Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 377: Featuring Darius Kasparaitis + David Pagnotta

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

On Episode 377 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Darius Kasparaitis and David Pagnotta. Darius joined (01:20:18) to discuss his career, playing in Pittsburgh, his upbringing and tons more. But first, the guys open the show recapping their weekends and discussing all the major NHL news including Jack Eichel’s postgame comments and Auston Matthews suspension. The boys are then joined by David Pagnotta (03:21:18) of The Fourth Period to discuss all things NHL trade deadline. The guys wrap up with RA’s Grinds My Gears and some random stuff.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 and welcome to episode 377 of Spittin' Chicklets presented by Pink Whitney. From our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. Howdy gang. We had another outdoor game with a very surprising suspension. We had some missed calls we got to talk about. Some more great milestones in the NHL and the trade deadline is just a week away. But first, we got to check in with our boys, Mikey Grinelli, producer. What's going on, my man?

What's up, boys? Went out to dinner Friday night. Had a great time at Due West, but I ran into Scotty Darling, fellow Chicklets Cup champion, which got me thinking, biz, we have some big, big Spaten Chocolates Cup content coming out this week with the Big Deal Selects. I can't wait to see it. Jesus Christ. You want to take that back?

He's imitating me. He's still in Vegas. He's still Vegas voicing it. Calorie sap. Oh, Biz, it's down the thunder. Holy shit. I can't blame you, Grinelli. We all have our fuck ups, even sometimes on national television, biz. Stay on the thunder. Holy shit. Yeah. I can't blame you, Grinnelli. We all have our fuck ups, even sometimes on national television, buddy.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Am I missing something? Oh, yeah. Biz called it the calorie sap instead of instead of the salary. OK, so wait. I was looking for sap friendly all day. I couldn't find that calorie sap. No wit.

So you might know because you worked at nhl network uh some of these professionals not a big deal uh hitting you with the makeup with the paintball gun when the producer sometimes he talks in your ear it completely fucks me up it stops me dead in my tracks the hosts and stuff they could just keep talking over the guy talking in their ear. The minute the producer starts talking, it just completely messes with me. So I ended up saying calorie sap and I was hearing about it online. But gee, other than the meal with the old lady on Friday, what else have you been up to? Nothing. Like I said, I just had a couple of pops with Scotty Darling.

We were talking a lot about the Chicklets Cup. I actually don't know if he'll be able to play in the next chicklets cup i can't really disclose why so we're going to be looking for more players he's holding out for more money that's what he's doing um basically you uh you stress the videos coming out we got one drop in monday so it would have already been released at 8 p.m and then one coming out thursday it's a two-part series of how everything transpired in the a division for the deck hockey. You saw Barstool's version with the roller hockey, but I wanted to give everybody a behind-the-scenes

of how intense it is. The team that I assembled to go against the nose-face killer, which is, as he would describe himself, folks, the 99 of deck hockey. And it's pretty raw. It's behind the scenes. You see every game unfold. So check out our Spit and Chicklets YouTube channel.

If you haven't subscribed already, please do so. And a big thank you to Sean Apuzzo for editing everything. He's been grinding it out. And I think each of those videos are going to come in at about 40 minutes apiece. So all you ball hockey fans out there, this will give you a little behind the scenes and I guess a look at how the tempo is for those Chiclets Cups coming up. We got the one in Buffalo. I think that's going to be July 22nd weekend.

And then we're going to have one afterward. We're not going to divulge too much details about where the next one's going to be. But Buffalo, July 22nd, we're going to raise the bar and we're going to keep plugging away with these Chiclets Clubs. It was a blast. I mean, this might... Cl mean this might club chicklets clubs you want to take that back oh yeah okay ding ding ding ding ding okay buddy is fuck oh okay wow i love being the one person who could speak on this podcast it's just such a good feeling. All three of you marble mouth morons. Don't worry about it, Dreitz.

I can talk. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because pronouncing a name is the same as speaking, you dumb fuck. What's up, R.A.? What's up, Wary? What are you, fucking a big and held hostage somewhere down the parking garage behind you? It looks like I'm in Iraq with this thing behind me, but that's actually for Lauderdale.

Grunelli hooked it up. I want to thank his buddy. I think his name's Pat brothers. He he gave me his office because we've talked about my crack house that I rented. Spitting chicklets and memes with just a classic post of a G wagon outside of a full drug flop house on Instagram. So that made me laugh. But Pat brothers offices. I'm on East Broward Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale.

Just behind me looks like a parking garage that was possibly blown up. But still, I got phenomenal Internet here. I'm actually streaming the final four or five holes of the players. We're recording Monday around 540. It's been a rain soaked weekend in Jacksonville. And how did I come off coaching on the videos? Because I haven't gotten a sneak peek of the big deal selects, but I thought I did a pretty good job. No humble brag. You're going to have to see on the YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe to please.

What am I, a pigeon? All right. And speaking of July 22nd and Buffalo, everything's coming up Buffalo now, because that city is fucking owning you. You're an absolute Muppet. Those people are all up in your grill,

all up in your mentions. And we have come to realize that the Leafs never disappoint. They get out to that hot start. They start buzzing. They start going. And then January comes and before,

before we get, before we get to the game, welcome to my shit list, the city of Buffalo, and all you idiots booing Jack Eichel. I'm with you, Buffalo. I'm with you, Buffalo. Don't listen to Biz.

Other than the instigators, I don't want to mess with Craig Rive. I don't want to mess with Andrew Peters. I definitely don't want Rob Ray on my bad side. But all the rest of you donkeys, lick my ball bag, okay? We'll get to you idiots later. R.A., what were you up to this weekend dude i've been i've been the captain of the boring team lately um after we recorded last episode i got fucking bombed i couldn't fall asleep like granelli's trying to get me i literally slept

till eight o'clock the next day i was so exhausted yeah yeah he slept till 8 p.m the next day yeah 8 p.m yeah well yeah i mean yeah yeah whoa, whoa, what? Yeah. 8 p.m.? Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah. I hadn't slept, I told you, I didn't sleep great the night before. And yeah, I didn't have anything on my schedule. I'm like, I didn't set the alarm. I didn't think it was going to get up that late. I got up to like 33 missed texts.

I was like, I went to hot thread right away. Fortunately, you guys weren't waiting on me. Grinnelly was waiting for a swipe up, which I got to him in time, but I was just exhausted, man. And I didn't have any reason to set the alarm. I know, but not setting the alarm like is a possible 11 a.m. What time did the head hit the pillow to then wake up at 8 p.m.?

It was light out because G called me at four. We had to retake, retape something. I was still like wide awake. Yeah, I'm a night owl anyways. And then, you know, sometimes, you know, you like when you have a few beers and you just like drinks and you just like wide awake. Yeah. I'm, you know, I'm a night owl anyways. And then, you know, sometimes you know, you like when you have a few beers and you just like drinks and you just like wide awake even more. And yeah, it was just,

I don't know. I probably got 10 hours at some, at some point, but no biz I've been legit boring as fuck. I actually, Saturday, I hadn't seen my mother in two months. She was down Florida for the winter.

So me and her went to San Tapio is the best pizza place in Boston. I tweet out the pitch the other night and it always starts a big pizza beef-like thing in Boston. People like Regina, but I'm a huge Santaps guy, so I went there. My mom had some dinner and then watched some hockey Saturday night. But, yeah, I've been fucking lame as fuck lately. That's okay, all right. Sometimes you just got to rest and recharge those batteries

before the playoffs. Yeah, absolutely. Actually catching up on some movies and shows and stuff. The Oscars are coming. I got some catching up to do there as well. Speaking of shows, we'll get into the hockey in a minute, but you pumped the tires of this show on HBO about the Los Angeles Lakers 80s dynasty, correct?

What was it called? It's called Winning Time. Winning Time, based on the book Showtime by Jeff Broman. All right. I watched the first episode. It's one of the Time. Winning Time, based on the book Showtime by Jeff Broman. All right. I watched the first episode. It's one of the worst shows I've ever seen in my life. What the fuck is that? What the fuck is that?

It brought him back to his glory days. There's a lot of dudes with his glory hole days. Buddy, this show, Biz, they pause it. It's like the goofiest, weirdest, brutal show. Maybe it gets better. But R.A. I usually I'm a I'm a recommendations from R.A. type of guy. I was motherfucking you in the living room at 11 p.m. What is this guy talking about?

What do you like about that? I don't know. Maybe because I grew up with it and it is like sort of a stylized version telling the story. And there's a lot of fourth wall breaking biz. Like, you know, when they look at the camera and talk directly to the camera, there's a lot of that stuff going on. I don't know.

It's sort of, I wouldn't say cartoonish. It's just funny, man. It's just not the tanning. I think John C. Reilly does a good job. He was good. He was good. Although I will say episode two, they bring in Red Auerbach. And you know who plays him is Michael Chiklis,

who played the commish and played the Vic Mackey and the shield, but shield unreal show. I, you know what? I, I, I love Chiklis, but I don't know if he was the best guy to play Red Auerbach. Like just cause it's like, you're laughing at it, but like, it's not supposed to be funny. So like, you know, it's a show about the Lake is man. I'm not going to have fun watching it. It's at the tan so far, but I'll tell you one other show while we're talking about it, I'm, I'm highly recommending it's called uh south side it's on hbo max i think the first

season was on like maybe comedy central and they didn't renew it and hbo max bought the rights to it and like made a second season and it's about like people on the south side of chicago dude this show is fucking hilarious i haven't heard any really anybody really talking about it absolutely funny show it's about a couple guys they work at like one of those like rent the center type places and then there's like a there's like there's a cop there's a it's a black like a black guy and a black lady but the black cop he's like a the guy he's like a white person he's kind of like he's like a dorky white guy coconut kind of a hood rat and like they just the way they they fucking mesh with each other stuff honestly check it out dude you'll know right away like first couple

episodes if you like it it's a it's ahour sitcom, so, you know, 22 minutes, basically, with no commercials. Super funny, man. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a funny, funny show, man. Good stuff. So maybe give that one a whirlwind. If I'm over two, then maybe I'm all done with that. So I went over to Naples.

My mother's birthday was March 10th, day before Busy's. Busy, happy birthday buddy little belated action but that was a a nice thing to see you uh turn what 38 seven right yeah it must be nice um the west coast dummies the east coast of florida uh i'm sorry i'm sorry like what is people what are people even arguing about the East coast for the West coast, the beaches, the sunsets, the, the lack of just trash everywhere. It's just not even a debate whatsoever. I am a West coast, Florida guy. I could not believe the difference. Now, granted I'm in Fort Lauderdale, which is a real bump in my mind,

but still even Jupiter that I really i really enjoy that's east coast the beaches the waves the wind get over to the west get over to the gulf of mexico get over to that side and that's where the living's easy so i'm done up the east coast of florida i thought that was going to be a segue to the fact that tom brady dropped an absolute nuke on twitter last night while we're recording this monday so he dropped it on Sunday after a trip. He went to see Manchester United. Now, does the owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers also own the Manchester United? The Glazer family, yes.

Oh, my God. These guys must be fucking swimming in money. Scrooge McDuck. Yeah. I couldn't believe it. Well, I could believe it. Yeah. But it's...

You know what I mean? Why didn't he just not retire and then make Schefter look like a complete idiot? So my wife's convinced that it was all planned, that the team knew. And I don't really agree with her, but it is kind of odd. Like the funniest things I saw right away was that he spent a couple of weeks with his wife. He's like, nope nope i am not done but i think chief barcelona chief had a tweet that went viral that said giselle made brady go to to home depot and uh something else on one sunday and he said fuck this hey but i don't know two weeks with the old lady, 10-year extension for Brady.

He's like, wait, this is what it's like? What the hell am I doing? Yeah, no offense. You know what? I don't think that he actually ever used the word retired in whatever statements he made. That's what my dad said. He never actually come out and said, I'm retired, I'm done.

He just, like, he euphemized things. He kind of, like, used code words or whatever, but he never actually said, I'm retiring from the NFL. So I think he kind of left that door open and Jerry, Jerry Thornton, God bless him. Our Patriots guy. He kept saying it. It's not closed yet. The door's not closed yet. And lo and behold, he did it. So, you know, fuck it, man. I love it. Like why wouldn't he come back after the season he just had?

I mean, if they could have got a stop, he might've won another Superbowl. I forget. I forget who the guy that Jimmy Trena had on. This is a guy who works for Sports Illustrated. I've been on a show before, his podcast. He does great interviews. He gets great guests. And there was a guy on there, and I think I saw it, I think, last Thursday or Friday, and he was convinced that he was going to come back,

but he was going to go to the San Francisco 49ers. It was Mike Florio, Biz. It was Mike Florio. Mike Florio. Oh, he's a pussy. Okay. Ding, ding, ding ding let's go uh can I get out my thought before you rip this guy for whatever for whatever reason go ahead and I'll tell you go ahead so he was convinced that that the reason that he got retired or quote unquote said that he was done playing was to try to get the release from Tampa

Bay because he ended up restructuring his deal and signing a two-year extension to maybe help with the salary cap last year. And he was assuming that the Glazer family and ownership was in fact going to finally get him to release him so he could move on to San Francisco. So when I heard that he was coming back via text, I thought, oh, fuck. Then everything he said must have been true. But I don't know if it was ever the case that if he was going to come back, he was going to try to move teams. I just think that what Brady has accomplished, it's just,

I completely understand him wanting to play. And the season he had, all right, you're right. He was one of the best players in the league. So it is really hard to say like and and he did mention years ago he wanted to play to his 45 so he's now doing that um the whole thing is just kind of odd like why go about if even if he didn't say the word retire it's just weird like to not say the word retire makes it makes me think that he did know he was going to play but just come out and say i am done it's just kind of odd and usually i'll use the analogy um you know when you're skiing if you guys ever go skiing and people say let's go for one last run well that's

when you tear your acl and break your vertebrae in half it's like the one last run usually ends pretty poorly for a guy like this i doubt that'll'll happen, but I liked how he went out. I liked how he went out. He had an unreal season. He had this ridiculous career, the greatest of all time. Will Compton, one of my Bustin' with the Boys fellas,

he said the dudes won seven Super Bowls, five Super Bowl MVPs, three NFL MVPs, along with many others, and he says he's still got unfinished business. What the hell, what unfinished business does he have? But you know what?

At least we get to watch him play again. If it was with the Patriots, that's another thing. It just hurts me seeing him play for another team. I love the guy, but I was ready for him to be done. But I mean, if you're not willing to accept the fact and understand it's over,

you will be depressed. You will struggle through the next year. And he just could tell. I mean, he was, he wasn't ready to be done. And he's probably trying to pump the clothing brand too, that he just started. Now what's the beef you got with Florio? He's just such a little prick. He's just such a condescending asshole and I've never liked him. I can't stand the way he tweets. He sent a tweet last night.

The reason I just thought of it was, this is his tweet. I've gotten some interesting, unsolicited and hostile text messages tonight from someone with a recognizable name who at no point asked to go off the record. I'm going to treat them as off the record as a courtesy to the person who has sent them, even though I shouldn't.

You bitch. Like, what kind of tweet is that? Like, either say, like, what are you even talking about? That's so typical Florio. His Twitter is pro football talk, and he's a clown. Do you understand how ridiculous that tweet is? That's ridiculous. What is that tweet? Like, who are you, buddy?

I don't know. All I can say, Whit, is welcome to the west side of Florida. I've been singing its praises for a long time. Well, I'm not talking about Daytona and Panama Beach, though. I'm talking. That's the panhandle, buddy. I've been going to Tampa, Saras long time. Well, I'm not talking about Daytona and Panama beach though. I'm talking. That's the panhandle buddy. I've been going to Tampa, Sarasota for 30 years,

boy. Oh really? Yeah. Yeah. I, my first uncle Mitch, the crazy ice cream man, my uncle.

Yeah. I've been, I started visiting him like 91, uh, St. Pete beach. So yeah, I love that area.

It's a good spot. Uh, all right, boys, any final thoughts before we move along to the, to the pucks here? I just can't wait. I can't wait to hear business opinion on a couple of things going on in this league.

He's going at Buffalo. His team's in disarray. My Oilers are buzzing. Go ahead, though. We could begin with the hockey discussion. OK, well, first off, you guys, you know what week it is, gang, especially if you're in Boston, Chicago, New York, Savannah. It's St. Paddy's week. And I know you usually think green with St. Paddy's, but you can also think pink as well. Pink Whitney, that is. So you either load up on it for your parade party or you stop by your favorite local watering hole and you order up some there.

Pink Whitney. It goes great with a crack on St. Patrick's Day. Slainte. All right, gang, we had another outdoor game I mentioned up in Hamilton. They call it the ham i never realized that uh the hammer hamilton ontario and the buffalo sabres for the second time in 11 days put an absolute drubbing on business maple leaves they won five to two uh before the

game gretz got a nice little tribute to his dad walter and all the hockey parents and grandparents out there was pretty nice but as for the game uh vinnie hinastroza had two goals and an assist uh but his goal on peter mrazek that broke the two to two tie became the game winner i just added more questions about the leafs goaltending situation here a couple stats on the internet uh worst save percentage in a calendar calendar month of leafs history uh march 2022 so far is number three overall and however many seasons they've been around. I'm new to hockey. Somebody asked me, is this bad? Team save percentage this month, they had 9-5-3 in November. It's 8-4-8 right now.

And the final one, lowest save percentages since January 1st, Jack Campbell, number two, Peter Mrazek, number six. Biz, this is your team, and that's not even the worst of it. Your boy, Austin Matthews, I know he was having a nice little battle with, what's his name, Rasmus Darlene there. Ends up cracking him in the head with a stick, gets a two-game suspension, kind of adds a little insult to injury here with the Leafs. What's the story, Paul, Biz Nasty, Biz Sanet?

I'm sick and tired. I'm sick and tired of hearing about Leafs goaltending. I'm sick and tired of hearing about the team defense. I'm sick and tired of hearing that Austin Matthews isn't the MVP. I'm sick and tired of seeing Witt's ugly bum chin on Twitter chirping Leafs goaltending. I'm stressed. I'm full of anxiety. And it's all because of the Leafs. And it is it is it is it's pathetic. I really don't have anything else to say. This team has taken everything out of me to the point where I went to scrub my toes in the shower and I threw up my back because of all this stress and

anxiety. And I couldn't even put a thought together on the broadcast trying to defend these bums. But as I mentioned on Twitter, I'm a ride or die. I'm sticking by these guys. I'm convinced that Dubas is going to pull a rabbit out of his ass and figure this thing out. To lose to the Buffalo Sabres twice in a two-week span at 5-1 and then 5-2 with the goaltending still being off the rails, I guess I'm at a loss for words.

I don't know how to summarize it. I don't know why it's happening to me. I don't know how Leafs fans have been doing this for as long as they've been doing it. My heart goes out to you. All the people have been doing this for your entire lives. And I'm just sick and tired of being sick and tired. So they're either going to play Tampa, Florida, or Carolina, correct?

Are we pretty close to assuming that will be the case? Right? Let me see. Yeah, basically, I would say. Do you think they get it to five games in any one of those series? Do you think they can win one playoff game, Biz? I think if they can figure out something at the trade deadline and get muzzin back and get their mojo going and keep up with the

offense the way it's been pumping out goals i just i they've hit rock bottom so right now if they played starting today no but all i keep hearing though from people online is it doesn't matter until playoffs comes around so even when they were having success it didn't matter so why would it matter now i i wouldn't think that i'd be the guy to give you a little bit of positivity and possible look into like how this thing could switch around but though the um the what is it called? Goals saved above expected. It's one of those advanced stats at J fresh hockey. It is insane where they're at right now. I'm talking like, if you could see this chart, see that line?

It's like, it's like the stock market. It's just boom, straight down. So if that's based on a, on a stat that, you know, usually can level out and be at some certain spot for most teams you would think this would change but it just doesn't really matter i just look at their team they have matthews who probably is top three mbp even though a very dirty cross check i'd like to hear your opinion on that and they have marner who's who's unreal neilander slowed down he doesn't look like the player he was earlier in the season.

And Muzzin coming back, yeah, that's a big addition. But, like, is that really going to be the game changer? I just think that this team, as I said at the beginning of the year, is not built to win. And Leafs fans, let me tell you, you are the biggest bunch of whiny pieces of shit on the internet. I can't even believe how these people act. It is,

it is something out of a novel, out of a fantasy fiction novel that these people are real human beings. The way they tweet and talk to me online. It's unreal. You are the biggest, whiniest, baggiest, softest,

loserest, scrubbiest. All right, we get the point. Move on. Fuck. What is going on? What Leafs fan in their right mind actually thinks that Matthews didn't deserve that suspension? What is going on?

Well, let's back it up. He cross-checked a guy in the face. Let's back it up here. I'm surprised what about wasn't trending? I think, I think Darlene gave it a little bit of a, a whiplash of his own there. Now,

no, no, no, no, no. Let's back it up. Let's back it up. Earlier in that shift,

Matthews ended up throwing a hit along the wall to Darlene. And then Matthews went to the net. And as Darlene was coming back to the net, he took a run at Matthews. Matthews didn't have the puck and he pit him right into the crossbar. So Matthews got up. He gave him one back. What did Darlene do?

He gave him one back. Did Matthews come over the top at the cross check? It was a fucking love tap. Old-time hockey. Sticking up for himself. For the retaliation that Darlene gave him for the hit along the wall. I thought he should have got one game. I think two is absolutely fucking ridiculous for not only the MVP of the season so far,

but for a guy who's got a history of being, I think, second in line and third in line the past couple of years for the Lady Bing. You know what that is, Whit? That's for a classy player. Gentlemanly player. You put him over the line and you take a run at him for him delivering a clean hit he took a clean hit in the middle of the ice from cousins and he didn't retaliate why does Darlene get to retaliate um I I think we are living in in a fantasy world all right

these Leafs fans let me tell you biz, Biz included, they cannot look themselves in the mirror. It's like a little kid who gets caught doing something and says, But, but, but, my brother, but. It's just, don't worry about Marshawn. I saw a bunch of clips of Edmonton cross-checking Wayne Simmons in the face last year in the playoffs. That was bad. That was bad. I'll say the difference was there was no sort of attempt

to get him in the shoulder that then rode up and got him in the face. That's kind of what Edmondson did. If you could complain and say I'm wrong, but it's true. And that's what's happened. Matthews went straight to the jugular, straight to the job, Darlene. And you know what? You're right. He had a hell of a hit on Darlene. He ran him over and Darlene was pissed off. But you just can't do that. You just said that. You just said it. Thank you very much.

That's my case. It should have been one game, not two, if any, if any. And as I said, if you watch it and you slow it down, he grazes his neck. It just barely touches it. And then he gives it the old. That's like you in front of the net when a fucking D-man would come or a forward would try to get to the net and he would touch you. You'd give her the old.

No, no, no, Biz. I'd probably have an ankle issue that I ended up stepping in a rut. I wasn't a diver. Or I'd maybe step around him and try to pickpocket him and get the puck, go in the other way, second assist. I just, I think that Leafs fans really need to look themselves in the mirror and understand that the world does not revolve around you. You may think it does. You may think you're the center of everything. And I have said many times before that Toronto is kind of the center of the hockey universe.

But look yourself in the mirror and understand your team stinks. You do not have a Stanley Cup contender. And don't be mad at me. And don't be mad at other people online. And don't bring up the Oilers. Yeah, what do I, am I trying to say the Oilers are like a wagon? No. But at least they don't have their superstar player taking suspensions as they can't get a save.

Because we've had many times this season when the Oilers couldn't make a save. And you don't see McDavid cross-checking people in the face. I'll take some accountability here. I thought the fact that they started Mrazic and they didn't go to Eric Colgren, who ended up getting... That was crazy. That was crazy. And I think that what the excuse was is we don't want to put him in

for his first NHL start with Toronto on a national broadcast in an outdoor game. Why not? You got a week before the deadline, and you know exactly what you got in Mrazic because we've been seeing it all season. He's not able to get his game back to where it was in Carolina mind you that team defense and we'll get to that later is a lot better and that's probably why he had the inflated inflated save

percentage and a better GAA why not put the kid in he had a great second half to that game against the Coyotes the only goal that he let up was when Chikrin ended up holding Matthews thick. And we'll get to the officiating later too, which has been a bit of a gong show. You got to go to the kid in that game. And then that soft goal to make it 3-2 just completely deflated the Leafs. And once again, it's the goaltending that's let him down. Other than that, I don't see a ton of issues with the Leafs, other than maybe they got to button up the team defense. So RA, I'll send it back to you. No more excuses.

Dubas has one week or now six days when his podcast comes out to pull a rabbit out of his ass and fix this problem, which is the Toronto Maple Leafs. And I hate to say it because I think that he's done a lot of good things. he's going to be trying to save his job. Because if they don't – I think there's not a chicken dick's chance in hell that they miss playoffs, but if they get beat out first round, MLSC and Channy and the rest of the crew, they're going to have a very difficult decision to make. Sorry, R.A., before we go to you, I'll finish with this.

All the shit talking and all these people saying these horrific, horrible, mean things to me about myself and my ears and my career and my family as Leafs fans online. And your bum, Jim. You guys, yeah, butchins are kind of forms of power, I would say, like alphaness. Kirk Douglas. If you look at Tom Brady, he has one.

Kirk Douglas. Kirk Douglas. Miracle. Leaf has one. Kirk Douglas. Kirk Douglas. Miracle. Leafs fans. I'll finish. You cannot say one thing to any fan base besides maybe the Florida Panthers. Leafs fans. Think about it.

What can they say to any franchise? Nothing. They're scrubs. Your team stinks. And it's stunk for a long time. And no team, no team is as bad as you guys have been over the course of the past 50 years. To deflect a little bit here, too, though,

credit is due to the Buffalo Sabres. They've been playing some really good hockey. They've been inspired. That tuck trade looks better and better as the days go on. They got some young studs in that lineup. Cousins. Is it Tage Thompson? Yeah.

Holy shit. That kid's a player. He's a monster. He is a gazelle out there. I think he's going to get 30 this year. And I think they have a future captain in Alex Tuck who wants to be there. And also, congrats to Craig Anderson, man. This guy's drinking out of the fountain of youth.

What was that, win 3-0-1 for him? Yeah, yep, yep, jumping ahead there. Yeah, Craig Anderson, he got his 300th win the game before that, the game that Jack Eichel returned to Buffalo. He's just the sixth American goalie to do so, there's the 39th overall. And this is a guy, you know, I think he's maybe gotten maligned in some quarters over his years.

I don't know if you'll call him a journeyman. I think their journeyman bounced around a lot more than him. I mean, this guy was a starter in three different cities. And we mentioned before, he has the fourth highest save percentage in the playoffs in NHL history. And it's only he played seven games. He played 48 fucking games. I mean, this guy is grinded.

He was, everyone thought he was done last season. He played for the Capitals. He wasn't great in the playoffs. They used him sparingly. I think he thought he was done. And then Buffalo had some injuries. They brought him in on the Buffalo special 750 K. I thought that was, that was a great little sidebar.

So the, so the Jack Eichel story, which, well, actually we get to that one sec, but one other thing I wanted to which, well, actually, we'll get to that in one sec, Biz. One other thing I wanted to cover from the outdoor game, we had to bring it up, the outfits that they showed up in. The Buffalo Shut-Up and the Village People, the Semi-Pro, and then the Maple Leafs were dressed as the Deuces from Fraggle Rock back in the day.

I didn't know, like, I didn't realize Hamilton's a steel town, and they were dressed as steel workers. I didn't realize steel workers dressed in those exact uniforms, but what we should take on those, Biz, going in. I workers. I don't really steel workers dressed in those exact uniforms, but what we should take on those bits going in. I mean, I don't, the Flint tropics thing.

I just didn't get like the correlation. I thought it was pretty funny. I mean, you could see some of their ball bags given how short the shorts were with the steel worker outfits. I just think, Hey, maybe just focus on winning the fucking game instead of getting dressed up

for show and tell. Yeah. Yeah. I think the Flint, it was just more like more or less getting dressed in like, uh, what do you call it? Shorts and a tank top in the cold weather.

I think it was kind of like what the blues did as far as showing up in tropical gear. Wasn't the Flint tropics because they, they all said they were playing in the Flint, Michigan mega bowl, which was the, the, uh,

game at the end of semi pro where they played and it was for nothing. It was like a big championship game, but they were playing for nothing basically like the heritage classic was. Well, they were playing for something because they were playing to get into that top NBA league. Cause if they ended up getting fourth place, that was for them. No,

but they stay one, they won the game and they still didn't get into the league. That's the whole point. You know what I mean? Um, I mean, Craig, it was nuts. He had like a seven, eight year run. to the league. That's the whole point. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Craig Anderson, quick.

It was nuts. He had like a 7-8 year run where he had this ridiculous, phenomenal year followed by a brutal year. So maybe he hasn't gotten the respect because he was unreal bad. Unreal bad. It was for a long time. But 301 wins. That is no joke. And to do that this year with a team that struggled

and finally really turned it around, I'm happy for the Sabres fans. I really am. I never hated Sabres fans. I couldn't stand the ownership on how they handled the Eichel situation. We'll get into that a little bit. Go ahead, R.A. Well, yeah, I suppose we can jump into that right now because, obviously,

like I said, it was Eichel's first game back in Buffalo since the trade. And, you know, he gave that quote after the game. Gee, run the quote. This is about the loudest I've heard this place ever. Really? You know, he gave that quote after the game. Gee, run the quote. This is about the loudest I've heard this place ever. Really. It only took seven years of me leaving for them to get into the game. But, yeah, I mean, I'm sure there was mixed, you know, it was a nice tribute. And, you know, there was plenty of people here that were supporting me,

and there was plenty of people here that were booing me. So they must just be booing me because they wish I was still here. I don't know. You know, it is what it is. I mean, I'm not the first kid to deal with it. So just move on. And yeah, it was a tough game. You know, give them credit.

They played hard. You know, I thought it was a bit of a head scratch of a quote. I mean, you know, he throw, I think, are they booing because I'm gone? I don't know if he was like trying to be funny or sarcastic or whatever. But I mean, I'm not surprised he was booed at all. I mean, he, you know, he did request a trade before all the injury stuff came to light. You know, I can understand if I if I was a Sabre fan, I could. It's not like, oh, they have no reason to boo him.

So I don't know if he was just upset with the loss or whatever. But, you know, and I know like you alluded to the after the whistle guys, Andrew Peters and Craig, Craig Reve. They had very harsh words for him. And, you know, we're not in Buffalo. We're not maybe privy to the stories that these guys hear. But they had some real harsh words for him. And, you know, they didn't really get into specifics, but just the track record he had there.

And again, I don't know exactly what they were talking about, but these guys are former pros. They played there. They seem to have some information maybe we don't get. But I don't know. It was just kind of like it could have been, he could have just maybe said, oh, yeah, it was a good game, It was just kind of like, it could have been, he could have just maybe said, oh yeah, it was good, good game, blah, blah, blah.

And that would have been the end of it. Now it feels like it's still a festering wound. Yeah. Yeah. I saw that and I was a little bit surprised. I also understand that when a game ends, a game that definitely was emotional for him to go back after everything that happened, you're certainly pissed off. You're upset. And I wouldn't say this. I haven't spoken to Jack, but I would guess he kind of wishes he didn't say that stuff

because in the end, he's gone. It's over now. But you only just opened it up even more. Now every single time he goes there, he is public enemy number one. Actually, over time, it might have gone away. They're not in the same conference things would have changed now it's like this guy's the most despised person in buffalo and i'll say for fans to boom i i totally understand that right you want to be traded a fan base looks at a guy that says i don't want to be here anymore and they say all right well we're done with this we don't we don't like this guy and anytime he's here we're going to give it to him but my issue was never with the Sabres fans it

was with the ownership this whole entire situation I've had so many tweets and messages from people you better call out your boy Eichel you better this this guy's an entitled prick it's like all right well one I am friendly with him um I heard from him the entire thing as it was going on, and the ownership wouldn't let him get the surgery he needed and wanted. He now has it. He's healthy. He's scoring for Vegas, who really is a team struggling. So the fans were never something that I looked at and said, oh, well, what's wrong with these people?

Like, I don't agree with these Sabres fans. They always had the right to dislike him. I didn't know anything. In terms of Reveille and Peters, I haven't heard stuff on what he was doing. I don't know what he was like around the team, around the media. So I'm not privy to say that he is an entitled kid. I don't know him that way. But to give quotes like that, it's just an emotional little press conference he did after a tough loss.

When you're hearing yourself being booed and there's just kind of no reason to talk about how loud the fans were and how they were never loud when you were there because the team struggled when they were there and they've done well for in attendance for a lot of the years that they were struggling buffalo is a big time sports town they love the bills they love the sabers when the team's been good in the past it's been a crazy atmosphere to play in and the team wasn't good for a long time so I think that he would look back on that and say oh fuck I kind of opened

up a can of worms there that I didn't necessarily have to I was pissed off that we lost I was pissed off that Tuck ended up kind of stripping me of the puck for one of the goals the other guy in the trade Peyton Krebs he had a goal did he have two goals actually no he had two goals on the yeah against the Leafs yeah sorry so

excuse me so it was it was a tough look for for eichel i'll say that i i i loved it i don't care if there's a rivalry there fuck every time he touched the puck they booed it was a they the team is not everyone did though they showed the video there was one guy who had there was one guy who had a sign who said sorry jack, Jack, we tried or something like that right before the game behind Emily Kaplan where they do the between-the-benches interview. Now, that was funny. But as far as every time he's touching the puck and booing,

and then when they do the video tribute, even louder boos, fucking right, unload after. And it's more rivalries like this. So like you said, every time now when he goes back, it's going to get louder and louder with the booze. And I hope next time he goes back, he shoves it right up their hoop. No, no spit, no lube, sandpaper finish. And it's just like, it's like men in black, how short their memories are and how many years he still showed up and had all-star type seasons, despite the junk that was surrounding him because the organization didn't have any type of competence now any of these stories that that these guys have about maybe what he was doing off the ice or how he maybe treated p i don't understand what type of ammunition you would have against jack other than the fact that at a certain point he just was fed up with the incompetence of the organization and then on top of that them no, we want you to get this surgery, which we know is going to cause him more problems later on in life.

And now he's gotten the surgery that he wanted, and he's back to playing at the level that he needs to play. I have, listen, regardless of how you feel about it, I think he has every right to tell him to fuck off. And I guess they got every right to boo, and I got every right to tell those idiot fans fuck you because he did everything he possibly could for the organization carrying them on his back for the seven years that he was there okay i i do agree with all what you said but are you not surprised fans booed i mean like dude it doesn't matter what sport we're talking about if somebody

requests a trade and not to mention it's somebody who was drafted as the future and things didn't go well i it was not his fault but but biz like when you're you have a high pick and the team's bad the whole time he's there and then he requests to be traded like i don't agree with these people but i see how they're booing don't you well check the attendance all this season other than that game so it's like most the fans seem to have given up and even the ownership said there's no crossover between the bills and the sabers so i gotta take i gotta take the pagula's word for it here right so they're getting 5 000 fans a game because they're still rubbish that's exactly the reason he left and the the fans are speaking, the fans are speaking it to what exactly what it is.

They don't even want to go watch the games anymore until Eichel shows up so they can toss their misery onto this guy who left them, who was fed up with what was going on. So until more stories come out, because I've talked to people from Vegas

and they say he says hi to every media member. The guys love him there. He treats everybody with respect despite this team struggles he's still playing at a decently high level given the fact that he's just came up came off neck surgery so am I surprised they booed I guess I'm surprised for the amount of people that showed up considering nobody was showing up before they played the Vegas Golden Knights at home and then they give him the video tribute and then the booze ran on him.

And then every time he touches the puck, yes. Was it frustration from the game itself and the fact that the Golden Knights have been struggling and you probably, you know, fired back at all the booze. I kind of like the sassiness and I'm looking forward to more of it. When these teams play all of a sudden, I'm going to be paying attention to Buffalo because nobody else was because their crusty ass is going to be drafting the fucking lottery every year for the next three,

four years. I actually think though, it's, it's like a rallying cry. It's like, yeah, they came to boo this guy who was once going to be their savior, who they all think let them down.

Well, guess what? Welcome to business shit list. We got Nathan McCheap shot number one, and now Buffalo Sabres fans numero two. And I'm going to be there July 22nd. So if you got Nathan McCheapshot, number one, and now Buple Sabres fans, numero two, and I'm going to be there July 22nd. So if you got something to say to me, if you're not Rob Ray or any of the

instigators or any of the tough guys that used to play there who came my base in, why don't you stop on by the ball hockey tournament, maybe even submit a team so you can try to get a cheap shot on me. Bitches! Ray May Barnaby. Yeah, Biz, if you want out, fans are going to boo you, man. It happened Barnaby. Yeah. If you want out,

fans are going to pull you, man. It happened to Kessel here. It happened to Dougie. You know, when you want out, fans are going to pull you. That's just a natural thing that's going to happen.

But yeah, Krebs and tuck, man, that fucking trade is looking good for them so far. It's early. But if you're a Sabres fan, you got to be pretty thrilled with what those guys have done so far, what they're going to do in the future.

That's probably because they fucking brainwashed talk as a kid to be a thrilled with what those guys have done so far, what they're going to do in the future. That's probably because they fucking brainwashed Tuck as a kid to be a Sabres fan. That's the only reason he wants to play for that crusty-ass organization. Bring it on, Sabres fans. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. I remember my first few years in the league when the Sabres had these incredible teams. They lost in Game 7 of the Easter Conference Final

when Carolina won the Stanley Cup. And I remember that barn and that fan base being top-notch. So it ain't fair if they're blaming the past seven years on Eichel, but it's also, you know, win or we're not going to show up. It's kind of like, why would we come to these games when the team's this shit? I don't really blame the fan base. I think the ownership's trash there.

I haven't heard many good things about the Magulas ever. Yeah, sort of like Philly, man. Philly ownership, which is Comcast. They're getting fucking shit on left and right, too. But that's another team for another day. We haven't even mentioned our guest yet. We're not going to him right now. I just want to give you a heads up of who we have on tap in a little bit.

We have longtime NHL defenseman Darius Kasperitis, longtime Penguin Islander Ranger. Legit, I would say maybe one of the top three funniest interviews we've ever done. We'll get to that a little bit later. And we also have David Pagnotta of the fourth period in NHL Network. Of course, the trade deadline is coming up a little later. He's got some great insight for us in a little bit. But first, Whit, you're going to tell us about our friends at Laundry Sauce.

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Yeah, you're going to need some of that to scrub the streets of Buffalo after I take a nice hot steam and deuce on Chippewa Street. I can't wait till some monster Buffalo Sabres fan comes up and taps you on the shoulder and straight sucker punches you right in that big nose, breaks it for the 14th time, and then you're

laying on the ground saying, oh shit, I pissed off the wrong city. Ask the fans. Ask the real hockey fans. Are you Team Ico or are you Team Buffalo Sabres Scumbags? They should rename the team the Buffalo Scumbags. If I can bring back that slug logo.

That thing was a scumbag. Rob Ray might show up and fucking slam me through a picnic table. I'm going to hire security for that weekend because one of you will give me the old Nancy Fergie special. That would be great, Biz. We just get a couple of guys in tuxes walking around. Maybe they're packing heat, too.

Another cheap shot, just like Darlene on fucking Matthews. Can't handle it. It's getting hit. Fucking get a water gun on Squared Buffalo Sauce in your face, Biz, when we're up there. Yeah, Biz, we talked about the referees again, and we hate to do it. We do bring it up every once in a while,

but sometimes there are just a couple of blatantly bad non-calls that national TV and it has results that could potentially have ramifications not only for gamblers but for other teams in the league. So let's go back to Wednesday night. You were doing TNT. By the way, I love your line, shit a brick, and then they put the penalty box around you. That was clever stuff.

Was that kind of preplanned? No. We had to bust that. No, they swear? Oh, yeah. I mean, that's borderline. It was getting a little late. Keith Olbermann ended up tweeting at me that I'm a classless clown or something.

Fuck that fucking loser. He's a fucking loser. Fuck you, Keith Olbermann, you fucking dork. Keith Olbermann, I think he's honestly lost it. It's like the saddest thing I've ever seen. Kind of like Sabres fans. Kind of like Sabres. He's probably a Sabres fan.

He's an arranged human being. It's like he's smoking crack or something, that guy. He's fucked. But no, they asked us what our NHL come to moment was. And I remember when I was in training camp and I was riding the bike next to Malkin. And then, uh, do you remember Frank Bonomo? He came over and gave him an envelope and Malkin looked at it. You can kind of see that, you know, his eyes lit up a little bit and I go, what do you

got there? And he's like bonus. So I don't know, I don't know how high the bonuses can go now, but back then the entry level bonuses were like out of control. I think you could make up to like 2 million more on your salary if you ended up lighting the lamp. And obviously between him and Sid, they probably hit every max bonus on everything. And I want to say this was either his second year or third year on his entry level. And I go, Hey, let me see. And he showed me, and it was a check for just over nine hundred thousand dollars and i i was fucking i i'd never seen a check for over fucking big what was it in the minors we were getting like 3 500 every two weeks and i'd never been called

up at that point so to see that i just naturally said uh you know i should a brick and then they had the penalty box built for talk it for one of the segments that we ended up doing earlier in the year. So that's how that happened. Now, how do we even get into that? Oh, this is proof that Witt's the worst neighbor of all time because I think that in order to spite Witt and his Oilers, I'll let you take it over from here, Witt Dogg. Wait, what are you talking about?

About the call on the Oilers, and you ended up going on Twitter and bitching, and then you ended up over from here with dog wait what are you talking about about the call on the Oilers and you ended up going on Twitter and bitching and then you ended up hearing from one of your buddies was it oh I haven't heard from runes I didn't even so so I Chikaruni number five the referee my neighbor I haven't talked to him he must be pissed well you heard from a friend though no no no I I think I might have said that I might hear from him, but he's got to be furious. But that was the worst non-call in history. And listen, Chick is my boy.

He's my buddy. He's got a tough job, as all these referees do. You're probably not cleaning up your dog shit. Never, never. I've been cleaning up shit since Yoshi came into our lives. When I have, I don't care if my best friend in the world, when I have big money and my favorite team's trying to get into the playoffs and I don't want to get my ear pierced and we're trying to win a game by

sealing it with an empty net goal by Hyman and Alexander Ovechkin lasso's him with a stick and pulls him towards him and he's standing right there and doesn't call it I'm going on Twitter I'm gonna try to go viral I'm gonna be furious enough to get my ugly butt chin face as you call me on the internet and say what am I watching I do not understand what was going on there and maybe it wasn't him who made the call maybe he was the other side of the rink. I'm not exactly sure. But you can't see a guy get a full hook on a guy with a breakaway with an empty net.

And you should have awarded him the goal. You realistically could have just given him a goal. That is the rule. If you stop somebody from scoring on the empty net, goal. You've seen it before. And all of a sudden, what happens? They go back down and tie it. I tweeted I was going to storm NHL front offices if they tied it.

Well, I went back on that, and I decided if they ended up winning the game, Washington, that is, I would have stormed. But no, McJesus came through. I would have sucked the fart out of R.A.'s asshole to see Washington win that game. You should have stormed headquarters and wore business coyotes fucking helmet length of doodoo. No, they would have stuck me in a college rink near the near the offices. Put your foot up on Bettman's desk.

When TJ Oshie scored that goal with under a second left. I that's what I nearly shit a brick. So we so this the the the crack house I'm at it has roku which sucks i fired whoa sucks sorry i don't i won't dumbest thing that's worse than the show you like from the la lakers it's terrible you it's just a stupid absolutely stupid thing where you got to go back and forth like you can't it just drives me so i fired the clicker the clicker's also this big it's three inches the same size as my hammer. You lose the thing in the couch 40 times an hour.

You're watching TV. So I was so, and I knew they were going to tie it. I knew they were going to tie it because that's how things go for the Oilers. But we grinded and we got that win. But along with that call, then we see Jacob Chikwin blatantly hold Austin, the dirtiest player in the league stick Matthews, and then go down and score the game winner. And then we have Landis dog going after our boy,

Wes McCauley. It's just, it's been nonstop referee mishap after mishap to the point where at the GM's meetings coming up here, something has to be discussed. I think they're going to add another ref. I think they're going to go three ref system now. Well, the whole argument is very true because as a ref would you rather would you rather not call something i'd be curious would you rather call something and then have it be the wrong call

and it's like which one is worse do you know what i saying? I'd be curious to know how many times the delay of not calling it, assuming the other guy is going to get it, may cause a non-call. That's not a bad point. As far as all the bad refereeing, I mean, I think they're just priming up for playoffs, and I cannot wait to discuss some more bad calls. So I agree with you. You never see Austin Matthews snap, obviously,

because he's back-to-back Lady Bing candidates in the last two years, maybe not anymore because he gave Darlene exactly what he deserved. But, yeah, those are some three horrendous missed calls. So it was two missed calls. The one in Carolina, Colorado, which what a game that was. Carolina ended up coming out on top. It was a good discussion from Landis Gargan. It kind of centered around Kadri.

And Kadri got called for, I believe, was a high stick. I don't remember exactly what the call was. And no, Kadri didn't get called. He didn't. There was a high stick on him and they didn't. They didn't call the penalty when prior they had called the penalty on Kadri. And it was more like Landisog's kind of attacking the ref saying, well, you can't treat him a certain way based on his prior history.

Now, maybe going into the playoffs, they're looking at like, we need Kadri. We can't have refs thinking about him the way they do. But to call out a ref in a postgame press conference, was he fine for that, Landisog, all right? I didn't notice any fines come across. I was looking for him, but I was surprised not to see it. So explain that to me.

So Brendan Moore gets fined $25,000 for yelling at a ref on the ice. And then a player calls out refs by name in a post-game press conference and gets no fine. There's just no, there's no consistency in terms of like, what gets you in trouble talking about refereeing. It's I mean, you can't yell at a ref on the ice without getting fined, but then you can bring their names up in a press conference. It makes no sense to me. And I actually do think refs, refs have a hard job. Like they're going to make mistakes the same way players do, the same way the Leafs constantly fuck up every season. The refs are going to make mistakes.

And I just don't understand how often it can be so obvious to the fans at home while refs still make these mistakes. You're a bum. What? I get your point, but you're a bum for saying that. R.A., what else you got, buddy? Yeah, I think what Landisog didn't specifically say, oh, they fucked up, they blew it.

I think he actually was sort of respectful to them in that whole quote. That's probably why he didn't. I think he had rightful complaints. He was more defending Nazem than anything. I think he was respectful toward the refs. So that's why. He wasn't like, oh, they fucking, they suck, they blew it, blah, blah, blah. It wasn't your typical bitching about him.

It was a little more nuanced. Do you have the quote? Yeah. I mean, it's a little long. But in 11 years, I never sat and talked about referees in a little more nuanced do you have the quote uh yeah it's i mean it's a little long but uh in 11 years i never sat and talked about referees in a press conference ever i think wes and tj luxmore do a great job tonight for 50 some minutes of the game they called the high stick on nas uh on need on nita rider which may have been a high stick but nita rider falls easy we're arguing it's a flop they say it's a high stick fair enough with 550 left in the clock

nita riders hook and Naz up the boards. The puck turns over. We go the other way. They score. We're arguing it's a hook. They say Naz is swapping. We're arguing it's still a hook. Just like the argument before, it's unfortunate because that's a playoff game tonight.

It's very unfortunate that it comes down to that. Whether a guy's been suspended numerous times or not, is he going to be carrying around that heavy baggage forever? I'm not saying TJ and Wes didn't call it for that reason, but Naz is a guy that's very competitive. Whether he sold that call or not, you can look at the video and the stick is in his waist and that's why he lose the puck. I think it's unfortunate.

Sometimes it's time for players to step up and speak their truth. I'm the one looking like an idiot for getting thrown out of the game, even though I'm just being honest. I guess TJ didn't like that. I said that and had a tough night. So what I'm guessing. Wow. Hey, no quick round of applause for R.A. Holy shit, R.A. Jesus Christ, R.A.

You read the hell out of that thing. Holy shit. And you know what? You know what? That's not a suspension-worthy quote. You're right. No, yeah. You know, and he got tossed.

So, like, that was his punishment enough. You know, sometimes if a guy gets, like, thrown in the first period, they basically say, you more or less get suspended for a game flop gate, that type of thing. So, but, but my, my, my whole question, it's, it's valid. I think, I think refs are so scared of making a call that ends up looking so bad that they're just, they'd rather not make a call. And then that can even be worse at times like with, with,

with the Hyman and with the Matthews situation. So it's really hard. It's a hard job. But there are times when you wonder, like, what is going on out there? And even the best referees can make mistakes. You've seen it this week. But it's just, if I was to be a ref, I know I would lean on not making a call before I called something. That's just kind of how I'd be. Let them play.

You know? Let them play. Let them play. You know, let them play. Let them play. But then people, and I actually think players would agree with that more. It's the fans. It's the people that, well, and now you got gambling like me and you got living and dying on every Oilers game

where you're just seeing and hearing from the general public and the fan bases of all these teams flip out after flip out from these non-calls. So I don't know. know what the generals would do uh before we get to the other side of the ref stories this week uh we want to give nick backstrom a heads up i'm not heads up a shout out rather he notches 1000th nhl point with a third period assist in that game uh put the no call he's the second player in franchise history

washington franchise history to do so uh the 34 is the Caps' all-time leader in assists as well, so congrats to Nicky Backstrom. I forgot that Ovechkin made that draft pick. He was up there on stage with the jersey on, and he announced that pick. It's pretty cool to look back on what's coming up on, like, 20 years, basically, and the connection that those two have had, that Ove actually was the one at the microphone

who made the pick of that draft. So it's pretty cool. You might have said it last episode. Are they the ninth duo to reach 1,000 games played together? I may have. I don't remember if I said it, to be honest with you. Rinelli's looking it up right now, but I believe they're the ninth pair of teammates

maybe drafted together or to the same team or duo or maybe I'm just making all this up? You are correct, Baze. You are correct. Do you have the other ones there, G? There's another active one. Do you guys know who the other active one is right now? Would it be Gino and Sid?

It is not. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let us guess. Wait, pair of teammates that get drafted? Pair of team. I'm guessing that it's two guys that have only played for one team together that are at 1,000 games. Do you know what I'm saying?

Dustin Brown? Oh, yeah. You got it. Dustin Brown and Kopitar. Great job, Ari. Ari is buzzing today. Hey, this is what happens. You sleep till 8 p.m.

I actually never would have gotten that. Never would have gotten that. You hit your REM cycle for once, eh, Ray? Yeah, for a year. That's a year-long REM cycle. Yeah, I fucking needed it. All right, boys, I just said we beat up on the refs a little bit. Also, there was a really nice – well, not a story this week.

I guess it's been going on for the last few years, but we've seen a lot of videos lately of teams congratulating uh referees and linesmen at the end of the game and it's kind of i was like well that's kind of a weird weird thing but all these referees and linesmen there are actually four of them uh referees mark jurnett brad meyer and dean morton and uh linesman von rody they're all retiring at the end of the season uh so when teams know that it's their last game seeing these guys they line retiring at the end of the season. So when teams know that it's their last game, seeing these guys, they line up at the end of the game and they, you know, they shake their hands, they give them hugs, they dab them up and,

you know, thank them basically for the job they've done. And I think it's a, it's a wonderful thing to see, man. We've seen it for the last few years, but this particular season, like I said, there's four guys retiring. So they have seen these teams, you know, almost every other night that they're not going to see again. And I didn't know this boys. I don't know if you did that officials that retire retire in the nhl they do not get playoff

assignments that year they're done in the regular season did you guys know that whit did you know that i didn't know that but it kind of makes sense to me because if you really hated a team you're like i'm done i'm going to fuck this team over so you know what i mean like you're trying to save yourself from any sort of indiscretion from a ref who may really have an ax to grind with a former player or coach. I reached out to Tim Peel on a DM and I asked him all that.

And he said it's because most guys want to have their last game and have their family in to see them. And so they can plan ahead. You don't know you can do that in the playoffs. I thought that's, I thought it was kind of a weird reason to do it because what if a guy hates his family or is a loner

and still wants to rep the playoffs? That one took a dark turn. Hates his family. I don't know. Everyone comes from different backgrounds. Hey, you inviting your kids and wife to your last game? No, I hate them. They're scumbags. I'm an orphan and I killed the rest of my family.

Yeah, I left them tickets COD. That's cash on demand for you people who don't know, for Sabres fans, you idiots. Either way, it was kind of a quirky thing. I didn't know that guys who are finishing up that season, they don't get playoff assignments. But either way, I blogged about it the other day, and we've seen these videos.

But is this something, Biz, that you actually experienced when you were playing, or has it only happened since you retired is this the referee pod i don't fuck it all i would do is hand them gatorade and water and and and give them back rubs during tv times out i don't know i did my part i had my guy i had my hey one one thing though actually sticking with the referee thing now that we're on it um a little stroke after we just yeah yeah double barrel um smart thing that uh i know that chain don't would always ask our trainers what's each official's name not only the referees but also the linesmen because some guys would just go hey ref and like they that just it boils their fucking blood that you don't know their name so

the grinds their gears there you go RA a free one for your segment but the Blackhawks they actually have printouts where they have each of the officials names and so the guys get the heads up before the game. Every game has those pregame sheets with the officials names on them. Oh yeah but some guys don't check the game

notes buds. But like to back up Piz's point with Dave Jackson former referee he's on twitter and i i include that my blog like these are little tidbits that you you won't necessarily get from a player and he had the picture of it like this this means so much he said they goes instead of saying hey stripes or chief or bro a guy when you call a guy by his name it means fucking a total total different like response you're gonna get and and dave jackson actually pointed that out yeah you might get the flop called yeah absolutely call him fucking chief of the 10th times fuck you buddy you're

getting the extra yeah you gotta know guys names that's yeah i mean that's just that's how coop got tossed he said hey ref and they went hey number four fucking gone number four you're gone buddy you're out of here nah nah nah nah i'm, nah. I'm going to go back to just, if you want entertainment, we're in the entertainment business in pro sports. Get these refs doing post-game press conferences. Oh, man. I don't, you cannot tell me the argument on why you shouldn't do it. It's entertainment, right?

Coach. Wait, if I could just jump in in wasn't the jack eichel post-game press conference entertainment and you didn't really like that what a fucking moronic thing for you to say you're so hey hey you know what hey all right give granelli a round of applause for calling out dumb dumbo you want to know you want to know how dumb granelli is i hold my mic now i don't know how dumb granelli is i i said I hold my mic down. You want to know how dumb Grinnelli is? I said I didn't agree with Eichel's comments at no point. At no point did I say the entire thing was bad or not entertaining.

So, Grinnelli, take a step back and realize what you said. Think about it, Grinnelli. What did I say, G? Did I say it? I thought you did. So, my mistake. I thought you did. Oh, I thought you did. So my mistake. I thought you did. Oh, don't don't backpedal.

No, he's wrong. He's incorrect. He's incorrect. I said I didn't agree with Michael saying that. I never said the whole press conference and actual ability for us to talk about it was bad. God damn it, G. Thanks for getting me this office to work in, though. I thought I thought you said I'm all right, Spider. Oh, no, you office to work in, though. I thought you said, I'm all right, Spider.

No, no, you ain't all right, you prick. I get that one. I get that one. Great movie. What was that, 15 on the best Boston movies ever? Goodfellas, right? Wow. Have you seen Goodfellas, Biz?

Give me the bull's going to come around the block and whack you for that fucking shit. Yeah, in Buffalo. Not if he sleeps till 8. Does he still live in Arizona? Not if he sleeps till eight. I'll be able to hide from him. Does he still live in Arizona? Don't sleep tonight, Biz. What else do we got before we send it over to Casper Rytus? We're not quite done yet.

We got a few more things before we send it to Darius. Let's see. One last ref note, actually. Congrats to Elizabeth Mantha. She's the oldest sister of Washington's Anthony Mantha. She became the first woman to ref in the QMJHL and she also reffed at the Beijing Olympics.

Good for her. Maybe we'll see her in the Nationals someday. Hopefully. I know I've said that no woman will ever play in the NHL. No doubt a woman can referee in the NHL though. We will see that at some point. Good for her. Congratulations, Elizabeth. Absolutely. Hopefully it's her.

Let's see. Phil Kessel kept his Ironman streak alive in kind of an unusual fashion, I guess you'd say. Wednesday, he played his first shift, came off the ice. He left the game, got the fist bumps from the boys, flew home on a private jet arranged by the team for the birth of his first child. Then he was in Toronto the next day for his 957th consecutive game to keep the streak going.

So congrats to Phil, who's a dad for the first time, along with his significant other, Sandra. Biz, have you ever seen anything like this before, to keep a streak alive? A guy does one shift. All I got to say, R.A., is what a classy move by the Arizona Coyotes organization to send the P.J. I was reading online, apparently it was the coach's decision. He was send the PJ. I don't, I was reading online.

Apparently it was the coach's decision. He was willing to play out the full game, but he played the first shift. And I think that Turini was like, Hey, there's things that are bigger than hockey. Jump on the PJ, go home. We got you. He got the knuckles from the guys on the way out.

And Hey, they ended up pulling off the victory for him. Suck it T.O. And that was a, that was it. That was his first daughter. That was his first him. Suck it, T.O. And that was it. That was his first daughter. That was his first kid. Congratulations, Phil Kessel. Yeah. And the Wayne train, they actually, their daughters have the same name, Capri.

They both share the same name. That's probably what they were talking about. We saw them kind of shooting the ship before the Coyotes-Maple Leafs game. Maybe that's when he decided. He's like, oh, you got a daughter? Oh, okay. What's her name? Capri. Oh, sure. Fuck it. Put it on the birth certificate. He's like, you got a daughter? Okay, what's her name? Sure, fuck it. Put it on the birth certificate. This was after their kids were born, Biz.

Oh, it was the next game? Yeah. He went back to Toronto and then he beat your Leafs. He lost to the Coyotes and then the Savers twice. I guess I'll shut the fuck up then. Yeah, Coyotes beat your Leafs. And then your Flames were doing well too, though.

So it's all good. Hey, that's a great, great matchup. Three points. Everybody, everybody goes home happy. As long as someone comes to the puck. All right. Moving right along. Like I said, we had a lot of milestones.

We've been covering tons of milestones this year. And we mentioned before, these guys are worthy of the recognition. And that's what we like to do as a player's podcast. And of course, anytime a number gets retired, we got to talk about that. In Minnesota, they retired their first number in team history as well. Columbus did it last week. Well, it was Minnesota this week. Sunday night, they sent Mikko Koivu's number nine to the rafters.

He was the first permanent captain in team history, has the most games played, the most points. The defensive- minded center had 711 points in uh 1035 games uh but in the game itself the preds banked them six to two uh the wild they've been scuffling a bit here with i know you want to mention them they've lost four out of five in regulation at home their goaltendants been scuffling a bit um this is a team that you know we were stroking off rightfully so two months ago and now i don't know man the tie for third and central with the preds right now questions again about the goaltending uh what what do you got on them well first i wanted to talk about uh mika koivu

and the career he had and um him being an 83 birth year same as myself you know i played against him start when we were 17 years old and uh the finn group they had himself, Yoni Pikkinen and Tuomo Ruto, brothers of Jarkko. So three unreal players. And Koivu right away was like the best one of them all. I actually remember at under 18s in Czech, we played them. And one of the coaches of our team he mentioned to me hey you want to play in the nhl this kid this is an nhl player you know he's already probably playing i don't know for sure

i'm guessing he's probably playing in the finnish league at that point at that age his draft year was coming up that summer um and i saw firsthand after this coach told me about him like the work ethic ultra competitor i mean i'm talking like a dog to play against strong on his feet like all these fins and swedes are wide base couldn't move him had that mean streak in him super skilled offensively but more than anything that stood out was just a will to win and in reading a couple different articles about him i think russo wrote one of them on the athletic um it was discussed by, you know, former GMs and coaches that like not many people wanted to win like him and the career he

had battling through injuries and always showing up to play. He was somebody that from the very beginning, you could tell was going to have a long NHL career. So then for the night to go down and for him to get honored and he had tears coming down his face, he talked about his three kids being the greatest gifts he's ever had. They were there for it. His brother, Saku, who had an amazing career, who I had the chance to play with in Anaheim, classy guy. You saw him beat cancer and what he did with the Canadians.

It was just a cool thing to see a guy that I grew up playing against from a young age, even before the NHL, having his time to shine and having his number fully retired by Minnesota is pretty awesome. So I'll never forget my first – I'll tell you, he was probably my first glimpse into, like, what an NHL player is at a young age because of how he played the game and how he showed up.

So we've talked a lot – we've said a lot of the same things about guys like Giordano, guys like Koivu, Getzlaff, all these players who've come along and played this many games. It all happened for a reason. And I think that Koivu, Getzlaff, all these players who've come along and played this many games, it all happened for a reason. And I think that Koivu was somebody who's maybe not remembered in all NHL circles as this all-time great player. But if you were a Wild fan all these years, you saw just every single night showing up to work

and never being outworked by your opponent. So I was happy to see it. In terms of the Wild, it's been a tough go. I mean, all of a sudden. They got to make a move. They got big-time goaltending issues. Their PK is horrific right now. Should do a wife swap, goalie swap with the Leafs.

See if that works. Yeah, that'll work. It actually probably would work for Minnesota because you get these guys out of Toronto and people flourish once you get rid of these stupid Leafs fans having to deal with these idiots online. And I think the Wild, right now, I mean, they're still in position to get into the playoffs right now, but you've got to turn this around quick. I mean, this is, I think, what, four of their last five in regulation,

you've said? Yeah, at home. At home. I mean, they're not even getting points at home. It's ugly. And the special teams is the biggest part, the biggest reason why. You get a penalty, you've got to have the chance of killing it off. When you're giving a power play

goals, every 10 PKs they have right now, they're getting scored on like four or five times. So it's just not enough. And I think the teams will be able to turn around and still be a threat in the playoffs. But you can't let this fester. You can't let this losing continue. They've got to switch something. And I don't know what Billy Guerinren's gonna do because he's made it clear he's

not gonna trade his first round pick well they have been second fiddle around those parts recently because they had the high school hockey championships and then they had what a game that was i heard oh yeah i ended up i ended up watching it somebody sent me the link i couldn't even tell you the two teams that play but it went into second overtime and it was five five and then uh the captain for the i think the home team ended up scoring uh and like half the guys had the the bleach blonde dyed hair and sure as shit the guy who does you'll you'll know the guy's name who comes out with the videos for the hockey hair flochella what's what's the guy's name? John King. Oh, this guy is a fucking treat. So he came back because the last couple of years it was canceled because of COVID.

So they didn't even have him. So this guy was primed and ready to go for another hockey hair video, and he called it Flochella. So check it out on YouTube for some chuckles, and he was primed up and ready to go. But as far as the Wilder concern, we talked about those two buyouts and how bad it's going to hoop them in the ass the next two seasons with that cap hit.

This is their only year where they don't get affected that bad by it. I think if there's a time to take a run for it and make a big splash, it's now. Right now. Well, Billy Guerin knows you don't make a deal with the Empire, whatever you do. So as a Star Wars guy. Yeah, Billy, can I go upstairs and see that Lego set again?

As we're like one foot out the door. Come on. I mean, I made previous arrangements. Another note with the wild buddy Moose. He's a little out of control, maybe with the knee. And they get a $5,000 fine. You need Jake Vorachek. Wasn't penalizing the play. As a Neely fan fan i get triggered when i see those type of hits a guy puts

his knee a little i don't know if it's a hundred percent intentional but i always cringe when you see that type of hit is that his second one so far now this year and before this he's never really had anything prior i don't know second final second incident no I think the meeting incident I mean yeah earlier in the earlier in the year and I want to say it was like a month ago that he ended up getting sussy like a game or two he's got he's got the look in his eye of like the wires crossing at times you know you've seen it on the ice like he's just I think he's probably got to reel it in with the knee but you know when he gets pissed off, it's like, heads up. Kind of like your boy Matthews to Darlene's face. That was nice.

All right. Let's see. We got a few other notes before we get to Darius Kasperaitis. Detroit defensive Mark Stahl played in his 1,000th game Saturday in Calgary, and he joined his brothers Eric and Jordan, and they became the first trio of brothers to each play 1,000 NHL games in league history. I thought the Sudders might have pulled it off, but they didn't, apparently. So congrats to Mark and his brothers, man.

That's an unreal accomplishment. And on the same night, Stahl's good pal and longtime Rangers teammate, Derek Stepin, played in his 800th career game, and he notched his 500th career point in his 800th career game. Spit it out, R.A. So it's kind of a little serendipity there, I guess. A couple of buddies. Two people I'd let dump a load in my old lady.

And that's Mr. Hughes and Mr. Stahl at this point. I think by the time all said and done, Mr. Hughes will have three kids that have played a thousand games each in the NHL. And then now, of course, the Stahl, Mr. Stahl. So those are the only ones I'm letting put a turkey baster on my old lady. I like Jarrett because he's the one. He's coaching in the coast.

We got to hang out with him. Great guy. He's the coolest one. He's the coolest one by far. No doubt about it. Jonathan Quickman, he hit 700 games played as a goaltender Sunday night in a 3-2 shootout window over florida uh 30th all-time in games played for goalies and just the fourth american goalie to

hit 700 games after van beesbrook miller and barasso he's got 352 wins so congrats quickie great job man love uh love what you do as a fellow american of course you got the two stanley cups back in the day johnny's a pizza. Yeah. He's self-proclaimed the best pizza maker in the United States of America. He's got his own oven at his place in his backyard. Still waiting for the invite. On our next West Coast wagon

tour, we're going there. We're going to give it the Portnoy special. We're going to grade his pizza. He says his wife helps him with all the poppings and the prep, but he knows the exact time to leave it in and how to flip it around and stuff johnny's a pizza i got this baking steel thing check it out you can order them online a little free ad they this thing is unbelievable you heat it up in the oven then you throw the pizza on it cooks pizza better than i've ever had i i would argue I can go toe-to-toe with my baking spill with Donata Pizza.

Hopefully get him for an interview one of these days. We talked about Santarpios earlier. What's your favorite pizza in Boston? Did you say or did you not say? We're talking pizza again. I'm a Linwood guy in Randolph, which isn't Boston. I mean, Boston I actually am not the biggest

Santarpios fans. I'd probably go Regina's over them, but the Regina's people in the North End were the craziest COVID fucking lunatics I've ever seen in my life, so I'm kind of down on them. They got masks as a topping. Buddy, they were making people walk

by their restaurant outside, throw on a mask while they were walking by. It was a disgrace. These people were insane. I think Foley ended up screaming in a screaming match with one of the guys at one point. They used the booster as the grease. Also, if we're talking North End pizza,

we got to shout out Galleria Umberto on Hanover Street, formerly on Palm Ender Street. They do the square Sicilian slices. I love Sicilian. They sell out it by like 2 o'clock every day for lunch. So shout out Galleria Umberto. Since we're calling out a bunch of cities today, like Buffalo and Toronto,

Chicago deep dish pizza, the most overrated pizza on the planet. Trash biz. Trash bucket sandwich right there. Brutal. Pizza pie, like fucking apple pie style. Fuck that noise. You think Chief's going to get his panties up in a bunch with me saying that?

See what happens when we shit on Chicago pizza. Then those guys, they defend pizza in Chicago that's not deep dish pizza. There are a lot of places in Chicago that make non-deep dish pizza. New York style pizza. Yeah, New York style is the same. I'm a bar pie guy. I like bar pies. The little ones. I like hair pie.

Who said that? Jesus Christ. That's a fucking revenge. Can we throw it to Casper? It's a revenge of the nerds joke, you assholes. Barry Trotz, he joins a very elite club as well. New York Islanders head coach, Barry Trotz became just the third guy

in NHL history to reach 900 wins as a head coach when the Islanders beat the Jets 5-2 Friday night. He joins Scotty Bowman. But the first of those three to coach with a coat hanger in his shirt for every game. You are a fucking idiot. Scotty Bone, obviously number one, 1,244 wins. Joel Quenville, 969.

And I don't know. Hopefully we'll see Joel back in the league again. I don't think he did anything to warrant not ever coaching in the NHL again. It's rarefied coaching here, so congrats to Barry Trotz. I wish Bob Hoskins was still alive because if they haven't made a movie about Barry Trotz's career, Bob Hoskins would play him in a heartbeat.

Who's coaching in the NHL first, Babcock or Quenville? Quenville. Oh, Babcock for sure. Oh, actually no, Babcock. Yeah, I'm thinking based on resume but yeah based on fucking cancel fucking shit yeah babcock probably first but but you think they're both head coaches again in the league uh yeah i i do i i don't think this i don't think either one of them has done something that would warrant them never coaching in the nhl again for the rest of their lives

wet you you made a comment earlier in the podcast, and I want to come back to it. What will you do as punishment if a female ever plays a regular season NHL game? It's going to happen. It'll be a goalie. I will let her. Oh.

I said punishment. Okay, but I know. As I was about to say, I have a good punishment. As I was about to say it, though, I think I said we'll never play forward or defense. If I did say... Oh, here, Grinelli. Don't correct him, Grinelli.

He'll come firing back at you. No, no, no. And if I did say never, ever, I'll stick by it, but my punishment wouldn't work if it is a goalie, because my punishment is. If I if if one does, I'll stand with just underwear on so she doesn't have to see my tiny horn. And other than that, naked and she can take a slap shot at me. Yeah. Kind of like Subban did in Jackass. Yes, yes, yes. Exactly.

We'll let you we'll let you wear a small jock. Trust me. That's the only thing that'll work. Okay. I think we can move right along. We are going to get to Darius Kasparaitis in a second, but Whitney, a word from our sponsor. All right. I'm here to talk to you

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can improve. I go, well, I'm not your guy because this stuff, it is great. I'm telling you, check it out. They sent the rink shrink some stuff to Mike Mono, Brian Yano. They've been rocking it. They've been ordering it. So check it out right now. Warroad.com slash SC. Now we're going to go to our boy, Darius Kasparaitis. Oh, man, it's an absolute pleasure to welcome our next guest. He was taken fifth overall in the 1992 draft by the New York Islanders and would instantly become one of the most feared and intimidating defensemen in the NHL, thanks largely to his fierce body checks.

He played 14 NHL seasons for four different franchises, and with his trademark blonde locks flown underneath his helmet, you can instantly recognize him on the ice. And you know a big hit was coming soon. Thanks so much for joining us on the Spittin' Chicklets podcast. Darius Kasperaitis. How you doing, Darius? Good. Thank you for having me, guys. I heard a lot of good things about you.

So I'm doing good. I'm very honored to be invited. It's our pleasure to have you. What are you up to these days and where are you talking to us from? I live in Florida, in Miami. I'm working in the real estate development business. I'm a father of six kids. So it's a full-time job too. So I'm working two jobs. And I've been married, you know, so it's a third job. So I work in three jobs. Have you been in Miami since you retired from the game or how long have you been down there?

I've been here for 11 years. When I retired, you know, I married – my wife is from Sweden, so I lived in Sweden for four years. And I realized that was not my lifestyle. So I made, you know, I made a choice to move to Florida, and I'm glad I did it. Darius, when we have guests on, we always like to kind of go back to the early roots of the game. We're looking up.

You actually moved from Lithuania to Russia when you were 14 years old for better competition. Did your whole family move there? Did you live with a Billet family? What was that situation like? Not really. you moved in? Did you live with a Billet family? What was that situation like? Not really. I was invited

by Dynamo Moscow at age 14 to come join the hockey program. I was living by myself with a bunch of guys the same age as me. We had dorms not far from

the center of Moscow. We just have to report every morning to practice, go to school, practice again, eat if we have time. And, you know, that was our lifestyle. So just about 14 years old and you had nobody watching over you guys? No, you know what? Honestly, I was very homesick in the beginning, you know, because I was still probably a kid.

And, you know, my first year was very tough. You know, I miss my parents. I miss, you know, Lithuania. I miss being, you know, in Lithuania. But then, you know, when you become a teenager, realize freedom is not bad. And, you know, suddenly, you know, you start feeling better. But yeah, 14 was very hard. I know Lithuania is really well known for basketball and how many amazing players have come out of that country. Hockey-wise, what was it like? Was it a lot of people playing or was it kind of a not very popular sport at that point in time? I was lucky that I was born in the little town, Elektreny, which is where the first indoor hockey rink built during Soviet times. I think in the early 70s.

And, you know, Zubr is coming. Sorry, guys. Zubr came from the same town. So Zubr is coming from the same town. So, you know, I love hockey because, you know, I grew up maybe five minutes from the ice rink. So that's how I was introduced to hockey. And I don't know why. You know, when I was first time five minutes from the ice rink so that's how i was introduced to hockey and uh i don't know why you know when i was first time i stepped in ice when i was eight years old and uh honestly i felt i felt you know i was thinking i'm gonna fall and you know do not

skate but no i start skating right away with the figure skates but still you know i was amazed that i can skate right away so i think that was maybe gift from god you know, I was amazed that I can skate right away. So I think that was maybe a gift from God. You know? What about when your wires would cross? Do you think that was a gift from God? Was that always around from a young age? You know, you playing on the edge and lighting these kids up? You know what?

Honestly, it is true. I'm almost 50, and I still have the same attitude. I hate to lose and if you ask people if you go interview people who play with me at lunch hockey like normal people they're probably going to tell a lot of stories about me i i i just recently met my coach my kids coach and he was telling the kids uh you know he works in uh long island new york his name is alexis nikiforov and uh he told the kids, when Darius was little, you know, he would bite your ears off if you beat him one-on-one. And I was like, oh, there's the answer.

That's why, you know, I feel exactly the same way right now. And it bothers me because, you know, I'm playing for nothing, you know what I'm saying? But the attitude I still have, I think, has been built since I was a little kid. I don't know why. I was competitive all the time. And, you know, I carried that on into my professional career.

Now, Darius, at the time, you know, not a lot of players from that area of the world necessarily coming to the NHL. It was just sort of starting. When did the NHL become a goal for you? Like, as a little kid, did it come sort of later in life? You know, it happened everything in one year. I think 1991, Soviet Union

fell apart. Then 1992, I went to Olympic Games and New World Juniors. Then suddenly, I was drafted. I was not ready. I was not even thinking about going to NHL. I was excited that I was drafted by a North

American team. Then I started my season in 92 in Russia. And then a month later, they told me, you want to go play in the NHL? I was like, what? Are you serious? Like, yeah, you can go. I was like, wow. And like, you know, October 3rd, I was in New York practicing with New York Islanders.

Now, did you know a lot about it, you know, growing up when you did in the area you did, you know, obviously it was the era of communism communism were you aware of the nhl and all these players going over there or was this still kind of a shutdown a meteor at that time um maybe in the late 80s we started getting more into it because you know whatever was televised on russian or soviet state tv uh you know especially when when, you know, the Russian teams start going overseas and playing club hockey

against NHL teams. That's what we watch on TV. But I didn't really, you know, I didn't really follow them much because we had no,

you know, chance to follow any games. But I remember living in the dorms when I was playing for the main team, Dynamo Moscow,

and I had this selection of hockey cards on my wall. And, you know, there was Mark Messier, Gretzky, Lemieux, all the guys later that I was abusing. You know?

They're on my wall as my heroes, you know what I'm saying? So that was, you know, that was a kind of cool thing, you know, because I remember having

hockey cards from bringing from Canada. We had a Canada trip in 91, and I think I got a lot of cards from that trip. Yeah, most guys dream of playing against those people, and you just dream to lighten them up, so I respect that. But I noticed you had the chance. I mean, you're the same age, I think, as Alexey Kovalev, and you play with him with Dynamo Moscow.

So he's such a legend. So many different stories about one of the most skilled players to ever play hockey. What was he like as a youngster when you guys were coming up together? Listen, we both came to Dynamo Moscow system. Actually, Alex was 13 years old and I was 14. So he was one year younger. And I hated the kid in the beginning.

He was too cocky. he was like a good boy, you know, I was more like a bad boy, you know, and every time we practiced, I tried to, you know, hit him and, you know, he tried to beat me one-on-one. And it was just, you know, big competition between me and him. And he would never share his food with me. You know, he always lock himself in the room and uh and don't don't share so you know i really like the guy in the beginning but you know me and alex have a great relationship you know we we uh we grew up together in russia we played together in the same system and then uh you know we play against each other for the new york teams but alex was you know you you know it was a weird guy yeah because you know even the things he did like riding the bike from Moscow to uh you know outside Moscow to a training

facility that was unheard of you know in uh in the Soviet times but he did it and uh you know he was very it was very unique individual you mentioned something about figure skating was that the first introduction to skating you had and how long did that go on for with the figure skates no no you know what i remember when i was uh six or seven some somebody came to my school and asked if i want to who wants to figure skate and uh because i think figure skating was starting at an earlier age so i said i want to try to, you know, I want to skate because I love skating.

I didn't know I skated in my life, but I said, that looks cool, you know, to skate, but they told me I was too fat. So, uh, So they get canceled now, you know, but now, you know, what happened? My, my, my dad, he shaved my figure skate, you know, front teeth, you know, that front teeth those little things and then you can skate as a hockey player

so my first skates were figure skates I didn't have Casperitis getting fat shamed as a kid on my bingo card for this interview but this is taking a bit of a wild turn how long did you go with those as hockey skates? I played maybe my my first year.

And then I got skates from my coach. I remember the name was like, they were international. So they were not Russian built skates because they were called lasers. And I think it was like from Czech Republic or something. So I started skating with them. And then, you know, we didn't have equipment, you know, as players have now. We play with whatever we can play, we can find. And, you know, the helmet. I remember my issue was, I have a big head.

I didn't realize that. And my issue was to find a helmet, you know. So my dad had to build me a custom-made helmet, you know, like a tank and put some plastic on it. So I always remember having issues with the helmet since my junior years. Every time I have to cut things out of my helmet to fit my head. You know what I'm saying? You took some of that shaved-down steel from the figure skates

and just threw it on the helmet. All of a you're all it was all coming together robocop yeah yeah and i just i i i i i remember my first injury i you know we didn't wear a mask when we play hockey so one time i i laid down i was maybe 11 i blocked the shot and i got hit in the nose with the puck and you know my nose blew up so next puck. And, you know, my nose blew up. So next morning, my dad goes, you have to go to school. I'm like, I'm not going to school, man. He goes, yeah, you have to go to school. So the moment I started going to school, all my classmates saw me and they started laughing

at me because I looked like, you know, a pit bull with a big, you know, no eyes and big nose. So basically, you know, I was standing and crying in front of the school for like uh six hours because you know guys were making fun of me oh man now you played in the Russian Super League at 16 years old was it intimidating to play in a pro league that young what was that experience like you know first of all I was very proud of myself because I came from Lithuania and I never expected expect it to go that high. When I was invited for those two games, I was so scared.

First game we played against Red Army, which was a legendary team, and I didn't play much. I was sitting on the bench most of the game, and they told me at the end, go play a couple of shifts. It was televised. It was scary. much i was sitting on the bench most of the game and they told me at the end you go you know play a couple shifts it was televised you know it was scary you know but i remember going back to high school next day and i was a hero you know because you know a lot of kids watch the game and my name my name was a newspaper so yeah i remember you know being proud but also being very scared because you know i was just a kid playing in the men's league. Were you hesitant to throw those big hits at that early age?

Or, like, did that not affect anything? Did you just stick to your game? Because you mentioned that you were, like, maybe a little overwhelmed. I was more, you know, when I was raised, growing up in Russian hockey system, you know, we didn't really – we taught to fight and not fight, system, you know, we didn't really, we thought to fight, not fight like, you know, physically fight, but hitting and, you know, and battle for the pucks,

especially against Canadians. But our game plan was to, you know, finesse, you know, move the puck, you know, give and go, and try to keep the puck, you know. So hitting was not very appreciated, you know, when I played in Russia. And that's why when I came to the NHL, my first shift I hit two guys from the Jersey Devils, and people went crazy.

I was like, wow, people love this shit. I should do more often. Well, I noticed that 91-92 team, Dynamo Moscow, I mean, so many NHLers. And I think that draft year Yashin went second overall you went fifth I mean going into the draft did you have any idea you were going to go that high were you at the draft even like how did that all go about and it must

have been incredible to play with that many guys who went on to play in the NHL from that same team I was I was at the draft actually I was roommates with Boris Mironov in Montreal which I think he drank most of the draft, actually. I was roommates with Boris Mironov in Montreal, which I think he drank most of the draft in his room. And I attended all the meetings.

I think Boris was a great player, but I think he had a little too much fun, especially at the draft. He told all the scouts to go F themselves, so I don't think he got drafted that high. But it was, you know, I didn't realize the draft was that big. I just want to play, you know, I just want to get drafted because I remember being so jealous when Kobe,

Alexey Kolev got drafted the year before. And I was like, you know, he's younger than me and I play on the same level and he got drafted already. And I think Alexey Zhitnik was drafted too in 1991. And I was like, wow, you know, it made me feel like, you know, maybe I'm not good enough. But when I was drafted in, you know, next year in 92, you know, it was cool. I didn't even realize where New York Islanders are. I never heard about them.

I knew they won four cups after I got drafted, but when I was going to Long Island, I didn't know what it was like. I thought it was New York City, but it was not New York City. It was like middle of nowhere in Long Island. You didn't play like a rookie your first year. Did anyone in your team or opponents ever say, hey, kid, slow it down here?

Like you said, you didn't play like a rookie at all well you know i don't believe playing like a rookie i i uh you know i honestly tell you i realized that people love hitting and i didn't realize that until i came to nhl and i realized how much they love it because you know every time i hit somebody you know people would just charge you know chant my name you know and I was like wow this is better than scoring goals you know and uh and that's why I started playing that way you know because it was easy in the beginning for me to hit people because I don't know why maybe league was different than then especially hip shake you know because everybody tried to be one-on-one, you know, and I was just hitting left and right. So I loved it, you know.

And, of course, my teammates used to tell me, slow down. The game was like 5-1, you know, 6-1, and the game was out of hand. Please don't hit anybody. And I remember playing Toronto Maple Leafs, and Mick Vokoda goes, listen, whatever you do, don't hit Wendell Clark. And I was like, okay, Mick, next shift, I go ahead. Next shift, I go ahead and hit Wendell Clark. And we have a huge brawl at the end of the game,

and Mick was so mad at me. He goes, no, I told you not to do that, man. What's wrong with you? We're up 5-1. There was no point hitting that guy. So basically, you know, right now when I look, I played like 88, but then I think it was fun now when i looked i i played like 80 but then i think it was fun well you couldn't turn it off right it's probably what made you the player

you were it was like there's no part of me that can just shut it down right now no i loved it you know i love the competitiveness i love that i can go up there so under somebody's skin and get all the team chasing me and try to kill me you know it, it was kind of, I don't know why, you know, that was fun because I knew I was doing my job. And, you know, that was, you know, I knew people loved it. And I knew also when I played in the role, people hated me. That also was fun for me because, you know, you can trash talk and, you know, do crazy things and people go even more nuts.

So, you know, I love playing that way we often talk to north americans about their experience over in russia and they always talk about training camp were you guys aware of how intense it was compared to north america and how hard they were going and and how long it was and maybe in a sense treated kind of like the army where Where, Russia? Yeah, when you, when all the training and playing. Oh, listen. When I was a kid, all we did was train. We had one month off.

You know what I'm saying? So I think that's why a lot of people have drinking problems eventually because, you know, you basically have no freedom. You know,

I speak for myself because, you know, we had one day off and then we trained twice a day and all our lives were, you know, in one day off and then we trained twice a day and uh all our lives were you know in this dwarfs outside moscow uh and that's all we did train play watch movies eat train plane and then yeah one day off you go out you get a little you know fun and then you go back

and you do the same over over again so uh i think right now it's not as hard as as we used to do and uh but yeah it's it's it's different as hard as we used to do. But, yeah, it's different, you know. And coming to NHL with so much freedom, you know, also was very dangerous for a young player like me because I didn't know what to do with such a free time. There was no supervision. So, you know, I did a lot of crazy things my first year in the league, you know what I'm saying?

Like getting pulled over for drinking and driving. I thought it was fun, but then I realized it was not. So, you know, it's crazy. You were quite the speed demon, I understand. Steve Thomas, your old teammate, I found that whole article. He said, I drove in with him to a game one time, and geez, thank God he's got airbags. You know, you didn't tell me there was smoking in my car.

So that's why I tried to drive fast. When you came over your rookie year you played with uh like vladimir malikov was a russian on the islanders was he able to take you under his wing were you hanging out with him and that guy was an amazing player probably doesn't get the credit he deserves for some of the years he had yeah me and vladimir hang out a lot together because you know we spoke we spoke the same language. I was maybe a more outgoing guy. Vladi was more shy and he didn't want to express his feelings. I think we're two different individuals, but we spent a lot of time together.

Vladi was a beast. He was a good fighter too. He was very strong and he had so much skill. He was a good fighter, too. He was very strong. He had so much skill. Unfortunately, guys didn't sometimes accept him that way. It was because they thought everybody has to be like me. Funny, talking, crazy.

Vlade was more like, I play my game, I go home. That was difficult for him in the beginning. My favorite story about him was, I believe he was out with a knee injury but he was caught skiing in montreal yeah yeah i heard that that's okay skiing and skating is two different things hey it's fun he's not hitting and skiing i also read one of your uh first purchases when you started making money playing hockey was a versace jacket you like the designer stuff? Oh, you know, coming from, I guess, a former student, Versace was huge, you know?

So, I don't know. The jacket looked good to me, you know. You know, it cost $5,000 in the 90s, so it was a lot of money. I didn't really know. When I came to NHL, I had no concept of money, you know, because I didn't know how much, I didn't know the value of money because I grew up on a hundred dollars a month salary in Russia. So when they gave me a, you know, $450,000 my first year, my contract, I didn't know what to do with that.

You know, so me and Vlad had the most expensive cars on the team, both rookies. I had my i think i had a first cell phone i think i had a first cell phone on the team you know i think guys hated us in the beginning because you know he had a bmw 850 i had bmw 740 you know i had my motorola cell phone with a thousand dollar bill a month so uh you were kovalev now hey yeah it was like it came full circle you couldn't stand on the way you came in as the rookie and then you did it when you got to the island yeah but i didn't you know i i live my i enjoy the life you know and so uh we believe the we were raised that you know we live once so enjoy it i remember patrick flatly always telling us

it's not how much money you make it's so much money you save. And he was wearing the same pants over and over every day. The Rob Scuderi special, eh, Whit? Yeah. Yeah. Now, Darius, as a rookie in 1993, you were part of one of the biggest upsets in playoff history. The Islanders knock off the heavily favored Penguins

in seven games. They had won the two previous Stanley Cups. What was the big reason your team was able to pull that off? And were you aware, like, how big of the significance that was when it happened? Oh, yeah, because I knew right before the playoff series started, nobody gave us any chance to win a game. I remember my friends betting, say, if you beat Pittsburgh in one game, we'll buy you a case of beer or something like that.

So I was like, you know we i don't think we had pressure to you know we had no expectations you know we just executed our game plan and uh you know i think by winning uh uh a second game i think of the series they gave us a little hope so we know and then we got lucky a couple of times and you just, you know, and the game seven, anything can happen. I remember in game seven, we're up 3-1, like two minutes left in the game and they scored two goals and we're like, oh shit, you know, I don't think we're going to beat this team. And then, you know, David Wallach, he scored game seven overtime goal,

you know, it happens, you know, but yeah, it was huge. It was very big for us. I think that's why we had no emotional, you know, we emotionally were like so high, so playing Canadians in the semifinals, I don't think we had anything left in our tank. Well, Ari, I think you left out the biggest component. You drove Mario absolutely insane that series, and that was probably one of the biggest standouts.

Had you figured out how to play him, how to make him upset on the ice? Not really, no. Anything you see in my first year was just a reaction. handouts had you figure out how to play him how to make him upset on the ice not really no anything you see in my first year was just a reaction and uh i just played the game uh you know i i i not you know anybody you know uh you know if i play against anybody even mario it doesn't matter i play against anybody like that but unfortunately it was mario uh good for me that was mario because that's probably how people got not to notice me more. But even when I remember he cross-checked me in the back, I was like, who the hell are you, man?

So I remember I get up from the ice and punch him back in the face. And Mario fell. Now he looks stupid. But then I was just reacting to the situation. And of course people loved it. So yeah, we tried to play physical against them, stupid, but then, you know, I was just like reacting to the situation, you know, and of course people loved it. So, uh, yeah, you know, we, we tried to play physical against them, but I think, uh, even, uh, we played in a regular season. They probably killed us. I think like seven, one or something, one game. So I don't think we, we, I don't,

you know, I don't think, uh, when I play the game, I don't have respect for anyone. You know what I'm saying? I respect players because they play the game, but I don't like, oh, I'm not going to hit this guy because he has the name. You know, I just play against anybody the same way. I don't discriminate because the guy is a superstar and, you know, the other guy is a third-line player. You know what I'm saying?

That's exactly why you played so long. And when you came over your rookie year, I'm guessing it was Mario, but was he the one guy or was it anyone else? You were like, holy shit, this is the best hockey player I've ever seen, right? That first year, were there any few guys that kind of stood out? Yeah, Jager was amazing in the 90s, you know. He was amazing. He's still amazing now.

But it was a lot of players, you know. Messier, you know, his leadership, you can sense, you know, when you play the Rangers, you know, you always, that's why I always went after him because I draw him crazy. I think one game he took seven penalties on me. So, you know, I knew if you hit Messier, then everybody's going to come. Adam Graves is going to go after you. Tony Amante, you know, Joe Kosher,

you guys like that, you know. So, you know, it was fun. But it was a lot of talented players. I feel like the league was so much bigger when I came to the league, you know. You had some huge guys playing. I think that's why I'm not a big guy, but I think that was so easy for me to hit players because they were so big.

Darius, I was going to ask you about your jaywalking ticket you got in Calgary. And does that even exist in Russia? It doesn't exist in New York. It was stupid. I was walking on the red light. You know what happened? Actually, I was walking and the car was pulling towards me. And the car flashed or whatever, beeped.

And I showed him the middle finger. And that was a cop you know that's why you know that's but i didn't know there was a cop was undercover cop undercover oh god yes so i just like you know he pulls over on the sidewalk he goes go in the car i'm like no i'm not going to car he goes go in the car i was like for what you say for jaywalking i'm like i'm not going in the car and then uh rob brown and uh? He said, for jaywalking. I'm like, I'm not going in the car. And then Rob Brown and Brad Varenka, they were like, you know, make him follow me. Oh, take his

ID. He's illegal in this country. You have to deport him, you know. They were making fun of me. So I was, I actually was scared. I thought this cop was going to drive me outside of Calgary and, you know, leave me somewhere in the forest. So I told the guy, I'm so sorry.

You know, I left them tickets for the game next day. And I think, you know, I got off easy. But I didn't realize that was a cop, you know? Darius, I want to ask you, Mike Bilberry was your coach for a period in New York. Was he a good coach and did you get along with him? Well, I think Mike appreciates my style of my game, you know what I'm saying? But, you know, it was very emotional and very, you know, open-minded and, you know, a little bit on the crazy side.

I never forget that in the preseason, I think we were playing poker in one of the rooms and Mick McConaughey was very upset with something and so he started throwing beer bottles out of the window. I don't know why. And when I was knocking on the door, it was Mike Milbury

standing. And Mick McConaughey was hiding behind the door. So it was me, Scott Lachance, Marty McInnes and Travis Green. standing and Mick McCoy was hiding behind the door so it was me Conor Chance Marty McInnes and Travis Green and Mike Milbury goes you're fucked

you guys are out so we're like my oh and then you know Mick realized you know we got in trouble

so he tried to fight Mike Milbury in the hotel in the hallway and I think that's the that was the last time Mick McCord

played for the Rhode Islanders someone tried to break it up like how did that all play out yeah my thing

Marty McKinnis and Travis Green tried to break him up you know that's old school hockey right there that's old school hockey

and then the funniest thing was Mick was so mad. So next morning, everybody was supposed to meet in the lobby and we got these big garbage bags as a team. We have to go pick up all the Mick's garbage in the parking lot.

You know, all the bottles and shit. And then it's seen the telephone hanging off the window on the cable. Mick threw the telephone off the window on the cable. It makes for the telephone off the window. Hey, I had one more question about that 93 run. I mean, you beat Pittsburgh, this amazing upset.

And I always wonder for guys in that game, what was your reaction? What do you remember about the Dale Hunter hit on your best player, Pierre Turgeon, after he scored that OT winner? I mean, one of the dirtiest plays in NHL history. I'm wondering if you remember that right off the top of your head. Oh, I remember, you know, it was weird. We were celebrating and we see Pierre, you know, down in the corner, you know, in the corner.

And then, you know, it's become a huge strong that I saw the replay. But yeah, that was very nasty. I think, you know, I don't think Dale Hunter tried to injure him. I think it was just frustrating. And it happened you know, I don't think Dale Hunter tried to injure him. I think it was just frustrating. And, uh, it happened. Unfortunately,

that PR lost his balance and hit the boards. I don't think he tried to, you know, honestly injure the guy, you know, I don't think we, as the players tried to do that. You know,

I totally, you know, I understand his frustration probably. And, uh, and it just happened that, you know, guy got hurt and he was a bad,

bad accident. You played with Ron Hextall for a brief stretch. Did you ever see any snap shows out of him? He was known for losing his cool once in a while. Yeah, Hextall was, you know, I played with two unique individuals. When Ron Hextall came to the team and Keith Acton, you know, Ron Hextall was so tall and Keith Acton was so short. And they always hang out together, you know, badxler was so tall and Keith Acton was so short and they always hang out together

you know bad dressers also I think it's from a Patrick Flatley school of fashion but Ron Hexler was fun you know he was very emotional goalie you know he was uh always chirping you know it was a funny guy in the locker room I You know, I had a good time with him. Did you have an inkling that you were going to get moved over? You ended up going from the Islanders to the Penguins. Did you have any clue that that trade was coming? No, you know, it's weird. What happened, I remember flying home from one of the exhibition games or something like that.

And Mark Milbury was talking to every player on the team. And then he talked to me. He said, listen, I love you. I love the style you play. You're passionate for the game. You're here until I'm here. And I remember packing for the West Coast trip. And I had a phone call that evening.

And Mike Milbury goes sorry casper you got traded to this one i was like you're not real you're not serious he's like yeah i'm sorry i'm like you cannot do that you know they fucking hate me there you know i can't go to pittsburgh because they they basically you know that that was our number one enemy after the playoffs you know every time we're playing pittsburgh after the playoffs. You know, every time I played Pittsburgh after the playoffs, they hated me there. That's why they brought you in. And I was like, shit, you know. I started crying. I was so shocked that, you know, I got traded

because I thought I was going to play for Islanders until I retired. So it was a very painful experience. But then, you know, I come to Pittsburgh and see all the, you know, big power players like Lemieux, Francis, Tamborazo, you know, Jager. I was nervous, you know. I was very nervous.

Was it just bad timing or did he have an inkling that you were going to get traded and then he dropped the, you know, you're never going anywhere while I'm here. And then the same day, hey, bud. Honestly, I have something I heard that Joe Spano, the fake owner of the team, promised Mario. I think Mario asked Joe Spano if he can trade a defenseman for the forward. And I think Mario wanted me, I guess, on the team. So Joe Spano said, yeah, why not?

You can have him. I'm not real anyways i'm here so he traded me i think i think he called he called mike milbury and say you have to trade it you know when the owner tells you to do that or i think you have to ask mike milbury this you know i don't know if he's gonna admit it but i heard that was the scenario why he traded me after telling me he's not going to trade me. That's an incredible story. Let's just pretend it's real. The fake owner traded you because Mario told him to. Yeah, so, you know, but it's okay.

I had a blast in Pittsburgh for six years, and I think that was my best hockey career I had in Pittsburgh. So when you got there, how did the locker room react to you, given the history of what had transpired the previous years i remember the moment i walked in the locker room yaks the younger yager is looking like oh shit not you now we have to wear you go now we have to wear shoulder pads in practice i was like what do you mean you know so i go and practice they have no helmets no shoulder pads i was like what the hell is going on here? You know, it's like freelancing penguins hockey. You know, I was like, wow, this is cool.

So the practice were like 10 minutes. E.J. was the coach. You know, E.J. Johnson. E.J. Johnson. No, it wasn't E.J. Yeah, E.J. I don't know what they're calling me. So, and the skate after practice was if you hit the empty net from the red line,

you don't have to skate. So, I think that was the introduction to Pittsburgh. And everybody played poker on the plane. Like, we had people gambling everywhere. So, I fit right in there, you know, with the players. Were you shocked at some of the numbers being thrown around, especially by Jager? Because I think everyone's well aware that he's not trying to throw

the money around when gambling. I didn't know about these gambling issues in casinos, but we played poker on the plane. A little more friendly game. Maybe you can lose $6,000. $6,000. $95. You also have a blue light special.

So, you know, you lose $6,000. You go like, can I pay $2,000 cash tomorrow? He's like, okay. So, you know, we had blue light special. We had those too. I have a check, actually. I wish I saved it. Written to marry you.

He wrote one to you or you had to write one to him? I wrote it to him. He beat me in poker. Oh, guy got to own the team afterward and he's taking all your guys money I know but yeah I think it was 6,000 no blue light special so that's why he owes me money

60,000 now now back then you know Yago was said to be a moody player so you know when Mario was out he had left for a little while with health issues. You know, when Jager, did his demeanor affect the room at all when he was kind of being moody? Did that have any effect on the team? Not really.

No, Jager, you know, was a special individual. You know, we respected his style of play. And, you know, different players react differently, you know, when they have a competitive spirit, you know, like me, maybe I act with aggression. He acts, maybe sometimes acts like a baby, but he really

means well, you know what I'm saying? And he has high demands from his teammates. And I feel sometimes when I play lunch hockey, I feel like he acts, You know what I'm saying? Because nobody can pass puck to me because they don't read my game, you know? So I think that's how Yager felt frustrated sometimes.

Or big players like Lemieux, where we, you know, blue-collar players cannot pass the puck from six to six. You know, they get upset. Oh, my God. Well, I think of your time in Pittsburgh and, you know, some of the biggest hits you've ever seen in the NHL.

And most notably, you got Lindros with that one. So that's always how you'd played. But all of a sudden you're pissing off different teams as opposed to the Penguins. Like, what do you remember about the Flyers going after you? What do you remember about that Lindros hit? Had to be kind of a crazy time with what he'd been through. You know, when you hit somebody, you don't try to injure the guy. You try to hurt him, but not injure him. You know what I'm saying? You try to, like, send the, you know, when you hit somebody, you don't try to injure the guy. You try to hurt him, but not injure him.

You know what I'm saying? You try to, like, get the message. And I remember hitting Eric. I didn't realize, you know, he was going to get hurt. You know, I thought it was a big hit and people went crazy. But when you see the guy down, you kind of feel a little bit bad. You know what I'm saying? And then, you know, we had a back-to-back game so

next game next day i was playing in philly and that's actually first time in my life i was afraid of my life because people were calling me in my room you know you know sending me weird messages that i gotta die we have a sniper like that so i. So I was like, there was no NHL security in those days, you know what I'm saying? So I kind of, you know, thought it was a joke, but I remember, you know, playing the next day in Philly and most of the time I was in the penalty box because guys would go after me

every single shit, you know, and, you know, that wasn't really comfortable, but, you know, I have to answer my, you know, I have to answer the, you know, what I did the night before. So even though, you know, I was not a fighter, but still try to fight smaller guys than me, especially if they sweets. Were you guys able to,

were you guys able to communicate because you guys ended up playing together in New York? Like, I mean, you talk about awkward entrances into the Penguins locker room. That's probably another one you had to face. Oh, I know what happened at midnight. When you become a free agent, I had a phone call from Eric Lindros and he said, listen, I have no hard feelings against you. I really love you as a teammate. If you decide to play for New York Rangers.

And I was like, wow, that was cool. You know what I'm'm saying he called me actually personally told me if i sign with the rangers there's no hard feelings and they would love to you know be you know as my teammates so uh you know eric was a very classy player even when i played there it was a big goof you know nobody understands that did that sway your opinion at all? Or like, were you still planning on going there? I think money swayed my opinion.

I honestly, when Ray just gave me my contract, I told my agent there was too much money because I was shocked. No, honestly. You know,

when you become a free agent, you feel like, you know, all right, I was making 1.1, so if I make 1.6 or 1.8, I'd be so happy. And when my agent called me, he goes, I was making 1.1, so if I make 1.6 or 1.8, I'd be so happy.

And when my agent called me, he goes, 4.2 a year. I was like, what? Are you crazy? That's too much money, you know? And he goes, don't tell anybody that you think that. The Hamburglar, yeah. That's a lot of Versace jackets. I was going to say.

Versace. That was like Bentley, Ferrari. I actually want to go back to before the Rangers. Now, you actually got traded to Colorado late in the 0-2 season. You only played 11 games for them. Because they were so good, they had just come off a Stanley Cup. Did you want to re-sign with the Avs? Was there any chance of that happening?

Or they didn't meet your money offer? No, I think it was a rental player. It was more like trying to have a run in the playoffs, which we did. Unfortunately, we lost game seven to Detroit Red Wings. But, you know, when I got traded to Colorado, it was a totally different atmosphere. You know, it was, you guys are so, you know, being in Pittsburgh, especially my last couple of seasons in Pittsburgh, you know,

the team was in the financial problems, you know, and we were changing coaches every year. And then you go to Colorado, Stanley Cup champions, everybody's so professional, you know, like kind of geeky, you know, I felt like they were so geeky, you know, they're watching Price is Right, Price is Right before they practice, you know, I was like, I was smoking cigarettes on the way to the rink yeah playing like a game boy on nintendo i was like wow this is weird you know but i play with some great players

um any truth to the rumor that i mean you see it a ton now everybody salutes the crowd the home crowd after a home win were you the first player in player in New York Rangers history to start that trend? And had you done it back home in Russia? No, we used to do it in Europe, Russia, Europe. We kind of, you know, say thanks to the fans for supporting us. So what happened, I remember we play this, we had this overtime shootout against Capitals. And you remember Mario Malik's goal through the legs?

And now it was two guys left on the bench, me and Marek Malik. So we both are like – Brody, he went before you? Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah. Marek Malik. So, no, but I was like, Marek Malik didn't want to go. And I was like to Coach Randy, I go, Coach, put me in, put me in.

Coach goes, I go before you go. Coach. I was like, to Coach Randy, I go, Coach, put me in, put me in. Coach goes, I go before you go. Coach. I was like, what? Are you serious? And then Malik goes, I'm like, what a bad choice. And he makes that move. We like, we went crazy. And then I, you know, we were so excited. So I go, yeah, to

Yaks. Yaks, let's go. I put everybody in the middle and they raise our sticks to the fans. You know, to just, you know, say thank you. And that's what we did. And people went crazy. So we started doing that after every home win. So basically, you know, that's how it started. But I didn't know I was going to, you know, keep doing that now.

And another cool thing is apparently you were Henrik Lundqvist's first road roommate. Not road. He actually was my roommate in my house. Because when he, not roommate, he lived in my house for a little bit with his girlfriend, wife now, Therese. And

yeah, you know, I show Henrik how to live the style of an NHL player. Did you teach him how to do the highlights in his hair? Because wasn't he doing the frosted tips like that back then? No, but I remember me and Kevin Wicks always making fun of him, you know, because he had this different style, skinny ties, shit like that.

So we were like, oh, my God, look at this guy. You know, but, you know, Hendrik is, you know, nobody knew he was going to be a legend, you know. He was just a Swedish guy who came to the league and had a chance to play. And he took his chance and became a legend. Another teammate in New York you had, I guess he's a pretty interesting character, you might say, Bobby Holik. What were your experiences like with him? So Bobby Holik was, yeah, he was different, you know.

He was very, he was actually a very educated person, you know. He always brought his, like, IQ to the next level, you know. So, we both play, you know, with under Glenn Sater, you know. And I don't think maybe our expectations were so high that we didn't meet our expectations. But no, Bobby was a very strong and very powerful forward. I don't, you know, I don't think even that forward like that, that size. Earlier parts of your career when you're on the road and you're always staying

over before the private flights and stuff, were you always going out with the boys? You somebody that loved living it up on the road in the NHL? Oh my God. That was my first year. That's why I quit drinking in 1994 because I couldn't keep up with the guys. You know what I'm saying? And that's the best thing

I ever did, you know? I quit drinking in May 1994 because, you know, every game you play, you go out, you drink, you come home,

you go to practice, then you go out again and drink in the bar. You know what I'm saying? It was just like every day, you know, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, you know? So I think, you know, it was fun, but it was – I don't know, you know, if we can do this.

If we can – today players can do that because, you know, it was constantly going out and having fun. Now, after the lockout in 2005, there were no rules, or I should say they were enforcing old rules. Did you have to adjust your game a bunch after that, considering they were cutting down on a bunch of stuff? Not really, no. I was already, you know, that was coming to the end of my career.

I think I was not using my hip shake as much because I remember a couple times using hip shake. I was called pelvis for clipping, you know, which means you can go below, you know, below knees. So I was trying to play more, you know, different style. And I was very high paid defenseman. So, you know, I have to play more offensive hockey, but not really. No, I didn't realize the change in the game.

I just got older problem. Now the Rangers at one point, they actually loaned it to the russian super league which is now the khl i you know i know teams that do that with ahl teams all the time but was it unusual back then for the ranges to loan you to a team over in russia oh because what happened my salary it was not uh fitting the salary cap of the team and uh i was sent down to harford and uh you warned him hey you warned him i told you i'm making too much and then dan girardi you know dan girardi took my spot they didn't realize he's gonna play that good you know so they had guy who's young and uh making like what three hundred thousand dollars a year and then a guy who's older like

me and making four million dollars or 3.2 because it was a pay cut rollback and shit like that so uh uh so they asked me i remember jim shonfield in harford goes what are you doing here i'm like what do you mean he goes you know this is a development league i'm like yeah what do you want to do retired he goes no what do you want to do you want to go play in russia i'm like sure why not and but they still made me go from Hartford to Toronto for the road trip on the bus. That was my most painful experience ever. You're like, Jim, do you think I want to be here? What do you mean? What are you doing here?

It's not my choice. I know. I know. But that was so crazy. And they made me go to Toronto. They told me I'm not going to play because they're going to send me to Russia. So I go to Toronto. I say, you know what? Let me go for a run. I go

maybe 10-mile run before the game. Then ride the bike for 40 minutes. And then one of the guys get hurt in warm-ups, defenseman. And they go, Casper, can you play? I was like, are you serious? I was like, so basically I played a game. I think I scored two goals. You know?

It was crazy, you know? You know, we don't see as much, I guess you'd call it, fear and intimidation in the league as we used to. Now, if you played in today's NHL, how often do you think you'd get, like, fined or suspended with your style of play? Oh, I don't think I would get suspended. It's so easy now.

I watch the players play, some of the players skate with their head down. You just have to figure out the rules, you know, because I always explain to people, when you commit to the hit, it's hard to change your mind. You know what I'm saying? And with the rules now, you know, it's hard. Like, if I want to go hit somebody

and the guy's skating with his head down and I want to hit him and he does something in the last second, you know, I can't change him. I don't know what he's going to do. You know what I'm saying? And it's different, you know, I can't change him. I don't know what he's going to do, you know what I'm saying? And it's different, you know. I always thought as a kid, look for somebody with a head down and hit him. You know what I'm saying?

But right now, I guess this is a different rules. You know, I don't think you have to hit – you're not allowed to hit a guy with a head down or in a vulnerable position. And I don't know. It's hard to answer the question. But I probably will be still playing the same way. and I don't know it's hard to answer the question but I'd probably be still playing the same way How many of your kids followed up in your footsteps

and play hockey? None of them you know I really love soccer especially Manchester City and my dream city all the time so my dream you know I have three girls which is you know, I have three girls, which is, you know,

you know the board movie? Nice. Yeah, nice. And then I have three boys. One boy plays basketball, but I don't think it's going to be, you know, anywhere good. And I have a boy who's seven. He's a very good soccer player.

And I have a boy who's seven he's very good soccer player and uh and i have a boy who's four gonna be five you know you can play maybe he's gonna play hockey but so far no i can tell you what uh i used to take my four kids to skate with a hockey gear so i would take me 45 minutes to dress them up 45 minutes to drive them then i go go on ice with them, spend two hours skating. And I looked, you know, they had no talent. So I was, why should I waste my fucking time doing all this shit? Because they don't appreciate the game anyways. So I, you know,

my girls play volleyball, boy plays basketball. I hope you broke it to him a little bit lighter than that. No, no, I didn't tell him that. No, I told him that. It's very time consuming. Yeah, it's like golf. Yeah.

Do you watch a lot of NHL games these days? Do you keep track of the league? You know, I don't follow as much as Manchester City. But no, no, I watch Panthers a lot for the Panthers. it's a fun team to watch you know they're very excited you know they play hard they hit they they score you know it's it's it's fun team to watch you know sometimes i go to ranger games in the master school garden sometimes

i go uh you know my you know uh islanders pittsburgh you know it's fun you know, Islanders, Pittsburgh, you know, it's fun. You know, it's fun to be alumni and travel and then, you know, see your old teammates. And, you know, that's, you know, most of the time, that's how I watch hockey. I've been told there were some legendary training summers and skates at Nelson Peltz's house in Connecticut when you were part of the Rangers.

My buddy Merles, who's a favorite of the show, he said he'd be there with you. You brought Ryan Hallweg and Jed Ortmeier, be screaming at him to train harder and stuff. But what was it like there? Because St. Louis and a bunch of guys train there in the summers, right? Yeah, I didn't realize.

I remember these guys, these kids go, yeah, come skate to our house. And I lived like maybe five miles from them. I lived in Armand and they live in Mount Kisco. So I was like maybe five miles from them. I live in Armon. And they live in Montesquieu. So I was like, okay, what should I do? Okay, let me dress up. So I put all my gear, hockey gear, and I drive to the house.

And I realized they have a huge, you know, 100-acre property, you know. And I drive into this ring, which is like almost the same size as, you know, any practice ring they have. And, you know, they see me coming out of my car with my hockey gear on. They're like, what the hell is wrong with this guy? You know, but it was fun.

You know, Nelson Peltz, he led practice. I think a lot of hockey players, especially from Northeast, went through this, you know, system and practiced and practiced their skate, had fun. And the family was very good to me and to a lot of other people. Darius, I don't know if you follow all this analytics stuff. It's all the talk nowadays. Do you follow any of it? Do you understand any of it?

Do you care about it? And is it too much of a factor nowadays? Honestly, I don't follow anything like that, you know, because I don't even know how to sharpen my skates yet. You know, I don't know anything like that, you know, because I don't even know how to sharpen my skates yet. You know, I don't know. They asked me what, you know, what number. I was like, can you just make it sharp? You know, I don't really go into details like that.

I try to simplify my life, you know what I'm saying? Even especially a game of hockey, you know, you put the skates on and you go play. I think there's no analytics in the attitude of the players and sacrifice, you know what I'm saying? So I don the attitude of the players and sacrifice. You know what I'm saying? So I don't really follow that. Fair point.

I guess, you know, you had, like I said, a 14-year career. How do you think you're remembered as an NHL player? What's your legacy in the league that you think you left? Well, I think my home team probably think there's a hard-nosed, you know, passionate hockey player. And if you ask the other, whatever, 26 teams, probably asshole,

dirty player. You know, I hate him. But, you know, I don't care. That means I play my game hard. If people hated me from the other teams, that means they hated me for a reason, not because I was just like some guy sitting on a bench and talking trash.

Absolutely. Well, we want to thank you. We want to thank you for joining. I mean, it was a pleasure to watch you play and to talk to you. It was pretty cool hearing these old stories and how you came to be such a good player. So we appreciate you coming on. Thank you. Thank you for having me, guys.

Thank you so much. Our pleasure, Darius. I don't think we ever laughed this hard before and darius one quick one before you leave so are you still sober did you stop drinking for good yeah i'm still sober actually i uh rediscovered myself in 2006 but i quit i've been uh sober and clean for 11 years wow congratulations man that's awesome you look great man thank you so much. And I'm vegan, dude. Vegan. Oh, look at you.

Don't make fun of me, Jesus. Jesus. I ain't saying shit to you. Vegan for four years. Yeah. All right, buddy. Well, thanks so much. Thanks so much for joining us, Darius.

Thank you so much for Darius Kasparidis. What a career he had. What a warrior he was and a funny bastard to boot. So we really appreciate that. And I need to tell you guys, that interview was brought to you by G4. G4 is an amazing golf gear company, and they got a new lineup for spring of your favorite on-course shoes, the Galavanters.

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G4.com slash chicklets way to crush it with doug thank you i'm just hammering out ads today i love it absolutely yeah buddy uh our weekly ovechkin update uh tuesday in calgary he tied the aramayaga with his second goal of the game and it's 766th of his career uh and then i got sunk on twitter his next game they looked like he was going to score I think it was Kuznetsov who knocked it in uh you know it might have a cross line might not have but either way he's still tied with Jagger it's going to break it soon so we'll keep you on tabs on that a few signings to get to uh Dallas locked up the ageless Joe Pavelski for next season with a 5.5 million

dollar deal could be worth up to six million dollars with games played bonuses i'll get a hundred thousand dollars for 10 20 30 40 and 50 games played also as a no move clause um no no surprise there this guy i mean 37 years old wit fucking looks 27 right oh my god does he ever all right actually i'm forgetting who it was um it might have been a random kid that was playing in the Chicklets Cup that was on a flight with him to the All-Star Game out in Vegas. They're like, that guy's a man rocking. I've been saying since this podcast began, Joe Pavelski is unreal at everything. I guess that includes his looks.

He's a good-looking cat. He's got great hair, a stick golfer. I've mentioned this a million times. The ping pong, doesn't matter what you do, Joe Pavelski's the best at it. I am a little disappointed because I thought he was going to be the number one forward on the market at trade deadline day. But the way Dallas has played, they've turned everything around. They are a team I do not want to see in the playoffs if I'm a top seed and I have to play the stars in the first round. Because that team is buzzing right now.

They got a great setup in net. They got a great setup out front. They got this new age star in Robertson kind of carrying the load. Well, also Sagan and Ben can play in the playoffs and Pavelski, he deserves that. I think he's taken that one year job because maybe he's not even sure how

long he wants to play, but I don't see him as a guy really slowing down because he's never been the fastest skater. He's always been the best tipper in front of the net. He's always been smart and reliable defensively. So it's a contract well-deserved and it's a, it's a, it's a happy, happy staff in Dallas to have him back for another year. No doubt. More tips than a mile with that guy.

Seattle signed for Jared McCann to a five-year $25 million extension. 25 year old has 33 points in 50 games played thus far. Philadelphia extended defenseman at Rasmus Ristolano with a five-year $25.5 million deal. I thought a speculation he might've got dealt. I know Philly gave up quite a bit for him, but they're deciding he's going to be part of their future after a pretty shitty year for that team.

And let's see a little front office action. Norm McIver. He's back in Chicago at the new GM, Kyle Davidson hired him as an associate GM. He was most recently the director of player personnel for Seattle after spending 14 years with the Blackhawks in various roles. So they brought him back into the fold. Other news here,

Colorado defenseman, kill my car. His assist streak ended at 13 games he did break Joe Sackick's franchise record for consecutive games with the helper uh set back on 91-92 and McCarr's assist streak is the fifth longest by a defenseman in league history like we mentioned last week Coffey, Leach, Orr, and Housley the only four more the longest streak than him I've gotten a lot of heat from saying that McCar's locked up the Norris. And the main complaint is about Yossi, which is such a valid argument.

He's got 17 goals now. It's just he's the best player on Nashville. And a lot less offensively to work with. Exactly. And that's what a couple of the tweets. He can lug the mail just as good as McCar. Oh, what? Okay, okay, okay.

You want to fuck it? Go back, go back. Maybe not this year, but in prior years, look up a stat of defensemen that take it from their own zone to the offensive zone, and that is literally the definition of lugging the mail. Grinnelli, help me out, please. But, Biz, if you're saying, okay, okay.

Stat-wise, I'm not even arguing and saying it's that crazy, but I'm saying I test if you watch him carry the puck up the ice as good as it looks. It's not how – And then you watch McCarr. They don't ask how. They ask how many, buddy. Buddy, are you going to have a real discussion with me right now? I'm sitting in this office in Fort Lauderdale.

You watch Cale McCarr carry the puck up ice. You really think Yossi looks the same? Come on, dude. I never Yossi looks the same? Come on, dude. I never said that it looks the same. You said he's as good as logging the whatever it is. In prior years, Roman Yossi. But we're talking about this year. Correct.

He might even still be doing it this year. I'm just saying as far as a defenseman who's able to lug the mail from the defensive zone to the offensive zone, Roman Yossi finds himself at the top of the list year over year. And I said he has even less offensive guys to work with to put up the offensive numbers that he does. And he also leads his team in points. Now, Grinelli, I don't know if you're able to find that stat.

I'm going to hand it over to you. Okay, hold on. Gee, all those things are great points. And the reason I brought this up is because it is a valid argument to say he's locked up. The Norris was probably incorrect by me, but I'm giving it to my car solely saying locked up because Yossi already

has one. Right. That's kind of what I'm going with. And he already has a Norris. Okay. So the controlled exit leaders for the 2021-2022 season were eric carlson uh then roman yosi uh john klimberg um bo and byram thomas shabbo morgan riley uh dimitri orloff uh hiskin in wallman and then Walker. Where's my car?

He wasn't on there. Suck on that. You would be an advanced stats guy. You're an advanced stats guy. I'm talking about watching my car skate up the ice. I'm talking about my car opening up his hips and walking by guys. I feel like he is the best and most impressive to the eye test of seeing a defenseman skate with the puck up ice. I'm sorry, and we can agree to disagree. All right.

R.A., whose side are you picking? His nose. You know, Makar's tough to fucking disagree with, man. The way he, like, just fucking skates. Biz has called him the McDavid of defensemen, and now he's like. I never handed him the Norris. But you called him the McDavid of defense, man. And now he's like, I never handed him the Norris, but you called him the McDavid of defense, man.

And what's he the best at skating with the puck? Well, just like McDavid, just like McDavid, just like McDavid. He's second in line next to Matthews. All right. Okay,

bitch, we can move along. Detroit Ford. Thanks. Thanks. Grinnell, by the way, for looking that up for me.

If you find McCarr on another, maybe it was like the first 10, and then he's on the second 10. Let us know if you can find it. But if not, no worries. All righty, then. Bitch. Fuck you. Detroit Ford, Robbie Fabry.

He's going to miss the rest of the year due to yet another suspected ACL tear, this poor bastard. No, not the same knee, is it? No, this time on his right knee. He's already had the same injury in the left knee a couple times. You've got to feel awful for this poor guy. What he's gone through, he's sort of – not sort of. He has resurrected his career in Detroit. He's been having a great year.

And then this happens again. They had the press conference with Jeff Blaisdell, his coach. And you could tell his coach is so devastated. It felt so awful for him that he's going through the same injury and a different knee again. So, Robbie, man. Silver lining. Silver lining.

If it was the other knee, it could have been the end. So he can come back from this. But that is so brutal. I feel bad for that kid. Biz and I had mentioned we became friendly with him at training camp when we were the class clowns, and he was a young rookie, and that sucks. I feel really bad for him.

Hopefully he gets back healthy for next year. Oh, that training camp, I was like, people are going to scald me for this one. He looked like the next Paul Correaa just an absolute water bug out there i'm like this guy is going to be the next biggest thing in the nhl and then what was it he tore his acl right that training camp that was the first that was the first one oh did you say people are gonna scald you for this scald me like uh is that is that a gold oh scold scold scold scold Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold. So guys, speaking of injury, calorie sap, speaking injuries just over the wire. Jacob Chikorin, he's going to be out the next two to four weeks.

So I don't know how much that's going to play into the trade factor. And we are going to get to all the trade talk coming up here with David Pagnotta. Awesome guy. I don't know who else, but he started the Fourth Period magazine with a couple guys. I used to do some funny-ass photo shoots with these guys, the mustache ride. It can't be printed in magazines and families, though.

If you're a most cringeworthy photo shoots of all time. Oh, I know which one you're talking about now. Definitely, definitely up top biz in the Fourth Period if you guys want to check it out. Okay, we will get to that shortly. you're talking about now. Definitely, definitely up top. Biz in the fourth period if you guys want to check it out. Chaga. Okay, we will get to that shortly. Yeah, the Burby Chaga pick still as I say that.

Chicago defenseman Connor Murphy, he was stretched off the ice with an upper body injury after a hit from Otto's pocket Kelly. Now Kelly was given a five minute major for boarding.

I don't think it was a dirty intentional hit. It was one of those situations where it looked like Murphy might've turned the last second. I'm not assigning blame to him. It's just an unfortunate situation where a guy was down, but fortunately we, we got the Ben Stiller thumbs up.

That's always a good sound. When the guy's getting stretched up the ice, he gives the, the old Ben Stiller thumbs up. He's feeling well. Hopefully he's going to be feeling better going forward. So it's just a tough situation to watch. and this is another thing the Oilers with did you ever wear this wear these steel sperm jersey when you were there uh no I didn't have the honor but that jersey's taking

honor buddy I don't dislike that jersey as much you're talking about I mean maybe it looks like a kind of a sperm but I put it this way gags sam gagne sent me a picture today it's uh he's in edmonton he's doing some signings because the the wings play the oilers um tonight now that you're listening to this on tuesday and he sent me a picture and in the picture he was wearing like the old white jersey they had with like the one blue line it's the work that that jersey they're bringing back with the sperm rocket that's way better than some of the other oilers jerseys i do not dislike it as much as you've been calling out for that i mean the mr stall special the mr hughes rock the rocket launcher i i i don't hate

the jersey i liked it they're bringing it back's different. I think it's a great third jersey. I'm just laughing. Business constant continuation with the fucking sperm jokes. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just not a big fan of it. I don't know. It's like an oil drop that looks like a steel sperm thing. So what are you going to do?

Does it grind your gears? Actually, no. It would make my gears run pretty good because it's like oil and shit. Oh, there you go, buddy. Did you take an edible halfway through the pot or a band? No. You all right over there? Are you melting into that new chair of yours?

I could be. No, I'm laughing my balls off at you two because you fucking make me laugh my balls off. Did you hear me say that your gears run on cum is what you're saying? If it would help your gears move smoothly and you're calling it cum? Whoa. What do you mean, whoa? You said it would make my gears run smoothly, but it's sperm. No, I meant oil.

Oil, that's what I'm saying. Not sperm. I meant oil. Oil would make my gears run. All right. This is a grindy gears. I said, no, oil would make my gears run. All right.

Yes or no. 250K cash. Would you drink a one ounce shot of sperm? Not your own. Whose? Whose? The fact that he's asking whose means it's a yes. Well, I mean, animal, animal.

Frank the tank. Frank the tank. I was just going to say Frank the tank. the tank i was just gonna say frank the tank really i love the minute he said who and i i was like who's well that's why i asked about animal person but if it's like sperm who cares what the part like you don't well because sperm sperm and semen the two different things all all semen not all semen has sperm and sperm is like you can separate from semen yeah exactly right so careful before you give me a proposition like that because i'm gonna bust the lawyers out on your asses yeah no honestly business this it's gonna take a lot of money for me to drink jizz 500k

cash a lot of money a lot of money 750k a lot of money i mean i for me to drink a shot of well i will just say jizz, whatever you want to call it, sperm semen, whatever, whether they had a vest like me or not. Fuck, man. Like, if it's George Clooney would start with fucking... Why does the looks of the person matter?

Because you're fucking... I mean, it's like, I guess, like, blowing a guy. I mean... I think you want a vegetarian. Oh, it is not like blowing a guy. I mean, as far as swallowing, you're swallowing the load, whether it's in a shot glass or you're taking it. I think we've lost every single listener.

It's just us at this point. Hey, you idiots. I'm just trying to play the role here. It would take a lot of money for me to fucking do a shot alone. I threw up in this guy's office, unfortunately. I mean, fuck, man. All right, let's let's let's let's let's move along here

before we lose more of our audience. Team USA when it's fourth straight gold medal and fifth overall at the Paralympics when they beat team. I'm sorry, Team Canada 5-0. So congrats to the boys on another victory. Josh Paul's great job

brother. They have a wagon they're the they're the dynasty of sled hockey right absolute wagon no doubt about it no doubt about it whatsoever so they're the no voice killer of sled hockey sled hockey there you go all right you already mentioned the minnesota state hockey tournaments lots of good highlights coming out there lots of good highlights as well uh the trade deadline, we're going to get to that with Dave Pagdart in a second. We discussed most teams with him. I'm not sure if there were any other things you wanted to bring up before we

got to Dave. We obviously talked about Giordano. Pierre Lebrun said that Seattle's going to be trying to unload him. Possibly Jonas Donskoi, Callie Yonkro. Jake DeBrus, do you think he gets Zeltan on? No. No, no, Yonkro, uh, Jake to brush. What do you think he gets Elton on? No,

no, no, no. Things have changed. He asked for a trade since then. He's played the best hockey of his career. The Bruins are buzzing. I don't,

I cannot say that he still doesn't want to be traded, but the Bruins can't mess with what's going on right now. They're hunting down business leafs. They're hunting down a top three spot from, uh, being in the division and not a wildcard team. And I think DeBrus stays. He looks good. All right.

We talked about Marc-Andre with Dave, but a couple of Blackhawks, Brandon Hagel, Calvin DeHaan, Dominic Kubelik, Biz. Do you think these guys end up elsewhere? I don't give two shits. He doesn't even know who they are. I don't even know. They play in the NHL? All right, motherfuckers. Then with that said, we're going to go to Dave Pagnotta.

This interview is brought to you by our friends at Sling TV. If you love watching live sports, but you're tired of the high prices, it's time to take control of your TV experience. It's time you got Sling. Sling is the place where your favorite sports channels like ESPN, FS1, TNT, and more come together for less. Watch exclusive basketball content and past episodes of Chicklets, The Yak, and Stool Streams.

We have our exclusive channel on Sling as well. And it's the cheapest way to watch college hoops, the NBA playoffs, the entire Formula One season, and a bunch more. Sling is easy to set up, it it's easy to use and there's no contracts sign up now try it absolutely free whatever you're into biz well might want to be careful saying that's you sling is where you can find the live sports you love all in one place go to sling.com slash barstool to sign up now and try it for free and now we go to david pegdon of the fourth period and the NHL Network.

What's up, Witt? Quickly before I shout out Sling, but a little breaking news. The Colorado Avalanche have added to their team by trading for Josh Manson from the Anaheim Jocks. Get the fuck out of here. What a trade. That's a great trade. The Colorado Avalanche went and got a playoff type performer a dirty mean

motherfucker to play in front of the net and make colorado even better than they already were why'd they give up before i don't know i just saw it hit twitter i just saw it hit twitter we'll go we'll go to pegna now and we'll discuss this a little bit if we have the details after so here's daveano. Thank you so much for joining. And now it's time to bring on our trade deadline correspondent this year. You know him from the fourth period in the NHL network, and he's making his debut

on Spitting Chicklets today. David Pagnano, thanks so much for joining us on the podcast. How's it going, my man? Going great, boys. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Your phone lines must be burned up. We got another

week for the deadline. Who's the guy most likely to stay where he is and not going anywhere? I mean, we're hearing a lot, but he's going to stay put. Probably Klingberg in Dallas. I mean, as much as I think everybody knows in that situation, this is last year as a star,

but the injury to Heiskanen or the illness to high skin in with mono and with the team in the thick of things in the playoff race it just sounds like they're going to hang tight for the most part and i don't think clingberg unless they get blown away i think he's sticking in dallas for the rest of the season any truth to the rumor hayes can and garth for making out with every cocktail server at model blonde in dallas or is that just a rumor over the airway how much of an insider are you pegs that's like yeah yeah uh there's there's certain things i can't say and certain things i can't but you never know it's i've heard yeah bottle blonde maybe the

moxies over there you never know oh the moxies is pretty deadly yep you never know the sparklers will get you every time that's that's true they do a good job over there i mean when you're in the sick when you're in the sixth grade business it was the kissing disease so that's that's true they do a good job over there i mean when you're in the sick when you're in the sixth grade business it was the kissing disease so that's that's the automatic joke right well how else do you get it lack of sleep i don't know no i don't know how that works straight up making out okay we don't have any capologists or doctors on here so we'll stick to the trade talks right well actually talking about the trades it seems like right now nothing's happened since Toffoli went to Calgary. A lot of people are saying that it may end up being real slow, which usually ends up backfiring when all of a sudden the trades start flying in. But what's your opinion in terms of the action leading up to Monday?

Because many years before this, we've seen all the deals kind of get done and James Duthie gets stuck holding the bag for TSN for 15 hours. Are we worried about nothing really going on at all this year or just you think it'll pick up a little bit? I think it'll pick up. I mean, you know, you go back to last season with like there was, I think, day 12 to 5 leading up to the deadline. I think there was one trade and then 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And then it just kept going. I think there were six trades the day before the deadline last year. And then D-Day was pretty solid.

It wasn't the greatest, but it was pretty solid. There was activity. I think we're going to follow that trend this year. Cap plays a big factor in it. A lot of teams are waiting on – like, there's a ton of D that are out there, right? And teams are trying to see, all right, well, is Anaheim – are they going to sign Lindholm? Are they not? Is he going to walk? Is he going to test the market does that mean they're

going to trade him and then that because they he's right up on everyone's list right and then if he gets moved or if teams find out they're not going to be able to afford him then it's charotte giordano it's dahan some of the other guys that are out there so we got a mix between the cap situation and then just guys kind of waiting and that's for the most part why the market is so quiet at the moment for the way that anaheim's trending you think that they would try to load up on picks and prospects because they have manson raquel and also lindholm so two two pretty solid sought after d who are hitting uh ufa this off season do you see them kind of selling off and giving up on the season, so to speak?

I think, like, they don't want to divert from their kind of rebuild plan out there. So it makes the most sense. Now, they're still trying to see if they can get Lindholm locked in. The mindset was for him, at least from what I was told, was that he wanted to test the free agent market.

And now with Verbeek coming in as the GM, can he convince him to stick around? Can they make it work? He's open to it. I think, but it doesn't sound like they're getting there. So I think, I think they're going to go that route. I think Raquel's gone. I think Manson Manson's the bubble guy in Anaheim of all the, all their guys that are out there. And Deloria is another guy that a lot of teams like as, as a bottom six guy. So Manson wants to stay.

Can they work that out? And that's also one of the reasons I think they haven't pushed the contract side too much with him. Because I think they know he wants to stick around. Plus, the Leafs would love to have this guy, but he's on their no trade. Or on his no trade. And just like Edmonton. Those are two teams that want to get this guy.

But Edmonton and Toronto are two teams on his no trade. so it doesn't sound like he's willing to wait toronto end up on somebody's no trade uh have you seen other fans that is you idiots yeah it's not easy up here guys like i know like there's a lot of bs that goes around as you guys know but this this market here in toronto is – you can have a great game one day and a decent one the next, and you'll be plastered all over the city and chirped on the radio and everything. I jumped on Drager's bandwagon, and now is this one still a possibility? Sid to the abs. I know people think I'm crazy, but maybe more so as a mentor

and a guy who could maybe calm McKinnon down because he's a fucking snapshot out there. He's just busting out these all over the place. I can't do that. Can't do that. My bad. I think for the most part, I mean, look, they're trying to – Pittsburgh's trying to get Geno and Letang locked in

to some extensions, right? So I think, I don't know. I don't think that's going to, I know. You can tell me I'm a fucking idiot. I know you're pushing it. You're pushing it. Look, it makes sense, but I don't see him leaving Pittsburgh. Okay.

What are you hearing that Letang and Malkin want money-in term-wise? I don't think it's going to be overly – I mean, you're definitely not getting into the long – Yeah, it's nothing crazy. I think they both have an understanding. If you're looking at like a three-year term for both of these guys, and then money-wise, probably around what they're banking in now. It might be a little less.

Wow. On Geno's side of things, might be less. I think Letang, for me, he's still one of the most underrated defensemen out there ever, the way that Letang plays. I don't think he gets enough credit for how good he's been. So I'm not sure where the money is going to really be, if it's going to be similar to where he's at. But I think shorter term, I think for Malkin, it'll be obviously less

than what he's pulling in now, but I think for Latang, it'll be in and around that ballpark. So to clarify, Sid, not going to the abs, uh, any possibility, any possibility that flower ends up back in Pittsburgh and, or where the fuck is flower going? And please tell me the Toronto Leafs at least if not I'm logging off this goddamn zoom call yeah sorry buddy I don't I can't see it being the Leafs um I'm sorry I don't like I don't see him if he's gonna go for it he's going for he like he's going for it again and as much as there's a ton of talent on the Leafs I think there's still too many holes from a playoff perspective, from the way that these cup winners are built.

I think there's still too many holes on this team. They're filling them, but I don't think they're there yet. Pittsburgh is, I will say, that's the stealth team for me with Flower. As a backup, going in there with Jari, they got to make the money work. Chicago has to eat half.

They might have to get another third team in there. And there are teams that are willing to do it. But I think if there's a stealth team that comes into the mix, I could definitely see it, see it being picked. I still think Colorado is going to end up figuring something out here, but I wouldn't be shocked if it's Pittsburgh. Colorado's going to figure something out to get flour, to get flour in there. Yeah. Yeah. Again, similar. It's, it's a money situation. And, and Kemper has,

has really stepped up lately, but I think going into the stretch, if you can get another guy that's capable of really holding it down and you're getting flour, let's say, what is it? Three and a half, two million, less than 2 million. If it's really 75 cents on the dollar. 1.75. There you go. There you go. Good job, Matt.

Then, yeah, I think they would jump at that. It makes a lot of sense now with the Landis-Kog surgery and the Girard on the LTIR about Giroux possibly going to Colorado. We've been hearing that that seems like such a natural fit. What are you hearing in terms of him? And he's made it clear he wants to play his 1,000th game as a Flyer, which will be Thursday. But after that, what are we looking at?

Is Colorado the front runner there, or is it just too hard to say? I think Florida is right there. I think the Cats would love to get their hands on them, and I think that they are in the thick of things trying to make it happen if there is a front runner i'm kind of leaning florida's route i think the abs would like to make it happen the issue with colorado and the injuries i think landis cog is after the surgery which i think he's having today monday i think it's a four or five week window now unless there's aback, there's seven weeks left in the season. So unless there's a setback, he may have to come back early and that eliminates that seven plus million of his potential LTI space. So that's, that's the tricky part. And despite contrary, you know, to popular belief with Tampa and Vegas and all, the league looks at this and they keep tabs on everything. So if he's ready to go in five weeks and they hold him off for two, the league's going to step in.

Wow, you think so? That's the tough part. I don't know. How are they deciding on Stone? That's a hard thing for the league to come in because the guy can be like, I'm not ready. That's a difficult thing to get into the water with, you know? They're going to have, yeah,

and they have their doctors that review everything and check things out. And, I mean, if it's a matter of a couple days or something like that, give or take, then it's a walk to let it go. But if it's a two-week window and he's ready in four and he hits the ice and he can start going in five, they're going to look at that. And they made that clear to teams again this season

that if you're trying to push it and trying to really extend things as much as you can, we're going to be on you for it. I got one quick one, R.A., before you hop in here. The Giroux to Florida, Talkett said it best. It seems like overkill. They have one of the best, if not the best, high-flying offenses in the league. They aren't really dealing, I don't think at least, with injury up front.

Why would you want to mess with that chemistry? Who are they going to get rid of to bring them in? And maybe is it like a cock block type of situation so other teams don't get them? I think that's part of it. I think that's part of the scenario where it's okay, well, are the Rangers in it? Are they pushing?

They've had those conversations. Do we feel we're enough to be a cup contender and do we want to meet colorado in the final with jeru on it i think that's playing a factor in it but i think it's the same time for this team it's we're so stacked and bobrovsky solid and the decor is solid go all in and they can afford to do it in terms of what they can give up because they they've got a loaded farm. They've got a lot of good assets. So it's the go for it, go big or go home kind of mentality. I'm not saying it's going to happen for sure, but they're in there.

They've been in on Lindholm. They were in on Klingberg for a while. They're trying to make something big happen in terms of what's available. It would not shock me at all. I think they're right up there. Trade for Giroux and Halpham. Well, and they made an offer. Yeah, that's the other one.

They made an offer for Chikrin in January that didn't go down. And then now apparently I was reading some things. I think it was LeBron mentioning that they're not in the mix. So, yeah, Florida is obviously somewhat big game hunting right now. Yeah, they are. Yeah. Arizona wanted Lindell as part of as part of it. Exactly.

That was not. Yeah. So I can show you in three years. Yeah. That's good. Hey, Dave, what guys are all but guaranteed to be somewhere else in a week? Sherrod Giordano. i'd put money down on raquel i think that's i think he's done unless they really convince as i said winholm i think

his mindset was set on as i said earlier testing the market in the summer um i i put up him up there calvin dehan's gonna get moved um trying to think who else what about what about phil the thrill out in Arizona? Yeah, they got to get creative there. Cause he's, he's at a, I mean, it's the cap hit. It's not the money. I mean, it's his 5 million bonus was paid July one. It's only a million bucks that's getting spread out in salary, but he's got a $6.8 million cap hit. So if they eat half of that,

you're still probably going to need another team and it can't be them. So you're going to need another team and it can't be them so you're going to need another team buffalo maybe the habs maybe ottawa seattle to retain a chunk of that too so if they can pull that off i think phil's yeah gone but i think it really comes down to how creative they can get cap wise uh thomas hurt i poked around about him it sounds like he really wants to stay there san jose really wants to keep me the last thing they want to do is trade him you get that same sense yeah yeah i think they're close i think we're probably in the next couple of days here sometime this week we're going to get a good indication um on on him i think i think it's close uh probably going full term seven eight years

to keep him there in in san jose but they they've made it clear that was their priority, and he likes it there. So he's also said, you got to pay me. And I don't blame him. So I think they're getting there. Anything on Tampa? You know, I don't know necessarily how many guys in the minors in the prospect pool as to who they can give up. I do believe they have some first-rounders they can.

Do you see them maybe giving up another first-rounder in order to add to the bottom six of that team, or maybe even on the back end? I don't think they need anyone on the back end, though. No, yeah, bottom six, you're right. I think, well, Tyler Mott's the guy in Vancouver that they'd like to get, and his cap hit's only 1.225, I believe. So it's a low cap hit.

If you get Vancouver to eat half, I mean, that's whatever, 600, 700,000. So, and change. The problem is they legit have no space. So if they're moving somebody, if they're bringing in somebody, excuse me, probably someone is moving out. They got to get really creative. Cooper's going to go on the long-term IR, I heard. Right.

A little bit of his. My insiders tell me that anyway a guy a guy that uh i actually hate because he beat us in a sand bagger uh because of a scumbag drop by his partner zach wierenski but andrew cop i saw an injury happen recently but i mean i gotta imagine he's a guy that would be on every team every team radar whether if he's healthy or not. What have you hearing out of Winnipeg? Yeah, no real contract talks either. And he's a UFA. So, yeah, that's another one for teams that are looking at the bottom six like Tampa would love to get them. I don't know how they make that money work at all, even if it's half or even if it's less than that. Toronto, the Rangers, there are a few other teams that are looking around and seeing how they can get somebody of his caliber that they can bring into their into their bottom six um

so i i think i think the writing's on the wall for the jets i think it's just a matter of them kind of eating it and realizing it's not going to happen this year and then him and paul stassny's the other guy uh if you're looking for a vet up the middle for your fourth line or something like that he's another guy that they're going to listen on. In your opinion, what happened with Winnipeg this year? Was Maurice leaving that much of an effect, or was this team going to do this regardless of who coached them, the way they were constructed?

Yeah, it kind of looked like they were just going to – they were having that down season. I mean, as good as – look, Kyle Conner is having an amazing year, top five in goals. But, you know, they had some injuries and, you know, Wheeler wasn't there full term in terms of on the ice and Shifley got hurt. And he hasn't been the same kind of guy he was in the past.

Hellebuck hasn't either. I think that it was just kind of like a perfect storm for them of guys just not being able to hit what they're normally used to. So I think it's just an off year for that team. But it also shows that and reemphasizes the fact that they got holes on that blue line. They still don't have that stud back there that can really kind of guide a defense. They got some good guys, but not that clear cut one. It's going to be tough for them to get it.

But I think they're going to be looking this summer to try to figure that out. What about in Boston where they have just played some phenomenal hockey lately? Craig Smith and Charlie Coyle have picked it up, and now you're looking at a team whose window is kind of small. I mean, it's like now or never, it seems. What are they looking at? I know they're looking for D help. Are they just in the mix on all these D that are out there?

I mean that, and they're also, they're also poking around to see what kind of guys may fall. The price may fall on a few guys up front, like Raquel and, and a few others. So it wouldn't surprise me at all. If they get on, on that game, the thing is like, there's so many defensemen that are out there. The prices are probably going to drop for some of the depth kind of guys but in terms of forwards there's not that many i mean top six guys there's two or three and then you got a bunch of bottom uh bottom six guys if you're really

looking and it's not just boston but other teams if you're really looking to bring in somebody of of legit value to your forward core they're probably going to have term on it. Like Pittsburgh would love to bring somebody in on the left side on the second line. But if you're doing it, you're probably getting a guy with term. So it's a bigger type of deal. I think for the Bruins, probably focus on a depth D.

And then if something falls in your lap because the price dropped for a guy up front, then you kind of pounce on it. Unless I've blacked out over the course of the zoom call i don't think we've talked about jt miller and then all of a sudden i keep hearing that vancouver is very interested in marino so is that a possibility for a top six and jt miller to maybe go over to pittsburgh and then flopping for a young prospect d like marino i think it's connor garland I think Garland is the guy.

I think they want to keep JT Miller. And he's especially throughout all this and all the talk and all the speculation that's out there. I mean, he's voiced it. He's saying it's a lot for us to take in. And we've got to hear this crap every day. And I get it. It's not easy.

But I think they want to hold on to him. I think they're trying to figure out a way to keep them long-term. They'll figure it out in the summer. There's no rush because he's got another year on his deal. But I think him, Brock Besser are the two guys that are out there in terms of the talk. I think they want to hold on to these guys. I think Conor Garland is the guy that they're trying to move or are more willing to move, I should say. And I think that's where the centerpiece is around with Pittsburgh. Why so quickly on the Garland? Has it not worked out there?

He's been solid. I just think it's a different mentality. You know, Benning and that cruise out. So now you've got Rutherford and Alvin. I just think those guys, they have a different mindset for how this team is going to be shaped. And do you want this guy, if he's not going to connect on your top six do you want that kind of player at that money on your third line doesn't sound like they want that i would it may not happen by the deadline and this this is this is the one that i hope happens quite frankly because it's it's going

to be a bigger hockey type trade and that always spices things up but i think that's more likely to happen in the summer i look over to Philly and the disappointment there this year and everyone was like, oh, Ristolano available. And now all of a sudden he resigns and Provorov's playing the worst hockey of his career. What's going on in Philly besides Giroux? Are they looking at all options? Yeah, they are.

I mean, you've got Justin Braun. That's another guy very likely getting moved. I would probably say he is. And that's a guy that is up there. I think he's about 35. But, I mean, there are teams that definitely value what he brings to the table. But they're – I mean, look, if they get something creative going with Travis Konecki and they can make a bigger type of deal,

like we were talking, like Vancouver-Pittsburgh, that kind of arrangement, if it's a talent-for-talent swap and maybe you add a bigger type of deal, like we were talking, like Vancouver-Pittsburgh, that kind of arrangement, if it's a talent-for-talent swap and maybe you add a few things in there, I think they're open to that possibility. They almost traded him in the summer. And teams have been poking around again. So I could see that happening. Travis Sanheim is playing great this year.

But I think there are some teams that really like this guy. And again, this might be a summer-type deal because these are so much more complicated with guys with term. But I mean, they're open to that possibility. I think connecting more so than Sandheim right now, but Philly's just looking at their roster going, we need to, there's no rebuild happening in Philly, not with the message coming from up top.

It's figure it out on the fly and let's get back into playoff mode next season and figure it out quick. I just got a text from Grinnell. Now this one sounds juicy, especially the, the, the reuniting with Panarin. I have no idea where you're headed right now. I don't know if it's the, I don't even care if it's a fucking rumor. Oh, Kaner to the Rangers. Is this an actual possibility?

Tell me it is. I think they've reached out. I think they've talked. I know that Colorado and a few other teams have reached out and said, hey, when you're ready, give us a call. I don't know if it happens now, but I think Chicago is going to have that conversation with them if they haven't already and pat his agent and say, look, this is what we're going through you got another year left on your deal

um I know you're saying all the right things publicly and and it's a good thing he is but I think probably in the summer we're going to hear more about this if it doesn't happen now I think in the summer you're going to hear more. And look, the Rangers make a ton of sense because of Panarin. Reunite those guys. They've got money. They've got space. This could be something. I know guys are going up in the summer.

I've got my hands in my pants right now. There you go. Keep talking. Get that sock. And I think it's something we're going to hear more about, definitely. The Rangers are interesting because I don't think they really have a team that can win the stanley cup not yet but when you have a goalie like this realistically you could you you could get it done so it's like are they are they just so early and where they are they ahead of where they thought they'd be and so they're kind of

standing pad or is drury really making calls and looking at what's going on no he's looking yeah i think they are ahead but at the same same time, I think this is another scenario where if the right thing kind of falls in place, why not? Like, go for it. They've got cap space this year. They've got about $10 million next year. And, yeah, I know they've got Strome that they're going to have to figure out and a couple other guys.

But, I mean, look, the Kane thing, if he does go anywhere, it's not at the $10 million. Chicago's going to eat some of that money. And is it half? Is it 60%, 70%, whatever it is? You're going to get him at less than his cap it, and you're going to get him at above market value. You're getting a deal, basically, in terms of the dollars

when it comes to to kane if he is if he is moved so i think if the right thing falls into place with the rangers i think drury is open to pretty much anything at this point it's just a matter of is it going to happen now over these next seven days or is it going to happen in the summer another team that's out of norfolk the island is dave are they going to sell any assets? I know Clutterbuck's one of the few UFAs they have. Are they just going to write it off as, shit, we had a bad year and just start next year over?

Or are they going to maybe try to move some pieces, maybe get some picks or prospects? I think a combo. Like, I don't see them just moving out, like, Parise and Green and Char are all UFAs too. I don't think they're just going to get, like, move these guys for the sake of it, unless one of them goes to Lou and says,

look, I wouldn't mind chasing a cup. I'm a free agent. What do you think? But other than that, they're listing on Clutterbuck. They're listing on Varlamov, who's got one year left, which makes it a little more difficult. And it may affect the value too. I was talking to a few people around the league, and they're like,

well, would it make sense to trade him now when there is, there are other goalies in the market and teams are up against the cap. You're probably going to get a less return for him now than you would in the summer. And Lou just wants to, if he's going to move him, he's, they're just going to max the return. So I think for the most part, it's going to be fairly quiet on the Island. If they figure something out with Barley, great. Otherwise clutter buck for a pick. if they figure someone out with Barley great otherwise Clutterbuck for a pick and that might be the gist of it another team too

the LA Kings I'd say this is a surprise for them and their fans are they just going to kind of maybe try to pick up some depth do you see them swinging for the fences at all and B is Todd McClellan going to win the Jack Adams man the way that they've been playing this year I mean they've just been lately

just ruined with injuries. I mean, Dustin Brown's going to be out. It might be till the end of the season. They've got Anderson out. They've got a finesse you out. They've got a bunch of guys before all these injuries. I mean, and they're still in the thick of things for chicken. They would love to get him.

And I think if we're talking about frontrunners on anyone, I think LA's in that mix. And they're also looking for a top six guy with term. But then all these injuries happen, and it complicates things a little bit. I think they get into the rental game a little. I don't think they go for any of the bigger boys, but I think they try to shore up their roster a little bit,

bring in some depth guys that can hold the fort down until some of these other guys kind of come back. But, yeah, I mean, look, the way that Todd's been kind of running the team this year, I think a lot of people expected them, maybe they're going to fight for a wild card. But second in the division right now, I don't think anybody pegged him in that top three. So he's done a really good job, not only from that perspective, but also Sean Walker was supposed to be a top four guy for this club. And he's been out pretty much since the first month of the season.

And they haven't really – and Edler's been hurt. So they haven't really brought in anyone outside the organization to kind of help that. And they're still rolling. So I think he deserves a ton of credit for the way that he's kept this team together in the hunt. What are we thinking about come Monday, 3, 3, 3 30 Eastern? Do the Leafs have another goalie on an, on an airplane going to Toronto?

What is going on there? Like they have to, right? Because would you agree, would you agree that if they lose in the first round Dubas is gone? Oh God. I think they're going to have that discussion. I think they have to. I mean, like, I don't know if they actually pull it off, but, I mean, it's either Florida, Tampa,

or if they fall into a wild card spot, it's Carolina. I don't think they're better than any of those three teams. I don't. So I don't think they're better than any of those three teams. I don't. So I don't know what they pull off. If it's a goalie, again, it's not going to be anybody that's going to really – unless they're going after John Gibson, like unless they're going after a legit number one somewhere, I just don't see it.

I don't see the point. Yeah, Mrazek's been not that great I mean last night or yesterday makes a big glove save everybody's all hyped up and then boom right right let's not talk about that we don't need to talk about that something that yeah sorry but yeah but uh it's just I don't know if they get to go I think they still prioritize the you you mentioned Giordano is a for sure move is he going back to calgary is that is that most likely going to happen uh i still think they like charlotte i think they still want to pull something off there for charlotte now if that if the price is a little too high and it's less for giordano and seattle is going to

eat half his deal i don't know exactly if that's enough from a money side of things to make it work but i think he's definitely i mean mean, they're talking about it. So I think Sherrod's still their priority in terms of B, but that could happen. Look, Florida's there. Carolina's had the talks. Toronto as well has had the discussion. So, and Toronto's a team, whether you're a righty or a lefty, just come in, we need somebody. So they're looking at both angles. Are the Habs going to play themselves out of a good,

out of good lottery odds at this stage? Yeah. Way to go, Marty. Stay in touch. Yeah. I mean, look, it's, it's good to see the kids really rolling. You know, Sherrod's going to go. So how's that going to affect, and he's been, what, I think nine points and 10. He's been good Kulak, probably a good chance. He's, he's dealt as well. Lacking in, I mean, are there going to be other pieces that they could potentially move out?

Is a team going to look at Mike Hoffman and say, all right, if the price isn't too high, he's got a few years left. Maybe we go this route. But I mean, look, the way Caulfield's playing and Suzuki and Pitlick and Josh Anderson and those guys, like St. Louis really gotten these guys and their confidence back in at, at where it should be. I still think they're going to be a bottom three, but you know, and then we'll see where the balls drop. But I mean, he's doing a hell of a job. I think he sticks around as well.

I think he's locking in. What about I know it's been an off year, but the four or five years prior Jeff Petrie was, was a legitimate top four defenseman. And, and, and he's got a little term. Is there any rumblings that, that teams would be looking for him because I feel like if you need a D you believe he can get there and kind of turn everything around this year and

really help a contender. Yeah. And he stepped up to like, since the change, like Sharad's been coming in with a bunch of points and playing great at both ends. Petrie's woken up as well and kind of gotten things going with them and the mindset there hasn't changed like he still would like to be traded they've told him that if we can make something work we'll do it but don't bank on it being deadline time so if it doesn't happen now it'll probably happen in the summer but i think both sides kind of understand that and they're

cool with it uh but yeah that's another guy and and because of the term is it going to be a lower price for him versus I mean a bigger like like again Sherrod or Lindholm or something like that so teams got are trying to weigh that out but I know Dallas was in on him or at least had a conversation a while back because he's got term and they were going to clingberg was going to leave at some point but i think this is going to be petrie's last year in montreal i think we've literally asked you about every single guy in the league at this point if there's if there's one guarantee trade that's going to happen before monday let's let's hear your stamp of approval right now calling your shot.

You can't tell me one? I can't. I can't. Like, I can tell you – well, I told you guys that are going to move. But whether it's – like, if St. Louis comes out of nowhere and says, all right, we're going to pay up and get Lindholm, then, I mean, I wouldn't expect it. But the Blues are on – they're looking for a D as well. So, I wouldn't expect it, so I wouldn't call them.

But it wouldn't shock me. So, like I said, the guys that I think are going to go that I mentioned So I wouldn't expect it. So I wouldn't call them, but I wouldn't shock me. So I could, like I said, the guys that I think are going to go that I mentioned, I think they're gone, but it's going to come down

to what team kind of flinches first. All right. Well, let's hope for a... Just give us activity, right? Yeah, manic Monday, at least if not leading up to it. I think there'll be

a ton of things that end up going down, but hopefully it's kind of, you know, if not leading up to it. I think there'll be a ton of things that end up going down, but hopefully it's kind of, you know, that Monday afternoon sprint to the finish. But we really appreciate you coming on, and it's a long time overdue, so we appreciate it, Dave. You got it. Thanks so much for having me, guys. My pleasure, Dave. Sit to the abs.

I want to say thanks a bunch to Dave of the Fourth Period and the NHL network for joining us for the first time. We appreciate his insight. The guy is wired into all the goings on the NHL. So big, thanks to him. His interview was also brought to you by our friends at Taylor made, and I'll leave it to our golf buddies. I'll take it over here. It doesn't matter if you've got a quarter swing, a half swing, the new carbon wood driver is now in stores.

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the family. So check it out. How about me crushing that fucking ad read? And folks, like I said, it doesn't matter if you got the half swing, the quarter swing, I'll be carrying the team and the sandbaggers with this in my bag suck it with why are you saying suck it we're partners bud i don't know why i said that i kind of panicked at the end i'm sorry instincts thanks my apologies i'm sorry but i have carried us last two minutes oh well we talked about uh one boston sports legend earlier with um tom brady well another one had his number retired this

weekend kevin garnett i know you're not the biggest nba guy but this is a pretty significant thing man i mean the celtics would kind of dome it for a while they won their uh next nba title 2008 they almost won the one the next year uh And it was pretty cool because him and Ray Allen, they've had some disagreements over the years, and Ray Allen flew in town for it. He called them out during the retirement ceremony. It's just a pretty cool ceremony. Did you catch any of it?

My dad was at the game with a good buddy and said it was pretty cool. Garnett, I'm not a big basketball guy. Everyone knows that sick league but he's he is the alt the like the ultimate competitor lunatic leader you want i mean that anything's possible screaming into the camera after they won it all was an all-time moment um just a just a lunatic on the court the shit talking and i mean dropping more n-bombs than anybody oh my god he was a he was just he was vicious i think people were afraid of him what happened between him and ray allen is it because of when alan left for the heat all right that was supposedly what happened yeah he was he was pissed

that ray left for the heat and he thought they could have you know possibly went on the title and yeah he's not wrong about that and he was upset about it for a while and there was always a bunch of controversy and friction with him. But the fact that Ray Allen flew in for his number retirement, and he called him out to bring him out on the court, and then when Paul Pierce runs out and they did their triple hug, man. Look, I'm a Bird Chief McHale guy. I'm an 80s Celtics guy.

But to see that, I don't know how your heart would move. Even as a Celtics fan and NBA fan to see like Paul Pierce run out and hug those two guys. It was awesome. It was like, okay, bygones are bygones. They buried the hatchet. It was stupid that they probably argued about it anyways. But yeah, it was a great thing. And I know it felt like this team should have won more titles here, but they brought the champion status back to the celtics and i think they should be remembered for that and they're

gonna be so and also i mean they had they were up 3-2 in that other series and lost both games in la to to lose that title um but that was one of the worst game sevens that i've ever seen in my life i think that meta world they got busted the game it was yep they got trucked but but so uh one of my the guy walter norton i trained with with keith yandel and kyle palmeri wagner all traded with them ipf fitness in andover massachusetts this guy was a beast he still is as a trainer walter showed him out he was the trainer of that celtics team and um he used to tell these unreal stories about garnett just getting in guys faces calling out anyone in the room if they weren't getting it doing their job the workouts he'd do

apparently he was fanatic in the gym fanatical about being in there working his balls off didn't matter if it was a game day didn't matter if it was after games like just the type of leader that you hear about and you're like naturally kind of a little scared of him but also respect the hell out of him if you're on his team so i i i thought garnett just like when he came to boston everything changed i mean i wasn't a big hoop fan like i said but you could tell right away like to come straight from high school too the way he did he must have gained like 40 pounds throughout his career he was real thin and then just turned into a hall of famer so i was surprised his number wasn't already retired yeah yeah i don't know if and then just turned into a Hall of Famer. I was surprised his number wasn't already retired.

Yeah. I don't know if it was just a matter of waiting for it. The Celts have so many numbers retired. Guys who've done a lot of stuff to get their numbers retired, maybe it was just waiting for that. I think it was a no-brainer that it would have what it got at. Awesome Boston legend.

I wish she was here longer and they won more titles, but the fact that they won one and, and reestablished Celtics dominance, that was good stuff anyway. So, uh, we talked about Brady earlier, but this is something we didn't bring up is, um, what one guy paid 500 over $500,000 for Brady's last touchdown ball. And then he retired later that day. I'm sorry. Come out of retirement. And then he retired later that day. I'm sorry, came out of retirement. Well, fake retirement later that day.

So this guy paid. Wait, he paid for it yesterday? Yeah. Oh, my God. That happened. I thought that happened a couple weeks ago. How'd you like to be the guy? Well, how'd you like to be the guy that just brought Brady's last NFL TD?

Holy fuck, R.A. Get it together. Spit it out, R.A. Did you smoke crack in the middle of this episode or something. Holy fuck. All right. Get it together. Did you smoke crack in the middle of this episode or something? Holy fuck. I don't have these. Just brought that up. I don't have these fucking things on.

Yeah, it's the glasses. How'd you like to be the guy who just bought Brady's last NFL TV ball at auction for $500,000? So our parents are the only ones listening are nobody cares. Awful. My parents are the only ones listening. Nobody cares. My parents, they gave up a long time ago on this show. That is an awful beat for that guy. But you know what? Personally,

you're an idiot if you're spending that much money on something like that. It's like, dude, you have a football. Who cares? Who gives a fuck about his last TD pass? Big fucking dupe. The only thing, like, I actually

I never understand the money spent on these sports memorabilia artifacts. It's so odd to me that you'd be willing to. Now, granted, if this guy's like, he's got $300 million, $500 grand is nothing. But to be willing to spend that much money on something

that then just like sits in your room and you look at it's like it's so odd to me it's a fucking waste of money biz do you not agree it's a waste of money no i just want to hear you keep talking okay we can do go ahead all right all right give us a grind in your gears okay oh perfect all right i had one more thing before that, but yeah, my grind, my gears, we didn't do it last week. We were running a little out long on time, but my grind, my gears. It's it's very specific to Boston. It's fucking bike lanes in Boston.

Okay. All bikers are going to come gunning for you. Listen. Okay. And that's why I specifically said bike lanes in Boston. Okay. I'm not saying bike lanes don't work everywhere else or they can't work everywhere else bike lanes in boston are a fucking joke okay this city is a fucking 500 years old the roads are made up of cowpats

the only planned fucking neighborhoods in this city are south boston and the back bay cowpats yeah they used to be cowpats the north north end, Charlestown. You ever see the fucking streets here? What's a pat? I thought it was cowpasture. No, it's a pat. A cowpasture is where cows shit. A cowpath is a path that cows walk down. Oh, path. I thought you said paths because your accent and your speech is just...

My speech is fucking fine right now. He's got the time release edible all towards the end of the episode. I'm fucking murder foring right now, Biz. Cow paths in Boston. They're brutal. This fucking city is old. The roads aren't built to fucking accommodate fucking two lanes of fucking cars.

Let alone bikes. What they do, though, now, is they take away a fucking road, a lane on a road, and they put a bike path in. It's the stupidest fucking thing ever. Listen, people in this city are not going to give up their cars and getting bikes. They're not going to give up their cars

in the suburbs and driving to fucking the city. The people who want these bike paths think we're going to put a bike path in and then people are going to go up. It's easier to drive in the city. No, it's fucking not. It's fucking dangerous. It's a dangerous city to drive your fucking bike in.

It's brutal. Listen, I work the Columbia Road in Dorchester. It's out dangerous. It's a dangerous city to drive your fucking bike in. It's brutal. Listen, I worked at Columbia Road in Dorchester. It's out in the hood between fucking Upham's Corner and Blue Hole Avenue. I would see fucking two bikes a day go down this bike path. They literally took a whole fucking lane. It's crazy. They took a whole fucking lane out of a major thoroughfare in the fucking city of Boston and made it a fucking bike lane.

Think about that. There's two fucking car lanes. You're taking a fucking lane of cars away to put a bike lane in that fucking 10 fucking people are using a day. And in a city that you can ride a bike outdoor four months out of the 12 a year. That too. And fucking no one's going to just say, oh, well, there's a bike lane. I'm going to buy, I'm going to trade in my fucking car and drive a fucking bike and get fucking run over. And it's ridiculously fucking dangerous, too. You know how many fucking ghost bikes are in the city?

A ghost bike, and it's awful. It's a tragic thing. When somebody gets killed driving a bike in any major city, they put a white bike out there as a ghost bike because that's symbolic of where someone got killed. And there's fucking tons of them around here because it's a fucking stupid, dangerous place to ride a bike. You don't take fucking major fucking lanes away in a major city.

And again, I'm not saying it doesn't work in Amsterdam or it might not work in fucking Oakland or San Fran. In Boston, it's a fucking joke. And this fucking mayor of ours is like, So many F-bombs. Sorry, dude. And also, Biz, it takes away fucking from businesses. Now, if you put a fucking bike lane in, you can't park there.

Now, fucking people can't double park to go get their fucking takeout or delivery guys can't park there or they're towing them away. It's the stupidest fucking thing I've ever seen in my life. If you ask for Granite Gears, that shit grabs my fucking gears. We got it. I mean, you could tell that's authentic, folks. That's from a man. Wow.

That's from a man who possibly doesn't even know how to ride a bike, but still. Fuck you, I do. So I'll tell you a grinds my gears thing, and we chatted about this a couple weeks ago, but we never brought it up on the pod. These airlines and overbooking flights. That's a good one. Is one of the biggest travesties and should be illegal. I can't get over the fact that you can go, my friend, the Shaws,

Mike and Molly Shaw, they came down to visit in Florida. They got to the airport. They bought a seat. You're buying a frigging seat. You're buying two seats on a flight and you get to the airport. They bought a seat. You're buying a frigging seat. You're buying two seats on a flight. And you get to the flight and the airline says, sorry, you don't have a seat. I actually think whoever thought of that idea, whoever's doing that, they should go to prison. How can you plan a vacation with your family?

When you are planning a vacation with your family, how can you show up and pay the money to the airline and show up and then be told you don't have a seat? Like, yes, I do. I was online for an hour and a half picking the seats three months ago. You know who did it? Who?

Boeing. Fucking murderers. Yeah. I'll tell you though. I'll tell you. I don't, I'm sure there's thousands of people listening right now that have booked a flight and planned their entire trip on landing at a certain time only to get to the airport to be told by this airline. Oh, sorry.

We overbooked the flight. Like, what are you talking about? How are you even allowed to do that? It happened to me leaving Nashville. I was like, if I'm late, these guys are going to murder me if I'm not home to fucking record. Yeah, right. You probably walked up to like, there's no way we're letting this guy no all right it's like hey anyone looking for a seat because i'll take a 500 voucher and give mine up no motherfucker the only reason

i got on the plane was because and i was at the maresia people doing that with i know it's funny i'm laughing at the joke but like legit i i went up i got to the airport two hours early because i went to check in you know you can check on your phone it said you don't have a seat yet i got to the airport i left nashville broadway fucking two hours early got there and like oh you're all set okay sure yeah i went and i put my fucking board pass in she's like ding ding ding she's like oh well you don't have a seat yet i'm like well you told me i was all set and there was another girl there she was like shitting her pants she wasn't gonna get on and listen the only fucking reason i got home and recorded chickens that day was there were two other people who needed the flight and they

fucking took the 700 other than that dude i would have been stuck there and i would had you two up my ass yelling at me like it was my fucking fault when it was the fucking asshole airlines okay so let me ask my gears too why are airlines are airlines doing this banking on the fact that some people won't show up like it is it is the most greedy selfish thing i i just i don't even know how it's i don't even know how it's legal and this stupid fucking country bailed them out too should let them fucking hang and fucking on the on the ropes years ago fucking brutal dude hey i can't believe it i can't believe that you could buy a seat on an airline Get there and be told you don't have the seat

So I guess, I mean Fuck the airlines Fucking right, dude Who defends the airlines? Not to mention they bring Fucking stupid cats in the fucking plane biz, right? Oh, did you see that peacock on the plane? You didn't fall for that, did you? Oh, was that fake? That was faker than a porn star orgasm But the plane no you didn't fall for that did you oh was that

fake that was that was faker than a porn star orgasm but please tell me you didn't fall for that i mean i i how like how is that how is that that obviously fake though because it was a there was no noise in the plane and the one when they said peacock the peacock reacted as if they heard it said peacock no i thought i just the woman goes, that's like the woman sounded pissed. Like that's a support animal. Like, yeah, I guess I'm not going to give it to that was that obviously fake because I had so many people send it to me. Well, but that's all right. I mean, I don't know.

I learned how to ride a bike. Fuck this bike ride and shit. Come on. Listen, if I you've shown me for the bike, I would go with that. Fuck that noise. All right. We did that. Yeah.

Grinds my gears. What else we got? Oh, yeah. I made my debut finally after fucking three or four years. Lights, camera, Boston, our movie podcast, air of the Boston Sports Podcast family. I finally made my debut this week. Jeff and Ken Jack had me on. We discussed the movie,

the Adam project that Ryan Reynolds is released on Netflix. And we did a directed draft. When we had a direct draft directors from the seventies, eighties, nineties, 2000, 2000s and 2010s. How was the Adam project?

I feel like him and The Rock are just competing for who can be in the most movies ever. Yeah, well, you know what? It's like, holy shit. The Adam Project was better than most of The Rock's movies, I guess I'd say, if you're going to put it that way. Moana might be better than all of them, though. I haven't seen Moana yet, oh yeah what yeah uh biz i i you

know what i didn't mind it i guess i went into it expecting like to not wanting wanting to like it at all um but yeah it had a little nostalgia tings to it the way they made it but i think ryan reynolds i think ryan reynolds he's kind of like deadpool like he can do that deadpool shtick he's he's the same guy in every movie. A little bit, yeah. But also, I saw him in Mississippi Grand with Ben Mendelsohn, and I think he showed his range there. He could do a little bit more than just the

Deadpool shtick. But when you see him in a movie like the Adam Project, yeah, he kind of does the Deadpool thing over and over. It's a movie that a lot of families can sit down and watch and maybe have a lot of laughs together. It's not going to win an Oscar or whatever. I didn't mind it.

It was fine. It was fun, but I'm just putting my appearance on the lights camera by us after all these fucking years, so I'm happy for that. And also, one other thing, 60 Minutes did a segment on Ted Lasso this week, too. I don't know if you saw that. I did not.

Neither did I. Too busy watching the Big Deal Selects video that drops this week, Monday and Thursday, on the Chickless YouTube. Unbelievable John by Sean Apuz. Are we done here? Is that it? Yeah, interesting episode, boys. I'll say this.

All you fans that are still listening, we appreciate you. You're insane to still be listening to this. But I think you'll be excited. I'm driving up from Florida to Atlanta. R.A. and Grinelli are flying down. And next week, we get one of these in-person Chicklets episodes. I think they're always better when we're all in the same room. So I look forward to that.

We're getting a bunch of interviews. And we will see you guys next week. Peace. Love. Thank you so much. As always, we appreciate our tremendous sponsors on Spittin' Chickens. So we want to say big thanks to our friends at Pink Whitney and New Amsterdam Vodka.

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to our friends over at G4. Big thanks to our friends at Sling TV. And a hearty thank you to everybody over at TaylorMade. Have a great week, all.