a player uh all right let's see we had a pretty special night in seattle last monday you know it was came out of tragic circumstances but uh ryan donato he was a teammate of the late Colby Cave, played for the Bruins and Edmonton organizations,

and passed away suddenly and tragically from a brain bleed. Well, Colby's wife, Emily, had gifted Ryan a tie last time he passed through Edmonton that Colby had worn to a game. Donato wore it to the game in Seattle that night that, crazy enough, Emily was at. He goes out, he gets the game time goal scores in the shootout and it was just you know like I said one of these like hot woman stories that you know came out of a tragedy but the fact that Emily was actually at the game that he scored at wearing his tie just a real special moment that kind of brings a tear to the eye yeah Ryan Donato is an awesome

kid comes from a great family situate Massachusetts and getting to know Colby when they were both a part of the Bruins organization they became really really good friends. So it was heartbreaking for the whole hockey community, let alone people who knew him and got the chance to play with him. So the fact that he was able to stay in touch with his wife and get that tie, it was no doubt, no doubt he was scoring that night. I actually didn't know. I don't know. Did that news come out before the game or was it all post game? I'm guessing because, oh, that was a guaranteed bet for him to score. Had I known he was wearing his tie to the game yeah it all came out after the fact that you know and again i don't know how often she goes to seattle games but the

fact she happened to be there and and that happened it was just like i said just a really nice story that you know born out of something awful everybody kind of appreciated having that so oh all right you did a great job with the blog and without that, I wouldn't have ever even heard of it. So yeah. Great work there. And it's sad, man. I mean, yeah, it's tough to write those ones sometimes, man. You get, you lost your best friend at such a young age and you know, it's, and you know, yeah, it's like all these other friends she's made because of it. And she kind of,

you know, his, his, his legacy gets to live on because of it. It's cool. It's a cool moment. Well said buddy. Well said, buddy. Well said. All right. We're going to move on to the Philadelphia Flyers. Our buddy Hazy, he's been a poor bastard. This is another surgery for him.

He's going to be out three to four weeks for a procedure just to drain fluid from the adductor region of his hip. It's his third time he's been in surgery since the end of last season. Obviously, we're hoping he gets well. Let's see. He knew he was getting surgery. Ended up playing versus the Islanders that night. 16, almost 17 minutes he played.

That's a warrior. That's the warrior he is. The Flyers, though, 0 for 16 on shootouts this season after they went 0 for 9 in a loss to the Islanders. 0 for 2 on penalty shots this year. It's been tough sledding for that squad. Their four centers, Couturier, Hayes, Broussard, and Thompson are all out of the lineup right now.

They've had a 10-game losing streak and an 11-game losing streak this year. It's tough sledding, but it's not all bad news in Philadelphia because this week the song master himself, Keith Yandel, he's on track to break Doug Jarvis' Ironman record Tuesday on Long Island by playing in his 965th straight regular season game, going all the way back to March of 2009. What, Doug, what do you got on tap this week for plans? Well, you know, I really, it's just one more game

where he has to play tonight to tie Doug Jarvis' record. This is Monday night, excuse me. And then tomorrow night, he would break it in Long Island. We have a big crew of guys planning to go down so he's got to get through the game this evening and and one two three knock on wood but um you know what a career it's been I think I'd like to talk about this a lot more when he's able to get it done but I will say that I saw a stat on NHL network today that just shows the career he's had and kind of what he's been through to continue to play this long. And the streak began March 26, 2009, and NHL stats rank among defensemen since that day. He's first in games, obviously hasn't missed one. In goals, he's 18th with 93. Assists,

he's second, 479. Points, he's third, 572 and power play points. He's first with 269 power play points. So that's a 13 year span of him, not missing a game showing up to work every single night. I think there was a instance when they had a game in Florida. He had about nine teeth knocked out and 30 stitches. And he played the next day at five o'clock after spending all night in the dentist chair,

Ekblad hit him with a slap shot in the calf in Boston. A few years ago could barely move. The trainers worked on him till three in the morning that night, got his calf and leg able to go the next night he played. So there's just so many different things I could say about him that I'd like to maybe talk to him and you guys about at a different time when, when this thing is broken, like I said, so just tonight though, for him to tie this record and Doug Jarvis had a couple amazing quotes that,

that he's really happy for this guy and, and Phil Kessel's right behind him too. So just the amount of, the amount of perseverance and professionalism it takes along with the amount of luck of not just catching a stray fucking puck that could break your foot. It's just an amazing record that I'm so proud of Keith, and I can't wait to be there when he does it. Here, here, holy shit, nice little run there. And the fact that he made me laugh every single day at the rink while doing it.

I mean, it was incredible, man. And right now you can kind of of segue into Flyers talk. You know, the team's not doing so good. And, you know, unfortunately, through your pros and pro career, there's going to be some ups and downs. But when you have guys in the locker room like Keith, sometimes the bad days and the gloom days don't seem so bad because you're able to at least, you know, share some laughs

and be galvanized as a group. And, you know, sometimes humor can take galvanized as a group and and you know sometimes sometimes humor can take away from from these long long losing streaks and I know that that team had way higher expectations going into this season and and it's been very unfortunate all right you were reading off that stat I don't know if my internet kicked out you said they've lost 16 games in a shootout this season no they haven't scored a goal in a shootout. 0 for 16 on shootout attempts, including the 0 for 9 versus the Islanders and 0 for 2 on penalty shots. Oh, okay.

I was like, pardon? They've been to 16 shootouts? So Giroux's coming to the end of his deal this year. You got to think that he'll be traded. I don't know what they could fetch for him, considering he's UFA at the end of the season. But whoever gets him, that's a big-time player to add to a lineup that could possibly win a Stanley Cup. I think he's just under a point per game this year.

He's kind of had a revival this season in his career. And there's going to be a bunch of teams lining up to grab him at the deadline. Yeah, just going back to Philly overall, think just given what they give up given up as far as assets this summer and maybe that core group that they had they thought that they would be able to make a push with i had them making playoffs i thought for sure but they've also to a to a pretty tough difficult extent uh dealing with the injury bro yeah like no ellis was a killer no hazy we're thinking of you hazy fuck just so tough to be getting news like this oh the surgery didn't work that didn't work gotta do it again it's just

and i'm telling you it's harder on the mind than it is in the body and that's saying something so we're thinking of him and like yeah ellis is out it's just been couturier's out it's just it's been a disaster of a season in philly yeah Yeah, and Drew, he's in the last year of an eight-year, $66.2 million deal. He does have a no-move clause, so if he doesn't want to get traded, he doesn't have to. But he can leave and also always sign back. We saw Kachuk do with St. Louis a few years back.

He's 34-wit. He's got 14 goals, 19 assists, and 38 games played. Like you said, he'd be a huge addition to any team right now. Also, they got three defensemen in the last year of their deal. Ristolainen at 5.4 mil, Justin Braun at 1.8, and of course, Keith on the $900,000 deal. JVR's got one more year after this at 7 million. He's got 16 points in 41 games. But yeah, you've got to imagine Philly's probably going to get rid of some of these pots at some point. Where do you think Giroux goes if he goes somewhere wet?

Giroux to Edmonton, printed. Oh, I don't know. Colorado's in on everything. I don't know. That's not my – I'm not that guy. Austin would be nice. You're not that guy, pal. Austin, that's what G says to every single guy.

No, I don't. They need help. They need center help. Giroux would be perfect. Throw Yans in the mix, too. You get a little locker room guy, a little help on the back end. I love center help. They drew. Drew would be perfect. Throw Yans in the mix too. You get a little locker room guy, a little help on the backend.

Yeah. I love it. We're laughing. You give up the brusque. You move some money out with the brusque. Yeah, that's true. That's true.

One last note here. Biz on the fly is actually, you know, they fired a lane of in yo back a few months back and really hasn't had the desired effect. Taking a look here. What is Mike? Yo, 5, 10, and 4 under Yeo. And so, you know, I don't think the coaching change really did anything. It seems to be a personnel issue there, a roster construction issue. Obviously, they have injuries as well.

But, you know, coaching change didn't have the desired effect. So either way, congrats to KY and Hazy. Get better. I think we should send it over to Ryan Carter right now. This was again, a first for the chicklets boys, uh, on a frozen Lake. Uh, we did an interview. Biz had his pole in the water the whole time. That's not a euphemism either. He was actually ice fishing. Um, so we're going to send it to Ryan Carter, but first we do want to let you know that, that the interview is brought to you by Roman.

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monthly plan. That's get roman.com slash chicklets. And now we're going to send it over to Minnesota boy, Ryan Carter. What's up, everybody? We're coming to you from a first-ever interview from the inside of what? Is that a hut? No, it's the Clam 600, R.A. The Clam 600. It is what it is. It's Ice Fishing Hut.

We're on an unnamed lake here in Minnesota, and this guy's a local guy. He was an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota, Mankato, including playoffs. He played over 500 NHL games for five teams, and he won a Stanley Cup with the 07 Ducks. These days, you can catch him breaking down the games. What network are you on? Channel.

Valley Sports North. Valley Sports North. Thanks so much for joining us on the Spittin' Chicklets podcast. Ryan Cotta. Hey, thanks for having me, and thanks for weathering the storm here. Oh, great. This is the North. This is the North. This is the North, and thanks for weathering the storm here. Ah, this is great. This is the north. This is the north.

This is the north, and this is luxury. This is the north and luxury. Yeah, he told us right away, he's like, this is like bougie ice fishing. You have a heater next to you, and you wore designer boots to the pond. He wore his Louis Vuitton scarf here, folks. But it's great catching up, former teammate of mine in Anaheim. And nowadays, besides doing the Minnesota broadcast

and all that, you also, I see a podcast. It's a Wild podcast you're into, right? It is a Wild podcast, yeah. Stan Lee on 7th. Minnesota Wild, and not necessarily the Wild, but Minnesota people in general, they're like afraid to get invested in the sports. I know you're a Boston guy. We just win. And they just win.

But it's like the mentality here is like everybody just waits for the team to just catastrophically oh they don't threaten their lives online until they win right and then it's like they just like success but they're just waiting for an epic failure and then when that happens like oh see i knew it i knew it i knew it that's why i don't care yeah i never liked this team anyways so i'm trying to change that tune a little bit but the wild and billy gann they've done a good job with that in themselves that's great and i actually asked the guy uh Billy Gann, they've done a good job with that in themselves. That's great. And I actually asked the guy at the restaurant the other day about,

what's up with the Vikings? He goes, no, I won't talk about them. I don't even think about them. We don't talk about them. So I know about the heartbreak in Minnesota is real. How'd you get in the media? Like, was it something you knew you wanted to do? Like, we had Joel Vitale on.

He was a former player, and it kind of ended up falling in his lap what was your story how you got involved same um i don't think i had the skill set to be in hockey ops or anything else but i mean when you're 30 something years old right and it's like real world kind of hits you right in the face and you're like people i remember people being like like what do you like to do what are your skills it's like i can and put a puck in the corner and not bad to get in the back. You mean score? No, no, I'll chip it in the corner. I get my arm stuck in a camera hole. Nobody can go back to the bench after the first line comes on the ice faster. No, for real, like what are your skills?

What are you good at? I was like, well, what do you want to do? It's like I'd like to be 10 years younger and play again, right? But somebody asked if I want to try the TV stuff. I originally said no out of fear. Really? Yeah. And it was, I said, I to try the TV stuff. I originally said no out of fear. Really? Yeah. And it was, I said, I'll try a little bit.

I'll dip the toe, but I don't want to go all in. And it started the pre and post at the desk and stuff, and then a little opportunity to do in the booth the game stuff. And I've really had a lot of fun. It has been good. And it's nerve-wracking at first. It is. But it's been good. Yeah, so before every broadcast, or even before you record a podcast or jump on the radio,

do you tend to get a little bit nervous, regardless of what you're doing? Yeah, there's no question. I always have a moment, too, where, like, my neck goes right before we go on camera. Do they catch it and, like, clip it and send it to you? Like, the producers, like, no, they don't know, but now they're going to know. Quick meltdown. Yeah, it is. It's quick.

Like, I can feel it's like... You're like, okay. If you guys knew the pain i was going through inside right now you wouldn't even let me do this don't talk to me don't talk to me you went you went back to school like 12 years later to get your degree right i did yeah again that was out of panic i didn't know what to do i want to do something positive uh and my i had kids at the time and it's hard to like to i feel like to tell your kids go to school if you didn't't go. And then Dad had the chance, right? But it was good to. You're speaking to my soul right now.

I think I've got to go back to school. To have something positive to do, you know, and some responsibility when I got done playing. So I went back to school. I was lucky I could do it kind of remotely without having to go down and take classes in person and got some help wrapping that up. But that was, yeah, that was huge for me. Were you on, like, scholarship?

Did they honor it all those years later, or did you have to, I guess, pay? I'm not being nosy, but that was uh yeah that was huge for me were you on sorry we want like scholarship did they honor it all those years later or did you have to i guess pay i'm not being nosy but i was just curious i know some schools let you know thanks for pointing out i wasn't a big time player i wasn't big 10 or one of these big college programs no they i was on scholarship but they didn't okay and it wasn't part of the process i wouldn't have wanted that anyways that would be taking money from the hockey program i think it's's the opposite now where you'd like to provide for the program with so many kids coming through. Yeah, you said you weren't like a well-known name, I'm saying, like undrafted.

And even getting to Mankato, what was the whole route? I mean, if you were always kind of a guy that everyone looked past, I mean, you had to really grind even to play D1, I'm guessing. I think I was probably bottom tier of good players, like never like anywhere near like playing for the national team of the world junior or anything like that but always decent enough you know I went to play junior in Green Bay. After high school sorry? After high school so older too yeah older so I was probably 17-18 my first year in junior

and then played two years there, so 1920 going into college, so a little older, but yeah, that's kind of how it went, and just decent enough to be, and mature enough to figure it out on the fly, you know, so lucky in that regard. Well, I mean, good skater, and then at some point, you're like, I just got to bang bodies every night in order to survive. Right, well, so I think I got really lucky with my path, too. So I went to Green Bay, and I had Marco Siki, and it was great. I still remember he showed us his highlight package one day. He wanted to teach us how to play, and he showed us, and it was all cross-checks behind the net.

Just playing against him. He's like, this is how you have to play. Oh, yeah? Yeah, so he wanted us to play tough, and we played hard, and that's where I learned that sometimes you have to fight. Like a Minnesota kid, you know, some guys, they're not into it or they're labeled as maybe not the toughest, so I had to figure out how to fight, how to play mean kind of,

and that was going to have to be the way it was. It was fun scoring goals back in the day. You could play on the power play. I know. The Green Bay Gambler days? Yeah, exactly. That's when you're lighting up. So you're from Minnesota.

You go to Green Bay. Were you going to Packers games all the time? Was that a little bit awkward? Are you a Vikings hardcore? So I do like the Vikings, but this is going to get me in trouble. I'm probably more of a Packers fan now. I work for the Packers. What?

Yeah. So when you play junior at USHL, you've got to get a job. So you've got to get a job. And I was lazy. I was like, so you're telling me I can count this as a job and work one day a week for three hours at the Packers game and that's my job? I can do nothing

the rest of the time? Perfect. Basically getting free season tickets. And it was just bench seating so I was like an usher so I'd just be like, that's your bench.

Hey, post it out right there. Just go to the letter who cares about the number. Squeeze a cheek. You're grabbing his popcorn as he goes by. They were just drunk. That must have been awesome.

So did you get to meet like Brett Favre when he was there? No, we were nowhere near that level. He sent him a dick pic. You were a peasant. The Packers, we were at the Rush Stadium. It was across the street from Lambeau Field. The Packers would

practice and they'd ride bikes. I'd be one of those nerds that would be there with your bike and be like, hey, take my bike. One of the linemen took your bike. It was just under stress. And you're like, dude, it's handling it all right. That's great. So when you were getting recruited by Mankato, were there other schools?

How did you choose to go there? So, yeah, Mankato, I almost didn't get an offer there. I got myself in trouble. I missed my recruiting flight because I had gone out to a party in River Falls. So I was only like 45 minutes away from where I was supposed to fly to. I thought it was a different day. They're like, who is this? That's you saying, hey, do you really want me?

I fucked up this bad. Do you still want me? I got a call. It was like 9 o'clock at night, and I was three hours away from where I was supposed to fly out of. And I had been drinking, and I had rode with a buddy so I didn't have any wheels, no way to get back. And he's like, you ready to be picked up tomorrow? I was like, no, it's not tomorrow.

You guys are funny. And he's like, no, you're getting picked up tomorrow. I was like, yeah, no, I'm just kidding. See you then. Hang up the phone, panic. And end up driving to Minneapolis airport the next morning. I didn't adjust for the layover so I was an hour and a half early. But I went there to look at the baggage claim to set my bag on the carousel.

Because I wanted to make it look like I was on the flight. Oh, yeah. Come on. You went to the... You put your own fucking bag on the carousel. Yeah, because I wanted to make it look like I was on the flight. So then I hid behind a corner. And I was looking at my watch. I, because I wanted to make it look like I was on the flight. So then I hid behind a corner, and I was looking at my watch. I was an hour and a half early, so I went and took a nap.

Came back, I did it again like an hour later. And sure enough, the coach came up. He's like, hey, Cards. Hey, whatever, let me just go grab my bag. Grab my bag off of the carousel, jump in the car, we go down. I come clean to one of the seniors and they're like oh my gosh that's the greatest um i didn't think the coach is new but i got offered the scholarship and they're like we want to know in like seven days i was like well before anybody finds out

about what i did i better say yes to this yeah before they can pull it yeah so i was like yeah i'll take it i ain't looking anywhere else so we got a deal. We go back to the airport after, and they're like, because the seniors were like, hey, you know, if you don't take the first leg of a round-trip flight, they'll cancel that second leg. Exactly. You might not have a flight home. So I was panicking. I was shitting my pants. I'm up at the till or at the desk, and they're like, we don't see a Ryan Carter on this flight. I was like, no, no.

Why is this happening? Here it goes. But eventually, yeah, so I almost had to come clean to the coach. I turned around. I was like, Kurt, you were on the flight out here, weren't you? I was like, you know what? And then she goes, oh, here you are. It's an hour later.

You're on the wrong reservation. I was like, no way. Right as you were about to tell him. Yes. So that's when you knew you had to go there. That's how I knew. Who was the coach there? That's the spot.

This is it. It was Troy Jotting. But Darren Blue was the guy. Okay. Yeah. So you spent, what, three full years in Green Bay, though, developing? Two. Two in Green Bay, two in college. And you had some pretty, I was looking at the HockeyDB,

like you ended up playing with Adam Burrish, who ended up making it up to the NHL. Nate Gannon, who spent some time. I think there was a few other names. Yeah, Matt Green. Oh, Matt Green as well. So obviously the development there at that time was probably pretty good yeah it was and like i said that was marco

siki a lot of those guys were like tough hard and all those guys like you didn't go greeny yeah yeah right yeah i i played with matt green the year before and then he had you know he's taken one more year before north north dakota right and i feel like that year actually probably he would say like made him into who the player really was. He became a mean prick. He always was. Yeah, and Oz was good with that stuff. You know, you think of Greener, too.

He probably was one of the last guys to use a wood stick with just a big co-hole, right? It was the bubble hockey stick. The blade was this long. And it was just as thick as could be. It's a board. You go up to North Dakota and you're getting cross-checked all over. So it was good for the development of those guys. We're back.

One of the technical difficulties we have filming in an igloo is sometimes the camera gets foggy, so we had to reboot this one. I was just going to ask about, like, so you obviously go off to Mankato and end up getting that scholarship, but, like, were you talking to the other guys about where they were going with the Green Bay Gamblers? Did that have any impact on maybe where you were going to head for college? Yeah, that's kind of weird, right? Like a lot of times that's the case where your teammates are your competition. There's only so many deals out there, right?

So you're playing with these guys and you're hearing who they're talking to and what it looks like maybe if they're getting offers from people. And you know that every time one of those goes off, that's a chance that you're not going to get now, right? But at the same time, you're super pumped when everybody's getting a deal. I always wanted to play. Being from Minnesota, I wanted to play in the old WCHA. It was Minnesota, North Dakota, Duluth.

Colorado College. Yeah, Denver. That's where I really wanted to be. There were schools out east that were interested too, but it was like my heart was always in the WCHA. So after two years of college, what do the Ducks come calling? I mean, you hadn't even been drafted. When did they make their initial offer to you?

Right, so my whole story is I didn't know anything about hockey. My parents had never played, no one's ever skated, nothing. I literally had a rink in the backyard from the neighbor, and that's where I learned to play. So I never had an agent, I never had anything. And David McNabb calls me, and he's like, hey, we really like you. Do you have an agent we can have a talk to? I was, no, I don't have an agent.

You put your roommate on the phone? Yeah, before we were in college, I'd never talked to any advisor about anything. I think it's probably a good thing. I had. So Dan Plant, I ran into him at a golf tournament probably like three, four years ago. He's like, hey, you idiot. You remember? Like, I called him.

I was like, hey, do you want representation? And I apparently laughed at him. I was like, I don't need an agent. I'm just trying to play college hockey. No way. I had no idea was like, hey, do you want representation? And I apparently laughed at him. I was like, I don't need an agent. I'm just trying to play college hockey. No way. I had no idea. Yeah, no idea. All I want to do is play college hockey.

But weren't you kind of seeing, like, a little, like, wow, like, I just played with that guy. He's playing pro. I'm as good as him. But at the same time, really naive. It was like I wasn't drafted. It was like, oh, that's okay. I was going to say, that's a blessing in disguise. I feel like especially nowadays.

And even when I was coming up, you get a little wrapped up in what your competition's doing, what they have, maybe like where they're getting drafted. And to be naive to that and just put all your time and energy just on hockey and playing and having a good time probably ended up benefiting you in the end. Yeah, I really think it did. I wasn't, like you said, distracted by anything. I didn't know any better.

All I wanted to do was play college hockey, be good at it, right? And I didn't know, so I get the call. They're like, do you have an agent? I was like, no. They're like, do you want us to provide you an agent? I was like, that seems like a terrible idea. We signed you for 75 grand, three years. Hey, one of the ushers.

That sounds like a terrible idea. Don King. So, yeah, so that's how it went. And then eventually I just ended up signing a deal. I didn't want to, I didn't want to sign pro. I actually wanted to turn the deal down. I did turn the deal down for like a week. So July one, after my sophomore year, I said, no, I don't, I don't want to sign. I want to play another year. And then I was playing with David Backus and Kyle Pito, some other good players, key parts of the power play, and undrafted free agent.

I didn't know if I could duplicate that year again, right? And now they lost David Backus on July 1 and Kyle Peto on, like, July 2, and a couple other guys had left, and it's like, okay, well, now all of a sudden I'm an undrafted free agent. I got a chance at playing pro hockey. They called the last day of that summer development camp. They're like, one more chance. Last chance.

You want to take it? I said, sure, I'll take it. Wow. So after those guys left that smart and being like, man, I could be kind of like half the player next year stat-wise. Right. And then this is the law to go. Right. Wow.

And opportunity. So then that's when I left. I was installing office furniture in southern Minnesota, and I had to tell the boys we were in like a big truck. Don't throw, boys! I was riding bitch in the mail because I was low man on the totem pole. I was like, hey fellas, this is super weird, but can you take me to the airport? I've got to fly to Anaheim right now.

Hey, not to rub it in. Hey, can everyone put down their Allen keys? Not to rub it in, but I've just signed a pro contract, guys. So have fun assembling furniture. And by the way, can I get a ride to the airport? Screw this furniture shit. See you, boys. Take ride to the airport? Yeah, screw this furniture shit. See you boys. Take me to the airport.

You guys are going to be watching me on TV. Good luck. So from what I hear, I didn't play college, shocker. One of the hardest conversations, though, is when you are leaving early is to call your coach and your teammates. And then all of a sudden you get a week period. How did that go down? Was he happy for you? Yeah.

The other hard part is it's the summer, so you're not around all of them too, right? But the coach was, the coach was like, are you sure this is something you want to do? You know, you come back, you're going to be a leader. You're going to have everything. Like, your role is going to grow. I'm not saying you're not ready, but if, like, just so you know, all this stuff is on the table for you if you come back. And I said, I know I thought about it, man, but it's time to go. And then they just say, good luck.

I think it's good for everybody if guys move on. And they have a guy leaving their school that's playing pro hockey, so it's a good look for them as well. That's what I mean. Everybody wins. It stinks for them and the program, but at the same time, I think it helps them recruit and the whole nine yards. So it was tough, but at the end, I think it was a good call.

So take me to camp that next year, first pro camp, for a guy who's naive to the game and everything that kind of goes along with pro hockey. You must have been like, what the fuck is going on? I shouldn't need a Meyer. I shit my pants. I shit my pants. So, again, like, I don't know anything about hockey.

We didn't have formal four checks. I walk in there, and they're like, Randy wanted, like, to control everything, right? Randy Carlisle. It was like we were running a 1-2-2, a 2-1- like, Randy wanted to control everything, right? Randy Carlisle. It was like we're running a 1-2-2, a 2-1-2, and all these other things. And I was like, I don't know what the fuck this is. So we go out there and I'm butchering every single drill because I just don't know what's going on. And you're already American, so he can't stand you.

Right, exactly. Yeah, a U.S. college guy, his favorite, that's for sure. So no, I think it was actually Shane O'Brien, too, that just popped me right early in. Because, you know, remember, training camps were, it was tough back in the day, too. There would be fights. You know, like, the two toughest guys.

A good amount of fights. You knew the two toughest guys were fighting. I fought Carcillo one training camp at, like, 8.30 in the morning. I'll never forget it. And the guys, no fights at training camp. First scrimmage game, me and Carcillo. We were, like 8.30 in the morning. I'll never forget it. And the guys, no fights at training camp. First scrimmage game, me and Carcillo. We were like good buddies off the ice, too. We ended up living together in Wilkes-Barre.

So, yeah, it's just like, but that's how it was back then, man. Everybody was competing and no tummy sticks. Right, and if you were a tough physical D-man and there was a forward coming through the middle of his head, you're going to hit him, right? I could see that, right? So, all in all, it was eye-opening right off the bat. I mean, I can remember just absolutely shitting my pants.

It was Chris Pronger, Team Mussolini, Rob Scott and Edemeyer. And it's like, Ryan Carter, who? Number 52 on the jersey. I was going to say, what number were you? Send me down! I'm so uncomfortable. How long did you last at camp? Were you an early cut?

Did you actually? I think probably like two or three games you get tossed in there. Oh, not bad. Yeah. The one good thing about, or not one good thing, but Anaheim was great with college free agents at that time. I think it was Chris Kunitz, Curtis Glencross, Dustin Penner. They'd call a guy or they'd sign one guy every year

and he got a legitimate chance. Yep. So I always say like it used to be nine rounds in the draft. You're like a cat. If you're a first rounder, you got nine lines. Screw up nine times. You'll still get a chance. You're a ninth rounder. You got one chance. Right. But Anaheim, if you're an undrafted free agent, you came in as like a second or third round pick. Cause you give a couple of chances. Right. And that was,

that was legitimate and that was fair. And it was good that way. Yeah. That's very legit. If you know you're actually going to be given a shot as opposed to like, I got one skate and they sent me down, what the hell was that? Right. So, yeah, Anaheim was good in that regard. But, yeah, no, that's certainly fair. It was a good spot to start.

I don't know how it got brought up, but it got brought up randomly about this Ambien story. Now, was that in Anaheim? Was that early on? Well, yeah. No, it was not early on. It wasn't early on. So Randy and I didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things,

and it started with, well, there's a lot that goes into it. But eventually it got to a spot where I pushed a net at Randy in a skate after a rookie party. Yeah, well, you were getting bagged skating, right? You're out of the lineup in and out, and you were kind of like the whipping boy, so to speak. If we want to rewind the whole way, like, rookie dinner, this is kind of how Randy worked. We have a rookie dinner.

We play in Dallas. We fly to Chicago. We have dinner in Chicago. But he sets practice for, like, 9 o'clock the next morning. Oh, for fuck's sakes. I know. It's like, okay. Might as well just pull an all-nighter.

Right, that's what I mean. So guys are up till four anyways or whatever it is, right? And then the next day is just to sweat it out. Well, we're sweating it out, drills, whatever, and the way he did it was like everybody's doing laps at the end, and like the super vets did like one lap, and then they were off. That was like prongs and needs. You go over and tap each guy.

Like one lap, a team would get off. And then like, you know, it's dropping. But we weren't even close to being done, you and I. No, and we should have been. It was like the rookies, like the taxi squad and carts, right? No, I was there, dude. It was me and you with a whipping boy's physique. Hey, it's a bad look when he goes and puts his stick away after everybody's been tapped but you too.

Yeah, so he gives the tap to everybody and then I get the tap. He says, Cards, take this net, push it from this end to that end and back. And I was like, you motherfucker. So I got all hot. I pushed the net from one end to the other end. And as I come back, I was so mad that I wasn't off the ice yet. And the way the rink was set up, so all the vets are watching, and they're in the locker room, and Superman

strength, I just shoved the net at Randy with a here, fuck you kind of thing. And it was just, it went like Mach 10 at him. He thought he was just flicking it, dude. It hit him, it went at him. He hits the wall, he goes down, holds the stanchion, stabs

the stick in the ice, and then he gets up, you can get off! And then I skid off the ice, I'm like, what did I just fucking do? Meanwhile, I think that ended his day, so I'm in the locker room, and everybody's just high-fiving, loved it,

it was the best ever, and then here comes Randy, like, waddling through, fucking, that was it, and then I didn't see the ice for a real long time. He said you were health bomb 15 in a row. Yeah. Dude, I remember... Just casually.

I will never forget you. I was, like, along the wall. He was here, pushing right into the corner. Yeah. And I just, as you skated by and pushed at him, I was like, oh, my God. That's the best thing I've ever seen. He's down.

He's yelling like an old grumpy bastard. Fucking car. The management was, like, upstairs watching. There was no hiding from it. That was the end of you there. I called my agent, and I was like, son of a bitch, I did this. He's like, you did what? He's like, I did that.

You assaulted the coach. Yeah, I did. So then I started to battle some anxiety on all the shit that I had done, right? And eventually we're playing chicago and um i couldn't sleep the night before full of anxiety so i wake up the next day we have morning skate and i'm like i just need a little nap and you remember you used to come off the plane and they used to hand us the little white packet and it would just be like a pill like you need help sleeping yeah and you just get a pill or something hurt you just get a pill in like a

thing there's like no description it wasn't like a pill bottle Or something hurt, you just get a pill in like a thing. There's like no description. It wasn't like a pill bottle. It was just an envelope. Yeah, just an envelope. So it was an Ambien. And I didn't know like what Ambien did. Like I just thought it helped you fall asleep. So I go back after pregame meal.

I was like, I just need a couple hours. I'll be good to go. I take an Ambien. Day of the game, Vince. I took an Ambien at 2.30 in the afternoon. My alarm goes off at 4. He was like, that's who cut me. My alarm goes off at 4 and I don't have a brain.

I walk downstairs to the Walgreens and I'm going like one eye. I grab like a five-hour energy. I'm in shock right now because you said you had an Ambien sore. You took a fucking Ambien before you're free. So I say, screw that. There's a four-pack. I take the four-pack. I go to the rink.

I can't talk to anybody. Like, literally, I can't think. We're out there playing, and I'm staying on the end of the bench in Chicago. Remember, it butts up. The visitor on this side of Chicago is over here. I'm staying on this end. I don't want Randy to call my number at all. I can't play. I think, on this end. I don't want Randy to call my number at all. I can't play.

I think, okay, at least I can hit something tonight. So I got Seabrook lined up behind the net. Oh, he's hard to hit. Fuck, he'll get you reversed every time. Especially when you took an ambient so long. He gets you every time. I go with everything I got right at Seabrook on the forecheck.

Boom! Miss him by three feet. I had nothing but glass. I couldn't see him. I go back to the bench. I sit on the end, and all the guys are looking at me like, what the fuck was that?

And I was like, I can't talk. And then I think it was Patrick Sharp was on the other bench. He leans over. He goes, hey, why is your face so red? I was like, I took an Ambien for lunch. You said that to him? He goes,

he goes, he goes, he goes to his edge, he goes, hey guys, he took a fucking Ambien for lunch! Next time he's out there,

have him in. All their heads go like this, like what? And then for the rest of the game, like they were sweet dudes, like they were taking care of me after that. They were?

That's awesome. They're like, dude, you doing all right? All right, here's what i'm gonna do you know oh my god telling you the whole shift before the puck drops that is fucking nuts so it took an ambient I didn't know it was like a full eight hour thing I don't just help me fall asleep but it was tough waking up from an ambient after two hours of sleep you're on another planet I could spend another 40 minutes asking you about this whole experience I just got I chugging five-hour energy, saying it would balance me out. It was not the case.

No, no, no. How many minutes do you think you played that game? It doesn't matter. I bet you maybe six, but it felt like 300. Hey, it would have been sick if you ended up scoring a hattie and kind of being like the old Pittsburgh. Was it Pittsburgh? Who's the baseball team?

The Pirates? The Pirates. Didn't the guy do acid and then show up and pitch a perfect game? Some guy put a perfect game on acid. That would have been cool if he would have scored a hattie. That would have been cool. It would have been a lot better and said I missed Seabrook by a mile.

That's the highlight. Seabrook's like, what the hell is this guy doing? I love playing against this guy. So you've had a lot of silly moments in your career. One of them I read was you got your arm stuck in a camera hole during a game. Yeah, that one sucked. Where was that, in Anaheim as well? In Anaheim.

So believe it or not, I think at one point I was actually a prospect. So you get a chance to play with a decent skill, guys. I never got that. So I was playing with Team Mussolini, and things were going well. I was scoring, not a lot, but starting to score, getting a chance. I was playing the wing, and the puck was coming up the wall kind of slow. Defensive zone? Yeah.

And it was in Anaheim. And the D-man had pinched, so I kind of had him a little bit. But I was waiting, waiting, waiting. He was going to eventually catch me. I picked the puck off the wall, and I go to throw it to the middle. And he's coming back hard, and he just hits me, like rubs meubs me out but my arm goes like this and then the camera hole is right here and it just keeps going through and then my body and the leverage keeps me going i roll past it my arm's stuck in the camera hole so then just it could just go snap my arm but my glove stayed on

and everything i just go right back to the bench and my glove was on i go into the room and i was like i was like you guys ready they're like are you ready i was like yes so then i just pull my glove off and my wrist and thumb are all busted and twisted no you guys got it they look all mangled yeah i was like you guys got a granola bar or something oh fuck i needed i needed that's really bad though i needed a power bar bad they needed an ambient i was like green dude yeah i was like give me a power bar Bad They needed an Ambien I was like Green dude Yeah I was like Give me a power bar I need something I didn't know you were Injured from it

That's crazy How much time Oh fuck That's terrible We all get a chance With Teemu too I know Like of course

Yeah Yeah I know But yeah So the camera holes I went back I had surgery I went back the next day Every camera hole

In the arena Was changed out Gone That's what Yeah I've noticed Sometimes they like Clog them up now But yeah

It kind of ends up being Especially how big they are in some rinks, they can be very dangerous. Getting something caught in the way. Didn't someone get a finger caught in one recently? But, yeah, it's hard to hear that, man. Buzz Killington biz over here. No, no, I mean, that's a crazy part of your career. I mean, I feel like you're, you must know yourself more as like a devil and like things

in Anaheim didn't go great for you right Randy couldn't stand you right when you finally got out of there I'm guessing it was a relief right yeah no there's no question and I didn't know like you don't if that's that was the only organization I played with I think that you think that's the NHL everywhere right and no and I'm wasn't fun it was tough right but we wanted it was good teams. And then eventually you get a new chance and you're with a new club and they do things different. And it's like, wow, dude, hockey's kind of funny. Yeah, it's really funny.

I know. Not even to leave Anaheim too quick, because do you have any funny memories of prongs? Remember how you'd be like, hockey! Oh. Like play. Yeah, my favorite memories. He must have given it to you once in a while.

Oh, all the time. Well, prongs was, yeah. And remember back in the day, too, like they would set the time well prongs was yeah and remember back in the day too like they would set the rookies up like you couldn't go on the elevator the buffet line you didn't eat until you were the last guy off but probably the the most memorable thing is prongs would come into the arena every day with the wall street journal and then he'd lay on the massage table with his face through the hole and put the Wall Street Journal on the ground. But then he'd always have to have NCIS

on the TV too. He wasn't even watching it. No, he'd never watch a thing. But he couldn't have anything else that you wanted to watch on. And then you'd ask him about reading the Wall Street Journal. He'd snap at you

because I don't think he actually read it. I thought he did crosswords. I thought he crushed crosswords too. Yeah, whatever he was doing with the paper. Yeah. What, massage table face down? He'd get, like, two of them and hand it off to George to finish it. Yeah.

Because you were playing with George for a little bit, too, right? Yeah. With Sparrows? Oh, yeah. So he was probably, he was doing the crosswords. George could finish a crossword in, like, seven minutes. That's what I heard. That's what I heard.

He was in the locker room. The hardest one in the, what's the Sunday paper the hardest? Yeah, as the week goes on, it gets harder, I believe. Yeah, the Sunday New York Times one's a big one. Oh, really? Yeah, that's a big one. You crush those ones already? No, not me.

I don't read the Times. But sticking with Anaheim, we've got to talk about the cup run. You play in Portland all year, and then you get called up. Your first NHL game was a playoff game, correct? Yeah. You got thrown right into the mix. Yeah, again. That's a Randy move, though.

Shit my pants. So, yeah yeah i played all year in portland i don't think i was ever gonna get a chance to play prongs ends up getting suspended something happened they're playing detroit and they just wanted a bigger bigger bodies a bigger lineup so they call me and i screened the call because i didn't recognize the number it was the the coaches. Where were you? I was in my hotel room. Okay. But we're in Anaheim, Black Aces. Yep. And this was the Western Conference Finals, so I've been there two rounds, right?

I'm not playing. Right. Just getting boozed up every night after DMX. Yeah, but trying to hide it, you know? Yeah, crushing afternoon bam-bams. So I get a call, and it says you better not be on the beach and come in with the tandem model because you're playing. So I call back like 30 seconds.

He says, yeah, no, absolutely. I'm actually working out at the gym at the hotel right here. Oh, my. No. Just finished my meditation session. Exactly. I was doing visualization on my breakouts. Yeah, I go in, and I do end up playing the game,

and I remember sitting on the bench, and Timu Salahni was right next to me. And at that point, that was the furthest he had ever been in the playoffs, right? Like, Hall of Fame dude. My first NHL game is in the playoff game. The furthest Timu has ever been in the playoffs. I was like, do not screw this up. Yeah. And he's just like, relax, kid.

Oh, really? Yeah. First shift, go out, minus one. Oh, no. I was like, man, the NHL is legit. This is fun. That was a good ride. See you later.

I'm not getting another shift. Yeah. I will remember. We started waving to the crowd. It was good. No, exit off the Zamboni door entrance. It was like Bertuzzi and Chelios, too, that backdoored me. So I was the center man, and they just like tic-tac-toe, backdoor, minus one, boom, sweet.

Just getting easy. Okay, so given the hostility between you and Randy throughout your tenure there, after that incident with Annette, did it ever, like, come to you to, like, maybe go to him and say, Randy, like, stupid mistake, or did you ever have that conversation with him? No, no, no, I didn't. So there are a lot of other Randy stories. So one time I go into the office, and it's, like, Sheldon, Brook No, no, no, I didn't. So, there are a lot of other Randy stories. So, one time I go into the office, and it's like Sheldon Brookbank, myself, I think maybe like

Brett Festerling, and somebody else. Great guys. All great guys. All great guys. Both those names are good people. He just shows us two clips, and it's of Getzoff just getting hit, just like a hit. And he goes, this is the Kings, I think it was, I don't remember who hit him, but he goes, just so you guys know, that happened last game.

And we all kind of look at each other like, that happens every game. It gets you to big boy, too. So we go out of the office. We're like, okay, whatever. And then Randy wants me to play more like a rat. We go to L.A., and I hit Dustin Brown hard twice. I take a board and, like, a rough. Second penalty was late in the game.

I think we're down to, um, I come out of the box and, um, Randy who loved to bench me stale, stale. Oh, okay. Um, and then we go for an offensive zone face off, but again, I never got right. And he puts, uh, Dan Sexton and Bobby Ryan with me me this is after i run their captain hard twice and just come out of the box i'm like you fucker i know what you want so they drop the puck and the winger goes right to the bench and right us how do you say his name comes off he chased me he's let's go i was in this game he go yeah i said he goes let's go. I was in this game. He goes, let's go. I said, fuck you, right? He said, no, no chance.

He goes, don't be pussy. Don't be pussy. Yeah, yeah, don't be pussy. So I look around like, oh, that's Staple Center. He's actually right. I am being a pussy. I was like, all right, right. So you catch me, I'll fight you, you fucker.

So I was running up and down trying to get them all tired, hoping that eventually my lungs are bigger and I'll have a chance. And I thought maybe I just get in tight, tie up, and we'll see what happens. That's a good game plan, man. That's quick on your toes right there. I go into the corner, pretend like I don't know he's coming. Wait, wait, wait, look over my shoulder. He's coming, he's coming.

Throw my stuff, turn around to grab him, and he jumps back. You're like, no, I needed that grab. I needed that grab i needed that grab no i'm squared off he's like six seven two fifty we're squaring up i'm like well this is this is gonna go well he hits me with the left right off the bat and introduces my nose to my ear it's no that's why it looks like that oh my god it's over here so i go right off of the ice and into the doctor's room doc's like giving me small talk and then eventually just squeezes my nose boom eventually sets it go back to the locker room and uh the trainers are cleaning my face up and randy comes fucking waddling down remember la they had the one training table this way and then the long hallway. So he's walking down the hallway right at me.

And then he turns his back to me right in front of this table. And he says over his shoulder like this. He's like, you shouldn't fucking fight guys like that. Not only did we lose the game, we got our ass kicked too. And then he walks off. Dude. So I lost my shit. How mean is that?

After you get a Chris fucking Drury from the top. He was one of the top. After telling me the day before that he got hit and he didn't do anything. I actually kind of love him for saying that to you, though, because here we are and everybody gets a chuckle. Rick from Red Deer is fucking howling in his pickup truck right now. Hey, you must have been like, he walks away and you're like, oh, you did? You snapped. I lost my shit.

Yeah. Fuck you. Right? So then I go. I have to go. Everybody's like, chill. I have to go take a shower. I'm in the shower. I come out and i forgot that i'd broken my nose i rub my face and i hit my nose

and it goes right back over it's like right back over so i gotta go back to the doctor's chair he goes i don't have any more he tries it a couple times it doesn't work because i don't have anything else to do he's like i gotta put this cast on your face so he cuts out like a four by four square and he puts it on my face and the next game we play we had ducks and tucks i actually got out of that one which i was happy about but the next game we played was an nbc game and i think he wanted me to be all embarrassed with a cast on my face or have to say i couldn't play so he's like if you can play you're in what a fucking guy on my face so i go home with the old lady,

and I stick my head over a boiling pot of water, and we have to peel it off because I wasn't going to tell Randy that I couldn't play. And I certainly wasn't going to play with a cast on my face. No, not on the NBC game. LeBron did it. LeBron did it. They started doing those things in basketball. Yeah.

Yeah. It's clear, though. That was one. The other time where I did try to have a chat with him, we always dressed like 13 forwards for warm-up. And I was the 13th forward. Legit my whole career. Somebody got sick. Somebody got sick.

And I'm there in warm-up. And instead, he called Peros, who was in Hermosa Beach, to drive up. George got there for, like, after the game started to play. Oh, my God. Are you fucking kidding me? He was sitting in the room. I'm sitting there waiting. I take warm-up, and I still couldn't play.

So I go up to him, like, two days later. It's like you crushed his old lady or something. I was like, Randy, why the fuck am I there as the 13th forward? If somebody goes down, I'm still not even playing, right? Like, I'm still not going to play. I was like, that was embarrassing to me in front of the team. Like, everything. Like, that is a kick in the nuts.

He's like, I don't see it that way. I was like, I'm sorry, that's the way it is. You dressed me, and then you actually needed me, but still I couldn't do it. And I've consulted every guy on the team about it, and they think the same. They're like, go and have was hard for me to do this too I go upstairs and I was like to Murray's office another easy guy to talk to maybe look at other options like no shit. You think I haven't been trying to trade you?

Oh, my God. I've been trying to trade you for a year. It's like a tag team. I don't know where I'll take you. Oh, my God. This is awesome. A tag team. This is awesome.

Oh, no shit I've been trying. This is unbelievable. Yeah. So then I'm like ready to end it all. I tell you, let's just go to San Diego. Let's go to the zoo. Let's try to enjoy life a little bit. I'm at the zoo end it all. I tell the lady, let's just go to San Diego. Let's go to the zoo. Let's try to enjoy life a little bit. I'm at the zoo and I get a call.

Hey, you're being put on waivers. You've been traded. And then boom, I was out in Carolina. Oh, so were you on waivers or traded? I think we need a few minutes to digest all that. They put me through waivers. Oh, that's kind of a panic, right? Yes.

And then I got traded. So they needed contracts. I think contracts had to switch. So Carolina needed a warm body, but they needed to get rid of contracts. So after I cleared waivers, trade. Oh, my God. Wow. Nonetheless, interesting, but you said you got to move over to,

after that it was New Jersey? It was Carolina, Florida, then New Jersey. Then New Jersey. Is New Jersey where you had the best time of your playing career in the NHL? Yeah. Yeah, it is. It was Carolina, Florida, then New Jersey. Then New Jersey. Is New Jersey where you had the best time of your playing career in the NHL? Yeah. Yeah, it is. It was fun. We had a good run there, too.

My first year there to the finals, 2012. You had a good playoff, too. You had five tucks in the playoffs. Yeah, it was fun. And we played a role and contributed, which really mattered, too. You know, that was fun. Who were you playing with? Bernier.

What was the line called? The CBGB line? CBGB line. Yeah. Yeah. What's that? Steve Bernier? Yeah.

What else? It was CBGB's Carter, Bernier, and the Gionta brother. Oh, Steve and Gionta. I played with him at USA. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, that was your guy's line. Yeah.

So just a four check, just straight lines, boom. But the coach trusted us, and we played. And we'd score, eventually wear teams down, and just we'd get, you know, we'd jump on rebounds and score. And L.A. was just something though, huh? That team was a wagon. Yeah. Well, we lost two games.

At that point, when we hit the finals, they hadn't lost a game on the road yet. So we were the sixth seed, they were the eighth seed. We were the home team. They came to Jersey. We lost the first two games in OT. Had we won one of seed. They were the eighth seed. We were the home team. They came to Jersey. We lost the first two games in OT. Had we won one of those and they lost the game, maybe it would have been a different story. That's the shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Who scored both games for LA, you remember? Kopitar scored one. I don't know who the other one was. Yeah, it's like you don't forget. No, yeah. He remembers if his team's nice. I remember the close calls we had and who had them. Yeah. Dustin Brown eliminated us in five games, and then they went on to play you guys.

So we would have met you guys in that year in the final. But, yeah, but nonetheless, though, was that the year where Bernier ended up getting suspended in, like, game five? That was hard to watch, man. We had the number one PK. I don't like D-men for this reason. They're smart. But you get on the forecheck. Like, you know D-men for this reason. They're smart.

But you get on the forecheck, you know, hey, hey, yes, we're on the ice. We're going to forecheck. We have to hit you. Like, I have to hit you, right? But Skidary had the puck, and he's coming up around the net kind of like this. And I forget which way he shoots. Left. Left, yeah.

So he's coming up this way, and Bernie's coming. So he pulls the plug and turns and goes to back the other way. Bernie has to hit him. Has to hit him. He's so close, you're saying, that he couldn't have not? No, exactly, yeah. And he's moving so fast, right? But he plasters him kind of in the numbers.

He gets a five-minute major. He got cut. I remember he got cut all over the nose. And Scud's is not the type of guy to lay down. He's a tough player. So I think that's what kind of did him in, right? Yeah, and it's not his fault at all. but that's just smart D do that. They protect the puck, they'll turn it instead of just taking a huge hit,

right? And he took it in the back, five-minute major, boom. We had the number one PK in the league that year. I think we were probably honestly, we maybe had given up 12 all year and we had scored 10. We were good. Oh, shit. Yeah, we were good. That's changing games sometimes. And they scored three in that five-minute major. Three. That was it. That's got to be the worst. That was game five? Yeah, we were good. That's changing games sometimes. And they scored three in that five-minute measure.

That was it. That's got to be the worst. That was game five? Yeah, that was game six. That was the clinching game? Clinching game. It was series over in the first period, right? So they scored three, and then all the wind was out of our sail.

Boom, done. I think they beat us 6-1. He must have been a mess after. That sucks for Steve Bernier. That's got to be the worst feeling in the world. Yeah, and I think it was. It's one of those things that you don't talk about. And it wasn't his fault. If it was me, I would have done the exact same thing,

exact same spot, right in the box. That's what we had to do. That's how your line had gotten to where you were. Yeah, that's what we had to do. Absolutely. If it was me, same exact scenario. Go ahead, Ryan. You played one of our recent guests who was wildly popular,

Patrick Elias, Hall of Fame, Calvo player. What was it like playing with him? Did you ever skate on a line with him at all? No, by that point I was no longer a prospect. You're a suspect. So, no, I didn't play with Patty at all. Patty was way too skilled. But he was fun.

I always enjoyed getting to know the Eastern European guys. They're a little different. They're wired a little different. Oh, yeah, definitely. But he was good, smart. I always loved watching him handle the puck. He's one of those stick nerds, too. He always had it his way.

Geppetto. Yeah. We call them Geppettos. They're always in there working on their curve. Peter Murler must have had two new sticks come to him like twice a week. Yeah, one of those types of guys. But he was one of those guys? Yeah, no, but he was probably one of the all-time great devils.

I mean, there's no question about it, right? No doubt. And Dubois was your coach all three years, too. Are you surprised with the success he's had since then? No, I'm not. He's a great coach. He was a great coach. So the reason I ended up in Jersey, big fan of the waiver wire. I got traded to Carolina. I got hurt,

traded while hurt to Florida. Was meant for that contract just to end, I think. It was just like a moving money out deal. I had torn my oblique, but I was like, hey, if I don't come back and play, there's a chance I never play again. So I played like eight or nine games at the end of that year for Pete DeBoer he ended up getting fired as soon as that season was over but I played those eight games for him I was back in Florida the next year on a two-way deal and Kevin Dineen was the new head coach well he's gonna send me down to the minors after probably like seven or eight games but I had to go through waivers go through waivers and then Pete claimed me from New Jersey I played those games for him those games showed him enough like I could take this guy

I like this guy so Pete after the Florida thing was like I really like what you brought like you didn't have to play like that you didn't have to do these things really appreciate what you did in that spot and that was the year in meeting and then yeah next year so as a coach is he very system oriented a lot of video breakdown

or is he just okay, a lot of video breakdown? Yeah, a lot of detail. Yeah, a lot of detail. Like you'll watch video, but you'll be very prepared, and you'll know what you have to do. But I think he's also honest. Like this is your role. This is what I need you to do.

I don't need you to score, so don't feel like you have to. And I'll take care of you. Like you'll get a deal if you need one. But don't feel like you have to score. Just don't get scored on. He's one of those guys, right? That's a great feeling. Oh, wow.

Takes off. You don't have to score? What the greatest. I would have sucked my coach off to hear the words come out of his mouth. He's all happy. He's like, no, bitch. You still need to be able to flick it off the glass. Yeah. On the ice of the stick.

Oh, okay. Well, no, no. There's a trade-off? There's got to be a trade-off? Oh, shit. I've got to do something. Oh, fuck. We kind of glanced over Florida, but that's a cool story from there.

Like, any other experiences while playing there? In Florida? It was so fast. No, there's not a lot other than, no, no hockey stories really, yeah. But we had one where my dog almost got choked out at a dog park. That was a different scenario, but yeah. By a human? Yeah, by a human.

Did you go home? That's what I thought I had to do, but I dog park. That was a different scenario, but yeah. By a human? Yeah, by a human. Did you go home? That's what I thought I had to do, but I think the person maybe was a little handicapped and I didn't know how to handle the situation. So I was like watching the life be squeezed out of my dog right there in front of me. My wife is like ripping me apart. I was like, I don't think I can touch this person. Holy shit.

Yeah, yeah. That's like a curb your enthusiasm moment. You could hear the life being squeezed out of my... Your dog's like, why aren't you helping me? I know. Wow. What about in Jersey? We chatted on the way up to the car.

To be fair, what did your dog do to him? I have a little French Bulldog. My dog didn't do anything. I loved him, hugged him. That's a dog guy asking that, too. I'd like to see the video. We'll send it to player safety. George.

Hey, we'll get it to George. We'll get it to George. Maybe he got three games saucy. Right, yeah. Put him down. We were talking on the ride up about the infamous brawl that you were a part of with the Devils and the Rangers. Can you take me through how that all went down

when you realized it was going to be that way? We passed that story out. So, again, I always feel like I'm so dumb. I didn't know we were going to fight, but I was the only person in that building that didn't think so. You just go to lunch a little bit sometimes. Yeah, apparently. But you've got to hear me out. So they come to New Jersey probably

three weeks before, and they start their fourth line against our first line. So they run Colby, Parisi, and Pete again says, like, cake, carts, you guys go. So we're like next up, and I fight Brandon Dubinsky. We watch the fight.

Like, we got a couple dry loafs. It was really early in the game. So I fight Dubinsky, and I think I hit him. I think he hurt his face, and he was out. Didn't play a game again since. So we're sitting in that visiting room, and starting lineups come in. And Dubinsky, from my understanding, has a shield on. I had broken his face three weeks earlier.

There's no chance we're fighting. That's not, like it wasn't even in close my mind. It's like a hard first shift, right? So we go out there and Dubinsky's

getting ready to take the draw and then goes back to the point and then the D-man comes up to take the draw. So then I was like, It was Stu Bickle.

Yeah, that's when I was like, okay, we're fighting. And Stu's like, Stu's like, we're going. I was like, I fucking get it, Stu. I know, but I'm screaming at Dubinsky. I was like, what the fuck are you. And Stu's like, we're going. I was like, I fucking get it, Stu, I know.

But I'm screaming at Dubinsky. I was like, what the fuck are you doing out here? Stu's top, too. I played against him in San Diego. He's a tough fucking prick. Yeah, he's big, too. So I'm screaming at Dubinsky, what are you doing out here? And then I'm screaming at Torrell. I was like, he shouldn't fucking be out here.

And you don't even know your winger's going to be going either. No, I have no clue. That's how hot I am. I have no clue what's going on anywhere else. So all of a sudden, the puck drops, and I wanted to win the draw. It's too big. I couldn't take a loss versus a D. I got on a second swipe.

But, yeah. Just going on, just battling. Second swipe. I know. You both missed it once. It's just like hopping. I think they gave him credit for the face-off win, too, which I'm actually pretty rattled about.

Yeah, second swipe, we'll go. We'll slow-mo it. I won it. But, yeah, so then we fight. And, again, the way it works is there's a good fight. We go down. But the referees don't jump in ever. It's just the linesmen.

Yeah. Right? So the linesmen are with the big boys. And then the ref is with me. So I hit Bickle. We go down, and then there's no way to stop it. So we get back up again, we start going again, and that's when he tags me right between my eyes, just booms. This was supposed to be over.

Yeah, I thought we were done! So I'm bleeding everywhere. Then we go down again, this one I think I'm down, and Bryce Salvador comes flying in, because there's still no linesman. And the ref is just sitting there with a notepad. Right? So Bryce comes in. I'm not catching a spare one.

Bryce gets two, five, ten, whatever. He's out for that game suspended. I'm in the box for five. Yeah, a bunch of stitches and stuff, but I needed more than five minutes. But it was a pretty cool moment. I mean, that was old school hockey. I remember exactly where I was watching that. You know Mike Hoffman?

Yes. Yeah. Hoffman texted me after that. When I played with him in the American League, he said, dude, you just bought yourself two more years in the NHL. Yeah, exactly. You got single play. And he wasn't wrong.

He was in that brawl. He wasn't wrong. Two-year deal right after that. I think that that's a very fair statement, as much as we think we're kidding. It's like, you're the relevancy, your name's popping up, other GMs say, oh, he's willing to mix it up.

Stuff like that matters. Not only that, the market matters, too. That was New York, Madison Square Garden Sunday. If that's Anaheim versus L.A., it's on the highlights, but that's kind of like, whatever, it's over, right? Yep.

You got anything else, Ari? I was going to say, like a lot of guys we've talked to this week you got to play for your hometown team you finished up in Minnesota right? that must have been quite a throw for you was it nerve wracking because everyone wants tickets and all that shit

playing at home would have been a distraction early on I was old enough to where it really wasn't a big deal a really big source of pride for me my parents are from St. Paul in Minnesota the way it works is My parents are from St. Paul. In Minnesota, the way it works is the hockey team is St. Paul. The other sports are kind of Minneapolis sports.

So the fact that my folks are from St. Paul, it's the hockey team in St. Paul. Their kid gets to play for them. It was kind of sweet and fun. At that time, I had children too, so super special to share that moment with your kids. You've got pictures you got showing them. You played in an outdoor game with Minnie, right?

Yeah, we had the game at TCF here. And then you had a golden assist, I believe? Yeah. Holy shit, that's a showing. There's got to be good pictures of that. That's got to be one of the most special moments of your career, spirit out biz. Yeah. Fucking struggling here, like you're in the fucking draw against Bickle. out biz yeah fucking struggling here like you're in the fucking draw against Bickle it probably was one of the highlights like again for for me the image that's probably burned into

my mind that I recall from the playing days was after that game Minnesota outside snow was flying the first 20 minutes scored eye black on I think it was missing a tooth but after the game post game um little sweat you got that look still, but I got two chubby little kids with me. That's the best picture I've ever drawn. It's my favorite. That's awesome. That really brought it whole circle.

As much as you love playing and stuff, when you can bring your family into it, it's great. That's one thing that bums me out. My boys will never... They're like, you pitch and you didn't play. Makes me want to dump a few of my old lady and make a comeback. He's like, Dad, I're pitching. You didn't play. Right, right. Makes me want to dump a few of my old lady and make a comeback. That's what it makes me want to do.

He's like, Dad, I don't want to watch you in the United States professional football smash hockey league. You're a fucking asshole. Oh, my good. Anything else from the mini-Ds? I know we've took a lot of your time here. What about, I mean, watching the Wild now, pretty sick club. You get to kind of go over their play and

they're really owning teams at certain points. Yeah, so the TV stuff was kind of nerve-wracking at first and I don't know how it was for you jumping into radio. I get nervous asking a goddamn question, as you can tell. But I went from, too, playing with a lot of the guys, like the core of that team, I played with them, right up to the broadcast booth and it's

hard to be... Bingo. You don't want to be too critical. You can't be critical because, one, you know what you're talking to. Their parents, their wife, they're watching. You're friends with these people. But at the same time, if that dude makes a mistake, everybody else watching knows that dude made a mistake. You've got to say it, right? Yeah, there's a fine line between credibility but also trying but also, you know, trying to, you know, be professional and, like, you know, protect them a little bit, right?

And the thing for me was most guys were a lot better than I was. So who the fuck am I to be like, oh, yeah, what a terrible play here? No, it's just like you more compliment the other team in mistakes that your team makes. Right, right, exactly. And for me, it got to a point where it was like, okay, like, cognitively, you don't want to jeopardize a friendship for a job or for something like that. So you're just going to all take an L in terms of everybody else or credibility as long as you're not calling a guy out. But it's a lot better now because a lot of those guys have moved on,

like gotten older. And this is a fun team to watch and talk about and call because they just play like the right way. They score. I mean, you know, there's always a storyline. You know, you got guys like hartman erickson that guys that that makes it so easy yeah and guys that that didn't get opportunities at other places or earlier in their career they are now and they're just lighting it up right like it's like man this is fun it's great and um bill garrison's done a good job with the culture and setting it and dean evison's an awesome

coach i think yeah they really like him yeah he's he's great good who's the guy who looks like uh how about he looks like so they said yes rx told me that the fans had said that i looked at this one picture i was laughing out loud like it's legit him and then i think spurgeon mentioned after a week he's like hey yeah enough social media guy got a pp that's not a thing that's not i'm not free so just so you know. And then Biz saw him and he said, everyone thinks I'm always mad all the time. Like, I think he's got that intense look.

But the guys loved him, so. Well, yeah, he cuts you with his eyes. Like, he looks intense. But he's a great dude and easy to talk to. I think the guys like playing for him. Well, dude, this has been phenomenal. Thanks for coming out here. It's been a real blast for us.

Great interview. And, man, you had a really good career for somebody, no, for somebody who, you didn't really expect to ever play. Just under 500 games,

buddy. That's incredible. Congrats, buddy. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. For a guy who didn't have an A. Appreciate you coming up here. For a guy who didn't have an A.

He's battling the elements. Oh, this is great. It's like a video game. Like the technology, like you can see the fish and the hook and stuff. It's like a combination video game.

It's like Duck Hunter. A little bit, yeah. This is just like Ready Player fish and the hook and stuff. It's like a combination video game. It's like Duck Hunter. This is just like Ready Player One. Yeah, good stuff. Let's go get some more. Not bad career for a guy who didn't have an agent until he turned pro. That's right. I always say that. I played 10 years on 2 Years of Talent. That's a lot better than the other one.

I was able to grind 8 of them up. Thanks MSG TV. Thank you so much, Dakar. It's Ryan Carter. What a great guy. An awesome interview. You could tell some of those stories. This guy, he's made his way into media for a reason, I believe.

He's a great storyteller. We enjoyed hanging out with him. Also, our ice fishing video is on YouTube now. You can check that out. Please go look. Paul Martin made a special appearance. We learned the tricks of the trade, I'll say. Some of us a little better than others, and I think

in the end, it's going to be a video everyone's going to enjoy because of... Fuck, I don't know what to say now. Because a certain someone got a little too drunk and was throwing up behind the video. Oh yeah, Ari was buckled. If you want to see Ari buckled, check out that video. Oh, here we go. I was buckled the night before. I was throwing up. Oh, yeah. It was buckled. If you want to see R.A. Buckle, check out that video.

Oh, here we go. I was buckled the night before. I was. OK, whatever you say. All right. By the way, I caught the first fish of the day, by the way. All right. At least have my back on this.

All right. Thanks. You brought all the fish up to the surface and that's what they were feeding off of. But no, I thought we're going to melt. I thought we're going to drown. I was going to melt all the ice around us foot. My 98 degree puke and fucking kill us. I do want to do need to remind everyone that interviews brought to you by sling TV.

If you love watching live sports, but you're tired of all the high prices, it's time to take control of your TV experience. It's time. You get sling. Sling is a place where your favorite sports channels like ESPN, FS1, TNT,

and more come together for less money. It's the cheapest way to watch college hoops and the NBA playoffs, the entire Formula One season, and much, much more. To watch past episodes of, I don't know, Seinfeld, your favorite show, Friends, and also the Yak, Stool Streams, and exclusive new Barstool content for free on the Barstool Sports channel exclusively on Sling. Sling is easy to set up, easy to use, and there's no contracts starting at just $35 a month. Sign up now and try it absolutely free for three days. Go to Sling.com slash Barstool. That's Sling.com slash Barstool to sign up now and try it for free. And how about Carter taking an ambien before

pre-game meal was i was just thinking that i was just i was i was gonna say i should try taking one before my pre-game nap before tnt and then trying to do a broadcast but yeah but i guess the the the best part of uh the whole story is how when the other team found out and sharpie and the other guys were like, okay, we got to help our brother out here get through this hockey game. We got you, man. We got you. If anybody boards me, I'm going to piss all over myself. That's another one I was thinking of too, R.A.

Yeah, he was, I tell you what, the minute we sat down, I was completely dialed in. Great storyteller. He had some funny fucking stories. And him chucking the net at Carlisle, too. I mean, I don't know if he did himself any favors as far as the amount of healthy scratches in a row he got afterward. But I think the funny part about that is when he's telling the story,

he goes, yeah, it's just me and all the fucking black aces out there. And Wick goes, no, no, no. I was right there with you. He wasn't letting me off the ice either. How about when he said to Bob Murray, I want to get traded. He goes, you don't think I've been fucking trying to trade? I've been trying.

Unreal. Grumpy bastards. Yeah, man. He was great, Kotz. So thanks. Thanks for joining us on the Frozen Lake. But moving right along, we got some more hockey news for you. The Canadians hired former player agent Kent Hughes to a five-year deal to be the next general manager uh the 51 year old montreal native becomes the 18th gm of the storied franchise a franchise having a rough time right now they went on a somewhat miraculous cup run last year but it's been a disaster thus

far this year uh and what we've been talking about the sort of co-gm thing and it does certainly seems like jeff molson is dealing with this right now you know you're bringing jeff gordon then you're bringing a first-time gm and i don't know if he's going to overrule jeff gordon uh buddy eric angles who covers the haves had a great article about it you want to check that out uh but what i know you want to chime in here as well well yeah it's at the beginning of hearing this it was kind of um when gordon was hired and you knew there needed to be a French-speaking figurehead in there as the GM, I kind of thought, wow, I mean, is it a fake position in a sense of where Gordon's making all of the decisions? But from what they're saying, and obviously they wouldn't say anything different,

it really seems like it's going to kind of be a partnership. And so what I think is interesting in the hire is that you have a guy who's been an agent for so long. So dealing with agents and doing players contracts, there's a lot of familiarity for Hughes there. And that's something that can really help along with him being pretty into the analytics. Maybe Gorton isn't that versed on that on that part of the game. I shouldn't say that he isn't. I don't know. But in Hughes saying they're going to bring analytics into the mix, it seems like it's going to work out. It should be able to work out. And I saw some Canadians fans comments that stuck out to me was with Bergevin. They felt like he was just solely focused on that year, on that season.

We got to get into the playoffs. We got to try to compete for Stanley Cup. And now it's completely different in where the where the team's gone. These two, Gorton and Hughes, are really open. This is a long plan. We have a rebuild ahead of us. We're going to do what we can, but we're setting ourselves up to have a team that plays with the puck, plays very offensive, puck possession, and it's going to take a little while. So as hard as it's going to be for Canadiens fans for this next little while

in terms of the rebuild and where they're going to have to gather players and trade away some expiring deals and players. I think there is some optimism looking forward to two new guys in there looking towards the future and really building something that they believe will last not just for a season or two, but for the long haul. Yeah, no, that's a great breakdown. And I think a big component to being a good general manager is how much you know and how in the know you are. And from his press conference, it seems like this guy, all he wants to do from the minute he wakes up to goes to bed

is talk hockey and figure out what's going on and be involved in hockey. And I think that they have similarities in strengths and also differences, but together, I think that they're going to make a good team. I mean, you said he was Bergeron's agent. So as you said, that's a big component sometimes if you don't have any training in how to deal with these guys,

whether it's getting fleeced on contracts, whether it's kind of like understanding how it should be structured and all that type of stuff. It can't hurt for a team moving forward. And we know that Gorton's proven in the Department of the Rebuild. Bergeron's a UFA. His old agent's in Montreal. You wearing that, Ray? Oh, don't. Trigger wouldn't. team moving forward and and we know that gorton's proven in the department of the rebuild uh burges the ufa is old agents in montreal you wearing all right no don't trigger wouldn't don't be saying that shit come on that's why you're trading swayman and you're going all for it here don't

make me jump through the fucking zoom over here okay sorry uh montreal made it well in not the best history in the franchise uh allowed bailout 50 shots on goal and back-to-back games for the first time ever last week so that's how it's going for the canadians right now but uh moving right along the vancouver connect announced that emily castengay has been named assistant general manager she became the first female assistant gm in team history uh so congrats to emily we've been seeing a lot more women hide in front offices around the league and you know when we watch the olympics business you know the ladies are as good as the guys. They're skilled. It's the same game.

So there's no reason that women shouldn't be in these roles if they're qualified. And congrats to Emily. I'm sure she's going to do a great job there. So this was just announced before we hopped on. Typically, the assistant GM, they have a lot of the control on the prospects and what's going down in the American team.

Yeah, AHL and kind of seeing what's going on there and kind of delivering that news back to the general manager. So I would imagine that's going to be one of her duties and, and, you know, a difficult one. And especially for a team that's looking at to add a few more young guys to kind of bolster that, that lineup. So congratulations to her. I'm excited for, to see how it all goes.

And I mean, that's another team that's really turned around the short time here. Bruce. Yeah. Congrats to Emily Castingay. An awesome story. And, you know, I'm reading Twitter and you see the hire and a lot of people are very happy for. And then I saw this. It was amazing. It's from Thomas Drance on Twitter. He says, here's the translated text of Emily Castingay's French language answer about her late sister. And she says, my sister passed away almost 10 years ago in a somewhat tragic way. And in one of the last conversations we ever had in her life, she told me that I would manage the Vancouver Canucks one day. In fact, that was the last conversation I had with her in her life. For the Canucks to call me. It was a pretty emotional moment for me. And she think it's fair to say, don't jump down my throat. There'll never be a girl in the NHL,

but for them to be in the front office is very realistic and you're seeing it happen right now. Well said, although I do disagree. I think we might have a female goalie at some point. I think, I think that's a, that's a position to play in a regular season game. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm not putting a time frame on it, but at some point there was a woman playing NHL goaltender at some point. That would be a great future bet.

Yeah. Yeah, like Austin. I would take it too, R.A. I would take it. Yeah, I feel like Kevin from The Office, but I'd lay a fucking C-note on that, no doubt about it. Oh, yeah. All right.

C-note, not a G-note. Are we shriveling you note on that, no doubt about it. Oh, yeah. All right. C note, not a G note. Are we shriveling you by saying that, Whit? Oh, I don't give a fuck. I disagree. It's just like maybe it would happen for, you know, like, what's the word? When you just want to like. Publicity? Yeah, like publicity, but I don't know.

Maybe I'm shriveling myself i i said the wrong word too i said pub publicity publicity all right uh more congratulations do what you think is best uh pittsburgh assistant equipment manager i'm guessing you guys know him uh john taglionetti he worked his 1000th game with the penguins last week and if the name sounds familiar to you old school fans yes his dad is p Taglianetti. What do you guys know about this fella? Great kid. Unreal. He was there right at the, I want to say he was still in high school when he started. He was, wasn't full time by any means yet. He was, he was just coming to the games and practices. He was always around. Awesome dude. Cannot believe he's been a thousand games now. Makes me feel so old.

I remember one time, I'm pretty sure he brought Terry and dinner and he just chucked it on the ground. That's not what I fucking asked for. But the kid's awesome. I'd love to see him run into him at some point, but congratulations. Didn't Pauly just have his 1500th?

Did we announce that as well? Remember the guy who's above him? Oh yeah, I remember Paulie. Yeah, Paulie just had his 1500th game. Did he really? Yeah, so Pittsburgh's had some trainers that have been there quite some time and were around when we were around and I tell you what, man, all the way down to the ECHL, that organization,

I've been blessed throughout my entire career. I never had a bad trainer in my life. They're all rock stars and they're all the ones that have to do all the grunt work and fucking we had a few of them in arizona who had a pretty good trick of the trade they would put beers in every other bag so they would fly underneath in the winter time so when they get to the next location they'd have these ice cold beers so when they're unpacking the bags at three four in the morning they would just crack cold beers and shoot the shit put some tunes on so these trainers are absolute beauties and find

some definitely some entertaining ways to to entertain themselves entertaining ways to entertain themselves i love you buddy uh let's see i got away with words all right fucking sure do my man um apparently the sabers are bringing back a version of the old white Buffalo jerseys they had from 96 to 06, the red, white, and black makeup. Actually, I was a fan. I think he's like the Swedish Slovak fan club president. He actually broke the story. And then I aesthetics who they cover all these sort of logos and in gear

type of stories. They confirmed it. So the Sabres, you know which one I'm talking about, the white Buffalo head. Basically, they had some of their best years. Four Eastern Conference finals, one Stanley Cup final, the Hashek era. So pretty cool jersey.

So I want to throw that out there. But we got to talk about jerseys. The U.S. 17 under team Star Wars jerseys. I was called Billy Garen up and was like, dude, is this the best version of Luke for what? It was the Empire Strikes Back version of Luke Skywalker holding a lightsaber, Yoda on there, the X-Wing fighter in the Dagobah Swamp.

I mean, hockey point. I wish I bid on one of them. I think it might be over, but I would definitely pay for one of those, frame it, put it right in the wall. You call, it's like, this number is no longer in service. Absolute power. you call it's like this number is no longer in service absolute power what did you think of a uniform of the jerseys biz oh i loved it i think it's i mean i knew you

were going to be cranking yourself to it i tweeted it i said you and billy g are going to go the old reverse 69 special on these bad boys and i'm sure if you reach out to Billy G, if you got his number, unless he hasn't blocked it, as Whit mentioned, I bet you he could find a way to get you one. I think they were auctioning them off afterwards. Because I drew it on Twitter. Oh, send me one of those kind of joke. I'm like, oh, you can bid for them.

I was like, oh, shit, I didn't realize. Well, I meant just get your own customized one. I'm sure they could find a way to get R.A. one.'d have a star wars fan ever i'd have to find a particular scene i might not use luke skywalker hansel is a badass i would probably have a hand so he wants a jersey but he wants them to change it too he doesn't he doesn't just want that jersey he wants to make his own jersey well if we're in biz fantasy land i can have some fun with it and make make up my own rules here but uh it was the eighth annual star wars night for the team. Like I said, they auctioned them off to benefit the CS Mott Children's Hospital of Ann Arbor.

So great job, guys, on the jersey and raising some money for a great cause. Your buddy's going to be my neighbor, R.A., Han Solo. Is that Harrison Ford? Oh, he's moving to Arizona? No, no, he's got 800 acres in Wyoming, in Jackson, Wyoming. If you're running low on bud, stop by. He'll hook you up. I heard he loves to blaze. He blows clouds

big time. Is he considered a good guy or kind of a prick, R.A.? No, I heard he's an awesome guy. Oh, nice. Oh, R.A., that seems to be a difference of opinion there. Really, R.A.? No, no. I think he can i don't know if he has a shirley reputation i don't know if he's always the most like personal

guy he's a huge stoner though like he's known as a big stoner he's married to um ali mcbeal i forget the actress's name uh who plays her but yeah they've been together for a long time i'm gonna drive a pickup truck over full of bud in the back wow that's a hollywood marriage that's uh stood the test of time. I apologize. I got to look it up because I hate not mentioning someone's name, but the woman who played Allie McBeal, it's driving me crazy. But in the

meantime, the real Luke Skywalker, he tweeted, he quote tweeted the picture. He was honored to have his jersey on the national program jersey. So that was pretty cool to have Luke Skywalker himself tweeted out. He's a great guy. Did I ever tell you one time it was a tweet?

I think Marsha Brady, the real Marsha Brady, Maureen McCormick replied to Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker. And I replied, and I think Marsha Brady replied to me. So basically there was a tweet thread that had me, Luke Skywalker, and Marsha Brady. And if you told me this in the 70s man i would have just i would have died then and died happy back in the day i mean did you watch the brady bunch growing up wait a while it was up after your time i definitely remember watching that show like so i must have

been pretty young because i don't have a clear memory of it but i just remember it being on tv marsha was always hot oh oh yeah yeah definitely Yeah. Oh, my God. Oh, sorry. That was a little aggressive. Run some more. Let me go to my Kessel. You want to change your jarred fart answer for crying out loud? Holy jump. I admit it.

Oh, my God. Callista Flockhart. That's Harrison Ford's wife's name. Didn't want to just call it Allie McBeal. She deserves more than that. I'm going to tweet it. I'm going to tweet it, Luke Skywalker, and him uh a co-host of mine loves this jersey but actually wants somebody else on his personalized jersey so maybe you can get a response from him

for bringing it being a hater wow if i'm gonna sue your boy like that i know well fuck you love the guy and now you don't even want him on your jersey well i'd say we can do the end of the star wars which i know the young kids call it a new hope, which is it's, it's fucking Star Wars. It's not a new hope. What at the end when they get all their medals, but the problem with that, there's no Chewbacca.

Chewbacca didn't get the medal at the end of the movie for some reason. Precious against Wookiees or whatever. Nice job, Biz. Also, Biz, good time to mention, get some new pink Whitney gear from Vineyard Vines.

I just, I just fell over trying to show the back of it, but some good new stuff. It's already dropped. Is it already out there or what? No, it drops next week. The Vineyard Vines stuff is so good. It's quality. It's comfort. It lasts forever. It's the best. It's always our

best seller, too. And there's some Pink Whitney ones. I know I mentioned the Pink Whitney earlier with the Orlando Solar Bears game on January 27th, which is coming up this Thursday. We also have games February 25th and March 25th in the ECHL. February 25th is going to be in Atlanta, and that's going to be for Derek Nesbitt Night,

celebrating his 1,000 professional games. If you're in the Atlanta area, stop by. We're going to have tons of fun stuff going on, including Pink Whitney activation, and as well in Wheeling, going back to the wheelhouse for throwback night wit on March 25th. So maybe if you have enough fun in Orlando, and maybe if you sink the shot from center ice,

it'll entice you to come to February 25th in Atlanta and March 25th in Wheeling. Once again, Pink Whitney activations will be there. We're going to have some fun times. We're going to have special guests. And we're going back in the time machine. What song is that? I kind of just made it up the other night as I did a promo for the wheelhouse

because we're doing a throwback night. And I said I'm going to be bringing the heavyweight belt like I did back in the day when I dummied that guy from the Redding Royals no I so what I did was we had a a cheap one that we had given the locker room out to the player of the game and I just was so fed up with this guy chased me around the ice and then when I pounded him the night before at home he messed up his shoulder and then I sellied and I ended up getting I think i got tossed for the game for like a gross misconduct but i was able to play the next night in the back to back so i put the heavyweight belt we used to give out by the stick so i did a couple laps when we got on for warm-up and then i went

and grabbed it off the bench and stood at center ice and then stretched so that's when when those other the other game when there was a couple of those echl guys joshing at center ice and then stretched. So that's when those other, the other game, when there was a couple of those ECHL guys, joshing at center ice and you saw the spearing action, like that stuff that would happen some nights in the, in the, in the coast. So, so hopefully we get some, some wild antics when we, when we celebrate in Orlando wheeling. I can't wait for Thursday night, Orlando residents, anyone in Florida, make the ride, come on down and check it out. We'll all be there.

Maybe we'll have some vineyard vines merch for you guys to give away. So, Biz, I know we got the ball hockey coming up in Vegas, but I heard you got something to shoot for after that. What's the word? Right after that, myself, Grinelli, and Sean are going to Aspen. I have a buddy, Sheldon Wolitski. We've been talking about him for quite some time now on the podcast. He helped out originally when he reached out for the ECHL player relief fund.

And it's kind of nice to talk about this after we just mentioned that, that series he's doing amazing things for his community. One, he does something where he has people over to his house where he's got, you know, training and it's kind of like a spiritual retreat. This particular philanthropy, is that the word I'm looking for? Philanthropy. got you know training and it's kind of like a spiritual retreat uh this particular um thrilanthropy is that the word i'm looking for philanthropy he built an outdoor rink just outside of aspen and granelli's going to give you more of the details here and he's done a a massive amount to give back to the aspen community and help kids who might not be able to afford to play hockey

have the resources in order to gain equipment and ice time he's just a badass guy who did very well for himself on the business side of things and now he's really focused a lot of his life's work into thrilanthropy a word that i struggle with that i've hit out of the park the last two times so i'm going to start to the p2 can you imagine that i had no don't confuse them but yeah come on wit jesus uh but so look out for that we're gonna we're gonna have a live event there and grinnelli's gonna read off the details yeah it's uh february 8th from 5 to 9 p.m at colorado extreme rink at crown mountain park it's free and open to the general public there'll be food there'll be tons of pink whitney we're gonna do some on ice skills

competitions there'll be a fire pit i got my sk going to do some on ice skills competitions. There'll be a fire pit. I got my skates. I'm bringing my skates. Biz, I think you're bringing yours as well. So me and Biz will be out there buzzing around. It'll be fun time. Yeah, I'll be shoving Pink Whitney down your throat, not competing in the skills competition

because I do not need to be the butt of the joke. And the cool thing is, is he sent me a video, folks. And if you're in the Aspen area, you get to skate on this outdoor rink and it's during sunset. And sometimes these skies are as magical as you can imagine. So stop by, enjoy some pink Whitney and enjoy a nice pink sky at the end of it. How's that?

Sky at night. Sailors delight, pink sky in morning. Sailors take warning. Oh, look at you Gilligan. Oh yeah. A couple more notes of the sad variety um 70s music titan meatloaf died at 74 not sure if you guys were familiar with him

bad out of hell is an all-time album come out in 1977 sold 43 million copies as an all-time song paradise by the dashboard light everybody probably knows that song uh he was also an actor in fight club wayne's world among others and this guy man i took my little sister to see him in 94 she that when he had that kind of renaissance when he did bat out of hell too you know i would do i listened to that song 4 000 times i remember so my little sister fell in love with it she wanted to see him so i took her to see him uh at great woods and what a fucking performer man i mean this guy he's a big dude and he absolutely crushed it i was so glad i went what's kind of crazy it was the night of the oj chase so no this is pre-internet so i come home and i missed the whole oj fucking bronco chase because i was at a meatloaf show and believe me i was much happier to be at the meatloaf show so a hell of a performer and biz i'll tell you

back in the day when I was a swinging single, I would put this CD on when I did my shit shower, shave, routine every Saturday, get all fired up to go out and chase a match. Just what I wanted to hear. Let me close my eyes and picture that. I would do it. His R.H. is giving his nutsack and fucking asking his buddy to shave his back. I would do anything for a chode wax so i don't i know you guys probably weren't the the biggest meatloaf fan but i i love that

tribute i respect the shit out of how he performed because you could tell he put everything into his performance and i don't care what's coming out of your mouth if you care that about that that much about what you're singing about i'm i'm there listening yeah and that bad out of your mouth. If you care that about that, that much about what you're singing about. I'm I'm, I'm there listening. Yeah. And that bad out of hell, man, that's a front to back album. You put it on and you listen to every,

every banger on that two out of three ain't bad, bad out of hell, just a phenomenal album. So you need it on the big mix to collab family and friends, a meatloaf, just in all type of form. But, uh,

and we're going to end with some sad news from the hockey world as well. Um, New York Islanders legend, Clark Gillies passed away at 67 from cancer. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame back in 2002. His number nine was retired back in 96 by the Islanders. This guy was a four-time cup winner, four cups in a row.

Beloved in team history. Honestly, this guy might be the most popular New York Islander ever. I don't say that with any exaggeration. He lived there. He stayed there. He was a part of the community. And I thought that which best exemplified that the video with him last year, the playoffs chugging the beer and then crushing it off his head. And like it was a Barry Trotz who said that was him.

Like he was so much of a part of a community still doing anything he could to fire up the Islanders and their fans. And that was just the perfect dancer. The pride of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, played 12 of his 14 NHL seasons on Long Island, made playoffs all 12 years there. The Islanders have added a number nine patch they're going to wear for the rest of the season. So, you know, we want to send our deepest condolences and sympathies to Clark's family, friends, teammates,

as well as the entire Islanders family, because as a guy who grew up watching Gillies beat up the Bruins for a few years, I know what he meant to the Islanders and their family and you know we're heartbroken to hear that he passed away the ultimate power forward I just heard Ken Danico on NHL Network mentioning um he didn't even really have to fight that much because people were so petrified of him and it was a guy that you knew he'd punch your head in if you looked at him the wrong way so successful I talked to Eric Nystrom who whose dad bob obviously they were teammates and really good friends he said oh this is a tough one he said that guy was the funniest human being you put a microphone in his hand and and he'd make

everyone piss their pants laughing and then if he had a tea time with him he'd show up waiting for in the first tea with a drink in hand he was just from all sounds of it a true legend and i talked about people from saskatchewan how great these people are and he's a saskatchewan born and born and raised so i think that that his his personality and and the type of person he was um i bet you he would have gone and said it was a lot a lot of had to do with how he was raised and what a player too so uh merrick was on nhl radio this morning too i was listening and mentioned um apparently the first time he fought Dave Schultz the Hammer Schultz from Philly

he beat the wheels off him and was laughing as he took a couple punches and it was almost a time of the signs as the Broad Street Bullies were coming to an end and the Islanders era was beginning and this guy was a captain at one point. I know Potvin was I think the captain for a while as well.

But just an amazing player. And from what everyone says, a great human being. The hockey world will miss him immensely. Hear, hear. Well said, boys. Rest in peace, Clark Gillies. And yeah, we're going to dedicate this episode to him and his memory as well. And everybody have a great weekend.

We'll see you next week. Take care, everyone. great week and we'll see you next week. Take care, everyone. As always, we like to thank our terrific sponsors here on spit and check it. So thanks to our longtime friends at pink Whitney and new Amsterdam vodka, a hearty welcome and a big thank you to our new friends at masterworks. Check them out. If you haven't yet, big thanks to everybody at cross country mortgage.

If you're looking to refi or buy by all means, check them out if you haven't yet. Big thanks to everybody at Cross Country Mortgage. If you're looking to refi or buy, by all means, check them out. The fellas have a huge thanks to Roman Swipes for taking care of the guys and their men's health. And of course, big thanks to everybody at Sling TV. If you're looking to cut the cord, check them out. Have a great week, everyone.